Intro to Cinema Part 2
Below the line
fixed salaries, purchases (costumes, catering, etc.) and rentals (soundstages, cameras, lighting, etc.)
Post-Production
(~6 months - 2 years) • Transfer footage to digit system • Edit on computer • Add computer generated effects & corrections • Output back to film • Cuts Assembly cut -basic continuity Rough cut -Narrowed down - footage you want put together Final cut -final product.
Objective/Realism
-A manner of representation that seeks a one-to-one correspondence with the real world -Realism is a style which creates the illusion or effect of reality, of being a "slice of life" -The director tries to show the surface of life as closely as possible, so that the viewer accepts the film as a reflection of reality. -Plots may be loose, without a clearly defined beginning, middle and end or resolution; the conflict may emerge gradually. -The movie may be episodic; continuity is not a value. • I'm going to imitate the tree • Realists want imitation • It's someone's interpretation of reality so its not actually reality • Just because you're working in realism, it doesn't guarantee an interpretation of truth • Realisms deals with relative truth • They want to put up on the screen what is an accurate interpretation of life • Because its realist work, the realist artist is very concerned with the effect of an action on a character • Realists like to explore motivation and we see a psychological dimension WHAT is being said is more important than form for the realists want to demystify reality • Lets the audience relate-how do I avoid these problems? • It is culturally defined and characterized. It's culturally inscribed. • Man and his or her relationship to society is very important • Setting is important in how it effects a character and as a result realists work as a sociological dimension • Realist work is layered with psychological dimension on the inside and sociological dimension on the outside • The like to use topical events that fuel society • As well as controversial events The belief that truth is verified by experience Psychological dimension - exploring effects of action and character motivation Sociological dimension - the individual and society are inseparable, time and place are important Critical dimension - criticism of the status quo, socially conscious
subjective/formalism
-Formalism recreates reality according to an interplay between the subjective view of the artist and the formal strategies of the medium -Realism bows to reality, while Formalism imposes on reality. -The formal artist wants to reconstitute his view of reality and use the formal strategies effectively to show off his ability to do so -The beauty or power of the image is primary, displacing a sense of reality. -The visual presentation is stylized. -The story expresses the director's personal vision or passion, which may even be an obsession. The film usually presents extraordinary characters and events. Formalism explores ideas, e.g., political, religious, and philosophical ideas. For this reason it is the preferred approach for propaganda. -The perceptive viewer is aware that the narrative is being manipulated for an effect. Formalist narratives may manipulate the time sequence or use an obvious pattern. There may be a discon- certing change of tone, e.g., a lyrical interlude intruding in a grim domestic drama. -Genres almost always formalist are musicals, science fiction, horror/supernatural, and fantasy. -The artist is interested in more than conscious reality - projections, memory, wishes, dreams. -The form is as if not more important than the content.
sound size
-Size: 1) Longshot is quieter, close up is loud, volume is important here 2) Angles: has to do with pitch. High angle == higher pitch 3) Color: voices 4) Everything you can do with image you can do with audio Sound and space are reciprocal: sound is loud space is big Sound and time are collocate: a lot of sounds time is faster
Classical vs Modernist Comparison
1)TRANSITIVITY VS INTRANSITIVITY-strait narrative versus jumbled narrative with cuts 2. GOAL ORIENTED PROTAGONIST VS ABSTRACT CHARACTERS 3. CLOSURE VS NON CLOSURE Classical - closure. Neat and tidy ending. Classical Hollywood Plot. Modernity - non-closure - you're made to intellectualize and question authority, tradition, the norms, 4. TRANSPARENCY VS SELF-REFLEXIVITY Classical: Transparency, formal structures not noticed, they're erased, - the audience doesn't notice these, seamless, *Classical art - you don't see the brush strokes, the process, it's not self-aware Modern: show the aesthetics, the process, therefore the audience is made aware of the structures 5. CLOSED TEXT VS INTERTEXTUAL 6. PLEASURE VS CONFRONTATION Classical: Enjoyment, Entertainment, happy endings - justice is served, good vs evil/black and white, universal truths, Modernism: Bigger issue - actively think, engage, many truths - not just one homogenous truth, shades of gray, chance and happenstance, injustice, unhappy endings
What makes a movie good?
1. Complexity • Texture-depth contains a good amount of reality • Should have energy • Needs to have indeterminacy • What it means to be alive 2. Coherence • Should be a sub sufficient material • Must keep you in the movie's world 3. Intensity of effect • The movie should instruct and inspire you • Should stimulate you 4. Originality • Something new • Should suppose you someway • Astonish you 5. Personality • Heart and intellect that sees the universe • You can tell who the art is done by
What is Hip Attitude of Post Modernism?
1. Cynicism 2. Sense of being above it all, showing your expertise
IV. Implications of Modernism
1. Distinction between High Art Vs Low/Popular Culture 2. Film caught up to the other arts, which made it part of intellectual culture 3. Too self-conscious to tell us much about the culture; popular genre films are more indicative of their time 1. art is to conceal art 2. Art isn't supposed to be self-conscious - you can't set out to make a work of art 4. The viewer has to work harder; challenges perception
Conditions and Causes of Genre: Financial
1. Financial Manufacturers standardize molds that appeal to consumers Molds were taken from literature, pulp, stage, news, paintings, etc. Genres provide selling elements Persona of stars and genres are the two most common selling points. Logos are typically derived from genre elements Genre compensates for a film's uniqueness in order to sell it Consumer's won't pay for a totally unknown quantity, so genre provides familiarity. 4. Allows for the quantity of films made each year There are only so many stories, you can't change the formula every time. 5. Allows the studios to recycle props and sets, so they same money by minimizing cost. 6. Genre is both an assurance and insurance for what the consumer is going to buy.
Genre as cultural myth
1. Genres work as cultural metaphors; the myths speak to people 2. They reflect the people of the time
What is Pastiche?
1. Imitating the formal strategies or content of previous texts with no added meaning or sense of satire/parody. 2. The imitation is meant to recall these past genres and styles; use the meaning/feeling from the original. 3. The point is the reference itself, not a new meaning (as in intertextualtiy)
What is Schizophrenic Experience of Postmodernism?
1. So many determinants to any text from all different spheres of cultural thrown together in a collage 2. Tonal shifts; multiple genres; multiple styles 3. Becomes a fractured, confused experience; illogical juxtapositions 4. The cult of heterogeneity a. Multitasking, not unity
Principle Photography
1. Time - Typically 2 months a. Shooting Time - total number of days required to collect all footage b. Shooting Ratio - the amount of film exposed divided by the amount used in the finished film 1. Director's Team 2. Script Supervisor Continuity 3. Director of Photographer/Cinematographer 4. Sound Team 5. Performers 6. Production Design Team 7. Editing Team
How long is pre-production?
1. Time - roughly 6 months When a film is greenlit for production, they go through this period of staffing up, finding locations, casting and scheduling.
Conditions and Causes of Genre: Aesthetic
2. If you want to be good, great at anything you choose it's a matter of repetition quality depends on repetition Repetition breeds quality Hitchcock perfected the suspense thriller; got to know the form and experimented with it. Genre creates an economy of storytelling Because the elements of the genre are known, the audience can make presumptions letting the film move faster. Therefore, the filmmaker has more time to get deeper and expand. Global sensibility Genre translates more easily We prefer clarity of ambiguity, closed texts, happy conclusions, directness, action
2) Asynchronous sound
: non-cause relationship between image and sound
Some like it hot
After witnessing a Mafia murder, slick saxophone player Joe (Tony Curtis) and his long-suffering buddy, Jerry (Jack Lemmon), improvise a quick plan to escape from Chicago with their lives. Disguising themselves as women, they join an all-female jazz band and hop a train bound for sunny Florida. While Joe pretends to be a millionaire to win the band's sexy singer, Sugar (Marilyn Monroe), Jerry finds himself pursued by a real millionaire (Joe E. Brown) as things heat up and the mobsters close in. Action/Thriller/comedy
Line Producer/ Unit Production Manager
Breaks down the film's budget and schedules daily activities Above the line costs Below the line costs
4 Eras: Classical, Post-Classical, Modern and Post-Modern
Classical: 1929-1945 Post-Classical: 1946-1962 Modern: 1963-1976 ------------- Post-Modern: 1977—
Murder on the Orient Express
Detective Thriller, Classical Classical makes you believe, makes you invested -based on a novel from the 30's -the protagonist is a "World famous detective" -there's forshadowing ("someone's trying to kill me") -its a classical "whodunnit" story -the entire plot is about solving the case and interviewing suspects -the fact that it takes place on a train-they are all under one roof increases tension (majority of the movie takes place within 2 days in the same location) -clues are utilized and are classically visually placed for the audience to see -clock shows time of death, twelve stabs, poisoned -finding secret messages in clues "Daisy Armstrong" -the cast is filled with stars which is iconic of the classical period -use of characatures of the detective genre (butler, lovers, old lady) -he gathers all the characters together at the end in order to explain his theory and findings -classic showing of what actual happened at the end
Out of the Past
Detective Thriller, Post-Classical The quintessential classic film noir masterpiece from RKO, a definitive flashback film of melodramatic doom, contains all the elements of the genre. First and foremost, there is an irresistible but deadly, chameleon-like femme fatale (Greer) who is the object of romantic fascination and erotic obsession for both a detective (Mitchum) and a gangster (Douglas). Themes of betrayal, corruption, fatalism and a cynical, perverse, and a morally ambiguous atmosphere are all interwoven and entangled together in a confusing and convoluted dark plot (mixing narrative flashback with linear narrative) with both double- and triple-crosses. Eventually, all three individuals meet their inescapable, tragic ends typical of a Shakespearean-level tragedy. -typical noir narration is used -flashbacks are also used -relationships are utilized in this film-the characters are more layered -its slightly more intellectual -clear iconography of noir detective genre-smoking, detective trench coat, femme fatale -the movie is not in chronological order which moves towards modernism -deals with themes of nostalgia and being stuck in the past
Zodiac
Detective Thriller, Postmodernist postmodern focuses on the lack of truth in films -removed clash of high brow and low brow -practices pastiche-imitation of films
Development
Development - The First Stage of Production The amount of time can vary significantly 2. "Development Hell" - a term describing a script that never gets out of development
Development Hell
Development Hell - Just the script, with no financing, no backing, no moving forward
Classical films.
During the classical period, genres are being defined and set in stone These films avoid the extremes of realism and formalism. They feature a strong story line, stars, and a high level of technical achievement or production values. Classical films are slightly stylized but have a surface believability. Plot has a clear beginning, middle, and end, as well as a conflict or dilemma that is resolved unambiguously. The plot follows the play structure of conflict, complication, climax, and resolution. A narrator may be used to provide continuity and to cover gaps in the story line. Visuals seldom take attention away from the actors. Style tends to be transparent or mainly invisible. Classical films rely on classical cutting.1
Development personnel: Executive Producer
Executive Producer - $$$$ gets financing for the film, or lends his name and reputation to the film to help raise it money $$$$
Genre as comforter, confirmer, instiller of hope/Genre as sugarcoating the pill
Genres are comforting, they let us know what we are getting They confirm our cultural beliefs and expectations They work from what we know and love to relay ideas Our global sensibility, we're becoming less sophisticated and more and more primitive. Same in our movies we like clarity, simplicity, directness and conclusion 1. Genre can sugarcoat a serious message 2. The audience won't go to a message film, but they can get a message through a genre film 3. Example: The Crying Game, supsense thriller that deals with gender stereotypes
What make genres important
Implications of genre • Offers familiarity, solutions, hope • Genre can sugarcoat the pill • There's a relationship between myth, conventions • The genre holds its story elements in the likes, fears of the audience because they return again and again • The audience is perhaps the biggest part of the genre because they're the ones who repeatedly return • Genre reflects the people of the time • Cultural metaphors • Genres are ritual o Something that is repeated o Community o Significance
Cinematographer/Director of Photography
In charge of camera, grip, and lighting teams, Works with the director to set up shots, chooses lens, movements and lighting. Camera team: camera operator , assistant camera, 2nd assistant/focus puler, loader Grip Team: Grips carry and arrange equipment
Midnight
Midnight is a 1939 American screwball comedy (genre) film the film is about an unemployed showgirl stranded in Paris who is set up by a millionaire to break up his wife's affair with another man. -Classical
What is some reasons for changes in Postclassical films?
Increased Sophistication of consumers and filmmakers; Censorship Loosening; New Technology
What is a Foley Artist?
Individuals who make additional sound effects in a soundstage, usually every day sounds of foot steps, doors closing, in contrast to special sound effects
modernism vs postmodernism
Modernism: about distinction between high and low, Post-modernism: little to no distinction b/t high and low
montages: collision vs thematic
Montages: -Montage: building images together 1) You can also build sounds on top of another or after another 2) Between and among sound: sound and put another sound on top of it to parallel it 3) Between : a sound on top another sound as a contrast Collision: rapidly splice together images to evoke an emotional response Thematic: continuity is based on ideas, irrespective of time and place
Development: High Concept
Most Hollywood films must be "High Concept" 2.This means it must : Be Immediately accessible and easily understood Readily translate into visual terms Intersect with other discourses (transmedia, essentially) so easy to franchise - think toys, etc for Transformers, Star Wars, etc. High Concept: Transmedia: "Franchise, baby"
Post-classical Period
Post Classical Period (1946-1962) There's now a fragmentation of genre -genre experimentation America in transition after WWII Cinema is transitioning from classical to modernist, those classical films are still being made. Genre experimentation begins during this period
pre-production
Pre-Production: (~6 months) 1. scheduling & budgeting Line Producer- helps hire key crew 2. finding locations & building sets 3. Staffing -finding location and scheduling 4. Story boarding 5. Casting Casting Director 6. costume Design & Acquisition Costs: Above the Line: Negotiated cost. Major creative & fanatical players(Directors, Stars, Writers, Producers, etc.) Below The Line: - (technical workers - the majority), purchases, rentals Negative cost combination of above
Development personnel: producer
Producer - makes the script into a movie -- the producer can be independent, assigned by studio, or work for the studio- he/she makes from script to movie happen
iconography
Repreating aural or visual elements of the genre i.e. Cowboy hats, six shooters, hoof sounds (western); starscapes, technology (scifi); trench coats, tommy guns (gangster)
What is Aesthetic Effects of Sound?
Revealer of Reality, Intensifier of Images, Mood and Atmosphere,
Aesthetic of sound
Reveals Reality: art is not to record or to imitate, it's to reveal and intensify Directs your attention: where you hear a sound your eye goes to it Can create mood Create atmosphere
Genre as Ritual
Rituals - holidays, deaths, bdays, weddings ----------------- 3 elements of Ritual------------------- 1. Community - practices by a lot of people 2. Continuity, repetition, tradition, 3.. Significance - transcends the present via links to the past and community
Development personnel: Screenwriter and director
Screenwriter and director also get hired here (unless already attached)
Synchronous sound:
Synchronous sound: 1) A cause relationship between image and sound
Modernism
The Modern Period (1963-1976) Affected all the arts and media throughout 20th century 1. Thematically: Self-conscious engagement with social and moral values . Three Types of Intertextuality 1. Film Intertextuality 2. Non-filmic Intertextuality 3. Extra-filmic Intertextuality 5. Incorporation of Different Materials and Styles 1. Film - referencing other films, Singin, Pulp Fiction, Sunset Blvd 2. Non-filmic - Comic book movies - Prada - fashion - Funny Face 3. Extra- filmic - non-aesthetic areas - Brewster Mcclour - ornitohology Imitation Game - computers, engineering, A Tenuous Hold on Reality 2. The erasure of the distinction between high and low culture 3. Pastiche 4. Representations of Representations/Nostalgia for Past Texts not Realities 5. Depthlessness/Loss of Feeling
Rating, Marketing and Distribution
The Ratings Board -----Spectrum: G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17, Unrated Since 1968, the US uses a rating scene rather than censorship The Motion Picture Association of America uses citizen members who decide on rating Ratings can be appealed or rejected, in which case films are unrated
convention
The ways of creating the world, how the myths are presented i.e. use of song and dance to convey plot (musicals); the shoot out at noon (western), the meet cute (romantic comedy)
Sound Design
Verbal: 1) dialogue: what they say 2) Off-screen narration: spoken by a human voice addressed to the human audience privileging you. We have the I narrator, where a actor narrates. Affberial voice- a voice that goes around the film describing things but we never see them 3) singing Music: 1) Source music: you see the source of the music in the frame and so does the character 2) Scoring/underscoring: music played over the film. Only the audience can hear this. Type of music Length of music Places suitably Sound effects/natural sound: 1) Sound effect: anything other than music or dialogue Silence: 1) Not only a negative thing
Motion Picture Association of America
a group of citizen members who decide film ratings
The Parallax View
a thin plot involving a newspaper reporter named Frady (Warren Beatty) and his independent investigation of an employment bureau for assassins. Detective Thriller, Modernist -deals with issues of politics -"Thematically: Self-conscious engagement with social and moral values" -absurd, corrupt characters -we see the candidate get shot through the view of a window about he gives a speech about independence day -the shots are really interestingly formed and experimental -ex) the slow zoom in on the board/committee of men explaining the murder -use of jumps "three years later" sound: often has political speeches or american songs/anthems in the back of corrupt images -cut from them hugging in the backlit light to her corpse -camera stays on her corpse as the doctors talk in the background -sound is heard of guys talking but you can only see their silhouettes (children train scene) -talking about murder on a children's train ride -the movie is more complex and thought provoking -very formalist -alcohol is poured into a glass on top of a political newspaper article -He kills a man while an alarm goes off as well as the sound of crashing water is on the background -The parallax testing segment is very formalist -in the last scene, he's murdered while a political speech plays in the background "he film's most arresting sequences take place while the track booms away irrelevantly with parade marches, political speeches, patriotic music. There is almost no crucial dialogue, and whole scenes—most notably one aboard an airplane threatened by a bomb—are played out against a subdued jumble of background noise. Later, a politician is murdered while his pre-recorded speech drones on. But while a blind person could not begin to follow the film, neither could a deaf person fully grasp its impact; for the ironic contrast between sight and sound in The Parallax View significantly amplifies the film's theme of deliberately deceptive appearances. Michael Small's sparse music score nicely reflects this irony in its use of a quick series of falling notes for solo trumpet. At its best moments, it calls to mind heroic aspirations echoing ineffectually off the spacious, sterile architecture that becomes the film's principal and most memorable visual image." Modernism focuses on the working class -self consciously questions all social and moral values -protagonist wants to find his place in the world via his journey -no actual meaning in film-value is what you make it There is a clash of culture (high vs low art)
Above the line
creative talent who negotiate salaries such as stars, directors, and prominent technicians such as cinematographers and production designers.
o 1963-76
culture changes (so the genres change) • America left Europe and separated itself from Europe by an ocean • Every aspect of American life changes: politics, religion, business, the image and function of the male, female and family • America in transition • Hollywood has to change its formula -experimentation
pantomime
imitating reality with actions and gestures
o Conventions:
o Conventions: a group of films is distinguished from one another through conventions o This distinguishes a film to a certain genre o A convention of a musical is song and dance, a convention of gangster films is ethnicity
• Hud
o Family melo-drama
• Where do you get the molds of genres?
o From theatre/vaudreville o Comic strips, newspaper headlines, paintings
production designer:
o Helps to decorate the set, scopes out location
• The exorcist
o Horror
o Iconography
o Iconography • Images or sounds that are repeated again and again in a whole group of films that distinguishes it • The sound of machine guns-is an iconic sound in gangster movies
• 1975
o In 1975 Genres became crystallized: classic • The detective thriller
• Modernism
o In every art-form, modernism was felt o Two components of modernism • Content • A modernist work self-consciously questions all social and moral values • Form o Every modernist work no matter the genre has this myth storyline going for it o We have a protagnist who is in search of meaning in the world o A protagonist who is not going to accept the world in the way the world has been given o Ethics • In a modernist world its not as clear cut as good vs evil • In a classical world we find meaning everywhere • In modernist work the world is absurd • There's no meaning whatsoever, the only meaning comes from you • The world is absurd except for the choice that you can make o Art can't be self conscious and modernist work from the beginning set out to be self conscious o modernism made movies do what the other artforms were doing from the beginning-reflecting on themselves and redefining themselves
• Up in the air
o Male melo-drama
• Sunset boulevard
o Melo-drama, detective thriller
All about eve
o Melo-drama-female
• Two for the road
o Romance melo-drama
• The bank job
o Thriller-heist
• 3 types of interrelationships that a formalist work can have
o filmic: a relationship of one text to another film text • uses elements from other films to make itself • or another series of films to make itself o non filmic: a film has a relationship to another art form o extra filmic textuality
Limited distribution
only is a few theaters, usually in major cities
What is a lyrical interlude?
plot stops and character or theme is built through music 1. i.e. "Moon River" scene in Breakfast at Tiffany's
Multiplatform distribution
release in theaters and on-demand, etc.
Genre: Singing in the Rain
singing in the rain is a musical genre: the style is formalism because it's not realistic-it's subjective
Platform distribution
start in some cities to gain word of mouth, then expand
What is Shooting Ratio?
the amount of film exposed divided by the amount used in the finished film.
Negative Cost
the combination of above and below the line costs
myth
the story/stories, the view of reality i.e. Boy meets girl (romantic comedy); the male in crisis (male melodrama); town must be protected from outside threat (western)
Saturation distribution
wide release on opening weekend on 2000+ screens
o Comedy
• About fragmentation-man coming apart • Romantic comedy • The situation and characters need to be stylized • The audience needs to have distance so they can see the point of the fragmentation so they can laugh at the characters • Dialogue is most important in comedy genre • Makes you think Man limited, fallible; opposite of tragedy A stylization/exaggeration of plot and character helps create distance so you can laugh. Shows the discrepancy between reality and ideal; has something to say. The most intellectual of the three basic genres. Subforms Black, gross out, social satire, romantic, farce, parody, etc. Depends upon wit Tends toward well-written dialogue, fast pace.
The Mode of representation/style
• Definition: The manner in which a piece of art is rendered, conceived, and executed and how that rendering enters into its meaning Style can be subjective, objective, or anywhere in between Two aspects of style: 1. Method - the way things are done 2. Attitude of the Mind - the Ideology, philosophy behind it The film has a manor or a style in which this particular film has been conceived or rendered • This has to do with the meaning of the work • Film can be objective in how it represents reality and subjective in how it represents reality
Development: Executive producer
• Executive producer-pays for it (either themselves or gets financing)
Why do we have different genres?
• Financial • Repetition: there's a certain formula that can be repeated o Formula filmmaking • The murder is solved and you know who did it in the end • Advertising • The business is financial • Different genres cost more
• How is Zodiac different or similar from what we've already seen?
• How is Zodiac different or similar from what we've already seen? o The mail carrier was given specific attention o Shot was from the perspective of the mail carrier o In murder on the orient express we were at the crime scene, here the crime has already happened o We aren't seeing the actual murder o Rock music o Lighting is flat o No drama
Why movie criticism is important
• Judging the responsibility of a film is a part of criticism • Watching a movie isn't enough, you need to talk about a movie, this allows you to live the movie fully • Two people need to be responsible in a movie • The people who have made the movie and the people who go see it • Great art is created by great audiences • If you want to respect movies and love movies, the relationship is cemented through criticism • Critical judgment is different from personal taste • Critical judgment means you understand that a movie is good and why that is • You can dislike a good movie
o Tragedy vision/content/myth:
• Man going beyond the bounds and breaking limits, a journey to man's freedom • Man is unlimited, trying to touch the height of the universe • Man being heroic • We don't really have tragedy today because it implies a significant universe • Tragedy inspires fear and pity-this could happen to us • Makes you think An image of man going beyond his bounds; man trying to realize his potential; man unlimited, heroic, breaking limits Dr. Casper says this is not a viable genre today. We prefer passive antiheroes today and we are too secular. Today tragic heroes are evoked in nostalgia (Star Wars), fantasy (Lord of the Rings), and cartoonization (superheroes). The effect of tragedy is fear and pity; not uplift
• Naturalism
• Naturalism is a hyper realism
Post modernism
• New social life, new economic order • Many reasons that bring this change • Post modernism is a reaction to modernism • Post modernist does something distinctly different is a reaction to modernism • Loosy-goosy playing around with reality and truth • Truth vs reality • Postmodern is so much about technology • Money and technology drive the post-modern aestetic-the economy drives it/commerce • No respect for reality or truth • You cant even trust photos now, are they real • We don't want to see reality anymore, we want to see technology on the screen • Post modernism got rid of the distinction between high and low culture o Inability to be original creates a nostalgia of what went before o Postmodernism is as effective as Pringles potatoe chips-art is supposed to nourish your soul and be authentic-not a replica
Development: Producer
• Producer-makes script into a movie Producer - manages the $ & production
o Academic criticism/• Neo-formalism
• Takes a film apart in reference to its formal elements
o Melo-drama
• Theres romance melo-drama, family melo-drama, female and male melo-drama • Deals with typical situations, typical characters, typical actions and dialogues • They resemble us closely • The very concepts of family, romance reflect real life • Concerned with the in grabbing emotions • Clearly designed by the distinction between good and evil Man in action; situations larger than life, but relatable and typical of real life Focus on feeling more than thinking Exaggerates for subjectivity so you feel the characters Tend to have clearly contrasting moral values. Melodrama tends toward coincidences, reversals, hysteria, sudden misfortune, reprisals, apologies, binaries, happy endings Subforms Interior melodramas - family, romance, male, and female Focus on interior, psyche, more real life situations Exterior melodramas - everything else, the 'genre' genres - westerns, adventure, science fiction, war films.
Configuration of genre
•There are three criteria in distinguishing genre • Content/myth • Iconography • Conventions Classification of a film • Plot determines genre • Theme, world views, character, setting, music, conflicts, tensions • All of these things go into classifying a film as a certain genre • Art has two part: the content of what it is saying and how it is saying it: form and content