Final Paper: Constructing Realities: The Reality of Representation
I chose to write about Question number 4 on the syllabus that addresses the issue of the relationship between “real” stories and cinematic representations.
My thesis states: “The process of filmmaking is a vehicle for filmmakers to present their personal interpretation of a story and often results in their manipulation of a “real” story for a designated response.”
I support this argument by first addressing the issue of authorship and explaining the importance of the “Five I’s” in the book Creative Filmmaking From the Inside Out. Then I address the issue of the message that a filmmaker tries to put out through film and how this is done through fiction, narrative and propaganda. I focused on the issue of spectatorship as well with an emphasis on the desired response from the filmmaker and the actual response from the spectators. I conclude the paper by stating that viewers can more adequately judge the validity of a film or constructed reality by becoming familiar with the filmmaker themselves and also the process of making that film because no one ever really sees reality exactly the same.
Sources:
1. Dannenbaum, Jed, Carroli Hodge, and Doe Mayer. Creative Filmmaking From the Inside Out. Fireside, 2003.
2. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “On the Nature and the Natural Man.” Emerson: Selections from Self-reliance, Friendship, Compensation, and other Great Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Kansas City: Hallmark Editions, 1969.
3. Enriquez, Alejandro. “Lourdes Portillo’s Senorita extravida: The Poetics and Politics of Femicide.” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture.
4. Gaut, Berys. “Cinematic Art.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. (U.S.A.), vol. 60, no. 4, Fall 2002, pp. 299-312, bibliog.
5. Simmons, Aisha. “The War Against Black Women, and the Making of NO!” Color of Violence. South End Press, 2006.