Abstract
The chapter analyses the 3D dance films Step Up 3D, Step Up Revolution and Step Up: All In. The chapter concentrates on Step Up 3D in particular, examining it in relation to Richard Dyerʼs and Jane Feuerʼs theories of the classical Hollywood musical. It delineates how the utopia that these films present to audiences is aesthetically accentuated and renegotiated through the 3D effect. It argues that the charactersʼ mastery of the 3D spaces secures their victory in specific dance sequences. By paying close attention to the stereography of the musical sequences of these films, the chapter reveals these filmsʼ sophisticated engagement with space, conflict and victory.
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Notes
- 1.
Step Up 3D and Step Up: All In base their narrative around dance competitions. Step Up: Revolution’s narrative is differently structured in that it revolves around flash mobs.
- 2.
Mouthing along to a diegetic soundtrack is as close to singing as anyone in the Step Up franchise gets, so that the sequence recalls older musicals more readily than any other–Feuer notes a similar situation in Dirty Dancing (Emile Ardolino, 1987), which she describes as a “reconstruct[ed]” example of the classical Hollywood musical (1993, p. 130 et seq.).
- 3.
Inspired by theatrical terms used in Ancient Greek theatre, William Paul notes that this term refers to the space behind the proscenium arch, whereas the space in front of it intruding into the audience was called the platea (Paul 2004, p. 239).
- 4.
For Bordwell, “the Hollywood film strives to conceal its artifice through techniques of continuity and ‘invisible’ storytelling” (2004, p. 3).
- 5.
For more information regarding the “invisible” expression of the rack convergence, see Weetch 2012.
- 6.
In some regard, the “I Won’t Dance” number seems “integrative”; Camille and Moose have fallen out before this dance, but this sequence marks their reconciliation.
- 7.
In Step Up: Revolution Moose’s appearance is little more than a cameo and in Step Up 3D and Step Up: All In he and Camille (who does not appear in Revolution) are the secondary couple.
- 8.
Ross also notes that the beginning of the sequence shows Moose moving through onlookers in a crowd in a manner that, through stereoscopic depth planes and camera movement, bridges the gap between dance and spectator, suggesting that the latter “can push through these various bodies, thus finding themselves a space within the scene” (2011). I would argue that this is another example of Moose’s “integrative”, “communal” function.
- 9.
To emphasise the Gwai’s failure to respond to the flood in a “spontaneous” fashion, we later see them trying to construct a human pyramid to wow the audience—which eventually topples disastrously. In the foreground of the shot, emergent and taunting, sits the emergent fountain.
References
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Dyer, Richard. 1981. Entertainment and Utopia. In Genre: The musical: A reader, ed. Rick Altman. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
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Weetch, Owen. 2012. Reading parallax: 3D meaning construction in The Hole. CineAction 89: 14–21.
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Weetch, O. (2016). Stepping Out: Victory and Utopia in the 3D Instalments of the Step Up Franchise. In: Spöhrer, M. (eds) Die ästhetisch-narrativen Dimensionen des 3D-Films. Neue Perspektiven der Medienästhetik. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-09422-5_9
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