CLASS NOTES

WEEKS THREE-FOUR

GENRES Genres do cultural work.  They are a snapshot of a culture at a specific time and place. A collection of films Produce a particular effect (weepies) Share common elements (setting, conflicts, storylines, stars, motivating events, plot) Can overlap within a particular film  Oklahoma = musical + western Young Frankenstein = comedy + horror Are flexible and evolve over time, with changes in society Westerns (compare treatment of Native Americans, basic themes) John Wayne movies Once Upon a Time in the West (Henry Fonda) Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns Pale Rider Dances with Wolves Genres are recognizable to the audience Share family resemblance to one another Possess recognizable features  (plot, character, theme) May display differences, variation Conventions can be expanded, rejected, homage, parodied Subgenres Romance -- triangle, boy meets girl Production industry did not classify films in this manner, but by story-type Comedy, mysterious, scenic, personality. Three types of storylines (historical, dramatic & narrative) Share codes Iconography -- recurring visual motifs, visual shorthand Western -- white hats, black hats Characters (roles and actors) Recurring situations Plots Themes Persistence of particular features SCREWBALL COMEDY Subgenre of comedy Post-Depression (1930s-1940s) Recognizable elements Plots (couple in a bizarre predictament) Gender conflicts (battle of the sexes) Characters (eccentrics, gay coded characters) Stars, directors, writers Setting, costume Dialogue (wise-cracking) Furious pacing Visual burlesques (derived from silent film) See also link below HOLLYWOOD CINEMA PRODUCTION Centralized means of production Studio boss is key Producers shape content Directors, writers, actors mere employees Star system Production Code Culture Shock (PBS) Motion Picture Code of Hollywood (Hays Code) HISTORY American Film (Infoplease Almanac) Hollywood's Conservative Age (Steve Schoenherr) NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES Narrative form Definition Narrator/Narration/Voiceover Patterns of Plot Development Continuity editing Storyline Point-of-view Space Time Film techniques Editing Intercutting film/video (Karen Carpenter, Superstar) Montage Music Newsreels On screen text (Calendar, clocks, newspaper, photos) Voiceover narration SCREENED FILM CITIZEN KANE All Movie Guide Greatest Films (Tim Dirks) Internet Movie Database Orson Welles, director & producer (All Movie Guide) Gregg Toland, cinematographer (All Movie Guide) Bernard Hermann, composer (All Movie Guide) Herman J. Mankiewicz, writer (All Movie Guide) Author, co-author of  90 screenplays Producer several movies (Duck Soup) Former drama editor for New York Times and the New Yorker Screenplay -- authorship has been controversial.   Mankiewicz and Welles share the credit Welles was searching for a larger-than-life American figure Mankiewicz wanted to explore the life of a public figure told from multiple points of view Randolph Hearst as model for Kane (Notes derived from Cook, David.  A History of Narrative Film. and Callow, Simon, Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu. )  RELATED RESOURCES CITIZEN KANE The Battle Over Citizen Kane The American Experience PBS http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kane2/ Citizen Kane Script Drew's Script-O-Rama http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/citizenkane.shtml Soundtrack lecture: LEVELS, LAYERS & MIXING:  Orson Welles & Citizen Kane Philip Brophy Hypermaterial for Our Own Brain Media Arts RMIT University http://media-arts.rmit.edu.au/Phil_Brophy/MMAlec/CitizenKane.html GENRE Film Art: An Introduction: Chapter 4 Genre David Bordwell McGraw-Hill http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/art-film/bordwell_6_filmart/student/olc/chap04obj.mhtml Film Genres Tim Dirks http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html How Hollywood Invented America: Part I The Mode of Production How Hollywood Invented America: A Cultural Study of the Film Industry History Pages http://historypages.org/hollywood/cinema/production/index.html How Hollywood Invented America: Part II: The Genre and the Genre System How Hollywood Invented America: A Cultural Study of the Film Industry History Pages http://historypages.org/hollywood/cinema/genre/index.html Screwball Comedy Michael Mills http://www.moderntimes.com/screwball/  NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES Film Art: An Introduction: Chapter 3 Narrative David Bordwell McGraw-Hill http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/art-film/bordwell_6_filmart/student/olc/chap03obj.mhtml LOOKING BACK AND TALKING IT OVER The Use And Abuse Of Flashbacks And Voice-Overs By Wout Thielemansenres Screentalk http://www.screentalk.org/art023.htm Sharks and Structure: Creating Dramatic Structure for Screenplays The Complete Eejit's Guide to Filmmaking eXposure http://www.exposure.co.uk/eejit/3act/index.html

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