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Film and Theater studies
Film and Theater studies
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Question:
Genres must no longer be considered solely as impersonal agents of narrative organization, but as discursive acts, an active part of the industry’s direct address to its audience, a rhetorical ploy destined to enforce a single pre-determined reading or at least to increase the probability that certain other interpretations will remain unexplored (Rick Altman, 2005).
With reference to at least one film studied on the module, discuss the concept of film genre. How does a film genre affect the way it will be interpreted by audiences and critics?
Introduction
According to Rick Altman (2005) genre in film theory submits to the method by which a film is set up and is usually founded on the comparisons in narrative elements. Due to the rapid changes in film industry and the major emphasis on the viewer’s interpretation, film genre occurs to be an impersonal sign of specific narration, mental image, and possible reaction on a film by the audience. Rick Altman postulates that Genres must no longer be considered solely as impersonal agents of narrative organization, but as discursive acts, an active part of the industry’s direct address to its audience, a rhetorical ploy destined to enforce a single pre-determined reading or at least to increase the probability that certain other interpretations will remain unexplored (Rick Altman, 2005).
The coming of sound led to a number of developments in the formation of genres in films. A number of developments in genre were motivated by impersonations that were wide spread at that point in time. Therefore, it is critical to note that the integration of sound marked a huge step in cinematic realism. This paper will discuss the concept of film genre and find out how a film genre affects the way it is interpreted by audiences and critics. In doing so, the paper will discuss the Musical genre as portrayed in Love’s never Lost by Kenneth Branagh.
Discussion
Ever since Kenneth Branagh impressed the audience with his debut 1989 film, Henry V critics have noticed two qualities about his work: he borrows from other films and holds back very little. This paper will evaluate Love’s never Lost alongside a number of classified films that he has borrowed from, for instance, Top Hat by Mark Sandrich, and Flying down to Rio by Thornton Freeland to see how the changes made on the musical affect the way it is interpreted by audiences and critics. In Love’s never Lost, Kenneth Branagh omits three of the most significant 1930s musical comedies. For instance, he casts people who cannot dance or sing, constructs the lead stars screen personas, and integrates musical numbers into the narrative. The director also failed to consider the temporal magnitude of the films and the harsh censorship that synchronized their sexual content. Due to these decisions, the audience found the narrative clumsy and difficult to comprehend. This is because totality of expressive content in the film Mise-en scene was blurred (Sikov, 2010).
Audiences find plots in classical Hollywood musicals boring; however, they are moved with the parallel construction of the lead characters. This is much profound in musicals such as Charles Walters 1950 Summer Stock. where two of its lead characters: the head of an acting troupe (Kelly Gene) and a New England Farmer (Garland Judy) considerably differ on their ideas of love and work ethics. Jane, Garland’s character wakes up early to milk cows, when by effortlessly maneuvering the family tractor; she betroths herself to the unexciting and responsible boy in the next door. This deems the world of acting as full of persons who are destructive, irresponsible, and thoughtless. On the other hand, Joe who is Kelly’s character needs to be woken up by the wild blast of a pistol. Upon failing on his task of collecting eggs, he vows himself to Jane’s more secular sister while regarding farming as ridiculous (Billington, 2005).
Rick Altman argues that the American film musicals also rely on this kind of dual focus structure. In a given scenario where the narrative is positioned around similar stars of the opposite sex and fundamentally deviating values, the two leading characters must at one point take on the roles of the other. Altman essentially postulates that everything becomes colored with the other actor’s values and actions. At the ending of Summer Stock, Jane is successful as an actor while Joe decides to do part time farming. However, Branagh, does not value this dual focused structure (Rick Altman, 2005).
Most audiences feel that the utmost source of enjoyment in Shakespeare’s Love’s Never Lost is when the female characters persistently ridicule and confound the male characters. This is supposed to be observed explicitly by the audience through Rosaline and Berowne. Their sharp repartee is widely comprehended to resemble that of Beatrice and Benedict from Much Ado about nothing (Gardner, 2007).
If Branagh’s 1993 version with a similar name is considered a solid characterization of Beatrice (Emma Thompson), then Benedict (Branagh) is likely to be found. The onscreen blend is instantly recognizable, the sexual tension between them becomes obvious when Thompson grins thus raising her eye brow in contempt and Branagh’s cracks his voice stiffening his shoulders in repulsion. They despise each other in the entire film to the point that the audiences are made to believe that they could end up together. Equally, in Branagh’s Love’s Labor’s lost, the only thing that makes the audience believe that the characters belong together is their color-coordinated tuxedos and dresses (Miller, 2008).
On the other hand, in Branagh’s musical comedy, almost 120 of Rosaline’s and Berowne’s joking lines are omitted. In their place, he substitutes them with songs such as Don’t ask me why I won’t dance. Consequently, the audience never really gets the sense of the characters’ spoken wit and withdrawn love. This in the end makes their last conversation in the movie somehow trivial when Rosaline gives Berowne a challenge to make use of his wit to put into effect the aggrieved helplessness to smile. First, the audiences are not sure that Berowne was very clever. Secondly, they are not sure of the reason behind their earnest promises to each other. This situation occurs because there are no tensions onscreen to indicate otherwise (Taylor, 2009).
The ten musical numbers thus make the character development even more confusing.
Ramona Wray argues that the musical numbers in the Love’s Labours Lost have three objectives: they assist the audiences find the romantic couples, help in moving along the plot, and briefly delay the narrative with interludes and vignettes. She holds that the music just functions as it would have done in its earlier Hollywood manifestation. The couples are actually identified through the, musical numbers. However, this is mostly through their matching garments in their compatible dance movements rather than their chemistry onscreen (Ramona, 2006).
Several musical numbers also further the plot effectively, for instance, the Holofernia song the way you look tonight that from act 4 substitute Don Armadas letter to Jaquaneatta. “Let’s face the music and dance” permits the four upper-class women to switch over partners and ploy their male partners. The numbers do not entirely drive the narrative; rather, they appear to be wedged between the spoken lines because they were either Branagh’s favorites or because the same words were established in Shakespeare’s texts (Taylor, 2009).
The early Astaire Rogers films music was tailored, commissioned, and developed for both Rogers and Astaire. Consequently, there was a great diminution of distance between number and narrative. This means that their musical numbers were in the real sense narratives. In the end, the dancing and the words assisted in pushing the plot along. However, this kind of unity is not witnessed in Branagh’s Love’s Labour’s Lost since the musical numbers involved were not written for the film. Apart from that, they do not align to Shakespeare’s early fashioned English. The audience thus found it raucous to see the characters transit from their complex play dialogue to the Berlin, Gershwin, and Porter memorable songs. The audience found the film more of an adaptation since the numbers failed in their attempt to flow with the text (Miller, 2008).
The Branagh’s Love’s Labour’s Lost first musical occurs in the library when the Navarre King and his three young lords debate on whether it would be permissible to sign a contract allowing women in the court. While Berowne (Branagh) attempts to persuade the rest against it (Mathew Lillard, Alessandro Nivola and Adrian Lester) all over a sudden, they break into the lyric I would rather Charleston. Unlike the first numbers in earlier Hollywood musicals, nothing comes out of this dance and song. The song starts when the young men were about to sign their contracts although Berowne persuaded them not to sign them. The four even join in the singing and dancing, yet still sign the contract. The musical number therefore has no effect and there is no plot furtherance. This in effect bores the audience (Miller, 2008).
This can be compared to the opening scene in Top hat, a film that is amongst those that inspired Branagh, and provides a much distinct scenario. The song No strings is danced to by Fred Astaire’s character. This awakens the character of Rogers Ginger in her sleep. The musical number has an immediate effect as it enables them to have a rendezvous, where they squabble for a few minutes on Astaire’s top dancing that is apparently too loud for them. They agree that Rogers will fall for Astaire’s character (Gardner, 2007).
The grand finale by Constand is another number that was inserted for fluff. An opportunity is provided to stage musicals such as 42nd street and Broadway melodies in There is no business like show business musical number. This becomes the most entertaining part of the film because the singer does it for commercial purposes. It also significantly integrates with Shakespeare’s text thus changing parts of the secondary plot that involved a Spanish soldier, Armado Don. He is a comedic actor whose actions reflect those of the King and his three high-class lords. Armado, now responsible for the nine worthies Pageant, becomes a comic scapegoat to ensure the four young men laugh at their previous bravado. However, in the version of the film it is Constard and not Armado who stars in the Pageant with his laid-back edition of There is no business like show business musical number (Crowl, 2008).
The tempo of the show is speeded up and he is joined by the remaining Navarre on stage. As much as the scene has top shots, high angle shots, and remains of Berkeley Busby kaleidoscope numbers, it appears to be forced just like I will rather Charleston scene in the beginning. Instead of furthering the plot, it changes it leaving the audiences more bemused on the role of Armado in the narrative (Gardner, 2007).
The seventh musical number let’s face the music and dance somehow furthers the narrative in Love’s Labour’s Lost. Just before this number is played the four ladies, (Emily Mortimer, McElhome, Carmen Ejogo and Alicia Silverstone) receive gifts and poems from their Lords. In the course of flaunting their gifts, they put on masks and dress alike so that the men would not be sure of the woman they are trying to woo. When the plot starts all the eight actors enter the scene singing and dancing, when the men eventually woo the wrong women and the conniving occurs; in this scenario the plot advances. However, the sexual nature of the scene is a problem (Billington, 2005).
The scene was out of place because it was filled with yearning eyes, tight black pants, and heaving cleavage. The structures of the production code in classic Hollywood films mandated that even though sex was to be alluded, it had to be done so much inconspicuously and cleverly. This is because they were not permitted to show scenes of passion such as compromising sexual positions, nudity, kissing with lust, or fondling. The act of dancing and the dancing costumes were to remain within decency boundaries to avoid arousing passion amongst the audiences. These are the restrictions that shaped the American musical; an actor’s sexuality was repositioned basically into backbiting battles between the major male and female characters into the dance and song numbers.
Rick Altman points out that when sex is expunged from a sex comedy, it must go somewhere. After the 1930s, sex appeared on a distinct platform: dislocated, disguised, and displaced but not discounted. However, Branagh does not take into deliberation the historical framework with his Love’s Labour’s Lost. He instead attempts to produce a censored musical without censorship. Since this ethical code does not exist then, he chose to include what he wanted in his film (Rick Altman, 2005).
This kind of withdrawn sexuality is typical of early musicals such as the (Mark Sandrich 1934) Gay Divorce where upon dancing to the number Night and day; Fred Astaire’s character gives cigarettes to the reclined Ginger Rogers character. Branagh, in his masked dance, picks up this concept since all the girls puff cigarettes. However, contrasting to these early films is the fact that in Branagh’s dance scene, the audience finds a red smoky room where men lick women’s legs, cameras go fast on ample cleavages and women scuffle for men’s crotches (Billington, 2005).
As much as it was initially intended to function like a rundown type number similar to the Rogers Astaire passionate dances such as Cheek to cheek and Night and day, Branagh’s Let’s face the music and dance does not fit in any of the general chasteness and cheerfulness of the film’s first hour. It also does not match up to the musical genre that he attempts to imitate. The audiences thus perceive it as a number that is out of place and forced into being. The cinematographer in Love’s Labour Lost in the end, serves the actors through gliding the camera in such a manner as to fool the audiences into believing that they are seeing lots of movements than they really are. As implied in this statement, this film’s musical numbers are essentially simple; steps are unsophisticated and premeditated, and largely the singers’ voices are strained (Crowl, 2008).
Directors like Branagh, who have decided to do the musical genre, may find it liberating and creative to play with its format by hiring inexperienced dancers and singers. Probably, this ensures that their pictures are of less threat to contemporary audiences or perhaps the characters gain more fun in it. However, in Branagh’s setting, the adaptation distances modern audiences not only from Shakespeare but also from the 1930s studio musicals. This is not only ironic but also unfortunate given Branagh’s original well-meaning objectives to make the play match the needs of modern audiences. This confirms the fact that due to the rapid changes in film industry and the major emphasis on the viewer’s interpretation, film genre occurs to be an impersonal sign of specific narration, mental image, and possible reaction on a film by the audience.
References
Rick Altman. (2005). The American Film Musical Bliwmlngton; Indiana UP,
Billington M. (23 May 2005) “Guardian Interview of Kenneth Branagh at the National Film Theatre.” interview with, The Daily Telegrapher
Crowl S. (2008). Shakespeare in the Cineplex: The Kenneth Branagh Era (Athens: Ohio UP
Gardner G. (2007) The Censorship Papers: Movie Censorship Letters/mm the Hays Office, (New York; Dodd
Miller M. (2008) “Of Tines and Toons: The Movie Musical in the 1990s,” in Film Genre 2000: New Critical Essays, ed. Wheeler Witiston Dixon; New York, 46-55.
Ramona W. (2006) “Nostalgia for Navarre; The Melancholic Metacinema of Kenneth Branagh’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.” Literature/Film Quarterly 30.3, 172.
Sikov Ed (2010) Film Studies: An Introduction. Columbia University Press.
Taylor C. (2009). “The Player,” review of Love’s Labour’s Lost (Miramax), Saton.com
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I would like to add that dealing in products in the fashion industry is quite challenging because the market demand for speci
I would like to add that dealing in products in the fashion industry is quite challenging because the market demand for specific commodities fluctuates a lot. Keeping up with the trends and satisfying all customers may strain the company and its supply chain. It becomes more problematic in the case of obsolete goods. It is essential to identify the cause of obsolete inventory before determining strategies to tackle the problem. Some of the ways a company might prevent obsolete inventory are by correctly forecasting market demand and tacking inventory at different levels of the supply chain in real-time and
Film and Theater studies Analysis of video recording medium
Analysis of Video Recording Medium
Introduction
Video is a clear and a compelling way of presenting information. It is also a very interesting way of highlighting interesting and experimental information and can also be used to illustrate and show different concepts. The unique feature of videos is that the provider a well detailed and permanent record that can be analyzed in several different ways in the search for information. These benefits have long been witnessed in education, training and testing over the years.
Although video has now been used for quite some time, there are very few tools that have been developed to analyze video data, or the medium by which such video has been recorded. Not to mention the constant development of video recording for example new applications in video mail,
Interactive multimedia systems which are increasingly driving the industry.
The Video Tape Recorder
This is a tape recorder that can record video material. At the beginning, video was firs recorded onto single reels of tape as was audio recording. In order to load the tape, one had to thread it through rollers and across recording and playback heads onto a reel that took it up (take-up reel).
Before the video tape recorder was invented, live video had to be recorded onto motion picture film; a process that was known as tape-recording and even though the product was relatively of good quality, the recording could neither be slowed down or freeze framed. Even after the invention of the video tape recorders, tele-recording was still used for over ten years on.
The first commercially successful videotape format was the 2 inch quadruplex that was developed for the broadcast television industry sometime in 1956. It revolutionized television broadcast production and operations before the motion picture film industry. In contrast, the motion picture film used the kinescopes which were more costly and took more time to develop. Later, color videotapes were introduce in 1958 and first became available in the early 1970s.
The major disadvantage of this technology is that the tape got damaged from hand-threading, contamination of the media on the tape as a result of threading using bare hands and dust which ultimately contaminated all the exposed surfaces of the tape.
These inconveniences brought about the development of the video cassette recorder where the videotape is enclosed in a user friendly videocassette. Until later in the century, this was the most common and well known video tape recorder. Ideally, the tape is attached onto two reels enclosed in the cassette and the loading and the unloading became automated. So the problems that were brought about by the touching, dust, dirty and misalignments that could foul the recording mechanisms were sorted. However, when the videocassette resulted to a failure, for example by getting stuck, the user had to manually sort it out.
The Video cassette recorder
As already mentioned above, this is a type of videotape cassettes containing magnetic tape that records the audio and video from a television broadcast. Numerous videocassette recorders have an inbuilt tuner and a timer that could be used to pre set when to start recording. The development of the videocassette recorder cannot be divorced from that of the videotape recording as a whole. One of the major renowned models includes the Telcan that was produced by the Nottingham Electronic Valve Company. This was the first home video recorder but its shortcoming was that it was too expensive for those times. It was also very technical to put together and could only record up to 20 minutes of output, in black and white.
The development of videocassette followed the replacement of other open reel systems that were being used at the time. The Philips model that was developed in 1970 revolutionized the market because it had a recording time of one hour. However, it was very expensive. It was not until some time later in the late 1970s that mostly Japanese and European companies developed machines that were more advanced and accurate and as thus the video cassette recorder started to become a commodity for the mass markets. With companies trying to out do each other by improving on the features such as the timers and recording durations as consumers flocked for longer recording hours.
The video cassette recorder has been said to have had certain glitches. For instance, the magnetic tape was “chewed” especially when ejected from the machine. This was commonly as a result of old age and lack of cleaning.
In addition, there were tapes which when recorded in LP or EP/LP modes could not playback in certain machines. It was also noted that tapes that had been recorded in older machines could not play in machines developed after 1995. This was paradoxical because newer video cassette recorders tend to have a shorter lifespan than their older counterparts and have very few buttons hence relying more on the remote and the inbuilt automatic features.
At the dawn of the millennium, DVDs gradually overtook the video cassette recorders as they extensively became more popular as the best format to play in pre-recorded video. Given their recent drops in prices they have been seen as the death of the video cassette recorders. As the reduced sales of video cassette recorders increased so did their production which is almost coming to an end.
This declining market and several legal mandates of the recent past have seen major electronic makers ending non-economical productions. Another problem that the video cassette recorder faced was especially the exchange or recording between PAL and NTSC countries. Multi Standard video recorders and TV sets gradually overcame these incompatibility problems.
The U-matic machines were made with Stereo and Beta and VHS started out splitting the audio track on the tape but given the slow speed, the quality was not good enough. Thus came the development of Hi-Fi which modulated the left and the right soundtracks as FM mode on the video portion of the tape.
Digital Video Recorder
This is a device that records in a digital forma to a disk drive, flash drive or a memory card or any other mass storage device. The term includes setup boxes that have a recording facility, recorders and software for personal computers which enable video capture and playback from a disk. Until 2007, there were no television sets with digital video recording. In 2007, LG launched the firs one.
In 1998, the first consumer digital video recorders were launched. In 1999 Microsoft Corporation demonstrated a unit that had digital video recording capability although it had been show cased the previous year and was mainly for dish networks.
Initially, several legal actions have moved companies to remove a lot of features such as automatic commercial skip and the sharing of recordings over the internet; newer devices have steadily regained these functions while adding several complimentary abilities like recording onto DVDs and programming. They also developed remote controlling facilities using PDAs, networked personal computers and Web browsers.
The hard disk based digital video recorders have made the time shifting feature that in the pas was done by video cassette recorders much more convenient. These times they allow modes that enable the consumer to pause live television, instantly replay interesting scenes, chase playback where the viewer can view scenes before the recording is completed and of course skipping the advertisements.
The format that is mostly used by the digital video recorders is the MPEG format which compresses digitized video signals. Hardware that would later have digital video recording capabilities with the assistance of the Microsoft software was developed in 1999 and it too came with the shifting capabilities of the normal digital video recorders and with it came tremendous market sales.
The UK has their “plus boxes” and South African’s Multichoice also launched their digital video recording available in the DSTV platform.
As time goes on, several satellite and cable companies are incorporation in their systems digital video recording capabilities and functions. The advantage with digital television is the that there is no encoding that is necessary or required in the digital video recorder since the signal is already transmitted in digital format encoded in the MPEG stream.
The digital video recorder simply stores the digital stream directly to the disk. Having a broadcaster involved with , and sometimes subsidizing the design of the digital video recorder can lead to features such as the ability and capacity to use interactive television.
It can also facilitate pre-loading of programs or directly recording encrypted digital streams. The downside is that it can also force the manufacturer to implement features that will prevent skipping advertisements or that will be able to counter the skipping features of advertisement in the digital video recorders. They may also have to develop recordings that will automatically expire.
Video recording still continues to mesmerize the masses. Take for example in 2003 many satellite and cable providers introduce the dual-tuner digital video recorders. These machines have two independent tuners within the same receiver. The main use for this feature is the capability to record a live program while watching another live program simultaneously or to record two programs at the same time possibly while watching a previously recorded one.
There are instances even where the market has allowed free-to-air television to be recorded on a removable hard drive. There are also some dual tuner digital video recorders that have the ability to output two separate televisions sets at the same time. While others now even have triple tuners, so long as all the three channels are on the two multiplesexes and sometime even a single one.
Some of the formats of digital video recording include:
DVB digital television contains audio/visual signals that are broadcast over the air in a digital rather than analog format. The DVB data stream can be directly recorded by the DVR.
Recording satellite or digital cable signals on a digital video recorder can be more complex than recording analog signals or broadcast digital signals. There are several different transmission schemes, and the video streams may be encrypted to restrict access to subscribers only. A satellite or cable set-top box both decrypts the signal if encrypted, and decodes the MPEG stream into an analog signal for viewing on the television.
In order to record cable or satellite digital signals the signal must be captured after it has been decrypted but before it is decoded; this is how DVRs built into set-top boxes work. Cable and satellite providers often offer their own digital video recorders along with a service plan. These DVRs have access to the encrypted video stream, and generally enforce the provider’s restrictions on copying of material even after recording.
Many DVD-based DVRs have the capability to copy content from a source DVD. In the U.S. this is prohibited under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act if the disc is encrypted. Most such DVRs will hence not allow recording of video streams from encrypted movie discs.
A digital camcorder combines a camera and a digital video recorder. Some DVD-based DVRs incorporate connectors that can be used to capture digital video from a camcorder. Some editing of the resulting DVD is usually possible, such as adding chapter points.
Some digital video recorders can now record to solid state flash memory cards (called flash camcorders). They generally use secure digital cards, include wireless connections (bluetooth and WiFi) and can play swf files. There are some digital video recorders that combine video and graphics in real time to the flash card, such as the video logger from Racelogic which takes multiple camera inputs and GPS generated graphics and merges them into one video (or stores the GPS coordinates in the image data).
The future of TV advertisements
Digital video recorders are also changing the way television programs advertise products. Watching pre-recorded programs allows users to fast-forward through commercials, and some technology allows users to remove commercials entirely. This feature has been controversial for the last decade, with major television networks and movie studios claiming it violates copyright and should be banned.
Conclusion
With an improvement in the recording technology comes more user friendly and advance features and so does the relatively lower prices of owning the recording medium. From mass storage in boxes and cabinets, to mass storage in a single flash drive or memory card, the change and growth of the industry has been more than captivating.
The new high definition optical disc format may gradually replace the DVD format. Some analysts expect this to change to have a similar effect as that of the DVD on the video cassette recorder.
The 8mm format always used the video portion of the tape for sound, with an FM carrier between the band space of the chrominance and luminance on the tape. This was upgrade to stereo and later to Hi-Fi. Recent times saw the development of the Hi-Def recording and such is the development of video recording.
From tape recorder to digital video recorders, manual handling to automatic management, the phases of video recording have kept with the urges of people to present the best of what has happened, is happening, will happen in the best and most visually captivating way.
With improvement of the recording medium so has the change in the development of laws for them. In the United States for example, the FCC ruled that starting the 1st of July, consumers would be able to purchase set-top box from a third party rather than being forced to purchase them or rent them from their cable their cable companies. This applied to navigation devices that are otherwise known as cable television set – top box and not the security functions that control the users’ access to the content of the cable operator.
The overall net effect of digital video recorders and their related technology is unlike to be substantial as the standalone digital video recorders are currently readily available to the open market.
References
Jenkins, H. “Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. Buying Into American Idol”
Stelter, B.(2008). “A Ruling May Pave the Way for Broader Use of DVR”. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/business/media/05adco.html?ref=business.
Chaney, J. (2005).”Parting Words For VHS Tapes, Soon to Be Gone With the Rewind,” The Washington Post, August 28, 2005; p. N01.
1965 – Sony releases first home video equipment
Diehl, R.N. “Labguy’S World: The Birth of Video Recording”. Labguysworld.com. Retrieved from http://www.labguysworld.com/VTR_BirthOf.htm..