Articles on early film history, the style of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, Cecil B. DeMille, Josef von Sternberg, and Ernst Lubitsch. Also pieces on the analysis of film style, on cartoon animation style, television drama over the last 50 years, film style and technology in the 'nineties, and much more.
Film is considered to be the dominant art form of the twentieth century. It can be considered many other things; a record of events, a modern mythology, a career, an industry, an art, a hobby, and much else. Michael Wood explores the history of film, its venture into the digital age, and its role and impact on modern society.
'HOLY WOOD IS A DIFFERENT SORT OF PLACE . . . HERE, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO BE IMPORTANT.' A new phenomenon is taking over the Discworld: moving pictures. Created by the alchemists of Ankh-Morpork, the growing 'clicks' industry moves to the sandy land of Holy Wood, attracted by the light of the sun and some strange calling no one can quite put their finger on... Also drawn to Holy Wood are aspiring young stars Victor Tugelbend, a wizarding student dropout, and Theda 'Ginger' Withel, a small-town girl with big dreams. But behind the glitz and glamour of the clicks, a sinister presence lurks. Because belief is powerful in the Discworld, and sometimes downright dangerous... The magic of movies might just unravel reality itself. 'Funny, delightfully inventive, and refuses to lie down in its genre' - Observer The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Moving Pictures is a standalone.
Film and video create an illusory world, a reality elsewhere, and a material presence that both dramatizes and demystifies the magic trick of moving pictures. Beginning in the 1960s, artists have explored filmic and televisual phenomena in the controlled environments of galleries and museums, drawing on multiple antecedents in cinema, television, and the visual arts. This volume traces the lineage of moving-image installation through architecture, painting, sculpture, performance, expanded cinema, film history, and countercultural film and video from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Sound is given due attention, along with the shift from analogue to digital, issues of spectatorship, and the insights of cognitive science. Woven into this genealogy is a discussion of the procedural, political, theoretical, and ideological positions espoused by artists from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Historical constructs such as Peter Gidal's structural materialism, Maya Deren's notion of vertical and horizontal time, and identity politics are reconsidered in a contemporary context and intersect with more recent thinking on representation, subjectivity, and installation art. The book is written by a critic, curator, and practitioner who was a pioneer of British video and feminist art politics in the late 1970s. Elwes writes engagingly of her encounters with works by Anthony McCall, Gillian Wearing, David Hall, and Janet Cardiff, and her narrative is informed by exchanges with other practitioners. While the book addresses the key formal, theoretical, and historical parameters of moving-image installation, it ends with a question: "What's in it for the artist?"
Hollander explores the premise that paintings, prints, and movies move us similarly by virtue of their narrative element, which evokes our memories and feelings. She argues that we respond to the depiction of glimpses of human life, to the realization that we cannot see everything at once, and how the rendering of light and spatial composition translates them and keeps them moving into our awareness. Thus there is a continuum from the paintings and graphic arts of 15th century northern Europe to the "proto-cinematic arts" of the present. ISBN 0-394-57400-1: $29.95.
I Am Perfectly Designed is an exuberant celebration of loving who you are, exactly as you are, from Karamo Brown, the Culture Expert of Netflix's hit series Queer Eye, and Jason Brown—featuring illustrations by Anoosha Syed. In this empowering ode to modern families, a boy and his father take a joyful walk through the city, discovering all the ways in which they are perfectly designed for each other. "With tenderness and wit, this story captures the magic of building strong childhood memories. The Browns and Syed celebrate the special bond between parent and child with joy and flair...Syed's bright, cartoon illustrations enrich the tale with a meaningful message of kindness and inclusion."—Kirkus
Making Images Move reveals a new history of cinema by uncovering its connections to other media and art forms. In this richly illustrated volume, Gregory Zinman explores how moving-image artists who worked in experimental film pushed the medium toward abstraction through a number of unconventional filmmaking practices, including painting and scratching directly on the film strip; deteriorating film with water, dirt, and bleach; and applying materials such as paper and glue. This book provides a comprehensive history of this tradition of “handmade cinema” from the early twentieth century to the present, opening up new conversations about the production, meaning, and significance of the moving image. From painted film to kinetic art, and from psychedelic light shows to video synthesis, Gregory Zinman recovers the range of forms, tools, and intentions that make up cinema’s shadow history, deepening awareness of the intersection of art and media in the twentieth century, and anticipating what is to come.
Sound for Moving Pictures presents a new and original sound design theory called the Four Sound Areas framework, offering a conceptual template for constructing, deconstructing and communicating all types of motion picture soundtracks; and a way for academics and practitioners to better understand and utilize the deeper, emotive capabilities available to all filmmakers through the thoughtful use of sound design. The Four Sound Areas framework presents a novel approach to sound design that enables the reader to more fully appreciate audience emotions and audience engagement, and provides a flexible, practical model that will allow professionals to more easily create and communicate soundtracks with greater emotional significance and meaning. Of obvious benefit to sound specialists, as well as motion picture professionals such as film producers, directors and picture editors, Sound for Moving Pictures also provides valuable insight for others interested in the subject; such as those involved with teaching soundtrack analysis, or those researching the wider topics of film studies and screen writing.
When the American government began impounding Japanese American citizens after Pearl Harbor, photography became a battleground. The control of the means of representation affected nearly every aspect of the incarceration, from the mug shots criminalizing Japanese Americans to the prohibition of cameras in the hands of inmates. The government also hired photographers to make an extensive record of the forced removal and incarceration. In this insightful study, Jasmine Alinder explores the photographic record of the imprisonment in war relocation centers such as Manzanar, Tule Lake, Jerome, and others. She investigates why photographs were made, how they were meant to function, and how they have been reproduced and interpreted subsequently by the popular press and museums in constructing versions of public history. Alinder provides calibrated readings of the photographs from this period, including works by Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, Manzanar camp inmate Toyo Miyatake (who constructed his own camera to document the complicated realities of camp life), and contemporary artists Patrick Nagatani and Masumi Hayashi. Illustrated with more than forty photographs, Moving Images reveals the significance of the camera in the process of incarceration as well as the construction of race, citizenship, and patriotism in this complex historical moment.
Innovative illustrator Kirk Parrish brings the iconic song "Move the Crowd" to life for the first time as a children's picture book. With knowledge of self, there's nothing I can't solve At 360 degrees I revolve This is actual fact, it's not an act, it's been proven Indeed and I proceed to make the crowd keep moving Innovative illustrator Kirk Parrish brings the iconic song "Move the Crowd" to life for the first time as a children's picture book. The lyrics to Eric B. and Rakim's hit song provide the inspiration for this instant classic. Follow along as Parrish pairs the lyrics with colorful illustrations about a boy being absorbed into his stereo and dropped into a colorless world where the music is dull and the people uninspired. The ensuing transformation he brings to the crowd with his music is one that the whole family can enjoy together.