Assignment # 3: Form

This past week, we've taken a step backwards.  From fairly high-level discussions about race, representation, nationality, masculinity, urbanity, violence, and other large, serious themes - we've slowed down these discussions to take a much closer look at film form: on the structure, shape, and appearance of media art.  Film form is the basis of our experience of media, and any sort of interpretation of a film is based, explicitly or implicitly, on the way that we understand the formal organization of the work - and there is much to keep track of in this respect.

For this reason, this week, we have begun to break down some of the works that we have watched in terms of formal choices.  Looking at the Royal Tenenbaums, we saw how Wes Anderson's careful attention to extremely detailed mise-en-scène structured a certain kind of viewing experience for the audience.  Paying close attention to the visual cues that Anderson creates - from the art framed on the walls to the boardgames in the hall closet, from the retro costuming to the battered "Gypsy" cabs that show up as if on cue - adds depth to our understanding of the quirky Tenenbaum family.  Moreover, the saturated colors, even high-key lighting, and playful soundtrack (mostly 70s era rock, including the Velvet Underground with Nico, the Ramones, the Clash, Paul Simon, Van Morrisson - and featuring a score by Mark Mothersbaugh) creates a warmth and intimacy that underlines the major theme of the film - the love that exists between a dysfunctional family.

Immediately, we would say that Primer is a very different experience.  Instead of the warm blues, reds and yellows that characterize Anderson's film, Shane Carruth's first film is colored with whites, yellows, and greens lit by harsh fluorescent lights that give the environment a surreal, other-worldly aspect - despite the fact that the film is set in various low-rent spaces around suburban Dallas.  Most noticeable, though, is the complexity of the narrative.  From a rather simple story - the discovery of a powerful new invention leads to mistrust between two friends - Carruth and crew develop a complex, cerebral plot, which literalizes the many overlapping travels the friends Aaron and Abe take to try to outsmart each other.  Check out this flowchart: it might help, it might make things more confusing.  The first scene of the film is not the first scene of the story - but we don't get this information until almost an hour into the film.  The characters that we meet may already be clones of their future selves.  And for fans of Primer, this baffling complexity is the point.

The point here is this - that our appreciation of either of these films is heightened an understanding of the formal decisions of the filmmakers'.  And so the assignment for this week asks you to concentrate on an analysis of film form.  Just follow these steps:

1)  Choose a media text that catches your attention.  You may choose something screened in class or choose something on your own.  One piece of advice: it may be better to choose a scene or sequence rather than a whole movie.  This will allow you to specifically focus on the details, rather than trying to explain the whole film.  And if you can find a clip or still frame shots, feel free to link them to your post on the blog.

2)  Explain the text you chose in formal terms, as you understand them.  You may choose to focus on the narrative, on elements of mise-en-scène such as prop, costume, or setting, on the use of sound, on the way that shots are sequenced by the editor, or any other formal choice made by the director.  You do not need to explain the plot any more than necessary to convey the basic meaning of the scene.  What words are appropriate to describe the formal element that you are discussing?

3) Stand back and theorize the work that you have done.  How are form and content related in the text that you are looking at, if they are related at all?  How might they be related in general?  What does looking at form add to your understanding of the film?  What, if anything, is left out?