Philosphy of Film Final Exam

Algorithms

Procedures or formulas used to analyze and generate content. Connected to digital Media and the infinte malleability of content.

Louis Althusser

A French, marxist philosopher known for his work on the role of ideology in culture and politics. He focuses on Ideological and Repressive state apparatuses and their presence in society.

The Apparatus

All the things that have the power to make us follow the dominant ideology. (Film, and film tech like cameras, the screen, even the audience all apart of the apparatus.) Connected to Jean Louise Baudrey’s Apparatus theory as well as Post-structuralism.

Jean Baudrillard

A french philospher known for his Postmodernism theories. Theorized ideas such as hyperreallity and simulacrum. Can also be related to semiotics and simulacra’s duplication of reality through signs.

Jean-Louis Baudry

A french philospher known for his Post-structuralist work on Apparatus Theory. He believed that through specific apparatus, ideolgies can be imbeded in the audeince.

binary code

a coding system using the binary digits 0 and 1. Connected to digital media and the infinite malliablity of content. Also connected to semiotics through the sign and the signifier.

Cahiers du Cinema

French film journal made by prominent french new wave directors and critics. Paved the way for post-structualist analyzation. created 7 types of film and how they related to the dominant ideology.

Castration Anxiety

A man’s fear of losing their genitals as well as being demasculated. Connected to Christian Metz’s psychoanalysis of film through desire and ideology.

Commodification

How capitlaism turns everything, such as emotions, identity, and culture, and makes it into a marketable product. Connected to Fredric Jameson’s idea of late capitalism.

Content

How a film’s story or events express underlying meaning and criticism. Connected to post structuralism and Cahiers du Cinema’s 7 types of film.

Convergence

The combining and merging of distribution types. Connected to digital media and the infinte malleability of content.

Desire

Expresses mans desire to be apart of the imaginary realm through film. Connected to Christian Metz’s & Lacan’s psychoanalysis of film.

Digital Media

Lev Manovich’s idea of a cultural shift in media using new technology. Based in the ideas of the infinite malleability of content, convergence, and interactivity.

Disavowal

The unconscious process of knowing a film is not real but still accepting it as if it were real. Connected to Christian Metz and Lacan’s psychoanalysis of film.

Fetishization

The act of creating pleasure by detaching the spectator’s gaze from their body through film. Connected to Chritian Metz’ psychoanalysis of desire and ideology in film.

Flow

The continuous experience of TV, ads, and trailers to create a seamless flow of viewing. Connected to Raymond Williams concept of TV and poststructuralism.

fort/da

Refers to an experiment that revealed the movement from the imaginary realm (plentitude) to the symbolic realm (Lack). Connected to Jacques Lacan psychoanalysis of film.

Fragmentation 

Where narratives and structures are deliberately broken into pieces. Connected to postmodernism as an artistic movement.

Hyperreality

A state where simulations become more real than reality. A world of signs without originals. Connected to Jean Baudrillard’s post moderism theories.

Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs)

Subtle way of manipulatiing the public to follow an ideology. This can be done through religion,education, family, and media. Connected to Louis Althusser’s postructualist conepts.

Ideology

A coherent system of values, beliefs, or ideas shared by social groups which is taken as natual. This is connected to Poststructualist concepts in film.

The Imaginary

The realm of images, perception, and illusion as well as the realm of pentitude. This connects to Lacan’s psychoanalysis of film.

Interactivity

When users activly influence content or go beyond simply watching content. This is moslty seen in video games. Connected to Digital Media’s cultural shift of content.

Interpellation

Cinema’s attempt to transform the audience into a subject. Connected to Poststructurealist ideas.

Frederic Jameson

A marxist political theorist who’s known for his concept of late capitlaism. Connected to the economic era of post modernism.

Jacques Lacan

A French psychoanalysist known for his concepts of the imgainary and symbolic realm. Connected to the psychoanalysis of film and how film is involved in psychological processes.

Lack

The symbolic realm, where one experiences desire and lack of fufillment. Connected to Lacan and the psychoanalysis of film.

Henri Langlois

French film archivist who curated cinematecque Francaise. He is connected to poststructuralism and the radicalizaition of film culture.

Late Capitalism

The idea that global capitalism shapes culture. Connected to how Postmodernism exhibits particular traits like pastiche and superficiality.

Machinima

The art tehcnique of using computer graphics to make a film. Connected to digital media and interactivity.

Lev Manovich

A theorist of digital media, highlighting the concepts of the infinite malleability of content, convergence, and interactvity.

Marshall McLuhan

A canadian philosopher known for his works in media theory. Connected to semiotics and apparatus theory through his quote “The medium is the message.”

Christian Metz

A french film theorist known for his works on film semiotics. He is connected to the psychoanalysis of film through signs as ideology.

The Mirror Stage

The creation of the ego and the Other. Connected to Lacan’s psychoanalysis of film in the imaginary.

mise-en-abyme

Reflecting self-awareness and critiquing reality through the blurring of reality and fiction. Connected to postmodernism and the social condition.

Pastiche

The mimicking of styles, genres, and elements from past works into new works. Connected to postmodernism as an artistic movement.

Patriarchal Capitalism

The dominant Ideology of the male dominated western world. Connected to poststructuralism and ideology.

Platforms

The types of distribution of content with new technology. Connected to digital media and convergence.

Postmodernism

The departure from modernism, characterized by skepticism, fragmentation, and irony. Seen as an artistic movement through the mixing and blending of genres and cultures.

Poststructuralism

The concept that meaning is constructed and deconstructed by language, power, and interpretation. Focuses on the inherent gaps within system of meaning, Important to film because of the meaning and structures imbeded in film itself.

The Primal Scene

When a witnesses their parents having sex. This traumatizes the child becuase they are no longer the center of attention. Connected to the psycho analysis of fiilm through castration anxiety and Lacan’s theory of Lack.

Radical Eclecticism

The idea that postmodernism is an art movement. Connected to postmodernism through pastiche and fragmentation.

Schizophrenia

The idea that fragmentation and radical electcsim creates different subject positions. Connected to postmodernism as an art movement.

Screen Theory

British film journal that translated french texts about poststructuralism. Connected to apparatus theory and poststructuralism.

Segmentation

TV breaks up into segments more than film. Connected to how cinema is different from Television. Ties to semiotics and psychoanalysis.

Shot/Reverse Shot

A film editing technique that shows two or more characters conversating. Connected to Christian Metz’s suture and the psychoanalysis of film.

Simulacra

How media creates a world where signs replace reality, leading to endless copies. Connected to Jean Baudrillard and postmodernism of the social condition.

The Supertext

The expansiveness of TV as TV is episodic and film is contained. Connected to how TV is different from film.

Suture

The subject becomes the signifier where they need to constantly cover a sense of lack. Connected to Christian Metz’ and the psychoanalysis of film.

The Symbolic

Structures our reality where an inherent lack is created in the subject. Connected to Metz’s semiotics and Lacan’s psychoanalaysis.

The User

A active individual who uses media to satisfy needs. Connected to digital media and interactivity.

Voyeurism

Satisfying our desire to look by using the camera’s viewpoint. Connected to desire and ideology through Christian Metz's psychoanalysis of film.

Raymond Williams

A Welsh socialist writer known for his concepts of sequence and flow in television. Connected to TV and poststructualism.