After our test, we will continue screening The Maltese Falcon.
HOMEWORK: Continue to write your short film scripts. The script is due Monday, May 5.
HOMEWORK: Continue to write your short film scripts. The script is due Monday, May 5.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Friday, April 25, 2014
Scripting; AP meeting; Test Prep
If you are taking an AP class, please go to the ensemble theater this morning.
This morning for the rest of us, please work on your film scripts. See previous posts, handouts, and use your treatment as a starting point for your project.
If the AP students complete their bubbling and return, we will continue watching The Maltese Falcon.
HOMEWORK: Your script is due Monday, May 5. Please work toward its completion. Our test on 1930's-1940's film happens Tuesday. Please study your notes and materials for the test. See our blog post below.
This morning for the rest of us, please work on your film scripts. See previous posts, handouts, and use your treatment as a starting point for your project.
If the AP students complete their bubbling and return, we will continue watching The Maltese Falcon.
HOMEWORK: Your script is due Monday, May 5. Please work toward its completion. Our test on 1930's-1940's film happens Tuesday. Please study your notes and materials for the test. See our blog post below.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Film Test: 1930-1940
Please review for your exam:
Film trends in the 1930's
Sound in film
Laurel & Hardy: The Music Box
Hal Roach, The Little Rascals
Positive/Negative effects of Sound in Film
The Jazz Singer
Joseph P. Maxfield
The Vitaphone
Technicolor
Narratology: Realist, Classical, Formalistic film styles, narrative techniques
Cross-cutting, montage, multiple perspective
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 (Screwball Comedy)Cary Grant
Jimmy Stewart
Becky Sharp, The Black Pirate (2-strip technicolor)The 1930's Star SystemThe Marx Brothers
Alfred Hitchcock: Rope (1947)
Television: and its effect on film
Drive-In Movie Theaters
HUAC: and its effect on film
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Orson Welles: and his influence on film/cinematography
Film Noir: characteristics and style of the genreHOMEWORK: Study for the exam, April 29.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Film Script Writing; Film Noir & The Maltese Falcon
The Elements of Film Noir (documentary)
Please take a look at the clip above and watch the Orson Welles Citizen Kane blog post and links (see posts below) this morning or as homework by next class. During period 1, please work on your script project.
Use your treatment (this should already be written). Open the same file.
In script format, add details, dialogue, description, camera work, etc. that you think would be important to include to tell your story in a creative way. Refer to the handouts about how to format your script. You can also check here for more info.
During period 2, we'll go next door to begin our screening of the film noir classic film: The Maltese Falcon. Here are a few things to watch for as we screen The Maltese Falcon:
1. A protagonist that is cynical or detached
2. A femme fatale who leads the protagonist astray
3. A mystery, crime, or use of suspense
4. A naive scapegoat to take the rap of some "crime"
5. Goons (hired criminals who give the protagonist a hard time)
6. Razor sharp dialogue
7. Reference and description of low key lighting
The Maltese Falcon, directed and written for the screen by John Huston
Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
The Third Man
The Big Sleep
Double Indemnity (full film)
Casablanca
Now a little technique and advice about making films:
Please take a look at the clip above and watch the Orson Welles Citizen Kane blog post and links (see posts below) this morning or as homework by next class. During period 1, please work on your script project.
Use your treatment (this should already be written). Open the same file.
In script format, add details, dialogue, description, camera work, etc. that you think would be important to include to tell your story in a creative way. Refer to the handouts about how to format your script. You can also check here for more info.
During period 2, we'll go next door to begin our screening of the film noir classic film: The Maltese Falcon. Here are a few things to watch for as we screen The Maltese Falcon:
1. A protagonist that is cynical or detached
2. A femme fatale who leads the protagonist astray
3. A mystery, crime, or use of suspense
4. A naive scapegoat to take the rap of some "crime"
5. Goons (hired criminals who give the protagonist a hard time)
6. Razor sharp dialogue
7. Reference and description of low key lighting
The Maltese Falcon, directed and written for the screen by John Huston
Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
- Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade
- Mary Astor as Brigid O'Shaughnessy
- Gladys George as Iva Archer
- Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo
- Barton MacLane as Lt. of Detectives Dundy
- Lee Patrick as Effie Perrine
- Sydney Greenstreet as Kasper Gutman
- Ward Bond as Detective Tom Polhaus
- Jerome Cowan as Miles Archer
- Elisha Cook, Jr. as Wilmer Cook
The Third Man
The Big Sleep
Double Indemnity (full film)
Casablanca
Now a little technique and advice about making films:
- Lighting Techniques (for student film makers)
- How to shoot a Noir film (documentary; how-to)
- Mise en Scene (documentary; how-to)
HOMEWORK: Please continue writing your film script. The script is due May 5. Complete as much homework as needed to meet this deadline. If you have not yet done so, watch and take notes on the Citizen Kane clips below (and read the handout given to you before break on Orson Welles).
Monday, April 21, 2014
The Emergence of Television & Drive-In Movie Theaters
This morning, please follow Ms. Guy's instructions as she teaches you about Television:
EQ:
While in the lab, please read the following articles and links. Take notes and answer the appropriate questions in your research.
The History of Television (particularly important to those of you planning on studying communications, media journalism, and/or broadcasting) is quite interesting. How much do you really know about that flat screen you have hanging on your wall? Read the article (stop at the 1970's) and link.
Drive-In Theatres:
A little history.
Richard Hollingshead, a young sales manager at his dad's Whiz Auto Products, invented something that combined his two interests: cars and movies.
Richard Hollingshead's vision was an open-air movie theater where moviegoers could watch from their own cars. He experimented in his own driveway in New Jersey. Hollingshead mounted a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car, projected onto a screen he had nailed to trees in his backyard, and used a radio placed behind the screen for sound. Clever!
The inventor subjected his beta drive-in to vigorous testing: for sound quality, for different weather conditions (Hollingshead used a lawn sprinkler to imitate rain) and for figuring out how to park the patrons' cars. He lined up the cars in his driveway, which created a problem with line of sight. By spacing cars at various distances and placing blocks and ramps under the front wheels of cars, Richard Hollingshead created the perfect parking arrangement for the drive-in movie theater experience.
The first patent for the Drive-In Theater (United States Patent# 1,909,537) was issued on May 16, 1933. With an investment of $30,000, Richard opened the first drive-in on June 6, 1933 at a location in Camden, New Jersey. The price of admission was 25 cents for the car and 25 cents per person.
The design did not include the in-car speaker system we know today. The inventor contacted a company by the name of RCA Victor to provide the sound system, called "Directional Sound." Three main speakers were mounted next to the screen that provided sound. The sound quality was not good for cars in the rear of the theater or for the surrounding neighbors.
The largest drive-in theater in patron capacity was the All-Weather Drive-In of Copiague, New York. All-Weather had parking space for 2,500 cars, an indoor 1,200 seat viewing area, kid's playground, a full service restaurant and a shuttle train that took customers from their cars and around the 28-acre theater lot.
Please take a look at these clips. Drive in down memory lane...
Clip A.
Clip B.
EQ:
- How does 40’s TV compare or contrast with our current television shows?
- Does television reflect what society looks like?
- Compare TV then of TV now.
· Write down some things that were interesting to you from the video.
· What do you think of the commercials and what was most interesting to you?
While in the lab, please read the following articles and links. Take notes and answer the appropriate questions in your research.
The History of Television (particularly important to those of you planning on studying communications, media journalism, and/or broadcasting) is quite interesting. How much do you really know about that flat screen you have hanging on your wall? Read the article (stop at the 1970's) and link.
Drive-In Theatres:
A little history.
Richard Hollingshead, a young sales manager at his dad's Whiz Auto Products, invented something that combined his two interests: cars and movies.
Richard Hollingshead's vision was an open-air movie theater where moviegoers could watch from their own cars. He experimented in his own driveway in New Jersey. Hollingshead mounted a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car, projected onto a screen he had nailed to trees in his backyard, and used a radio placed behind the screen for sound. Clever!
The inventor subjected his beta drive-in to vigorous testing: for sound quality, for different weather conditions (Hollingshead used a lawn sprinkler to imitate rain) and for figuring out how to park the patrons' cars. He lined up the cars in his driveway, which created a problem with line of sight. By spacing cars at various distances and placing blocks and ramps under the front wheels of cars, Richard Hollingshead created the perfect parking arrangement for the drive-in movie theater experience.
The first patent for the Drive-In Theater (United States Patent# 1,909,537) was issued on May 16, 1933. With an investment of $30,000, Richard opened the first drive-in on June 6, 1933 at a location in Camden, New Jersey. The price of admission was 25 cents for the car and 25 cents per person.
The design did not include the in-car speaker system we know today. The inventor contacted a company by the name of RCA Victor to provide the sound system, called "Directional Sound." Three main speakers were mounted next to the screen that provided sound. The sound quality was not good for cars in the rear of the theater or for the surrounding neighbors.
The largest drive-in theater in patron capacity was the All-Weather Drive-In of Copiague, New York. All-Weather had parking space for 2,500 cars, an indoor 1,200 seat viewing area, kid's playground, a full service restaurant and a shuttle train that took customers from their cars and around the 28-acre theater lot.
Please take a look at these clips. Drive in down memory lane...
Clip A.
Clip B.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Alfred Hitchcock & Rope
Alfred Hitchcock is considered the "master of suspense" and his career in film was a long and influential one:
His first full length film was The Lodger and appeared in 1926. This was followed by Downhill (1927), The Ring (1927), Champagne (1928), The Farmer's Wife (1928), and Easy Virtue (1928), The Manxman (1929), and Blackmail (1929). These were British silent films (Blackmail was not, as you can hear). You are free to watch any of these films as extra credit.
In the1930's, Hitchcock made even more films, mostly suspense films for which he became famous. These included: Rich and Strange (1931), The Skin Game (1931), Number 17 (1932), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) with Peter Lorre, The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), Secret Agent (1936), Young and Innocent (1937), The Lady Vanishes (1938), Jamaica Inn (1939), then Foreign Correspondent (1940).
At this point in his career, Alfred Hitchcock moves to Hollywood to work with producer David O. Selznick. He makes a variety of films for Selznick, although the two approached film from a very different perspective. Hitchcock often felt trapped or restricted by Selznick's contract. The films include: Rebecca (1940) Laurence Olivier, Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Joseph Cotten, Life Boat (1944) Talula Bankhead, Spellbound (1945) with Gregory Peck, Notorious Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman (1946), The Paradine Case (1947), Rope (1948) with Farley Granger & Jimmy Stewart, and Under Capricorn (1949) Ingrid Bergman.
His first full length film was The Lodger and appeared in 1926. This was followed by Downhill (1927), The Ring (1927), Champagne (1928), The Farmer's Wife (1928), and Easy Virtue (1928), The Manxman (1929), and Blackmail (1929). These were British silent films (Blackmail was not, as you can hear). You are free to watch any of these films as extra credit.
In the1930's, Hitchcock made even more films, mostly suspense films for which he became famous. These included: Rich and Strange (1931), The Skin Game (1931), Number 17 (1932), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) with Peter Lorre, The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), Secret Agent (1936), Young and Innocent (1937), The Lady Vanishes (1938), Jamaica Inn (1939), then Foreign Correspondent (1940).
At this point in his career, Alfred Hitchcock moves to Hollywood to work with producer David O. Selznick. He makes a variety of films for Selznick, although the two approached film from a very different perspective. Hitchcock often felt trapped or restricted by Selznick's contract. The films include: Rebecca (1940) Laurence Olivier, Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Joseph Cotten, Life Boat (1944) Talula Bankhead, Spellbound (1945) with Gregory Peck, Notorious Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman (1946), The Paradine Case (1947), Rope (1948) with Farley Granger & Jimmy Stewart, and Under Capricorn (1949) Ingrid Bergman.
Film Noir & Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
Please turn in your pitch assignments today.
The Elements of Film Noir (documentary)
Here are a few things to watch for in the film noir genre:
1. A protagonist that is cynical or detached
2. A femme fatale who leads the protagonist astray
3. A mystery, crime, or use of suspense
4. A naive scapegoat to take the rap of some "crime"
5. Goons (hired criminals who give the protagonist a hard time)
6. Razor sharp dialogue
7. Reference and description of low key lighting
Film noir films of the 1940's:
The Third Man
The Big Sleep
Double Indemnity (full film)
Casablanca
Now a little technique and advice about making films:
The Elements of Film Noir (documentary)
Here are a few things to watch for in the film noir genre:
1. A protagonist that is cynical or detached
2. A femme fatale who leads the protagonist astray
3. A mystery, crime, or use of suspense
4. A naive scapegoat to take the rap of some "crime"
5. Goons (hired criminals who give the protagonist a hard time)
6. Razor sharp dialogue
7. Reference and description of low key lighting
Film noir films of the 1940's:
The Third Man
The Big Sleep
Double Indemnity (full film)
Casablanca
Now a little technique and advice about making films:
- Lighting Techniques (for student film makers)
- How to shoot a Noir film (documentary; how-to)
- Mise en Scene (documentary; how-to)
CITIZEN KANE & ORSON WELLES
Citizen Kane is considered the world's #1 film. It is typically included in film studies curriculum. Because we are far behind schedule in our course, we will be skimming over the film, examining a few scenes.
Today, please watch these scenes from Citizen Kane (1941):
Welles directed, wrote (partial), and starred in this film (even though it was thought he wasn't old enough to portray Kane). While Welles had direct control over the film and its look, there were other people who contributed artistically. Some of the invention and creativity of film making includes:
Today, please watch these scenes from Citizen Kane (1941):
- Opening sequence: "Rosebud"
- Citizen Kane: Library scene: Chiaroscuro lighting
- Citizen Kane: Deep Focus Shot
- Citizen Kane: How to Run a Newspaper
- Citizen Kane: There is a Man...
- Citizen Kane: Effective Transitioning
- Citizen Kane: Lighting
- Citizen Kane: Multiple Perspective
- Citizen Kane: Low Angle shot
- Citizen Kane: Famous Icon: Speech
- Citizen Kane: Dissolve Montage & Deep Focus shot example
- Hall of Mirrors Sequence
Welles directed, wrote (partial), and starred in this film (even though it was thought he wasn't old enough to portray Kane). While Welles had direct control over the film and its look, there were other people who contributed artistically. Some of the invention and creativity of film making includes:
The Deep Focus shot!
Low angle shots revealing ceilings!
Moving shots used as wipes!
Overlapping dialogue! (not original to Welles, but a trend in Screwball Comedies)
Long uninterrupted shots!
Expressionist lighting and photography!
Multiple perspective! (adds complexity to a plot...)Orson Welles, Other Films from the 1940's & 1950's:
- The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
- The Magnificent Ambersons (snowride scene)
- Macbeth (1948)
- The Third Man (1949)
- Othello (1952)
- Mr. Arkadin (1955)
- Touch of Evil (1958)
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
The Treatment
What is a Film Treatment?
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 or premise of the film.
The film treatment is usually a 2-5 page document that tells the whole story focusing on the highlights. Actually, the professional ones are more like 5-30 pages, but we'll shorten that for you.
A film treatment 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. Yes, you read that right: plan.
How To Write a Treatment
The 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. For a sample of what this looks like, check out the handout "Terminator" by James Cameron.
What Should Be in the Treatment?
Basic screenplay structure for a full length film usually has three acts.
In The Poetics, Aristotle suggested that all stories should have a beginning, middle, and an end. Well, duh. You know that. But really. You need to remember this advice.
Breaking the plot of a story into three parts, gives us a 3-part or act structure. The word "act" means "the action of carrying something out. For our purposes think act one (beginning), act two (middle), and act three (end) of your short film.
Act 1, called the Set-up, The situation and characters and conflict are introduced. This classically is 30 minutes long. For a short film it can be only a few minutes or 1 minute.
Act 2, called The Conflict, often an hour long, is where the conflict begins and expands until it reaches a crisis.
Act 3, called The Resolution, the conflict rises to one more crisis (the last one called the climax) and then is resolved.
How To Write The Treatment
Find A Title
Your treatment should include a synopsis.
Treatment sample #1
Treatment sample #2
HOMEWORK: Your treatment is due Thursday at the BEGINNING of class. We'll be watching The Maltese Falcon Thursday. To prepare for this, please read the article on Film Noir for Thursday. You should know the stylistic characteristics of this genre of film.
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 or premise of the film.
The film treatment is usually a 2-5 page document that tells the whole story focusing on the highlights. Actually, the professional ones are more like 5-30 pages, but we'll shorten that for you.
A film treatment 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. Yes, you read that right: plan.
How To Write a Treatment
The 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. For a sample of what this looks like, check out the handout "Terminator" by James Cameron.
What Should Be in the Treatment?
1. A Working titleThe Three Act Structure
2. The writer's name
3. Introduction to key characters
4. Who, what, when, why and where. Describe each setting. Describe each MAJOR or important character. Describe the "what" of each scene: what's going on, etc. and think about the WHY: why does the character do this, live here, work there, want this or that?, etc.
5. Act 1 in one to three paragraphs. Set the scene, dramatize the main conflicts. Break your treatment into BEGINNING, MIDDLE, END. Your beginning will deal with exposition, the inciting incident, and maybe a couple of conflicts presented in the rising action. It is typical to end the first act with a turning point for the protagonist.
6. Act 2 in two to six paragraphs. Should dramatize how the conflicts introduced in Act 1 lead to a crisis or dark moment.
7. Act 3 in one to three paragraphs. Dramatize the final conflict and resolution. The third act typically includes the climax of the story and its denouement or resolution. For help in plotting, read the next section carefully.
Basic screenplay structure for a full length film usually has three acts.
In The Poetics, Aristotle suggested that all stories should have a beginning, middle, and an end. Well, duh. You know that. But really. You need to remember this advice.
Breaking the plot of a story into three parts, gives us a 3-part or act structure. The word "act" means "the action of carrying something out. For our purposes think act one (beginning), act two (middle), and act three (end) of your short film.
Act 1, called the Set-up, The situation and characters and conflict are introduced. This classically is 30 minutes long. For a short film it can be only a few minutes or 1 minute.
Act 2, called The Conflict, often an hour long, is where the conflict begins and expands until it reaches a crisis.
Act 3, called The Resolution, the conflict rises to one more crisis (the last one called the climax) and then is resolved.
How To Write The Treatment
Find A Title
The first contact a prospective producer has with a script is the title. Pick a title that gives a clear idea of what genre the screenplay is written in. Blood House is probably not a romantic comedy. Americans like one or two word titles: Psycho, Saw, The Hobbit, Rocky, Pan's Labyrinth, Star Wars, Animal House, Tangled, Avatar, Pinocchio, etc.After a title, start a logline: a brief one sentence summary of the movie. For example: And Then Came Love is a character-driven romantic comedy about a high-powered Manhattan single mom who opens Pandora's box when she seeks out the anonymous sperm donor father of her young son.
Your treatment should include a synopsis.
Treatment sample #1
Treatment sample #2
HOMEWORK: Your treatment is due Thursday at the BEGINNING of class. We'll be watching The Maltese Falcon Thursday. To prepare for this, please read the article on Film Noir for Thursday. You should know the stylistic characteristics of this genre of film.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Technicolor; Walt Disney; Treatments
Congratulations to Grace & Gena for winning 2nd place in the Sokol competition. We are proud of you! Geva is contacting people about scripts, so if you submitted and won something, please let me know!
Thank you all who attended the Coffeehouse last night. You represented your class very well! Yay!
Please turn in your Disney response (see posts below--look under homework!) and turn in the narratology essay you were supposed to have turned in last class. If you don't have it, add it to your homework stack and complete it this weekend. Chop-chop. Please do yourself the favor of participating in our class consistently. Not completing homework (even if you are absent--and especially if you are absent) will leave you with a bottle-neck of work at the end of a marking period. Work steadily!
Color tends to be a subconscious element in film. It has an emotional appeal which often suggests mood of the film or characters in it. At its most effective, complimentary characters are dressed in complimentary colors--antagonists are dressed in contrasting colors to their protagonists. Characters can match or contrast their settings and a whole host of other useful symbols can be created with color.
The first Technicolor film was THE GULF BETWEEN (U.S., 1917), a five-reeler made by Technicolor Motion Picture Corp. in Florida mainly for trade showings in eastern cities, to create interest in color movies among producers and exhibitors. It did not receive nationwide distribution. A lost film today, only a few frames survive.
The first two strip Technicolor feature made in Hollywood, and the first to receive nationwide distribution, was the costume drama THE TOLL OF THE SEA (1922).
Another silent movie filmed entirely in two strip Technicolor was the swashbuckler THE BLACK PIRATE (U.S., 1926), produced by and starring Douglas Fairbanks.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (Cecil B. DeMille's epic, 1923) THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) BEN-HUR (1925) and KING OF KINGS (Cecil B. DeMille, 1926) used color as a gimmick or in parts.
The first all-talking Technicolor feature was the Warner Bros. musical ON WITH THE SHOW (1929).
All of the color films up to this point were two-color processes, which could capture only two of the three primary colors of light.
In 1932, Technicolor perfected a three-color motion picture process (also known as three-strip Technicolor, because three negatives were employed in the camera, one for each primary color of light -- red, green, and blue).
It was introduced with the Walt Disney cartoon FLOWERS AND TREES (1932), which won the first Academy Award for Animation. Walt Disney kept a monopoly on 3-color technicolor from 1932-1935.
The first feature-length movie in three-strip Technicolor was the costume comedy-drama BECKY SHARP (U.S., 1935)
Technicolor used a three color system: red, blue, green (these colors therefore are most vivid)
Early color was used as an expression (expressionism) of the director’s or cinematographer’s story, and so early films with color tend to be ones that are formalistic, artificial, or exotic. Color was often not used for “realistic” movies.
Warm colors: red, yellow, orange (brown)
Cool colors: Blue, green, violet (white)
Technicolor fragments.
Phantom of the Opera Masquerade Scene
During the 1930's, technicolor was still expensive. It was still being used as a movie gimmick as seen here. The Women (1939); here's the trailer
It was therefore technicolor and the 3 strip technicolor process that rocketed the Walt Disney Studios into a formidable film studio. Please refer to the chapter on Walt Disney (see previous handout that you probably discarded) and take notes on him, his studio, and why he's important in the film industry.
What is a Film Treatment?
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 2-5 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 Treatment
The 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.
What Should Be in the Treatment?
Basic screenplay structure for a full length film usually has three acts.
In The Poetics, Aristotle suggested that all stories should have a beginning, middle, and an end. Well, duh. You know that. But really. You need to remember this advice.
Breaking the plot of a story into three parts, gives us a 3-part or act structure. The word "act" means "the action of carrying something out. For our purposes think act one (beginning), act two (middle), and act three (end) of your short film.
Act 1, called the Set-up, The situation and characters and conflict are introduced. This classically is 30 minutes long. For a short film it can be only a few minutes or 1 minute.
Act 2, called The Conflict, often an hour long, is where the conflict begins and expands until it reaches a crisis.
Act 3, called The Resolution, the conflict rises to one more crisis (the last one called the climax) and then is resolved.
How To Write The Treatment
Find A Title
Your treatment should include a synopsis.
Treatment sample #1
Treatment sample #2
Thank you all who attended the Coffeehouse last night. You represented your class very well! Yay!
Please turn in your Disney response (see posts below--look under homework!) and turn in the narratology essay you were supposed to have turned in last class. If you don't have it, add it to your homework stack and complete it this weekend. Chop-chop. Please do yourself the favor of participating in our class consistently. Not completing homework (even if you are absent--and especially if you are absent) will leave you with a bottle-neck of work at the end of a marking period. Work steadily!
Color in Film
Color tends to be a subconscious element in film. It has an emotional appeal which often suggests mood of the film or characters in it. At its most effective, complimentary characters are dressed in complimentary colors--antagonists are dressed in contrasting colors to their protagonists. Characters can match or contrast their settings and a whole host of other useful symbols can be created with color.
The first Technicolor film was THE GULF BETWEEN (U.S., 1917), a five-reeler made by Technicolor Motion Picture Corp. in Florida mainly for trade showings in eastern cities, to create interest in color movies among producers and exhibitors. It did not receive nationwide distribution. A lost film today, only a few frames survive.
The first two strip Technicolor feature made in Hollywood, and the first to receive nationwide distribution, was the costume drama THE TOLL OF THE SEA (1922).
Another silent movie filmed entirely in two strip Technicolor was the swashbuckler THE BLACK PIRATE (U.S., 1926), produced by and starring Douglas Fairbanks.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (Cecil B. DeMille's epic, 1923) THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) BEN-HUR (1925) and KING OF KINGS (Cecil B. DeMille, 1926) used color as a gimmick or in parts.
The first all-talking Technicolor feature was the Warner Bros. musical ON WITH THE SHOW (1929).
All of the color films up to this point were two-color processes, which could capture only two of the three primary colors of light.
In 1932, Technicolor perfected a three-color motion picture process (also known as three-strip Technicolor, because three negatives were employed in the camera, one for each primary color of light -- red, green, and blue).
It was introduced with the Walt Disney cartoon FLOWERS AND TREES (1932), which won the first Academy Award for Animation. Walt Disney kept a monopoly on 3-color technicolor from 1932-1935.
The first feature-length movie in three-strip Technicolor was the costume comedy-drama BECKY SHARP (U.S., 1935)
Technicolor used a three color system: red, blue, green (these colors therefore are most vivid)
Early color was used as an expression (expressionism) of the director’s or cinematographer’s story, and so early films with color tend to be ones that are formalistic, artificial, or exotic. Color was often not used for “realistic” movies.
Warm colors: red, yellow, orange (brown)
Cool colors: Blue, green, violet (white)
Technicolor fragments.
Phantom of the Opera Masquerade Scene
During the 1930's, technicolor was still expensive. It was still being used as a movie gimmick as seen here. The Women (1939); here's the trailer
It was therefore technicolor and the 3 strip technicolor process that rocketed the Walt Disney Studios into a formidable film studio. Please refer to the chapter on Walt Disney (see previous handout that you probably discarded) and take notes on him, his studio, and why he's important in the film industry.
- Mickey Mouse in 1928's short animated film: Steamboat Willie (1928)
- Silly Symphony, Walt Disney: Cannibal Capers (1930)
- Silly Symphony, Walt Disney: Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Pluto in Beach Party (1931)
- Flowers and Trees (1932) Walt Disney, but starring no one important
Disney's The Three Little Pigs (1933) - Mickey's Polo Team (1936--try to identify the famous caricatures)
- Donald Duck, Der Fuehrer's Face (1937)
- Education for Death (1943) (WWII Propaganda film)
- Little Hiawatha (1937)
- Clock Cleaners, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy (1937)
- Ferdinand, the Bull (1938, Oscar Winner)
- Scene from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
- Scene from Pinocchio (1940)
What is a Film Treatment?
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 2-5 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 Treatment
The 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.
What Should Be in the Treatment?
1. A Working titleThe Three Act Structure
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.
Basic screenplay structure for a full length film usually has three acts.
In The Poetics, Aristotle suggested that all stories should have a beginning, middle, and an end. Well, duh. You know that. But really. You need to remember this advice.
Breaking the plot of a story into three parts, gives us a 3-part or act structure. The word "act" means "the action of carrying something out. For our purposes think act one (beginning), act two (middle), and act three (end) of your short film.
Act 1, called the Set-up, The situation and characters and conflict are introduced. This classically is 30 minutes long. For a short film it can be only a few minutes or 1 minute.
Act 2, called The Conflict, often an hour long, is where the conflict begins and expands until it reaches a crisis.
Act 3, called The Resolution, the conflict rises to one more crisis (the last one called the climax) and then is resolved.
How To Write The Treatment
Find A Title
The first contact a prospective producer has with a script is the title. Pick a title that gives a clear idea of what genre the screenplay is written in. Blood House is probably not a romantic comedy. Americans like one or two word titles: Psycho, Saw, The Hobbit, Rocky, Pan's Labyrinth, Star Wars, Animal House, Tangled, Avatar, Pinocchio, etc.After a title, start a logline: a brief one sentence summary of the movie. For example: And Then Came Love is a character-driven romantic comedy about a high-powered Manhattan single mom who opens Pandora's box when she seeks out the anonymous sperm donor father of her young son.
Your treatment should include a synopsis.
Treatment sample #1
Treatment sample #2
Coffeehouse 2014
John and Jake and the Tube of Toothpaste: Khamphasong Inthavong
Czar Wars: Nikki Ehmann & Gena Driscoll
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Writing a Film Paper
In the beginning of this course we talked about different film writing experiences: the film fan, the film reviewer, the film historian, and the film critic. There is, of course, the final one which is the film writer, but we'll hold off on that one for today.
Students interested in majoring in film production or film studies in college are often asked to read scripts and watch films, after which the student is asked to analyze and evaluate the experience. Such practice is a good way to prepare yourself for a more academic film career.
Today, try your own hand at writing a film analysis. Your essay should fall between 500-1,000 words, with the lower numbers being a minimum requirement probably for students weak in their writing skills or who have not actually read. Aim for about 750 words (2-3 pages, double spaced).
Follow the prompt given to you by the sub. Work on your film script paper focusing on the topic of narratology. Before you begin in earnest, plan your essay in a notebook/journal by collecting some examples of key scenes or examples you found in the script (I asked you to take notes--see post details below). Use your notes to help you write and structure your essay.
Your paper is due by the end of class. Good luck!
If you finish early, please watch any film clips you missed (see posts below), and/or work on your homework for Friday.
HOMEWORK: Complete the reading of the Disney chapter handout and write your personal reflection, ready to hand in Friday, April 4.
Students interested in majoring in film production or film studies in college are often asked to read scripts and watch films, after which the student is asked to analyze and evaluate the experience. Such practice is a good way to prepare yourself for a more academic film career.
Today, try your own hand at writing a film analysis. Your essay should fall between 500-1,000 words, with the lower numbers being a minimum requirement probably for students weak in their writing skills or who have not actually read. Aim for about 750 words (2-3 pages, double spaced).
Follow the prompt given to you by the sub. Work on your film script paper focusing on the topic of narratology. Before you begin in earnest, plan your essay in a notebook/journal by collecting some examples of key scenes or examples you found in the script (I asked you to take notes--see post details below). Use your notes to help you write and structure your essay.
Your paper is due by the end of class. Good luck!
If you finish early, please watch any film clips you missed (see posts below), and/or work on your homework for Friday.
HOMEWORK: Complete the reading of the Disney chapter handout and write your personal reflection, ready to hand in Friday, April 4.
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The Murky Middle (Even More Advice)
Aristotle wrote that stories should have a beginning, middle, and end. Middles can be difficult. You might have a smashing opening to a stor...
