What Makes A Movie Great?

What Makes A Movie ample?With thousands of records released man-to-manly and e truly year and so a couple of(prenominal)er succeeding any commerci on the wholey or financi tout ensembley, hotshotness has to pose the question what is it, on the nose, that mystifys a film neat? From an auditory senses perspective, concourse watch movies to be entertained they atomic number 18 looking, above both else, to hear a unspoilt humbug that get out get off them to sh atomic number 18 experiences with the characters and with their friends to chew the fat spectacles to visit other worlds to which they could neer otherwise travel and to escape the boredom of their daytime-to-day routines. Out carrying films ar fitted to accomplish all of this with skill and artistry. however regular in suffer of the battery of statistical tests put forward by leading psychologists to locate the formula for cinematic success (Simonton, 2011), at that place argon many who unsay t hat the quality of a film is impossible to define, world utterly dependant on(p) upon personal interpretation. I intend to dig deeper to investigate this issue, looking in detail at the specific tools and techniques a movie arriver has at their g all overnment activity to entertain an audience.Before we squeeze out truly address the issue of what constitutes entertainment, I would a manage to take a s to consider why it is that anyone does any thing. agree to Anthony Robbins, Everything you and I do, we do every out of our need to avoid injure or our desire to gain pleasure (Robbins, 1992 53). With this in approximation, why is it that tenseness and conflict, both of which atomic number 18 painful in and of themselves, atomic number 18 widely regarded as ii of the central tenants of an engaging story? I would suggest that watching a character attainment to avoid pain is a learning experience in which the attestator, too, is capable to learn how to avoid pain. Comp arable in many com set downions to the experience of fiddleing hard for a greatly desirable objective, this in itself evoke be a pleasurable thing to ob operate we, in such a situation, are able to treasure the end result all the to a greater extent thanks to our appreciation of what went into achieving it. This is on the nose the kind of pleasure provided by most films, and is kn give specifically as delayed or deferred gratification (Kim, 2006).Generally speaking, then, audiences watch films to overhear an emotionally satisfying experience. So how stool a film be do more emotional? Arguably the most pregnant step we jackpot take towards answering this question is to understand that the viewer is non barely passive when watching a film in fact, if Elkins definition of exactly looking as in fact pertaining to hoping, desiring, never incisively fetching in light, never merely collecting ideals and entropy (Elkins, 1996 22) is assumed to be correct, they will begin to manifest their own expectations about what they may hit even before the movie begins. It is the therefore the responsibility of the filmmaker to maneuver and tell the viewer the story in such a counselling as to meet, and exceed, these expectations. at that place are as many different models that base be used to bring out exciting stories as there are stories themselves, just now, in the simplest possible form, a story tail assembly be expound as the narration of a chain of events pertaining to a character who wants whatsoeverthing (Johnson, 1995). The invention is to organise that story into a structure that renounces it to be narrated clearly and dramatically. nevertheless what is story structure? In broader terms, structure refers to the relationship between the patch of something, or tolerate otherwise cash in ones chips as the life for something. Whereas the tender-hearted personify relies on a skeletal structure of bones to support itself, the parts of a film story are comprised first and beginning(a) of a series of write up questions, along with the delays and answers to those questions. The structure is simply how the questions and answers that make up that story are presented, which shots are chosen and in what order, and it is this structuring of events that can make the difference between a simple narrative and one that is unforgettable and emotionally profound.The relationship between form and content has been analyze extensively by many film writers. David Bordwell, for instance, refers to the terms used by the Russian Formalists, relying heavily upon the terms fabula and syuzhet. The former, according to Bordwell, is a pattern which apprehendrs of narratives create through assumptions and inferences (Bordwell, 1985 49). In other words, the fabula comprises the cues and perceptions the viewer receives from the film, and is liable to change from viewer to viewer if the mildew is complex. The syuzhet, on the other hand, r efers to The actual arrangement and intromission of the fabula in the film (Ibid 50) it is the game, or structure, of the narrative. Bob Foss instead uses the terms flavourless of events and plane of discourse, or The what and how of film narrative (Foss, 1992 2).Regardless of the terms used, near all film theorists are agreed on the importance of maculation in relation to the creation of engaging cinema, as Seymour Chatman articulates with his suggestion that narrative structure in fact communicates meaning in its own right, over and above the paraphrase-able contents of its story (Chatman, 1980 23). According to Vogler (2007 6), some Hollywood executives were refer so more than with this paradigm that they would look only at scripts which were either a fish-out-of-water tale or about an unholy alliance, and it was not until the consequence of The Hero with a Thousand Faces before executives were given an special style of analysing stories. The Heros move was originally described by mythology professor Joseph Campbell as a journey of self-discovery and self-transcendence (Campbell, 2008 17), and retrievemed to encompass a variety of different types of narratives that energy otherwise have been disregarded. More specifically, The Heros move acted as the paradigm for all stories. Having canvass myths, fables, and folktales from all time periods all over the globe, Campbell discover that there was a common structure that underlined the journey for each one and every protagonist would take.There was a good reason for this at its most fundamental level, the Heros Journey addresses the key psycho pellucid ruler of what Milton Erickson refers to as life junctures defined as moments of transition from one stratum of life to some other, Erickson demonstrates that most people die psychologically trapped at such moments (Erickson, 1977). The parallel with Campbells constitute becomes more evident when we consider that Erickson also suggests that the most common reason for this stasis is the out or keeping(p) generalisation of fright from an earlier trauma to other situations unsure of how to recognise with new demands placed upon them, they keep trying to use old methods that are no longer functional at this new level. Broadly speaking, it is incisively such moments of stasis at which the majority of film characters are introduced to the viewer. In this regard, the Heros Journey follows as the story of humankind growth placed into a dramatized form, which is another way of saying that the story is externalised in visible feat. It is because these heroes solve their inside(a) conflicts that they can win the external conflicts, and the audience gets reborn along with the heroes.But what separates the visible action of a film from the structure of the narrative, and why is it that the audience does not apprisedly notice the latter? The classical Hollywood drift asks that form be rendered invisible that the viewer see onl y the mien of actors in an unfolding story that seems to be outlasting on its own (Hill and Gibson, 1998 16). It does not take too much in the way of whim to see this concept in practise, such that, if you were to watch the first few minutes of a film and then walk away from it, it should be relatively easy to give a simple account of the plot and the motivations of the characters therein. But would you hear the corroborateground music? Would you notice the shot sizes and framing, or the cutting up of time and space? Most likely you would be too busy working out what was happening and what it meant to let your help wander to such a structural level. It is not that these things are invisible, but simply that they drop below the viewers threshold of economic aid.Any part of the structure can in fact cross that threshold as long as the world of the film is seamless and doesnt break the captivation by calling concern to itself, however, the viewer will not be paying attention to the acting, cinematography or editing, but watching existing people facing overwhelming obstacles in their struggle to achieve their dreams. It is therefore the job of the filmmaker to direct the audiences attention towards these events through careful attention to narrative structure. The Heros Journey provides a promoter of doing just this given its popularity to this day throughout Hollywood, however, there is a danger that the stories created using it might issue similar. When that happens, it bursts through the threshold of conscious attention and the audience is taken out of the story.Just as there are several problems that can draw stiff when we speak, however, the most common types of speaking problems also have a filmic like whereas verbally, for example, we talk about one thing at a time, one of the main issues when telling a story with pictures arises from the simple truth that pictures can say too much. This conflicts with the theory of selective attention, which states that the conscious mind can only pay attention to one thing at a time (Dewey, 2007).The attention of the human mind is a precious commodity, and it is important to recognise that the viewers ability to concentrate on the material they are being presented with is affected by a great number of factors including fatigue, involvement and general state of mind. When we multitask, for instance, we rule like we are accomplishing a great deal of work, whereas in reality the brain is juggling attention very quickly between multiple items. This is why drivers talking on a phone or talking to a passenger are statistically more likely to be involved in an accident, as their attention is split even though they think they are focused on driving (Myers, 2008 87). Theories of Neuro-Linguistic Programming state that one of the functions of the brain is to act as a filter, continually deleting, generalising and extorting the information we receive about the world so as to protect us from in formation overload (Burton and Ready 65). In other words, we dont pay attention to a lot of information we are exposed to, but instead delete it. When the film is racing then(prenominal) at twenty-five frames per second, which part of the image will the audience be looking at? Suppose they see the wrong part, and therefore miss the th require of the storytelling entirely?In order to prevent this, a filmmaker must have the ability to control their images to ensure that they are able to communicate the desired message to their audience this is where design, composition, perspective and lighting each come into put-on. Without these, the viewer would not be able to see exactly what was happening onscreen and would be unable to follow the story. Filmmakers have developed a great variety of specific techniques to solve these types of problems instead of showing two things at a time, for instance, the camera can pan from one to the other, a cut can be made between two shots, or focus ca n be racked, or shifted, between the objects in the frame. though all of these solutions have become commonplace in mainstream cinema, they all serve to simplify what to look at for the viewers sake by presenting only one thing at a time.Arguably even stronger than this, however, is the human minds reliance on stereotypes and clichs, often demonstrating a strong tendency to distort those things that do not fit into our worldview as a way of dealing with the overwhelming amount of information it receives. Specifically, the brain constantly seeks to organise this data into patterns though the most obvious patterns exist as visual designs, patterns exist everywhere in music, in the way people speak, and even in traffic and weather. As we have already explored, narrating a story is lower-ranking more than organising information into a pattern, or structure. But how does this work on the micro level of filmmaking? How, for instance, are we able to make the protagonist stand out in the middle of a crowded scene? Grouping, by definition, applies to things that are alike in some way, which could include proximity by this logic, we could dress the main characters differently, or have them stand some way apart from the rest of the crowd. With all other characters wearing muted influence and the hero dressed in black and white, the mind will perceive the crowd as a group and the protagonist will automatically stand out.This is an example of one of the ways in which gestalt principles can be a useful tool for applying the speaking metaphor of telling the viewer only one thing at a time a German word meaning shape or form, gestalt refers to an organised completely that is more than just the sum of its parts, and functions as a reasonably complete description of the way in which the human mind organises our experiences of life. In this example, objects that are either similar or close together are grouped, divergence the mind to pick out indivi doubled things on whic h to focus eon the rest fades into the background. This is why, when reading, we perceive each word, or clusters of words, as opposed to individual letters, and do not notice that the remainder of the page simply recedes from our conscious awareness. Far from mere abstraction, gestalt principles have been proven to work at virtually every level of the viewing experience, including perception of images, understanding and comprehension of narrative, theme, and even sound.Another key concept of gestalt perception lies in the minds tendency to take away in the blanks, or seek closure if we listen to a known musical theme where the final part is omitted, the mind will contact in that missing section itself. Similarly, on a visual level, a tension will be created in the viewers breaker point that wants to close the shape if parts of a figure are cut out. This refers to the gestalt principle of good continuity, which states that we will assume things to be continuing pictorially, lin es are perceived to carry on even if another object obscures part of them from view. The implications of this are profound even on the most basic levels of filmmaking theory. Firstly, when the audience sees a close-up of a characters head, it is assumed to be connected to a body. Filmic cuts also work based entirely on the principle that, if the viewer witnesses one action and the action is seen to be continuing from a different angle, it is assuming to exist as part of the alike(p) action.The most important realisation, however, is that closure industrial plant not just on the perceptual level, but also on the level of story. In any story, the hypothesis What if? is presented to be true. The writer is, for all intents and purposes, a masterful liar, offering a wealth of supporting expatiate with which to flesh out a world in which the action unfolds that is likely and seamless enough to remain below the audiences conscious threshold of attention. When a narrative question is in troduced, the brain begins searching in an attempt to make sense of the question, and the cortex generates answers that imbue that question with meaning from what is known of the story thus far. The crucial token is that the viewer demands that these questions be answered, so much so that the cortex will continue to generate answers even when the questions do not make logical sense if we were to ask ourselves why the synodic month is made of cheese, for instance, our brains will attempt to present us with a logical solution.Pratkanis and Aronson suggest that, Given our finite ability to process information, we attempt to simplify complex problems to the extent that we will mindlessly accept a finis or proposition not for any good reason but because it is accompanied by a simplistic persuasion device (2002 38). As long as the questions are sufficiently engaging, the viewer will, without closure in the narrative, exist in an anxious state of suspense. It is this need for closure th at drives us to continue reading, listening to or watching stories of all kinds, as answers to the questions increase are found by watching the film and thus alleviate the viewers lack of knowledge. Only by tying up all of the narrative threads can the storyteller dissipate this tension, and in this sense, the causation of suggestion could easily be considered a filmmakers greatest ally.It is regrettable that the extensive majority of modern horror filmmaking appears to have forgotten this fact entirely. Essentially, there are two distinct approaches to creating a horror film those that distinguish to show all of the gory details, and those that instead choose to suggest what might happen. Though each type of film has its place, I personally conceptualise the latter to be infinitely more evocative, for the very reason that the filmmaker is able to use the viewers fears against them. Taking the filmmakers clues, they will automatically alter in the blanks themselves from their own experiences and associations, making the experience more meaningful for each individual. When we consider that this power is not under the viewers conscious control, the theater director of a film could, provided an awareness of the minds infinite capametropolis to create in the presence of interesting suggestions, be likened to a hypnotist.Continuing along this accept of thought, I believe that other types of entertainment artists can shed a lot of insight onto the problem of directing the audiences attention. Magician and conjurer Nathaniel Schiffman, for instance, poses a particularly interesting questionWhat is joke really? We know magic is fake. We know it relies on all sorts of deceptions, but why is it that some deceptions work while others do not? Why are some fakes pat while others stand out like a sore throw? For instance, a cartoon is fake-mere drawings on paper, thats pretty obvious. A sculpture is a fake made of rock. But when we observe the fakeness of magic , we dont interpret it as fake. We see it as very real. Even when we know in our hearts that a person cannot fly, that a silver sword cannot penetrate a body and come out blood-less, even when our eyes betray our common sense, we see magical illusions as real. Why is that? What is this stuff that magic is made of that is fake and yet real at the same time?(Schiffman, 1997 77)Schiffman could easily have been talking about movies when watching a film, the viewer knows that what they are watching is not real, yet often goes along for the ride even to the point of being moved to tears and laughter by them. How is it that films can be simultaneously fake yet real? The answer lies in the unconscious(p) minds inability to differentiate between real world and imagined experiences. Even though we rationally know that a film is fake, our body and our emotions physically act just as they would in real life we experience excitement, feel the powerful release of laughter and shed real tears fr om being touched. Physiologically, our heart rate increases, our palms sweat and we experience a rush of adrenaline. This is the good example as long as the film engages the viewers conscious mind in addition to their body. In other words, a film can involve elements of extreme fantasy as long as it trunk logically plausible. It is the job of the filmmaker to establish rules for the world of the film and play within those rules, otherwise the audience will feel that they have been cheated and need consciously from the story.In many regards, any film is in its entireness little more than a magic toilet, consisting of a patchwork of fragments which never existed in reality. This illusion is furthered by the minds predisposition to link up all aspects of the experience, even though in reality no such association may exist. Magicians also use the same kind of structuring as storytellers, narrating a story about magical properties known as patter. Patter can be considered akin to t he magicians script, with words used to introduce an illusion, enhancing the performance with a fanciful story. This is often achieved by painting a scene of childhood nostalgia, or by inducing some other emotion in the listener. Words, essentially, are used to misdirect and direct, and can often provide the additional shove that allows peoples minds to accept one imagined reality over another.ADD derriere STUFF ABOUT PRESUPPOSITIONS.Magic wands and gestures serve much the same function the magician must ensure that his or her gestures read clearly for the audience. Often, they will be directing the viewers attention away from something else, perhaps some common mechanical mechanism hidden from view, in much the same way as telling stories of high adventure while in fact teaching moral lessons. The relationship between a magicians stage patter and the trick itself are similar to that of story events and structure in a film, wherein patter can be considered the story of the illusio n whilst the trick itself is the thing that remains hidden and makes it work. The filmmakers trick is simply that of juxtaposing otherwise broken images to make a story, using images to implicitly suggest questions and then delaying the answers, thus generating a tension that engages the audience in stories about characters on a quest to achieve a specific goal.Provided the audience is able to read these images, the brain will automatically construct the story, using gestalt to connect characters and objects in action into meaningful wholes greater than the sum of their constituent parts. The gestalt principle of good continuity will ensure that connections are created between shots, and presuppositions and assumptions will allow an individual version of the story to be constructed in the viewers head that is meaningful for them.Tongues Blood Does Not Run Dry by Assia Djebar check up onTongues Blood Does Not Run Dry by Assia Djebar ReviewAssia Djebar is an Algerian writer, trans lator and moviemaker. She is one of North Africas best-known and most widely renowned writers and has in print poems, plays, and short stories, and has produced a couple of movies. In her manuscripts, Djebar has covered the harangue for social liberation and the Muslim womans world in its intricacies. numerous of her works deal with the effect of the warfare on womens psyche.Djebars impressive womens rightist posturing has earned her much admiration also substantial antipathy and derision from pro-autonomy critics in Algeria.In this collection of stories, Djebar attempts to tell tales to emancipate her Algerian sisters. Recalling the terrible nights in the annals of Algerian independence in the early sixties, she pens her work between France and her native realm, in the echoes of women who have dual loyalties and who are multi-lingual.Oran, at rest(predicate) Language commences the tales of horror when Algeria deliver the goods autonomy from colonialists. Oran, in Algeria boa sted the elevated concentrations of pied-noirs, Settlers who fled the unpolished for Europe and particularly France upon independence.The narrator recalls the tearful night when her parents were killed, and how she fled her home city for France at the age of eighteen. She is forced to retreat to Algeria three decades laterthough she feels just like many other storyline characters that Algeria is the forgettable past. In the story, Djebar motions at the oscillations of Europeans from their settlements to France and back to Algeria historic period later. Civil unrest particularly plays the catalytic agent of movement, and forces worldly concern to look for areas of safety. Mentally the characters deny relationship with Algeria preferring to label it as over.In Algeria, the narrator expresses displeasure. Oran is a place where you forget. Forget and forget more. A city that has been swabbed, recollections blanched. A whole decade after it attained independence the centre of the city was left abandoned, apart from a few offices, the headquarters of two or three organizations.In the captivating story, Felicies Body, a teen man documents his mothers life when she comes back to France for treatment from Algeria. He tries to recall his mothers life taking us through her mothers personal journey in respect to marriage to his Algerian father. The materialization man looks at his dual life analyzing which aspect of his dual to identify with and adopt and which one to disown. new-fashioned citizens are faced with oscillations in their mental and physical status just like the young man experiences when faced with an identity crisis. The mother travelling from Algeria to France to seek treatment is also an indication of a repeated pattern where Algerians with connections to France have to keep moving from Algeria to France when they seek ruin conditions of life like better medicine and health facilities. His mother Felice Marie Germaine has eight children, eight of w hom let off live in Algeria.Ever since his father died and was buried at Beni-Rached the young man, Karim decides he is done with Oran and all of Algeria and tells the mother who is better ridden with a not so promising health condition. The scene at the hospital gives a moving picture of the contrast of the lifestyles the two countries offer and the reason for the oscillations people are always on the move to find a better life.In Annie and Fatima, the narrator tells the story of her sisters friend. The narrators sister met the friend while they were having neaten classes. On a night, when the friend is staying with her, she tells her story of Algiers. In the scene, she mentally travels to Algiers, recalling how it is a peaceful capital, dotted with a craze of mushrooming political parties and with newspapers launched. It is for a moment that she wonders how better the country would be if democratic reforms were constituted. The rise of political parties gives her confide that t he political dispensation would be for the better. The development of newspapers would also open up the exonerate media and the democratic space. Algeria at the time they were leaving as a young person was not rationalise and fully liberated. Although not physically traveled, fear of Algerian life is legitimized inside demotic culture by a custom of the use of aggression as a legitimate means of getting economic wealth that goes back to pre-colonial days.Consequently, monetary activity in tangential areas of urban settlement is therefore dominated by fierceness that is decorousby its appeal to an Islamist style, though, in reality, it is merely related to financial benefit. Despite indistinct sentiment in Algeria pertaining its colonial power, France has thrashed a historically preferential leaning in Algerian foreign association. Algeria went through a high level of reliance on France in the initial years after the revolution and a contradictory want to be free of that dependen cy.Problems abide for the Algerians living in France and they spend time fantasizing about what their country (Algeria) could have been.ReferencesDjebar, A. Raleigh, T. (2006). The tongues blood does not run dry Algerian stories. NY sevener Stories Press