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Groundhog Day (1993)

When we look at a cinematic work and endeavor to discern if it is “integral” or not, what we are doing is attempting to use the term in an evaluative mode as a kind of typological categorization tool. One of the major ways of typologically mapping the Integral structure of consciousness is as a particular level or altitude on the worldview line of development (the Integral Worldview altitude). For analytical purposes I would like to make a distinction between using the Developmental Lens to analyze a cinematic work’s various lines and levels of development versus using it as typology system to determine the particular altitude or level of development of the cinematic work as a whole “frozen-in-time” expression (artifact) created by an individual or group of continuously evolving artifact creators. This use of the Developmental Lens as a typology tool I am choosing to call the ALTITUDINAL LENS, since the central focus of classification is on the altitude or level of the work.

This is not a simple task, especially when we are working with cinematic artifacts. Firstly, while a cinematic work may be a complete “frozen-in-time” artifact, it is a temporal-based artifact, in that it is a work that has a temporal duration, so it can have its own evolutionary arc with multiple altitudes, within the boundaries of its duration. Secondly, as with all other works of art, a cinematic work has many elements within it that can act as purveyors of various fixed and evolving lines and levels of development (i.e., characters, themes, visual style, etc.).

Another factor in mapping the altitudes within a cinematic work is the various lines of development we want to track. Ken Wilber notes that the major line of development that is embedded in the creation of artifacts, including all cinematic works, is the artifact creator’s worldview, and as stated above, this is the line we are attempting to use when we try to qualify an artifact as being the product of an “Integrally-informed” expression (Kaplan, 2010; Wilber, personal communication, May 7, 2009). The worldview line is a cultural (collective-interior) developmental line that also has correlates in individual-interior (Circle of Care and Concern), individual-exterior (Fields of Spatial-Temporal Perception), and collective-exterior (Techno-Economic Structures) quadratic dimensions. Below is a table of these lines of development, along with the major altitudes or levels of development that are relevant to worldview embedding, correlated with the color spectrum scale (Wilber et al, 2008), which is one of the basic neutral altitudinal scales:

Table 1. Altitudes (Levels) and Lines of Development Associated with the Embedding of Cinematic Altitudinal Structures. Click image to enlarge.

Zones, which we previously explored (in The Zonal Lens Part One & Part Two), are a key factor in the process of how these worldview and other related altitudinal structures from the cinematic creator’s consciousness are embedded into a cinematic work: As we create, we have a 1st Person subjective (inside) intention (conscious and/or unconscious) behind all of our signification pattern choices in all four cinematic expression dimensions of text, image, sound and time;  and as we construct the 3rd Person objective (outside) structures of each of these dimensions of the cinematic work, these intentions become embedded within all these expressive dimensions. This embedding goes well beyond the level of narrative, visual, auditory, and temporal signification processes, transcending and integrating them into the underlying core meaning patterns of the cinematic work as a whole. For example, in the previously discussed film, Bee Season (2005), the expression of all eight zones in all expressive dimensions are rooted in an underlying construct-forming meaning pattern that holds that there are multiple dimension-perspectives of varying depth and span. This construct-forming meaning pattern is a reflection of an aperspectival field of perception, which is associated with an Integral Worldview or structure of consciousness (see Table 1 above), and its presence in this work suggests that one or more of the creators of this work was operating out of this particular worldview.

In addition to the underlying construct-forming meaning patterns, we can also narrow in on a particular embedding pattern and see how it plays out in the cinematic work. For example, the Circle of Care and Concern line of development can be clearly detected in individual character and character relationship development, as in the film Groundhog Day (1993), where the main character evolves vertically from egocentric to Kosmocentric altitudes or levels of development, along with their other corresponding worldview-related structures. Altitudinal embedding can also be detected in the set and setting of a cinematic work. For example, in the film Avatar (2009), the filmmaker depicts a powerful clashing between Magical (Tribal Alien), Mythic (Military), and Rational (Scientific) cultures and their related techno-economic structures, set within the context of the application of an Integral Worldview-related human-to-avatar convergence technology, along with an underlying Pluralistic Worldcentric theme of “Nature is precious, and we are profoundly interconnected with it.”

Avatar (2009)

This brings us to the expressive element of theme, which is a vital area where worldview and related altitudinal structure embedding can be clearly observed. Theme, as I am defining it here, is an overarching and underlying core meaning pattern that not is not only construct-forming, but also carries a value statement which acts as an embedded lesson statement within a cinematic work. Examples of worldview-related thematic statements, in addition to the above specific example from Avatar, include vengeance/vendetta-based stories with the Mythic Worldview-related theme of an “eye-for-an-eye;” evidence-based mysteries with the Rational Worldview-related theme of “reason can surmount any obstacle;” relational-based explorations with the Pluralistic-related theme of “truth and reality are in the eyes of the beholder;” and in evolutionary-based narratives with the Integral-related theme of “life is always evolving to deeper and more expansive levels of being and becoming.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Notes

1—These worldview Structure altitudes are part of the worldview line of development in the Lower Left Cultural Quadrant; adapted from Gebser (1986) and Wilber et al (2008). Note: The Transpersonal Altitudes (Indigo through Clear Light) are also referred to as the Super-Integral Altitudes.

2—The altitudes of Circle of Care and Concern are part of the moral line of development in the Upper Left Experiential Quadrant and are correlated to worldview structures in various sources, including Wilber et al (2008) and Esbjörn-Hargens (2009).

3—The Field of Spatial-Temporal Perception line of development is adapted from Gebser (1986). It appears that Gebser viewed these structures as individual-exterior dimensions of our being (i.e., how we physically perceive space and time) that were directly related to the worldview structures of consciousness. These may be correlated to higher brain functions/structures in the Upper Right Physical Quadrant (Wilber, 1995). In Table 1: Pre-Perspectival refers to the inability to be aware of or conscious of perception itself; Uni-Perspectival (1D) refers to the perception of only 1 Dimension of space or 1-Point Perspective; Bi-Perspectival (2D) refers to 2 Dimensional perception or 2-Point Perspective; Perspectival refers to 3 Dimensional or 3-Point Perspective; Multi-Perspectival (4D) refers to the 3 dimensions of space combined with the added fourth dimension of the relative nature of time, producing the perception of various perspectives relative to subjective perception within the constantly changing field of time plus space; Aperspectival (5D) adds the 5th dimension of the perception of the various perspectives and of perspective-taking itself; and Trans-Perspectival refers to the transcendence of all perspectival fields.

4—The Techno-Economic Structures is a line of development in the Lower Right Social-Systemic Quadrant and are often correlated to worldview structures by Wilber in various works. The higher altitudes of Convergence and Trans-Tech (Trans-Human) are currently emerging structures and these labels have been used by various sources but have yet to become fixed and agreed upon cultural constructs. However, the structures these terms refer to are commonly perceived to be part of these emergent altitudes (Kaplan, 2010; Wilber, personal communication, May 7, 2009; July 20, 2010).

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Figure 1. Bee Season (2005) and the Cinematic Expression of Inside (Signification) Patterns that Reveal the Main Characters' Mystical Relationship to Letters and Words.

In the previous post (The Zonal Lens – Part One) I mapped out a preliminary matrix for applying the Zonal Lens to cinematic expression that included 8 major zones along with 4 subzones for each of zone; 2 major zones (inside/outside) for each dimension of cinematic expression (Text, Image, Sound, Time), each with the 4 subzones of subjective, intersubjective, objective, and interobjective expressive forms. In addition to this basic Zonal Lens array, we could unpack each zone and subzone even further into an almost endless well of zonal patterns within patterns. While on the surface this zonal array may appear to be incredibly complex, I believe that once we have the central zonal patterns down they become easier to perceive and apply. So instead of listing more and more layers of zonal patterns or going deeper into theory at this point, I would like to give an example of the central zonal patterns of this basic preliminary matrix in relation to a particular film.

The film I have chosen to explore here is Bee Season (2005), a cinematic work that masterfully uses all of the zones and subzones by giving equal weight to the inside and outside of all four cinematic dimensions of text, image, sound, and time, along with their corresponding subjective, intersubjective, objective, and interobjective sub-dimensions. On the level of the text of this subtle and beautiful little film, the inside (subtextual/meaning level) dimensions of character, character relations, story events, and story structures are given equal and/or greater weight in relation to the outside or surface (textual/structural level) dimensions of the characters and the story; from fragmented memories that cloud the subjective perceptions of characters, to the communal relational effects of unconscious shifts in parental love and attention, to hidden meanings of objects and events, to deep systemic undercurrents pulling the characters through time and space.

Figure 2. Bee Season (2005) and the Textual, Visual and Auditory Signification (Inside/Meaning) Patterns that Reveal the Communal Effects of Unconscious Shifts in Parental Love and Attention.

SPOILER ALERT: For those who have not yet seen the film Bee Season but intend to do so, the following discussion includes details of the film that could spoil your first-time viewing experience. 

To give a sense of how these textual and subtextual (character/story structure and meaning) patterns of the text dimension of cinematic expression play out in Bee Season, from the Zonal Lens perspective, I have put together some of the expressive text elements and their zonal placements to give an example of what we are talking about here (Note: As previously mapped out, the Text has the two major zones of textual (Zone 2: Outside/structure) and subtextual (Zone 1: Inside/meaning); and each of these zones has four subzones – A) subjective, B) intersubjective, C) objective, D) interobjective – producing eight (8) basic layers of text which are indicated below by the major zone number followed by the subzone capital letter; for reference see the Zonal Lens Matrix in the previous post):

Figure 3. Bee Season (2005) and Inside/Signification Patterns of the Mother’s Relationship with her Daughter and her Own Traumatic Childhood Memories Revealed through the Juxtaposition of the Temporal Cinematic Structures (Outside) of Past and Present

• Character = A young girl, Eliza, has a gift for spelling (Zone 2A – Subjective Textual Structure);
• Character Subtext = Eliza’s gift for spelling has mystical underpinnings and her relationship with letters and words becomes a vehicle for her enlightenment and the healing of her family (Zone 1A – Subjective Textual Signification);
• Character Interactions = Eliza’s Interactions with her mother Miriam and her Father Saul (Zone 2B – Intersubjective Textual Structure);
• Relational Subtext = Eliza’s awakening to her gift unleashes her mother’s repressed childhood memories and induces a shift in her father’s obsessive attention away from her brother Aaron and onto herself (Zone 1B – Intersubjective Textual Signification);
• Story Event = Eliza and her brother visit their father at the University and watch him give a lecture on Jewish mysticism (Zone 2C – Objective Textual Structure);
• Story Event Subtext = We are introduced to the Kabbalistic concept of Tikkun Olam, the process of healing the world by putting back together the shattered fragments of Divine light (and love) that are hidden in all aspects of creation. This concept then becomes the subtextual story event pattern for the entire film – from events filled with shattered characters and relationships and fragmented memories and perceptions, to the images and sounds of shattered glass, fragmented reflections, scattered light, and disjointed flashbacks that permeate these events (Zone 1C – Objective Textual Signification);
• Story Structure = The Spelling Bee Season – from the local to the national level (Zone 2D – Interobjective Textual Structure);
• Story Subtext = The series of spelling bees becomes the incremental catalytic process for Eliza’s Awakening to her gift and for the families deconstruction, leading to the families ultimate healing and transformation (Zone 1D – Interobjective Textual Signification). 

Building on the above multi-zone textual expression patterns, the creators of Bee Season increase the depth and span of their work by extending these patterns into the visual, auditory, and temporal structures (see above Story Event Subtext section for examples). The foundational zonal pattern we are dealing with here is this duality of inside (signification/meaning) and outside (structure), and how this duality plays out in various other dimensions (text, image, sound, and time; subjective, intersubjective, objective, and interobjective).

In Bee Season we can see this duality pattern being expressed in the images and sounds that are used around letters and words (outside/structure), which become powerful cinematic forces (inside/signification patterns) playing on the main character Eliza that reveal the mystical and spiritual dimensions of the her gift with spelling (see Figure 1). We also see this duality of structure and meaning in the visual and auditory elements used to capture the interactions of the characters. In Figure 2 we see a simple medium shot of the mother, father, and brother of Eliza (outside/structure) that uses the visual and auditory orientation and directional elements of the characters and their interactions (body orientation; direction of attention/avoidance; etc.) to give us a felt sense of the subtle communal effects of unconscious shifts in parental love and attention (inside/signification).

Figure 4. Bee Season (2005) and the Healing of the Mother-Daughter Relationship Expressed Across and Through Text, Image, Sound and Time

In the temporal dimension, this duality of meaning and structure can be seen in the interplay between the mother’s everyday temporal reality and her inner fragmented-memory flashback reality. The juxtaposition of these two temporal structures (outside), present and past, reveal hidden (inside/signification) meaning patterns that connect these two dimensions; including the mother’s mentally destabilizing yet beautifully poetic effort to put together fragmented elements of her present reality to replace and push back the shattered fragments of her repressed memories (see Figure 3).

The use of musical expressive elements (outside/structure) as an emotional signifier (inside) is profoundly present in this film as well. As the young girl, Eliza, finds and uses her gifts as a speller and a letter-word mystic, her mother’s repressed childhood memories surface and her inner and outer life begin to fall apart, starting with the gift of a Kaleidoscope passed down from Mother to Daughter (see Figure 3). Mother and daughter have very similar musical themes that arise as we glimpse their inner realities which make us feel the inner connection between them; at the same time, the mother’s theme musically expresses a world falling apart, while the daughter’s theme expresses the coming together of these same musical and inner forces. In the end, the musical theme’s merge and the daughter’s theme takes on new dimensions and spreads to the whole family, producing a deep and profound sense of healing and wholeness when this musical expression is combined with the other textual, visual, auditory, and temporal expressive patterns of the final sequence (see Figure 4).

As Bee Season beautifully illustrates, when all of these zonal dimensions combine in a concerted expressive effort, a very subtle and deep level of expression and immersion can be achieved. While all the basic integrally-informed lenses of cinematic expression and perception offer cinematic artists the capacity to create more immerse works, the more advanced Zonal Lens could potentially offer them the tools to express and capture even more profound and subtle dimensions of being and becoming. For us as audience members, I have found that developing an understanding of these Zonal Lens patterns and attempting to observe them in cinematic works can become a profound and meaningful meditation practice in and of itself, helping us to become more present to these dimensions in our own lives.

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Bee Season (2005) and the Zones of Cinematic Expression

Having previously explored the basic integrally-informed cinematic lenses of perception and expression (the HOLONIC, QUADRATIC, DEVELOPMENTAL, STATES, and TYPOLOGY Lenses), we are now ready to delve into the more advanced integrally-informed cinematic lenses, starting here with the ZONAL LENS.

The Zonal Lens aids us in applying eight (8) indigenous human perspectives (zones) and their corresponding methodologies for gaining verifiable and reproducible knowledge to the realm of perceivable realities (See Figure 1).

Figure 1 (click to enlarge)

Figure 2 (click to enlarge)

One way of applying the Zonal Lens to the cinema is to start with the basic four-quadrants of Constructed Cinematic Reality previously discussed: TEXT (story, character, premise, theme, etc.), IMAGE, SOUND, and TIME (temporal structures, accumulated patterns of expression, etc.). From here we can then open up each of these four basic cinematic dimensions to their inside (subjective/process) and outside (objective/structure) dimensions, which correlate to their internal intentional and meaning-making (signification) level and their external observable/perceivable level. This translates into eight zones of Constructed Cinematic Reality: (1) Textual Signification Patterns (Inside); (2) Textual Structures (Outside); (3) Auditory Signification Patterns (Inside); (4) Auditory Structures (Outside); (5) Visual Signification Patterns (Inside); (6) Visual Structures (Outside); (7) Temporal Signification Patterns (Inside); and (8) Temporal Structures (Outside) (See Figure 2).

Figure 3 (click to enlarge)

We can equally unpack the dimensions of image, sound and time into these same types of sub-dimensions as well, producing a matrix of the zones and subzones of Constructed Cinematic Reality and Cinematic Expression (See Chart Below).

Bee Season (2005) and the Masterful Use of an All-Zone Cinematic Expression Approach

In future installments of Integral Cinema Studio we will continue to explore these zones in more detail. This continued exploration will include a Zonal analysis of the film Bee Season (2005), which is a wonderful example of the full creative use of all these cinematic zones and subzones because this cinematic work masterfully gives equal weight to the inside and outside of all four cinematic dimensions of text, image, sound, and time, along with their corresponding subjective, intersubjective, objective, and interobjective sub-dimensions.

To be continued....

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Source Code (2011) and the Marriage of Masculine and Feminine Cinematic Typologies

Having previously explored the HOLONIC LENS, the QUADRATIC LENS, the DEVELOPMENTAL LENS , and the STATES LENS, this time we will explore the TYPOLOGY LENS.

In the cinematic arts there are also various specific cinema-related typologies including:

• Character (protagonist, antagonist, etc.) and story types (arch-plot, mini-plot, anti-plot, etc.);

• Genre (action, drama, comedy, horror, etc.) and style types (Expressionism, Neorealism, Film Noir, etc.);

• Screen format (widescreen, full screen, IMAX, etc.) and media format types (35mm film, 70mm film, digital video, etc.);

• Media platform (theatrical, television, DVD, web, gaming, mobile, etc.) and media audience/market types (general, independent, foreign, etc.).

Through the integrally-informed Typology Lens we can classify these cinematic typologies by quadrant and get a better sense of how these typologies work and relate to each other, the cinematic medium as a whole, and other typology systems beyond the cinema (see chart below).

In addition to typologies that are specific to the cinematic arts, cinematic works by their very nature also include human/world typologies since to some degree they attempt to represent the human world. Believable screen characters embody real-life human personality, gender and body types; in order for their interactions to be perceived as convincing they must communicate and relate to each other through reflections of real human/world communication and cultural typologies; and for their constructed cinematic reality to be experienced as credible, it must emulate real world atmospheric, environmental and social system types, either directly or in stylized forms.

A third form of typologies also appears in cinematic works. These are what I call cross-over typologies; typologies that bridge the realms of cinematic and real world typologies. The most common of these typologies is that of the masculine and feminine gender types. Besides masculine and feminine typologies appearing in screen characters, there are also masculine- and feminine-oriented narrative, visual, and auditory structures and patterns in a cinematic work that resonate between the screen and the audience. The most universally recognized form of this cross-over typology is that of masculine- and feminine-oriented narrative structures. Masculine-oriented narratives are more event- and action- (agency) driven stories; and feminine-oriented narratives are more character- and relationship- (communion) driven stories. When we say, that movie was a “chick flick” or that was a guys movie, we are commonly referring to these different narrative structure types. This distinction is not as simple as it appears since men and women tend to have both masculine and feminine traits within them to varying degrees; so some men can have a higher degree of feminine traits and some women can have a higher degree of masculine traits. In general, most viewers tend to lean toward one form of cinematic storytelling over the other, and are less interested in and become less immersed in the opposite form, depending on their masculine/feminine trait tendencies and preferences, and not their actual biological gender. The reason why one of the common factors of very successful cinematic works is a balance of event- and character-driven narratives is that they appeal to both masculine- and feminine-oriented audiences.

Groundhog Day (1993) and the Climactic Union of Event- and Character-Driven Storylines.

An interesting example of this form of masculine and feminine narrative typology balancing can be found in three integrally-informed cinematic works that masterfully integrate the event- and character-driven narrative structures into a synthesized form: Groundhog Day (1993), The Adjustment Bureau (2011), and Source Code (2011). In each of these films, the attraction and burgeoning love of the main characters both drive and are driven by events seemingly outside of their control; yet as these cinematic stories progress we get the sense that the force of love itself is conspiring to catalyze the character’s evolutionary development to deeper and more expansive levels of being and becoming. This merging of event- and character-driven narrative elements makes for a more immersive experience for a broader range of viewers, while also creating a strong felt-sense experience of the union of the masculine and feminine which is at the heart of these love stories. With the addition of masculine- and feminine-oriented visual and auditory structures like those found in Source Code (2011), this immersive and felt-sense experience is heightened even further (see above image).

The Adjustment Bureau (2011) and the Climactic Kosmic Kiss that Transforms the Characters and the Events Around Them.

These three films also represent what I believe to be a distinct form of integrally-informed love story that I am calling the Kosmic Love Story, which would technically be a sub-genre of the Love Story genre type. I use this term because all three of these films are evolutionary journeys that take their characters from egocentric to Kosmocentric levels of being through the vehicle of Kosmically-influenced events, along with the power and force of a romantic love that ultimately transcends the love of an individual “other” and blossoms into a love of all-that-is, or a Kosmic Love.

Like all the other integrally-informed cinematic lenses of perception and expression, the Typology Lens offers the cinematic artist valuable tools for the creation of more resonant and immersive cinematic works. Additionally, an integrally-informed approach to cinematic typologies has the potential to help theorists and critics more succinctly organize the often unwieldy and complex web of cinema-related typologies and more clearly apply them to cinematic theory, history, and criticism. The Typology Lens also offers cinematic creators, theorists, critics, and audience members a way of more fully understanding how we perceive, experience, understand, and communicate about the cinematic arts.

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Integral Theory has several perspective-taking frameworks or lenses of perception through which we can perceive, experience, and integrate the multiple dimensions of existence. In this series of articles I will be exploring applying these various Integral lenses to the creation and viewing of cinematic media, which I am defining as any media that uses moving (kinetic) images as a means of expression.

Having previously explored the HOLONIC LENS, the QUADRATIC LENS, and the DEVELOPMENTAL LENS , this time we will explore the STATES LENS.

In addition to developmental Lines and Levels, each quadrant also contains STATES, transient shifts in various inner and outer dimensions including experiential states (e.g., psychological, emotional), physical states (e.g., biological, behavioral), relational states (e.g., cultural, communication), and social and environmental system states (e.g., weather, economic).

In a cinematic work, at the most basic level, these various human reality states can be captured and replicated to some degree through text, image, and sound. For example, we can visually and auditorily capture a storm (a weather state), and add the text/story of a person trying to get out of its way, including how this person is reacting (i.e., a fearful emotional state).

A closer look at this process through the States Lens reveals that a cinematic work can have various TEXTUAL STATES, including character emotional states (joy, sadness, etc.), character relationship states (attraction, aversion, etc.), and narrative event states (suspense, ambiguity, etc.). There are also VISUAL STATES (visual contrast or affinity, static imagery, frenetic movement, etc.); AUDITORY STATES (harmony, dissonance, silence, etc.); and TEMPORAL STATES (linear time, nonlinear time, flashbacks, etc.).

These four general categories of states correlate to the four quadrants when we look at a cinematic work from the perspective of its Constructed Cinematic Reality, or the level at which we are immersed in its projected world. From this perspective, we tend to perceive the image as the primary objective dimension. The text tends to be perceived as the invisible interior (subjective) dimension that animates and emanates from this observable visual world, giving it its meaning, purpose, value, and emotional context. The dimension of sound is primarily experienced as an invisible force that extends the invisible interior emotional and meaning dimension of text beyond the screen and into our subjective experiential field, establishing a shared intersubjective relationship between our interior and the interior dimensions of the Constructed Cinematic Reality. The dimension of time is generally experienced as the observable systemic (interobjective) unfolding of the Constructed Cinematic Reality (Kaplan, 2010).

When these four realms of cinematic reality states are combined in a skillful way by the cinematic artist, their coordinated expression can replicate the multidimensional sensory stimulation of actual lived-experience, and in so doing heighten and transform the cinematic experience into a deeply immersive state-inducing experience for the viewer. This process is what Russian film theorist Sergei Eisenstein referred to as the synchronization of the senses (For more on this see my 2010 JITP article Toward an Integral Cinema).

	The Fountain (2006) and the Synchronization of Textual, Visual, Auditory, and Temporal Cinematic States.

A recent example of this cinematic-reality-state sensory-synchronization process can be seen in the feature film The Fountain (2006), in which the main character is transported into a profound other-worldly state experience that is supported by corresponding visual, auditory, and temporal cinematic state structures, giving the audience a multi-dimensional felt-sense of the character’s inner-state journey.

The States Lens is one of the most important Lenses, in that it is the gateway to understanding and mastering the immersive potential of the cinema. In and of themselves, individual cinematic states and their combination into Sensory Synchronization States have the capacity for powerful audience state induction; when masterfully combined with the other Lenses of cinematic perception and expression, they have the potential to powerfully effect individual and collective perception and behavior for both higher and lower purposes, from commercial and political propaganda to the catalyzing of shifts in stages of human development and the evolution of both individual and collective consciousness.

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Having previously explored the HOLONIC LENS and the QUADRATIC LENS, this time we will explore what I am calling the DEVELOPMENTAL LENS. The Developmental lens includes two separate yet intimately connected perceptual lenses: LINES and LEVELS of development.

Lines and Levels of Development in All Four Quadrants

If we look closely through the Quadratic Lens we see that within each quadrant, there are various lines of development (i.e.: emotional, cognitive, moral lines of individual-interior development; cultural values development in the collective-interior; skeletal-muscular growth in the individual-exterior; ecosystem growth in the collective-exterior; etc.). We also see that each of these lines evolves through various levels or stages of development (i.e.: egocentric to worldcentric levels of subjective care and concern; mythic to rational to pluralistic cultural worldview stages; stages of organic brain development; industrial to informational technology system stages; etc.)

In the cinema there are several areas where we find Lines and Levels of Development, including  the various character and narrative plot lines that develop and evolve through the levels of set-up, conflict, climax, and resolution in classic cinematic structure. For example, in The Matrix Trilogy (1999-2003), numerous inner and outer character, relationship, story-event, and social/environmental/systemic developmental lines evolve in parallel through the films various levels of character and narrative development.

Character-Relationship Development in The Matrix Trilogy (1999-2003)

 
Below are a just a few of The Matrix Trilogy’s various lines of development in each of the quadrants.

Examples of The Matrix's Various Lines of Character and Narrative Development by Quadrant

In addition to lines of character and narrative development, there are also numerous audio and visual lines of expressive element development that also evolve through the same stages or levels of development, as well as often having their own parallel levels. An example of the creative use of parallel and intertwined audio, visual, character, and narrative development can be seen in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), where characters who enter the Imaginarium are transported into an abstract imaginary world that reflects their own self, culture, and world in narrative, visual and auditory form; and then this audio, visual, and narrative imaginary world proceeds to help them evolve to the next level of their development.

	The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

The stages or levels of development of a cinematic work can also vary greatly from work to work, from a simple beginning, middle and end structure, to numerous levels or acts. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a good example of the use of numerous levels or acts, based not on classic narrative structure, but rather stages based on the inner development of all its main character’s. 

There are also two major types of development: Vertical and horizontal development. Vertical development is development that moves through complete stages or levels of development, whereas horizontal development occurs within a specific stage or level. For example, in a simple love story, a character can develop vertically from egocentric to ethnocentric or from being self-centered to We-centered; or a character can also develop horizontally from dysfunctional to functional (or from lack of ability to competency, etc.) within a level like ethnocentric or from being We-centered but blocked by a fear of intimacy to overcoming their fears and being able to fully love. 

Bringing us back to the Holonic Lens, we are reminded that development evolves holonically in that each level or stage of development is a whole that is transcended by and included as a part of the next level or stage. The beginning of a story is a whole that is transcended by and included in the middle, and the middle is a whole that is transcended by and included in the ending.

Since the Developmental Lens holonically incorporates Lines and Levels of Development with the Quadrants, this lens can also be a powerful synthesizing tool for Cinematic Artist. Poor use of the Developmental Lens can lead to cinematic works with major developmental holes or incomplete or obscure character, relationship, story, and visual or auditory thematic expressions, which in turn reduces viewer involvement and immersion in the work. Conversely, skilled and masterful use of the Developmental Lens can produce cinematic journeys that take us progressively to deeper and more expansive immersive experiential realms, and potentially model for the viewer the possibility of their own developmental evolutionary capacity.

Integral Theory has several perspective-taking frameworks or lenses of perception through which we can observe, experience, and integrate the multiple dimensions of existence. In this series of articles I will be exploring applying these various Integral lenses to the creation and viewing of cinematic media, which I am defining as any media that uses moving (kinetic) images as a means of expression.

The first Integral lens we explored was the HOLONIC LENS. This time we explore the QUADRATIC LENS. This lens helps us look upon everything we perceive as being made up of four distinct yet equal and interrelated essential dimensions of perceptual reality. These dimension-perspectives can be labeled in various ways to represent the form of existence we are looking at.

For example, when looking at ourselves and any other sentient being (sentient holon) through the quadratic lens, we can see that we have four essential dimensions or QUADRANTS of existence:  Experiential/intentional, physiological/behavioral, relational/cultural, and environmental/social.

The experiential/intentional aspect of our being is our individual-interior subjective dimension which includes our thoughts and emotions. The physiological/behavioral aspect of our being is our individual-exterior objective dimension that includes our physical reality and our physical actions and behavior patterns. When two or more of us get together, we experience a collective-interior intersubjective dimension of shared and/or conflicting relational and cultural ways of being and perceiving. We also co-exist within a greater field of social and environmental systems which is the collective-exterior interobjective dimension of our existence. These four dimensions are reflected through our languages in the form of first-person (I or me), second-person (you and I or WE), third-person (IT), and third-person plural (ITS) linguistic patterns.

The Quadrants or Quadratic Dimensions of our Being in the World

As sentient beings with these four quadrants or dimensions of existence, we also tend to project these dimensions as perspectives or lenses through which we view the world. As we move through the world we naturally shift between these four lenses of perception, alternately focusing on our inner thoughts and feelings, on our interactions with others, on physical actions and behavior patterns, and on our environment.

When we use the quadratic lens to look at sentient aspects of existence we are able to see all these quadrants or dimensions of sentient reality, and when we use the quadratic lens to look through the quadrants at non-sentient aspects of existence we create a quadratic vision that gives us a more comprehensive perspective on our inner and outer individual and collective realities. Together, the dimension-perspectives of looking at and looking through the quadrants  make up what I am calling the quadratic lens.

Using the quadratic lens in the cinematic arts, we can see that screen characters, as recreations of sentient beings, should have all four quadrants or dimensions of being (psychological, behavioral, relational, and environmental) for them to be perceived as realistic and believable. While the term “three-dimensional characters” is often used to refer to realistic and believable onscreen characterizations, if we look closely at the various character and acting theories and practices, such as those of master theorist Constantine Stanislavski (1989), we discover that what we are really talking about are “four-dimensional characters” that fully embody the four-dimensions of psychological, behavioral, relational, and environmental existence.  

These four-dimensional (quadratic) characters live and move within a cinematic world, interacting with other sentient character-beings and non-sentient forms (tables, chairs, rooms, cars, etc.), and cinematic artists naturally attempt to visually capture this moving reality through a cinematic “shot coverage” quadratic lens consisting of: A character close-up or POV shot (subjective lens), a medium-shot or two-shot focusing on character interactions (intersubjective lens), a close-up or insert of physical objects and actions (objective lens), and a master- or wide-shot of the whole process and environment surrounding the situation/event (interobjective lens).

	The Cinematic Shot Coverage Quadradic Lens

Each kind of shot is often correlated with the actual camera lenses’ focal length used to capture each type of shot (wide angle lens for the wide shot; normal lens for the medium shot; telephoto, close-up, and/or macro lenses for close-up shots). A cinematic artist can also play with this configuration to create various dramatic and visual effect; for example, a telephoto lens can be used for a wide shot by placing the camera far away from the subject, thereby flattening the space within the frame and creating a wide shot with limited depth. Sometimes two or more perceptual lenses can be combined in one cinematic shot. The classic example of this is the zoom, going from close-up to wide-shot or vice-versa.

These four categories of shots or visual framings, when used separately or in combination,  represent one way in which the four different lenses of perception that make of the quadratic lens are expressed through the visual field of a cinematic work. Additional modes of visual expression that can and are often used to express these various lenses of perception include the expressive use of visual effects, visual archetypes and symbols, and the basic visual elements within the frame, such as light, tone, color, space, shapes, movement, and rhythm. The four perspectives of the quadratic lens are also expressed through a cinematic work’s text (themes, characters, story, and setting) and sound (music, dialogue, sound effects, and background sounds).

Ideally, the shot coverage quadratic lens, along with the other corresponding visual, auditory, and textual lenses, are used in unison by cinematic artists to create an evolving pattern of perception for the audience to look through and into the cinematic reality, much like how we normally perceive our everyday world through one of our natural four perceptual lenses in any given moment. In this way the cinematic artist attempts to create an ebb and flow of perspectival fields that resonates with our natural way of perceiving in a cinematic work’s text, images, and sounds as they unfold through time – a location or setting is established, such as a large open field in the middle of the country on a sunny clear afternoon, we hear birds singing, and in the distance we see two characters standing and facing each other (interobjective lens); our attention is drawn to the space and dialogue between these two characters (intersubjective lens); then we move in close to one of the characters to see and hear how they are reacting (subjective lens); and then our attention is drawn to one of the characters’ hands holding something behind their back (objective lens).

One of the challenges of creating involving and immersive cinematic works is for the cinematic artist to match the natural alternating flow between these inherent shifts in our focus of attention. The cinematic artist can also establish a new pattern of attention shifting or playing against the natural shift for a desired effect as well. Many cinematic artists try to cover every scene from all four dimension-perspectives, giving them the capacity to play with these alternate perceptual patterns in the editing room.

When a cinematic work achieves a natural or well-designed shifting of dimension-perspectives synchronized across text, image, and sound, the viewer becomes more immersed in the unfolding cinematic reality. This evolving synchronization of the quadratic lens with the text, image, and sound of a cinematic work can also be made richer and more complex through the use of various advanced narrative, visual, and auditory techniques to more fully express and integrate the internal (subjective and intersubjective) and external (objective and interobjective) dimension-perspectives.

The Fountain (2006) and the Concretion of the Subjective Lens.

For example, in addition to using character close-ups and POV (Point-Of-View) shots and various other visual, auditory, and textual subjective approaches, the subjective lens can be made more concrete by using visual and audio effects like those used in the above shot from The Fountain (2006), in which we are given a concrete or externalized audiovisual expression of the character’s transformational subjective internal experience.

I Heart Huckabees (2004) and the Concretion of the Intersubjective Lens

Intersubjective realities can also be given concrete cinematic expression in this same way, as in the above shot from I Heart Huckabees (2004) in which the intersubjective internal WE-space between the two characters is given concrete and externalized expression as fragments of each character’s beingness floats between them.

Groundhog Day (1993) and the Integration of Subjective and Objective Realities

In the realm of integrating internal and external realities, relationships between character’s internal realities and the external realities around them can be established and used for dramatic effect by integrating various internal (subjective and intersubjective) and external (objective and interobjective) textual, visual, and auditory lenses of perception. For example, the classic intersubjective two-shot structure can be used cross-dimensionally by placing a character or characters on one side of the frame and an object form on the other side of the frame, as in the shot above from Groundhog Day (1993), in which a two-shot between Phil, the main character, and his bedside clock, emotionally amplifies the relationship between him and the temporal external reality loop he finds himself caught in.

The Matrix (1999) and the Integration of Subjective and Interobjective Realities

This cinematic integration of internal and external dimension-perspectives can also be used to heighten dramatic moments and bridge the gap between a character or characters and their greater environment or interobjective reality. For example, in the shot above from The Matrix (1999), Neo, the main character, wakes up from the matrix and rises up out of the pod that has been his body’s prison, and a cinematic shift from internal to external dimension-perspectives heightens the realization of the depth of his situation as Neo and we, the audience, suddenly witness the endless field of pods in his surrounding interobjective environment.

These advanced techniques for the integration of the internal and external dimension-perspectives of the quadratic lens can be found in many cinematic works, but are especially dominant in integrally-informed cinematic works such as those used in the above examples. The extensive usage of these advanced integration approaches in integrally-informed cinematic works also appears to be part of what may be a highly developed capacity among integral cinematic artists to use the quadratic lens in a more balanced, integrated, and masterful way.

In essence, the quadratic lens in the cinematic arts acts as a perceptual bridge or gateway between the quadratic dimensional-perspectival realities of the cinematic artist, the cinematic work, and the viewer. A poor use of this lens produces a mismatch and dissonance between the cinematic works’ and the viewer’s perceptual field, reducing viewer attention, involvement, and immersion in the cinematic work. Skilled use of this lens can create a seamless, powerful, and more immersive cinematic experience. Masterful use of this lens can assist the cinematic artist in more fully expressing their vision, while opening the viewer to more subtle and profound dimensions of a cinematic work, and potentially stimulating new and transformative ways of perceiving themselves and the world around them.

	The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and Neo’s Multiple Existences’ Discovery

The first Integral lens I will explore is the HOLONIC lens. This lens helps us look upon everything we perceive as a HOLON; a whole that is part of another whole. Holons are the essential building blocks of our reality. A whole atom is part of a whole molecule, which is part of a whole cell, which is part of a whole organism.

In the cinematic arts, a whole frame is part of a whole shot, which is part of a whole scene, which is part of a whole scene sequence.

In the cinema, compelling stories, well-developed characters, and potent visual and auditory journeys need to evolve holonically. Like an unbroken chain, every word, action, event, image, and sound must rise out of what has come before it, simultaneously birthing something new while holding traces of all that has preceded it. In addition, this holonic chain must extend beyond the confines of the cinematic work; characters, story events, and audiovisual thematic patterns must have roots in the unseen world before the first onscreen image appears and must have a sense of potential resonance extending beyond the final frame.

While most audience members are not consciously aware of this holonic process, the viewer naturally senses when there is something missing in this developmental structure: We consciously or unconsciously notice when a character does or says something that seems “out-of-character;” or when a story event seems to come out of nowhere; or an image or a sound seems out of place. These holonic breaks always “take us out of” the cinematic experience and reduce the level of immersion by some degree.

	Psycho (1960) Shower Scene Shot Stream

By using the holonic lens, cinematic artists can shape richer, deeper, and more immersive cinematic visions, by more accurately and completely creating holonic evolutionary cinematic structures within the text, image, and sound streams of a cinematic work. When used in a masterful way, holonic cinematic structuring can produce great cinematic experiences, from Hitchcock’s classic shock-and-horror-inducing shower scene in Psycho (1960) to the profound ah-ha moment in The Sixth Sense (1999) when the final piece of the story puzzle gives the film an entire new meaning. In the case of Psycho, Hitchcock used numerous shot fragments, wholes unto themselves, each one strung together to transcend and include the previous ones, to build a whole experience that transcends the pieces themselves.

The Sixth Sense (1999) and Mystery of the Hidden Story Stream

In The Sixth Sense the entire film is essentially two complete holonic streams, one on the surface that takes us through the entire film holding a certain perspective; then in the final scenes, a missing or hidden whole/piece (holon) of information is given us, and suddenly we see a whole new dimension of the story we had not seen before, and a whole other holonic story stream flashes before our minds in an instant. When viewed a second time, we can see that this other dimension or holonic story stream was always there. Here the filmmaker, M. Night Shyamalan, uses the missing or hidden holon in a positive and masterful way to create a profound surprise moment at the end of the film.

	The Matrix (1999) and Taking the Red Pill

As The Sixth Sense demonstrates, the revelation of missing cinematic holons is an essential device in the creation of multi-dimensional cinematic storytelling, which appears to be on the rise with integrally-informed cinematic works like The Matrix Trilogy (1999-2003) and integrally-informed television series like Lost (2004-2010). In these and other Integral cinematic works we find stories that have multiple complex layers that are revealed one by one, increasing both the depth and span of the cinematic work as it unfolds. In The Matrix Trilogy, these layered revelations range from Neo taking of the red pill and discovering his world is a computer program to his discovery that he has taken the same quest many times before.

Lost TV Series (2004-2010) Final Episode

In the TV series Lost, layer upon layer of realities are peeled away through its six seasons, culminating with the final revelation that we have been on a journey through the bardos between life and death itself. This type of multi-dimensional cinematic structuring, created by multiple layered chains or streams of information, character, and story building holons progressively revealed by the emergence of purposely hidden holons, can produce both a highly immersive and repeatable viewing experience.

In addition to information, character, and story building holons, and missing or hidden holons, those employed for a useful purpose or those that create holes or gaps in the cinematic experience, there are also question and answer building holons which are essential to cinematic narrative and audiovisual expression. The question can be as simple as will the character survive a certain challenge and the answer as simple as a yes or no. Usually the question must be answered by the end of the scene, sequence or complete cinematic work for closure; but the question can also be left open if the non-answer sparks a deeper existential question to be left for the viewer to answer.

Cinematic holons also have positive, neutral, or negative charges, much like atomic particles. At the level of text an example of positive and negative charges can be illustrated by the energetic difference between moments of affinity and conflict between characters. Neutral holons are elements that impart neutral information, like an establishing shot of a location. Of course these can be turned into positive or negative streams by juxtaposing them with positive or negative elements (i.e., a neutral shot of a city at night juxtaposed with foreboding music…this is a combination of a neutral visual holon and a negative auditory holon). The rule here is that when a neutral holon is juxtaposed with a negative or positive holon the neutral holon takes on the attributes of the opposing holon.

Like all lenses of perception, the holonic lens has the capacity to offer us a deeper and/or fuller perspective. When directed at cinema, this integral lens could potentially deepen and clarify our understanding and appreciation of cinematic structure and narrative form, and increase the creative and expressive capacities of the cinematic artist.