Amy’s Reviews > How to View and Appreciate Great Movies > Status Update

"Filmmaker's voice" has more to do with presentation and use of options/materials artistically than just genre (I think; his initial explanation is very confusing but elaboration all seem to focus on artsyness, so...)

I appreciate that he specifically took the time to use animation usually being pigeonholed into 'kids movies' as a counterexample of why audiences shouldn't do that. :)

Point of view shapes how a story is told and can be used creatively to subvert audience expectations. The three questions to ask are:

1) Is the audience limited or omniscient?

2) Is the story told from the protagonist's or another secondary character's perspective?

3) Is the story being told objectively or not?

"A great villain needs to be a distorted reflection of the hero."
Heroes and villains often have similar objectives - if they want the same thing, it forces them into conflict.
But heroes can also battle multiple antagonists, society, technology, the environment, their own inexperience, or sanity; plus, we can have multiple protagonists (buddy, ensemble, etc) to add complexity and variety.

Character and relationship archetypes combine with genre expectations to give us some of the most beloved and recognizable types of characters. Mixing and matching these with their different objections and intentions (what someone wants and why they want it) in particular stories allows many different stories with different situations and tones to be told.

Cult of personality/celebrity worship is a powerful force in terms of ticket sales, but canny directors can use it to subvert audience expectations with regard to the story or characters (ex: Remus Lupin playing fake Lucifer in live action Wonder Woman; LOTS of people totally missed the foreshadowing because they were used to seeing him as Lupin with all that entailed).
Also discussed various types of acting methods

Supporting characters preform vital storytelling functions as things like foils to the MC or embodiments of needs/theme. Stories simply do not work without them.

Dialogue - just dialogue - reveals a lot about a character that probably won't be specified in a story because movies only deal with audiovisual elements and have limited time in which to tell their story. The lecturer suggests reading a script for a movie before watching it to try to get a sense of the characters, then watching the film to see if you're right.

What colors mean can be subjective, though there are widely accepted and well established meanings for most (dependent, of course, on context; red can mean sexual passion or homicidal rage depending on the story and characters). Not only taking these into account but using them effectively is part of good visual storytelling.

"Music is a subconscious way into our hearts, which is really where true stories lie" - my favorite line of this series so far

Leitmotif: music associated with a specific thing (character, action, etc). Motif: represents a thing and may change (tone, intensity, etc). Leitmotifs accompany a thing, whereas motifs can replace it.

Emotional architecture: how music is meant to strike someone, what response it evokes

Continued: Special effects ideally make an audience believe something is true; good SEs keep the audience in the story; great SEs enhance emotional and narrative content

It amuses me that keeps bashing J Cameron as someone who use story to show effects, though admits that it's to his benefit. After all, last I heard A:WoW crossed the $2 billion mark and my understanding is that most people watched it for the effects