Final Blog Post

Well, here we are at the end. This blog and my previous assignments already contain a great deal of my reflections on the class content as a whole, but more than anything, this class has taught me how much more complex and multi-faceted film theory is than I ever thought it could be.

I really thought film theory was more-or-less the same thing as film analysis. Just watch the movie, and use your five senses to pick out all of the details you can, and then pick out what those details are doing to support the themes of the film. I had heard of "feminist film theory", "post-colonial film theory", but I, and I hate to say this but, I really thought that that was kind of like getting a group of feminists together to apply their feminist philosophy to film, without considering the storytelling abilities and technological aspects (strengths and limitations) of the medium itself. Basically, I thought feminist film theory was all feminism with very little film.

However, I discovered—through reading through Film Theory: The Basics, witnessing the complexities of the many gazes through Laura Mulvey and bell hooks, and having our own class discussions—that each splitting branch in the tree of film theories is only more and more in-depth in terms of the broader context its applying. You can't just know a little film theory and a little feminism to know your feminist film theory, you need to know both and you need to understand them well if you're going to be able to keep up with their analyses as well as their thesis claims/overarching purpose.

Similarly, I thought I knew what to expect from post-modern cinema. I know the tropes, you know the tropes, of course the directors are gonna know the tropes, and now we subvert them. Simple as that, right? Wrong again! There's so much more there to play with than just what the audience thinks they know. Sometimes it's not about making the viewer question what they can predict, but question what they're feeling. My experience with Swiss Army Man made me realize that there's no right emotion to feel when watching a movie, and that's part of the magic too.

The Film Story Narrative was a challenge for me at first. I couldn't find a single lovely memory among all of my cinematic experiences, just depressing or untellable stories. And as we discussed in class, that's maybe just part of human nature and what a "cinematic moment" represents. But when I finally found what I wanted to tell it was fun, and having to restrict myself to only a fraction of the length I would have made it otherwise made for an interesting and provoking challenge, which I think helped me hone in on my writing skills a bit more.

I already did a full reflection on my Fascination Project but that was a similar case of having a hard time finding my topic/purpose/goal, but upon finding it, being able to make a presentation I ended up being very happy with.

I thought we had an excellent class size and vibe, and the nature of discussion felt casual but focused. I wouldn't have changed anything about the class in that way, and I'm glad Professor Kyburz was our professor because I don't think anyone else could have taught it with as much starry-eyed passion and motivation. Sometimes when we got a little off-topic, it was just as insightful.

I'll truly miss coming to this class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I hope everyone enjoyed this class as much as I did.