Film Appreciation
Chapter 1 (What is Film)
Chapter 2,3 (History of Film)
1st film Roundhay Garden Scene (1888)
Edison assigns William Kennedy Dickson to develop a motion picture camera (1889)
Kinetograph (1891)
George Melies (French stage magician turned filmmaker)
Edwin S. Porter (joined Edison in 1901 as director)
1907-1913; Migration to Hollywood
1908- Motion Picture Patents Company (The Trust)
Restrict access to film stock and equipment, dissolved in antitrust suit in 1918
1910 - Florence Lawrence first “movie star”
1911 - Feature Films (4 or more reels)
1914 - WWI halts filmmaking in europe, allowing Hollywood to rise
Silent Film Era (1915-1929)
1915 - Birth of a Nation by David Wark (DW) Griffin
major controversy, first use of cross cutting, dissolve transition, very racist film
1916 - Studio System begins, acquisition of theaters (vertical integration)
1921 - Scandals in Hollywood
1922 - Director William Desumnd Taylor murdered while conducting simultaneous affairs
1923 - Actor Wallace Reid dies of drug overdose, public turns against Hollywood, threats of censorship laws
Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) formed an effort to rehabilitate Hollywood's image
Warner Bros establish Vitaphone Corp to produce sound-on-disc projections
1928 - “Lights of NY” from WB; First all dialogue film
1932 - Silent Films Phased out
Vertical Integration (Big 5 Studios) Produced, Distributed, owned theaters
MGM
Warner Brothers
20th Century Fox
Paramount Pictures
RKO
Little 3 (produced and distributed)
Universal
Columbia
United Artists
Poverty Row (only made movies)
Republic
Mascot
Monogram
Grand National
Block Booking and Full-line forcing; ways to get theaters to air all of their movies
1929-1930, Production Code Administration (PCA)
1934, PCA given enforcement
no profanity, suggestive nudity, illegal traffic of frug, sex perversion, white slavery, miscegenation, childbirth, child sex organs, ridicule of clergy, willful offense to any nation
Post War (1946-1959)
Disillusionment with American Dream was seen in film
J Parnell Thomas, Chairman of House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC), initiates investigation into “communism in motion pictures”
Red Flag: “social consciousness” in films
1947, first HUAC hearing
41 Witnesses called, 19 refused to testify
“Hollywood 10” jailed and fined and blacklisted for refusing to testify
Blacklist continues through 50's and 60's
Rise of television, threat to movies
Movies showcase stereophonic sound, large screen size, color photography
Hollywood focuses on a political , spectacular film, biblical epics westerns, musicals to stay away from censorship
Atomic Age brought the Golden Age of Science Fiction, Horror Films
1952- 3D craze, dies in 1954
1951- Production Code is announced
New Restrictions: drugs, abortion, prostitution, kidnapping
Preminger made films that challenged the code, start to become obscure
Transitional Years (1960-1979)
American film lagged due to Hollywood conservatism
1968- MPAA introduces new rating system, G, PG, R, X
Age of “Blockbuster” Godfather, Jaws, etc
Contemporary Years (1980- Today)
First Huge flop, Heaven's Gate
end of United Artists
Rise of Licensing and Merchandising (Star Wars Toys)
Chapter 4 (Form and Style)
Types of Montages
Metric (editing follows a specific number of frames and successive shots are typically shortened to increase tension)
Rhythmic (cutting is based on continuity which arises from the visual pattern)
Tonal (editing decisions made to establish the emotional character of a scene)
Overtonal/Associational
Intellectual (uses unrelated shots which, when combined, elicit an intellectual meaning)
Chapter 5 (text and narrative)
Character types
Protagonist -
Antagonist - person, group, or institution that opposes the protagonist
Antihero - leading character that lacks typical heroic qualities. They can display villainous qualities while having the soul/motivations of a more traditional hero and are often more compelling and interesting than the regular hero.
Sidekick - Foil for the protagonist. Normally a subordinate role and gives the protagonist someone to talk to. Often serves as a counterpoint to the protagonist in attitude, outlook, and knowledge.
Fabula - Raw material of a story/chronological events
Syuzhet - the way the story is organized
Structure
Classical - Conflict is introduced and resolved in a story with a beginning, middle, and end
Episodic - Conflict is introduced and resolved but with continuing characters
Serialized - “To be continued” from episode to episode
Transmedia Episode/Stories told across media
The Three-Act Structure
First Act: Setup (Main characters are introduced, their relationships are defined, and the world in which they live is established. Somewhere in the first act, something happens to the protagonist that causes him to take action, triggering a second, even more, dramatic event - the first turning point - that will change his life forever and motivate the action for the remainder of the story.
Second Act: Confrontation (Also known as Rising Action. This is the protagonist's attempt to resolve the problem created by the first turning point)
Resolution (The character’s story is complete at least to some degree)
The Hero’s Journey
Based on the monomyth by Joseph Campbell
Chapter 6 (film, history and society)
Popular Culture
Ecompasses the entire spectrum of ideas, attitudes, images, and other phenomenon that are widely adopted and embraced by a culture or society
Highlights the struggle of creation and distribution of popular culture
Popular Culture IS NOT:
Limited to a specific time or place
Is not always related to mass media or popular entertainment (ex. fashion, tech, slang, propaganda)
Early Years of Cinema
Drama
Comedy
Western
Crime
Fantasy
Horror was practically non-existent
This changed in 1910 when Edison Studios released an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Critics liked it but the public didn’t
1923 - Hunchback of Notre Dame was released
1925 - Release of Phantom of the Opera
The end of the war brought back the slow rise/return of German Film and German Expressionism also began to rise; With Karl Freund (who also directed Draculaa) and the re-release of Frankenstien (1931)
(FrenchWord for disengagement after war)
Man of 1000 faces Loura Chanae
Chapter 12 (mediating reality)
Media doesn’t fully reflect social reality
“Medium”
Something that mediates
reshapes reality by producing images of it
Representation, not presentation through specific choices
Selecting, ordering, and organizing within certain constants
Some ideas and perspectives will be inevitably left out
“Realistic Genres”
Documentary
News Reporting and Analysis
Sorts
“Reality” TV
Casablanca
Head
Monkees
Davy Jones
Mike Nesmith
Peter Tork
Mickey Dolenz
Wanted to break out of their mold?
Non-linear storytelling
Directed by Bob Rafelson
Released 1968
Battleship Potemkin
Directed by Sergei Eisenstein (one of the most important directors and film theorists)
Written By Einstein and Nina Agadzhonoua
Released Dec 24, 1925 in USSR
About revolution, crew in boat overthrow leadership take control, on mainland, communist forces massacre crowd due to rebellious nature, ship encounters other ships, that don't fire because of their red flag, showing solidarity
Silent Film
Rashomon
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Released Aug 25, 1990
Search about truth, 4 people have eyewitness stories that they all claim is true
No real answer given, heavy uses of symbolism throughout the film
Red Nightmare
Directed by George Waggner
Short Film Released in 1962
Father of family wakes up in communist “nightmare” and then when he wakes up, appreciates what he has in the free world
American Propaganda film in cold war
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Spinal Tap
Directed by Rob Reiner
Released March 2, 1984
Written by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Rob Reiner
Mockumentary: Deliberately and consciously look or sounds like documentaries or other reality-based media
1st mockumentary, April 1, 1957, by BBC, (Swiss Spaghetti Harvest)
Spinal Tap parodied many real-life events
Notes
George Melics - french stage magician who basically created special effects
Edwin S. Porter joined Edison Studio as a director
In 1918 the anti-trust was dissolved
At this time period, 90% of all films showed in Europe were American Films
Vertical Integration
Make movies
Distribute movies
Show them
Big 5 (Full Integration)
MGM
Warner Brothers
20th Century Fox
Paramount Pictures
RKO
Little 3 (Partial Integration)
Universal
Columbia
United Artists
Poverty Row - No vertical integration
Block Booking - booking multiple movies
Blind bidding - Some movies were known and some were unknown (like a mystery pack)
Full-line Forcing - Compelling theatres to buy a package of not just feature films, but shorts as well.
Production Code - Formed in 1930 as a guideline for what could and couldn’t be in movies (wasn’t really enforced till 1934)
U.S. v. Paramount Pictures (1948)
Decided that vertical integration was a monopoly
Companies can’t exhibit their movies
The Post-War Years (1946-1959)
Many new movies about unexplored topics
J Parnell Thomas (chairman of HUAC) launched an investigation into communism in motion pictures
The first HUAC hears happened in 1947
41 witnesses called, 19 refused
Lev Kuleshov - Created Kuleshov Method
Realistic Genres
Documentary
News Reporting and Analysis
Sports
“Reality” TV
Observer Principle - You can’t look at something without changing it