A Leaf on the Wind

Joss Whedon’s Serenity is often called a space western, but, it is not a film that can be relegated to one shelf. It is science fiction and drama, a thriller and a Western that draws elements from Chinese epics. This idea follows through in the use of color within the film, drawing overlapping elements from different cultures to create a blend of cultures that would exist in a world beyond an overpopulated and contaminated Earth.

It is not a pure science fiction film, nothing like the Star Trek that modern audiences know, closer to Blade Runner with it's almost grungy feel. It is nothing like the clean metal of Star Trek or the stylized richness of Star Wars. It is dirty, it is emotion in its most natural form, it is human. The film is the outside of that which is constantly presented by science fiction films, the opposite of all the cold gleaming metal surfaces and technological advances. Serenity, both the film and the namesake, a near derelict spaceship that is barely held together, are the opposite of that vision. It is closer to the gritty and dark visual style of Ridley Scott’s neo noir film Blade Runner. 

Within the long spanning history of the films and television shows of Star Trek, the colors have always been quite clear. Everything to do with the color palette, for the protagonists of the films/shows, are on the lighter side of the color spectrum. The Federation, the advanced government within the home world of Star Trek, is shown having beautiful, crisp and cold environments of gleaming metal. It is just as the presentation of the Alliance in Serenity, a totalitarian and highly advanced government. That is the opposite with Serenity, those with the lighter color palette, the pale blues and grays, are the antagonists and villains of the situation, having created the monsters known as Reaver through their own meddlesome actions. 

The darkness apparent in Blade Runner, the grittiness throughout the dystopian world, that is what is reflected within Serenity. It is the darker side of humanity in the future, in a future that is not only gleaming and wonderful, but cold and cruel. It shows that humanity is not simply that which glitters the brightest, but also that which is dull and drab. 

Within the scenes of the school, when River is dreaming or having a vision, the prominent colors are blues, whites, and, oranges. There is green in the background, that of the foliage and flora, but it is almost too real, the green does not feel real. Everything is oversaturated, almost technicolor and hazy in appearance. The color white, within the scene, is almost blinding and surrounded by a halo, mimicking it’s Western definition of purity and innocence while, at the same time, contrasting it’s Eastern definition of being the color of mourning and death. A fitting comparison when, towards the end of the first school scene, the teacher stabs River in the forehead with a blade, and, in the second scene, when all the students lay down and turn into mummified corpses before River’s eyes.

Sickly blues, greens, and, grays dominate the Alliance lab scene where River is being experimented on. There is an unhealthy sheen to the skin of the characters within this scene, almost as if they were monsters or even corpses. The Alliance itself, whenever present, is represented by those hues along with white. The records room, in which the Operative is reviewing River’s escape from the Alliance lab, is primarily neutral in color. The only contrast within the room’s color palette are the red lights on the shelves, the red stripe on the floor, and, the blood of those that the Operative slaughtered. 

For Serenity, the spaceship that is called home by the majority of the characters of the film, is filled with warmer colors, denoting that it is a safe place. Even though the inside of the ship is gray or light blue metal and there are areas that are coolly lit, the general feel is that of safety due to the warm hues decorating the interior. The most prominent of those colors being yellows, reds, and, browns. 

As the albatross that the Alliance seeks to silence, River is clad in regal colors. Dark blues, purples and reds are the colors that she is always seen in. She is both a psychic and an engineered weapon. The red symbolizes the death she is able to bring down upon others in an instant, the purple being the symbol of her metaphysical abilities, and, the blue referencing the nobility of her birth.

The abandoned planet known as Miranda is, as is the norm within this film for dangerous locations or moments of dramatic importance, depicted in lighter colors. All the colors, of everything found on that abandoned planet, are cold and icy. Steel grays, icy blues, and, whites cover the screen within the scenes on Miranda. There is no variety of color but for the corpses of the former inhabitants of Miranda. There is nothing that lends to the belief of life existing on the planet.  

Serenity does not follow the story of what would be considered the counterpart of Star Trek’s Federation, the Alliance in this case, nor does it follow the noble cause of the rebel forces in Star Wars. Rather, it’s story follows the path of a ragtag group of honest thieves who live aboard a derelict spaceship bearing the name of Serenity. The symbolic albatross of the film is a young girl, River Tam, daughter of a high ranking family within the Alliance, psychic, and, lab rat of the the Alliance. Before her brother, Simon, managed to rescue her from the Alliance laboratories, she unearthed a truth from within the minds of the leaders of the Alliance that burned her mind. It is for that secret that she is hunted by the Alliance, to prevent the truth of the tragedy of Miranda from reaching the mass public. It is for that reason she and her brother managed to hide themselves within a small band of thieves, who, are led by a former rebel captain.

River herself is no longer just a brilliantly gifted child. By the hands of the Alliance, she has become a weapon. Mentally unstable, her movements and appearance throughout the film reflect this. At times, she appears unearthly, her skin too pale or even glowing within certain scenes. The camera follows her motions, and, when she is especially disturbed, it is reflected in the manner of editing. There are moments when she is reading the minds of others and the camera portrays this through the use of an extreme Dutch angle, intent on causing disorientation and discomfort, mimicking what River herself would feel. When she has visions of the Reavers, those unlucky humans who have fallen into darkness and madness by the hands of the Alliance, there are close ups and rapid camera movement that mimics their chaotic movements and thought patterns. 

The movements of the Reavers, especially when fighting, are chaotic and out of control. Fitting with their background, being the few survivors of Miranda who had gone mad due to the secret experimentation of an entire planet by the Alliance in the attempt of creating a docile and malleable populace. The Alliance soldiers, in contrast, when moving, are stiff and methodical. They are organized, playing to the knowledge of the Alliance being cool and calculating when it comes to any and every thing. On the other hand, River, she plays to her name. She is graceful in both battle and in her daily movements, almost as if she were dancing or even simply a leaf on the wind with the delicacy of her appearance and movements. 

It is a dance, the entirety of the plot and aesthetics of the film. River and her protectors shying away from the ever reaching hand of the Alliance as they move further and further to the edge of humanity. It is simple and complex, a moment in time that is repeated throughout each scene of the film. River is, after all, an albatross aboard a rudderless ship that follows the wind. 

That, perhaps, is how Serenity can be summed up: a leaf on the wind. 

Works Cited

Dargis, Mahnola. "Scruffy Space Cowboys Fighting Their Failings." NY Times. The New York Times, 30 Sept. 2005. Web. 4 Dec. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/30/movies/scruffy-space-cowboys-fighting-their-failings.html?_r=0>.

Kempley, Rita. "Blade Runner." Washington Post. Washington Post, 11 Sept. 1992. Web. 2 Dec. 2015. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/bladerunnerrkempley_a0a2e1.htm>.

Orr, Christopher. "The Movie Review: 'Serenity'" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 27 Dec. 2005. Web. 2 Dec. 2015. <http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2005/12/the-movie-review-serenity/69420/>.

Blade Runner. Dir. Ridley Scott. Warner Bros., 1982. Film.

Firefly. Dir. Joss Whedon. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2003. Film.

Serenity. Dir. Joss Whedon. Universal Pictures, 2005. Film.

Wood, Jennifer M. "Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk on Firefly Fandom and Their Con Man Indiegogo Campaign." Esquire. Esquire, 21 Mar. 2015. Web. 1 Dec. 2015. <http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/interviews/a33827/nathan-fillion-alan-tudyk-firefly-reboot-tournament/>.

Moral Rights and Authorship in Film

The creators of copyrighted works are often recognized to have moral rights to the work. Within these moral rights, coming from the French droit moral, is the ability granted to the authors of controlling the fate of the works they have created. This right is the connection between the author and the work, it is a connection that is personal rather than monetary, it’s value being merited on it’s personal worth to the author. Within these somewhat intangible rights are the rights of attribution, the right to have the work published under a pseudonym or anonymously along with the right to the integrity of the work. These rights, though, are not tied to any economic rights within the normal copyrights and are such that even if the copyright rights are given away to another party, the original author still remains in control of the moral rights. 

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works formalized aspects of modern copyright law, having introduced the concept of a copyright existing the moment that a work is created in an tangible form (a document or recording) instead of the necessary registration to be allowed copyright ownership. It’s creation, as well, enforces that the signatory countries of the convention recognize the copyrights of citizens from the other signatory countries. The fair use of copyrighted works in broadcasts or publications is allowed within these signatory countries. 

It was the French writer Victor Hugo who instigated the Berne Convention, having been influenced by the French ideal of droit d’auteur (right of the author) which was the French copyright law in the 18th century. A contrast to the Anglo-Saxon idea of “copyright”, their philosophies are intrinsically different. The Anglo-Saxon concept was, as previously stated with what copyrights usually deal with, concerned itself with the economic aspects of the created work while the French concept concerned itself with the philosophical and moral aspect of the created work. Under that belief of droit d’auteur, the copyrights for works of the arts are automatically applied the moment that the work is in a tangible form. 

Before this, the copyright laws of each nation was only applied to the works published within those countries, elsewhere, they were fair game. After this convention, copyright was regulated at an international level.

After the Berne Convention, five other treaties regarding intellectual and copyright laws came into place to protect all aspects of the aforementioned laws and rights. Most, if not all, of the countries in the world are participant to these treaties, including the Holy See and the European Union. A large amount of these countries consider moral rights to be inalienable, unlike the transferable economic rights, these creative rights cannot be waived nor given away. 

It is these laws that protect the expression of the personality and philosophies of the authors of the created works. These are the laws that are the best friends of film makers and directors, especially when they are justifying the ownership of their creative work. In fact, it is film makers that have been the most successful in protecting their creative work. An example of this is the famous case of Turner Entertainment Co. v. Huston, CA regarding the attempt to colorize “Asphalt Jungle”, a black and white film that the production company colorized after the the creator’s death. The heirs of the creator’s attempted to prevent the colorized version to be broadcasted on French television on the basis that directors and scriptwriters claim the authorship of the work by the sole fact that they created it and fixed it into tangible form.  Poetic justice being that it was the Cour de cassation, one of France’s courts of last resort, that ruled in the favor of the creator’s heirs and solidified the strength of the claim of moral rights. 

Yet, the powerful claim of moral rights has yet to reach the U.S., the copyright laws within the U.S. are varying due to the different views of what art was. In fact, it was members of the film industry that argued against the protection inherent within the laws of moral rights. It was argued that film were the property of the studios and producers, and, although, the Director’s Guild of America fought that position, the studios won. This battle was won on the basis that those rights prevented any possible investment in the creation of films. 

It is the position that prevents any possible protection to be guaranteed to any filmmaker whose movie is produced in the U.S., there is no promise that the work will not be distorted through editing or any other manner. Monty Python has successfully sued against ABC for just that reason, through the heavy editing of three of their episodes, the broadcasting company had so changed the content and nature of the work, that, the work was no longer what it had been meant to be, being an implicit act against the moral rights that Monty Python was owed as the creators. Although the comedy team, and others, may have won against the infringement upon their rights, there is still no protection within the U.S. regarding the moral rights of filmmakers and other artists. Although we are in the 21st century, we are still following laws from the 18th that are focused on economics rather than philosophy.

Works Cited

Ardito, Stephanie C. Legal Issues - Moral Rights for Authors and Artists. Legal Issues - Moral Rights for Authors and Artists. N.p., 2002. Web. 25 May 2016.

Mas-Guidnal, Julia. The Motion Picture Industry: Critical Issues Concerning Moral Rights and Authorship | JOLT Digest. JOLT Digest RSS. Jolt Digest, 31 Dec. 2011. Web. 26 May 2016.

Rosenblatt, Betsy. Moral Rights Basics. Moral Rights Basics. Harvard, Mar. 1998. Web. 25 May 2016.

Waiver of Moral Rights in Visual Artworks. Waiver of Moral Rights in Visual Artworks. Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 25 May 2016.

Film Aesthetics

The application of aesthetics within film, to me, is a prime example of philosophy. It is philosophy at it’s finest, a experiment into what it is that the human mind is attracted to and repulsed by, essentially, what makes the human mind tick. Art is what has separated humanity from the variety of other species that inhabit the Earth, and film encompasses nearly all, if not all, the fields within the world of art. It is music and rhythm, sculpture and fashion, it is art itself. And through art, that is how humanity is to be understood and it’s true face discovered. 

Having said this, aesthetics within film are as varied as there are philosophies and periods of art. There is a philosophy behind each style, a reason for why this was placed so and why a specific color is prominent within the film or scene. Nothing is without reason, it is organized chaos, just as human emotion and thought is organized chaos. 

Within these styles of organized chaos and distortions of beauty, there is the concept of Ma within East Asian cinematography, a single moment in time which encompasses nothingness and everything. It is rarely used and appreciated by Western audiences, for the thought of a moment of nothing within a film is pointless and without purpose, serving little reason to propel the story and feel of the film. But that is the aesthetic, a single moment in time in which nothing occurs which propels the story or the feel of the film, yet, in truth, it has. These moments without seeming purpose are within the world of film due to the philosophies of Asia, of Buddhism and Shintoism, in specific, Zen Buddhism. It is a moment of escape and peace within world of chaos, a moment of organized chaos in which everything has it’s purpose and said purpose is revealed, a moment of simply being. 

Ma, this concept of a moment in time, that is my preferred style of aesthetics within film. A simple elegance where you do not need 120 minutes of sequential action and physical turmoil to deliver beauty to the eyes of a viewer and invoke an emotional response. Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahara are two such propellers of this movement who have heavily inspired me, their Studio Ghibli films invading Western film culture with the concept of Ma with mythical and dystopian films that touch upon upheaval and destruction with peaceful moments of nothing, of moments without hate and despair and equally without love or happiness. 

There are Western films that touch upon these concepts, the first that come to mind being Equilibrium with Christian Bale and UltraViolet with Milla Jovovich. Within both films there are heavy Eastern influences within the cultures and societies presented, least of which is not the concept of moments of nothingness. Both films are minimalist in the sense of a Zen garden, there is nothing that is not needed, there is purpose behind each movement and each placement that may not be obvious at first, but is after enlightenment has occurred. Dark purple against a background of stark white in UltraViolet, the white following the Eastern belief of white being a color of death and mourning, and in Equilibrium, blood splattered white against a background of lifeless stone grey are examples within the film of the Eastern sense of there being only what is needed, only being said what must be heard with layers and layers of depth.

Aesthetics within film is as varied as the cultures within the world. The concept of it is being rather fitting to be studied in a class of anthropology or philosophy since aesthetics, especially in regards to cinema, is what shows humanity for what it is and how to understand humanity.