How Close Reading Applies to Cinema

by Edoardo Tarkovsky

In talking about close reading, we have thoroughly talked about writing and “voice”, the unique style that a writer can have. A truly competent writer has a grasp on precision of language; he can manipulate words at his disposal to make a reader feel a certain way. This is the work of an artist. In class, we talked about how much a writer can convey to a reader simply through the length of his sentences. There is a certain flow that an effective writer can bring to a paragraph. Writing is like its own language that can be interpreted and analyzed in countless ways.

The same is true of film. We can apply close reading to movies as much as we can to writing. In class, we watched the iconic crop duster scene from Hitchcock’s film North by Northwest. We saw how much could be conveyed with just simply the length of each shot. In this scene, the cuts between the shots happen faster and faster as the climax approaches. As these cuts happen, the tension in the audience is built up; its effect is that it makes our hearts race increasingly as the speed of the cuts gets faster. This is just one example of close reading a scene in film.

The films of any great director are packed with different forms of cinematography and editing that conveys different feelings. Many times, the average audience overlooks these complexities in film. This is evident when I watch a film with a non-cinemaphile friend, and ask them what they liked or disliked about it. Usually, the answer is centered around the story and plot of the film we just watched, rather than what makes it viscerally or visually interesting. Usually, after a discussion of story and plot with this non-cinemaphile friend, I’ll ask them, “So what did you think about the film’s cinematography?” The answer I get is almost always, “Oh, I don’t pay attention to that.”

I think this is an interesting phenomenon. Many people who watch a film and enjoy it will not be able to explain what it is that made it effective as a film. This is the same thing as people who don’t have a taste for the use of language in writing. Close reading in these two forms of media, in this sense, is very similar.

This is what close reading is really all about. It is about analyzing texts and being a smart reader.  This exact same idea can be applied perfectly to cinema, just as much so as to reading. This is important because the authenticity of film as an art form has always been questioned; it is often thought of as a lesser form of art than other, more “sophisticated” mediums. A closer reading shows that film can be as sophisticated as English literature. The crop duster scene in North by Northwest is only a very small example of what film does with audiences.

I guess the goal with writing about close reading for me is to open up a world of reading to the uninitiated that they’ve never seen before. As one who highly values film and cinematography, I see the potential in close reading film. The general public can watch movies so much more differently than they do right now.

The Princess Diaries Book 1 vs The Princess Diaries Movie

By: Dee

I’ve seen the movie The Princess Diaries many times. I haven’t read the book until now. I know that books and movies are different, but I don’t understand why they changed so many details for this movie.

Yes, there are similarities too. The main character’s name, which is Mia Thermopolis (Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldi), does not change. Her best friend Lilly Moscovitz stays the same. Mia lives with her single mother. Mia goes from this average teenage girl who might not be the most attractive or popular girl in her school to becoming a princess.

Despite the similarities, there are also many differences. For example, in the story, Mia lives in New York with her mother. In the film, she lives in San Francisco. Mia was 14 years old in the book. They decided Mia could be 15 and be learning how to drive. In the book, the father is the one who reaches out to Mia about how she is the heir to Genovia. The father dies in the movie. Her grandmother or grandmère, who she called grandma in the movie, was known as the Dowager Princess of Genovia. That was also disregarded, and she was known as the Queen. There are many more differences that I was confused about.

I personally enjoyed the book more than the movie for a few reasons. First, I don’t love Anne Hathaway as an actress and I don’t think she really portrayed Mia Thermopolis. Secondly, I don’t see a reason to change the plot of a story when it was already pretty good.

Mythology

by HissyFit

Welcome to the second blog post by me, HissyFit! Today I will be talking about general mythology, with an example of a Norse myth. Besides chillers and thrillers, I also like mythology!

To start us off, I have a claim to make about mythology. I believe, personally, that myths are stories made up to explain things that could not be explained logically. It is natural for humans to question everything they do not understand. What is this? What is that? Or more importantly, why is this? Most likely to give themselves a sense of comfort and knowledge, the ancients created these stories called myths to explain things. Here is a good example:

In the beginning there was the void. And the void was called Ginnungagap. What does Ginnungagap mean? Yawning gap, beginning gap, gap with magical potential, mighty gap; these are a few of the educated guesses. Along with the void existed Niflheim the land of fog and ice in the north and Muspelheim the land of fire in the south. There seems to be a bit of confusion as to whether or not these existed after Ginnungagap or alongside of it from the beginning.

In Niflheim was a spring called Hvergelmir from which the Elivagar (eleven rivers - Svol, Gunnthra, Fiorm, Fimbulthul, Slidr, Hrid, Sylg, Ylg, Vid, Leiptr, and Gioll) flowed. The Elivargar froze layer upon layer until it filled in the northerly portion of the gap. Concurrently the southern portion was being filled by sparks and molten material from Muspelheim.

The mix of fire and ice caused part of the Elivagar to melt forming the figures Ymir the primeval giant and the cow Audhumla. The cow's milk was Ymir's food. While Ymir slept his under arm sweat begat two frost giants, one male one female, while his two legs begat another male.

While Ymir was busy procreating Audhumla was busy eating. Her nourishment came from licking the salty ice. Her incessant licking formed the god Buri. He had a son named Bor who was the father of Odin, Vili, and Ve.

For some reason the sons of Bor decided to kill poor Ymir. His blood caused a flood which killed all of the frost giants except for two, Bergelmir and his wife, who escaped the deluge in their boat.

Odin, Vili, and Ve put Ymir's corpse into the middle of ginnungagap and created the earth and sky from it. They also created the stars, sun, and moon from sparks coming out of Muspelheim.

Finally, the brothers happened upon two logs lying on the beach and created the first two humans Ask [Ash] and Embla [vine?] from them.

Source: http://www.meta-religion.com/World_Religions/Ancient_religions/Europe/norse_creation_myth.htm#.VDQeTdEtDtQ

Was that great? Yeah! Was that logical? Ummmm…no, no it was not. This myth, compared to modern science and supported religion, made no sense. But back in the day, there was no science-y wiccawa to go off of. The ancients only slightly knew what the heck they were talking about!

Say you were walking along a valley in those days. Suddenly you step on something. You look down at your feet and see a huge spider crawling angrily out from under your foot. You don’t like spiders! You might wonder, “Why do bad things like spiders exist?” There is nothing wrong with wondering that, but how will you answer your question? Nobody knows, so nobody can tell you. Like the ancients did, you would probably make up an answer! Something really explanatory, but also interesting to hear, so your story isn’t totally lame. Something like:

Long ago, there was two bear gods; a nice bear god and a mean bear god. The nice bear god created flowers and dogs and life, while the mean bear god created spiders, lightning and death because he didn’t like happiness.

Viola! You have an explanation for why things happen. That gives you some peace of mind, right? Next you might make up a myth about why kittens meow! It is more fun to know than not to know, so when a question can’t be answered, we make up stories so we can know everything about everything!

Close Reading Superheroes

by Lu_Bear16

In English class we talked about how in the 1940s superman would wear bright red, bright blue and bright yellow in his suit and how now a days he wears the same colors but the colors are darker now a days and also the situation that the superhero is going through is darker.

We also talked about how women in the olden days were treated really weak and how they would also need to be saved all the time. We also talked about how they couldn’t fight with the enemy and how they are just standing there looking at the chaos and not doing anything about it because they are supposedly scared so they just wait there to be saved. We also talked about how now day’s heroines are objectified.

It was really interesting to talk and discuss about superheroes and super heroines, because I’ve always been interested in heroes, and I was able to express my opinion and listen to my peer’s opinion about how different heroes and heroines look like now than they did in the 1900s. It was also really awesome to learn about how the superhero stories are different and darker than the stories from the 1900s.

Another thing that I thought that was really interesting about the discussion was to learn how male heroes (e.g. Superman) were portrayed as more powerful than woman and how that has changed throughout the years.

Wings Series

by Elizabeth

Once upon a time there was a girl who thought she was human. When her mom said she wanted to sell the land Laurel went with her. At the land She met Tamani who was a Faerie. When Laurel met Tamani he told her what she was. Laurel went to a high school where she met David who likes her more than a friend. Then they start hanging out and studying for biology then they end up getting together. In the next book Spells Laurel goes to school in Avalon she realizes that she might go to college out there. When she comes home David is there waiting for her. One day at School David Doesn’t show up and she wonders where he is. Then all of a sudden he shows up and asks Laurel to ditch School.

The wings series By: Aprilynne Pike is a really good series if you are into fantasy and Faerie’s and trolls. If your not then I suggest that you don’t read it but I think if you like the fantasy stuff then you will like this.

Comic Storytelling

by Fang Terror

Story telling is an essential part of comics. I’m Fang Terror, the creator of a comic called Hedgy and Nathan. We’ve all probably read comics of some sort, but did you know EVERY comic ha a story. No matter how you make it, there will always be a story somewhere in it. How about I discuss how to make a comic. I will start at the basics.  How about Panels. The Panels are the shapes around the drawings in a comic. I know this may seem like, just part of the drawing, but it also has a far more important reason. Panels also separate each scene from each other. Think about this; you have a, say, hedgehog flying around a knight. Without panels, the only way to show it is moving is to make multiple hedgehogs. But if you do that, people will get confused. I mean, why would there be five or so hedgehogs when there’s only need for one? To fix that problem, add panels my friend. Panels separate each situation from each other and create a  problem. Now, let’s move on to Characters. Characters are pretty self-explanatory, but they are one of the most vital parts of comics. Speech bubbles. Those enclose what they people are saying and organize what goes where and who says what in what order. Drawing style comes up next. Drawing style is important because it makes your drawing unique from anyone else. I will explain story telling for comics later. You can make it one panel, yet there will still be a story. You can change the topic every time you draw a comic, and yet, once again there will be a story. For example, it can be as easy to know the story of the comic as a Super Hero comics (IE.) Spider Man, where it will be him trying to stop the green goblin or even as vague of a story as a Pearls before Swine TM comic, where Pig is talking to rat. In the first story it is simple to point it out.  Spiderman Verses the Green Goblin. However, in the pearls before swine comic, it is harder to point it out. The key is what they’re saying. I’m sure you can identify it from there. An example of a comic with a good story line can be Calvin and Hobbes. The storyline is about a kid who has a stuffed tiger who is alive, but only when nobody but Calvin is around. Try finding a story with any comic. All tell you more on this topic later. Happy story hunting!