Realism and "The Shawshank Redemption".

 For decades there has been arguments about the "essence of cinema" (as Stam would call it in his work on "The Phenomenology of Realism") between the "formative" theorists who believed that film should be radically different from reality, and the "realist" theorists who believed that film should be a truthful representation of everyday life. Personally I agree with the uses and gratifications model, more specifically, escapism, the idea that we watch films to escape from our everyday lives, as a way to explore different worlds or connect with unique and complicated characters.

"The Shawshank Redemption" (1994, Frank Darabont) is an adaptation of the Steven King novel by the same name. The film contains aspects of formalism through its portrayal of larger than life characters such as Clancy Brown's character "Captain Byron Hadly", a sadistic prison guard, or Morgan Freeman's "Ellis "Red" Redding" who narrates most of the film, giving himself an almost omniscient role in the film. Other than that, the film mostly relies on realism as shown through its long shots and portrayal of mundane tasks such as the roof tarring scene where we see a long take using a mid shot of a small group of inmates drinking beers in the sun as if they were, as Red put it, free men. Even though the scene is romanticised through its use of music, narration and scenery, it still portrays a real life moment in all its glory, a moment most people cherish. Another example of realism is when Tim Robbins's "Andy Dufresne" locks himself in the warden's office and plays opera over the speakers. This scene offers no relevance to the plot itself but is instead used to show what kind of a man Any Dufresne is, someone who will do anything to make life in prison feel normal for himself and his fellow inmates, no matter the consequences. 

    

Formalism

One or more aspects of formalism could inspire my work through stylistic choices and symbolical meaning taken from Russian formalism, German expressionism and  French new wave. 

"Formalism" by Katherine Thompson-Jones states that "the defining characteristic of any formalist approach is its theoretical and critical emphasis on film form" and also states its denial of the aesthetic aspect of the form as it encourages "extrinsic" criticism, thus assessing the work on its surface qualities like its social, political or psychological  themes rather than on its own terms, as art. While this does help the film maker create a film with more substance, I believe that the aesthetic qualities are just as important as it can make the film have a larger impact on society at the time of its release. An example of this would be the birth of certain sub genres in horror to play with the social anxieties of the time like the public broadcasting of the violence and atrocities of the Vietnam War and Hollywood's response with the rise of slasher films, or even to question the conventions of its own genres like the portrayal of races or lack of in westerns as shown through Tarantino's "Django Unchained".

I also agree that a film is not distinguished by it using technical features but that the features are used in a certain way for a certain purpose. This gives the scene a deeper meaning. I could act on this by experimenting with soviet montage in my work to create more visual cuts and sequences while also emphasising what is being shown. I'd most likely use a metric montage in my film as I quite like how it is used to suppress time by following a specific number of frames. This style of montage has been used in films such as Edger Wright's Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, World's end), all films that I feel utilise it well and excel through cinematic and visual comedy.