Selma Flashcards
How does Mark Kermode describe selma and Martin Luther king as an actor?
Charismatic
What is method acting?
The director told the actors to research their acting role, this helps them as an actor to develop an emotional tie to their character and adapt more to their role as a person.
How does Kermode describe the experience of the bombing?
“heartbreakingly poignant evocation”
How does Kermode describe the experience of the bombing?
“heartbreakingly poignant evocation”
How does Duvernay the director set out the emotional spectatorship and the different receptions the audience can perceive on the situation?
Sets out juxtapositions of domestic intimacy and instructional voice, the tension between the political and person =and the vivid interplay between historical and contemporary
How is George Cooper in the film seen as a protagonist?
How does DuVernay make MLK three dimensional?
Bradford young shows MLK in a secret light, one who is peaceful binary alternative to Malcolm. Gives an unflashy serene performance but who is capable of having fear and anger following the speech talking about the death of one of hi protesters.
How are some scenes of MLK used as an effect to represent the contrast in things, the scene dealing a lullaby?
MLK dials the number to hear a gospel singer sing a lullaby which is so scenic but at the same time its wings are clipped by the typewriter effect of the FBI monitoring Kings every move to suggest to the audience where is the privacy and making us more biased towards Luther king.
Is selma an active spectatorship or passive?
We know what happens in the end but cuts out a chapter where there is somewhat unpredictable elements.
How is David owyaye presented as an actor?
being a British actor may have made him less over awed with the role na toto dramatic compared to an American
How is Wallace presented as a character?
presented as an itnriguness character and his arrogance creates tension where the audience want an argument between him and Wilkinson.
Where is the film set?
Te film is set in its original place with its original palette reminiscing the sixties, using black suits and no other than historical knowledge on the subject. Having the location filmed there was hard but using all the historically correct information and getting adds a more sentimental piece into the film.
Why is the film called selma and not king?
As it adds to the locational aspect of the place, this is where it began and here it shall stay, selma makes king the same person, same characteristics, same humour. The severance for king was a person who is no different to all of us, he just wanted change.
Using the author theory how does DuVernay use her publication of small intimate themes to adapt t o selma?
She is vividly known for her intimate themes “I will follow”. In this film she uses king and his followers In this way with matching eyeline, dark lighting to suggest they are all the same wanting equilibrium.
How does selma empower female dominance even though it is a male dominant dilm?
uses MLK wife, carmen as a way to show the impact of it on her, allegiance with her. Coretta Scott King
How does DuVernay add to the drama o ‘Bloody Sunday”?
Duvernay uses the bridge as a documentarian proportion size, she narrates the movie with a journalist and uses explicit violence, and feel chaotic violence and fear on the issue and the juxtaposition between the historical depiction on the movie screen and the current images on today’s TV screens does not go unnoticed. make you feel ore empathy
Who was the lighting director?
Bradford Youngs add to the softness of the black skin and how their skin is under ompleltye different lighting to the white.
How did duvernya focus on the media and the emphasis on reporters?
Knew how persuasive and easy to manipulate the Americans were;,
What does the slow build up and the fast pace of build ups create?
create tension and anticipation, then violence strikes
When was selma set?
Selma represents key developments in US history regarding the Black civil rights movement, focusing specifically on the right to vote at
local, state and federal level in the early 1960s. This right was granted in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act in 1965, protecting voting rights for all minorities.
What does the bridge create?
Close-ups and camera angles during Edmund Pettus Bridge sequence - draws spectators
in and engages their reactions and emotions, inevitably situating them on the side of the civil rights marchers as they are brutally attacked (diegetic sound enhances our point of view
and again aligns us with the protestors).
What do the bridge long shot create?
Long shot captures those on the march filing in single file, suggesting their common goal and purpose.
What dd Duvernay want to make sure in her movie she did?
Selma is representing the fact that history is representing itself and storytelling but not being biased in any shape or form “not a custiodan of anyones legacy” True intention is to imbue the film and invite people into the spirit
What is the spectat orship In selma?
In Ava DuVernay’s 2015 film Selma, the film relies on the spectator’s ability to shift between passive and active Spectatorship in order to surrender to the film’s effects whilst remaining critically alert to the interpolation created by the use of dominant ideology.
What do the binary opposites between he civil rights community and the white guards create?
Create an emotional response for the active spectatorship and help them align themselves towards the civil right community
How does DuVernay think that we distinguish films?
By our cultural self and our reception, upbringing stuarts mils reception from our environment and our upbringing. Meaning everyones personal reception will differ depending on their environmental upbringing
What does the lower angle of Martin Luther king in the church scene present him as?
Presents him as a ‘saintly figure’. Shown through the mise ne scene which creates a back lighting and a halo effect. he is the power of god. Or in other ways god is behind him, which foreshadows later events- active spectaroshp. Shows to the passive spectator that that Martin Luther king is a compassionate character. In an active spectaroship pov they may believe that king is unfaithul due to the scene readings.
Why does audience positioning have an effect on selma?
Anle to make a personal interpretation, traditionalise of film form is geared more towards a passive
What is the conclusion based on selma?
Selma ironically is a personal based response and will depend on their knowledge of personal language on the situation.A film such as selma is heavily dependent on whether the audience remain active and passive to perform their own negotiated reading
Bloody sunday
During the sequence a cut is made from the white community cheering, as the Civil Rights activists are brutalised by the violent actions of the police. The juxtaposition of the two shots reinforces the dominant ideology that America is a heavily polarised society with strong racial divisions
When was the film made?
50tjbanniversaynof the march, critics were biased towards mlk
Who is Duvernay as a director?
Black director, first black woman to be awarded for best film nominee
What does the first scene of the movie entail?
The black screen again symbolises darkness, private spaces. extra diegetic film being broken the fourth wall by Luther king presenting a speech looking into the mirror “I accept this honour for our lost ones”- soft/tentTIVE
What does kings Nobel prize scene create?
Lower angle, king is superior to all of us, superior than life
What is the difference in king between the fist and second scene?
1st- private, ingrospective/doubting
public- confiendet/majestic
How is the expoignant bombing scene portrayed?
the cutting mid sentence bombing we see flesh and rubble being processed through slow motion expanding the importance of the scene
intimate childhood moment invaded by terroirst explosive. Collision of private and public spaces- duality of the film repeat
What does the repetition of kings square centred face represent?
Demands dignity
What do the scenes being presented at night create?
the absence of freedom, we see the denial of the vote for the woman and this is in daylight.
Black meetings are held at night in public spaces. Attack at night
Daylight- Johnson and George Cooper in the daylight \
the public and private spaces create tension
How are we aligned with king?
Through the low key level lighting suggesting that king is seriousness and has the support of the audience
most of the time we are in equilibrium with king to show we agree with him and not having to look up or down
extra diegetic- he is aware we are watching creates a powerful effect on the audience
we are asked to asses situations and how we would feel paint of view shots
the spectators gaze of Martin Luther king asking for a lullaby and is tracked by the FBI, no privacy. cultural/social self
private/public collision of places. no privacy lack of privacy, cut mid sentence connection with king
method acting
close ups of public suggesting we share the same vales/ social self
voyentisitc pleasure- mullet.
wish fulfilment fantasy
cutaways of Martin Luther king during speech to the audience suggesting approval
non-diegetic must played during speech suggesting empathy for him
How might everyone be aligned with king?
he panning of the camera, shot-reverse shot between king and white and afro Americans show support from them suggesting we do too everyone can,
What does the scene Martin Luther king watching riot on tv suggest?
Suggest again an alligmenet with us and him as we would feel the same watching it
the 3 dimesonal light of Martin lither king suggests everyone can eb fearful and fear fear, makes us more aligned and god
we can put ourselves in kings shoes when he decids not to cross the bridge
What do the long takes in selma do for the audience?
Enable them to involve themselves more with king and take in more of his speech
How does the quiz change of editing add to a change of reception for the audience?
The quick cutting allows for constant momentum nd the clapping, allows the audience to be passive spectators and participate- the preferred reading of aduvernay
How does duvenery help create a spectatorship and a connection between the audience there and the spectators watching the film?
The constant cuts between the audience in the film and spectators helps create an allignement and allegiance with them making it easier to compare; preferred reading
How does the sound play a part In terms of Luther speeches?
The quick clapping and loud sound helps create a engaging sense
How did Karl marx describe ideology?
“the system of ideas”- used to manipulate the audience into submission and create certain ideas
What do the ruling class create?
The dominant response
What do most american films do?
Do it the American way, objectify women margnilise the ethnic cultures- selma is a medium for social change to challenge this
What does Phillips do?
Say that viewer use textural analysis and contextual anaysis, they discuss a film after the viewing process use simplicity and expliscity implicity- to show rather than explain explicitly- to explain rather than show for selma simplicity is a dominant idea
How does selma show the implicity analysts?
through the voting rights, the right to vote through Annie Cooper So the main theme of this movie is that every citizen should have a right to vote and all citizens should have equal voting rights.
How did selma reflect a dominant approach to ideology of th 60s?
Through the use of culture, sociologists and philopshers would have used films as a way to see society cultural beliefs
How can Marxism be applied to selma?
Evolution of human society is developed through technology and the struggles between the different society and classes
marixim said for us to judge a film on whether it reflects the dominant ideology or whether it represses against it
What did Marxism say about the classes/
Sees film as a dominance between the classes and structures
