Test: Wednesday, June 1
Film treatments, film pitches, film script format
Blaxploitation films & culture
Cleopatra Jones
Spike Lee
Home Video Invasion handout (key concepts)
Blockbusters: Jaws, Star Wars, etc. (handout, key concepts)
New Wave Directors: Stanley Kubrick
Mike Nichols
George Lucas
Steven Spielberg
Sidney Poitier
Alfred Hitchcock
Samuel Z. Arkoff
Gordon Parks
Ed Wood
William Castle
Roger Corman
Jayne Mansfield
Marilyn Monroe
Jimmy Stewart
AIP
CGI
MPAA
VTR
The Multiplex
3d Films
IMAX
Cinemascope
Invention of Television & its impact on film
Drive-in Movies
History of 1950's film (see notes from your ? sheet/homework)
History of 1960's film
History of 1970's film
Friday, May 27, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The Legacy of Blaxploitation
Directors like Spike Lee are encouraged to make films for a black audience. Many other actors, directors, and writers begin expanding the ground opened by blaxploitation. Here's a list of various contemporary black directors.
Here's a few clips. Spike Lee interview about Black Films.
She's Gotta Have It (1985) interview with Spike Lee
School Daze (1988)
Malcolm X (1992)
Other critically acclaimed films:
The Wiz
The Color Purple
Beloved
Precious
Romantic films
100 Gangster, Pimp, Hood, Crime films (clip)
The 100 Best Black Movies (trailer)
Here's a few clips. Spike Lee interview about Black Films.
She's Gotta Have It (1985) interview with Spike Lee
School Daze (1988)
Malcolm X (1992)
Other critically acclaimed films:
The Wiz
The Color Purple
Beloved
Precious
Romantic films
100 Gangster, Pimp, Hood, Crime films (clip)
The 100 Best Black Movies (trailer)
Cleopatra Jones & Film Project
During 1st period, we will continue our screening of Cleopatra Jones. Afterward, please continue to work on your film projects. Again, these projects are due June 7.
NOTE: There will be a unit test on the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's Tuesday, May 31. Begin gathering your notes.
HOMEWORK: Work on your film projects. Read article on Home Video & Blockbusters.
NOTE: There will be a unit test on the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's Tuesday, May 31. Begin gathering your notes.
HOMEWORK: Work on your film projects. Read article on Home Video & Blockbusters.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Script & Film Project
Last class you were asked (for 80 minutes) to complete your treatment. If you didn't complete the assignment in class, you had homework to complete it.
Today (1st period), please take your treatment and begin writing your script. If you are in a group, choose one or two people to complete the script while the others work on any of the following:
--Scheduling this week's shooting times and dates
--Shooting or uploading film during 1st period
--Working on the credits and main titles for the film (on iMovie)
--Editing the film footage (if you have started shooting)
For help with the script, see the previous post.
By the way, the pitch, the treatment, the script, and the film are all components of this project. All are due at the completion of the project.
2nd period: Viewing Cleopatra Jones.
HOMEWORK: Complete script, shoot your film, etc. Please turn in a copy of the treatment and script when completed. Film project due June 7.
Today (1st period), please take your treatment and begin writing your script. If you are in a group, choose one or two people to complete the script while the others work on any of the following:
--Scheduling this week's shooting times and dates
--Shooting or uploading film during 1st period
--Working on the credits and main titles for the film (on iMovie)
--Editing the film footage (if you have started shooting)
For help with the script, see the previous post.
By the way, the pitch, the treatment, the script, and the film are all components of this project. All are due at the completion of the project.
2nd period: Viewing Cleopatra Jones.
HOMEWORK: Complete script, shoot your film, etc. Please turn in a copy of the treatment and script when completed. Film project due June 7.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Film Treatment/Script Project
Please fill out the handout to keep track of important dates, times, actors needed, and other notes you will need for your film projects.
Today, please work on completing your treatment. What's a treatment? Look below for help.
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
Done with your treatment? Carry on to begin your film script. What's a film script and how do I format it? Look here for help.
Film scripts are a strange format. Please refer to the script format here.
Here are some sample scripts. Choose a few and read a little of each script. Pay close attention to where the dialogue goes on the page, how the shots are indicated, and other curious formatting.
After you are familiar how to format a script, please take your treatment that you selected and begin writing a script.
If one of your teammates is sitting around idle (not doing anything), have him/her work on titles or end credits. No time like the present.
HOMEWORK: Work on your film projects. If you don't have an idea yet, consider the handout I gave you. Complete your treatment (if you haven't done so in class) for next class. This weekend, feel free to begin shooting your film if you can.
Today, please work on completing your treatment. What's a treatment? Look below for help.
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, Year One, Rocky, Pan's Labyrinth, Animal House, Tangled, Avatar, 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
Done with your treatment? Carry on to begin your film script. What's a film script and how do I format it? Look here for help.
Film scripts are a strange format. Please refer to the script format here.
Here are some sample scripts. Choose a few and read a little of each script. Pay close attention to where the dialogue goes on the page, how the shots are indicated, and other curious formatting.
After you are familiar how to format a script, please take your treatment that you selected and begin writing a script.
If one of your teammates is sitting around idle (not doing anything), have him/her work on titles or end credits. No time like the present.
HOMEWORK: Work on your film projects. If you don't have an idea yet, consider the handout I gave you. Complete your treatment (if you haven't done so in class) for next class. This weekend, feel free to begin shooting your film if you can.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Film Treatment/Script
If you have finished your homework reading and filling out the information about the 1950's and 1960's in film (see below), please go on to begin a film treatment for your film project.
Meet with your film project group and decide on roles and jobs to complete this project by June 3.
You will need a treatment and a script for your treatment as part of your project. Your treatment should be 2-4 pages at most and effectively be the summary of the story with key lines of dialogue and description of the story/plot/characters/events in the film.
Once you have a treatment, please write a film script that should be between 3-12 pages in length. Your film should be limited to 10 minutes or less.
HOMEWORK: Complete your treatment.
1960's/1950's questions are past due! Please turn these handouts in.
Meet with your film project group and decide on roles and jobs to complete this project by June 3.
You will need a treatment and a script for your treatment as part of your project. Your treatment should be 2-4 pages at most and effectively be the summary of the story with key lines of dialogue and description of the story/plot/characters/events in the film.
Once you have a treatment, please write a film script that should be between 3-12 pages in length. Your film should be limited to 10 minutes or less.
HOMEWORK: Complete your treatment.
1960's/1950's questions are past due! Please turn these handouts in.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Blaxploitation Films
Blaxploitation films were made specifically for an urban, black audience. The word itself is a portmanteau (combination) of the words "black" and "exploitation."
As a sub-genre of film Blaxploitation typically takes place in ghettos or urban settings, featuring crime plots, drug dealers or drug culture, pimps and prostitutes and hit men or gangs and gang violence. White characters are as much ethnic stereotypes as black characters, but are often the antagonists. Corrupt cops, politicians, prostitutes and gullible gangsters are common stereotypical characters. As the genre blossomed in the 1970's, it often mixed with other genres including crime dramas, action/martial arts films, westerns, and horror.
The films featured funk and soul jazz soundtracks with heavy bass, funky beats and guitars. In recent years to attract black audiences, parodies and pastiches of the blaxploitation film have resurfaced.
One might consider to what extent do films such as these perpetrate (continue) racial stereotypes? For what purpose do these films serve the black community? What does the resurgence of such a film style in our contemporary time mean? How are these images and heroes necessary and/or offensive?
Please read the following article, then take a look at some of these trailers (examples of the genre).
They Call Me Mr. Tibbs (1970)
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
Shaft (1971)
Superfly (1972)
The Legend of Nigger Charley (1972)
Blacula (1972)
Coffy (1973)
Cleopatra Jones (1973)
Foxy Brown (1974)
Willie Dynamite (1974)
Abby (1974)
Friday Foster (1975)
Boss Nigger (1975)
Coonskin (1975)
And for the fun of it, spoofs or parodies of blaxploitation:
I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)
Pootie Tang (2001)
Black Dynamite (2009)
As a sub-genre of film Blaxploitation typically takes place in ghettos or urban settings, featuring crime plots, drug dealers or drug culture, pimps and prostitutes and hit men or gangs and gang violence. White characters are as much ethnic stereotypes as black characters, but are often the antagonists. Corrupt cops, politicians, prostitutes and gullible gangsters are common stereotypical characters. As the genre blossomed in the 1970's, it often mixed with other genres including crime dramas, action/martial arts films, westerns, and horror.
The films featured funk and soul jazz soundtracks with heavy bass, funky beats and guitars. In recent years to attract black audiences, parodies and pastiches of the blaxploitation film have resurfaced.
One might consider to what extent do films such as these perpetrate (continue) racial stereotypes? For what purpose do these films serve the black community? What does the resurgence of such a film style in our contemporary time mean? How are these images and heroes necessary and/or offensive?
Please read the following article, then take a look at some of these trailers (examples of the genre).
They Call Me Mr. Tibbs (1970)
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
Shaft (1971)
Superfly (1972)
The Legend of Nigger Charley (1972)
Blacula (1972)
Coffy (1973)
Cleopatra Jones (1973)
Foxy Brown (1974)
Willie Dynamite (1974)
Abby (1974)
Friday Foster (1975)
Boss Nigger (1975)
Coonskin (1975)
And for the fun of it, spoofs or parodies of blaxploitation:
I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)
Pootie Tang (2001)
Black Dynamite (2009)
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