Ideologies of the Real in Title Sequences, Motion Graphics and Cinema
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Ideologies of the Real in Title Sequences, Motion Graphics and Cinema This book explores the question of realism in motion pictures. Specifically, it explores how understanding the role of realism in the history of title sequences in film and television can illuminate discussions raised by the advent of digital cinema. Ideologies of the Real in Title Sequences, Motion Graphics and Cinema fills a critical and theoretical void in the existing literature on motion graphics. Developed from careful analysis of André Bazin, Stanley Cavell, and Giles Deleuze’s approaches to cinematic realism, this analysis uses title sequences to engage the interface between narrative and non-narrative media to consider cinematic realism in depth through highly detailed close readings of the title sequences for Bullitt (1968), Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974), The Number 23 (2007), The Kingdom (2008), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and the James Bond films. From this critique, author Michael Betancourt develops a modal approach to cinematic realism where ontology is irrelevant to indexicality. His analysis shows the continuity between historical analogue film and contemporary digital motion pictures by developing a framework for rethinking how realism shapes interpretation. Michael Betancourt is a critical theorist and research artist concerned with digital technology and capitalist ideology. His writing has been translated into Chinese, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Portuguese, and Spanish, and published in journals such as The Atlantic , Make Magazine , CTheory, and Leonardo. He is the author of The ____________ Manifesto , and many books, including The History of Motion Graphics and The Critique of Digital Capitalism , as well as four books on the semiotics of motion graphics: Semiotics and Title Sequences, Synchronization and Title Sequences , Title Sequences as Paratexts , and Typography and Motion Graphics . These publications complement his movies, which have screened internationally at the Black Maria Film Festival, Art Basel Miami Beach, Contemporary Art Ruhr, Athens Video Art Festival, Festival des Cinémas Différents de Paris, Anthology Film Archives, Millennium Film Workshop, the San Francisco Cinematheque’s Crossroads, and Experiments in Cinema, among many others. Routledge Studies in Media Theory and Practice Semiotics and Title Sequences Text-Image Composites in Motion Graphics Authored by Michael Betancourt Synchronization and Title Sequences Audio-Visual Semiosis in Motion Graphics Authored by Michael Betancourt Title Sequences as Paratexts Narrative Anticipation and Recapitulation Authored by Michael Betancourt The Screenwriters Taxonomy A Collaborative Approach to Creative Storytelling Authored by Eric R. Williams Open Space New Media Documentary A Toolkit for Theory and Practice Patricia R. Zimmermann and Helen De Michiel Film & TV Tax Incentives in the U.S. Courting Hollywood Authored by Glenda Cantrell and Daniel Wheatcroft Typography and Motion Graphics: The ‘Reading-Image’ Authored by Michael Betancourt Ideologies of the Real in Motion Graphics and Title Sequences Authored by Michael Betancourt Ideologies of the Real in Title Sequences, Motion Graphics and Cinema Michael Betancourt First published 2020 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Michael Betancourt The right of Michael Betancourt to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Title: Ideologies of the real in motion graphics and title sequences / Michael Betancourt. Description: 1. | New York : Routledge 2020. | Series: Routledge studies in media theory & practice ; 8 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019020408 | ISBN 9780367199197 (hardback) | ISBN 9780429244094 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Motion pictures—Titling. | Credit titles (Motion pictures, television, etc.) | Graphic design (Typography) | Realism in motion pictures | Motion pictures— Production and direction—Technological innovations. Classification: LCC TR886.9 .B475 2020 | DDC 777/.55—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019020408 ISBN: 978-0-367-19919-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-24409-4 (ebk) Typeset in Perpetua by Apex CoVantage, LLC Some parts of this book were adapted from previous publications produced in earlier stages of this analysis: “‘Cinema’ as a Modernist Conception of Motion Pictures,” AM Journal of Art and Media Studies , no. 16 (September, 2018). “Paranarrative, Postcinema, and the Unheimlich Glitch,” Utsangia.it , no. 15 (March 2018), ed. Francesco Aprile. “The Calligram and the Title Card,” Semiotica: Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies , no. 204, 2015, pp. 239–252. “That Uncanny Moment: Jack Cole’s Design of the Kolchak: The Night Stalker Title Sequence,” Bright Lights Film Journal , January 16, 2014. “Pablo Ferro’s Title Montage for Bullitt (1968): The Criminality Beneath the Surface of Civil Society,” Bright Lights Film Journal , April 29, 2014. for Leah Contents List of Figures ix Acknowledgments xiii Preface xv Introduction 1 PART 1 Subjectivity 21 1 Ontology, Editing, Photography in Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974) 23 The Long Take 29 The Analytic Montage 36 The Kinestasis 41 Articulating Realisms 45 2 Sublime, Uncanny, Marvelous in The Number 23 (2007) 53 Animation as Revelation 65 Performing Interpretation 73 3 Subjective Desire in Goldfi nger (1964) 81 ‘Unreal Fantasy,’ Representation, Ontology 89 Composite Realities 92 Seduction 106 PART 2 Objectivity 117 4 Narrational Naturalism in Bullitt (1968) 119 The Discovery Process 124 The ‘Reading-Image’ 131 The ‘Perception-Image’ 139 viii Contents 5 Persuasion in The Kingdom (2007) 149 Articulation and Enunciation in Collage 158 Intertextuality and Archive 171 6 Allusion of Errors in Blade Runner 2049 (2017) 177 ‘Narrative Function’ and Indexicality 191 Editing Glitches 199 PART 3 Ideologies 207 7 The Medium 209 What was Cinema? 209 Modal Media 211 8 The Message 219 Active Engagement 222 9 Realist Articulation 229 Four Realist Modes 230 Afterword: Digital Movies 241 Index 243 Figures Frontis Cinématographe Lumière designed and illustrated by Henri Brispot. The earliest poster advertising motion pictures, for a screening on August 28, 1896. 0.1 All the title cards in Touch of Evil (1958), designed by Wayne Fitzgerald. 9 0.2 All the title cards in The Player (1992), designed by Dan Perri. 10 0.3 “James Bond Parody” main title opening from Deadpool 2 (2018), designed by John Likens. 12 0.4 All the title cards in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), designed by Maurice Binder. 16 0.5 Realist modes distinguished by the separation of “objective” and “subjective” depend on the audience identification of the audiovisual presentation as corresponding to their everyday experience, a separation that parallels the opposition of naturalism and stylization, and that defines the significance of the indexical as a product of its (ontological) direct connection to the real, while the artificial (familiar from fictive entertainment) does not require this same link to reality for its significance. 17 1.1 Stills from the long take in La Sortie de l’Usine Lumière à Lyon, Lumière Vue no. 91.3 [“ Workers Leaving The Lumière Factory in Lyon ,” also known as “ Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory ” or “ Exiting the Factory ,”] (third version, August 1896), directed by Louis Lumière. 26 1.2 Still frames showing the opening long take from Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974), designed by Jack Cole. 29 1.3 Still frames showing the background long takes in title sequences for [Top] White Zombie (1931); [Bottom, Left] logo graphic in Dracula (1931); [Bottom, Right] a statue in The Maltese Falcon (1941). 32 1.4 All the title cards in Touch of Evil (1958), designed by Wayne Fitzgerald. 33 1.5 Still frames showing the montage from Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974), designed by Jack Cole. 37 1.6 Stills showing the kinestasis in Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974), designed by Jack Cole. 41 x Figures 2.1 Realist modes distinguished by the separation of “objective” and “subjective” depend on the audience identification of the audiovisual presentation as corresponding to their everyday experience, a separation that parallels the opposition of naturalism and stylization, and that defines the significance of the indexical as a claim about ‘the real,’ while the artificial (familiar from fictive entertainment) does not address reality. 54 2.2 Stills from the title sequence for The Number 23 (2007), designed by Peter Frankfurt. 59 2.3 [Left] Stills from the title sequence for The Number 23 (2007), designed by Peter Frankfurt; [Right] Stills from the title sequence for Seven (1995), designed by Kyle Cooper. 63 2.4 Stills showing the letters in the main title card melting into a red stain in the title sequence for