In this week’s reading of chapter 10. It gives us clear forms to think with while watching a particular movie. On the documentary side, rhetorical forms are filmmaking that aims to persuade the audience. This form addresses to us directly the problem and presents arguable claims. It leans on appeals to feeling, and ultimately asks us to take a side of the problem.
Placing Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning (1990) against this framework clarifies how rhetorical form can work without a narrator. The film’s interviews, ballroom sequences, and everyday scenes openly address us through testimony of the characters speak directly about safety, recognition, realness, class, and race.
In contrast of the documentary, experimental work often turns into associational form. The shots and sounds are linked by analogy, contrast, and motif. Through this process we build meaning across juxtaposition of these elements rather than plot points or a thesis statement. For example, the book offered the film Koyaanisqatsi. It shows that ideas about technology and modern life without narration or a very clear line of argument. It structured our experience through segments and images of Philip Glass’s work.
Finally it is the animation section. In cel animation, studios divide labor across drawing, coloring, and photography. It uses fine detail and capture movements, while limited animation only moves parts of the image. There is also computer animation that reshape the traditional animation film world. Film such as Toy Story establish a convention in the field of fully 3D cartoon world and improving way of making film. The book still stress that human work is necessary, such as modeling, keyframing, and lighting.
During free time I watched Suzume by Makoto Shinkai. His film feel like chapter’s hybrid model in practice: hand-drawn character aesthetics integrated with digital composition for skies, water, light, and particulate depth, very much in the Mononoke vein the book describes.
I also spot the strategic use of limited animation for emphasis. The hold and micro motion of the character agaginst the detailed environment aligns with the chapter’s point of limited versus full. It is not just budget constrain but rather a stylistic choice of Shinkai. I will also write a viewer post later this week to discuss about Suzume later this week.
One question I would like to bring up is:
Do hybrid animation change how we read movement as expressive. In other words, when do we attribute meaning to limited motion as style versus as a budget constrain?
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