What historical factors influenced the rise of the American Anti-Hero in cinema and how does this hero contradict the Classic Hollywood Ideology.
After World War II the American anti-hero emerged in order to bring something new to the theaters. The anit-hero was not only what the Americas wanted but it also reflected the American culture. Studios believe that the actions portrayed are not fiction in which they design but more along the lines of what society has come to portray in its world. Whether it is good, bad, or ugly the American anti-hero embodies a change in cinema just like the world began to change after the war. In addition, by allowing for the heros to rebel against the status quo the anti hero would emerge and in a sense provide propaganda to the people to have themselves rebel as well. "Thus, the anti hero can be seen in earlier american cinema as well, but was in no way as popular as it became in World War II." After the bomb drop on Hiroshim, America had lost its innocence and needed a new kind of hero that would represent the dark side of America. America NEEDED and anti hero.
A controversy over the American anti hero arrised where there was confusion as to why the title had gained so much popularity if it portrayed the Americans in a demonic fashion. John Garfiel made a name for himself in the 1940s because he allowed the audience to love its protagonist and love its villain where the villain can sometimes be the anti hero. He believed that staying true to the characters personality was more important than creating lies in the story even if it meant loosing and audience. "Audiences throughout the 1930s and 40s were enthralled by the darker side of human nature, as Film Noir was truly a guilty pleasure, but when the likes of Garfield and Brando and Clift began to rock the boat, they absolutely ate it up." The audience comes back to these films primarily because they can relate to the wrong doings; people are evil people and most of us cant help but to commit a sin or wrong doing. What I understand is the goal of the American anti hero is that by portraying evil and commiting evil actions, the audience can learn from this and respectfully do the right thing based on what they watch. It was said that the American anti hero was a also a representation of human anger that arose after World War II and the skepticism as to what really is heroism.
Unlike Garfields characters, Brando's American anti-hero comined masculinity and vulnerability. As a result, this mixture provided a sense of depth and a more complex nature to the character. "America in the 1950s was a country full of Terry Malloys. Men and women have been through tough times, who had been knocked down a time or two but still got back up, who did what they had to for their family, who may have done wrong, but could still do right." After the Cold War, peopel embraced that a character can have two side to him or her. They could display a good and evil side that accompanied mixed emotions from the audience. Characters can neither be heroic or demonic. What they represent is the best of both worlds and are never seen for what they truly are. The complex American anit -hero in my opinion questions society and even after the movie is over the audience is able to go back home and reflect on life or even themselves, whatever needs to bee reviewed in terms of whether it is right or wrong.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Intensified Continuity
According to David Bordell, explain how and why continuity has intensified in Hollywood cinema. Also consider whether anything has been lost with this change.
David Bordell descrbibes four new ways of how continuity has been intensified in Hollywood cinema. http://chs.schoolloop.com/file/1093918504865/5099174491148334296.pdf
Over the course of film making, the Average Shot Length (ASL) has decreased in length from 19 seconds to even as short as 2.7 seconds. This extreme change in editing has caused for rapid transitions between shots alowing for the plot of the movie, short film, or clip to progress. This, i believe, is one of the reason shots have decreased in length. "As Kuleshov and Pudovkin pointed out, clasical continuity contains built-in redundencies: shot/reverse shot reiterates the information about character position givin in the establishing shot, and so do eyelines and body orientations." Generally the audience has a short attention span including Americans; they are a prime factor in the film industry. It is probably true that Americans watch more cinema than any other coutries in the world. In order to keep an audience intrigued to the story, you not only have to have a good narrative but David Bordell describes that the shots have to be shorter. And although an average shot length of about 3 seconds should be enough to keep the story moving towards its climax the audience looses time to focus on details within the shot in order to find a deeper meaning within the story.
The bipolar extremes of lense lengths is the second part of intensified contuity; it explored a variety of lenses that have been used throughout the film industry and the movies apart of it. From the 1910-1940s normal lenses with focal lengths of 50 mm - 2 inches and longer lenses with 100 mm - 500mm and shorter lenses with 25 mm - 35 mm were the foundation of film making. By the 1970s, cinematographers had been able to manipulate the lenses throuhg anamorphic processes which would for example distort a shot on a wide angles lense. Wide angle lenses became the standard for most shots: establishing shots, close ups, and medium shots. In addition, long focus lense is also apart of the standard shot list mentioned earlier. "Altman, Milos Forman, and other directors might use long lenses for nearly every setup in a scene." Intensified continuity arrives when new stylsitic forms of filming such as the "wipe-by" cut makes its appearence. "Here a long lense shot picks out a figure, and then something closer to the camera slides into view; cut as our view is completely masked; when the obstruction leaves the frame, we have a closer framing of the figure." Generally, even though we loose our ability to focus on whatever we want to in the film whether it may be an orrange or a coffe mug in a shot I believe it is best to trust the directors vision in deciding which shots he or she wants the audience to focus on.
More close framings in dialogue describes the change that filming has undergone when framing a shot. From the 1930s to the late 1960s the plan americaine was another standard in filming. It composed of more than one person but in recent times it has gone to singles. Singles are shots where, as suggested in the name, there is only one person in the shot. With single shots the director is able to cut out the best performances of the character which is ultimitaley best for a film. Plan Americain consisted of medium shots that go from the waist-up, medium close-ups that go from the chest-up, standard close-ups that get a full facade, and extreme close-ups that only get a part of the face. After the introduction to widescreen film showings, the plan american was no longer good enough. Long and wide lenses dominated the shot compositions in movies. Also, tighter framing has been introduced. "Mouths, brows, and eyes become the prinicple sources of information and emotion, and actors must scale their performances across varying degrees of intimate framing."This other form of intensified continuity has proven that facial expression communicate lot more than a full body shot. The face provides a lot of emotion and with tight framing then it often eliminates the need for establshing shots.
The free roaming camera also intensified contuity. Utilities that allow for the camera to move in different directions with efficiency has allowed for impressive shots. Although during there introduction they seemed impressive they have developed into a cliche. But I believe that we are so used to these camera motions and that they are so visually stunning is what appeals to us continuously. "As a figure of style, the free-ranging camera may have been popularized by the late 1970s horror films which implied hovering, slightly shaky camera might represent a monsters point of view." Camera work defines a character, it will either make them look foolish or serious; we appreciate the camera work only because it will do justice to a character or not.
David Bordell descrbibes four new ways of how continuity has been intensified in Hollywood cinema. http://chs.schoolloop.com/file/1093918504865/5099174491148334296.pdf
Over the course of film making, the Average Shot Length (ASL) has decreased in length from 19 seconds to even as short as 2.7 seconds. This extreme change in editing has caused for rapid transitions between shots alowing for the plot of the movie, short film, or clip to progress. This, i believe, is one of the reason shots have decreased in length. "As Kuleshov and Pudovkin pointed out, clasical continuity contains built-in redundencies: shot/reverse shot reiterates the information about character position givin in the establishing shot, and so do eyelines and body orientations." Generally the audience has a short attention span including Americans; they are a prime factor in the film industry. It is probably true that Americans watch more cinema than any other coutries in the world. In order to keep an audience intrigued to the story, you not only have to have a good narrative but David Bordell describes that the shots have to be shorter. And although an average shot length of about 3 seconds should be enough to keep the story moving towards its climax the audience looses time to focus on details within the shot in order to find a deeper meaning within the story.
The bipolar extremes of lense lengths is the second part of intensified contuity; it explored a variety of lenses that have been used throughout the film industry and the movies apart of it. From the 1910-1940s normal lenses with focal lengths of 50 mm - 2 inches and longer lenses with 100 mm - 500mm and shorter lenses with 25 mm - 35 mm were the foundation of film making. By the 1970s, cinematographers had been able to manipulate the lenses throuhg anamorphic processes which would for example distort a shot on a wide angles lense. Wide angle lenses became the standard for most shots: establishing shots, close ups, and medium shots. In addition, long focus lense is also apart of the standard shot list mentioned earlier. "Altman, Milos Forman, and other directors might use long lenses for nearly every setup in a scene." Intensified continuity arrives when new stylsitic forms of filming such as the "wipe-by" cut makes its appearence. "Here a long lense shot picks out a figure, and then something closer to the camera slides into view; cut as our view is completely masked; when the obstruction leaves the frame, we have a closer framing of the figure." Generally, even though we loose our ability to focus on whatever we want to in the film whether it may be an orrange or a coffe mug in a shot I believe it is best to trust the directors vision in deciding which shots he or she wants the audience to focus on.
More close framings in dialogue describes the change that filming has undergone when framing a shot. From the 1930s to the late 1960s the plan americaine was another standard in filming. It composed of more than one person but in recent times it has gone to singles. Singles are shots where, as suggested in the name, there is only one person in the shot. With single shots the director is able to cut out the best performances of the character which is ultimitaley best for a film. Plan Americain consisted of medium shots that go from the waist-up, medium close-ups that go from the chest-up, standard close-ups that get a full facade, and extreme close-ups that only get a part of the face. After the introduction to widescreen film showings, the plan american was no longer good enough. Long and wide lenses dominated the shot compositions in movies. Also, tighter framing has been introduced. "Mouths, brows, and eyes become the prinicple sources of information and emotion, and actors must scale their performances across varying degrees of intimate framing."This other form of intensified continuity has proven that facial expression communicate lot more than a full body shot. The face provides a lot of emotion and with tight framing then it often eliminates the need for establshing shots.
The free roaming camera also intensified contuity. Utilities that allow for the camera to move in different directions with efficiency has allowed for impressive shots. Although during there introduction they seemed impressive they have developed into a cliche. But I believe that we are so used to these camera motions and that they are so visually stunning is what appeals to us continuously. "As a figure of style, the free-ranging camera may have been popularized by the late 1970s horror films which implied hovering, slightly shaky camera might represent a monsters point of view." Camera work defines a character, it will either make them look foolish or serious; we appreciate the camera work only because it will do justice to a character or not.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Blog: Advanced Editing Notes: 3. Soviet Montage and 4. Realism
Soviet Montage and Formalism:
a. Pudovkins style of constructive editing insisted that each new shot should make a new point. By putting shots on top of each other he could juxtapose them to create new meanings. Instead of close ups, which were to intrusive to the film, he created a montage.
b. the Kuleshov effect was a way to put two shots together. By editing together two seperate shots with two seperate meanings you can form a new meaning. For example if u see a man and then a picture of an apple than you can tell he is hungry, but if you see a man and then a picture of girl playing you would think he is a creeper.
c. The Eisenstinial montage was a "mythical process." Each shot had to contribute to the overall meaning of the sequence rather than contain all the info in one shot. It had to produce a new thought process that provoked new ideas. It contributes to the Odessa Steps because it allows for coverage of most chraracters. When everyone is running away from the shooting soldier we see people dying and people falling and we overall see how everyones reactions contributes to the overall distress of the film.
Andre Bazin and Realism:
a. Bazins frustration with Classical editing was the fact that peopel were not able to experience the entire scence. He felt by cutting the shots into a specific order than the audience was deprived of information.
b. Realist film makers want there audience to chose what meaning they want to put together and form an opinion.
c. Realism in film is accomplished by using long shots, wide screen, lengthy takes, deep focus, panning, craning, tilting, or tracking rather than cutting to individual shots.
a. Pudovkins style of constructive editing insisted that each new shot should make a new point. By putting shots on top of each other he could juxtapose them to create new meanings. Instead of close ups, which were to intrusive to the film, he created a montage.
b. the Kuleshov effect was a way to put two shots together. By editing together two seperate shots with two seperate meanings you can form a new meaning. For example if u see a man and then a picture of an apple than you can tell he is hungry, but if you see a man and then a picture of girl playing you would think he is a creeper.
c. The Eisenstinial montage was a "mythical process." Each shot had to contribute to the overall meaning of the sequence rather than contain all the info in one shot. It had to produce a new thought process that provoked new ideas. It contributes to the Odessa Steps because it allows for coverage of most chraracters. When everyone is running away from the shooting soldier we see people dying and people falling and we overall see how everyones reactions contributes to the overall distress of the film.
Andre Bazin and Realism:
a. Bazins frustration with Classical editing was the fact that peopel were not able to experience the entire scence. He felt by cutting the shots into a specific order than the audience was deprived of information.
b. Realist film makers want there audience to chose what meaning they want to put together and form an opinion.
c. Realism in film is accomplished by using long shots, wide screen, lengthy takes, deep focus, panning, craning, tilting, or tracking rather than cutting to individual shots.
Blog- Advanced Editing Notes- Overview/Classical Paradigm
The following two short films: the "Arrival of a Train" and "Damsel in Distress"- relate to Realism, Classicism and Formalism...
Editing is normally an association of ideas connecting multiple shots with another. Continuity brings together MULTIPLE shots together in order to create the illusion of continuous and clear editing. In the arrival of a train, the directors used realism as a form of editing. The long continuous take of the train moving into the station and stoping establishes the scene. After this we already know it is a train station we begin to look at the characters we see in the shot. Not much is moving, so we dont notice anything besides the men and women exiting the train. This long conituous recording of time is a sequence shot. It is a device the director uses to allow the audience to determine whom they want to focus on in order to create a story of their own.
Damsel in Distress is an example of Classicism because it tries to show the fluidity of an event by editing shots together that does not leave anything important out. Reaction shots are incorporated in the edits obviously to get reaction shots. The lady blows the dog whistle to call the dog and the dog comes and she is happy. And the most important use of camera work is the parallel action, the train, the dog, and the biker/man, all work together to show that al these things are constantly moving at the same time. The suspense keeps rising up and the audience is anxious to know whether she will get run over or not.
Editing is normally an association of ideas connecting multiple shots with another. Continuity brings together MULTIPLE shots together in order to create the illusion of continuous and clear editing. In the arrival of a train, the directors used realism as a form of editing. The long continuous take of the train moving into the station and stoping establishes the scene. After this we already know it is a train station we begin to look at the characters we see in the shot. Not much is moving, so we dont notice anything besides the men and women exiting the train. This long conituous recording of time is a sequence shot. It is a device the director uses to allow the audience to determine whom they want to focus on in order to create a story of their own.
Damsel in Distress is an example of Classicism because it tries to show the fluidity of an event by editing shots together that does not leave anything important out. Reaction shots are incorporated in the edits obviously to get reaction shots. The lady blows the dog whistle to call the dog and the dog comes and she is happy. And the most important use of camera work is the parallel action, the train, the dog, and the biker/man, all work together to show that al these things are constantly moving at the same time. The suspense keeps rising up and the audience is anxious to know whether she will get run over or not.
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