When watching the Royal Tenenbaums, it's easy to get lost in the amazing storyline and never notice the biggest thing that, I think, is allowing us to think so highly of the movie: the cinematography. In almost every scene of the movie the way the camera is positioned and the width of the shots make the viewer feel like we are in the movie, watching the story unfold in real time.
We already get to see the intimate story of the Tenenbaums, but the cinematography invites us even more into their lives.
When sitting at the table the audience feels like one of the kids listening to their father (and step-father, respectively) tell them that their parents are getting a divorce.
At the play, the camera is positioned so that it feels like the audience is in the room, watching Margot Tenenbaum put on her first show.
In this one, the shot is so close to the actors that the audience feels that they are also in the little game closet watching Royal get yelled at by his eldest son. It creates a feeling a intimacy that cannot be ignored.
And in this last shot it is impossible to not feel as if the audience is in the tent with Margot and Richie, and even the shot before that looking at the tent as if the audience were walking toward it with Margot. This scene, what I consider to be the most intimate scene of the movie is made even better by the cinematography. Feeling as if you are in the tent opens up the movie and the characters to the audience in a way that could not be reached with more generic shots.
This way of shooting allows the narrative to progress along with the audience. It strengthens the narrative by allowing the audience to feel as if they, themselves are apart of the Tenenbaums.
The scene I would like to call attention to in the
documentary film Restrepo is when a
native guitar player begins strumming a soft song, and the camera begins to cut
between the soldiers in the Korengal Valley. This scene is interesting because
it is completely opposite of the style the camera previously tried to create
throughout the film. Up to this point, the camera was handheld,
went in and out of audio, moved with the action, and presented an image that
was seemingly unaltered and in the action. The story accepted the images
received by the camera, even if they were very shaky, bad quality, lost audio,
and did not explain themselves. These images were displayed so quickly and incomprehensibly that it was hard for the audience to make out a story of what was happening. The audience just accepted these images were footage of war. However, when this mysterious and random guitarist
begins to play a melancholy song, the music is carried over to several other
scenes of soldiers at the camp interacting with each other. The montage of
scenes that follows the song could have been any footage gathered over the
course of filming, and it is clearly edited in a particular way to evoke a mood
from the audience. This scene is one of several that begin to narrativize everything the audience sees, and the truth in the images is lost. Especially in the latter half of the film, Restrepo becomes focused on the soldiers relationships to the camp, soldiers, and families, and the images are controlled and narrativized in a way that structures what the audience sees. The truth that came from the images' in-comprehensiveness became controlled.
Restrepo has
several scenes like the one mentioned above that make the audience question the
order of events, how much footage is being shown, and how aware the soldiers
are of the camera. The camera form and movements can attempt to capture the
truth, which Restrepo does, but the
camera cannot present “realistic” content because of the editing, awareness
from soldiers, and music that attempts to create a story out of the situation. However,
some of the footage in Restrepo can
be taken as presenting a truth about the situation in Korengal Valley because
it is so close to the action happening there. The images captured in some of
the scenes are as close to the truth as an outsider can get because the camera
is in the moment, and the soldiers forget or do not see the camera in midst of
the action.
However, the big question I had at the end of the film was:
How many scenes did the directors have to cut to make it viewable, legal, and
distributable?Contemporary war is
structured around information, and how much each side has of it. Restrepo gives an inside look of the
situation in Afghanistan, but what information was not captured or distributed?
Restrepo
seemingly gives up its attempt to present a reality of the situation, and
decides to create a story about the connection these men all have to the event
at Restrepo. What about images of
people angry with each other, or annoyed by the situation they were in, or reflections
on mistakes the made? Some of those things must have occurred over the course
of the year, and the story or legality behind Restrepo doesn’t allow for those images to be shown. Contemporary
war is like the camera in a way- the information behind all of the action and
the choices are hidden, and people of status choose the action the public is
able to see in the end.
CSCL 3115 Blog Entry: The Classic Disney Narrative
Rachael Falade, Kirsten McIntyre, Lisa Hostetler
In class this semester we discussed some elements that comprised a traditional Hollywood narrative when making movies. Our group wanted to see if the Disney Corporation had similar elements in their projects so that we could come up with a ‘Classic Disney Narrative.’ Our group tossed out themes that we thought were prevalent in many disney films and then researched films to see which themes we identified, if any, were present in films. Because Disney’s catalogue of films is so extensive, we decided to narrow our research to animated films that had a theatrical release. A total of 98 films were reviewed. Most were full animation features but several combined both live action and animation.
The themes that we looked for in trying to come up with a classic narrative included:
isolation/separation
magic
underdog
love
realization
happily ever after
During the movie, characters are somehow separated from their loved ones, or are isolated from society. The Beast only lives in his castle; Ariel leaves her home in the sea, Nemo has been separated from his father. This theme could coincide with the classic Hollywood narrative of psychological causality; it helps suture in the audience (generally children) and keeps their interest in the movie as a major focus of the feature is to help the characters reunite.
Disney movies are well known for elements of magic, whether it is a magical creature, such as the sprites in Brave, or someone who wields magic such as Mickey in “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” in Fantasia or the witch in Beauty and the Beast. This works toward the classic Hollywood narrative as it helps to add to the plot; good and/or bad magic helps to move the plot forward in time and keeps the storyline interesting.
There is typically a character that is somehow disadvantaged compared to others in that particular society. For example, Aladdin is a “street rat” until he finds the Genie; Belle is seen as the weird bookworm; Elsa runs away after she freezes Arendelle.
Love can be found in some sort of form in Disney movies, however it is usually familial or romantic love. For example, Nemo and his father love one another in Finding Nemo; the kitchen appliances have an attachment to their human owners in The Brave Little Toaster.
Most stories have a moment of realization or “epiphany,” and Disney movies are no different. Sometimes the bad guys are revealed, someone is in danger (prince realizes he has to save the princess) or characters realize that they belong together (Pocahontas and John Smith falling in love). This coincides with the traditional Hollywood narrative as part of closure.
All most all of the Disney movies have a happily ever after ending. The prince saves the princess and they go off into the sunset, the guy gets the girl, etc. This also works with the classic Hollywood narrative as part of the closure portion of the narrative to help resolve all of the elements that had gone wrong in the plot.
Similar to Hollywood narrative that we discussed in class, Disney movies tend to move in a forward chronological order. There are times when there is a memory that moves us back into the past for a brief time, but overall stories tend to start at one point in time and move forward to resolution.
So, a classic Disney narrative has the following elements, just as a classic Hollywood narrative:
Psychological causality: typically in the form of isolation/separation
Goal oriented plot: the story often involves form of magic or a disadvantaged character or a love theme to help move the story along
Moves forward in time: Most Disney movies move forward in time, likely for ease of the audience (young children)
Closure: typically a moment of realization, or a happily ever after ending
The genre of documentary film making is based on a fundamental premise: that the camera can not lie. It must mechanically record whatever is in its field of vision. However, not all truths are created equal, and we have seen several examples of different ideologies of truth and of truth-telling in this unit, expressed through very different ways of interpreting the camera's ability to record visual evidence. From the investigative photojournalism of Restrepo to the harrowing realities captured in Collateral Murder or Lessons of Darkness, from the eternal equivocations of Donald Rumsfeld in the Unknown Known to the post-modern simulated warfare-as-therapy of Immersion, we have seen documentary filmmakers working withvery different modes of "the truth of the camera" in the context of war and conflict in the 21st century. The assignment today is to interpret how documentary filmmakers work with the camera's ability to reveal the truth, but also to create falsehoods, to distort, alter, or suppress the truth of what happened.
1. Pick a film, or a scene from a film, from those listed above, which to you expresses a certain mode, style, or attitude towards documentary film-making.
2. What is the film's operative idea of truth, reality, or honesty? How does it understand "truth," and how does it communicate truth to the spectator? Conversely, how does the film deal with themes of lying, deception, or dishonesty? Are there any films that themselves are deceptive, that show us a distorted or false picture of reality?
3. Step back and theorize this understanding. What does this film demonstrate about the camera's ability to capture truth? What does it demonstrate about modern conflict and our understanding of contemporary war? You may wish to use Susan Sontag, Paolo Virilio, or Judith Butler's ideas to support your own.
As we have studied the implications of dystopia in film, our
project is about the revival of 1980s technological dystopian films. This list
includes, but is not limited to: Mad Max (1979 & 2015), The Terminator
(1984 & 2015), RoboCop (1987 & 2014), Poltergeist (1982 & 2015),
and Star Wars (1977 & 2015)
We used scholars Althusser and Jameson to analyze the
ideological shift and attitudes toward technology within the two Mad Max
movies, using the following categories as a framework: Technology Then &
Now, Franchises, Setting, Themes, Plot, Characters, and the Technological Anxieties
of Society.
We argue that these movies aren’t about people in
relationship to technology; rather, they show an ideological shift in society’s
feelings towards technology: from hope to anxiety.
Althusser:
"All Ideological State Apparatuses, whatever they are, contribute
to the same result: the reproduction of the relations of production, i.e. of
capitalist relations of exploitation."
·However, we must remember it is not a relationship between production
and individual, but of the individual's fear/anxiety/feelings and the
production (emphasizing the revival of the fear in technology)
"All
ideology represents in its necessarily imaginary distortion not the existing
relations of production (and the other relations that derive from them), but
above all the (imaginary) relationship of individuals to the relations of
production and the relations that derive from them."
Jameson:
"Anxiety
and hope are two faces of the same collective consciousness, so that
the works of mass culture, even if their function lies in the legitimation of
the existing order-or some worse one-cannot do their job without deflecting in
the latter's service the deepest and most fundamental hopes and fantasies of
the collectivity, to which they can therefore, no matter in how distorted a
fashion, be found to have given voice." (144)
For those of you who have not seen these films, here’s some
quick info (taken from imdb.com) and their trailers:
This week, instead of our typical work - reflection, thought, and analysis of the material we've seen in the previous week - you are asked to use this space to upload material as a way of introducing your class to your in-class presentation. Basically, you're asked to give an introduction and some context so that the class is familiar with your topic before entering the room, and you can spend the time in class staking our your position and engaging in discussion. You may either delegate this responsibility to one person in the group, or have different members of the group post on different aspects of your research. You should provide a brief written explanation of your topic, and then use the blog to link to or upload any material that the class will find useful. The schedule for presentations is:
Thursday, July 30
Remakes of 1980s Dystopian Films (Group 3)
Tuesday, August 4
"Consumerism and Masculinity in Fight Club" (Group 1) "Disney Narrative" (Group 2)
"Watching Royal Tenenbaums" (Group 4)
This assignment will be due Tuesday night for Group 3, Friday night for all other groups. Please contact me with any questions, or if you would like to edit your title or your topic.
After I watched TV series Black mirror, I
thought Black mirror has no relationship with “realistic ”. In the movie, they
are living small room surrounding black screen with
same clothes. They have to see many advertisement if
they don’t want to spend their cyber money. Most life are based on their cyber money, they
also have to ride a bicycle to earn cyber money. This
repressed life is hard to watch and understand the movie is trying to say. But
when I watch YouTube video at home, I had to see advertisement at least 5
seconds and found that I always hold smart phone (new technology), I felt I
look like Bing. This makes me change my opinion like this movie might be
realistic.
In the real world, nowadays, we are addicted to
Media fantasy and spend too much time for entertainment. For example, we watch
many audition programs like hot shot or many other incendiary TV program. And I
feel that judges are high social class, and we are people that ride a bicycle
everyday. We ride a bicycle to produce electricity for them. They live in
comfort.It looks like our community
system. And two main characters accepted their offer to escape “bicycle life”.
In conclusion, this movie is all about the media
influence in the modern society. As technology is developed, we might be controlled
by technology.
The process of interpolation within Ideological State Apparatuses continually reinforce the dominant values of society and establish a sense of promise and possibility for economic upward mobility which ensures the continued reproduction of the conditions and relations of production. This important principle held by Althusser can be clearly seen in the media source “Black Mirror” through its depiction of interpolation of workers within the mass media Ideological State Apparatus. Additionally, “Black Mirror” depicts the power of the mass media Ideological State Apparatus over the workers by showing how the workers perceive themselves as workers rather than as individuals.
Through the use of the mass media Ideological State Apparatus, “Black Mirror” effectively and perpetually reproduces the conditions and relations of production turning individual workers into subjects. This process otherwise known as interpolation subjects workers to a wage system style of life within the mass media Ideological State Apparatus, where the workers have to ride bikes and watch television programs in order to gain the credits needed to purchase needs and wants in their lives. An excellent example of this in “Black Mirror” is a worker's choice to save enough credits to buy a spot on the “Hot Seat Show” in hopes of achieving the value of fame and success which is promised to the few that actually achieve it. However, the majority of the workers who purchased a spot on the “Hot Seat Show” were demeaned and marked as failures for the entertainment of other workers who are watching the show. The hope to achieve the value of fame and success is instilled within workers through the process of interpolation within the mass media Ideological State Apparatus, where the various programs all contribute to the main idea that if you work hard, you can achieve the success you dream of. This secures the successful reproduction of the conditions and relations of production where workers agree to continue working and earning credits.
Ideological State Apparatuses through the interpolation of individuals instills dominant society’s held values so much that individuals enact these values without thinking about it or challenging it as they know of no other way to perceive the world. In the case of “Black Mirror” the effects of the mass media Ideological State Apparatus can be seen by the workers collective sense of individualism. Each individual worker lives alone in a bedroom and rely upon various forms of technology to interact with the world around them. Rather than depending on and interacting with others, individuals depend upon and interact with the technology which is vital to fulfilling their needs and furthering their own interests in life. In this case, the biking and watching television programs allows the workers to pursue their held ideal and fulfill society’s promise of economic upward mobility through hard work. In all, the workers actively perceive themselves as a “worker” defined by the institution they exist within.
"However, that is in fact how it ‘works’, since wages represents only that part of the value produced by the expenditure of labour power which is indispensable for its reproduction: so indispensable to the reconstitution of the labour power of the wage-earner (the wherewithal to pay for housing, food and clothing, in short to enable the wage earner to present himself again at the factory gate the next day – and every further day God grants him); and we should add: indispensable for raising and educating the children in whom the proletarian reproduces himself (in n models where n = 0, 1, 2, etc....) as labour power."
In this passage, Althusser is unraveling the how to reproduce the conditions of productions while commenting on the struggles of the working class. In today's culture, we work for things, we work to buy new phones, new cars, to afford a new apartment and more. I would say that the people I am around do not work for survival, more so they work for status, approval and appliances or applications. Althusser talks about wages being used for the necessary things, food clothing and basically survival, "in short to enable the wage earner to present himself again at the factory gate the next day."
This paragraph opens my eyes to the wage gap today, in my opinion, one is either poor middle to upper class or filthy rich. The rich make money to keep them selves wealthy, and the poor make money to survive. We also put so much of our life energy working at job to make money, to make "wages" because without money, one cannot possibly have a life. This makes me think about the Black Mirror episode. Without merits Bing couldn't live life properly, he could so much as afford to skip annoying advertisements. Bing did not see anything worth spending his merits on besides the lovely voice of Abi. In this way money is the merit of today's society. If not for wanting an affordable lifestyle, many college students would follow their hearts and we would have more poets, writers, and artists in the world. While that might diminish our buildings and maybe save less lives (doctors), people would ultimately be happier following their dreams without needing to earn a living.
This passage is commenting on how wages or money is part of what makes labor valuable as it is completely necessary to replenish ones self so he or she can go back into the labor force the next day and earn more money. Over the years money has been the main motivating factor that attracts people to the labor force and as things become more expensive, people have to work longer and harder to afford the lifestyle glamorized to us in the advertisements shows on the things we purchase for example iPhones, laptops and TV. It is safe to say that society is only becoming more and more currency centered.
"Thus the familiar motif of elitism argues for the priority of mass culture on the grounds of the sheer numbers of people exposed to it," (Jameson "Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture"). This is what I have chosen to talk about because I think it resonates a lot with society today.
The idea of "elitism" is big in today's society; it can be associated with clothes, where you live, what you look like, what technology you use, even where you go to school, and above all, money. The people who have all the "best" of these things tend to be in, what we culturally believe to be, the elite.
I think a perfect example of this in media is the newer film "The Duff". The woman above is considered to be the elite. She has the looks, the money, the technology, the right friends, the right boyfriend and she is the hottest shit in her school. And going with the school analogy, the elite in your high school are kind of like the elite in life (although we know that it doesn't really stay that way).
When related to Jameson, we can start to understand why mass culture is "elite". It tends to be backed by the most money, it has the most friends (followers), you have access on all your technology, and it is generally recognized as hot shit. These ideals turn dangerous when people forget about non-mass culture. When beautiful art is being overlooked because it doesn't have the right means to get to people or isn't like by the majority. We run the risk of all falling into the same mindset (which isn't to say we haven't already).
Fredric Jameson’s article, Reification and Utopia on Mass Culture, seems to bounce around a
lot to cover every point he can make about mass media and culture. He goes from
topics discussing “high-brow” culture to symbolic effects to distribution
processes. However, I think Jameson’s point on why media is apart of society in
the first place is a strong argument. He uses the Freudian model of social
theory to simplify Norman Holland’s The
Dynamics of Literary Response. Jameson uses Holland’s ideas on how
commercial arts can “manipulate” their publics to emphasize points on how this
is done through aesthetic gratification and wish-fulfilling functions. Jameson
then extends past this point of wish-fulfillment to say mass culture is not an
empty distraction, false consciousness (or pure spectacle), but, “rather as a
transformational work on social and political anxieties and fantasies that must
then have some effective presence in the mass culture text in order
subsequently to be 'managed' or repressed.” (141) People have these underlying
fears and dreams that media can control by fulfilling these Freudian desires of
individuals and collectively as a society. This is what Jameson believes is the
function of mass culture, which then can be branched off to discuss high and
low cultures, racial issues, symbolic effects, and distribution.
The best way to describe the function of mass culture was
through our screening of Pacific Rim
and discussion of Jaws. This showed
how symbols can become overdetermined in social meaning, but also how
individual desires for gratification occur through the spectacle of the images.
However, I have noticed that much of the media in our contemporary culture is
becoming focused on technology itself. The social and political anxieties
people are having are of technology and images themselves. Films such as Her, Jurassic
World, and Avengers: Age of Ultron,
and television shows from 30 Rock to House of Cards are discussing the
anxieties surrounding technological modification and fabricated media images.
This amazes me because these popular, successful media types are hypocritical
of the topic they are discussing. They themselves are enhanced technological
commodities that display a false reality, yet mass media is still used to
“manage” or repress the anxieties people have of these objects.
So maybe mass media can now be seen as a form of distraction
because the content distracts us from its own form. Contemporary mass media
discusses the growing social anxieties of technology, but does this without
calling attention to itself as part of the anxiety. Is there any way to solve
this conundrum? Can mass media become transparent enough to actively discuss
anxieties with technology? Or will viewers always find another distraction
within the images and media? I personally believe mass media cannot become transparent enough to actively engage a viewpoint on technology because part of the gratification people get out of mass media is through its spectacle. I believe people will always find a distraction away from the form of the media.
