Sources Table

Consumers Demand Ficiton Instead of Fact

Titanic aims to let you relive the experience of the actual event through "cinematic story-telling". This tells me that the film had to create spectator response and a reaction. This therefore leads James Cameron to use cinematic convections such as dramatic irony, suspense, empathy and characterisation. Each of these example can be seen in the film.

Dramatic irony when Mr Lovejoy places The Heart of the Sea in Jacks pocket and only the audience are aware of that and as a result Jack is taken from Rose.Suspense is created through the different stories on the ship whilst it is sinking. Having Jack and Rose fight to stay together, the 3rd class struggle to get to the life boats and Huckly try his hardest to find Rose and then a boat. Empathy is simply created when a montage of different peoples stories are shown as the ship sinks, for example the old couple who stay in bed together and the mother who tells a bedtime story to her children. Characterisation is maintained though the whole film especially through Roses character as she develops through the disaster. First a damsel in distress then a final girl.

Each of these techniques lead to the film creating "true lies" this is due to James Cameron wanting to us as a modern audience to relate to the story "more than mere fact or documents ever could." This shows that Titanic is good representation into the fact that  fact in fiction needs to be modified due to consumer demand.

Lubin, D.M. (1999) ‘Titanic’. London: British Film Institute

Titanic: Real Events vs Ficiton Events

Real Events:

2,227 souls on board

1,178 life boat spaces

1,517 people dies

The band kept on playing until the ship sank

Fictional Events:

1,500 people went into the sea

700 people made it into the life boats

The band kept on playing until the ship sank

6 people saved from water

1 boat came back

"The loss was due to a collision with the iceberg, brought about by excessive speed with which it was being navigated." - Judgement of the Official British Inquiry into the Titanic's sinking, 1912

Grant, R.G., Kay, A. and Kerrigan, M. (2011) History of Britain & Ireland: The definitive visual guide. New York: DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley).

Titanic (Focus Film) - Second Key Scene

Rose is rescued: 02:46:10-02:52:13
Micro Techniques and Relevance?:

- Exaggerated blue makes it really obvious sot the audience that is cold and takes away from the fact it is not a real location, trying to hide the 'home made' part of the film.

- Location looks real, the water used is tinted like the sea and the vastness of bodies makes the set look really big and is hard to take in.

- Cameron may have exaggerated the body count by putting so many bodies in the shot, here he might have a little artistic license over the shot it is most likely exact to real events.

- The camera pans over the large number of bodies creating a horrific effect as they are all dead and therefore James Cameron is just trying to show the absolute dictator Titanic was.

- Soundtrack is barley audible whilst the crew are looking round the bodies for survivors this has been done to show the dead though another sense.

- Long shots one again show the vastness and it also helps for the images to sink in, this scene is used very well as a reality shock for the film.

- The acting in the scenes takes away from the fat of the film as it all about the fictional love story created by James Cameron, therefore this scene shows that the film has a blend of fact and fiction all the way throughout.

- The soundtrack doesn't mirror fact in this scene it only mirror the fiction creates as we hear sad music when we find out that Jack is dead, the made up character. This tells me that throughout the film the only focus wasn't just on telling the fact.

- Slow motion is used to show that the boat is leaving her behind and this shows that the film is trying to create empathy for her and not for the other people who may or may not have been real characters.

- Close up on old Rose so that the rescue scenes concluded with a fictional character. This may be done to exaggerate how little people where saved by the life boats.

Characterization and Relevance?:

- The whole scene should be about all the people needing rescuing however with the fact that James Cameron has created a character who survives, he uses her to show that others don't survive.

- Having the old Rose be shown as soon as her young self is rescued shows that the film was always about her and the that she is important in tell in the audience the truth. We need her to survive to know the truth.

- Rose is a final girl and creating a good role model for children as she is fighter and doesn't give up. She shows the American dream in her resilience and survival.

- The crew who come back are the minor characters of the whole crew in general and this shows that the rescuing of people was a 'minor' job, no one wanted to do it.

- Having Jack die in this scene is key because it helps the create empathy for the character of Rose. However, this could be considered bad as the audience will momentarily forget about the rest of people who have died and aren't fictional.

Messages and Values:

- The values in this particular scene is that the fight for survival during the event was the only thing that could keep you alive. This shown through Rose, who uses the Jacks power to keep her alive as well as her fight to "never let go" of her promise to him.

- The message of the scene is also that fear can make people bad people. By only having one of the life boats come back it tells the audience that the fear of people will change them and not even help humanity when they are capable.

- The main message of the scene is that the whole event was tragic, having a mother holding her child dead in the sea is just a subtle way for Cameron to show the audience that no one was safe: Rich, poor, young, old. 

Narrative Devises/Features and Relevance:

- The fact that the scene is meant to seem like the old Rose is telling the story, means that James Cameron had to focus on her struggle, he couldn't include another persons fight, win or defeat.

- There is no restricted narration in this scene, everything that is shown to the audience is clear to identify and nothing is made subtle or cryptic

- The narrative to this scene is completely driven by the fictional love story created by James Cameron and therefore the story is forced to focus in fact rather than fiction.

Titanic (Focus Film) - First Key Scene

Searching the Titanic: 1:45-7:35
Micro Techniques:

- Screaming, non-diegetic, in the background barely audible, foreshadowing

- Naturalistic lighting, relevant to the fact it is a fake submarine, therefore it is trying to look like a real beam coming from a submarine.

- Image quality changes with the difference between fact and fiction. This may have been done to show the audience the difference between real footage of the Titanic and created footage.

- Soundtrack is quiet and very peaceful to mirror the action of the shot, a sign of resect could have been created by James Horner on purpose.

- Cross fade is used to open the sequence, show that everything is connected

- Foley sound of the submarines added to immerse you into the scene more, make the contrasted footage seem more real to the audience, little room for hint of a lie.

- Only lighting in screen is given off by the submarines, this exaggerated they are deep under the sea.

- Set design is exact to the real thing and makes the audience question what is real and what is created by James Cameron, lines are blurred.

- There's a mix of panning and tracking shots when looking at the submarines, using a tripod.

- Hand held camera is used when showing the effect of a video log, this is also used when real footage is shown of the Titanic taken by James Cameron.

- Actual location is used, much like a documentary , some of the footage of the Titanic is taken by James Cameron himself on his own dives. This may have been done so that Cameron can make the love story between Jack and Rose feel that little bit more real.

Characterisation and Relevance?:

- The scenes shows only men and none have a connection to the Titanic.

- This whole scene only shows fictional characters, this may be so that James Cameron can make the real characters from the flash back sound out be more poignant.

- Fictional characters give fact to the audience e.g ("Where she landed at 2:30 in the morning of April 15th 1912") by doing this James Cameron is entwining the fact and fiction form the very beginning and therefore it becomes known by the audience as his narrative for the rest of the film.

- Very little information is given about these characters, this may be down to the fact that James Cameron doesn't want the audience to focus to heavily on fictional characters other than the ones on the ship i.e Rose and Jack.

- The names of some of the characters on the ship layer on in the film are mentioned however by not going into the detail James Cameron want the audience to get to know them fully in their period (though the flash backs).

Messages and Values:

- From the very beginning the message of the film is that it was a disaster and James Cameron want sot respect it, he is passionate about the subject.

- Although the characters aren't real you can tell that the message is that everyone in the film is somehow connected and effected by the disaster.

- Through the fact there is an American describing the disaster a sense of American disaster is created and therefore linking to American dream. This is reinforced through the fact the main characters are American throughout.

- Another message that could be seen just though this first scene and is then continued throughout is that money is very powerful.  The reason these people are searching the ship if for 'The Heart of the Sea' worth millions and then later on money is reinforced through the use of class.

Narrative Devises/Features and Relevance:

- The narrative of the film is very delicate as the story is told to us by Brock Lovett who has a lot of respect for the ship.

- Although a love story isn't suggested through this scene a sense of foreboding is created by the fact they are searching for 'The Heart of the Sea' I feel this is key as it means that mots of emotion is holding together the narrative.

- Although the scenes shown to the audience are direct and obvious as to what is happening, as an audience were are unprepared for the flashback given to us by Rose.

Thursday 6th October Research

I found some interesting information in the Sight & Sound Magazine about the making of Apollo 13 and it's authenticity. I found this interesting as it shows the want to keep the film real.

Sight & Sound 1995

Secondary Research - Sight & Sound

Focusing on The Social Network I have chosen to look at the Sight & Sound Magazine and look at the review for the film. This will help me to see what was successful in the film, particular the adaptation of the true story. In the review by Henry K. Miller he says that film is a scripted perfectly and is the a suspense driven film. However, in none of the review does he mention the fact that the film is based off of true events, or at least he doesn't state that the film is upholding of the real events. Therefore this source isn't very useful in helping me to conclude my title.

Henry K. Miller, 2010, Sight & Sound, http://sightandsounddigitaledition.bfi.org.uk/launch.aspx?eid=82d37d2b-a614-4255-a12c-6cdd99617d76

However, looking at the Sight & Sound article for Apollo 13, it relates to my topic really well. Written by Martin Walker, he says "best publicity vehicle NASA has known in decades". This tells me that NASA respect the film as a whole to well replicate the real events if they use it for their own publicity. He then goes into detail saying that the film used every resource availed to make it look as "right" and "authentic" as possible, using NASA equipment as a result. From reading the article it comes to my attention that the film is a great way of immersing the "American Dream" on the audience and how NASA is deserving of endless funds. One quote that backs my title is "history made real" this shows me that the film is trying to replicate the real events of 1970. However, as the article says "NASA put up with some distortions from history" but these were small parts of the film, which were merely changed due to artistic license. I feel that this source is reliable and I will be going g back to article for more information.

 

Martin Walker, 1995, Sight & Sound. http://sightandsounddigitaledition.bfi.org.uk/launch.aspx?eid=2a55121e-583a-4324-a202-66029513f7cf