- Title
- The pursuit of the ecstatic truth: a qualitative practice-based enquiry of a feature-length film
- Creator
- Belinfante, Joshua
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2024
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- I am a filmmaker conducting a qualitative practice-based enquiry and reflecting on writing, producing, directing, filming and editing an 89-minute film, The World’s Best Film (2021). I demonstrate how qualitative audience research through focus groups and surveys can be used by film practitioners to better understand their craft and to investigate complex phenomena that may elude observation and analysis through traditional industry test screenings. In the making of my film, I was inspired by the call to action of storyteller Werner Herzog and his articulation of the existence of a ‘deeper strata of truth in cinema’ reachable only through a filmmaker’s use of invention, imagination, fabrication, and stylisation. Through making my film I journeyed to discover this provocative and profound illumination of meaning and pursued the enigmatic ‘ecstatic truth’ by ‘agitating reality’. I was confronted with the complexity of understanding the effects of this pursuit on audiences and how it could be observed through informal test screenings. Through autoethnography, informed by my 20 years of filmmaking experience, I reflect on the creation of key cinematic moments from my film where I used what I term ‘ecstatic craft’ to attempt to elicit profound responses for audiences. I recount the experience of producing 13 different experiments in ecstatic craft and explore how each segment in a character-driven anthology film differed in its application of this craft to reach higher plains of understanding in the audience’s engagement. I articulate examples of the audience’s experience of ecstatic truth through individual layers, ‘ecstatic flashes’ and how these contribute to their cumulative understanding of a film’s core meaning. I triangulate my experience pursuing and articulating this elusive and complex ‘strata’ of truth through audience surveys and focus groups to assess how audiences engaged with individual moments, laced with ecstatic craft, to determine how an audience engages with my pursuit of the ecstatic truth. I offer new insights into how filmmakers can pursue their own ecstatic craft and contribute to their own ‘grammar of images’. I also reflect on the efficacy of my methods, their ethics, and upon areas for further research this thesis has opened.
- Subject
- ecstatic truth; qualitative research; practice-based enquiry; autoethnography; filmmaking; cinematic moments; Werner Herzog; Herzog
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1511992
- Identifier
- uon:56576
- Rights
- Copyright 2024 Joshua Belinfante
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 67 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 1002 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |