Week Two

Second week in and this time having to attend the lecture without my note taker due to a mix up, so it will be challenging to retain all the information from memory alone but I'll do my best.
This week Chris screened a couple short Australian films "Bound" & "Splintered" and we had to come up with a thematic statement best describing the themes.
"Bound" was about a young immigrant man caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, racial stereotyping the main theme. "Racial stereotyping becomes prejudice" was the statement we chose.
Whilst "Splintered" was about two mates who's misplaced loyalties are tested, redemption is the key theme whilst loyalty is the secondary theme. "Selfless loyalty becomes redemption" was our statement for this short.

What is a theme, and how does it help a film?
This week we explored the idea of what exactly Theme is in film, and how it helps us better tell stories...simple right?
A theme is the overall message or argument that a film maker is trying to portray to the audience, all films have themes as they are about something (simply put). Themes are fundamental and are normally implied rather than categorically stated, as that would simply just be lazy story telling. The differences between narrative & theme can be compared to the Semantic & Syntactic approach to film genre. Themes can be compared to a "Syntactic" approach as it's more relevant to the deeper aspects and  focusing on the abstract meaning. Whilst the narrative can be compared to a "Semantic" approach as it's more relevant to the specific action/dialogue in the script. If that makes sense?
It is used in film to convey a message, every director is trying to tell you something! Through the use of tools such as visceral imagery & symbolism for example, the theme keeps the communiqué with the viewer consistent.

So how does it help a film you ask? 
Well in my opinion I'd simply say by making clear what the lesson of the story is, the viewer is prompted how to react.
It gives the audience an insight in to how the director is feeling and how he or she is influencing you to feel. Another byproduct of this is it produces depth to the world the writer created when he/she first wrote the script, and adds multiple layers to the story arcs, characters etc.
Chris advised us that as directors, figuring out at a early stage what our thematic statement was would make the film making process go a lot smoother if we already had a theme to link it all together. The stronger the statement the bigger the theme.


We also deliberated the meaning of a moral premise, so what is it?
 A moral premise is a one sentence description of the physical and psychological arcs of the movie.
Vice leads to defeat, but virtue leads to success. For example, for "The Matrix" the class came up with "ambiguity leads to slavery, but faith leads to freedom".
The stronger you as a director make your statement the better you, as a director, will understand your film and it's themes!

By the way worth having a look in to the Aurora short film festival (above).

Till next week...bye for now.