Sitting at the Feet of a Film Analyst (part 3)

Last time, the film hero Doug Welch (and your Daily Bugle rep here) talked through show-don’t-tell, the evil of voice-over and the benefit of imagery when used in voice over’s stead. They also read some comics aloud…

LS: That might be a really terrific exercise to sift through [Shawshank] and say what does that show us, not tell us but show us, about his character, watching them and then “how do you deal with this now?”

DW: But having it given to you. In Shawshank’s defense, it gives it to us brilliantly, which is the power of the poetry of those line, different than say the beginning of No Country for Old Men which is less expositional and more poetic. There’s no exposition in those lines, even though there’s a little story. It’s just setting tone. It’s there with the music and they’re there with the stark pictures of the Texas landscape.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mx52S8ZkUg”]

LS: Well even the eschatology at the very end.

DW: Sure. Oh yeah, absolutely. But that’s not voice-over.

LS: It’s showing.

DW: That’s dialog. That’s somebody there, the old man at the table. Or no. He’s talking to his wife about the dream, right?

LS: Mmmm.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrC7KRDy3w8″]

DW: Yeah, so…

LS: Well, I mean, we tell preaching students, for instance, not to do the first-person without thinking through it. This class you’re gonna teach is Christ and Film.

DW: [laughs.] Yeah, one day.

LS: When it comes in the future.

DW: Few years.

LS: So is that like Finding God in the Matrix [smirks] or what are we talking about?

DW: Yeah, no. I hope not.

LS: [laughs.]

DW: In the beginning, yes. In the beginning you have to, when you talk about film, it’s a classic story, at least in the beginning. Here’s a class in plot. Here’s a class in story. Here’s a class in the…

LS: [Points to the shelf behind him holding The Hero with a Thousand Faces by John Campbell, The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker & Story by Robert McKee.]

DW: Yeah, the arcs that these stories take, and do we see hints of creation-fall-redemption-restoration… I was reading, looking at a book recently which I have not yet read, but I’ve flipped through enough to see, umm… From the Garden to the City and he adds, you know I’ve heard the “Creation-Fall-Redemption” arc quite a bit. But he adds “restoration” to create a fourth part to the move in the story, which I think makes a lot more sense.

LS: Bell’s preached on that before.

DW: Right. Yeah. Umm… You have one thing about the act of redemption, you know, the turning point. But then you have the denouement
which is the turning point, the restoration of all things.

LS: The eighth-day stuff?

DW: The eighth-day stuff, yeah, just New Jerusalem… and they lived happily ever after. At a basic level, that’s what at least the first part of that class would be about. Okay, here are the stories and so as we take a look at these characters, how do we see types of Christ? And these characters: what are they doing? What choices are they making? But after awhile, you have to be more mindful of the grammar of the film and how they’re depicting what they’re depicting, the often-used quote from Roger Ebert, “Movies aren’t about what movies are about. They’re about how they’re about what they’re about.” So what techniques are being used? What are the underlying…

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LS: Subtext.

DW: Subtext. Right. Whether camera angle. Whether… For instance, in Bronson, you have basically a one-man-show with all these character moving in and out of the lives of these prison wardens and guards and other people… relatives and such. Pretty much every shot, he’s center-frame. He’s not off to the side and there’s other action over here. [Makes palms parallel facing each other, like a frame, in front of his face.] He’s here. They never show depiction that way.

LS: Mmhmm.

DW: He is always in (or most often in) the center of the frame. Your eye cannot leave him. There’s one scene where he’s in a mental hospital ‘cause he’s… you know is he insane? Well… yeah… but…

LS: But how insane?

DW: But how insane. Later in the movie, in order to get back to prison (‘cause he can’t exist outside of it) he almost kills somebody just to get back into prison.

LS: Wow.

DW: Yeah. They’re having kind of this dance-party. And there’s people jumping around and they’re playing these insane people, obviously, so it’s a lot of chaos. And he’s just standing there very calmly in the center of the frame, and he’s just there. Very calmly looking around and watching. He’s just in the center of the frame with all this chaos around him. You know? Where is the action in that frame? In that shot?

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIEH_KZ-wmI”]

DW: Well, we’d say, [points to center of frame]“Well that’s where the action is. Right there in the middle.” The filmmaker’s trying to show that. In that shot, is he making an editorial comment on whether he thinks Bronson’s insane? Yeah. I think so. In the midst of that, he’s sane. He’s very much sane. He’s very much in control, but his choices are just…

LS: Absurd.

DW: Yeah, absurd, and what we’d call psycho… socio…

LS: Sociopathic?

DW: Yeah. Or a psychopath. I dunno he’s just…

LS: Devoid of emotion.

DW: Yeah, devoid of emotion and… I dunno… understanding consequences of actions and such other than presently wrong. So hopefully it’s understanding that aspect, you know? What does the score of a film provide?

LS: If anything.

DW: If anything at all.

LS: French films. Cast Away.

DW: Right.

LS: Well, not all French films.

DW: What does the editing of a film provide in terms of heightening the tension, heightening the conflict?

LS: Hammeke said, and it’s probably not him originally, but he said that every single time they give an actor an Oscar, they should give the editor an Oscar.

DW: Oh absolutely. Well, just because they…?

LS: Because they chose that scene!

DW: Right. ‘Cause they chose that take. They chose takes six rather than… You know film editing, people’ve often said film is a directors medium, director plus editor whereas stage is really, truly, the actors medium. TV is a producer’s medium. With the technology anymore, sure do twenty takes. What’s the, you know? Digital makes that even easier. You can do long takes and you can do…

LS: Like the Facebook intro.

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DW: Right, you do the coverage, and then you do your two-shot, then you do your closeups, then maybe you do a different thing…

LS: The back-and-forth.

DW: The back-and-forth, and that’s how things typically go. Establishing shot: where are we? Two-people-shot: here’s two people in relative proximity to each other.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2YelaGi5kM&feature=related”]

DW: As the conversation goes: shot, counter-shot, shot, counter-shot. They’re pulling those not from one specific take, but from the first question from take three and the second answer from take seven.

LS: Right.

DW: And that’s just the nature of film, you know. As you create an acting performance, yeah it’s this person, but Derek’s right. It’s cobbled together by the editor from all the various options that he or she has before them. That’s pretty crazy. That’s one reason it takes so long. I can’t imagine in the olden days when they’re—

LS: Oooh. Cutting.

DW: Cutting and—

LS: Splicing. Oh good grief.

DW: splice.

LS: Like Gone with the Wind, especially for something four hours long like that.

DW: Sure. Yeah.

LS: Although, you can tell in some of those, if it’s old enough, you can tell if there’s a cut because a person will move just a bit or you see the cigarette burn. And they’ll–

DW: Oh, right.

LS: –they’ll jut or the silverware will be five foot to the left. It’s just like, “Wait a minute… that wasn’t…”

DW: Where did that go?

LS: There’s like a moviemistakes.com, where Spiderman goes out the window twice and breaks it both times.

DW: You were smoking the cigarette when you asked the question…

LS: [laughs.]

DW: –and when the camera came back to you, there was a banana in your hand.

(continued in next week’s Ask the Experts)


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  1. Ask the Experts: Film Analyst (part 4) | Lance Schaubert

    […] Last week, The Boy Wonder and that other schmuck in the black suit talked on voiceover, visual show-don’t-tell and the power of good dialog. This week, we dig into the meat: SYMBOLISM! […]

Quick note from Lance about this post: when you choose to comment (or share this post with your friends) you help other readers just like you.

How?

Well, see, your comments & sharing whisper a few things to those who come after you:

The first is that this site is a safe place to speak up & stay curious. That it's civil. That discussion is encouraged. That there's no such thing as a stupid question (being a student of Socrates, I really and truly believe this). That talking to one another and growing together is more important than anything we could possibly publish. That the point is growing in virtue and growing together and growing wise. That discovery is invention, deference is originality, that we all can rise together. The only folks I'm going to take comments down from are obvious jerks who argue in bad faith, don't stay curious, or actively make personal attacks. And, frankly, I'd rather we talk here than on some social media farm — I will never show ads and the only thing I'm selling anywhere on the site or my mailing list is just the stuff I make.

You're also helping folks realize that anything you & they build together is far more important than anything you come to me to read. I take the things I write about seriously, but I don't take myself seriously: I play the fool, I hate cults of personality, and I also don't really like being the center of attention (believe it or not). I would much rather folks connect because of an introduction I've made or because they commented with one another back and forth and then build something beautiful together. My favorite contributions have been lifelong business and love partnerships from two people who have forgotten I introduced them. Some of my closest friends NOW I literally met on another blog's comment section fifteen years ago. I would love for that to happen here — let two of you meet and let me fade into the background.

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