by Dylan Burns
We are constantly barraged by visual culture and aesthetic appeal. Even
without massive, eye-catching physical advertisements and the innate beauty of the
natural world, we are nearly always fed some sort of visual stimulus. Our stylistically
appealing and extremely engaging cell phones are mostly to blame for this. However,
this concept originated with television sets. Since their invention TVs have almost
always centered on capturing the attention of viewers through entertaining. The idea
of engaging viewers was later applied to cell phones by introducing touchscreen
smartphones. Smartphones allowed us, the consumers and viewers, to also participate
in the content creation providing us the ability, and nearly begging us, to engage in
visual culture creation and consumption.
And it works. Maybe I speak for myself, but countless times I’ve been in a class
or a lecture studiously attempting to record notes, when out of the corner of my eye I
see a brightly lit display of colors and shapes and words, oh my! And just like that I’ve
been staring at somebody else’s computer or phone screen for the last 10 minutes,
instead of paying attention. Screens work specifically because of their aesthetic appeal,
and this bait is employed across and within a multitude of visual media.
With the screen’s power to captivate comes the ability to express. Any visual
medium, and film in particular, has the ability to share a certain perspective and relay a
set of emotions to an audience through visual elements. In film terms these elements
include not just cinematography, but mise-en-scene, set design, color, and lighting. All
of these elements combine for an expressive visual work that is almost always trying
to invoke or relay a certain feeling. Often, film is attempting to present a commentary, a
perspective on the current state of society. If we can understand the way media, and
specifically film, chooses to employ creative visual approaches, we can begin to
understand how societal attitudes are relayed through visual culture.
And this becomes the heart of this piece; the idea that evolving visual styles can
guide us along the path of history pinpointing certain cultural attitudes. To move from
the abstract to the concrete, we can look at the original cycle, and later resurgence, of
American Film Noir. The term “Film Noir” was coined by the French after the censored
period of American Films during WWII. Upon seeing an influx of visually and
without massive, eye-catching physical advertisements and the innate beauty of the
natural world, we are nearly always fed some sort of visual stimulus. Our stylistically
appealing and extremely engaging cell phones are mostly to blame for this. However,
this concept originated with television sets. Since their invention TVs have almost
always centered on capturing the attention of viewers through entertaining. The idea
of engaging viewers was later applied to cell phones by introducing touchscreen
smartphones. Smartphones allowed us, the consumers and viewers, to also participate
in the content creation providing us the ability, and nearly begging us, to engage in
visual culture creation and consumption.
And it works. Maybe I speak for myself, but countless times I’ve been in a class
or a lecture studiously attempting to record notes, when out of the corner of my eye I
see a brightly lit display of colors and shapes and words, oh my! And just like that I’ve
been staring at somebody else’s computer or phone screen for the last 10 minutes,
instead of paying attention. Screens work specifically because of their aesthetic appeal,
and this bait is employed across and within a multitude of visual media.
With the screen’s power to captivate comes the ability to express. Any visual
medium, and film in particular, has the ability to share a certain perspective and relay a
set of emotions to an audience through visual elements. In film terms these elements
include not just cinematography, but mise-en-scene, set design, color, and lighting. All
of these elements combine for an expressive visual work that is almost always trying
to invoke or relay a certain feeling. Often, film is attempting to present a commentary, a
perspective on the current state of society. If we can understand the way media, and
specifically film, chooses to employ creative visual approaches, we can begin to
understand how societal attitudes are relayed through visual culture.
And this becomes the heart of this piece; the idea that evolving visual styles can
guide us along the path of history pinpointing certain cultural attitudes. To move from
the abstract to the concrete, we can look at the original cycle, and later resurgence, of
American Film Noir. The term “Film Noir” was coined by the French after the censored
period of American Films during WWII. Upon seeing an influx of visually and
thematically dark films from the United States, French film critics created the term
which translates directly to “black” or “dark” films. Common creative visual elements
include location shooting, night-for-night shooting, low-key lighting, and a shocking
amount of black, empty space on-screen. Many critics contend that this visual
darkness, and thematic bleakness, was employed in response to the heartwarming,
comforting image of America during the boom of the wartime economy. Images of this
America were prevalent in society, and Films Noir responded, antagonizing this idyllic
image.
The original canon of Films Noir lost their steam around the mid-to-late 1950s.
But the genre came roaring back, in a newer, pulpier, and more colorful, in all
connotations of the word, resurgence of the 1970s Neo-noir genre. This version of Film
Noir took advantage of the progress in on-screen censorship with its crass use of
violence, nudity, and taboos. Neo-noir films were gritty, slimy, and felt like only a
stone’s throw from the lives of many viewers. The Neo-noir cycle was influenced by
the rise in violence and unrest during the highly televised and highly divisive actions of
the Women’s Liberation movement and the Vietnam war. Neo-noir films identified and
embodied this unrest and spit it back out at viewers who could relate the Noir
elements to their own chaotic and contentious world. What better way to relate with
viewers than by taking the unrest of the real world and recreating it in the world of
Film Noir.
These two period-specific film cycles give a concentrated sense of how the state
of society or culture is reflected through visual media. The aesthetic of not just film, but
most screen-related media, is almost always based on a combination of past creation
and at least some sort of worldly interpretation of the creators. Film Noir, and its
resurgence, has given us an understanding of how at least some people understood
the world they inhabited. In modern society, with a much more involved and engaged
audience, nearly all of us are creators, cinematographers, directors, and editors. With
an understanding of the impact of visual style in media of the years past, we are forced
to confront the responsibility of expressing and representing our own world through
visual media. With so many resources, and so many people with the ability to create,
how are we telling the story of our modern world? Even in informal use of visual
media, we are almost always relaying some sort of worldly perspective. Is this
expression one of uncontrolled, unconscious creation because we have access to
which translates directly to “black” or “dark” films. Common creative visual elements
include location shooting, night-for-night shooting, low-key lighting, and a shocking
amount of black, empty space on-screen. Many critics contend that this visual
darkness, and thematic bleakness, was employed in response to the heartwarming,
comforting image of America during the boom of the wartime economy. Images of this
America were prevalent in society, and Films Noir responded, antagonizing this idyllic
image.
The original canon of Films Noir lost their steam around the mid-to-late 1950s.
But the genre came roaring back, in a newer, pulpier, and more colorful, in all
connotations of the word, resurgence of the 1970s Neo-noir genre. This version of Film
Noir took advantage of the progress in on-screen censorship with its crass use of
violence, nudity, and taboos. Neo-noir films were gritty, slimy, and felt like only a
stone’s throw from the lives of many viewers. The Neo-noir cycle was influenced by
the rise in violence and unrest during the highly televised and highly divisive actions of
the Women’s Liberation movement and the Vietnam war. Neo-noir films identified and
embodied this unrest and spit it back out at viewers who could relate the Noir
elements to their own chaotic and contentious world. What better way to relate with
viewers than by taking the unrest of the real world and recreating it in the world of
Film Noir.
These two period-specific film cycles give a concentrated sense of how the state
of society or culture is reflected through visual media. The aesthetic of not just film, but
most screen-related media, is almost always based on a combination of past creation
and at least some sort of worldly interpretation of the creators. Film Noir, and its
resurgence, has given us an understanding of how at least some people understood
the world they inhabited. In modern society, with a much more involved and engaged
audience, nearly all of us are creators, cinematographers, directors, and editors. With
an understanding of the impact of visual style in media of the years past, we are forced
to confront the responsibility of expressing and representing our own world through
visual media. With so many resources, and so many people with the ability to create,
how are we telling the story of our modern world? Even in informal use of visual
media, we are almost always relaying some sort of worldly perspective. Is this
expression one of uncontrolled, unconscious creation because we have access to
resources, or do our stories unite in a way only decipherable by future societies? We
certainly will not be able to see the big picture for decades at least, but in the
meantime I propose that we all take a breath, and momentarily consider what it is that
we are expressing as images of our world.
certainly will not be able to see the big picture for decades at least, but in the
meantime I propose that we all take a breath, and momentarily consider what it is that
we are expressing as images of our world.