Film as Social Practice

by Graeme Turner

Turner provides a clear introduction to major theoretical issues in the history of film production and film studies, examining the function of film as a national cultural industry, and its place in our popular culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, College, School, Textbooks, Cultural Studies

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Graeme Turner is an Australian professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland, Federation Fellow, Past President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Director of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, and Convenor of the ARC Cultural Research Network.

He is one of the key figures in the development of cultural and media studies in Australia. His work is used in many disciplines: cultural and media studies, communications, history, literary studies, and film and television studies. Turner's research interests include Australian film and media, issues in Australian Nationalism, popular culture, celebrity, and talkback radio. His current project investigates the role of television in a post-broadcast era increasingly dominated by new media formats such as the Internet.

Reviews

[Alain Acevedo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ojalá alguien comentándoles a los académicos que existe cine fuera de EE.UU.

[Teresa Cutler-Broyles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great addition to film studies library!

[CTEP]

The majority of my students adore the Marvel movie franchise. They come in wanting to mimic fight scenes, do grandiose 360 degree shots, and use violence as plot. I have considered many reasons that Gen Z might feel particularly compelled by these superhero movies. The most topical reason is climate change/our Earth’s impending doom. My students’ generation was born into a tenuous environmental era, and from a young age have been faced with the existentiality of an Earth in decline. Being able to see a beautiful person play a character who never dies and has powers that can solve anything is an incredibly seductive storyline for a generation facing the horror of climate change and the understanding that everything we have will be torn from our hands due to our own irresponsible consumption. However, I, like Martin Scorsese, have issues with the Marvel movies.

As previously mentioned, one of the things that my students glean from the Marvel movies is violence as plot. I have to work my students out of this thinking, explaining that fight scenes and violence will shock you for a moment, then fade and leave you with nothing. Our understanding of what it means to be a human on this Earth--to love, to fear, to desire, to relate--is not pushed forward by Marvel movie fight scenes. Scorsese agrees with this, stating that “nothing is at risk”in the Marvel movies. “The pictures are made to satisfy a specific set of demands, and they are designed as variations on a finite number of themes. They are sequels in name but they are remakes in spirit, and everything in them is officially sanctioned because it can’t really be any other way.”He goes on to say: “That’s the nature of modern film franchises: market-researched, audience-tested,vetted, modified, revetted and remodified until they’re ready for consumption.” My students are not in JuiceMedia to make big-screen franchise films. They are here to expand their thinking and discover what being an artist feels like, to write meaningful stories that connect to their lives and moves others in their honesty.

The book “Film as Social Practice” urges readers to not look at movies with a Fine Art or Literary lens, which I, and it seems Scorsese, tends to do. It mentions that “popular film takes place in an arena where the audience’s pleasure is a dominant consideration – both for the audience and the film’s producers.” The problem here is that, if people keep getting fed the same movies over and over, continuously being told that they like it, the smaller films with actually meaningful narratives will not get produced, because people will decide to go to the flashy Marvel movie instead. Turner writes “film is a social practice for its makers and its audience; in its narratives and meanings we can locate evidence of the ways in which our culture makes sense of itself.” I come up with reason upon reason that my students are attracted to Marvel movies, how culture is making sense of itself, such as reckoning with climate change. I cannot, however, come up with any lasting or worthwhile content that Marvel movies present us with other than an hour or two of escapism (which can be a viable reason to ingest art at times, but more often than not, doesn’t leave us with an expanded notion of life and living).

[Alex Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comprehensive, relatively lightweight whistlestop tour of basic tenets within film theory -- visual arrangements, industrial relations, critical perspectives & aligned within themes of cultural studies vaguely prodding at how identities or ideologies may be reinforced/criticised by cinema. Offers little of its own contributions, largely relying on citing & illuminating paths to essential scholars, although as a congregation it's a wonderfully cohesive text.

[MM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven, in my estimation.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graeme Turner writes a strong introduction to film examined through cultural studies. While the sections on semiotics and narrative theory are simply explained and illuminating, be wary of past editions as their current topics will include movies like Lethal Weapon and Desperately Seeking Susan. I've heard the newest edition has been updated with more recent movies, which sounds very appealing.

[Budi Kurniawan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough introduction into the cultural aspects of film. This book starts with brief technicalities of film, and then moves on with how film produces meaning, how it relates with audience, and the ideologies that construct it. It closes with two examples of film reading, which are quite sophisticated for me. Overall a nice read, it opens up wider horizon for me to understand more about films.

[sologdin · Rating 2 out of 5]

not a bad little introduction of film appreciation. has a progressive component to it, as title might imply. useful for apprehending film as a rhetoric, with a grammar and suchlike.