Film Ideology

            Ideology originated in politics as a generalization for a set of beliefs or ideas. In film, it similarly refers to the messages or ideas that are portrayed through film as an art medium.When Ideology is explicit in film it is an idea that clearly stated by either a character or someone with an important contribution in the film's creation like a director. In film implicit ideology is the underlying thoughts or ideas that are not ever clearly stated but are simply implied or hinted upon. This gives an interactive opportunity to the audience who can choose to make a decision about what they see and whether an idea or message appears in a film or not. This is because implicit ideology, being unclear, is debatable.

            When looking at an actor in film, often times a specific actor has certain characteristics that are emphasized and targeted when being casted for a movie. An example of this being Jackie Chan. Martial Arts master, having learned kung fu in his younger years to star in some of his first movies like Drunken Master (1978), Enter the Dragon (1973) and Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978). These three movies, all made in Chan's early career as a famous actor included him displaying insane feats of strength, stamina and martial arts ability. In addition to the seriousness that came with Chan's conflicts and fighting in these movies, some comedy is always added. Even more surprising people in this time period is that Jackie Chan always did his own stunts in his movies and still does many of them today even at nearly 58 years old. Relating Chan's early movies to the modern day, we can look at any of the three Rush Hour movies or The Forbidden Kingdom where Jackie Chan still does his own stunts, scaling buildings, dodging knives and wielding swords, all accompanying a fine display of martial arts. I can only assume that his next roll in a movie will follow suit. I imagine that the film will take place in America with traveling back and forth to China. It's likely that some old enemy of his, maybe from his village steels a sacred artifact that has spiritually protected his family for centuries. In order to get it back he tries to team up with both the United States and Chinese police forces who ignore him. His mission to get back the artifact results in damage and chaos in  both countries, minuscule thought to the damage that may be caused by his enemy if not stopped. The world watches in aww as this now an international incident unfolds. Watching Chan through the media, hated by the governments, loved by the people, he eventually catches his enemy but cannot bring himself to execute them. In a final attempt at victory his enemy will attack him, but reacting Chan will do away with him easily and accidentally killing him, upset but thankful he will return the artifact to his village as a hero. 

            When looking at film ideologies over time it is clear that their narratives have changed to match the time period. An easy example of this is movies surrounding war. When we look at movies about war prior to the war that exists now, we found films rarely about WWI, or Vietnam, and limited movies about WWII. The popular movies that did fall in this category were often documentaries like Leni Riefenstal's  Triumph of Will. A brilliantly done film, documenting the Nuremberg Rallies and Nazi propaganda, it impressed the world in completely unexpected ways, changing the documentary film genre permanently. Almost never though was a movie like The Hurt Locker or the remade A-Team found prior to 2000 where a story was told like a fictitious book based on a real situation, exploring the unimaginable and experimenting with the emotions characteristics that can only be seen on the battlefield in war. Many older documentaries could not capture such emotions as the film industry can create today. Narratives have changed drastically over time to a point now where we have moved away from a direct focus on society like Taxi Driver and movies now look at the impossible and the fantasy worlds that exist inside the audiences' imagination through movies like Avatar, Warrior or Captain America. All have some sort of plausible premise: the discovery of a distant planet with new life that humans exploit, two distant brothers meeting in the final fight for a title, or even a super soldier created from governmental experiments that people claim still go on today. The majority of these ideas highly unlikely, their possibility does exist slightly, this allows an audience to grasp onto a plausible situation that then leads into an indulgence of their fantasies and wildest dreams. This is how the narration of movies has changed from the realistic films and long shots of the earlier 1900's.    

            I think that the financial support of a film or the ownership of a production company does greatly influence the power of an ideology represented in a film, and slightly the idea being portrayed itself. It is widely discussed that Walt Disney was anti-Semitic, this shown through productions of his,  and his company the Disney corporation. In this case the coporation greatly influenced an ideology that was portrayed, but at the same time the main person in the production of the films also represented the entire corporation. In many cases though I feel that while those supporting a film do give some ideological influence, that it mainly comes down to those directly working on the film like the writers and directors. For example a T.V show; in a  T.V show, the obscene or hilarious statements made by a character are the product of the writers. When and how these things are said is up to the director and the actor who work together for the explicit reason of presenting a specific idea or tone or message. While it's true that the person who gives them the money to do all this may say 'I want him to talk about italians and how they talk'. That is a limited influence by the supporter of the show, but the specific words scripted, the person it is said to and when it's said, decided by the director, and the tone and attitude in which the statement is made changes everything. These three aspects completely uncontrolled by whoever gave the initial idea, shape the entire scene, maybe as racist, stereotypical, or maybe as an observation when talking to an Italian man in one scene. The possible portrayal of one simple idea is unlimitedly vast in methods and is completely controlled by those directly in contact with the film. So I think that the financial supporters or corporation owners may have some limited input, but even less affect on the actual idea being portrayed in the final product. 

writing about film

      The first form of film writing is known as formal analysis. This is when one analyzes a film by taking apart the different aspects of a film, like cinematography or sound. These individual pieces are then looked at as a representation and in relation to the film as a whole, giving a well rounded view of the movie and its meanings. When writing about film history, the purpose is to look at the context or time period of the movie as well as the history of the movie itself. When looking at the context, a film may represent values, ideas, or events that are occurring or taking place in a society during this actual time period. The history of film and the individual movie itself gives insight to techniques and ideas that have grown and changed over time. When looking film from the early 1900's, one will right about film noir as its own genre. This has led to many new genres like detective movies or movies in new york that involve mobs like Road to Perdition. Some may vaguely classify it as film noir but at the same time it's different because it doesn't have the same aspects like a narration throughout the whole movie or the black and white filter.
      Ideological papers focus on the ideas and messages that are presented through the film medium. This type of writing often looks at the political messages or beliefs that a director holds and wishes to show to the public. An important area of  film writing exists in cultural studies. This writing compares and evaluates films from foreign countries and their representation of that society. Directors and writers express events and ideas that exist currently in their society through their films. When looking at films of foreign countries we can see how they view things or how our views of maybe horror or humor differ. The final type of film writing is Auteur Criticism. This type of writing looks at the messages, quality, and overall appeal of the final product of a film as a representation of often the director alone. The Auteur or 'Author' in film many often view as the director and believe that the film comes from his vision alone. While this is very untrue, the fact remains that many people right a film as a representation of the director because many of his beliefs and ideas are portrayed in the final film.
       When 'Annotating a Film Sequence' notes are taken that are unique to analyzing only film. Annotating a scene involves mapping out the scene through the evaluation of positions and shots. When annotating a scene of men in a room, notes would consist of recognizing an extreme close up or a waste shot or 2 shot of half the men in the room. Then looking at what angles are used, whether it's over a man's shoulder looking at the two men in front of him to show them as opposition. By annotating the shot in this manner it helps one to imagine the shot when evaluating notes at a later point in time. This also reveals patterns in shots that may represent a trend in the whole film and give more insight as to why certain shots are made.
     When discussing the idea of thinking outside of the frame of the film the author means that in order to truly grasp the concepts, ideas and messages that went into making and are portrayed in the film, one must look at more than what just appears on the screen. To truly understand why a certain movie portrays a race possibly in a certain way it's important to look at the time period the movie was made in. If a film was made in the early 1900's then it would be much easier for one to understand why the costume design in the movie or the escort is as is it is.  If one looks at the director and his background or film history it will reveal characteristics about the director maybe that couldn't have been known if someone had talked to him in an interview.
         When looking at films by say, Gus Van Sant, whether intentional or not, it can be said that he includes conflicts in many aspects of his films to create tensions and emotions that connect to his audience. In Good Will Hunting, Van Sant showed emotional connections and tensions between Matt Damon and almost every other character. With his bet friend, Ben Affleck there was a resentment conflict where Ben refund to watch his best friend live in his world wasting his talents which greatly upset Will but also shows his friends compassion. It can be said the professor uses Will to relive his youth as a 'genius', the therapist provokes will by tapping into his emotions in an unexpected way and even the girlfriend Schyla pushes his comfort zone with the move to California and the attempts at invading into his personal home life.
         Comparing this to another film, MILK where he has conflicts with every character as well, including his lovers, political rival, the police, and even the general public in some cases. This technique of centering the character in the film through both admiration and conflict from the surrounding characters allows for the audience to easily care and connect to his characters. This is an obvious trend, who many don't know though is that Van Sant is gay and has discussed in some interviews how this drives his directing and how it inspires him to create such conflicts that draw the audience to the character and eventually earn the respect and endearment of very many despite a difference; like being a genius or a gay politician. This outside knowledge helps to from a much more complete thought land understanding of movies and their background.

Blog Response- Article- Intensified Continuity

      When looking at continuity in film making and its progression throughout the twentieth century, it's important to look at first why the continuity of films increased. In the article it says that at one point in time a film would have 500-700 shots, while now an average film has at least 3-4000 shots, all with an average shot length of 3-6 seconds. So first it's important to ask what caused this. During the mid to late 1900's, the United States was in a constant state of panic as a result of the foreign relations with Russia. In addition to this, earlier, near the beginning of these significant changes, the United States was in the great depression and had just been part of the conclusion to WWII. Like the anti-hero, people began to connect to film as a medium through which their resentment and frustration with their society and their government could be channelled. During this early time period the film industry needed to adapt to the demands of its people who were rapidly becoming restless and needed excitement to distract them from the terrible state the country was it, out of this was born.
   
       From this birth of faster cutting experimentation quickly became demand. It started with "actions films tended to be edited more briskly than other types, but musicals, dramas, romance, and comedies didn't necessarily favor longer shots". After the incorporatino easily of quick cutting into action films it became rapidly populor as it touched on the people's desire for excitement. As a result of this the film industry began to adapt to the new interest of the people and began incoporating these quickly cut shots in to all forms of film. Onc this pheomena had grown substancially, it quickly became less of an interest in film and more a necessity. This narrowed the scope of film interpretation consideribly by almost imedialety eliminating a sense of realism from modern films. 'More important, no film is one long action sequence.' Withou this sequence of a single shot portraying a single scene with multiple meanings, a sense of realism cannot be trly obained. Always now it has to stand that each individual shot must be dynamic and portray some idea or message which cannot necessarily be controlled so easily in one continuous and unedted scene.

      This sense of intensity that was created through cutting in order to satisfy the peoples' changing interests when looking at films, was soon accompanied by many other changes that increased emotion and intesnsity. An example of this is the use of framing. In older movies it was very often the case that a very weide shot, possibly a horizon shot or one of an entire room was taken showing all the actions of all the subjects all the time. While this may help to clearly illustrate the ideas of the scene to the audience it tends to lack a sense of emoiton. In newer films, countless shots are taken in order to provide every ossible angle so that when time for editing arrives, the most dynamic, thought provokning and emotional shots can be evaluated and incorporated into the final piece. Through the use of these close ups it is very easy for someone to recognize the facial expresssions of a character giving emotion to the scene and adding an 'intense' moment where only the individual character is focused on. This is also negative though because "most important, pressure toward closer views has narrowed the expressive recources abailable to preformers". While it is true that a face and its expressions can portray numerous amounts of information, the language that a whole body can portray hold endless value. Because these shots limit to simply a close-up, we lose the hints, emotions, and ideas that are portrayed through body language like weight shifts or finger tapping.

Blog Response- Article- Intensified Continuity

      'The anti-hero can be seen in earlier American cinema as well, but was in no way as popular as it became after World War II' because following WWII people became nationalistic and rebellious. After the actions of our government the people had mixed feelings about their government. They were thankful because the government protected them, but at the same time harbored resentment as a result of the political, social and economic issues that accompany war. With the great depression about to come about, meaning economic collapse, many people blamed the government. Without the resources or ability to challenge their government and challenge the society they no longer loved, characters like Travis Bickle who could challenge the government and say what the people could not. Through the escape that movies allow people to have, a character like Travis could express the people's opinions about 'cleaning up society'. Following the war nationalistic emotions and ideas became very popular and people and they felt they needed to protect their country and its ideals as Travis does. 


    Adding to the connection people had to the anti-hero, admiration became a large factor in people's opinions. It was said that the anti-hero 'defies conventional laws of society and can sidestep rules of morality at anytime'. In film involving for example, a super hero, people can relate because they feel similar desires to break free of the confines of reality. Through a super hero people can imagine having the power they don't in real life, and they can save the world like everyone dreams. Similarly to an anti-hero, people can live a life they can only dream of. They can rebel and speak the truths that they actually feel about their government or their society. So the anti-hero became an easy symbol for people to connect to as the 'badass' that everyone wants to let out sometimes.

'Arrival of a Train' and 'Damsel in distress'

The short film 'Arrival of a Train' is a realist film that is composed of no cutting whatsoever. The single shot the scene is made of shows simply the arrival of a train at train station, thus the name. People are coming on and off the train and the quick scene wit the very upbeat and cartoonish piano score helps to give a sense of childishness to the scene. It's interesting to look at the scene on its own because while it's only 50 seconds long and doesn't hold as many ideas as other films, it quickly gives clear insight to the people who take the train every day to and from work. This being very monotonous for many people, in company with with music and the matching actions like the doors opening gives it an interesting impression that this day isn't as monotonous as the average day is. This scene greatly supports that it's a Realist film because of the long single shot that shows a period of time with no alteration to the actual time showing 'real time'.

The short film 'Damsel in distress', very different from 'Arrival of a Train' is a clearly Classical film with many quick cuts as well as having time sped up slightly. These aspects help to give the film a very high energy with a lot of tension built up around the main character. The main character being chained to the train tracks gives an interesting foil to the dog who is running long distances at high speeds metaphorically carrying the story on his back. By running from the woman to the man back to the woman and then to the train conductors he acts as a liaison between all of the characters in the film, sort of transforming him into the main character. At the end of the film the dog can be seen as the center more clearly when the people come together. It's interesting to look at this film because without the rapid cuts and the sped up action the film would not be abe to portray the numerous connections and ideas that it does, all emphasized by the lack of sound.

Trailer Analysis: Anonymous

This trailer does a great job at presenting the plot of the movie by presenting the controversial idea of Shakespeare being a fraud. It then does a good job of flashing back to the time period and using video in combination with titles to inspire the idea that Shakespeare may have taken credit for the work of another man who was banned from taking credit for his plays. 

Narration- The lead into this is good as we here very little dialogue, except for some key phrases that help to understand some of the possibilities that may surround the idea of Shakespeare being a fraud. For example we hear a woman sounding like the queen that is seen in the previous shot, saying ‘that none of your poems or plays will ever carry your name’. Giving

the implication that Shakespeare could have been used to publish the plays and poems that the original author could not as part of his punishment. 

Cinematography- The use of camera angles and specific shots help to greatly reinforce the plot presented through the trailer. The use of a close-up on the face of a man on a block used for execution helps to reinforce the idea that the original author of these works is being punished not only with anonymity around his plays but with death as well. This leads me to believe in the accusations toward Shakespear’s credibility as well as desire to learn about the

other facts surrounding this theory. Now knowing the evidence proving the possibility of another author who may have written these plays and had been forgotten by history. 

Editing- The editing in this trailer is very fast and very jarring making me extremely anxious. Some interesting editing techniques used besides the basic incorporation of shots and the manipulations of characters and lighting is the including of titles. With specific titles that encompass the screen, I’m more drawn and more inclined to think about the topic presented which peaks my curiosity as well as in the case of this trailer makes in personal. With the

title saying ‘We’ve all been played’ it makes me feel like I have a personal connection to this because I’ve studies Shakespeare and come to trust his poetic prowess. 

Sound- In this trailer, the music in the background music plays an important role for me in setting the tone. The music is slower and quieter, less prominent in the first half and then when the shots become much faster and more visually exciting, the music speeds up and becomes much louder. The music also has an operatic and tragic tone to it; sounding almost as if it’s wailing, giving a sense of tragedy to the movie, resembling the tragic plays Shakespeare, supposedly wrote. The audio of characters also comes in metallic and resonating giving a powerful and technologic feel to it as it overpowers the background music. 

Run Lola Run Critique

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AZESsT3AxJ0OZHp2and2cF81M2djcWd4cGM5&hl=en_US

In our presentation I felt that our use of film language was limited. While we did use some terminology and present adequate understanding of terminology in relation to editing, we did also leave out some information. This is because ‘editing’ being such a large topic, has many terms and many subsections, that even though attempted, we could not cover all of.
As far as our interpretation of the film went, I felt that as a group, we did a generally good job of analyzing the use of editing in the film. The use of of motion, cutting and the manipulation of time through editing is decently thoroughly discussed. We do an adequate job of explaining how the editing is used to portray themes and ideas; as well as show contrast and comparison of the three sequences in the film. Editing is used very interestingly in this aspect and we explain that through the use of flashbacks and flash-forwards, Tywker portrays the three sequences as having differentiated based on small aspects at the beginning of a time sequence. I felt our interpretation of this idea was very good as we explain that the sequences are a representation of the belief that we affect everyone and everything around us with our own actions whether we realize it or not.

I also felt we did a good job at presenting. We did use some limited notes on note cards as well as some small notes found in bullet points in our presentation; but overall I thought we spoke well. By reading as a little as possible, it helped to portray our personal opinions about the film and the editing of the film, rather than if we had read off notes we had. We also rehearsed many times making sure that our ideas were clear and that we were able to explain them well. In addition to speaking clearly, i thought we did a very good job at sticking to our subject. Some groups tended to digress from their topic and incorporate irrelevant ideas and opinions that distracted the audience from the purpose of their presentation.
Our biggest problem when discussing the editing in Run Lola Run, was finding information, facts, or opinions from others on editing in the film, which would have helped our presentation greatly. Some use certain scenes and color corrections we had trouble finding explanations for and had to either exclude the information or make up our own interpretation for with little evidence. Other than this I feel the only possible improvements could be working on our composure, as I personally became nervous and may have changed some of my rehearsed presentation. This could possibly be changed by simply practicing my speaking skills and working to build my confidence when doing  a presentation. I could also work on learning more film terminology and understanding the film better to increase my confidence for presentations in this class.