Part of
Images in Use: Towards the critical analysis of visual communicationEdited by Matteo Stocchetti and Karin Kukkonen
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 44] 2011
► pp. 245–267
Closing images of films are used to maintain a status quo. Thus images of a happy ending ‘mend’ our critical experience of the world by washing audiences in the escapist glow of cinema light, hiding the chains with flowers. I Am Legend (2008) is an example of how a happy ending sanitises the cinema exit, neutralising subversive images before the audience leaves. Contrasting the Hollywood tradition with the critical tradition, this chapter lists ways in which a young scriptwriter can consciously choose his/her own use of images. Most Hollywood scriptwriting gurus encourage film students to use techniques which ‘hypnotise’ the audience with emotional catharsis. Instead, this chapter helps film students to break the mould of this canon.