Reading Week 5 – The Essay Film
Week 5 – Rascaroli, Laura “The essay film: Problems, Definitions, Textual commitments”
I generally found “The essay film” quite hard to understand as Rascaroli kept going between different theorists and such which made it hard to find out what was happening. Nora Alter explains well when she says “Unlike the documentary film, which presents facts and information, the essay film produces complex thought that at times is not grounded in reality but can be contradictory, irrational, and fantastic.”
The basis of the essay film inherits a lot from its literary companion while breaking free from the documentary, becoming a point between emotion and intellect. I have noticed that there has been a new wave of The Essay Film in the form of online forums on we sites such as Reddit. Television MASTERPIECES such as Breaking Bad and True Detective are two of the mostly sought into shows due to their very deep visual and intellectual cues. These breakdowns are more informal then what the typical essay film would be as a result of the platform on which they are viewed and submitted.
Personally what I believe is the main problem with the film essay is that although some arguments are backed with evidence from the film, there can still be underlying personal views and beliefs that influence the argument, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing although it makes it more of a challenge to know what you think is right and wrong. I guess the purpose of such essays is to challenge your thoughts and ideals, especially towards certain films, which when viewed impartially can be very informative.
Essay Smeshay
s3433026 – Tom Lewis – Integrated Media – Assessment Task 1: K. Film Essay
Exquisite Corpse (2011) – Hashim Majeed, Dom Bonnice, Ellie Cameron–Krepp, Kieran McGrath
Exquisite corpse is a K-Film which explores a poem by John M. Ford entitled ‘Against Entropy’ using videos as the basis for particular themes and ideas. These themes and ideas have a revolve around the strong relationship between the videos, text and audio. I had a very strong first impression of the documentary film and immediately saw the correlations between the video, text and its surroundings. I liked this because the text often related directly to the video playing and instantly made me want to participate and immerse myself into what was happening.
PATTERN
The reoccurring pattern that I can identify throughout is the relation between the primary videos and the three relating video surrounding it.. The primary video often has a clear connection with the other videos which is reoccurring throughout and helps distinguish a clear theme to be portrayed. On this particular page the quote ‘Although Some of the colours have to fade’, directly links with the four black and white thumbnails on the interface. This is a reoccurring pattern throughout the film which i definitely think helps contribute to the narrative.
The music is repetitive, in a nice, immersive way that compliments the structure of the k-film. The ambient genre of the music makes me feel comfortable with what is being showed, it doesn’t act as a distraction which I have found to be the case with a number of other K-films.
INTERFACE
The interface consists of four screens in each corner with the top left as the primary frame. I think that the simplistic navigation allows for more focus on relations with the primary and surrounding videos being showed. There is a text section running along the left side of the video’s which is creatively constructed from top to bottom. I like that it is assembled in this way as poems are traditionally read from left to right or horizontally, which compliments the ‘disorder and order’ present in the film.
The audience are able to actively participate by clicking on one of the three other videos sending them to a new screen with fresh text and video. Having four thumbnails helps the audience be more selective through the journey of the film while not being overwhelmed, and decreasing the chance of conflicting videos which i believe is key to the success of ‘Exquisite Corpse’.
CONTENT
The large variety of content within ‘Exquisite Corpse’ allows for an exciting experience and helps support the narrative function of the film. Occasionally in the early stages of the film some content repeats quite frequently but evens out as you get deeper. Through the links from one video to another the author was able to successfully use the ‘in’ and ‘out’ keywords to bring the viewer into a completely new idea while still relating it back to the previous page. For instance at one point i was on a page consisting of different varieties of ‘paths’, which then lead me to a page about light, fire and smoke after picking the thumbnail depicting a path in the daylight. These subtle relations really interested me and made me think deeper to try and make the connections. The poem itself as I see it describes an event using magically balanced clauses and sentences. The authors simplistically connect these
To Conclude, I believe that this K-film was successful in many regards, particularly in the narrative structure and relations of the text, audio and video. The authors, i feel, definitely achieved an in-depth alternative take on the Against Entropy poem that effectively encapsulates the audience.
Week 4 – Lists – Bogost
Lists could definitely be considered a experimental approach to a K-film and has been a reoccurring theme in past K-films. ‘Lists refuse the connecting powers of language, in favor of a sequence of disconnected elements.’ I like the idea of lists as it allows the viewer to connect the elements without the use of language to connect it for them.
Bogost explains the idea of lists breaking down peoples natural obsession with continuity and smoothness that language offers, the use of lists helps this by forcing sometimes irregularity of words together to offer something completely fresh and unique.
Lists are considered as a way to categorise without using too much language. They are a way to convey messages more succinctly and can also help allow much more interpretation from the audience. If you go on to right everything that you are thinking word for word the audience is going to take exactly that and not be able to do much with it. Lists can provide them with more space to think. Ambiguity is a nice thing.
Place
Family
Questions 3 Analysis
Rolling was a fantastic short film that definitely grasped the ‘moment in time’ aspect that for me makes a short film likeable. Short films don’t really have enough time to create characters or motifs through dialogue alone, meaning that to capture the same moment of emotion needs to be done with a larger emphasis on audio and visual cues. Rolling definitely had one of those moments that made me feel good. The cuts between the present and flashbacks helped the temporal aspect of the film which created a ‘a-ha’ moment which lead to me understanding the meaning behind the toilet paper. The lead males acting was very good for the role of the awkward lovestruck boy however the girls acting was a bit to confronting for what i was expecting of her role. This is an important part that will need to be noted in the production stages of making our short film, continuity and the way the actors are directed will reflect straight onto how the film turns out. Like Paul mentioned, the scene production in some parts of the film wasn’t as good as others. I’m not the biggest fan of critiquing films as it makes you sound like you would make a much better film, which in no means is what I am for but in any case this film is fantastic and definitely makes use of the ‘shortness’ in the short film.
Question 2 Analysis
COMMENTS ON CINEMATOGRAPHY
There are some comments from Martin Scorcese referring to frame composition and everything that you include or don’t include in the frame can have an impact how it is perceived or what is expected. I like how Scorcese outlines this as you can tell in his films that everything that can be seen in the frame is very purposeful and has a impact on the scene. This excites me as it will be something that the group will be able to experiment with, we will have control of how we want the audience to act while watching! Makavejev talks of realities both in the frame and out of the frame, there can be an erotic tension on the edges of the frame. All the viewer can do is try to believe what is on the outer space of the frame which can be used in film to create suspense or lead an audience a particular way.
Question 1 Analysis
In the film Clown Train, sounds is used effectively to help the viewer understand the narrative spaitially and temporally with certain cues throughout the particular scene. The atmospheric / environmental sounds used creates a very eerie setting and intently creates tension and unease. The wur of the stationary train prior to it shutting down sets the scene and complements the genre. The sudden tribal drums also adds to the tension and intensifies the dialogue of the clown. There are a number of instances that this eerie, minimalist atmospheric sounds can work including in scenes focusing on emotions (including happy) generally in montage sequences. The use of sounds also creates a unique filmic space that helps the viewer understand spatial elements, which is evident when the soundscape changes as it move from inside to the outside of the carriage and vice versa.
Week 2 – Studies in documentary film – Sorenssen
The abstract proposes that the expanded access to digital film creates a easier more mobile way of filming thus motioning for a new structure in the film media structure. He draws attention particularly to the advances in cinematography and how these might further shape film as not only a entertainment medium, but also a medium that can be a tool for humans to communicate and interact.