Conclusion

This conclusion examines a methodological similarity between the book’s attention to small details of movement and the discourse of “cinephilic moments,” which describes a mode of spectatorship that fixates on brief fragments of movement on screen. While cinephilic moments are often understood as resistant to formal analysis due to their apparent contingency, this conclusion shows how each chapter of The Shape of Motion has demonstrated a method of locating formal significance in cinephilic moments through the close analysis of motion. Rather than simply dwelling on the apparent uniqueness of those individual moments, each chapter collects and groups those singular moments according to the forms of movement they take, thereby yielding new theories of cinematic experience in addition to new insights about individual films.

The virtual cultural tourist: Film-induced tourism and Kubo and the Two Strings

Over the past two decades, there has been growing research in film-induced tourism. Much of this research is focused on how film influences tourist destination choices. There has been less emphasis, however, on the nature and types of movies that may induce this attraction to such locations. By examining Kubo and the Two Strings (Knight, 2016), a stop-motion animation produced by Laika Studios, this paper aims to apply film studies to explore current understandings of film-induced tourism. This paper argues that Kubo is itself a form of film-induced tourism by positioning the viewer as a virtual cultural tourist whose cinematic experience may be likened to a veritable media pilgrimage through Japanese culture, history and aesthetics. The movie introduces the viewer into an imagined world that borrows from origami, Nō theatre, shamisen music, obon rituals and Japanese symbolism, philosophy and mythology. The resulting pastiche is a constructed diorama that is as transnational and postmodern as it is authentic and indigenous.

Fabula Nova Obscura Est: Possible Worlds in “Final Fantasy XIII-2”

Modern narratological researches are quite well developed and has long gone beyond the purely philological field. One of the applications of narratology is the study of computer games, the most relevant new medium. This paper is devoted to the issue of unusual narrative strategies used in games on the example of Final Fantasy XIII-2. The analysis is conducted via the possible-worlds method, which is currently in demand in modern humanities, but it is less known in Russia. The aim of the research is to determine the function of possible worlds existing in Final Fantasy XIII-2 for a better understanding of the game design. In the course of the work, the author examines the internal structure of the game world with the help of the theory of possible worlds, analyzes the narrative strategy, and makes a game scheme of possible worlds with accessibility links which let to see the deep internal structure of the narrative game world. In conclusion, it is clear that Final Fantasy XIII-2 contains a non-trivial narrative structure with multiple branches that is smoothed out by the gameplay and cinematic experience of the player, although such a composition of possible worlds represents a complex scheme of the game's macrocosm which demands a close attention to the narrative. The article is intended for various humanitarian specialists interested in the study of computer games.

The Immersive Continuity of Roma

In Gravity (2013), Alfonso Cuarón introduced a fully three-dimensional sound design approach that was originally termed by Idrovo and Pauletto (2019) as ‘immersive point-of-audition’. More recently, in Netflix’s Roma (2018), Cuarón not only perfected such treatment of sound, but consolidated an audio-visual style that stands out for its capacity to enhance our sensation of ‘presence’ in the narrative world, a style that is referred here to as immersive continuity. Grounded on the spatiotemporal continuity of the long take, Cuarón’s immersive continuity allows sound objects to flow all around the 3-D space, and hence opens a giant window of opportunity for the exploitation of Dolby Atmos. Through an extensive analysis of Roma, this article describes the aesthetics of such audio-visual style, and beyond, it explores the methods and workflows that permitted Cuarón’s sound team to fully exploit sound three-dimensionality. Finally, I discuss the growing adoption of Netflix as one of the major challenges that the theatrical cinema industry has to face; and argue that embracing immersive continuity may be a powerful weapon for attracting audiences to a cinematic experience that cannot be found at home.

A Differential Theory of Cinematic Affect

This essay offers a critical rejoinder to affect theories prevalent in the humanities since the 1990s. In film and media studies, affect theories display an opposition to ‘screen’ and apparatus theory of the 1970s and 1980s alleged to have marginalised the spectator's body and affects and privileged cognition over affection. Yet film and media studies’ turn to affect came with its own set of problems: in emphasising the affective over the cognitive aspects of cinematic experience, theories of the affective turn invert and reproduce the dichotomies (e.g. body/mind, affect/thought) they seek to contest. Critically reconsidering the turn to affect and its place within film and media studies, this article challenges the relation of affect theories to Gilles Deleuze's concept of affect, highlighting these theories’ failure to account for Deleuze's indebtedness to Immanuel Kant's aesthetics and his theory of the faculties. Suggesting a conception of cinematic affect beyond dichotomies of body and mind, affect and thought, this essay instead shows how cinematic experience instigates transformations in spectators that are simultaneously affective and cognitive.

Adapting, modifying and applying cinematography and editing concepts and techniques to cinematic virtual reality film production

Virtual reality (VR) filmmaking presents a unique cinematic experience requiring new and innovative ways to conceptualise and practice specific aspects of the production process. This article integrates a range of adapted and modified filmmaking thinking, approaches and components into the cinematic virtual reality (CVR) language and grammar in the two critical areas of cinematography and editing. This focus provides a range of possible strategies and tools for would-be VR film directors to engage more efficiently and effectively in VR film production. The article utilises an extended case study of the VR feature film Calling to present the director/editor’s observations and experiences using transmedia journaling and three-dimensional (3D) CVR previsualisation as a simulation tool to create this dynamic, interactive CVR film.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: In search of national representation in the image of folklore

In this case study analysis of the film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965) directed by Sergei Parajanov (1924–90) I will explore the ways in which traditional dress in this film, as part of a wider imagery of folklore, has been defamiliarized from the ideological canon of social realism. More specifically, I will look at the ways Parajanov’s film, filled with music, dance, colour and ethnographic texture, significantly departed from the traditional representation of non-Russians on the Soviet screen under the Friendship of Peoples policy. Based on a folkloric legend, adapted and published in 1911 by Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi (1864–1913), Shadows celebrates the ethnographic texture of the Hutsul region by departing significantly from causality and narrative logic and bringing together primitive and modern elements instead. Praised for its authenticity, the film became a turning point in the search for a new site of national expression for Ukrainian filmmakers and more specifically, the role of folklore in its visual presentation. The work of the costume designer Lidiya Bajkova (1905–80) is emblematic in the way it renders authenticity beyond historical, ethnic and material accuracy by seamlessly integrating the costumes into the visual texture of the cinematic image. Her approach demonstrates how motifs and patterns that have previously been delegated to domesticated and melodramatic narratives could conversely become a fundamental substance of the cinematic experience.

The Projector's Noises: A Media Archaeology Of Cinema Through The Projector

This dissertation provides a media archaeology of the film projector, concentrating on the conceptualization and use of projector noise through the lens of the modernist and contemporary avant-garde, that offers new ways of understanding cinema, interpreting embodied cinematic space, and extending the discourse on audiovision in general. Looking toward the projector allows us to see how it is a productive labourer in the construction of cinematic experience. Listening to its noises— which have been framed as insignificant and/or unwanted—allows us to understand the way cinema is in fact a performative art with a certain kind of liveness. Part One of this dissertation traces an alternative history of cinema focused on the projector beginning with the pre-cinema technologies of the camera obscura, the telescope and the magic lantern. Part Two analyzes how the avant-garde has engaged with the projector-as-instrument during three major technological transitional moments in cinema: first, early cinema and the rise of the Cinématographe by looking at the Italian futurists, specifically Arnaldo Ginna and Bruno Corra’s interest in the projector-as-instrument and the relationship between the Cinématographe and Luigi Russolo’s

The Projector's Noises: A Media Archaeology Of Cinema Through The Projector

This dissertation provides a media archaeology of the film projector, concentrating on the conceptualization and use of projector noise through the lens of the modernist and contemporary avant-garde, that offers new ways of understanding cinema, interpreting embodied cinematic space, and extending the discourse on audiovision in general. Looking toward the projector allows us to see how it is a productive labourer in the construction of cinematic experience. Listening to its noises— which have been framed as insignificant and/or unwanted—allows us to understand the way cinema is in fact a performative art with a certain kind of liveness. Part One of this dissertation traces an alternative history of cinema focused on the projector beginning with the pre-cinema technologies of the camera obscura, the telescope and the magic lantern. Part Two analyzes how the avant-garde has engaged with the projector-as-instrument during three major technological transitional moments in cinema: first, early cinema and the rise of the Cinématographe by looking at the Italian futurists, specifically Arnaldo Ginna and Bruno Corra’s interest in the projector-as-instrument and the relationship between the Cinématographe and Luigi Russolo’s