Essay Sample on Evolution of Narrative Art in Film Industry: 40 Years and Counting

Introduction

Since the realization of the one considered as one of the first narrative art, Film industry has passed almost forty years and can be affirmed that fictional movies have undergone an evolution by the changes in the viewers' tastes and preferences (Martin 34). These first video clips, which were called dramatized because taking advantage of coverage offered by the song, tell a story following the narrative classic audiovisual. At present, the convergence of media and the multiplicity of platforms for dissemination have transformed the traditional structure of audiovisual formats. The cinematographic and advertising productions have also been losing some of their substantial features when hybridized with other genres to be consumed in very different supports: from the computer to the Smartphone through the tablets, without forgetting the already conventional: the cinema screen and television (Wainer 19). In this way, the narratives have been fragmented, compressed, and streamlined to facilitate its reception in very diverse platforms. This paper covers critical details of film genres and their impact on the society, paying more attention on key transitions taking pace in the film industry.

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The audiovisual narrative serves different meanings depending on the typology of the story to which reference is made from a generic point of view, or else the support specific in which it develops (Wainer 19). Films act as the faculty or capacity of visual images available and acoustics to tell stories, passing on information. Specific films target particular groups intending to give knowledge. R-rated morality tales, for example, The Forty Old Virgin, directed by Apatow, forces the audience to face their problems by understanding the lives of the characters. The film shows the importance of abandoning childish behaviors urging the audience to meet responsibilities. That is to say the construction of texts through the articulation of those images. From an anthropological-social dimension, one can relate the narrative with the man's need to build fictions, be they stories, fables, stories or movies, as a way to "represent the world and interact with it" (Martin 8). In this way, the narrative, as a means of expressing the fiction has evolved throughout history, until reaching digital novel whose type of story is based on non-linearity, hyper-textuality, interactivity and a new relationship between author, text and reader (Wainer 19).The way of expression of fiction is affected by the medium in which it develops. The feeling will not be the same, or the receiver will perceive the same way a story told in support of bibliographic, that is in celluloid or the video. The limitations of the environment constrain fictionality, shape, and delimit it by acquiring different forms through the type of narration.

In the McLuhan's theory about "cold and hot" media, it is evident that some films are purely emotional in terms of body, voice, and gestures; while others act as vehicles that mediate emotions. Such way that, following this theory, the artist Vito Acconci demonstrated in practice that in the "warm" media, the feeling in the viewer was more excellent, more direct, but the public was only a mere receiver. By moving a "warm" message to a "cold" medium like the video, it was shown that the message was "cooled," but there was greater participation of the spectator since it strengthened the different readings, is say the interpretive role of the public. In the movie The Way We Were, love is portrayed with a dash of perfect realism, making the viewer to relate genuinely to the characters. The film demonstrates how different women and women are in dealing with different situations. Through watching movies of a similar genre to the movie The Way We Were offered some critical lessons about relationships and qualities of a right partner.

Whether interactive or not, films, especially fiction, are constructed as a representation of the world, and its mold is the narrative. But "narrativity' is not just a feature of the invention but the anthropological link of its becoming. It is the property of a type of speech to differentiate it from another, as a principle of organization of all narrative discourse as opposed to non-narrative dialogue. With the change in narration styles, a significant evolution has been attained in film production. As a result, more genres have are being embraced across the world (Wainer 19). This trend has given women film a chance to express their success in the international rankings. Women genres in the past have only concentrated on local markets, targeting just a small niche group. Today, new women blockbusters have taken the industry to international standards. Films previously sold solely to women like the Sex and the City (2008) have been incorporated in the male-driven market where they now compete in total revenue earnings (York 15). Today's women blockbuster has new storylines targeting not just the domestic few, but also the audience beyond the chick flick of specific social groups.

One of the most representative phenomena of entertainment media research is the so-called "problem of the book "(book problem). Reading a novel can cause a state of absorption that leads one to feel "Captured" by the experience of reading and develop the feeling of "living from inside "the story, as part of the same (Martin 34). This process of absorption also occurs before audiovisual narratives of various kinds, including films. Women genres of movies try to focus on issues that are related to women like consumerism, romance, and beauty. This issues addressed in these types of films act as measures of validation. The demands from the viewers determine the production process in the Hollywood moviemaking procedures.

The common aspect of the movies is the enormous influence they are having on their viewers, in all aspects: a way of speaking, mode of dress, and gestures. The concept of identification with the characters has a long history in the research on entertainment media, although there is little empirical research about the conceptualization or enumeration of their basic dimensions, as well as its differentiation concerning the related constructs (Martin 40). However, the characters play a starring role in the production of the contents of media entertainment and constitute a central element for explaining the impact of fiction stories in the hearings. The identification with the characters is a mechanism through which people experience and interpret a narrative from within as if the events that relate to them they were happening to themselves.

Relating to the characters is a multidimensional concept that includes different processes. These dimensions are emotional empathy, which is the ability to feel what the characters think and get involved effectively in a conventional way. The other method is cognitive understanding, which consists in taking the perspective of the characters. The third process is absorption in the story, referring to the experience of becoming the character, a short method of loss of self-consciousness utilizing which the individual lives or imagines the story as if it was one of the characters. Finally, the personal attraction to the characters, linked with the positive assessment, the perception of similarity with themselves, and the desire to be like one of them.

Martin (2001) considers that the attraction to the characters is not a fundamental component of identification with the characters, although it is related to it. It is observed that the perception of similarity with characters (which constitutes one of the dimensions of the attraction towards themselves) predicted the degree of identification, noting a strong association between these variables.

Conclusion

Some authors expose that the cinema does influence people in their behaviors and turns them into alienated beings in front of what is shown in the screens. Other authors comment that this influence can be positive to improve the perspective of society and personal life.

It is because of these different points of view about the influence of the cinema that it has not been possible to reach a conclusion where it can be specified in the seventh art is a good or bad influence towards a society that currently is for consumption. It is said that cinema is today the most potent means of informal education that community has. Blumer and Hauser in their theories state that: "the influence of cinema seems to be proportional to the weakness of the family, the school, the church, and the neighborhood. Where the institutions that have in the past transformed morals and forms of behavior have gone bankrupt, the cinema assumes more significant significance as a source of lessons and guidelines for life.

Works Cited

York, Ashley Elaine. "From Chick Flicks to Millennial Blockbusters: Spinning FemaleDriven Narratives into Franchises." The journal of popular culture 43.1 (2010): 3-25.

Wainer, Alex. "Freaks, Geeks, and Mensches: Judd Apatow's Comedies of the Mature" Break point , 9 Oct. 2007, www.breakpoint.org/2007/12/freaks-geeks-mensches/

"The Way We Were (1973) by Sydney Pollack." Unsung Films, 11 Apr. 2014, www.unsungfilms.com/7771/the-way-we-were/.

Martin, Joel. Screening the sacred: Religion, myth, and ideology in popular American film. Routledge, 2018.