How does twohundredfiftysixcolors illustrate or refute either Hito Steryl’s ideas about the “poor image” or Tom Gunning’s complications of “The Cinema of Attractions”?
Cleo De Rocco
twohundredfiftysixcolors puts into action both Steryl’s philosophy of poor images being “reality” and Gunning’s argument that “attraction” based films are just as valuable (maybe even more valuable) to culture as narrative-based movies are (Steryl 10; Gunning). Steryl asserts that the poor image abandons “the originary original” to explore “its own real conditions of existence” and that ”It is about defiance and appropriation just as it is about conformism and exploitation” (10). Gifs reflect Steryl’s conception of poor images. For example, when a gif from a movie, tv show, or other cinematic art steals, or appropriates, from the original art piece, it is easy to see it as conformism by reiterating existing art. But, these gifs can often actually be defiant – by creating an endless loop of one moment they make a viewer examine that moment more critically and by taking the moment out of context, the gif can get at something the original moment did not. In this way, many gifs can get at “existence” better than long narrative movies do – getting at Gunning’s point that narrative movies are not more valuable than non-narrative movies, despite the current capitalistic cinematic industry prizing narratives over experimental movies.
In twohundredfiftysixcolors, most of the gifs are a reflection of culture that has been “kicked out of the protected and often protectionist arena of national culture, discarded from commercial circulation” (Steryl 10). Nations are not usually interested in labeling loading symbols or porn as great national achievements; governmental agencies would not work to protect or preserve most of the gifs that were shown in twohundredfiftysixcolors. By cultivating a selection of a wide variety of gifs that have been made over the past years, twohundredfiftysixcolors preserves and captures the online internet culture of today. In it’s breadth and wide lens, the film create an “afterlife” of our culture, reflecting Steryl’s assertion that poor images “embody” the afterlife of culture that has been rejected by, discarded by, or excluded from the mainstream depiction of cultural history (Steryl 10). The film repeatedly uses repetition to underscore what gifs, including gifs of things that are generally considered negatively in our society such as porn and depressive messaging, are common in our society. For example, look at my storyboard above, to see how while some text based gifs have positive messages, they often have negative or crude messages, instead. While Hollywood mostly spins out narrative films, the wide collection of gifs in twohundredfiftysixcolors highlights that people across the world have incorporated gifs into their everyday lives, showing how culture is embracing an “attraction” based media form; thus, twohundredfiftysixcolors, by showcasing the importance of gifs to current culture, proves Gunning’s argument that “avant-garde” cinema can be just as important to our culture as more narrative based cinema (8).
Works Cited:
Gunning, Tom. “Now You See It, Now You Don’t”: The Temporality of the Cinema of Attractions
Lazarus, Jason and Eric Fleischauer. Twohundredfiftysixcolors. Vimeo, 2013, vimeo.com/62140455.
Steryl, Hito. “In Defense of the Poor Image.” The Wretched of the Screen, e-Flux, November 2012.
C.J. Heinrich
The film twohundredfiftysixcolors alludes to the cinema of attractions era of filmmaking by presenting a wide range of experiences tied to different elements of the internet. Although these early films had some minor narratives that mainly served to unite the different scenes into a single presentation, the cinema of attractions theory focuses on “early cinema’s fascination with novelty and its foregrounding of the act of display” by presenting a variety of experiences that individually excite the viewer visually (Gunning). Filmmakers designed early movies in honor of the fairground, where each individual event enticed the spectator, drawing them in with anticipation and buildup by promising spectacle while slowly waiting for the perfect moment to release the anxiety of the spectators. These moments of pure entertainment put viewers into a single moment where they could feel pure excitement and wonder by escaping the bonds of life and feeling the ecstasy of living for the moment, no matter if these films were all centered around one theme or optimized variety in topic. These films even concluded with one grand moment of pure celebration, the apotheosis ending, where all the principal members of the cast reappear for one final demonstration of showmanship that wraps up all of the beats of the narrative, thereby achieving resolution.
Twohundredfiftysixcolors expresses itself by adhering to the principles of the cinema of attractions, living within the moment on its tour through the many aspects of the internet, ranging from the innocent cats GIFs and a running gag telling people to “Deal With It” to outright pornography. Although many of these moments of spectacle are tied together through transitional elements, such as the motif of an internet loading screen occurring before moving on to another internet topic, the narrative of this film mainly serves to create these kinds of transitions, reflecting similar narratives of early films. The shiny and colorful GIFs of the movie all work together to create a feeling of wonder for the spectators, instilling the same sense of majesty and beauty achieved through showmanship, by stringing along the viewers with an anticipation that whatever the movie has next will provide shock and excitement to the audience. The movie even borrows elements from the apotheosis ending by juxtaposing a variety of GIFs from previously separate aspects of the internet that they already covered, from the internet loading screens and a final “Deal With It” to a few more lewd moments, in one final triumph right before the credits. Through a focus on bringing viewers through the movie by using spectacle, twohundredfiftysixcolors relies upon many of the same aspects of the cinema of attractions pioneered by early filmmakers, ensuring that audiences achieve a similar feeling of majesty that viewers experienced in those early films.
Works Cited
Gunning, Tom. “‘Now You See It, Now You Don’t’: The Temporality of the Cinema of Attractions.” The Velvet Light Trap, Fall 1993.
Parker Jones
A desire to display the modern usage of cinema and the exploration of the reality of said cinema were driving forces behind the creation of twohundredfiftysixcolors. The creators, Lazarus and Fleischauer devoted this project to show how people are using modern technology to create cinema as a way to express themselves. They used this conglomeration of GIF’s to represent visuals as a narrative. This desire illustrates both Hito Steryl’s ideas about “poor image” as well as Tom Gunning’s complications of “The Cinema Attractions.” Gunning states that cinema “bases itself on the quality … [of] its ability to show something” (Gunning). The true essence of cinema and film lies solely in the film and visuals themselves, and twohundredfifysixcolors draws towards this ideology. The creators disband the normalities that modern cinema expects and chooses to represent cinema as the visuals themselves. They, in a way, challenge the narrative aspects of cinema in order to prove the reality of film in the modern world.
This goal of removing an “expected” narrative from twohundredfiftysixcolors can also force this work into the “poor images” category. With such a large array of GIFs taken from the internet, it is very possible to lose the originality of these GIF’s. The creation of these was not to be put into an hour and a half long conglomeration of similar and different GIF’s, and Steryl describes how “Poor images show the rare, the obvious, and the unbelievable—that is, if we can still manage to decipher it” (Steryl). Because the internet has created a platform where film and media can contain all types of “narratives” compiling over 3,000 of them from all different angles strengthens the arguments of “poor images”. However, Steryl then goes on to say “The poor image is no longer about the real thing—the originary original. Instead, it is about its own real conditions of existence” (Steryl). The goal of twohundredfiftysixcolors was to explore how society uses cinema to express the reality of today’s world. With the realization of “poor images” being the most realistic representation of the modern era of cinema, Lazarus and Fleischauer’s work further exemplifies the meaning of Steryl’s “poor images,” but also enforces the claims of Gunnings’ “The Cinema of Attractions.”
Works Cited
Steryl, Hito. “In Defense of the Poor Image.” The Wretched of the Screen, e-Flux, November 2012.
TwoHundredFiftySixColors (Jason Lazarus and Eric Fleischauer, 2013, 86m)
Gunning, Tom. “‘Now You See It, Now You Don’t’: The Temporality of the Cinema of Attractions.” The Velvet Light Trap, Fall 1993.