Experiencing the Digital Image in Popular Cinema: a Perspective on the Horror and Crime Genres By
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Experiencing the Digital Image in Popular Cinema: A Perspective on the Horror and Crime Genres by Noel Gerard O’Shea Submitted in partial fulfilment of the academic requirements for the degree of Structured PhD in New Media and Film Primary Supervisor: Dr. David Coughlan (UL) Co-Supervisors: Dr. Michael Kelly (UL) and Dr. Conn Holohan (NUI Galway) Submitted to the University of Limerick, June 2017 Abstract The discourse surrounding digital technology in popular film has usually focused on computer-generated imagery (CGI), overlooking the method of image-capture involving digital cameras. I argue that the replacement of film cameras with digital ones introduces a paradigm shift in viewer engagement. Concentrating on the horror and crime genres, this thesis makes the case that found footage horror and the digital crime films of Michael Mann, as the only genre categories of mainstream cinema which place a primacy on the digital aesthetic over the traditional filmic “look,” provide unique “testing sites” for the contemporary, culturally-aware genre fan. While such representative films as The Blair Witch Project, Trollhunter, Collateral and Miami Vice still retain links with classical cinema in terms of narrative tropes and certain similarities of style, the dominant position of narrative is nonetheless challenged by the new cinematic spaces of these digital films. Organised around the central, controlling position of the diegetic camera, and allowing the viewer a more phenomenologically-inflected encounter with the film’s media-driven digital aesthetic, the spatial zones of the found footage horror film give the viewer scope to contemplate the extra-narrative cues delivered by the film, inviting a sensuous, rather than an intellectual, engagement. Moreover, by mapping their own real-world experience of contemporary information culture onto the digital aesthetic of the films, viewers can discover a site of enquiry to engage in totally new ways with such contemporary problems as national identity under the threat of globalisation. Mann’s crime films, on the other hand, predicated on hyperreal, digitally rendered environments containing masculinities in crisis, encode a culturally-shaped subjective experience into their digital aesthetic and offer another site of phenomenological engagement for the viewer. The very act of locating these sites signals a transformation in viewer engagement with genre cinema and indicates a new way of seeing. ii Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis is the original work of the author and has not been submitted previously to any other academic institution. Where use has been made of the work of others, it has been acknowledged and referenced. Some material presented in chapter two has been published previously in a special edition of Studies in European Cinema entitled “Space and Place in European Cinema.” The issue (Volume 14, Issue 1) was published in March, 2017. ________________________ Noel O’Shea iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people, who supported me throughout this research project. Firstly, to my supervisor Dr. David Coughlan, who displayed enormous patience with me in the early stages of my research and tendered great advice at every turn, I offer a sincere and heartfelt thank you – I truly could not have completed this project without your expert assistance. I would also like to express my gratitude to the two other members of my supervisory panel: Dr. Conn Holohan of the Huston School of Film & Digital Media, who was an invaluable source of inspiration and guidance in my first couple of years on the programme, and I am very grateful for his input both at the start of this project and his generosity towards the end; and Dr. Michael Kelly, who steered me in the right direction during a particularly frustrating period in the latter stages of my work. I would also like to thank the Director of the Huston School, Dr. Rod Stoneman, who introduced me to the finer points of avant-garde cinema and visual culture in general. I wish to thank all my friends and colleagues in the University of Limerick and the Huston School, who offered me much support and feedback on my work as it took shape. Finally, I wish to extend the warmest of thanks and love to my family: my sister Terry, and my brother Barry, and their families, who lifted me when I felt the burden of the task which lay ahead of me; and, of course, I couldn’t have done it without the help of my mam and dad, Mary and Sean, who have always been there for me. iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Declaration iii Acknowledgements iv List of Figures vii Introduction: Experiencing the Digital Image in Popular Cinema 1 Surface Tension: Theorising the Digital Image in Popular Genre Cinema and the Case for A Phenomenological Method of Enquiry 14 Genre Communities and the Intense Spectator 23 Found Footage Horror and the Crime Thriller: the “Digitising” of Genre 26 Chapter 1: When Cinematic Spaces Collide – Found Footage Horror’s Digital Age Screen 37 Approaching Cloverfield (2008) 38 Classical Horror’s Mise-en-Scène: the “Pregnancy of Space” 43 A Note on the Modern Horror Film 56 Monstrous Evolution: The Classical Era to the Digital Age 59 The Digital Dead 60 Framing the Female “Monster” 77 Screening Possession 96 A Paradigm Shift: Found Footage Horror as Meta-Genre 107 Returning to Cloverfield 116 Chapter 2: Case Study – Trollhunter (2010) and the Exploration of National Identity Through A Digital Aesthetic 132 Trollhunter’s Diegetic Camera: Modifying Spectatorial Engagement 139 “Something Genuinely Norwegian”: Globalisation Becomes Glocalisation in Trollhunter’s Digital Spaces 155 Chapter 3: Digitally Captured Criminals – The Hyperreal Image in the Films of Michael Mann 172 Visualising Crime: Mann’s Pre-digital Aesthetic as a Digital “Becoming” 183 The Language of Digital Capture 210 Ali (2001) 213 Collateral (2004) 219 Public Enemies (2009) 229 v Chapter 4: Case Study – Contemplating Subjectivity in Miami Vice (2006) 241 Miami Vice’s Flux and the Hyperreal Self 247 Miami Vice’s Immense Depth of Field: Constructing Subjectivity in the Viewer 254 Miami Vice and the Reconstructed Viewer 263 The Temporality of Miami Vice and A Return to Genre 269 Conclusion 276 Bibliography 282 Filmography 307 vi List of Figures Fig. 1. Frankenstein (1931) – Normal Space. .........................................................................49 Fig. 2. Frankenstein – Abnormal Space. ................................................................................50 Fig. 3. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) – Domesticity. ........................................................52 Fig. 4. The Bride of Frankenstein – Friendship. .....................................................................52 Fig. 5. The Bride of Frankenstein – Uncanny. ........................................................................53 Fig. 6. The Bride of Frankenstein – Domesticity Threatened. .................................................53 Fig. 7. The Bride of Frankenstein – Uncanny Space 1. ...........................................................53 Fig. 8. The Bride of Frankenstein – Uncanny Space 2. ...........................................................54 Fig. 9. White Zombie (1932) – Closeup. .................................................................................61 Fig. 10. White Zombie – Long Shot. ......................................................................................62 Fig. 11. Night of the Living Dead (1968). ..............................................................................65 Fig. 12. Night of the Living Dead – Classical Screen. .............................................................65 Fig. 13. Night of the Living Dead – Social Commentary. .......................................................66 Fig. 14. Night of the Living Dead – Racial Commentary. .......................................................66 Fig. 15. Diary of the Dead (2007) – Mediated Landscape. .....................................................68 Fig. 16. Diary of the Dead – VideoCam Aesthetic. ................................................................70 Fig. 17. Diary of the Dead – Camera Stand-off (Debra). ........................................................72 Fig. 18. Diary of the Dead – Camera Stand-off (Jason). .........................................................72 Fig. 19. Diary of the Dead – Hypermediacy...........................................................................73 Fig. 20. Diary of the Dead – New Media Screen. ...................................................................73 Fig. 21. Cat People (1942) – Panther/Irena. ...........................................................................81 Fig. 22. Cat People – Alice. ..................................................................................................81 Fig. 23. Cat People – Classic Composition (Shot…). .............................................................82 Fig. 24. Cat People – Classical Composition (…Reverse Shot)..............................................83 Fig. 25. Cat People – Classical Lighting 1. ............................................................................83 Fig. 26. Cat People – Classical Lighting 2. ............................................................................83 Fig. 27. Carrie (1976). ..........................................................................................................88 Fig. 28. Carrie – The “Monstrous-Feminine.” .......................................................................88