I have watched a lot of television and film and even though transmedia has existed in many forms for a while, since the conception of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, expanded movie universes have been an obsession for Hollywood. I bring this point up in my first blog post of the semester because I have a feeling I will be discussing the MCU and its impact on story telling across platforms throughout the length of the course. I am well versed in the cinematic universe, having seen every movie and each television show (apart from a few episodes of Agent Carter) and through simply viewing each piece of the Disney/Marvel puzzle, it becomes clear why it has been such a success. The characters.
In his book, In Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting, Robert McKee highlights the importance of audience empathy for the protagonist in films. An engaging story follows a character whose story the viewer can emotionally invest their time and attention to. McKee outlines how to create an empathic character, highlighting the main contributor as the audience recognising the character’s humanity, binding the fictional life with their own which allows them to invest into the story being told. The protagonists in the MCU are superheroes, having powers or lives filled with extravagance from their abilities to their resources which are impossible for movie goers to experience. Yet, their humanity shines through on screen through qualities such as humour or fears creating well rounded characters for real life people to connect with. In a world filled with other worldly beings and all kinds of extraordinary events, audiences keep coming back to the story on whatever medium it is presented on, because the characters have are fully fledged and easy to empathise with.
True Detective is an American anthology crime drama created by Nick Pizzolatto which first aired on HBO in 2014. It centres on two Louisiana detectives, Rustin ‘Rust’ Cohle and Martin ‘Marty’ Hart, portrayed by Mathew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson respectively, as they attempt to solve the murder of a young girl. An anthology series involves a telling a new story each season with a new cast and characters embroiled in events separate to the previous seasons. A main draw of anthology series is that it is an assurance to viewers that the story being told will have a conclusion, unlike so many other American shows that have been cancelled prematurely. This also allows for higher calibre actors, even film stars, to join the cast as there are no long term commitments to the show in contrast to the lengthy popular series such as Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad. Both shows match and even surpass True Detective in popularity, yet the name recognition of its two lead actors draws in audiences to view a program they have never heard of before. This is highlighted by the following trailer for season one of the show as it focuses on McConaughey and Harrelson’s roles to entice viewers to witness leading Hollywood men immerse themselves in a television role.
A second selling point seen in this trailer and the overall marketing for True Detective is that it is an HBO show. The show was hailed as “the latest greatest-ever television series from HBO” (Rundle, 2014) and was critically lorded by critics and audiences alike for its cinematic aesthetic, ingenious storytelling and cinema worthy performances. The term ‘greatest-ever’ is an encapsulation of the show as it quality worked in conjunction with its airing on HBO to place it on a pedestal alongside other ‘greatest-ever’ television shows such as The Sopranos, The Wire and Game of Thrones. “Although a cable service such as HBO has a very small audience of subscribers […] they happen to be the very upscale demographic willing to pay extra for more specialised and more highbrow fare” (Feuer, 2007). This characterisation of the channel adds an elitism to its programming and Cary Joji Fukunaga’s direction injected True Detective with a cinematic aesthetic. It is rare for every episode of a television season to be directed by a single person like Fukunaga did and this aspect helped to legitimise the show as a piece of cinema made for television. It draws on familiar conventions found in crime dramas and police procedurals but particularises it as a form of ‘complex narrative.’ Jason Mittell states that “HBO has built its reputation and subscriber base upon complex narrative shows” (2012) and True Detective builds upon this representation. Narrative complexity “redefines episodic forms under the influence or serial narration” (Mittell, 2012) and True Detective typifies this definition through its anthology structure and intricate plot revolving around two rich characters.
Rust Cohle and Marty Hart are the core to the season, they are the tellers of the story the audience is witnessing and the constant shift between time periods reveals how the events of the past have affected the protagonists. The intrigue surrounding Cohle’s drastic change in physical appearance and behaviour suggests the case changed him forever and this character study is the core of True Detective. The intricacy of the plot, revolving around multiple murders and the lives of the two main figures, coupled with themes centred on masculinity and religion create a narrative that viewers must fully invest to connect with the depicted events.
References
Mccabe, Janet & Akrass, Kim (2009) ‘HBO and the Concept of Quality TV – Jane Feuer”, Quality TV: Contemporary American Television and Beyond, pp. 147-157
There is a prestige that goes hand in hand with complex narrative television programs because they cater towards the intellectual and higher class of audience. This seen by the calibre of shows on HBO, a premium cable channel heavily associated with complex narrative brands which charges its subscribers to watch these highly regarded programs. As explained by Jason Mittell, “at its most basic level, narrative complexity redefines episodic forms under the influence of serial narration” (2011) and an example of the use of this concept is the television show Game of Thrones.
Even if a person has never seen the show, saying the words “Game of Thrones” will cause some sort of reaction in recognition. The HBO show has permeated the popular culture zeitgeist with such ferocity that it has become a staple for television of the 2010’s. Premiering in April of 2011, Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama and an adaptation of the fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire written by George R. R. Martin. The show takes place in the fictional world of Westeros and neighbouring continents and involves a multitude of diverse characters vying to sit upon the Iron Throne and rule the kingdom. The show is a prime example of a complex narrative as it demands an intensified engagement from its audience to fully comprehend the numerous plot points and their overall significance. An example of the narrative complexity is the shows arc revolving around ‘The War of Five Kings’. This arc involves characters from the titular five kings, their main disciples, their armies, the adrift characters who are not taking part in the war and the history and political backdrop of the country the war is taking place in. This story line necessitates audience involvement with the text in order to fully comprehend the position of each character and their relationship with all the others and what they mean to the overall narrative of the show. This dense story is told over ten hour long episodes per year and this short narration time-frame tends to create a fast paced story surrounded by a high quality production to ensure the audience is not alienated by the complicated plot. Narration time, also known as screen time, refers to the ‘temporal framework involved in telling and receiving the story” (Mittell, 2011) and as Game of Thrones airs on HBO, there are no advertisement breaks to separate a single episode, which assists the audience in understanding the plot of an episode without distractions.
The rise in popularity of complex narrative television programs can also be attributed to shifts in technology. Game of Thrones can be accessed via HBO Go, a video on demand streaming services which allows subscribers to watch HBO content on their website or through an application for mobile devices. This has shifted television viewing from exclusively watching it in a shared space to the privacy of a bedroom on a personal device such as a phone or laptop, especially within the 18-40 year old demographic who use more than one media device throughout a typical day. There has been ‘An increase in the variety and kinds of media as well as in the movement of media into kids’ bedrooms’ (Hayles, 2007) and this has expanded from children to young adults. With the introduction of the second screen, “the common phrase for a mobile device used while watching a TV program” (Hare, 2012), viewers can simultaneously watch a program and use the internet. Coupling this ability to research the show to remind themselves of each narrative thread with the ability to pause and rewind television through streaming services, modern audiences are more equipped than ever before to actively understand and join in on the discussion of complex narrative programs.
The twenty-first century is awash with a variety of television programs which can be viewed on an assortment of mediums. Gone are the days where the only option was to gather around the television set to watch your favourite television shows according to a schedule. The internet introduced an array of alternatives and these range from streaming services such as Netflix, digital distribution in the form of iTunes and torrenting from piracy websites. The popularity of these new mediums can be attributed the ability they grant audiences to dictate their own viewing schedule, sculpting it around their personal lives instead of having to ensure they are available when it originally airs. In addition to creating a convenience for television viewing, the internet allows for global audiences to connect and discuss programs, yet this introduces a problem for Australian audiences. This global connection is a double edged sword as fan discussion and the potential for ‘spoilers’ online is drastic as there is no sure-fire way to filter out or block any discussion that may ruin a viewer’s enjoyment of an episode. This is a problem for Australian audiences as there is a large delay in comparison to America in terms of broadcasting new episodes. In his investigation into broadcast delay in Australian for the blog website Reckoner, Graham Spencer chose the thirty-one highest rated television shows according to meta-critic and researched the delay between air dates from the U.S. to Australia.
CLICK IMAGE FOR BETTER VIEW Sourced from reckoner.com.au: http://reckoner.com.au/2014/07/watching-tv-in-australia-the-australian-delay-under-the-microscope/
This chart showcases the results of Spencer’s study and provides an insight into my personal viewing habits. I began tracking television consumption in my time use diary on the 10th of August and ended on the 23rd of October and in that amount of time I did not watch any programs on free-to-air or cable television. Reflecting futher back on my television viewing habits, I have not watched Australian broadcast television in over three years, including news or sporting events. Over ninety percent of programs I watched during the last three months were scripted narrative programs, the other ten percent being internet games shows such as Roosterteeth’s ‘On The Spot’ or broadcast game shows such as ‘@Midnight’. The appeal of these game shows is that they deal with topics from the internet instead of national interests which allows me to follow the proceedings without the need for additional knowledge of events I have little interest in.
This is a central conceit to my viewing habits as I am regularly on the internet and therefore am constantly aware of the conversations taking place concerning the programs and topics I am interested in. All of the content I view are from international sources that are not readily available in Australia in time for me to avoid them being ruined by online activity. Out of the thirty-one shows in the above chart, I follow seventeen of them and I do not own Foxtel, leading me to source them online to keep up to date with the global community. “Most people interact with many different media during the course of a single day” (Hart, 1992) and this is especially true for the 18-40 year old audience demographic who use the internet for professional reasons as well as social. Growing up with television sets being a staple of a modern home and the rise of the internet on computers and phones has led to this demographic becoming accustomed to having multiple forms of media at their disposal at all times. As shown in my time use diary, nearly all of my consumption of media happens on my laptop in my room while I am using my mobile phone or browsing the internet. This provides privacy to watch the shows I prefer without being interrupted and giving me the freedom to create my own viewing schedule.
“Aussies pirate because global media and entertainment is a part of Australian culture now. We follow it, we talk about it and contribute back” explains Reckoner author James Croft and this is reflected in my viewing habits. The second I can watch a new episode of my favourite programs, I can and then go online and read American review sites and check social media to see fan reactions to the episodes. I have created a ritual that revolves around international conversation and the Australian broadcasting restrictions does not allow for this 21st Century form of television viewing.
References
Croft, James (2014) ‘Louis CK, Culture, And Why We Pirate All The Things’, reckoner.com.au. Found at < http://reckoner.com.au/2014/06/louis-ck-and-why-we-pirate-all-the-things/ >
Hart, Andrew (1992) ‘Understanding Television Audiences’, Journal of Educational Television, Vol. 18(1), pp. 5-17
Spencer, Graham (2014) ‘Watching TV in Australia: The Australian Delay Under The Microscope, reckoner.com.au. Found at < http://reckoner.com.au/2014/07/watching-tv-in-australia-the-australian-delay-under-the-microscope/ >
I have begun putting together Project Brief 4 and editing the footage for Video 1: One Take Subjectivity. Filming it was not as difficult as I expected due to a few changes I decided on before shooting. I incorporated the first figure, which was my sister listening to music on her headphones as she walked, into the background of the shot to highlight my intentions of the project. She moves from the foreground to the background which visually informs the viewer what this video is attempting. It provides a cohesion to the scene and also adds a familiar element to the background of the friends’ conversation, inviting the audience to search the frame and pay attention the figures that are not the primary focus. I also changed the dog with another person for my sister to interact with as it easier for the viewer to see a back and forth between two human and because they have no dialogue, their friendship and the viewer’s understanding of it is based on body language. Also he was easier to work with than an animal.
I have begun recording ADR for the scene as well but so far it feels to sterile and fake but I will wait until I have all the audio recorded to decide whether or not to use it. I want the scene to feel real so the viewer feels like they are a part of the world, walking down path and seeing the people who inhabit it and it feel more immersive without the perfect audio quality of ADR.
This is the area I will use for the first video of the first series for Project Brief 4. It not a busy area and is walled on both sides by fences which makes it feel more contained. The path runs through the frame and the camera will follow the path as it explores the area, creating a constant element in a frame that is constantly changing perspective. I was originally going to set up two cameras, one in the position shown above and like the photo shown below.I would have cut between the two in an attempt to muddy the composition of the shot and blur the lines between the background and foreground of the frame. I decided against this as it would be too disorientating for the viewer and would not explore subjectivity the way I want to. Instead, the camera will move through the frame, focusing on various people throughout the run time for different intervals. The aim is to discover if an viewer can impart their subjectivity on more than one figure or action in a frame. Instead of being presented with a protagonist and having the background of the shot be nothing more than cinematic world building, the background figures would have their own story just like real life. Everyone in the frame would be the protagonist, pushing the previous focal points into the background and injecting a sense if humanity and knowledge into the whole of the frame.
This video is based on the discussion we had during our week three class about movement in film. I had always thought of movement in film in terms of camera movement or the object or person on screen. The concept of temporal movement is fascinating as even though the camera is not moving, time keeps ticking by. The cinematic frame is not just a signifier of time, it is time itself, the film’s time. The physical boundaries limit the space of the film but the components of the frame dictate how time moves in accordance to what needs to be portrayed on the screen. Filmmakers use expansion of time (slow motion) to show fast actions at a speed in which the the human eye can see it or use a cut to skip days, weeks or years in a story to move the plot along to the relevant point in time.
With this video I wanted to play with the concept of a still camera and disordered time. Each person was filmed walking down the hallway seperately and then I edited the footage temporally. I slowed it down, I sped it up and I even placed them all within the frame simultaneously to give the illusion that they were walking together. There is a simple montage being shown but behind the lack of camera movement and the spy music the cinematic frame mastery over time.
I have begun to consider what aspect of the cinematic frame my project will focus on. I will explore how the components of the frame and the elements of mise-en-scene work together to illicit subjectivity from viewers. This idea came from watching Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead and how he sets up the character of Shaun, where he is in life and his trajectory through the rest of the film with the opening shot.A slow zoom out as the world moves on around him, Shaun is not paying attention to what is right in front of him. The zoom out reveals his signature red tie and the colour is matched by the red liquid in the glass on the bar behind him. This shows that he feels trapped in his current life and the event that will lead him out of his doldrums and force him to grow as a person is about to happen. The colour red has connotations with love and blood and this plays on the audience’s knowledge of genre. They know this is a zombie film and by placing red around Shaun’s neck, the audience are unknowingly informed how the events of the film will change the character.
For my project I will attempt to emulate this shot but add additions to explore how colour influences subjectivity. I will film the same shot numerous times but change the colour of a piece of clothing and an object in the background and see how it effects how the viewer reacts to the character on screen.
References
Wright, Edgar (2004) Shaun of the Dead, Universal Pictures
I have always been interested in the creation of subjectivity in films because each filmmaker imparts their own subjectivity into their films. Capturing a moment with a camera creates a sense of importance as time is captured in the present to be watched in the future as a relic of the past. “The camera is a past-maker. However, the act of filming itself, to operate, is to look forward” (Zamboni, 2014) and this process does not happen unless there is a person involved. A person chooses when to film, where to point the camera and what to include within the frame, all in order to tell a story and convey a particular subjectivity. Take for instance, the scene from Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2011) when the Driver is carrying a sleeping Benicio down the hall to his bed after their day out with Irene. Winding Refn changes the point of view throughout this scene between Irene’s and an omnipresent perspective. An omnipresent viewpoint allows for the viewer to see everything from a detached perspective while still allowing them to emotionally connect with the characters. To aid the viewer to understand how the characters themselves are feeling, the director will place a shot from their point of view between two detached shot which injects the character’s emotions into the frame.
This shot from Drive is from Irene’s point of view and the soft lighting of the hallway and the music creates a romantic mood. Irene watches the Driver from behind and we do not see his face, showing the she does not really know who this man is. But the jacket draped over her son highlights how the Driver protects and cares for Benicio placing him in a trustworthy light.
No characters is looking at Irene in this scene and so this shot is for the audience to see how much she cares for the two men in the previous shot, mirrored by the two lights on the wall as they are the only two bright parts of her life. The small smile that plays over her lips creates guides the audience to feel happy for the quasi family, their subjectivity in this scene built by the relationship between real life experiences at how Winding Refn frames his characters.
Gilles Deleuze states that that ‘the out-of-field refers to what is neither seen nor understood, but is nevertheless perfectly present’ (Cinema 1: The Movement Image, pg. 16). Splitting the understanding of the frame into two layers based on this quote allows us to see how the world of the film influences each individual frame to build the narrative and the characters of the film. The first layer of the frame is what is in the reverse shot which builds up the viewer’s understanding of the space of the scene. During our tutorial, we watched the final shootout of the 1968 Sergio Leone spaghetti western film Once Upon a Time in the West which provides a clear example of the meaning behind the Deleuze quote. This scene is iconic in cinema history from the music, the staging, the acting calibre of Clint Eastwood who has become known for his many roles in Western films and the memorable desert landscape. For example, this close up of Jason Robards during the shootout ensures the audience is aware of what is out of the frame.
Leone places this shot between wide shots and uses montage to establish the space the shootout will take place. The close up allows the audience to focus on Robards’ eyes as he watches his opponent move through the space. The use of montage informs the audience of is out of field which allows them to visualise what is happening in the reverse shot. The camera slowly moves around Robards’ face to mimic his opponent’s walk to aid this visualisation.
References
Leone, Sergio (1968) Once Upon A Time In The West, Paramount Pictures
