Abstract
A few ideas from film theory, most notably Eisenstein's concept of montage, can improve students' understanding of hypertexts and lessen their resistance to open-ended, nonlinear narratives. These structural characteristics, so frustrating to many new readers of hypertext, can also be found in popular and experimental films. In particular, Godfrey Reggio's (1983) documentary Koyaanisqatsi provides a good starting point for merging hypertext and film theory. Koyaanisqatsi not only broke new ground for documentary film; its structure also resembles Landow's model for an axial hypertext. At the same time, techniques pioneered by Landow, Joyce, Guyer, and others involved in creating and critiquing hypertext can be used to examine film. Having students look closely at Koyaanisqatsi's composition allows them to become amateur cinematographers, who now possess software for breaking a film down and examining its composition, montage, transitions, subliminal messages, and motifs – a process that may then be applied to hypertext.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amerika M. (2001) Grammatron. [ http://www.grammatron.com/].
Birkerts S. (1994) The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. New York, Fawcett, 231 pp.
Buñuel L. (1983) My Last Sigh. (A. Israel, trans.). Vintage, New York, 256 pp.
Chesebro J.W., Bertelsen D.A. (1996) Analyzing Media. Guilford, New York, 228 pp.
Douglas J.Y. (1994) How Do I Stop This Thing?:Closure and Indeterminacy in Interactive Narratives. In Landow G.P. (ed.), Hyper/text/theory. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, pp.159-188.
Eisenstein S. (1949) Film Form. (J. Leyda, trans.). Harcourt, Brace, New York, 279 pp.
Eisenstein S. (1942) The Film Sense. (J. Leyda, trans.). Harcourt, Brace, New York, 288 pp.
Ellul J. (1964) The Technological Society. (J. Wilkinson, trans.). Knopf, New York, 449 pp.
Guyer C. (1996) Along the Estuary. In Birkerts S. (ed.), Tolstoy 's Dictaphone: Technology and the Muse. St. Paul, Graywolf, pp.157-164.
Itlrags. (2001, August 21) Internet Movie Database. [http://us.imdb.com/Title?0209144].
Jackson S. (1995) Patchwork Girl. Eastgate Systems, Watertown, MA.
Johnson S. (1997) Interface Culture:How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate. Basic Books, New York, 264 pp.
Joyce M. (1987) Afternoon, a Story. Eastgate Systems, Watertown, MA.
Joyce M. (1995) Of Two Minds:Hypertext Pedagogy and Poetics. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 277 pp.
Joyce M. (2000) The Lingering Errantness of Place, or Library as Library. In Gibson S.B., Oviedo O.O. (eds.), The Emerging Cyberculture: Literacy, Paradigm, and Paradox. Hampton, Cresskill, NJ, pp.151-164.
Kaplan N. (1991) Ideology, Technology, and the Future of Writing Instruction. In Hawisher G.E., Selfe C.L. (eds.), Evolving Perspectives on Computers and Composition Studies: Questions for the 1990s. National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL, pp.11-42.
Koyaanisqatsi (1982, October 18) The Hollywood Reporter. Institute for Regional Change. [http://koyaanisqatsi.org/lms/k_reviews.htm].
Kurosawa A. (Director), Jingo M. (Producer) (1950) Rashomon. Japan, Daiei Studios.
Landow G.P. (1997) Hypertext 2.0. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 353 pp.
Lew W.K. (2002) Treadwinds. Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT, 117 pp.
Manovich L. (2001) The Language of New Media. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 354 pp.
Menand L. (2003) Paris, Texas: How Hollywood Brought the Cinema Back From France. The New Yorker, pp.169-177.
Miles A. (2000) Hypertext Syntagmas:Cinematic Narration with Links. Journal of Digital Information 1/7, Article no. 31, pp.12-20. [http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v01/i07/ Miles/index.php3].
Miles A. (1999) Cinema and links: Cinematic Paradigms for Hypertext.[http://hyper-text.rmit.edu.au/essays/cinema_paradigms/introduction.html ].Originally published as Cinematic paradigms for hypertext. Continuum:Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 13/ 2, pp.217-225.
Monaco J. (1981) How to Read a Film. Oxford University Press, New York, 533 pp.
Morris E. (Director & Producer) (1997) Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control. United States: American Playhouse.
Nolan C. (Director) (2000) Memento. Columbia Tristar Home Video, United States.
Oppenheimer T. (1997) The Computer Delusion.Atlantic Monthly [http://www.theatlan-tic.com/issues/97jul/computer.htm].
Penn A. (Director) (1967) Bonnie and Clyde. Warner Home Video, United States.
Rafferty T. (2003) Everybody Gets a Cut. The New York Times Magazine, pp.58-61.
Reggio G. (Director & Producer) (1983) Koyaanisqatsi. Institute for Regional Education, United States.
Reggio G. (2001) Koyaanisqatsi. Institute for Regional Education Web site. [http://www.ko-yaanisqatsi.org/].
Reggio G. (n.d.). Seminal lm Koyaanisqatsi with Director, Godfrey Reggio. Café Digital. [http://www.cafedigital.com/lifestyle/koyaan.shtml].
Tarantino Q. (1994a) Pulp Fiction: A Quentin Tarantino Screenplay. Miramax Books, New York, 161 pp.
Tarantino Q. (Director), Bender L. (Producer) (1994b) Pulp Fiction. Miramax Films, United States.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Essid, J. Film as Explicador for Hypertext. Computers and the Humanities 38, 317–333 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10579-004-0755-7
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10579-004-0755-7