Film Exam Review

Exam review

Our final exam covers a lot here. Please study and use your notes you took in class (there was a reason you should have taken notes) to study from. Look back at the blog posts and read or view the clips/articles that were linked. You will be responsible for anything that is posted there--including:
The Movies Learn to Speak (article)
The Jazz Singer (1927) & Don Juan (1926), Al Jolson, Vitaphone, etc.
The Benefits and Problems concerning SOUND IN FILM
1930's Golden Age of Film: (blog post)
Hal Roach, Laurel & Hardy, "The Music Box" (1931), The Little Rascals
Universal Horror films and stars
Screwball comedies & style
Frank Capra films
Genre films: Gangster, War, Westerns, Musicals, Animation, Adventure
Famous actors/personalities in 1930's & 1940's films
RKO, King Kong (1933), Fay Wray--the scream queen, Max Steiner, Ray Harryhausen
The Marx Brothers: Duck Soup (1933)
Influence of the Great Depression on film, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart
Narratology, style of film, narrative techniques, avant garde films
Technicolor (Walt Disney article) and color in film
Walt Disney, Snow White (1937) (article & blog posts)
Warner Brothers Looney Tunes (animation in 1930-1970)
How to write a treatment, 3-act structure; how to write a script
John Huston, dir.; Humphrey Bogart: The Maltese Falcon
Film Noir (article "Murder, Greed, & Betrayal: The Dark Streets of Film Noir")
The characteristics of Film Noir, how German Expressionism influenced Film Noir, etc.
The Wizard of Oz & Gone With the Wind (1939, color in film)
Citizen Kane (1941) & Orson Welles and his influence on film (Orson Welles Comes to Town article)
Mise-en-scene & deep focus shots, auteur, diegetic & non diegetic sound, styles of film, mise-en-shot, montage, continuity editing, editing, producing, etc. (various posts)
Angles, shot types, 180 degree rule, how to direct, produce, and write a film, etc.
World War II and its affect on film
Alfred Hitchcock, Rope (1947), Psycho (1960); the MacGuffin
The Emergence of Television (article)
Samuel Goldwyn (MGM), influence of television on the film industry ("The Emergence of Television" article)
HUAC and the Communist Witch Hunt, McCarthy Era, Fatty Arbuckle scandal, Ring Lardner, blacklisting (HUAC article)
Drive-in Theaters
AIP & Samuel Z. Arkoff (American International Pictures: A Blueprint for Success" article)
Ed Wood & Roger Corman
William Castle
1950's Science Fiction films, The Cold War & its influence on film
MPPA relaxing its restrictions (article)
Jack Valenti, Mike Nichols, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (1966) ("Relaxing Restrictions: MPAA Ratings System article)
Ratings system: G, M, R, X and what the letter stands for--later G, PG, R, NC17
How to direct, how to edit, how to write a film script
1960's film trends
The New Hollywood: America's New Wave (article)
Dennis Hopper, Easy Rider (American New Wave)
Steven Spielberg & George Lucas; Star Wars (1977): blockbusters & their influence in film
Blaxploitation (article)
CGI, Toy Story (1995) (article)
Producers, directors, writers, foley artist, grip, cinematographers, and film occupations
1970's-1980's film trends
Francis Ford Coppola
Roman Polanski
Martin Scorsese
Ridley Scott
Spike Lee
1990's-2000's film trends
Quentin Tarantino films
Will Smith (actor)
Hayao Miyazaki
Peter Jackson


Blog posts from April 1 through June 6.

1990's Film Trends

Please read the following article on 1990's film trends. Take notes on the graphic organizer. When completed, take a look at some of these 1990's - 2000's clips.

1990's Films (samplings):

• Ghost (1990)
• Home Alone (1990)
• Goodfellas (1990)
• Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• Boyz in the Hood (1991)
• Jungle Fever (1991)
• The Crying Game (1992)
• Malcolm X (1992)
• Jurassic Park (1993)
• Schindler's List (1993)
• Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
• Forest Gump (1994)
• The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
• Braveheart (1995)
• Seven (1995)
• Scream (1996)
• Fargo (1996)
• Don't Be a Menace (1996)
• Titanic (1997)
• L.A. Confidential (1997)
• Armistad (1997)
• Saving Private Ryan (1998)
• The Big Lebowski (1998)
• Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
• The Matrix (1999)
• American Beauty (1999)
• Fight Club (1999)
• The Sixth Sense (1999)
• The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Quentin Tarantino (director) Films:

• Reservoir Dogs (1992)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Natural Born Killers (1994)
• From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
• Jackie Brown (1997)

Will Smith: (popular actor)

• Six Degrees of Separation (1993)
• Made in America (1993)
• Bad Boys (1996)
• Independence Day (1996)
• Men in Black (1997)
• Enemy of the State (1998)
• Wild, Wild West (1999)
• Ali (2001)

Animated Films:

• Little Mermaid (1989)
• Beauty and the Beast (1991)
• Aladdin (1992)
• The Lion King (1994)
• Toy Story (1995)
• Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
• Princess Mononoke (1997)
• Mulan (1998) 
• A Bug's Life (1998)
• South Park, the Movie (1999)
• Antz (1999)
• Tarzan (1999)
• Chicken Run (2000)
• Shrek (2001)
• Ice Age (2002)
• Spirited Away (2002)

Other films from the 90's (90 samples...)

Most Memorable Movies from the 2000's

HOMEWORK: Take a look at some of these 1990's and 2000's films. The rest of your film education is up to you now. 

1970's-1980's Film Trends/Directors; Film Project

Please continue to work on your film project. Edit, edit, edit. Look at the tips from the post below on editing. Leave your editor to work and complete your homework.

HOMEWORK: Please read the packet on these directors and watch their film clips/trailers. Take note of popular styles and trends in the 1970's and 1980's. Use the graphic organizer to collect your notes. Anything here is fair game for the final exam next week.

Francis Ford Coppola

• Godfather (1972)
• Godfather, Part II (1974)
• Apocalypse Now (1979)

Roman Polanski

• Rosemary's Baby (1968)
• Chinatown (1974)
• Frantic (1988)
• The Pianist (2002)

Martin Scorsese

• The Taxi Driver (1976)
• Raging Bull (1980)
• Goodfellas (1990)
• Gangs of New York (2002)
• The Departed (2006)

Ridley Scott

• Alien (1979)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• Thelma & Louise (1991)
• Gladiator (2000)
• The Martian (2015)

Spike Lee 

• Do The Right Thing  (1989)
• Jungle Fever (1991)
• Malcolm X (1992)
• Inside Man (2006)
• Selma (2014)

Trends:
The sequel became standard fare in the 1980's. So, too, with the cult popularity of Dungeons & Dragons RPG, fantasy films became popular as well. Science fiction epics, inspired by the success of Star Wars, spewed out hundreds of imitations. The relaxation from the MPAA, the popularity of Hitchcock's films, as well as the drive-in B-horror films, grindhouse films, and exploitation films cut a path for slasher films. A revisit from the 1950's and 60's teen films inspired a new generation of filmmakers and moviegoers. Here are a sample:

Slasher Films
Friday the 13th  (1980)
Friday the 13th, part 2 (1981)
Friday the 13th, part 3 in 3d (1982)
Halloween (1978)
Halloween, part 2 (1981)
Terror Train (1980)
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
The Shining (1980) Stanley Kubrick

Fantasy & Sci-Fi Epics
Star Wars (1977) George Lucas, dir.
Lord of the Rings (1977) Ralph Bakshi, dir.
Wizards (1977) Ralph Bakshi, dir.
Startrek (1979)
Superman (1979)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980), George Lucas, dir.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Steven Spielberg, dir.
Excalibur (1981) John Boorman, dir.
Dragonslayer (1981)
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Beastmaster (1982)
The Dark Crystal (1982), Jim Henson, dir.
ET (1982), Steven Spielberg, dir.
Krull (1983)
Legend (1985) Ridley Scott, dir.
Labyrinth (1986) Jim Henson, George Lucas, dir.
The Princess Bride (1987) Rob Reiner, dir.
Beetlejuice (1988), Tim Burton, dir.
Willow (1988), George Lucas, dir.

Teenage Films
Sixteen Candles (1984) John Hughes, dir.
The Breakfast Club (1985) John Hughes, dir.
Pretty in Pink (1986) John Hughes, dir.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) John Hughes, dir.
Teen Wolf (1985)
Back to the Future (1985) Robert Zemekis, dir.
Back to the Future, 2 (1989)
Heathers (1989)

Importance of Editing (Editing Tips)

When we discuss the choice of a particularly shot, filmmakers have several options. We can shoot a scene from an extreme long shot, a long shot, a full shot, a medium shot, a close-up, an extreme close up, using a birds-eye angle, a high or low angle, an eye-level-match angle (the default), or decide to use a truck, track, crane, pan, or trolley device to help frame and move the focus of the camera on the subject of the film. But with all these options, we also need to include the following terms to our vocabulary:

classical cutting: editing for dramatic intensity and emotional emphasis rather than for purely physical reasons.

Shifting from long to close or close to long shots shifts the viewers POV within a scene. This can be done to emphasize, include, exclude, consolidate, connect, contrast, or parallel the action of the plot, to introduce an important motif or detail for story-telling purposes (just like describing an important object in fiction), etc.

Master Shot (also known as a sequence shot): a scene of continuous film, usually at long-range, that is used as the through-line of a film or scene.

Reaction Shot: a cut from dialogue to the reaction of the person listening to the dialogue.

Two-shot: a shot that includes just enough space for two-characters to show that they are in the same space.

Three-shot: as a two-shot, but with enough room for three. How cozy!

First cut: a sequence of shots in editing that represents the director's preference for how the scene should be "shot."

Final cut: a studio or producer's preferred cutting of the film. (As opposed to the directors: first cut)

Cover shot: a shot used to reestablish a sequence, (time or space), or establishing shot used to reorient the viewer.

Eye-line Match: A character looks a certain direction, then we cut to what they are supposed to be looking at.

Matching action: similar to the eye-line match, but this involves any movement that is suggested as being continuous, even though it's not shot that way. Example: a tight shot of a person opening a door, the next shot is of that person arriving in another room. It is assumed that the door leads to the room seen, but this is rarely the case in filming.

Mise en Scene: more on this one later, it is literally "what is included in a shot"

180 degree rule: used to stabalize the space of the playing area so the viewer isn't confused or disoriented. Essentially keeping the camera on the same side of the 180 degree line of a scene.

Reverse angle shot: most commonly used in dialogue scenes, the camera moves between two speakers, first showing one, then the other.

Parallel action: just as in literature, the juxtaposition of shots that show complimentary shots. These shots are often from a different location.

Cross-cutting: moving between two or more locations or scenes in a film (often in rapid succession, but not always) to tell parallel stories.

Thematic montage: stress the association of ideas, rather than the continuity of plot, time, or space.

Motifs: objects, places, people, visual pictures, that are repeated to create significance or meaning.

Some advice:

• the longer the shot, the slower the film pacing. 
• the shorter the shot, the faster the film pacing. 
• Longer shots usually include more visual information.
• Shorter shots usually include less visual information.
• Cut your scenes at the "content curve": the moment when the viewer has had just enough time to take in the visual information in a scene.
• Cutting your scene BEFORE the content curve, creates anxiety, frustration, and/or disorients the viewer.
• Cutting the scene AFTER the content curve, frustrates and bores an audience.

• Basic Shot Types
• Basic Camera Movement
• 180 Degree Rule explanation
• 180 Degree and Other Sequence Shots

Psycho; Film Project

After completing the film Psycho (1960), please go to the lab to work on your film project. Film projects are due Friday, June 10. There will be a final assessment for this class Wednesday, June 8.

HOMEWORK: None. Work on your student film.

Psycho; The American New Wave

Psycho, part 2: As you watch Psycho, pay attention to:
1. The MacGuffin (what is it for which character?)
2. the Set-up
3. the 1st turning point or crisis
4. Development & shifting of POV (and our loyalties/concerns)
5. Other turning points (there can be several of these)


After Martin Balsam's part as Det. Milton Arbogast, we will stop and go next door to do the following:


A. Work on your film projects. NOTE: the shooting of your script should be completed by May 30!
B. Read the article on the American New Wave.
C. Select directors from the list below and watch at least 3 clips of 3 different films from these New Wave directors.
D. Print out something for tomorrow's coffeehouse (if you are attending!)


HOMEWORK: Read the articles on the American New Wave Directors: Please watch at least 3 clips from any films by at least one of these directors (search on youtube.com for example or IMDB.com, etc.). Titles of some appropriate films are listed in your article and from your reading.

• Woody Allen
• Robert Altman
• Hal Ashby
• Peter Bogdanovich
• John Cassavetes
• Francis Ford Coppola
• Brian De Palma
• William Friedkin
• Dennis Hopper
• George Lucas
• Mike Nichols
• Bob Rafelson
• Martin Scorsese
• Steven Spielberg

Film Project; 1960's Film Trends; Psycho (part 1)

This morning, during period 1, please continue working on your film projects OR, if there's not much to do in your group without filming, spend the time working on your homework (reading the article/handout and taking notes on the 1960's film trends!) See below for details.

1960's Film Trends:
With the change in restrictions based on the rating system from the MPAA, content in films gets grittier, more violent, more sexual, and more...well...Hollywood. View a few clips of famous films and film categories developed in the 1960's. Take notes on your graphic organizer. This material is fair game for the upcoming exam. Note years, genres, actors, directors, and films.

1960's Epic/Costume Drama Films:
Spartacus (1960) Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Charleton Heston, Peter Ustinov
El Cid (1961) Charleton Heston
Cleopatra (1963) Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton
Becket (1964) Richard Burton & Peter O'Toole
The Sound of Music (1965) Julie Andrews & Christopher Plumber
Doctor Zhivago (1965) Julie Christie, Omar Sharif
The Lion in Winter (1968) Peter O'Toole & Katherine Hepburn

Angry Young Man Films:
Look Back in Anger (1959) Richard Burton
The Loneliness of the Longdistance Runner (1962)
The Caretaker (1963)
The Leather Boys (1963)
If (1968) Malcolm McDowell
Easy Rider (1969) Dennis Hopper

Beatles' Films
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Help! (1965)
The Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
Yellow Submarine (1968)

Famous/Influential Directors:
Stanley Kubrick: Lolita (1962), Dr. Strangelove (1964)
John Ford: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
George Pal: The Time Machine (1960), Jason & the Argonauts (1963), One Million Years BC (1966)
John Frankenheimer: The Young Savages (1961), The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Arthur Penn: The Miracle Worker (1962), Bonny & Clyde (1967), Alice's Restaurant (1969)
Robert Aldrich: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) with Bette Davis & Joan Crawford; The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Blake Edwards: Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961); The Pink Panther (1963)
Alfred Hitchcock: Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963), Marnie (1964), Torn Curtain (1966)
James Bond Films: Dr. No (1962), Goldfinger (1964)

African American Films:
Sidney Poitier: A Raisin in the Sun (1961), Lilies of the Field (1963), To Sir With Love (1967), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

Psycho: 1960 Alfred Hitchcock
One way to appreciate film is by examining its narrative structure. As young writers, this is a great exercise. You can learn a lot about writing by paying attention to narrative.

Narrative can be:
• Omniscient
• Limited (over the shoulder)/Restricted
• Multiple Perspective

Narrative largely depends on how time (or chronology) works in the story.

Chronology: (how time works in a story)
• Chronological/linear time
• Non-chronological/non-linear
• Flashback
• Frame

When we examine time and narrative in film, we should ask:

• Who does the camera favor?

This is your clue as to who you need to be concerned with/about. Try to use this technique in your film projects.

Hitchcock applies several effective narrative techniques to keep his audience on its toes. The most famous of these is:

The MacGuffin: an object of importance to the characters but of little interest to the director (and consequently to the viewer).

As you watch Psycho, pay attention to:
1. The MacGuffin (what is it for which character?)
2. the Set-up
3. the 1st turning point or crisis
4. Development & shifting of POV (and our loyalties/concerns)
5. Other turning points (there can be several of these)
6. the Climax
7. the Resolution: how the film ends (and what that suggests)

HOMEWORK: Please complete the graphic organizer on 1960's film trends and read and annotate the article on the MPAA. Continue to work on filming your film project.