Using a selection of this week’s readings, write 200 words responding to the questions arising from the lecture. In particular, how does Rubber utilise the elements of screenplay structure in its first act. Bonus points for successfully locating the first plot point.
Films always have a main and common structure; it will always have a beginning, middle and end. There are also three points within a film, which are called plot points and in the lecture this week we look at the most important one: The Plot Point One. This occurs in Act One, which changes the course of the action on screen and moves us as the audience, into Act Two. In this act many events have to occur to set the audience up for the ‘hook’ later on in the film. This was all demonstrated in the film we watched this week, called ‘Rubber’.
Although we only watched the first 25minutes of the film ‘Rubber’ we still gain insight into how the meaning film makers are trying to create within their film, draws out different portrayals depending on each audience member. The film is firstly about a tire with telekinetic abilities to blow things up with its mind. This is a very non traditional film as the main character or protagonist is not human. Once the audience has grasped the idea about the tire as the main character, we then realise that the ‘audience’ is actually within the film. They stand there watching the tires day to day life through binoculars. The creators of this film have used stereotypical audience members in order to represent how each individual’s opinion differs even when watching the exact same thing. In the film audience, we have the stereotypical film nerds, who know or at least think they know everything there is about film; We then have the teenage girls who really are not interested at all; and finally we have the young boy who has been dragged to the cinema by his father and was bored within the first ten minutes.
Although this movie is not traditional it still manages to utilise the Act one structure. As stated in the book ‘Film Art’, ‘We can pick out a set of stylistic elements: The way the camera moves, the patterns of colour in the frame, the use of music, and other devices’ (Bordwell, D, Thompson, K. P. 57). This all assists in creating the plot lines and telling the story to the audience, which is present in the film ‘Rubber’. The audience is given a over view of the setting with the use of establishing shots of the desert, which then shows a man standing alone holding a bunch of binoculars. The audience is left wondering and speculating, just what this man is waiting for. Suddenly a car pulls up and a man hops out of the boot and talks about films and life and how things are the way they are ‘for no reason’. He emphasises that this film that we are watching is based around this concept. We then move into another element of the film introducing us to the audience within the film, and we wonder what they are looking at. Finally the protagonist of the film is introduced and we are shocked to find it is a non-human figure. We follow the tire throughout its day to day events where we learn that it has telekinetic powers.
This is all building up to the final ‘hook’ when the tire blows up the rabbit.
Bibliography:
-- Bordwell, D & Thompson, K 2010, Film Art: An Introduction, McGraw-Will, New York
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