Introduction to Film and Television Studies

Formal analysis

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)

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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.

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

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