Rope (Conclusion); Film Project: Day 2

We will screen the rest of Rope today, and then work on our film projects.

HOMEWORK: Keep working on your film project.

Final Film Project: Day 1; Alfred Hitchcock: Rope (Day 1)

This morning during period 1, please complete the following tasks:

1. Gather with your film group. Do the following tasks:

• Producers: come up with the name of your company. Share that with your editor. Help where needed in your project. Make sure everyone in the group has something to do to help the project move along.
• Director/Casting Director: Get the names, addresses, contact information for the actors in your film. Share this with your director and producer and editor. Keep track of time. Create a shooting schedule. 
• Editor(s): Select music/sound effects, etc. for your film. Use a Youtube converter (one that is free, preferably) to capture these files. If you do this job, you are the "sound editor" as well as the editor. You may also create your titles. You will need a title for your film, opening credits, and closing credits. 
• Cinematographers: find "still shots" of your locations for your film. Save these. You may also use a Youtube converter to steal/borrow any existing clip on Youtube for your film. 
• Writer(s): Write your script. Or conduct research as necessary. But time is of the essence. Get the job done! Once you are done with a scene, give the scene/script to your director!
• Actors/Others: help your group members. You have little to do until the script is done. Cooperate with your director/producer. Help your director with the shooting schedule.

View the video hints for film projects:

• 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: How to act realistically
• Actors: Acting in Film

See jobs above. Work on your film project. The script needs to be done first. Tackle that today in the lab. If you are the director/producer, talk to one another about where the project is: what needs to be completed next? Make a list, organize yourself and your cast/crew. Decide on dates to shoot your film.

2nd period:

As an example of our director film documentary project (as an option for your final film project), we will learn about and begin working with the master of suspense: Alfred Hitchcock.

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 (clip, 1931), Number 17 (clip, 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 (from Citizen Kane), 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 (you'll see more of this guy), and Under Capricorn (1949) with Ingrid Bergman again (She was seen in Casablanca, 1942--learn more about how to write a great film scene here).

Today, let's take our first look at the film Rope.

Rope (1948) 

Cast List

James (Jimmy) Stewart  ...      Rupert Cadell, Publisher 

John Dall  ...             Brandon Shaw, Murderer 

Farley Granger  ...     Phillip Morgan, Murderer 

Cedric Hardwicke  ... Mr. Kentley 

Constance Collier  ... Mrs. Atwater, Kentley's Sister-In-Law 

Douglas Dick  ...       Kenneth Lawrence 

Edith Evanson  ...      Mrs. Wilson, the Housekeeper  

Dick Hogan  ...          David Kentley, Murder Victim 

Joan Chandler  ...      Janet Walker, David's Fiancee 

Things to notice:

Rope is Hitchcock’s first film in America where he acted as producer and director. Before this, he worked for producer David O. Selznick. Being his own producer, Hitchcock was able to cast who he wanted, film what he wanted and basically, call all the shots himself. He was in complete control of the film. So many of the following choices came from Hitchcock's own artistic vision:

• Rope is Hitchcock’s first color film.
• Rope was originally a play by Patrick Hamilton. The movie has only one set. The camera was moved from room to room. Walls were whisked up into the studio “flies”.  Grips (technicians who move or work with set pieces) stood off-camera removing and replacing furniture when the camera moves forward and backward. 
• Most shots in movies last only five to fifteen seconds - the shots in Rope last on average 10 minutes (the length of time a “magazine” of a film can be exposed in a camera.)
• These 10 minute takes each end as the camera is moved closer to an object or a character’s jacket.  The next reel is then filmed focusing on this object and pulling back. As you watch the film, try to notice each “take”. 
• If any mistakes occurred during the ten-minute take, the complete shot had to be done again.
• The music Hitchcock selected is Poulenc’s “Mouvement Perpetuel” (perpetual movement).  In the film, the camera is constantly moving (moving perpetually, for instance). 
• The film is an exercise in suspense. The murder happens within a few seconds of the opening shot.  The tense situation or suspense occurs as the murderers place the body in a chest, invite his parents and fiance over for dinner and serve the meal on the chest itself.

Themes in the movie include: cannibalism, ritual, sexuality, and the difference between theory and practice (book learning versus real experience).

The rope used to kill Dick Hogan is used to tie up his books, presented to his father as a gift.

The play is based on the Leopold and Loeb case. You can learn more about the Leopold and Loeb case here.

As you watch, list the moments in the movie when the shot changes:

1.  Example:  The camera moves from an exterior shot of the street and window to an interior shot of the apartment as Dick Hogan is shown being strangled by Brandon and Phillip.

2. ? Try to locate the various shots. You should find about 7-8 of these. 

HOMEWORK: Please work on your film script projects.

The Maltese Falcon (Day 2); Treatments due; The Collaborative Film Project

We will screen the rest of The Maltese Falcon today. Turn in your notes at the end of the film for participation credit. Also, your treatments are due to our Google classroom today. See below.

Option 1: Collaboratively with up to 6 students, work on an original film, using a film script or treatment (which then needs to be turned in as a film script) and create an original short film (typically 3-5 minutes in length). All members of the team should work together in a significant manner to see the completion of the film project. (i.e., each member of the team should have a well-defined role to complete in the making of the film...points will be deducted from groups that string along dead weight--students who do not have a distinct role in helping to bring the film together and finished.)

• One person should be the director (the most inspired or most organized at task management); this person can double as the producer (or you can have a separate person be the producer to ensure that the film project is scheduled and completed on time.)
• One person should be the cinematographer (the best photographer & eye for visual design)
• One person should be the editor (the most computer savvy)
• One or more persons should work on the script as the screenwriter(s) (this script should be taken from one treatment from the group's choices...the screenwriter does not have to be the same person who wrote the chosen treatment)
• One or more persons should be actors (the most theatrical--you can also hire parents, siblings, friends, and theater majors or other people from other grades to help you!)
• One or more persons should help as grips, gaffers, best boys, costume designers, sound designers (music), casting directors (make sure the roles in the film are filled and present at the shooting), producers (someone to keep track of time and resources), and assistants to the other jobs--particularly if someone is absent, etc.

Option 2: You may work alone or with actors outside of this classroom. If this is the case, once you have your script ready, gather who and what you need and begin filming.

Option 3: Choose a director from the American New Wave or from contemporary cinema. Research this director. Watch at least 3 films from this director and in a short documentary that includes at least 3 clips from the films you watched directed by this auteur, explain the director's influence on the film industry. I.E., use the information you research to create a short film documentary (of 3-7 minutes in length) about the director & his/her impact on film. You should also discuss common themes or genres the filmmaker generally practices. You will need to narrate (voice-over) your "script"--scripts should be turned in with the film.

• Woody Allen
• Robert Altman
• Hal Ashby
• Peter Bogdanovich
• John Cassavetes
• Francis Ford Coppola
• Brian De Palma
• William Friedkin
• Dennis Hopper
• Stanley Kubrick
• George Lucas
• Mike Nichols
• Martin Scorsese
• Billy Wilder
• Pedro Amoldovar
• Wes Anderson
• Darren Aronofsky
• Kathryn Bigelow
• Danny Boyle
• Mel Brooks
• Tim Burton
• Joel & Ethan Coen
• James Cameron
• Jane Campion
• Sofia Coppola
• David Cronenberg
• Julie Dash
• Guillermo Del Toro
• Claire Denis
• Ava Duverney
• Clint Eastwood
• David Fincher
• Jean Luc Godard
• Terry Gilliam
• Catherine Hardwicke
• Mary Harron
• Werner Herzog
• Ron Howard
• Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
• Peter Jackson
• Ang Lee
• David Lynch
• Nancy Meyers
• Hayao Miyazaki 
• Christopher Nolan
• Tyler Perry
• Roman Polanski
• Gina Prince-Bythewood
• Dee Rees
• Ridley Scott
• Steven Soderbergh
• Quentin Tarantino
• Gus Van Sant
• Lars Von Trier

Film projects will be completed mostly on your own time (lab time is limited...) but will be due June 11 so we can screen the films on our last week of the course (June 11 or 13). The shooting script for your project should be turned in with your film project--but you'll need it to shoot your film...

HOMEWORK; If you are a screenwriter or your group is ready to begin shooting, do so. Aim to complete your script by Tuesday after Memorial Day.

The Maltese Falcon (Day 1); The Treatment

This morning, after bringing the books down to the commons area, we will read a little from the film noir script The Maltese Falcon and take a few minutes to begin preparing our film treatments (due Wednesday!)

Then, we'll begin screening The Maltese Falcon in class. Look for examples/elements of film noir in the film. Take notes, etc. Information on the film can be found in the post below this one.

HOMEWORK: Due Wednesday, May 22 (also our coffeehouse at 7:00): Write a 1-3 page film "treatment" for your final film project. You will pitch your film treatments during class on Wednesday, May 22 to a group of your peers, selecting one idea to develop further and begin organizing yourselves to write, shoot, and edit a short film.

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, for us, usually a 1-3 page document that tells the whole story of a film idea focusing on the highlights or important scenes. It is usually 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 (like all scripts). 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 title
2. The writer's name
3. Introduction to key characters
4. Answers to 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 five 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.

The Three Act Structure
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. Your first act should only be a paragraph or two (and no longer than 1 page of text).

Act 2, called The Conflict, often an hour long, is where the conflict begins and expands until it reaches a crisis. This will be your second page, for example. Or your 3-5 paragraphs.

Act 3, called The Resolution, the conflict rises to one more crisis (the last one called the climax) and then is resolved. This will be your last page or your last paragraph.

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. Here are some samples to help you get the idea...
Treatment sample #1
Treatment sample #2

Citizen Kane: Day 2 (Conclusion); Film Noir

We will complete our viewing of Citizen Kane today in class. After viewing, we will press on to Film Noir.

Film Noir:

The Elements of Film Noir (documentary)

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
You can read the script here at this link.

• 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

Other film noir films of the 1940's:

• The Third Man 
• The Big Sleep
• Double Indemnity
• Casablanca

Now a little technique and advice about making films:

• Lighting Techniques (for student filmmakers)
• How to shoot a Noir film (documentary; how-to)
• Mise en Scene (documentary; how-to)

Our next creative assignment will be to write a short film treatment for a film. See homework.  

HOMEWORK: Due Wednesday, May 22 (also our coffeehouse at 7:00): Write a 1-3 page film "treatment" for your final film project. You will pitch your film treatments during class on Wednesday, May 22 to a group of your peers, selecting one idea to develop further and begin organizing yourselves to write, shoot, and edit a short film.

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, for us, usually a 1-3 page document that tells the whole story of a film idea focusing on the highlights or important scenes. It is usually 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 (like all scripts). 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 title
2. The writer's name
3. Introduction to key characters
4. Answers to 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 five 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.

The Three Act Structure
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. Your first act should only be a paragraph or two (and no longer than 1 page of text).

Act 2, called The Conflict, often an hour long, is where the conflict begins and expands until it reaches a crisis. This will be your second page, for example. Or your 3-5 paragraphs.

Act 3, called The Resolution, the conflict rises to one more crisis (the last one called the climax) and then is resolved. This will be your last page or your last paragraph.

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. Here are some samples to help you get the idea...
Treatment sample #1
Treatment sample #2

Citizen Kane: Day 1

We will screen the film Citizen Kane today in class. Please see previous posts and handouts for further details.

HOMEWORK: None.

Revise; Citizen Kane (intro)

Please revise/rewrite/reformat and correct your screwball comedy film script drafts. Resubmit for higher grades if you turned in your 1st draft and received my feedback. Otherwise, complete and turn your work in late with the typical late policy penalty. 

Citizen Kane (intro)

Topping the best films of all time is the important and influential 1941 film by Orson Welles: Citizen Kane (1941). As we view Citizen Kane, there are a series of important elements that can enrich our understanding of this film.

Orson Welles as Auteur:

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:

Camera Work:

• 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!

Narrative/Special techniques:

• Multiple perspective!
• Flashbacks!
• Aging!

Motifs and themes:

• The American Dream: For all of Kane's "success", he is not happy. He dies lonely, with only his "possessions" around him. Is all our striving to succeed in America an illusion?
• Perspective: The differing perspectives on Kane's life, especially in the absence of Kane's own point of view, force us to question what was truly important in Kane's life (and by extension what constitutes a life well lived in general.) Judging by Kane's last muttered word: Rosebud, the most important pieces of Kane's life were not the things that made him newsworthy, such as his newspaper successes and political ambitions, nor his friendships and associations. As Thompson interviews different people about Kane, we are given different perspectives on the man (some are unreliable). Odd, though, that we do not see Kane from Kane's POV.

Motifs:

• Isolation (loneliness...it's lonely at the top...)
• Materialism/Capitalism
• Old Age (the end of the line...)

Symbols:

• The Snowglobe
• Sleds
• Statues

Allusions:

• Khubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Randolph Hearst short bio

Director: Orson Welles
Writers: Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles (screenplay)
Cinematography by Gregg Toland

Orson Welles ... Charles Foster Kane
Joseph Cotten ... Jedediah Leland
Dorothy Comingore ... Susan Alexander Kane
Agnes Moorehead ... Mary Kane
Ruth Warrick ... Emily Monroe Norton Kane
Ray Collins ... James W. Gettys
Erskine Sanford ... Herbert Carter
Everett Sloane ... Mr. Bernstein
William Alland ... Jerry Thompson
Paul Stewart ... Raymond
George Coulouris ... Walter Parks Thatcher
Fortunio Bonanova ... Signor Matiste
Gus Schilling ... The Headwaiter
Philip Van Zandt ... Mr. Rawlston
Georgia Backus ... Bertha Anderson
Harry Shannon ... Kane's Father

Produced by Orson Welles and George Schaefer .... executive producer

Original Music by Bernard Herrmann
Film Editing by Robert Wise
Casting by Rufus Le Maire & Robert Palmer
Art Direction by Van Nest Polglase
Set Decoration by Darrell Silvera
Costume Design by Edward Stevenson
Makeup by Maurice Seiderman

Let's read a little bit of the script together to get you started. Then, we'll screen the scene.

HOMEWORK: Please read the script Citizen Kane and examine the narratology and script writing techniques used in the written script.