Films are a visual representation of the words in a screenplay. The director and actors of a film collaborate together to properly embody the characters the screenwriter had in mind when writing the script. The way a character is presented in the film influences the audience’s perception of the character. In the films Fargo and Casablanca, actors utilize various acting tools and character elements to influence the audience’s perception throughout the film.
There are various forms of acting an actor can choose to use in a given scene. Representational acting is when the actor decides to show a thought or emotion in terms of what it would look like using representative gestures. William H. Macy employs this style of acting in the movie Fargo. Macy’s character, Jerry Lundegaard, is furious that his father-in-law is unwilling to contribute to a real estate deal his character is unable to afford. Instead of displaying the anger solely in an internal fashion, the directors and Macy elected to also use big, physical movements. Macy rapidly scrapes the ice off his windshield in a manic manner and screams in the parking lot to express his anger (22:10). This form of acting is very visual and ensures that the audience understands the emotion a character is experiencing.
Presentational acting is a direct opposite of representational acting. Presentational acting is when the actor personalizes what is going on inside the character and presents the emotion as the real thing. There are not any extravagant movements to display the emotion. Humphrey Bogart elected to use this other style of acting in the film Casablanca. To exhibit his sadness, Bogart makes several minute movements. He looks down at the table and stares off into space for an e...
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...he parking complex. His face does not wince in pain as he yells at the parking attendant to open the gate (1:09:10). Buscemi displays the significance of the objective of his character in this scene to the audience through his intense focus on getting out despite undergoing extreme physical conditions.
The audience’s perception of a character’s personality and thoughts in Fargo and Casablanca are influenced by the actor’s method of playing a character two-dimensionally, choice in the style of acting (representational or presentational acting), portrayal of a discovery in the moment, resolution of a conflict (objective/obstacle/action), and overcoming of an extreme physical condition. Through their performances using various acting tools, the actors are able to ensure that the audience perceives the characters in the way the screenwriters and directors have in mind.
The foils of everyday life make for surprisingly quality entertainment. This concept may appear quite counterintuitive, but it is constantly proven true in Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1996 film Fargo. Beyond the film’s oddball subject matter lies a surplus of middle class misfortunes and simpleton fodder. These seemingly extraneous components of the film are actually extremely crucial to the atmosphere the Coen brothers created. Despite having such a lack of regard for human life, the film still is extremely relatable to the common man and blue collar USA. This is exactly what Joel and Ethan Coen were aiming for with this film. They were trying to create as relatable and real of an atmosphere as possible. This persistence to creating a believable
How do fiction storytellers reveal a character’s actions and or characteristics? Fiction storytellers use things like conflicts, diction, and imagery to add a better description to a book. Most of these examples also hook the reader to want to learn more. The mood of a story is also revealed when using this examples. In The Looking Glass Wars Beddor uses conflicts and challenges to inform the reader about Alyss’ characteristics.
The Importance of Posture and Gesture for the Performer in Relation to Greta Garbo From Camille
Whenever books are adapted for film, changes inevitably have to be made. The medium of film offers several advantages and disadvantages over the book: it is not as adept at exploring the inner workings of people - it cannot explore their minds so easily; however, the added visual and audio capabilities of film open whole new areas of the imagination which, in the hands of a competent writer-director, can more than compensate.
Typically, the relationships between theatre and film are encountered--both pedagogically and theoretically--in terms of authorial influence or aesthetic comparisons. In the first method, an instructor builds a syllabus for a "Theatre and Film" course by illustrating, for example, how Bergman was influenced by Strindberg. In the second method, the aesthetic norms of the theatre (fixed spectatorial distance and stage-bound locations) are compared to those of the cinema (editing and location shooting) to determine which art form is better suited (or "superior") to which material.
Communication is a vital component of our world and yet 65% of that communication is nonverbal. I will discuss the different types of verbal and nonverbal communication in this paper based off of an episode of Doctor Who. This episode is about Matt Smiths first time playing The Doctor and the different types of communication that he uses throughout the episode. Matt Smith’s performance in this episode shows me that he a mastery of both verbal and nonverbal communication when he is playing The Doctor.
We can start off with something that we all easily take granted for in movies and that is the imagery. We all have imaginations that can produce an accurate image depending on what we read or see, but something the books or plays couldn’t accomplish is give the image to us. So we wouldn’t have to seco...
Many devices such as theme, subject and meaning reflect different aspects of a film. The time and place that the movie is made are usually affected but this.
Adopted into sociology by Erving Goffman, he developed most terms and the idea behind dramaturgical analysis in his 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. This book lays out the process of human social interaction, sometimes called "impression management". Goffman makes the distinction between "front stage" and "back stage" behavior. “Front stage" actions are visible to the audience and are part of the performance. We change our hair color, eye color, complextion. Wearing make-up, the way our hair is styled, the clothes we wear. The demeanor we present to the world to the. All of these things lead to an outward appearance of what we want others to think we are. People engage in "back stage" behaviors when no audience is present. We whine and moan about the customers we deal with. Hair goes un-styled, make is wiped off. Clothing is comfortable and unrestricting. When a person conducts themselves in certain way not consistent with social expectations, it is often done secretly if this ...
Modern day directors use a variety of methods to hold ones interest. Ethan Hawke and Kenneth Branagh’s created versions of Hamlet that shared some similarities, but ultimately had many differences in respects to an audience’s appeal. An appealing movie is one that has an alluring ambiance and an intellectual stimulus. With these two movie versions, a setting and a mood forced an audience to acquire specific emotions, but Ethan Hawke’s version generated emotions more strongly and effectively. Also, these movies had extremely different uses of music and visuals, but both movie versions incorporated them well for the ambiance it tried to obtain. Finally, both movie versions drew characters to captivate the audience; however in Ethan Hawke’s version, the characters were used so effectively that it was easy to feel involved with them. While both these versions of Hamlet had a captivating ambiance, Ethan Hawke’s version was more appealing due to the intellectual incentive that it offered.
The way that a movie is pieced together by the director/producers has a huge impact on the viewer’s experience. Stylistic elements are used to help engage the viewer; however, without these techniques the viewer will most likely loose interest. In this essay I will be taking a look at a scene within the movie Casablanca directed by Michael Curtiz in 1942. Casablanca is a classic film that is reviewed to be one of the greatest movies of all time. This could be due to the notable quotes used throughout the movie, or its ability to follow a historic, comical, and romantic storyline throughout the course of the film. It caters to several different viewers, making this movie favorable to many. This scene in Casablanca uses specific editing techniques
Berger and Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality and Irving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life analyze human interaction in the context of actions we perform and the meanings that such actions take in social environments. I will analyze Goffman’s account of modification of the “self” through performance within the context of Berger and Luckmann’s hypothesis. The theatrical performance metaphor looks at how socialization and experience affect the use of fronts, expressions, and expressions given off.
He believed that we manipulated the way other’s see us in order to socially construct the ‘self’. Goffman’s dramaturgical approach is described as so due to the fact that he uses drama analogies when talking about social interaction; for example, the fact we are all ‘actors’, using ‘scripts’ and ‘props’. He further went on to state how we pursue to present a particular image of ourselves to our ‘audience’, for us to do this, we must intently look at how our audience respond to our ‘performance’ and whether or not this is convincing enough for them, if not, changes will be made accordingly. By using our ‘props’ such as make-up, clothing as well as using our language, gestures, tone of voice, us, as people, can socially construct our self for the person we want our audience to believe, we, in fact, are. He believes that in our ‘theatre’ there is a ‘front’ we use, which is the role we are acting out, whereas, ‘backstage’, we can almost step out of this role and act ‘ourselves’. For example, a lecturer will fill their put up their ‘front’ when doing their job, however, when they are ‘backstage’ they can drop the ‘act.’ Goffman’s idea of roles is different to other ideas in sociology of what our roles are—such as in Functionalism, in which it is believed that our roles are tightly ‘scripted’. Whereas, Goffman believes that like a stage actor is not really
Film and literature are two media forms that are so closely related, that we often forget there is a distinction between them. We often just view the movie as an extension of the book because most movies are based on novels or short stories. Because we are accustomed to this sequence of production, first the novel, then the motion picture, we often find ourselves making value judgments about a movie, based upon our feelings on the novel. It is this overlapping of the creative processes that prevents us from seeing movies as distinct and separate art forms from the novels they are based on.
...verything around us is made by our actions. Positive or negative they cause an effect that will ultimately lead to a different story base on how we interpret life. Narrative elements are used as a bridge by the directors in their film to create any master plot that is currently known. Any modification at any narrative element used by the director at important moments inside the story can help you portray a different master plot. This used of narrative elements can be best described as an ever changing process that takes place inside an individual’s head. Depending on the individual that may be exposed to those narrative elements can create different meanings. This new interpretation can be different for everyone. We have to be aware that one change in the surface scenery can lead to many ideal outcomes in our minds and that is the main power the audience has.