Regulation & censorship:
Either by reference to contemporary cinema or an earlier period, discuss how regulation and censorship have been challenged by social, cultural or technological change.
Messages & Values: Critical Approaches (15 marks)
1. Genre & Authorship approaches
2. Performance Studies
3. Film Interpretation and Social/Cultural Studies
4. Gendered Film Studies
——————————————————
1. Genre and Authorship Studies
This topic allows you to review the work you undertook for your Auteur coursework project.
What are the benefits and limitations of using an auteur approach to ‘reading’ (or making sense of) a film and understanding its significance?
What are the benefits and limitations of a genre approach?
What broader issues of ‘making’ meaning emerge from these benefits and limitations? What are the implications of each approach?
Can you use examples of films to articulate which approach you prefer and explain your reasons?
Revision:
1. Choose two film titles, each of which offers the opportunity for either
approach (i.e. Blade Runner, Stagecoach, The 39 Steps).
2. List what the auteur approach requires you to do with each film.
3. List what the genre approach requires you to do or know.
4. What does each approach add to the understanding of each film.
5. What would a genre approach do for someone wanting to understand or interpret each?
6. Assess the value (for you?) of each approach. Does each lead in a different direction, into a different area, to one or more areas? What are these directions/ areas? Do they require special skills? Do they lead to understanding anything more than film?
7. Do these areas of understanding provide criteria by which to judge each approach? Does one, for example, lead to more interesting areas of meaning – or just to more levels of meaning?
4. Gendered Film Studies
How does a focus on gender contribute to the understanding of meaning and value in films?
What is the ‘male’ camera debate?
Does film language create a gendered ‘look’?
What is to be gained by considering the position of a male or female spectator?
Does mainstream film represent male and female characters differently? Might this determine whether the spectator can identify with or objectify the character?
How might gender affect the construction of male and female stereotypes and/or stars?
2002 From your studies, discuss what you have found to be some of the most interesting ways in which film-makers produce a shocking effect on the spectator. Make detailed reference to specific films in your answer.
2003 It is when film spectators are being shocked that they are most aware that they are being manipulated. Has this been your experience? Make detailed reference to film extracts you have studied in developing your answer.
2004 From your experience, is it true to say that the shock effect of some films comes from their subject matter, while for other films the shock is created through the use of cinematic devices?
2005 Explore possible reasons why a second or third viewing of a film actually increases the shock effect, rather than lessens it.
2006 How far does cinematic shock come from film-making techniques and how far does it come from the film’s subject matter?
MISE-EN-SCENE (French for ‘put in the scene’)
EDITING
Some important edits are called: continuity (or ‘Hollywood’) edits; MTV (’music television’) edits; cross-cuts; follow-cuts; match-cuts; jump cuts; eye-line matches; dissolves; fades; montages; bridging; flashbacks…
SHOT TYPES
Establishing shot / long-shot / mid-shot / close-up / point-of view shot / soft-focus…
Semiotics is the name given to the study of the way by which meaning is created in the world, especially in the mass media. It is based upon the Idea of ’signs’ and ‘codes’, ‘denotation’ and ‘connotation’.
A sign is the basic unit of meaning in semiotics. A sign is any individual thing that signifies meaning; for example, your clothes are a group of ‘fashion signs’ which signify meaning (perhaps you are trying to look ‘cool’?). There are two ways that signs create meaning: all signs have a literal meaning, which is called their denotation; but, depending on the context, many signs also suggest other ‘layers’ of meaning, which is called their connotation. For example, an image of a girl dressed all in white denotes just that, I.e. this is what you ’see’; but it may also connote innocence or purity (and all that this means in our society and culture), i.e. this is what you ‘think’.
Connotation, therefore, is always more than the denotation. Signs rarely work alone. They are most often combined with other signs to form a code.
A code is a group of signs that we recognise as going ‘naturally together’ to signify meaning (e.g. a rose is a sign; but being handed to a girl by a boy could create a ‘romance code’ and suggest love).
Film and TV codes are often called technical codes because technical equipment is used to create them.
There are three ways through which codes and signs can signify meaning: Iconicity: an iconic sign or code looks just like the thing it seems to represent, e.g. an image of a cowboy seems to be just that; but it is called iconic because it suggests far more than it should: for example, our culture tends to associate extra meanings with the idea of ‘cowboy’, such as toughness, heroism, masculinity, etc. Iconic signs are never reality: they are a representation of reality.
Indexicality (an indexical sign or code) in a sign directly suggests meaning because what it shows seems to be the result of something we associate with the thing it represents, e.g. smoke suggests fire, sweat suggests exercise, appearance can suggest wealth, etc. This can be a short-cut way for a film director to create meaning.
Symbolism (a symbolic sign or code) suggests meaning because we have learned this meaning in our culture; a symbol, in itself, has no association with what it means, e.g. a red heart shape suggests love; letters combine to make words, etc. The meaning we gain from codes is said to be culturally determined which .means that our culture ‘taught’ us that particular way to interpret the meaning. For example, when we see our national flag, the Union Jack, we see more than what it simply denotes – a piece of coloured cloth: patriotism and pride, etc.
An important code is an enigma code. These codes put a fascinating question in the mind of the audience that only watching the movie will answer. They tempt the audience to watch and are often used in trailers. A convention is simply a way of doing something that we are so used to we usually fail to notice it; conventions can seem ‘perfectly natural’ or ‘realistic’ yet are anything but. So: women in cowboys tend conventionally to be either ‘very good’ or ‘very bad’ – and this seems ‘normal’ within the genre of cowboy movies; the wheels of a car always screech; guns always kill outright; a punch always knocks a person out cold.
Genre and narrative are important media conventions that are covered later, as are editing techniques and-the use of certain shot types (such as an establishing shot sequence or montage – see later).
Cinema and TV codes are created within an area bounded by the edges of a screen. By controlling what objects and action are in this frame, a film director creates what is called a mise-en-scene.
Asking questions such as ‘who, what and where’ of the characters and objects and their relative positions, expressions, appearance, costume, make-up, scenery, props, lighting, sounds, etc. in a mise-en-scene will help you analyse it.
Try to consider what effects are created in a mise-en-scene’, what meaning they have (their denotation and, most importantly, connotation), how they have been created and why they were created (which will be the director’s purpose – perhaps to develop a character, a mood, the storyline or plot and sometimes to explore a deeper meaning or idea, i.e. a theme).
Editing is the placing of separate shots together. This allows a director to manipulate space and time hundreds of miles or weeks of time can be reduced to a few scenes that appear perfectly natural and believable to the audience. A montage is a most important editing technique. It is a series of shots that are edited together to create a kind of ‘individual unit’ of meaning.
Continuity edits – especially matched cuts – are called ‘Hollywood editing’. This creates a sequence that seems to flow naturally on from the previous one, and in which the edits are ‘invisible’. These have the effect of creating a realistic and seamless flow to a story or narrative (see below) where one event leads naturally onto the next.
Jump-cuts are dramatic edits; MTV edits are rapid sequences of fast jump cuts used to create a conscious effect as used first in pop-videos;
cross-cuts/parallel editing follow different actions such as two people talking; follow-cuts follow an action to its consequence, e.g. a character looking edits to what they look at
eye-line matches are a kind of follow cut).
A sound-bridge is a sound edit that allows sound from one shot to cross into the next to create continuity.
An establishing shot is usually the opening shot of a sequence; it ’sets the scene’ and locates the action. It is often followed by a mid-shot followed by a close-up shot.
A subjective point-of-view shot (POV) is at eye-level and appears as if you are viewing the scene from the character’s perspective (as in ‘Blair Witch’).
An objective point-of-view shot acts as if you are an observer secretly looking into a scene.
CAMERA ANGLE Eye-line match / high / low
CAMERA MOVEMENT Zooming / tracking / panning / hand-held
LIGHTING High key, neutral, low key
‘DIEGESIS’ AND SOUND
VISUAL EFFECTS / SFX
NARRATIVE
GENRE
ICONOGRAPHY
THE ‘STAR SYSTEM’
REALISM
‘Verisimilitude’
‘Generic verisimilitude’
‘Cultural verisimilitude’
Camera angles can signify meaning, e.g. a subjective POV high angle shot can crate a superior feel. Different camera movements can create significant meaning – a zoom or tracking shot into a close-up of a face can create emotion, a pan across a war scene can suggest violence; POV tracking shots and POV hand-held camera shot can create tension and involvement by making you feel as if you are a part of the action.
Lighting can create atmosphere and mood as well as signify meaning, e.g. in a horror movie, light and shade are important codes of meaning. High-key lighting is harsh; soft-key lighting creates a romantic atmosphere, spotlighting picks out a character from a group, etc.
Diegesis means the ‘world of the film’: if something seems to be a part of the ‘world of the film’, it is called ‘diegetic’. So, sound that is a part of the action is diegetic sound, e.g. wind noise, screeching cars, etc; but sound that is added’ to create, most often, mood or atmosphere is called non-diegetic sound. Diegetic sounds may also be added in after filming, or may be exaggerated for effect (e.g. loud footsteps).
SFX (special effects’) often use computer-generated graphics to create compelling realism and meaning.
The use of a narrative structure is a major convention of cinema and TV. We are all immersed in narratives and have been since childhood as we tell of or hear about the complex events of the world not in the form of long-winded complex details or bald information but as absorbing and interesting stories. Yet this way of explaining real as opposed to fictional events greatly oversimplifies reality whilst at the same time; paradoxically, appearing very realistic and believable. For instance, real events are rarely clearly ‘connected’ by such simple ’cause and effect’ relationships as in stories (i.e. this leads to that because…). Yet in narrative they always are. And in the real world people are not either good (i.e. ‘heroes’) or evil (i.e. ‘villains’); but in narrative they always are to some degree at least. And so on. For better or worse, we tell and hear of world events as narratives and media producers know this and use it to create media texts that rely on narrative structures and forms to be absorbing, compelling and convincingly realistic. Because of this, filmed narratives can easily trick us into thinking we are viewing a real ‘window on the world’.
Genre means the type/kind of narrative being told, e.g. detective, sci-fi, horror, etc. Genre defines a text by its similarities to other texts. Importantly, when we watch a genre film we have many pre-existing expectations of the types of characters, setting and events we want to see (prediction is a major aspect of our enjoyment of a film, and genre helps this). Genre conventions are an important way a director can create believable ‘versions of reality’ because we fail to see that what is shown is not reality at, all, but a media convention that we have become accustomed to seeing in that kind of film. So… we don’t mind the owner of a casino being horribly killed because we see him, in the gangster genre as naturally a ‘villain’. Film companies use genre to sell and make films: a popular genre creates a greater chance of commercial success; and genre can be cost effective, making it cheaper to write new stories and reducing the need for entirely new sets. Iconography is an important aspect of genre. We come to expect to see certain objects within the mise-en-scene of a particular genre, for example, in a Western, we expect to see dusty lonely roads, saloon bars, cowboy hats and horses, jails, sheriffs badges, etc.; in a modern horror film, we expect lonely girls, ‘normal’ objects, use of dark and light, etc. These ‘genre indicators’ are called the iconography of the genre. Celebrities and film stars are an important part of the iconography of cinema and TV.
Different stars can be important signifiers of meaning. They can create expectations of character and action, help identify genre, and create powerful iconic representation of such as masculinity and femininity. Cinema and TV are able to offer high levels of ‘realism’: the bright screen, the clear and powerful Dolby sound, darkened room, etc. are highly compelling and persuasive. Such ‘appearance of reality’ is given the odd name of verisimilitude. This is yet another convention of course – there is nothing ‘realistic’ about an image on a flat screen.
There are two kinds of verisimilitude: generic verisimilitude is the ‘realism’ that convinces us because of the genre we are watching (in the horror genres it seems highly realistic for a vampire to sink his teeth into a person’s neck); cultural verisimilitude is the kind of reality that convinces us because it looks like the way things are or should
Messages & Values: Critical Approaches (15 marks)
1. Genre & Authorship approaches
2. Performance Studies
3. Film Interpretation and Social/Cultural Studies
4. Gendered Film Studies
——————————————————
1. Genre and Authorship Studies
This topic allows you to review the work you undertook for your Auteur coursework project.
What are the benefits and limitations of using an auteur approach to ‘reading’ (or making sense of) a film and understanding its significance?
What are the benefits and limitations of a genre approach?
What broader issues of ‘making’ meaning emerge from these benefits and limitations? What are the implications of each approach?
Can you use examples of films to articulate which approach you prefer and explain your reasons?
Revision:
1. Choose two film titles, each of which offers the opportunity for either
approach (i.e. Blade Runner, Stagecoach, The 39 Steps).
2. List what the auteur approach requires you to do with each film.
3. List what the genre approach requires you to do or know.
4. What does each approach add to the understanding of each film.
5. What would a genre approach do for someone wanting to understand or interpret each?
6. Assess the value (for you?) of each approach. Does each lead in a different direction, into a different area, to one or more areas? What are these directions/ areas? Do they require special skills? Do they lead to understanding anything more than film?
7. Do these areas of understanding provide criteria by which to judge each approach? Does one, for example, lead to more interesting areas of meaning – or just to more levels of meaning?
4. Gendered Film Studies
How does a focus on gender contribute to the understanding of meaning and value in films?
What is the ‘male’ camera debate?
Does film language create a gendered ‘look’?
What is to be gained by considering the position of a male or female spectator?
Does mainstream film represent male and female characters differently? Might this determine whether the spectator can identify with or objectify the character?
How might gender affect the construction of male and female stereotypes and/or stars?
FS6 Section C Messages & Values: Critical Approaches (15 marks)
1. Genre & Authorship approaches
2. Performance Studies
3. Film Interpretation and Social/Cultural Studies
4. Gendered Film Studies
——————————————————-
2. Performance Studies
How and why do performers bring specific meanings to particular roles?
Is this governed by the so-called ‘magic’ of a star ‘persona’? Or is it detemined by the requirements of an associated genre? Is it an aspect of fashionable gender expectation?
Or could it have to do with the special attributes of film as a medium, which highlights different performance attributes from the actor in, say, TV or theatre? What might these be? How is film acting different from that in TV or theatre? How is performance affected by other elements of the illusion of film?
Does movement of a figure in the frame of the screen and its composition
(mise-en-scene) create meaning in and of itself?
Revision:
1. Choose an actor as a case study – perhaps from the films we have viewed.
2. Choose two films to focus on and note whether your actor plays different
character types. Why has s/he been chosen for the role?
3. What particular meanings does s/he bring to:
a) the genres (if your films offer more than one); i.e. does s/he play a
different character type?
b) the relationships with other characters
c) the relationship with the audience
4. Select scenes to analyse the way in which:
a) your actor moves in each shot
b) camera angles present your actor
5. Consider the specialities of your chosen actor. What does s/he usually do (i.e. Ride a horse? Wield a whip? Show emotion? Look steadfast? Be athletic? etc.) How do these fit with the genre in which s/he usually appears? How are these activities presented (in close-up, using POV, Long shot? How important is the face or the body of your actor?
6. Use the internet to research your chosen actor. Has her/his persona changed? Which films mark this change? What has been the focus of fans? Are the fans predominantly male, female or any other group?
4. Gendered Film Studies
How does a focus on gender contribute to the understanding of meaning and value in films?
What is the ‘male’ camera debate? Does film language create a gendered ‘look’?
What is to be gained by considering the position of a male or female spectator?
Does mainstream film represent male and female characters differently? Might this determine whether the spectator can identify with or objectify the character?
How might gender affect the construction of male and female stereotypes and/or stars?
FS6 Section C Messages & Values: Critical Approaches (15 marks)
1. Genre & Authorship approaches
2. Performance Studies
3. Film Interpretation and Social/Cultural Studies
4. Gendered Film Studies
———————————————–
3. Film Interpretation and Social/Cultural Studies
In what ways is a film ‘evidence’ of a broader social value?
How might a film contain ‘symptoms’ of a society’s racism or sexism, for example?
Why are there restrictions on what kind of values a film may contain (concerning law and order for example)?
In what ways are these values carried by representations of gender, race, age, class, nationality, authority or political characters etc.?
Are these ‘symptoms’ easily detected and/or resisted?
Can you give examples of how these symptoms have been encoded, for example in characters, narrative events or stylistic devices?
Revision:
1. Choose three film titles from different eras to represent attitudes to race,
gender, sexual orientation and/or crime (or similar topic).
2. List ways in which they each suggest certain attitudes (include what is
NOT there – such as women’s independence in older films, for example).
You might separate these notes under headings: race, sexism etc.
3. Link the ways in which these films might be said to have reflected the
ways in which each group was valued by society at the time of
production (this may require some historical research into events).
4. Does each film advance the cause of each group progressively? What do
we mean by ‘advance’? Has more power been granted through the ways
in which chosen groups have been represented?
5. Were your films made to entertain or did they have an instructive value
(such as a film like Victim which attempted to change attitudes to gay
men)?
6. Were some films more popular than others in your list? What does this say about the influence of their articulation of certain values? Are ‘entertaiment’ films more symptomatic of historical values than ‘art’ films?
4. Gendered Film Studies
How does a focus on gender contribute to the understanding of meaning and value in films?
What is the ‘male’ camera debate?
Does film language create a gendered ‘look’?
What is to be gained by considering the position of a male or female spectator?
Does mainstream film represent male and female characters differently? Might this determine whether the spectator can identify with or objectify the character?
How might gender affect the construction of male and female stereotypes and/or stars?
FM2 Producers and Audiences: Hollywood and British Cinema
Main study areas and topic within each area to study for the exam. You may not be able to cover them all – but we can cover a range of topics within each area. Add examples where possible to your case study.
Films as products
The global and local dimensions of film
Hollywood
Film Studios
Films as commercial products
Adaptability of the film industry
Filmmaking: the process
Film production, distribution and exhibition
You will need an overview and examples exam questions
Useful websites:
www.hollywoodreporter.com
www.filmfestivals.com
www.variety.com
Audiences as fans and consumers
The early cinema experience ( nice to know but unlikely to come up)
Changing patterns of consumption including multi-screen cinemas and home cinema ( a favourite topic in the exam)
the role of the audience in the filmmaking process
Censorship and classification
Fan power
Industry power
Globalization
Examine a range of example exam questions (see a previous post for examples of these)
Useful websites for further research:
www.bbfc.co.uk (The British Board of Film Classification)
www.bfi.org.uk
www.disney.co.uk or disney.go.com
www.newscorp.com
www.sony.net
www.timewarner.com
(Websites such as the last four above give a powerful sense of the global reach of such corporations and the immediate visual impression of the range of interlocking media owned by each of them.)
www.cjr.org (up-to-date information on who own what in the media entertainments industry.)
Stars – what are they and why do we have them?
Your experience of stars
Stars – the concept of being “a star” and whether stars have international stardom or localised stardom within Britain. (Does it matter for the British film industry whether a British star is also an international star and a bigt name in the US?)
How do stars’ private lives tie-in with their screen personas (how their publicity agents project them and how their roles are influenced by their lives offscreen.
Examine a range of example exam questions
Useful websites:
www.entertainment.co.uk
www.film.guardian.co.uk
www.imdb.com
Hollywood back in the day and Hollywood today – Old Hollywood and New Hollywood
Old Hollywood and New Hollywood. How does Hollywood today compare with the Hollywood of the 1940s-50s?
Actors, directors and agents
Producers
Production: an overview
Distribution in Old Hollywood and New Hollywood
Examine a range of example exam questions
Useful website:
www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk
Is the British film industry in any way distinctive and different?
How does it cope with having to survive in the shadow of Hollywood?
A distinctive and different cinema
Surviving in the shadows
Useful websites:
www.filmcouncil.org
www.skillset.org/film
New technologies in the film industry
Film and technology
Film and changes in technology (think about the representation of reality (see a previous video) and changes in how films are distributed today and will be in future.)
The British Board of Film Classification http://www.bbfc.co.uk
Index on Censorship http://www.indexoncensorship.org
Internet Watch Foundation http://www.internetwatch.org.uk
Censorship and Film
The information below is essential if you intend to answer the question on censorship for Module 6 of the A2 exam. It is an edited version of a chapter from the OCR textbook.
Think of film censorship. The examples which spring to mind tend to be of violent and sexual content that has led to outrage and claims that the ‘fabric of society has broken down’. However, there are a great many films which have not been banned, but either by a process of self-regulation on the part of the director or studio, or through some cuts on the part of the censor or, and far more commonly, through classification are either released in a form different to the original, or are only released for some of us to see.
Even the record-breaking Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, though not censored raised concerns. It was teachers who warned that a dangerous interest in the occult could be s possible outcome of the film’s huge influence over children. As is often the case, it was only the film release that raised any concern (the same was true of A Clockwork Orange and Crash, both acceptable in novel form).
Below is the list of concerns which must be addressed by the British Board of Film Classification when judging whether film content is acceptable (and acceptable to what age groups) or whether it needs to be cut and censored. The BBFC is neutral and independent (although there are suggestions that, despite this claim, it is accountable to the government).
Sexual violence
Emphasis on the process of violence and sadism
Glamorisation of weapons that are both particularly dangerous and not already well-know in Britain
Ill-treatment of animals or child actors
Details of imitable, dangerous or criminal techniques
Blasphemous images or dialogue
The question that needs to be considered at the beginning of this topic and throughout is simply who decides?
All of the Media Debates and Issues demand an opinion and personal engagement to the degree where you have your own informed view to argue in an intelligent and balanced manner. For instance, what is the cultural value of soap opera etc. The difference with the topic of film censorship is that you probably have your own opinion already, before you learn about the academic perspective.
SOME AREAS FOR DISCUSSION / DEBATE.
What is censorship and why does it happen?
What are the different kinds of self-censorship or what different kinds of material get censored?
Is censorship necessary; are there some kinds of material that need to be censored more than others?
Which kinds of material should be censored to certain groups of people and which banned altogether?
THE KEY ISSUES for THIS TOPIC are:
History of film censorship
Different motives for censorship
Arguments for and against censorship
Debates containing effects theories
You will need to relate these to contemporary examples. This section will point you towards some famous examples, but at the time of reading there will be films that are being censored, banned or are causing certain sections of the public to call for their withdrawal from circulation.
THE BRITISH BOARD of FILM CENSORS / (from 1982 CLASSIFICATION).
This body came into being in 1912 to enforce the Cinematograph Act of 1909. Cinemas were licensed by local authorities and films were classified as suitable for everyone or adults only.
Middle ground was introduced in the 20s, recognising that there were some films which children could see under the supervision of parents.
Horror films were classified separately in the 30s as ‘H’ films. Shortly afterwards, the ‘X’ rating was introduced which barred all under-16s.
In the 70s, the X-rating was raised to 18 and ‘AA’ was introduced for 14 plus only.
In the 80s the framework became U, PG, 12, 15 and 18 and was also applicable to video retail and rental. In 1982 the Board changed its name from Censors to Classification to acknowledge the fact that, in the vast majority of cases, their role was not to prevent exhibition of films, but to control the audience.
Before the 1909 Act, censorship was voluntary in the sense that filmmakers wanted their new medium to be established as a respectable art form. The Act led to the establishment of the BBFC and then films were either cut or banned fairly frequently when they were deemed unsuitable for the public. This notion of unsuitability has always been fiercely contested. Who can say what is suitable, who has the right to judge?
Censorship has tended to operate around the following key kinds of examples:
SEXUAL CONTENT Damaged Goods (1919) was not given a certificate. Plot was about a soldier with sexually transmitted disease.
VIOLENCE. Two 1992 films, Reservoir Dogs and Natural Born Killers both fell foul f censor at video release stage.
TASTE. A hard category to define. Many films have been cut for this reason e.g. Night and Fog (1959), contained unacceptable documentary footage of corpses in Nazi concentration camps.
POLITICS. A controversial area. Films were refused certification on fears that political content could lead to public unrest. Fear of revolution led to banning of Battleship Potemkin (1926) because of its pro-communist slant.
BLASPHEMY. Local councils used powers to ban Monty Python’s Life of Brian because of its comical treatment of the story of Jesus.
MORAL PANIC. This term describes the hysterical reaction that mainstream society sometimes has to groups of people who challenge conventions and behave in ways that threaten the status quo. Films that offer an insight into such subcultures are often banned or edited lest they serve to encourage people to participate. Example The Wild One (1954) starring Marlon Brando as a Hell’s Angel. It was banned as a bad example to the young.
The examiner suggests you look for three examples of every type, including current examples.
Examining the discourses of censorship tells us a lot about its functions. The following are all quotes from either censors or other groups, ranging from the 20s to recent years:
The Exorcist (1973): the most shocking sick-making and soul-destroying work ever to emege from filmland’ – The Daily Mail.
The Wild One (1954): ‘the police were shown as weak characters and the teenagers did not get the punishment they deserve’ – the BBFC.
Straw Dogs (1971): ‘if anyone tries to re-enact this, god help Britain.’- The Sunday Times.
Crash (1996): this film is about sexual autoeroticism – a movie beyond the bounds of depravity’ – The Evening Standard.
Examine the statements above. What do they have in common? What do they all assume about the viewers and the effects of films on them?
ARGUMENTS for FILM CENSORSHIP
Those who believe in some form of film censorship hold the view that censorship protects the moral values that are prevalent in society, thus it reflects our values.
The counter-argument is that censorship imposes the values of certain people, who do not necessarily respect the rest of us, and it assumes that we are not capable of mature, safe responses to ‘immoral’ material.
Most people’s views on censorship depend on the context. There is a kind of continuum – at one end there is the view that media, including cinema, influence people and teach behaviour, like the hypodermic needle injecting ‘effects’ into passive viewers. At the other end, there is the anti-censorship view, which feels that we are able to understand texts as works of fiction or art; if an individual commits an act of violence in response to a media experience, then the psychological condition of the perpetrator is the problem, not the film. In between are those of us who think that classification is needed and those who believe that some kinds of films might be ‘harmful’, but that others are not.
One famous advocate of censorship was the late Mary Whitehouse. For many years she lobbied for the banning of films and TV programmes, on the grounds that media images of sex and violence are in part responsible for the decline of moral standards in society.
Whitehouse claimed that it is indisputable that young people are vulnerable to harmful screen images. She used accounts from psychologists and researchers to apparently prove the link between violent acts and exposure to violent images. In particular, Whitehouse decried films where violence is depicted without moral context, or where violence is not punished. In this sense, those concerned about the effects of film images differentiate between the contexts for such images (i.e. the rationale for, or the justification for the violence).
Whitehouse believed that the burning issue is one of protection, arguing that it is a matter of getting filmmakers to accept a sense of their own responsibility for the health and welfare of the whole of society, especially for the welfare of children. She may be a rather extreme example of the pro-censorship lobby (and here we have dealt only with violence, remember there are at least six other criteria which have been used to scrutinise film content), but her views do resonate, in part at least, with those who believe that:
Films are potentially influential
Viewers of films receive messages, which, in some cases, they need to be protected from
There are certain people who are capable of judging what others should be able to see
ARGUMENTS AGAINST FILM CENSORSHIP
There is a difference between an argument that disagrees with all of the three statements above (i.e. a view that suggests films are not influential) and an argument that asserts that films can influence, but that citizens should not be all treated as though they cannot interpret filmic images safely.
What is really at stake is the assumed link between viewing and behaviour. This is referred to as the ‘media effects debate’.
THE EFECTS DEBATE
This debate rests on whether or not people agree with the ‘effects model’. This way of understanding the relationship between film and viewer is grounded in BEHAVIOURIST Psychology which examines taught behaviour and ‘stimulus-response’. In this framework, viewers of violent images take part in various tests. These determine the extent that people’s likelihood to respond to certain situations violently is increased, as a result of exposure to violent images.
However, this approach has been refuted by those who think that this way of examining media violence is ‘topsy-turvy’. That is, looking first at film violence and then at the social problem of violence as an effect is less useful than to look at the social problem first and research violent behaviour and the experiences and psychological profiles of violent people.
David Gauntlett, a much publicised critic of the effects model suggested that this approach is like implying that the solution to the number of road traffic accidents in Britain would be to lock away one famously bad driver from Cornwall! In other words, the effects model tries to approach things the wrong way.
The many academics who have opposed the effects model have all argued against its central thesis – that we receive media messages passively, that violent films have a causal effect in the same way that cigarettes harm the lungs. While effects experiments and hypotheses have offered ‘spins’ on this notion, they have all tended to assume this passivity.
Another outspoken critic of the effects model and the justification for censorship that it offers, is Mark Kermode. It is useful to look at two arguments he has put forward against censoring films. Kermode argues that, to the true horror fan, the pleasure of the genre lies in the ironic, excessive send-up nature of ‘graphic’ scenes.
Hence, the horror fan is a sophisticated ‘reader’ of film references. Horror can offer a post-modern approach to film (where horror films all relate to each other in what is essentially an intertextual game). This means that nobody is more aware that horror films are not real than the viewers who the censors are trying to ‘protect’. To take this argument to its logical conclusion (and it is up to you to decide whether you agree), the only people truly qualified to judge how harmful a horror film might be, are people who have seen other horror films and have viewed than with the sophisticated engagement that only a fan is capable of.
Kermode claims that the reason for the difference of opinion between censors and genre fans is not because horror fans have become hardened or insensitive to violence through years of exposure to sadistic material. Rather, the experienced horror fan understands the material through knowledge of a history of genre texts and this actually makes any sense or arousal, sadistic or otherwise, unlikely.
THE BBFC TODAY
Since the New Labour Government came to power in 1997, the BBFC has been seen to be mellower in its response to films, largely to the appointment of Robert Duval as Director of the BBFC who took over from James Ferman. Duval continued Ferman’s roadshows which travel around the country and where members of the public can take part in the ‘Citizens’ Jury’ to give their view on classification issues.
It might be possible to contact the BBFC to see if you can take part in one. In September 2000 the Board published new guidelines, relaxing the 18 category, but becoming tougher at younger levels. Most significantly, but least publicised, Duval’s regime liberalised the R18 category, which essentially means that some forms of hardcore pornography are now legal in Britain.
Duval’s main tactic was to increase the transparency of the Board’s decision-making in order to reduce the Board’s motives by the media. In 1999 the BBFC Annual Report stated that: ‘harm will remain the abiding and central concern of the BBFC’.
This notion of harm, and subsequently the importance of protection, remains at the heart of this debate. A famous recent example of this was the cutting of a few seconds from Fight Club (1999). The cut was criticised by many as merely ‘tinkering’ and unlikely to have made a tremendous amount of difference. BBFC News justified this: ‘There were two scenes in Fight Club in which the violence was excessively sustained. In both scenes there was an indulgence in the excitement of beating a defenceless man’s face to a pulp. The Board required that cuts be made.’
Duval’s intention is to move towards a less mandatory, more advisory system and thus place more trust in the public. To this end, the BBFC has experimented with a ‘PG-12′ rating which allows the parent to decide whether a films suitable for 12-year-olds might be suitable for their 10 to 11-year-olds. Duval’s desires revolve around a trust of the public to decide for themselves and a form of self-regulation as opposed to imposition from the censor.
ACTIVITIES
This section has introduced you to some of the arguments for and against censorship and / or classification. However, the most useful way to move towards a personal, informed response is to ‘test’ these perspectives on a case of your own. While you are working on this topic, there is sure to be a film released which is either banned or provokes calls from censorship. Investigate the reasons for the reactions to the film, noting the following:
Provocative content
Type of censorship / type of censorship called for
Arguments in defence of the film
Notion of protection (who and from what)
Your views
——————————————————————————–
Exam practice question: Describe through examples, how film censorship relates to notions of ‘protection’. Explain your views on the issues.
Suggested activity : Through the internet, investigate an organisation which campaigns for censorship. Summarise their views and offer opposing points of view.
Messages & Values: Critical Approaches (15 marks)
1. Genre & Authorship approaches
2. Performance Studies
3. Film Interpretation and Social/Cultural Studies
4. Gendered Film Studies
——————————————————
1. Genre and Authorship Studies
This topic allows you to review the work you undertook for your Auteur coursework project.
What are the benefits and limitations of using an auteur approach to ‘reading’ (or making sense of) a film and understanding its significance?
What are the benefits and limitations of a genre approach?
What broader issues of ‘making’ meaning emerge from these benefits and limitations? What are the implications of each approach?
Can you use examples of films to articulate which approach you prefer and explain your reasons?
Revision:
1. Choose two film titles, each of which offers the opportunity for either
approach (i.e. Blade Runner, Stagecoach, The 39 Steps).
2. List what the auteur approach requires you to do with each film.
3. List what the genre approach requires you to do or know.
4. What does each approach add to the understanding of each film.
5. What would a genre approach do for someone wanting to understand or interpret each?
6. Assess the value (for you?) of each approach. Does each lead in a different direction, into a different area, to one or more areas? What are these directions/ areas? Do they require special skills? Do they lead to understanding anything more than film?
7. Do these areas of understanding provide criteria by which to judge each approach? Does one, for example, lead to more interesting areas of meaning – or just to more levels of meaning?
4. Gendered Film Studies
How does a focus on gender contribute to the understanding of meaning and value in films?
What is the ‘male’ camera debate?
Does film language create a gendered ‘look’?
What is to be gained by considering the position of a male or female spectator?
Does mainstream film represent male and female characters differently? Might this determine whether the spectator can identify with or objectify the character?
How might gender affect the construction of male and female stereotypes and/or stars?
Regulation
This topic is concerned with exploring cinema as an institution.
How has cinema been controlled? How and why have authorities limited its affects on people and on society as a whole?
What is the difference between censorship and classification?
How and why have rating systems (as opposed to censorship) been introduced?
What have filmmakers done to manipulate or take advantage of these rating systems?
How have new media changed the issues raised by regulation?
Does its regulation advance or constrain the development of film as Art?
Have regulations addressed anything other than sex and violence? Why?
History of censorship in UK
BBFC: Look up Recent Decisions & History
BBFC Current Guidelines
The Guardian: Censorship in the UK Explained
The Hays Code (USA)
The Production Code
BFI Guide
Early Hollywood: Sin City
Are reasons for regulation based on moral, spiritual, political or ideological criteria? Early US controls seem very specific about the feared effects of film on behaviour (see The Hays Code link). But values change.
Your discussion of these issues should reference case studies. These can be obtained from the article at the “Production Code” link at left.
Use all the links at left to find case studies (specific examples) that illustrate or give examples of different types of regulation.
‘Regulation of films in western societies seems concerned almost exclusively with issues of sex and violence rather than with other political, social or cultural messages and values contained within films.’ With reference to case studies, discuss whether you believe this to be true.
Your Revision:
1. List definitions of regulation: categorise them (censorship vs. classification?). What are the important
differences in these? What are the messages and values behind them? Can you categorise according
to sex, violence + ? Political ideology?
2. List differences between British & other (USA?) attitudes to regulation?
3. List important films in the history of regulation (in different countries?). What does each title denote
in terms of regulation? In terms of cultural values of different countries? In terms of changing hi
values through history?
4. List how New Technology affects regulation of moving pictures? Start with Sound? Then TV, the
VCR, DVD and (finally?) the internet.
5. What is your opinion? Should cinema be regulated? CAN cinema be regulated? What are the
implications of your opinion for spectators? For society?
Sample Exam Question
This topic is focused on the spectator. Shock is not defined here in terms of the genre of the film (i.e. horror) but by the response of the spectator, who may experience intense feelings while watching a film by, say, Almodovar, or an animated Disney film, or watching a western or a Soviet montage.
Studies in early film may also offer examples of the shock of film as a new form. L’histoire d’un Crime, for example, copied the ‘shots’ of an existing Parisien wax work show but added the execution scene, which showed how film could be more affective than other, existing forms of representation.
Similarly, Hitchcock’s famous shower sequence from Psycho used the principles of montage to suggest an action in the minds of spectators, that they actually do not see on screen.
Shock effects can be created through perfected cinematic devices like special effects. Comparison of SFX in older films like King Kong might be compared with those of more recent films, like The Day After Tomorrow. Other films capitalise on a notion of the unseen threat by building up its intensity in the actions of on-screen characters. Reaction shots usually require convincing performances and dialogue.
In a post-9/11 period the shock effect of real-life events were considered by filmmakers, who withheld films like Spiderman so that they could remove images of New York’s twin towers in the film and avoid upsetting spectators. This is an example of a notion that film can trigger existing phobias in spectators.
‘Shocking’ Cinema and Spectators
‘It is when film spectators are being shocked that they are most aware that they are being manipulated.’ Has this been your experience? Make detailed reference to film extracts you have studied in developing your answer.
Your Revision:
1. Do you have examples of different types of shock effect? Does your example depend on
an awareness of social values (a taboo is broken)? Or does it depend on cinematic
expectations (killing off a major actress in an early sequence (Drew Barrymore, Janet
Leigh)? Perhaps it depends on concepts or ideas being gradually realised (The death of
Bambi’s mother, the details of what the serial killer does with victims in Silence of the
Lambs)? Or maybe it depends on formal properties of film (sudden sounds, edits)?
Or on performance? List examples of these types in your notes.
2. Have some case studies (film titles) up your sleeve.
3. List them according to what category of shock effect they demonstrate.
4. Do you have an opinion or an overview (ie does a deep sense of shock pervade the
medium of film in general?)? How important is a sense of shock? Should film shock
spectators in some way? Or is it the duty of filmmakers to take the spectator into a
pleasant, easy fantasy?
http://www.helium.com/items/132886-women-in-horror-films-ripley-the-alien-and-the-monstrous-feminine
http://moviedistributionfacts.wordpress.com/
Film Studies A2
FS4 – Film: Making Meaning 2
The study of…
Ø Assessed by two projects: Ø Auteur Research Project and Presentation (50%): o Catalogue of research materialso Commentary upon the research materials, investigating a problematic in the form of a 1000-word presentation scripto Evaluation Ø Practical Application of Learning – Creative Work (50%) o Aims and Rationaleo Finished practical project (film journalism, screenwriting, film/video-making)o Self-Evaluation
The study of…
Ø Section A – Film Styles and Movements Ø A comparative study of films from different new waves such as A Bout de Souffle (France), Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls (Spain), Chungking Express (Hong Kong) and Festen (Denmark Ø Section B – Close Study : Contemporary World Cinema Ø La Haine (Kassovitz, France, 1995) Ø City of God (Lund & Meirelles, Brazil, 2002) Ø Contextual study, reflecting auteur, national cinema or institutional issues, as well as a broader cultural and social framework. Ø Assessed by 1 ½ hour exam, with two essays: One on the single case study, one on the comparative studyØ Externally assessed, counts for 30% of A2 marks
The study of… · Film texts, and the broader study of cinema in social and economic contexts. · Critical approaches used in the analysis of film texts.
Ø Section B – Producers and Audiences: Issues and Debates – The Dominance of Hollywood and indigenous film productionØ Section C – Messages and Values: Critical Approaches to Gendered Film StudiesØ Assessed by 1 ½ hour exam, with three essays, one from each area of study
Ø Externally assessed, counts for 30% of A2 marks
As a synoptic unit, it is also concerned with the academic skills required to draw together learning from different parts of the course.
|
reniermedia
