Classical Film

Question 1

textual

Answer 1

-self-sufficient

•understanding each type of film in terms of textual properties (what kind of stories they tell, how they use style)

Question 2

Extratextual

Answer 2

• surround it, contribute to our expectations + meaning we take from the text
• publicity, reviews, DVD bonus materials, academic analyses, and the social reality

Question 3

Publicity

Answer 3

-way markets itself, influence our expectations, way we understand it

Question 4

Reviews

Answer 4

• how knowledgeable viewers view it sets the tone

- publicity will incorporate to condition your expectations

Question 5

DVD bonus materials

Answer 5

• come to interact with the movie differently, changes the way you understand the film
• inside knowledge on the process of making it

Question 6

Academic analyses

Answer 6

• change the way you think about it

- drawing attention to things (books, tutorial)

Question 7

Social reality

Answer 7

• that prevails during its production, release, and/or screening
• wolf of wall street: wall street crisis

Question 8

Example of Extratextual

Answer 8

•Documentary: contract betw. Filmmaker + viewer, forged with the film itself,

• presents itself as factual
• extratextual material which seek to establish that it is truthful

Question 9

Example of Intertextual

Answer 9

• Avant-Garde: de facto critical cinema, critiquing dominant cinema
• Sadie benning: include film bad seed mixed with prince song, dresses up as stock character, making intertextual references to other texts
• Twelve years a slave movie adaptation

Question 10

Intertextual

Answer 10

-relations betw. 2/more films determined by connections and/or differences they have betw. them
•Relationship betw. texts: way films relate, echo, inform one another
•Changes the way you see it depending on connections to another text
•Intertextual references: references explicitly/implicitly other texts
•Connections betw text by way of viewer/critic making the connections

Question 11

Golden Age

Answer 11

1930s through the 1950s

Question 12

classical film

Answer 12

-product of the Hollywood studio system
-late teens/early 20s, fully consolidated during Golden Age
•Classical model is something lots of other filmmaking nations took up
•Classical films are still being made today all over the world

Question 13

Hollywood

Answer 13

-dominate international marketplace for film, still influential

Question 14

big five studios

Answer 14

• paramount: high production value, European sensibility, Urbane stories, risqué jokes, low key lighting, high contrast
• rko
• mgm: moneyed studio (lots of famous stars), high production values (lavish, opulent sets), known for high key lighting
• warner bro.
• 20th century fox

Question 15

Little 3

Answer 15

• Columbia, universal, united artists

- didn’t own their own means of exhibition

Question 16

Hollywood studios

Answer 16

-vertically integrated: controlled different components of the industry (distribution + exhibition)
-own pool of contracted laborers: Draw its cast + crew from fixed crew
•Produced similar films, but had its own identity
-developed a distinct identity based of the kinds of films they produced and circulated (actors)

Question 17

Hollywood studios: serial manufacturing

Answer 17

-allowed for them to make films quickly and systematically= high level of output
•Assembly line mode of production
•Varied enough to attract consumers yet familiar
•Not invested in creating a masterpiece, but creating lots of movies

Question 18

Hollywood studios: producer-unit system

Answer 18

-depended upon + ensured the standardization of film form
•Producer chooses the cast + crew from labour pool, oversee whole process
•Employees didn’t get to choose their products
•Ppl had to learn to do their job the same way that everyone else does
•standardized fashion so they can work with a project they were not familiar with then move on to the next work so it was systematic
•Restricted range of options, lack of idiosyncrasy

Question 19

Characteristics of Classical Hollywood Cinema

Answer 19

-bound by rules that limit individual innovation
-characterized by formal unity

-purports to be realistic

-strives to be comprehensible + unambiguous
-possesses a fundamental emotional appeal
-regards telling a story as a film’s chief concern
-conceals its artifice

Question 20

Characteristics: formal unity

Answer 20

-entire film should be unified/harmonious, developing in prescribed way

Question 21

Characteristics: Realistic

Answer 21

-not nearly as interested in mundane things, but still understood as realistic
-believable, generally conform to what ppl think is real, logical narratives, realistic sets/characters
-Hollywood is just one brand of realistic
•Plausibility
•Some genres allowed more suspension of disbelief: Musical/fantasy ppl knew it wasn’t realistic going into it

Question 22

Characteristics: comprehensible

Answer 22

• Should not pose problems of comprehension for average viewer
• Intended to be legible

Question 23

Characteristics: emotional appeal

Answer 23

•commercially viable
•do not alienate
-absorb viewer

Question 24

Characteristics: telling a story chief concern

Answer 24

•tell story as economically as possible

• plot should move ahead briskly
• everything must serve function

Question 25

Characteristics: conceals its artifice

Answer 25

* conceals its artifice, invisible style, art appears artless * no evidence of labour/self conscious narration

Question 26

Form

Answer 26

dictated by conventions that affect both the narrative system and the stylistic system. •Relies on set of norms, guidelines on how made/narratives constructed •To work in studio system was to understand this norm, trained to achieve them

Question 27

narratives

Answer 27

characterized by tight causality and psychologically based characters that serve as causal agents. •Chain of events bound together by cause & effects

Question 28

narratives

Answer 28

•In media res (middle), usually habitual (adds to equilibrium – unified chain of causes + effects (tight causality, creating disequilibrium, series of actions sequenced) – equilibrium (order resolved, resolution, answers all questions)

Question 29

narratives

Answer 29

•Motivation: psychologically based character that desires something, creating a goal – encounters obstacles, complication producing conflict through achieving goal - usually achieves goal, resolution of some kind

Question 30

stylistic system

Answer 30

designed not to distract narrative, subservient 1. orient the viewer in the diegetic world both spatially and temporally 2. to foreground characters and reveal their psychology 3. ensure comprehension of the narrative

Question 31

1. orient the viewer in the diegetic world both spatially and temporally

Answer 31

Setting background realistic, orient viewers, undistorted, consistency of scale, resemblance to space we normally •Continuity editing in time to advance in time in consistent, derived from classical •180 degree, mask cuts

Question 32

2. to foreground characters and reveal their psychology

Answer 32

-See + understand characters that drive the actions •high key, legible faces/expressionistic techniques to reveal something about character, •costuming, staging + lighting so we can see costume •interiority of character to make visible through costume •dialogue foreground so we can hear what they have to say, externalizing •ambient/music limited

Question 33

3. ensure comprehension of the narrative

Answer 33

Designed to be comprehended •tell us what to look at, what to pay attention to •editing, camera follow action, sound + framing: tell us what to pay attention to •style is simply help narrative