FM4 - Popular Film and Emotional Response: Key Terms

Scopophilia - the pleasure of looking.  On several occasions in Psycho, Hitchcock indulges our desire to watch, e.g. Marion packing to leave town or Norman cleaning the bathroom of  blood. When Brody is watching the bathers on the beach, there is also a sense of scopophilia.
Voyeur (voyeurism or voyeuristic) - spying on someone, usually for sexual pleasure.  In Psycho, Norman spies on Marion through a peep hole.
Male Gaze - a theory that women are sexualised in the media for male pleasure.  We see Marion on two occasions in her underwear and also see her undress before showering, where once again we are privileged to see an intimate act.
Privileged - when the spectator experiences a view, feelings, emotions or knowledge that goes beyond simply observing or is allowed to see or hear things that makes the spectator more knowledgable than characters in the film.  For example,  in Psycho the spectator is privileged to hear Marion's thoughts when she is driving.
Positioned - where the spectator feels placed within the scene.  Often films 'distance' us from the action, but sometimes our positioning makes us feel physically involved.  For example in City of God, we feel part of the crowd during 'Benny's Farewell'.  When Marion lies dead on the bathroom floor in Psycho, the spectator is positioned  uncomfortably close to her, our eyes staring into hers as if our head is also resting on the tiled floor.  We can also be 'positioned' in terms of our feelings towards a character.  The film-makers manipulate our feelings so that they put us in in a particular emotional 'position'.
Aligned - Sometimes our relationship becomes so close to a character that we feel 'at one with them' - we see and feel things in the same way as the character.  A film-maker may achieve this by allowing us to experience things that the character does, e.g. Hitchcock allows us to hear Marion's thoughts and later we watch her through the peep hole as if we are Norman.  Alignment is a further development from identifying and/or empathising with the character.  Increasingly, we become aligned with Marion as circumstances threaten to uncover her crime; a crime that we want her to get away with.  Later, we feel the same way about Norman's crime (see below).  So, alignment also requires our emotional involvement with a character.
Interpellation - when we are interpellated by a film, we have submitted to its mechanisms and are effectively under its thrall (control).  This means that the ideological messages of the film will be absorbed freely and without critical resistance.  If we are interpellated with a character, we effectively become that character, our personal feelings and concerns from our own life being replaced with theirs.  So when Norman anxiously watches the semi-submerged pause on its journey to the bottom of the swamp, our heart rate increases and we feel 'butterflies' in our stomachs - effectively, in that moment, the character and spectator have become one.

Fight club - personality/identity disorders

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depersonalization_disorder

Some points for the exam...

• You have 3 questions to answer; one from section A, one from B and one from C.
• You have 50 mins for each question.  Don't forget to make a plan.
• In section A, you have a choice of two questions and there are separate sources for each.  Choose carefully!  Use ALL the sources and your own knowledge.
• For section B, you choose from the 2 questions in the British Film and Genre section.  Remember to state your films with year of release in brackets.
• For section C there is a choice of two questions.  Choose carefully.  State your theme, "Fallen Idols", and the names of the films and year in brackets.
• You can answer the questions in any order you like.  It might be better to do the American films first while you are fresh.  
• Spread your time equally between the questions.

AS Film - Urgent message

I forgot to give you a very useful essay on dystopian films today.  Come and see me tomorrow to get it.  Dobinson and Coutinho have left their books in class - don't you think it might come in useful for revision?

US Films Comparison - Natural Born KIllers (further reading)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Born_Killers
http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/mediaviolence/violence.php?pageID=nbk
http://www.kamera.co.uk/reviews_extra/natural_born_killers.php
http://noah.hearle.com/movies/
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/natural-born-killers/critic-reviews
http://www.craigerscinemacorner.com/Reviews/natural_born_killers.htm
http://www.cinepad.com/reviews/nbk.htm
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Natural_Born_Killers.PDF

Fight Club - possible question areas for the question which names the film

- Jack /Tyler Durden – the meaning and significance of this split person
- A progressive film or a deeply reactionary one?
- The representation of modern urban and corporate life
- The representation of masculinity and its threats
- Marla: women as object of scorn? Misogynistic?
- Managing the spectator’s identification and sympathies
- Distinctive stylistic features and the look of the film
- Motifs and their function
- The social and cultural context of production
- Critical and popular responses to the film

Single film critical study - Fight Club (further reading)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club_(film)
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/fight-club/critic-reviews
http://www.popmatters.com/film/fight-club.html
http://frimmin.com/movies/fightclub.php
http://criticalcommons.org/Members/adiab/clips/FF_FincherFightClub-possum.mp4/view
http://www.artofthetitle.com/2008/03/28/fight-club/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/movies/homevideo/08lim.html?_r=1
http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol11no2/ReedFightClub.htm
http://www.criticism.com/md/fightclub.html
http://www.metaphilm.com/philm.php?id=29_0_2_0
http://www.quotegarden.com/bk-fc.html
http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue8/fightclub.html
http://www.11points.com/Movies/11_Hidden_Secrets_in_Fight_Club
http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue8/fightclub.html
http://old.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id1497/pg1/index.html
http://metaphilm.com/philm.php?id=29_0_2_0/
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/trivia
http://www.moviemartyr.com/1999/fightclub.htm
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19991025/EDITOR/40828001/1023

FM2 - Audiences and Producers: The BFI 2012 Statistical Yearbook

http://www.bfi.org.uk/statisticalyearbook2012/

This document is essential reading for your exam.  It gives you up-to-date information about the UK film industry.

Key points:

2011 UK Film Production

• 'Inward investment' from other countries (particularly the US) was at it's highest ever level - e.g. Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, Jack the Giant Killer, Prometheus, Skyfall, Snow White and the Huntsman, World War Z and Wrath of the Titans.  Most of these productions qualify as UK films.
• Spending on international co-productions increased (e.g. 360, Good Vibrations, Shadow Dancer and StreetDance 2) but there was a slight fall in spending on domestic productions.  Significant domestic productions included: Great Expectations, The Inbetweeners Movie, The Iron Lady, Now is Good, Postman Pat: The Movie, The Sweeney and Welcome to the Punch.
• Overall, 274 films were produced in whole, or part, in the UK, down from 343 in 2010. 42 were co-productions, 200 were domestic UK features (of which 124 had budgets under £500,000) and 32 were inward investment films.  The decline in domestic productions was due to a 47% decrease in the number of low and micro budget films.
• 80% of spending on 'UK films' comes from US studios.  However, the majority of US films produced in the UK are independent films (with far lower budgets than films like The Dark Knight Rises).  
• Most independent 'UK films' were domestic UK features or co-productions.

UK Box Office 2011

• Annual UK cinema admissions increased by 1.4% to 171.6 million, the third highest total of the last decade. The strong performance of a number of independent British films such as The King’s Speech and The Inbetweeners Movie was a major factor behind the growth in box office revenue.
• The highest grossing film of 2011, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 became the third highest grossing film of all time at the UK box office behind Avatar and Toy Story 3. The final instalment of the eight-film Harry Potter saga topped the chart of the year with earnings of just over £73 million.  Second and third place belonged to two independent British films, The King’s Speech and The Inbetweeners Movie, each earning over £45 million to become the two highest grossing independent UK films since box office records began. Three other titles earned over £30 million – Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, The Hangover 2 and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1. Sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Aardman animation Arthur Christmas grossed over £20 million while Bridesmaids was one of the surprise hits of the year earning £23 million. 
• It was a strong year for UK-produced films, with box office successes across a diverse range of genres. This resulted in the highest market share (13.5%) for UK independent films since our records began. The market share of US studio-backed UK films (films wholly or part-financed by US studios but featuring UK cast, crew, locations, facilities, post-production and often UK source material) was 22.7%. 
• A total of 47 3D films were released in 2011, up from 28 in 2010 and 14 in 2009. The top 3D release in 2011 was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 which earned 48% of its total gross in 3D.

Notes:

An inward investment film is substantially financed and controlled from outside the UK (e.g. U.S. films) and where the production is attracted to the UK by script requirements, UK expertise or tax relief.  These films may qualify as a 'UK' or 'British' film under the Cultural Test.

A domestic film is one made by a UK production company and is produced wholly or partly in the UK.

A co-production is a production other than an inward investment co-production involving partner countries who have signed agreements to recognise co-productions between them as eligible for benefits that domestic films may receive.

An example of an FM2 exam paper

http://www.wjec.co.uk/uploads/publications/5797.pdf