Basic Movement

Published by benjaminlewis on 31st October 2020

After the completion of our first mini-task, we were given our second to complete over the subsequent week: another cinematography task, this time with the creative intention of exploring how camera movement can be used to infer or suggest meaning. To do this we needed to again physically take our shots, edit them together into another reel, and then reflect on the process on a slideshow page, both of which are attached below.

Cinematography Reel:

Inquiry, Action & Reflection Page (Including Bibliography):

Basic Framing

Published by benjaminlewis on 18th October 2020

In our class, we were given our first mini-task to complete over two weeks: an introduction to cinematography, with the creative intention of the task being to explore how framing a subject can be used to communicate meaning in a film. To do this we needed to physically take our shots, edit them together into reel, and then reflect on the process on a slideshow page, both of which are attached below.

Cinematography Reel:

Inquiry, Action & Reflection Page (Including Bibliography):

Framing Techniques

Published by benjaminlewis on 9th October 2020

To prepare for our upcoming cinematography mini-task, we needed to conduct research into some of the best examples of the shots that we were going to be taking, to learn from them. To do this, we were set the assignment of watching a video analysing some of the greatest shots of all time, and then explore five of the shots mentioned, one from each shot type discussed.

YOUTUBE VIDEO: Best Shots of All Time – Pt. 1 (2017). Best Shots of All Time – Pt. 1. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/hWiIEiyWFTY [Accessed 7 Oct. 2020].

Pan’s Labyrinth Context Research

Published by benjaminlewis on 5th October 2020

In our class we researched the artistic, critical and historical context of Pan’s Labyrinth, and split into pairs to do so. My partner and I were studying the historical aspect, and were tasked with summarising a Britannica article on the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1939.

The historical context of Pan’s Labyrinth became crucial to our understanding of the deeper meaning of the film, as Mercedes’ side of the dual narrative is essentially a war/historical fiction movie in of itself, with her aiding the local Republican rebels. As well as this, while sinister on his own, the true fear behind the Pale Man is drawn out when you look at him not just a monster, but as a parallel for fascism in Spain. Vidal’s antagonism is also heightened by his role as a Captain in General Franco’s Nationalist army, as it offers an insight into how he obtained the power and status that he abuses and flaunts throughout the film, and associates him with the evil of that regime.

Additionally, we learnt from the groups studying the artistic context of the film that Pan’s Labyrinth can perhaps be interpreted as a sister-piece to another of Del Toro’s works, The Devil’s Backbone. This allows for intertextual analysis, which could draw comparisons and identify differences between the two films, giving us a better understanding of the director’s intentions in Pan’s Labyrinth and also encouraging the audience to view both of the movies from a new perspective. An example of this intertextual analysis might be that both films use supernatural, fairy-tale elements to investigate and critique political ideas and movements, which supports Del Toro’s idea that ‘the only monsters are humans.’

Finally, the critical context of the Pan’s Labyrinth, while not definitive in determining one’s own opinion of the film, at least gives us an insight into the wider reception of the film at the time, and might indicate how successfully Del Toro conveyed his ideas and perspectives. Therefore, since the reviews were overwhelmingly positive, we can gather that he was successful, and it is worth analysing the film to discover its subtleties and nuances.

Narrative Analysis of Pan’s Labyrinth

Published by benjaminlewis on 28th September 2020

In our class we paired up and discussed the narrative of Pan’s Labyrinth to see how it compared to a more traditional narrative. We then created a slideshow in our groups to explore the similarities and differences.

In Summary – How Narrative Study was Useful in Understanding the Film :

The film doesn’t follow the traditional three act narrative structure. It begins not with equilibrium but with the end of the movie, and in the opening the main plot of the film is told through narration. However, this is not initially clear, so it heightens the emotion at the climax of the film when Ofelia dies, and also reminds the audience that, although dark and twisted, Pan’s Labyrinth is still a fairy tale.
The unique structure also draws attention to the film’s dual narrative, highlighting the plight of both Mercedes and Ofelia. Their stories also compliment and contrast with each other, with some scenes, such as Vidal’s feast and the Pale Man’s feast, create direct comparisons between characters that offer a deeper insight into the characters of the film.
The narrative purposes assigned to each of the characters of the story also help the audience to understand how Pan’s Labyrinth twists the convention of the generic fantasy film. For example, having the faun act as the dispatcher, a role traditionally filled by a kind old man, creates an uncomfortable, sinister relationship between Ofelia and her mentor, in place of the traditionally warm, helpful one.
Additionally, the fairy tale narrative of the film helps to establish the theme of good v.s. evil. Ofelia, the film’s protagonist, signifies goodness and innocence, while Vidal, the antagonist, symbolises evil, as well as war and rage. As they clash throughout the film, so does morality and wickedness.
Studying Pan’s Labyrinth narrative also helps us to empathise with Ofelia’s character, as we learn that the major conflict of the film is not a direct confrontation, but instead the prolonged abuse and pain that Ofelia has to endure throughout the movie’s run time.

Narrative Analysis of a Pixar Movie

Published by benjaminlewis on 24th September 2020

As class we learnt about and discussed narrative structures, the narrative purposes of characters, themes, the significance of setting to a story and the role of the narrator in highlighting key themes. My partner and I chose to explore this topic through the Pixar film WALL-E, and situated below is, in order of right to left: A poster outlining the narrative structure of WALL-E, a summarisation of the key themes of the film, and an analysis of the characters and their narrative purpose.

In Summary – The Narrative Structure:

The film follows the traditional three act narrative structure.
It begins with Wall-E in his ‘ordinary world’, or equilibrium, which in the film is a future version of Earth that has been overrun by waste and junk, and is no longer inhabitable to humans or plants, just robots.
The living seedling that Wall-E finds acts a disruption to his known world, as he sees a glimpse of both what the Earth used to be, and what it could be again if he takes action. This prompts Wall-E to travel with his new companion EVE to the spaceship in hopes of getting the plant to the captain, which acts as his quest.
After causing disruption on the ship and driving EVE away, WALL-E faces his narrative realisation, or epiphany, in the ‘dance in space’ celebration sequence, as he simultaneously comes to the two conclusions that 1) he truly loves EVE and 2) that there is more to life than being a rubbish-collecting robot.
After his realisation he faces many struggles, such as: having his circuits fried; being thrown down the garbage chute; and, at the climax of the film, ultimately sacrificing his life to help the Captain McCrea defeat the mutinying robots and put the plant in the Holo-Detector.
His sacrifice could also be interpreted as his WALL-E goes through both a narrative restoration, as he returns to Earth, and a literal restoration when he is repaired by EVE and has his memory restored by her kiss. Earth was WALL-E’s ordinary world from the start of the film, but it is now transformed into a paradise by the humans inspired by WALL-E and EVE’s actions, thus also showing the transformation of him as a character.

In Summary – The Characters:

WALL-E is unique, in that it doesn’t actually focus on a large cast of characters. Instead, it offers the narrative purpose often associated to archetypal characters to objects and settings, or has one character fulfil multiple narrative purposes.
It is clear that WALL-E is the protagonist, as both the hero and the titular character.
The antagonists of the film could be GO-4, AUTO or BnL as a company, or all three, as they all act as opposing forces to the antagonist.
EVE is interesting, because it could be argued that she is: a helper, as she is WALL-E’s companion throughout the film; the girl, as she acts as WALL-E’s love interest; or as a donor, because she aids WALL-E, offering him advice, love and support.
The role of the donor could also belong to Captain McCrea, as he helps WALL-E throughout the narrative but ascends past the role of the standard helper by ultimately winning the final fight against the antagonistic AUTO.
We said that the ship that the humans have devolved on could act as a false hero narratively, as WALL-E initially sees it as a grand new world, but eventually realises it is the ships overbearing catering and complete automation that has doomed the human race. This could be an example of WALL-E assigning narrative traits to inanimate objects and settings.
Another example of the film doing this that we discussed would be the role of the dispatcher, which we said could be assigned to either the plant or planet Earth. The argument for the plant was weaker, as it is clearly meant to be the disruption in the narrative rather than the dispatcher, but it is what sends WALL-E on his quest to the new world. Contrastingly, we said that the Earth itself might have been the real dispatcher, as it produced the plant, and therefore the disruption that sets the later narrative in motion.
Finally, we thought it that BURN-E’s purpose was to be a helper, as he is the closest thing the protagonist has to a clear sidekick. He doesn’t contribute much to driving the narrative forward, but is along for the journey nonetheless.

In Summary – The Themes:

I believe that the three most significant themes in WALL-E are the battles between: the past and the future, civilisation and isolation, and entrapment and freedom. WALL-E, as the last functioning robot on Earth, is the last bastion of the old world, and ultimately the past. Therefore, all of his conflict against the pacified humans and mutinying robots is a direct conflict against the future, and in the end of the film the characters use the fruits of the old world, in this case the plant, to build a better, new world for the future: the new paradise on Earth.
However, during this main thematic clash, other important themes are explored, such as the aforementioned two. Our protagonist is fighting to free the humans from their entrapment at the hands of technology, and while doing this leaves his isolated world to enter civilisation and in the end restore it on Earth,

Mise-en-Scene in the Captain’s Feast

Published by benjaminlewis on 24th September 2020

As a class, we discussed what elements of a film made up the mise-en-scene, such as costume, lighting, action, hair and make-up, props and setting, as well as how it is carefully selected to communicate meaning. After this, we used this knowledge to analyse the mise-en-scene in the ‘Captain’s Feast’ scene from del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth in the form of a slideshow, looking carefully at its implications and connotations.

What Does The Mise-En-Scene Tell Us About The Meaning of The Captain’s Feast?

The Captain’s Feast establishes the nature of the fascist ruling class in rural Spain and the attitudes and values of Captain Vidal, the villain in the film. The feast is a scene of indulgence, greed and power. Vidal is a fascist brute, he is proud of his reputation and dominates the scene. The guests are hypocrites and prove to be arrogant, patronising and snobbish. Carmen, seems out of place and is represented as fragile, elegant and intimidated by the other guests, we also get the impression that Vidal does not care for her.

We can see that Vidal prides himself on his power and reputation as a captain by his costume, an immaculately kept military uniform covered in red and gold medals. The medals themselves are an obvious display of his prestige, and their colours: red and gold, connote blood and royalty respectively, possibly hinting at the idea that the Captain has only earned his almost royal level of prestige through bloodshed. Furthermore, in terms of proxemics, he is seated at the head of the table, another clear indicator of his high position in society, and how much the guests either fear or respect him. The old and dark setting creates an evil atmosphere, perhaps acting as a metaphor for the despicable people sat in the room, and the gloom is only broken by the flickering orange light of a fire positioned right behind Vidal. This fire could represent heat and rage, and be a reference to the famously short fuse of the Captain. However, the fire’s positioning is such that, while Vidal has his back to it, the light illuminates the face of Carmen, which might imply that since she is facing the light the opposite meaning behind it is true for her. In this new context, the fire could symbolise her warmth and kindness, as well as her caring nature. Finally, she is depicted as sitting in a wheelchair, and this prop acts as perfect allegory for her powerlessness in the scene, and ultimately with the Captain.

Genre Analysis of Pan’s Labyrinth

Published by benjaminlewis on 20th September 2020

As a class, we produced a slideshow analysing how far Pan’s Labyrinth uses, develops and challenges the conventions of the fantasy film genre using its own repertoire of elements. To understand the conventions of the fantasy genre, we compared the film against a corpus of texts including Shrek, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings.

The Conventional Features of Pan’s Labyrinth:

One convention that Pan’s Labyrinth follows is that the main characters of the film widely draw inspiration from the generic archetypes of the fantasy genre. For example, Ofelia, the film’s protagonist, is both: a very unsuspecting hero that comes from an ordinary world and is thrust by external forces into an extraordinary world, like Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring; and a traditional fairy-tale princess, like Fiona from Shrek.
The film centres itself around key locations from the fantasy genre, namely the forest surrounding the manor and the King of the Underworld’s royal throne room. Forests feature prominently in the corpus we set out to analyse Pan’s Labyrinth against, including The Forbidden Forest from Harry Potter, the forest housing Shrek’s swamp, and the Fangorn Forest in The Lord of the Rings. In the final moments of the film, we see Ofelia complete her journey and travel to the Underworld, awakening in the majestic throne room of a royal palace. Castles and palaces are an iconic and integral setting in the fantasy genre, emphasising the idea that the story of Pan’s Labyrinth, while dark and at times twisted, is still a fairy-tale.
Finally, Pan’s Labyrinth features a special, ornate blade as one of the most important parts of its iconography, in the form of the dagger that Ofelia takes from the Pale Man’s dining room. An example from our corpus could be the Sword of Gryffindor from Harry Potter, but the most obvious comparison to draw would be Excalibur in The Sword in the Stone, a fantastical weapon uniquely obtained by the protagonist of the film.

How Pan’s Labyrinth Differs From The Wider Genre:

In Pan’s Labyrinth, the character of the faun at first glance seems to act as the generic wise older mentor figure that introduces the protagonist to a new world, but Del Toro twists this convention by adding a potentially dark, sinister element to the character. While characters like Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings and Dumbledore from Harry Potter are kind and endearing, the faun is openly hostile to Ofelia. Where his counterparts in the fantasy genre endlessly support the protagonist, the faun both provokes and abandons Ofelia throughout the movie. He is described by del Toro as ‘a creature that is neither good or evil… like nature’.
At it’s core, Pan’s Labyrinth is a lot more intimate than most other films in the fantasy genre. It replaces grand battles between vast armies with an extremely personal conflict between Ofelia and her step-father, Captain Vidal, and chooses to mainly focus in on their feelings and perspectives instead of those of a large band of side characters. The generic climax of a fantasy film often includes an awe-inspiring action set piece, featuring hundreds of fierce combatants clashing over the fate of their known world, for examples look no further than the Battle of Pelennor Fields in the Return of the King, or the Battle of Hogwarts in The Deathly Hallows Part II. However, Pan’s Labyrinth subverts this convention by having the finale take place between just two speaking characters, Ofelia and Vidal. Furthermore, del Toro avoids a dramatic battle completely, instead having a single gunshot end the confrontation, and ultimately Ofelia’s life.
Additionally, despite the fact that she is reborn in the Underworld to live without pain or suffering, the fact that Ofelia dies at the end of the film is a subversion of the genre in of itself. Usually, the generic plot of a fantasy film ends with the protagonist winning the day, often with some sacrifice, but always with glory and honour. Pan’s Labyrinth ends on a sombre note, with the image of Ofelia laying still on the cold stone of the labyrinth still freshly ingrained in the mind of the viewer, without glory, and without honour.

What Are The Conventions Of A Particular Genre?

Published by benjaminlewis on 9th September 2020

My partner and I created a poster that reflects the Rom-Com (Romance Comedy) genre.

When trying to think through the genre’s repertoire of elements, we immediately thought of events that occurred frequently across the films we’d seen: the first being showcased in the top left, a scene where one of the protagonists is going to catch a plane to move away and their love interest runs into the airport to stop them and confess their true feelings; and the second being showcased in the bottom left, where the two lovers share either a kiss or a date in the rain.

Another one of the generic conventions of Rom-Com’s is a plot based around a wedding, so we drew that in the centre. Clowns and hearts were added to convey the comedic and the romantic elements respectively, and the beach at sunset came up as a generic setting for a lot of romantic scenes, so we included that.

Additionally, when we began to discuss generic characters in the genre, we found that a common trope was having a female’s initial love interest be stereotypically attractive yet lacking any emotional depth, while her male ‘best friend’ character, while being physically inferior to this initial love interest, actually loved her for who she was all along, and was, in the eyes of the film, the right person for her all along. This is depicted in the drawing on the centre-right of our poster.

Finally, a common situation that we thought characters found themselves in was having an unexpected pregnancy, so you can see a woman in the top right with both an unborn baby and a very surprised facial expression.

My Favourite Film

Published by benjaminlewis on 9th September 2020

Here’s a slide exploring why I love my favourite film.

In Summary: The macro features that keep drawing me back to ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ years after I first watched it are the endlessly enjoyable characters, as well as the strong emotions conjured by their unique bond, and the plot. I love that the film is centred around and romanticises the idea of an establishment that is past its time, and the micro features such as the score, colour palettes, and cinematography really effectively immerse you in this doomed world, which ultimately heightens the tragedy of that world inevitably fading away. As a viewer, you really feel like you are witnessing one final glimpse of prestige, charm and chivalry before the horrors of war cast the world into darkness, which gives the fun-filled adventure of the film a far more melancholic tone upon reflection.

Quote sourced from IndieWire – Review: Wes Anderson’s ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ Is a Delightful Action-Comedy As Only He Could Make It. (2014) Available online at: https://www.indiewire.com/2014/02/review-wes-andersons-the-grand-budapest-hotel-is-a-delightful-action-comedy-as-only-he-could-make-it-30257/. [Accessed 6 May 2020]