Beyond the reel : meta-reality in film : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University
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Date
1994
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Massey University
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Abstract
This thesis examines how a film establishes its own sense of 'reality' which goes beyond the mere representation of 'real life'. It introduces the term meta-reality to define this phenomenon, examines how meta-reality comes into being, its characteristics, and what effects it may have on the film viewer. The thesis employs a narratological approach to this issue, suggesting that narrative is the ultimate creative force in film, and that meta-reality is the cooperative product narrator, narrative and narratee.
Chapter One presents a case for the existence of filmic meta-reality and the usefulness of this term to the film theorist.
Chapter Two examines the essential characteristics of the film medium, comparing some of the major film theories of the twentieth century.
Chapter Three explores the similarities and differences between film and other artforms. It points up an affinity between film and novel which seems to belie their fundamentally different media.
Chapter Four examines film narrative, and determines the four basic principles of narrative: generation, cohesion, revelation and explication. It suggests that a filmmaker's narrative objectives in creating a meta-reality closely mirror these principles.
Chapter Five discusses the narrative acts at work in a film text which effect the filmmaker's narrative objectives.
Chapter Six is a case study of an excerpt of the film Mosshill, which identifies the working of narrative acts in the text, and relates these to the filmmaker's narrative objectives.
Chapter Seven summarizes the foregoing discussion, and suggests avenues for further research into filmic meta-reality.
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Motion pictures -- Production and direction, Reality