Sunday, April 15, 2012

1930's Quiz: Wednesday

Three things to do today:

1. Please review for your exam:
Film trends in the 1930's
Sound in film 
The Jazz Singer
Joseph P. Maxfield 
Technicolor
RKO studios
Walt Disney Studios: Flowers & Trees, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The 3 Little Pigs, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck films from the 1930's, other Disney animation
The Wizard of Oz & Judy Garland
Gone With the Wind & Clark Gable
It Happened One Night
Becky Sharp 
The 1930's Star System 
Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy
Boris Karloff & Bela Legosi
Cary Grant
The Marx Brothers
Greta Garbo & Marlene Dietrich
Jean Harlow, and Johnny Weissmuller
Joan Crawford & Bette Davis
Shirley Temple & Mickey Rooney
Spenser Tracy & Katherine Hepburn
Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
Popeye the Sailor
Hal Roach & The Little Rascals
David Selznick & Samuel Goldwyn
Irving Thalberg & Erich Von Stroheim
Joseph Von Sternberg & Fritz Lang
Frank Capra & George Cukor 
Peter Lorre, Fritz Lang & M
Gene Autry & John Wayne (& Westerns)
1930's Musicals
1930's Literary Films
1930's Horror Films
1930's Screwball comedies
1930's Gangster Films
2. Read the article on 1940's film and begin answering questions (to be completed in class Wednesday).
3. Write a 1-2 page film pitch for a talking film (to be completed either Wednesday or Friday this week in class, depending on class participation). Choose a genre popular in the 1930's or 1940's for ideas. Select one and consider characters, settings, and plot elements that might be found in your selected genre. Design a story.
What is a Film Treatment, as opposed to a Film Pitch?
A pitch is used to convince a film company to produce your film. The pitch is usually a one page summary of the main action, characters, and setting of the film. Essentially it deals with the idea.

The film treatment is usually a 3-20 page document that tells the whole story focusing on the highlights. It is more detailed than a pitch. It can include a scene by scene breakdown of a script. It is used BEFORE writing the real script so the author can plan his/her project.

How To Write a Pitch
The pitch, like a treatment, should read like a short story and be written in the present tense. It should present the entire story including the ending, and use some key scenes and dialogue from the screenplay it is based on. Usually a pitch also suggests similarities to other films and actors.
 What Should Be in the Pitch?
1. A Working title
2. The writer's name
3. Introduction to key characters
4. Who, what, when, why and where.
5. Act 1 in one to three paragraphs. Set the scene, dramatize the main conflicts.
6. Act 2 in two to six paragraphs. Should dramatize how the conflicts introduced in Act 1 lead to a crisis.
7. Act 3 in one to three paragraphs. Dramatize the final conflict and resolution.
HOMEWORK: Please read the article on Orson Welles and study for the quiz on 1930's films.

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