Coursework 3 - The Michael Bain Of My Life

It should come as no surprise that in a world driven by capitalism, Hollywood today is only motivated by its own political economy. Producing hollow soulless films that lack any true authenticity and/or originality. This recurring financial attitude to cinema is slowly but surely reducing film from an artistic development; to nothing more than mainstream recycled rubbish. Whereby we find ourselves watching different movies with exactly the same core structure. In fairness, mass methods of producing movies only exist to feed our endless apatite for the biggest and latest releases, or more appropriately dubbed ‘the blockbuster phenomena.’ But in the end, at what cost does this obsession with popular culture and money ultimately have on the films we know and love?

Michael bay, for want of a better word, 'directed' the films Transformers 3 and Armageddon, among with many other blockbuster hits. These two films perfectly reflect the extent to which Michael Bay has conformed to the pressure from Hollywood and adopted this mainstream attitude to filmmaking standards and techniques.

Transformers 3 on the surface, is an exciting movie about robots from the planet Cybertron, that live among humans to protect and serve from enemies in space. Yet underneath its conventionally scripted plot, it’s actually a mixing pot of everything its target audience would expect to find in this specific genre. There is in fact nothing unique about it at all. It follows the same conventional narrative structure that you’d find in most Hollywood films. The exact same plot scenario happens to also occur in Armageddon, another one of Michael bay's earlier films. These particular narratives are called "a hero’s journey."  The vast majority of these types of narratives are exactly the same sequence by sequence. They push the hero and major characters through the process of transformation, until they have changed or fulfilled some kind of inner destiny, or in this case saved the world. Unsurprisingly, these journeys that our main protagonists go through are yet again not too dissimilar. For instance the equilibrium in Transformers 3 is exactly the same compared to Armageddon. They both begin peaceful in a world of normality where everything seems fine, and then all of a sudden something goes wrong, they fix it, it breaks again, then right at the last minute the worlds saved the hero gets the girl, and they literally walk off into the sunset. Both are your quintessential action movies, relying heavily on CGI and the occasional explosion so we can justify our own reasoning for buying a ticket to an “action movie.”

We can also look at how these films are completely Americanized. For one, in Transformers 3 and Armageddon the main characters are all American. considering that both films are about saving the world, then surely we would see some sort of varying ethnic group appear at least once. However, the foreigners that do appear in the films are based on racial stereotypes and are often portrayed as evil or stupid. 

                                  
                                                                                                                    

This surely demonstrates that the "poison factory" that is Hollywood (Michael Medved) is narrow minded and incapable of comprehension outside of its own culture.

                           

                             

It might also be worth noting from a technical perspective, that the majority of Hollywood productions generally tend to follow the same colour scheme. Using teal of orange to produce unnaturally orange skin tones against a blue background, which creates this glamorized unnatural look. These tones are today used as a preset for the foundation of Hollywood’s make up in cinema. Ready and waiting for the next big release this generic approach is easy, dependable, and cost efficient. Yet lacks any originality.

Micheal bay is nothing more that a puppet, conforming to mainstream filmmaking as result of the tight strings that Hollywood has in place. Yet with Armageddon grossing $201,578,182 worldwide and Transformers 3 taking in $352,390,643, this trend of quantity over quality in this mass producing film fashion is clearly not slowing down. But again i ask the question, at what cost?

References:

Box Office Mojo. [Online] Available from: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/search/?q=transformers. [Accessed on 06 March 2013]

Simon, C. (2009) Dominant vs Counter cinema [Online] Available at: http://filmtheoryandcriticism.wordpress.com/research-topics-source-materials/new-wave/dominant-vs-counter-cinema/  (Accessed on 02 March 2013).

Medved. M., 1992. Hollywood vs. America: Popular Culture and the War on Traditional Values. [online] Available from  from: http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780060924355 [Accessed online 03 March 2013]

Coursework 2 - The Coen Brothers: Standing Out From The Crowd

 Keeping it in the family

An auteur is someone who is praised in the film industry for excellence in creativity, originality and artistic vision (Kyser) defines auteur theory "As the director being the personal creative vision behind a film."

Joel and Ethan Coen, collectively known in the film industry as the Coen Brothers, are to many critics not considered to be amongst the greatest film directors of all time. For the sole reason that they have only created a total of 18 films in their career. However, their body of work extends much further than the title of a 'director' would have us believe. The Coens write, edit, produce and direct all of their productions, giving them total control from beginning to end. Above all this gives them a freedom in their films from which they are able to demonstrate the qualities of a true auteur.
With a career spanning over 29 years, 18 films in total may not seem like that many when you compare it to the likes of Martin Scorsese, whose work includes a total of 65 films. Yet I would argue that the quality of their films in terms of originality, technical abilities and cultural awareness places them amongst the greatest Filmmakers of their time.  

"The Coens make films that are highly self-conscious of their relationship to preexisting film forms. Their movies rely upon a base of knowledge, cultural and film historical, that is presumed to be shared between themselves and their viewers."

When you watch a Coen Brothers movie, you sit down and immediately expect to expect something that will challenge your view of normality and push the boundaries of cinema to the limit.

As independent filmmakers, the pair are able to take a genre like comedy, thriller or action and mesh them together combined with their own unique style, and produce a genre of movies that belongs only to them.  Using the idea of fantasy as a fundamental element to their films, they manage to portray the uninteresting, mundane situations of real life; while continually disengage the viewers perception of normality through the use of fantasy and illusion. But they only manage to achieve this Coen-esc style through specific camera angles, dark, noir influenced lighting and most importantly, a dialogue that centres around their fascination with the development of characters in surreal environments.

The Big Labowski

'The Big Lebowski’ released in 1998 was at first a disappointment at the US Box Office. But over time, the film has become a cult classic renowned for its fictional characters, dream sequences and unconventional dialogue.

No Country For Old Men

 

‘No Country For Old Men’ was released in 2007 and is regarded by many critics as the Coen Brothers finest film. Its a an American crime thriller set in 1980 West Texas, focusing on greed, money and an unconventional twist on the classic good Vs evil motif. Written by Cormac McCarthy, It stands today as the only film the Coens have made that they haven’t created entirely themselves.

Barton Fink 

 

‘Barton Fink’ is unquestionably one of the greatest films of all time. Released in 1991 the movie is a surreal interpretation of the decent of the golden age of cinema. In- fact ‘Barton Fink’ could even be said to reflect the Coen’s own distaste for the non-creative world of Hollywood. Yannick Dahan, describes the film as “A society where myth has blurred with reality.”

In each of these films you’ll also notice that they all centre around the same key themes and motifs. Which are greed, corruption and stupidity.

 (The Coen Brothers)
"One of the reasons for making them simple-minded was our desire to go against the Hollywood cliché of the bad guy as a super-professional who controls everything he does. In fact, in most cases criminals belong to the strata of society least equipped to face life, and that’s the reason they’re caught so often. In this sense too, our movie is closer to life than the conventions of cinema and genre movies."

These re-occurring themes have brought the directors great commercial success in mainstream cinema, but whats rare to see, is that they’ve still managed to maintain some sort of independent atmosphere within their productions.




You will also notice throughout these movies that the brothers rely heavily on surreal imagery and dark noir lighting, from which they have clearly been influenced from the likes of Felleni and Pollanski. Take for instance 'Barton Fink' and the use of repeated close ups of the walls pealing and the room closing in on him.








Another key trademark of the Coen Brothers franchise is the fact they frequently use the same actors in the majority of their films. Casting the likes of John Goodman, Steve Buscem, Frances McDormand and John Turturro in nearly all of their productions.





The Coen Brothers are much more than just writers, directors and producers. They stand out in a crowd of money driven mass media film monsters, and come out as artistic "procumers" in their own right. Producing, directing and writing the films that they would wish to consume for themselves.

References:

Carolyn R. Russell, The Films of Joel and Ethan Coen, McFarland & Company, Jefferson, 2001, p. 5

Ciment. M., and  Niogret, H.,  Closer to Life than the Conventions of Cinema.  in Paul A. Woods (ed.), Joel & Ethan Coen: Blood Siblings, p. 159

Dahan, Y.,  2000.  From Dream to Reality: The Films of the Coen Brothers.  in Paul A. Woods (ed.), Joel & Ethan Coen: Blood Siblings, Plexus, London, , p. 176

Giurgiu. L., 2008. The Procumer And Consequence Of The Web. [Online]. Available from:  http://www.ris.uvt.ro/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/giurgiubirsan.pdf.  [Accessed 2 March 2013]

Kyser, 2009. The Auteur: Martin Scorsese. [online]. Eblogger. Available from: http://jackkyser.blogspot.com/2009/08/auteur-martin-scorsese.html [Accessed 6 March].

Coursework 1 - The 5 Most Defining Moments In Cinema Pre 1930

1. A Trip To The Moon 

Georges Méliès ‘A Trip To The Moon’ was released in 1902. It exists to this day as one of the most influential films of its time. Georges Méliès gift as a filmmaker lied in his ability to explore the realm of fantasy in his movies, and show people a world outside of their own lives that they could have never imagined.  It literally was the first science fiction movie that the world had ever seen, demonstrating the full extent of its originality through its experimental use of animation and special effects. Without this fictional element of fantasy in motion picture, we would all be sat in the cinema watching the story of our own lives go past us; and the enchantment of cinema would be lost without visionary artists like Georges Méliès, who in many ways, has paved the path for contemporary film and shaped the way we view cinema entirely.

2.  Battleship Potemkin

‘Battleship Potemkin’ is a Silent motion picture released in 1925, directed by Sergei Einstein. Initially the film was made to be used as the most influential propaganda film of all time. Einstein also experimented on various audiences with the effect of film editing, cutting the clips together in specific ways to produce the greatest possible emotional reaction.

The Odessa steps scene is perhaps the most memorable scene in the motion picture, striking for its violence and truly captivating cinematography. Einstein’s editing techniques mixed with his ability to evoke emotion and engage a mass audience proved extremely effective. He basically invented the language of advertisement, in terms of semiotics and the juxtaposition of imagery. Not only this, but he also coined the ‘30 degree rule’ that has become commonplace in film making today.

3. Arrival Of A Train 

The Film ‘Arrival Of A Train’ is credited for being the first film to be shown in a cinema. Made in 1895 the short black and white film directed by the Lumiere Brothers today holds its place in history as one of the most iconic moments in cinema. The myth would have us believe when the film was first shown the audience were so overwhelmed by the moving image of a life size train coming towards the them, that they would scream and run to the back of the room over fear that the image would burst through piercing the screen.

The Lumiere Brothers attempt to scare the public was deliberate, they knowingly positioned the kinetograph as close to the train as possible to evoke a sense of fear and awe, the likes of which the world had never seen. Simultaneously, this gave birth to the idea of fantasy through the illusion of cinema and carved the path of the motion picture.



4. The Jazz Singer 

 The American musical ‘The Jazz Singer’ was released in 1927 and is arguably one of the most - if not the most - defining films in the early stages of cinema history. Directed by Alan Crosland, it was the first feature length motion picture to have synchronized dialogue sequences, marking the birth of sound in motion pictures and simultaneously heralding the decline of the silent movie.‘The Jazz Singer’ is considered a  cinematic landmark. "It convinced spectators that recorded sound could be more than a short film novelty or a feature accompaniment, that they wanted film to talk." It sparked a change in Hollywood that would later catalyze its rise into what we call today the golden age of cinema. After its release the motion picture was never the same, actors were now hired for their vocal abilities and the iconic musical numbers that featured in the film changed the surface of modern cinema at the time.



5. The Birth Of A Nation 

D. W. Griffiths ‘The birth Of A Nation’ is one of the most controversial films of its time. The silent 1915 drama was controversial for its racist implications throughout its content. In the same year of its release it was used as a recruiting tool for the KKK. Clearly this wasn’t just a political or social stance from Griffiths perspective, as even during the making of the motion picture, the African American men who appeared on screen were merely white men who had painted themselves black. Yet, if we put aside its dark and unethical content for a moment. We begin to look at the movie as a piece of art that can be considered a revolution in the medium of film. Credited for its technical achievements in its use of specific camera angles, composition and continuity editing, it gave birth to the standard use of  a more coherent narrative structure in film. Critics such as Roger Ebert, have said: "The Birth of a Nation is not a bad film because it argues for evil. Like Riefenstahl’s, Triumph of the Will, it is a great film that argues for evil.”

 References:

Elbert, R., 2003. The Birth Of A Nation (1915). [online]. Available from: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030330/REVIEWS08/303300301/1023. [Accessed 04 March 2013].

Sklar, R., 1993. Film: an international history of the medium. London: Thames and Hudson.