The ‘White’ Mask and the ‘Gypsy’ Mask in Film

The study ventures into a topic that has been so far largely neglected in film studies: the ‘gypsy’ phantasm on the big screen. It reconstructs the history of ‘gypsy’ representations in film since the birth of the medium providing a systematic film-theoretical analysis of their aesthetic and social functions. Based on a corpus of over 150 works from European and US cinema, it is shown that ‘gypsy’-themed feature films share the pattern of an ‘ethno-racial’ masquerade, irrespective of the place and time of their origin. The author thus expands the research, concentrated until now in the field of literature, with another art form, film, opening up new dimensions of (popular) cultural antigypsyism.Die Studie widmet sich einem in der Filmwissenschaft bislang vernachlässigten Thema: dem ‚Zigeuner‘-Phantasma auf der Kinoleinwand. Sie verbindet die Rekonstruktion der Geschichte der ‚Zigeuner‘-Darstellungen im Film seit den Anfängen des Mediums mit einer systematischen filmtheoretischen Verortung ihrer ästhetischen und gesellschaftlichen Funktion. Auf der Grundlage von über 150 Werken aus dem europäischen und US-amerikanischen Kino wird aufgezeigt, dass den ,Zigeuner‘-Spielfilmproduktionen unabhängig von Ort und Zeit ihrer Entstehung das Grundgerüst einer ,ethno-rassischen‘ Maskerade gemeinsam ist. Damit erweitert die Autorin die bisherigen, auf das Gebiet der Literatur konzentrierten Forschungen um ein weiteres Medium, den Film, und erschließt neue Dimensionen des (populär-)kulturellen Antiziganismus

An examination of the filmmaking methods of Kenneth Branagh in his directorial film work on Thor, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and Cinderella with specific reference to his status as auteur

This thesis examines the methods that director Sir Kenneth Branagh employs in his approach to directing his films and questions whether the consistency of methods adopted by Branagh across the scope of his films and their recurring themes support the status of Branagh as an auteur. Much scholarly attention has been given to Branagh’s Shakespeare films, yet there is a deficit of such attention to his later work. Using personal and published interviews, empirical evidence of the films, and text-to-text analysis, the thesis focuses upon analysis of his later films Thor, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, and Cinderella. The thesis takes an approach based upon the criteria of Sarris (2008) and Leitch (2008) to determine whether Branagh could be classified as auteur based upon his directorial oeuvre. In doing so, the thesis identifies the key components of Branagh’s methods and style and investigates his rehearsal techniques, research into the history and intertextuality of his projects, relationships with actors, and whether he uses elements of mise-en-scène as cues to reveal intertextuality. The thesis discusses Branagh’s role in semiotic coding in his films, informed by the concept of selective perception, wherein viewers tend to recognise elements in media which align with their expectations (Klapper 1960). It argues that memory of the hypotexts plays a key role in film adaptations (Ellis 1982), that their ability to evoke recall is a means of communication (Grant 2002) which can be achieved through the use of elements of mise-en-scène, (Geraghty 2008) and that the viewer and director are collaborators in producing meaning in film (Wollen 1972). This study contributes to the field of adaptation by adding scholarly literature on the films of Branagh in his post-Shakespeare era and to the subjects of auteurship and audience recall achieved through use of camera technique, intertextuality and mise-en-scène

Lens-less capture and emerging moving imaging technologies: An investigation into the ways in which digital pinhole capture and advances in lens-less capture in imaging technologies may affect the form and content of moving images

This thesis is a practice-led enquiry that investigates the creative potential of pinhole video, a new imaging technique which is undocumented elsewhere. Although fixed pinhole image capture has been possible since the advent of chemical photography in the 1830s, it currently occupies a niche area maintained by artists and enthusiasts working in analogue rather than digital photography and film. Through the researcher's creative practice – a set of research-driven experiments using digital movie cameras combined with pinhole apertures and documented through autoethnographic method – the thesis establishes a guide to the creative capabilities of pinhole video capture and how a lens-less video aesthetic might be generated. The researcher’s practice is contextualised in relation to the work of two moving image artists working in 16mm film: Christopher Harris and Jennifer Nightingale, and also Jason Joseffer, a professional cinematographer who works in video. It is informed by conceptual frameworks derived from Media Archaeology, remediation and historical enquiries into the nature of perception by, in particular, Jonathan Crary. The investigation also encompasses the relationship between this lens-less video practice and existing digital image capture, particularly motion capture using the Lightfield camera’s three-dimensional technology, and situates these within changing definitions of the ‘camera’ and the ‘lens’. The thesis contributes new knowledge and a craft method via the insights provided in the experimentation and reflective observation of how pinhole video capture is achieved, thereby demonstrating the range and creative potential of video works produced by this method. It argues that although pinhole video technique and scientific lens-less imaging technologies approach image capture from different directions, both are important attempts to open out new possibilities that enlarge perception and increase understanding of how light operates, offering an exciting artistic potential that can be taken further