Examples From 1920 ’ s Silent Cinema (from last week)

1. Examples From 1920’s Silent Cinema (from last week) • Charlie Chaplin – The Kid (1921) • Buster Keaton – The General (1927) • If time: Oscar Micheaux’s Body and Soul (1925) • Cantinflas (Mexico)

2. What Classical Hollywood Taught Us • Three point lighting • 180 degree rule • Star system • Narrative Structure • Categorization of film Genres • Organization of film crews (hierarchy)

3. Key Light This is the main light. It is usually the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the scene. It is placed to one side of the camera/subject so that this side is well lit and the other side has some shadow.

4. Fill Light This is the secondary light and is placed on the opposite side of the key light. It is used to fill the shadows created by the key. The fill will usually be softer and less bright than the key. To achieve this, you could move the light further away or use some spun. You might also want to set the fill light to more of a flood than the key.

5. Back Light The back light is placed behind the subject and lights it from the rear. Rather than providing direct lighting (like the key and fill), its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around the subject's outlines. This helps separate the subject from the background and provide a three-dimensional look.

6. 180 Degree Rule • The 180° rule is a basic guide which suggests that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. • If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle. • This rule helps to keep your film coherent in terms of spacing!

7. The Star System • The 'star system' flourished with each studio having its own valuable 'properties. The 30s was the age of lavish glamour and sex appeal, and MGM became the biggest, most predominant and most star-studded studio of all, making it "The Home of the Stars." • MGM promised "more stars than there are in heaven." • The studio also had high quality productions due to its great craftsmen, including King Vidor, Victor Fleming, and George Cukor. • By 1934, MGM had over 60 big-name actors under contract. MGM had the largest 'stable' of stars of all the studios, including: Joan Crawford (originally a shopgirl named Lucille Le Sueur), Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, William Powell, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Jean Harlow, Robert Montgomery, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, the Barrymores, and Spencer Tracy.

8. The Importance of Hollywood’s Star System • After 1932, the development of sound-mixing freed films from the limitations of recording on sets and locations. Scripts from writers were becoming more advanced with witty dialogue, realistic characters and plots. • Screenplays were tailored for certain actors.

9. Warner Brothers • Warner Bros. developed its own style by producing gritty narratives, social problem pictures and a succession of tough, realistic gangster movies in the sound era, reflecting the era's shaken confidence in authority and the country's social traditions. • Examples: Rags to Riches (1922), Scarface (1932), Maltese Falcon (1931).

10. Examples of Classic Hollywood Narrative Structure • Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933, 1935, 1937) • Grand Hotel (1932) • It happened one night (1934) • Wizard of Oz (1939) • Gone With the Wind (1939)

11. Watch The Studio System

12. Effects of the Depression on the Film Industry • The Great Depression hurt nearly all the movie studios. Studios had to reorganize, request government assistance, cut budgets and employees, and close theatres when profits plummeted. • Attendance at theatres was drastically affected. Special incentives and giveaways (such as 2-for-1 features, dish nights, and other contests and attractions) helped to maintain audiences. • Affected films so that narratives had to reflect both the realism and cynicism of the Depression period, while also providing escapist entertainment to boost the morale of the public by optimistically reaffirming values such as thrift and perseverance (without offending the censors).

13. Watch “Hollywood Style”

14. Looking at Narrative Film Structure Formula #1

15. Watch How to Write a Script

16. What is Narrative Structure? • Narrative structure – a narrative is a chain of events in cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space. • Differences between PLOT and STORY • Cause and effect relationship that is usually predictable according to human behavior or real-life situations.

17. Plot versus story • Story: all the events we see or hear on the screen, including the implicit and inferred events. • Plot: A structure for presenting everything that we see and hear in a film, with emphasis on causality – the arrangement of diegetic events in a certain order or structure and nondiegetic elements.

18. Narrative (from chapter 3) • Narrative is a story. • Narrative is a type of movie. • Narrative is a way of structuring fictional or fictionalized stories presented in narrative films. • Narrative is broader concept that both includes and goes beyond any of these applications. • The industry looks at narrative in terms of how the film will be delivered – theater, television, DVD, etc).

19. Classic Hollywood Narrative Form • Stories based on psychological causes: decisions, choices, and traits of characters, desire • Clear exposition of motivation • Unrestrictive narration – we see things that main characters don’t • Closure at the end • Hollywood likes to give audiences “shortcuts” to decipher movie narrative – why?

20. Other forms of narrative • Documentary • Experimental • Others?

21. Looking at Genres Film structure formula #2 An introduction to genres…

22. Genre • Genre refers to the categorization of narrative films by the stories they tell and the ways they tell them. • Western, horror, science fiction, musical, and gangster films (common examples). Additional genres include action, biographies or biopics, melodramas, thrillers, romantic comedies and bromedies, fantasy, etc. • What is the significance of genres?

23. Genre conventions • Theme – unifying idea that the film expresses through its narrative or imagery (e.g. Western). • Setting – where the action is located and how the environment is portrayed. • Presentation – the cinematic language that communicates tone and atmosphere. (e.g. low key lighting in film noirs). • Character types – e.g. the cowboy, the detective, etc. • Story formulas – the way the story is structured. • Stars –actors that are “typecast” and identified with a particular genre – e.g. Bruce Willis, Jet Lee, etc.

24. Categorization of Film Genres • Development of film genres (gangster films, musicals, newspaper-reporting films, historical biopics, social-realism films, lighthearted screwball comedies, westerns and horror) • Musicals, screwball comedies and gangster films were most popular during the 1930’s. • Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 - set film guidelines regarding sex, violence, religion, and crime.

25. Your film - Considerations • What is the narrative in your film? • What is the plot structure of your film? • What is the genre of your film? • What character types exist in your film? • What Hollywood stars are in your film? • Look at one scene from your movies and create a lighting plot of that scene.