Workshop one
Watching for Entertainment versus Watching for Research and Analysis There is a difference between consuming this art and analyzing art.
Casual discussions of media with friends, or in reviews, blog posts, and so on, are often rooted around whether or not we enjoyed a text and/or would recommend it to others. Theis can even be an informal setting.
The emotional response is a huge part of what is bing shown to the viewer
Some critics have generated sizable audiences by presenting a performative dislike of certain media texts.
Analyzing Media We need objective analysis rather than subjective opinion
‘To create an informed argument, you must first recognize that your writing should be analytical rather than personal. In other words, your writing must show that your associations, reactions, and experiences of a film have been framed in a critical, rather than personal, way’ (Gocsik, Barsam, and Monahan, 2019, p. 2).
You can still put a point a view forward it need to support in with actual evidence and evaluating sources
The auteur theory – the great artist – means director as the author; the director is the principal source from which the film derives its creative meaning
Stuart hall – reception theory – Preferred reading, oppositional reading or negotiated reading.
Anti-intentionalism maintains that a work’s meaning is entirely determined by linguistic and literary conventions and rejects the relevance of authorial intent.
Audiences have power
Case study
A Polish film by Daniel Szczechura.
Also known as Podróż or Voyage(1970)
Emotionally – I found it really grating the high pitch screeching fully made me angry. But other than that the repetition was calming and soothing but in bult tension because the music wasn’t relaxing. Then the harsh transition to the living town he walked into the building and out. The col
Emotional reaction can be the jumping off point to an academic writing
Think about directions intent and viewers interpretation
A dialogue on the monotonous of our life the lake of face makes it so we can impose ourselves over the person. It does take stock of the surroundings because there’s nothing else left. He moves the society but he is never part of it. How are you an individual without the comparison to a person. The color scheme makes him blend into the journey. The lack of sound in the town. The sharp difference to the silence of the town was weird. The lack of things makes you think of yourself because nothing happens. Followed by a dead stare into the viewer.
There is no pay off might be why there is angry response
The Journey as an Alternative to the Mainstream? The Hollywood model of cinemia is not followed so it might be given an alternative to that.
Challenges our perceptions about what animation had to or can be.
The film is:
Non-comedic
Slow-paced
Contains no elaborate transformations or abstraction.
The Journey was made with a much lower budget than the usual Hollywood releases.
The Journey as ‘anti-cinema’
Sometimes referred to as ‘slow’ or ‘contemplative cinema’ (see Jaffe, 2014).
Potentially mischievous? Or an attempt to make us reflect on the small details?
We become active rather than passive viewers. There is potentially no definitive meaning and so we have to work harder to take something away.
The meaning is it has no meaning
Find value in differently paced production.
A Political Message?
Polish cinema of this period is often inhibited by censorship and restrictions imposed by what has been viewed by an ‘oppressive’ totalitarian regime (Haltof, 2002, p. xi).
Szczechura’s films are often believed to be subtly highlighting the ‘absurdities [of] reality’ in this political climate (Haltof, 2015, p. 16).
Does the repetitive, lifeless nature of the animation hint at cultural criticism that could not be more openly expressed?
Is there greater significance to the man’s journey – and its location – than we are told?
The Artist’s Intention
Daniel Muzyczuk claims that Daniel Szezechura planned The Journey simply as ‘a depiction of the director’s home town [of] Warsaw to Łódź, where he was working in the film industry’ (2017, p. 138).
Researching an artist’s statement of intent can be useful, but should not be taken at face value.
A filmmaker may improperly articulate his/her creative motives
in order to gain critical favour.
because he/she has forgotten the original intention.
(and so on…).
Art books and interviews do not necessarily offer as objective an overview as a scholarly essay.
Case Study 2 Nimbus libéré (1944)
An animation made in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War. Intended as propaganda to convince French civilians to put their trust in the German forces rather than the Allies.
The director Raymond Jeannin later claimed that “he had attempted to sabotage his own work” by using the appeal of the Hollywood characters to counteract the anti-American tone (Delporte, 2001, p. 371).
An insight into the resistive powers of the filmmaker, or an attempt to sidestep blame after the war?
Own Interpretation
Each viewer brings his/her own set of experiences and inferences to the viewing of a film – meaning is not set in stone. You are welcome to make your own interpretation of a film, but it must be carefully argued – again, with verifiable evidence, rather than just presented as an opinion.
Consider, for instance, analyses of The Wizard of Oz (1939) (Doty, 2002; Michel, 2018), or the Rankin-Bass special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) (Dubowsky, 2016, pp. 178-179; Maier, 2019), which suggest the potential for LGBTQ+ readings.
Such interpretations were likely not intended by the creators, or – at the very least – would not have been possible to discuss openly at the time of original release
Personal Narrative
You are welcome to choose films that mean something to you, but be mindful of the role of personal narrative in the development of the work’s central thesis. It can be a helpful jumping-off point, but not necessarily a statement itself.
For example, ‘I wanted to study the South Park movie because my mum would not let me watch it when I was a child’ as a singular experience might potentially be viewed as too subjective for a scholarly essay, but the underlying premise raises issues of censorship, the expected audience of animation, and so on, that could be usefully analysed.
A short guide to writing about film – Timothy Corrigan
Writing about movies – Karen Gocsik, Dave Monahan, Richard Barsam
Essential cinema – Jon Lewis