Filmmakers and Creativity - Essay Example

?Running Head: Filmmakers and Creativity Filmmakers and Creativity [Institute’s Filmmakers and Creativity Introduction In particular, it is an observation that filmmakers’ job is not an easy one, and he/she plays a significant role in bringing positive or negative alterations in minds of human society. However, analysis has indicated that filmmakers are some creative people who acquire power to change things with the help of not money but through creative utilization of settings, location, etc to present a story to their viewers. Specifically, this paper is an attempt to signify such creative role of filmmakers with references of two films: Memento (2001) and Taxi Driver (1976). Memento There is a usual ‘noir and revenge’ narrative behind Memento (Mottram, 2002). A husband seeks vengeance on the individual who killed his wife and left him with his condition. The police force could not be of assistance to him in finding the killer. The only aid he has is his somewhat suspiciously motivated female friend who is a barmaid. In addition, the entire plot plays in a completely ‘anonymous, bleak, and blank setting’ that puts emphasis on the seclusion of the leading role. Distinctive moods of typical film noir, for instance, isolation, loneliness, disappointment, negativity, immorality, guiltiness and mainly mistrust, can be found in Memento. In addition, the film is full of ‘noirish flashbacks’ and it has no ‘happy ending’ (Kania, 2009). It’s exclusively prepared storyline makes this movie so unique and different. Even though the narrative behind the movie is quite easy, the storyline structure is very difficult and smart, which requires continuous concentration of its viewers (Mottram, 2002). The memory loss issue of the leading role in addition to his confused and mostly pathetic efforts to slowly place the mystery of his wife’s killing together is cleverly connected to the way the entire story is told. The reverse storyline structure of the key plot with its ending being shown during the initial five minutes of the movie, the replacement of color and black and white sequences, and the fact that a few parts of the movie are displayed more than once, are believed to make the spectators feel as perplexed as Leonard (leading role) is. However, the closer the film gets to the closing part the less the spectators are perplexed as they can remember things that Leonard cannot. Memento is a sign of a movie that may have had a low finances, but came together with a lot of thinking, intelligence and especially persistence (Mottram, 2002). Due to the exceptional and complex approach of narration, this movie not just ‘needs but also deserves multiple viewings’ (Mottram, 2002). Memento symbolizes an achievement of writing, directing, as well as acting. This movie belongs to the ‘neo-noir and revenge’ movie genre. One of the most significant features of classic movie noir is the plot, since all these movies had some similarities: They were all gloomy, distressed stories and they were all set in current settings of the city, or the inner-city cover. Their tales usually revolve around law and order, with strangers, entrepreneurs as well as criminals’ busy scheming vengeance or killing. The mood constantly stays the same. Classic film noir tales, regardless of their detail, are always gloomy, infatuated and packed with mysterious plan. Part of this gloom is to do with an unavoidable destiny that takes its ill harvest no matter what (Mottram, 2002). Memento has the features of ‘classic film noir’ (Kania, 2009). Frame of mind in addition to tone, exemplified this genre. One of the methods applied is the very dim lights, which makes it difficult to understand the action. The use of nighttime as well as silhouettes is a persistent aspect of noir movies, putting emphasis on aloofness along with obscurity. In the movies, the world usually appears like a detention center, this is mostly revealed by image metaphors, ‘like sun blinds’. Memento has extensive use of very low and high angle viewpoints, which serve to form an atmosphere of apprehension and isolation in noirs. Memento has an extremely ‘fragment’ as well as ‘non-linear’ structured story line. In this movie the ‘fragment’ and ‘non-linear’ (Kania, 2009) structured storyline places the viewers ‘into the shoes’ of the leading role. By the use of this structure, the spectators fell as if they are detectives themselves. For most of the part, they are struggling to the extent that Leonard does, to form a logical storyline from all the pieces they view. Christopher Nolan (Kania, 2009) gives the movie noir genre’s inclination to confound the spectators’ anticipations a conceptual twist by relating the flow of the storyline to the situation of the leading role. The black and white sequences present an extremely objective sight of Leonard’s personality. The spectators observe the leading role in his hotel room from a point of view of third person or security camera. The color scenes, in contrast, are extremely subjective and from Leonard’s viewpoint. The camera is constantly somewhat over his shoulder or right at the back of him during these scenes and there are a lot of close-ups of the leading role. The spectators can see the details that just Leonard can see. By using this technique of filming the leading role, an exceptionally close rapport between the spectators and Leonard is building (Kania, 2009). Undoubtedly, understanding the structure of Memento is not very simple, particularly when someone watching the movie for the first time. However, it is exciting to see the way Christopher Nolan tries to facilitate the spectators to understand the storyline of this movie. Already within the initial few minutes of Memento, there are quite a lot of clues, which can be considered a favor for the spectators. Taxi Driver Travis Bickle (leading role) is a lonesome person. Agonized by metal recollections and missing someone to talk to, Travis walks continuously in a bid to break his restlessness. Unable to achieve this, he chooses to make some money and begin driving a taxi in the night shift. The movie reveals what a fraudulent and disgusting setting can do to a vulnerable and non-corrupt individual. Although his cruel turn is a case of humanity’s most intense turn to immorality and is surely not the movie's concluding message, it does serve as a caution of what society's behaviors can do (Fraser, 2000). To state Taxi Driver is a mysterious movie is an understatement. Viewers might experience they are never actually provided a apparent insight into the personal works of Travis (leading role) or even perspective to his more and more inconsistent activities, left to make guesses as to why he does the stuff he does. This anonymity is an inspirational transformation from the existing collection of conventional Hollywood movies being mass-produced, leaving the viewers with queries instead of a dull, understandable ending. “Martin Scorsese manages to give this film the seedy appearance” (Taubin, 2008) that character Bickle, thinks his town has turned into. Taxi Driver is the result of socio-historical state of affairs. The post War philosophy of American suspicion following Korea as well as World War II triggers the production of this movie. Taxi Driver manifests the full offence following Vietnam. The movie features as its leading role - a war veteran who is coming back - tries to find break from an overpowering feeling of anomie as well as obvious isolation. The movie Taxi Driver takes place in New York City of the mid1970s, rather than the more conventional setting of the American West, through the period subsequent to the Civil War. Taxi Driver mobilizes the topic of hostility as an essential consequence of person’s expressiveness, with the intention to compensate the common feelings of ‘male culpability following Vietnam’ (Fraser, 2000). Taxi Driver shows a symbolic backdrop Ford's wilderness rising as a scepter of the unconscious, revealing New York as an image of hell. The movie feature detailed camera work, which skillfully captures the leading role's expansive surroundings, as if depicting his ‘emotional physiognomy’. Leading role of this movie is an image of repose. He looks like a criminal in his being alone and, to a certain extent, depressed; his isolation is organic, not forced on him by his state of affairs but intimately belonging to him. The leading role is initially noticed in the uniform of a war that has stopped. Actually, the movie tries to show him as a veteran of the defeated side, and his precise location as well as actions during the interceding years is a secret. The leading role is entrapped between two opposing worlds: the world of the daytime and the world of the nighttime (Taubin, 2008). In addition, he is knowingly coping with the inconsistency that rages inside him. Travis is pathologically gets the wrong impression by others. The moral doubt casts a shadow on his image; this doubt stems from the fact that, no matter what his explanation is, he is a murderer of people. Taxi Driver is an image of New York as hell, “an open sore on the body of America” (Schrader, 2000). Viewed more or less solely through Travis' eyes, the sidewalks are occupied by the spreaders of filth, the many who pay money for it and those who tacitly permit it. Disgusted as well as fascinated at the same time, Travis finds himself fanatical and confused, not capable to connect with someone. The ultimate effect is that by being helpless to transform his own circumstances, Travis shifts his thought; he frantically desires to protect others, irrespective of what they desire. The best thing about Taxi Driver is that this does not make Travis a monster; instead, he is a prey and an object of mercy. Everyone can appreciate the intense isolation of the city, such that Travis could be anybody; it is just that the majority of people manage to cope with the dilemma. New York at night appears an ambivalent place - attractive as well as hateful - revealing Travis' split character. With some remarkable camera work, Taxi Driver smudges the backdrop into reds and yellows, the colors of body fluids. The impact of this camera work is a ‘physical blow’ to the senses; no surprise Travis flips out (Taubin, 2008). It scrapes at the viewers’ nerves, making them jolt in pity. Put together by Martin Scorsese, these factors make certain that Taxi Driver is a grueling but worth watching movie. Motivational performance, graphic hostility, balanced pacing as well as exceptional opening credits make this a classic. Conclusion Convincingly, the paper included discussion and analysis of two films: Memento (2001) and Taxi Driver (1976), in order to acquire an understanding of the role of filmmakers in terms of creative utilization of settings, location, and other tools to present a story. It is an expectation that the paper will be beneficial for students, teachers, and professionals in better understanding of the topic. References Fraser, P. (2000). York Film Notes: Taxi Driver. Pearson York Notes. Kania, A. (2009). Memento (Philosophers on Film). Routledge. Mottram, J. (2002). The Making of Memento. Faber & Faber. Schrader, P. (2000). Taxi Driver. Faber & Faber. Taubin, A. (2008). Taxi Driver. British Film Institute. Read More