The Migration Of Forms: Bullet Time As Microgenre

Rehak considers the ways in which the film The Matrix branded bullet time both as technical process and stylistic convention, and discusses bullet time\u27s ancestry in image experimentation of the 1980s and 1990s. In his analysis, Rehak uses the conceptual framework of the microgenre to explore the cultural lifespan of bullet time, treating it less as a singular special effect than a package of photographic and digital techniques whose fortunes were shaped by a complex interplay of technology, narrative and style. Rehak\u27s goal is to shed light not just on bullet time, but on the changing behavior of visual texts in contemporary media. He examines an overview of special effects scholarship to date, most notably the indication that the repetition of special effects dulls their effectiveness, in part due to the changing competencies of audiences. Rehak also looks at the struggle of the filmmakers of The Matrix to craft sequels that simultaneously preserved bullet time\u27s appeal while varying it enough to ensure another breakthrough

Multi-Task Cinema, Or a “Whatever Style”

What are the effects of digital technologies on  lm language? This is the central question of this paper and is analyzed regarding the light- ness of the new equipment and the technical competence of the new generations. The frame- work is the Hollywood blockbusters

Recreating Realities in Horror Films: the Found Footage Effect

Regardless of the circumstances in which they are used, found footage insertions aim to establish for any kind of cinematographic production certain veracity and credibility in regard to the proposed themes and subjects. Given the authenticity of their aesthetics, these insertions seem to present reality as it is, leaving in most cases the feeling that there is no room for artistic interpretation. This paper aims to analyze and debate the usage of found footage in fiction film. Having its roots in pseudo-documentaries, the technique is widely known for its exploitation in horror film as it became an extremely convenient low-budget strategy to build up suspense and create the captivating universes imposed by the horror genre. Analyzing films that set the stage for the subgenre such as Cannibal Holocaust (1980) or more accessible productions like Blair Witch Project (1999) and Paranormal Activity (2007), the paper presents the techniques in which found footage manipulates audiences through certain aesthetic and narrative structures. Studying the means of production and effects on audiences, the analysis intends not only to debate the psychological impact of found footage images, but also to theorize the origin of this subgenre by approaching it from a wider perspective. Recalling David Bordwell’s observations on found footage horror films in his article, Return to Paranormalcy, it is important to insist on the niche that the subgenre unavoidably approaches through its techniques and selection of subjects. Therefore, the paper also aims to integrate the found footage film in a larger context by analyzing the character-spectator dynamic

The contemplating subject: event and subject in architectural animations

In the field of architectural representation, film constitutes an important resource since it expresses the lived dimensions of a space. Cinematic space makes sense only in the context of the subject’s experiencing of events. This paper contends that visualizations of architecture emphasize the object/building, striping space of the subjects of everyday’s practices. The paper discusses the nature of the subject, and the event in film theory, and architecture in order to analyze an awarded example of an architectural animation, Alex Roman’s “The Third and the Seventh.”NULOLa películas constituyen un recurso importante para los arquitectos, ya que expresan el espacio vivido en una representación audiovisual. El espacio fílmico solamente tiene sentido en el contexto del evento vivido por un sujeto. El artículo sostiene que las visualizaciones en arquitectura enfatizan el objeto/edificio despojando el  espacio de los sujetos que en él viven cotidianamente. Este artículo discute a esencia del sujeto y del evento en la teoría del cine y en la arquitectura, para posteriormente analizar una animación premiada, “El Tercero y el Séptimo” de Alex Roman

Virtually Real: Cinematographic Verisimilitude within the Construct of Artistic Referentiality

The creation of so-called realistic images is seemingly incongruously a key aspiration for many feature film cinematographers creating dramatic films today. This may be, as theorised by Charles Pierce, that the lens-based imagery of photography, and by extension cinema, is connected to reality in a way unlike any other artform. Prince refers to the cinematographic form as a tension between perceptual realism and referential artifice. He uses the term perceptual realism in reference to Peirce’s claim of the photograph as icon. With the term referential artifice though, Prince is suggesting the artificial proposition of film making is in reference to the subjects and object within the frame. This concept can be extended when connected to Bordwell, Thompson and Smith’s claim that stylistic choices are made in reference to the film’s content, its script. For example, a period film may be captured on celluloid film negative whilst a science fiction narrative may be captured with the newest digital cinema camera. Realism, however, does not necessitate the same or even a similar cinematographic form response for feature filmmaking. This essay will explore how feature film cinematographers interpret realism or verisimilitude within the construct of artistic referentiality as a response to narrative content

Reframing cinematography

Current discussions around the practice of cinematography are focusing on the extension, or disruption, of the art-form as it is increasingly practiced in the realm of the virtual. The process of performing cinematography in a virtual environment is discussed initially by reflecting on the work of early cinematographers compared and contrasted with the work of modern cinematographers. Following this, comparisons are made between current leading examples of virtual cinematography in the discipline. Traditional and ‘new’ virtual practices of cinematography are unpacked through the prism of concepts proposed by theorists Jean Baudrillard (Simulacra and Simulation 1995) and Charles Pierce (Triadic Model of Indexical, Iconic and Symbolic Signs). Conceptually, this paper argues the practice of the contemporary cinematographer is, in style and substance, much the same as the very earliest cinematographic practice. In conclusion, a summation of the application of the leading methodological virtual cinematographic processes to the independent, low-budget, feature film Space/Time (Michael O'Halloran, 2017a (in-production)) is discussed by the author who is also the director of photography for this film

Perceiving voids: Memory And Sight Afflictions In Contemporary Cinema

My thesis focuses on the perceptive afflictions caused by alteration of the normal biological functioning of sight and memory. These afflictions are related to the redefinition and disgregation of the classical and postclassical cinematographic characters, and affect cinematographic language, establishing a dialectical relation with the filmic image that contaminates our spectatorial perception. In the first chapter I propose a different reading of a few moments in film history, turning points in which a modification of the ordinary sensorial patterns has been introduced. From the German Expressionism to the late authorial experiments of the 60s, there is a sort of hidden history of film that passes through the continuous redefinition of the audience sensory activity. The different perspective upon broadly studied topics leads to the analysis of contemporary cinema: my thesis tries to investigate the reasons that led cinema to continually increase the representation of perceptive afflictions during the last years, and theses “affected” narratives of afflictions and dysfunctions have interesting effects upon so called “normal” perception of the reality surrounding us. The chapters 2 and 3 respectively analyze memory disorders and different dysfunctions of sight: these elements determine alterations in the ‘normal’ and ‘sensory’ perception of reality. They work as narrative factors changing the visual filmic instruments and redefining the role of the subject (and his/her uncertain definition of identity) in contemporary narratives that show how new technologies are profoundly transforming (and enhancing) the perceptive mechanisms involved in our spectatorial activity. In this work I analyze those films that are mostly committed to a clear and readable narration. My study primarily concentrates on American cinema of the last 30 years – with particular attention to popular Hollywood productions – because Hollywood has become the privileged ‘laboratory’ for the negotiation of gaze and images in the contemporary mediascape (while during the classical era experimental and avant-garde cinema were the “place” in which audience experienced the most important redefinitions of the boundaries between different types of mediated perception