After watching "Meshes of the afternoon" I am a little lost. That was a very confusing film. I think it was so confusing because of the constant change in character and camera shots and then the sound coming on and off. In this little movie there is a lady who seems to have a wordless discussion at a table with herself included three times. I am not really sure. I took from the movie that maybe this lady is just crazy and had lost her mind and happened to kill herself. Not really sure what happened but it was definitely a film that made you think!
I believe that in today's technology, most of what we see in a visual media is from the director. The one counter I had for this argument was that the actor is the one who has to portray the directors thoughts. Therefore the actor is sort of a middle man and should get credit for half the work because he is acting it. Because the director is wanting to put his message on screen, he can chose the actors to help get his message to the audience. This gives him control over most things that help him relay his message. Who acts the part, how the audience sees the part and etc. However, the director could also remove an actor because it might not fit his vision as well as he had hoped. With the director having so much power of what actually gets shown on screen, I believe the director should get most of the credit for the final product. I am not saying that the actor does not get any credit, because he does. He is a middle man. But, the directors message goes through the actor to get on the screen so we may see the message as if it was the actors, but in the grand scheme of things, it is the directors message.
I think a lot of what we as audience members think and feel help make the movie what it is. Because we are all humans and have different values or beliefs, we all see the movie in a different light. I have different thoughts than you so I may take away a different movie than you might have, even though we both are watching the exact same thing. Peoples views in life and what they believe in can contribute majorly to how a movie is viewed in their eyes versus someone else with completely different views. When watching scary movies its like we are trained to be warned that when certain music comes on we know something is about to pop out and scare us. This makes the movie that much more intriguing for the audience! Not knowing yet knowing, its a great factor that contributes to our part of the media. Also, if someone has a certain belief, they may be more biased throughout the movie if it is against their beliefs. Rather than someone who might enjoy the movie more if it is in their belief system.
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteI really like the point you made about the actor being the "middle man" between the director and the audience. I believe this is very true because we do not see the director in the visual media, instead the actors portray the directors vision to the audience. I also agree with the statement you made about all people view movies differently, so people can have different opinions on what they believe was portrayed in the visual media.
Dude, I thought the same thing about the movie. Yeah it was creative and artsy and different and whatever, but I think she just lost her shit and offed herself after going to sleep and waking up. Maybe she saw death coming for her or something like that, who knows.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same about directors and actors. Directors have the vision, but have to be skilled enough to cast someone they think can capture their vision, and then the actors are pressured to become an extension of the directors mind, so there's a lot of responsibility all around.