53 thoughts on “English 97 Exit Through the Gift Shop, Meshes of the Afternoon”
Exit Through the Gift Shop is a factual film (documentary) about street art and the artist who create them. It was directed by Banksy and follows Thierry Guetta journey as an aspiring director/filmmaker into becoming a street artist. The explicit meaning of the documentary is street art and that not everything is art. The documentary gives the audience a view of the street art world and contains Banksy’s own opinion on what makes an artist and what street art is about. Banksy implicitly uses Guetta as a symbolic representation of the commercialization of an art form that is anti-establishment. Somewhat blurring the lines between a factual film and a persuasive film, Banksy shows his views of Disney during the Disneyland shot. This allows the documentary to not only be a factual film, but an avenue for Banksy to express his views on art, commercialization, and the establishment. One of the underlying implicit meanings of the film is that street art could be easy to reproduce. Guetta quickly produces art pieces by ripping of other artists and recycling old ideas. This coincides with Banksy view of Disneyland’s use of Kitsch in their products. The film motivates the audience to question what art is and what differentiates art from mass produced paintings, drawings, etc. Exit Through the Gift Shop offers a great lead in to a well-known experimental film.
Meshes of the Afternoon is an experimental film that the directors use to represent ideas in a surrealist way. As an experimental film the images and scenes portrayed are a representation of thoughts and ideas, rather than following the standard narrative. The short film has repeating motifs of a knife, a mirror, sleep, and a key that allows the audience to not necessarily focus upon what the objects are but what thoughts they convey. One of the key aspects of an experimental film is opening the film up to interpretation, which the film accomplishes. By leaving it open the film can have more than one meaning and a completely different plot depending upon the person viewing it. Watching both films together allows the audience to understand what art is, can be, and what mediums can be used. Meshes is an artistic movie that similar to street art, portrays the artists thoughts on certain issues. Like street art, Meshes attempts to tackle a taboo subject (death instead of politics) and allows the viewer to come to their own decision.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Alex Naumann
Student’s email: alexnaumann@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Alex Naumann
Student’s email: alexnaumann@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary about the world of street art that focuses mainly on a man named Thierry Guetta AKA Mr. Brainwash, but other well known street artists are featured such as the director, Banksy.
While it is written as a documentary, I genuinely don’t believe that it is factual. I believe this “documentary” is a prank by Banksy to show people in the art world that literally anyone can be an artist, and when art collectors spend tens of thousands of dollars on art, they are completely wasting their money because creating ‘good’ art takes almost no practice or skill. Because of this, I tend to believe that Mr. Brainwash may be an actor. I think this way because his story is almost too ridiculous to be believable. Whether this film is a prank or not, I do not think it matters. It was an entertaining movie throughout its whole duration.
Banksy chose to use a a wide variety of music in this film. Like with most movies, the music changes to fit the mood the director is going for. One example is when the narrator is telling about Thierry’s mother, the music sounds as if it should be in a documentary about a serious tragedy. Then only a few minutes later, the song changes to a somewhat upbeat song featuring the accordion. If you listen carefully to the music, you will notice while it is at times bizarre, it fits the scene perfectly.
I really enjoyed all of the footage Thierry shot. I thought the use of the sepia tone for the night scenes was a good choice because it makes this footage look more gritty and older than it would have if it had been showed in normal color or even black and white. I also just believe that the yellow sepia tone used in this movie looks a lot better than color or black and white tape would have looked.
While watching ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’, I felt the persistent need to do a web search of the film, Banksy, and especially Thierry and his alter ego “Mr. Brainwash”. The context of Banksy himself being the film’s creator, and his blatant awareness that his subject is dubiously inauthentic, gives it a feeling of non-reality. Based on some basic research, it seems the mystery regarding the exact details of Thierry’s metamorphosis into “Mr Brainwash” are still at large. Background details regarding Thierry’s life seem to be legitimate, and the “Life is Beautiful” exhibition, along with more in following years, really did happen. However, it is Bansky’s choice to construct a film about this man, in this way, as the artist he is that brings the meaning behind the ‘documentary’ under suspicion. Banksy’s art is always used to question the foibles of society and government, and to critique the commodification of art. ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ appears to be self-aware in its purposeful mimicry of traditional documentary form to sell its story as reality to the audience. By utilizing the film type which is associated with the intent “To Inform”, Banksy makes a statement about what we trust in terms of facts. The ensuing debate about whether to trust the film’s portrayal of events seems, in my opinion, to be the purpose. Just as Banksy might critique the masses for blindly falling for the illusion of happiness within a corporate society, so too might he be critiquing the viewers for blindly falling for the illusion of validity in art, including documentary filmmaking.
‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ is an unnerving piece that pioneered American Avant-Garde cinema. In contrast to the team-commissioned parody art of Mr. Brainwash featured in ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’, Maya Deren’s work is that of a true auteur. Surreal repetitions of events from gradually more distant perspectives culminates in many realities meeting at the kitchen table, which then flows into the character’s death. The piece is dense with imagery and symbolism, and seems to have many possibilities for interpretations. The film uses heavy darkness sparingly, which makes the black-shrouded figure all the more disturbing and out of place. The loneliness, the repetition of the main character, the mirror, and the expressive close-ups imply a psychological focus regarding the inner mind. It might be said that avant-garde films are those with a wealth of possible implicit meanings, but that lack clear explicit explanations of plot. One would sound rather absurd attempting to relate a blow-by-blow description of each action portrayed in an avant-garde film.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Blia Yang
Student’s email: b.yang.lia@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Blia Yang
Student’s email: b.yang.lia@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
_Exit Through the Gift Shop_; a piece of shit film about a piece of shit “artist”. With, however, some redeeming or worthwhile qualities. Director of the film and street artist, Banksy, edits Mr. Brainnwash’s films to parallel and mock Mr. Brainwash’s obnoxious in-your-face idiocy. Banksy’s editing of _Exit Through the Gift Shop_ as he did, reveals his point that, people unthinkingly glom on to whatever is hot–they’re slaves to hype. Banksy seems bemused and doesn’t call “Mr. Brainwash” on what he appears to be but rather let’s the masses fall for his nonsense. And maybe, in hopes with this film, he means to show to those that take a moment to think the pitfall of the bandwagon.
Agreeably with Banksy, art is something that challenges the mind, evokes thought and emotions. Original. Mr. Brainwash’s crap, however, is crap. Knockoffs. Easily viewed passively. Uncreative and unartful.
Viewing a creative and artful film such as _Meshes in the Afternoon_ passively, is almost impossible lest you miss all the qualities about it that make it art. It challenges the audience to make interpretations through its lack of dialogue and overwhelming presence of dark and light, shadows. And music and sounds. Original, in its own right, and undoubtedly art. The avant-garde is quite the enigma.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Mollie Meyer
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Mollie Meyer
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
“Exit Through the Gift Shop” was an interesting film – I knew from the brief discussion beforehand that the film wasn’t a “typical” documentary, so I wasn’t sure what to believe, if anything. The beginning of the film seemed to be a documentary about a filmmaker making a documentary about street art, but then the film changed into a story about Thierry becoming Mr. Brainwash. The way it was filmed throughout the movie gave us the idea that the entire thing was a documentary. Even when Thierry wasn’t the cameraman, it appeared to be filmed on handheld cameras and was edited to show us there were many, many hours of footage. As we watched Thierry evolve into Mr. Brainwash, I realized that he was becoming what Bansky despised; Bansky ultimately says something to that effect in one of his interview shots. One of the themes I interpreted was obsession. I felt the beginning of the movie introduced Thierry as this person who was obsessed with filming his life – he never put the camera down, and hoarded the tapes, even though he never watched one minute of what he filmed. The obsession slowly changed into filming street artists and getting that adrenaline rush. He quickly became obsessed with meeting Bansky, who Thierry thought was the best street artist. But, once his obsession was satisfied, it changed into Thierry himself becoming a street artist and then an artist who can make money. The use of a narrator was also very important; the movie would not have been the same without it. The narrator not only gave us the sense that this was a documentary and the appearance that these events actually happened, but the narrator also provided us with information we would not have known. An important part that stands out to me was when the film reached a turning point – the shot froze on Thierry’s face and the narrator said something about the street artists not knowing that Theirry wasn’t really a filmmaker – up to this point, the audience believes Thierry is going to make a documentary with all the footage he is collecting, but then we learn that his is just hobbyist having fun and that he really does not make movies. This same idea comes to light at the very end when Mr. Brainwash is having his art show, but he hires people to do everything for him (including art), and he is only worried about how much money each piece can bring in.
“Meshes of the Afternoon” really confused me! I guess that is what avant-garde is supposed to do… The lighting, filming, and music/score really made this film eerie and confusing. The sudden flashes of one shot to another to the way the camera tilted when she was walking up the stairs really made me sit back in my chair and wonder what I was watching.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Zackary Kehr
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift shop was an interesting film. I like the fact that it can be interpreted in many different ways because of the constant ambiguity and lack of facial details of its subjects. I believe that the original intention of the film and the implicit meaning was that everything in the world is so generic today that anybody could splash paint on a canvas or on a wall and make money from doing so. The meaning in art has been lost over the generations. The ironic stance that the film takes contributes to this by making a fool of Mr. Brainwash through Banksy.
Meshes of the Afternoon can be considered art. Art is something creative that can be interpreted by its audience. Although the film seemed to be a crazy mess of disorganized shots, somebody who watches the film might be able to analyze the various motifs throughout and make inferences on what the meaning of the film might be. Art is subjective.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Marty Manseau
Student’s email: mmanseau0821@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Marty Manseau
Student’s email: mmanseau0821@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I first watched Exit Through the Gift Shop around a year ago, and I enjoyed it purely for the insight it gave me on the underground world of street art. When we watched it in class, I tried to notice all of Banksy’s references towards consumerism and greed. One of the first things I noticed was a message graffiti-ed on a window that read “BANKSY IS A FUCKING SELLOUT.” Throughout the film Banksy himself stressed how unimportant money was to him. He contrasted his views with Mr. Brainwash’s lust for money and fame.This was shown by both his attitude about his art show titled Life is Beautiful and his extremely commercial pop art. I believe that, whether this documentary was a prank or not, Banksy used it to make a statement about the constant struggle between commercialism and artistic integrity.
Meshes of the Afternoon was a very interesting short film. I saw a lot of influences on more modern horror conventions. The use of shadows, mystery, and sound have been mirrored by many recent horror films. The discontinuity was very effective at making me feel nervous and scared. I want to see more of that used in a context of horror and suspense.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Rachel Wager-Smith
Student’s email: rachelw_s@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Exit Through the Gift Shop is an interesting film — the title, which is never directly addressed in the film, perfectly summarizes one of the major themes of the film: art vs. commercialization of art. Exit through the gift shop refers to the marketing strategy of museums that forces patrons to, literally, exit through the gift shop. The museum is full of important pieces of art and the gift shop is full of cheap, kitschy knockoffs of those same art pieces plastered on coffee cups, magnets, and t-shirts. This idea of art vs. capitalism is enhanced through Shepherd Fairey’s quote that importance is imbued through repetition. Perhaps none of these important pieces of work are actually all that important — perhaps it is only because they are so recognizable and so widely reproduced via kitschy trinkets and posters and what have you that they have become important to society.
I also wanted to address the question of “is this film a prank.” Honestly, I don’t know if Mr. Brain Wash is a real artist or an elaborate, living art piece created by Banksy to prove a point — or some combination of the two. Either way, the point that capitalism and art don’t cohabitant nicely is proved and so I don’t think the movie can be called a prank regardless of whether or not it is entirely factual. I do, however, think that there is a different kind of prank at work here — the whole movie is about capitalization vs. art and the final act of the film doesn’t mock MBW nearly as much as it mocks the people who flock to his art show to spend thousands of dollars on his art work — the general population who believes the lie that mass production and manipulation can be art. And yet the whole movie is kind of like MBW’s exhibit — it was nominated for awards and praised as high art mostly just because Banksy was involved and even though I actually really liked the movie and think it presents a lot of interesting ideas, I think the joke, really, is on the audience who consumes the film and praises it as art when I don’t think Banksy sees it that way at all — I feel as though the whole film was a stunt meant to mock those who would go see it. But, even though I think Banksy would laugh at me for it, I still really like the film. I’m not really sure what to do with that…
Also, I just wanted to add that I thought it really interesting that Mr. Brain Wash was pretty much written off as a hack, not just by the documentary but also by most of the people in class, because he merely came up with the ideas and orchestrated this big event, but other people actually produced the work. I’m just paraphrasing what I remember people saying and I’m not trying to speak for everyone but I remember a lot of people saying that what he was doing can’t be considered art because of the way it was produced, but what I really found interesting was that the way it was produced is exactly how a film is produced — a director and producers organize the actors, the writers, the production crew, the post production crew, and the director assembles it all together on set, but the director himself isn’t building the sets, making the costumes, doing hair and make up — it is a collaboration orchestrated by one or two people, just like Mr. Brain Wash orchestrated his art show. I’m not trying to say that what he produced is high art or that it will last through the generations or anything like that, but I do think that to write it off simply because of the way it is produced would mean that films cannot be considered art, either. Just something I thought about after viewing the film.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Edwardo Vasquez
Student’s email: edwardov18@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Edwardo Vasquez
Student’s email: edwardov18@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift shop was a very creative film. Coming from different perspectives I try to put myself in the shoes of the film director and sitting down with thousands of hours of film, how do you choose what footage to compact it a 2 hour film. As every documentary tells a factual story of some sort, I believe the filmmaker makes this film more in a artistic way not to manipulate expression but to let the viewers believe what they want. One way to see the film is to see Thierry as a super talent artistic person that created an empire from nothing. In the other hand we can see him as an incredibly ignorant man who happen to get lucky in life. The audience understands that he knows absolutely nothing about running an art show but he becomes so lucky that he is filled with fans who are willing great amount of money for his pieces. One of the scenes that is stuck in my head is the entire Disney scene in which the situation escalate but the entire Disney dream of the happiest place on earth is changed by a way in which people become offended. I believe the entire scene helps the film understand that Thierry is an incredible courageous or stupid individual.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Hillary Folsom
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit through the gift shop was really cool. At first I did not look at Mr. Brainwash as a joke or an idiot until I heard everyone else’s opinions; then it started to make more sense haha. I like that Banksy had a big but subtle involvement in showing the world what street art is really all about and you can interpret the film in multiple ways. Meshes of the Afternoon was definitely what I imagined Avante Garde to be. No script, just weird but very symbolic actions throughout a short period of time. Both films can overall be interpreted in multiple ways and that’s what I love about film as a whole- directors and cinematographers can manipulate even the tiniest of things in their film that can be open for different perspectives
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Savannah Jossart
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Savannah Jossart
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift Shop is truly a Bansky piece. It started because Thierry Guetta wanted to make a documentary on graffiti artists and Bansky wanted a documentary about how art is losing the war between art and commerce. Bansky got his documentary using Thierry Guetta as his example. Thierry use to be fascinated by the art but with his success as copy-cat street artist Mr.Brainwash it became more and more about money and selling his pieces. Bansky is known for his political satire in his artwork, this whole film is a work of art about the irony of Mr.Brainwash. I usually hate shaky handheld camera but I liked it in this film because it made since and it proved a point. I also enjoyed the pacing of this documentary; it was entertaining all the way through and had a wonderful twist that I wasn’t expecting when I first saw it. Many people think this is a prank I however do not. Mr. Brainwash is a real person and his name is actually Thierry Guetta. I can see why people would think it’s a fake because Bansky is known for pulling stunts but because no one can ask the man himself no one knows for sure. Although Mr.Brainwash and Shepard, another street artist in the film, both said that this film is not a hoax.
Meshes of the Afternoon is an experimental film so in other words, it’s bizarre. It has a lot of symbolism regarding mirrors, keys, knifes, phones, oceans, and doors. Since experimental films are open to individual interpretation to each there own when it comes to what’s it about. What I got from the film was inner struggle between the main character that ended with her death. The creative editing and camera angles really make this film a work of art. Since there is no dialogue everything is over the top, like when they change to her walking on the beach to show distances. Or when she is flouting above herself to show that she is in a dream.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Travis Bishop
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Travis Bishop
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
This was my first time seeing Exit Through The Gift Shop, i thought it was a good documentary. The film was about street art in the U.S., England, and France. The cameraman, Thierry, started filming because his family kept his moms illness from him as a child until she passed away. He regretted that he didn’t get the time to spend with her and he wasn’t able to capture those memories. He started filming his cousin putting up arcade art around Paris and followed him to LA where he met the founder of Obey clothing, Shepard Feirey. He followed Feirey around for a while taping everything everywhere they went. Shortly after he met one of the most mysterious and well known artists, Banksy. Banksy said that he enjoyed having Theirry around because it was the first and only time his work had been documented. He took Thierry all over, including back to home to England. After street art had become popular and everyone wanted to buy Banksy’s pieces he told Thierry that he should start putting the documentary together. after Thierry finished it was clear that he wasn’t going to be able to make a successful film. Here’s where it got messed up for me, Banksy said he liked having Thierry around to document everything that him and his friends were doing at the time but he wanted to put his own documentary together with Thierry’s footage. He took all of his footage and made the documentary about Thierry somewhat, it told his basic story then his story becoming “Mr. Brainwash”, who was exposed as a joke. Banksy made it seem like he was a deranged artist who followed other artist around and then stole from everyone. In a way this is true but i think it was wrong to take someones footage to make a documentary and then make them look bad and disrespect them. The movie overall was cool, i enjoyed watching how street artist work.
Meshes of the Afternoon isn’t the only Avant Garde film I’ve seen, with my experience with Avant Garde style films is that you kind of have to watch them a few times to come up with your own meaning. I’ve seen Eraserhead, for example, a few times and i still have no idea what it is about. After the second and third time seeing them i came up with more “oh maybe” statements and more questions. They are definitely the types of movies that don’t have a definitive meaning.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Andres Mendez
Student’s email: amendezconsulting@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift Shop was very interesting. Not only did the cinematography have a very “home film” feel, but Theirry as person was out of the ordinary to say the least. Honestly at first I thought the purpose of the film was to talk positively about Theirry, however as the film progressed I did not know at all. There were parts where it seemed that the people were praising Theirry for possibly being a mad genius. Then there were the comments that Banksy made about him just being an idiot. I think the film was trying to show the true story by not balancing both negative and positive sides to Theirry. Not only that but I feel like it was a true reflection of the outside in look on Theirry, the true perspective of what he looked like from the outside. Nobody really seemed to understand him, except for maybe his wife. What I got from the film was that Theirry was a copycat artist, that did not see anything wrong in what he was doing. In his he was doing the right thing to make Banksy proud. However this is not something you do, especially in the art world. I didn’t like how Theirry was hiring people to produce his work because I don’t really feel like it was is work. He basically would just come in and say what he wanted and then his employees were the ones to create the pieces. I also don’t think there was any intent from Theirry, which is pivotal in the art world.
Meshes of the Afternoon was very dark and dream like in its nature. I had never an Avante Garde film before so I was just processing what I was seeing when I watched this in class. Right now I believe she is trying to tell a story of loved one leaving her, possibly a boyfriend, and the pain she felt. I don’t know why grim reaper look a like was in the film or why he/she was holding a flower. I did like the cuts in the film because it transitioned from scene to scene very well. I did not notice the cuts, one second she would be on the chair looking at the window and the next she would be floating through the house. Even though it was pretty trippy to watch, I still enjoyed watching it because I was trying to understand the film the whole time.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Andres Mendez
Student’s email: amendezconsulting@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Andres Mendez
Student’s email: amendezconsulting@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Andres Mendez
Student’s email: amendezconsulting@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Exit Through the Gift Shop was very interesting. Not only did the cinematography have a very “home film” feel, but Theirry as person was out of the ordinary to say the least. Honestly at first I thought the purpose of the film was to talk positively about Theirry, however as the film progressed I did not know at all. There were parts where it seemed that the people were praising Theirry for possibly being a mad genius. Then there were the comments that Banksy made about him just being an idiot. I think the film was trying to show the true story by not balancing both negative and positive sides to Theirry. Not only that but I feel like it was a true reflection of the outside in look on Theirry, the true perspective of what he looked like from the outside. Nobody really seemed to understand him, except for maybe his wife. What I got from the film was that Theirry was a copycat artist, that did not see anything wrong in what he was doing. In his he was doing the right thing to make Banksy proud. However this is not something you do, especially in the art world. I didn’t like how Theirry was hiring people to produce his work because I don’t really feel like it was is work. He basically would just come in and say what he wanted and then his employees were the ones to create the pieces. I also don’t think there was any intent from Theirry, which is pivotal in the art world.
Meshes of the Afternoon was very dark and dream like in its nature. I had never an Avante Garde film before so I was just processing what I was seeing when I watched this in class. Right now I believe she is trying to tell a story of loved one leaving her, possibly a boyfriend, and the pain she felt. I don’t know why grim reaper look a like was in the film or why he/she was holding a flower. I did like the cuts in the film because it transitioned from scene to scene very well. I did not notice the cuts, one second she would be on the chair looking at the window and the next she would be floating through the house. Even though it was pretty trippy to watch, I still enjoyed watching it because I was trying to understand the film the whole time.
Exit Through The Gift Shop is a very stylized documentary film. When it started out, it had pretty much all the elements of a conventional documentary. Both in subject and form. But as it progressed, the style of the film grew more and more ridiculous. Almost as if developing in line with Thierry’s transformation into Mr. Brainwash. While it is difficult to say for sure if the documentary is “real” or not, I think it defeats the purpose of the film. In a way, it kind of ruins it’s fun. Yes, it is very disorienting and crudely put together, but I kind of like that. I feel like is captures Banksy’s essence in video from rather than his regular street art. All in all, I think the film focuses on an issue that has been growing in the world of street art. And that is that there are too many fakes out there trying to jump on the trend of street art and ending up making a fool of themselves because they don’t truly understand the meaning behind it. It also ridiculed the public that supports it. Towards the end the focused switched from MBW to the people who came and looked at his artwork. I will go as far as saying that I think Mr. Brainwash, the real Mr. Brainwash, was the one whose idea it was to make this film. I feel like he got together with Banksy, Shepard, and the other street artist in this film to make a “Street Art meets the FIlm Medium” type of project.
Meshes of the Afternoon was my first real exposure to Avant-Garde. I didn’t really know what to expect going into it. But once I finished, I really liked how it made me react. I was obviously very confused, but rather than being annoyed or thinking it was trash, I appreciated the challenge I was faced with. This film allowed my to really analyze what symbolism means in cinema. This, along with films with explicit meaning, can be considered art I feel because it elicits feelings no matter how easy or hard it is to comprehend those emotions.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Madeleine Hedenland
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Madeleine Hedenland
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I had never scene “Exit through the gift shop” before and honestly can tell whether it was an actual documentary or a joke. There are aspects of it that make it seem it could be both. like the story is real but incredibly embellished. I think that its could be true that Thierry started off getting involved by filming the street artist because he liked to do but when Banksy told the story he embellished the actual truth to make it seem like a mocumentary. In addition, Banksy also put in the movie things that depict that he against all corporate art that is just making art pieces for the money and not for the “right reasons”. He’s shows Disneyland as some big corporate company that is just taking money for pleasure and not for the art. However, at the same time he sells his art for millions of dollars but he is still doing it for the “right reasons”.
“Meshes of the Afternoon” to me was very open to interpretations. One of the interpretations that one could get from it, was that she wanted to commit suicide and did quite know to how do to do it or what was going on. Another interpretation that could be seen is that the woman in this video is going through a traumatic event or something is happening in her life that she does not know how to handle and feels like she going through repetitive motions and spinning in this endless cycle.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Natalie De La Mora
Student’s email:
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Natalie De La Mora
Student’s email:
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
While analyzing the film, Exit through the Gift Shop, the consistent references to Andy Warhol’s artwork lend itself to one of the overall themes of the movie. This theme can be summarized in the question of whether or not the commercialization of art devalues its meaning and artistic integrity. Andy Warhol is known as one of the first artists to make art accessible to the general public. He employed artists to create silkscreens in what he deemed the “The Factory” and mass produced his artwork. The parallels between Warhol and Mr. Brainwash were astounding as MBW began to produce art at a rapid rate through a variety of artists at his disposal and even borrowed from Warhol’s signature pop art artwork like the iconic soup can. The meaning in his art appears to be devalued as the commercial value is elevated. Through the use of a cartoon-like, playful music placed over the visual depictions of Mr. Brainwash’s fumbles with the camera and various falls lead to the portrayal of him as a bumbling idiot that seemingly has things fall into his lap. In Meshes of the Afternoon, the experimental nature of the film leaves it to an open interpretation of the events that follow. The symbolism achieved is most notable in its representation of death. The main character appears walking through a window with a dark curtain as if “crossing over” the threshold of life into that of death.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Sarah Smith
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Sarah Smith
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Unfortunately I have not been able to see ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’. I did see ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ and found that the dream like quality of the imagery intriguing. The hooded “Death” creature with a Mirror where the face should be created myriad of meaning. It was/is her death so the face she sees is her own. She is or will be the cause of her own death. We all have our future death reflecting back on us. I feel that if she had simply been the hooded figure it would not have been as impactful or creepy as the Mirror.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Caleb B
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Caleb B
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
The first time I saw Exit Through the Gift Shop is when it came out on video, and I was interested to see the first official Banksy movie. After seeing it, I felt somewhat pranked just in the sense that it was supposed to be about Banksy but instead it talked about this guy Thierry most of the time. It was a little unclear around the point where Banksy turns the camera on Thierry as to who was filming. I have to assume that it was a team and that Banksy may have been one of them. There was a lot of post production effects put on all of the handheld shots, but it seemed to match the film’s overall style. Different scenes also had similar effects to group them together like chapters within the main plot. Without much subtly the film uses music and editing that can make the comical parts seem unreal. The editing was very prominent in the film, with thousands of shots and photos synced to music. Whether some of the footage was staged or not, I still like how the film makes you think about it, and that seems intentional.
Meshes of the Afternoon relies on mise-en-scene to express ideas instead of dialogue or narration. There is a narrative happening, but it is somewhat obscured through an indirect form of communication. The first shot with the surrealistic hand stretching to grab a flower tells us that this is probably some type of dream. Each scene composition is carefully arranged so that every shot is like a perfectly placed photograph. Symbolism is used in a way that can be revealing and mysterious at the same time. One impression I got from it was how our thoughts and feelings can take on a different timeframe than our reality. What appears onscreen as a beach scene that takes thirty seconds might be just a few seconds in the main characters real world. The only woman in the film, who is also the filmmaker, seems to be going through some type of inner crisis. It is difficult to discern which scenes are reality and which are her daydream, but it is possible that the scene where she is found dead is the reality. It is also possible that the artist wanted something that could have multiple interpretations that would always retain a certain mystery about it.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: James Vaughn
Student’s email: jvaughn661@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit through the gift shop is a great film. I had seen it once before class, but I didn’t really get the message Banksy was trying to get across to his viewers. Upon my first viewing all I really saw in the film was Theirry’s transition into Mr. Brainwash and how he basically cheated his way up to the elite artists. However, on the second viewing I realized there was a greater underlying message to the film. When I started thinking about Shepard Fairey’s quote “it gains real power from percieved power,” I realized this documentary may have been an elaborate prank put on by Banksy to show how people will eat up anything thats labeled “art”. Banksy states “It was never about the money,” as is proven by the clip of all the counter fit currency sitting in his studio, but we see his street art that wasn’t intended to be sold at auction for thousands of dollars. When Thierry puts on his art show using Banksy’s and Fairey’s name, it immediately gains traction when magazine publicists show up to interview him. Pretty soon more and more people keep talking about it and it gains “real power from perceived power” and Thierry immediately begins receiving calls from people trying to reserve some of his art for sale. The joke is on the consumer because Thierry is just recycling images in photoshop, splattering paint on it, and telling everyone its art. People are spending thousands of dollars on a piece that Thierry may have spent five minutes on. This is what Banksy was trying to get across. Just because something is labeled as “art” doesn’t mean it really is.
Although it’s still an older type of genre, avant-garde is relatively new to me. Meshes of the afternoon uses cinema to express itself without narration. Although confusing, I could see myself enjoying this genre because I would like to try and interpret the meaning of these films.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Jeremy Santos
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Jeremy Santos
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Exit Through the Gift Shop was a film with a message that I did not quite understand while the movie began. Which created an urge for me to keep watching more to understand the message. Starting off with a documentary style of Mr.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Bryanna Moreno
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift Shop was a very interesting documentary, I had not seen it before class and I didn’t know what to expect. But I did like the movie even though I first expected it to be about Banksy and his street art and the majority of the film followed a guy named Thierry. In the beginning it seemed that Banksy and the other street artists liked Thierry but towards the end everyone started to turn on him. In that way this film made me think it was a prank because this movie went in so many different directions than expected in the beginning. Also, the quote by Shepherd Fairey in the beginning”it gained real power from perceived power” resonated later in the movie when Mr. Brainwash was advertising his show using quotes from Fairey and Banksy which resulted in a huge opening for his show. Mr. Brainwash was relatively new but used his connections to make the public think he was up there with the famous artists and so he gained a real power through perceived power.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Andrew Smith
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Andrew Smith
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I had never seen Exit Through the Gift Shop before, and I never really heard of Banksy before this film either. I was initially thinking this was a Z Boys type documentary about the street art scene, and Banksy was just the filmmaker and head of the movement, while Theirry was just another big part to the movement in another way. It sort of sold it to me that way as a grassroots movement by having the shaky camera, looking very raw. Once Theirry came to Banksy and showed him his finished film, the movie took an odd turn for me. Exit Through the Gift Shop was no longer about street art, it was about taking down Theirry and his image. I found myself asking why. Why does this matter? What’s the point to this film anymore? Then I caught on the message of art vs commercial. Theirry represented the commercial, while Banksy self-proclaimed to represent art.
The problem I have here is that if Banksy really wanted to create a movie about street art that was also anti-commercial, why wouldn’t you stick to how it was in the first place instead of having the whole last third of what the film actually was? The first half sold me on this idea of grassroot movement, fringe of life, and renegade behavior. Then I saw that Banksy himself has an ego (as I suppose any artist does to some degree) and he believes that he is in the right to say what is art and what isn’t. It turned into a film to make the general public that buys into people’s work look stupid. I would agree that buying street art is odd since you could always just enjoy it by going out to the streets, but I wouldn’t ridicule someone if they find meaning in something that I don’t. I think the disconnect I have here is that I feel that, while intent in art is important, if someone sees an object as beautiful and artistic, who is anyone else to say they are wrong. I know I’m not and I really don’t feel Banksy is justified in doing so either.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Zara Dawson
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Zara Dawson
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I guess some parts had something slightly interesting but on the whole I found it boring, I felt like they had exhausted the subject matter. Not too long in, I found myself just waiting for it to be over. I found the character of Thierry just irritating. There was some danger in the execution of the street art itself but it all just seemed kind of pointless. It seemed like it just made a mockery out of street art, which may be justified, I don’t know. Doesn’t the commercial aspect of selling the art kind of negate and go against the purpose of doing “street” art? And when Thierry goes into doing his own street art is just laughable, its just garbage that he’s copying off of other people, there’s no real originality.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Jina Park
Number of questions: 16
Percent correct: 100%
When I watched the film, Exit through the gift shop, I could not understand which genre of this film is. I decided not to think of this film as documentary, because there is an entire story in the movie; the process to be an artist from ordinary person whose name is Tierry and who used to keep recording video or taking pictures, not as a professional photographer. He is not an actual actor, but he is definitely a main character in this film. At first, I thought that he is taking a documentary film, following street artists. However, he becomes a pivotal character as the story is developed.
Also, when the street arts are depicted, camera techniques and music are matched very well. For example, camera’s shaking angle and dynamic music make good combination, and rhythmic hip-hop music or classical music is matched with jump-cuts in the process of drawing on the wall. In addition, Banksy speaks in modulated voice, divine music like a gospel song is tuned.
Finally, this film gives audiences a question: “Could it be called as an art what Tierry is doing?” Actually, he hires artists and orders them to carry his idea to the show. He has started to do it by mimicing street artists with Banksy’s suggestion, and Street art itself is not commercial. However, I think that he makes new, creative ideas and get popularity from the public. Although I do not think his art cannot be called street art, it is another art form, giving a big question about definition of art to people like Andy Warhol.
The avant-garde movie, Meshes of the Afternoon, is very hard to understand for me. As I think of its symbols, I start to get a headache, because it has too many meanings or there is no connection and typical form that I knew; as I stares at the movie without thinking, I get to be bored. According to the textbook, avant-garde films are disoriented, and their patterns are made to be broken. Now, I understand what avant-garde films are, but I do not still know how to watch them.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Kaitlin Chin
Student’s email: kaitlin.v.chin@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
It did not occur to me that Exit Through The Gift Shop could be a prank documentary until we had our discussion after it was screened in class. I genuinely thought that Theirry was a typical wannabe artist. It never crossed me mind that he may be an elaborate prankster who is working with Banksy. The more I think back to it, however, it does seem more and more like a hoax. Theirry’s background as a consignment clothing shop owner mirrors his inability to own a creative process. In the beginning he looks for “expensive-looking” clothing that he can resell at a higher value. Also, there is the huge plot hole of Banksy willing to help a complete stranger with a video camera. Theirry had no past experience with filming or producing documentaries, so why would Banksy trust a complete stranger who could potentially show the world his true identity? To me, it just doesn’t add up. However, I do think that the way Theirry was portrayed was genius. The way he bumbles around aimlessly while the “true artists” work is both hilarious and frustrating, which is what I believe Banksy was going for. His “signature” was also a true representation of his character. It was a sticker, drawn by another artist, in Banksy’s style, of him pointing a camera. It symbolized how he was pointing his camera, observing their work, and duplicating it, or in Shepard’s case, having their work completely covered. Also, Banksy claims that Mr. Brainwash makes more money than him and is more famous, but I, as well as many other people have never heard of MBW. I do believe that this film was a prank, but similar to Banksy’s other pieces of work, there is an underlying message to it. Just because someone is commercially successful in the art, does not make them a true artist. Banksy also wants this message to reach consumers by telling them to not believe every hyped artist out there, because they might just be a Theirry.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Kathleen Crouter
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Kathleen Crouter
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift Shop was an interesting film, but honestly I would have never watched it on my own time. The film was made up of the footage Thierry supposedly had taken. It’s made to be a documentary, but is it really or is it just a prank? The film shows how Thierry follows street artists around with a camera and then turns into a street artist himself by just copying their ideas. The film makes him out to be a fake that has fooled a bunch of people who love art. A lot of Thierry’s bad footage like his putting down the camera while it was still on and jerky movements were allowed to be seen, because it was enforcing the idea that Thierry didn’t really know what he was doing. In the Film Thierry makes a really bad, out of control, no-structure movie with all his footage proving he wasn’t the filmmaker he claims he is. Bansky claims not to be a filmmaker, but does a better job at putting together the film. In this film Bansky shows his rebellion of commercialism, but he’s doing it through a commercialism process of film. So is it a joke? To be truthful, I have no idea. The Avant Garde film Meshes of the Afternoon was even more confusing. The interpretation of the movie could be different for every viewer. It is packed full of symbolism and I think it would take me a couple times of re-watching it to understand it better than I do now after only seeing it once. The scene where her feet are walking through sand and water and dirt to eventually walk over to her in the chair to kill herself was very unusual, but I understood that it meant that death should be further away than it is. Death shouldn’t be so easy to get to.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Chad Heredia
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 80%
Exit Through the Gift Shop was an interesting film that i enjoyed. I’m not sure if it is a factual documentary or not but i think that is beside the point. The documentary had me convinced it was real until class discussion where i began to doubt if MBW was an actual person or an actor. if MBW was just an actor it was really convincing. After class i thought maybe MBW was just a representation of the next step in modern art that Banksy didn’t like. Art that is lazy, takes little effort, and is highly publicized for monetary gain. I started not to like Banksy because he thought of himself and his era of street art to be greater than anything at that time. Banksy uses stencils which in my opinion requires little artistic skill and he himself is not a poor man, he is being a hypocrite . Art is a form of expression and MBW had me convinced he enjoyed art for that reason and it was truly about the art. who is Banksy to say he doesn’t encourage artists anymore he spray paints stencils onto a wall, he thinks too highly of himself.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Dana Johnson
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Dana Johnson
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
If you are in the camp of the entire film being a hoax it’s interesting to see how Banksy manipulated common tropes of to documentary style to bring legitimacy to the film. Such as interviews, narration, and historical documentation in the form of Thierry’s recordings. Choosing to add in footage where Thierry trips, drops something or even knocks over a 5 gallon bucket of paint underline the idea of authenticity in the audience’s mind. I might not be a fan of Banksy but he is intelligent. He has found a way to very effectively manipulate his audience and play into their expectations in the same way Robert J. Flaherty did in Nanook of the North. Exit Through the Gift Shop didn’t invent a new genre, it’s just a continuation of a very old one.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Sabrina Dunkl
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Sabrina Dunkl
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit through the giftshop was an interesting movie and i have never seen it before so it was a new experience for me. I feel as if the editor could have made the documentary a little tighter and not as long. Towards the end of the movie it seemed to just drag on. The theme of the movie was Street art and to express that message to the audience but I feel like the meaning of the movie was to be dedicated to what you love and live for it.The lighting of the video was messy except for the interview with banksey the mystery man. The backlight that was lighting the room was providing the screen with a dark shadow of his body.The key light was highlighting his hands and this relates to him telling Thierry that he didnt want his face in the documentary and only his hands. The lighting emphasized his hands and payed no attention to his face. The music that went a long with the documentary was awkward because during the Thierry’s opening show for his art the sound editor implied to play upbeat and more of a cartoon type of music as if to give the vibe off that Thierry’s opening art show was a joke and that he was also a joke. It was a weird combination of the guests that were so fond of his work and to have the soundtrack play at the same time.
Meshes of the afternoon was very hard for me to watch. There was zero dialogue which required me to rely on the visuals. Meshes of the afternoon does follow the experimental film genre with dark shawows and being filmed outside. Obviously, the film leaves it to me make my own interpretation of the film and to make me forget that I am watching a movie.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Ryan Hrabak
student’s email: ryanhrabak@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Ryan Hrabak
student’s email: ryanhrabak@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I really enjoyed Exit through the Gift Shop. Ive heard the name Banksy before and had a very basic knowledge of what he or maybe a group of people under the guise of “Banksy” does but it was really cool to learn more about the street art scene. The fact that the movie was produced by one of my hero’s(Adam Yauch) production companies just makes the movie even cooler for me. I believe that the movie is a prank that started out with Terry legitimately trying to make a movie that in his own mind was good but was turned into a prank when Banksy saw the footage and saw that if he took the spotlight off of himself and put it on terry he could make a statement by encouraging a man with very little self awareness to join the art world and expose how easily people are willing to blindly throw cash at the flavor of month. Everything that Banksy creates is done tongue in cheek so why would his movie be any different?
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Taylor Lee
Student’s email: taylorlee2@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Taylor Lee
Student’s email: taylorlee2@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit through the Gift Shop is a one of kind person movie. First off this movie is all about street artists, which isn’t that interesting in my opinion. Second this movie is a documentary/story telling movie, which is interesting for the first fifteen minutes. I did like a few things about this movie. I liked the lighting and the vision of the movie. There was two types of lighting in this movie: really really dark or really bright. The dark scenes indicate their mischievous acts on the streets , which is accidental because they have to do it at night. The really bright scenes are either when they are planning for something or at an event, which shows their real personality and their true artistic abilities. Like I said this movie is interesting for the first fifteen minutes than it repeats over and over and over and eventually looses my interests. Overall it does have a nice concept and story behind what happened with the main character.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Molly Greco
Student’s email: molly_greco@comcast.net
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Molly Greco
Student’s email: molly_greco@comcast.net
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
The film, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” is all about the appreciation of the individual artistic expression. The Cinematography was unique, in that the shaky/handheld, low quality, homemade style camera work adds to the artistic aspect of this film. The film is about anyone being, or perusing, an art dream, with or without experience, or quality equipment; anyone could be an artist. By using his own low quality camera work, Thierry shows that he too could be an artist just like the street artists are artists. The music was very “out there,” and eccentric, or “funky” at times. This is another aspect of this film that is quite artistic. Just like the art shown in this film, the music possesses a different artistic quality, adding to the overall theme of the individual artistic expression. The script was rather comedic and quirky, and the character development throughout the script exaggerates the theme that anyone could be an artist, no matter experience, materials, or equipment, as long as they are driven.
“Meshes of the Afternoon” seemed very experimental with the cinematography, editing, and screenwriting. The cinematography had a lot of close up shots, and shaky camera work, which added to the surreal aspect of the film. The shot where the camera did a 180, and rotated to show the woman on the ceiling seemed especially surreal. The editing, with jumping between shots quickly, and slow motion was quite surreal as well. Overall, the screenwriting was very surreal and dreamlike. The development of the situation was not apparent until the very end, and even then was not completely clear, leaving the conclusion up to the audience.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Patricia Brill
Student’s email: trishabrill@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Patricia Brill
Student’s email: trishabrill@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
While Exit Through the Gift Shop comes off as a documentary I believe it is more along the lines of a “mockumentary.” I dont believe that everything is truthful. Banksy is known for his art displays and I think this is also one of his, just in a different medium. Its meant to show that anyone can do art or be an artist and that sometimes, there is no meaning or reasoning behind the art created and that its just made for the hell of it. Just like what Thierry did. He didnt have any skill or practice behind it, he just let it happen and people scooped up the art for thousands of dollars and it didnt even mean anything. Its like a scam. Banksy just wanted to show that art collectors waste their money and people focus on monetary value rather than actual content or meaning. The whole movie felt like it was just trying to make a point about this and thats why it felt like a prank or an art display.
Meshes of The Afternoon was difficult for me to watch because of its experimentalness. I dont really like avant garde or experimental films and I find them hard to understand. Its also a lot to take in sometimes when a movie focuses on portraying a meaning through visuals rather than dialouge. I feel like the movie could be interpreted many different ways by different people because every individual would have their own interpretation
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Karla Argumoza
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Karla Argumoza
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
This was my first time seeing Exit Through the Gift Shop, and this film confused me a bit. What I understood was that Thierry was not a true artist but rather someone who copies other artists to create his own work. When Mr. Brainwash gained popularity, his audience took it as he was the best artist in the world. But what his audience didn’t know was that he was actually not a true artist. I feel that Bansky made this film to show everyone true street art and bad art. He wanted us to know that Thierry was a joke. This film seemed to be a prank because it showed the true side of Thierry and not the side Mr. Brainwash thought he had. This showed me that Thierry did not work hard to gain popularity, and other street artists worked hard for their art to be heard.
Meshes of the Afternoon was a confusing film. What I understood from it was that it represented black noir because the film seemed dark. The confusing part represented avant-garde because it was outside the norm that we are not used to. Even though I didn’t really understand the film, I somehow liked it.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Jess Gemignani-Olmo
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Jess Gemignani-Olmo
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Banksy’s work as well as his humor is known for its satire; so considering this documentary is an extension of that work, it makes sense for the underlying theme of it to be satirical in nature. Banksy’s sarcastic lines are too thinly veiled by a forceful sense of innocence and everything is too ironic and contradictory to his own work that I couldn’t digest it as an honest account either times watching it. If anything, I felt this documentary was a direct insult to the audiences’ intelligence. The symbolism is so heavy to the point where it’s ridiculous. At one point Thierry covers up Shepard Fairey’s art which reflects the idea of Thierry’s perceived self-importance as well as the fact that he blatantly rips off other artists. One of the most absurd shots in this entire film was the shot of Thierry lying on the ground with his broken leg in a way that resembles a fedora-sporting Jesus Christ on the cross as if he is a tragic saint—which might have been another symbol for just how powerful and important Thierry was feeling at the time but was over-the-top all the same. It’s fairly obvious that the entire purpose of this documentary is to criticize the people that pay obscene amounts of money for things that aren’t of any real substantial value (ie. The patrons who praise Mister Brainwash pieces as being revolutionary). The irony lies in the fact that Banksy is subtly calling people out on their stupidity for buying into Mister Brainwash while taking advantage of this commercialization himself. Several times Banksy ousts Thierry for hopping onto the commercialization bandwagon when it’s otherwise obvious that he is guilty of the same crime (his own gallery shows and the celebrities that attend them, for instance). It seems Banksy’s general attitude is: what’s more punk than taking advantage of a system you despise? Sure it kind of undermines everything he’s said and done in the past, but maybe that’s the point. In regards to if this film is a “prank” or not, I can’t help but think of John Grierson’s definition of documentary filmmaking: using real people, places, and events in order to place a creative spin on actuality. I think this description fits fairly well for the film. The people are real and the events did occur– any small amount of research will tell you that much. So even if Thierry’s persona was constructed by Banksy and co., does it make it any less real? If anything it just makes this a very long-winded publicity stunt. In the end, this film is highly controversial and does raise a lot of questions and sparks a lot of debate so I can’t denounce this documentary as being unworthy of being called “art”.
Meshes of the Afternoon uses a lot of techniques to convey the loose grip of reality the audience as well as Deren’s character have throughout the film. I personally really enjoyed the use of so many techniques to convey a sense of disorientation in both time and space, such as the use of slow motion as Deren’s character runs up the stairs or when she is falling out of a window. Though the editing technique of cutting on action was noticeable it still managed to disorient the viewers as well as throw off our expectation of how something should look. For example, it takes so long for us to travel up the stairs that when Deren turns around to go back down them we expect another long journey but instead we already have a visual of the bottom of the stairs. Cutting in action as well as the use of slow motion really helps to disorient the viewers while conveying a fragile perception of reality. The play on shadows and shots of the feet as well as many other patterns and motifs are constant throughout the film which aided in the feeling of confusion and the idea of dreams vs. reality.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Geovanie Brooks
Student’s email: gbrooks2390@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Geovanie Brooks
Student’s email: gbrooks2390@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Meshes in the Afternoon is a film that did not follow a normal films conventions. There is a story, characters, a plot, but their is no clear Antagonist Or Protagonist. We could say that the character was fighting with herself (Her conscience) when deciding to make a fatal choice. I liked the film and I really liked how the director makes the viewer have to work for the meaning or message of the film. Most people would call it an experimental film and it is that because it does have a lot of unique conventions in the film.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Ana Carla Teixeira Praciano Santos
Student’s email: anacarlateixeir@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Ana Carla Teixeira Praciano Santos
Student’s email: anacarlateixeir@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift Shop is an interesting film. First of all, it is a metafilm, however, the differences between the onscreen documentary and the real one let us know a little bit about Thierry. Even though it is classified as a documentary, I don’t believe it talks about real actual facts. The movie is like a prank from its director, that defends that art cannot be made by anyone. We cannot wake up one day and decide to be artists. Mr. Brainwash can be understood as a metaphor of the society that simply enjoy the nonsense sometimes, spending their money in “works of art” that actually are not it.
Meshes of the Afternoon is a well-known avant-garde film, considered a perfect example of film as art. Its editing full of symbolism, the confusing music background, and the creepy emotional charge, caused both by the acting and dark lighting and shadows, contributes to mess with the audience’s mind and explores the deepest emotions in the viewer.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Ryan Hrabak
student’s email: ryanhrabak@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Ryan Hrabak
student’s email: ryanhrabak@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I really enjoyed Exit through the Gift Shop. Ive heard the name Banksy before and had a very basic knowledge of what he or maybe a group of people under the guise of “Banksy” does but it was really cool to learn more about the street art scene. The fact that the movie was produced by one of my hero’s(Adam Yauch) production companies just makes the movie even cooler for me. I believe that the movie is a prank that started out with Terry legitimately trying to make a movie that in his own mind was good but was turned into a prank when Banksy saw the footage and saw that if he took the spotlight off of himself and put it on terry he could make a statement by encouraging a man with very little self awareness to join the art world and expose how easily people are willing to blindly throw cash at the flavor of month. Everything that Banksy creates is done tongue in cheek so why would his movie be any different?
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Jonathan Patton
Student’s email: JonathanPatton@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Jonathan Patton
Student’s email: JonathanPatton@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary covering the expansion of the underground world of street art as seen through Thierry Guetta’s eyes as a filmmaker. While most documentaries would focus solely on the capturing and telling the story’s subject matter (the emergence of street art), Exit Through the Gift Shop diverges from this by including Guetta’s story of discovery of this underground world. Banksy, understanding that the audience is expecting a story about street art, states at the beginning stating that the film is about “a guy (Thierry Guetta) that was trying to make a documentary about him, but had a far more interesting story”. So instead of a documentary about street art, we see this street art movement through the physical and metaphorical lens of Guetta. The film frequently uses a change in soundtrack/music to signify a new section/chapter of the film, we see this with the introduction of Banksy as it includes a hard hitting hip-hop style of music that is suppose to represent a “street” artist. An example of this is seen when the story focuses on Thierry where the music takes on a more whimsical “French” accordion style theme, suggesting that Thierry’s himself is whimsical by nature. Thierry’s interview is used several times throughout the film as a antithesis of the point that the street art movement is, at it’s core, about art and making a statement about the world. An example of this is when Thierry returns to LA after his version of the documentary and attempts to get into street art himself; stating that “Street art is about brain washing”. However in the following scenes Thierry is portrayed as a whimsical and unawares cameraman, as he drops his paint bucket on the bed of his truck and instead of trying to clean it up, asks the cameraman to come closer and the film the moment, underlying Thierry’s main focus is just getting footage rather than creating art. That scene, when combined with the previous statement about art, provides an underlying message that “Art is not all brainwashing”. Instead,Thierry’s story is about what art is not, rather than defining what art is suppose to be.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Eva Hoch
Student’s email: eva.hoch@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Eva Hoch
Student’s email: eva.hoch@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I did enjoy Exit Through the Gift Shop, because I do like Banksy and I do want to support local artists. It seems that Mister Brainwasher was using his artwork for commercial gain and that many street artists say it’s about the skill and heart that goes into their work. Although it seems like Banksy is dedicated to his work it is confusing because he does is ironic in saying that he does not feed off of commercial gain. Mister Brainwasher does commercialize himself, but Banksy does as well so it is ironic that he is criticizing him.
Meshes of the Afternoon uses slow motion which I really like because it creates a scene of impending doom when Daren Falls. This film was avant garde because it was rather confusing in how it strayed from the norm in order to allow the audience to be surprised and brought to something new and experimental. This fil is confusing and makes you focus on the actions.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Jeremy Clark
Student’s email: jeremyclark@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Jeremy Clark
Student’s email: jeremyclark@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I’ll address the idea that the movie was a prank, because when the idea was first mentioned I discounted it. After a bit of thought though, I began to see the a bit of validity with that idea. Thierry was able to make millions in sales with no prior experience or publicity and it makes me think of the quote about perceived power equalling real power. Banksy and these other artists spend so much time perfecting their craft, yet Thierry is able to reach incredible success without any of the same work. Perhaps Banksy was making a statement on the public and their perception of art with this film, and knew that the audience would buy into whatever he sold them. Authentic or not.
Personally though, I still believe that Thierry is authentically as crazy as the film makes him out to be. Even in his early days before meeting Banksy, he was crazy, wild and pursued whatever crossed his mind. The zany, fast music and editing in the beginning backs up his antics. Regardless of whether or not this movie is a prank, it provokes thoughts about the public’s view and perception of art.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Stephanie Castillo
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Stephanie Castillo
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I found Banksy to be quite hypocritical in the way he approached Thierry’s art. He had art exhibits that then sold his art for large amounts of money but then he goes and says that Thierry was the perfect example of commercialism because he had his huge art exhibit. Banksy had a point because it seemed that Thierry was interested more in the fame that came with his exhibit than the process of the whole thing in the first place, but Banksy was essentially doing the same thing but it was only alright for him to do it because he was already established as an artist.
Meshes of the Afternoon was hard to follow in the beginning but as the scenes eventually evolved, they started to make sense. It may be reaching, but I saw the film as her speaking about a person who is trapped in the same monotonous life, and who only finds escape through suicide.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: David Bean
Student’s email: davidbean@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: David Bean
Student’s email: davidbean@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Neha Khan
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Neha Khan
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
“If you’re doing what everyone else is doing you’re doing it wrong” – says American filmmaker Casey Neistat. Thierry Guetta, encapsulates the essence of this quote well in the film Exit Through The Gift Shop by Banksy. Guetta seemingly was the original director for this documentary as it captures his supposed experiences through chronicling street art and his transformation into a street artist as well. Through editing, music and camerawork the documentary conveys a theme of the frenzy of commercialization. In the beginning of the film Banksy encouraged Guetta, or “Mr. Brainwash” as he would become, to pursue art but Banksy would never imagine what Guetta would become. “Most artists take years to develop their style, Thierry seemed to miss out on all those bits.” says Banksy in one scene as it cuts to other dismayed artists opinions on “Mr. Brainwash” like Shepard Fairey and Steve Lazarides. This editing sequence at the end helps convey the message to the audience that MBW is a hack artist and his main motivation is profit. The music in the film helps create a genuine aesthetic, we see Guetta’s real life transformation from camera man to “artist.” The eerie music as he becomes this “master artisan” creates the uncertainty of Guetta’s actual validity as a street artist. The POV camerawork and angles as Guetta captures street art happening and sit down interviews also helps creates a honest and legitimate feeling to the documentary. As we see the spectators of MBW first art gallery we see the commercialization effect right in front of our eyes. As Fairey states, “It gains real power from perceived power,” Guetta’s hacked art became successful from the hype and backing of famous figures like Banksy even though his art had so substance.
Meshes of the Afternoon by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid was one of the most influential avant-garde or experimental films ever made. It was meant to be confusing and thought-invoking and it definitely befuddled me. The time lapse, solem music and stark image symbolism helped create a mysterious vibe centering around a theme of death. At least that’s what I got out of it.
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Evan G
Student’s email:
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
This is a better late than never post. I missed this class due to a car accident on the way to class. I watched the films and did the quiz before the next class but didn’t do the blog posts because I felt all jumbled up about what I wanted to say.
Meshes in the Afternoon is one of my favorite things I’ve seen ever. I can’t get it out of my head. The setting and the repetition of actions and images were used to great affect.The setting of the sidewalk, and the house, the stairs inside the house and outside..goes along with constant movement. The woman seems to be chasing, going towards, trying to figure out or solve something, and trying to get away. We know something bad may have happened but is it real or a nightmare? Because of it’s non-traditional narrative structure I feel that it is up to interpretation. Reading about the film though, there seems to be more of a straightforward story? than I initially thought. I have many thoughts about this film but have a hard time articulating what I mean and what this film means to me.
Exit Through The Gift Shop I saw a few years ago based on a recommendation from a good artist friend of mine. I really didn’t like this film at all then. I thought it was a mess. Took it at face value and couldn’t stand Thierry. Watching it again for this class made me appreciate it a lot more. It’s a film in my opinion unlike any other film. It’s not something to take at face value. It’s not really a documentary. Or it’s not soley a documentary. The use of narration early on suggests it’s a documentary. The way the story unfolds or the structure of the film is complex. The film is narrated by Rhys Ifans, who is an actor whose work I enjoy. Hearing his voice was the first clue to me that this wasn’t Thierry’s documentary. At some point in the film the shadowy figure, “Banksy” (though I’m not sure it is really him, says it was a movie that Thierry was making about him and other street artists but has become a movie about Thierry himself. Banksy is the filmmaker but what about the film that Thierry put together from some of the tons of footage he used to make his own film. When Banksy saw that mess of the film Thierry made he decided to take the footage and make a film but the film from that footage is not the footage that makes up Exit Through the Gift Shop. There’s a lot that can be said about this film. The way the film is told and the subject matter makes it seem like it could be a joke. The joke is on us as in the larger society, the art, the artists? The fact that Thierry can manufacture himself or Banksy could manufacture him (as Director to Featured Subject) as a legitimate artists brings into question the fickleness of fame in the art world and if street art is farce or true talent or can anyone do it? When I think of it, I think of artistic integrity and whether Banksy made this film so people wouldn’t make a film about him ever or for a long while? It’s a weird film but I think a great film because it has no simple explanation and we can’t tell what is true or not, what is fact or not. If compared the literary idea of unreliable narrator, the entire movie is unreliable.
Forgot to mention the different visual styles of Exit Through The Gift Shop. At the start of the film the imagery looks to be of low quality. I equated this to video camera technology back then. As the movie goes forward the imagery becomes more pristine. In the segments when it talks to some of the street artists, the camera is set up in traditional interview style for documentary.
The music for Exit.. was immersive and lent itself to the rapidly shifting settings and progression of how Thierry’s story unfolds. The music in the version of Meshes in the Afternoon that I saw on Youtube was from 2011 performed by Birds Eye View. I’m sure the music created for the film in 1959 with Maya Deren’s input would make the film viewing different. I read when Meshes in the Afternoon was released originally in 1943, it had no music. At some point I will watch it again with the sound muted to experience the film on a purely visual level.
Forgot to mention the different visual styles of Exit Through The Gift Shop. At the start of the film the imagery looks to be of low quality. I equated this to video camera technology back then. As the movie goes forward the imagery becomes more pristine. In the segments when it talks to some of the street artists, the camera is set up in traditional interview style for documentary.
The music for Exit.. was immersive and lent itself to the rapidly shifting settings and progression of how Thierry’s story unfolds. The music in the version of Meshes in the Afternoon that I saw on Youtube was from 2011 performed by Birds Eye View. I’m sure the music created for the film in 1959 with Maya Deren’s input would make the film viewing different. I read when Meshes in the Afternoon was released originally in 1943, it had no music. At some point I will watch it again with the sound muted to experience the film on a purely visual level.
introductiontocinema 
Exit Through the Gift Shop is a factual film (documentary) about street art and the artist who create them. It was directed by Banksy and follows Thierry Guetta journey as an aspiring director/filmmaker into becoming a street artist. The explicit meaning of the documentary is street art and that not everything is art. The documentary gives the audience a view of the street art world and contains Banksy’s own opinion on what makes an artist and what street art is about. Banksy implicitly uses Guetta as a symbolic representation of the commercialization of an art form that is anti-establishment. Somewhat blurring the lines between a factual film and a persuasive film, Banksy shows his views of Disney during the Disneyland shot. This allows the documentary to not only be a factual film, but an avenue for Banksy to express his views on art, commercialization, and the establishment. One of the underlying implicit meanings of the film is that street art could be easy to reproduce. Guetta quickly produces art pieces by ripping of other artists and recycling old ideas. This coincides with Banksy view of Disneyland’s use of Kitsch in their products. The film motivates the audience to question what art is and what differentiates art from mass produced paintings, drawings, etc. Exit Through the Gift Shop offers a great lead in to a well-known experimental film.
Meshes of the Afternoon is an experimental film that the directors use to represent ideas in a surrealist way. As an experimental film the images and scenes portrayed are a representation of thoughts and ideas, rather than following the standard narrative. The short film has repeating motifs of a knife, a mirror, sleep, and a key that allows the audience to not necessarily focus upon what the objects are but what thoughts they convey. One of the key aspects of an experimental film is opening the film up to interpretation, which the film accomplishes. By leaving it open the film can have more than one meaning and a completely different plot depending upon the person viewing it. Watching both films together allows the audience to understand what art is, can be, and what mediums can be used. Meshes is an artistic movie that similar to street art, portrays the artists thoughts on certain issues. Like street art, Meshes attempts to tackle a taboo subject (death instead of politics) and allows the viewer to come to their own decision.
Jason C
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Alex Naumann
Student’s email: alexnaumann@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Alex Naumann
Student’s email: alexnaumann@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary about the world of street art that focuses mainly on a man named Thierry Guetta AKA Mr. Brainwash, but other well known street artists are featured such as the director, Banksy.
While it is written as a documentary, I genuinely don’t believe that it is factual. I believe this “documentary” is a prank by Banksy to show people in the art world that literally anyone can be an artist, and when art collectors spend tens of thousands of dollars on art, they are completely wasting their money because creating ‘good’ art takes almost no practice or skill. Because of this, I tend to believe that Mr. Brainwash may be an actor. I think this way because his story is almost too ridiculous to be believable. Whether this film is a prank or not, I do not think it matters. It was an entertaining movie throughout its whole duration.
Banksy chose to use a a wide variety of music in this film. Like with most movies, the music changes to fit the mood the director is going for. One example is when the narrator is telling about Thierry’s mother, the music sounds as if it should be in a documentary about a serious tragedy. Then only a few minutes later, the song changes to a somewhat upbeat song featuring the accordion. If you listen carefully to the music, you will notice while it is at times bizarre, it fits the scene perfectly.
I really enjoyed all of the footage Thierry shot. I thought the use of the sepia tone for the night scenes was a good choice because it makes this footage look more gritty and older than it would have if it had been showed in normal color or even black and white. I also just believe that the yellow sepia tone used in this movie looks a lot better than color or black and white tape would have looked.
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While watching ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’, I felt the persistent need to do a web search of the film, Banksy, and especially Thierry and his alter ego “Mr. Brainwash”. The context of Banksy himself being the film’s creator, and his blatant awareness that his subject is dubiously inauthentic, gives it a feeling of non-reality. Based on some basic research, it seems the mystery regarding the exact details of Thierry’s metamorphosis into “Mr Brainwash” are still at large. Background details regarding Thierry’s life seem to be legitimate, and the “Life is Beautiful” exhibition, along with more in following years, really did happen. However, it is Bansky’s choice to construct a film about this man, in this way, as the artist he is that brings the meaning behind the ‘documentary’ under suspicion. Banksy’s art is always used to question the foibles of society and government, and to critique the commodification of art. ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ appears to be self-aware in its purposeful mimicry of traditional documentary form to sell its story as reality to the audience. By utilizing the film type which is associated with the intent “To Inform”, Banksy makes a statement about what we trust in terms of facts. The ensuing debate about whether to trust the film’s portrayal of events seems, in my opinion, to be the purpose. Just as Banksy might critique the masses for blindly falling for the illusion of happiness within a corporate society, so too might he be critiquing the viewers for blindly falling for the illusion of validity in art, including documentary filmmaking.
‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ is an unnerving piece that pioneered American Avant-Garde cinema. In contrast to the team-commissioned parody art of Mr. Brainwash featured in ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’, Maya Deren’s work is that of a true auteur. Surreal repetitions of events from gradually more distant perspectives culminates in many realities meeting at the kitchen table, which then flows into the character’s death. The piece is dense with imagery and symbolism, and seems to have many possibilities for interpretations. The film uses heavy darkness sparingly, which makes the black-shrouded figure all the more disturbing and out of place. The loneliness, the repetition of the main character, the mirror, and the expressive close-ups imply a psychological focus regarding the inner mind. It might be said that avant-garde films are those with a wealth of possible implicit meanings, but that lack clear explicit explanations of plot. One would sound rather absurd attempting to relate a blow-by-blow description of each action portrayed in an avant-garde film.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Blia Yang
Student’s email: b.yang.lia@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Blia Yang
Student’s email: b.yang.lia@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
_Exit Through the Gift Shop_; a piece of shit film about a piece of shit “artist”. With, however, some redeeming or worthwhile qualities. Director of the film and street artist, Banksy, edits Mr. Brainnwash’s films to parallel and mock Mr. Brainwash’s obnoxious in-your-face idiocy. Banksy’s editing of _Exit Through the Gift Shop_ as he did, reveals his point that, people unthinkingly glom on to whatever is hot–they’re slaves to hype. Banksy seems bemused and doesn’t call “Mr. Brainwash” on what he appears to be but rather let’s the masses fall for his nonsense. And maybe, in hopes with this film, he means to show to those that take a moment to think the pitfall of the bandwagon.
Agreeably with Banksy, art is something that challenges the mind, evokes thought and emotions. Original. Mr. Brainwash’s crap, however, is crap. Knockoffs. Easily viewed passively. Uncreative and unartful.
Viewing a creative and artful film such as _Meshes in the Afternoon_ passively, is almost impossible lest you miss all the qualities about it that make it art. It challenges the audience to make interpretations through its lack of dialogue and overwhelming presence of dark and light, shadows. And music and sounds. Original, in its own right, and undoubtedly art. The avant-garde is quite the enigma.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Mollie Meyer
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Mollie Meyer
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
“Exit Through the Gift Shop” was an interesting film – I knew from the brief discussion beforehand that the film wasn’t a “typical” documentary, so I wasn’t sure what to believe, if anything. The beginning of the film seemed to be a documentary about a filmmaker making a documentary about street art, but then the film changed into a story about Thierry becoming Mr. Brainwash. The way it was filmed throughout the movie gave us the idea that the entire thing was a documentary. Even when Thierry wasn’t the cameraman, it appeared to be filmed on handheld cameras and was edited to show us there were many, many hours of footage. As we watched Thierry evolve into Mr. Brainwash, I realized that he was becoming what Bansky despised; Bansky ultimately says something to that effect in one of his interview shots. One of the themes I interpreted was obsession. I felt the beginning of the movie introduced Thierry as this person who was obsessed with filming his life – he never put the camera down, and hoarded the tapes, even though he never watched one minute of what he filmed. The obsession slowly changed into filming street artists and getting that adrenaline rush. He quickly became obsessed with meeting Bansky, who Thierry thought was the best street artist. But, once his obsession was satisfied, it changed into Thierry himself becoming a street artist and then an artist who can make money. The use of a narrator was also very important; the movie would not have been the same without it. The narrator not only gave us the sense that this was a documentary and the appearance that these events actually happened, but the narrator also provided us with information we would not have known. An important part that stands out to me was when the film reached a turning point – the shot froze on Thierry’s face and the narrator said something about the street artists not knowing that Theirry wasn’t really a filmmaker – up to this point, the audience believes Thierry is going to make a documentary with all the footage he is collecting, but then we learn that his is just hobbyist having fun and that he really does not make movies. This same idea comes to light at the very end when Mr. Brainwash is having his art show, but he hires people to do everything for him (including art), and he is only worried about how much money each piece can bring in.
“Meshes of the Afternoon” really confused me! I guess that is what avant-garde is supposed to do… The lighting, filming, and music/score really made this film eerie and confusing. The sudden flashes of one shot to another to the way the camera tilted when she was walking up the stairs really made me sit back in my chair and wonder what I was watching.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Zackary Kehr
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift shop was an interesting film. I like the fact that it can be interpreted in many different ways because of the constant ambiguity and lack of facial details of its subjects. I believe that the original intention of the film and the implicit meaning was that everything in the world is so generic today that anybody could splash paint on a canvas or on a wall and make money from doing so. The meaning in art has been lost over the generations. The ironic stance that the film takes contributes to this by making a fool of Mr. Brainwash through Banksy.
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Meshes of the Afternoon can be considered art. Art is something creative that can be interpreted by its audience. Although the film seemed to be a crazy mess of disorganized shots, somebody who watches the film might be able to analyze the various motifs throughout and make inferences on what the meaning of the film might be. Art is subjective.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Marty Manseau
Student’s email: mmanseau0821@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Marty Manseau
Student’s email: mmanseau0821@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I first watched Exit Through the Gift Shop around a year ago, and I enjoyed it purely for the insight it gave me on the underground world of street art. When we watched it in class, I tried to notice all of Banksy’s references towards consumerism and greed. One of the first things I noticed was a message graffiti-ed on a window that read “BANKSY IS A FUCKING SELLOUT.” Throughout the film Banksy himself stressed how unimportant money was to him. He contrasted his views with Mr. Brainwash’s lust for money and fame.This was shown by both his attitude about his art show titled Life is Beautiful and his extremely commercial pop art. I believe that, whether this documentary was a prank or not, Banksy used it to make a statement about the constant struggle between commercialism and artistic integrity.
Meshes of the Afternoon was a very interesting short film. I saw a lot of influences on more modern horror conventions. The use of shadows, mystery, and sound have been mirrored by many recent horror films. The discontinuity was very effective at making me feel nervous and scared. I want to see more of that used in a context of horror and suspense.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Rachel Wager-Smith
Student’s email: rachelw_s@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Exit Through the Gift Shop is an interesting film — the title, which is never directly addressed in the film, perfectly summarizes one of the major themes of the film: art vs. commercialization of art. Exit through the gift shop refers to the marketing strategy of museums that forces patrons to, literally, exit through the gift shop. The museum is full of important pieces of art and the gift shop is full of cheap, kitschy knockoffs of those same art pieces plastered on coffee cups, magnets, and t-shirts. This idea of art vs. capitalism is enhanced through Shepherd Fairey’s quote that importance is imbued through repetition. Perhaps none of these important pieces of work are actually all that important — perhaps it is only because they are so recognizable and so widely reproduced via kitschy trinkets and posters and what have you that they have become important to society.
I also wanted to address the question of “is this film a prank.” Honestly, I don’t know if Mr. Brain Wash is a real artist or an elaborate, living art piece created by Banksy to prove a point — or some combination of the two. Either way, the point that capitalism and art don’t cohabitant nicely is proved and so I don’t think the movie can be called a prank regardless of whether or not it is entirely factual. I do, however, think that there is a different kind of prank at work here — the whole movie is about capitalization vs. art and the final act of the film doesn’t mock MBW nearly as much as it mocks the people who flock to his art show to spend thousands of dollars on his art work — the general population who believes the lie that mass production and manipulation can be art. And yet the whole movie is kind of like MBW’s exhibit — it was nominated for awards and praised as high art mostly just because Banksy was involved and even though I actually really liked the movie and think it presents a lot of interesting ideas, I think the joke, really, is on the audience who consumes the film and praises it as art when I don’t think Banksy sees it that way at all — I feel as though the whole film was a stunt meant to mock those who would go see it. But, even though I think Banksy would laugh at me for it, I still really like the film. I’m not really sure what to do with that…
Also, I just wanted to add that I thought it really interesting that Mr. Brain Wash was pretty much written off as a hack, not just by the documentary but also by most of the people in class, because he merely came up with the ideas and orchestrated this big event, but other people actually produced the work. I’m just paraphrasing what I remember people saying and I’m not trying to speak for everyone but I remember a lot of people saying that what he was doing can’t be considered art because of the way it was produced, but what I really found interesting was that the way it was produced is exactly how a film is produced — a director and producers organize the actors, the writers, the production crew, the post production crew, and the director assembles it all together on set, but the director himself isn’t building the sets, making the costumes, doing hair and make up — it is a collaboration orchestrated by one or two people, just like Mr. Brain Wash orchestrated his art show. I’m not trying to say that what he produced is high art or that it will last through the generations or anything like that, but I do think that to write it off simply because of the way it is produced would mean that films cannot be considered art, either. Just something I thought about after viewing the film.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Rachel Wager-Smith
Student’s email: rachelw_s@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Edwardo Vasquez
Student’s email: edwardov18@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Edwardo Vasquez
Student’s email: edwardov18@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift shop was a very creative film. Coming from different perspectives I try to put myself in the shoes of the film director and sitting down with thousands of hours of film, how do you choose what footage to compact it a 2 hour film. As every documentary tells a factual story of some sort, I believe the filmmaker makes this film more in a artistic way not to manipulate expression but to let the viewers believe what they want. One way to see the film is to see Thierry as a super talent artistic person that created an empire from nothing. In the other hand we can see him as an incredibly ignorant man who happen to get lucky in life. The audience understands that he knows absolutely nothing about running an art show but he becomes so lucky that he is filled with fans who are willing great amount of money for his pieces. One of the scenes that is stuck in my head is the entire Disney scene in which the situation escalate but the entire Disney dream of the happiest place on earth is changed by a way in which people become offended. I believe the entire scene helps the film understand that Thierry is an incredible courageous or stupid individual.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Hillary Folsom
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit through the gift shop was really cool. At first I did not look at Mr. Brainwash as a joke or an idiot until I heard everyone else’s opinions; then it started to make more sense haha. I like that Banksy had a big but subtle involvement in showing the world what street art is really all about and you can interpret the film in multiple ways. Meshes of the Afternoon was definitely what I imagined Avante Garde to be. No script, just weird but very symbolic actions throughout a short period of time. Both films can overall be interpreted in multiple ways and that’s what I love about film as a whole- directors and cinematographers can manipulate even the tiniest of things in their film that can be open for different perspectives
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Hillary Folsom
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Savannah Jossart
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Savannah Jossart
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift Shop is truly a Bansky piece. It started because Thierry Guetta wanted to make a documentary on graffiti artists and Bansky wanted a documentary about how art is losing the war between art and commerce. Bansky got his documentary using Thierry Guetta as his example. Thierry use to be fascinated by the art but with his success as copy-cat street artist Mr.Brainwash it became more and more about money and selling his pieces. Bansky is known for his political satire in his artwork, this whole film is a work of art about the irony of Mr.Brainwash. I usually hate shaky handheld camera but I liked it in this film because it made since and it proved a point. I also enjoyed the pacing of this documentary; it was entertaining all the way through and had a wonderful twist that I wasn’t expecting when I first saw it. Many people think this is a prank I however do not. Mr. Brainwash is a real person and his name is actually Thierry Guetta. I can see why people would think it’s a fake because Bansky is known for pulling stunts but because no one can ask the man himself no one knows for sure. Although Mr.Brainwash and Shepard, another street artist in the film, both said that this film is not a hoax.
Meshes of the Afternoon is an experimental film so in other words, it’s bizarre. It has a lot of symbolism regarding mirrors, keys, knifes, phones, oceans, and doors. Since experimental films are open to individual interpretation to each there own when it comes to what’s it about. What I got from the film was inner struggle between the main character that ended with her death. The creative editing and camera angles really make this film a work of art. Since there is no dialogue everything is over the top, like when they change to her walking on the beach to show distances. Or when she is flouting above herself to show that she is in a dream.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Travis Bishop
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Travis Bishop
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
This was my first time seeing Exit Through The Gift Shop, i thought it was a good documentary. The film was about street art in the U.S., England, and France. The cameraman, Thierry, started filming because his family kept his moms illness from him as a child until she passed away. He regretted that he didn’t get the time to spend with her and he wasn’t able to capture those memories. He started filming his cousin putting up arcade art around Paris and followed him to LA where he met the founder of Obey clothing, Shepard Feirey. He followed Feirey around for a while taping everything everywhere they went. Shortly after he met one of the most mysterious and well known artists, Banksy. Banksy said that he enjoyed having Theirry around because it was the first and only time his work had been documented. He took Thierry all over, including back to home to England. After street art had become popular and everyone wanted to buy Banksy’s pieces he told Thierry that he should start putting the documentary together. after Thierry finished it was clear that he wasn’t going to be able to make a successful film. Here’s where it got messed up for me, Banksy said he liked having Thierry around to document everything that him and his friends were doing at the time but he wanted to put his own documentary together with Thierry’s footage. He took all of his footage and made the documentary about Thierry somewhat, it told his basic story then his story becoming “Mr. Brainwash”, who was exposed as a joke. Banksy made it seem like he was a deranged artist who followed other artist around and then stole from everyone. In a way this is true but i think it was wrong to take someones footage to make a documentary and then make them look bad and disrespect them. The movie overall was cool, i enjoyed watching how street artist work.
Meshes of the Afternoon isn’t the only Avant Garde film I’ve seen, with my experience with Avant Garde style films is that you kind of have to watch them a few times to come up with your own meaning. I’ve seen Eraserhead, for example, a few times and i still have no idea what it is about. After the second and third time seeing them i came up with more “oh maybe” statements and more questions. They are definitely the types of movies that don’t have a definitive meaning.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Andres Mendez
Student’s email: amendezconsulting@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift Shop was very interesting. Not only did the cinematography have a very “home film” feel, but Theirry as person was out of the ordinary to say the least. Honestly at first I thought the purpose of the film was to talk positively about Theirry, however as the film progressed I did not know at all. There were parts where it seemed that the people were praising Theirry for possibly being a mad genius. Then there were the comments that Banksy made about him just being an idiot. I think the film was trying to show the true story by not balancing both negative and positive sides to Theirry. Not only that but I feel like it was a true reflection of the outside in look on Theirry, the true perspective of what he looked like from the outside. Nobody really seemed to understand him, except for maybe his wife. What I got from the film was that Theirry was a copycat artist, that did not see anything wrong in what he was doing. In his he was doing the right thing to make Banksy proud. However this is not something you do, especially in the art world. I didn’t like how Theirry was hiring people to produce his work because I don’t really feel like it was is work. He basically would just come in and say what he wanted and then his employees were the ones to create the pieces. I also don’t think there was any intent from Theirry, which is pivotal in the art world.
Meshes of the Afternoon was very dark and dream like in its nature. I had never an Avante Garde film before so I was just processing what I was seeing when I watched this in class. Right now I believe she is trying to tell a story of loved one leaving her, possibly a boyfriend, and the pain she felt. I don’t know why grim reaper look a like was in the film or why he/she was holding a flower. I did like the cuts in the film because it transitioned from scene to scene very well. I did not notice the cuts, one second she would be on the chair looking at the window and the next she would be floating through the house. Even though it was pretty trippy to watch, I still enjoyed watching it because I was trying to understand the film the whole time.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Andres Mendez
Student’s email: amendezconsulting@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
LikeLike
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Andres Mendez
Student’s email: amendezconsulting@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Andres Mendez
Student’s email: amendezconsulting@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Exit Through the Gift Shop was very interesting. Not only did the cinematography have a very “home film” feel, but Theirry as person was out of the ordinary to say the least. Honestly at first I thought the purpose of the film was to talk positively about Theirry, however as the film progressed I did not know at all. There were parts where it seemed that the people were praising Theirry for possibly being a mad genius. Then there were the comments that Banksy made about him just being an idiot. I think the film was trying to show the true story by not balancing both negative and positive sides to Theirry. Not only that but I feel like it was a true reflection of the outside in look on Theirry, the true perspective of what he looked like from the outside. Nobody really seemed to understand him, except for maybe his wife. What I got from the film was that Theirry was a copycat artist, that did not see anything wrong in what he was doing. In his he was doing the right thing to make Banksy proud. However this is not something you do, especially in the art world. I didn’t like how Theirry was hiring people to produce his work because I don’t really feel like it was is work. He basically would just come in and say what he wanted and then his employees were the ones to create the pieces. I also don’t think there was any intent from Theirry, which is pivotal in the art world.
Meshes of the Afternoon was very dark and dream like in its nature. I had never an Avante Garde film before so I was just processing what I was seeing when I watched this in class. Right now I believe she is trying to tell a story of loved one leaving her, possibly a boyfriend, and the pain she felt. I don’t know why grim reaper look a like was in the film or why he/she was holding a flower. I did like the cuts in the film because it transitioned from scene to scene very well. I did not notice the cuts, one second she would be on the chair looking at the window and the next she would be floating through the house. Even though it was pretty trippy to watch, I still enjoyed watching it because I was trying to understand the film the whole time.
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Exit Through The Gift Shop is a very stylized documentary film. When it started out, it had pretty much all the elements of a conventional documentary. Both in subject and form. But as it progressed, the style of the film grew more and more ridiculous. Almost as if developing in line with Thierry’s transformation into Mr. Brainwash. While it is difficult to say for sure if the documentary is “real” or not, I think it defeats the purpose of the film. In a way, it kind of ruins it’s fun. Yes, it is very disorienting and crudely put together, but I kind of like that. I feel like is captures Banksy’s essence in video from rather than his regular street art. All in all, I think the film focuses on an issue that has been growing in the world of street art. And that is that there are too many fakes out there trying to jump on the trend of street art and ending up making a fool of themselves because they don’t truly understand the meaning behind it. It also ridiculed the public that supports it. Towards the end the focused switched from MBW to the people who came and looked at his artwork. I will go as far as saying that I think Mr. Brainwash, the real Mr. Brainwash, was the one whose idea it was to make this film. I feel like he got together with Banksy, Shepard, and the other street artist in this film to make a “Street Art meets the FIlm Medium” type of project.
Meshes of the Afternoon was my first real exposure to Avant-Garde. I didn’t really know what to expect going into it. But once I finished, I really liked how it made me react. I was obviously very confused, but rather than being annoyed or thinking it was trash, I appreciated the challenge I was faced with. This film allowed my to really analyze what symbolism means in cinema. This, along with films with explicit meaning, can be considered art I feel because it elicits feelings no matter how easy or hard it is to comprehend those emotions.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Madeleine Hedenland
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Madeleine Hedenland
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I had never scene “Exit through the gift shop” before and honestly can tell whether it was an actual documentary or a joke. There are aspects of it that make it seem it could be both. like the story is real but incredibly embellished. I think that its could be true that Thierry started off getting involved by filming the street artist because he liked to do but when Banksy told the story he embellished the actual truth to make it seem like a mocumentary. In addition, Banksy also put in the movie things that depict that he against all corporate art that is just making art pieces for the money and not for the “right reasons”. He’s shows Disneyland as some big corporate company that is just taking money for pleasure and not for the art. However, at the same time he sells his art for millions of dollars but he is still doing it for the “right reasons”.
“Meshes of the Afternoon” to me was very open to interpretations. One of the interpretations that one could get from it, was that she wanted to commit suicide and did quite know to how do to do it or what was going on. Another interpretation that could be seen is that the woman in this video is going through a traumatic event or something is happening in her life that she does not know how to handle and feels like she going through repetitive motions and spinning in this endless cycle.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Natalie De La Mora
Student’s email:
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Natalie De La Mora
Student’s email:
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
While analyzing the film, Exit through the Gift Shop, the consistent references to Andy Warhol’s artwork lend itself to one of the overall themes of the movie. This theme can be summarized in the question of whether or not the commercialization of art devalues its meaning and artistic integrity. Andy Warhol is known as one of the first artists to make art accessible to the general public. He employed artists to create silkscreens in what he deemed the “The Factory” and mass produced his artwork. The parallels between Warhol and Mr. Brainwash were astounding as MBW began to produce art at a rapid rate through a variety of artists at his disposal and even borrowed from Warhol’s signature pop art artwork like the iconic soup can. The meaning in his art appears to be devalued as the commercial value is elevated. Through the use of a cartoon-like, playful music placed over the visual depictions of Mr. Brainwash’s fumbles with the camera and various falls lead to the portrayal of him as a bumbling idiot that seemingly has things fall into his lap. In Meshes of the Afternoon, the experimental nature of the film leaves it to an open interpretation of the events that follow. The symbolism achieved is most notable in its representation of death. The main character appears walking through a window with a dark curtain as if “crossing over” the threshold of life into that of death.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Sarah Smith
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Sarah Smith
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Unfortunately I have not been able to see ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’. I did see ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ and found that the dream like quality of the imagery intriguing. The hooded “Death” creature with a Mirror where the face should be created myriad of meaning. It was/is her death so the face she sees is her own. She is or will be the cause of her own death. We all have our future death reflecting back on us. I feel that if she had simply been the hooded figure it would not have been as impactful or creepy as the Mirror.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Caleb B
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Caleb B
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
The first time I saw Exit Through the Gift Shop is when it came out on video, and I was interested to see the first official Banksy movie. After seeing it, I felt somewhat pranked just in the sense that it was supposed to be about Banksy but instead it talked about this guy Thierry most of the time. It was a little unclear around the point where Banksy turns the camera on Thierry as to who was filming. I have to assume that it was a team and that Banksy may have been one of them. There was a lot of post production effects put on all of the handheld shots, but it seemed to match the film’s overall style. Different scenes also had similar effects to group them together like chapters within the main plot. Without much subtly the film uses music and editing that can make the comical parts seem unreal. The editing was very prominent in the film, with thousands of shots and photos synced to music. Whether some of the footage was staged or not, I still like how the film makes you think about it, and that seems intentional.
Meshes of the Afternoon relies on mise-en-scene to express ideas instead of dialogue or narration. There is a narrative happening, but it is somewhat obscured through an indirect form of communication. The first shot with the surrealistic hand stretching to grab a flower tells us that this is probably some type of dream. Each scene composition is carefully arranged so that every shot is like a perfectly placed photograph. Symbolism is used in a way that can be revealing and mysterious at the same time. One impression I got from it was how our thoughts and feelings can take on a different timeframe than our reality. What appears onscreen as a beach scene that takes thirty seconds might be just a few seconds in the main characters real world. The only woman in the film, who is also the filmmaker, seems to be going through some type of inner crisis. It is difficult to discern which scenes are reality and which are her daydream, but it is possible that the scene where she is found dead is the reality. It is also possible that the artist wanted something that could have multiple interpretations that would always retain a certain mystery about it.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: James Vaughn
Student’s email: jvaughn661@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit through the gift shop is a great film. I had seen it once before class, but I didn’t really get the message Banksy was trying to get across to his viewers. Upon my first viewing all I really saw in the film was Theirry’s transition into Mr. Brainwash and how he basically cheated his way up to the elite artists. However, on the second viewing I realized there was a greater underlying message to the film. When I started thinking about Shepard Fairey’s quote “it gains real power from percieved power,” I realized this documentary may have been an elaborate prank put on by Banksy to show how people will eat up anything thats labeled “art”. Banksy states “It was never about the money,” as is proven by the clip of all the counter fit currency sitting in his studio, but we see his street art that wasn’t intended to be sold at auction for thousands of dollars. When Thierry puts on his art show using Banksy’s and Fairey’s name, it immediately gains traction when magazine publicists show up to interview him. Pretty soon more and more people keep talking about it and it gains “real power from perceived power” and Thierry immediately begins receiving calls from people trying to reserve some of his art for sale. The joke is on the consumer because Thierry is just recycling images in photoshop, splattering paint on it, and telling everyone its art. People are spending thousands of dollars on a piece that Thierry may have spent five minutes on. This is what Banksy was trying to get across. Just because something is labeled as “art” doesn’t mean it really is.
Although it’s still an older type of genre, avant-garde is relatively new to me. Meshes of the afternoon uses cinema to express itself without narration. Although confusing, I could see myself enjoying this genre because I would like to try and interpret the meaning of these films.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Jeremy Santos
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Jeremy Santos
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Exit Through the Gift Shop was a film with a message that I did not quite understand while the movie began. Which created an urge for me to keep watching more to understand the message. Starting off with a documentary style of Mr.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Bryanna Moreno
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift Shop was a very interesting documentary, I had not seen it before class and I didn’t know what to expect. But I did like the movie even though I first expected it to be about Banksy and his street art and the majority of the film followed a guy named Thierry. In the beginning it seemed that Banksy and the other street artists liked Thierry but towards the end everyone started to turn on him. In that way this film made me think it was a prank because this movie went in so many different directions than expected in the beginning. Also, the quote by Shepherd Fairey in the beginning”it gained real power from perceived power” resonated later in the movie when Mr. Brainwash was advertising his show using quotes from Fairey and Banksy which resulted in a huge opening for his show. Mr. Brainwash was relatively new but used his connections to make the public think he was up there with the famous artists and so he gained a real power through perceived power.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Andrew Smith
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Andrew Smith
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I had never seen Exit Through the Gift Shop before, and I never really heard of Banksy before this film either. I was initially thinking this was a Z Boys type documentary about the street art scene, and Banksy was just the filmmaker and head of the movement, while Theirry was just another big part to the movement in another way. It sort of sold it to me that way as a grassroots movement by having the shaky camera, looking very raw. Once Theirry came to Banksy and showed him his finished film, the movie took an odd turn for me. Exit Through the Gift Shop was no longer about street art, it was about taking down Theirry and his image. I found myself asking why. Why does this matter? What’s the point to this film anymore? Then I caught on the message of art vs commercial. Theirry represented the commercial, while Banksy self-proclaimed to represent art.
The problem I have here is that if Banksy really wanted to create a movie about street art that was also anti-commercial, why wouldn’t you stick to how it was in the first place instead of having the whole last third of what the film actually was? The first half sold me on this idea of grassroot movement, fringe of life, and renegade behavior. Then I saw that Banksy himself has an ego (as I suppose any artist does to some degree) and he believes that he is in the right to say what is art and what isn’t. It turned into a film to make the general public that buys into people’s work look stupid. I would agree that buying street art is odd since you could always just enjoy it by going out to the streets, but I wouldn’t ridicule someone if they find meaning in something that I don’t. I think the disconnect I have here is that I feel that, while intent in art is important, if someone sees an object as beautiful and artistic, who is anyone else to say they are wrong. I know I’m not and I really don’t feel Banksy is justified in doing so either.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Zara Dawson
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Zara Dawson
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I guess some parts had something slightly interesting but on the whole I found it boring, I felt like they had exhausted the subject matter. Not too long in, I found myself just waiting for it to be over. I found the character of Thierry just irritating. There was some danger in the execution of the street art itself but it all just seemed kind of pointless. It seemed like it just made a mockery out of street art, which may be justified, I don’t know. Doesn’t the commercial aspect of selling the art kind of negate and go against the purpose of doing “street” art? And when Thierry goes into doing his own street art is just laughable, its just garbage that he’s copying off of other people, there’s no real originality.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Jina Park
Number of questions: 16
Percent correct: 100%
When I watched the film, Exit through the gift shop, I could not understand which genre of this film is. I decided not to think of this film as documentary, because there is an entire story in the movie; the process to be an artist from ordinary person whose name is Tierry and who used to keep recording video or taking pictures, not as a professional photographer. He is not an actual actor, but he is definitely a main character in this film. At first, I thought that he is taking a documentary film, following street artists. However, he becomes a pivotal character as the story is developed.
Also, when the street arts are depicted, camera techniques and music are matched very well. For example, camera’s shaking angle and dynamic music make good combination, and rhythmic hip-hop music or classical music is matched with jump-cuts in the process of drawing on the wall. In addition, Banksy speaks in modulated voice, divine music like a gospel song is tuned.
Finally, this film gives audiences a question: “Could it be called as an art what Tierry is doing?” Actually, he hires artists and orders them to carry his idea to the show. He has started to do it by mimicing street artists with Banksy’s suggestion, and Street art itself is not commercial. However, I think that he makes new, creative ideas and get popularity from the public. Although I do not think his art cannot be called street art, it is another art form, giving a big question about definition of art to people like Andy Warhol.
The avant-garde movie, Meshes of the Afternoon, is very hard to understand for me. As I think of its symbols, I start to get a headache, because it has too many meanings or there is no connection and typical form that I knew; as I stares at the movie without thinking, I get to be bored. According to the textbook, avant-garde films are disoriented, and their patterns are made to be broken. Now, I understand what avant-garde films are, but I do not still know how to watch them.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Kaitlin Chin
Student’s email: kaitlin.v.chin@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
It did not occur to me that Exit Through The Gift Shop could be a prank documentary until we had our discussion after it was screened in class. I genuinely thought that Theirry was a typical wannabe artist. It never crossed me mind that he may be an elaborate prankster who is working with Banksy. The more I think back to it, however, it does seem more and more like a hoax. Theirry’s background as a consignment clothing shop owner mirrors his inability to own a creative process. In the beginning he looks for “expensive-looking” clothing that he can resell at a higher value. Also, there is the huge plot hole of Banksy willing to help a complete stranger with a video camera. Theirry had no past experience with filming or producing documentaries, so why would Banksy trust a complete stranger who could potentially show the world his true identity? To me, it just doesn’t add up. However, I do think that the way Theirry was portrayed was genius. The way he bumbles around aimlessly while the “true artists” work is both hilarious and frustrating, which is what I believe Banksy was going for. His “signature” was also a true representation of his character. It was a sticker, drawn by another artist, in Banksy’s style, of him pointing a camera. It symbolized how he was pointing his camera, observing their work, and duplicating it, or in Shepard’s case, having their work completely covered. Also, Banksy claims that Mr. Brainwash makes more money than him and is more famous, but I, as well as many other people have never heard of MBW. I do believe that this film was a prank, but similar to Banksy’s other pieces of work, there is an underlying message to it. Just because someone is commercially successful in the art, does not make them a true artist. Banksy also wants this message to reach consumers by telling them to not believe every hyped artist out there, because they might just be a Theirry.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Kathleen Crouter
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Kathleen Crouter
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift Shop was an interesting film, but honestly I would have never watched it on my own time. The film was made up of the footage Thierry supposedly had taken. It’s made to be a documentary, but is it really or is it just a prank? The film shows how Thierry follows street artists around with a camera and then turns into a street artist himself by just copying their ideas. The film makes him out to be a fake that has fooled a bunch of people who love art. A lot of Thierry’s bad footage like his putting down the camera while it was still on and jerky movements were allowed to be seen, because it was enforcing the idea that Thierry didn’t really know what he was doing. In the Film Thierry makes a really bad, out of control, no-structure movie with all his footage proving he wasn’t the filmmaker he claims he is. Bansky claims not to be a filmmaker, but does a better job at putting together the film. In this film Bansky shows his rebellion of commercialism, but he’s doing it through a commercialism process of film. So is it a joke? To be truthful, I have no idea. The Avant Garde film Meshes of the Afternoon was even more confusing. The interpretation of the movie could be different for every viewer. It is packed full of symbolism and I think it would take me a couple times of re-watching it to understand it better than I do now after only seeing it once. The scene where her feet are walking through sand and water and dirt to eventually walk over to her in the chair to kill herself was very unusual, but I understood that it meant that death should be further away than it is. Death shouldn’t be so easy to get to.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Chad Heredia
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 80%
Exit Through the Gift Shop was an interesting film that i enjoyed. I’m not sure if it is a factual documentary or not but i think that is beside the point. The documentary had me convinced it was real until class discussion where i began to doubt if MBW was an actual person or an actor. if MBW was just an actor it was really convincing. After class i thought maybe MBW was just a representation of the next step in modern art that Banksy didn’t like. Art that is lazy, takes little effort, and is highly publicized for monetary gain. I started not to like Banksy because he thought of himself and his era of street art to be greater than anything at that time. Banksy uses stencils which in my opinion requires little artistic skill and he himself is not a poor man, he is being a hypocrite . Art is a form of expression and MBW had me convinced he enjoyed art for that reason and it was truly about the art. who is Banksy to say he doesn’t encourage artists anymore he spray paints stencils onto a wall, he thinks too highly of himself.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Dana Johnson
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Dana Johnson
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
If you are in the camp of the entire film being a hoax it’s interesting to see how Banksy manipulated common tropes of to documentary style to bring legitimacy to the film. Such as interviews, narration, and historical documentation in the form of Thierry’s recordings. Choosing to add in footage where Thierry trips, drops something or even knocks over a 5 gallon bucket of paint underline the idea of authenticity in the audience’s mind. I might not be a fan of Banksy but he is intelligent. He has found a way to very effectively manipulate his audience and play into their expectations in the same way Robert J. Flaherty did in Nanook of the North. Exit Through the Gift Shop didn’t invent a new genre, it’s just a continuation of a very old one.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Sabrina Dunkl
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Sabrina Dunkl
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit through the giftshop was an interesting movie and i have never seen it before so it was a new experience for me. I feel as if the editor could have made the documentary a little tighter and not as long. Towards the end of the movie it seemed to just drag on. The theme of the movie was Street art and to express that message to the audience but I feel like the meaning of the movie was to be dedicated to what you love and live for it.The lighting of the video was messy except for the interview with banksey the mystery man. The backlight that was lighting the room was providing the screen with a dark shadow of his body.The key light was highlighting his hands and this relates to him telling Thierry that he didnt want his face in the documentary and only his hands. The lighting emphasized his hands and payed no attention to his face. The music that went a long with the documentary was awkward because during the Thierry’s opening show for his art the sound editor implied to play upbeat and more of a cartoon type of music as if to give the vibe off that Thierry’s opening art show was a joke and that he was also a joke. It was a weird combination of the guests that were so fond of his work and to have the soundtrack play at the same time.
Meshes of the afternoon was very hard for me to watch. There was zero dialogue which required me to rely on the visuals. Meshes of the afternoon does follow the experimental film genre with dark shawows and being filmed outside. Obviously, the film leaves it to me make my own interpretation of the film and to make me forget that I am watching a movie.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Ryan Hrabak
student’s email: ryanhrabak@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Ryan Hrabak
student’s email: ryanhrabak@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I really enjoyed Exit through the Gift Shop. Ive heard the name Banksy before and had a very basic knowledge of what he or maybe a group of people under the guise of “Banksy” does but it was really cool to learn more about the street art scene. The fact that the movie was produced by one of my hero’s(Adam Yauch) production companies just makes the movie even cooler for me. I believe that the movie is a prank that started out with Terry legitimately trying to make a movie that in his own mind was good but was turned into a prank when Banksy saw the footage and saw that if he took the spotlight off of himself and put it on terry he could make a statement by encouraging a man with very little self awareness to join the art world and expose how easily people are willing to blindly throw cash at the flavor of month. Everything that Banksy creates is done tongue in cheek so why would his movie be any different?
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Taylor Lee
Student’s email: taylorlee2@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Taylor Lee
Student’s email: taylorlee2@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit through the Gift Shop is a one of kind person movie. First off this movie is all about street artists, which isn’t that interesting in my opinion. Second this movie is a documentary/story telling movie, which is interesting for the first fifteen minutes. I did like a few things about this movie. I liked the lighting and the vision of the movie. There was two types of lighting in this movie: really really dark or really bright. The dark scenes indicate their mischievous acts on the streets , which is accidental because they have to do it at night. The really bright scenes are either when they are planning for something or at an event, which shows their real personality and their true artistic abilities. Like I said this movie is interesting for the first fifteen minutes than it repeats over and over and over and eventually looses my interests. Overall it does have a nice concept and story behind what happened with the main character.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Molly Greco
Student’s email: molly_greco@comcast.net
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Molly Greco
Student’s email: molly_greco@comcast.net
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
The film, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” is all about the appreciation of the individual artistic expression. The Cinematography was unique, in that the shaky/handheld, low quality, homemade style camera work adds to the artistic aspect of this film. The film is about anyone being, or perusing, an art dream, with or without experience, or quality equipment; anyone could be an artist. By using his own low quality camera work, Thierry shows that he too could be an artist just like the street artists are artists. The music was very “out there,” and eccentric, or “funky” at times. This is another aspect of this film that is quite artistic. Just like the art shown in this film, the music possesses a different artistic quality, adding to the overall theme of the individual artistic expression. The script was rather comedic and quirky, and the character development throughout the script exaggerates the theme that anyone could be an artist, no matter experience, materials, or equipment, as long as they are driven.
“Meshes of the Afternoon” seemed very experimental with the cinematography, editing, and screenwriting. The cinematography had a lot of close up shots, and shaky camera work, which added to the surreal aspect of the film. The shot where the camera did a 180, and rotated to show the woman on the ceiling seemed especially surreal. The editing, with jumping between shots quickly, and slow motion was quite surreal as well. Overall, the screenwriting was very surreal and dreamlike. The development of the situation was not apparent until the very end, and even then was not completely clear, leaving the conclusion up to the audience.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Patricia Brill
Student’s email: trishabrill@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Patricia Brill
Student’s email: trishabrill@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
While Exit Through the Gift Shop comes off as a documentary I believe it is more along the lines of a “mockumentary.” I dont believe that everything is truthful. Banksy is known for his art displays and I think this is also one of his, just in a different medium. Its meant to show that anyone can do art or be an artist and that sometimes, there is no meaning or reasoning behind the art created and that its just made for the hell of it. Just like what Thierry did. He didnt have any skill or practice behind it, he just let it happen and people scooped up the art for thousands of dollars and it didnt even mean anything. Its like a scam. Banksy just wanted to show that art collectors waste their money and people focus on monetary value rather than actual content or meaning. The whole movie felt like it was just trying to make a point about this and thats why it felt like a prank or an art display.
Meshes of The Afternoon was difficult for me to watch because of its experimentalness. I dont really like avant garde or experimental films and I find them hard to understand. Its also a lot to take in sometimes when a movie focuses on portraying a meaning through visuals rather than dialouge. I feel like the movie could be interpreted many different ways by different people because every individual would have their own interpretation
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Karla Argumoza
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Karla Argumoza
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
This was my first time seeing Exit Through the Gift Shop, and this film confused me a bit. What I understood was that Thierry was not a true artist but rather someone who copies other artists to create his own work. When Mr. Brainwash gained popularity, his audience took it as he was the best artist in the world. But what his audience didn’t know was that he was actually not a true artist. I feel that Bansky made this film to show everyone true street art and bad art. He wanted us to know that Thierry was a joke. This film seemed to be a prank because it showed the true side of Thierry and not the side Mr. Brainwash thought he had. This showed me that Thierry did not work hard to gain popularity, and other street artists worked hard for their art to be heard.
Meshes of the Afternoon was a confusing film. What I understood from it was that it represented black noir because the film seemed dark. The confusing part represented avant-garde because it was outside the norm that we are not used to. Even though I didn’t really understand the film, I somehow liked it.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Jess Gemignani-Olmo
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Jess Gemignani-Olmo
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Banksy’s work as well as his humor is known for its satire; so considering this documentary is an extension of that work, it makes sense for the underlying theme of it to be satirical in nature. Banksy’s sarcastic lines are too thinly veiled by a forceful sense of innocence and everything is too ironic and contradictory to his own work that I couldn’t digest it as an honest account either times watching it. If anything, I felt this documentary was a direct insult to the audiences’ intelligence. The symbolism is so heavy to the point where it’s ridiculous. At one point Thierry covers up Shepard Fairey’s art which reflects the idea of Thierry’s perceived self-importance as well as the fact that he blatantly rips off other artists. One of the most absurd shots in this entire film was the shot of Thierry lying on the ground with his broken leg in a way that resembles a fedora-sporting Jesus Christ on the cross as if he is a tragic saint—which might have been another symbol for just how powerful and important Thierry was feeling at the time but was over-the-top all the same. It’s fairly obvious that the entire purpose of this documentary is to criticize the people that pay obscene amounts of money for things that aren’t of any real substantial value (ie. The patrons who praise Mister Brainwash pieces as being revolutionary). The irony lies in the fact that Banksy is subtly calling people out on their stupidity for buying into Mister Brainwash while taking advantage of this commercialization himself. Several times Banksy ousts Thierry for hopping onto the commercialization bandwagon when it’s otherwise obvious that he is guilty of the same crime (his own gallery shows and the celebrities that attend them, for instance). It seems Banksy’s general attitude is: what’s more punk than taking advantage of a system you despise? Sure it kind of undermines everything he’s said and done in the past, but maybe that’s the point. In regards to if this film is a “prank” or not, I can’t help but think of John Grierson’s definition of documentary filmmaking: using real people, places, and events in order to place a creative spin on actuality. I think this description fits fairly well for the film. The people are real and the events did occur– any small amount of research will tell you that much. So even if Thierry’s persona was constructed by Banksy and co., does it make it any less real? If anything it just makes this a very long-winded publicity stunt. In the end, this film is highly controversial and does raise a lot of questions and sparks a lot of debate so I can’t denounce this documentary as being unworthy of being called “art”.
Meshes of the Afternoon uses a lot of techniques to convey the loose grip of reality the audience as well as Deren’s character have throughout the film. I personally really enjoyed the use of so many techniques to convey a sense of disorientation in both time and space, such as the use of slow motion as Deren’s character runs up the stairs or when she is falling out of a window. Though the editing technique of cutting on action was noticeable it still managed to disorient the viewers as well as throw off our expectation of how something should look. For example, it takes so long for us to travel up the stairs that when Deren turns around to go back down them we expect another long journey but instead we already have a visual of the bottom of the stairs. Cutting in action as well as the use of slow motion really helps to disorient the viewers while conveying a fragile perception of reality. The play on shadows and shots of the feet as well as many other patterns and motifs are constant throughout the film which aided in the feeling of confusion and the idea of dreams vs. reality.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Geovanie Brooks
Student’s email: gbrooks2390@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Geovanie Brooks
Student’s email: gbrooks2390@gmail.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Meshes in the Afternoon is a film that did not follow a normal films conventions. There is a story, characters, a plot, but their is no clear Antagonist Or Protagonist. We could say that the character was fighting with herself (Her conscience) when deciding to make a fatal choice. I liked the film and I really liked how the director makes the viewer have to work for the meaning or message of the film. Most people would call it an experimental film and it is that because it does have a lot of unique conventions in the film.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Ana Carla Teixeira Praciano Santos
Student’s email: anacarlateixeir@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Ana Carla Teixeira Praciano Santos
Student’s email: anacarlateixeir@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift Shop is an interesting film. First of all, it is a metafilm, however, the differences between the onscreen documentary and the real one let us know a little bit about Thierry. Even though it is classified as a documentary, I don’t believe it talks about real actual facts. The movie is like a prank from its director, that defends that art cannot be made by anyone. We cannot wake up one day and decide to be artists. Mr. Brainwash can be understood as a metaphor of the society that simply enjoy the nonsense sometimes, spending their money in “works of art” that actually are not it.
Meshes of the Afternoon is a well-known avant-garde film, considered a perfect example of film as art. Its editing full of symbolism, the confusing music background, and the creepy emotional charge, caused both by the acting and dark lighting and shadows, contributes to mess with the audience’s mind and explores the deepest emotions in the viewer.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Ryan Hrabak
student’s email: ryanhrabak@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Ryan Hrabak
student’s email: ryanhrabak@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I really enjoyed Exit through the Gift Shop. Ive heard the name Banksy before and had a very basic knowledge of what he or maybe a group of people under the guise of “Banksy” does but it was really cool to learn more about the street art scene. The fact that the movie was produced by one of my hero’s(Adam Yauch) production companies just makes the movie even cooler for me. I believe that the movie is a prank that started out with Terry legitimately trying to make a movie that in his own mind was good but was turned into a prank when Banksy saw the footage and saw that if he took the spotlight off of himself and put it on terry he could make a statement by encouraging a man with very little self awareness to join the art world and expose how easily people are willing to blindly throw cash at the flavor of month. Everything that Banksy creates is done tongue in cheek so why would his movie be any different?
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Jonathan Patton
Student’s email: JonathanPatton@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Jonathan Patton
Student’s email: JonathanPatton@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary covering the expansion of the underground world of street art as seen through Thierry Guetta’s eyes as a filmmaker. While most documentaries would focus solely on the capturing and telling the story’s subject matter (the emergence of street art), Exit Through the Gift Shop diverges from this by including Guetta’s story of discovery of this underground world. Banksy, understanding that the audience is expecting a story about street art, states at the beginning stating that the film is about “a guy (Thierry Guetta) that was trying to make a documentary about him, but had a far more interesting story”. So instead of a documentary about street art, we see this street art movement through the physical and metaphorical lens of Guetta. The film frequently uses a change in soundtrack/music to signify a new section/chapter of the film, we see this with the introduction of Banksy as it includes a hard hitting hip-hop style of music that is suppose to represent a “street” artist. An example of this is seen when the story focuses on Thierry where the music takes on a more whimsical “French” accordion style theme, suggesting that Thierry’s himself is whimsical by nature. Thierry’s interview is used several times throughout the film as a antithesis of the point that the street art movement is, at it’s core, about art and making a statement about the world. An example of this is when Thierry returns to LA after his version of the documentary and attempts to get into street art himself; stating that “Street art is about brain washing”. However in the following scenes Thierry is portrayed as a whimsical and unawares cameraman, as he drops his paint bucket on the bed of his truck and instead of trying to clean it up, asks the cameraman to come closer and the film the moment, underlying Thierry’s main focus is just getting footage rather than creating art. That scene, when combined with the previous statement about art, provides an underlying message that “Art is not all brainwashing”. Instead,Thierry’s story is about what art is not, rather than defining what art is suppose to be.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Eva Hoch
Student’s email: eva.hoch@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Eva Hoch
Student’s email: eva.hoch@yahoo.com
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I did enjoy Exit Through the Gift Shop, because I do like Banksy and I do want to support local artists. It seems that Mister Brainwasher was using his artwork for commercial gain and that many street artists say it’s about the skill and heart that goes into their work. Although it seems like Banksy is dedicated to his work it is confusing because he does is ironic in saying that he does not feed off of commercial gain. Mister Brainwasher does commercialize himself, but Banksy does as well so it is ironic that he is criticizing him.
Meshes of the Afternoon uses slow motion which I really like because it creates a scene of impending doom when Daren Falls. This film was avant garde because it was rather confusing in how it strayed from the norm in order to allow the audience to be surprised and brought to something new and experimental. This fil is confusing and makes you focus on the actions.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Jeremy Clark
Student’s email: jeremyclark@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Jeremy Clark
Student’s email: jeremyclark@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I’ll address the idea that the movie was a prank, because when the idea was first mentioned I discounted it. After a bit of thought though, I began to see the a bit of validity with that idea. Thierry was able to make millions in sales with no prior experience or publicity and it makes me think of the quote about perceived power equalling real power. Banksy and these other artists spend so much time perfecting their craft, yet Thierry is able to reach incredible success without any of the same work. Perhaps Banksy was making a statement on the public and their perception of art with this film, and knew that the audience would buy into whatever he sold them. Authentic or not.
Personally though, I still believe that Thierry is authentically as crazy as the film makes him out to be. Even in his early days before meeting Banksy, he was crazy, wild and pursued whatever crossed his mind. The zany, fast music and editing in the beginning backs up his antics. Regardless of whether or not this movie is a prank, it provokes thoughts about the public’s view and perception of art.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Stephanie Castillo
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Stephanie Castillo
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
I found Banksy to be quite hypocritical in the way he approached Thierry’s art. He had art exhibits that then sold his art for large amounts of money but then he goes and says that Thierry was the perfect example of commercialism because he had his huge art exhibit. Banksy had a point because it seemed that Thierry was interested more in the fame that came with his exhibit than the process of the whole thing in the first place, but Banksy was essentially doing the same thing but it was only alright for him to do it because he was already established as an artist.
Meshes of the Afternoon was hard to follow in the beginning but as the scenes eventually evolved, they started to make sense. It may be reaching, but I saw the film as her speaking about a person who is trapped in the same monotonous life, and who only finds escape through suicide.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: David Bean
Student’s email: davidbean@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 90%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: David Bean
Student’s email: davidbean@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Neha Khan
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Neha Khan
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
“If you’re doing what everyone else is doing you’re doing it wrong” – says American filmmaker Casey Neistat. Thierry Guetta, encapsulates the essence of this quote well in the film Exit Through The Gift Shop by Banksy. Guetta seemingly was the original director for this documentary as it captures his supposed experiences through chronicling street art and his transformation into a street artist as well. Through editing, music and camerawork the documentary conveys a theme of the frenzy of commercialization. In the beginning of the film Banksy encouraged Guetta, or “Mr. Brainwash” as he would become, to pursue art but Banksy would never imagine what Guetta would become. “Most artists take years to develop their style, Thierry seemed to miss out on all those bits.” says Banksy in one scene as it cuts to other dismayed artists opinions on “Mr. Brainwash” like Shepard Fairey and Steve Lazarides. This editing sequence at the end helps convey the message to the audience that MBW is a hack artist and his main motivation is profit. The music in the film helps create a genuine aesthetic, we see Guetta’s real life transformation from camera man to “artist.” The eerie music as he becomes this “master artisan” creates the uncertainty of Guetta’s actual validity as a street artist. The POV camerawork and angles as Guetta captures street art happening and sit down interviews also helps creates a honest and legitimate feeling to the documentary. As we see the spectators of MBW first art gallery we see the commercialization effect right in front of our eyes. As Fairey states, “It gains real power from perceived power,” Guetta’s hacked art became successful from the hype and backing of famous figures like Banksy even though his art had so substance.
Meshes of the Afternoon by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid was one of the most influential avant-garde or experimental films ever made. It was meant to be confusing and thought-invoking and it definitely befuddled me. The time lapse, solem music and stark image symbolism helped create a mysterious vibe centering around a theme of death. At least that’s what I got out of it.
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 03
Student’s name: Daniell Reeser
Student’s email: daniellreeser@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Daniell Reeser
Student’s email: daniellreeser@csus.edu
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
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Quiz name: Looking at Movies, 4e
Chapter Number: 04
Student’s name: Evan G
Student’s email:
Number of questions: 10
Percent correct: 100%
This is a better late than never post. I missed this class due to a car accident on the way to class. I watched the films and did the quiz before the next class but didn’t do the blog posts because I felt all jumbled up about what I wanted to say.
Meshes in the Afternoon is one of my favorite things I’ve seen ever. I can’t get it out of my head. The setting and the repetition of actions and images were used to great affect.The setting of the sidewalk, and the house, the stairs inside the house and outside..goes along with constant movement. The woman seems to be chasing, going towards, trying to figure out or solve something, and trying to get away. We know something bad may have happened but is it real or a nightmare? Because of it’s non-traditional narrative structure I feel that it is up to interpretation. Reading about the film though, there seems to be more of a straightforward story? than I initially thought. I have many thoughts about this film but have a hard time articulating what I mean and what this film means to me.
Exit Through The Gift Shop I saw a few years ago based on a recommendation from a good artist friend of mine. I really didn’t like this film at all then. I thought it was a mess. Took it at face value and couldn’t stand Thierry. Watching it again for this class made me appreciate it a lot more. It’s a film in my opinion unlike any other film. It’s not something to take at face value. It’s not really a documentary. Or it’s not soley a documentary. The use of narration early on suggests it’s a documentary. The way the story unfolds or the structure of the film is complex. The film is narrated by Rhys Ifans, who is an actor whose work I enjoy. Hearing his voice was the first clue to me that this wasn’t Thierry’s documentary. At some point in the film the shadowy figure, “Banksy” (though I’m not sure it is really him, says it was a movie that Thierry was making about him and other street artists but has become a movie about Thierry himself. Banksy is the filmmaker but what about the film that Thierry put together from some of the tons of footage he used to make his own film. When Banksy saw that mess of the film Thierry made he decided to take the footage and make a film but the film from that footage is not the footage that makes up Exit Through the Gift Shop. There’s a lot that can be said about this film. The way the film is told and the subject matter makes it seem like it could be a joke. The joke is on us as in the larger society, the art, the artists? The fact that Thierry can manufacture himself or Banksy could manufacture him (as Director to Featured Subject) as a legitimate artists brings into question the fickleness of fame in the art world and if street art is farce or true talent or can anyone do it? When I think of it, I think of artistic integrity and whether Banksy made this film so people wouldn’t make a film about him ever or for a long while? It’s a weird film but I think a great film because it has no simple explanation and we can’t tell what is true or not, what is fact or not. If compared the literary idea of unreliable narrator, the entire movie is unreliable.
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Forgot to mention the different visual styles of Exit Through The Gift Shop. At the start of the film the imagery looks to be of low quality. I equated this to video camera technology back then. As the movie goes forward the imagery becomes more pristine. In the segments when it talks to some of the street artists, the camera is set up in traditional interview style for documentary.
The music for Exit.. was immersive and lent itself to the rapidly shifting settings and progression of how Thierry’s story unfolds. The music in the version of Meshes in the Afternoon that I saw on Youtube was from 2011 performed by Birds Eye View. I’m sure the music created for the film in 1959 with Maya Deren’s input would make the film viewing different. I read when Meshes in the Afternoon was released originally in 1943, it had no music. At some point I will watch it again with the sound muted to experience the film on a purely visual level.
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Forgot to mention the different visual styles of Exit Through The Gift Shop. At the start of the film the imagery looks to be of low quality. I equated this to video camera technology back then. As the movie goes forward the imagery becomes more pristine. In the segments when it talks to some of the street artists, the camera is set up in traditional interview style for documentary.
The music for Exit.. was immersive and lent itself to the rapidly shifting settings and progression of how Thierry’s story unfolds. The music in the version of Meshes in the Afternoon that I saw on Youtube was from 2011 performed by Birds Eye View. I’m sure the music created for the film in 1959 with Maya Deren’s input would make the film viewing different. I read when Meshes in the Afternoon was released originally in 1943, it had no music. At some point I will watch it again with the sound muted to experience the film on a purely visual level.
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