DENISENKO1

Release

When a film appears first, it is usually shown at one central cinema for a certain period, after which it is released (выпущен на экран), that is, it is made available to any cinema.

General release occurs in such sentences as:

a.– Have you seen «The Godfather»?

–No, I’т waiting for it to go on general release.

b.It's on general release now.

These expressions are much less common now in Britain than they used to be, since many cinemas, especially in the suburbs, have closed, and there are hardly any cinemas left at which «released» films can be shown.

Those Who Work in the Cinema

Note that there is no general expression denoting a person who works in the cinema, like the Russian «работник кино». In some cases, however, we can use «to be in films».

Director, Producer, Manager and Related Words

The usage of director, producer and manager in the cinema is much simpler and more uniform than in the theatre. This can be explained as follows:

1.the cinema is a much more recent art than the theatre, and American influence was dominant from the very beginning of its development. The British cinema therefore simply adopted American usage, having no traditions of its own.

2.the cinema in Britain and America is entirely commercial, not a mixture of commercial and subsidized activity, like the theatre.

director, direct

The director is the person responsible for the artistic side of a film. He directs the film, that is, he chooses the actors, supervises rehearsals, shooting, and so on. Director corresponds to the Russian as «режиссер».

Director and direct are widely used in such sentences as:

a.Who's the director?

b.Who's it directed by?

c.He's a brilliant director / one of our best directors.

d.What films has he directed?

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Make may be used instead of direct in sentences like (d) above, but it is not a synonym. It is a more general word than direct and may be applied also to producers, actors and film companies.

producer, produce, production

The producer is the person or group or company who finances a film and therefore exercises general control over it. The word «producer» is generally transliterated as «продюсер».

Produce is used in two senses:

1.to finance, be a producer, as explained above,

e.g. «Oh Lucky Man» has an English director, English actors and is set in England, but one of the producers is an American.

2.to create, make,

e.g. This is one of the best films produced in Britain during the 1950s.

In the second sense it may be used of the Russian cinema, e. g. The film is produced / made by Mosfilm.

Production is also used in two senses, corresponding to those of produce given above.

e.g. 1. «Oh Lucky Man» is an American production.

2.This is one of the best productions of the British cinema in the

1950s.

With reference to the Russian cinema, we may say, for example, a Mosfilm production.

Joint production is used when two film companies, often from different countries, cooperate to make a film (совместное производство).

manager

The manager is the person who runs a cinema (meaning the building), maintaining the premises, hiring films, arranging for them to be shown, etc.

Management is used as a collective noun denoting the manager and his

staff.

Production manager can be used to translate the Russian «директор»

(картины).

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Scriptwriter, Scenario, Screenplay

Scriptwriter corresponds to «сценарист». What a scriptwriter writes is called the screenplay.

The difference between scenario and screenplay is as follows:

The scenario (Br. E., Am. E.) is the first stage: simply an outline, a sketch, scene by scene, but with no dialogues, directions, etc.

The screenplay is the full text, with dialogues, descriptions of characters and setting, directions about movements, etc.

In many cases the scenario or screenplay is based on a novel or short

story.

e.g. a. The film is based on a short story by A. Sillitoe.

b. «The Godfather» is based on the novel of the same name / title.

A scenario or screenplay which is not based on a book, but invented by the scriptwriter, or director, may be called an original scenario / screenplay.

Film Actors and Actresses

Star is more widely used in the cinema than the theatre. It occurs both as a noun and a verb, especially in advertisements and film reviews.

e.g. a. Barbra Streisand is the star of / in «Funny Girl». b. FUNNY GIRL, starring BARBRA STREISAND.

an advertisement

c. Tom Cruise has starred in many successful films.

Co-star may be used if there are two main characters played by stars.

e. g. Laurence Olivier co-starred with Vivien Leigh in «Waterloo Bridge».

Make a film may be used of actors and actresses, in the sense of «сниматься» (в фильме).

e. g. Johnny Depp is making a new film.

Make used in this way generally implies an important part.

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Apart from make, we can use appear or simply be, if the film is already finished. Appear is formal style.

e.g. a. Brad Pitt has appeared / been in many successful films. b. – I went to see «Titanic» yesterday.

– Oh yes? Who's in it?

or: Leonardo DiCaprio is in that, isn't he?

Another way of introducing actors' names is by using with... as..., or with...

in the role of...

e. g. «The Mask» has been filmed with Jim Carrey as (or in the role of)

Stanley Itkis.

Cast is used of the actors and actresses appearing in a film, in the same way as in the theatre. Here, however, there is no contrast with company.

(Film) extra is used to denote a person, often not a trained actor, who is engaged to take a minor part in a film, especially in crowd scenes (статист, -ка, актер массовки).

e.g. a. They needed hundreds of extras for the battle scene. b. Susan worked as a film extra for a few days.

Designer, Sets, Scenery

The designer is the person who designs the sets and the costumes, if they need designing (художник).

In the cinema, sets is generally preferable to scenery, in the sense of «декорации», because «scenery» may also mean natural scenery such as real fields, hills, rivers, etc., seen in a film (пейзажи). Since many films are shot out-of-doors, «scenery» often has this second meaning.

e. g. There's some beautiful scenery in the film.

On location is used to mean in a natural setting, either out of doors or in some building, as opposed to in the studio. It corresponds to «на натуре». e. g. The scenes in Paris were shot on location. The film was made /

shot on location.

Cameraman, Camerawork

The cameraman is the person responsible for the photography or, as it is often called, the camerawork.

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The cameraman is in charge of the camerawork as a whole, but he has several assistants, and these are called collectively the camera crew.

Cameraman corresponds to «оператор», and camerawork to «операторская работа».

A film camera should be distinguished from a cine-camera. Although these two expressions are basically synonyms, meaning an apparatus for taking moving pictures, in practice film camera is applied to the larger type used by professionals, whereas cine-camera denotes a smaller, simpler type used mainly by amateur photographers, for example, to film their family and friends, places they visit, etc.

Shoot is often used in connection with camerawork, meaning photograph, film:

e.g. a. We must shoot that scene again.

b.They're shooting «The Blue Bird» at the moment.

c.Where was the film shot?

d.The film was shot on location (in Japan).

Shooting may be used as a noun (съемки). e. g. Shooting has started / finished.

Shot (кадр) as a noun occurs in such sentences as:

a.The film opens with a beautiful shot of the river.

b.There were some very original shots in the film.

A close-up (крупный план) is a shot taken at close range and showing something in detail.

e. g. The film ends with a close-up of the hero's face.

A flashback is a shot or series of shots (sometimes a whole scene) showing something which happened earlier (ретроспекция; обратный кадр). For example, when a character is remembering his childhood, a scene from that period of his life is shown on the screen, thus interrupting the time sequence.

e. g. When Alan saw the house where he used to live there was a flashback to his childhood.

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«In slow motion» is used when a movement or scene is shown much more slowly than it appears in real life, for artistic effect.

e. g. His fall was shown in slow motion.

There seems to be no set expression to denote the opposite device, that is, when something is shown more quickly than it appears in real life. However, speeded up can be used in non-formal style.

e. g. The movement of the traffic was shown speeded up.

colour, black and white

A film may be shot in colour or in black and white. It is a colour film (NOT coloured) or a black-and-white film.

Technicolour and in technicolour were widely used to denote a new, particularly vivid type of colour, but since this type has become the norm, «technicolour» is now little used, at least in non-technical conversations. Simply «colour» is used.

Sound sound-track, dub, subtitles, translation

The sound-track (фонограмма) is the recording of all the sounds in a film: dialogues, background noises, sound effects, music. The person responsible for this recording is the sound mixer (звукооператор) but this term is used only in professional and technical conversations.

Foreign films may be dubbed (дублироваться), that is, the original sound-track is replaced by a new one with a dialogue in the language of the country where it is to be shown. Dub is used in such sentences as:

a.Is the film dubbed?

b.It's an American film but it's dubbed in Russian.

Instead of being dubbed, a foreign film may be given subtitles (титры).

a.It's not dubbed, but it’s got (Russian) subtitles.

b./ couldn't always read the subtitles.

silent films, talkies

Films made before the invention of sound recording are called silent films. Talky was used when talking films were first made, but it is now used only in connection with the, history of the cinema.

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Types of Films

Firstly we may distinguish between: feature films, documentaries, cartoons.

feature films

In Britain the expression «feature film» is confined mainly to professional conversations. The ordinary cinema-goer sees mainly feature films, and therefore calls them simply «films». He is generally more interested in what kind of feature film.

In practice this is used less often of films. Instead we may simply say a serious film.

In addition to those listed above, the following categories are used: war film

a film about war, often the Second World War

epic

a film depicting heroic events of the past on a grand scale, often with vast crowd scenes, battle scenes, etc.

horror film

a film especially intended to arouse fear and horror

Length of Films

Most feature films last about one and a half hours. We may call these full-length films. Films lasting only 15-30 minutes are called shorts in professional language (a short) and simply short films by the general public.

Long-drawn-out is used in the sense of «растянутый». e. g. It's a very long-drawn-out film.

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Films for Different Age-Groups

In Britain, films are classified according to their suitability for children or adults by the BRITISH BOARD OF FILM CENSORS, which gives each film a certain certificate.

a U film

This is one with a U certificate, which means that it is considered suitable for all age groups. U probably stands for universal.

an A film

This has an A certificate, which means that it is considered suitable mainly for adults. However, children may be admitted if accompanied by an adult.

an X film

An X certificate means that the film is considered to be definitely unsuitable for children (under 18), and they are not admitted, even with an adult. The significance of the letter X is that of something exceptional, forbidden.

The letters U, A or X appear in brackets after the name of the film. e. g. OLIVER (U)

In addition to the above types of certificate, the following were introduced later:

AA, called double A

a double A certificate / film

This denotes a film not for children under 14, even if accompanied by an adult.

XX, called double X

a double X certificate / film

This is used in America to denote a film not for young people under 21.

Readers should bear in mind that most English people have only a very general idea of this system of certificates, except for teenagers who are affected by the restrictions. In addition it is practically impossible to enforce these restrictions strictly, since the cashier who sells tickets has no means of checking a person's age, and can therefore only judge by appearances.

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Inside the Cinema

A cinema has only stalls, and sometimes a balcony. Therefore the expressions: at the front / back / side, in the centre / middle are more often used than in the theatre, and row.

e. g. We were sitting in the front / first row.

Behind the auditorium is the projection room, from which the film is projected onto the screen. The person who operates the projector is called the projectionist (киномеханик).

Buying Tickets

There are no special words or expressions connected with cinema tickets. However, since booking cinema seats by telephone is widespread in this country, the following expressions may be added:

to book seats (for the cinema) / cinema seats by (tele)phone booking by (tele)phone

telephone booking

to collect / pick up tickets (half an hour) before the performance

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