FILM STUDIES

 Varieties of film and filmmaking (Hollywood 1930-1990  comparative)  PRE-SCREENING NOTE Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn 1967) Genre: crime drama - based on real events and characters  Begins - still photography, suggesting documentary  like approach / realism Stars and stardom: Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.  Beatty also influences the script.  Picking up a biopic and running it through cinema.  Protagonists are the villains.  NEW DEPARTURE IN HOLLYWOOD Thematically Chronologically Evident that controversial subject-matter would not have passed the high censorious standards of the Hays Code.  (Now reformed as the Moving Picture Association of America in 1964).  CONTROVERSIAL ELEMENTS Taboos - sexually. Clyde and Bonnie run off together (not married). Opening sequence, Bonnie seen as a sexual woman, close ups.  Violence - often thought to be the most violent closing sequence in Hollywood.  CONTEXTS Production cont...

 The Gunfighter: Kissac 2014 - Long shot at the start of the cowboy.  - A narrative. adds comic relief to a tense situation. The characters can hear the narrative.  - Ominous diegetic music.  - Panning camera angles.  - Slow zoom ins.  - Tackling important representations.  - Comic timing.  - The lighting is most of the time a spotlight on the cowboy, presents him as the "hero".  - Mise-en-scene, conventional to the western aesthetic.  - Very unconventional and personal compared to average western genre.  Swimmer: Ramsay 2012 - Tense non-diegetic sound, mimics an increasing heartbeat, successful in creating an ominous aesthetic.  - Black and white, film noir.  - Fabulous long shots of the location.  - Vintage music.  - Slo-mos.  - Fast pace editing at the time of attack.  - A point of view.  The Grandmother: Lynch 1970 - Monotonus vibrations.  - Stop motion - Diegetic sound of splashing and sq...

  ELEMENTS OF FILM FORM IN SHORT FILMS:   Wasp   -         Arnold, 2003. -         Forward tracking shot.  -         Handheld camera. -         Fast pace editing in the fight scene.  -         Zoom ins of faces. Close up.  -         Montages of the area. -         Extreme long shot, motorway.  -         Extreme close up, interchanging edits of their faces.  -         Small children in a pub car park, contrast.    “Wasp”, made in 2003 and directed by Arnold, clearly portrays the deprivation and chaos within the lives of a single mum and her family of 4 children. The micro-elements of the short film a successful in creating an emo...

 THE GOLDEN AGE - IT'S RISE AND FALL  Some say "The Golden Age" was the rise of the dominating "big five", still present today, and the epicentre to Hollywoods glamorous name. Others say "The Golden Age" was the epitome of cruel contracts signed to actors and the controversial "Hays Code" implemented within many films.  In the early 1920's, when studios such as 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Universal etc. where dominating the cinema's, the studio system became securely established. These studios rise to the top of the cinema food chain by being vertically integrated; as their names grew larger, these powerful studios gained the ability to produce, distribute and exhibit all of their films without the assistance of other companies, they consolidated all their films under their own production. By being vertically integrated, the "big five" were able to have far more control over the production process compared to other independ...

  Component 1 Section 1 -        -  Hollywood 1930-1990 (comparative study) The Golden Age or the classical era - Rise of studios around 1910 with the dominance of studios which are present today. -       -   By the 1920’s the “studio system” was securely established with the big five dominating film production. -         20 th  Century Fox, Universal, Paramount, MGM and Warner.    THE STUDIO SYSTEM   -         Powerful studios because they were vertically integrated  -         Produced, distributed and exhibited films -         Consolidated all production under their studio -         Studios focused one genre e.g. Western, Musical, Horror and Gangster  -         Compared to productions of Ford cars on...

  Synthesizing key elements of film form   Aim of the lesson is to bring key elements of film form together.   Focus:    -         Lighting, colour, mise-en-scene and editing.   Self-selected sequence   Rationale for the film choice   -         The live action Alice In Wonderland stood out to me as a film to focus on as the whimsical and fantasy genre of the film is incredibly amusing. The cinematography is extremely abstract and key elements of film form are used cleverly to draw out emotions from the spectator to feel related to Alice and her journey.    Contextualising your analysis – considering the key elements of film form, consider where the sequence comes in the narrative.   In Alice in Wonderland “the growing and shrinking scene”, key elements of film form are used successfully to portray the typical fantasy genre in which the film falls into by drawing o...

  EDITING:   Techniques   ·        The Kuleshov Effect is a well-documented concept in film making. Essentially the idea that the sequence of happenings effects how the character appears to the audience and the response from the spectator. The idea that by editing different things together it is possible to create meanings that didn’t exist in either of the images put together – constructing “sentences” and “texts” out of the film.    ·        Use of montage – a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time and information                        Compare the editing in Taken 3 and Three Colours Red; what is the feel of these two films when compared?      In Three Colours Red the spectator can notice a very slow pace of editing throughout the scene; the woman is being ...