Reading Parallax: 3D Meaning Construction in the Hole
2012; Volume: 89; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2562-2528
Autores Tópico(s)Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism
ResumoIn 'The Aesthetics of Emergence', William Paul holds that parallax--moving diegetic objects from behind screen and into audience space--can distract audiences because breaking of frame calls attention to frame that is being violated. (1) Scott Higgins' recent '3D Depth: Coraline, Hugo, and Sustainable Aesthetic' argues that while overt and protrusive of exploitation horror films like My Bloody Valentine (2009) and Piranha (2010) demonstrates that such genres offer greater diegetic lassitude, quality film must not smell of fairground. (2) (This poses potential problem for 'quality' cinema: for Paul, if 3-D has never left fairground, then fairground never quite left 3-D. (3)) For Higgins, a restrained, depth-oriented has developed as more respectable and sustainable option. The family trading as it does in broad and self-conscious humor and strongly sympathetic characters, suggests to Higgins a safe arena for process: ambitious filmmakers can test process's spectacular and narrative potentials without fear of driving away high-minded adults. (4) For Higgins, stop-motion animation Coraline (2009) is film that benefits from the of animated family film. He praises its flamboyant depth for remaining anchored to character experience (5): film's 'real world' diegesis, which titular protagonist finds cloying, inter-ocular distance, or loD (which accounts for amount of stereoscopic depth any given shot and is subject to distance between two camera lenses) is kept disproportionately minimal and constricting, at odds with more extreme loD used to represent fantastical Other World. As Higgins puts it, 3D volume and depth, controlled by varying loD during shooting, was thus functionalised parallel to well-established registers like lighting and colour. (6) For Higgins, negative parallax is mostly deployed order to emphasise a plunging trajectory into screen, inverting more routine gimmick of protrusion. (7) He cites example button falls which begins emergent but falls back into depths of positive parallax. The Hole (2009), however, demonstrates that pronounced negative parallax can be read as an expressive register its own right and as way of contributing to meaning construction. There may, admittedly, be certain aesthetic roominess involved: though live-action, it is still, like Coraline, family horror film, with many special effects and fantastical situations. Its director, Joe Dante, chose The Hole as his next project because script's emphasis on characters really stuck out for him: It's [...] psychological, and L.] more attuned to idea of doing some spatial relationship kind of things 3D. (8) The Hole, then, is, like Coraline, text that uses manner anchored to character experience. (9) Putting to one side questions of distraction, this piece will explore key sequence film order to demonstrate that negative parallax can fact contribute to meaning construction, expressively extending diegesis outwards rather than simply chucking objects of it. The stereoscopic area front of screen--which Paul's work suggests can be termed the platea (10)--can be used as structuring element, working alongside and conjunction with space behind it--for Paul, locus (11)--to nuance and accentuate representation of character's journey towards adulthood. The film's narrative is as follows: Dane Thompson is surly teenager who moves from New York to quiet suburban town with his mother, Susan, and his younger brother, Lucas. Dane only spends time with Lucas grudgingly, resentful of his mother's requests for him to, quite literally, play ball with him. Dane, Lucas, and their next door neighbour Julie discover seemingly-bottomless hole covered by trapdoor Thompsons' basement. …
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