In the American film industry , a featurette is a kind of film that is shorter than a full-length feature , but longer than a short film . The term may refer to either of two types of content: a shorter film or a companion film.
44-572: La Jetée ( French pronunciation: [la ʒəte] ) is a 1962 French science fiction featurette directed by Chris Marker and associated with the Left Bank artistic movement. Constructed almost entirely from still photos , it tells the stable time loop story of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel. It is 28 minutes long and shot in black and white. It won the Prix Jean Vigo for short film. The 1995 science fiction film 12 Monkeys
88-542: A photomontage of varying rhythm. It contains only one brief shot (of the woman mentioned above sleeping and suddenly waking up) originating on a motion-picture camera, this due to the fact that Marker could only afford to hire one for an afternoon. The stills were taken with a Pentax Spotmatic and the motion-picture segment was shot with a 35 mm Arriflex . The film has no dialogue aside from small sections of muttering in German and people talking in an airport terminal. The story
132-598: A conscious visual experience. Thus, allowing us to recognize the complex identity of different elements, and the disparate relations between them through cognitive processes. Visual illusions are also often a product of this processing stage, and it is during this stage that we might ultimately become conscious of any optical illusion. There are two crucial properties of our visual system related mostly to high-level visual processing, referred to as selectivity and invariance (which we have consistently attempted to replicate in image recognition computer algorithms). Selectivity refers to
176-411: A hallucination where a stimulus is absent). A visual illusion or optical illusion is characterized by visually perceived images that are deceptive or misleading. Therefore, the information gathered by the visual sense is processed to create a percept that does not tally with information from other senses or physical measurements. The visual system, which includes the eyes (namely the retinas) and
220-419: A no-place (u-topia) in no-time ( u-chronia )" which she connects to the time and place of the fairy tale . She further elaborates: "even the sound of the title resonates with the fairy-tale surprise of finding oneself in another world: La Jetée evokes 'là j'étais' (there I was)". By "u-topia", Mavor does not refer to " utopia " as the word is commonly used; she also describes an ambiguity of dystopia /utopia in
264-487: A photographic quality of their own and they are followed by the same predicates as pictures. The dialogue between the media (photography and cinematography) and the filmic signifier (film stills, storyline and narration) is constantly in the backdrop. In 1963, Prix Jean Vigo awarded La Jetée for "Best Short Film". That same year, La Jetée was included in the Locarno International Film Festival ,
308-459: Is a common diminutive suffix derived from French ), and in fact featurettes were sometimes called "streamlined features". Featurette was commonly used from before the start of the sound era into the 1960s, when films of such length as the Hal Roach's Streamliners —and several French films of that length—ceased being made, or were made as experimental or art films and subsumed under
352-407: Is a distortion in the perception of time, which occurs when the time interval between two or more events is very narrow (typically less than a second). In such cases, a person may momentarily perceive time as slowing down, stopping, speeding up, or running backward. Illusions can occur with the other senses including those involved in food perception. Both sound and touch have been shown to modulate
396-448: Is an illusion of hearing , the auditory equivalent of a visual illusion: the listener hears either sounds which are not present in the stimulus, or "impossible" sounds. In short, audio illusions highlight areas where the human ear and brain, as organic, makeshift tools, differ from perfect audio receptors (for better or for worse). One example of an auditory illusion is a Shepard tone . Examples of tactile illusions include phantom limb ,
440-480: Is chosen for this assignment because ... he has maintained a sharp mind because of his attachment to certain images. Thus a film told through the use of still photos becomes about looking at images." He further observes that Marker himself did not refer to La Jetée as a film, but as photo novel . Yannis Karpouzis makes a structuralistic analysis on La Jetée , examining it as an intermedial artwork: Chris Marker creates an "archive" of objects and conditions that have
484-399: Is impossible to miss Marker's message for his viewers—a person cannot escape from their own time, anyway. Try as we might to lose ourselves, we will always be dragged back into the world, into the here and now. Ultimately, there is no escape from the present. Hinkson also addresses the symbolic use of imagery: "The Man is blindfolded with some kind of padded device and he sees images. The Man
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#1732947841747528-402: Is linked to specific brain activity and so can be elicited by brain stimulation. The (illusory) percepts that can be evoked range from simple phosphenes (detections of lights in the visual field ) to high-level percepts. In a single-case study on a patient undergoing presurgical evaluation for epilepsy treatment, electrical stimulation at the left temporo-parietal junction evoked the percept of
572-433: Is more concerned with locating the woman, and quickly spots her. However, as he rushes to her, he notices an agent of his jailers who has followed him and realizes the agent is about to kill him. In his final moments, he comes to understand that the incident he witnessed as a child, which has haunted him ever since, was his own death. La Jetée is constructed almost entirely from optically printed photographs playing out as
616-431: Is organized by many sequential and parallel sub-processes, each of which is essential in building our conscious image of the world. Our whole visual system seeks to simplify and categorize the unstructured low-level visual information, through both selectivity and invariance. Thus, while trying to organize an image by "filling in the gaps" through assumptions, we become vulnerable to misinterpretation. An auditory illusion
660-402: Is to be executed by his jailers. He is contacted by the people of the future, who offer to help him escape to their time permanently; but he asks instead to be returned to the pre-war time of his childhood, hoping to find the woman again. He is returned to the past, placed on the jetty at the airport, and it occurs to him that the child version of himself is probably also there at the same time. He
704-407: Is told by a voice-over narrator. The scene in which the hero and the woman look at a cut-away trunk of a tree is a reference to Alfred Hitchcock 's 1958 film Vertigo which Marker also references in his 1983 film Sans soleil . The editing of La Jetée adds to the intensity of the film. With the use of cut-ins and fade-outs , it produces the eerie and unsettling nature adding to the theme of
748-451: Is when two objects of the same size are placed on a certain background which conditions us to believe that one object might be larger than the other, and when the background is removed or replaced our perception immediately changes to the correct scenario (effectively concluding that both objects have equal dimensions). High-level visual processing consolidates information gathered from various sources to apply cognitive influences that create
792-536: The Criterion Collection has released a La Jetée/Sans soleil combination DVD / Blu-ray, which features the option of hearing the English or French narration. Featurette A featurette is a film usually of three to four reels in length, or about 22–43 minutes in running time, thus longer than a two-reel short subject but shorter than a feature film . Hence, it is a "small feature" (the ending " -ette "
836-748: The Trieste Science+Fiction Festival , and the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival . The film has since been included in several contemporary film festivals, including the Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente in 2009, the "Cine//B Film Festival" in 2011, and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in 2019. La Jetée was included by producer Steven Schneider in
880-469: The Unsound Festival . Northern Irish rock band Two Door Cinema Club screened the film at the launch party for their 2016 album Gameshow . The final track on the album, "Je viens de la", is inspired by La Jetée and describes the journey of the film's protagonist. Terry Gilliam 's 12 Monkeys (1995) was inspired by and takes several concepts directly from La Jetée (acknowledging this debt in
924-549: The thermal grill illusion , the cutaneous rabbit illusion and a curious illusion that occurs when the crossed index and middle fingers are run along the bridge of the nose with one finger on each side, resulting in the perception of two separate noses. The brain areas activated during illusory tactile perception are similar to those activated during actual tactile stimulation. Tactile illusions can also be elicited through haptic technology. These "illusory" tactile objects can be used to create "virtual objects". A temporal illusion
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#1732947841747968-583: The 2003 film reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die . In 2010, Time ranked La Jetée first in its list of "Top 10 time-travel movies". In 2012, in correspondence with the Sight & Sound poll, the British Film Institute deemed La Jetée as the 50th greatest film of all time. In 2022, it took the spot of 67th greatest film on the Sight & Sound critics' poll, and 35th greatest film on
1012-465: The ability to be indifferent to small variations of a given feature, effectively identifying all those variations as simply being different versions of the same feature (e.g. we can recognize a given handwritten letter of the alphabet, written by different people with distinct styles of calligraphy). The whole process that constructs our visual experience is extremely complex (with multiple qualities that are unmatched by any computer or digital system). It
1056-441: The apocalyptic destruction of World War III. Terry Gilliam , director of 12 Monkeys , describes the editing as "simply poetic" in the combination of editing and soundtrack that is used in the short film. As the film plays out as a photomontage, the only continuous variable is the sound. The sound used in this production is minimal, showing up in the form of narration, orchestral score and sound effect . The rhythmic patterns of
1100-586: The body within one's physical environment. The term illusion refers to a specific form of sensory distortion. Unlike a hallucination , which is a distortion in the absence of a stimulus , an illusion describes a misinterpretation of a true sensation. For example, hearing voices regardless of the environment would be a hallucination, whereas hearing voices in the sound of running water (or another auditory source) would be an illusion. So, it should not be wrong to consider that illusions are just "misinterpretations" on how our brain perceives something that exists (unlike
1144-435: The central nervous system (namely the brain's visual cortex), constructs reality through both perceptual and cognitive neural pathways. Visual illusions are (at least in part) thought to be caused by excessive competing stimuli. Each stimulus follows a dedicated neural path in the early stages of visual processing, and intense/repetitive activity or interaction with active adjoining channels (perceptual neural circuits, usually at
1188-473: The director's poll, respectively. Science fiction writer William Gibson considers the film one of his main influences. On November 8, 2022 the Chicago Fringe Opera staged a world-premiere concert performance of Seth Boustead and J. Robert Lennon's chamber opera adaptation of the film. The video for Sigue Sigue Sputnik 's 1989 single " Dancerama " is an homage to La Jetée . The film is also one of
1232-405: The dummy mouth the words. Some illusions are based on general assumptions the brain makes during perception . These assumptions are made using organizational principles (e.g., Gestalt theory), an individual's capacity for depth perception and motion perception , and perceptual constancy . Other illusions occur due to biological sensory structures within the human body or conditions outside
1276-428: The film: "It is dystopia with the hope of utopia, or is it utopia cut by the threat of dystopia." Tor Books blogger Jake Hinkson summed up his interpretation in the title of an essay about the film, "There's No Escape Out of Time". He elaborated: What [the protagonist] finds ... is that the past is never as simple as we wish it to be. To return to it is to realize that we never understood it. He also finds—and here it
1320-426: The human perception of reality , they are generally shared by most people. Illusions may occur with any of the human senses, but visual illusions ( optical illusions ) are the best-known and understood. The emphasis on visual illusions occurs because vision often dominates the other senses. For example, individuals watching a ventriloquist will perceive the voice as coming from the dummy since they are able to see
1364-405: The identification of particular features that are relevant to recognize a specific element or object, while abstracting from other features that are not fundamental to performing the same recognition (e.g. when we see the shape of a house, certain contours that are essential for us to recognize it while other contours or image properties are not, such as color). On the other hand, invariance refers to
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1408-512: The influences in the video for David Bowie 's " Jump They Say " (1993). The Chicago-based band Isotope 217 recorded the track "La Jetée" for their 1997 album The Unstable Molecule . On the 1998 album TNT , the post-rock band Tortoise , of which Isotope 217 is a side-project, featured an alternate version of the same song, titled "Jetty". Both are inspired by the film. Kode9 , in collaboration with Ms. Haptic, Marcel Weber (aka MFO), and Lucy Benson created an homage to La Jetée in 2011, for
1452-454: The more general rubric of short film . Some featurettes are still being produced, notably the action comedy Kung Fury , which runs only 31 minutes. Other terms with a similar meaning include: medium-length films , long shorts and short features . After the advent of DVD technology, the term also gained the meaning of "a brief documentary film covering one or more aspects of the film creation process". In DVD features descriptions,
1496-501: The opening credits). The 2003 short film La puppé is both an homage to and a parody of La Jetée . The 2007 Mexican film Year of the Nail , which is told entirely through still photographs, was inspired by La Jetée . The 2018 Spanish film Entre Oscuros Sueños , where the still-image movie concept is also used, was entirely inspired by La Jetée . Friend of the World , a two-hander film,
1540-437: The perceived staleness and crispness of food products. It was also discovered that even if some portion of the taste receptor on the tongue became damaged that illusory taste could be produced by tactile stimulation. Evidence of olfactory (smell) illusions occurred when positive or negative verbal labels were given prior to olfactory stimulation. The McGurk effect shows that what we hear is influenced by what we see as we hear
1584-406: The person speaking; the auditory component of one sound is paired with the visual component of another sound, leading to the perception of a third sound. Some illusions occur as a result of an illness or a disorder. While these types of illusions are not shared with everyone, they are typical of each condition. For example, people with migraines often report fortification illusions . Perception
1628-421: The pre-war period. He meets the woman from his memory, and they develop a romantic relationship. After his successful passages to the past, the experimenters attempt to send him into the far future. In a brief meeting with the technologically advanced people of the future, he is given a power unit sufficient to regenerate his own destroyed society. Upon his return, with his mission accomplished, he discerns that he
1672-525: The receptor signal in the retina's receptive fields from light and dark areas compete with one another. The assembly of visual elements into a collective percept, that distinguishes objects from backgrounds, takes part during intermediate-level visual processing. Many common visual illusions are a consequence of the percept constructed during this processing stage, as the elements first captured during low-level processing might easily be interpreted to form an image that differs from objective reality. An example
1716-431: The same level) causes a physiological imbalance that alters perception. During low-level visual processing, the retinal circuit arranges the information in the photoreceptors, by creating initial visual percepts from the patterns of light which fall on the retina. The Hermann grid illusion and Mach bands are two illusions that are widely considered to be caused by a biological phenomenon named lateral inhibition , where
1760-408: The shock of time travel. The scientists eventually settle upon the protagonist; his key to the past is a vague but obsessive memory from his pre-war childhood of a woman he had seen on the observation platform ("the jetty") at Orly Airport shortly before witnessing a startling incident there. He did not understand exactly what happened, but knew he had seen a man die. After several attempts, he reaches
1804-409: The soundtrack act as a framework to add to the intensity of the film. "The dissolve is synchronized with the sound. As the story moves from the past to the present, La Jetee creates mental continuity." The soundtrack adds to the illusion of movement within the film and the change of time. In Black and Blue , her study of postwar French fiction, Carol Mavor describes La Jetée as "taking place in
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1848-469: The term "featurette" usually refers to "behind-the-scenes" –type bonus material such as documentaries on special effects , set design , or cast and crew interviews. This article related to film or motion picture terminology is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Illusion An illusion is a distortion of the senses , which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation . Although illusions distort
1892-599: Was inspired by La Jetée, among others. Art director of the initial installment of the Fallout series was influenced by the look of the technology in La Jetée. In 1992, Zone Books released a book which reproduced the film's original images along with the script in both English and French. In Region 2 , the film is available with English subtitles in the La Jetée/Sans soleil digipack released by Arte Video . In Region 1 ,
1936-482: Was inspired by and borrows several concepts directly from La Jetée . A man is a prisoner in the aftermath of World War III in post-apocalyptic Paris, where survivors live underground in the Palais de Chaillot galleries. Scientists research time travel, hoping to send test subjects to different time periods "to call past and future to the rescue of the present." They have difficulty finding subjects who can mentally withstand
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