The ClipNotes teams has established a database of XML files, most of which were created by students in UCLA film studies classes. Many of the files here are analyses of the film that trace a series of audiovisual patterns or motifs through the film. Also, a series of files were created as instructional aids that were used to teach film form and style in the “History of American Motion Picture” course at UCLA. We hope that they will be useful for other instructors as well; the instructional XML files are available here.
We’ve highlighted some of our favorite XML files in a series called Featured XML Files, as well as a few series of files that demonstrate some of the potential use of this database, such as creating ‘bundles’ for prominent directors (Hitchcock Series) and common audiovisual motifs (POV Series).
We hope the community of film scholars will help us build an extensive database of analytical and instructional material. Submissions are encouraged! Please contact stephen.mamber [at] gmail.com
Full Database
Film | Director | Year | Country | Format | File Description | XML Author |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
28 Days Later | Danny Boyle | 2002 | USA | DVD | Three patterns: surveillence shots from security cameras,obstructed views, and mirrors/reflections. | Alexandra Schroeder |
3 Iron | Ki-duk Kim | 2004 | South Korea | DVD | Three patterns: statues, photographs, and paintings. | Bryan Wuest |
The Age of Innocence | Martin Scorsese | 1993 | USA | DVD | Three patterns: flowers, hands, and ornate interiors. | Lindsay Giggey |
Barton Fink | Joel Coen | 1991 | USA | DVD | Three patterns: transitions, offscreen space, and godly light. | DeMille |
Battle in Heaven | Carlos Reygadas | 2005 | Belgium | DVD | Six patterns: Queues, corridors, blindness, subjectivity, painting, and flags | Hilo |
A Beautiful Mind | Ron Howard | 2001 | USA | DVD | Two patterns: visual clues to John's mental process, and hear/don't hear fantasy characters before see them. | |
Buffalo 66 | Vincent Gallo | 1998 | USA | DVD | Two patterns: bird's eye view and subjective camera. | Knutsen |
Casablanca | Michael Curtiz | 1942 | USA | DVD - 2003 | Instructional: Narrative Construction | Andrew deWaard |
Chungking Express | Kar Wai Wong | 1994 | Hong Kong | DVD | Four patterns: divisions/separation, objects to subjects, isolation, tight spaces | Kim |
Citizen Kane | Orson Welles | 1941 | USA | DVD - 2001 | Instructional: Cinematography | Bryan Wuest |
City of God | Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund | 2002 | Brazil | DVD | Four patterns: chase scenes, strobe lights, photographs, and rooftop transitions. | Amirpour |
The Conformist | Bernardo Bertolucci | 1970 | Italy | DVD | Three patterns: color represents central female characters, Surrealism, and use of light to represent city settings | Stuardi |
Contempt | Jean-Luc Godard | 1963 | France | DVD | Five patterns: Voice/POV, color represents central characters, characters from Homer's Odyssey, framing separating characters, and critiques of Hollywood. | Catherine Dewar |
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover | Peter Greenaway | 1989 | UK | DVD | Three patterns: food as grotesque, the color red symbolizing danger, and autonomous/artistic camera. | Jose Gallegos |
Days of Heaven | Terrence Malick | 1978 | USA | DVD | Five patterns: overwhelming surroundings that overshadow people, unsettling natural elements, POV shots, mirroring of two main characters, and exchanges of glances with the camera. | Harrison Gish |
Do The Right Thing | Spike Lee | 1989 | USA | DVD - 20th Anniversary Edition | Instructional: Stylistic-Thematic Analysis | Andrew deWaard |
Don't Look Now | Nicolas Roeg | 1973 | UK | DVD | Tthree patterns: the color red symbolizing danger and death, reflections, and shattered glass. | Dragotto |
Elephant | Gus Van Sant | 2003 | USA | DVD | Three patterns: intersecting lines and grids, the color red, and reiterations. | Ackerman |
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | Michel Gondry | 2004 | USA | DVD | Five patterns: color, objects joining memory, destruction/disappearances/fading away, playfulness, surrealism/distortion | Janell Rohan |
Footlight Parade | Lloyd Bacon | 1933 | USA | DVD - 2006 | Instructional: Gender | Diana Dill |
The Graduate | Mike Nichols | 1967 | USA | Two patterns: wrong direction and moving characters, | Jessica Fowler | |
I Am Love | Luca Guadagnino | 2009 | Italy | DVD | Three patterns: light and color, house, and hands | Saundarya Thapa |
I Confess | Alfred Hitchcock | 1953 | USA | DVD | Four patterns: religious iconography, city, shadow/obstruction, and subjective gaze, | Andrew Young |
It's a Wonderful Life | Frank Capra | 1946 | USA | DVD | Three patterns: doubling, photographs, and looking through objects | Hartstone |
The Last Picture Show | Peter Bogdanovich | 1971 | USA | DVD | Three patterns: pan shots, doors, and thresholds | Gamez |
Lovers of the Arctic Circle | Julio Médem | 1998 | Spain | DVD | Four patterns: reflections, shared POV, fades, and shooting through portals | Diaz |
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance | John Ford | 1962 | USA | DVD | Six patterns: vertical-horizontal, doorways, doubling, lights/lamps/matches, screen direction violation, and unmotivated camera movement. | Jenni Fong-Govea |
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | Frank Capra | 1939 | USA | DVD - 1999, Columbia Classics | Instructional: Interpretation and Meaning | Lindsay Giggey |
North by Northwest | Alfred Hitchcock | 1959 | USA | DVD | Three patterns: unexpected shot entrances/sideways camera movements, false appearances/lying/deception, and theatricality | Steve Mamber |
Notorious | Alfred Hitchcock | 1946 | USA | Videodisc | Four patterns: subjectivity, psychologial movement, POV, and left/right | Steve Mamber |
O Brother Where Art Thou (Option A) | Joel Coen | 2000 | USA | DVD | Four patterns: relationships between groups and individuals, fire, color, cows | Knapp |
O Brother Where Art Thou (Option B) | Joel Coen | 2000 | USA | DVD | Three patterns: colors, threes, Hell | |
Pan's Labyrinth | Guillermo del Toro | 2006 | Mexico | DVD | Three patterns: smooth transitions, color, and creatures emerging/fading | Michael Potterton |
Paprika | Satoshi Kon | 2006 | Japan | DVD | Ten patterns: head space, costume changes, frame breaking, red lights, dolls, echoes/reflections, eyes/eye contact, use of red/blue, dremes, Wonder Woman | Clifford Galiher |
Paris, Texas | Wim Wenders | 1984 | USA | DVD | Five patterns: POV, camera movements, signs/murals, scene transitions, and off-screen dialogue | |
Psycho (Option A) | Alfred Hitchcock | 1960 | USA | Videodisc | Two patterns: doubling and turning to look | Steve Mamber |
Psycho (Option B) | Alfred Hitchcock | 1960 | USA | DVD | Instructional: Sound | Heather Birdsall |
Raw Deal | Anthony Mann | 1948 | USA | Videodisc | Two patterns: oblique angles, isolated light sources | Steve Mamber |
Red | Krzysztof Kieslowski | 1994 | France, Switzerland, Poland | DVD | Three patterns: glass/reflections/light, linkages between Auguste and Valentine, linkages between Auguste and Julie | Steve Mamber |
Repulsion | Roman Polanski | 1965 | UK | Videodisc | Two patterns: POV and ambiguous subjectivity | Steve Mamber |
Rumblefish | Francis Ford Coppola | 1983 | USA | Videodisc | Four patterns: fish, glass, clocks, linking/doubling/subjectivity | Steve Mamber |
Se7en | David Fincher | 1995 | USA | DVD | Five patterns: clues, labyrinths/stairs, Chiaroscuro lighting, title cards, and rain | Burtnett |
The Servant | Joseph Losey | 1963 | UK | Videodisc | Three patterns: role of decor, mirrors, circularity | Steve Mamber |
Sexy Beast | Jonathan Glazer | 2000 | UK | DVD | Fourteen patterns: floating, parallelism/opposing images, rabbits, guns, hearts, fast/slow speed, match cuts, flashbacks, back of head, symmetry, overhead shots, glass, revolving objects, and push/pull | Glienke |
The Shining | Stanley Kubrick | 1980 | USA | DVD | Three patterns: tracking shots, mirrors, mad stares | Steve Mamber |
Shutter Island | Martin Scorsese | 2010 | USA | DVD | Six patterns: POV, discontinuity, flashbacks, rearview projection, otherworldness, and light/fire/water/blood | Matthias Stork |
Singin' In The Rain | Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly | 1952 | USA | DVD - 2002 | Instructional: Editing | Heather Birdsall |
The Social Network | David Fincher | 2010 | USA | DVD | Three patterns: camera movements, colors, and screens | Jimmy Gilmore |
Speed Racer | The Wachowskis | 2008 | USA | DVD | Five patterns: speed, animation, chasing ghosts, color, and transitions | Meredith Levine |
Spellbound | Alfred Hitchcock | 1945 | USA | DVD | Two patterns: bars and doors | Paula Perez |
Stagecoach | John Ford | 1939 | USA | DVD - 2006, 2 Disc Special Edition | Instructional: Genre | Lindsay Giggey |
Sullivan's Travels | Preston Sturges | 1941 | USA | DVD | Eight patterns: introduction, Sully's gaze, crowded frames, transitions between light and dark, shot party, Hollywood/slapstick, POV, and bodies | McClain |
Sunrise | F.W. Murnau | 1927 | USA | DVD - 2002, Fox Studio Classics | Instructional: Mise-en-scène | Bryan Wuest |
Suspiria | Dario Argento | 1977 | Italy | DVD | Four patterns: windows, overwhelmed protagonist, clones, and flowers | Ben Sher |
The Sweet Smell of Success | Alexander Mackendrick | 1957 | USA | DVD | Six patterns: looking away, doors, small push ins/pull outs, round corner reveal, subject in middle, and cityscape cross-fade match | Bodie |
The Best Years of Our Lives | William Wyler | 1946 | USA | DVD - 2000 | Instructional: Cinematography | Diana Dill |
There's Always Tomorrow | Douglas Sirk | 1956 | USA | DVD | Three patterns: character positions, space/geography, obstrusive/commentative style | Steve Mamber |
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg | Jacques Demy | 1964 | France | DVD | Eight patterns: tracking shots, lovers embrace, match on action, color reveals, lovers stroll, mirrors, looking out of windows, and head on shots | Vanessa Mancia |
Videodrome | David Cronenberg | 1983 | Canada | DVD | Two patterns: fourth wall and hallucination, | Michael Kmet |
What's Up, Doc? | Peter Bogdanovich | 1972 | USA | DVD | Seven patterns: revealed/obscurred, Judy is OS, near misses, things are destroyed around Judy, Howard obliviously looks the wrong way, choreography and timing, and havoc/chaos | Steve Cuden |
Written on the Wind | Douglas Sirk | 1956 | USA | DVD | Four patterns: mirrors, vertical objects, product placement, and frames within frames | Andrew deWaard |