Rooted in formalism and phenomenology, it attempts to integrate three
sets polarities: (1) the tension between centripetal meanings that are created
within the individual work and centrifugal meanings deriving from and
influencing other works and the outside world; (2) the tension between the
subjective experience of the artist and audience and the objective existence
of the artifact and the society that produced it; (3) the relationship between
the individual text and the structural systems and codes of meanings it expresses. Houston and Kinder later in their book break down the features important to film relating to the world of people into three categories.
1. �The Film Artifact.� There are two aspects of the film artifact, the technical and meaning aspect of film.
The technical aspect of film tells you from what period of time the film was made. This can be discovered in how the film stalk (�The strip of material upon which a series of still photographs is registered� -Bordwell, Thompson) was used, special effect methods, or themes. In the discussion of The Land Before Time verses Dinosaur, I pointed out the fact that The Land Before Time was created using traditional methods of animation while Dinosaur was made using computer animation. By looking at the forms of animation we are looking at the films as artifacts.
The meaning aspect of the film deals with the film. Explicit meaning, as Boardwell and Thompson describe it in film terms: as the meaning that the character in the film has for themselves �there is no place like home�, while the implicit meaning deals more with the meaning that the character finds themselves falling into, in the film �Some where over the rainbow�. I am going to modify the terms to imply larger terms. Explicit meaning is what the film holds while implicit meaning is what that film is supposed to mean to society. In 1913 the landmark film Birth Of A Nation was released with the original title the Clansman. The explicit meaning of the movie is one of which African Americans where henchmen of an evil Caucasian man. The true bigotry statement came from the fact that the KKK where the heroes and that white supremacy ideals is what saved the day. Today the film is used as a propaganda film for the KKK. The implicit meaning is that in the time that the movie was released African Americans and many other minorities were treated with much less respect and equality that they are shown much more of today, even though equality is far from being reached by the minority. This film shows that in the time of the release the community was willing to share in the beliefs of the film. Another point that supports the idea the film was accepted is the fact that Birth of a Nation � was one of the biggest box-office money-makers in the history of film - it made $18 million by the start of the talkies.� (filmsite.org)
In the year 1998 Warner Brothers released their film American History X. The explicit meaning of this film is one based off a story that deals with a Neo-Nazi who is sent to prison for a hate crime. While in prison the man discovers that what he has become is more harmful than the harm he has endured to become hateful, and his hate was a sophisticated form of ignorance. The implicit meaning is that our society should be more understanding of those we don�t understand, and not everyone is bad. This story is one that is imbedded deep in the psyche of the American culture, while at the same time is the heart of skepticism. In the end of the film the tables are turned when an adolescent African American shoots his Neo-Nazi class mate in the school bathroom. This moment in the film shares the implicit and explicit meaning that bigotry and tolerance works both ways.
2. �The Means of Production.� This aspect of film is taken from Marx�s materialistic philosophy of looking at a product as an invisible container of human relations. As Marx has written and again published in Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings,
Along with the useful qualities of the products themselves, we
put out of sight both the useful character of the carious kinds of
labour embodied in them, and the concrete forms of that labour;
there is nothing left but what is common to them all; all are reduced
to one and the same sort of labour, human labour in the abstract.
In the case of The Land Before Time, Don Bluth was the man with the vision of what the film was going to look like and the points that he wanted to make. He then had to talk with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg on why they should help in the creation of the film. After the film is approved, he gathers dozens of animators to begin work on the film. Then come the voices of the characters, and the painters, and the orchestra, and the advertising, and the list goes on and on. Hundreds of people are needed to make the product of one film. Film has one thing that is a bit different than most products that are sold to us. At the end of the movie we are shown who the major players in making the film where. There is another element to this section of the theory. The film also is a representation on how well those making the product interact with each other and communicate with one another.
3. �The Film Audience.� This is the most interesting section of study when it comes to film. Every director has an ideal audience that they are trying to reach. The production company will choose an age bracket or social group that they want to sell the movie to. Animated films will tend to be made more for the younger age brackets, while many of the action or dramas will be make for the older age more mentally sophisticated age brackets. When a director takes on a project they have to consider how they want the film to interact with the desired audience, and this decision will ultimately decide for them how they will proceed in how they will make the film. The director needs understand that they will be manipulating the audience into thinking, believing and feeling what the director wants them too.
In the case of Dinosaur, the meteor destroys the island where the Aladar lives. During this scene a quick paced montage of shots of the island being consumed by flames and Aladar running gives the audience the feel of being rushed, or even the feeling of danger. The results of these manipulations can lead the audience to experience any emotion the director wants us to experience if he or she does their job correctly. If this movie were designed for adults different images would be made. Perhaps the screen would show a village of Tibet being invaded by the Chinese government, forcing a family to relocate and search for their land of tolerance.