Is movie making an art or a science. A short definition would help here. Science is the process of explaining any outcome as the product of a series of events, which could have only led to a single definitive conclusion. Each of those events in turn being the product of a series of other events that could have only led to that particular outcome. In short, it can be replicated endlessly to arrive at the same conclusion - as long as all the other variables are the same.
For example, if I make a paper plane and throw it in the air, it is possible that it will ( assuming I know how to make a decent one) be airborne for a distance and then land smoothly. Question is , if I throw it the next time will it land at exactly the same place. Probably not. Does that mean that science can not explain the flight of the 'paper plane'. I am obviously missing something. If it did not land at the same place the second time that is because it was thrown with more/less strength and the wind currents were stronger/weaker and moving in different directions. If you had solved for all that in the first instance, the 'paper plane' would have made exactly the same journey.
hmm...now let's take a movie. The impact a movie makes on us is not physical, it is entirely cerebral. When I watch a movie the first time, it creates a certain impact. If I watch it another time , it creates a completely different impact. If broke the movie into its individual scenes and watched it, it would create far less impact. If I just watched the songs, it would be very different. And so on....Now how does one break up the impact that it has on my mind into discrete bits that can be systematically replicated. How does one make sure that exactly the same impact can be created the next time around. And why is this important.
Art has evolved over the centuries constantly in search of the route to provide entertainment to human beings. The entertainment is important for commercial reasons and livelihood of the artist. The entertainment was important for the very survival of the art. But there have been only a rare few who have managed to thrill consistently and in every generation.
The science of the movie or of any art form is therefore the science of the mind because the impact of the art form is in the mind. Lets dive into the brain and take it one piece at a time. A movie assails all your senses, the visual , the aural, the sense of touch ( specially if you are in India and trying to walk into a movie theatre), the sense of taste ( the popcorn and the coffee) and the sense of smell ( the bathrooms at the theatre !). Lets focus on the visual and the aural here and hope that the ambience will improve enough for us to ignore the rest.
First, controlling the stimuli - a good movie hall will darken the surroundings so that the only visual stimuli reaching you is from the movie screen. This ensures that your visual experience is undisturbed. If the rest of the hall was lit, you would have been distracted by the people fidgeting in their chairs, the ushers moving around and the guy smooching his girl-friend in the far corner. Lets get those blinkers on, and control the inputs to the visual cortex.
The Primary visual cortex is located in the occipital lobe of the brain, which is at the rear of your head. The retinal inputs reach the visual cortex, where they are processed and sent to different parts of the brain. Of the various stimuli that reaches the human brain, the magnitude of the response is the highest to the visual stiumli. That is obvious. Walk around in a new noisy and bustling area, you will absorb the visual stimuli hungrily. The rest of the stimuli is given attention only when the visual stimuli is no longer novel or if any other stimuli suggests danger. Clearly, the movie makers have figured that out. That is why so much money is spent on the sets, beautiful people and creating a visual ambience.
The visual cortex sends neuronal signals to other parts of brain. Lets simplify that and say that it goes to the emotional ( limbic system) part and to the executive part ( pre frontal cortex). For a movie to completely absorb you, it has to dominate your pre frontal and your emotional brain. The content has to resonate with your emotional self and engage with your pre frontal. What does this mean. Let me give you an example. Watch this video from The Bourne Supremacy - Matt Daemon .
The two most characteristic features of this video is that it focuses on a lot of cars to picture the action and the motion, but focuses on only the faces of two men to picture the emotions. For those of you who have watched the movie will realise that the assassin who is after Jason Bourne is not just any assassin, but the one that killed his girlfriend. Jason Bourne knows that and you know that when you see Jason Bourne's eyes meet the assassin's. The assassin - who is an ace assassin at his job , just like Bourne - failed in his attempt to kill Jason Bourne - and wants to make up for that this time. That is the emotional connect. But even if you miss that, what overwhelms your brain here is the car chase sequence. The visuals are so credible that your fear centers ( limbic system) are ignited and you are in that car chase trying to escape with your life. That generates adrenalin and that overwhelms the pre frontal , such that it suspends disbelief that such a car chase was ever possible, and if it was, that you could ever come out of it alive.
What this sequence does in summary is that it taps into a very primitive neural response , which is that a human being's response to danger is triggered by the amygdala. In order to escape the danger , the amygdala triggers a series of responses - which starts from the hormonal ( release of adrenalin) and ends with flight ( the car chase). At the end of this response, the brain generates a neuro transmitter called dopamine - which gives you a rush of joy, which is the satisfaction of having escaped the danger / the entertainment of having watched the sequence. What was crucial here was that the amygdala was led to believe that it was a credible danger, which came from the visual ( the car sequence) and as a response to that, the amygdala suspended normal pre frontal activity and focused you on the act of escaping the danger ( and therefore solely on escaping the assassin). If the visual stimuli was not of the same standard, then your amygdala would not have been triggered to the same degree of intensity, and your pre frontal would not have been occupied. What this means is that you would have questioned the authenticity of the car chase and would have refused to be drawn into the action. A well shot car sequence was crucial in overwhelming the mind. Once you know this, you know exactly what to focus on. Get the car chase right and you will catch the fancy of the viewer.
Here is a video from ' Scent of a Woman' - Al Pacino
More to come......
The science of the movie or of any art form is therefore the science of the mind because the impact of the art form is in the mind. Lets dive into the brain and take it one piece at a time. A movie assails all your senses, the visual , the aural, the sense of touch ( specially if you are in India and trying to walk into a movie theatre), the sense of taste ( the popcorn and the coffee) and the sense of smell ( the bathrooms at the theatre !). Lets focus on the visual and the aural here and hope that the ambience will improve enough for us to ignore the rest.
First, controlling the stimuli - a good movie hall will darken the surroundings so that the only visual stimuli reaching you is from the movie screen. This ensures that your visual experience is undisturbed. If the rest of the hall was lit, you would have been distracted by the people fidgeting in their chairs, the ushers moving around and the guy smooching his girl-friend in the far corner. Lets get those blinkers on, and control the inputs to the visual cortex.
The Primary visual cortex is located in the occipital lobe of the brain, which is at the rear of your head. The retinal inputs reach the visual cortex, where they are processed and sent to different parts of the brain. Of the various stimuli that reaches the human brain, the magnitude of the response is the highest to the visual stiumli. That is obvious. Walk around in a new noisy and bustling area, you will absorb the visual stimuli hungrily. The rest of the stimuli is given attention only when the visual stimuli is no longer novel or if any other stimuli suggests danger. Clearly, the movie makers have figured that out. That is why so much money is spent on the sets, beautiful people and creating a visual ambience.
The visual cortex sends neuronal signals to other parts of brain. Lets simplify that and say that it goes to the emotional ( limbic system) part and to the executive part ( pre frontal cortex). For a movie to completely absorb you, it has to dominate your pre frontal and your emotional brain. The content has to resonate with your emotional self and engage with your pre frontal. What does this mean. Let me give you an example. Watch this video from The Bourne Supremacy - Matt Daemon .
The two most characteristic features of this video is that it focuses on a lot of cars to picture the action and the motion, but focuses on only the faces of two men to picture the emotions. For those of you who have watched the movie will realise that the assassin who is after Jason Bourne is not just any assassin, but the one that killed his girlfriend. Jason Bourne knows that and you know that when you see Jason Bourne's eyes meet the assassin's. The assassin - who is an ace assassin at his job , just like Bourne - failed in his attempt to kill Jason Bourne - and wants to make up for that this time. That is the emotional connect. But even if you miss that, what overwhelms your brain here is the car chase sequence. The visuals are so credible that your fear centers ( limbic system) are ignited and you are in that car chase trying to escape with your life. That generates adrenalin and that overwhelms the pre frontal , such that it suspends disbelief that such a car chase was ever possible, and if it was, that you could ever come out of it alive.
What this sequence does in summary is that it taps into a very primitive neural response , which is that a human being's response to danger is triggered by the amygdala. In order to escape the danger , the amygdala triggers a series of responses - which starts from the hormonal ( release of adrenalin) and ends with flight ( the car chase). At the end of this response, the brain generates a neuro transmitter called dopamine - which gives you a rush of joy, which is the satisfaction of having escaped the danger / the entertainment of having watched the sequence. What was crucial here was that the amygdala was led to believe that it was a credible danger, which came from the visual ( the car sequence) and as a response to that, the amygdala suspended normal pre frontal activity and focused you on the act of escaping the danger ( and therefore solely on escaping the assassin). If the visual stimuli was not of the same standard, then your amygdala would not have been triggered to the same degree of intensity, and your pre frontal would not have been occupied. What this means is that you would have questioned the authenticity of the car chase and would have refused to be drawn into the action. A well shot car sequence was crucial in overwhelming the mind. Once you know this, you know exactly what to focus on. Get the car chase right and you will catch the fancy of the viewer.
Here is a video from ' Scent of a Woman' - Al Pacino
More to come......
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