Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - Essay Example

A report for Saturday night and Sunday morning presentation Introduction Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is an English film produced in 1960 by Tony Richardson, the film has a simplistic plot revolving on the life of its key character, Arthur Seaton. The film is an adaptation of a novel by the same titles written by Alan Sillitoe in 1958. The developers of the film under the leadership of Tony Richardson portray effective understanding of the art as they strive to develop a realistic plot for the film despite the closeness that such a film would share with the novel. The context of a film differs from that of a novel a feature that arises from the difference in the audiences of the two categories of art. This implies that adopting a novel requires effective utilization of different film developments techniques in order to create a realistic film that will appeal to the target audience as Tony Richardson portrays in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Unlike in novels that have plots, films have a distinctive narration, which refers to a series of events often occurring in a cause and effect relationship in particular space and time. When developing a film, the developers must employ strategic tools that help unite the events in the film in a cause and effect relationship thereby earning relevance to every feature of the film. Tony Richardson portrays an effective understanding of this as he develops the narrative of the film. As explained earlier, the fictional story recounts the life of Arthur Seaton, a young mechanic in a factory in Nottingham (Giannetti, 2008). The mechanic has a liberal view to life and therefore lives a reckless lifestyle often jumping from one relationship to another. Unlike most married men, he has a series of illicit affairs key among which is one with the wife of his colleague. Developing such a narrative requires extensive consideration of the film development elements that can improve the effectiveness of the film. Among such elements, that Tony Richardson considers is characterization. A character must fit particular roles in order to make the storyline natural. Albert Finney, a renowned professional English actor plays the roles of the philanderers Arthur Seaton (Ivory, 1992). The actor fits in the position of the fictional character thereby depicting his personality appropriately. The developers of the film sought the services of professional actors including Shirley Anne Field who acts as Doreen and Rachel Roberts as Brenda. The professionalism portrayed by the actors contributes to the success of the film and the effectiveness of the narration since they assume the roles by fitting the roles perfectly. This way, the film’s narrative becomes natural. Just as required in any other film narrative, the developers of the film ensure a serial flow of events ensuring that the events in the film occur successively. Furthermore, the developers ensure that the series of events occur in a cause and effect format. The narrative is a series of conflicts with the developers striving to solve most of the conflicts. The quality of the conflicts relies on their realistic nature thereby validating the actions of the characters. By developing appropriate social conflicts, the film performs represents the society, a key function of film as a type of art. The base of the conflicts in the film is Arthur Seaton’s unique personality. Unlike any other normal person in the society, Seaton refuses to settle and lead natural peaceful life as most people. Such a restless personality coupled with his high libido cause several conflicts as he infringes on other people’s private lives. Infidelity is a major social vice in any other society and a major cause of conflict in the film (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010). As Arthur Seaton seduces other men’s wives including Brenda the wife of his colleague at work, the relationship between him and the colleague is likely to worsen. Additionally, the relationship between Brenda and her husband is also likely to worsen. After building such an effective conflict by addressing an unethical yet realistic social feature, the developers of the film uses such to validate the reaction of other characters in the film thus developing a series of events that occur in a cause and effect relationship. Brenda’s husband teams up with a group of friends and beat Arthur Seaton senseless. On the other hand, Brenda conceives a baby with Arthur Seaton who is to become a permanent reminder of her illicit relationship. As a representation of the society, the developers of the film address fundamental issues of the society thereby developing a series of realistic events. Besides the effective narrative, the developers use numerous film development techniques and features in order to improve the quality of the film and to enhance the communicative role of the film. The film for example is an example of a social-realist structure one of the major themes that illicit public interest. The unique genre addresses specific social issues with the view of representing the society. Infidelity is a major social vice in the contemporary society with Arthur Seaton’s lifestyle being a typical lifestyle of numerous people. By developing such a film, Tony Richardson sought to portray the society realistically. He strives to validate the actions of numerous characters in the film who become agitated to act as they do owing to the actions of other characters who provoke them. Brenda’s husband collaborates with a group of his friend to beat Arthur Seaton while Brenda gives birth to a son who would become a permanent reminder of the infidelity. Such are realistic social features and issues in the contemporary society that Richardson strives to capture in the narrative of his film. The film that runs for eighty-nine minutes covers a lengthy narrative with the developers striving to develop a chronological flow of events. To achieve this, the developers of the film employ unique styles and tactics key among which is editing. Through effective editing, the developers introduce specific scenes that address particular issues and parts of the conflicts thereby developing the film both chronologically and concurrently in certain cases. While editing is a unique way of eliminating errors in film development, it provides developers with stylistic ways of handling the length of a film by placing scenes in chronological order that best fit the flow of actions. The developers of the film therefore place the different scenes strategically with the view of telling the entire story of Arthur Seaton within the eighty-nine minutes. The developers ensure to include all the important features of the narrative thus succeeding in developing a complete film. As explained in the above paragraph, editing is a way of achieving consistency in a film. It provides the developers with an effective way of uniting different concepts and scenes thus developing a unified piece. Additionally, editing enables the developers of the film to add diversity in a film. The developers therefore unite different shots in the film with each shot depicting a different scene. In doing this, the developers employ strategic transition techniques that help incorporate diversity thus breaking the monotony of a single scene in the film. Transition refers to the change from one shot to another, the change helps the developers hasten the narrative of the film thus achieving in the creation of the film. Among the transition techniques that the developers use include cut, swipe and fade out among many other intriguing styles that help incorporate diversity without eradicating consistency in the film. The developers further consider numerous other features of cinematography including lighting, depth of field, focus, aspect ratio and framing among many others. Such are intricate features of both photography and videography that enhances the success of the film thus portraying the professional prowess of the developers of the film. Lighting for example is among the most fundamental features of photography, lighting influences the quality of a shot since light illuminates scenes thereby facilitating the operation of cameras (Forster, 1910). Manipulating the source and type of lighting enhances the communicative function of a film. Lighting communicates such basic features as the time of day, the difference between natural and artificial light helps set different scenes in a film as portrayed in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning thus enhancing the plot. Camera movements such as zooming, panning and craning help capture different shots. Additionally, the manipulation of camera angles help developers of a film achieves diversity in a film. Different movement for example provides unparalleled capture of unique shots that enable the developers of a film to infuse diversity (McLeod, 1987). Long shots help in establishing shots in a scene, close up and extreme close up shots enable developers to communicate more details of both the setting and the characters thus enhancing the communication of the film. The developers strive to infuse as many different shots as possible enhancing the consistency of the shots by utilizing different methods of transitions in the film. Through such features, the developers of the film do not only enhance the communicative role of the art but also enhance the development of the art by striving to utilize latest techniques. In a summary, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, is a perfect example of a contemporary film with the developers of the film portraying their professionalism in the art. From the use of professional actors to the effective use of different features of cinematography techniques, the developers of the film succeed in developing an effective film. Mise-en-scène for example is a fundamental factor that influences the process of developing a film. It refers to the placing of a stage. The stage is the actual setting where action occurs in a film. The placement of different elements on a stage enhances the communicative quality of a film (Canby, 1992). Also known as the visual theme in a story, mise-en-scène refers to an artistic way of communicating in a film through artistic ways. Directors control the placement of elements on the stage thus influencing the success of a film, as is the case in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. References Bordwell, D. & Thompson, K. (2010). "Chapter 6 - The Shot: Mise-en-Scène". Film Art: An Introduction (9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Canby, V. (1992). A Drawing-Room War with Edwardian Grace from The New York Times website: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E0CE0DD1738F930A25750C0A96495 260 on Thursday 1st May 1, 2014. Forster, E. M. (1910). Howards End edited by David Lodge. London: Penguin Books. Giannetti, L. (2008). Understanding Movies. Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall. Ivory, J. (1992). Howards End produced by Ismail Merchant; screenplay written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Film 4 DVD McLeod, W. T. (1987). The Collins Dictionary and Thesaurus in one volume. London: William Collins Sons & Co Ltd. Read More