Online Participation 05/02

Arnheim is one of the foundational theorists that establishes the baseline notions/parameters/limitations of film as a medium. Starting from the grounding notion that cinema is not objective because depending on the way objects are angled within the image it is already subjective because it is an intentional placement of the camera to show a specific face and side of the object it is trying to capture.

Kracauer to be honest was more confusing for me. I really struggled with understanding his theory. What I understood is that film is derived from photographs as well and that the nature of photography continues to live through film. There are two tendencies – the realistic and the formative after the rise of the medium. Lumiere and melies utilized film in these two respectively different natures.

Elsasser in their introduction to film theory mention one of the core approaches towards studying film is to study it in relation to our human condition. The relationship between cinema, perception and the human body. Regardless of genre and type – that we approach it through the senses. I know later on in the semester we will be studying film as a body. I look forward to how to understand it in that approach.