This week we were told that for out essays we are supposed to be making some kind of argument.
An argument is a statement that we are affirming and supporting throughout the text.
My Potential Arguments:
- An author puts their real life experience into their literature, even when it's not intentional.
- An adaptation can never capture the original artist's voice completely because it is put through the filter of someone else's imagination and experiences.
- A purely conceptual idea will be supported by the author's personal experiences, beliefs and emotions to transform it into a very personal piece.
- Coming of age movies are not the only types of stories to project their authors so clearly, and most stories are actually a type of coming of age for the main character, regardless of genre, age of the protagonist or setting.
- Human beings use allegory to help spread key ideas and lessons so that the majority can learn and ultimately benefit from them.
- Art can serve as a type of emotional therapy (stolen from Natasha)
____________________
Okay so if I approach this with the structure I had in mind I can give each part a very specific key argument:
1 New Wave and Auteur Theory
- A piece of art is directly related to its creator, and serves as a reflection of that person, their beliefs, emotions and personal experiences.
- The future and history of storytelling is reliant on authors telling their own stories, audiences relate to these stories and can derive great value from them.
- Coming of age movies are not the only types of stories to project their authors so clearly, and most stories are actually a type of coming of age for the main character, regardless of genre, age of the protagonist or setting.
2 Metaphorical/Allegorical Storytelling
- Human beings use allegory to help spread key ideas and lessons so that the majority can learn and ultimately benefit from them.
3 Representation of Societal Fears
- Popular genre films serve as a reflection of societal fears to reach a larger audience.
- Coming of Age movies in NZ resonate with audiences because they tap into the nation's combined identity.
4 The Modern-Day 'Elevated' Horror Movement
- Modern day horror movies utilize allegory and personal themes to resonate with audiences on a more permanent level than just their instinctively motivated narrative hook.
5 Personal Exploration
- An author puts their real life experience into their literature, even when it's not intentional.
- An adaptation can never capture the original artist's voice completely because it is put through the filter of someone else's imagination and experiences.
- A purely conceptual idea will be supported by the author's personal experiences, beliefs and emotions to transform it into a very personal piece.
- Art can serve as a type of emotional therapy (stolen from Natasha)
It seems like there might be too many topics that I want to cover in each segment and that I should probably pull it back a bit.
____________________
Natasha found this wonderful article for her project:
https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1259&context=msw_papers
It has a really good quote that directly relates to my question and might be a good theoretical text for me to steal too:
"art represents an expression of unconscious processes, and that by converting these inner processes of painful experiences into art, healing takes place"
An argument is a statement that we are affirming and supporting throughout the text.
My Potential Arguments:
- An author puts their real life experience into their literature, even when it's not intentional.
- An adaptation can never capture the original artist's voice completely because it is put through the filter of someone else's imagination and experiences.
- A purely conceptual idea will be supported by the author's personal experiences, beliefs and emotions to transform it into a very personal piece.
- Coming of age movies are not the only types of stories to project their authors so clearly, and most stories are actually a type of coming of age for the main character, regardless of genre, age of the protagonist or setting.
- Human beings use allegory to help spread key ideas and lessons so that the majority can learn and ultimately benefit from them.
- Art can serve as a type of emotional therapy (stolen from Natasha)
____________________
Okay so if I approach this with the structure I had in mind I can give each part a very specific key argument:
1 New Wave and Auteur Theory
- A piece of art is directly related to its creator, and serves as a reflection of that person, their beliefs, emotions and personal experiences.
- The future and history of storytelling is reliant on authors telling their own stories, audiences relate to these stories and can derive great value from them.
- Coming of age movies are not the only types of stories to project their authors so clearly, and most stories are actually a type of coming of age for the main character, regardless of genre, age of the protagonist or setting.
2 Metaphorical/Allegorical Storytelling
- Human beings use allegory to help spread key ideas and lessons so that the majority can learn and ultimately benefit from them.
3 Representation of Societal Fears
- Popular genre films serve as a reflection of societal fears to reach a larger audience.
- Coming of Age movies in NZ resonate with audiences because they tap into the nation's combined identity.
4 The Modern-Day 'Elevated' Horror Movement
- Modern day horror movies utilize allegory and personal themes to resonate with audiences on a more permanent level than just their instinctively motivated narrative hook.
5 Personal Exploration
- An author puts their real life experience into their literature, even when it's not intentional.
- An adaptation can never capture the original artist's voice completely because it is put through the filter of someone else's imagination and experiences.
- A purely conceptual idea will be supported by the author's personal experiences, beliefs and emotions to transform it into a very personal piece.
- Art can serve as a type of emotional therapy (stolen from Natasha)
It seems like there might be too many topics that I want to cover in each segment and that I should probably pull it back a bit.
____________________
Natasha found this wonderful article for her project:
https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1259&context=msw_papers
It has a really good quote that directly relates to my question and might be a good theoretical text for me to steal too:
"art represents an expression of unconscious processes, and that by converting these inner processes of painful experiences into art, healing takes place"
Natasha was also telling me about early childhood learning and how kids get analysed by their caregivers to see what kind of skills they are developing and how they have to intervene and make sure that the kids are practicing the correct skills and talents.
This can possibly also help with my question because it observes how people learn, which is what films also do - just for a much older demographic.
____________________
A story about a Siamese twin whose sibling dies.
Three parts:
1) Slapstick comedy in the vein of Chaplin or Mr. Bean, a lighthearted portrayal of the struggles twins who are stuck together have to go through, they can also be starting to get into their later teen years, which is when things would get most complicated. This is also when they would wish the most to be separated, which makes it more tragic when one dies.
This bit of the story needs to pull in the audience through humor, it feels fun and like a clear concept - the audience clicks with what the concept seems to be. We laugh and enjoy the shenanigans, at the same time there is something off about it because it's weird to see a situation where two people are stuck to each other, this chapter sees the tension start building as they go into more and more risky/illegal situations. The typical journey for a young adult but we as an audience take a more parental point of view, we know they aren't capable of doing everything that normal people can and after laughing with them along with just normal protective instinct for those less fortunate, we feel the tension more and feel concerned for their well-being.
The movie can even begin with a quick Up (2009) or Searching (2018) type of sequence, displaying parts of their childhood (might be a bad idea, maybe more like Wallace and Gromit for the start here).
2) One dies after they do some dumb young adult shit and this sequence plays like a horror or suspense picture, an escape and find for help kinda sequence, where we aren't completely sure at first if one is dead, when we realize they are its a moment of great tragedy and pure terror.
This is pure terror, as well as playing with the audience's knowledge (along with the characters') about whether or not the one is dead or not. The terror is combined with tension, its the type of situation no one would want to be in, start with shock in that they were in an accident or something, later more shock when you realize the one is dead.
Good old suspense sequence. That moment when watching something where you are invested and things go a very dark direction, and things get worse, something like The Revenant in its best moments.
This ends on a low key as we have one of them saved but the other dead, this great struggle to something that is a success but is tinged with sadness and just a bad feeling that things will not be alright.
3) One has to survive now, having been cut off from the other, tries to adapt to normal life and its very bittersweet as they have to learn to move on without the other.
This is the bit that feels like being depressed in the middle of summer, lost without any road to take, but finding that moment in life where you have to start again.
The setting is the start of the summer after school finishes, the world awaits and the characters are entering into the parts of life they were before never allowed to see. This feeling tinges the start of the movie as well and is the positive and exciting side of that coin, the end is the sad part, the one where it feels like looking back at time with rose tinted glasses and never being able to return.
There is also drama at the start because the twins have a conflict in that they have some different desires, and have an argument, they wish they didn't have to be stuck together anymore.
This comes back in a really negative way when one regrets something he said.
That moment in a movie where its like: fuck we're doing this now (that is how it feels when act two comes around).
Another exploration of how to play with an audience's expectations, and turn things to directions that they don't expect, I just need to ensure the film is engaging enough that they go along with these turns and stay invested. Some of the most exciting moments in watching a film or series is when the story goes a different direction than you could have predicted - when a film subverts your expectations as it goes.
A story about a Siamese twin whose sibling dies.
Three parts:
1) Slapstick comedy in the vein of Chaplin or Mr. Bean, a lighthearted portrayal of the struggles twins who are stuck together have to go through, they can also be starting to get into their later teen years, which is when things would get most complicated. This is also when they would wish the most to be separated, which makes it more tragic when one dies.
This bit of the story needs to pull in the audience through humor, it feels fun and like a clear concept - the audience clicks with what the concept seems to be. We laugh and enjoy the shenanigans, at the same time there is something off about it because it's weird to see a situation where two people are stuck to each other, this chapter sees the tension start building as they go into more and more risky/illegal situations. The typical journey for a young adult but we as an audience take a more parental point of view, we know they aren't capable of doing everything that normal people can and after laughing with them along with just normal protective instinct for those less fortunate, we feel the tension more and feel concerned for their well-being.
The movie can even begin with a quick Up (2009) or Searching (2018) type of sequence, displaying parts of their childhood (might be a bad idea, maybe more like Wallace and Gromit for the start here).
2) One dies after they do some dumb young adult shit and this sequence plays like a horror or suspense picture, an escape and find for help kinda sequence, where we aren't completely sure at first if one is dead, when we realize they are its a moment of great tragedy and pure terror.
This is pure terror, as well as playing with the audience's knowledge (along with the characters') about whether or not the one is dead or not. The terror is combined with tension, its the type of situation no one would want to be in, start with shock in that they were in an accident or something, later more shock when you realize the one is dead.
Good old suspense sequence. That moment when watching something where you are invested and things go a very dark direction, and things get worse, something like The Revenant in its best moments.
This ends on a low key as we have one of them saved but the other dead, this great struggle to something that is a success but is tinged with sadness and just a bad feeling that things will not be alright.
3) One has to survive now, having been cut off from the other, tries to adapt to normal life and its very bittersweet as they have to learn to move on without the other.
This is the bit that feels like being depressed in the middle of summer, lost without any road to take, but finding that moment in life where you have to start again.
The setting is the start of the summer after school finishes, the world awaits and the characters are entering into the parts of life they were before never allowed to see. This feeling tinges the start of the movie as well and is the positive and exciting side of that coin, the end is the sad part, the one where it feels like looking back at time with rose tinted glasses and never being able to return.
There is also drama at the start because the twins have a conflict in that they have some different desires, and have an argument, they wish they didn't have to be stuck together anymore.
This comes back in a really negative way when one regrets something he said.
That moment in a movie where its like: fuck we're doing this now (that is how it feels when act two comes around).
Another exploration of how to play with an audience's expectations, and turn things to directions that they don't expect, I just need to ensure the film is engaging enough that they go along with these turns and stay invested. Some of the most exciting moments in watching a film or series is when the story goes a different direction than you could have predicted - when a film subverts your expectations as it goes.
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