Plotting - Coen's very unusual as they don't show certain scenes (Llewellyn getting killed etc.) but also show scenes that we wouldn't usually get to see (the coin toss scene doesn't further anything). Plot not overly concerned with driving narrative
Woman in pool could be any woman, doesn't matter what she looks like because he loves Carla Jean
When's mum's coffin is lowered there's a 'tick' sound, which is the same as when Anton leaves the house at the end from the bike - sonic connection
If most people were plotting the film they wouldn't include Carson Wells as he doesn't really do much
Bell's opening monologue doesn't make sense until the end of the film - first seen as positive but at the end shows that he's being overwhelmed by modernity
Issues raised for spectator:
Low level of narrative resolution/enigma - nothing is resolved. Negotiated reading (Stuart Hall) and Active spectatorship
Encoding certain messages into the film - Llewellyn shown at the start as an outlaw hero (as he's similar to western heroes)
In encoding process, creator encodes certain enigmas for the audience to decode (Barthes) Not solely created by filmmaker, how a film is interpreted is equally to do with the spectator as it is to do with the filmmaker. Once you've made it how it's interpreted has nothing to do with you. Relates to the negotiated reading of the film
Research
Marxist ideology
Showing posts with label Spectatorship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spectatorship. Show all posts
Thursday, 6 December 2018
Thursday, 14 June 2018
Beasts of the Southern Wild Production Context
- All non-professional actors local to South Louisiana - no star persona - believability, verisimilitude
- Scavenged for parts for props from area, e.g. Wink's house made out of a submerged bus - goes with theme and setting of film
- Used practical effects for everything except final scene with Aurochs - got a bunch of university students to make it
- All location shooting, no studios - makes it more realistic and believable
- A lot of these techniques used by Italian Neo-Realism
- Cut out multiple scenes, including:
- Scenes where character's talk about Hushpuppy's mother - where she it etc - as they felt that the mystery was more powerful
- Scenes showing the relationship between Wink and his friends (Jean Baptiste, Juarez etc.), Hushpuppy and the girl group - they decided that it took away the focus from Wink and Hushpuppy's relationship
- Scenes showing characters preparing to leave the Bathtub - adds ambiguity to the ending (ie where are they walking to?), adds to spectatorship
Sunday, 13 May 2018
Spectatorship
A spectator is an individual member of the audience
Two types of spectatorship:
Active - Requires thought, effort, resolve enigmas myself, not everything obvious
Passive - everyone walks away with the same reading, little effort, general good/bad
Blade Runner is Active - not sure what it's really about, character roles are mysterious
No Country for Old Men is Active - does things you don't expect, changes protagonist
A good way of telling if it's active or passive is what you take away from it
Stuart Hall - can get one of three readings from a film:
Preferred - Reading film maker intended you to get, passive is usually this
Oppositional - reading opposite to whats intended
Negotiated - accepts some but not all of the film, active usually this
Different readings:
Experience, film persuasion, age, culture, own interests, societal opinions, conventions used to
Positioning
Where foes the narrative position me? (ie if Tarantino directed NCFOM we'd like Anton), who?
Achieved through story, POV shots
Ie westerns
Metaphor for American foreign policy - ride in, kill someone, leave
In About a Girl - spectatorship as we're a friend
What drives the story in Beasts of the Southern Wild?
Hushpuppy/ Goes looking for mum and dad, sets fire to house etc
What drives the story in No Country for Old Men?
Anton. Llewelyn up to when he picks up the money. Bell never. Event driven narrative
Two types of spectatorship:
Active - Requires thought, effort, resolve enigmas myself, not everything obvious
Passive - everyone walks away with the same reading, little effort, general good/bad
Blade Runner is Active - not sure what it's really about, character roles are mysterious
No Country for Old Men is Active - does things you don't expect, changes protagonist
A good way of telling if it's active or passive is what you take away from it
Stuart Hall - can get one of three readings from a film:
Preferred - Reading film maker intended you to get, passive is usually this
Oppositional - reading opposite to whats intended
Negotiated - accepts some but not all of the film, active usually this
Different readings:
Experience, film persuasion, age, culture, own interests, societal opinions, conventions used to
Positioning
Where foes the narrative position me? (ie if Tarantino directed NCFOM we'd like Anton), who?
Achieved through story, POV shots
Ie westerns
Metaphor for American foreign policy - ride in, kill someone, leave
In About a Girl - spectatorship as we're a friend
What drives the story in Beasts of the Southern Wild?
Hushpuppy/ Goes looking for mum and dad, sets fire to house etc
What drives the story in No Country for Old Men?
Anton. Llewelyn up to when he picks up the money. Bell never. Event driven narrative
Friday, 11 May 2018
Ideology in No Country for Old Men
Llewellyn (protagonist) is a Vietnam war veteran, but is flawed, while usually they're undefeatable (ie Predator, Commando)
Typically one man can win and make a difference, but he dies
Good always wins, evil loses, but Llewellyn dies, Ed-Tom gives up and Anton walks away with the money
Realism vs myth - reality is brutal
CHANGE AND CHANCE - Capitalist change, society going towards it, and poor people not having a chance - Marxist ideology
Money is the front of all evil
What it means to be a man - violence solves nothing
Context of Setting
America in the 1980s
Went from liberal 1970s to a new climate of reactionary attitudes
Reagan got into power, brought with him an era of 'New Right'
Anti government ideology
Cold war at it's height, arms race
Reagan: Aggressively capitalist government, relatively militaristic for the first time since the Vietnam War, a growth in a new form of conservatism, right wing ideologies become stronger and more mainstream - imagery of businessman changed
Serious rise in drug culture. In 1980's armed robbers were still at the top of the criminal food chain, and as the prison time was only 4-5 years for most offences there was a code of silence.
Society
Fragmented society - young and old, left and right
Cut backs in government spending coinciding with factory closures, many communities in economic collapse
Older industries cutting down
Rise of Corporate America, more personable companies exert a strong influence on everyday life, reward effort, strong hierarchies, seen to be morally dubious/borderline criminal
Greater stress on individuals rather than community, selfishness and greed admirable, self improving qualities
Cinema
Blockbuster risen in significance, large scale event films with simplistic plot lines dominate the cinematic landscape (Stallone, Schwarzenegger)
Era of action heroes, solve all problems with violence, seen as morally correct, ends justify the means, individualistic and uncompromising
No Country for Old Men explores and critiques these dominant ideologies, using each of the three main characters to confront the changing face of America
Anton being the corporations of America is summed up his last scene. Even freak accidents like a a car crash (or a market crash) don’t stop them. They will even take the shirt off someone else’s back to rebuild, their inhuman ability to grit their teeth and walk through the pain keeping them going. They suffer no retribution from the law, as they have already escaped, covering their own backs, possibly through the manipulation of those below them.
Llewelyn Moss
Blockbuster character - cinema section. Also represents the people on the fringes of society, the underclass. bourgeoisies
Anton Chigurh
Corporate America - aggressive - New Society section
Sheriff Bell
Communities dead - old society section. Police were still blue collar in the 1980s and so represents proletariat - gets things done by talking to people.
The man in the coin toss sequence is the people (family owned business, family minded), Anton is capitalism threatening to destroy it, the coin, ie money, is how its done
Typically one man can win and make a difference, but he dies
Good always wins, evil loses, but Llewellyn dies, Ed-Tom gives up and Anton walks away with the money
Realism vs myth - reality is brutal
CHANGE AND CHANCE - Capitalist change, society going towards it, and poor people not having a chance - Marxist ideology
Money is the front of all evil
What it means to be a man - violence solves nothing
Context of Setting
America in the 1980s
Went from liberal 1970s to a new climate of reactionary attitudes
Reagan got into power, brought with him an era of 'New Right'
Anti government ideology
Cold war at it's height, arms race
Reagan: Aggressively capitalist government, relatively militaristic for the first time since the Vietnam War, a growth in a new form of conservatism, right wing ideologies become stronger and more mainstream - imagery of businessman changed
Serious rise in drug culture. In 1980's armed robbers were still at the top of the criminal food chain, and as the prison time was only 4-5 years for most offences there was a code of silence.
Society
Fragmented society - young and old, left and right
Cut backs in government spending coinciding with factory closures, many communities in economic collapse
Older industries cutting down
Rise of Corporate America, more personable companies exert a strong influence on everyday life, reward effort, strong hierarchies, seen to be morally dubious/borderline criminal
Greater stress on individuals rather than community, selfishness and greed admirable, self improving qualities
Cinema
Blockbuster risen in significance, large scale event films with simplistic plot lines dominate the cinematic landscape (Stallone, Schwarzenegger)
Era of action heroes, solve all problems with violence, seen as morally correct, ends justify the means, individualistic and uncompromising
No Country for Old Men explores and critiques these dominant ideologies, using each of the three main characters to confront the changing face of America
Anton being the corporations of America is summed up his last scene. Even freak accidents like a a car crash (or a market crash) don’t stop them. They will even take the shirt off someone else’s back to rebuild, their inhuman ability to grit their teeth and walk through the pain keeping them going. They suffer no retribution from the law, as they have already escaped, covering their own backs, possibly through the manipulation of those below them.
Llewelyn Moss
Blockbuster character - cinema section. Also represents the people on the fringes of society, the underclass. bourgeoisies
Anton Chigurh
Corporate America - aggressive - New Society section
Sheriff Bell
Communities dead - old society section. Police were still blue collar in the 1980s and so represents proletariat - gets things done by talking to people.
The man in the coin toss sequence is the people (family owned business, family minded), Anton is capitalism threatening to destroy it, the coin, ie money, is how its done
No Country for Old Men - Overview
Directed by Coen Brothers
Released in 2007, won the Academy Award for Best Picture
Not a western in the traditional sense, but uses themes and comments on the typical depiction of westerns
Coen Brothers very well known for subverting audience. Assumed he'd get away with the money but didn't, changed protagonist to Ed-Tom Bell
Quite anti-violent, more real
Themes of:
Change
Chance
Morality
Gives us ins to the following areas (within spectatorship):
Requires spectators to be active - not giving emotional queues via music, no clear cut protagonist etc. Pushes us to talk about readings. Beauty of the film is that it has no preferred reading (even Anton has a code he sticks to - chance and promises)
Editing - narrative, spectatorship - auteur trait of the Coen's - they have the ability to make a normal scene extraordinary and the extraordinary scenes ordinary
In terms of being about sheriff Bell, there's a real collision between what he's used to and what he's not. For example, he rejects working with the DEA agent, he doesn't want the vehicle checks on the Mexican vehicles and he doesn't have radio when he finds Llewellyn. He goes back to the room to see if he can because he's scared, when he's about to go inside they show Anton to show what he's scared off, even though he's not actually there.
Released in 2007, won the Academy Award for Best Picture
Not a western in the traditional sense, but uses themes and comments on the typical depiction of westerns
Coen Brothers very well known for subverting audience. Assumed he'd get away with the money but didn't, changed protagonist to Ed-Tom Bell
Quite anti-violent, more real
Themes of:
Change
Chance
Morality
Gives us ins to the following areas (within spectatorship):
Requires spectators to be active - not giving emotional queues via music, no clear cut protagonist etc. Pushes us to talk about readings. Beauty of the film is that it has no preferred reading (even Anton has a code he sticks to - chance and promises)
Editing - narrative, spectatorship - auteur trait of the Coen's - they have the ability to make a normal scene extraordinary and the extraordinary scenes ordinary
In terms of being about sheriff Bell, there's a real collision between what he's used to and what he's not. For example, he rejects working with the DEA agent, he doesn't want the vehicle checks on the Mexican vehicles and he doesn't have radio when he finds Llewellyn. He goes back to the room to see if he can because he's scared, when he's about to go inside they show Anton to show what he's scared off, even though he's not actually there.
Beasts of the Southern Wilds
Behind the child - high colours, low perspective/POV, doesn't really explain much, like what the character experiences. Only effects change at end. Everything colourful and vibrant - fast cuts show this
Active spectatorship
Question the dominant ideology
Dislike the people over the levy, who are us
Don't value modern medicine 'plugged in the wall'
Once with nature, dank, uncivlised but happy - makes us think about the way we treat children and childhood
Positioning
Camera always at a low angle
Narration - Hushpuppy's POV. Almost replaces dialogue. Doesn't tell her whats happening but how she feels - her emotions. Not expository. Rationalising/talking to herself, not audience. Doesn't actually know whats going on, sets up childish narration by talking about animals 'pooping'. Ie brother - is she her mum + when Wink comes out of hospital she assumes he's wearing a dress + bracelet
A lot of enigmas aren't resolved. Is it her mum, are the Aurochs real?
One flashback with Wink's perspective. Went from thinking that he's possibly an abusive father to being a depserate figure, knows he won't be around for much longer.
Spectator response
Non-professional actors make us see characters not actors
Spectatorship can make you think about loads of different things - slightly different negotiated reading
Specatorship - write about active and passive, and find sequences that switch between them. Talk about identification and alignment of narrative positioning, audience expectations and how it plays on spectatorship, spectatorship is ideological and so depends on the individual on what they'd get (ie what they've watched and where they're from), spectatorship issues in terms of what is real and what isn't, is the setting good or not
Active spectatorship
Question the dominant ideology
Dislike the people over the levy, who are us
Don't value modern medicine 'plugged in the wall'
Once with nature, dank, uncivlised but happy - makes us think about the way we treat children and childhood
Positioning
Camera always at a low angle
Narration - Hushpuppy's POV. Almost replaces dialogue. Doesn't tell her whats happening but how she feels - her emotions. Not expository. Rationalising/talking to herself, not audience. Doesn't actually know whats going on, sets up childish narration by talking about animals 'pooping'. Ie brother - is she her mum + when Wink comes out of hospital she assumes he's wearing a dress + bracelet
A lot of enigmas aren't resolved. Is it her mum, are the Aurochs real?
One flashback with Wink's perspective. Went from thinking that he's possibly an abusive father to being a depserate figure, knows he won't be around for much longer.
Spectator response
Non-professional actors make us see characters not actors
Spectatorship can make you think about loads of different things - slightly different negotiated reading
Specatorship - write about active and passive, and find sequences that switch between them. Talk about identification and alignment of narrative positioning, audience expectations and how it plays on spectatorship, spectatorship is ideological and so depends on the individual on what they'd get (ie what they've watched and where they're from), spectatorship issues in terms of what is real and what isn't, is the setting good or not
No Country for Old Men - Opening Scene
Sheriff rambling about the past (as old people do, sets up his age)
Talked about how old sheriffs didn't need t have guns, but he has to now - dangerous
All static shots until Anton walks onto screen. Sheriff doesn't want things to change, but it's out of his control
Anton killing policeman - gets pleasure from killing
Invitation to compare Llewellyn and Anton as they both say same line soon after each other
Talked about how old sheriffs didn't need t have guns, but he has to now - dangerous
All static shots until Anton walks onto screen. Sheriff doesn't want things to change, but it's out of his control
Anton killing policeman - gets pleasure from killing
Invitation to compare Llewellyn and Anton as they both say same line soon after each other
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