Week 6: Melodramatic Media and Darker Decisions

This week our group discussed the parallels and divergences of film and television in terms of the superhero genre. While both deal with issues of adaptation and advertisement, the primary difference discussed is televisions need for melodrama. As we saw in the television series of Heroes, characters of melodrama require an essence of melodrama in order to maintain a constant connection with the audience. Contrastingly, film only requires a connection between character and audience lasting an hour or two, but this doesn’t take anything away, it’s just a difference caused by the techniques of each medium. Nonetheless, with this as our launching point, our group began to discuss the uses of melodrama, advertising, and the infamous DVD in terms of our adaptation of the graphic novel, Powers.  

            We can’t say there is much melodrama in our graphic novel; the issues of the characters in Powers are hardly brought down to the everyday as they are in Heroes. While characters in Heroes are frequently making decisions based on their concerns as friends, lovers, or as parents, the characters of Powers often wade through large questions of existence, death, and morals in terms of the world as a whole rather than in terms of family or other miniature societies. Of course, Powers is not completely void of any melodrama, the love story between the protagonist and Retro Girl fills this hole. However, our group agreed that this was oddly thrown in merely as a possible story line that could connect the novel’s series which, fittingly, is the purpose of melodrama in superhero television series such as Heroes and Smallville. Of course, this offers many implications in terms of our desire to create the contained world of Powers in our adaptation; our desire is to bring the audience into the world forcing them to be a voyeur of the world rather than simply the action. This effectively leaves space between the audience and our characters. This space allows them to be impartial, critical judges of the actions of our twisted, complicated characters rather than being drawn in based on sentimental reasoning that encapsulates melodrama. The sentimentality of melodrama simply has no place in the darkened world we wish to portray.

            Our group then began to discuss methods of advertising as well as the importance of the DVD as discussed in Rayna Denison’s article. The effectiveness of internet advertising for Heroes strongly intrigued our group. Moving beyond the fact that this blog itself is essentially advertisement, our group discussed the importance for advertisement to illustrate the overall feel of its product. As done with the campaign for Heroes which emphasized the melodramatic and interconnected interactions of the characters, we clearly need to distinguish the feel of our film which we previously noted to be a complete and darkened world. Denison sites Smallville for making use of interviews on their DVD to demonstrate the family atmosphere of the show existing upon the set as well. Denison explains that this is important for fans who may now feel a deeper connection with the show. This provoked an idea for us to present this in an advertising campaign; however, our campaign would be done as the world juxtaposed with the set rather than the characters with their actors. For example, we may film footage of the making of the set which showcases the construction of the skeletal structures followed up by shots that illustrate the final version complete with dark and looming atmosphere. Posting clips such as this on our blog would build audiences excitement to dive into the world we are giving them glimpses of. Moreover, expanded clips of these ads could be added to our box set DVD solidifying its collector’s artefact status as Denison suggests.

            That concludes our insight for this week. Until our next piece of advertisement, all of us here on the “Powers 1” team wish you a good break….no matter how sentimental that statement is.

Week 5: Revision, Revisionist, Revisionism…

This week in class our topic was a continuation from last week’s on genre; our lecture moved past the formation of conventions and focused on its cycle and the effect it has on the superhero film. We watched Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass (2009) as an example to the third stage of revisionism and the conventions it exploits for purpose of irony.

To begin, genre is explained, by Louis Gianetti and Jim Leach, as films “that are immediately recognizable through their iconography, motifs that become associated through repetition” (52). It is always traced back to Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery (1903), as it was the first western ever made, a genre not unlike that of the superhero. Both deal with isolated individuals with a penchant for social do-good following specific conventions that have become altered as film has progressed through history. To point out more similarities, the western, like the superhero film, is also rooted in convenience store material.

The reading that supplements the lecture, titled “Introduction: Once Upon a Time Once Again,” is an interesting article that provides the history of the evolution of the superhero and the interpretation readers provide through its progression. They dissect what they consider to be “canonical and non-canonical” in regards to changed material in order to help presence its integrity. The author emphasizes the point of change where a superhero becomes revamped while staying true to source content. He utilizes examples where it has enhanced the original content, like that of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, where its serves a new vehicle for “superhero relevance.” It adds a new gritty realism that was not seen to that point. He also provides examples where it was harbored conventions taking it to a point where it provides no variety and diminished the product, like the bifurcation of Superman into two separate entities of red and blue.

All of this can be applied to our adaptation of Powers because Michael Bendis takes conventions and subverts them. He does not alter them to the point of irony like in Kick-Ass but to point where he presents something not considered a-typical of the superhero medium. In the graphic novel, the world is created around the notion that superheroes are a common phenomenon although in the way that they exist without being called attention to. The protagonists of the novel have no powers alienating them from the world at hand creating a paradox not seen in most comics. It inverts the notion of isolation usually attributed to the superhero; however, the ones singled out are regular human beings. Although this is not a radical revision, he creates a new approach to the genre connecting the audience with something not ultimately available.

Works Cited

Giannetti, Louis D., and Jim Leach. Understanding Movies. Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. Print.

Week 4: *Insert Generic Title Here*

This week our topic revolved tightly around genre; looking specifically at the film Dick Tracy and the article by Peter Coogan, “The Definition of Superhero,” our group experienced flurries of discussion greater than that of the snow out doors. Puns and quick dialogue, of course, are conventional to the superhero genre, although writers of the genre are much stronger in this area than I, so I’ll spare you from more of my own pathetic examples. Why don’t we just dive right in?

            Coogan, in his article, explains that a superhero is a champion of the oppressed; a superhero is one who generally follows the mission, powers, and identity formula. Through his many case studies, Cogan illustrates that the superhero does not necessarily need to be firmly planted in all three of these tropes. Superheroes may survive on merely two of these identifiers such as Batman. He has a strong mission to clean up the streets of Gotham and avenge his parent, he has a clear identity drawn from his origin which inspires his costume; however, he does not have any special powers. Of course, Coogan points out that his displays of strength and conflicts with eccentric villains more firmly establish him in the genre.

             

            Throughout his article, Coogan digresses into these case studies; however, he makes a few strong points throughout which greatly helped us to look critically at Dick Tracy as a superhero. Coogan sites McCloud’s argument for the importance of easily recognizable costumes. This is strongly illustrated in the film; Dick Tracy’s bright suit and the kid’s sharp red outfit are abundant signifiers throughout the film. Dick Tracy and the kid also have a clear mission, to clean the streets of the mob; clearly, they are champions of the oppressed. However, Dick Tracy does not go much further into the realm of the superhero genre as explained by Coogan. Tracy does not have any special powers beyond his heroic acts such as climbing and leaping off building and riding on the backs of cars, in this way, he is not greater than the average hero as Coogan would wish him to be. Moreover, he does not have a secret identity that arises from an origin story; he simply runs through the streets with everyone aware of who he is. Some might argue that the kid presents the characteristics of identity as he is illustrated to have an origin to his mission and does not have an identity until the end; however, as the title hero is Dick Tracy, this is easily overlooked. Thus, apart from clearly identifiable costumes, identity is not prevalent in the film. Thus, Dick Tracy only strongly follows one of the three formulaic qualities described by Coogan. Our group decided this prevalence of identifiable costumes, heroic, but not super-heroic feats, and a lack of secret identities arising from an origin story left Dick Tracy too far on the outskirts of the superhero genre to be truly applicable among a firm tier list of superhero films.

            After discovering Dick Tracy to be on the outskirts of the genre, we then took a look at Coogan’s solar system metaphor which explains the importance of producers and writers to decide what genre their film is going to belong to. Joe Lipsett noted the importance of this in advertising; after all, we don’t want our audience to feel cheated out of what they expected based on the iconography and conventions of our trailer. As producers we have to decide how firmly we wish to establish ourselves in the genre in order to attract not only the appropriate audience, but also a wide audience. Of course, Prof. Lipsett also explained the empiricist dilemma, or, in other words, the chicken and egg dilemma which is presented by defining genre convention. This got us thinking of the constant evolution of genre which we are inevitably a part of whether as producer or as audience member. So, how much do we want to stray from convention? At what point will we offend genre seekers at our film? Do we want to evolve the genre or remain true to what’s already established? As our graphic novel, Powers, merely fringes upon many of the conventions of the superhero genre, we have plenty of room to tinker with, but we don’t want to give too much away, at least, not yet.