| High concept film is a stylized film production model of Hollywood,and uses eye-catching gimmicks,succinct plotline and clear theme,strong audio-visual impact force and stars to pursue most audiences as well as commercial narrative strategies of sufficient marketing ability.And the high concept film is generated under this strategy and model.Since 1970 s,it has been gradually mature and become the main pattern of Hollywood film production at present,escorting for its leading position in global film market.This paper fully teases out and summarizes the forming process,definition,characteristics,narrative mode,ideology construction function as well as creation and receiving paradigms of high concept film.Firstly,the formation of high concept film is the result that the film is standardized and restrained by essential attributes such as commerce,technology and culture within itself.The inherent of commercial attribute of film plus the Hollywood nature of pursuing profits conform the market-oriented production aim of high concept film;the development of technology provides material basis for wonders and digitization of high concept film;the rise of consumerism and visual culture are the base for high concept film to become popular.Secondly,from the end of the Second World War to 1970 s,the external factors like structural changes in American film industry and film market are the direct reason for the emergence of high concept film.Due to the rising economic pressures as well as the emergence of new forms of entertainment and the iteration of film viewer groups,film industry has to adjust film-making model,and business practice,and its product market also expands to the whole world from North America.Under this new situation,it is necessary to develop a new film art form which can rapidly catch the attention of audiences.Thus,the high concept film,which is easy to occupy the market,and also can co-share concept and video art in the field of film,television,recreation facility and electronic games,comes into being.High concept film follows and inherits the production idea and model of genre film as well as “blockbuster” film in the film history of Hollywood,and meanwhile,it has the characteristic that different from the first two.Because high concept film lays more emphases on the closely connection with marketing,it pays more attentions to wonder narration of image center and further pursues the plain and concentrated theme,simple and clear plot and narrative availability of explicit and clear narration.At the same time,it attracts the attention of audiences by unique creativity,strengthens the integrating degree between stars and films,guarantees the product differences,carry out the integrated marketing between films and culture as well as entertainment products and develops profit growth points in an all-round way.With a large number of sequels,series films or derived films generated by intertextuality of mutual reference between film texts as well as film text and fiction,cartoon,electronic game and text in other forms,establish brand effect and maintain long-term profitability.To some extent,high concept film is the intensification in the narration and aesthetic expression towards classic Hollywood films.In the level of story element of surface significant field,in order to ensure it can proceed without hindrance in global market,high concept film furthest reduces cultural discount and tends to show the commensurable theme that can resonate with audiences in different cultures and nationalities.Growth motif,love motif,search motif and revenge motif in traditional narrative works are its common themes.Along with the increasingly intensifying of globalization and coming of post-industrial age,in order to adapt the increasing new,unexpected and unique demand on watching films,high concept film is more and more inclined to conduct non-reality packing to traditional creation themes.In story structure,it still follows traditional law of causation and intensifies the three-act structure in classic Hollywood period.Characters in high concept film are generally distinct and clear,with less appearance in elusory personality or erratic emotion changes.It focuses on manifesting external action of characters,with specific character motivation,which has consistency.The character setting basically abides by several kinds of basic role functional orientation.High concept film mainly attracts audiences through surface significant field,and relevantly speaking,its deep significant field is relatively weak,which causes that it is generally recognized that high concept film is relatively shallow.However,through programming and setting time-space symbols,such as overflow and fracture as well as mapping and construction,high concept film can also create vivid and abundant film image,thus stimulating the second aesthetics of audiences.While providing top-level entertainment with both voice and colors for audiences around the world,high concept film also unconsciously undertakes the function of exporting ideology,that is,integrate the ideological expression into images through visualization dissemination.In particular,in terms of America,an immigrant society with multiple nationalities and high heterogeneity,the role of high concept film in construction of mainstream value can't be ignored.What the most typical among this includes individualistic heroism and worship for the strongest,advocating democracy and freedom while supporting power politics privately as well as the family-oriented ethical concept of value.In addition,in recent years,high concept film has gradually moved towards unreality,but it still intensely maintains high sensitivity and attention to reality and swiftly and expertly adjusts its operational and narrative strategy,which can convey the western mainstream value while satisfying the demand of the public on watching films with pleasure,and through the imaginary stories,it makes response to the changes of world political and economic pattern.But the fundamental aim of this realistic responds is to shield and comfort,rather than disclose and address inquiries,that is to say,through giving imaginary solutions to the question of reality,realize the function of shielding the reality and comforting anxious emotion of social subject.In the Hollywood high concept films,the tendency of male-centered,whitecentrism and human-centrism is clearly visible,and woman,colored people and the mature are generally appear in the image of “the other”,which is also a problem worth thinking deeply.The generation,development and maturity of high concept film rely on the upgrading and updating of film technology,and the all-round intervention of digital technology in film –making filed makes high concept film with high commercialization,wonders and prominent “concept” become stronger.Digital technology intensifies the rhetoric on wonder of high concept film,making heroic complex more disperse,but also bringing more exquisite images.However,at the same time,we also need to notice the negative effects brought by digital image under the context of consumerism.For example,film art increasingly submit to capital logic,stimulate reality of image production makes people increasingly caught in the status of “distortion” and “reality” become more difficult to grasp,and the dependence of film on digital technology makes globalization becomes more and more similar to “Americanization”,which are all need to be vigilant.Finally,high concept film strategy is not a closed and rigid system,but adjusts in time according to market trend and industrial development,thus high concept film is still changing development.We are also still in the constant exploration about the strategy of high concept,which cause some misunderstanding in some high concept films,such as exaggerating “concept” with weak story,abusing wonders and neglecting the narrative and excessively depending on intertextuality production with insufficient originals.It believes that along with the in-depth understanding of high concept,accelerating process of film marketization as well as the perfection of film industry system,Chinese film industry will establish a marketing system and production model which conform to the current situation of development,and find its own road for industrialization development. |
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