Reading logs

Genre(mixes)

Reading Log #10  

Genres are what categorises different films in different belongings. It refers to the kind or type. This mode of categories also helps describe and analyse films rather than evaluate them. Film conventions therefore shape the viewers’ expectations of what belongs to specific genres. Though, movies are like music in terms of genre which can be remixed. Just like music remixes that we’ve explored in our week 11 Lectorial, great unique movies are not of an original idea but a mixture of great inspirations that are then created into one extraordinary piece.

Would we expect that a film starring Sandra Bullock is a romantic comedy? Or those starring Bruce Willis is an action or rather a gangster film?

When we observe a shot in a film with an advanced, futuristic technology or an experiment in a laboratory, would we infer that the film we are watching is belonging to the sci-fi genre?

Consequently, each genre or subgenres has specific conventions whether it is its style, subject matter, music, or even its actors. Vampire films for example, is a subgenre of horror or a thriller category. Though, a genre may not stay that genre and evolve overtime in history. Twilight, being one of the first vampire with romantic conventions are a mixture of genres and had influence other filmmakers, such as the vampire diaries show or A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014). This movie by Ana Lily Amirpour has some similar conventions to the Indonesian horror films, with the ghost or vampire wandering alone at night and hunt for its prey being that it is Iranian with similar culture to the Indonesian Muslim culture. Rizal Mantovani’s Kuntilanak (2006) has the ghost wandering only during the night-time like the girl in Amirpour’s movie, with its arousal of shock, disgust and repel or horrify. But unlike other vampire movies, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is the first Iranian Vampire Western ever made with a mash-up of genre, archetype and iconography.

The Grizzly Man’s Road

Reading Log #9

It’s all about the director… mostly.

Like fictional films, documentaries have different forms and genres. The nature docudrama film, Grizzly Man (2005) by a German director and narrator Werner Herzog is a portrait. It is about a bear enthusiast, Timothy Treadwell who camped in a remote Alaskan land of Grizzly bears for thirteen summers before he died. Including Treadwell’s recordings of his bear interactions as archival sources makes the documentary a compilation film. The dramatic yet artistic sense is assisted by the Treadwell’s own footages he took of himself and his encounters with the bears, where he narrates his expedition. “It has been only five days since the baby (bear) died, … it’s so sad, it was so cute.” Treadwell had spoken out with informative yet dramatic and casual tone. Furthermore, chain of interviews of close friends, work mates, nature experts and relatives are selected and inserted to vary the genres in order to engage with the audience with an appeal of ranging techniques.

Narrated by Herzog, he is able to ask rhetorical questions and presents a persuasive, viewer-centered argument, making his film a rhetorical form and an opinionative issue. “… Could this one be bear 141 (Treadwell’s murderer)? What looks playful could be desperation.” To Timothy Treadwell, bears are his friends and believe in the gradual friendliness of the bears to him but Herzog doubted the bears and positions the audience to either side of the argument using the enthymeme. It is a rhetorical form also because it provokes an emotional appeal, even though the conclusion cannot be proved beyond question.

The Style of Scorsese

Reading Log #8

I have seen The Wolf of Wall St (2014), The Age of Innocence (1993), Shutter Island (2010) and all those directed by Martin Scorsese has particular style that became the director’s signature in making film. The director often engages with gangster films, with social violence while interested with both European art cinema and Hollywood classical narrative. He is influenced, or inspired by early cinema with long takes and montage such as of Eisenstein and Hitchcock. Elliptical editing is specially a motif in which Scorsese has ritually complemented in The Age of Innocence and other films to reduce time and space.

Different filmmakers have their own individual approach in portraying their character’s mental subjectivity. In The Age of Innocence for example, the character Newland Archer (starring Daniel Day Lewis) desires to be with Ellen Olenski despite already having an engagement with May Welland. Scorsese has shown this perspective from Newland’s point of view shots following Ellen around the room and tracking away from May to dislocate her outside the frame. Montage and jump cuts are often used and became a pattern to portray hallucinations or imaginations of the characters. Similar techniques are also used in The Wolf of Wall St when the main character is under a drug, causing his instability of vision. Both movies promotes the ideologies of the rich families of New York’s high society and this portrayal itself is a motif occurring in many of Scorsese’s films.

 

How sound is complemented

Reading Log #7

Sound in the cinema is a crucial component to cinematic narration processes. They give cues in both onscreen and off-screen as audiences synchronize what is shown to the sound produced. Cues given by sounds allow audiences to anticipate and understand the intended reading of the narrative, besides according to their experiences.

As exemplified in Vivre Sa Vie, 1962 by Jean-Luc Godard, the voices of the characters are often off-screen while the character itself is not present on the screen. This use of dialogue gives cues in which the audience understands that the character on screen, who is not speaking nor moving any lips movements, is communicating with the character that is off-screen because of the use of the character’s voices.

The presence of background noises like those in the café scene is the diegetic effect as we hear the plates and cups clanking. But as there is a dialogue between the characters, this low-pitch and average-volume dialogue sound is dominant and guided our attention (or to listen) to itself whilst the low-volume noises are secondary mixing of sounds. This is followed by a background music coming in. This French musical soundtrack is the non-diegetic effect that adds timbre and harmony to the scene. As the character speaks, there are moments of silence and this is a motif shown throughout the film. The purpose of this silence is to guide the audience focus and attention on the scene/shot presented.

 

Romantic Perspective

Reading Log #5

Letter From An Unknown Woman (1948) By Max Ophuls is complemented with particular styles of editing techniques that contribute to its narratives. For example, blurred dissolves are used to indicate the character’s mental subjectivity. These blurred dissolves are used often as the story is based on a written experience of a character, the unknown woman who wrote the letter.

The Kuleshov effect is pointed out in the reading. It is about editing shots consequently that viewers’ readings are affected by its position. We would infer that a person is hungry in the shot followed by a shot of food.

Where can we see the Kuleshov Effect in the Letter From An Unknown Woman?

  • A shot of Lisa swinging and then picking through a window followed by a shot of a man playing piano.

This juxtaposition of the two shots suggests that Lisa is watching the man playing the piano through the window. If there were only one shot of following Lisa’s point of view to the man, it would have a different effect and it is also more time and space consuming.

  • The miniature train ride at the park, where both Lisa and the man sat inside. This shot followed by the man coming out the train ride to buy more tickets.

This effect seems that inside what is inside the train ride from outside view. But it may be that these two shots are taken in different places or time.

Framing the Sunrise

Reading Log #4

William A. Wellman, Harry d’Abbadie d’Arrast are the two directors of the film Sunrise (1927). The viewers are invited to engage with the German expressionist film through the use of framing techniques. When a husband was about to kill his own wife, a medium to close up shot and a low-angle shot of the husband is used to show his power along with his murderous (yet confused) facial expression over the scared-crouched wife. In the other hand, the wife is shown in a point of view shot, medium-close up and high angle shot to imply her fear and state of being powerless. Continue reading →

Crafting the Scene

Reading Log #3

Jacques Tati constructed the film Play Time with slight monotonous techno aesthetics of its mise-en-scene. He often uses long and establishing shots to present the conservatively modern themes of the miniature Paris (showing the setting) built for the film. Furthermore, he shows a transformation from the inhuman city that is developed into a vitality and spontaneity as the film progresses from daytime to night-time.

His shots of the nightclub setting sequences, which are with cold colours of lighting and highlights on the props, are added with shadows to emphasize their forms. The sequence also is shown with low-key lighting, with fill light and backlight to create more contrast and a tint of saturation to the visual conventions.

The shots are complemented with flashy, late 60s costumes and the modern styles. This representation is unified with its setting and goes well with the characters’ acting style and performances. Continue reading →

Experimental Film

Reading Log #2

Experimental films challenge normal notions. They are often independent, tell no stories and instead, poetic reveries. Fernand Léger’s Ballet Mécanique (1924) is constructed in poetic reveries. Its sequences consist machines, kitchen tools, plates, bottles, shapes such as circles and triangles and also a found footage of Charlie Chaplin’s “Charlot”. These sequences are repeated and show the movements of these machines complemented with rhythmic music. Hence, the title dancing machines. The construction and content of Ballet Mécanique is therefore like an improvised poem, correlating with the music to provoke rhythmic harmony. Continue reading →

Getting Back to Childhood

Reading log #1

How is Wizard of Oz constructed with pattern to create its form? In other words, what process does the artist of this film undergo to generate specific reaction from the audience?

Wizard of Oz is constructed with a constant pattern and juxtaposition. We see in the beginning that Dorothy has been threatened about her dog and ran. Then she met Professor Marvel who encouraged her to go home. As she arrives home, a tornado lifts Dorothy and Toto in her house and sent her off to a mystical land. The same process (the repetition of sequence) shows pattern in which the Wicked witch of the west threatens Dorothy. Then Dorothy is sent on a yellow brick road to see the wizard of Oz. During her journey she misses home and tries to find her way home. These correlating patterns develop the film’s narrative form in a unified sequence and elements. Continue reading →