Chapter 2 The Film Structure Flashcards
When Manoogian began teaching at NYU in 1960 what was he actually a part of?
When Haig Manoogian began teaching at NYU in 1960, the film program was part of Washington Square College, which was the undergraduate liberal arts division of NYU.
What was Manoogian’s department called inside of Washington Square College?
The Institute of Film and Television (where Manoogian taught) was a department or program nested inside Washington Square College.
In what year did NYU establish it’s school of the arts pulling film, drama, and dance together?
1965
NYU School of the arts became NYU Tisch in what year?
1985
When Manoogian talks about “the working out of the story of a film comprising a casually connected series motivated incidents” he is speaking about the development of what?
The Plot
When referring to the way in which the events of the plot are ordered and integrated he is talking about what?
The structure of the film.
What does he say is a essence of structure?
The arrangement of the various story or idea units so that the whole can be effectively understood.
A good structure is composed of what for elements?
Unity, coherence, emphasis and interest.
He was a pioneering American filmmaker best known for helping to define early cinematic storytelling. Active in the early 1900s, he was a key figure in the transition from short, single-shot films (like the Lumière actualités) to narrative-driven cinema. He worked for Thomas Edison’s film company and directed or shot over 250 films. Who is he?
Edwin S Porter
What was Edwin S Porter’s most famous and influential work?
“The Great Train Robbery” (1903)
• This 12-minute Western is considered a landmark in film history for its use of continuity editing, cross-cutting, and camera movement to tell a coherent, multi-scene story.
What was notable about the great train robbery?
It was also one of the first films to feature a nonlinear structure and parallel action (like switching between the robbers and the pursuers).
True or false Porter invented editing?
False. Porter didn’t invent editing, but he recognized its narrative potential—how cutting between scenes could build tension and advance a story.
True or false Porter was one of the first to realize that cinema could be more than a novelty—it could be a storytelling medium.
True
His work paved the way for directors like (BLANK) , who would expand on his techniques to build classical Hollywood continuity editing.
D.W. Griffith
True or false Edwin S. Porter helped invent the grammar of film. Without him, the jump from static scenes to full-on cinematic storytelling would’ve taken a lot longer.
True
Manoogian closely identifies with the play-script in that it has the same primary structure elements. What are they?
Beginning, middle and end
Inside of those main blocks what are the elements that he identify?
Exposition, point of attack, compilation, discovery, reversal, conflict, rising action, crisis, climax, falling action, and resolution. (pp43)
Why are probability and surprise not placed in this group of elements?
Because they are inherent throughout the entire structure.
What does exposition deal with?
Introductory material in nature of time, place, atmosphere, characters involved in background information pertaining to them
What is point of attack
It deals with the meaning of opposing forces a.k.a. the conflict and stating the problem
What is complication?
It has to do with the involvement of the story. The interesting facets of character in action that reveal the success and failures in the fortunes of the opposing forces.
What is the discovery?
This involves new information about story as the characters unfold
What is reversal?
This refers to the changes of fortune that often come about sometimes for the worst
What is conflict?
It’s the clash of forces and may be external as when characters are imposed or internal as when attitudes ideas or feelings of a single character are opposed
