Media Film

The two theories I am covering Auteur and Marxism. Auteur is a theory that the director and producer influence the film to the point that there status of the director and producer ties up with that of the writer. An example of this would be when the director or producer or even both began to influence the style or the setting or adjusting certain elements of the film or media work to fit there own image. With Marxism the concept follows the same principle except the concept and the narrative of the story of the selective work usually references or has the basis of the concept of class struggle or class antagonism. The premise of marxism in film work dates all the way back to the the early 20s when the Bolsheviks took power in Russia with that many media publications in the sphere of entertainment began to implement or to use Marxism as its base ideology for the film.



The first film that I have analysed was a film called "October" which the story revolves about the end of WW1 and the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 in Imperial Russia. The film in question is covered under the ideology of Marxism for a multitude of reasons. The first reason is that the film depicted the rise of the Bolshevik party in Russia and the overthrowing of the Tsar and the Tsarist government. The film also had themes of Class antagonism which was also the centre point for the main character being Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov who was the leader of the Bolshevik party and also was a Marxist as well as many of the founding Ideals of the Bolshevik party both in real life and in the film. The second point is that the film was created in the early Soviet Union which was a Communist collective of Socialist republics. The third point is that the Directors and the Producers where both Communists and had heavy ties to the Soviet movie Industry at the time. The film to also add as the Final point was supposed to add documentary perspective to the revolution and to add a immortalised view on the revolution and the people who where associated to the revolution.

The film I have covered under the premise of the theory of Auteur is the film called Metropolis which was created close to around the Same time around the film October. The film is covered under the concept of the idea of auteur because as it defines as that the Directors and Producers added there influences to the style of the film despite the fact that Thea von Harbou was the writer of the film and still held to a great extent a significant influence to the films lore and idea to a whole. The director who was Fritz Lang who was a german expressionist who influences the style of the film and its presentation. The films Auteur Influence came from the directors of the film and there interpretation of the worlds concept futurism which was created to be influenced by the idea from the novels depiction on the livelihood of the people in the film and other significant characteristics which was presented as a way. The second point of films Auteur nature was supposed to present the idea of how the producer and the director would see of the world and base the vision from the Novel. The third point on the concept of Auteurism in the film was the then present day influence on the film an example of this would be the scene of the workers which where shown to have a very depressed and lack of moral which was supposed to take inspiration from the then post war Germany with the depression affecting the livelihood of many germans and there perspective of the world.

The Filmography and the relevant background/ Biographical information for the film






   
(Volga Volga) Grigori Aleksandrov another one of his famous productions.

Filmography and Biographical analysis of "October"and the director Grigori Aleksandrov. The films that Aleksandrov list as follows "Volga-Volga", "Jolly fellows" and "Battleship Potemkin" which where films that had influence from and about the newly established Soviet Government and the New Russia that had emerged post World war one. The Biographical aspect of the films that Aleksandrov directed covered over a broad range of accounts and would only focus on those based on significance to the story an Example would be the film "October" where the focus on the character account was "Vladimir Ulyanov" the main centre character for the story.













(M) A film that was directed by Fritz Lang

Filmography and Biographical analysis of "Metropolis" and its director  who had created other media works such as "M", "Scarlet street" and "The Big heat". The Biographical element of the film Metropolis was to focus less on the character and more on the situation of the world in which the story was set in. This is because the film focused on the surroundings and the effects as well as the depiction of the world as a whole.

Casting

Casting of the film "October" comprised of Vasili Nikandrov who stared as Lenin, Nikolay Popov who stared as Kerenskiy who was a rival to Lenin in real life, Smelsky who stared as Verderevsky who was naval official in the provisional government.

Casting of the film "Metropolis" comprised of Brigitte Helm who stared as the machine, Gustav Fröhlich who stared as Freder and Alfred Abel who stared as Jon fredesen. These are all fictional characters and play a part of the films and novels lore.

Film techniques

Film techniques of the film "October" was a film which was supposed to act as an early form of documentary and the use of mise en scene was designed to simulate the setting and appearance of the revolutionary era of Russia which would have had a rugged and perhaps old appeal of the setting to give off a more accurate depiction of the setting and time of the revolution. The film did not rely on any special affects since it only relied on the actual narrative of the event to captivate the audience in question. The only feature of significance was the scale of the film and the sheer size of the battle scenes with crowds in the hundreds battling through the Winter palace. The film because of it being a silent made it the case that all dialog was through text and and slides as a means of the audience understanding the narrative and the character dialog through the film.







Storming of the Winter Palace (October)

Film techniques of the film "Metropolis" starting off with the Mise en scene is a futuristic and almost steampunk like atmosphere with the way the buildings and the way the people dress gives the impression that film had a very 20s perspective on the future. The film mostly comprised with scaled models for its effects and its depiction of the world within the film as well as trickery with lighting since at this point of time there was no means of computer alteration to enhance or give effects to the film. The was a silent however would rely on slides of text for dialog was the only means of the audience being able to interpret the films dialog.

City skyline shows the audience the people and the general layout of the city, a close up shot shows the people in industrial worker attire which helps establish that these people are apart of the time and setting of the film. (Metropolis)





Creative Influences

The film "October" had creative influences from the real life accounts of those who participated in the revolution. The account of V.I Lenin where a great basis of influence for the production of the film and the footage that was captured by journalists at that time played significant influences to the production. As well as the influence of theatre which made the setting for scenes such as Lenin's speech to look more dramatic.




Metropolis Novel which was the movies inspiration (Metropolis)

The Film influences for "metropolis" came from influences from the novel of metropolis with the depiction and description of the film. The use of modernism and futurism which was a feature of interest of the Director Fritz Lang who was also a well known expressionist at that time took influences from the events of industrial revolution in Germany during the build up to World War one. The film also took a significant shape because of the recent post War state of Germany under the Weimar Republic which was a time of great economic depression of Germany and a time of when many elements of Industrialisation had began to take up root in Germany.

Genre and Narrative

Genre of "October" would fall under "Silent film", "Drama" and Historical fiction. The narrative of the film is as follows October is a 1927 Soviet silent era propaganda film directed by Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov. The film was commissioned by the Central Executive Committee of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution.




Metropolis Novel which was the movies inspiration (Metropolis)

The Film influences for "metropolis" came from influences from the novel of metropolis with the depiction and description of the film. The use of modernism and futurism which was a feature of interest of the Director Fritz Lang who was also a well known expressionist at that time took influences from the events of industrial revolution in Germany during the build up to World War one. The film also took a significant shape because of the recent post War state of Germany under the Weimar Republic which was a time of great economic depression of Germany and a time of when many elements of Industrialisation had began to take up root in Germany.

Genre and Narrative

Genre of "October" would fall under "Silent film", "Drama" and Historical fiction. The narrative of the film is as follows October is a 1927 Soviet silent era propaganda film directed by Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov. The film was commissioned by the Central Executive Committee of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution.

Revolutionary is depicted trodding over the Tsarist throne which is used as a symbolic act of the proletariat overthrowing the Tsar and the old government (October)






 Event the wealthy of the film who enter the building are presented as insignificant in comparison
 to the scale of the city (Metropolis)


The film "Metropolis" uses the wide and broad angle shots of the city skyline to depict the setting as daunting and looming to intimidate the audience and to give the impression of how insignificant the individual worker is in comparison to the great multitude of buildings and factories of the city skyline. The display of the Workers in the film shows them and uses the as a symbol of weakness when the camera displays them from high angle shots and broad shots which are used to display that they are weak and petty in comparison to the city.


Technical elements


Metropolis

Stage set and scenery: The film is set in a studio where the audience is displayed the fictitious city and surrounding as well as the interior of the buildings in which the film takes place.

Costumes: The Characters all wear attire which is inspired from the 20s which was time the film was created however with a slight futuristic twist to give it more of a realistic appeal.

Makeup: The Use of Makeup played a significant part especially for the character "The machine" who is actually a women but with a multitude of make up and effects to alter her image. Also I should add the use of other minor effects to make the workers look as if though they have soot and other particles due to exposure of there work environment.

Props: The use of Props where gadgets that where of the realm of science fiction at that time an example is the lab equipment used by the old scientist in one scene of the film.

Lighting: The film used lighting to emphasis the freedom of the wealthy who lived at the top of the city and the use of darker lighting for the workers who lived at the bottom of the city.

City skyline scene of (Metropolis) displays one of the iconic buildings with bright light to display the sheer majestic appeal and nature of the city while showing the workers in a darker light or in a medium setting.





October

Stage set and scenery: The film is set in studio for in door shots however the vast majority of the shots where on the streets of Moscow where the revolution took place. As well as other shots throughout the country to recreate the setting of other recurrences.

Costumes: The film primarily uses the setting and attire of that time which was likely to be not that different than revolutionary times. However the film was recreating everything to the last detail from setting to attire and other subtle differences such as the background symbols of the old Russian state.

Makeup: The film does not use make up to present the characters in an iconic display and was most likely used as effects from recreated injuries during the films story.

Revolutionary soldier holding rifle which is a prop while having make up to look as if he has been exposed to battle while in the attire of the average revolutionary during the scene and setting of the storming of the palace. (October)

Props: The films Props ranged primarily for the most part of Weapons since the film heavily focused on the Revolution and War. However the most iconic prop would be the Papers Lenin carried around with him which was based of a fact that Lenin carried around Journals and documents as he wrote a lot on political philosophies and analysis of the world state then whilst writing speech for his famous rallies

Lighting: The film does not use lighting only for its most iconic scene when Lenin makes a speech to the rallying Workers and revolutionaries who await his speech before the storming of the Winter Palace. The lighting is set up through the scenes lighting being that it was the surrounding spot light which focused on lenin which the film depicts Lenin in a manor which makes him look powerful during the famous revolutionary speech. Another example is during the part during the storming of the palace a shot shows a revolutionary scaling the gate of the Winter palace which a beam of light from one of the spotlights in the scene shows the revolutionary stepping on the crown crest of the gate. This with the light is supposed to act symbolic of the overthrowing of the Tsar and the uprising of the socialist government in Russia.

Lenin's speech (October)                                                                


Written language

The Written language of "Metropolis" is used as the only means of the audience understanding the dialog of the film and the characters in the film and to understand to the narrative of the film. The film itself being a silent film would have been almost impossible if even indecipherable without the use of written language through the means of frames in the film.

"October" uses written language like "Metropolis" due to the two being silent cinema pieces which without any text would have lacked any sense to the dialog and even narrative. However I digress "October" uses written text to the minimum extent only if there are parts of important dialog however throughout 3/4 the film uses Written language to describe slight details and certain dialog expressions of characters throughout the film.