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BVA303 Homework

Looking into a reading schedule for my Major Project.

Working Title: Tales from the Kitchen Cupboard.

Intended as a web series. I am intending to make the pilot episode, and possibly develop some concepts for further episodes.
The story follows a rat as he watches a group of young flatmates trying to figure out their place in the world.
My research question is; "Capturing Subjectivity on Film; with particular focus on the use of multiple film techniques to differentiate between the observers world and vs. the world outside them."
By this I mean I want to create a narrative that deals with one character viewing the world from their own perspective in such a way that the audience relates to the character. I want to combine this with the idea of there being a "wider world" (the world that the observer is observing). The "wider world" will not necessarily interact with the observer, however, I intend for the audience to learn more about the "wider world" as a result of what the observer (the rat) sees.

To do this I will need to think about a few things:

  1. I will need to think about techniques used by filmmakers to draw an audience into viewing a scene from the point of view of a character. For example:
      1. I have to think about perspective, proportion and how a rat would see. 
      2. I have to think about colour and form. 
      3. I have to think about movement and time. 
      4. I have to think about filming techniques that could be used to draw the audience in to the rats mind. 
      5. Finally, I have to decide whether to go more for realism or surrealism and how much artistic license I want to give myself to skew things into my own interpretation.
    1. I need to think of ways to show the differences vs. the similarities between the rat's world and the humans' world, as well as their own understanding of their places in the world. 

    Keywords that I will use to research this are:
    • Subjectivity in film
    • Point of view in film
    • Character identification in film.
    • Establishing Empathy.
    • How rats experience the world.
    • Realism in dialogue. 
    • Proportion. 
    • Perspective.

    I will read: A Theory of Narrative EmpathyHistoire(s) Du Cinéma (The english bit), Feeling the Gaze: Narrative Empathy in "A Time to Kill"FOCALISATION IN FILM NARRATIVE, Empathic Engagement with Narrative Fictions, Psychology of Entertainment, Film after Jung: Post-Jungian Approaches to Film TheoryPoint of view in the Cinema: A theory of Narration and Subjectivity in Classical Film. 

    Here's another book that might help :  "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" by Laura Mulvey.


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