Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item Ocean conservation films: connecting the viewer(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2020) Lanier, Sarah Elizabeth; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Dennis AigDocumentaries about ocean conservation have relied on the model of conventional environmental science documentaries with their use of expository film techniques. Ocean conservation films of this kind follow traditions of objectivity, authority, pressure for change, and placing the audience in the uncomfortable role of acting as an antagonist to aquatic life. By examining a new model for ocean conservation films in which audiences feel connected to the ocean instead of alienated from it, we can create more profound stories as well as emotional connections with the viewer. My film, 'The Crab Man of Kodiak' (2020), utilizes a localized portrait film format to engage the viewer in a discourse about ocean conservation without vilifying them, creating a balance between advocacy, science, and emotion.Item Defining fishermen with undersea rhetoric(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2016) Glasmann, Hans Peter; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Theo LipfertDepictions of fishermen in marine filmmaking have varied widely depending on the rhetoric of the filmmaker. As filmmakers apply terrestrial logic to aquatic environments fishermen are subject to the film's cultural and personal perspectives. Because of this fishermen are portrayed as scientists, necessary to understanding aquatic sea life; stewards, necessary for protecting and maintaining the ocean; and predators, preying on the ocean's resources. Although films define and redefine anglers into different political spheres, fishermen are important to understanding the ocean. They are an invaluable resource for first-hand contact with aquatic environments. Utilizing anglers to construct the filmmaker's argument will only benefit films trying to describe the ocean as a space connected to and defined apart from terrestrial beings. I use my film, 43 and 80, as an example of a film that allows its fishermen to be the primary source of information about one species of marine life, namely pacific halibut. Because of their proximity and reliance on the fishing industry, I portray the fishermen of 43 and 80 as instrumental to understanding the need for halibut conservation and the regulations surrounding the pacific halibut industry.Item Coloring science outside the lines : the poetry and passion of Jean Painlevé(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2007) Frostic, Maria Tucker; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: William Neff; Paul Monaco (co-chair)The majority of current science films for popular audiences follow a formula that can best be described as conventional journalism. Artistic science films are rare, and historically they have generated outrage and distrust by the scientific community. In this paper, I explore the possibility that artful science films are a valid method of conveying the wonders of science to an audience. Underwater French filmmaker Jean Painlevé made films that strike a clever balance between art and science, and this unique fusion of divergent parts results in moving vignettes on the astonishing surreal beauty of the marine world. By considering the origin of the science film, by examining Painlevé's films and philosophy, and by investigating the role of art and science in society, I argue that artistic science films are valid educational tools that should be used to communicate the wonders of science.Item Ocean Pictures : the construction of the ocean on film(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2008) Kennerson, Elliott Doran; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ronald Tobias.Common filmic tropes of the ocean draw upon ideas that go back to the novels of Herman Melville and Jules Verne, who constructed the ocean respectively as a hostile wilderness and a watery Eden. Two of the earliest and most influential underwater filmmakers, Jacques Cousteau and Jean Painlevé, employed these tropes, as have subsequent filmmakers, especially in their depictions of charismatic ocean fauna. The power of the Eden/wilderness dichotomy of the ocean has spilled over not only from novel to film and from fiction to non-fiction, but into the socio-political sphere of ocean-related controversies like the one that is the subject of my film, Sealed Off!!!