'Experimental Film requires a different kind of spectatorship.' Has this been your experience?

'Experimental Film requires a different kind of spectatorship.' Has this been your experience? [35]

Experimental films are full of strange mixtures of images, situations, words and expressions that may not tell a cohesive story but, in the end, don't have to in order to achieve an emotional goal. This type of film therefore requires the spectator to shift their conventional cinematic expectations to accommodate more radical narrative techniques, themes and meaning construction. 

Un Chien Andalou, the infamous 1929 surrealist short film from Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, attests to this. I found this film quite hard to follow seeing as it was random and nothing in the film really added up. This is how I knew that it would have some kind of surrealism in it. This theory was then confirmed by a scene very close to the introduction, where there is a shot of Luis Brunel looking up at the moon as a cloud was coming towards it, the moon was a full moon so was circular like an eyeball. There was then an extreme close up of a womans face, and he has a sharp knife in his hand. He holds it next to her eye and then the moon shot it shown again, with the cloud going over the moon. This was symbolic as it implied what was going to happen next, the cloud represented the knife and the moon represented the eyeball as in the next shot Luis was shown cutting the womans eye. As I don't really enjoy abstract film too much because I find it hard to make sense of them, scenes where there is symbolism helps me understand the film more so I enjoyed this aspect. 
A scene like this where it showed something that had a shock factor was uncommon for this time, which for me implied that the whole film was trying to go against any mainstream ideas of film. 

Chris Marker became known internationally for the short film La Jetée (1962). It tells of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel by using a series of filmed photographs developed as a photomontage of varying pace, with limited narration and sound effects. Now add your personal response and discussion of spectatorship issues

Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is a work that maintains all of the mystery, tranquility, unpredictability, and personal attachment that is ever present within the world of dreams. Now add your personal response and discussion of spectatorship issues 

Reflective Analysis

Our video was intended to have similar conventions to other films studied in the Urban Stories genre. The films we studied were ChungKing Express, La Haine, City Of God and Princesses. We chose Chungking Express as our main inspiration especially regarding the films. We focused on a common aspect of Urban Story films and that is the idea that relationships are unsustainable, they cannot begin or end because there is always a form of conflict, something that stops it being established and/or lasting. In our film the conflict was the phone of the male character, it stopped the people from actually being able to carry out the hug that was seen as a vision. You can tell it's a vision as it zooms out from the male characters eye after cutting to where they aren't hugging. In retrospect, we may have used too many effects which may have left it looking a little too edited and perhaps cheap, which although it's common for urban story films to look like they were done on a low budget (as they usually are) they do not have many over the top effects such as the over use of smudge motion.

How far does the impact of film you have studied for this topic depend on distinctive uses of film techniques?

How far does the impact of film you have studied for this topic depend on distinctive uses of film techniques? - CLIP 11

http://www.slideshare.net/mattheworegan/la-haine-rev



For me, one of the most distinctive film techniques in "La Haine" (1995, directed by Matthew Kassovitz) is the idea of time constraint and how the audience is constantly reminded of the time. The restriction of a tightly confined time period is unusual for an entire film narrative, but is maybe a generic trait of films with young rebellious people as they are likely to be "up all night" whilst stranded due to their lack of resources, e.g public transport.

The time constraints reinforced the fact that the film is set in just a 24 hour period, so we only see one day into the three main characters (Siad, Hubert and Vinz) lives. The 24 hour film without sleep portrays a theme of adventure and uncommon experiences, but most of all concentrates on the limited time span which increases suspension and the hint that something is going to happen, keeping the audience drawn to the film. The suspense works by having a constant thing throughout the duration of the film to keep the audience wondering, for example, Vinzs gun left constant questions in my head as circumstances arrised where i wondered if the gun would be used. Another example is the constant reminder of the condition of Abdel in hospital, as if he died vinz would kill a police officer. These two constant suspense themes kept me watching as they tied in well together, as i assumed vinz would kill the police officer with the gun he acquired. The suspension is highlighted well in the very ending scene where the police officer accidentally kills vinz.    


 In this scene it's the only time where the clock is shown to be actually moving. Throughout the whole film the time flashes up with a non-diegetic sound of a clock ticking, but the transition does not show the clock actually changing time until now. There is a two shot wide angle of  hubert and the police officer staring down at Vinzs body after he was just shot, then after the time transition there is a wide shot from the other side, showing vinz's body on the ground, hubert and the police officer staring down at it still and siad looking at the police officer. They are all in disbelief of what have just happened. Personally I think the clock is shown to be changing at this point in order to highlight the fact that situations in this enviornment can escalate quickly with disasterous consequences, due to the access of weapons and de sensitisation of violence in the estate as they have been exposed the riots in paris in the 90's. It could also represent how Vinz is like a timebomb, and each tick click of the clock is like vinz getting closer and closer to snapping. This is shown in the scene where they terrorise the skinhead and go to shoot him. (Skinheads are white extremists who engage in racist behaviour, particularly towards immigrants.) In this scene Vinz is seen to be higher up than the skinhead with a gun pointed down at him which shows he is clearly in power in this situation. There's a close up of the skinheads face with a gun pointed to it from a high angle which reinstates who has the power here. You can see him pressing the gun further and further down onto his head, which shows he was getting nearer to snapping and just shooting him without any more thought. He pulls away last minute due to Huber's reverse psychology but it shows he was close, like a ticking bomb. It's also linked in with the metaphor of "so far so good" as it shows vinz being pushed to the edge but hasn't quite gone quite far enough yet to shoot him.
So, overall for me I think the time narrative in La Haine creates a sense of unease, the clock ticking brings tension and an aspect of suspense to the film which is magnified by the frustration shown by the three youths. By contrast, the opening montage of news footage of the riot emphasises the rush of adrenaline created by all of the riots, they are new and almost bring some kind of purpose to the lives of the boys as everything else is quite pointless on the estate. That could also be a use of the time constraints to show that at points nothing much is really happening to the boys and they have little purpose in life. For example in one scene they are seen to be sitting down not doing anything, then the time changes and they are still doing the same.

Annotated Catalogue

Subject/topic of study: Tim Burton
Focus of study: Alienation
Resources: 3 chosen films

Films:
Title Question:
Is the theme of alienation an aspect of Tim Burtons auteur work?

Item 1: Edward Scissorhands (1990)
I chose this as one of my focus films to display tim burtons auteur presence as he deals with the theme of character isolation. Edward here has been alienated by his neighbours (e.g Esmeralda) who refers to him as a "pervert of nature." Other characters also do this such as Joyce, and kims boyfriend. He is isolated from society due to his appearance, his hands are considered weird and abnormal.

Item 2: Charlie and the chocolate factory (2005)
This film shows a theme of isolation in the character "Charlie." He was a let down to his dad and he hides himself away in his factory. Alienating him from society.

Item 3: Beetlejuice (1988)
This film again focuses on isolation or alienation in the main character of Lydia - she is a goth and does not relate to her parents.Lydia might be taking herself a little too seriously, but she’s absolutely right: she’s an outsider, and it makes her special, and the fact is that everything that happens in Beetlejuice revolves around her from here on out, even if Barbara and Adam Maitland seem to be the more obvious protagonists.

WEBSITES

Item 4: http://drad15.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/essay-response-to-edward-scissor-hands/
This is a good piece of research as it's written by a student like me, it gives me an idea on how to structure my own ideas into sentences as well as it focuses a lot on how Edward Scissorhands is isolated in his life to show how he fits into the gothic genre. It talks about how certain things are set up in the film to highlight the isolation of his character for example the juxtapositioning between him and his setting.

Item 5: http://sbccfilmreviews.org/?p=4356
This piece of research is perfect for my presentation script as it focuses on edward scissors hands and charlie and the chocolate factory in a lot of depth as to how the main characters are alienated from their surroundings and how it is an auteur characteristic of Burton. It focuses on specifics in each film of how they are isolated.

INTERVIEWS
Item 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki2CtwigsDY
 This piece of research is very important as it shows Burton talking about what influenced his decision to make many of his main characters have a aspect of isolation or alienation from their surroundings, and says that he doesn't do it just to display his childhood feelings but also to display childhood feelings in general, maybe so more people can relate to his films. It also implies that as it's such a common theme in his films that he feels strongly about so includes it in all of them, it could suggest that Burton is in auteur due to this aspect.

BOOKS
Item 8: Burton on Burton - Edited by Mark Salisbury and foreword by Jonny Depp
This gave me more insight into why Burton uses themes of isolation in Edward scissor hands and also links it slightly to some more general points by saying that living alone and/or in a gothic place is a "regular dwelling place of numerous Burton characters." This could imply that it is an auteur aspect of his films. He says that the reason why Edward is isolated is because of how many people have a desire to be out of their lives, to go into something better but they're stuck where they are and the environment is white, like being inside a shoe box constantly. (page 98) After looking at this book it has also led me to look for more sources that provide information on other films, as a lot of my research has been focused on Edward Scissorhands at the moment, but the other ones need to have more in depth research for my script to be successful.

Item 9: "Teach Yourself Film Studies' by Warren Buckland"
  This is really important for my presentation script as it has a good description of what the auteur theory is, I need to have a sound understanding of what the auteur theory entails in order for me to apply it to Burtons films and recognise common themes and aspects that could be considered auteur to have a coherent presentation script. You could argue this is one of the most vital pieces of research as it's the basis for my whole script. 

Item 10: http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/article/56993.html
This picture is of the director whom I am chosing to focus on, Tim Burton. I am using this at the start of my presentation to introduce Burton and to give an insight of his background. I am doing this as I feel it will not only make the presentation more interesting to watch, but also most importantly it will open up a discussion topic regarding alienation as an auteur characteristic style from Tim Burton as his auteur style is a reflection of his childhood background.

Item 11: http://skymovies.sky.com/edward-scissorhands/gallery-edward-scissorhands
This picture is of Edward Scissorhands

REJECTED ITEMS:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111126155130AAkISen
Although this does refer to the common themes of tim burtons work and looks slightly into the theme of alienation, I feel that this source is not reliable enough for me to take information from it and include it in my presentation script with confidence as I can't tell if what is being said is true or not. There are also other sites that focus more in depth on common themes of Tim Burton films that would enhance my presentation script as it would be more elaborated.

FILM: Sweeney Todd
Although this film does show some themes of alienation and isolation regarding the main character Sweeney, I feel that it is not as clearly shown as the other films. I am also less familiar with this film, so i don't have as much of an in depth idea of what themes the film consists of in comparison to Burtons other films. Before researching, I did have it as a possible choice for my three films however after doing my research I found less useful information on this film than my other choices so I decided not to go with it. It's easier to use the other films as my chosen three as with more research information from lots of different reliable sources it will make it easier to shape a well written script which I found I just couldn't do with this film choice.