Introduction to Film and Television Studies

1. Introduction to Film and Television Studies Formalanalysis

2. Why analyze a film? When the film piques our interest, we analyze it in order to explain, in formal and historical terms, what is going on in the work that would cue such a response … ultimately we write and read criticism as much for issues raised as for the explication of a single film. Theory and criticism thus become two different aspects of the same give-and-take process. (Kristin Thompson: Breaking the Glass Armour p. 5)

3. Cinematic competence includes • Ability to understand motivations of fictional characters and how those generate action • Ability to detect themes • Ability to assess ideological issues • Ability to relate an individual film to frames such as art in general, film history, genres, other modes of representation • Ability to assess and appreciate the individual qualities of a film

4. Reading strategies (Stuart Hall) Differences in decoding • Dominant-hegemonic position: the message is decoded entirely as it was intended • Negotiating position: at least some components are adapted or reinterpreted according in ‘local’ terms • Oppositional position: the message is read in terms of an alternative framework resulting in a reading which may carry far away from the intended meanings

5. Scale of competence • Basic competence: the spectator recognizes the diegetic and explicit meanings • A fully competent spectator either • recognizes the implicit meanings and accepts their ideological connotations (hegemonic rstr) • recognizes and accepts basic assumptions but not all their implications (negotiating rstr) • finds her own implicit meanings on the basis of her own ideological position (oppositional rstr) • A critical spectator analyzes also symptomatic meanings, i.e. ideological implications and psychological symptoms

6. Background assumptions of Formalism • Narration as a process of “selecting, arranging, and rendering story material in order to achieve specific time-bound effects on a perceiver” (NF) • The work itself defines which aspects of reality are relevant for comprehension • Meanings are not messages conveyed by he film but parts of the film’s structure • Viktor Shklovski: ”It is true that in a work of literature we also have the expression of ideas, but it is not a question of ideas clothed in artistic form, but rather artistic form created from ideas as its material.” • Not everything is narrational and/or thematic. The filmic qualities can be an autonomous dimension of the film - excess

7. Formalist analysis in practice • How can the film be understood in terms of motivations? • How does the film guide the spectator in forming hypothesis and how does it either confirm them or deny them? • Does the film confirm to certain norms or does it challenge them? • How do all the different elements function narratively, thematically or expressively? • How does the film build up into a whole?

8. Background constructions (Thompson) • enable the assessing of realistic motivation • define which aspects of reality are relevant in the film • define to which aesthetic norms the film adheres to • form a horizon in the spectators mind which make the film comprehensible

9. Tasks of film criticism • To analyze and expand the range of perception and understanding in respect of a challenging work or art • Prevent the formation of a gap between the artist and the audience by demonstrating how the work of art functions • Bring a challenging work within the range of the audience not by simplifying it but by developing useful concepts and approaches • Show a conventional work in a new light e.g. bringing out neglected background constructions

10. Semantic fields • Conceptual structures that organize potential meanings in respect of one another • Precede analysis but may be revised as the analysis proceeds • Are selected according to what is though to be relevant in a given community • Are supposed to be able to pick up all the relevant features of the object of study • Have traditionally derived from the humanities: what does the work tell us about the human condition, love, anxiety, alienation, difficulties in communication, relativity of values etc.

11. How is interpretation worked out? (DB) • The most pertinent meanings are assumed to be either implicit, symptomatic or both • One or more semantic field is highlighted • Different levels of the film are mapped out in terms of semantic fields by correlating textual and semantic features with one another • Presenting an argumentation which displays the novelty and value of the interpretation

12. Four tasks of an interpreter (DB) • Demonstrate why the film chosen is a relevant object of analysis • Demonstrate how the critical concepts applied suit the specific features of the film under study • Make the interpretation novel by - presenting a new theory or method - revising an existing theory or method - applying an established theory to a new area - drawing attention to features previously neglected • Present the interpretation in a convincing way