Tuesday 22 March 2011

'Watching' Documentary

  1. What does Thomas Sutcliffe mean when he says “Films need to seduce their audience into long term committed. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible”. 

Thomas Sutcliffe is trying to imply that a film needs to be able to connect with an audience emotionally and mentally from the beginning in order for them to stay connected with the film to make them want to find out more and stay interested. To seduce one means to entice or induce someone to engage in a sexual relationship whereas as in this case it would be to do the same thing but in order to engage the audience in the film, it also means to attract someone and by attracting someone to your film from the start gets them instantly wanting more.

 2. According to Director Jean Jacques Beineix, what are the risks of ‘instant arousal’?

According to Director Jean Jacques Beineix one of the risks of 'instant arousal' it may give of a strong beginning which will leave you wondering where to go and what to do next. Starting of with a strong beginning means you have to make the next scene stronger as the audience wants to see something more interesting and engaging than what happened in the beginning. If they have seen a strong beginning and you have nothing to show them later on you then lose the affect of giving the audience 'instant arousal' ad they get disappointed with the rest of the film.


   3. Explain why “a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn’t know enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn’t know to little”














At the beginning of a film the audience will be making judgments on how they believe the film is going to be and they begin to paint a picture in their head they do this by observing the characters, sound, setting, and environment and some even story line. By keeping a balance between not giving away to much but not too little at the beginning of a film keeps the audience needing to find out what the film is about and this will also create ' instant arousal' as the audience is now engaged with the film and wants to know what is going to happen or whether or not what they assumed was going to happened was correct.

 4. What does critic Stanley Kauffmann describe as the Classical opening? Why does this work?

Stanley Kauffmann describes the classic opening as a scene consisting of an establishing shot with close up of  buildings and offices where it went up the buildings to the windows then you see it going straight through the windows where you see the offices and receptionists, etc and you have been told by this simple classic opening where the film was taking place and the occupation of the hero is/was, and overall you was told the organisation of the world because everything was in place and people tend to relate to this. An opening should lead audience into the story your telling and a classic opening does this, this works because the audience has now related to what is going on and they now have a source of information that may help them understand the film in detail later on when more is revealed.

 5. Why is Kyle Cooper’s title sequence to the film Seven so effective? 

This title sequence is so effective because it gives the audience an insight on what may possibly been seen in the film later on. The close up images gives affect on the meaning as to why the character is behaving in this obsessive and psychotic way. The simple detailed sequence keeps the audience wanting to see what is going on and why it is going on, this gives effect on the audience because they are now trying to figure out what is going on as this is not seen as 'normal' behaviour.

 6.What did Orson Welles want to achieve with his opening to the film A Touch of Evil? What did Universal Studios do to it? Why?

Orson wanted one long shot for the beginning scene to plunge and seduce the audience into the movie before it starts, however, Universal Studios put titles on the sequence when Orson Welles did not want that.

 7. What is meant by “a favourite trick of Film Noir”? What is the trick?

This is when the film starts with the ending then plays to where the story actually begun. It starts with and ending and finishes with the beginning.

 8. How does the opening of The Shinning create suspense?

The opening of  The Shining creates suspense by

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