Film and Culture

From the advent of sound to the Late 1940s. The studio system and vertical integration were large parts of the Golden age

RKO

Warner Bros


20th Century Fox

Paramount

Loews (MGM)

Independent movie producers won a battle against the monopoly of the large studios, the studios were ordered to give up their theaters, divesture, opening the market to smaller producers. Also the advent of tv.

They set out to make money 1st, art 2nd. Contract actors, B movies

Paramount - comedies

MGM - all star productions

Warner Bros - gritty social realism, gangster, war, westerns

20th century - Musicals, prestige biographies

RKO - dance, Orson Welles,

Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America-

Self censorship - used the Production Code (1930)

Production Code Administration - agency to enforce the production code, could impose fines if code was not met.

• gangster or melodrama
• Western

Musicals

Iconography (recurrent visual icons), stock characters, typical themes, central narrative paterns.

historical and cultural context

Fundamental changes in culture

One of the oldest genres

nostalgic

masculine

use of guns, cars, lashy clothes

song and dance to tell story

integrated and nonintegrated

takes two people from different backgrounds and puts them in a romantic situation

focus on a central emothional crisis

and narrative places key social institutions under scrutiny

films constructed so viewer is not aware of construction.

character's main drive is generally countered w/conflict.

swift movement toward resolution

complete closure by end of movie

invisible visual styles.

character's movement - natural

coverage

180 degree rule

eyeline

3 point lighting- bright light, fill light, back light

Use of firearms limited to essentials

Brutal killings not presented in detail

Scenes of passion should not be introduced when not essential to plot,

No film can ridicule religion

scenes of childbirth not to be shown

Obscenity and profanity is forbidden

no nudity

the arrangement of everything that appears in the framing - actors, lighting, decor, props, costume. means placing on the stage

Avant garde

Documentary

Narrative - has a beg. middle, end

A character's previous experience that shapes the character

hero

villain

factual

instructional

persuasive

propogand

direct cinema - as if you were there

• What is the filmaker's purpose?
• What truths are discussed throughout the presented material?
• What facts are distorted to prove a point or gain audience approval?

What film elements were used to create dramatic cinema - lighting, sound, camera angles?

Production, distribution, and exhibition all done by same studio

a story - someone's account of a sequence of events in chronological order - has a story and a plot

the world in which the story is set

music, voice over narration, title, credits (things the characters are not aware of in the movie)

• character introduction in the first part of the movie, tells of characters conflicts, motivation,
• establishes status quo

The inciting incident - when the plot begins

clue of something to follow

an important occurance - repeated

• 1st person narrator
• 3rd person narrator
• 3rd person omniscient - knows all
• restricted - only knows what the character knows