192 Moving Images: Making Movies, Understanding Mediaviewers could arrive with an initial understanding of what they might expect
to see.
Th roughout the history of the cinema, certain aspects of the industry have
rewarded predictability while avoiding any motion pictures that challenged
the expectations or prejudices of audiences. With similar consistency, many
viewers hunger for fresh themes and more complex modes of visual storytelling
in their movies. While many fi lms closely stick to established story and style
elements, others play with the conventions of genre traditions by countering
the preconceptions of the viewer in subtle or extreme ways. On television,
notable series have played with conventional expectations in provocative
ways, from the long-running comedy series M.A.S.H. to the genre-bending
international hit X-Files to the Joss Whedon creations Buff y the Vampire
Slayer and Firefl y.Non-Narrative Formats
During the fi nal decade of the silent cinema, while narratives began to
develop more complexity, fi lmmakers started to explore the possibilities of
images to create meaning and feeling outside of straight narrative sequences.
A number of directors yearned to engage and challenge viewers in ways
other than through sequences that built to a story. Th ey were interested in
exploring the ability of moving images to express ideas and impart artistic
experiences to viewers through methods not linked to the cause and eff ect
we see in storytelling. Th ey found they could use editing of shots to create
sequences that expressed meaning through their patterns of activity, light
and shadow, shapes, and faces, or through presentation of visual information
that did not follow a story.Figure 5-24 Patterns of
umbrellas in Joris Ivens’s Rain.
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