Lacan Breakdown

 Content

So Lacan, another like Freud (who we discussed in a previous post) who became famous through his use of coming up with the idea of psychoanalysis.

However that doesn't mean that his work is the definite way to look at the psyche, several other great analysts have built upon the ideas Freud set out n order to fill the missing gaps.

One of these people was Jacques Lacan, he was something of a celebrity in the field in that he had the looks and charm that attracted women and the renown for his essays/transcripts.

Before with Freud we've spoken about the different types of stages that he believed every person went through as they grew and developed well Lacan seems to expand on this idea a bit and helps along the process of us beginning to recognize our identity of who we are through what he called "The Mirror Phase", in this theory during the period of 8-16 months old a child can see themselves in the mirror an begin to recognize themselves through the reflection.

It's this theory too that Lacan begins to develop a new interpretation of us and who we are as people and beings, where he puts forward the idea that we will always be misinterpreted as people as everyone is on the outside of us and can only perceive who we are through that outside shell rather than who we see ourselves as on the inside.

From this he further develops his point by saying this is why we as people are worry overly about this outward appearance, because we fear rejection and loneliness which could come as a result of this outside view and therefore we begin to look at how we can be interpreted by how we look.

With Freud we talk about the development of sexuality through things like the Oedipus complex and observation of relationships around us, Lacan proposes the idea that there is no such thing as a sexual relationship.

Which leads to some pretty interesting ideas further down the line involving the idea that there's no such thing as man and woman. Not just this but also the concept that we truly don't understand anyone and what we call romantic interest or love is instead a series of ideals and fantasies drawn from the world around us and put into a physical form (that being our partner).

Hopefully this has given you a better idea of Lacan's ideas and maybe how Freud influenced his ideas. 

Freud-The What And How

 Who and Why

So who was Sigmund Freud and why is important or even relevant to film? Well as I'm sure you all know he was a famous psychologist, but he did a lot to set standards that we still use even today in modern psychology. One of these was the invention of psychoanalysis, this is the basis for theories of therapy and treatments for patients, this then gives us an idea of characteristics of some peoples personalities or characteristics which help to get a better picture of ideas and ideals further down the line. 

He also published a few books notably "The Interpretation Of Dreams" where he talks about the idea that dreams are a gateway into our unconscious mind and some of our repressed desires etc. but basically the general takeaways from these two points is that he set some renown and known ways that are still used today and have become well established baseline for psychologists today.

However his most important development (in my opinion anyway) was the development of different neuroses to try and give a greater understanding of how the brain works giving us our personalities, I'll briefly go over them now: 

The id: This is what Freud called the pleasure driven portion of the subconscious (supposedly seen primarily from babies-3 year old's) where the brain's basic desires and emotions are housed. It needs some of the most basic things such as emotional and the need for instant gratification.

The superego: In this there are more specific things like ideals and the need for perfection that's passed down to us from society and parents this helps to guide us by dictating the do's that we must follow to act as an opposite against the id yet the id occupies more space but there's more power that goes behind the super. How is it balanced?

The ego: This is the main part of all the consciousness, the one that gives the control needed to balance out both the superego and the id in the mind as too much of either would be self destructive and that as we matured we grew to find the balance and indulge each other almost in sequence. Such as having the superego being in charge for a time (like for cleaning or work) then indulging in id when you get the reward (relaxing times or the paycheck) which helps fulfil all parts of the consciousness.

These are all devices or terms that Freud used when describing how the brain was built and the conscious was structured. There's still one term that I've mentioned but not really expanded on, and that's his technique of psychoanalysis. See back when he was still understanding the human minds and how it pieced together from understanding dreams [as mentioned previously] but other things as well like inferring meaning from slips of the tongue like something that was supposed to be hidden or trying to get an alternative behind a joke made.  

Bonnie And Clyde: A Deeper Look

 What and Why?

So when looking at Bonnie and Clyde you have to remember that there was a lot going on at the time of its production and release not to mention the actual message behind the movie itself.

So lets go back to 1960's America, at the time there were a lot of movements and system shake-ups that were having dramatic effect on the world around them like the Women's liberation movement or the Anti-Vietnam movement or the Hippie movement but all of them had one thing in common. Shaking up the normal and having a pop at established society of the time. Like we've discussed before MASH was a commentary on Vietnam but based in Korea to make sure that the film and its contents would be protected because there were restrictions when it came to making jokes against the government or the effort. So what did Bonnie and Clyde do?

Well they went against the norm in a different way and actually have been claimed to be the catalyst for the start of these types of films. If you think about it you can see why, most women would probably have been at home while the men held office or similar jobs doing the work for the support at home. Bonnie and Clyde shakes this up in quite a big way by having it as two people who granted at first glance meet that conformity going around and basically destroying the established stereotype by being criminals.

This trend of just straight bashing what's been built by the government continues with one of the characters (CW) having a tattoo, now while we may consider this normal today back in the 60's people were criticized for it as it's marking ones body permanently. Now you may be thinking "Well it was just the character so they used make-up, why are people so upset?" You'd be wrong because the actor who plays CW actually got a tattoo just for the film with his father criticizing his choice.

Now all the films that were a part of the new wave followed this pattern of experimental non conformity like Easy Rider which gave mind altering drugs and long cuts of seemingly anything possible, but that's what these films are about, the idea to break-up and shake up what you've been taught and told to go be unique and different to mess what society says you have to be before going to bed and doing it again the next day.

Well hopefully this has helped with a little more background on Bonnie and Clyde and why it was as influential as you'd think.

My New Wave Film

 

 Here is a clip from my interpretation of a new wave film that features monochrome/black & white main images, emphasis on sounds like the music and extended shots with seemingly invisible cuts.

The basic idea behind this was to take some of the shots/pieces that are seen in the American new wave and its influence (political commentary and French new wave) and make it about how life almost has gone backwards with lockdown in effect whilst promoting safety within the current climate. As you can tell by the footage it's all handheld with minimum stability with the movements of the scene as I move.

The thought process was that the American New Wave made commentaries on the scenes or trends within current politics, as we know COVID is the biggest influence and news of this year and it can feel isolating and to some almost like they're going backwards.

Hence some of the shots having almost no one in them highlighting the isolation with the homes and quarantine, then the actual story line of the story seemingly going backwards in time.

So on to the critique of the work, overall I feel that I achieved my goal of making a comment on the impact of the current environment that the government has shown meeting the general type of film made within the 1960's-70's America at the time, it was also low-budget just me, my phone and some help from the internet for sounds further reflecting on the statistical side of the New Wave development. Enough about the theory and backing what about the clip itself and well I feel like I captured a number of points and edits in the piece, for example the sound and visual alignment towards the end of the clip builds scale and emotion around the environment of the character and what's happening to them. The transitions between them help to keep the flow running smoothly and not breaking the audience out of the experience. Another is the overlay on top of the scenes, having the low opacity of the images and clips on top of the video help to build an ominous feel whilst giving reminders of the government impact on the character (which explains the flashes of Boris on the overlay).

Now where did it go wrong? Well from the top there were a few health and safety issues along with privacy problems too, such as for the reverse walking scene I had to keep an eye out behind me whilst walking which limits my visibility and also makes the possibility of capturing something whilst filming with the camera facing the opposite direction. The next health and safety issue was that whilst walking my feet weren't stable at the angle of walking for the shot making it a risk of falling and damaging me or the equipment. As I mentioned earlier there was also a privacy risk and that was similar to what I mentioned earlier about not being able to see the camera whilst walking backwards so if someone or something got into frame that wasn't supposed to be there then that could  cause a lot of issues further down the pipeline.

Other than the issues filming lets go to the editing, going back over the footage captured within the clip did make a few problems like trying to align audio to fit clips and where there's edits in trying to blend them to ensure that the transitions seem more real and like a sequence rather than having it as a series of individual clips. The other one was trying to make sure that video clarity was still good and strong when putting in the black & white filters and overlays on top of the raw video files and having the transition effects at the right points to reflect the general theme of the clip.

To sum up from the review, overall I feel as though I achieved what I set out to do but in future I need to reflect on the problems and issues that I brought up for the next project.

Health & Safety

What and why?

So we've talked a lot about different shots within cinematography and phtotography, but in all of these we haven't actually discussed the main thing that's almost always covered first in any project that's undertaken is health and safety concerns.

Below are some shots of a studio being used and we're going to discuss what are some of the health and safety concerns and factors that have to be looked at.

There's one factor that's common with all of these images and that's the exposure. As you can see there's a lot of light and light sources in all of these images which can cause damage to the eyes if there's enough exposure to high intensity light for too long and if your filming an interview or doing a long photoshoot then this becomes something to consider.

Another thing to consider which is more obvious is electrics. Looking at all of these photos you see a lot of appliances that need plugs or cords in order to work.

This leaves a lot of sockets on and exposed to the room which can cause a few problems if there's any drinks in the room. While it may seem obvious that you wouldn't generally have a drink in the studio while it's active temperature does mean that you'd be more inclined to have a drink, and if something goes wrong like the drink gets knocked then items could get damaged or an electrical fire could break out.

So for safety and general practice leave any drinks outside of the room for safety of you as well as others and equipment.

Last which is related to the previous point is the cables in a darkened room (such as the studio however I adjusted the brightness of the images so you can see setting and appliances etc.) the cables are generally exposed and in that kind of lighting when you're moving around behind the scenes could cause some major issues. As you can see by the images in front of the model and behind the camera is quite dark and when your moving around to try and get a better angle of different effect of the subject you can trip and fall injuring yourself and possibly others as the equipment may go with you.

So general advice would be that if you're needing to move then keep an eye on the ground as you do.

Lighting

What's that?

Well we all know what lighting is, it's just how a scene gets it's light from the surroundings but what types are there and how does this impact the scene itself? Well hopefully by the end of this post you'll understand what the different types of lighting are and to what types of scenes these have the most impact on.

Three Point Lighting:

Now this sounds confusing but it's relatively simple, three locations within a scene where you place some low-key [talked about later] lights in order to light the scene more or give a specific emphasis, or light to it to highlight maybe a shadow or particular person. As you can see above there's how a general three point lighting set-up would look, now this doesn't really necessarily explain everything that well so I'll do it now.

Key lighting: This is your main light, this is always going to be the first one that you set up as this is not only your primary source of light but also a guideline for what angles to move the other two at to get the right effect.

Fill lighting: Now unlike the Key which is normally an intense light this one is a lot softer and is used to fill in a few more areas on the subject that the key might either leave or not give the right amount of light to.

Back light: Last is the back light, while this may not give as an immediate effect it's clear that it does something though which is that it gives it more of a dimension to the image making it look more real than the flat image that just the other two would give.

Below is an example of the lighting setup we just talked about:

Obviously this image has some good and bad points, on the one hand the model is centred with a good amount of light to highlight the models face as well as creating a more three dimensional image and there's enough shadow behind to put emphasis on the highlights (such as the light reflected in the eyes) and the overall features. However this is not without flaws either, the big shadow at the back draws the audiences eye to focus more to that than the main subject itself. The lighting is soft enough that not all the features are clearly defined, and linking to that there's no theme or placement for the lighting it's generic enough to pass for a decent quality yet without a subject it doesn't hold as good a meaning.

Generally this is what a normal lighting set will be like, but there's also lighting types too which give different effects and meanings to the scenes with each one. So lets go through them each in turn and discuss the various effects that each has.

Edge Lighting: This lighting is more solid than the other two types that we'll be looking at later but basically long or short of this type is that one portion of the face is highlighted (inside of the light) and another that's pretty much encased within shadow making the contrasts higher,  the actual source of the light can vary between natural (or high key) and artificial (low key) so long as there's an off set for the shadow to make the highlights appear lighter and then the shadows darker to ensure that the Edge lighting is achieved. This type of lighting does normally create some interesting connotations.

One of which is the idea of duality, having the character highlighted with this split type of lighting showing maybe the more known side whilst demonstrating that there's another side that isn't normally scene or that it's much darker than the character themselves.

Here's an example from film vs an interpretation from me:

In this image we see a more clearly defined version of edge lighting that gives a better visual example of the technique, the lighting is probably a bit darker than necessary to show the lighter half but it still gives the representation in enough detail to show what the light is about. The shot is good, it helps to prove the point of the technique and show off the impact that it can have in the right scenes. But this isn't entirely faultless, the lighting could've been a bit brighter to make sure that you can see the image clearly and then you have more of a sharper and hardline shadows which draws away from the image as it's bold against the backdrop so that could've been lightened up a bit more.

In this image you can see that edge lighting is still present but that it's a lot softer and maybe not as bold as can be expected (like the image above) but it still gives a good demonstration of edge lighting within an outside setting. 

This is a shot from the trailer of Batman (2021) and the connotation of duality that I mentioned earlier works well with this shot in the context of the scene, as there's someone there for Batman which is the side that's shaded and hidden, while Bruce is in the light and in the public eye yet still retaining some of the darkness hinted at in the character themselves.  

Rembrandt Lighting: 

So this is similar to edge lighting but requires a bit more effort behind it, there's usually a light or two active and then a reflector is used to achieve the light used to create a similar feeling to that of Edge lighting but this has a different end result to the other as there's more light on the other half of the character with a triangle of light on their face.

In terms of what light is being used of either high-key or low-key there isn't that much difference in terms of effect between this and Edge that we discussed it just involves more play with angles and light intensity to make sure that you get that triangle of light in the shot that defines the actual lighting type itself. However the backing is different because it isn't actually a seemingly recent development within the industry, it came from a Dutch artist of the same name in the 17th Century who used this type of light in his paintings.

Here's my attempt at mimicking this effect vs a use in film:

So here is an example of Rembrandt with the light triangle by the light outlined to show off where it is, as you can see there is a lighter and darker side of the face but this time around there's only a small section of light in the darkened section which gives a more dramatic effect and shows off maybe a certain point of the character.

So this image works well in showing off the technique but there's still a lighting and shadow issue that makes the image more darker than necessary and background shadows more bold making them a bit more of a focus. 

Here's an example from film that's using primarily natural light to make this hence why the darker side is a bit lighter than normal, but the effect is still the same in that there's the light in the darkened section of the image. This light adds a bigger dimension to the image making it  appear more bold and seemingly three dimensional, now lights like this and the Edge are more primarily seen in film noir styles as the effect works even better because it's there's no real colour pallet other than shades of white, grey and black. Having these films using this light gives better emphasis to the mood or the lights in the room drawing the audience into the scene and the characters in it.

Butterfly Lighting:

Now this is of a much different tone and style to the previous two, primarily because there's a few less and different methods to make sure that it's achieved. So to get it the process is quite simple and requires a bit less to get the achieved effect, basically how this works is that the subject is in one spot and then you take the key light (check diagram above if you're confused) and raise it above the subject to get a bit of shadow at two sides of the face. It was more of a 50's film trend than a more modern one.

Here's my interpretation vs an example from film:

Here's my interpretation of butterfly lighting, as you can see it's much better than the previous two as it's got a clear and bright image with lights focusing down on the face and giving shadows to the edges of the face.

In terms of what worked, you can clearly see that there's a shadow on either side of the face and that the light is centered on the main portion of the face.

However there are a few things wrong with it, like for example the position of the light isn't as centered as it could be to get the best effect possible and it was maybe a bit too high as there seems to be a focus of light on the forehead rather than the entire face but the effect is still reached even with these positioning errors.

Here is a picture of an actress popular from the 50's called Audrey Hepburn, and this as I mentioned earlier was a very popular style for actresses of the 50's in like glamour and fashion as it gave highlights to the shape of the face. It's also used to highlight the beauty of a love interest within the plot as it draws interest and emphasis to the face of the character.

As you can see, the light is at a height where the neck has a light shadow and then a more defined where the head is and then there's a clear line down each side of the face giving it the outline to draw attention to the middle part of the face where the characters eyes would be.

Well that about wraps up lighting styles and techniques, hopefully you learned something new and how lighting can give certain impacts to your piece. 

Research Links

https://emilyemarsden.wordpress.com/academic-writing/cause-and-effect-of-the-1960s-hippie-movement/

Easy Riders Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind: ["Being an outlaw was a great thing to want to be, whether it was Clyde Barrow or Abbie Hoffman. All the stuff we wrote had to do with epater le bourgeois, shaking society up, saying to all the squares, 'We don't do that, man, we do our thing.' But the thing we loved about Bonnie and Clyde wasn't that they were bank robbers, because they were lousy bank robbers. The thing about them that made them so appealing and relevant, and so threatening to society, was that they were aesthetic revolutionaries. In our view, what kills Bonnie and Clyde is not that they broke the law, because no one liked the fucking banks-but that they put a tattoo on C. W. Moss. His father says, 'I can't believe that you let these people put pictures on your skin.' This is what the '60s turned out to be about."]

Hollywood From Vietnam To Reagan...And Beyond [For references of film analysis]

Silver Screen Revolution (Documentary)

https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/culture-magazines/1960s-lifestyles-and-social-trends-topics-news

https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/8195/volumes/v25/NA

New Hollywood: American New Wave Cinema (1967-69) (newwavefilm.com)

What is New Hollywood? The Revolution of 1960s and ‘70s Hollywood (studiobinder.com)

ADV4M LG6 - American New Wave Cinema of the 1960s and 1970s.pdf (google.com)

Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts, Second edition (wpmucdn.com)

Vietnam War Facts, Definition, Costs and Timeline (thebalance.com)

The-Economic-Consequences-of-War-on-US-Economy_0.pdf (economicsandpeace.org)

Dennis Hopper: Peter Fonda on his 'Easy Rider' co-star | The Independent | The Independent