Cinematic Conventions - Essay Example

Cinematic Conventions in Jane Campion’s The Piano and Chuck Lorre’s Big Bang Theory Film – The Piano (1993, dir. Jane Campion) In this analysis, the reviews come from the Chicago Sun-Times and EW.com. Specifically, Roger Ebert reviews the film for the Chicago Sun-Times, and Owen Glieberman reviews the film for EW.com. Each man takes a different tact in reviewing the film, and each man leaves out an important convention in his review. Roger Ebert’s review is focused upon the convention of the story events, which is the narrative and plot conventions, and the characters themselves. He notes that the characters have depth to them, such as Ada, who comes across as hard, but is really warm, and Baines, who seems rough, but has tenderness and feeling underneath. The other story events and narrative upon which he focuses is on the underlying motifs of the film - the Victorian narrative, and how the film has mystery, fear and exoticism at its core. The other conventions that Ebert focuses upon, besides narrative and plot, is cinematography. He notes that the movie is mainly set in the dark, which is accurate, as the picture had an overall grey look to it. He also notes a shot that comes towards the end of the film, although he does not specifically describe the shot, because it would be giving it away. However, the way that he describes the shot is evidently the frames where Ada falls off the boat and almost drowns, because her foot is tied to her piano. He rightly notes that this shot seems like a dream, and he exquisitely details how the cinematographer shot this scene, frame by frame. While Ebert correctly focused upon the cinematography of this film, in that this was the most striking part of the film, and the most memorable, because the cinematography set the mood, he did not evoke the most obvious convention in this film – the music of the film. There were two conventions of this film which worked together to provide the overall atmosphere of the film – the cinematography and the music. The music plays throughout the film, and the music is literally what brings Ada and Baines together. The music is much more than a background to the action – it was the action, and it was literally Ada’s voice (Kelly, 2001). Ebert did not mention this aspect, and this made his review lacking. Glieberman’s review rectified this. He spends a great deal of time talking about the music, rightly noting that the music is powerful, dramatic and beautiful. He also rightly notes that, for Ada, the piano and the music that she plays is her voice. He also interestingly notes that the muteness of Ada, coupled with Ada finding her voice through her music, is a metaphor for Victorian society – like women in Victorian society, who were voiceless, Ada was mute. She was displaced from another time, and this review accurately portrayed this (Riu, 2000). However, her music showed that she had something to say, just as the Victorian women also had something to say, and no way to express themselves. Ada expresses the sentiments for these women through her music. Glieberman also spends a great deal of time with cinematography, much more than Ebert does. He notes the lushness of the backdrop of the film, including the rain, the green moss, the mud along the pathways. Unlike Ebert, who spent much of his review on the narrative and plot conventions of the film, Glieberman spends much of his review on the feel of the film, because music, cinematography, and mise-en-scene makes up virtually all of his review. The mise-en-scene that he goes through is how Holly Hunter’s Ada’s face is emblematic of her character – hypnotic, severe, yet capable of expressions that lets the audience know that there is more to the character than meets the eye. Of the two reviews, Glieberman’s is the more effective. This is because, as noted above, The Piano is more of a movie that one senses and feels, as it is very atmospheric. That is the beauty of the film, and this atmosphere is created by cinematography and music. The plot itself is very dramatic, but the heart of the film is the evocation that the New Zealand scenes, coupled with the dramatic music, gives to the audience. Glieberman captured this atmosphere very well with his conventions, while Ebert did not do the same with his review. Words: 719 Television Show – The Big Bang Theory (2007-present. Creator: Chuck Lorre) These two reviews came from PopWatch, which is a part of Entertainment Weekly, and PopMatters.com. Maane Khatchatourian wrote the review for Entertainment Weekly, while Leigh Edwards wrote the review for PopWatch. The two reviews focus on the show at different points, as the PopMatters review was written in 2010, which was the start of the show’s fourth season, while the Entertainment Weekly review was for the show’s most current episode. The two reviews provide a nice contrast to one another, and they each focus on different conventions. In the EW review, the reviewer focuses upon the convention of narrative and plot. She notes that the there is a theme in this particular episode, that represents the trajectory of the show in general. This theme is that each of the couples on the show – Leonard and Penny, Howard and Bernadette, and Sheldon and Amy- are growing. This is because Penny visits Leonard at his office and finds out, for the first time, what he does for a living. Meanwhile Sheldon and Amy are finally defining their relationship, when it was previously undefined, and Howard and Bernadette are settling into married life. This is a show which is driven by narrative and character, so the emphasis on narrative is a good one. That said, another narrative aspect that could be noted is the growth of individual characters, in general. In the earlier seasons of this show, Sheldon had many more idiosyncrasies than he showed in this episode – for instance, his standard shtick is knocking three times and saying the person’s name. Also, Sheldon blurts out anything that comes into his mind. In this episode, amazingly, Sheldon did not tell Howard what was on everybody’s mind – which Howard had become boring, because all he could talk about was his trip to space. This is unusual, and shows that Sheldon is growing as a person, along with the fact that his relationship is growing. The same goes for Howard, who used to be a socially awkward geek. Now he exudes much more confidence. These are narrative conventions that could have been brought out in this review but were not, therefore it seems that this review was lacking somewhat. In the PopWatch review, the reviewer also concentrates on narrative and plot conventions. As noted above, the reason why reviewers would concentrate on these aspects of this show is that is what this show revolves around – the characters. There is little to say about mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing or sound. There is something to say about iconographic and symbolic image conventions, however, as the actors’ performances are what makes this show great. However, this PopWatch did not focus on performances as much as it does character. Specifically, this review is much more encompassing of the show itself, as opposed to one particular show. This makes it more effective than the EW article. The writer focuses upon the stereotypes that the characters present, and how they break these stereotypes. According to Barnett and Kooyman (2012), sitcoms rely upon stereotypes, and this show is no different. Yet, Penny is well-rounded, and is not the stereotypical “dumb blonde,” and the review captures this well. Izaias (2011) focuses on the irony used in this sitcom, and this is also a focus of the article written by Edwards (2010). She notes the irony that Penny is the only one of the group that has any kind of social intelligence, as all the other characters at this time were socially awkward and could not function normally in the world. Penny is a kind of guide for the characters, as they try to navigate the world outside their laboratories, and the review captures this perfectly. The PopWatch review and the EW review both were focused on narrative, but the EW review was narrower, in that it was focused upon the action of a certain episode. PopWatch captured this more broadly, as it focused upon the characters themselves, over the course of the series, so it captured the nuances and the irony and stereotypes which were inherent in the show, and how the show breaks the stereotypes. In this way, the conventions captured by PopWatch were more effective in portraying the show, as a whole, than the EW article was. Words: 705 References Barnett, T. (2012) “Repackaging popular culture: Commentary and critique in Community,” Networking Knowledge, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 109-134. Ebert, R. 1993. “The Piano,” Chicago Sun-Times, 19 Nov. Available at: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19931119/REVIEWS/311190302 Edwards, L. 2010, “The Big Bang season 4 premiere,” PopMatters, 23 Sept. Available at: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/131296-the-big-bang-theory/ Glieberman, O. 1993 “The Piano,” EW.com, 19 Nov. Available at: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,308717,00.html Izaias, K. (2011) “The analysis of irony through relevance theory in The Big Bang Theory sitcom,” BELT Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 69-83. Kelly, D. (1997) The lady in the frame: Two portraits by Henry James and Jane Campion. Available at: http://escholarship.usyd.edu.au/ journals/index.php/SSE/article/viewFile/522/494 Khatchatourian, M. 2012 “Big Bang Theory react: Halloween episode more heartfelt than funny,” Popwatch Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatch Blog, 25 Oct. Available at: http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/10/25/big-bang-theory-react-halloween/ Riu, C. (2000) Two Gothic feminist texts: Emily Brontes Wuthering Heights and the film, The Piano, by Jane Campion. Atlantis, XXII.1: 164-173. Read More