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)
Jackie Brown (1997)
Pootie Tang (2001)
Black Dynamite (2009)

1960's Full Films Online

You may watch any 1960 film for extra credit up until the end of this marking period. Simply watch the film and post a personal response to the film on the forum.

Here are a few 1960's films:
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1960), Hammer Studios
The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
Night Tide (1961)
Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory (1961)
Shame (1962)
Charade (1963)
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965)
Psycho a Go-Go (1965)
Cul-de-sac (1966)
The Fat Spy (1966)
Monster from a Prehistoric Planet (1967)
Teenage Zombies (1969)

Other full films online from the 1940's:
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)
The Son of Dracula (1943)

American New Wave & 1960's Film

American New Wave Directors: Please watch 3 clips from any films by at least one of these directors (search on youtube.com for example). Titles of some films are listed in your article and from your reading. Please post a response to the forum question by the end of the day. This is part of your homework.

• 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

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. You may watch any 1960 film for extra credit, just like you might have done for the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's.

1960's Epic/Costume Drama Films:
Spartacus (1960) Tony Curtis, Laurence Olivier, Charleton Heston
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)
The Lion in Winter (1968) Peter O'Toole & Katherine Hepburn

Angry Young Man Films:
Look Back in Anger (1959)
The Loneliness of the Longdistance Runner (1962)
The Caretaker (1963)
The Leather Boys (1963)
If (1969)
Easy Rider (1969)

Beatles' Films
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Help! (1965, full film)
Yellow Submarine (1968, full film)

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)
Alfred Hitchcock: 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) and the full film (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner)

HOMEWORK: Post on the forum to answer the question about the American New Wave. Make a film for your film project. Read the article "Blaxploitation".

Film Project (class #2)

Today please complete the following during class:

1. Work on your film project with your group.

• Producers: get with your director and discuss time and schedule for the film project. You are running out of time. The film project is due by the end of the course. Set up a schedule that works within this boundary. Realize that editing takes time. Producers! It is your job to see that the project is completed by the deadline.
• Directors: work with your actors, editor, technicians, cinematographer, etc. Find out people's schedule. When can you shoot the scenes you need to? Make a schedule and hand this to your crew. You may use class time to plan, shoot, edit, or trouble-shoot with your crew.
• Actors: get a copy of the script you are working on and read it. Prepare your scenes by reading and reading and reading the script. Memorize, if possible. Work with your director on scheduling scenes you are in, run lines with other actors, ask questions of the director for anything unclear in the script or with your character. Help out the crew or the director where needed.
• Writer: Be available to the director to change anything needing changing in the script. Yes, you may want your site locations to blow-up at the end of the film, but is this possible? (the answer is no, by the way.) As the writer, help out the editor and director by preparing a cast and crew list. You may also easily double as an actor, cinematographer, producer, director, crew, or editor. Complete jobs where needed.
• Cinematographer: Your job is to plan HOW the script is shot. Will you use a long shot or close up? Will you use high-key lighting or low-key? Will you shoot a scene with an oblique angle or a high angle or low angle? Go through the script and make some decisions. Create storyboards to help you visualize a scene. Take into account the writer's wishes, but feel free to change anything that will make your film project more visually interesting.
• Editor: Start working on the credits. You will need both opening and closing credits. You can do this even if you haven't started shooting your film yet. Use iMovie to create opening and closing credits. You can also help out by finding sound cues or stock footage. Prepare all sound cues as needed. If an actor has a VO (voice over) sequence, use class time to record the voice over (even if you haven't finished shooting the scene it is attached to). Once you have film shot, you may begin editing. I suggest the editor is NOT the director, although this may be unavoidable.
• Crew: Help out. If something needs to be completed, help your team get the film done on time. Like actors, be available to fill in and help where needed at any time. If the editor needs help, help. If the writer needs help, help. If the director needs help, help. You get the idea.

DO NOT WASTE CLASS TIME!

Check here for some advice about making a film:

Director: How to Direct
Director/Producer: How to Schedule a Film
Director/Producer: How to Plan a Movie (pre-production)
Director/Cinematographer: How to Shoot a Short Film
Cinematographer: Shooting Tips
Cinematographer: Tips for Cinematography
Cinematographer: Tips for Angles & Locations
Editors & Cinematographer: Continuity Editing
Writers: Story Telling Tips
Actors: Acting in Film with Michael Caine

Survey

At some point today, please take this survey. Copy and paste the link into the address bar.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CraddockStudentsSpring2012

Film Project (End of Year)

Last class you were asked (for 80 minutes) to complete your script . If you didn't complete the assignment in class, you had homework to complete it. Please turn in your homework into the "in-box".

Today (1st period), after viewing William Castle (see post below), please take your treatments and scripts to join a film group of 1-7 people.

Together as a group assign one or two classmates to be THE PRODUCER. The producer will select one of the treatments or film scripts from the group. The script or treatment chosen will be given credit as the "WRITER". The PRODUCER(s) and WRITER should then select a DIRECTOR. Normally this is only the producer's job, where the director is hired to work with a script usually by a studio (producers). Once the script is chosen and the director is chosen, decide which of your group members will be ACTORS. You may have to "hire" outside actors (use your families or friends).

Before the end of class today, please complete the following
--Choose a producer (or producers)
--Choose a script or treatment
--Choose a director
--Choose a cinematographer (director of photography)
--Schedule shooting times and dates (you can start today or this weekend). It is essential that you begin this process as soon as you can (since editing takes a while...as you know).
--You can begin working on the credits and main titles for the film (on iMovie). Designate who is doing what role in the film project.

HOMEWORK: Complete script (treatment), shoot your film, etc. We will be dividing our time in class until the end of the marking period (around June 8 or June 11) between this film project and the last bit of film studies which will cover the MPAA, the American New Wave, Blaxploitation, Home Video, Blockbusters, and CGI (1960-1990's). Please read the handout "Relaxing Restrictions & American New Wave" for homework. Select one American New Wave director and view 3-5 films from this author. After viewing, post a comment on the forum to the question there about the American New Wave. This is due next class, May 30.

The World of William Castle

The Wonderful World of William Castle

Competing with a growing television audience, filmmakers in the 1950's had to entice viewers into seeing their films. The worse the film, the greater the need for effective trailers. Of the best promoters of his directing and producing work, William Castle shines over all others.

William Schloss was born in New York City. Schloss means "castle" in German, and William Castle probably chose to translate his surname into English to avoid the discrimination often encountered by Jewish entertainers of his time. He spent most of his teenage years working on Broadway in a number of jobs. He left for Hollywood at the age of 23, going on to direct his first film when he was 29. He also worked an as assistant to Orson Welles, doing much of the location work for Welles' noir film, The Lady from Shanghai.

Castle was famous for directing low budget B-films with many overly promoted gimmicks. Five of these were scripted by adventure novelist Robb White.

After a long career, William Castle died of a heart attack in Los Angeles in 1977.

His films include:

Macabre (1958): A certificate for a $1,000 life insurance policy from Lloyd's of London was given to each customer in case he/she should die of fright during the film. Showings also had fake nurses stationed in the lobbies and hearses parked outside the theater.

Utube clip: Macabre:

House on Haunted Hill (1959): Filmed in "Emergo". An inflatable glow in the dark skeleton attached to a wire floated over the audience during the final moments of some showings of the film to parallel the action on the screen when a skeleton arose from a vat of acid and pursued the villainous wife of Vincent Price. The gimmick did not always instill fright; sometimes the skeleton became a target for some audience members who hurled candy boxes, soda cups or any other objects at hand at the skeleton.

The Tingler (1959): Filmed in "Percepto". Some seats in theatres showing the Tingler were equipped with larger versions of the hand-held joy buzzers attached to the underside of the seats. When the Tingler in the film attacked the audience the buzzers were activated as a voice encouraged the real audience to "Scream - scream for your lives."

13 Ghosts (1960): Filmed in "Illusion-O". A hand held ghost viewer/remover with strips of red and blue cellophane was given out to use during certain segments of the film. By looking through either the red or blue cellophane the audience was able to either see or remove the ghosts if they were too frightening. 13 Ghosts.

Homicidal (1961): This film contained a "Fright break" with a 45 second timer overlaid over the film's climax as the heroine approached a house harboring a sadistic killer. A voiceover advised the audience of the time remaining in which they could leave the theatre and receive a full refund if they were too frightened to see the remainder of the film. About 1% demanded refunds, but were subjected to demasculation and called "cowards". Homicidal clip.

Mr. Sardonicus (1961): The audiences were allowed to vote in a "punishment poll" during the climax of the film - Castle appears on screen to explain to the audience their options. Each member of the audience was given a card with a glow in the dark thumb they could hold either up or down to decide if Mr. Sardonicus would be cured or die during the end of the film. Supposedly, no audience ever offered mercy so the alternate ending was never screened.

Zotz! (1962): Each patron was given a "Magic" (gold colored plastic) coin which looked nice, but did absolutely nothing.

Strait-Jacket (1964): Castle had cardboard axes made and handed out to patrons. This film, by the way, starred Oscar winner (not for this film) Joan Crawford - Mommy Dearest herself.

I Saw What You Did (1965): Seat belts were installed to keep patrons from being jolted from their chairs in fright.

Other film trailers from William Castle:

The Old Dark House (designed by Charles Addams: the illustrator/writer who created "The Addams Family")
The Night Walker
Let's Kill Uncle
Thirteen Frightened Girls

William Castle acted as producer to Roman Polanski's direction of: Rosemary's Baby The film remains one of the most artistic Castle productions ever made.