1. +
Cinema cent ans de jeunesse
2014/15
Mark Reid BFI
L’Intervalle
or spaces,
spacing,
gaps

2. +
The 4 types of
space
Intimate
Personal
Social
Public

3. +
A Typology of Spacing in Cinema
 Ruptures and Separations
 Spaces maintained by desire
 Metaphysical and metaphorical
 Different cultures: east Asian
spacing
 ‘Them and us’: spaces between
viewer and story
 Two-shots

4. +
Separations
Between Us, Christensen/ Mork, UK, 2004
Girl with a Suitcase, Italy, Zurlani, 1961
The Kid, Chaplin, US, 1921
Bridges of Madison County, Eastwood
L’Argent de Poche, Truffaut, France, 1976
Two Cars, One Night, Waititi, NZ, 2003
Kikujiro, Kitano, Japan, 1999

5. +
Attraction, Desire,
Space
Shara, Kawase, Japan, 2003
Girl with a Suitcase ♯1, Zurlani, Italy, 1961
Greed, von Stroheim, US, 1924
Short Film About Love, Kieslowski
The Awful Truth, McCarey, US, 1937
Through the Olive Trees, Kiarostami, Iran, 1994
Kikujiro, Kitano, Japan, 1999

6. +
Metaphysical, Critical,
and Metaphorical
Barry Lyndon , Kubrick, UK-US, 1975
Three Times, Hou-Hsiao Hsien, Taiwan, 2005
L’Atalante, Vigo, France, 1934
Utamaro, Mizoguchi, Japan, 1946

7. +
Two-shots
Little Shop of Horrors, Oz, US, 1986
Woman Next Door, Truffaut, France, 1981
Miss Oyu, Mizoguchi, Japan, 1951
L’Avventura, Antonioni, Italy, 1960
Moonrise Kingdom, Anderson, US

8. +
Them and Us
Gravity, Cuaron, 2014
Stalker, Tarkovsky, Russia, 1980
Spirit of the Beehive, Erice, Spain, 1973
Summer with Monika, Bergman, Sweden,
1953

9. +
(East) Asian Spaces
Three Times, Hou H Hsien, Taiwan, 2005
Examining Mizoguchi’s Staging
Kikujiro, Kitano, Japan, 1999
Miss Oyu, Mizoguchi, Japan, 1951

10. +
Exercise 1
Set up two characters both facing the camera,
but 7 metres apart. Make a long focal length
shot in which the closer face fills the frame.
Take two more shots in both of which the first
character’s face is the same size in the frame as
the first shot, but adjust the focal length in each,
to mid-focus, and then wide angle.
The purpose is to show how varying the depth of
field creates different spacing effects

11. + Three sample shots for Exercise 1: same distance
between subjects, but focal lengths are telephoto,
mid focus, and wide angle

12. +
(Optional, or alternative)
Exercise 1
Take four shots, or stills, of the four kinds
of Physical Space: Intimate, Private,
Public, Social. These can be found, shot
as ‘Lumiere Minute’ style pieces, or
created dramatically.

13. +
Exercise 2
Take a full length shot of a character, facing the
camera, who is looking at something or
someone off-screen, behind the camera. The
character progressively moves forward to the
object they are looking at. Film it twice, once
with a wide angle, and again in telephoto. Don’t
use the auto-focus. Either manually pull focus,
or se an arbitrary focus point that the character
will move through.

14. +
Exercise 3
Film the same situation in two or three
different ways: in long take (static and/ or
moving) and in an edited sequence. Person
A gives something to Person B – a thing
which creates tension or a separation.
Exactly the same situation each time,
though the actors can change. As little
dialogue as possible. 1-2 minutes long

15. +
(Optional, alternative)
Exercise 3
Take the scene from Miss Oyu, featuring the
man and woman arguing. Play without
subtitles, and ask students to script the
exchange. Have them block out a version of the
scene between two of them, in a familiar space
– in school. Shoot the scene using the same
blocking and camera moves as Mizoguchi, but
with the new dialogue.

16. +
Film Essai
A character wants to join in an event or
scenario, in which two or three other
characters are already engaged. Eventually,
the character pulls away, and moves away
(‘reculs’), and the camera with them, but
maybe keeping some connection with the
scene (‘éloigné’, or ‘elastically’). And then
they encounter another, previously unseen
character.
6-7 minutes long