TELEVISION SCRIPT Program: “Lights, Camera, Action” Topic: The movie Philadelphia and how it draws upon archetypal characters and patterns Interviewer: Sonya Parer Guest: Nina Clarke Broadcast Date: Tuesday, 6th November 2012 (TITLE SCREEN “LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION) Interviewer: Welcome back to Lights, Camera, Action. Today we have movie enthusiast and literature student Nina Clarke here to discuss archetypal narratives in films. So Nina, I have a basic understanding of the term “archetype” but are you able to explain it in a little more depth in relation to film? Nina: Basically, archetypal narratives are those universal tales, which transcend through time, to the extent that we can almost place every single movie in a category with other movies of a similar storyline. Carl Jung developed the concept of the archetype to explain the commonality of dream images and symbols recognized by people regardless of place or time.
Ultimately, The Birds short story by Daphne Du Maurier had the best carried element of suspense at the point in humanity when horror was less prevalent. Intermittently, the plots of The Birds, film and story, touch base rarely and the anecdote reels the viewer in much stronger than the movie. Daphne Du Maurier ushers one through her world with three strengths that Alfred Hitchcock did not have, partially because he was too focused on the plot, and partly because he did not read the piece- he skimmed it. As an artist, one can say that both had strengths and weaknesses, however, The Birds short story planted suspense thoroughly in the mind of the perceiver in ways the movie didn’t. Blatantly, Alfred Hitchcock introduces his movie with a shot of cawing birds, establishing suspense, and then drops the audience on their rears, stranded with a few shots of squawking birds.
(264) Classical narrative form is commonly known as linear narrative which refers to stories told in a single line with logical order and ends with an assured conclusion, usually seen in traditional Hollywood films. The ending is usually often the solution of problems of the characters. Therefore, there might be nothing left to be solved. In this kind of narrative, it is cause and effect which lead it to go on in a correct direction and drew the attention of audiences to follow. Jill Nelmes states in the book he edits: It is
Because of technology being so significant, we tend to use as much of it as possible in movies, or adding as many special effects and unique graphics. For instance, now in theatres, 3-D movies are the new trend, they keep the audience engaged with the movie. As for movies in the mid 1900’s, technology was not so varied, so the movies had no choice but to be basic. Currently, Movies in the 21st century are filled with adult (sexually explicit) content, profanity, and even blood and gore. Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”, portray an unnoticed view of these elements.
The power and frailty of memory drives both Jeunet’s plot and his own artistic act, discuss. Memory establishes Jeunet’s plot as the plot is built upon the validity of memories and how they are able to enhance and distort history. Jeunet’s plot is based around Mathilde recovering the truth about whether her lover, Manech is alive and she is led down many paths by character’s memories of the war and war documents which not all are truthful. Jeunet’s own artistic act is prominent throughout and Jeunet is able to incorporate different film conventions for the spectator to be engrossed in the film under his own artistic act. Jeunet is influenced from the ‘cinéma du look’ and the ‘French New Wave’ film conventions to the more recent, ‘cinéma de banlieue’ which are able to be brought to light because of the theme of memory and its distortion.
Throughout the film version of Proof, what happens to Catherine is very similar to what happens to her in Auburn’s play. However, the movie is different from the play because it shows the characters in a different light, it takes place in many different settings, and it adds more scenes than the play does. The story lines between the play and the movie have different plots, characters, scenery, and music/sound effects. You will want to read the play to get the best scenario, and leave the movie for the ones who really do not appreciate reading. First of all, the plot of the movie was somewhat similar to the play.
Most people know the soundtracks to films are made separately from the action and so it can be manipulated independently this making it the most flexible of film techniques. Sound effects are also done independently from the images. Just because we can see the cause of the sound on screen doesn’t necessarily mean it’s that thing making the noise. Within a film crew are people called foley artists who have been an important part of the film process since the 1930’s. Named after Jack Foley who was a forerunner in post-production sound, it’s their job to make the sound effects from footsteps, horse trots, and in the case of Jurassic Park the sound of a baby dinosaur hatching form it’s egg.
A detailed analysis of four parallel scenes in ‘Emma’ and ‘Clueless’ show how film techniques are utilized to help convey meaning in a text. Film techniques that Lawrence and Heckerling employed include lighting, mise-en-scene, dialogue, setting, music, flashbacks, camera angles and camera shots and juxtaposition. These film techniques assist the audience in fully understanding the meaning being conveyed regarding the themes during pivotal scenes in ‘Emma’ and ‘Clueless’. In terms of the theme of marriage and matches, both Lawrence and Heckerling use film techniques to highlight the main concern of the protagonists Emma and Cher, which is to make matches. Lawrence highlights Emma’s choice of Harriet as being heavenly, and emphasizes this by creating a halo effect around Harriet’s head when Emma first sees her in the church.
It provokes the thoughts that we know as normal, by using undistinguishable characters and objects, making us question what Matthew Barney was trying to express. The way Matthew Barney applies his scenes is very different from the more modern videos or movies we have today. I noticed that he used very long scene takes with a specific tune or music that accompanies each of the scenes which I did not like as it made the video feel very dull and stimulating. However, I liked how he kept emphasizing on his theme and what he wanted to deal with. I referenced from the other films and noticed that he also uses the capsule shape of the field emblem quite a lot not as the logo but things like the area, a window, etcetera.
Most films have an underlying purpose and unified around a central theme. There are also other films that have not central purpose or meaning, all because of the ineffectiveness of the filmmaker’s communication language. We have all seen films with great actors and bad scripts. Sometimes directors do not arrive a mature style but continue and experiment throughout