Introduction to Roland Barthess Mythologies: Semiotics Part 2 Film & Media Studies 2024-02-06 | This video provides an introduction to Roland Barthes's book "Mythologies," emphasizing the book's status as a work of semiotics. The content delves into the semiotic analysis of signs, exploring the concept of "Myth" and its application to cultural elements.The first part of the video examines the chapter entitled "Myth Today," going over Barthes's example of the semiotic analysis of cultural "myths," in which he analyzes a magazine cover featuring a Black child saluting the French flag. In the second part of the video, I offer my own example of a semiotic analysis of the cultural myths associated with wine and beer as a way of illustrating the kind of analysis that Barthes conducts throughout the first part of his book. This analysis of beer and wine touches upon gendered associations with wine and beer in the American context and the implications of the "Beer Question" in politics. This video is the second entry in a series on semiotic analysis: Video #1:
An Introduction to Semiotics Film & Media Studies 2024-01-03 | This video serves as an introduction to semiotics, focusing on Ferdinand de Saussure's linguistic theory. The aim of the video is to show how the principles of Saussure's theory of language would be attractive to the semiotics of mass culture practiced by Roland Barthes.The video first delves into Saussure's key ideas, emphasizing two major claims: the arbitrary nature of the signifier-signified connection and the idea that words derive meaning through their differences from other words in the language. These principles form the basis of structuralism, where language is viewed as a self-contained system defined by internal relationships. The video then explores how Saussure's linguistic theories laid the foundation for the study of signs in culture, particularly in mass media. I discuss the transition from understanding language to analyzing cultural signs, introducing the concept of denotation (obvious meaning) and connotation (additional, cultural meaning). The video concludes by emphasizing the importance of semiotics in revealing the historical, changeable, and culturally specific aspects of connotation, challenging assumptions about natural meanings and encouraging awareness of ideological communication in mass media.*Corrections: I implied that Let it Be is a "John Lennon" song, whereas it's generally attributed to Paul McCartney.*Corrections: I accidentally referred to Saussure as a "French linguist." He is Swiss.
Robin Woods An Introduction to the American Horror Film / American Nightmare Film & Media Studies 2023-08-01 | In this video, I provide an overview of film critic Robin Wood's essay "An Introduction to the American Horror Film" (1979). Parts of this essay are also published under the name "American Nightmare" and "The Return of the Repressed." This essay is considered one of the most influential works of horror film scholarship. Films discussed as examples include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel), and Us (Peele).
Introduction to the French New Wave Film & Media Studies 2023-07-22 | This video introduces the film movement known as the French New Wave, with an emphasis on the historical conditions of the movement as well as the major published writings associated with the thought of the French New Wave. Topics discussed include Cahiers du Cinema and auteur theory. Written works discussed include Francois Truffaut's "A Certain Tendency in French Cinema" and Alexandre Astruc's The Birth of a New Avant-Garde: La Camera-Stylo. Some films briefly discussed include Breathless (Godard, 1960), 400 Blows (Truffaut, 1959), and Jules and Jim (Truffaut, 1962).*Correction: At 17:00, I don't quite make clear that the CNC wasn't funding the kinds of movies we'd associate with the French New Wave until 1959, when it was explicitly funding first time directors. While it was invested in fostering a French film culture in the 50s, it was largely funding the tradition of 'quality' that Truffaut condemns.
Introduction to Italian Neorealism Film & Media Studies 2023-07-10 | This video provides an overview of the film movement known as Italian Neorealism. It begins with some historical background and then examines the core aesthetic characteristics of the movement, with a special emphasis on some of the narrative innovations of the movement, including the use of dead time, chance events, a lack of narrative causality, and a lack of narrative closure. Filmmakers examined inclue Vittorio de Sica, Luchino Visconti, and Roberto Rossellini. Films examined include Bicycle Thieves, Umberto D, Ossessione, Rome: Open City, and Germany Year Zero. Texts examined include Cesare Zavattini's "Some Ideas in the Cinema."
Un Chien Andalou (1929) and Surrealist Cinema Film & Media Studies 2023-06-30 | In this video, the second in a series on Surrealism and cinema, I provide an analysis of the film Un Chien Andalou (Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, 1929), perhaps the most well-known and influential film associated with the Surrealist art movement. After providing a brief introduction to the film, I examine the film's narrative conventions in the context of surrealist art conventions, paying close attention to the film's anti-narrative logic and dream logic.
Introduction to Surrealism and Surrealist Cinema Film & Media Studies 2023-06-23 | This video is the first in a series on Surrealist Cinema. The first part of the video starts with some basic definitions of Surrealism, then moves onto historical context, and then spends a majority of the time examining the aesthetic characteristics of surrealist painting. The second part of the video introduces the topic of Surrealist cinema by exploring how and why the Surrealist artists were interested in the medium of cinema.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: From Caligari to Hitler Film & Media Studies 2023-06-16 | This video is the third in a series on German Expressionism. It provides an overview of the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene, 1920), focusing on allegorical interpretations of its plot and themes of authority and obedience. Special attention is paid to Frankfurt School theorist Siegfried Kracauer's reading of the film from his 1947 book From Caligari to Hitler. Finally, the video turns to a brief examination of Guillermo del Toro as a filmmaker whose body of work resonates deeply with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, from his emphasis on fantastical mise-en-scene and dark imagery to his consistent interest in authoritarian figures, fascism, and disobedience. A brief comparison is made between Pan's Labyrinth and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.This video is part of a series on German Expressionism: Part 1: youtu.be/M6GGDW5rds8Part 2: youtu.be/F8ApbYYyxm8Part 3: youtu.be/Q3b76pGp_c0
German Expressionisms Influences Film & Media Studies 2023-06-09 | In this video, part of a series on German Expressionism, I discuss some of the ways that German Expressionist cinema influenced later films. The video begins with a brief discussion of Film Noir and Horror film as the two canonical Hollywood genres most immediately influenced by German Expressionism. Then, I look at two moments from Hollywood films--Touch of Evil and Barton Fink--that exemplify the aesthetic logic of expressionism.Part 1: youtu.be/M6GGDW5rds8Part 2: youtu.be/F8ApbYYyxm8Part 3: youtu.be/Q3b76pGp_c0
Introduction to German Expressionist Cinema Film & Media Studies 2023-06-02 | This video is the first in a series on the film movement known as German Expressionism. The video begins with a general overview of "expressionism" as a modernist artistic movement, looking in particular at some examples from painting. Then the video examines some general historical conditions of German Expressionist cinema as well as some of the most notable aesthetic characteristics of the movement.Part 1: youtu.be/M6GGDW5rds8Part 2: youtu.be/F8ApbYYyxm8Part 3: youtu.be/Q3b76pGp_c0
Stanley Cavells The World Viewed Film & Media Studies 2023-04-10 | This video provides an introduction to Stanley Cavell's The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film. This introduction focuses on three topics: the relationship between Cavell's realism and Ordinary Language Philosophy, the relation between Cavell's realism and philosophical skepticism, and the role that art criticism plays in the book's arguments.
2 Modes of Film Analysis: Poetics vs Hermeneutics Film & Media Studies 2023-02-06 | In this video, I discuss two distinct approaches to the analysis of artworks: poetics and hermeneutics. I'm drawing the distinction from Jonathan Culler's book Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. First, I provide examples of the difference between poetics and hermeneutics by analyzing a clip from the film The Shining (Kubrick, 1980). Then, I look more broadly at where poetics-centric and hermeneutics-centric analysis occurs in academic film studies and in YouTube film analysis. Some topics I examine include "hermeneutics of suspicion," the relationship between hermeneutics and "symptomatic reading," and the relationship between poetics and "formal" analysis. Texts mentioned include David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson's Film Art, Susan Sontag's "Against Interpretation," "John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln" by the editors of Cahiers du Cinema, and Siegfried Kracauer's From Caligari to Hitler.For the video on Susan Sontag's "Against Interpretation:" youtu.be/kYINwG7l17sFor the video that discusses "symptomatic reading" in more depth: youtu.be/WYHLAw9ddkk
The Four Levels of Meaning in Film Interpretation Film & Media Studies 2023-01-31 | This video provides an overview of David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson's account of the four levels of meaning in films and artworks, which is laid out in their textbook Film Art. The four levels of meaning originates in David Bordwell's book Making Meaning: Inference and Rhetoric in Film Interpretation. The video goes over each of the four levels--referential, implicit, explicit, and symptomatic meaning--examining Bordwell and Thompson's examples of meaning in The Wizard of Oz, and I provide my own examples of meaning in Rear Window.*Correction: Around minute 17, I suggest that Laura Mulvey's reading of Rear Window can be considered a "symptomatic reading." This is not quite accurate. Mulvey's famous essay is indeed conducting a symptomatic reading of the conventions of classical Hollywood storytelling, but her readings of the films Rear Window and Vertigo is not straightforwardly "symptomatic" because she suggests (in a single sentence) that these two films are *about* issues of gender and sexuality. In other words, she seems to imply that Hitchcock is reflecting upon these issues in these films, which would make her reading of these films closer to a thematic/implicit reading, or at least exist in a hazy boundary between thematic/implicit and symptomatic.
Mulveys Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema and Psychoanalytic Theory Film & Media Studies 2022-12-02 | This video provides a closer look at the psychoanalytic underpinning's of Laura Mulvey's essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," a major work in film studies best known for the concept of the "male gaze." The video looks closely at the second paragraph of the essay, which summarizes a number of major principles from the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. In particular, the video examines how Lacan specifically informs Mulvey's arguments. Topics discussed include castration anxiety; the phallus (especially the distinction between Freud's definition and Lacan's definition); the imaginary, symbolic, and real (Lacan); and the function of the term "signifier" in Mulvey and Lacan.For the full series on Laura Mulvey's Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema and the male gaze, see below: Part 1: youtu.be/3CDhsL-OzaQPart 2: youtu.be/YgP2pyuCtC0Part 3: youtu.be/yMX06goQlZYPart 4: youtu.be/mkHAGJIoKHIPart 5: youtu.be/vioVPN1BGl0
Christian Metzs The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema Film & Media Studies 2022-11-11 | This video offers a brief introduction to Christian Metz's The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema, providing an overview of the general aims of the book and offering a closer look at the section entitled "Identification, Mirror."
Siegfried Kracauers Theory of Film Film & Media Studies 2022-10-18 | In this video, I introduce Siegfried Kracauer's Theory of Film (1960), his major work of realist film theory. First, the video considers this book's relation to Kracauer's previous works, especially as it's been received within film studies. The majority of video explores some of the central tenets of the film medium that Kracauer calls its "revealing" qualities and its "affinities."
Siegfried Kracauers The Mass Ornament, Explained Film & Media Studies 2022-10-09 | This video provides an introduction to Siegfried Kracauer's essay "The Mass Ornament," which is published as a chapter in the collection of his Weimar-era writings entitled The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays. The video begins with a brief introduction to the film theory and cultural theory of Siegfried Kracauer and then proceeds to offer a guided reading of the first two sections of the essay "The Mass Ornament." Topics discussed include the Frankfurt School, The Tiller Girls and Busby Berkeley musical numbers, the "distraction factory" as a concept, Taylorism, "instrumental rationality," and the analogy between mass ornaments and the capitalist production process.
Gilles Deleuzes Cinema Books Part 3: The Frame Film & Media Studies 2022-08-08 | In this video, our third installment on Gilles Deleuze's cinema books, we look at the beginning of Chapter 2 of Cinema 1: The Movement-Image, entitled Frame and Shot, Framing and Cutting. In particular, I emphasize how the categories of film form that Deleuze examines in this chapter--frame, shot, montage--are related to his responses to Henri Bergson's philosophy of movement and time in the first chapter, especially the role that "closed set" and "open whole" will play in his analyses of films in the entire book. The bulk of the discussion is analysis of what Deleuze calls the "out-of-field" (hors champ), an idea similar to what Noel Burch and others have called "offscreen space." Film examples include The Lonedale Operator (Griffith), The Marriage Circle (Lubitsch), Inglourious Basterds (Tarantino), The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer), and Ordet (Dreyer).Deleuze and Cinema Video Part 1: youtu.be/xbYYrRDKm5IDeleuze and Cinema Video Part 2: youtu.be/9rf2H-IykDkDeleuze and Cinema Video Part 3: youtu.be/jVJkIRiaESI
Gilles Deleuzes Cinema Books Part 2: The Movement-Image Ch. 1 Film & Media Studies 2022-08-01 | This is the second installment in a series on Gilles Deleuze's Cinema books, Cinema 1: The Movement-Image and Cinema 2: The Time-Image. This video spends all of its time on the first chapter of Cinema 1, "Theses on Movement: First Commentary on Bergson." Included in this video is an overview of the philosophy of Henri Bergson, especially the ideas that are explored in his book Creative Evolution, which is largely the subject of this chapter. Topics discussed include Bergson's notion of "duration" (duree), "intuition," Bergson's critique of scientism, the spatialization of time, the cinematographic illusion, Deleuze's distinction between the technological production of movement and the movement-image, and many others.*Correction: When I define the "whole" as the "everything," this is a bit misleading. The "whole" is more accurately understood in terms of the word "whole" as we generally oppose to the word "part." It's a truism that "the whole is not equivalent to the sum of its parts," but this is very close to what Deleuze (and Bergson) is getting at with the idea of "the whole." So when Deleuze says "the whole" or "a whole," he's referring to a way of thinking about an entity or a situation that refuses to see it as a collection of parts. This is why duration is conceived of as an "open Whole." And if we think about the movement of the soccer ball in terms of a "whole," we must begin to consider the situation surrounding the soccer ball (i.e. its context) that its movement participates in changing.Deleuze and Cinema Video Part 1: youtu.be/xbYYrRDKm5IDeleuze and Cinema Video Part 2: youtu.be/9rf2H-IykDkDeleuze and Cinema Video Part 3: youtu.be/jVJkIRiaESI
Gilles Deleuzes Movement-Image and Time-Image, Explained Film & Media Studies 2022-07-18 | This is the first video in a series on Gilles Deleuze's Cinema books: Cinema 1: The Movement-Image and Cinema 2: The Time-Image. The video provides a brief introduction to Deleuze's philosophical thought before working to distinguish the "movement-image" and the "time-image" primarily as classifications used to describe two distinct modes of cinematic storytelling that were prevalent before WWII and after WWII, respectively. Terms and concepts discussed include the "sensory-motor schema" (also written as "sensori-motor schema"), "any-space-whatever," "pure optical/sound situations," and "perception-images, affection-images, and action-images." Some references are made to the work of philosopher Henri Bergson, who is foundational to understanding the books, but these ideas will be explored more in a subsequent video.Films discussed include The Lonedale Operator (Griffith, 1911), Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925), Umberto D (De Sica, 1952), Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948), L'avventura (Antonioni, 1960), Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941), Hiroshima Mon Amour (Resnais, 1959).*Corrections:1. At 12:39, I say that for Bergson, "image" is a "thing that is in your consciousness when you perceive something." This is not quite right, which you can deduce from the passage from Matter and Memory shown on screen. For Bergson, everything that exists is an "image" (including material objects as well as immaterial mental phenomena like memories) but what this entails for Bergson is not that all images merely exist in our minds. Rather, images exist materially in the world.2. While the film L'Avventura is sometimes, though rarely, translated as The Adventure in English, it's important to note that the word "l'avventura" in the film, when it is used by the characters to refer to their search for the missing woman, is translated as "fling." Deleuze and Cinema Video Part 1: youtu.be/xbYYrRDKm5IDeleuze and Cinema Video Part 2: youtu.be/9rf2H-IykDkDeleuze and Cinema Video Part 3: youtu.be/jVJkIRiaESI
How Cinematography in It Follows (2014) Challenges Slasher Horror Film & Media Studies 2022-07-01 | In this video, the third in our series on film genre, we look at how the film It Follows (David Robert Mitchell, 2014) adopts the formal conventions and iconography of the slasher horror film, and also how it inverts those formal conventions. Particularly, we'll look at how its use of deep-space compositions, which encourage the spectator to scan the frame for the monster, invert the convention of jump scares, which tend to use confined space. To make this comparison, we'll compare the film to Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978).
Slasher Horror and Film Form: Killer POV and the Jump Scare Film & Media Studies 2022-06-26 | In this video, the second part of our three-part series on film genre, we'll look at some formal innovations of slasher horror films, especially the "Killer POV" shot and the "jump scare." "Killer POV" is a term coined by film scholar Adam Hart to describe moving POV shots that represent the view of a killer. Jump scares are moments in horror films used to shock spectators, usually by having a monster (or any person/object) penetrate the boundaries of the film frame.See more of Adam Hart's work here: amazon.com/Monstrous-Forms-Moving-Horror-Across-dp-0190916249/dp/0190916249/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=
Introduction to Film Genre, Part 1 Film & Media Studies 2022-06-20 | This video is the first of a series that examines film genre as a topic of study. The video examines the definition of genre, the different components of film genre, the functions of film genre, and various strategies for employing genre in film analysis.Some of the animations and ideas in this video were borrowed from this video - youtu.be/U9dawPw_jqk - which begins with an excellent analysis of genre.Clips about the "manic pixie dream girl" trope were excerpted from this video by The Take - youtu.be/b_gxo8l9j8s - which provides a much more in-depth discussion of the trope, its history, as well as some of its shortcomings that had resulted from its overuse.
Andre Bazins The Myth of Total Cinema Film & Media Studies 2022-05-19 | This video offers an overview of Andre Bazin's essay "The Myth of Total Cinema," which can be found in the essay collection What is Cinema? Volume 1. The video begins with a brief comparison of this essay with Bazin's most well-known and canonized essay, "The Ontology of the Photographic Image.
Art Cinema Narration, Part 2: Moonlight Film & Media Studies 2022-03-03 | In this video, we continue our investigation of David Bordwell's essay "The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice," where Bordwell proposes that what is often called "art cinema" has a number of narrational conventions , most prominent of which is a negation of the conventions of classical Hollywood narration.This video looks at the film Moonlight (Jenkins, 2016) as an example of art cinema narration, and in particular we'll look at the way that the film subverts the Hollywood convention of the protagonist having causal agency, and the way that it provides a somewhat open-ended ending and does not propose a narrative conflict in the form of a solvable problem.
Hito Steyerls In Defense of the Poor Image Film & Media Studies 2022-02-25 | This is an introduction to video artist and theorist Hito Steyerl's essay "In Defense of the Poor Image" (2009). The video provides an overview of the basic ideas outlined in the essay, and pays special attention to the essay's references to theorist Walter Benjamin's essay "The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility" (1935), showing how Steyerl positions her essay as a kind of update of Benjamin's essay for the digital age.For a more comprehensive look at Benjamin's Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility, check out these videos: Part 1: youtu.be/W1w3ot3JZnoPart 2: youtu.be/zT7ZIaHzj_MPart 3: youtu.be/DRnw84Lj_w4
Digital Photography, Truth Claims, and C.S. Peirces Indexicality Film & Media Studies 2022-02-19 | This video is an overview of film scholar Tom Gunning's essay "What's the Point of an Index? Or, Faking Photographs," which responds to and critiques many major scholarly arguments about the waning trustworthiness of digital photographs in comparison to their analog counterparts.For an extended explanation of Peirce's three categories of signs - icon, symbol, index - see this video: youtu.be/l84UQqrOtMgFor an extended explanation of Andre Bazin's essay "The Ontology of the Photographic Image," see this video: youtu.be/VYJlq-MwWTY
What is Art Cinema Narration?: In the Mood for Love (Wong, 2000) Film & Media Studies 2022-02-14 | In this video in our series on narration, I examine David Bordwell's account of "art cinema narration" that he develops in his essay "Art Cinema as Mode of Film Practice." In the essay, Bordwell makes the bold claim that what we generally call "art films" are not only identifiable through institutional markers--that is, how they are produced, exhibited, and marketed--but also through stylistic and narrational ones, too. This video looks primarily at the way that art cinema narration distinguishes itself from the tenets of classical Hollywood narration, using the example of Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love (2000).
What is Classical Hollywood Narration? Film & Media Studies 2022-02-07 | In this video, I introduce the basic principles of "classical Hollywood narration," a set of storytelling conventions established during the classical Hollywood era (studio-produced American cinema roughly between the 1910s and the 1960s). This video looks at Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954), a film produced during the classical era, and Gravity (Cuaron, 2013), a film produced after the classical era but which embodies these principles.
Plot Vs Story Film & Media Studies 2022-01-31 | In this brief video, the first in a series on narrative and narration, I explain the difference between plot and story. The definition I'm using is drawn from David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson, who themselves draw their definition from the Russian formalist concepts of syuzhet (plot) and fabula (story).
Roland Barthess Death of the Author, Explained Film & Media Studies 2022-01-13 | In this video, I introduce Roland Barthes's essay "The Death of the Author" (1967). First, I look at the question of authorial intention, and I compare Barthes's position on authorial intention to Monroe C. Beardsley and William K. Wimsatt's essay "The Intentional Fallacy" (1947). Then, I examine one of the major ways in each Barthes's text diverges from this previous text by looking at the role that structuralism plays in his argument.
Christian Metzs Film Semiotics Part 2: Syntagmatic vs Paradigmatic Film & Media Studies 2022-01-05 | This is the second and final video on Christian Metz's film semiotics, where we're looking at Metz's book Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema. In this video, we're examining the positive side of Metz's argument that cinema is a "language" rather than a "language system" by learning about how film signifies through a "syntagmatic" chain.The video defines the distinction between the terms syntagmatic and paradigmatic by looking at how these terms were employed by Ferdinand de Saussure, and then it gives an example of film as syntagmatic chain with the opening of Strangers on a Train (Hitchcock, 1950).
Christian Metzs Semiotic Film Theory Film & Media Studies 2021-12-30 | This video provides an introduction to the semiotic film theory of Christian Metz as it is outlined in his book Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema. The video primarily discusses the chapter "Some Points in the Semiotics of the Cinema" and secondarily discusses the chapter "The Cinema: Language or Language System." Topics include the influence of Ferdinand de Saussure's structural linguistics as laid out in his Course in General Linguistics, the distinction between signifier and signified, the distinction between language (langage) and language system (langue), the distinction between denotation and connotation, and the way that Soviet Montage theorists analogized film to language.
Diegetic vs Nondiegetic Sound Part 3: Voiceover Film & Media Studies 2021-12-26 | In this video, we continue looking at how films can blur the boundaries between diegetic and nondiegetic sound. In particular, we'll look at examples of voiceover narration that lie on different parts of the spectrum from diegetic to nondiegetic. In the most complex cases, the voiceover actively slides along that spectrum. Examples include clips from War of the Worlds (Spielberg, 2005), Sunset Boulevard (1950), and Memento (Nolan, 2000).
Diegetic and Nondiegetic Sound, Part 2: Blurring the Boundary Film & Media Studies 2021-12-22 | In this second installment of the series on sound, we'll try to blur the boundaries between diegetic and nondiegetic sound with inspiration from film sound scholar Michel Chion, who considers diegetic onscreen, diegetic offscreen, and nondiegetic sound as three permeable zones. In particular, we'll look at examples in which the status of music blurs the boundaries between diegetic and nondiegetic sound, including a complex sound bridge in Marie Antoinette (Coppola, 20066) and an instance of "Mickey Mousing" in Spiderman (Raimi, 2002).
Diegetic vs Nondiegetic Sound, Part 1 Film & Media Studies 2021-11-26 | This video is in the first in a series on the use of sound in cinema. This video looks in particular at the distinction between diegetic and nondiegetic sound, exploring examples that play with the distinction between them. We also look at the uses of nondiegetic music in montage sequences as well as the sound device known as the "sound bridge."
Laura Mulvey and the Female Gaze Film & Media Studies 2021-11-16 | In this video, we're continuing our investigation of Laura Mulvey's "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" with the question of the "female gaze." This is the first in a series on the "female gaze," a term that importantly Mulvey didn't use in her essay but which was coined as a response to the concept of the "male gaze." This video looks at only one possible (but ultimately problematic) definition of the female gaze: visual and narrative strategies for sexually objectifying men on screen for the consumption of heterosexual female spectators. To investigate the implications of this definition, we'll look at how the term "gaze" is generally used in academic discourse, including how the term was used by Jacques Lacan and Jean-Paul Sartre; we'll look Mulvey's text for clues for how she might have responded to this idea; and we'll briefly look at the film Magic Mike XXL as a case study.For the full series on Laura Mulvey's Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema and the male gaze, see below: Part 1: youtu.be/3CDhsL-OzaQPart 2: youtu.be/YgP2pyuCtC0Part 3: youtu.be/yMX06goQlZYPart 4: youtu.be/mkHAGJIoKHI
Discontinuity Editing Part 3: Sergei Eisenstein and Alfred Hitchcock Film & Media Studies 2021-11-14 | This brief video continues from the previous introduction to Soviet Montage and Sergei Eisenstein with a look at the way that Eisenstein influenced the thought and filmmaking of Alfred Hitchcock. First, we look at a segment of a Hitchcock interview in which Hitchcock explains the logic of continuity editing vs Soviet Montage, and then we look at two examples of sequences that bear the influence of Eisenstein's style of editing.*Content Warning*: This video contains brief clips from the shower sequence from Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960), which features violence and female nudity.
Discontinuity Editing Part 2: Soviet Montage and Sergei Eisenstein Film & Media Studies 2021-11-13 | This is the second part of a series on discontinuity editing. Here, we look at the Soviet Montage school of theory and filmmaking, including Lev Kuleshov's theory known as the "Kuleshov Effect" and Sergei Eisenstein's theory of montage as it's laid out in his essay "The Dialectic Approach to Film Form" (also known as Dramaturgy of Film Form).
Judith Butlers Gender Performativity, Part 2: What is Performativity? Film & Media Studies 2021-11-01 | In this second installment on Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity, we're going to look at one of commonly misunderstood aspects of Butler's theory: the distinction between gender performance and gender performativity. This video will look specifically at how Butler's theory of gender performatiity draws on philosopher J.L. Austin's concept of performative utterances, which was popularized in his book How to Do Things with Words.Texts examined include the chapter "Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions" from Gender Trouble and the Preface to Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex.Part 1 of this serise that provides a more basic overview of Butler's theory of gender performativity can be found here: youtu.be/0XFg8f1STLk
Foucaults History of Sexuality, Vol. 1, Explained Film & Media Studies 2021-10-29 | This is a brief introduction to one of the major arguments at the beginning of Michel Foucault's The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1. The argument concerns what Foucault calls the "repressive hypothesis." The video illustrates major parts of Foucault's argument by staging an imagined dialogue between Foucault and Sigmund Freud, whose theories of sexuality revolve around the notion of repression. Important concepts in Foucault's work are highlighted here, including the distinction between repressive and normalizing power, and the notion of sexuality as a "discourse."
Continuity Editing, Part 4: Intensified Continuity, Chaos Cinema, and Mad Max: Fury Road Film & Media Studies 2021-10-25 | In this fourth and final installment of the series on continuity editing, we'll look at an academic debate about the state of continuity editing in recent years, especially as it pertains to the increasing pace of editing in action cinema. To examine the issue, we'll look at Mad Max: Fury Road as a case study. Is the film a good example of what David Bordwell calls "intensified continuity," or is it a good example of what Matthias Stork calls "chaos cinema?"
What is Crosscutting?: Continuity Editing, Part 3 Film & Media Studies 2021-10-19 | In this third installment on continuity editing, we're looking at two kinds of editing patterns that manipulate time: montage sequences and crosscutting (a.k.a parallel editing). We're examining sequences from Citizen Kane, Lonedale Operator, Strangers on a Train, and Silence of the Lambs.
What is a Jump Cut?: Discontinuity Editing, Part 1 Film & Media Studies 2021-10-11 | This video is the first in a series on non-continuity or discontinuity editing, a loose set of editing practices that disrupt the conventions of continuity editing. We'll look in particular at devices such as jump cuts, unmotivated cutaways, and non-diegetic inserts. Examples include Breathless (Godard, 1959), Contempt (Godard, 1963)), Old Boy (Park, 2003), Marie Antoinette (Coppola, 2006), and Daisies (Chytilova, 1966).
Daisies: Discontinuity Editing, Feminism, and the Czech New Wave Film & Media Studies 2021-09-24 | This video lecture discusses Vera Chytilova's 1966 Czech New Wave film Daisies. Specifically, the video discusses the film in the context of the Czech New Wave and within the topic of non-continuity editing, examining how the film's avant-garde editing techniques resonate with its political rebelliousness and feminist impulses.
Sergei Eisensteins Theory of Animation: Plasmatic Disney Film & Media Studies 2021-09-16 | Soviet film theorist and filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein was a fan of Disney animation. This video essay examines his particular aesthetic interest in Disney cartoons, particularly his idea of the "plasmatic," as well as the larger trends in animation theory that Eisenstein's ideas helped establish.To learn more about Soviet Montage Theory, see: youtu.be/Mh3e-AjC51QTo learn more about Sergei Eisenstein, see: youtu.be/mQST9aXTNH4For a great video on Eisenstein and Disney, see: youtu.be/TNJb7xV_tEo
The Other Side of Digital Cinema: Tangerine and Digital Realism Film & Media Studies 2021-09-06 | This video essay examines what Nicholas Rombes's calls the "double logic of digital cinema," an emerging trend toward realism in a medium that is often associated with fantasy. The video examines the Dogme 95 movement as well as the film Tangerine (Baker, 2015).
Oddly Satisfying Videos, ASMR, and Productivity Film & Media Studies 2021-08-05 | Ever wonder what makes oddly satisfying videos so...satisfying? It's not something in your brain. It's capitalism and neoliberal ideology.This video essay discusses popular interpretations of oddly satisfying videos in @SciShowPsych that draw on studies in psychology but fail to address historical and cultural factors, such as capitalism and neoliberal ideology, that help explain the social and historical context in which such videos have emerged. The video also examines ASMR videos and lifehack videos from a similar point of view, drawing on recent scholarship in media studies. References: Anna McCarthy, "Visual Pleasure and GIFs"Racheal Fest, "ASMR Media and the Attention Economy's Crisis of Care"Nathaniel Scharping, "Why are Oddly Satisfying Videos So...Satisfying"@SciShowPsych What Makes Satisfying Videos Satisfying (youtu.be/9CQ4riP2g-M)
Speed Racer (2008), Cel Animation, and Animetism Film & Media Studies 2021-07-28 | Speed Racer (Wachowskis, 2008) isn't just a "cartoony" movie; it's also about cartoons. This video essay examines how the visual design of Speed Racer reflects on the technological processes behind the illusion of motion and cel animation. Specifically, the video looks at how Speed Racer's visual design reproduces what Thomas Lamarre calls "animetism," a style of representing motion specific to anime. For more on Lamarre's concept of "animetism," check out @PauseandSelect 's video on the topic: youtube.com/watch?v=6GpUQ42qtRAReferences: Thomas Lamarre, The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of AnimationLev Manovich, "What is Digital Cinema?"@patrickhwillems, "Why Do We Care If Movies Are Realistic"?: youtube.com/watch?v=pxuK4NQ2NHk
Continuity Editing Part 2: Cut, Fade, Dissolve Film & Media Studies 2021-07-22 | In this second video in a series on continuity editing, we'll look at editing transitions: cuts, fades, and dissolves. In particular, we'll examine how each transition manipulates time in different ways.
