Raising Arizona

1. Raising Arizona The Coen Brothers: Joel and Ethan

2. Joel Coen: “You start with things that are incredibly recognizable in one form, and they you play with them.”

3. Joel and Ethan Coen • “they speak with a single creative voice . . . as a ‘two-man ecosystem’” • Function interchangeably on the set and work together every step of the filmmaking process • Joel named as director • Ethan named as producer • Roderick Jaynes: pseudonym for their editorial work • Writers: “Their screenplays are renowned for their attention to such production factors as set design, camera angles and movement, and framing… their scripts manage to convey a vivid sense of the finished film.” • Work with a regular cast of colleagues and actors who “can feel their way through it, kind of like (the Coens) can.”

4. Storyboarding—Todd Anderson • The Coens’ fanatical devotion to this practice is legendary. • They storyboard extensively; relatively little camera coverage or dialogue is improvised on their sets. • Economical—maximizes the conservation of time and money • Joel Coen: “The only way to make a decent movie for no money is to be very, very prepared, and to be able to answer very specific questions about what you need to see and what you don’t need to see—and therefore, what you need to spend money on and what you don’t need to spend money on.”

5. Wikiuniversity Film School: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Lesson:Thumbnail_Storyboard Dummies.com: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/storyboarding-your-film.html 4 minute film school: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-yeI83fN6s Storyboarding • An efficient way to communicate their ideas to the people with whom they collaborate, which in turn allows for greater preparedness on their parts. Storyboards, Inc.: http://www.storyboardsinc.com/index.shtml

6. Raising Arizona • Voice-over narration • Storyteller’s mediation is ironically at odds with the story world circumstance • Juxtaposition of subjective point of view of narrative with the objective point of view of the camera creates humor

7. Clichéd Characters • Characters are tragicomically transparent in their relationships to the cultural representations that dominate their lives • Encapsulates a time of American crisis: Regenomics & the destruction of the family unit • Their self-identities originate in the stereotypes, images, and phrases they have appropriated from various mass cultural sources. • H. I. McDunnough: • Narrator/protagonist exists most fully in the language he uses to describe his world • Cartoon universe represented by tatoo he shares with the biker • Recidivism & Regeanomics: the chronic tendency toward repetition of criminal or antisocial behavior patterns caused by political climate • Ed • Drill Sergeant Attitude: Female police officer in a man’s world • Victim of Infertility: Heightened reaction to her infertility • Kidnapper bent on balancing the scales of justice: Fervent, felonious drive toward motherhood • Mother defending the sanctity of the “family unit”

8. Aesthetic Paradigm: Cartoon Color Palette • Woody Woodpecker: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=woody+woodpecker&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADBR_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=deOhSYbDG56Dtwfsh836DA&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=8&ct=title#

19. Credits • Russell, Carolyn R. The Films of Joel and Ethan Coen