Authorship

In film criticism, auteur theory holds that a film reflects the director's personal creative vision. Auteur is a French word and simply means "author," but use of the term in relation to cinema since the 1950s at least has caused much controversy and critical debate. Filmmaker is the author because the director visualizes the scripts and presents it on screen. (Hayward, 2013) He is the one who choose the suitable actors, location, theme according to the storyline. Authorship can be divided into seven types which are Authorship by origins, personality, sociology of production, signature, reading strategy, site of discourses and technique of itself. (Staiger, 2003)

M. Night Shyamalan is one of the directors that proved to be the authorship of signature. Authorship in signature shows themes and film style of the director. It progresses and matures in subsequent films according to the genres. We are going to discuss three films by M.Night Shyamalan which are The Signs, The Village and The Happening by comparing their themes and film styles. 

The movie, Signs (2002) is about Preacher Graham Hess, played by Mel Gibson who has lost his faith in God after his wife dies in a brutal car accident. Six months later, he discovers a gigantic crop circle in his corn fields and similar events happen all over the world. His brother, Merril, thinks it’s pranksters and Graham’s children think it’s the aliens. Eventually, as more and more strange events occur, these events make the family encounter the unexpected and learn how to survive as a family. Next, The Village (2004) talks about an isolated town in old Pennsylvania, confronting the astonishing truth that lies just outside its borders, the creatures. The townspeople do not enter to the woods and the creatures do not enter the surrounding woods. Lucius Hunt plans to step beyond the boundaries of the town and expose the unknown because of his curiosity. Due to his bold move, this brings the threat of forever change the future of the village. Lastly, The Happening (2008) is about an event that begins in Central Park, suddenly and inexplicably, changes the behavior of everyone in the park in the most bizarre and horrible way. The strange behavior spreads over the city and beyond in shortly time. High school science teacher, Elliot Moore have run and hide from the inexplicable and unexpected event with Alma, his wife and Jess the young daughter of a friend by the theories that guided them but the theories may not be enough.

Theme of M. Night Shyamalan

To further illustrate M. Night Shyamalan as an author, we will be looking firstly, at the themes present in three films of which he directed, namely, Signs (2002), The Village (2004) and The Happening (2008). There are of course many themes present in the works of M. Night Shyamalan, such as the supernatural, family, faith and believe, and many more. We will however, be focusing at only three of these common themes which are death, fear and love.

One theme present in M. Night Shyamalan’s films is death. This can be seen not only from the amount of deaths that are increasingly present in subsequent films, but also at how it is delivered in the movies to the audience. Looking at Signs (2002), death firstly appears as a curse causing Graham Hess to question and then renounce his faith and religion. Death is depicted with a simple cause and effect portrayal where it drives Graham to first abandon his belief and in later parts –where his son managed to escape death from the alien’s poison because of an asthma attack blocking his windpipe, rekindles his faith in God again.

As for The Village (2004), instead of only being fire that merely ignites an action, death also serves as the catalyst that drives the action. M. Night Shyamalan does this by linking death to fear towards “those we don’t speak of”. At the beginning of the film, Lucius Hunt requests to venture through the woods to go to a nearby village in order to gather more medicinal supplies after a child has passed away. To serve as a warning, animal carcasses were placed around town. In this case, death was used in the form of dead animals to further curb and discourage Lucius from travelling out of the village.

In The Happening (2008), death is not only featured in a wider more epidemic scale but also a more conscious level. As compared to Signs (2002) and The Village (2004) at which the main characters fight to win against death –with Graham fighting to the last moment by administering his son’s medication and Ivy’s mission out of the village to save Lucius’s life, the characters in The Happening (2008) instead does not fight against death at the last minute, choosing instead to go out into the open and risk dying in order to be together, symbolising that death is inevitable and that to find peace, is to accept it.

Another one theme that M. Night Shyamalan infuses into his films is fear. In Signs (2002), fear is portrayed in a more direct manner. He plays on the fear that is already existing within society –in this case, the fear factor is the aliens. The whole story revolves around the way the Hess family discovers and reacts to an alien invasion that started out with crop circles.

Moving on to The Village (2004), the use of fear is then shown with a higher degree of sophistication. The movie starts off in a typical horror setting, enticing fear and anticipation, making full use of the fear towards the unknown. For instance, the use of the “forbidden colour”, the colour red. Shortly after the beginning of the film, we can see a two village girls sweeping the veranda while playfully turning in circles. Their fun was cut short when one of the two notices a bright red flower. Hurriedly, they plucked the flower and buried it into the ground before continuing their business. The use of the colour red appears throughout the whole movie and serves as a warning that ties to the fear the villagers have towards the creatures that live in the woods. Everything about the creatures was introduced in a hushed up manner, forcing villagers to believe and fear in these creatures without question. It was later in the film were it was revealed to the main female character, Ivy Walker, that the very creatures they feared was none other than the village elders themselves in costume and that the whole village is just a gimmick the elders developed on order to keep their families save from the hazards of the cruel modern world. This portrayed sophistication when compared to the direct portrayal of fear in Signs (2002) as it showed in a more complex manner whereby fear is superficial and man-made.

Fear is then represented with more depth in The Happening (2008). In this case, fear is not portrayed as direct as the first two movies, instead, it lingers within the back of the minds of the audiences even after the movie has ended. This is so as the element that entices fear in this film is not physical, but rather, an unexplainable occurrence by nature. Besides that, the movie also depicts to audiences fear not only from the main characters, but the less prominent ones as well. One of such scenes is where Elliot, Alma, Jess and two young boys stumbles across a boarded up house and discovers that there are people still living inside. The boys then desperately asks for food and shelter. The people inside refused to open their doors for fear of “poison gas” leaking into their home. In the end, instead of mercy, the two boys were threatened by the people inside the house and shortly after shot dead with a shotgun. This scene clearly shows the ugly and selfish aspects caused by fear, bringing a more truthful interpretation of fear towards his audiences.

            

Another theme featured by M. Night Shyamalan is love. We start yet again with Signs (2002) similar fear, love is portrayed in a more direct and innocent way, involving only the Hess family. Love between a husband and wife is also shown with Graham falling into heartbreak when he witnesses his wife, Colleen’s last moments as she was involved in a freak accident, causing him to resign his position as reverend.

On the other hand, The Village (2004) shows love in a broader sense. Love for family can is clearly represented in the village, the whole foundation of the village started from the elders of which has lost someone dear to them because of violence. In order to keep their future generations save from the taint and suffering of the modern world, the elders, led by Edwards Walker set up the small isolated village in the middle of a wildlife preserve. This is an act of love as its intent is to save and protect. In this sense, love in The Village (2004) has been expended to not only love towards family but towards a community as well. In addition, this film also shows a higher degree of maturity with love as a theme as it shows that love requires sacrifice. For example, Edward Walker and Alice Hunt acknowledges their feelings for each other but sacrifices it for the happiness of Ivy and Lucius. This is seen after the scene where Ivy left for the woods where Edwards explains to Alice that Ivy going into the woods to save Lucius is “all that he can give her”.

The use of the theme love further matures in The Happening (2008) where M. Night Shyamalan displays that love can be rekindled. Elliot and Alma’s marriage were in a shaky situation. This is portrayed in the film in various scenes, for example, one with Alma constantly receiving calls from a guy named Joey. She later confesses to Elliot that both she and Joey only went out for Tiramisu, while Elliot rebuts about a hot girl working in a pharmacy where he just goes to buy cough medicine even though he doesn’t have a cough. Although he later admits that he was lying, this shows the couple’s shaky relationship. This was then gradually rekindled toward the end of the film where they talk about their first dates and good memories before deciding that they would rather die together than alone. Love is also handled in a more mature manner as we see that love is then extended to another that is not of family or couple but rather love towards the child of another person. This is seen with the character Jess at which Elliot and Alma go through great lengths to ensure her safety. From the moment Jess is separated from her father, Julian, she appears to always be at close proximity to Alma. In the end, she is adopted by Julian and Alma.

It is however, unfair to leave out the fact that these emotions oftentimes are used together to create an enhanced experience towards the audiences. As such, they are not single entities but relates to one another in the film. For example, in Signs (2002) the death and love –of his wife, is used to create fear in Graham of losing his more of his family. As for The Village (2004) fear is man-made because of love that is brought about from the deaths of the relatives of the elders. The whole village is built for the happiness and safety of future generations. Moving on to The Happening (2008) death is used to entice fear that then rekindles the love of a couple.

Style of M. Night Shyamalan

Just like each and every one of the other authors that have their own style of writing, including film directors. From the films we can see different styles of filming from the directors. One of the best examples is M.Night.Shyamalan, from his film we can see his unique way of filming.  A few signature-filming styles of his own can be found in his own film.

A) Long Shot

Long shot also one of the signatures of M. Night Shyamalan that can be found in almost all his films. In the film Sings (2002), the long take shot use when Graham and his family hide inside the basement to escape from alien. The camera is following the movement of their touch light when the moment blackout of the basement. In the scene is very focused, pointing to bring specific scare to the audiences. 

In the film The village (2004), technique of long shot also can be found when the scene that Ivy running in the wood blindly before she able to find herself surrounded by a patch of red berries. By using long shot technique in this scene, it will able to stimulate curiosity of the audience because they don’t know what will come out soon. The camera also then tracks back again after revealing berries to revel “those we don’t speak of”. 

In the film The Happening (2008), Shyamalan choose to use long shot technique for the scene at the construction zone which when the moment the workers commit suicide one by one due to the tonix gas. The camera moves around to show that not only the incident but also the expression of the contractor. Shyamalan able to make this scene faster pace by using long take techinique. From the three movies above, we able to see that the long takes technique that use by Shyamalan is become more dynamic in subsequent films with more camera movement.

B) CAMEO

Cameo is one of the techniques that M.Night.Shyamalan like to use in his own film. Shyamalan always show up in the end of his own film. The character that Shyamalan plays in his own film is the speaking role that gives out impactful information and it helps to move forwards the plot. In the film The Village (2004), Shyamalan that act as Jay, the guard at desk, appeared when the park ranger, Kevin Lupinski is trying to steal the medicine for Ivy. The camera did not show us directly the face of Jay, but it was shown in the on the glass door using reflection. During the appearance of Jay, instead of showing the face of Jay, the camera was shooting at the newspaper that is one of the reasons why the village is being build. 

And also in the film Signs (2002), Shyamalan also took a role which is Ray Reddy that is responsible for Coleen’s death which is Graham Hess’s wife. Shyamalan also plays an important role in the film Signs, because of the phone that he had made that indirectly leads Graham to believe that there are actually aliens in the world that they are living. In the film The happening (2008), Syhamalan also plays a role of Joey in the film by using his voice only through Alma’s phone. 

C) Twist of the Plot

M.Night.Shyamalan is well known for the “twist” that he always had in the end of his film. We can actually found that, the way he twist the plot of the story become more mature and complicated to bring his film to the climaxes of the story. For example in the film Signs (2002), Graham was keen on not believing the existent of the alien until the moment that the news of alien is being broadcast in the television.  Graham had cooked all of their favorite dishes during dinner that he believes that it would be their last dinner. Then he closed the door and nailed it so that the aliens could not break in. The aliens have arrived in front of their house and they panic, at that moment they realized that they have a basement that can hide themselves from the aliens. When we thought that they are safe because they are safely hide in the basement, but then they found out that there is another that might lead the aliens towards them. At the same time, Morgan was having an asthma attack but then they don’t have any medicine for him. From here we can see that how well Shyamalan had twist the stories.

In the film The Village (2004), the way that Shyamalan twists the movies able to bring audiences to the points that they wasn’t expected. In the movie, we were being told that “those we don’t speak of” is a monster that would kill the people in the village if they have entered the woods. After Lucius being stabbed by Noah, Ivy wanted to enter the woods to collect medicine so that Lucius can be save. This is where Ivy’s father, Edward, tell the truth to Ivy that the stories about the “those we don’t speak of” are not real. After Ivy entered the woods, she did met the “ those we don’t speak of” and she is being attacked by it. M.Night.Shyamalan has play with the flow in the story, in the end of the story; we found out that “those we don’t speak of” actually is Noah. M.Night.Shyamalan let us believe that there is actually the existent of “those we don’t speak of” but the in the end of the film, we were being told that is actually never exist from the starting of the film.

In the film The Happening (2008), the plot twist is that there is no plot twist when the audience expects it. As such, this show sophistication because he is mocking the audiences as he knows the audience will expect a plot twist like happen in his films before the happening.

Overall, the styles of M. Night Shyamalan have successfully established his own special signatures and differentiate him from the other directors. This also made him become one of the famous directors in Hollywoord. He also was get highly revered and regard for his style of movies.

Conclusion

           Ultimately, as a broadcaster, we need to understand and look into the film style of a director as well as the semantic and syntactic in the films that the director makes. In order to clarifies the Auteur theory, individual have to watch more than two films by the same director so that it will be easier to distinct the style and themes of the films directed by him or her. Every single auteur imprints his signature of film style and themes in his films, regardless of genres. So, by reviewing the movies, and examining the theme and styles imprinted in these movie by M. Night Shyamalan, we conclude that he is an author. The way he portraits his culture and style is what we define somewhat as a trademark in movie perspective, encouraging his fans and supporters to come back for more. Besides, his films tend to be themed around emotions and his characters are usually individuals involved in extraordinary situation. Those are the examples of his method to depict his style and theme through mise-en-scene. Nevertheless, other directors who can be apply with authorship theory for instance are Stephen Chow, Ang Lee and so on. As such, it is important that we understand about what it takes to be an author to pay tribute to these people because for the effort and long hours of dedication and discipline required to create a personal style film to the audiences and hence use them as inspiration.