We have another special surprise for everyone out there on the net, STRIKE A POSE FILMS now introduces it’s Essays Page, a place where you can read and gain cinematic terminology and knowledge from the writings of Dylan Hintz and others.

So two things are happening with this page: One, its a portfolio of my years of paper writing at Salisbury University under the great tutelage of Dr.’s Walker, Johnson, Moeder and others, as well as some private essays I’ve written in my free time. They can be cited if you are ever faced with writing an essay of your own on films like Oldboy, Cache, Aliens, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Rashomon, Gattaca and Life is Beautiful. There is a creative commons notification at the bottom of each essay, so please keep that in mind.

Secondly:
If you wish to get your essay published on a fully-functional and well-read website, please by all means submit it via email to my gmail account, which is just “strikeaposefilm” @ gmail.com.

Here is a sample of my essay on the film The Battleship Potemkin:

Dylan Hintz
English 402, Film History
Professor Johnson

The Warfare of Montage

“Revolution is war,” begins a famous quote from Soviet Revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in the opening slate to Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 masterpiece of Soviet Montage, The Battleship Potemkin. This statement links clashing close up images of water crashing upon rocks- a natural violence of warlike proportions displayed to give the viewer a feeling of great chaos- to the entirety of the film in a message and theme of collision and amassed disturbance. This quote, delivered through a black and white slate of words and expressing the emotions of the time towards warfare, explains in Lenin’s own words how something of great change, a Revolution, can only come through the great destruction of War. Two juxtaposed ideas, change and destruction, give a concise and explosive example of Eisenstein’s film theory of Montage, most prominently displayed in The Battleship Potemkin. When put together in a subconscious mindset, the words can create an idea of revolution and war- the fulfillment of the formula he created. Eisenstein carries over this equation of words to the medium of film and the images it can convey in the succession of editing- the ultimate storytelling power of a film. He carves out the themes of this film through the use of conflict to convey images within the montages, giving deeper meaning to scenes as well as providing an artistic angle to almost documentary-like situations.

There is one key scene in the Potemkin story that depicts its primary revolution through the use of a heavily edited montage. During the second act of The Battleship Potemkin, the captain has called all sailors and soldiers to the deck to demand information on possible treason. The treason in question is based around a paranoid request: Did the sailors enjoy their meal? In the oppressor’s, the pristinely clothed and thick mustached captain, view had they not, they are obviously denying the consumption of the provided food in an act of rebellion against their suppliers and should be duly punished for such treason. Thus starts the most dramatic montage of this act as the soldiers prepare to fire on the dissenters in following their captain’s orders. In a slow build of solid images, the marines raise their guns in preparation to fire upon the dissenting sailors. Displaying a solemn acceptance of the doom draped upon them, the sailors lower their heads in shame and despair as the rifles are pointed upon their brothers. It is in a slow and breathe-like take that Vakulinchuk, in a dramatic medium shot, is the only man to raise his head upward and take in the image of the oppressive act. The angles then conflict, as victory appears on the side of the oppressors, with their shots being taken from a low angle, putting their guns in the top of the frame, with the cloaked men kneeling towards the bottom of their frame from a high angle, accepting their doom.

You can read the rest of this essay here, and check out the rest at http://www.strikeaposefilms.com/essays

Feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts. These papers are primarily for analysis, not argument, but if you agree or disagree a discussion is more than welcome- it is encouraged.

As I start adding more essays I will be posting them to the main page as well, so more content to look forward to for the next couple of months.

Thanks for paying attention and enjoy the literature!