PRE PRODUCTION | IMR

In film theory, the institutional mode of representation (IMR) is the mode of film construction which the majority of films use. It was developed in the years after the turn of the century, becoming the 'norm' by about 1914. Primitive Mode of Representation, was dominant before being replaced by the IMR; certain avant-garde films that constitute a “deconstructionist” challenge to the IMR; and various non-western modes, notably pre-war Japanese film, that were possible before the IMR became the worldwide norm. Classical Hollywood cinema is the dominant style within the IMR, but other styles such as art house, independent, and most (current) foreign styles fall no less under the IMR.

The IMR is characterised by the attempt to create an entirely closed fictional world on screen. The audience is completely imaginatively involved in the film, instead of being distant from it and having the ability to interpret it in their own way. Burch argues that the key to the IMR is "spectatorial identification with a ubiquitous camera." Various techniques (often referred to as the “language of cinema”) were developed in order to make this successful identification:

- Films should be constructed out of a sequence of shots that presents the audience with one clear piece of information.

- Three dimensional space is created. 

- Characters are psychologically individuated.