MR. RYAN MURPHY: PROOF THE AUTEUR THEORY IS CORRECT?

Mr. Ryan Murphy has created many shows that have entered the popular culture zeitgeist, many of which are treatments of various groups of outcasts and misfits navigating their ways through the judgements they face. Mr. Murphy's career began in 1999 and continues today, with his production of both movies and television that have achieved both popular and critical acclaim. Mr. Murphy's television resume is as follows....

THESE ARE IN ORDER BY THE DATE OF CREATION

Not only does Mr. Murphy have a long and industrious career in the television industry, he has also made his mark on the feature film industry as well. Those films are as follows....

THESE ARE ALSO IN ORDER OF CREATION

Additionally, Mr. Murphy has a multitude of films that are being developed. Those are....

1) Dirty Tricks, a political comedy.

2) Face, a plastic surgery thriller

3) Need, an erotic thriller

4) In 2014, Murphy was developing a feature film that was based on the life of a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, who lived to be 104 and whose will was a subject of much controversy. He is planning to base the adaption on the number one, bestselling book Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune.

5) Mr. Murphy is also developing a remake of the 1976 cult-classic horror film The Town That Dreaded Sundown. It is set to be directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. 

However, I don't want you to think that this week's blog post is just going to be a biography of Mr. Murphy's work, you can go to wikipedia for that, but rather I want to use his body of work to discuss the auteur theory and how, although his work seems disjunct and not unified by a common thread, in fact, it is unified by its celebration of the underdog and the outcast. 

According the Encyclopedia Britannica, the auteur theory is a theory that was first put forward by French New Wave film magazine Cashiers du Cinema. This theory advocates that the director is the author of his films and that across that director's body of work there will specific characteristics or stylistic choice that can be observed across it. With that definition of an auteur, I would like to submit that Mr. Murphy is an auteur because there are both stylistic and characteristics that are shared across his body of work. One characteristic that is shared across all of Mr. Murphy's work is that he uses the same actors across a multitude of different project. For example, in American Horror Story, the actor Sarah Paulson has played different characters across all the seasons, in the first season she was a medium. in the second season she was a lesbian reporter, in the third season she was a witch, and now in the fourth season she is playing a conjoined twin. Mr. Murphy is not the first director who is known for using the same actors across his films, as another of example of this practice includes Spike Lee. Another thing that points to Mr. Murphy as an auteur is the subject matter that is treated across all of his work. In all of the titles that are presented above, exposure is given to people that are typically on the fringes of either society or the social ladder. With this through line in his work I believe that therefore it is appropriate to refer to Mr. Murphy as a true auteur. 

Ghosts, Aliens and Witches.. Oh My!

In today’s world, the amount of people drawn to horror films is massive. In fact, according to The Nash Information Services, horror movies were the 7^th most popular genre between 1995 and 2012, bringing in a total gross of $9,093,205,812. So, why is it then, that scary television shows seem to be so rare to come by? You would think that such a growing, enthralling genre would translate to television in the same way that romantic-comedy, action and thriller so commonly does. Looking through IMDb’s Highest Rated Horror Television Series list it is easy to see the pathetic show for horror on today’s television. Of course the list names some shows that are obviously the exception of the rule, such as Twilight Zone, The Walking Dead, Supernatural, Hannibal, etc. On the other side, some of the names of the list are shameful to the name of horror such as Courage the Cowardly Dog coming in as #9, a 1999 Cartoon Network cartoon for children, and The Vampire Diaries coming in as #15, a teen drama about a teenage girl deciding which vampire she should date. Number 8, however, has given me hope to the recent portrayal of this genre on television. American Horror Story has introduced a horrifying storyline that is both beautifully filmed as well as absolutely entertaining.

American Horror Story is a horror series introduced in 2011 on the FX network produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. One of the aspects that keeps this show interesting is that each season has it’s own separate storyline, each having a definite ending. I believe that it is always reassuring when you know that the 13 episode season you are watching is not going to leave you with a cliffhanger that will be dragged on for six or eight more seasons. Instead, the show has now completed two stories and on October 2, the show’s third season began.

The first season followed the story of a family that moves into a home haunted by the many families who had occupied it in the past. The story revolves around the theme of infidelity and follows the lives of psychiatrist Ben (Dylan McDermott), his wife Vivien (Connie Britton) their teenage daughter Violet (Taissa Farminga) and their peculiar neighbors as they try to understand and deal with those who had died on their property. The second season, American Horror Story: Asylum, follows the religious yet secretive patients and doctors who inhabit and administrate the Braircliff Mental Insitution. The season includes character's internal battles with sin and supernatural events such as alien abductions. The third season takes place in present day with the introduction of the seemingly ordinary teen Zoe (Taissa Farmiga) who is surprise to discover she is from a line of witches who had successfully escaped the Salem Witch trials 300 years ago. Before you can even make a cheesy Men In Black reference, men in black suits barge in to Zoe’s bedroom and take her away to an undercover school for young witches. The other witches, one including famous female actress Emma Roberts, are battling their internal desire to show off their magical talent and the authoritative command to suppress these powers in attempt to hide from society.

American Horror Story has received immense praise from numerous critics. The show’s first season was proclaimed as the biggest new cable series of 2011. Specifically, the show’s actors had received countless praise and even awards for being relatable in such complicated, out of this world situations. In recent news, many audience members were pleasantly surprised by actress Taissa Farmiga’s return to the third season as an entirely new character. In an interview with Chicago Tribune the actress states, “It’s nice to be back with the crew and cast and just to be on this crazy show. I love it. It feels nice.” She goes on to describe her new character, “The character is very different. The tone of this season is very different. For me, I'm a little older, a little more mature, I play a character who is in a different stage of her life than Violet was, it's just different hurdles.”

By researching this show in detail I have discovered familiar names on the show that I would have never expected. For instance, the shows producers are the same creators of the teen-based, musical, somewhat-cheesy, Glee. Although I enjoy the thought that a producer is not secluded to a single genre, I found myself wondering, how did the creators of a show based on singing about stereotypical teenage problems create a gory, disturbing horror show? The more I thought about it though, the more it made sense. The characters in Glee are known for being relatable and realistic, despite the fact that they sing in the hallways and dance in the cafeteria. This is an aspect given to the characters of American Horror Story that has clearly transferred over. Despite the fact that we cannot relate to being a witch and going to a secret school unless you are a character straight from Harry Potter, these characters deal with raw issues relating to sexuality, greed, school, infidelity and sin that makes each character seemingly real. Another familiar name was Kyle Cooper, the individual who created the show’s famous opening title sequence. Kyle Cooper is also known for creating the also popular sequences for The Walking Dead, and the 1995 film Seven. I was surprised to hear that the same individual who created the sequence we studied in class created the sequence for this show as well. However, looking at it in detail, I wasn’t too surprised seeing as it is so extremely symbolic and entertaining. The first season’s sequence takes place in the basement of the haunted house. Images including spooky shots of young children, fetuses in jars, skulls and a figure holding a pair of bloody hedge clippers, etc. flash across the screen in a creepy manner. It is no wonder that this sequence has been classified as it’s own “mini-mystery”. Furthermore, Producer Murphy stated that "By the time you see the ninth episode of this season, every image in that title sequence will be explained". The third season’s sequence includes images of the Ku Klux Klan, dead goats, the symbolic image of the Minotaur, witches hanging, African tribesman, voodoo dolls and the final shot of witches twirling around a bonfire. Of course, Kyle Cooper was not alone in creating these enthralling openings. The repeating theme music was composed by sound designer Cesar Davila-Irzarry with the help of musician Charlie Clouser, the editing was done by Gabriel J. Diaz and the cinematography done by Juan Ruiz Anchia. 

Another staple aspect of this series is the amazing camera angles. The camera angles are artistic, unique and unexpected, fitting in so well to the show’s unanticipated motif that sometimes I have to pull myself away from the storyline just to notice them. The third season offers viable proof of this. The opening scene of the first episode of the third season uses a Dutch angle, a type of tilted angle, followed by a sideways crane shot. The combination of these shots has become a staple for the show, while other shows daring to combine angles in this way will only do it once in awhile. Also, there are extremely disturbing scenes in just the first season, such as a scene of an old woman inflicting abuse on others to achieve youth as well as a scene where one of the young teenage characters is taken advantage of at a frat party. Both scenes have been exemplified with carefully selected filters and fast-paced camera angles. There are also many scenes in the first episode that use a fisheye lens without coming off as cheesy or overused. These angles take use of Euro-cinematography in order to introduce something we are not used to seeing to correspond with the gory events taking place. Moreover, the editing uses sudden jumps to show the changes of time. In fact, the show’s second season was known for these jumps and they were well-executed by cinematographer, Michael Goi, who took use of 35mm Kodak film stock. He states, “I really wanted to separate the present from 1964 in a major way….We shoot 1964 scenes on Kodak 5219 and desaturated it slightly with pull-processing…there are elements we need to see, like blood or detached limbs, that might get swallowed up in the reversal. In those cases, we’ve saturated the color, deepened the blacks and jacked up the contrast to bring the 5219 more in line with the reversal footage” Goi has clearly mastered these tools which has been a large contribution to the show’s overall success (NoFilmSchool, Kendrickin).

In the end, American Horror Story has truly overcome many obstacles that horror television series often face. For one, the show has never come off as cheesy. Despite the use of aliens, witches, voodoo and immense gore, the show has never come off as a stereotypical scare, the way most horror films today do. Also, the show has seemed to attract the majority of avid television viewers, no matter if they enjoy horror or not. It’s reputation for its actors and cinematography has caused audience members to sacrifice the fear of being scared to sit down to watch. Overall, the show has become a worthy representation of horror on television and I hope to soon see other shows quickly follow in its footprints.

Two Plots Are Better Than One : Dexter and Series Television

I've noticed there are two types of shows on television, the first is shows that have concrete main characters but a new, unrelated plot every time .  These types of shows can be watched out of order with no actually progression of an overall plot.  This type of television show can usually be seen in children's programs for example "Spongebob" or "The Rugrats."  However as I have gotten older I have noticed another type of television programing as I started to become more interested in series television.
    The first television series that has gotten my attention enough to buy the first season DVD and start from the beginning, in order of the series, is "Dexter".  As I came to the completion of the first season I have started to notice a pattern in how the show is formatted.  For every episode there is an individual sub-plot (in this case a bad person Dexter must kill) and also an overarching plot pulling on pervious episodes and the episodes of the future (for example  Dexter's love life and the mystery of Ice Truck Serial Killer).  Once I noticed this pattern I began to think of other popular television shows (everything from Nickelodeon's Avatar to Glee to Spartacus)  and they all seem to follow this same format to one extent or another.

      I had to then ask myself why?  Well as a scriptwriter I looked at this from a storyline standpoint the sub-plot keeps every episode interesting and engaging for an audience that may not be familiar with the show but also heightens the engagement of dedicated followers.  The overarching plot however is what creates the "show followers" and drive to wait and watch the next episodes.  I believe this equates to the marketing of the show in a way.  The fact that a television show can be enjoyed by someone new to it is equally as important as to entertain someone who has watched it from the start.  Seeing a random episode of Dexter is what got me to start over from the beginning in order to understand what exactly was going on.  The usage of two story-lines to in a way to attract new watchers while furthering the entertainment of followers of the series seems to be extremely effective.

     Another interesting point I would like to add is about the story structure of each episode.  The basic outline of a conventional story is supposed to have an introduction, rising action, conflict, climax, falling action, and a conclusion…however as I have looked further into series television (or at least in the case of Dexter) this does not seem to be the case.  I feel as though every sub-plot follows this basic outline curve however the overarching plot provides it's most heightened sense of emotion at the end of every singular episode.  This climax at the conclusion if you will is what keeps audiences coming back and insights feeling of personal investment and connection within a series television program, turning first-timers into followers.
     It would seem from my experience and my research into series television programs this story-line format is at the core for creating a successful televisions series.  I have found that although some shows such as certain sitcoms and children's shows work on a per-episode basis, the shows that acquire the most "hype" and engage the audience most fully are those that utilize this idea that two plots are better than one.  After taking time to verbalize all of my thoughts and as someone who is interested in series television and the television business I have found that taking time to evaluate my own personal reactions as an audience may help to understand how audiences I may one day market to work as well.