My Cinematic Emancipation
During my studies of Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory I was touched by his ideas around the concept of structuralism, or the study of interior realities from an outside stance, and how it can emancipate us from limited understanding. When we attempt to step outside of our inner experience to understand it more deeply, we are shifting from a subjective to an objective stance and thereby enacting a form of structuralism which expands our awareness and understanding of these inner dimensions. When we are playing a game of chess and analyzing the patterns of moves within the structure of the unseen yet known rules of the game, we are in a structuralism process that can help us see potential moves and outcomes we could not see otherwise. It is the process through which we seek to uncover the patterns, rules and “structures” of an inner unseen reality and potentially use this knowledge in such ways as gaining a new sense of understanding, playing and mastering a game, or using this knowledge to enact and create other processes, forms and even works of art (Wilber, 2006).
This concept helped me to more deeply understand cinematic expression, or the art of using the audio, visual, narrative and editorial expressive elements of the moving image to affect the viewer’s inner experience, as a form of structuralism (Block, 2007; Wilber, 2006). It helped me to more fully recognize how my many years of study and experimentation with this form of cinematic structuralism had a profoundly emancipating affect on both my personal and professional life by expanding my perception of self, others and the world.
I discovered cinematic expression in my third year at USC School of Cinematic Arts, when alumnus George Lucas spoke to my class and told us that the most important course we would ever take was the course in cinematic expression. The teacher was a famed animator, special effects artist and IMAX pioneer named Lester Novros.
I immediately signed up for the course, as did most of my fellow students. The first class was packed wall-to-wall. Novros came into the crowded classroom and walked up to the blackboard. A hush fell over the room as Novros drew a rectangle on the board and then turned to look at the class. He paused for a moment and then dramatically told us that the rectangle on the board represented the motion picture frame, and that every element within that frame had the power to affect the viewer’s body, heart and mind, and have an impact beyond the individual as well. With a twinkle in his eyes, he promised that he would teach us the rules and structures governing these elements of expression.
My perception of myself, the cinema, and the world shifted profoundly that day as I sat in the back of the classroom and listened to Novros explain how the expressive elements of space, line, shape, tone, color, movement, rhythm, and contrast and affinity, influence the physiological, psychological, cultural, and social/environmental experience of the cinematic audience (Block, 2007).
To help us more fully understand the potential power of this approach we were shown a series of slides with varying shapes of different colors. These were on white and different colored backgrounds juxtaposed with slides of just all white or colored backgrounds. The speed of the slide show and the position of the shapes on the screen varied as well. As I watched the popping and moving colors and shapes I started to feel nauseous and lightheaded and then all of a sudden I felt like I was falling off my chair. I grabbed hold of the desk and tried to keep myself from falling over. When I looked around the room all of us were holding our desks. When the lights came back on in the room we were all silent and in awe as we learned about the neurological and physiological structures and processes that were being triggered by the juxtaposition of color, shape, rhythm and movement.
We were also shown examples from direct applications of this approach in various cinematic works. One of these examples was from the opening sequence of USC alumnus and former cinematic expression student George Lucas’s Star Wars (1977), where a relatively large spaceship flies across the screen. This is soon followed by the appearance of another spaceship in hot pursuit of the first ship. As the hull of this much larger pursuit spaceship progressively enters the frame for an extended period of time, the viewer is surrounded by a deep rumbling sound that moves from the back of the theater to the front.
This amalgamation of the visually expressive elements of open space (the ship extending beyond the edges of the frame), spatial contrast (difference in size between the two ships), and movement (the relative movement of the two ships), combined with the 3-dimensional sound, produces a powerful synchronization of the senses that replicates the experience of actually sitting under this massive ship. In an instant Lucas stylistically and viscerally communicates a deep archetypal message to the viewer, the message that we are about to see an epic “David vs. Goliath” struggle between a relatively small and large force.
When that first class was over, I walked out onto the quad and everything within and around me seemed different. I noticed the bright sunlight streaming through the trees, the patchwork patterns of bright green lawns between winding white pathways, the interplay of sounds both distant and near, and the “inner” feelings I was having in response to this “outer” spatial reality. I profoundly realized in that moment, and now more than ever, that Novros’ lessons went way beyond the cinematic frame.
NOTES
Wilber notes that the application of structuralism can “help emancipate us, liberate us, and free us, by pointing to higher dimensions that move beyond the narrowness, pain, suffering and torment of less developed states and stages” of being and becoming (Wilber, 2006, p.75)
For those interested in learning more about cinematic expression I recommend starting with The Visual Story: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media written by Bruce Block, one of Novros’s master students. And if you want to learn even more, check out the Integral Cinematic Arts Reading List.
Originally published on Integral Life (2009–10–26). This is a revised and updated version.
REFERENCES
Block, B. (2007). The Visual Story: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media — 2nd Edition. Focus Press.
Lucas, G. (1977). Star Wars IV: A New Hope (Opening scene). Available at: https://youtu.be/yHfLyMAHrQE
Wilber, K. (2006). Excerpt D. The Look of a Feeling: The Importance of Post/Structuralism.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Jonathan Steigman for his editorial support; my cinematic expression teachers Lester Novros and Bruce Block for sharing their wisdom and inspiring me; Ken Wilber for giving me broader and deeper maps to the territory of my self, others and the world; to George Lucas for pointing me toward the path of cinematic expression in the first place; and to Corey DeVos and the rest of the Integral Life staff and community for providing the original supportive platform for this publication..
