MACS 100 Test 1

Subjective POV shots

"looking through someone's eyes"

White savior film

"messianic white character saves a lower- or working-class, usually urban or isolated, nonwhite character from a sad fate" (hughey, 1)

White savior stories

"save our students" "white man's burden," "mighty whitey"

Ideology

"system of ideas, assumptions and beliefs" 1. Often legitimize the differential power that groups hold in society Capitalism, racism, patriarchy, heteronormativity "Dominant ideologies" 2. Can distort reality and produce "false consciousness" Plato's allegory of the cave 3. All media are ideological, in that they present a particular image of reality "Thats our hero shot" 4. Ideologies in our world; not just on screens Nowhere is beyond ideology- ideologies in the "real" world 5. Groups and their ideologies are in constant struggle for dominance - hegemony- which can change Hegemony- cultural dominance The powerful rule by consent through their ideologies Multiple ideologies in society vying for hegemony; never just one single ideology As groups try to gain power and consent, ideologies are contested and negotiated Culture is where ideologies are contested and negotiated

Classical hollywood narrative:

1. Character-focused stories 2. Plot with logical temporal relation between events 3. Narrative style that attempts to be more or less objective/realistic seeming/invisible 4. A sense of closure at the end

Hollywood studio system: Dream Factories

1. Mass production- "Assembly line" industrial production 2. Vertical integration- production, distribution and exhibition 3. A "stable of stars" on contract Supreme court struck down the film industry 4. Classical narrative feature films 5. Global market expansion

Representation

1. Presentation or depiction of something (both reality/the world and people) 2. When one "stands in for" a group

Racial ideologies visible in The Help

1. Struggle in the 1960s, over white supremacy 2. Struggle in today's representation of the story: still white supremacy

3 powerful points of view in the movie:

1. The TV show's 2. The objective/invisible view of the movie 3. And eventually.... Truman's

Stereotype

A repeated, narrow, oversimplified, and inaccurate representation of cultural identity Reduces a group to a small set of characteristics Based on ideologically-defined social types that keep subordinate groups powerless

Dominance and privileging of whiteness

Assumption of white, western, "unmarked" spectator Whiteness is seen as normal and doesn't need to be acknowledged

"Resurrection of the mammy stereotype"

Black woman are compelled to serve white families Reflected ideologies of whites and helped white interests Black women were house slaves then maids or nannies as domestic workers Sassy, funny but always fiercely loyal and loving to the white family they served This was showing Black women were happy to be slaves/servants Made to be very asexual, de-sexed

where did truman want to go

Fiji

Lumiere brothers' Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, 1895

First public movie viewing 1895 Paris train crash

auteur theory

Focuses on director as the all-important author. Personal history, personal perspective, personal artistic vision. Film is art when "the work of a highly individual artist"... An auteur celebrates the technological innovations and artistry at the origins of film... to legitimize new digital technologies and the film industry's future

Low angle

From below Can make actor seem in control or large

which director is Hugo based on

Georges Melies

Shows a character in weakness sometimes

High angle

What is Hugo telling us about a culture?

Hugo tells of importance in the future of the film industry... power of film to heal us and bring us together. Emphasizes remarkable innovators in film. Film Saves.

Modernity (in early 20th century)

Industrialization, Urbanization, and Mass Media, all through machines

Technological change with modernity

Machines, mechanical production (and destruction) and the time-clock. Factory mass production. Fragmentation. In work: waged and divided labor. In life: mobility, leaving traditional communities. Mass cultural forms

Georges Melies, 1861-1938

Magician/illusionist Early film innovator in special effects Fantasy, narrative films and non-narrative illusion films Toy salesman in paris train station Lot of the stuff didn't happen though

Canted Frame

Off balance/angled frame

Racism

The fact that white person is protagonist in the help shows ideology of white supremacy "Race is a social construct" - not objective fact Based on specific histories not on biology. Race justifies social inequalities

"white savior" trope

This trope of a white character who saves non-white characters is common in US film

Match-on-action

Two images being edited together as parallel actions or motions

Power and Difference of film

Who has influence over the production of culture and what culture says about or to groups of people

unique experience

Zerstreuung

Montage

a series of short shots edited into a sequence

Jump cut

a shot suddenly broken by edit so image jumps to a different figure, background or time

Frame

the rectangle that contains the image

Perspective

the spatial relationship an image establishes between different figures

social construction

theory of knowledge in sociology and communication theory that examines the development of jointly constructed understandings of the world that form the basis for shared assumptions about reality.

Evaluation

value: is it good, aesthetically as a text and ideologically for the world?

Mise-en-scène

what is put into the scene; everything that is put before the camera... setting, acting, lighting, costumes... usually constructs a seamless, believable reality for viewers

Identification

which character does the media text ask us to identify with? We are told to identify with the white girl... very few scenes focused on black characters without white characters present They have white people solve racism in popular movies

Analyze the elements and patterns in a text to evidence that certain meanings are dominant and make interpretive arguments

yep

180 degree rule

camera can shoot from any angle on one side of people talking

Handheld shot

camera carried

Zoom in/out

camera stays, frame moves

Frame

can move

Shallow focus

clearly shows one plane in the image

social-ideological value

cultural studies approach ("Cultures of all kinds and brows produces, reproduces and/or legitimizes forms of thought and feeling in society [ideologies]" Dyer 6)

the Shot

distance of frame to its subject: 1. Close-ups 2. Medium shots 3. Long shots

Unique "language"

editing

Shot/reverse-shot

exchange between 2 characters looking/talking appears more logical and natural

Stylized transitions

fade, iris, wipe, dissolve

formal-aesthetic value

film as art. "The aesthetic and the cultural cannot stand in opposition." Dyer 7.. consider them both

pan

frame moves side to side

tilt

frame moves up and down

High angle

from above... crane shots

Interpellation

how media texts place people into particular positions in relation to the text and the world

Analysis

identify: themes, patterns, and elements of content and form to see how meaning is being produced

Film technology

innovations... From invention to digitization....and the end of film

Continuity editing

invisible editing; classical Hollywood film form

Objective shots

invisible point of entry into the "realism" of the film

Editing

linking of 2 different shots with cuts

Tracking/dolly shot

moves the position of the camera and the frame

Rack focus

not used often, focus quickly changed in a single shot

Film speed

rate at which the film is shot/played

Unique art form of this media

realism

Point of View

seeing out of the characters eyes.. subjective

Shot

the image on screen until a cut to a different image; can include action or movement

Trope

an established, repeated convention for storytelling and representation; shorthand

Interpretation

argue (with evidence from analysis): the meaning of those themes, patterns, and elements

Deep focus

background seen as the foreground

Establishing shots

begin a scene by establishing location or context

Editing

breaks in continuity editing