Today, please work on your film projects during the lab. Make sure you start filming your project! This weekend is the perfect time to start if you have not yet started!
Work with your group or alone to prepare your script (complete research and write your short documentary script today, for example). Prepare your schedule for the long weekend.
For those of you who have "nothing" to do, see homework (which is what you see here for 1950's film) and read the articles on AIP films.
1950's Cinema Trends:
Drive-In Theatres:
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.
Science Fiction (or sci-fi), the Cold War, and its result:
The Cold War and the fear of nuclear annihilation by the communists is reflected in the many b-films made in the 1950's. Here's a sampling. Enjoy!
Hitchcock Films in the 50's:
In the 50's he went on to make these films:
Stage Fright (1950),
Strangers on a Train (1951), I Confess (1953),
Dial M for Murder (1954),
Rear Window (1954),
The Trouble With Harry (1955),
To Catch a Thief (1955),
The Wrong Man (1956), T
he Man Who Knew Too Much (1956),
Vertigo (1958), and
North By Northwest (1959)
We will either watch
Strangers on a Train (1951) at 8:00, or
Psycho (1960)
Psycho: 1960, Alfred Hitchcock (Part 1)
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: Read and annotate the articles on Samuel Z. Arkoff (AIP). Continue working on your film projects. Read the articles/handouts on Hitchcock.
