Filmmakers as Archivists of Science (original) (raw)
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David Bordwell wrote that “Narrative is a fundamental way that humans make sense of the world”, a very solid statement, an event without a story to it is unheard of, if we are not told the story then what is left for us to make sense of the event? The notoriously ambiguous 2001: A Space Odyssey (see fig.1) is remembered for its groundbreaking visual effects and its distinctly noticeable lack of dialogue, with only 40 minutes in a 141 minute film. With such minimal dialogue, not necessarily always driving the narrative forward, we are provided with captions on the screen telling us the changing times, and some other very interesting visual story telling devices. I am going to be analysing the narrative of 2001: A Space Odyssey and whether or not the decision to remove a vast majority of the dialogue affects the way in which the story is told. From that, I am going to look into the relationship between image and sound, focusing on the way in which the narrative is driven forward through images and music, and whether or not this enables the viewer to interpret the film in their own way – just as Kubrick had intended.
Cinematic Science: The Public Communication of Science and Technology in Popular Film
This review article covers the study of science in cinema in the context of science communication. Scholars have begun to recognize cinema’s role in the public communication of science and technology and its importance in the public understanding of science. Although there is a need for more work to be done, there now exists an established and growing literature on science in film. The main challenge is that this literature does not emerge from a single field. These works draw upon a wide variety of approaches and methodologies from numerous disciplines including communication, sociology, history, film studies, cultural studies, literature, and science fiction studies. As with studies of science and news media, exploration of science communication in popular films revolves around four basic research questions: 1) How is science representation constructed in the production of cinematic texts? (Production), 2) How much science, and what kind of science, appears in popular films? (Content Analysis) 3) What are the cultural interpretations of science and technology in popular films? (Cultural Meanings), and 4) What effect, if any, does the fictional portrayal of science have on science literacy and public attitudes towards science? (Media Effects).
Science and Technology in Film: Themes and Representations
Handbook of Public Communication of Science and Technology, 2014
The academic work outlined in this chapter shows how cinematic science has historically been a powerful cultural force. It shows how science communication scholars have begun considering cinema outside of any potential impacts on science literacy and how studies have now focused more on cinema’s influence on the cultural meanings of science. The chapter demonstrates how filmic images have shaped the public’s conceptions of science by encouraging excitement and/or instilling fear about science and technology. The chapter reveals how filmmakers have come to embrace scientific realism, but it also shows how scientific accuracy must always take a backseat to storytelling.
Journal of British Cinema and Television, 2014
Chapman and Cull's Projecting Tomorrow should be considered as a follow-up to their previous collaboration, Projecting Empire (IB Tauris, 2009), which dealt with cinematic representations of empire and imperialism. Using historical archives, production notes and other reception materials they intricately weave a convincing narrative that focuses not only on the significance of the science fiction genre in cinema history but also its value as a cultural form, reflecting and interrogating the important historical, social and cultural moments of our time. Indeed, as the authors assert in their introduction, 'The history of cinema and the history of science fiction have run parallel ever since their simultaneous points of origin at the end of the nineteenth century' (1); therefore we might understand that cinema is, in its very essence, a science fiction medium. Throughout Projecting Tomorrow Chapman and Cull make the case that the films they discuss are evidence of the increasingly sophisticated technologies of modes of production used to make them, and highlight the changing attitudes to film as a medium for cultural critique and social commentary: Futuristic narratives and images of SF cinema are determined by the circumstances of their production… SF cinema functions in a similar way to the historical film as a commentary on the times… [and] cinema's imagination of the future has […] functioned as a mirror of the present (7).
Focus: Research Film, Introduction: Reusing Research Film and the Institute for Scientific Film
Isis, 2021
This introduction outlines the threefold contribution that this Focus section on research film offers. First, it introduces the vast collection of films from the former Institute for Scientific Film (Institut für den Wissenschaftlichen Film [IWF]), arguably the most ambitious endeavor ever undertaken to manage the distribution, production, and archiving of research films. At the same time, the institute's questionable roots in the National Socialist education system and in war research are addressed. Second, the introduction points out that the Focus section enters largely uncharted terrain in the history of research films. Third, it argues that a focus on the multiple reuses of research films, as this section attempts, not only suits the medium specificity of film but helps us to map the aesthetic, intermedial, and cultural-political practices of disseminating knowledge. In this vein, the organizers asked established scholars working on film and science to share with us a short story of a reused research film. Scott Curtis, Vinzenz Hediger, Anja Laukötter, and Hanna Rose Shell responded. Their contributions can be found in the supplementary materials to the online edition.
International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology, 2019
Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film titled 2001: A Space Odyssey has generally been considered as a monumental piece of mainstream epic science-fiction. However, this film can be evaluated as having properties of experimental cinema by boldly trying technical innovation and aesthetic experiment in various aspects. From the filmmaker's process to filmic structure, technical innovations, screening method, mise-en-scène, cinematic style and its (auto-)reflexivity, 2001: A Space Odyssey is highly experimental. We will attempt to separate out aspects of 2001: A Space Odyssey that derive explicitly from traditions in experimental cinema, whether adopting those traditions or innovating within them, by identifying the film's experimental strategies and relating them to other experimental films that came before and after. This will show that the purely formal characteristics of the film's conception carry meanings on their own relating to Kubrick's personal expression, ideas about cinema and philosophy that go beyond the scope of the film's narrative.