Week 2 -Movies “Disclosure” / “The Celluloid Closet” response to either “Disclosure” OR “The Celluloid Closet” and Ryan’s lecture. Your response must address ONE or more of the following questions/topics: 1. What did you find educational, surprising, and/or challenging about the documentary? Explain using specific examples from the film. 2. Have you seen any of the movies or television shows that were used as examples in the documentary? If so, how did you feel about the representation of queer people when you first saw the film/tv show and how did the documentary make you think differently about that film or tv show? Reference specific examples from the documentary. 3. Do you feel that anything was missing from the documentary? Were there any topics or themes that you feel should have been covered that weren’t? Why do you feel that it would have been impactful for that topic or theme to be included in the documentary? 4. How did the documentary make you think differently about cinematic representation of marginalized people in general? Using specific examples from the documentary, share your thoughts on the responsibility that filmmakers have when representing marginalized, under-served, and/or misunderstood individuals and communities onscreen. How does this documentary relate to cinematic representation of other (non-queer) communities? Ryan Lecture: Responses should be thoughtful, substantial, and demonstrate that you have thoroughly engaged with the course materials (reading, lecture, film). Non-academic responses such as “That was good” or “I liked it” WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. Watch films and learn to be more Actively. Learn to critique films on a deeper level beyond those kind of initial subjective responses, if I liked it or I didnt like it. Its really important to remember that films are made in a vacuum. Films are made in a world where all sorts of things are happening, whether it be political things, social things, environmental things. And all those things that are happening out in the world influence filmmakers and the art that they make. Now, films also communicate things to us, Films tell us things, and a large part of how film theory works is this idea that somebody goes out and they make a film and people watch it and they enjoy it or they dont enjoy it or they pick it apart, they discuss it but theorists will come and watch it and discuss how that film functions. What the film communicates, how that film communicates and whether or not that communication is successful and whether or not what is supposed to be communicated is being are there other messages or other things that the film is communicating that maybe werent necessarily intended by the filmmakers or maybe they were intended by the filmmakers? But theyre problematic. All films try to manipulate us. That is a part of visual storytelling. Part of a major part of filmmaking is for filmmakers to get the viewer to see and interpret audio visual content in the way that the filmmaker wants us to see things. The filmmaker wants us to interpret things in a certain way through the way that the film is constructed. So filmmakers are not are trying to get us to see things in a certain way and to interpret the on screen action and scenes in a way specific way. Filmmakers lead us down a certain path and this is accomplished through a number fo tactics like using various shot compositions, like close ups, like long shots, tilted angles, the different shots in different the way of composing shots show the viewer things from a certain perspective. Anther way that filmmakers lead us down certain paths is how the footage is edited together. Editing is a deliberate act and putting footage together in deliberate ways can lead to a specific interpretation of the on screen. Another way that filmmakers can manipulate us that we see all the time is through music and music is used to amplify emotions, so think about scary music in a horror film and how music can make us feel like something is scarier than it actually is. So there is all sorts of ways that filmmakers try to manipulate us into seeing things and seeing the story in the way that they want us to see it and at the same time, filmmakers are always reimagining and rethinking the best approaches for cinematic storytelling, the best ways for visual communication. And part of our job in this assignment is to discuss how specific filmmaking strategies either succeed or fail, particularly in relation to representation of queer individuals and queer communities. Here are a few tips for active viewing so when watching films actively, you want to start with narrative structure. For example, what does the story communicate? What are the themes, the ideas, the messages that the film communicates to you through its story? How do specific scenes work either alone or in tandem with each other? So when critiquing film, think about that narrative structure. Think about what is communicated through the story itself and specific scenes. The next tip for active viewing is to examine the esthetics , the technical elements, the visual and auditory elements of the film. And how do those technical elements, how are they unique and how do they function to support different themes or to create a mood or to manipulate the viewer? So like breaking it down into oh, I really like these shots or I really like this style of editing. I really liked the lighting. The next tip for active viewing is to consider perception and reception. This means how do you receive the film or specific scenes? For instance, when filmmakers are making a film, theres this idea of the ideal viewer that the filmmaker has the ideal viewer in mind and they are making the film for that person or that group of people but a lot of times theres a little bit of a disconnect between the ideal and viewer, the viewer that the filmmaker thinks is going to be watching the film and the real viewer, the people that actually watch it. So you want to think about the intended meaning like what was the filmmaker trying to say versus what you as the viewer actually get out of it? Do you get the same meaning that the filmmaker was intending for you to get? Lot of times the intended meaning and what viewers actually receive is not the same. Because filmmakers assume that the viewers will have certain responses , but again people receive things differently. We all have a unique background. We all have our family background, our cultural background our personal beliefs and all of those things, that we bring into the move theater we bring to the TV when we sit down and start watching a movie, all of those things in our lives that have kind of raised us and grown us to be into who we are today lead us to see things in specific so what one person might find frightening, somebody else might think its funny. Or somebody might think something is hilarious, but somebody else might find that same thing incredibly offensive. So when you are watching a film, consider what do you think the filmmaker were trying to say and who were they trying to target? Do they succeed? Films can be used and interpreted and appropriated in lots of different ways also. And they might have a positive representation of gay men, but are trans women of color presented in a problematic way? Films communicate Film lead people to different paths by music, different shots, etc. Start with narrative structure. What are the themes communicated? Examine the aesthetics (How PerceptionShow more
