What does Monaco mean by the term “The spectrum of the arts”?

In the book “How to read a film” By Monaco, through pages 22-28 he mentions the concept of “the nature of art” and “the spectrum of arts”. By mentioning “the nature of art” Monaco introduces the concept of a scientific and mathematical past to art through the context of the history of the arts and how they’ve developed.

He first mentions the Greeks and Romans approach, specifically to the rubric of poetry and the three approaches the Greeks and Romans had, these three being: Lyric, Dramatic and Epic. “By the late seventeenth century, the range of the word had begun to narrow once again. It was increasingly applied to activities that had never before been included—painting, sculpture, drawing, architecture—what we now call the “Fine Arts.” The rise of the concept of modem science as separate from and contradictory to the arts meant that Astronomy and Geometry were no longer regarded in the same light as Poetry or Music.” (quote pulled from “how to read a film” By James Monaco.) In the quote Monaco depicts the image that the word art sort evolved, from a sort of atavistic version of the word now, to a definition society is now more familiar with. Furthermore the chosen text also explains how the words once closely related scientific aspect was more disregarded and more and more unrelated from the new, narrowed, definition of the word.

After establishing the context of the word and concept of “art’ and informing the reader of the words past, Monaco introduces the idea of the “Spectrum of the Arts”. He does so by displaying the introduction of Film to the art realm and ‘recording media’ and ‘representative media’. After establishing the concepts of recording media and representative media he then moves onto Film, this is where he mentions the “Spectrum Of The Arts”, by explaining how Film doesn’t completely eliminate the intervention of a third party between the subject and the observer but does significantly reduce the distortion that the presence of an artist inevitably introduces Monaco can swiftly introduce the spectrum of arts:

• the perfomance arts, which happen in real time;
• the representational arts, which depend on the established codes and conventions of language (both pictorial and literary) to convey information about the subject to the observer;
• the recording arts, which provide a more direct path between subject and observer: media not without their own codes but qualitatively more direct than the media of the representational arts.

The performance arts are art forms such as: dance, music, opera, theatre and musical theatre, magic, illusion, mime, spoken word, puppetry, circus arts, performance art. There is also a specialized form of fine art, in which the artists perform their work live to an audience. This is called performance art. When art is classed as ‘performance arts’ the art therefore must be being displayed in real time and/or live, no repeats, retries and such, this obviously complicates things for the performers/actors since if they make a mistake they will most likely lose the viewer’s/audience’s attention and/or respect.

Representational art or figurative art represents objects or events in the real world, usually looking easily recognizable. For example, a painting of a cat looks very much like a cat– it’s quite obvious what the artist is depicting. So the obvious example for representational art is a portrait painting like the famous painting “Mona Lisa” it’s very vivid that it is displaying a portrait of a woman. But going more in depth and modern, comics and such are examples of representational arts too as it’s made very clear that the creator is depicting a person with powers saving the day.

The recording arts are more direct forms of art, also being under the concept of media, the recording arts records the art whether that be recording audio or visual and sometimes not recording but just displaying audio and/or visual art. The examples I am referring to are as followed: Music and Music Business. Within the entertainment industry, most people associate the recording arts with music and the music business. This example directly correlates to the audio recording aspect, Television and Film. This example directly correlates to using both audio and visuals to form art and lastly Video Games are the example which I was relating to when explaining that some recording arts don’t have to record the art just display the audio and visuals.

the performance arts – is art that is shown in real time to an audience such as plays and live shows. for example the musical Hamilton

the representational arts – depend on the established codes and conventions of language such as paintings or poems. For example the mona lisa

the recording arts – music or shots from films that has been recorded before shown to an audience. for example ‘The lost boys” (1987)

The spectrum of the arts places the different forms of art into one of three categories based on how tangible they are to an audience.

The Performance Arts are showing ideas to an audience in real time, examples of this include live theatre, music, or dance.

The Representational Arts share information to an audience through tangible objects, examples include paintings, graphic novels and drawings.

The Recording Arts communicate to an audience after a delay due to production or editing, examples include films, produced music, and most television shows.

The Performance Arts: Happens in real time such as live theatre i.e: Broadway shows

The Representational Arts: Conveys information about the subject to the observer by through literature and pictures such as comic books, manga and story books

The Recording Arts: Provides a direct path between the subject and the observer but are more direct than representational arts such as music and film

These categories can be blurred together due to the technological advances that humanity has made. A good example of this would be ‘Heathers’.

It was originally a film that got turned into a musical and later on into a tv show. This blurred the boundaries between the 3 different types of art as it’s been changed form a screenplay into a live action piece therefore mixing both the recording arts and the performance arts.

There are three main forms of art. The performance arts, the representational arts and the recording arts.

The Performance Arts – Something happening and being shown to a live audience in real time. A few examples of this are dance, music or acting.

The Representational Arts – will always be a tangible object. For example a book, paining or a sculpture.

The Recording Arts – When something has been recorded, such as a piece of music or a scene for a movie. These clips have then been edited and altered for them to be shown to an audience.

What makes a good film?

Whether or not a film is good or bad is subjective, many different factors go into a good film but to me a good film has compelling characters with an interesting and unique story line usually filled with suspense, a twist or excitement of any kind so views don’t get bored or confused. Cinematography plays a big part in films as it works as a visual guide for the audience by leading them through events in a certain way to convey emotions, relationships and a variety of important information about the scene, it’s also used to portray the overall mood and aesthetic of a film such as in Fantastic Mr Fox (Wes Anderson, 2009) were Andersons uses symmetry along with the specific warm colour palette to make this film a stunning and charming reimagining of a childhood favourite.

The sound in a film is just as important as the visuals on the screen because it informs us and moves us in ways visuals can’t, and because certain combinations of sound and visuals can evoke what neither can do alone. It can immerse the audience in a unique world to help create emotion, provide depth, establish characters and set the tone of the film as well as move the storyline along, a good example of this is Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017) because when a song plays it is supported by every component of the film and every shot works alongside the soundtrack.

Editing is a vital aspect of storytelling in film, it involves choosing and combining film footage to create a complete story, it allows the film to constantly flow from scene to scene at the right pace in the right order, if the movie is choppy or in the wrong order it makes it harder to understand what is happening in the scene, it’s the editors job to ensure that the audience understand what message the director is trying to convey through different aspects such as music or dialogue, it makes the audience feel connected to the scene and as if they’re actually there with the characters. A good example of editing making a film good is Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010) where parallel editing is used when two separate scenes in different locations are edited to make it appear that they are unfolding at the same time, adding suspense, and making this complex film feel more fluid and easier to understand.

Mise En Scene is the way actors and props are arranged in front of the camera. This contributes to the visual presentation and overall look of the film. It’s important as everything the views see has been carefully chosen and placed in the scene for a reason, key element of Mise En Scene are props, setting, costumes and makeup, lighting and so on. When properly used mise En scene creates a sense of place for the audience whether they realize it or not.

Many of these films are from famous franchises with big budgets and a well known, many people watch for these famous cast members and predictable storylines that usually play a big part in franchises, these films are mainly action themed or animated family films with a large cult following.

Mise-En-Scene is the setting of a scene in a film, it refers to to everything placed in the shot including people and props along with cinematography, lighting, props and sound.