History of science fiction

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Director: Robert Wise

Stars: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe

Distribution Company: 20^th Century Fox

This film is about an alien who comes to earth via a space ship and urgently needs to deliver a warning message to all the nations of the world. His attempts to get the government to help him in his task prove futile, so in the end he turns to a renowned scientist for his help in getting a chance to relay his message. He is constantly being hunted b the military and the police, meanwhile the people in the area are panicked while he is on the loose, despite him doing no harm to anyone.

Cowboy Bebop, The Movie (2001)

Director: Shinichiro Watanabe

Stars: (music) Yoko Kanno, various voice actors

Distribution: Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan

This is an animated based on an animated TV series by the name of Cowboy Bebop. The premise for the movie follows a group of bounty hunters who manage to find themselves chasing an elusive bio-terrorist who is bent on killing off life with a nano-machine virus on Halloween. Tracking down the terrorist’s identity and location prove quite difficult, and nearly get several of the group killed in the process.

An interesting note about the film’s release timing is that it came out on September 1^st, just a week and a half before an actual terrorist attack.

Other sci-fi films I have seen or seen excepts from:

1: Planet of the Apes

2: Alien

3: The Terminator

4: Dune

5: the Matrix

How is genre treated? How has it evolved?

By definition, science fiction genre can be seen as fiction dealing with made up content involving futuristic settings, science, technology, time travel and other various science rooted ideas. The 2 main films I watched in this genre are very fundamentally different in that one of them uses actual film, while the other is completely animated with CG, yet they are both of the science fiction genre for a number of reasons that cross between the artistic boundaries of their sub-genres.

In The Day the Earth Stood Still, the setting of the movie is very believable, but it is made into science fiction by the inclusion of extraterrestrial life, space travel, space ships, and futuristic technology, an example of which is the robot which accompanies the protagonist form his ship. Cowboy Bebop, The Movie  on the other hand, takes several of those aspects, but throws any hint of real life out fo the window since it is completely animated and is set in a futuristic setting in the distant future. Despite being in its own sub-genre, it still is very much science fiction for its use of future technology like space travel, high tech weaponry, and advanced technology.

What is the earliest example of a film in this genre?

Science fiction films have been around since the early days of filmmaking. The earliest dated film that is usually considered as part of this genre is Le Voyage dans la Lune, which was directed by Georges Melies  in 1902. Its fictional idea of launching a spacecraft at the moon from a cannon, alien life forms, and at the time groundbreaking special effects, helped pave the way for the basis of the science fiction genre in film.

How did the genre emerge and change over time?

I feel that the science fiction genre has changed significantly since its first inception in the early days of film, but at the same time, still holds many of the same ideas and concepts that it first did. You take for instance George Melies’ film Le Voyage dans la Lune from 1902. Looking at the film, the story of it was fairly simple, but it contained advanced technology, alien life, and other aspects that have become staples in a vast array of sci-fi movies and shows. You then move forward 50 or so years or more to the cold war era, science fiction films often then focused on alien invasions, where if you read between the lines you could see it was the stereotypes portrayal of facism and communism, yet it contained all the elements of futuristic settings, technology, time travel, etc. so I guess you could say that I don’t really think the genre has changed terribly much since its debut. Movies in this genre are still made with inspiration from early science fiction writings, just as the first films is the genre were as well.

What defines the genre? 

The definition of the science fiction genre is one of fictional nature that relates to having advanced or futuristic settings, technology, alien forms of life, and advanced science beyond what we currently have. In their time, films such as those of James bond often had sci-fi styled gadgets such as laser watches, flying or submersible vehicles, etc. Over time though, we have slowly been catching up on this technology, and as it once was considered nothing but fantasy and ideas, is slowly coming to a point where it might soon be a reality. For this reason, science fiction is often placed many years ahead of us, or in a completely different setting overall, such as an alternate timeline.

Conventions used in the genre? 

The convention used for the science fiction genre I think vary on the film, but they do all have an underlying principle and guide to them that keeps them on track with the genre or one of its sub-genres. This is more tied into the definition of the genre itself, as it is often dependent on the time and place the movie was made in and the political scene at the time. In the 1950’s, most science fiction films were focused on extraterrestrial life and alien invasions, which were used as stylized depictions of the political turmoil of the time. If you boil it down to its most basics, it comes down to having some futuristic aspect that is beyond our current reality or setting.

Famous people for this genre?

There are countless famous individuals who would qualify to be listed here, but I shall only name off a few of them. One of the first that cannot be overlooked was Georges Melies with Le Voyage dans le Lune in 1902. This was arguably the first feature length science fiction film ever created and helped to lay the very groundwork for the genre in film as a whole. You then have directors like Fritz Lang, who went on to make Metropolis, which has become iconic in the science fiction film community and is still critically acclaimed to this day for its special effects and inventive scenes. On another note, you have someone like H.G. Wells, who was never a director of films, but who’s writing and stories were the basis for numerous movies throughout the years. In more recent years, one director of note for me that comes to immediate thought is James Cameron for his work on the movie Avatar, which he is now well known for. His use of advanced CG technology and deep story help to materialize a completely fictional world in an almost lifelike quality and definitely deserves a mention here.

 

Casablanca and Bicycle Thief

The movie Casablanca was a hit for its time, and is still referenced heavily to this day and often pictures form it still shown. the cinemetogrophy they used in filming this movie were great for their time and still hold up very well to this day.

If you take for example, probly the most iconic scenes of the movie are of Ingrid Bergman. In practically every scene she is put in, the has an almost..glow around her, the background is filtered to emphasize her alone and the lighting projected onto her to make her radiant. There are also many interesting camera techniques applied to the film besides this, such as panning shots of the camera rotating into connected but different scenes, such as an earlier part in the film where the protagonist walks over to the side of the room to have a conversation with someone, and then walks through to the the other, the camera on him the entire time in one sweep.

If you try and compare the film Bicycle thief to Casablanca, you'll notice that they are filmed rather differently overall. Casablanca keeps rather closed shots in small sets, even when it goes outside. If you look at bicycle thief, they do quite the opposite, instead going for much larger, open scenes to emphasize the size of the city they are in.

The beginning and end of Bicycle their are very much paralleled. In the beginning, the protagonist gets a job and is able to get his prized bike, only to have it taken away, leaving him jobless and frantic to find it. In the end, he tries to resort to doing the same thing that had happened to him, only instead of getting the bike, he nearly ends up in jail instead.

Citizen Kane...

I do believe that films can indeed be influential over individuals overall. film director's opinions and morals come into play when creating plots and stories, not to mention any biases they inject into it as well. For instance, war propaganda movies are made to sway opinion to one side's cause or the other, often depicting that the other side is not human, or somehow lesser than their own, and that it is necessary to kill and/or fight them.

Orson Welles' careful use of dialogue and scene setup throughout Citizen Kane definitely show off his knowledge of radio and theater. an example of this is how there are many interviews throughout, and even if you look away from the screen, you can still get a good sense of what is happening by the audio ques he leaves through all of his transitions, be it flashbacks or to a new scene altogether.

One example I can think of where low-angle shots were used heavily was then his ex-guardian goes to talk to Kane about his newspaper's campaign against the Public Transit company. At first the camera is angled down on Kane as he's kicked back in his chair, the other man coming in from the high point which seems to signify his supposed importance. the camera suddenly shifts though int he opposite direction when Kane begins to speak and the roles are reversed, the camera angle giving a sense of depth and importance to Kane as if he has won the argument.

A prominent example of how transitions were used in this film is the breakfast scene in the memorial hospital. first we start off in a small, fairly confined scene, but cuts to a larger dining room scene. This is done by use of a long fade-transition that blends the 2 scenes together until the first disappears and you are left with the later one. during this next scene of them at breakfast, use of a spinning camera int he room signifies the passage of time between different shot sin the same room, depicting their relationship deteriorating over the years they were together.

Early Sound and The Artist

The 2011 movie "The Artist" has alot in common with with older silent films which it is based off of, but introduces a few modern concepts here and there I think to make it appeal to a modern audience.Here are some of my observations form the film in regards to how it compares and contrasts to older silent films.

Camera Work
The camera angles in The Actor somewhat resemble earlier silent films by pulling the camera back in many scenes. the thing that makes it obvious this is a modern film in this regard (other than picture quality) is that there are alot of three quarter shots used in this. In early silent/voiced films, there still wasn't a solid concept of proper shot size, so full shots were still fairly the norm if i am not mistaken.

Sound and Music
The sound used in this film is somewhat reminiscent of the early synchronized sound films as it has orchestra playing different parts that are suited to the scene, not an overarching soundtrack like in ones of the silent era.

Dialogue/Speech
the speech and text dialogue confuses me a little bit honestly. Its obviously going for the silent film aesthetic as it has notecards that come up, and I assume having it in another language as the main writing is part of that effect, but the reason for it somewhat eludes me really. 

Editing
The editing in The Artist, is in my experience, much more up to modern standards than compared to the old style of editing. there are alot more cuts and transitions used here than in older works, which would have had alot more static or drawn out shots overall.

Special Effects
I feel as if they really tried to subdue alot of the modern special effects in this film to try and make it feel more authentic overall, and to pretty darn good effect. the part where he momentarily hears sound in the dressing room was a startling event int he movie and was definitely evidence of modern editing techniques.

Genre codes and Conventions
I'd say overall that The Artist uses alot of technical codes instead of symbolic ones. heavy editing from our modern era gives it a slightly different overall feel from its old predecessors and in that way goes against the conventions of the time. 

Acting
The acting in this film was pretty good overall for a silent type film, but I feel as if they forgoed some of the dramatization to differentiate between the film and the in movie filming scenes, and instead used alot more notecard prompts to indicate speech as well as just using more subtle actions.

Northwest film history - Scarecrow Video

Horror and Suspense

The movie "M" is usually categorized as a drama-thriller and not an outright horror film, and honestly i'd have to agree overall with that. After watching the film, I couldn't honestly point to anything int he movie itself that was scary or really enough to be "creepy" in any way. Even the scenes in the beginning where you couldn't see the murderer weren't really scary or suspenseful in any meaningful way.

The movie I chose to watch this week , "Aliens" I feels fall into 2 different horror genres. It would I feel classify as Action-horror as well as Science fiction horror. Its got all the run and gun/suspenseful action of action horror as well as the unnatural, creepy monster type creatures that would put it into the sci-fi horror genre.

In the movie "M", there is alot of use of sound effects and overall ambient sounds to flesh out the scenes. One use of it springs out to me however, and thats how the murderer's whistling comes into play in several scenes. Even before he is actually shown to us, the sound of his whistling is there, signifying his presence and trying to invoke suspense.

Contrastingly to how sound was used in "M", there is also a particular effect they used in "Aliens" to much the same effect, though to a much scarier and emotion inducing end, and that would be the sound of his alien itself as it is int he shadows near someone, even though it isn't outright shown to us. This is done to great effect as dramatic buildup throughout the film.

 The supposed "evil and "good" in Aliens is fairly easy to see throughout, with only a few main overarching themes overall. the aliens themselves are always portrayed as the evil and never as anyhting else, though there is a short part of the film where a "good" person turns to evil. the concept of good int he film is fairly light, as it applies to pretty much all the characters except for the one mentioned before and overall makes the movie a struggle for survival against a terrible threat.

Theories of Montage

The 1925 Russian film "Battleship Potemkin" was a great example of montage editing for many reasons. It conveyed subliminal messaging and abstract ideas of its time period into a movie without outright saying what thaw were, but making them firmly identifiable.

 In the images above, you see on the left the part of the movie where the doctor is examining the rotten meat.  On the image on the right, it shows him explaining in a joyous tone that the meat is perfectly fine and that there was nothing wrong with it. It demonstrates via montage the vileness leaders.

My last example of this is from shrtly later in the film when the firing squad is about to kill several of the crew for not eating the rotten meat soup. The film makes a point to show the piest several times along with the tapping of a cross in his hand, coincided with the tapping of a sword hilt on an officer. This was an abstract way of showing the corruption between the ruling party and the church at the time.

Early world cinema

The film we watched of Joan of Arc does focus solely only on the end of her life, and gives little reference back to the rest of her life except some very vague references here and there to her miracles and such. I think the director did this so there wouldn't be as much back context as to what was happening, and instead wanted to focus more on the emotions of the trial and subsequent actions therein, such as the trickery used to make her give in and answer their questions.

the film does make heavy use of close ups throughout to convey emotion, but it also uses a few other innovative techniques for its time, one of which is the tracking shot, where the camera pans and follows through a scene instead of being static.  This is used to great effect throughout the film, even starting fromt he beginning. It uses this tracking shot to show the judges in the trial, but doesn't let you get a good look at them like you otherwise would, instead, it just pans through them to give a sense of more of mass scale than of emotionalism, so the emotion is focused only on a few select characters in the film. In relation to "the subjective camera" idea, this fits perfectly, emphasizing particular scenes and actions while others are given less time to be focused upon, trying to evoke particular moods and feelings from what they present.

The use of light and darkness in Caligiri and Metropolis were used to spectacular effect for what they were trying to convey in each piece.  The light is used to create happy, more cheerful atmosphere, while darkness and shadow are used to give that gloomy, spooky feeling. This is used heavily in Caligiri to give that feeling of darkness and fright in its alleys and nights, and has become a classic of horror films for its spectacular use.

Griffith and Micheaux

The movie "Birth of a Nation" by D. W. Griffith is a movie about slavery and the freedom of african Americans before and after the civil ar. The story focuses mainly around 2 families who are from the north and south and how they handle the war and subsequent reconstruction phase of the south after the civil war. The movie is overall very racist, frequently depicting African Americans as the antagonist, while white individuals are given the role as the victim and are justified in their discrimination throughout.

The film "Within Our Gates" by Oscar Micheaux is a film made a few years after the previous mentioned one. The story follows a young African American woman who is trying to raise money for a school for her race.  It portrays racial violence at the hands of white individuals in the form of lynching and beatings and overall unequalness along with demonstrating people's prejudices.

Both fo these films deal with racism and discrimination quite a bit, but both of them take very different angles on the situation. In the case of birth of a Nation, white people are seen as the victim's of freed black people's oppression and depicts black individuals as uneducated and simple minded. On the other hand, Within our Gates" shows the mistreatment of black people after the civil war at the hands of white people and shows black people striving to better themselves.

The NAACP did their best to get birth of a Nation censored nationwide, but only met with marginal success from what I'e read. One article seems to portray its censoring as a big threat to the film, while another seems to almost all but dismiss it as a footnote. I find it difficult to say which is true, but after reading all the material and seeing the film myself, I can surmise that they did at least have some success in getting the film either censored or edited in some locations, and it most likely laid a more solid foundation for getting other films censored afterwards.

Early Silent Films and Stars..

If you look at film today, most people can't imagine the idea of a film without a "star" being featured in it, but this wasn't always the case. Back at the start of film with silent films, there was no names attached to the actors at all whom you saw on the screen at all. From the reading I've done on the subject, it would seem the reasons for this are many, though some do stand out. firstly, at the time of film's infancy, the companies producing the films were trying to make their marks in the world, so they had to reason at that point to share the so called limelight with their actors. another main factor was money, they didn't want to give actors a reason to ask for  a raise and cut into their own profits. Even further more so than those was that acting in film at the time was considered a "lower class" of acting, and was scoffed at by the already famous play actors and others alike, so people were embarrassed to be associated with the new phenomenon  known as film.

The film "The Great Train Robbery" is often considered a breakthrough film. It used several innovative techniques for its time, including crosscutting of scenes and close ups to great effect, and set a higher standard for films to live up to than had previously been done.

The Edison Trust was a collected group of almost all the major film production companies to control the film market in America and protect their collective patents. The idea behind this was to cut the inflow of foreign films that were being imported and played in theaters, as well as discourage the trust's members entry into feature film production. Opposed to this group was the Independant Film marks group, who were in a constant battle over lawsuits with the trust over trying to get a more free market on film production and whom ultimately won in the end. The city of Hollywood was formed thanks to this, as Independant film makers moved their studios to the town to get away from being harassed by the henchman of the Trust.

 The Lumiere Brothers, Edison Studios, and Melies all produced films at roughly the same point in time, but each had a very distinct style compared to one another. If we take the Lumiere Brothers for instance, their style of film was based outside on actual events. their camera system allowed them to be portable and shoot film on any outside event, unlike their main counterpart Edison. edison Studios on the other hand still filed actions of life like Lumiere did, but his films were done on fixed sets. his camera system was in no real way portable, so all scenes had to be setup and shot within a box essentially, which rather limited the scope of which he could film.

Melies on the other hand, took quite a different approach to film than the other 2. In a way it more closely resembles Edison's films in the way that it is filmed on a set area, and not in the open, but instead of filming life, Melies made films on fantasy and magic, "A trip to the Moon" is one example of his style of work, which is very different overall from any of the works from the other two mentioned filmmakers of the time.

Reflexive Films...

Today I watched a film by the name of "The Wolf of Wall Street". This was produced in 2013 and is what can be considered a reflexive film is the way that it narrates itself itself in informing the audience that you are watching a film of what is actually happening in itself.

the movie itself has, at least in my opinion, a fairly deep and intricate story line. A short synopses of how it unfolds is that a young man starts off from a lower middle class standing in life and goes to Wall street to become a stock broker. after that and several ups and downs of working for others, he ends up forming his own company with some of his more...less reputable friends, and which leads to many shady, though profitable dealings in the stock market. Ultimately though his backdoor dealings and shady operations catch up with him and his many conspirators.

to me, what calls attention to itself in this film is the nature in which his once small business quickly spirals up to mega proportions and then quickly out of control. the ride in which it takes you on is very packed with what seem to be insignificant events which end up being much larger than they appear early on.

In regards to the actor buster Keiting in his film Sherlock Jr., I feel the reason for his popularity as an actor and why people liked hims oo much was due to his style of comedy. which was very much along the lines of exaggerating his actions and doing unorthodox methods of solving problems that people found very amusing.

Over the last few days of watching 3 seperate films that are all of reflexive neature, it becomes verp appearent that they all handle them in quite different ways overall. In the film "the Purple rose of Cairo" it takes reflexiveness in the form of a film becoming sentient and melding into the "real world"  which in itself is a film.

The "sherlock Jr." film to an almost dream approach to this particular genre. To me, its as if the main character's "spirit" went and melded in with the world of a movie that in a certain light went hand and hand with his real world problems, but was able to fulfill his ambitions in the movie as to wher ein his life he was not at the time.

Lastly, you have "the wolf of Wall Street", which is a much newer film than the previous 2, but still relates in to the others in being reflexive in how it narrates. Instead of the film just following the lead actor as most normal films would, it tries to push you a step back from the world of the movie by giving it a sort of...meta-narration, such as "I thought everything would be fine, but I soon would find out it was all going horribly wrong" and then continue on with the actions in the film, but having broke them up into different time segments.

the point to take away here is, that there is no best or common way in making a reflexive film. the only real constant between all three, is that each and every one pulls their audience out away from the movie, making them think of the concept of a film within a film.