Week 12: Auteurism on TV and the Internet

Joss Whedon (1964-present)• 3rd Generation television writer (started career writing for “Roseanne”)
• “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (film, 1992; TV series, 1997-2003)
• “Angel” (1999-2004)
• “Firefly” (2002-2003)
• “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” (2008)
• “Dollhouse” (2009-2010)
Recurring Elements• Existentialist Themes: stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's actions
• Feminist Perspective: Strong Female Characters
• A Student of Genre and Narrative
• Core “Ensemble” of Actors

Transmedia Storytelling: Storytelling across multiple forms of media
Is Whedon a transmedia auteur?
-Yes, Whedon is definitely a transmedia auteur, covering not only film and television, but now the internet with his clever and hilarious “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”.

“Firefly” (2002-03)
-Western in futuristic outer space
-Deals with existential captain who seems closed off and reserved but has a soft spot after all
-Extremely strong willed and proactive female protagonists

"Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” (2008)
-Extremely witty, clever and entertaining musical
-Deals with a likeable villain & his "good" but rather shallow and obnoxious arch nemesis
Influenced by:
-“High School Musical” (2006)
-“The Guild” (2007), created by Felicia Day
-Possible Glee influence? I think yes!

What is the “personal stamp” reflected in the texts of the auteur?
-All of Whedon's characters, no matter what extreme occupations or worlds they may be living in, deal with deep, internal problems that every person can relate to and understand. 

I must say that I have recently been quite disappointed with Hollywood and its lack of creativity. Dr. Horrible is the most fresh, fun and creative piece of work that I have seen in such a long time.  It has given me hope that innovative directors who are willing to sacrifice generic studio money makers for their own creative desires still exist. This web show goes to show that viewers are bored of the bleak, same old romantic comedy/over indulged action films and want something of value and worth. I say he keeps up the good work and keep encouraging directors to break away from the system and bring good films back on the map!

Week 11: Auteur Theory

The Auteur Theory1. a single “author” is the primary creative force behind a text
2. the body of work by that “author” expresses the author’s distinctive vision of the world
• Formalized by French cinephiles and critics of 1940s and 1950s
• Alexandre Astruc, Birth of a New Vanguard -- The Camera-Stylo (1948)
• François Truffaut, A Certain Tendency of French Cinema (1954)
• Challenged the prevailing view of the aesthetic superiority of European Cinema over American
• Focused on the artistry of Hollywood movie making
Oeuvre – the lifework of an artist

Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
• Born within a samurai family.
• Influence of father (military, disciplinarian), and brother Heigo (worked as a benshi – narrator for silent movies)
• Art/Literary influences: Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Van Gogh
• Japanese Cultural Influences: traditional theatrical forms of Kabuki, Noh

Sampling of Films Discussed/Explored:
• “Rashomon” (1950)
- Receives Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival (1951)
-Academy Award: Best Foreign Language Film (1952)
• “Seven Samurai” (1954)
- jidai-geki (period drama, heroic epics)
-heroism, sacrifice in war
-Great acting and realistic portrayal of the battle scene, especially for a 1950's film
• “Kagemusha” (1980)
-futility and waste of life in war
• “Dreams” (1990)
-Traditional fables/Buddhist stories
-Uses costumes of Noh & Kabuki theatre
-Influenced by West (Van Gogh)
-Strong metaphor of death throughout "dreams"; evil can be overcome by becoming one with nature

I have to say that even though the auteur theory exists, and directors like Kurosawa, Hitchcock and Eastwood are undeniably talented, I don't think it is fair to say that they are the sole proprietors of the success of their so called films. It takes an extremely large and talented team to make as good as movies as they do/did, and these "auteur's" would not be able to do it without the brains and man power of their team.

Week 10: Ideology & Genre II

Romantic Comedy  <3
Romantic Comedy: Semantic
Character Elements
• Opposites Attract
• Contrast of Lovers
• Shapeshifter
• Mentors of Love
Narrative Elements:
• The “cute meet”
• Breakups and Makeups
• Kiss and Consummation
• The Comic Chase
• A Wedding

Romantic Comedy: Syntactic
• Love’s Opposition? Self-transformation and Self-actualization
• Celebrating love and romance:
-“Love fulfills and enriches”
-“Love is silly, but we need it”
-“Love is painful, but we need it”
-“Forget about it, Love’s too painful!”
“500 Days of Summer” (2009)
Director: Marc Webb/ Writers: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber
Genre: Romantic Comedy
• Opposites Attract
• Character’s Ideological Stance on Love
– Tom vs. Summer
– Pushing one’s agenda for love
Narrative Perspective:
• Objective / Omniscient
• Subjective – Tom’s Story
Use of Time:
• Linear
• Non-linear – Tom’s Memory

Questions for Class Discussion:
1. Tom’s perspective of love? Summer’s? Are they transformed by the end of the film?
-Tom's perspective of love is that of a hopeless romantic who believes in fate and soul mates. Summer's on the other hand is that of a pessimist, who doesn't believe in such thing as true love. Ironically they seem to flip perspectives at the end of the film, as Summer finds this fateful love and Tom is heart broken by it.
2. When is the “cute meet”?
-When they are in the elevator at work and she hears the music he is listening to.
3. Tom’s Childish Want vs. Social Responsibility?
-Tom's childish want is to find his happily ever after with the women he loves, while his social responsibility is to follow his dreams and desires and pursue his career as an architect.
4. The use of surprise and suspense in the “Expectations/Reality” sequence: What does Tom expect? What actually happens?
-Tom expects that Summer will respond to him as she once did (they talk all night, kisses him, shows him attention & affection). But this dream is soon shattered as she goes about her business all night and shows off her engagement ring to her guests.
5. Is there a “comic chase”?
-Yes, when Tom realizes he needs to go after her and profess his love.
6. What/who are the mentors guiding Tom on his Journey of Love?
-Tom's sister, Summer, his friends at times.

Week 9: Ideology & Genre

War as Genre – The Combat Film
Ideology is the system of ideas that make sense of society. Controlled by the ‘ruling power’

War Genre: Semantic• The Platoon Leader
• The recruit, “cherry,” “grunt”
• Arena of Death
• “Dehumanization”
• The War Machine
• “Us” versus “Them” (this can also fall under syntactic)
• The faceless, shadowy enemy

War Genre: Syntactic• Celebrating glory and heroism
• The ultimate sacrifice for country
• The futility and horror of war
• Destruction of innocence
• Understanding and healing

The Combat Film• Control of war news, information
• Promote Patriotism through media (posters, music, radio)
• Waged war of propaganda overseas
• Bureau of Motion Pictures (BMP) to coordinate with Hollywood

“They Were Expendable” (1945)-John Ford
-Posed team vs. the individual
-Dehumanized the enemy; not showing his face
-Served as a means to unite soldiers and American pride

"Over There" (2005)- Pilot episode
-Showed the horror and futility of going to war
-Showed the faces of the "enemy" they killed which seems to haunt and change the American soldier who killed him
-The heroic, noble, optimistic and well liked leader of the group gets his leg blown off, shattering his dream and goals of going back to school to play football. (the whole reason he went into the army)
Although I felt the editing and acting was extremely poor, I felt that the overall message and thought behind the story was really interesting, just bad timing in relation to our position in the war. I feel that if the show was to go back on air now, it would be much more effective.

Week 8: The Gaze, Hegemony and Music Videos

The GazeScopophilia – the desire to see
“The Gaze” refers to the exchange of looks that takes place in cinema.
Three looks:
• that of the camera
• that of the character
• that of the spectator
“Closer” (2004)
Who is the object of our gaze?
-Jude Law was the object of our gaze, quite literally as Julia Roberts was a photographer taking his picture.  Law was positioned on a chair behind a back drop as Roberts kept adjusting her camera and the way he should look for his portrait. 

Hegemony – dominance of one group over another
-Is an underlying consensus of ideology that serves the dominant groups in society
“Ruling Group” maintains power in two basic ways:
1. By force
2. By consent
Sut Jhally’s “Dreamworlds 3” (2006)Music Video Analysis:
• "Tonight I'm Loving You"- Enrique Iglesias
-This video by Enrique Iglesias is a perfect example of the pornographic gaze and objectification of women that Jhally talks about in Dreamworlds. Women are portrayed as ravenous sex fiends whose sole purpose is to fulfill man's (in this case Enrique's) fantasy of a submissive, pleasing woman, who only wants to have sex, anytime, anyplace. 
• "Baby"-Justin Bieber
-This particular music video is more traditional in the sense that the girl plays hard to get while Justin is extremely persistent and chasing her around.  Both sexes are completely clothed and innocently battling (dancing against one another) as flirtatious fun.  This video is very obviously directed toward a younger more innocent (Disney type) crowd.
• "Halifax"- Our Revolution
-This music video completely personifies Jhally's pornographic gaze and the fulfillment of the male fantasy of having threesomes, women flocking over them and the singers conveniently being the only males there. Also, the girls seemed to be having a ton of fun kissing other girls, sharing the men, and taking baths together.  Since their only desire was to have sex and party, the video completely objectifies the women as all the rest do in the documentary.
• "Soldier Boy"- Destiny's Child
-Soldier Boy appears as if it is empowering the ladies at first, but then they are basically saying that they need a man and are going to pick their choice of who they are going to take home that night. By doing this, they are sending out the message that the only way to be happy is to have a man by your side, but you need to choose/objectify him like men do to women.
  • "Blow"- Ke$ha
-Surprisingly this music video not only objectified men (having males wearing goat heads around the bar), but also made fun of Hollywood music videos objectifying women and the roles they play in most music and film. Ke$ha throughout the video dances with this unidentifiable men, disposing of them as she chooses and is  portrayed as pardon my French, a bad ass female lead who can hold her own. It was great to see how aware she was of the issue and how to turn the tables in a fun and entertaining way.

Week 7: Structuralism & Semiotics

Rapid Cutting Montage
• Many shots in rapid time.
• Shock rhythm to heighten dramatic urgency, move audience emotionally

"Psycho" (1960)- Alfred Hitchcock
-Example of rapid cutting montage in shower sequence
-Makes audience feel violated, disoriented; putting them in place of victim; invoking scream from audience

“Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977)- Steven Spielberg
• Use of sound as a Formalistic Element (to condense space and time, and confuse the audience)
Function of sound in film:
• Set location
• Establish Mood
• Direct Attention
• Reveal Character
“Gimme Shelter” (1970)-Rolling Stones Documentary
-Capture the essence of the band and its impact on their fans
-Women crying in the front (happy I suppose?)
-A male fan in front is shown mouthing "your awesome" to Mick Jagger
What was the “found moment” that impacted the form of this documentary?
-The found moment was when the camera captured the African American male in the yellow suit attempting to pull out some kind of weapon, and the Hell's Angels subdued the man, one man in particular, stabbing him and taking his life. It was eerie to see something like that unexpectedly caught on camera.

Structuralism:
• Structuralism – a method for analyzing the deep structuring logic of cultural products and practices.
• Structuralism stresses that each element within a cultural system derives its meaning from its relationship to every other element in the system
"The Birds" (1963)- Hitchcock
• “Structuralist” Approach of 6 minute sequence
• Alternation of shots:
-- Melanie sees…
-- What Melanie sees…
-- Disruption within the rhythm
Semiotics:
The study of signs and signification
• Semiotics studies the way “signs communicate and the rules that govern their use.”
Denotation vs. Connotation
• Denotation – signifies, having a literal meaning.
• Connotation – implies, having an implied meaning

Signs: Three Categories
Icon – resemblance (pictures, statues)
Symbol – conventions (language, traffic sign)
Index – causal connections (smoke, footprints, medical symptoms)

Maya Deren's "Meshes of the Afternoon" is an interesting experimental piece that I had seen in many other film classes before, but never realized the great influence and direct correlation to that of Eisenstein's structural montage elements and George Méliès magical editing techniques.  The dream like mise-en-scene juxtaposed with a vast amount of symbolism makes for a complex and somewhat confusing short film, but nonetheless an entertaining piece of work.  I have studied the original founders/ground breakers of early film, but never truly realized how influential these artists were, and the effect they still have on filmmakers today. I really enjoy when things I have learned in class come together and connect, showing their validity and importance.

Week 6: Formalism versus Realism: Montage and Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-Scène vs. Montage• Mise-en-scène – “setting the scene”
– Organization of Space
• Montage – (from monter – to build, assemble)
– The assemblage of shots, the editing.
– Organization of Time

Mise-en-scène has two major visual components:
1. Design of the three-dimensional space
2. Composition of the two-dimensional frame (also referred to “mise-en-shot”, “setting the shot”)

Mise-en-scène serves many functions in media:
-To provide a visual backdrop
-To communicate place and time
-To contribute to the tone or mood
-To communicate character relationships
-To communicate character emotion or state of mind
-To present ideas and themes
Montage: a transitional sequence composed of edited images, the juxtaposition of these shots gives significance
Functions of Montage:
1. To manipulate time and space
2. To communicate meaning, theme
3. To build emotion
Eisenstein’s “Montage of Attractions”• Shot as “attraction”
• To jolt or shock the audience
• Dialectics (thesis + antithesis = synthesis)
• Montage as a collision
• To convey a greater meaning than the sum of the shots

Eisenstein’s Aesthetic:
Rebellion against western narrative conventions:
• Natural locations rather than studio sets
• Used non-professional Actors, not stars
• Social Groups rather than Individuals
• “Typage”, “actors” chosen by the type they represent

"Strike!" (1925)
-Use of close ups
-Editing
-Individuals (Woman getting trampled) vs. Group (soldiers)

"The Godfather" (1972)
-Use of thematic montage helps the audience understand implied images and the deeper meaning behind them
-The use of montage in the Godfather is similar to that in Strike! in that they both use the editing sequence to build suspense and evoke a more dramatic effect