To watch from distance: an interactive film model based on Brechtian film theory
2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 21; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/14626268.2010.483687
ISSN1744-3806
Autores Tópico(s)Digital Games and Media
ResumoAbstract With the emergence of new media, interactive film projects have mainly struggled to resolve the contradiction between dramatic structures and interaction. Dramatic film presents identification with the main character, where the viewer is constantly oppressed by the narrative, and therefore lost in illusion. In this context, when we bring on the scene interaction, the drama apparently starts to lose its power. In this article, a new interactive film model based on Brechtian film theory is proposed. This model presents a new way of spatiotemporal construction where different audiovisual combinations can be viewed successively, and this way the viewer can actively construct his/her own story. Theoretical framework of the Brechtian interactive film model is supported by an interactive film application, named Academia. The main feature of the model is that, while interaction is very simple, the continuity of the narrative is preserved and the film requiring an intellectual level of interpretation. Keywords: interactive filmBrechtian film modeldistanciating effectspatial presentation Acknowledgements The interactive film Academia (2010) was written, directed and edited by Metin Çavuş and performed by Tolga Ünaldı, Burcu Böcekler, Orton Akıncı, Sergin Keyder, Muammer Bozkurt, Özer Özel, Ufuk Duygun, Vedat Göncü and Hüseyin Özbey; music composition by Evrim Demirel and interactive application by Abdullah Karadeniz. Academia was shot in DV format, edited in professional non-linear editing software and interactive application was prepared in professional authoring software. Notes For a similar statement of 'seamlessness' of digital cinema, see Gaut Citation(2009). We should also mention that, despite presenting a challenging visual experience, the glowing debate of revolutionising affect of 3-D cinema nowadays is highly overdrawn, since this is basically the similar version of technology tested nearly half a century ago. Although some of the recent reception strands within cinema studies like cognitive (Bordwell Citation1985, pp. 30–32) and psychological model (Persson Citation2003, p.23) support the argument that spectators 'actively' search for unity/coherence in film, in this case we talk about a physically active participant. Cinema has a long-established and highly market-bound industry. It should be borne in mind that it has several production and distribution phases, and if an innovation thoroughly influences most of them it has less chance for realisation. In view of the circumstances, interactive film experiments have been mainly initiated by avant-garde filmmakers, visual artists and practitioners, who hardly benefit from investments in the industry. Another concern is the screening ritual of cinema. Interactivity mostly works in a one-to-one scenario and most of the interactive films are prepared for one-single-active user. In this way, we are talking about a new kind of ritual highly different from collective viewing experience within the theatres. In this film experiment poetically called The Created Surface of the Earth, a unified space is assembled out of shots of Moscow used side-by-side with the shots of Washington taken from an old American film, The White House in Washington. It was one of the experiments of Kuleshov's group, now known as the Kuleshov effect (Tsivian et al. Citation1996, p. 358). When we talk about interaction in a fiction film, we do not mention just some low key applications which already exist in several projects, like reaching some trivia information, changing the camera angles of the scene or shifting between different points of view of the actors. The real interaction should reflect the ideas and feelings of the audience and the main interaction effort should be directed for narrative construction. For further information, see http://www.icinema.unsw.edu.au/projects/prj_tvis_II.html [Accessed 1 March 2010]. For film, see http://www.hboimagine.com [Accessed 1 March 2010]. For video film which explains the installation, see http://www.camilleutterback.com/liquidtime.html [Accessed 1 March 2010]. Simplicity in interaction should be a rule for interactive cinema applications, since watching film is very intense cognitive experience involving more than one sense organ. He also criticises the state of digital cinema today, where different visual elements 'are not juxtaposed but blended, their boundaries erased rather than foregrounded' (Manovich Citation2001, p. 155). For video film which explains the application, see http://www.gavaligai.com/main/sub/interactive/BNHI/BNHI.html [Accessed 1 March 2010]. Interactive artworks Liquid Time and Be Now Here are discussed in Jaschko Citation(2003), and Be Now Here is also presented in detail in Naimark Citation(2003). Most of the interaction fiction films have this kind of structure with cyclical shifts between action and perception. It should be emphasised that the more the action is integrated to the perception, the smoother fiction is maintained. Probably, among the interactive projects presented in this article, the most 'negative' application is HBO Imagine in which the interaction part is an obvious shift leading to an extreme foregrounding of the machinery. Dramatic narrative form has been also termed as 'Aristotelian', 'classical' or 'classic realist'. We also mention the same narrative approach when we talk about 'Hollywood', 'mainstream', 'conventional' or 'dominant' cinema. This new approach to reality was drastically different from the notion of realism, commonly conceptualised by Marxist critic of the aesthetics, Georg Lukács. For Lukács, the best model of realism was the classical bourgeois novel, the works of the Old Masters like Balzac and Tolstoy, where we are presented with such an atmosphere that we can 'smell, taste and feel everything' (Brecht Citation1980, p. 82). Here Brecht criticised closed, unifying structure of classical text based on identification with the character, proposing a new concept of realism more 'wide and political' (Brecht Citation1980, p. 82). For further discussion see Lunn Citation(1974). Althusser described the consciousness of the melodrama (one of the basic genres of classical narration) as a foreign consciousness (Althusser Citation1969, p. 139). Verfremdung is a German term often translated in English as 'distanciation', 'estrangement' or 'alienation'. Brecht participated in several film projects as screenwriter, but probably the only film which was closest to his idea was Kuhle Wampe, made in 1931 (Brecht Citation1964, p. 51). When he was in exile in America (between 1941 and 1947), he wrote most of his scripts just to make ends meet. The return to Brecht in the West was firstly initiated by translation of his theoretical texts into English and French after his death, but the basic interest was accelerated by an article of Louis Althusser Citation(1969) and especially three special issues in two of the most prominent cinema magazines of this time, Cahiers du Cinéma (vol. 114, December 1960) and Screen (vol. 15, no. 2, summer 1974, and vol.19, no. 4, winter 1975–76). Several filmmakers have been associated with Brechtian aesthetics; however, we should emphasise that Brechtian film is not achieved by simple application of some Brechtian techniques. It starts with the intent of the filmmaker and should be considered as a whole achievement of appropriate form and content. In this way, when some of the films of Jean-Luc Godard can be welcomed as typical examples of a Brechtian film (i.e. Vivre sa Vie, La Chinoise and Tout va Bien), several films (and filmmakers) who are considered as Brechtian, just borrow some of the Brechtian techniques but are neither in intent nor in overall effect Brechtian. For example, If… . makes available several Brechtian techniques like episodic structure and formal discontinuities, but presents, indeed, a highly cathartic story of a bunch of rebellious schoolboys; or Funny Games, where the viewer is clearly distanciated from the characters but rather than being alert and ready for action, he/she is psychologically suppressed by the shocking effect of the narrative. For Brechtian films of Godard, see Lesage Citation(1975). The argument that there is a hierarchy among the discourses was discussed in detail by Colin Mac Cabe, who concluded that classic realist cinema 'cannot deal with the real as contradictory' (1974, p. 12), because the dominant discourse, the one which is presenting the events of the narrative (he named it the narrative discourse), is not the subject of articulation but in the position of knowledge. For criticism of Brechtian film see Smith Citation(1996), Plantinga Citation(2003) and Stam Citation(2000). In addition, Bordwell also criticised the argument of the MacCabe about the hierarchy among the discourses (see Note 20) and the films of Godard (Bordwell Citation1985).
Referência(s)