Thursday, May 21, 2015

Cinematic Reality: What is real? PART THIRTEEN


In parts Six and Seven of this "Cinematic Reality" series, we talked about how historical change results in new technologies, which, in turn, are used to understand and shape our social reality.

The introduction of new media and how it is used, in turn, alters the standards by which we gauge cinematic reality. 

David Ayer's "End of Watch"(2012), for instance, capitalizes on the prevailing ubiquity of video culture--promoting itself as a story pieced together from hand-held consumer video cameras, smart phone cameras, and police cruiser dash cams.


These aesthetic choices help enhance the reality of a drama that unfolds on the streets of South Central Los Angeles.

 


But such choices would not be possible for, and may not be acceptable to, a culture unconditioned to the prevalence of video cameras embedded within its social infrastructure.    

First-Person Shooters and the GoPro Generation

Another innovation that has shaped and continues to shape our sense of reality are video games.  

The introduction of First-Person Shooters like "Wolfenstein 3D" (1992) and "Doom" (1993) (the FPS genre predates either game) augmented the reality experienced by players, allowing them to engage in combat firsthand--instead of watching an avatar in a side-scrolling mission.  


This simple innovation--overcoming the psychological divide separating the player from his avatar--has influenced movies like Matthew Vaughn's "Kick Ass"  (2010) -- most notably the scene in which Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) goes on a bloody, first-person rampage, seen through night vision goggles, to save her father, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage).


First-person camerawork has long been a trademark in the voyeurism of filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and especially Brian De Palma ("Sisters," "Dressed to Kill," "Body Double"), and has become a mainstay technique in the horror genre in films like Tobe Hooper's "The Funhouse" (1981) and John Carpenter's "Halloween" (1978).

"Bad Motherf*cker"

But the influence of video games, coupled with the introduction of GoPro cameras, seems to be moving the first-person experience away from horror and into the realm of action-adventure cinema.


Ilya Naishuller, the frontman for the Russian indie rock band, "Biting Elbows" has used first-person perspective in two music videos he directed for his band -- "Stampede" and "Bad Motherf*cker."  And, of course, he used a GoPro to do so.


"Bad Motherf*cker" took the technique he experimented with in "Stampede" to a whole new level, catching the eye of Russian director Timur Bekmambetov ("Night Watch," "Wanted").  

Bekmambetov has produced a full length first-person perspective feature directed by Naishuller, called "Hardcore" (2015), starring Sharlto Copley of "District 9" (2009).  




First-Person Perspective:  The Next Frontier

The logical progression of first-person perspective leads us to Virtual Reality, something anticipated for years by thinkers and artists and writers alike.  

Virtual Reality will change our concept of reality for certain, creating new expectations of realism in future audiences.  

Cinematic Reality: What is real? PART THIRTEEN


In parts Six and Seven of this "Cinematic Reality" series, we talked about how historical change results in new technologies, which, in turn, are used to understand and shape our social reality.

The introduction of new media and how it is used, in turn, alters the standards by which we gauge cinematic reality. 

David Ayer's "End of Watch"(2012), for instance, capitalizes on the prevailing ubiquity of video culture--promoting itself as a story pieced together from hand-held consumer video cameras, smart phone cameras, and police cruiser dash cams.


These aesthetic choices help enhance the reality of a drama that unfolds on the streets of South Central Los Angeles.

 


But such choices would not be possible for, and may not be acceptable to, a culture unconditioned to the prevalence of video cameras embedded within its social infrastructure.    

First-Person Shooters and the GoPro Generation

Another innovation that has shaped and continues to shape our sense of reality are video games.  

The introduction of First-Person Shooters like "Wolfenstein 3D" (1992) and "Doom" (1993) (the FPS genre predates either game) augmented the reality experienced by players, allowing them to engage in combat firsthand--instead of watching an avatar in a side-scrolling mission.  


This simple innovation--overcoming the psychological divide separating the player from his avatar--has influenced movies like Matthew Vaughn's "Kick Ass"  (2010) -- most notably the scene in which Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) goes on a bloody, first-person rampage, seen through night vision goggles, to save her father, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage).


First-person camerawork has long been a trademark in the voyeurism of filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and especially Brian De Palma ("Sisters," "Dressed to Kill," "Body Double"), and has become a mainstay technique in the horror genre in films like Tobe Hooper's "The Funhouse" (1981) and John Carpenter's "Halloween" (1978).

"Bad Motherf*cker"

But the influence of video games, coupled with the introduction of GoPro cameras, seems to be moving the first-person experience away from horror and into the realm of action-adventure cinema.


Ilya Naishuller, the frontman for the Russian indie rock band, "Biting Elbows" has used first-person perspective in two music videos he directed for his band -- "Stampede" and "Bad Motherf*cker."  And, of course, he used a GoPro to do so.


"Bad Motherf*cker" took the technique he experimented with in "Stampede" to a whole new level, catching the eye of Russian director Timur Bekmambetov ("Night Watch," "Wanted").  

Bekmambetov has produced a full length first-person perspective feature directed by Naishuller, called "Hardcore" (2015), starring Sharlto Copley of "District 9" (2009).  




First-Person Perspective:  The Next Frontier

The logical progression of first-person perspective leads us to Virtual Reality, something anticipated for years by thinkers and artists and writers alike.  

Virtual Reality will change our concept of reality for certain, creating new expectations of realism in future audiences.  

Cinematic Reality: What is real? PART THIRTEEN


In parts Six and Seven of this "Cinematic Reality" series, we talked about how historical change results in new technologies, which, in turn, are used to understand and shape our social reality.

The introduction of new media and how it is used, in turn, alters the standards by which we gauge cinematic reality. 

David Ayer's "End of Watch"(2012), for instance, capitalizes on the prevailing ubiquity of video culture--promoting itself as a story pieced together from hand-held consumer video cameras, smart phone cameras, and police cruiser dash cams.


These aesthetic choices help enhance the reality of a drama that unfolds on the streets of South Central Los Angeles.

 


But such choices would not be possible for, and may not be acceptable to, a culture unconditioned to the prevalence of video cameras embedded within its social infrastructure.    

First-Person Shooters and the GoPro Generation

Another innovation that has shaped and continues to shape our sense of reality are video games.  

The introduction of First-Person Shooters like "Wolfenstein 3D" (1992) and "Doom" (1993) (the FPS genre predates either game) augmented the reality experienced by players, allowing them to engage in combat firsthand--instead of watching an avatar in a side-scrolling mission.  


This simple innovation--overcoming the psychological divide separating the player from his avatar--has influenced movies like Matthew Vaughn's "Kick Ass"  (2010) -- most notably the scene in which Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) goes on a bloody, first-person rampage, seen through night vision goggles, to save her father, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage).


First-person camerawork has long been a trademark in the voyeurism of filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and especially Brian De Palma ("Sisters," "Dressed to Kill," "Body Double"), and has become a mainstay technique in the horror genre in films like Tobe Hooper's "The Funhouse" (1981) and John Carpenter's "Halloween" (1978).

"Bad Motherf*cker"

But the influence of video games, coupled with the introduction of GoPro cameras, seems to be moving the first-person experience away from horror and into the realm of action-adventure cinema.


Ilya Naishuller, the frontman for the Russian indie rock band, "Biting Elbows" has used first-person perspective in two music videos he directed for his band -- "Stampede" and "Bad Motherf*cker."  And, of course, he used a GoPro to do so.


"Bad Motherf*cker" took the technique he experimented with in "Stampede" to a whole new level, catching the eye of Russian director Timur Bekmambetov ("Night Watch," "Wanted").  

Bekmambetov has produced a full length first-person perspective feature directed by Naishuller, called "Hardcore" (2015), starring Sharlto Copley of "District 9" (2009).  




First-Person Perspective:  The Next Frontier

The logical progression of first-person perspective leads us to Virtual Reality, something anticipated for years by thinkers and artists and writers alike.  

Virtual Reality will change our concept of reality for certain, creating new expectations of realism in future audiences.  

Monday, May 18, 2015

Cinematic Reality: What is real? PART TWELVE


MICHAEL MANN

Filmmakers sometimes feel the greatest impediment to the reality of a story is the "Hollywood way" of doing things.

Not surprisingly, filmmakers rebel against the polish of mainstream Hollywood movies.

Director Michael Mann

Michael Mann is a director who has made a career out of challenging the Hollywood model.

At a time when digital video was working its way into productions, "Collateral" (2004) broke the rules for how digital video was supposed to look.

Tom Cruise as hitman Vincent in "Collateral"

While many were questioning whether the new technology would conform to a "film" look, Mann and his cinematographers Paul Cameron and Dion Beebe (who replaced Cameron three weeks into the shoot) decided to use HD for its own intrinsic value.


The night exteriors were shot by upping the "gain" (increasing light sensitivity by boosting the electronic signal) of the cameras, resulting in soft, electronic "noise" in the image.





But the use of natural lighting, and the incredible sensitivity of HD cameras to low lighting conditions, allowed Mann to capture the natural look of Los Angeles at night, in a way that celluloid cameras would have been unable to do without extensive lighting set up.

These choices translated into a movie that looked more realistic to audiences, due to its unfamiliar experimental cinematography.


Mann has continued to push digital cinematography in new and startling ways:

"Miami Vice" (2006)

"Public Enemies" (2009)


"Blackhat" (2015)

Specializing its look.  Exploring its limitations.


Single-handedly ushering in a new aesthetic of digital realism.

But this realism is still Michael Mann's, and not necessarily the realism of other directors.


Cinematic Reality: What is real? PART ELEVEN


THE ANTI-HOLLYWOOD AESTHETIC

Quite often, the "Hollywood way" of doing things is so closely entwined with the idea of fantasy, and artificiality, that filmmakers feel the need to rebel against the Hollywood production model in order to convey reality.



"Real-looking" actors (i.e. "not models"), natural lighting, unmounted cameras, hiccups in editing, discontinuity, drop-outs in audio, improvisation -- are all embraced by these renegade artists as artifacts of true beauty, of true reality, by virtue of their opposition to the Hollywood method.



Such has been the impetus behind many "realisms" and "waves" -- including "Italian Neo-realism," "The French New Wave," "The American New Wave," "The Dogme 95" movement in Denmark, and also the independent movement that took hold of America in the late '80s and early '90s, starting with Steven Soderbergh's "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" (1989).



"Sex, Lies, and Videotape" is an excellent example of how pervasive technology (in this case the affordability of consumer camcorders) can become integral to the story itself.  "Sex, lies, and Videotape" capitalizes on the "VHS" culture that was revving up at the time, while being a reaction to the "impersonal" stories seen in big budget movies.

Stanley Kubrick also rebelled against the Hollywood way when he lit "Barry Lyndon" (1975) with candlelight.

Scene Lit by Candles from "Barry Lyndon" (1975)

Scene Lit by Candles from "Barry Lyndon" (1975)

So we can see how directors play with form and content when they rebel against the Hollywood way.


Cinematic Reality: What is real? PART TEN


THE AESTHETICS OF REALISM: HAND-HELD CAMERAS AND QUICK CUTS

Often, when directors want to inject their movies with a dose of realism, they imitate media that is assumed to convey reality and truth.  

Sometimes it's obvious, as in the genre of Found Footage.



Sometimes, the imitations are more subtle, and more associative.



Steven Spielberg, for instance, associates shaky hand-held camerawork with realism.  He has used this technique consistently throughout his career, perhaps most notably in his depiction of the invasion of Normandy in the opening of "Saving Private Ryan" (1998).




Christopher Nolan associates quick cuts, and dissociative editing with reality.  He uses these techniques frequently in his Batman movies to intensify the action sequences and to give Batman the appearance of being too quick to be seen fully by his enemies.



Whether or not these choices have the desired effect on audiences is up to debate.

What's important is how Spielberg and Nolan associate these techniques with reality, so that it becomes part of their personal film language.

As mentioned before, these aesthetic choices are partially derived from their use in documentary filmmaking - a type of filmmaking frequently having less funding than feature films and, therefore, less polish.  All the technical "mistakes" one would try to avoid in features become "glorified" as signposts of greater reality.



Sunday, May 17, 2015

Cinematic Reality: What is real? PART NINE


CINEMATIC REALITY AND DOCUMENTARY REALISM

Our expectations of cinematic reality often change in response to the new media embedded in our culture.

We invest various media with the status of reality, objectivity, and truth--even as we acknowledge that all media is capable of being manipulated.

Many filmmakers know this on the subconscious, if not conscious, level.

One of the strategies of directors is to incorporate new media aesthetics into the body of their fictitious story.

Since its inception, documentary filmmaking has been imbued with the ontology of truth and reality. Not surprisingly, the aesthetics associated with documentary filmmaking have been imbued with the same.

But it might surprise many to know that documentaries have been manipulated even as early as 1922.

Robert J. Flaherty's "Nanook of the North" contained sequences that were purposely staged.



Some researchers even go further to suggest that Flaherty didn't simply record or observe reality with his camera, but deliberately constructed it.



Regardless, documentary filmmaking has been a source of inspiration for filmmakers seeking to invest their stories with aesthetics that seem evocative of reality.

We have already seen this in "Star Wars," in "2001: A Space Odyssey," and in "The French Connection."

MOCKUMENTARY AND FOUND FOOTAGE

"Mockumentaries" like "This Is Spinal Tap" (1984) use the documentary format for parody and humor.



On the other hand, the relatively recent genre of found footage uses the premise of documentary reality to heighten the sensation of fear in movies like "The Blair Witch Project" (199) and "Paranormal Activity" (2007) -- movies that suggest the footage you are watching is real and somehow survived as evidence of the horrors on screen.



Other found footage movies:

"Rec" (2007)

"Cloverfield" (2008)


"Chronicle" (2012)

As technology evolves and becomes more important in the experience of social reality, the standards of realism will continue to evolve as well.

Who knows how Virtual Reality or "The Internet of Things" will change our experience of social reality?   And who, in turn, knows how our demands of cinematic reality will also change in response to the new media aesthetics introduced by each?



Cinematic Reality: What is real? PART EIGHT


STORYTELLING AND THE APPEAL TO THE REAL

Storytellers like Orson Welles know that our understanding of reality is shaped by our exposure to new media technology and new media formats.

One way to convince us of a story's reality is to inscribe the aesthetics of new media technology and formats within the story itself.

Orson Welles did this in his historic "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast in 1938.



He also used a variation of the technique in "Citizen Kane" (1941), specifically in his "News on the March" sequence, where he imitated the Newsreel formats that had been exhibited throughout movie theaters, to introduce the real movie audience to the life and death of Charles Foster Kane.







When George Lucas made "Star Wars," he used 16mm documentary footage of aerial dogfights in World War II as animatics for his star ship battles.   Some of the most famous sequences in "Star Wars" were edited shot for shot to footage of real aerial combat.  Obviously, many of the vessels in "Star Wars" bear more than a passing resemblance to the aircraft of World War II.

Again, Lucas was making a movie for an audience in the wake of the Vietnam war.  New expectations for realism had arisen, and Lucas made a movie with these new standards in mind.

When Kubrick made "2001," he drew on his background in documentary filmmaking to give the movie the observational quality of a documentary film.  Most people are surprised to learn that Kubrick, the master stylist, developed his style in an attempt to convey reality, and limit himself from imposing his own sensibility on the truth of a dramatic moment.


"You might say that no film should ever be made which doesn't look as realistic as possible"--Stanley Kubrick


We can also see Kubrick's love of imitating media formats in films like "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) and Doctor Strangelove (1964), two movies that contain documentary footage, albeit for slightly different purposes.



Likewise, Friedkin's background in documentaries was also put to use in "The French Connection" and later on in "The Exorcist" (1973).  



The chase sequence in "The French Connection" is considered to be one of the greatest ever, partially because of the energy provided by its pseudo-documentary realism.   Partially because it was shot without city permits, with the stunt driver going 90 mph for 26 city blocks, in New York.




Cinematic Reality: What is real? PART SEVEN


HISTORICAL CHANGE AND NEW MODALITIES IN MEDIA

Our sense of cinematic reality is partly changed by history, which, in turn, gives rise to new technologies that also change our understanding of social reality.

As new events occur in our collective history, we employ new methods of contextualizing and processing those events with our new media technologies.

These new media technologies, in turn, change the way that we define cinematic reality.

The advent of the camera seemed to usher in an era of unequivocal objectivity and truth.




The advent of radio meant broadcasting information in the form of news and entertainment.


The advent of television meant the union of sight and sound in a way that cinema had already shown to be a powerful likeness of truth years before.  But unlike cinema, it had found a way into people's homes.



Each of these innovations was accompanied by historical change.   And each of these innovations was used to contextualize historical change.

Radio was used to provide information about real world events during World War One and Two.

Cinema was used as propaganda in the films of Leni Riefenstahl for the German state; by Sergei Eistenstein in service of the Russian state; and by Frank Capra in his "Why We Fight" documentaries for the United States during World War II.




16mm film was used to capture actual footage during World War II by all parties involved.  It was also used to capture footage of Vietnam, as well as the Lunar landing.


Television news was used to distribute images of Vietnam and the Lunar landing in American households.



Today we live in an era of Social Media, in which  a myriad of ways to understand our present social reality exists.  Some of these are old media applied in new ways.  And some are new media applied in untested ways.



And yet each of these is changing our experience of social reality and the expectations of reality that we bring to the movie theater.


Cinematic Reality: What is real? PART SIX


THE CULTURAL CYCLE OF REALISM: NEW MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

Our conception of cinematic reality is not static.

It changes with time.

It's a reaction to the old.  And a desire for the new.

Sometimes, as in the case of "Star Wars" and "A Fistful of Dollars," it's a desire for the old in a new way.

It's a reaction to historical/social trends and change.

But it's also a response to new media and technology that historical/social change fosters.

"THE WAR OF THE WORLDS"


Orson Welles
Sunday, October 30th, 1938.  The night before Halloween.   A 23-year-old impresario from Kenosha, Wisconsin, scares the hell out of the United States with his radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds."





Orson Welles did not plan his adaptation as a hoax or a prank, and yet he managed to create enormous alarm throughout the U.S. as listeners believed a real Martian invasion was taking place!

How?




Welles knew that American audiences had been exposed to the conventions of radio broadcasts, gathering their information about social reality from listening to the radio.  He was keen enough to understand the implicit trust listeners had placed in the rather infant medium as a source of truth and reality.   Whole industries had grown around this new technology.  People had invested lots of money to get inside American homes.  Americans had become comfortable and trusting of the new innovation.



Welles played on this trust and adapted H.G. Well's novel as if it were a real broadcast!

He imitated the format of real broadcasts.  He interrupted the "fictitious format" with what appeared to be a "real" report about a series of explosions on Mars.



Listeners who had just dialed in, or had missed the pre-show announcement ("The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the air in the 'War of the Worlds' by H.G. Wells!"), and Welles' introduction, had no clue they were listening to a fictitious broadcast.

So we can see that one stratagem for convincing a mass audience of the realness of a fantasy is to play on their knowledge of new media modalities.

(NOTE:  There is some evidence to suggest that the panic caused by the broadcast was not as widespread as has been thought.  Nevertheless, the fact remains that Welles still imitated traditional radio broadcasts to make his adaptation seem more real.)








Cinematic Reality: What is real? PART FIVE


THE CYCLE OF REALISM, HISTORICAL CHANGE

We know that what the audience accepts as a convincing form of reality in cinema does not remain static.

Cultural shifts in public consciousness cause expectations to change with time.

Some of these shifts are due to the familiarity of industrial genres and aesthetics, requiring a novel approach in both content and style to entice moviegoers.

But some of these shifts also derive from historical change.

OLD HOLLYWOOD VERSUS NEW HOLLYWOOD

In many ways, "Star Wars" may be seen as the difference between Cold War science fiction and Post-Vietnam science fiction.

COLD WAR SCIENCE FICTION
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951)
"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956)



Just as "2001: A Space Odyssey" may be seen as a transition from Cold War science fiction to counter culture science fiction.

Just as "The French Connection" may be seen as the difference between Post-World War police thrillers and Vietnam police thrillers.

And finally "A Fistful of Dollars" may be seen as the difference between World War Westerns and Post-World War Westerns.

Collectively, late '60s through early '80s American cinema is referred to as "The American Wave" or "The New Hollywood."  Film historians broadly refer to this as the post-classical period.


During this time, American and foreign film industries were "growing up" -- making movies that, once again, reacted to, and were inspired by, the movies of Old Hollywood.


This was an America that had survived World War II, experienced the Cold War, witnessed a lunar landing, grieved the deaths of historical leaders, saw the rise of the '60s counter culture, the progress of racial reform and Civil Rights, and endured Vietnam.



With all of the social and historical change taking place, it's no wonder that the general audience's conception of reality changed as well.