Snap! The Polaroid camera releases a flash of light capturing the image upside down through the lenses and chemically combining to the film. Most of us just go randomly shooting trying to capture our precious memories as they arise. As amateur photographers, we only look at the subject and rarely pay attention to the other subtle subjects that feel the space that we weren’t so worried about. When we finally get our Polaroid it’s not the process of waiting, but taking a second look at the exposure. Noticing all the little details that we neglected to see that makes our picture scream a thousand words rather than a mere hundred.
There are two types of writers, process-based and product-based. A process-based writer is one who uses prewriting, drafting, revising, proofreading and editing to develop their final product. A product-based writer is one who only cares about the finished product and doesn’t take all the steps a process-based writer does to end up with a final product. Anne Lamott who explains in her article “Polaroids” that she is a process-based writer and to her writing is like a developing Polaroid. Using the Polaroid metaphor, Lamott explains that for her, watching a Polaroid and not knowing what the picture is going to turn out until it has finished developing, is like writing a first draft.
Although, I myself am a process based writer, Lamott’s Polaroid technique doesn’t truly represent how I use a process for writing. My process allows me to see that my purpose can mature and become more meaningful as I recognize the supporting details. As said before we as amateur photographers don’t have the keen eye as professionals nor can we manipulate a camera meant for merely snapshots. Because of this loss of control we can’t effectively tell the story as it is presented to us. We don’t pay attention to the background of the idea nor that squirrel that just ran by as you pressed the lenses release button.
In “Polaroids” Lamott writes about attending a Special Olympics event that she is writing an article on. She says that going into the event she didn’t have any idea what the article would be focused on. Later in the day a mentally challenged man tugs on her sleeve and shows her a Polaroid of him and his friends together. At this moment an idea for Lamott’s article comes to her. “And this was the image from which an article began forming, although I could not have told you exactly what the piece would end up being about. I just knew that something had started to emerge,” (273). Unlike Lamott’s metaphoric idea of how writing is like a Polaroid developing, when I write I see the subject I see the main points but like that squirrel I didn’t see the little details that made the purpose important. When developing a point it’s the little details we didn’t catch during our first glance that makes the piece truly fly off the page. The processes of the Polaroid developing in our hands help us notice all the small details I had missed but don’t change the ending purpose. This maybe come a tedious ritual but I know each time I look at the final product the more beautiful it becomes.
In words a little less metaphorically I write in a process. Like most projects I have an idea, something I want to share with the audience that I feel is important enough to move them or even influence them. My process truly begins after I have jotted down the main ideas and the supporting details that make my point worth arguing. When I feel the idea has fully matured I start to express them on the paper. I add details and develop the point to where the story flows and effectively tells my purpose without giving it all to you all at once. I look over the first roughly written draft and tear apart. Rearranging the piece to better fit the invisible time line that allows the points to be fully understood. The process becomes more tedious as I reread the piece over and over again to make points clearer and remove the points that have become redundant. Revising is the next step in this process and one that can be very important so the reader can fully comprehend rather than trip over misplaced commas and wrong words. After another read and that I feel that the paper has truly accomplished its goal then I can say I’m finished.
As a writer we are never truly finished with this ritual. We are our biggest fans and at the same time our biggest critics and each time we reread our pieces we find something we could have done differently. Sometimes to improve our point or to even show a change in our views as time lingers by. We look at Lamott’s “Polaroids” and we are reminded that when we take a snapshot we are getting more than just the picture we had planned to achieve but that moment in time and all the little details that narrate the story we hope to tell.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Fredrico Fellini Comparison Essay
Federico Fellini, an Italian director inspired by neo-realism, Hollywood and fantasies became a world renowned director for his distinct style and reoccurring themes in his films. Starting out as a neo-realist and later developing to films about dreams and the subconscious mind. La Dolce Vita a film that is was in between Fellini’s neo-realism and surrealism period, and is said to be Fellini’s greatest film by many critics. Another one of Fellini’s well known films, 8 1/2, a self reflective film that shows a directors struggle with writers block. Both films have similar themes, a man’s struggle with where he is in his life, but is executed in different ways.
La Dolce Vita depicts the life of journalist, Marchello Mastroiann, who writes for a gossip column but longs to become a serious, successful writer. This film was largely influenced by Fellini’s life when he worked as a journalist himself in his earlier years. The films main focus is a realistic view of the inner struggle with a man, who is at a cross road in his life. He doesn’t want to settle down but wants to make something more of himself. However, he is too easily distracted by women and the self indulgence of high society life. During the opening scene of the film, a statue of Christ being flown to the Pope at the Vatican with Marchello’s helicopter flying closely behind became highly controversial and lead to the censorship of the film. The opening scene was inspired by an actual event that Fellini witnessed. Also, the first scene is ironic in the fact that the statue of Christ is flying over Rome with outstretched arms as if it was blessing the people of Rome while underneath the glitz and glam of the characters are vapid, self indulgent individuals. The film has no formal structure and is just a continuation of episodes of celebrity soiree’s and social gatherings that start in the evening and end at dawn. The suicide of Marchello’s friend Steiner is one of the main points in the film. Steiner was wealthy, intellectual, successful and something that Marchello envied and wanted to become. In the ending scene, a young girl calls to Marchello but he is never able to hear what she says and walks on, this scene represents Marchello’s ignorance to the fakeness of the high society world that he has indulged himself in.
8 ½ refers to the Fellini’s eight and a half films as a director and is also autobiographical. The main character Guido Anselmi’s struggles with writers block and constant memories and dreams of his childhood represents Fellini himself. Throughout the film Guido is being hassled by his producer and actors agents to begin filming and working on his science fiction piece. However, due to attention being drawn to personal problems with relationships, and finding ones true happiness; Guido is unable to complete the film. The opening scene of Guido dreaming that he is in a traffic jam, that everyone surrounding him is blankly staring at him, and that he cannot breath in his car is a foreshadowing of what’s going to happen in the film. In a sense, Guido’s wife, producer, production crew, and his mistress, are all suffocating him with problems that he needs to fix. All eyes are on him and they are throwing all of these problems in his face and demanding they be done as soon as possible. Like the opening scene, daydreaming and flashbacks are frequent throughout the film. As the film progressed the dreams and flashbacks mix in with reality and become difficult to apprehend what is real. At the end of the film Guido shoots himself which is symbolization that he suddenly understands the causes of his confusion and is unhappiness. This scene leads to a montage of him stating to accept me as who I am.
Both films follow themes reoccurring themes in his films: self reflexive and struggling with the subconscious mind. Like most Fellini films. They were both inspired by life experiences. In La Dolce Vita and 8 ½ the main character is at a cross road in his life, struggling to find happiness and is influenced by friends and society that surrounds them. Another similarity is a religious theme. In La Dolce Vita the opening scene was banned from the Catholic Church for what they thought as Fellini mocking the second coming of Christ. In 8 ½ Guido’s childhood memories show him being punished by Catholic priests for conversing with a prostitute whom the priest claimed was the devil. Although both films share a basic theme, both are executed quite differently. One major difference between both films is that La Dolce Vita is a more realistic film. 8½ is filled with Guido’s dreams and fantasies where as La Dolce Vita is a series of realistic events.
Despite Fellini’s transition from neo-realism to baroque, fantasy films, Fellini stayed true to his ongoing themes. Both films are examples of his unique style which some may now call "Fellinian" and "Felliniesque".
La Dolce Vita depicts the life of journalist, Marchello Mastroiann, who writes for a gossip column but longs to become a serious, successful writer. This film was largely influenced by Fellini’s life when he worked as a journalist himself in his earlier years. The films main focus is a realistic view of the inner struggle with a man, who is at a cross road in his life. He doesn’t want to settle down but wants to make something more of himself. However, he is too easily distracted by women and the self indulgence of high society life. During the opening scene of the film, a statue of Christ being flown to the Pope at the Vatican with Marchello’s helicopter flying closely behind became highly controversial and lead to the censorship of the film. The opening scene was inspired by an actual event that Fellini witnessed. Also, the first scene is ironic in the fact that the statue of Christ is flying over Rome with outstretched arms as if it was blessing the people of Rome while underneath the glitz and glam of the characters are vapid, self indulgent individuals. The film has no formal structure and is just a continuation of episodes of celebrity soiree’s and social gatherings that start in the evening and end at dawn. The suicide of Marchello’s friend Steiner is one of the main points in the film. Steiner was wealthy, intellectual, successful and something that Marchello envied and wanted to become. In the ending scene, a young girl calls to Marchello but he is never able to hear what she says and walks on, this scene represents Marchello’s ignorance to the fakeness of the high society world that he has indulged himself in.
8 ½ refers to the Fellini’s eight and a half films as a director and is also autobiographical. The main character Guido Anselmi’s struggles with writers block and constant memories and dreams of his childhood represents Fellini himself. Throughout the film Guido is being hassled by his producer and actors agents to begin filming and working on his science fiction piece. However, due to attention being drawn to personal problems with relationships, and finding ones true happiness; Guido is unable to complete the film. The opening scene of Guido dreaming that he is in a traffic jam, that everyone surrounding him is blankly staring at him, and that he cannot breath in his car is a foreshadowing of what’s going to happen in the film. In a sense, Guido’s wife, producer, production crew, and his mistress, are all suffocating him with problems that he needs to fix. All eyes are on him and they are throwing all of these problems in his face and demanding they be done as soon as possible. Like the opening scene, daydreaming and flashbacks are frequent throughout the film. As the film progressed the dreams and flashbacks mix in with reality and become difficult to apprehend what is real. At the end of the film Guido shoots himself which is symbolization that he suddenly understands the causes of his confusion and is unhappiness. This scene leads to a montage of him stating to accept me as who I am.
Both films follow themes reoccurring themes in his films: self reflexive and struggling with the subconscious mind. Like most Fellini films. They were both inspired by life experiences. In La Dolce Vita and 8 ½ the main character is at a cross road in his life, struggling to find happiness and is influenced by friends and society that surrounds them. Another similarity is a religious theme. In La Dolce Vita the opening scene was banned from the Catholic Church for what they thought as Fellini mocking the second coming of Christ. In 8 ½ Guido’s childhood memories show him being punished by Catholic priests for conversing with a prostitute whom the priest claimed was the devil. Although both films share a basic theme, both are executed quite differently. One major difference between both films is that La Dolce Vita is a more realistic film. 8½ is filled with Guido’s dreams and fantasies where as La Dolce Vita is a series of realistic events.
Despite Fellini’s transition from neo-realism to baroque, fantasy films, Fellini stayed true to his ongoing themes. Both films are examples of his unique style which some may now call "Fellinian" and "Felliniesque".
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