Chicargill's Media Musings

The exemplar of the student’s work is attached here. Feedback on the pre-production work is below. 

For Excellence the student needs to produce a compelling design for a short film that meets the requirements of the brief. This student’s concept, treatment and pre-production activities demonstrate effective selection and application of design choices to command and capture audience attention.

The concept:

·         Includes a compelling plot synopsis and content details which the student links to shots in the storyboard: concept introduction (1) and plot (3)

·         Includes reasonably compelling character details in terms of personality and role in the film and how these details will be translated in the film: extracts from character details (2)

·         Justifies the subject matter in terms of how it will capture the audience’s attention in a way that is only just sufficiently compelling: Target Audience (5) and Purpose/Message (6)

·         Considers several practicalities such as location, transport, talent choice and availability, props and the practicable timing of the shoots. 

The treatment:

·         explains the mood, structure and pace in a compelling way (Plot and Treatment extracts: 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)

·         demonstrates effective selection of various techniques such as the vox pops, fades and props to capture and command the audience’s attention (Treatment extracts 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)

·         explains how the plot and character, and the selection of various conventions effectively meet the brief of ‘Light and Darkness’ (4) and how these will be applied in the film (3). See also excerpts in the Treatment section (7, 8, 9, 10, 11).

Pre-production activities:

·         included a detailed storyboard and script and a production schedule which shows significant refinement and reworking (not included with these materials)

·         included location plans/photos, props list, crew and equipment details and wardrobe, including a comprehensive schedule as to which props and wardrobe are required for which shots (not included with these materials)

·         included all talent permissions (not included with these materials).

To meet Excellence more securely the student could:

·         refine the plot, particularly the motivation for Julia’s change and subsequent resolution to make it more compelling.  For example, just turning down another invitation from her friends is not portrayed with enough conviction, in either the plot synopsis or in the storyboard, to have turned Julia’s life around (see plot extract (3) from shots 42 onwards)

·         rework the script to contain more direction for actors’ performance and include further shots in the storyboard to portray the storyline in a compelling way (see above)

·         justify the concept and design in a more compelling way in terms of how it will command and capture the attention of its specific target audience by developing the statement:  “people in this 10 year age group may experience similar situations to the main character. This may include a social situation where one must try and figure out who is best for them to be with in either a class or just who to hang out with at break” (5) and linking it to the message that “balance is important in life”(6) which is relevant to this target audience

·         provide a more detailed and in-depth discussion of the stylistic elements of the film in the treatment. The student has covered too many elements in the treatment too briefly. For example, the student needs to provide more detail on the close ups to be used, not just of objects but of characters’ expressions, and on the music which is mentioned as “happy, upbeat, lively music” (7)

Below is the NZQA exemplar for Excellence for our 2.2 standard. 

To achieve this standard at Excellence the student needs to:

• demonstrate critical understanding of narrative in media texts

The student demonstrates critical understanding by examining the implication(s) of the contribution of at least two selected narrative features to narrative in media texts by:

• describing narrative features in the text:

• (Cliff hanger) The convention of the cliff used in Holloween is important to the narrative as it drives the audience to the unexpected and unknown thus creating the iconic fear from a slasher film.

•  supporting and illustrating good discussion with examples from the text:

• (Cliff hanger) An establishing bird’s eye view shot shows us the seemingly dead unstoppable masked killer on the ground, this leads to us to the conclusion Myers is dead and the climax was Laurie struggling against Myers’  killing attempts. However the music and shots continue until Loomis looks over the balcony again to regain his feeling of finally dealing with Myers.  But the reoccurring establishing bird’s eye view shot reveals the infamous cliffhanger of Halloween and the typical slasher unstoppable masked killer characteristic.

• examining the implications of the contribution of selected narrative features to narrative in the text:

• (Cliff Hanger) The unresolved climax is an important aspect of the slasher genre and usually exceeds the audience’s expectations to introduce sequels and more commercial productions…The cliff hanger drives the narrative towards the sense of Myers being the unstoppable psychotic and babysitter obsessed killer, this was the convention of the cliff hanger where his typical characteristic as unstoppable is emphasized. The narrative continues this sense throughout the film…this idea of fear lurks behind the wonder of how he can be this way and get away with the things he does, and it all links back to the cliff hanging enforced idea of Myers being unstoppable.

• Loomis’ revelation of Myers surviving and getting away not only enforces his typical UMK character but also drives the fear of the typical slasher through the open ending and sense that anything could happen next.

• Slasher is the genre that produces fear filled films that leave the audience (mostly teenage targeted) feeling unsafe in the place they consider the safest. The cliffhanger convention ensures this sense of unsafe and enforces the fear through the narrative of the unresolved  anti-climax stuation. Halloween has intentionally provided an open ending cliff hanger with a commercial agenda at hand. Halloween benefits from this convention from the fear induced audience coming back for more no matter how scared the movie before made them.

To meet a secure Excellence the student needs to examine the implication(s) of the contribution of selected narrative features to narrative in the text. The student could:

• focus on the wider consequences/implications of the the use of the selected narrative features in the media text and beyond. In particular, take a more critical look at how the cliff hangar convention drives the narrative with supporting examples from the text

• adopt a closer critique of the cliff hanger convention and the problems associated with it in the slasher genre – i.e. its overuse, audiences becoming too familiar with it.

The Descendents

I watched this film the same night as I watched Drive, which made it possibly the ultimate night in recent cinema. The Descendents captures something about being human and being imperfect that truly resonated. I particularly like Ty Burr’s comment: “I can’t think of another movie this year that made me laugh or weep harder for the whole lumpy business of being - the compromises and connections that get us through the day and somehow add up to entire lives.” I haven’t heard anything about Alexander Payne’s next project but I hope it won’t be too long.

Argo

Argo takes a political drama and somehow successfully unites it with a crowd pleasing Hollywood cliché. The ending is preposterous, but it doesn’t seem to matter as what Affleck does is he takes the elements of the story and then turns them into something cinematic and exciting without corrupting the material. It struck me watching the film, given I knew very little about 1970s Iran, how relevant this story is to our modern world. However, I have to hold my tongue when I consider the look-at-us-didn’t-we-do-well-so-authentic-credit-sequence. I’ll leave Wesley Morris with the final words: “Argo is absurdly suspenseful for both of its hours. I’ve never been this stressed-out watching people shred documents.”

How to Meet Girls From a Distance

The gem of the NZFF. I watched this in a full house Paramount with an outstanding audience. We laughed from the very first shot. The low budget scenario within which it was made provides a lot of great teaching tools for how I hope to use the film in class in 2013. But ultimately the whole film is just hysterical. See the trailer here. 

Holy Motors

Another NZFF experience and one I will never forget. I got completely lost in this film and defied my own logic by abandoning thinking and just gave in to the images that Carax had compiled. This really was a compilation. The episodes in the film each told a different (related?) story, capturing a different style. It was about cinema, the magic of the movies. It used genres, tropes, and the abstract and created confusion, scope and beauty. It seemed to day something about the nature of film and what it might be in the future. It said a lot about performance and the art of holding up a mirror to nature. It ventured into places that did not make sense, but I was not annoyed, I was intrigued, and I am still thinking about it now. It was one of the most fascinating experiences I have had in cinema.

Skyfall

This film is easy to include because out of all my cinema experiences in 2012, this one was the most fun. It was just fun. “A full-blooded, joyous, intelligent celebration of a beloved cultural icon.” After the mistake of Quantum of Solace where the filmmakers forgot it was James Bond and instead presented a sub-par action film, this one got it right. The character was treated in a new and exciting way, exploring a level of vulnerability that was new – but right – for Bond. The classic Bond elements like the Aston Martin and the Moneypenny reveal were just glorious. And Javier Bardem as the villain was the greatest Bond villain for a long time. A glorious success of a blockbuster.  

Due to the arrival of World War Two, psychological horror emerged – a distinct change from the ‘monster’ saturated, classic horror of the 1930s. Val Lewton’s psychological horror of the early 1940s involved “no masklike faces… no creaking physical manifestations. No horror piled on horror” (Val Lewton). In the 1930s, horror monsters were exotic – from far away – and were non-human in appearance. This distanced the audience from the film with Draculas, Frankensteins, werewolves and supernatural characters all belonging to a world that is not our own – fantasy. Cinema in the 1930s was an escapist toll – it was important that the horror presented did not hit too close to home as the genre was still in its infancy. The change in the genre, towards a psychological form of horror was motivated by change in society. Val Lewton was the filmmaker that led this development. His “work did much to parallel, invoke, and implicitly illustrate the unimaginable terrors of the Second World War” (Paul Wells). In the Cat People (1942), the audience never sees the monster, like in the pool scene where shadows and lighting suggest a presence rather than explicitly showing it. Lewton’s films reflect the 1940s zeitgeist. Because of World War Two, ordinary citizens like Lewton were seeing body bags return home from Europe and Asia. According to J C Loophole, “it’s partly what Lewton was on the home front that affected what the audiences saw on the screen.” The suggestive horror captured the fear of the unknown. Just as audiences could only imagine what was happening in the war, they were forced to imagine the terror that lurked in Lewton’s shadows, playing on our instinctual fear of the dark. Paul Wells suggested that the horror genre creates a space in which audiences can experience feelings that are normally taboo. The 1940s wave of psychological horror reacted to the shift in society and pushed the audience into exploring the anxieties associated with that time.

This infographic makes a claim for the long lasting and terribly damaging effects of horror films. Citing sleeplessness, trembling, and fevers as some of the resulting symptoms, it appears ridiculous to think that audiences are making conscious decisions to go and see these films.

Theories are vast when it comes to why we watch horror films. Karina Wilson over at Horror Film History asks:

do we derive basic thrills from triggering the rush of adrenalin which fear brings, or do horror stories serve a wider moral purpose, reinforcing the rules and taboos of our society and showing the macabre fate of those who transgress?

Within both purposes, the cinema offers a safe environment to experiences the thrills and the moral stories. Within the walls of a cinema complex, we may be in a dark and amongst strangers - but the long established cinema code of how we watch films is concrete. I personally find it a bit perverse going to the cinema to experience fear. But conversely, I love seeing a horror film for the second time with someone who hasn’t seen it before. There’s something quite deliciously delinquent about this experience. As Wes Craven put it:

I don’t think people like to be scared… They go to scary movies because they already have certain fears and the movies brings it out in a way that’s fun because you know you’re not going to get hurt…Something [gets] exercised, some terrible tension [gets] relieved momentarily and so it performs some sort of arcane service to the human psyche. Beyond that it is a mystery.

Further to these ideas, Paul Wells addresses the horror films in the context of the cinema in his book The Horror Genre: From Beelzebub to Blair Witch. In this he suggests:

The frisson of the horror text for the audience is underpinned by the expressed desire to experience feelings which relate to taboo agendas and the limits of gratification.

This underpins the genres appeal. The audience knows what to expect from a horror film. It will take them to their emotional extremes and generate a physical reaction. It will challenge, subvert and manifest social anxieties of the time.

Maybe, it all comes back to the genius of Val Lewton. He was among the first filmmakers to investigate the unknown. Society has a deep-rooted fear of the unknown. Ultimately is the purpose then finding a way for the unknown to entertain?

The Blair Witch Project (1999) was a significant film in the development of the horror genre; in particular it played an important role in bringing the psychological horror genre back into the cinema. As Roger Ebert put it in his review of the film, “The noise in the dark is almost always scarier than what makes the noise in the dark.”

The found footage film follows three amateur filmmakers making a documentary about the ‘Blair Witch’. Early scenes interview locals and build the backstory and details around the ‘myth’ of the Blair Witch. The trio then make their way into the woods where the Blair Witch supposedly lives and they are slowly pulled into the mystery. As they get further into the woods, the mystery is unravelled, and details assumed to be legend become the tangible experience of the filmmakers.

The effectiveness of the film comes through in the way that it recalls the spirit of Val Lewton’s original psychological horror. The Blair Witch Project relies entirely on the audience’s imaginations to invent the horror that they cannot see. The unseen is used effectively in the night scenes where the limitation of the torches and the darkness create a fear of what is lurking in the darkness. Films like The Cat People (1942) use the same principles of fear. What cannot be seen is far scarier for an audience who invents their own form of terror in their imaginations.

The Blair Witch Project is represents a change in the horror genre, a return to the psychological, that was possible because of the change in technology. Digital video and home recording devices were becoming more accessible and affordable towards the end of the 1990s. The implication of this is that anyone could become an amateur filmmaker. This resulted in a rise in the psychological horror genre, as the idea of the unseen monster and suggestive terror is accessible on a low budget. Unlike other genres the locations are typically domestic, and the demand for complicated effects is low.

The film is underpinned by modern anxieties, as the protagonists in the film completely lose control and get involved in a complete collapse of moral order. According to Paul Wells in his book The Horror Genre: From Beelzebub to Blair Witch in the genre “there is no certainty in existence and mankind lives in an amoral universe subject to a series of conflicts and confrontations”. This idea captures the fear inducing context of The Blair Witch Project. The characters become lost in the worlds, they are exposed to forces and powers beyond a rational understanding, and we watch them slowly lose hope and succumb to the deep-rooted fear of the unknown.

http://www.blairwitch.com/