Reaction Paper

Cinema102 is purely the theory used in every films publish and shown in television and big screen.

What I’ve learn in the subject matter?

I’ve learned many things like:

1. Male gaze discusses about the sexual drive of men as they look at women in films. We can see this even in commercials, mostly in dietary supplements or other products where they will feature the before and after effect and mostly woman are being projected in every advertisements and rarely we see guys.
2. Structuralism is a code that sets conventions in used to create meanings. These are things that do not need words to say but actions. Many still believe that “Action speaks louder than words” which is true and is still applied in cinema. It is being used in some romantic, comedy, action and other genre like a boy giving a flower, it does not only mean it is for you but somehow a way of saying you’re still the one I love or any other things a person can have in mind. 
3. Apparatus theory, with the help of semiotic and psychoanalysis, is about building a bridge that will connect the people and the story shown in cinemas. It may differ in different genres but in the end, it is about getting the attention of the viewers and to easily understand the situation like what we see in reality. It is like watching a korean drama but you’re not korean so you need a subtitle to be able to understand the whole story and this creates a barrier if subtitle is not use. But because of the what we see in cinemas are as close to our lives or somebody elses, it get curious and end up watching it.

And many more theories that the cinema becomes more understandable despite of how complicated things may be because of many things think. The cinema somehow shows the kind of life people has and the films we see in televisions and big screens come from different walks of life of the people like experiences, dreams, fictional stories or from the environment we live in. Like what I’ve learn in my RTV class, there’s no original story in films that we see nowadays because all we see are taken from the past films.

 

Male Gaze

In every show shown in television or big screen, it is impossible for a man not to have a partner or a girl with him. Even in queer dramas, women are still included whether like being a parent role which shows a very realistic side since the start of making films.

A director can’t be a director without a camera and some technologies like a computer for editing and putting some effect on it to make the film catchy; just the same as being a man, there will be no sense if a woman is not included. Woman body is a piece of an art that is why it is the focus whenever there is a sexy scenes in films.

The woman becomes the object in films as they represent the male’s pleasure. They are the reason why men become happier than their previous life, more energetic, more focus to their goal and also have a family in their own, in the films. The camera acts as the eye of the man whenever a man looks at girl. Mostly it focuses on the body of a girl where curves are being shown and sometimes on their breast which is the number one target aside from the face.

Male gaze discusses about the sexual drive of men as they look at women in films. We can see this even in commercials, mostly in dietary supplements or other products where they will feature the before and after effect and mostly woman are being projected in every advertisements and rarely we see guys. 

Structuralism

It may not always be understood by many but simple gestures/emotion can create many meanings from the viewers.

It has been used in every movie/drama about simple emotion/gestures with the help of angle shot by the camera that can be understood by many like when a person looks at something and then the camera after will focus on foods and then back to the person,  it is already understood by many especially for those who are addicted of watching movies/drama. Another example is when two people kiss and slowly the camera moves away, sometimes it mean its about to end or move to next episode/setting.

Couple on a Bird eye view angle shot

In cinema it is a code that sets conventions in used to create meanings. These are things that do not need words to say but actions. Many still believe that “Action speaks louder than words” which is true and is still applied in cinema. It is being used in some romantic, comedy, action and other genre like a boy giving a flower, it does not only mean it is for you but somehow a way of saying you’re still the one I love or any other things a person can have in mind. 

“Woman’s Body Power” in Philippine Sex Melodramas

In the 90s, woman’s body power is very popular, thou still being shown nowadays but in that 90s, you will really see ladies in bikinis, running along the seashores with their jaw dropping beauties.

It was at its peak having sexy and beautiful ladies in every teleserye or films. Sexy ladies were very popular in the 90s that most of them will turn from being angelic into daring scenes but not as wild as it was during 70s when Bomba films were popular during Marcos’ era where the genital of both sexes are being shown. There was no specific genre for sexy ladies to be shown in films because almost every films have sexy leading-ladies, whether comedy, romance, melodrama and many more. Age also was not an issue because even old men in the films do have their own leading-ladies like Dolphy who is very popular with many ladies in every films he has.

Dolphy with Dolphy’s Angel

Whenever an artist enter into being a sexy star and it came out positively to the audiences, viewers/audiences get so in touch with the role that you cannot anymore imagine her acting the lead actress or with pleasing personality because people got hook with the acting and somehow things may not be the same as before as some viewers also have a hard time adjusting her presence from being protagonist to antagonist, vice versa like Maui Taylor. She was once a ally of being a good character then shifted to daring scenes and it was easily accepted by the masses unfortunately it may not be as easy to return back as what it was before in the beginning.

But before that, since we live in a very religious and conservative country, it is not as easy as it can be shown in film most especially in teleserye because of young viewers that needs attention in order for them to be able to understand what they will see. Light drama are being shown in the early evening while below the belt dramas are being shown on the later part like near midnight where children are already asleep.

I remember my professor last year, he posted a quote that being a director, you only need a lady and a gun which symbolizes as camera. As long as there will be a lady and a camera, you can already make film. That is how important a lady is in a film especially manly movies like fast and furious, transformer and many more. Women add more effect in movies that without them, it will be so pale and dull. 

Directors needs a Lady and Gun (camera)

Apparatus Theory

The Apparatus theory became famous in the 1970s after the Psychoanalytic theory in the 1960s.

Theorists:

Jacques Lacan

Karl Marx

Sigmund Freud

 

 

Apparatus theory believe that what we see in cinemas or in televisions are the things we see in reality. People watch dramas, films, etc because it is believable and can easily hook the attention of the viewers/audiences. Apparatus theory argues that cinema is ideology or based on ideas which is true as all those things came from different concepts like own experiences, dreams, from a novel, etc are all ideas that transform into a film. Ideology is not part of the cinema but because it’s part of how we live in and how we want to be, it is applied as to people can easily relate and understand the story easily. Before the D-day, the editors/directors makes the arrangement of the stories and with the help of camerawork and editing as there are many unnecessary part that needs to be cut out.

Apparatus theory is derive of Marxist theory, semiotics and psychoanalysis.

Semiotics by Roland Barthes’ represents what the viewer understands from what is shown; it derives from linguistic studies, and utilises the semantic (the relationship between the signs and what they refer to, i.e. meaning) and syntactic (relationships among signs in formal orders) elements.

To sum it all, Apparatus theory, with the help of semiotic and psychoanalysis, is about building a bridge that will connect the people and the story shown in cinemas. It may differ in different genres but in the end, it is about getting the attention of the viewers and to easily understand the situation like what we see in reality. It is like watching a korean drama but you’re not korean so you need a subtitle to be able to understand the whole story and this creates a barrier if subtitle is not use. But because of the what we see in cinemas are as close to our lives or somebody elses, it get curious and end up watching it.

Desire and Cinema

“Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn’t give you what you desire – it tells you how to desire.”
― Slavoj Žižek

Slavoj Žižek discusses about the hidden languages of cinema that people are being easily deceive and how the outcome shape us in our generation today. Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian Marxist philosopher, psychoanalyst and cultural critic explained about desires, sexuality as one of the reason viewers get hook by the cinema and also symbols and figures that actually contribute to give deeper meaning like in the movie matrix about the white rabbit tattoo and many more. 

In our generation today, the source of our entertainment is either watch a movie, teleserye, listen to music and many other sources of entertainment. When we want to watch something and we get addicted to it, internet is an alternative medium to keep us updated specially in todayst time that we are busy with studies or work and we can’t watch it on the television or movie time slots, its either we watch it online or download it.

With Slavoj Žižek, we deeply get to know deeper the essence of cinema. 

According to  Slavoj Žižek, “Cinema is the art of appearances, it tells us something about reality itself. It tells us something about how reality constitutes itself.” I still remember what professor said in our class in one of my media related subject that one of the reasons why people what a teleserye or a show is to escape from what he or she is experiencing. With cinema, we get to know more about the lives of our brothers and sisters and how their life give inspiration, motivation, emotions to other people. We watch because we get curious  about how their life is and how it is different from us especially to our idols like celebrities, singers, basketball players and many more. 

“I know it’s a fake, but nonetheless I allow myself to be emotionally affected.”  — Slavoj Žižek

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Sources of Quotes: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0828154/quotes

MATRIX

What was the Film “The Matrix” all about?

The film, The Matrix, is about Thomas Anderson having two lives but he is blinded on how he see our surrounding when he see more than that and it is the power of Matrix. Matrix is about calculations and words that you see anywhere like when watching television, looking at the view outside. We are surrounded by Matrix but we are blinded. Thomas Anderson or also called Neo was the one they have been looking for because of his capabilities to save the world from danger like what Morpheus who let him see the reality with nothing but black stones all over. Throughout the movie, Agent Smith, the opponent who want to use him in order to catch Morpheus who is the most dangerous man because Agent Smith know that Neo has connection with him. Before Neo joined the team, Trinity and the other members were having doubts about the capabilities that Neo has but Morpheus see that Neo is the one. When Neo joined the team of Morpheus, he was loaded with skills like karate and other martial arts which are needed to defend himself from the opponents and he got trained by Morpheus. The genre used in the movie was sci-fi because of the changes from the present to futuristic and even the telephone where it is like their medium to go back to their place. Another one is romance thou it was a little bit weird because it wasn’t really given the most priority and just ended up kissing thou there were signs that Trinity like Neo.

What are the METAPHORS used in the movie?

The metaphors use in the movie is white rabbit, savior, Jesus Christ.

Reaction Paper – Multimedia/Animation

In the first talk about multimedia/graphics where sight+sound+interaction is needed to support the whole process. We people have 15% of the total impact of a person’s message and we sometimes think that we know all the thinks about multimedia when it needs to have deeper thoughts in order to get its meaning. 
In the example of using the eyes where the speaker where he gave us examples like the too close where graphics are too close that they are not anymore appreciated. It disturbing to have over decorations, too much information and color and many more as the the lesser designs are, the better. . 

In using the sound where he advised us to choose a more narrative decoration, redundancy towards the design is better and music  can be like coffee but not all people thinks that coffee is the alternative choose to stay awake. music also to illicit response, be aware of the mood and personalize the voice. 

In the interaction part, the closer, the better but not too much to avoid messy work. It needs space, touch is our first language, find a way to involve actions to make it more appealing to people. It will be boring it there isn’t. When there’s a good plot, the story is controlled and staying engaged with the story will make it better specially to the person working and to the story he or she makes.

in conclusion to the first part, words and pictures  help each other to creative a better story. With pictures, at least the readers can imagine the things happening around or they have the idea of the looks of the character, the setting as people nowadays rely more into visuals than their creative mind. 

In the second speaker, she talked about animation which means that it figures to symbolize to grasp the idea or to put a meaning. In animation, we all know that pictures are needed specially in online games where people spend more of their times when they have free time to kill time specially that nowadays, there is rapid changes in the world of multimedia as technology keeps on evolving. Without those pictures, playing is not as fun as it is. 

Before, people spend so much time in drawing as they need to make it using their hands with patience unlike nowadays that it is easy to make graphics through computers. Now, It is more realistic as the animation move so that there will be connection to the one playing and the character as it reflects to the one playing. It is like you’re the one in the character because you control the character’s move and whether you pass or fail, it reflects to yourself.

In the last speaker, she discussed about the history of animation. From how it started and how highly disciplined they were because the drawing needs to be as it is no matter what. If you made a wrong mistake like in the first part, you draw a character face, the second drawing should also be the same from head to toe. there is should not any missing part as it will be return to you. I also heard from her and make me so proud to be pinoy is because most of the cartoons we see in television broadcast in USA channels are made by Filipinos. They also earn a lot but without the passion and dedication towards the work will be nothing. 

Overall, it was a great help to know about the animation world. Thou it needs highly discipline towards the work but it is paid off once we finish the whole story.  

Assignment No. 1

Film critism is about movie/film evaluation made by different poeple in their own point of view. As of the moment, there are different kinds of film critism or also called as film review like online video review as trailers of different movies are posted in different social medias for easy access. People who have watched  the movie say their reviews about the movie/s like if they did or did not like the movie or if the movie/s gave them satisfaction or good result. Another film critism were written in newspapers, news in television when social medias were not known yet.

Feminist Theory is about the right of women in their standing in the society. It applies about gender inequality that hinder the capabilities of women to their social roles, interest, experiences and other contribution women can in different fields and that should be taken action to have equality as what men can do.

Gender Studies is a study of sexuality or the  gender differences between women, men and the LGBT group that are present in our society. It studies about many areas  to consider like race, location, disability and many more as there are many things to consider.

Perfomance Theory is a study of many different talents that are guided by professionls to discipline themselves as they develop there own abilities like theater shows, ceremonies and many more. It has many areas to be consider like sometimes  it reflects on the society and many others.

Spectatorship Theory is a study of how people believe that what they see is the reality and there is a connection between the viewers and what they see on television or in big screens. It is by how the movie pursuade us to believe that what we see in television envision us to think that it happens not may be in our lives but the presence of awareness in other people’s  lives can be.

Ethic Theory is a study of different ethics that are still present nowadays as some are already dead or does not exist anymore. We have many different ethics by means of religions, customs, nationality, identification and many more that have different beliefs in life. This is also the reason why people were having wars before because of racism, belief and many more.

Auteur theory is about the vision of the director as we lay all the power of creativity, the outcome of the movie in his hands. Autuer is a french word which means “author” and like the author in novels we read, all the story created came from them as they think or inspire, creates, collect and make it into a story as a result, the auteur also make a movie that gives a story that will give images as how things are in every moves, the background, messages and emotions to give a story in a more natural and understandable way.