Tuesday, 14 January 2014

Dissertation Module



               Dissertation Proposal


                              By
                        Ayse Kaya
                        S11002621
                     Creative Media
           ARD505 Research Methods

                             How
               Stanley Kubrick’s Vision
                    Influenced Cinema?

                                                                     Dissertation Proposal

The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle.”
                                                          
                                                                                                                    Stanley Kubrick

Aim:
How Stanley Kubrick’s Vision Influenced Cinema?

For my dissertation I am going to investigate Stanley Kubrick’s vision and what influence has it got in cinema in modern day.
I will start with looking at his career journey starting out as a photographer to becoming filmmaker and being a legendary and successful director.
I will also look at his perception of filmmaking and the ways it perceives the cinema and other filmmakers.
In addition, I will be interviewing and giving questionnaires to people in various fields, public and my colleagues. How people’s views varies on his visions and his work.

Objective:
To find out what influences Stanley Kubrick by looking at his photography work and his films.
How does his influences reflect and inspires in his films?
What techniques he used for visual story telling?
What impacts does his work have on today’s cinema, filmmakers, directors and photographers?
To find out opinions of public, students, tutors and artists about the methods, techniques he used for filmmaking. Also positive and negative views of the people about the way he reflects his vision in his creations and I would like to have some interviews in Turkey with people in TV and cinema industry. This will give me an idea if there are any influences of Kubrick, how much he is known in different communities.
One of my colleagues is presenting his dissertation proposal on Alfred Hitchcock so in the near future we will have discussion sessions, comparing his and Kubrick’s work, asking opinions of other students and tutors.


Method:

For my dissertation I will look at; different resources such as; books, films, magazines, blogs, online articles etc.
I will be filming interviews with public, students, tutors question their opinions about Stanley Kubrick, his vision and if he influences them and if he does then how? I will try to get in touch with different production companies, famous filmmakers, directors; editors to find out about their opinions if possible arrange interviews with them. If possible I will arrange more interviews in Turkey with people in different industries. However mainly, TV and Cinema is going to be my priority.
Also there will be some educational videos published thru YouTube relating to him and his work.
I will be preparing my own questionnaires as well as interviews to find out more thoughts about him and his creations.
I will investigate the impacts of him and his work in other films, videos, directors and filmmakers.
Looking at the point of views of different communities will give me an opportunity to compare the ideas.
Once I have gathered interviews and questionnaires, I will be analysing and comparing the results.


Structure:

Introduction – A brief history of Stanley Kubrick’s childhood and how he became photographer and filmmaker?
In my introduction I will talk about childhood of Kubrick, from taught playing chess and having his first camera at the age of thirteen as a birthday present from his dad, being an awful student, working as a photographer in Taft High School Magazine where he made friends and who would later he be working later on, selling his first photograph to Look magazine and getting hired by Look as an apprentice photographer.  Looking at his early career starting from being photographer, working with acknowledged people in the industry of cinema and how he progressed and developed into a filmmaker, director. Also, I will look at how did the life conditions that he was living in effect his live, and was reflected on his work.

Chapters – Filmography.
In this chapter I will look at the different films of Kubrick and talk about the outstanding ones around the globe such as, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut, Lolita, Killer’s Kiss, Clockwork Orange exemplifying the dark side of the Sixties, 2001: A Space Odyssey and more. I will talk about more of his life conditions affecting his films in this chapter. There will be several examples explaining the impacts of the position he was in such as; when we look at the credits of “The Shining”, they are raising and this symbolizes when the smoke was rising up in concentration camps during the 2nd World War. Also The Shining is a pioneer film of the psychological horror genre.

Chapters – Vision of Kubrick.
In the second chapter, I will look at the way he makes his films, what thoughts and sights he has behind, what makes him a legend? I will be watching his superior creations, looking at his quotes analyse and find out his techniques. For example; chess was an abstract representation of war, the principal subject of Kubrick’s films; during the world war II Fear and Desire was made (1953), Paths of Glory in world war I , Dr Strangelove in The cold war and Full metal Jacket in The Vietnam War. As well as his films, I will be looking at the documentary of Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures. I will be quoting from the video that Kubrick was explored through pictures, clips from his films and comments from his colleagues.

Chapters – How his vision influenced others.

In the third chapter, I will be looking at the similar work of Stanley Kubrick and similar talents, what are the similarities and how they have been used. In the educational videos on YouTube I will be watching and showing during my presentation, there are various famous filmmakers and directors reviewing, explaining how they are influenced and inspired of his work. In these days, Steven Spielberg is set to bring Kubrick’s screenplay which was never filmed before on Napoleon’s life to the small screen. Also I will talk about filmmaker Jonathan Glazier. In the music video of Massive Attack – Karma coma it was influenced by The Shining’s including the eerie twins, the obsessive typing of a single phrase and the shots of long, eerie hotel corridors. Another example of influence is in the song The Universal by Blur, the single's cover art is an allusion to the opening shot of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the music video is a tribute to the movie A Clockwork Orange, with the band dressed up in costumes similar to Alex and his droogs.



Chapters – How he has influenced me.
In the first year of my course, we had an assignment of writing an essay on what are we influenced by and why. It was on “The Shining” which was directed by Stanley Kubrick. When I watched the film after my research on it, I was extremely impressed to see his vision in every single diminutive detail. Also I had a collective assignment to work on with my colleagues, selecting a genre to make a short film. And that’s when we revealed our psychological-horror genre film “Development”. Looking at his quotes like; “Perhaps it sounds ridiculous, but the best thing that young filmmakers should do is to get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all.’ inspires me and motivates me to do work.


Chapters – Opinions of others.
In the last chapter, I will look at the opinions of public, tutors and my colleagues by interviewing them. Look at the questionnaire results, compare with the interviews and analyse them. I will find out whether they think positive thoughts and impacts on them or negative opinions and effects. Also, I will compare them with my concept.
Steven Spielberg said for the scene in The Shining little boy riding his bike in the aisle “I think sometime Stanley just did that because he did not want to be like everybody else and he had a very specific way of telling a story. It is not that he wanted to show off I am so different than you but why does every story have to be told the same way.”


Conclusion - Showing my enthusiasm for Stanley Kubrick, his excellently done films and displaying his visions, his visionary filmmaking, gathering all the opinions from various resources and presenting them.
In my conclusion, I will accumulate everything together such as; the research I will have done from various resources, interviews, and questionnaires. I will combine the results with my opinions and some work of mine associates to Stanley Kubrick.
I will present the influences of him in different areas such as films, videos, and photographs.



Bibliography

Paul Duncan, 2011. Stanley Kubrick. Edition. Taschen.

Dk, 2011. The Film Book. (Dk). Edition. DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley).

Bill Krohn, 2010. Masters of Cinema: Stanley Kubrick. Edition. Phaidon Press.

Vincent LoBrutto, 1998. Stanley Kubrick. Edition. Vincent LoBrutto.

2001. Stanley Kubrick: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series). Edition. University Press of Mississippi.


Websites

The Visions of Stanley Kubrick - Part 1 –

The Visions of Stanley Kubrick - Part 2 Final –

Development finished project –

Stanley Kubrick Quote –

Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures –









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