Film and Ideology and "Drive".

"Film and Ideology" by Maria Parmaggiore and Tom Wallis explores the way films present ideologies and defines it as a system of beliefs, values and opinions. "Film and Ideology" states that ideologies derive from deep seated feelings about the world and about human society, and therefore they are not necessarily bound by the rules of logic. "Ideologies provide the philosophical threads that weve a community together, guiding the actions of individuals, groups and even large societies. " A belief can be powerful enough to define and shape a nation, and can often be seen in their films, like Bollywood's representation of a Universal God, family, duty, responsibility and Karma, or Hollywood's ideals created by the American dream, the idea that anyone can succeed. This has given rise to the idea of indevidualism and the representation of the underdog.

"Drive" (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2011) contains these tropes and ideologies but twists them, giving them a more realistic portrayal. Because of this, "Drive's protagonist is represented as an antihero, someone who does the right thing but for the wrong reasons or in the wrong way. This is done to make the hero imperfect, like real people.

"Drive" follows the theme of individualism that is commonly seen in Hollywood action films. the idea that one person can rise up and make a difference, but Refn changes this slightly by showing that our hero isn't invincible and that his actions do have consequences, as shown by the Driver not winning the girl by scaring her away with his violent nature and malicious actions against his enemies, and even though he saves her and defeats the mobsters who were after them, he rides off into the night alone, broken, bruised and bleeding out, his only satisfaction being the safety of his love interest even though they can never be together.

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.

Evaluation of my final Film.

For my final film in DVP, my group and I created a short film illustrating a relationship suffering from domestic abuse. However, the roles have been reversed where the man is the victim rather than the woman. After watching the final film I can say that it is not perfect but I am quite proud of it because it succeeds in the narrative by showing a toxic relationship that is ruled by a lack of understanding, communication and physical abuse, the shots flow quite well for most of the film and some shots (the glass shatter) are quite powerful. While the editing is done well for the middle portion of the film, the beginning section needs to be refined more but this could be easily done with a little more time and maybe a re-shoot if absolutely necessary.

Final Film editing rushes.

I was generally quite pleased with the final edit of my group's film although the editing and timing of some shots could have been refined a little more at the beginning, along with making the final shot last a little longer for the big plot twist/ revelation. I am really pleased with how the middle part of the film turned out as the order of shots created a clear narrative, the timing was perfect as it created tension and the shots flowed well together.

My Career Aspirations.

While working on my project for DVP, my passion for cinematography and directing has only grown stronger and has made me want to strive to get better, to produce greater quality content and to test my boundaries as a film maker. This project has taught me how to properly utilize a more professional camera and sound equipment and to create something with minimal dialogue and non diagetic sound in order to mainly focus on shots used, editing and the actual story itself.

My Final Production.

When filming my final film one thought came to mind. "God damn its cold today!" The final film took 2 days to shoot with most of it being indoors in my flat while the start of the film was shot in a park on the coldest day of the year so far. While filming in doors, the overall experience was quite fun and friendly yet professional as everyone did their part for the production with little to no problems. The only problem we had during production was when we had to film at the park because of time restraints due to the fact that daylight was fading earlier and everyone was slowly freezing to death as we tried to get as much filming done as possible before it got dark. Despite nature trying to wreck the shoot, we managed to get good footage while everyone's spirits mostly remained high.