Topics to Think About at Avengers Screening

* The space of the theatre (lobby, marketing of food, design, technology, promotional material etc.) * Design, architecture forced to purchase * Constructive environment * Product placement in the film’ * Beats head phones individual experience of sound * Samsung S6 * Skype * Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (MCU) –Ironman led to Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers. . .); consider cross-over, interwoven narratives; idea that characters in one film might share a universe with those in another, seemingly unrelated film * Characters back stories * Continuity within all the characters * A lot of popular culture reference within the film * Marvel’s recognizable brand * “Look” of the film (its mise-en-scene, for example) to graphic novels (comics) * Character backstories—use of flashbacks * Constructions of masculinity/femininity in the film (Black Widow’s character, in particular) * Celebrity billing/role of celebrity in creating the blockbuster film * Cameos (of celebrities and other superheroes) * Trailers/the para-film experience * Audience composition * Music—the film’s score * Engagements with issues of race/gender identity/sexuality * Power relations among the superheroes * b * Rating criteria (language, nudity, violence) * CGI/the ending * Director Joss Whedon’s celebrity status and following (for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Much Ado About Nothing etc.) * Strong for female leads * Idea of a super hero being strong and be unique is important * REdemention arch in a hero film in terms of a hero having to struggle * By Compasrison, * Examples of uninspired directing/acting * How do the superheroes impact/influence ideas of the post-human (or humanity)? * American exceptionalism/ vigilantism in action films * The construction of the city * Camera shot techniques

Film shots/The Significane of the Film Form * Form: The way parts of the film work together to create an overall effect. The overall set of relationships * How do directors make choices about form? * Director and their vesion * How do viewers respond to it? * Diversity of experience * Relationships of form to content * Significane of the form (technically elemnts) content * Form in film, technically aspects of the film * In film and in literature

Film Form * Patterns: Even small details are often linked in a pattern. If we think of form (partly) as pattern, we can ask how it engages our senses/intellect as a process or structured experience. * Narrative elements (Audience expected to follow a story) * Stylistic elements (way camera moves, use of colour etc.) * Expectations of our experience to the film, (I.e. Action, impressive special affects) * Film Makers try to shape expectations or disturb them * Film Frame: The perimeter of vision recorded by the camera (literal, box of frame recorded by the camera)

Form & Genre * Genres depend on conventions and norms * Relationship between form and feelings

Form & Meanings * Tangible meanings – Film refers to things or places already invested with significance in real world. Something tangible that already invested with significance (I.e Statue liberty what is already though of) * Implicit Meaning – Meaning that isn’t stated directly/ * Symptomatic meaning –

Form & Meaning * Content is the meaning * Form (the vehicle for the content) * Form related to the content (i.e. Lighting and how it sets a mood) * Form and content and how it sets a meaning

Evaluation * What does it mean to evaluate an artwork (a film)? * Can we be objective? Should we be objective? * Which criteria should we apply * Some examples: Unit; intensity of effect; complexity; originality

Functions of Formal Elements * Formal elements in a flim we can ask, what are its functions * Most elements have several purposes

Motifs * Motif: Is any significant repeated element that contributed to overall form; object, colour, a place, person, a sound, a character trait, etc. (not just an obkect) * Motifs often appear at climactic or highly emotional moments. They are fairly exact repetitions (but may also be slightly inexact). * Compositional Motifs

Questions * Are all the pattern of forma dn style that we notice really “in “ the film * DO filmmakers actually pu them there? or are we just reading them in? * DOes it matter? Segmentation * Technique of analytical segmentation * A writtten outline of a film that breaks it into its major and minor parts scenes are numbered * Segmenting a film enables us to notice similarities and differences among parts and to plot the overall development. We can get sense of the films basic design this way * Always neat to segment beggingina dn end. Filmmakers look at this and bring it together (ie similiar motifs and connections)

Shots * Cu – Close Up * Xcu – Extreme close up * Ms – Medium Shot * Fs – Full or long shot (revealing character’s entire body In frame) * 3/4s – (showing ¾ of a character’s body) * Ps – Pan shot (camera goes from right to left or left to right and a pan shot * s/rs – Shot reverse shot (camera looking at someone, then shows individual being looked at) * cut – cut (when film image changed from one image to another * it – long take (film does not cut to another image, continuous shot) * crs – Crane Shot (from high above) * trs - Tracking shot (a walking figure) * la - Low angle (POV tilted upwards) * ha – High angle (POV tilted downwards)

Narrative Form * How do filmmakers tell stories? * Flashback/Flash forward (Black Widow – Avengers) * From who’s viewpoint

Story/Plot * Story: Chain of events in chornilogical order * Plot: The action visibly and audibly present in the film before us * Story may be presented in various ways * Same story can be rendered as different plots

Diegesis
Diegesis: The total world of stoy action – (i.e. credits, a films score)

Chapter 3 - Readings * Social production of meaning through signs and meanings * How representation works and how it fails to work * Representation and the connection of agency, who is constructing * Signs: Words, gestures, items of clothing anything that displays meanings * Semiotics: How to analyze signs and sign systems in films, novels and cultural practices Pg. 67
Structuralism Theories of Representation * Structuralism: * Semiotic: * Binary Opposition: Constraining and problematic,

Mythologies * Saussure’s Theory * Myth: Not natural * Humanist Myth: Erase historical

Semotic Meaning of News Headlines (First Nations) > Authors critique * Myth, Power knowledge, Ideology, Globalization * How do they use those to pick a part the head line and see how they do it * They talk about what they read * Semiotic analysis, moved outward
Discourse & Power * Michel Foucault * Power and Knowledge > i.e. Doctors

Moral Panic * 2