I’m glad “visual rhetoric” is so vast and all-encompassing. It includes all images, and movies are lots and lots of images one after another; therefore movies are visual rhetoric, and I like movies! Today I want to look at one of this year’s films that was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography: The Grand Budapest Hotel. I want to explore a little bit of the visual rhetoric from the movie and analyze the film how we have been analyzing other pieces of visual rhetoric.

Some may agree that Wes Anderson, the director of The Grand Budapest Hotel, has created a genre of his own. His films are notorious for the use of extremely dead-center shots, long takes, the font Futura, and Bill Murray smoking cigarettes.

The long takes and dead-center shots that Anderson uses in a lot of his movies including The Grand Budapest Hotel gives the movie a kind of storybook feel; the composition makes the visuals pretty flat. The long takes also make the movie have a kind of theater feel (like Birdman!) He says that he enjoys the difficulty and challenge that this presents to the actors.

He also uses very saturated color palettes in every movie; if you scroll up and look through the stills I posted from The Grand Budapest Hotel, you can see the purples and reds that are present throughout the whole movie. I didn’t realize that color is actually very important in movies until I learned that for every shot, all the colors, from the set design to the costumes, are carefully planned out.

This stuff is so interesting to me!!

ps: The cinematographer for The Grand Budapest Hotel is Robert Yeoman; just thought he should also be given a lot of credit for the visual rhetoric of the film.

Content Analysis of The Breakfast Club Compared to 1934 Production Code

Every movie released in the United States today is rated by a system developed in 1968 by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). However, eighty years ago, the production code was very different; since then, many restrictions have been lifted. This change in standards of censorship for films is evident in The Breakfast Club, a coming-of-age film directed by John Hughes and released on February 15, 1985. The 1934 production code was initially created and proposed by clergymen Martin Quigley and Daniel A. Lord because they were especially concerned with the negative moral effects that certain films might have on the younger generation. The code was then implemented and enforced as a list of “Don’ts and Be Carefuls” by the MPAA to avoid government intervention in movie censorship. Even though in today’s age it seems like one of the milder rated R films, The Breakfast Club contains several violations of this older production code. Three of the biggest violations of the 1934 production code include profanity, illegal drug use, and reference to violence.

The most overt violation of the code in The Breakfast Club is profanity. This includes use of any obscene language such as “shit”, “fuck”, “piss”, “faggot”, and any variation of the above. It also includes irreverent use of the words “God” or “Jesus”. The high school student characters participate in much dialogue as the majority of the movie takes place in a single room, and there are at least fifty instances of profane language throughout the film. There are also numerous instances of sexual references and jokes. The code explicitly enumerates profanity as an element that is not allowed to appear in pictures; it is listed as the number one “Don’t”.

The second biggest violation of the 1934 production code by The Breakfast Club is the glorified use of illegal drugs, notably in a public school. At one point in the movie, the main protagonists get together and smoke marijuana in the library. They are portrayed as carefree teenagers having lots of fun; their blatant use of illegal drugs shows a disrespectful attitude towards Mr. Vernon, their detention monitor, and the school, which is a public institution, another violation of the code. The main protagonists destroy an abundant amount of school property, disrespectfully dance on top of desks and tables, run around recklessly through school hallways, use illegal drugs in the library, and rip apart library books; John Bender even curses at the figure of authority. According to the 1934 production code, this ruthless behavior would not be allowed to be shown in a film.

The last violation that will be discussed is the violent references. Andy and John briefly engage in a fight, and threats of violence are verbally thrown between Andy and John and from Mr. Vernon to John. John Bender mentions his abusive father, and Brian confides in his newfound friends, telling them about his attempted suicide with a flare gun. Though these instances did not directly display violence itself, the implications were strong and descriptions intense.

In The Breakfast Club, excessive profane language, glorified use of illegal drugs, and violent references are three of the biggest violations of the 1934 production code. When compared to this older code, The Breakfast Club is made out to be a very inappropriate film for general audiences and would not have been allowed to be shown in theaters.

Analysis of Early Cinema

For my study of early films, I watched a variety of Edison motion pictures, from vaudeville to short comedies to simple panoramic views of buildings. After viewing a spectrum of different films made from 1894 to 1903, I noticed certain characteristics throughout each that I will describe in detail. I separated the films I will be discussing into four categories: performance, actualités, scenic, and story.

The first performance film I saw was Cupid and Psyche (1897), a vaudeville act recorded in San Francisco. Because this seemed to be filmed live and outdoors with an audience in the background, it could also fall under the category of actualités. Boxing Cats (1894) and Athlete with Wand (1894) were also filmed during the same year; all three featured a frontal vantage point from which the viewer could best see the action going on. Camera movement for all three films was nonexistent. There seemed to be some visible cutting of multiple shots in Boxing Cats and Athlete with Wand, but it was very arbitrary and seemed to serve no purpose. These performance films were perhaps merely a way to record a performance so that it could be shown multiple times later.

Actualités were films that illustrated simple everyday happenings, such as Morning Bath (1896), which showed a woman bathing a child. The type of shot could vary; Record of a Sneeze (1894) used a close-up to emphasize details on the face while Feeding the Doves (1896) used a long shot to establish setting. Lighting also varied; Morning Alarm (1896) and Capture of Trenches at Candaba (1899) were obviously shot outdoors with the bright lighting and trees in the buildings or trees in the background while it was darker in A Dull Razor (1900) and Record of a Sneeze (1894) and there was a lack of backlight. Whatever lighting was available and type of shot that was convenient for the situation was probably mostly used to shoot actualités.

The third category I created is scenic. This includes any film that is shot solely to show a building or landmark, such as the Eiffel Tower. These usually use a medium to long shot and camera movement is often used; Panoramic View of Electric Tower from a Balloon (1901) uses a tilt up from a low angle to capture the magnificent size of the building. Figures are clear due to ample outdoor lighting and the subject is often placed off-center rather than dead-center for an artsy effect.

The last category is story. These became more common later in the film industry because they required more organization with actors involved. What is especially characteristic about these films that I noticed is that editing was used tastefully and served a purpose. For example, Clown and the Alchemist (1900) used cutting to create the special effect of someone appearing out of thin air. Besides special effects, editing was also used to cut shots together to emphasize certain parts of a storyline. In The Gay Shoe Clerk (1903), the film cuts from a medium shot to a close-up of the young girl’s foot. Without this zoom in on a detail, parts of the storyline would seducing the shoe clerk but lifting up her dress. Other comedic films such as Three Acrobats (1899), Why Mrs. Jones Got a Divorce (1900), and Love in a Hammock (1901) seemed to use less frames per second to create a faster, choppier feel which added to the comedic aspect.

By observing a mere decade of early short films, I’ve noticed that films have evolved and improved as they moved from simply recording an event to meticulously creating planned shots and using editing to enhance them. A closer look at films of performances, actualités, scenic shots, and film narratives revealed many patterns that represented the development of early cinema.

 

The Passing

This is a really short thing that a few of my friends wrote that I helped film over the break. It was a pretty rigorous 7+ hour shoot, but it was really fun! A good and exciting experience.

Birdman (2014)

SPOILER ALERT!

After a talk with my friend Gregory, I’ve realized that it comes down to three ways one can look at the ending:

1. Riggan Thompson jumped out the window and…flew! He is actually Birdman, superpowers and all. His daughter Sam looked up and laughed with happiness as she was happy for her father who wanted to be Birdman and have everything that came with it (the powers, the fame, etc.) The reason this ending doesn’t make much sense literally and logically is that throughout the movie, it was obvious that his powers weren’t real (ex: after flying to the theater with his Birdman wings, the real life taxi cab driver yelled at him to pay, every time he used telekinesis to throw things around, it ended up with an object in his hands that he was about to throw when he was brought back to reality and other characters were watching him)
2. Riggan Thompson jumped out the window and…fell to his death. His daughter Sam had a psychotic break and looked up at the sky and laughed because she was finally free from her father. This one doesn’t really make sense to me because Why would he kill himself after the successful opening night? And this ending puts too much focus on his daughter instead of him.
3. Riggan Thompson killed himself on stage. Everything that happens to him afterwards is a dream that runs through his head during the last few moments of his life; it’s a bout of euphoria where he imagines that he got a great review (he probably did due to the “hyper-realism”), his wife and daughter are there with him, his daughter affirms  This one also makes sense because there is a conspicuous cut after he kills himself, whereas there are no obvious cuts anywhere else throughout the movie. Life doesn’t have cuts.

But of course, the mere goal of the screenwriters was for us to sit around and think hard about an ambiguous ending. It really does take talent and courage to end the movie on a feeling rather than a concrete happening. Watch this interview of the screenwriters discussing the ending of Birdman.

PS: I loved this movie; it was hilarious and the lack of cuts was amazing, just like a real live play on stage. Lots of meta

This just in!

(CNN) — A lawsuit filed by Academy Award winning screenwriter and celebrated director Quentin Tarantino against the Gawker website for linking to a script for a future movie project was dismissed Tuesday by a federal judge.

In January, Gawker posted links to the script for “The Hateful Eight,” an unproduced Western. Tarantino failed to prove that was an act of direct copyright infringement, said Judge John F. Walter of the Central District of California.

The judge said he would allow Tarantino’s attorney to amend arguments and refile the complaint by May 1.

Although Gawker did not post the script to its own site, Tarantino’s attorney charged the script would not have been widely accessible if Gawker had not linked to it.

Gawker turned down repeated requests to remove links to download the script, Tarantino’s complaint charged.

Tarantino told the gossip site Deadline that he had given the script to only six people, including actors Michael Madsen, best known as the killer in “Reservoir Dogs,” as well as Bruce Dern and Tim Roth. “Reservoir Dogs” was Roth’s breakthrough film.

Somehow, the script leaked. It was posted through a site that lets users anonymously upload and download files.

CNN’s attempts to reach Tarantino for comment on Tuesday were unsuccessful. Gawker didn’t mention the decision on its website.

According to CNN affiliate KTLA, Tarantino held a three-hour reading of the script over the weekend and told audience members he was working on changes to it. Although Tarantino had spoken of shelving the project when the links to the script were posted, he said making the film is still possible.

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I just thought this was very ironic that Tarantino was getting sued for copyright issues and I wrote a paper about his originality.

Quentin Tarantino Filmmaker Advice

Really cool advice from the quirky Tarantino himself.

He talks about having the passion to experiment and just create films. Even if you make a really mediocre/bad film, you’ll learn from the experience and know how to make a better one. Also, he makes a point that to publicize and bring your film to more people, make GOOD films. It’s about content rather than marketing.

Miscellaneous Influence from Other Films

Tarantino has admitted that many of his ideas are taken from other directors and movies. “I steal from every single movie ever made . . . I steal from everything. Great artists steal, they don’t do homages.” He is the quintessential movie geek, in which his job as a teenage movie clerk played a huge role. There are often direct references to other films in the screenplays themselves; in the opening pages of the published screenplay of Pulp Fiction, the action provides directions for the dialogue to be said in a rapid-pace ‘HIS GIRL FRIDAY’ fashion. At the beginning of the screenplay for Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino includes a dedication to cinematic talents who had a direct influence on the work. He is often direct and open about being inspired by other films in his interviews. Kiss Me Deadly (directed in 1955 by Robert Aldrich) had a great influence on Pulp Fiction which is apparent in the way it incorporates themes of film noir. Even the mysterious briefcase featured several times in Pulp Fiction seems to likely be a homage to the briefcase in Kiss Me Deadly. Even Shakespeare’s five-act structure is used in Tarantino’s films. The tale of teenagers going on a crime spree as seen in True Romance and Natural Born Killers was allegedly inspired by Badlands. The tenderness of feelings and even some of the dialogue between Sergeant Tony Meserve and his dying soldier chum in Casualties of War, directed by Brian DePalma in 1989, are echoed by the scenes involving compassionate Mr. White and the severely wounded Mr. Orange in Reservoir Dogs. In fact, many of DePalma’s works have influenced Tarantino’s films. The entire killer nurse scene in Kill Bill: Volume 1 is comprised of elements from older films; the basic action is seen in John Frankenheimer’s Black Sunday (1977), the eye patch that Elle Driver wears is a subtle nod to the lead character in Bo Ame Vibenius’s They Call Her One Eye (1974), and even the tune being whistled is taken from 1968 British psychological thriller, Twisted Nerve, directed by Roy Boulting.According to Tarantino, Reservoir Dogs’sirrelevant title was actually inspired by the mispronunciation of the French film Au Revoir Les Enfants by Louis Malle. Battle Royale, with its exorbitant amounts of blood, gore, and violence is one of Tarantino’s favorites and is perhaps an inspiration for his own excessive use of violence. Tarantino’s ability to take a direct quote from another movie and put his own spin on it makes it clear that he owns his style. “Like a hip-hop artist, he borrows and samples to create something fresh and exciting.”

 

Other Trademarks and Recurring Motifs

Tarantino seems quite enamored with the materialistic consumerism of today’s society; his films are saturated with American popular culture references in the music and dialogue. This obsession with the material world is also evident through another trait that makes his movies unique: his creation of made-up brands and placement of these products throughout multiple films. For example, the fictional Red Apple cigarette and Big Kahuna burger appear first in Pulp Fiction and reappear in From Dusk Till Dawn, Four Rooms, and Kill Bill. Fruit Brute Cereal and Teriyaki Donuts are other fabricated brands that are featured in various films directed by Tarantino. Through this concept of imaginary products and characters that cross-over multiple films of his, an alternate “movie world” is created and the audience is able to travel to a fantastical reality. 

One of Tarantino’s favorite climactic devices is the Mexican standoff. Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, a film of great influence to Tarantino,concludes with one. Tarantino also uses it in Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, Inglourious Basterds, and Pulp Fiction.

Again, Tarantino is neither the first to establish fake products nor the first to use the Mexican standoff as a climactic device; therefore, he cannot be considered a pioneer in these aspects. 

Breaking the Traditional Story Arc

With the American attention span growing smaller and smaller, Tarantino sets up the scenes in his films like the segments of a TV episode between commercial breaks. By doing so, he effectively illustrates our fragmented society and forces the audience to “stitch together a coherent narrative out of the bombardment of information and drama that is our daily passage through a market culture.”

Tarantino has influenced a tremendous growth of the use of a non-linear narrative in film with Pulp Fiction. The flashbacks and flash forwards are used to weave three overlapping and interconnected storylines in a dramatic way. The sophisticated and difficult technique of a non-chronological order of scenes creates more excitement and keeps the audience’s attention. It allows different storylines to be shown within one story and reveals various perspectives.  According to an explanation by the director himself, he believes that the audience likes to be curious and shocked; the discontinuity of a non-linear structure instigates surprise about certain characters at the right time. A clear example is the bloody Mr. Orange in the opening scene of Reservoir Dogs, whose suffering compels the audience to sympathize, but who later reveals to another suffering victim that he, in fact, is the cop who set them up and caused the mission to fail.