Non-Fiction: Film-making NCERT Solutions | Class 12 English Kaleidoscope - Humanities/Arts PDF Download

Understanding The Text

Q1: Pick out examples from the text that show Bergman’s sensitivity to sensory impressions which have made him a great filmmaker.
Ans: Many instances show Bergman’s sensitivity to sensory impressions. Among them, the most important ones are when he imagines a whole live representation of the wall hanging and the church bells ringing. He also visualizes flying pigeons. A complete melodramatic scene was created by Bergman in his imagination. One more instance is when he sees the cranes at Dalarna and left all work to watch them fly.

Q2: What do you understand of the complexity of the little invisible steps that go into the making of a good film?
Ans: The first step is to get an idea of the theme. Once the theme is clear from split-second impressions and the topic is absolutely strong enough to take shape of reality, The next step is storyline. Montage, rhythm and the relation of one picture to another—the vital third dimension without which the film is merely a dead product from a factory. The next important thing is shooting the movie helping each other work towards the same direction to make the film a success. So the steps of filmmaking are idea formulation, storyline, scripting and shooting.

Q3: What are some of the risks that film-making involves?
Ans: Film-making involves story telling through a sequence of pictures. It is absolutely important that the public identifies with the theme of the movie. If the theme is completely alien, then the message that the film wants to deliver will not be understood. Another thing is choosing the idea. If the theme of the movie is different from the current demand of the public, it will be difficult for the producer to impress the viewers.

Q4: What misgivings does Bergman have about the contemporary film industry?
Ans: The contemporary film industry doesn’t want to understand the fact that everyone learns from the other and that this is a continuous process. The current generation of film makers have the mentality of secluding oneself and ideas from everyone else. They take it to be cheating or creating plagiarised content. But in reality, it is a fact that we are all a community of people and we have to learn from each other. Learning from one another is the ultimate source of knowledge for us.

Q5: Compare Bergman’s views about making films out of books with that of Umberto Eco’s.
Ans: According to Bergman a novel cannot be put into a film completely. If done so, it becomes a complete injustice to the novel because the novel triggers the intellectual faculty of a person whereas the film triggers the emotion directly. But according to Umberto Eco the film takes over the popularity of a novel and its only when movie is made out of a novel that the novel reaches the epitome of its popularity. So the film indirectly helps the novel.

Talking About The Text

Q1: According to the author, split-second impressions form a ‘mental state, not an actual story, but one abounding in fertile associations and images’.
Compare this with Virginia Woolf’s experiment with the stream of consciousness technique in ‘The Mark on the Wall’.
Ans: Split Second Impressions is what Bergman associates with the beginning the film that is very vague but agreeable event which disappears as they come and leave behind a mood. He says that this is a mental state, not an actual story being a brightly coloured thread sticking out of the dark sack of unconsciousness. With the accumulation of all these threads, one can carefully weave a complete film but it requires patience and a pattern in accordance with these rhythms, obeying laws born out of and conditioned by his original stimulus can gain enough strength it could be made into a film. It requires proper analysis of the Impressions; Its rhythms, moods, atmosphere, tensions, sequences that give a perfect screenplay.
Whereas the Mark on the Wall Summary by Virginia Woolf is a first-person narrative recalling the past and specifics of an event. The narrator beautifully crafts his stream of consciousness into words that try to reflect and associate a series of event with a singularity of a mark on the wall. The process of thinking exhibits a spectrum of event related to the one being discussed and shows how vivid a mind could be.

Q2: Bergman talks about the various influences in his life including his parents and his religious upbringing. To what extent are an individual’s achievements dependent on the kind of influences he or she has had in life? Discuss.
Ans: An individual’s achievements are dependent on the kind of influences he or she has had in life. In other words, it is a bag of his thoughts and life experiences. It changes the way one sees things around him having a path towards positivity and success. Bergman links the world of his childhood and his religious upbringing to his motivation towards film making. This shows that one can definitely find their memory association with everything in their lives. Rather than education, human behavior is most related to environment and upbringing.  

Appreciation

Q1: Autobiographical accounts make interesting reading when the author selects episodes that are connected to the pursuit of excellence. How does this apply to Ingmar Bergman’s narration of the details of film-making?
Ans: According to Bergman’s narration, one could easily find references to various past events. He believes that childhood experiences and the environment molds a person paving his path to success. He gives importance to details that help him foresee a proper screenplay with appropriate dialogues. He emphasizes working at the root level. He also shows gratitude towards the role of his parents and the values they inculcated by them. He describes that setbacks make one stronger.

Q2: Comment on the conversational tone of the narration. Compare this with the very informal style adopted by Umberto Eco in the interview.
Ans: When someone reads something written in a conversational tone, it tricks people’s brains to think that they are directly involved. Therefore, such people are always preferred because a conversational tone is more effective for getting a message across–and getting that message to stick and this is what the narrator has utilized in this narration which leaves readers in a state of awe and motivation. Whereas the informal style adopted by Umberto Eco in the interview is a series of questions with the person's answers and it's like reading them as a documentary of events and answers. It is more of a casual form and is appropriate when communicating with a large mass.