Research & Reflection IFC – Pete's OCA Learning Log

IFC: Overall Self Evaluation

Pete — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 05:08:06 +0000

Introduction to Film Culture has been a very interesting, challenging and rewarding experience, if at times a very steep learning curve. I am intending to follow the BA in photography pathway, however, I chose this course as an option in level one to use my love of cinema to develop my academic writing and research skills, which I found lacking in my first unit Expressing Your Vision.

My initial assignments were weak and poorly written but according to my tutor showed promise in highlighting interesting ideas and principle. This weakness was not unexpected as this was why I had undertaken the course, however, it became apparent that I did not know how to write an academic essay.

Through support from my tutor, hard work and dedication I have learned how to structure an essay and I feel this has paid dividends in resulting content. As the unit as progressed my engagement with the exercises and assignments has grown and I have become to look forward to the essay writing process. I some ways I feel sad that this course has come to an end.

I feel that the course has to lead me to a greater appreciation of cinema and feedback from my tutor on my assignment always gave a new slant to the subject and allowed me to refine my work by introducing new ideas that were outside of the course notes and reading list, for example, gender portrayal in assignment 3.

As I reflected earlier the course has been a steep learning curve and at times I have felt bogged down by the exercises and research tasks from the course notes I feel that because of this reflective writing outside of prescribed exercises has suffered a little.

However, overall I am very pleased with the body of 5 assignments I am submitting for assessment and hope that you will find my work on the coursework exercises equally as interesting.

Music & Sound in Cinema

Pete — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 03:17:36 +0000

The auditory senses along with the sense of smell are the most powerful at helping trigger an emotional response in humans – either good or bad. A particular food smell, for example, could evoke reminders of school, the lunches, served there, which then can the release a torrent of memories and emotions, lost friendships, exam tension may be bullying. Although it doesn’t always have to bad a bad memory, the fresh smell of lavender and lemon could evoke memories of a summer in the south of France.

The same is true with sounds, with a simple click, through the bird song to orchestral overtures and the mumble pop song the can all conjure up a multitude of emotions and because there has never been any serious development in supplement the cinema experience with the smell it is with the soundtrack filmmakers enhance their movies.

In her article on the BBC Website “How do filmmakers manipulate our emotions with music?” Helen Stewart cites several examples of how music and in lack of it has been used to sway the audience’s emotion in certain ways. For example, Bette Davis knew that her role in Dark Victory was potentially Oscar material playing a dying heiress; however, she knew that the material was going greatly advanced as the movie was to be scored by Max Steiner who had previously written one of the cinemas first bespoke scores for King Kong. That score which had given so much emotion to the film that audiences were sympathetic to a giant ape.(Stewart, 2013)

There are other examples over the years of use that have brought extra tension to a scene, the shower scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho with its stabbing jarring violin now which combined with the inspired editing leaves the audience in no doubt as to what is happening. However, the scene in The Godfather where Michael shoots his father’s enemies it not music that toys with our emotions but the rattle of a passing train which adds to Michaels panic and urgency.

The addition of a score as we have discussed above and earlier in the course plays with the audience’s emotions and guides them as they watch the narrative unfold; however they also become part of the audiences memories and total viewing experience – because like the food smells mentioned above they bring back memories. I personally cannot hear the opening fanfare from Star Wars without being immediately being thrown back to being a seven-year-old in the cinema seeing it for the first time or hear iconic theme from The Magnificent Seven and again I’m around eleven on a Sunday afternoon suddenly realising that there was more to cinema than World War Two films. This emotional touchstone to culture has had it boundaries pushed over last 30 years or so with the pop song soundtrack.

As mentioned in the course notes, The Graduate was the first film to fully utilise existing songs in the soundtrack of the film to help drive the narrative, however, these songs (in the case of The Graduate all by Simon & Garfunkel) became inseparable from the film. This is a trend that has grown and over the years with more and more film using these as touchstones to our emotions. In some lesser known songs are picked up and given a who new lease of life “Little Green Bag” by George Baker Selection is inseparable from the open segment of Reservoir Dogs

Others play on our memories outside of the cinema and bring is closer to the character for example the jukebox soundtrack of Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy. The solitary cassette of an eclectic mix of 70’s and 80’s music is main protagonist Peter Quills only link to his mother, but the songs chosen are “cheesy pop classics” which draw on our own emotions and memories and bring is closer to Peter and also forever links these songs with the movie.

To wrap up this post I want to share a moment in a film that I think perfectly show a what would be a great set piece is elevated by the perfect choice of soundtrack and believe it speaks for itself.

Bibliography

Stewart, H. (2013). How film music manipulates emotions. [online] BBC Arts & Culture. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/0/24083243 [Accessed 18 Jul. 2017].

YouTube. (2014). X Men Days Of the Future Past QuickSilver Scene HD. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NnyVc8r2SM&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 18 Jul. 2017].

YouTube. (2011). Reservoir Dogs Opening Titles [Full HD]. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2Xi3ioasik&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 18 Jul. 2017].

YouTube. (2015). Guardians of the Galaxy – Come and get your love – dance scene [HQ]. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_jRQBGKPaA&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 18 Jul. 2017].

Westworld (1973) IFC Part 4: Exercise 4.4

Pete — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 06:53:50 +0000

Westworld (1973)

Director: Michael Crichton

Cast: Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin:

Summary: A robot malfunction creates havoc and terror for unsuspecting vacationers at a futuristic, adult-themed amusement park.

Reflections and Analysis:

The portrayal of ‘masculinity’ in the film

Representations of masculinity are central to Westworld, wherein the film’s protagonist, Peter, recognises the need for masculine traits if he is to overcome his android nemesis. This emphasis on masculinity was commonplace in an era which gave us iconic masculine characters Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry. As the plot progresses, the once timid Peter becomes increasingly accustomed to the type of machismo and ruthless masculinity that inhabits the theme park in which the film is set—Westworld is all about brutality, a common trait in cinema which depicts hyper-masculinity (Etherington-Wright & Doughty, 2011, p.179). This is encapsulated by the final scene, where Peter sits triumphant on the dungeon steps, fresh from his physical conquest of the machines—where once he was stalked by the gunslinger, now he is the last man the standing, the epitome of the Western icon.

Westworld relegates women to the role of the damsel in distress, or the floozy, sexbot. However, like the emphasis on hyper masculinity this trend was common in the Sixties and Seventies Hollywood”—men were the heroes, women the dehumanised sex objects. Large portions of Westworld present the ideal setting for a portrayal of masculinity as it was seen in that era—the Seventies saw the rise of the Western as the quintessential masculine genre, both in film, and right across other forms of popular entertainment. Westworld is no different in its portrayal of masculinity—the technicians are all male, the gunslinging androids are all male, and the protagonist survives because he becomes more of an idealised male.

The significance of Peter’s rite of passage

In a key scene, it is explained to Peter and John that the park’s scientists “haven’t perfected the hand yet” (Crichton, 1973). This revelation leads leaves the “striving for a clear differentiation of men from machines, a differentiation that is pointedly not provided” (Bakke, 2007). This lack of differentiation is symbolic of Peter’s rite of passage—to overcome the machines, he needs to aspire to the violence and hardened masculinity that they represent. In many respects, this rite of passage is a cinematic cliché; the hero has to match the ruthlessness of the villains if they are to be overcome. At no point does the film try to conjure any sympathy for the androids—the entire focus is on whether or not Peter will aspire to be the man that, as the protagonist in this genre, he was clearly born to be. Again final scene shows Peter sits on the steps of the dungeon, symbolising his escape from the social restraints that had held back his masculinity—he is a real man now, surrounded by smoke and fire.

This cliché is reinforced by the role of John, who, the more seasoned of the two, would expect to outlive his ally. However, it is John who dies first, duelling with the gunslinger after he and Peter first discover that the androids have become truly aggressive. With John dead, Peter has lost his more masculine companion—he is timid and alone, and so the scene is set for the clichéd rite of passage that dominated the era’s Western genre.

Does the CGI still ‘work’ in this film or does it now feel old-fashioned?

Crichton himself believed that audiences misinterpreted the film—for him, it was about corporate greed, but as she said, in an interview, that felt most viewers treated it as a warning on the future of technology (Yakai 1985). This was possible because of the film’s special effects, which, while limited, still hold up today. Westworld was the first feature film to make use of digital image processing, one of the first technologies to be used by cinema for special effects (Nelmes, 2012,). Prior to the innovations of Westworld, most special effects had relied on photographic plays on motion (Villarejo, 2013,), and so Crichton’s work is considered by many to have “pioneered” modern special effects:

The movie’s use of a digital effect for a total of two minutes—a now-routine process called pixelization, commonly deployed on Gordon Ramsay cooking shows to obscure a contestant’s cursing mouth—was the unlikely launching point of this revolution. (Price, 2013).

Beyond these two revolutionary minutes, much of the production is filmed as live action. As noted by Price, Westworld stands up to contemporary scrutiny because, unlike “the digital effects of today’s films, which routinely use effects to try to reproduce reality, or fantasy-reality, those of the ‘Westworld’ era were much more modest in purpose” (Price 2013). In many respects, it is not quite a fair comparison to hold the film’s special effects up to contemporary standards, as it was not heavily post-processed, relying instead on live action. What it did do computationally, however, it did with considerable success, representing the perspective of the android in a pixelated fashion that would still be acceptable to contemporary audiences, as demonstrated by Price’s treatment of the film. One of the challenges of old films being watched by contemporary audiences is that they have to portray technologies and instruments that we now have, and their projections are often inaccurate—futuristic computers, for example, do not look anything like the computers of the future. However, because Crichton used his special effects to represent the android’s view of the world, contemporary audiences, still unfamiliar with androids, have a greater ease accepting the film’s representation of a phenomenon that, decades later, is still the realm of fantasy.

Bibliography

Bakke, G. (2007) Continuum of the Human. Camera Obscura. 6661–78.

Bordwell, D. & Thompson, K. (2013) Film Art: An Introduction. New York, McGraw-Hill.

Crichton, M. (1973) Westworld.

Etherington-Wright, C. & Doughty, R. (2011) Understanding Film Theory. New York, Palgrave Macmillan.

Nelmes, J. (2012) Introduction to Film Studies. New York, Routledge.

Nowell-Smith, G. (1997) The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Price, D.A. (2013) How Michael Crichton’s ‘Westworld’ Pioneered Modern Special Effects. [Online]. 2013. The New Yorker. Available from: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-michael-crichtons-westworld-pioneered-modern-special-effects [Accessed: 11 April 2017].

Quiring, L. (2013) Dead Men Walking: Consumption and Agency in the Western. Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies. 33 (1), 41–46.

Villarejo, A. (2013) Film Studies: The Basics. New York, Routledge.

Wills, J. (2008) Pixel Cowboys and Silicon Gold Mines: Videogames of the American West. Pacific Historical Review. [Online] 77 (2), 273–303. Available from: doi:10.1525/phr.2008.77.2.273.

Yakai, K. (1985) Michael Crichton / Reflections of a New Designer. Compute!. pp.44–45.

The Reader (2008)

Pete — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 05:24:37 +0000

The Reader (2008)

Director: Stephen Daldry

Stars: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Bruno Ganz

Summary: Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.

Review & Reflection:

After watching the The Graduate and Y Tu Mama Tambien I was reflecting further films that deal with sexual awakening and the traditional depiction of the younger man and older woman.

The Reader is not a film that is solely about the sexual awaken of a young boy, it is a deeper study of truth and reconciliation, and how the younger German generation dealt with the wartime crimes of the Nazi government. Presented in 2 half the first half is a happy schoolboy fantasy jaunt, where young relatively quiet boy embarks on an intense sexual relationship with an older woman. Michael and Hanna and shown happy and seemingly overcoming the age gap. The 2nd half of the film deals with the sadness, mainly from the realisation for Michael of Hanna past; but also in his realisation that she is willing to accept judgement labelling as a war criminal to hide the in her eyes that she is illiterate.

However, on closer reflection how much of a jaunt is the earlier part of the film, Michael is 15 when we engage in the intense sexual relationship with Hanna, and because it is boy with a very attractive woman (played by Kate Winslet) we are seeing The Graduate – not that this is child abuse. There is a double standard in society when it comes to this area if the film had a have been about the seeming consensual relationship between and a 15year old girl would the society have been so accepting of it. I Have described the first half as a fantasy jaunt, I was a 15-year-old once and would have loved to have been in the same situation. There is no real traditional signs of abuse as in conversion, there are time at the beginning were Hanna appears to be using Michael, but the generally the relationship seems happy but it is intense something that is hard for the hormonal teenage brain to deal with and when couple this with the sudden abrupt ending of te relationship when Hanna vanishes Michael is scared.

As I have said I was 15 once and on my initial watching I was pleased for Michael but on rewatching the scars of this relationship are clear to see, he is distant from all around him, he has a relationship with a much younger woman (girl?) which appears to almost be exclusively sexual – has he, in turn, turned into Hanna? His emotional development has never moved from the self-centered gratification of his 15-year-old self (Adams). Maybe because of her illiteracy Hanna herself was not very emotional or intellectually developed and that explains her running away and not facing up to her illiteracy, perhaps but we should not look on it as an excuse.

It is clear through film like this that Hollywood and film culture, in general, has a dual standard in how the sexual awakening of boys and girls are depicted.

Biblograghy

Adams, T. (2017). Reading Between the Lines in The Reader : When is Abuse Not Abuse?. [online] The Huffington Post. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thelma-adams/reading-between-the-lines_b_147631.html [Accessed 11 Apr. 2017].

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Pete — Sat, 11 Mar 2017 04:47:10 +0000

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Cast: Maribel Verdú, Gael García Bernal, Daniel Giménez Cacho

Summary: In Mexico, two teenage boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other.

Review and Reflection:

Y Tu Mamá También (or And you Mother too!) is a very a well craft exploration of not only teenage sexuality and the socio – economic/political atmosphere on the turn of the millennium Latin America but of death.

Director Alfonso Cuaron takes on a journey with the protagonist with is both a literal and metaphorical road trip. On this journey, the director plays with the traditional fantasy of the younger man infatuated with, the older woman. Both the teenage protagonist like to show their experience, they have girlfriends and the film shows clearly they are intimate with them, but in their interactions with the older Luisa, it shows they are still vastly physically and emotionally inexperienced.

Luisa joins the boys, Julio & Tenoch, on their journey and it is through her light-hearted teasing about their sex lives that the two boys begin to explore their sexuality until there are no secrets left between them. However, Luisa also wants to teach the boys that sex something to be treasured between partners; not how the boys see it, the pursuit of their gratification. The director, through the actions of Luisa shifts the relationship between Tenoch and Julio, to explore sexual freedom and although they do kiss during a drunken night with Luisa this is more an extension of their awakening than a desire to shift their sexual orientation, however, the fact that this is the beginning of the end of their friendship does highlight the cultural barriers towards male homosexuality in Latin America.

The film is also is a reflection upon death which is not immediately apparent throughout the movie, it is unexpected that Luisa readily agrees to join the boys on their road trip – even considering that her husband has been cheating. It only when you heat or Luisa death shortly after the road trip from cancer that thing drop into place, that she has as well as having a final few weeks of fun she has set out to educate the boys about how they should treat women and leaves a great epilogue to the film.

How to Watch a Movie by David Thomson

Pete — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 20:06:14 +0000

How to Watch a Movie

by David Thomson

I have to admit I bought this book at random; I was browsing the Kindle store when I should have been doing some reading for this course. I guess buying another book by David Thomson made me feel like I had done some work – if only life was so easy.

However, I’m glad I did I have been in the UK for an extended period due to the death of my mum and while I have tried to use the time I wasn’t working to focus on the course, however, other events and overshadowed my plans. So on a quiet day, I picked up this book on what was my mums Kindle Paperwhite, and I read it from cover to cover in every spare moment I had (I’m not the fastest reader).

The films covered by Thomson take on every aspect of cinema and uses – what I would call real world films to explain his point and guide the reader to appreciate the art and manipulation of a film. I particularly enjoyed how he explained how the choice of Janet Leigh as Marion Crane makes the film much more believable, and if they had chosen the other star of the days such as Kim Novak or Audry Hepburn. Not something I would say often but I want to read this book again.

Fishing Without Nets (2012)

Pete — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 12:11:53 +0000

Fishing Without Nets (2012)

Director:

Cutter Hodierne

Cast:

Abdikani Muktar, Abu Bakr Mirre, Ali Daudi Osman

Summary:

Pirates in Somalia, from the perspective of the pirates.

Review & Reflection:

This short film packs a lot into is 17 minutes and was rewarded with success at the Sundance film festival. Cutter Hodiene directs a film that shifts the focus in the discussion/representation of modern pirates, presenting it through the eye of the pirates who also happen to be poor Somali pirates that have little in the way of prospects than that joining the pirate gangs. (Berndtsson & Kinsey, 2016). The film introduces the pirates from the outset, placing they in a small boat with guns dwarfs by the size of the ship before bringing them back to their natural surroundings.

The initial cinematography is cinematic; the following shots appear to be more from a documentary, with the medium close-ups and how the characters address the camera directly. This is juxtaposed the unsteady camera that follows them to the ship in the next scene which gives the feeling of first-hand involvement. The action is framed by narration from the pirates who discuss their strategy and why tey do what they do: “We don’t have to shoot! Only shoot if they don’t cooperate.” (Hodierne, 2012, 00:01:41-00:01:47). The use of camera angles and shots provides a realism that emphasises the reality of those who feel they have no choice but to be a “hapless criminal” (Macauley, 2012).

The film re-establishes modern piracy on the political agenda but challenges the status quo. That is, showing from the pirate’s point of view and therefore demonstrates the point that we have been looking at within this project that the deliberate use of issue can be used as propaganda by an individual filmmaker.

A Hijacking (2012) Kapringen (original title)

Pete — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 19:06:45 +0000

A Hijacking (2012)

Kapringen (original title)

Director:

Tobias Lindholm

Cast:

Pilou Asbæk, Søren Malling, Dar Salim

Summary:

The crew of a Danish cargo ship is hijacked by Somali pirates who proceed to engage in escalating negotiations with authorities in Copenhagen.

Review & Reflection:

Tobias Lindholm’s was shot on a genuine cargo ship had was hijacked off Somalia to establish a realistic environment for the narrative. The opening of the plays to this realistic environment as it provides a framing for Hartmann against an open sea while he is on the phone to his family. This opening shot seeks to introduce Hartmann as our main protagonist but also establish the juxtaposition of his life and his life as a dedicated family man.

The film shows the effects of piracy from the point of view of the shipping company and these opening shots help establish and frame the narrative in a way that put the neither the pirates nor the captures in their spatial field, instead framing them as displaced. THis reinforces the power that the office in Denmark will have over their fate in the scenes to come.

The reality is a central point to the film in its cinematography and editing, the camera follows the characters in the office, and onboard the ship is an often disjointed and shaky way – implying that we are part of the action. The hijacking is never, shown on screen it is revealed via a phone call back to the main office protagonist Peter Ludvigsen. Chaos is shown on the ship with the rapid cuts in close-up n Harmann and the Somali’s and a medium close-up on of the captain being inexplicably being ushered away. The abrupt cut to silence in the phone call drives home the sense of remoteness of the office in Denmark from their captive crew.

When filming the negotiation scenes, the cast was kept on set awaiting the phone call for often hours on end and the actor playing the Somali negotiator was on a teleconference from Kenya. The surprise as the calls abruptly end are therefore genuine reaction from the players. However, on top of that the how the Danish company has no real urgency initial to bring a swift conclusion to the hijacking help to reinforce the director’s point of view that money is worth more than human life.

This point of the value of life is also is shown in the contrasting of the rusty dimly lit ship and the bright, clean offices, It casts “the office” in control of the situation reinforcing how they are prioritising saving money over the suffering for their employees.

Although the film is shown from the point of view of large firms, it does not show it in a good light, nor doesn’t offer empathy towards the Somali – it clearly illustrates to the viewer how money is prioritised over life and as the viewers to reflect upon that.

Captain Phillips (2013)

Pete — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 15:18:58 +0000

Captain Phillips (2013)

Director:

Paul Greengrass

Cast:

Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman |

Summary:

The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the U.S.-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.

Review:

In contrast to A Hijacking and Fishing without Nets, Paul Greengrass’ “true story” Captain Philips is more of an action thriller crime movie – particularly with it gung-ho pro-USA 3rd act.

Paul Greengrass is usually synonymous with a handheld camera and frenetic style which disorientates the audience. However, here the editing serves to deliberately frame the pirates as stereotypical movie villains, promoting the West versus the others paradigms that have long been associated with race and perceived as a threat to a specific way of life (Newman, 1997). The editing also together with the casting Tom Hanks frames Captain Philips himself as a self-sacrificing hero; this appears to have drawn some criticism in the press from former crew members who have suggested that he was perhaps the cause of the actual hijacking.

Greengrass’ techniques illustrate how the use of cinematography and editing can be use to create different outcomes and helps cast the filmmaker in the role of propagandist in producing a film which is tonally very different to its two contemporaries, Fishing without nets and A Hijacking.

The Battle of Algiers (1966)

Pete — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 17:08:48 +0000

The Battle of Algiers (1966)

Director:

Gillo Pontecorvo

Cast:

Bra;him Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi

Summary:

In the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government. (IMDb)

Synopsis:

A film commissioned by the Algerian government that shows the Algerian revolution from both sides. The French foreign legion has left Vietnam in defeat and has something to prove. The Algerians are seeking independence. The two clash. The torture used by the French is contrasted with the Algerian’s use of bombs in soda shops. A look at war as a nasty thing that harms and sullies everyone who participates in it. (IMDb)

Review

This a well-balanced portrayal of a difficult period in French and Algerian history, It shows the battle of independence and struggles against the French from both sides without over bias to either side. The film has a real feel, and I was surprised to read that no documentary footage was used because there are sequences that seem so real, particular the bombing by the woman disguised as French.

The film propagates thoughts in the reviewer because the film is equally sympathetic to both to the French colonial forces and the partisans fighting against them. We see the partisans has real people with genuine wishes against what see as oppression from the French – we do see example of this prosession. But the French soldiers are shown as heroic and just doing their job not over zealous.

Overall over a film to judge all other that hope to dramatise or remake the past.