character.ppt

1、Chapter 3,Character and Performance,Introduction,Characterization and performance are two of the most important aspects of any cinematic work: without characters there can be no narrativesince narrative depends on characters taking action and without performance characters cannot be presented to the

2、 audience.,Characterization,Characterization in films is designed to fulfill certain “functions” in the narrative, or even to correspond to certain mythological “archetypes”. Characters will grow and develop through the course of the film by action rather than by description since film is a type of

3、audio- visual art.,Performance,Cinematic performance has its own specific qualities, and film actors must be able to adapt themselves to the different performative demands required by the great variety of shots that can be employed. Hollywood performance has also developed in two radically different

4、 directions, which are now a fundamenental part of film history and of films as they are made today - method acting - the “star” performance,Character Functions the Shadow is the “dark side”; and the Trickster represents curious, probing, unorthodox（非正统的）tendencies, etc. See table on p20-21 Group wo

5、rk: simplify the table with key words Mindmapping the shaded passage on p21-22,Motivation, Conflict, and Character Growth,Voglers Seven Character Archetypes inadequate for not taking into consideration one crucial feature of characterization in films the phenomenon of character development. Characte

6、r development occurs gradually over the entire “arc” of the narrative “transformational arc”/”growth line”. It occurs because the character has a definite motivation and definite goal, but meets with conflict in the realization of that goal. The key elements of the transformational growth arc are th

7、us (1) motivation and (2)conflict,Motivation,Motivation revealed in cinema by presenting a character taking action in pursuit of a goal. Outer motivation what the character wants to achieve visible and explicit Inner motivation - why the character wants to achieve it invisible and implicit,Conflict,

8、Causes problems for the character in the pursuit of his goal Is what makes drama It is through conflict that the action can advance and the character is revealed,Outer conflict with the outer force Inter conflict against part of oneself Table on page 24,“transformational arc”/”growth line” developme

9、nt of new abilities in the face of challenge Critical reconsideration of goal reflection and increased knowledge of self world,Cinematic Performance,Significance of performance Characters are nothing until they are realized in performance and their full complexity can only be conveyed through words

10、and actions performed by an actor,Differences between theatrical performance and cinematic performance Theatrical performance is restricted by the specific material conditions of the theatre and the distance of the audience has to be taken into consideration. So theatrical performers must pay specia

11、l attention to - the clarity of their delivery - the expression of mental state and emotion through visible bodily gestures,cinematic performance must master the appropriate expressive mode for a whole range of camera distance, from long-distance shot (长镜) to the close-up （特写）to modulate both acting

12、 style and voice. For cinematic performance film is the end product of a process that includes a long period of careful editing and rearrangement. the sense of character is produced by means of performance + through the editing process.,The Concept of “the Actors Two Bodies ”,The film actor has “two

13、 bodies” the real actor and the character being acted must occupy the same physical body - argued the theorist Richard Maltby in his book, Hollywood Cinema.,Two Acting Style,Presentational style the actor presents himself to the audience as himself, eg: Marilyn Monroe Representational style (total i

14、mmersion) the actor does not present himself but instead represents the character he is playing, eg: Dustin Hoffman,Hollywood often encourages the play between the two styles of acting because it is responding to two different kinds of cinematic pleasures: the pleasure of immersing oneself in the fi

15、ctional world of the film and the pleasure of seeing ones favorite actor “playing himself”.,Method Acting,Developed in the 1930s in NYs Group Theatre and Actors Studio, where Lee Strasberg began his own understanding of the ideas of Russian director Constantin Stanislavski. More influential through

16、the middle of the century, its chief adherents are actors such as Marlon Brandon, Al Pacino,Method acting sought to employ the personality of the actor as a kind of psychical (spiritual) resource in the construction and performance of the fictional role. Its central idea lies in the concept of “affe

17、ctive memory” fears, desires, anxieties that can be drawn upon by the actor in order to better identify with the character Adherents of the Method developed better techniques in order to better identify on every level with the role both externally and internally,The Star System,Star performances ten

18、d to employ a more “presentational” style, allowing the persona of the actor or actress to stand out from that of the character, which is at the opposite pole of performance from Method acting. Hollywoods star system has been criticized for it sacrifices the aesthetic value for the sake of economic

19、benefit. Some theorists argued that stars are a kind of text, in which their own existence is secondary to the various textual forms in which they appear before the public such as promotion, publicity, criticism as well as in films.,Richard Dyers Star lists the four main elements in the production o

20、f a star: - promotion: work done by the studio to put forward a definite image for the star - publicity: the non-deliberate emergence of personal information about the star into the public sphere, sometimes negative - criticism/commentary (about the stars ) to keep the stars in the public attention,

21、Why Audience attracted to the stars?,Male stars are regarded as an ego-ideal, a better self, who compensates on an imaginary level for a “lack” of some kind in the spectator Female stars have been viewed as a “sexualized spectacle” that interrupt the narrative to give the spectator erotic pleasure. eg. Whos going to play Scarlet in Gone with the Wind? Katherine Herben/Vivian Leigh,Star Casting,Two basic techniques for Ho