Narrative Structure of Film Flashcards
Key to all art?
Rhythm
How many character did greeks have
-3 characters
-just men
What do we think rhythm is?
We think of it as music and poetry
Greek theater
Music, poetry, dance, etc.
Dionysius
-Most popular greek god
God of:
-Wine - Transformation - actor + audience
-Fertility = sex = creation
Action =
Actor
What did 3 actors do
3 actors only
changed masks to become different characters
What do masks do
Captures key factors of emotion
3 characters =
conflict
Lead character =
superhero
“arc” of a character
-The journey
-search for truth: divine-self
-playwright, actor, audience, follow sexual climax
Act I “fade in”
-Start of the film
-all dramatic art is life
-The past - Exposition - Back story
-What happened in the past that made them who they are
Act I “Set up”
By the end of act I there is no way but forward conflict
Glint in the eye =
Romance
Protagonist
Hero or heroine or bath - person we cheer for
Antagonist
Villain
Almost climax
almost climax - stop - almost climax - stop; repeatly
Act III
-Build to climax
-Hero wins
-Wins by dying for good cause
-give your life for
-redemption before or while dying
-discovers truth as we discover truth “light bulb goes off”
Build to “climax” =
= orgasm = birth or rebirth
Falling action =
Denouncement
The end =
Fade out
God/divine =
Creator
Man =
Sex = creator
Artists =
art = creator
Climax of film =
Birth of divinee
US film showing time
-act I = 30 minutes
-act II = 60 minutes
-act III = 30 minutes
US film more action
Foreign Films
-act I = 60 minutes
-act II = 30 minutes
-act III = 30 minutes
European films more character building
Five minute short film
Act I = 1-1.5 min.
Act II = 3-4 min.
Act III = 1-1.5 min.
Ten minutes short film
Act I = 2-3 min.
Act II = 4-6 min.
Act III = 2-3 min.
Vitascope
-made by Edison
-project onto screen
-Run by electricity
-Filmed theater variety acts, bicycles, singers, animal acts
- 8-10 acts per viewing
What did edison steal?
-A copy of trip to the moon
-makes copies of melies films and markets it as his own work
-Never paid melies (went bankrupt)
Bicycle prints
bicycle that would show a film when people pedaled
Movie Parlors
Nickelodeons - charged a nickel
-“flickers”
-Small bands play music during show
-1-1.5 hour shows
- first in NYC - then chicago
-2 million people saw the films per day
how many store front chairs were there?
75 chairs
Edisons greatest film
-shot in New Jersey
-First Western
-based on old plays
The great train robbery
-Most popular film for 10 years
-1st parallel action - cuts back and forth between 2 stories
-bandits tie up station manager
-camera never moves until fight on top of train
-the train moves; scenery passes
-camera on engine
Great train robbery details
-Hired 12-14 year old children to paint color on individual frames
-hand tinted frames create mood (like photoshop)
-Painted lense black on window then vice versa to get lighting right then double expose the two frames
Broncho Billy
First western movie star
Where was the first close up in history
The great train robbery
Edison studio
-Copies Melies all glass paris studio
-Competition - biograph studios
-shot on rooftops
-barry monde studio
Motion picture patents company
-Black market mafia
-Made crime films
Move to hollywood
-Flee NYC
-First went to Jacksonville, FL
- Florida didn’t have great weather
Norman Studios
- Jacksonville, Fl.
-white owner - all black cast - would share his movies with black people
-Black Gold
Miami
-Film makers come to miami before hollywood
-Tarzan was made in Miami
Problem with weather and mosquitos
-Went to cuba, had same problem
Hollywood
-Better weather
-L.A multiple locations
-Rural - cowboys + farmers - fruit and olives
-stage coaches
-wild west: indians
L.A real estate capital
Hollywoodland - real estate investment
- land fell off hence why hollywood
Why was la a perfect spot
-Mountains and hills
-Desert
-Ocean and seaports
-Snow in mountains
-year round film making
Epic foreign films
-shown in broadway
-rich and educated are finally going to the movies
First american epic film
The squaw man
-1.5 hours long - 6 reels long
-directed by cecil B. mille
-from a broadway play
-leading actor and actress had an affair
-hollywood loves gossip
-white man marries native americans- takes her home to england
D.W. Griffith
wrote and acted in theater and for Edison and director for biograph studios
The birth of the Nation
-Most successful film in history until very recent
-Adopted by Glansman
-Used matthew brady pictures
- Klu Klux klan
-race riots - black face
-cost few hundred dollars to produce
-Racist propaganda
NAACP
-organization against birth of a nation
Birth of a Nation details
-Blacks (whites) rape white people
- grossed $50 million
-played 1 year in atlanta; 1 year in russia
-eisenstien studied it
-middle and upper class
-Introduces different shots but keeps chronological order
-wide shots
-1st film to integrate individual shots/medium shots
-1st close up shots
-Billy bitzer cameraman loves to experiment
Lillian Gish
griffths star actor
Intolerence
-included 4 stories
-used massive set
1. Fall of babylon - Inprisonment of jews, Directs from hot air ballon, Evil+sex in historical and bible stories sells
2. Roman Crucification
3. Religious cleansing = murder of french Huguenots
4. Chinese immigrant - USA prejudice
Way Down East
-produced by Griffith
-New camera editing techniques
-intercut technique/audience fills in missing pieces
Napoleon - Abel Gance
-Film five hours
-Failure
-Camera placed on pendulum/put camera on horse
-3 screen finale
-sound developed during the same time so people didn’t pay attention to the film
Abel Gance
-Outspoken pacifist
-believed he could change the world
Movie capitol
U.S
-Movie theaters = Movies palaces
-U.S films shown around the world
Nanook of the North
-directed by robery flahery
-first documentary
-followed Eskimo family
