Altman had a very unique style of directing, which included using multiple camera placements so the actors couldn't "direct" their performance toward one or another (promoting truth), allowing the actors to use instinct and impulse before and during their performance (choosing their own costumes, writing/performing their own songs, writing their own dialogue, etc...). Techniques such as these are consistent with Altman's desire (and capability) to keep the lines between fact and fiction blurry, therefore drawing the audience in and virtually consuming them, and keeping the actors accessible.
What does Sawhill suggest are the functions of the recurring "wires, phones, intercoms, cameras, mikes, speakers" throughout the film?
Sawhill suggests that the functions of these recurring "technological advancements" are to highlight both their purpose, and their parallels to our humanistic society. We live in an age full of an ever-increasing amount of technology, and just like the stardom that "future celebrities" were seeking in Nashville, the abundance of technology is self-serving and caught up in it's own madness. Throughout the movie, the recurring motifs of technology remind us that society is headed in the same direction... commercialism, consumerism, and more technology.
What does Sawhill mean when he suggests that Altman "was making nonlinear multimedia before the form existed," and that Nashville "doesn't suffer from the fragmenting effects of stop-and-start, at-home viewing"?
Altman used certain techniques to imply specific things before they became "mainstream" or "normal." By keeping the cameras moving (often times in random patterns) and using cross cutting and other such things, the audience is brought to a point to where they don't have to watch every single frame to understand the story, but instead they can "rove around" the screen and take in what they choose to. This mimics life. It isn't your conventional experience of "Ok, I'm watching a movie, this is fictitious, [insert movie here], that was good...." Instead, Altman's style makes you think "maybe he just set a camera up and let people wander around the screen..." because the distinctions between fact and fiction are so transcendental.
1 comment:
Good job.
Re: inclusiveness: We'll also talk about sound recording techniques that allowed for more flexibility from the performances.
Be sure to look over Carroll's allusionism article, and the concept of two-tiered communication. (Let me know if you still had problems accessing the article.)
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