Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Where’s That Bug?! Surveillance as Narration
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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 3 page paper uses Thomas Levin’s article, and particularly his reference to the end of “The Conversation,” as a springboard to discuss the way in which surveillance has become narration in a number of recent films. Bibliography lists 1 source.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVthtbug.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
watched. The audience then becomes complicit in this invasion of privacy. This paper considers a remark by Thomas Levin as a prompt to explore the idea of surveillance telling the
story. Discussion In an essay, Thomas Levin made a comment about the classic film The Conversation with Gene Hackman: "Harry will never find the surveillant camera because it resides
in a space that is epistemologically unavailable to him within the diegesis, surveillance has become the condition of the narration itself" (Levin 583). (Perhaps Levin is related to Liu?) At
any rate, this convoluted comment means that Harry wont be able to find the final surveillance device because he doesnt understand it within the framework of the things he is
hearing and seeing. "Epistemology" relates to the study of knowledge and "diegesis" means that the characters can actually hear or see something within the reality of their filmed environment; for
instance, Harry plays the saxophone rather than having saxophone music on the soundtrack; it is real in his environment. Therefore, this comments suggests that Harry lacks to the knowledge to
find this final "bug" because he has no knowledge of the space where it exists; Levin further suggests that the camera itself is the bug, and that Harry cannot find
it unless he steps out of context to consider the way in which the film itself is made (Levin). This is what Levin means by the "condition of the narration
itself"-that it has called attention to itself by suggesting that the bug is the camera. But if we also go along with the conceit that Harry Caul is a real
person, not a character, then he cannot be aware of the camera, because he doesnt know hes in a film. Blurring the lines between reality and cinematic reality is one
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