Spaces of Communication

Semio-pragmatics, an approach to the study of film and audiovisual media first proposed by Roger Odin in the early 1980s, shifted the focus from textual analysis to the interaction of text and context and to the institutional modes of framing and reading which shape the viewer’s engagement with the film. A response to an impasse in post-1968 film semiotics and psychoanalytical approaches to film spectatorship, semio-pragmatics contributed significantly to the further development of film studies alongside Cultural Studies, neo-formalism, historical reception studies and the phenomenology of film. Spaces of Communication offers a concise introduction to semio-pragmatics and condenses the intellectual trajectory of one of the foundational figures of film studies into a relatively short and accessible volume. It is a book which testifies to the author’s deep and rich intellectual engagement with a vast array of objects ranging from the classics of the cinephile canon to television news programs, home movies and mobile phone films.

Perfectly Boring? The Public Afterlife of Private Films

<p>Home movies are now viewed in a variety of public contexts, a shift that entails a loss of their original meanings. In order to consider the impact of exhibiting these private documents, this thesis analyses the use of home movies within recycled footage productions, archival curation and online video-sharing. Investigating a variety of formal and informal screening contexts through close readings and archival research, it asks: what meanings do home movies acquire in new contexts? How might the reuse of home movies affect our understandings of their production and the past they portray? Does a perception that home movies could appear boring influence how they are framed or altered for public audiences? Due to their form and content, home movies may seem ill-suited to public exhibition. Popular discourses about home movies during their heyday of production reveal a widespread belief that they were boring (for outsiders) to watch. While recent literature has assessed home movies more favourably, it has tended to overlook their potential to bore viewers who have no personal relationship to them. Drawing upon theories of boredom, this study argues meaningfulness is the principal factor determining whether a viewer finds a particular film interesting or boring. In their original form, home movies may appear relatively meaningless and therefore boring to public audiences. Recycled footage films re-edit images, however, to create engaging viewing experiences through narrative and affect. While more experimental productions frequently question the evidential value of home movie images, television documentaries tend to encourage audiences to perceive footage as authentic or nostalgic. Narrative and affect also feature in the exhibition strategies of moving image archives. Curated public programmes provide informative and enjoyable viewing for general audiences, but almost inevitably promote certain understandings of the past by offering specific interpretations of selected films. Moreover, the affective appeal of home movie images may outweigh other forms of meaning for viewers, particularly in community or participatory screening contexts. Online video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, which are curated by algorithms rather than human expertise, feature numerous home movies without any kind of framing or description. While this might seem profoundly boring, viewer comments suggest meaninglessness can foster imaginative and empathetic responses to home movies, often expressed as nostalgic longing. This propensity of home movie footage within different screening contexts to encourage nostalgic sentiments, or a belief that life was better in the past, has implications for collective memory and understandings of history. Moreover, the ability of at least some viewers to enjoy home movies in relatively contextless spaces suggests that in certain instances qualities associated with boredom may not be a significant impediment to meaningful experience after all.</p>

Perfectly Boring? The Public Afterlife of Private Films

<p>Home movies are now viewed in a variety of public contexts, a shift that entails a loss of their original meanings. In order to consider the impact of exhibiting these private documents, this thesis analyses the use of home movies within recycled footage productions, archival curation and online video-sharing. Investigating a variety of formal and informal screening contexts through close readings and archival research, it asks: what meanings do home movies acquire in new contexts? How might the reuse of home movies affect our understandings of their production and the past they portray? Does a perception that home movies could appear boring influence how they are framed or altered for public audiences? Due to their form and content, home movies may seem ill-suited to public exhibition. Popular discourses about home movies during their heyday of production reveal a widespread belief that they were boring (for outsiders) to watch. While recent literature has assessed home movies more favourably, it has tended to overlook their potential to bore viewers who have no personal relationship to them. Drawing upon theories of boredom, this study argues meaningfulness is the principal factor determining whether a viewer finds a particular film interesting or boring. In their original form, home movies may appear relatively meaningless and therefore boring to public audiences. Recycled footage films re-edit images, however, to create engaging viewing experiences through narrative and affect. While more experimental productions frequently question the evidential value of home movie images, television documentaries tend to encourage audiences to perceive footage as authentic or nostalgic. Narrative and affect also feature in the exhibition strategies of moving image archives. Curated public programmes provide informative and enjoyable viewing for general audiences, but almost inevitably promote certain understandings of the past by offering specific interpretations of selected films. Moreover, the affective appeal of home movie images may outweigh other forms of meaning for viewers, particularly in community or participatory screening contexts. Online video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, which are curated by algorithms rather than human expertise, feature numerous home movies without any kind of framing or description. While this might seem profoundly boring, viewer comments suggest meaninglessness can foster imaginative and empathetic responses to home movies, often expressed as nostalgic longing. This propensity of home movie footage within different screening contexts to encourage nostalgic sentiments, or a belief that life was better in the past, has implications for collective memory and understandings of history. Moreover, the ability of at least some viewers to enjoy home movies in relatively contextless spaces suggests that in certain instances qualities associated with boredom may not be a significant impediment to meaningful experience after all.</p>

Rising Sulphur and Raising Sheep: Landscape, Identity and Amateur Film in New Zealand c.1923-1939

<p>Looking at early examples of amateur filmmaking from the period 1923-1939, which have been deposited in New Zealand's national film archive, Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision, this thesis considers how amateur practice both relates to and deviates from other contemporary forms of visual culture such as professional cinema. Internationally, scholars and archivists have recently begun to examine ways that amateur films or home movies, which document personal, local and everyday experience, supplement other sources of visual history. There have, however, been few studies to date of this aspect of New Zealand's film history. While the idiosyncratic language of films intended for private use complicates their interpretation in an archive, it is argued that home movies display a 'referential coherence' in relation to other media, which offers a way of understanding amateur films as historical documents in the public domain. This relationship is explored looking at holiday films recorded at a popular sightseeing destination and films depicting working life on sheep farms. Portrayed as an exotic wonderland with spectacular geothermal activity and authentic Māori culture on display, Rotorua, as seen in promotional media, exemplified the widespread representation of New Zealand as a scenic playground. Amateur films offer a more ambivalent view of the tourist locality's geography and inhabitants. Made by outsiders familiar with popular representations, amateur tourist films resemble the imagery of professional media in many respects, however, they do so largely without articulating the simplistic narratives of publicity material. Picturesque images depicting rural New Zealand as an idyllic pastoral paradise have a long history across a wide range of media. While idealised scenic views of the countryside, which consistently ignored the social realities of rural existence, appear to presuppose the unfamiliar gaze of an (urban) outsider, rural residents recorded their own impressions of their surroundings on film. Less concerned with scenery than with the scene of daily life, amateur farming films document specific concrete experiences in a particular time and place, yet simultaneously appear to share, if not so much the iconography or aesthetics of professional media, at least some of the wider aspirations of cultural discourses in circulation. It may be concluded therefore that the study of amateur media production contributes to an understanding of how individuals and groups internalise and reproduce, or alternatively disregard, prevailing social ideologies.</p>

Rising Sulphur and Raising Sheep: Landscape, Identity and Amateur Film in New Zealand c.1923-1939

<p>Looking at early examples of amateur filmmaking from the period 1923-1939, which have been deposited in New Zealand's national film archive, Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision, this thesis considers how amateur practice both relates to and deviates from other contemporary forms of visual culture such as professional cinema. Internationally, scholars and archivists have recently begun to examine ways that amateur films or home movies, which document personal, local and everyday experience, supplement other sources of visual history. There have, however, been few studies to date of this aspect of New Zealand's film history. While the idiosyncratic language of films intended for private use complicates their interpretation in an archive, it is argued that home movies display a 'referential coherence' in relation to other media, which offers a way of understanding amateur films as historical documents in the public domain. This relationship is explored looking at holiday films recorded at a popular sightseeing destination and films depicting working life on sheep farms. Portrayed as an exotic wonderland with spectacular geothermal activity and authentic Māori culture on display, Rotorua, as seen in promotional media, exemplified the widespread representation of New Zealand as a scenic playground. Amateur films offer a more ambivalent view of the tourist locality's geography and inhabitants. Made by outsiders familiar with popular representations, amateur tourist films resemble the imagery of professional media in many respects, however, they do so largely without articulating the simplistic narratives of publicity material. Picturesque images depicting rural New Zealand as an idyllic pastoral paradise have a long history across a wide range of media. While idealised scenic views of the countryside, which consistently ignored the social realities of rural existence, appear to presuppose the unfamiliar gaze of an (urban) outsider, rural residents recorded their own impressions of their surroundings on film. Less concerned with scenery than with the scene of daily life, amateur farming films document specific concrete experiences in a particular time and place, yet simultaneously appear to share, if not so much the iconography or aesthetics of professional media, at least some of the wider aspirations of cultural discourses in circulation. It may be concluded therefore that the study of amateur media production contributes to an understanding of how individuals and groups internalise and reproduce, or alternatively disregard, prevailing social ideologies.</p>

Visual Histories: Amateur Film in New Zealand c.1923-1970

<p>Many ordinary New Zealanders made amateur films between c.1923-1970. This thesis explores the types of films they made; home movies, community films and films made by members of amateur cine clubs. The discussion focuses on the making, showing and viewing of each of these types of films. Some were shown in private home or club situations, while other films were shown publicly. As a group of films and film practises they offer a valuable source of information on social and cultural history. Their construction differs from orthodox professional film and offers important alternate views of New Zealand society. The sub-genre of amateur film are numerous. Films discussed include newsreels and scripted narrative drama made by amateur cine club members either working alone or in groups. Others under discussion are local films, political films, mountaineering films, educational, instructional and promotional film. The influences on amateur filmmaking are considered: camera company marketing and amateur film manuals, the international amateur film movement and the competition focused cine club culture. The thesis uses four main collections to discuss aspects of amateur filmmaking. These are the films of James Osler of Wairoa, Frederick Thorn of Waiuta, Amos James Smith of Rangiora and Nancy Cameron of Whanganui, all held at the New Zealand Film Archive, Wellington.</p>

Visual Histories: Amateur Film in New Zealand c.1923-1970

<p>Many ordinary New Zealanders made amateur films between c.1923-1970. This thesis explores the types of films they made; home movies, community films and films made by members of amateur cine clubs. The discussion focuses on the making, showing and viewing of each of these types of films. Some were shown in private home or club situations, while other films were shown publicly. As a group of films and film practises they offer a valuable source of information on social and cultural history. Their construction differs from orthodox professional film and offers important alternate views of New Zealand society. The sub-genre of amateur film are numerous. Films discussed include newsreels and scripted narrative drama made by amateur cine club members either working alone or in groups. Others under discussion are local films, political films, mountaineering films, educational, instructional and promotional film. The influences on amateur filmmaking are considered: camera company marketing and amateur film manuals, the international amateur film movement and the competition focused cine club culture. The thesis uses four main collections to discuss aspects of amateur filmmaking. These are the films of James Osler of Wairoa, Frederick Thorn of Waiuta, Amos James Smith of Rangiora and Nancy Cameron of Whanganui, all held at the New Zealand Film Archive, Wellington.</p>

Public Performance of Private Interviews: Reinserting the Self into the Family Narrative

Serban Oliver Tataru and Alfred Guzzetti are filmmakers that investigate on camera the role of memory in the construction of family history. They interview family members, gather old home movies and family photographs, and dig for public archival footage, in an effort to assume their position within a personal historical continuum, and to affirm their agency within their familial community. In their creative affirmation of generational subjectivity, they push against accepted familial narratives, and use the camera as a surgical tool that troubles lingering wounds beyond the surface of old images. In Anatomy of a Departure (2012), Romanian-German filmmaker Serban Oliver Tataru interviews his parents about their decision to emigrate from Ceausescu’s Romania while he was a teenager, scrutinizing on camera the conditions and consequence of a life-changing decision. While the dynamic of filming one’s own family is reminiscent of home movie tropes, and the tension built around sharing delicate memories reveals an intimacy usually intended to remain private, the film proposes a multilayered performance of the authorial self. As the film reveals a self-portrait set against the familial portrait (Marianne Hirsch), an inherent performative element acts as the necessary mediator between private and public, between ethic, aesthetic and politic. Negotiating between a restorative and a reflective nostalgia (Svetlana Boym), Tataru proposes a live performance of homecoming.

“Shall we put the heart in now?” A comparative analysis between creature features and their single reel abridgements

Single reel abridgements of commercial feature films are entering moving image archives because home movie collections that contain them are slowly increasing in archival representation. The abridged commercial films occupy a liminal space in between sustained preservation efforts that focus on studio films and the current interest paid to preserving home movies. As a result, the abridged films are being neglected. The films’ liminal status stems from a dearth of information regarding their relationship to the original films and a clear definition of what they are narratively and aesthetically. After analyzing fourteen abridged horror and science fiction films found in the Ryerson Moving Image collection and comparing them to their original counterparts this project finds that the abridged films are heavily altered in terms of narrative, characters, and causality, and should be treated as individual objects instead of derivative works, thus absolving their liminal status.