Macro Analysis: Genre and Narrative

Transcription

1 Engl 425 Analyzing Film Film As Text Reading a film is a lot like reading a book: You analyze it for genre, plot, character theme, setting, point of view--all the elements you re used to considering in your English classes. So in that sense, analyzing film will be very familiar to you. However, film has the added dimensions of both image and sound. Directors (and cinematographers) put enormous thought into their decisions regarding the visual look of a film--camera angle, depth of focus, color scheme, mise en scene--these are all terms with which you ll be come familiar over the course of the next few weeks. Film: The Large and Small of It Just as with a novel or short story, we analyze film both as a whole (how the components work together to create overall meaning) and in part, through close analysis of specific scenes (a close reading in literary terms) to analyze their effect in detail. The rest of this handout will guide you through the various elements considered in both Macro and Micro analysis. Macro Analysis: Genre and Narrative GENRE: Most films fall into a category or type of film called a genre. War films, sports films, romantic-comedies, westerns, thrillers are all examples of genre. While it can become stereo-typed, genre conventions create an important shorthand or code for directors to convey information to their audience and provide viewers with a framework for viewing the film. Audiences are more willing to fork out $10 if they know what to expect, and there is almost a comfort in seeing how directors both use and abuse genre conventions. (I ve heard cries of outrage over the changes in the recent Bond films, for example. No gadgets? Where s Q? Daniel Craig isn t suave enough!) ICONOGRAPHY: Icons are recurring (often symbolic) images that carry meaning from film to film. The Tommy gun in a gangster film suggests both the violence of the gangster, and the breaking down of order, or lawlessness. Just as the sheriff s badge in a Western suggests the exact opposite. These icons can be objects, settings--even the physical look or actions of an actor: Clint Eastwood s taciturn nature is a good example. In fact, actors can become SO iconic, that they actually can be used to play against type: Brad Pitt s idiotic trainer in Burn After Reading or Tom Cruise s manic producer in Tropic ThunderDignissim qui blandit English 425: 1

2 PLOT: Genre often deal with conventional storylines. Especially in what is called the Classic Hollywood style. Gangster films may portray the rise and fall of a criminal, romantic comedies rely on the boy meets girl/boy loses girl/boy gets girl formala, and Westerns, according to screenwriter Frank Gruber, usually fall into one of seven plot patterns, such as The Outlaw Story, or The Revenge Story or The Ranch Story. CHARACTER: Genre film tends to use stock character or types. In actionadventure you ll usually find the hero, a side-kick, and the villain. Romantic comedies often have the best friend. By using these types, a filmmaker can quickly establish the character through casting and costume. Even the Donnie Darko director admits using archetypes--kitty Farmer and her beehive hairdo, and the bald principal in his suit. The problem, of course, is that it s very easy to fall into stereotype: the Arab terrorist, savage Indians, ignorant foreigners, June Cleaver moms. MOTIFS: Motifs often recur in genre. War films deal with loyalty, brotherhood, the brutality of war; gangster films with violence, crime, the American Dream, science-fiction with the nature of humanity, the role of technology, etc. Notice that a motif is different from a theme. A motif is the subject of a narrative: Love, for example, while a theme is a statement ABOUT the motif: Love makes us all foolish. CINEMATIC TECHNIQUES: Lighting, interior vs exterior settings, editing, camera angles can all contribute to a genre. Musicals, for example, are often colorful and brightly lit, whereas Film Noir is famous for its high contrast shadows and interior settings. NARRATIVE: Tell Me a Story CLASSIC NARRATIVE: Also called the Classic Hollywood Film, although it s certainly not limited to Hollywood. This is what we think of as a typical, chronological story, told in three acts: The story begins in a state of normality. (equilibrium) Conflict creates an abnormal state (disequilibrium) Through a series of actions, the film evolves a new equilibrium.

3 Narrative, continued: In addition, events are organized into a cause/effect relationship (though there may be flashbacks), and events are caused by characters. Finally, there is a strong sense of closure at the end. Obviously, narrative includes both plot and story. Plot is everything visibly and audibly present in the film, whereas Story is ALL of the events in a narrative, whether or not they are depicted in the film. For example, in Shawshank Redemption, the STORY has Tim Robbins in jail for 20 years, but the PLOT only shows specific events during that time. An important term when discussing the elements of films is DIEGESIS. Whether a sound or story element is diegetic or nondiegetic can be significant. If it s diegetic, it means it occurs naturally within the narrative (e.g. a phone ringing). A non-diagetic element occurs outside the narrative, such as a voiceover or the soundtrack. Some story elements may be nondiegetic, too. A past event that isn t shown, but that we know about. Aside from flashbacks, there are other narrative styles, of course, and directors frequently play with narrative time and the audience s sense of story. If you ve seen Memento or Mulholland Drive, you ve seen films with non-chronological ordering of the narration. NARRATORS: In most classic films, the audience is omniscient, seeing and hearing everything relevant to the story. Just as with novels and short-stories, however, sometimes what the audience sees is limited to a particular character s point of view. There may or may not be a voice-over narration, but the audience needs to determine the reliability of the information. In Shawshank Redemption, Red (Morgan Freeman) tells the story, and the audience ultimately decides we can trust his information. Micro Analysis: Up Close and Personal Micro analysis can easily be compared to a close reading of the scene from a novel, where every word, phrase and image is analyzed for layers of meaning. It would be impossible to sustain that level of analysis for an entire novel, but a close reading of key scenes can reveal much about a novel s meaning. Similarly, shot-by-shot analy-

4 sis of a scene from a movie can add to our understanding of the film as a whole. Micro analysis is less concerned with overall narrative or thematic development, focusing on the meaning within a specific sequence of shots. MISE-EN-SCENE: Meaning literally put in the scene, mise-en-scene considers the arrangements and choices in elements that make up a picture. Lighting, costume, props, composition all contribute to mise-en-scene. It can create a sense of realism or the fantastic, can reinforce genre, or make the bizarre seem surprisingly (think sci-fi films). By paying attention to weighting and space, filmmakers can add considerably to the psychological effect of an image. CINEMATOGRAPHY: We ll have other handouts describing specific elements of cinematography but, basically, it include the framing and composition of individual shots. Camera focus, angle, and framing all make up the various elements of cinematography: Long shot or close up, deep or shallow focus? These decisions create meaning, guide the audience s attention to important elements, and suggest psychological states. Cinematography includes: Shot Length (long shot, close-up, etc) Angle (high, low, oblique, etc) Framing (open/closed) Focus/Depth of Field Camera Movement (pan, tilt, dolly, track) LIGHTING: Basically, lighting falls into two categories: high-key lighting, (common in most films) which produces easily visible details and soft shadows or lowkey lighting, which creates dramatic, threatening shadows and pools of darkness. There are of course, variations in-between these two extremes, and different scenes may use different lighting styles. Filters can also affect the quality of light, providing a warm glow suggesting candelight, for example. EDITING: If mise-en-scene is and cinematography are the organization of space, editing is the organization of time. During this process, filmmakers decide what we look at, when we look at it, and how long before we look at something else. Usually, this process creates continuity, a logical sense of cause/effect, and usually a normal sense of chronology. Various editing techniques create relationships between characters or characters and other elements of the film. During the editing process, it s important to maintain continuity: the audience needs confidence that objects and characters remain in the correction relation to each other and to time. Thus, film-

5 makes ofter create a master shot to open a film sequence, editing in other shots. Editing terms to know include: Master shot Jump cut Montage Continuity editing Parallel Editing Shot/Reverse Shot Eyeline Match Graphic Match Match on Action Fade/Dissolve Rhythm/Pace Film editing also cuts out unnecessary action and chunks of time, called an ellipsis. Imagine a scene where a teacher tells a student during first period I need to see you today. The student says he will come in during his 5th period study hall. In the next shot, we see the student standing in front of the teacher in her classroom. There were four periods of time in between the two shots, but the audience ignores the lapse, recognizing it as unnecessary information. This kind of ellipse helps control the pacing of the film. If the director had wanted to build a sense of suspense and show the student s anxiety, s/he could have included shots of the student anxiously discussing the meeting with friends, or walking nervously to the teacher s door. SOUND: As with plot above, sound can be either diegetic or non-diegetic, and can be HUGELY manipulated in post-production. In fact, Foley editors make a career of adding to and changing the sound in film. Actors often dub their voices in later (a process called looping), and other sounds can be added in, too. Famously, Darth Vader s breathing was re-created with a scuba tank and regulator. Soundtrack adds immeasurably to the emotional impact of a scene, as does silence. If you ever watched the scene the The Godfather, where Michael Corleone walks through a completely silent hospital to his father s bedside, you know how silence can add to suspense!

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