film 202 - Field Report 3 - Part two: survey

Filmmaking today is being overtaken by motives concerning mainstream profiting and less concerning artistic expression.

Film 202 - Field Report 3 - Part two: journal article

This article, titled "Auteurism and commerce in contemporary Spanish cinema: directors mediaticos", concerns the transitional stage cinema is currently facing, such as diminishing theater audiences due to online film viewing, a increasing number of product placements, as well as the overall mainstreaming of cinema, and how certain groups and individual filmmakers are reacting to this. The first topic covered in the article is the growing amount of product placements in cinema due to a more prevalent need for such advertising to compete with the advent and popularity of the internet and television. The article sites Spanish cinema specifically and curtails its scarce market for such advertising - "Nowadays cinema means publicity and that does not come cheap...and there is no money in Spanish cinema for those activities - advertising, publicity and marketing." An online magazine called ClubCultura was formed in recognition of the changes occurring in cinema and offers a way for Spanish filmmaking to gain the advertising necessary for its survival. The website contains detailed information regarding famous auteurs like Pedro Almodovar and Alejandro Amenabar and offers forums allowing for discussion of many cinema related topics. A paradoxical view of this database is explored when the article states, "in promoting filmmakers as auteurs they undermine the usual romantic view of authorship by presenting it as a marketing device." While debate on this topic continues plans are being made to allow films to be viewed on the website in the near future. In the meantime web browser's may enjoy postings by filmmakers who chronicle their current production through an online diary. This kind of networking has created a new relationship between the filmmaker and the viewer - "The filmmaker's webpages make it easy to create and perpetuate a cult of personality around individual auteurs." This website, and others like it, have certainly caught on to the public and may or may not prove to remedy the holes in the Spanish cinema market in the long run. Many filmmakers, like Isabel Coixet, use the Internet as a form of self-promotion allowing for her to distinguish herself from other filmmakers and further her already established status as an auteur. The article concludes with a traditional view of auteurism by saying, "auteurism is, if anything, adaptable, and wherever films are marketed auteurism will surely follow."

For me this article reinforced my notion of cinema’s slow transition to the Internet and the possibilities it may open to the trade as well as complications. The website mainly focused on in this article, ClubCultura.com, puts an emphasis on mainstream cinema and famous auteurs but I would like to see these kinds of online resources used to aid in the promotion of independent cinema as well. With all this attention geared toward mainstream cinema regarding profits and other finances there should be a more prevalent recognition of indie cult followings throughout the web. I am surprised at this and believe much good could come from its promotion throughout cinema. I have always placed films in these two categories – mainstream and independent – and strongly believe that both are necessary to the survival of cinema. It seems too much strain is being put on the mainstream.

Film 202 - Field Report 3 - Part one: "Deeparture"

This piece seemed to work as an ironic displacement between the animals and their natural habitat and between image and sound. I say "ironic" because we generally associate the natural habitat belonging to these animals with tranquility and flowing sounds, sometimes even silence. The deer in particular is an animal that is almost completely silent in nature yet its sound, along with everything else in the piece, is extracted. When first viewing this piece what becomes immediately apparent is the animal's placement out of context in a white room that reflects the silence. What follows is your realization of the lack of sound. In my opinion this film would be nothing if it was presented with sound because then we would only be seeing animals in a white room. The exclusion of sound offers an extra dimension into a realm connecting these animals with their natural habitat. Our common perception of nature as being a quiet and tranquil place is essential to the concept of this piece. Mircea Cantor’s driving force behind "Deeparture" surely came from her own perception of nature and may be related to what Aaron Ximm says in one of his essays, "I ignore and elide over equally natural ways of working with sound (or in sound art) outside of my own experience."

Film 202 - Field Report 3 - Part one: "Three Songs"

Nathaniel Dorsky's silent piece, "Three Songs", harnesses the exclusion of sound to create a memory bank of vivid images that we may relate to our own process of remembering. The films present an array of seemingly non-related images in such a way that allows you to take them for yourself without any forced notion of meaning or greater significance posed by the filmmaker. The tight framing of the visuals assists in lending them to a more abstract basis eliminating the demand for an aural medium. Aaron Ximm believed that returning to a sound recording does not offer an adequate representation of the event, which may never truly be experienced again, but establishes a basis for the collective viewers to “collaborate on”. Dorsky’s “Three Songs” is a good example of this theory offering much for viewers to ponder throughout its silent beauty.

Film 202 - Journal Report 1 - article 2

The second article I read, titled "The viewers have...taken over the airwaves'? Participation, reality TV an approaching the audience-in-the-text" by Su Holmes, comments on how contemporary media evokes a new kind of relationship between the viewer's activeness in watching programs like reality TV and the characters on-screen. This form of media is said to bring about a degree of 'self-consciousness" in the viewer since reality TV shows depict actual people in real situations. Devices like mobile phones, the Internet, text messaging, and digital TV all contribute to the interactivity of media and its globalization. The article also explores the validity of one's image on a reality TV show and how rather than depicting an individual as they are the "television frame" acts as a "form of distorted mirror" that "assigns status" to a character. The viewer is also stressed as an active participant in reshaping the media by how it is perceived. It is not only television that is experiencing changes due its manner of being viewed but other forms of mass media as well. The "text" conveyed by the all powerful cathode ray is under constant scrutiny by its audience either consciously or subconsciously which has led to continual change.

Film 202 - Journal Report 1 - article 1

The first article I read, titled "Grizzly ghost: Herzog, Bazin and the cinematic animal" by Seung-Hoon Jeong and Dudley Andrew, primarily analyses Werner Herzog's 2005 documentary "Grizzly Man" and its meta-realistic perspective of death. "Grizzly Man" is a documentary of Timothy Treadwell, a loyal "protector" of an endangered species of bear in Alaska, and the 100 hours of footage he took of his life among the bears until his ironic death, as well as his girlfriend's, from being eaten by the animal he swore to protect. Unique philosophies are explored in the article regarding death - how we cannot actually depict death in cinema because no one alive has experienced it - and that Herzog, opposed to Treadwell, was the real "adventurer" of this film since it was he who returned to the site of danger. The article comments on how Treadwells presence (or "voice") in the film lends itself to what Andre Bazin calls the "Mummy Complex" - "Herzog's cinema of risk aims to embalm not life but death". Herzog, one of the most daring filmmakers of all time, was able to reincarnate Timothy Treadwell with "Grizzly Man" and bring the audience as close as possible to the most unknown stage of life - death. This article on contemporary cinema was quite an interesting read since it dealt not only with the technical aspects of Herzog's films but was also very analytical of his work from multiple perspectives.

Film 202 - Field Report 2

The two works I would like to discuss are the "Infinity Chamber" and the piece consisting of an interactive light boundaries projected onto the floor (I do not recall the name of this work). The "Infinity Chamber" is a work that, unlike most of the other interactive pieces that encourage social interaction, can be experienced independently or accompanied by two other people. I found the most effective approach to the chamber when I examined its inner walls very closely - almost touching the glass with my nose. As I stared into the infinite bits of light I felt completely immersed in cube’s vastness which may be considered illusion or enlightenment depending on the participant. As I scanned my eyes up and down the endless chasms of light the work seemed to attempt sparking my senses with disorientation between abstraction and material persuading critical thought as to how closely they may be related. For those willing to lend themselves to the piece it may test their imagination as it simultaneously isolates the participant while opening the eye to a perception, or misperception, of endless space. The "Infinity Chamber" really gives you the vision to gaze into the potential of your ordinary surroundings in three dimensions. It is like you are peering into a dream. Dreams give us the illusion we are going places while isolated within our minds. The "Infinity Chamber" strives for the same kind of vision encouraging thought outside the box.

The interactive piece involving the formation and deformation of beams of light between active subjects within a large square on the floor (I do not recall the name) may have been my favorite. To me its simplicity and consistency drew me to it and the definite socialization it provokes since its function is based on a given number of people within the space. Again, this piece encourages a new perspective not only of how we view the space surrounding us but also interact with it. I found myself doing things I wouldn't normally do like taking off my jacket and laying it down to create a non-living participant that became boxed in by the light beams. In this environment your creativity is provoked through interactive boundaries.

It seems these are the works of art for the new generation. Works on canvas may be just as interactive depending on how you perceive it visually as an art but these new electronic pieces try associating themselves with an era accustomed to innovatively creative mediums like the Internet and computer games. Though the "Infinity Chamber" is an older work than the other it still has an immersive quality that attracts generations young and old through its uniqueness apart from complex electronics. The other work possesses a similar quality but has been created by a later generation running on an interactive computer program.