Cinematic script in Brazil and stylistic marks of excess

• Grant number: 19/10787-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2019
• End date: April 08, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Cinema
• Principal Investigator: Esther Império Hamburger
• Grantee: Éri Ramos Sarmet dos Santos
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/10294-0 - Unproductive writing: body, sensation and excess in screenplays, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Based on theoretical references of Linda Williams (1991) and Mariana Baltar (2012, 2013), this research project aims to extend the studies on the mode of excess out of the mise-en-scène domains into the cinematographic script, in order to identify how its codes and symbols would be present in the text. As an aesthetic and cultural matrix that crosses various forms of mass popular culture and the arts, "excess" in its broader cultural flow refers to a visual, sensory and sentimental imaginary constructed throughout modernity and that is becoming more and more contemporary, based on the visual and sensorial spectacle of the body. We will try to demonstrate how the script can foresee the aesthetic project of the film from the identification and categorization of what we here denominate "stylistic marks" of excess. We argue that filmic aesthetics is not something that occurs exclusively in the realm of realization. For this, we use ean-Claude Carrière and Pascal Bonitzer's (1996) notion of "invisible writing", according to which there is information hidden in the script itself, such as indications of decupage, rhythm of scenes, moments of cuts, even of sound construction. To do so, our corpus will comprise scripts of Brazilian fiction feature films that dialogue with this mode of excess. From the interweaving of two theoretical fields - script studies and excess studies - we intend to contribute not only to the theoretical densification of the field, but also in the elaboration of techniques to be employed by professionals in the market and in the teaching of script in Brazil , from the perspective of its own cinematography. (AU)