Film Final

genre

a category or classification of moves that share similar narrative and stylistic patterns in the presentation of their subject matter, grounded in audience expectations about characters, narrative, and visual style

reasons for genre

Commercial, Aesthetic, Cultural

commercial

standardization and efficiency, branding and consumer expectation, assurance AND insurance (reason for genre)

aesthetic

practice makes perfect, translatability and shorthand (reason for genre)

cultural

supporting cultural myths, tackling and sugarcoating societal problems, ritual (reason for genre)

myths

stories and worldview

conventions and iconography

HOW myth is presented

conventions

plot patterns (repetitions related to narrative/story), repeated character types and events

iconography

formal tropes, especially “recurring symbolic images", both repeated sound and visual cues, can include performers

classical period

1920s-1940s, codification, crystallization, and the studio system

postclassical/modernist period

1950s-1970s, postwar decline of studio system

neoclassical/postmodernist period

1980s-present, New Hollywood, sequels and franchises

fundamental elements of the horror film

1. features characters with physical, psychological, unnatural, and/or spiritual deformities (i.e. monsters)

2. narratives built on surprise, shock, disgust, disturbing fascination—films that aim to create an emotional effect in the spectator; films that aim to horrify us

3. audio visual compositions that create suspense through the dread of not seeing and the horror of seeing. settings where the monster lurks…

4. a plot that typically revolves around the monster’s attack on “normal” life

causes of change from classical to modernist

• cultural shifts

• audience sophistication

• foreign influence

• more leisure time and competition

• new technology

• different production modes

• loosening censorship

cultural shifts

times change, attitudes change, anxieties change (causes of change from classical to modernist)

audience sophistication

know all the tricks from the old era, need new “tricks” (causes of change from classical to modernist)

foreign influence

new ways to tell stories (causes of change from classical to modernist)

more leisure time and competition

TV (causes of change from classical to modernist)

new cinematic technology

what other media can’t do—attempts to bring audiences back to film theatre (causes of change from classical to modernist)

different production modes

paramount decision (1948) (causes of change from classical to modernist)

loosening censorship

paramount decision leads to the production code’s death, expands what you can show and do (causes of change from classical to modernist)

modernism

• multifaceted and ambivalent response to modernity and industrialization

• old way/system is played out. what now?

• experimentation — new modes of representation

• questioned high (vs. low) art

• not concurrent, not complete (late to film, late to america, not comprehensive)

modernist characteristics

• thematically: self conscious engagement with social and moral values. subversion

• formalistically: self conscious experimentation with formal structures of medium

thematic modernist characteristics

• absurdity and chance

• moral ambiguity

• individualism

• journeys

moral ambiguity

natural law ethic - classical

situational ethic - modernist, relative, based on circumstance

journeys - modernist myth

typically, a quest for meaning beyond mystery of plot, protagonist rejects or is rejected by the world they live in. they are led astray, towards a transformation that remains incomplete. order is typically not restored at the end of the film; boundaries are challenged, left porous, or forgotten altogether

formal modernist characteristics

• new ways of telling story

• point of view

• reflexivity

• open texture/intertextuality

new ways of telling story

• form over content (formalistic)

• alternatives to classical linear narratives

  (formal modernist characteristics)

modernist point of view

subjective and relative (formal modernist characteristics)

reflexivity

self awareness

• thematically: movies about movies

• formalistically: foregrounding construction — you can’t help but notice it

  (formal modernist characteristics)

open texture/intertextuality

mix and match styles, reference other works (formal modernist characteristics)

expressions of change

• topical accommodation

• genre as vehicle

• hybridization

• parody

• nostalgia

topical accommodation

updating the myth (expressions of change - modernist)

genre as vehicle

sugarcoating (expressions of change - modernist)

hybridization

mix and match (expressions of change - modernist)

parody

mock conventions (expressions of change - modernist)

nostalgia

• return to old stories and conventions

• reaction to new-ness (simpler times and concerns—for whom?)

  (expressions of change - modernist)

post modern qualities

• questions what is “real”

• representations of representations

• further erasure of high and low divide

• reflection of fractured experience of culture

• ironic, hip knowing attitude

questioning what is real: classical

film setup to make you believe in story, encourages spectators to invest in illusion

questioning what is real: postclassical/modernism

backlash to classical setup. frustration with old codes. innovation and experimentation; challenges to traditions, establishes new modes of storytelling and filmmaking; often seeks to question or expose illusion

questioning what is real: neoclassical/postmodernism

embraces illusionary artifice while questioning what is real. cynical and pragmatic (this is the way the world is). can feature a deeper return to/embrace of classical frameworks without cynical attitude (neoclassicism)

representations of representations

• is originality possible? celebrate rather than interrogate the lack of meaning AND originality in the world

• repurpose old material/return to former myths (neoclassicism)

• explosion of sequels and film franchises based on other media, such as comic books, children’s novels, television shows, and video games (popular media)

  (post modern qualities)

further erasure of high and low art divide

• embrace pop culture (against modernist efforts to intellectualize or make film an art form on its own). surface privileged over depth

• populist impulse often related to ticket sales, subsidiary markets, and franchising (synergy!). accessibility is key, similar to classical era

• embrace of “low” cultural

  (post modern qualities)

reflection of the fractured experience of contemporary “wired” culture

• media multitasking; frenetic speed and construction (often reflected in pace and editing of films)

• multiple tones and genres mixed together

• less concern with coherence; spectacle is key (returns to themes of early silent film)

• astonishing the audience with special effects

  (post modern qualities)

ironic, hip knowing attitude

• who gets it? who can pick up all the references?

• cynicism/distrust/removed perspective. lack of faith vs. the “quest” for meaning during modernist period, even if the quest failed. post-modernism is a result of “failed quests/journeys”

  (post modern qualities)

classical period features

a disfigured, abnormal, or quintessentially “monstrous” monster who threatens society/normality (i.e. frankenstein, dracula, wolfman, etc.). the monster is often either a product of man trying to “play God” or a supernatural curse; both challenge the natural law ethic and endanger society. the monster is pursued by a community seeking vengeance, and typically order is restored by the monster’s destruction. the setting is usually “foreign”; suspense is built by our knowledge of the monster and its emergence within the diegesis. their emergence involves a high degree of causality, even if it is fantastical and impossible (i.e. the “science” behind Dr. Frankenstein’s creature).

postclassical/modernist features

a monster who is not usually monstrous (children, a family, etc.) and therefore leaves its pursuers on step behind, slow to catch up. order is no longer restorable, faith in the natural law ethic (universal good vs. bad) is challenged by situational ethics. the future is opaque and features a battle between old traditions (e.g. religious faith) and new technologies (e.g. science and medicine). very little causality given for monster’s emergence. setting is “here” rather than “over there” (classical period)

“journey” does not lead to redemption

myth: the monster is within the “normal” community, even potentially within us, ready to emerge at any time

postmodernist/neoclassical period features

hybridization of genres (horror and comedy). questions of truth and duplicity. what’s real? features more excessive violence; playing with genre iconographies and conventions, especially as it pertains to the figure of the monster

questions of restoration and redemption remain with generic closure/resolution. a return to closure

omniscient POV, references to popular culture

urban city and suburban locale

avant-garde

• French Military term referring to scouts who would strategically go “ahead” (avant) of the rest of their company (garde)

• in art, the term tends to refer to works and artists who pioneer new techniques and styles that do not conform to the mainstream. in many cases, they overtly work to question them or to confront the mainstream. these films and artworks are not concerned with entertaining you necessarily—although they can be entertaining, watching these films will most likely be a different experience than you are accustomed to, requiring a different approach and mode of appreciation

mainstream narrative cinema

• specialized division of labor

• constraints on content

• film as entertainment/business

• main purpose: narrative clarity

avant-garde cinema

• one filmmaker

• content has few constraints

• art historical context (modernism)

• many purposes of style

production of hollywood cinema

• distribution

  • major commercial distribution

  • limited director control

• exhibition

  • traditional movie theaters

• reception

  • popular “mass” audience

  • critics evaluate it in popular press

  • box office plays a big role in perceived “success” of a film

production of avant garde cinema

• distribution

  • independent cooperatives

  • filmmaker control

• exhibition

  • museums, art galleries, universities, festivals

  • specialized “informed” audience

• reception

  • critics and scholars provide interpretation, history, analysis

  • profits are not part of the evaluation

what to look for in avante garde films

• repetition

• variation

• development

• patterns

goals of avant-garde experimental cinema

• exploration of the capabilities of the medium

• exploration of human perception

• critique of mainstream culture

• critique of narrative film

• why privilege one shape of film and not another?

a few formal categories of avant garde film

• nonrepresentational abstract

• structuralist/materialist

• experimental narrative

• self-exploration

• found footage/recycled cinema

documentary

John Grierson “creative treatment of actuality” (1930s)

neither a fictional invention nor a completely factual reproduction, documentaries draw on and refers to historical reality while representing it from a distinct perspective.

a movie that aims to inform viewers about truths or facts

a visual and auditory representation of the presumed facts, real experiences, and actual events of the world

commonalities in documentaries

1. documentaries are about reality; they’re about something that actually happened.

   1. fictional film world vs. the documentary film world

   2. documentaries present people and events that belong to the world that we share. Documentaries do not invent characters and actions to tell a story that refers to our world obliquely or allegorically.

2. documentaries are about and feature real people. documentaries are not “bio pics”

   1. actors of fictional films on historical people and events vs. “participants” of documentaries.

3. documentaries tell stories about what happened in the world

commonalities in documentary - other factors

1. institutional frameworks: who or what supports production, distribution, and exhibition.

   1. circular logic: a documentary because they say so, but nonetheless important since certain cues tell us what we are getting as an audience.

2. practitioners: networks of filmmakers (and events/venues) identified by their commitment to documentary

3. diversity of genre (different modes, styles, movements, manifestos, and periods)

   1. linked by shared formal conventions

   2. low priority on continuity editing (evidentiary editing). high reliance on speech and dietetic sound

   3. narratives frequently present a problem and make a claim about the historical, material world; sometimes solutions are offered

4. audience assumptions

   1. revolve around indexicality of image and sound recording

   2. captured “facts” → evidence → interpretation (documentary)

   3. stylization

   4. as an audience, we expect to be able both to trust the indexical linkages between what we see and what occurred before the camera AND to assess the stylization of this linkage into the film’s commentary or perspective on the subject matter.

   5. documentary film and media as part of the “discourses of sobriety”

   6. epistephilia, pleasure derived from being informed, from receiving knowledge

formal conventions of documentaries

authoritative voiceover, commentary, interviews, location sound recording, archival footage, frequent cutaways, real actors, everyday activities

epistephilia

a desire to know/love of knowledge

documentaries represent and engage the world by:

1. offering audiences a likeness or depiction of the world that bears a recognizable familiarity (linked to indexicality of audiovisual recording and “evidentiary” editing/style

2. this representation nonetheless comes from a distinct perspective. it is constructed, selected by the filmmakers(s), which may or may not express the interest of others, including the subjects depicted and/or other parties involved with production.

3. potentially, documentaries can attempt to make a care, take an explicit stand, and/or propose the viability of a specific interpretation

paramount decision 1948

dismantled hollywood studio system, ended vertical integration of the film industry

indexicality

1. audiovisual recording that presents an authentic trace of what was once present before camera and microphone

2. link between evidence and source of said evidence