Auteur Study is the idea that the Film is the sole creative vision of the Director. Ofcourse not all Director's cna call themselves Auteur's, but the things we look at in Auteur study, espcially signatures. All media makers tend to carry signatures over from project to project. I think the Auteur study helps us to read signatures, see synergies and understand what the each elemtn means, giving us a more indepth view.
I used a clear and well written example, Stanley Kubrick. He is known for his signatures in composition, shot type, colour contrast as well as use of narrative and character. Kubrick's work is often up for discussion, and he is known as one of the definitve Auteurs. So, can we apply the same ideas to other films, even other media?
Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, best known for the Channel 4 show Peep Show, recently put out the first series of new comedy Fresh Meat. Despite having different narratives, stories and characters, the audience can pick up signatures in the writing and themes. Firstly, look at the settings of both shows. They both feature the residence of the characters as the main setting. Peep Show features a flat that's a bit of a dump, while Fresh Meat features a student house that's a bit of a dump. Next the characters. Peep Show has a pair of mismatched friends, a middle class accountant type and an unemployed musican. Similarly in Fresh Meat, the main set of characters are all from different social backgrounds, with posh kids, poor kids, smart and dumb etc. The writing then makes all the different characters collide, and cause funny situations.
This is an example of signatures, not even from Directors, but just media creatives. The same idea can be applied to all media types. Comic Book writer Frank Miller always uses inner monolgoues and black and white visuals, Rockstar Games always use the same GPS style map in the corner, and tend to have hidden commentories on capitalist society. Doing the initial Auteur study has helped me understand individuals always have influence on an overall piece and that they carry signatures from piece to piece.
I can then look at signatures, not thinking about them in the context of two or three films, but to further understand why a device or signature has been used. For example, tacking a thought from my submitted Film Analysis, you can see Kubrick uses the contrasting Red in a number of films. Ofcourse many directors use colours in their films, so why is this thought important? Well, when you see high contrast in a handful of examples, you start asking why it's used? In this case, it could be to show Man against machine, or in another, to show subconcious violence.
Auteur Study and the study of Semitoics and signatures gives us the groundwork to analyse all media formats, and think about how the Audience takes it, Why cerain creators get fanbases?What ideas and idealogies are being put through to us? It helps us analyse film.
Sunday 16 October 2011
Film Analysis - Narrative
Part 2 of our film analysis involves an integral element of any Film, Narrative and it's various Structures. Narrative is the story of a piece, and so applies to all forms of media, spoken word and storytelling in general. This makes it a important element and one Film Studies students can use to apply to texts, understanding how stories develop, how to keep the audience interested and how to build character and relationships.
With this is mind we have looked at Narrative Theorsits, the people that write theories on story telling structure. There are many examples of Theorists, all with theories on both story, themes and characters as the integral element in Narrative.
The classic theory, which can pretty much be applied to any form of storytelling is Aristotle, which simply uses a Start, Middle, End, three act sequence. There is a set up, a problem and then the problem is solved. Interestingly, Aristotle and Propp created their theories before the influence of cinema, focusing on storytelling, from theatre to folk tales.
A better example of a Narrative Theorist who looked primarily at film was Field. He wrote Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, and developed his theories taking the work of predecessors such as Aristotle and Todorov, looking at how films used turning points, cause and effect and pinches to keep the audiences' attention and reinforce narrative development. His work and that of Todorov and Vogler had Start Middles and end's and used the idea there is equilibrium in the world of the characters, the world is then disturbed, the characters fight to return it to normal, and there is a return to equilibrium.
Other Theorists used elements other than Acts and key scenes to describe and create narrative structure. Propp, Levi-Strauss and Barthes focused on other things, Propp on character, Levi-Strauss on binary opposites and Barthes on 5 defining "codes" to be applied to scenes or full stories. These Theorists saw importance in the internal elements that gave drive to the story. Propp's character focus emphasises individual relationships with the main character as the way of charting story. Levi-Strauss' binary opposites of good and evil for example are clear in popular cinema like Star Wars. George Lucas. USA. 1977. Barthes' 5 codes of Narrative are listed below:
The Proairetic Code: Whereby the audience guesses what will happen next.
The Semantic Code: Whereby the audience can take more from the piece than just it's face value.
The Symbolic Code: Whereby the audience can take a deeper meaning than semantics and face value.
The Cultural Code: Whereby the piece is set on pre-existing ideas.
With this is mind we have looked at Narrative Theorsits, the people that write theories on story telling structure. There are many examples of Theorists, all with theories on both story, themes and characters as the integral element in Narrative.
The classic theory, which can pretty much be applied to any form of storytelling is Aristotle, which simply uses a Start, Middle, End, three act sequence. There is a set up, a problem and then the problem is solved. Interestingly, Aristotle and Propp created their theories before the influence of cinema, focusing on storytelling, from theatre to folk tales.
A better example of a Narrative Theorist who looked primarily at film was Field. He wrote Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, and developed his theories taking the work of predecessors such as Aristotle and Todorov, looking at how films used turning points, cause and effect and pinches to keep the audiences' attention and reinforce narrative development. His work and that of Todorov and Vogler had Start Middles and end's and used the idea there is equilibrium in the world of the characters, the world is then disturbed, the characters fight to return it to normal, and there is a return to equilibrium.
Other Theorists used elements other than Acts and key scenes to describe and create narrative structure. Propp, Levi-Strauss and Barthes focused on other things, Propp on character, Levi-Strauss on binary opposites and Barthes on 5 defining "codes" to be applied to scenes or full stories. These Theorists saw importance in the internal elements that gave drive to the story. Propp's character focus emphasises individual relationships with the main character as the way of charting story. Levi-Strauss' binary opposites of good and evil for example are clear in popular cinema like Star Wars. George Lucas. USA. 1977. Barthes' 5 codes of Narrative are listed below:
The Hermeneutic Code: Whereby there are unexplained, mysterious elements to the audience.
The Proairetic Code: Whereby the audience guesses what will happen next.
The Semantic Code: Whereby the audience can take more from the piece than just it's face value.
The Symbolic Code: Whereby the audience can take a deeper meaning than semantics and face value.
The Cultural Code: Whereby the piece is set on pre-existing ideas.
- Structures come in many form's but many of the principles in each different theories cross over. It is about applying the right theorists to the right film, based on it's structure.
Narratives can be open or closed. For example, Sit Coms like The Simpsons work using the Todorov structure where all issues raised in the episode are resolved by the end and are ready to be disturbed again next episode. Each episode has a closed narrative where all loose ends are tied up.
Films are almost always closed narratives unless part of a series. Usually, all plot points are solved, however some films are ambiguous and open with their endings, letting the audience decide what the outcome will be be, for instance 2001: A Space Odyssey. Stanley Kubrick. UK/USA. 1968.
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