FILM AND CULTURE IDENTITY

DEFINITION OF IDENTITY

Identity may be one of the factors through the development of social culture. Identity is a sense of self of individuals or groups, it is produced by self-consciousness which means the well-defined character that someone have is the factor to define person or group(Huntington, 2004).

As Huntington(2004) observed that, there are five aspects when concerning identity. First, individuals’ identity can be redefined by the groups’ identity, in the society, individuals are usually involved in many different groups, hence identity can be altered when in different groups. Second, individuals’ identity can be changed freely as their wish, ethnicity and race can also be redefined or rejected. Third, the economic, cultural, political, social and national identities of individuals or groups can be shifted over time and the situation. Fourth, identities not only produced by the self but also affected by the relationship with others, it might influence by the current environment, wider society or political authorities as well. Fifth, the identities of individuals and groups are alternative depend on the situation where the difference could be emphasized. The culture identity might be an issue that needs to be discussed.

People who have a lot in common, such as the skin tone or the original culture, there may still be a difference in the number of things because of the geographical location and socio-cultural differences. African-Americans and Africans may share the same ancestry, however, owing to the colonial history and the slave history they show a different direction of development, language, religion, ideology and political environment might be the factors of difference for them

CONNECTION BETWEEN FILM AND IDENTITY

Media, nowadays, more considered to be a platform for expression of demands or personal point of view and communication, for example, there are lots of black music or films which help black people express their attitude towards the society and seek their social positioning. Film was born in 1895 when the first film “The Arrival of a Train” shot by the Lumiere Brother. From the beginning of the film history, it comes in the form of art and then transformed into a more commercial purpose, as movies start to be market-oriented people started to watch movies as entertainment, some filmmakers may focus more on the audience needs to make their film more welcomed. Identity problem might be one of the issues that concerning by part of the people which means this kind of movie may get more attention from the society.

REFERENCE

Huntington, S. (2004). Who are we? : The challenges to America’s national identity. New York ; London: Simon & Schuster.

THE CRITERION CHANNEL, n.d. Pioneers Of African American Cinema. [image] Available at:

4th May 2020 0

GET OUT

THE FILM ‘GET OUT’

GET OUT trailer (Movieclips Trailers, 2016)

“GET OUT” is the first movie directed and written by Jordan Peele, which is a horror film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2017. The movie is about a black man goes to visit his white girlfriend’s family, both her parents and her brother are white people and there are two black people in their family working for them(“Jordan Peele Biography”, 2017). The story is more likely talking about a “black body trade”, in the second half of the movie, the protagonist was auctioned off to a disabled white man due to his strong and healthy body to put the white man’s brain into his body.

KEY FEATURES IN ‘GET OUT’

Analysis of ‘GET OUT’ (Wisecrack, 2016)

At the beginning of the film, from 11 minutes 30 seconds to 12 minutes 30 seconds, the close-up of the face of Kris and the deer who killed him. The director arranged the close-up here to render a suspenseful atmosphere and set the stage for the ending.
The film starts from 14 minutes and 04 seconds to 14 minutes and 50 seconds from the middle scene. The picture shows the scene from Kris and Lucy arriving at the parents’ house and getting off the door to the door. The picture shows the house huge and the characters very small, suggesting The danger of the house and the weakness of the characters. Later, a telescopic lens was also used. The lens slowly zoomed in and cut into the back of a black gardener from the right side of the lens. In fact, he just saw everything from his perspective, combined with the background music, rendering a strange atmosphere.
From 31 minutes to 37 minutes and 30 seconds, I think it is the essence of this film. This clip describes Lucy’s mother helping Kris to quit smoking by actually hypnotizing him to control him. Starting from the clip, the background sound is only the dialogue between the two and the sound of Lucy’s mother stirring coffee with the spoon and touching the wall of the cup. The director’s arrangement maximizes the anxious atmosphere, even bringing the audience into it. This clip is basically a medium shot and close-up shots. The medium shot is mainly used when the two are talking. The close-up shot is mainly used for the cup and the facial expressions of both sides. There are a total of four close-ups belonging to the cup. After each close-up, Kris’s hypnotic degree is also deepened, suggesting the hypnotic effect of the cup and the progress of the hypnotic degree. After successfully hypnotizing Kris, Kris fell into the endless abyss but there was a window in the darkness, through which he could see the outside. The camera cut back the close-up of Kris’s face and found him sitting on the sofa with a dull expression and horror , Tears flowed from both eyes. In fact, his body and consciousness have been separated, becoming a puppet who has no autonomous consciousness and obey the hypnotist. This film has shown the conspiracy of Lucy’s family here, which is the first reversal of this film.
The film starts from 51 minutes and 45 seconds to 54 minutes and 15 seconds. It belongs to the dialogue between Kris and the black maid of Lucy’s house. Among them, the black maid uses the close-up face and the upward shot of the face. The gloomy and strange atmosphere has rendered the atmosphere for the behavior of the black maid.
The film’s 68 points or so directly indicate the identity of Ross, in fact, the family is a gang. Here is the second reversal of the movie.
The film starts from 72 minutes and 20 seconds to 73 minutes and 40 seconds contains two symmetrical pictures. The first is that the camera starts to move down from the ceiling, seeing Kris sitting on a sofa in front, with his hands and feet trapped and fixed. The four corners of the plane in the picture are four desk lamps. Kris sits at the intersection of the diagonal lines. Behind Kris is a table tennis table. On the wall behind the table is a dart target. Ball forget and Kris are connected in a line, and the whole picture is in a completely symmetrical pattern. This is to highlight the smallness of the space and the current status of Kris being trapped. The second symmetrical picture was taken from the back of Kris. The lens moved up from the sofa to the wall facing Kris. In the picture, Kris is sitting in the center, with two lamps on both sides. He is facing directly, and a deer head is hanging on the wall (here echoes with the deer that the film began to hit). The symmetry here also indicates that Kris is in danger and may have the same fate as the deer (implying that Kris may lose his head because he is scheduled for a brain swap operation).

REFERENCE

Biography.com Editors. (2019, August 23). Jordan Peele Biography. The Biography.com website. Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/actor/jordan-peele [Accessed 7 January 2020]

IMDb, n.d. Get Out. [image] Available at: <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052448/> [Accessed 4 May 2020].

Movieclips Trailers, 2016. Get Out Official Trailer 1 (2017). Available at: <https://youtu.be/DzfpyUB60YY> [Accessed 4 May 2020].

Wisecrack, 2016. The Philosophy Of GET OUT. Available at: <https://youtu.be/9gQP4ffowCY> [Accessed 4 May 2020].

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REFERENCE

Anthony, A. (2017, March 4). Jordan Peele on making a hit comedy-horror movie out of America’s racial tensions. Gurdian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/04/jordan-peele-interview-get-out-its-about-purging-our-fears-horror-film-daniel-kaluuya [Accessed 7 January 2020]

Biography.com Editors. (2019, August 23). Jordan Peele Biography. The Biography.com website. Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/actor/jordan-peele [Accessed 7 January 2020]

Fresh Air, 2017. ‘Get Out’ Sprang From An Effort To Master Fear, Says Director Jordan Peele. [image] Available at: <https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/03/15/520130162/get-out-sprung-from-an-effort-to-master-fear-says-director-jordan-peele?> [Accessed 4 May 2020].

Huntington, S. (2004). Who are we? : The challenges to America’s national identity. New York ; London: Simon & Schuster.

IMDb, n.d. Get Out. [image] Available at: <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052448/> [Accessed 4 May 2020].

IMDb. n.d. Jordan Peele – Imdb. [online] Available at: <https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1443502/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm> [Accessed 4 May 2020].

Movieclips Trailers, 2016. Get Out Official Trailer 1 (2017). Available at: <https://youtu.be/DzfpyUB60YY> [Accessed 4 May 2020].

THE CRITERION CHANNEL, n.d. Pioneers Of African American Cinema. [image] Available at: <https://www.criterionchannel.com/pioneers-of-african-american-cinema> [Accessed 4 May 2020].

UNIVERSIAL, n.d. US. [image] Available at: <https://www.uphe.com/movies/us> [Accessed 4 May 2020].

Wisecrack, 2016. The Philosophy Of GET OUT. Available at: <https://youtu.be/9gQP4ffowCY> [Accessed 4 May 2020].

4th May 2020 0

JORDAN PEELE WITH BLACK IDENTITY

Jordan Peele is an actor, director and writer who is famous for his Comedy Central’s ‘Key & Peele’ , his masterpieces are ‘GET OUT’ and ‘US’.
— “Jordan Peele Biography”, 2017

Jordan Peele was born in February 21, 1979 in New York, USA. He is a famous script writer and actor at his early age, he became a famous director after the he wrote and directed ‘GET OUT’ (2017) which has won the best picture at the Academy Awards. He then famous for horror film, ‘US’ (2019) his wrote and directed also a high standard work. (Jordan Peele – IMDb, n.d.)

GET OUT (2017)

(IMDb, n.d.)

When Jordan Peele was having an interview with Guardian and talking about his film ‘GET OUT’. The racial issue seems to be the main theme of the movie while there is some stereotype of black people, such as “black trading”, strong body and the white-middle-class family as Jordan Peele explained it in the interview by Anthony(2017), “The disproportionate number of black men thrown into a dark room for the rest of their lives is one of the central themes of what my movie is an allegory for”. He also talk about how the social status of black people affected him when creating the character in the interview by Anthony(2017), “There are social rules every black person understands. [In white company] we give a little nod and a bro hug, and you don’t rat each other out. These things are real. The part of the black experience that has us perceiving or looking for racism where other people probably don’t is also real. It’s what the characters in this movie use to unravel the mystery”. Jordan Peele is biracial, he was brought up by his white mother which have an influence on his racial identity(Anthony, 2017). Racism and racial identity are factors that involved in the film which considered as a way for Jordan Peele to express his experience since childhood which formed his view towards the society and the culture. He hope the racial problem could be resolved and the claims from black people could be valued by writing and directing his own film.

US (2019) (UNIVERSIAL, n.d.)

REFERENCE

Biography.com Editors. (2019, August 23). Jordan Peele Biography. The Biography.com website. Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/actor/jordan-peele [Accessed 7 January 2020]

IMDb. n.d. Jordan Peele – Imdb. [online] Available at: <https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1443502/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm> [Accessed 4 May 2020].

IMDb, n.d. Get Out. [image] Available at: <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052448/> [Accessed 4 May 2020].

UNIVERSIAL, n.d. US. [image] Available at: <https://www.uphe.com/movies/us> [Accessed 4 May 2020].

14th Jan 2020 0

THEME OF THE BLOG

This is a blog about film and key perspectives of culture studies.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

I am a student from China studying in Lancaster University, England, UK. My major is Media and Cultural Studies, I like watching movies as well and I also study some film course in my university. Film, as a production of the development of Media, can have a rich meaning to the society and individuals. Directors through films express their point of view to the history, society, polities, economy, environment and so on, in short, film is everywhere in our lives, film is birth from the ordinary lives of every people in the world, is a reflection of life.

Most of my blog will be present in a way with texts and videos which can help me explain the film more detailed. Film is the key factor in my blog, some key theories of cultural studies will combine with films, in order to make it easier to understand and show how film developed as well as the culture.

14th Jan 2020 0