Independent Films funded outside of Big Hollywood Studios

Independent Films funded outside of Big Hollywood Studios or Films that are made with an “independent spirit”

Birth of a Nation DW Griffith Thomas Dixon 1915 Extremely Racist—pro Klux Clan Griffith just thought it was presenting the Southern perspective Shown in the White House (Woodrow Wilson) First Blockbuster 60 million also first Independent film

Conventions • Indicates the “establishment”, the established way of doing something, or understanding something. It’s what we see as natural, we’re so used to these conventions that we don’t even see them anymore, and definitely don’t see what their effect is, or how they affect us.

Structuralism • Umbrella term for many different movements that share approaches to the analysis of the world • Everything is available as text and can be analyzed on the same terms • Roland Barthes, Mythologies 1957 • Originated with Ferdinand de Saussure’s linguistic studies (1857 -1913) • Film has its own language and structuralism allows us to understand it • Filmmakers tend not to use the language of structuralism, but they implicitly use its approaches

Signs • In narrative, they are the most fundamental units of meaning

Filmmaking • Involves keeping the audience “on track”

Signs Signifier Signified A sign has only one signifier And multiple signified(s) The signified is a unique response determined by a range of personal factors • Many links between signifiers and the signified are due to conventions • • •

Metaphor and Metonymy • Metaphors establish a relationship between two things— “light as a feather” • Metonymic establishes a relationship based on association– The bottle for drink, hands for workers, The crown for monarchy • A metonym replaces numerous changeable things with one single vivid and fixed image

• Visual texts are characteristically metonymic • What is seen replaces or substitutes for what can’t be seen • Synecdoche: the relationship of the part to whole • A gunslinger is his gun, Julia Roberts is her smile • Flags are metonyms standing for a country or a cause

Denotation vs Connotation • Denotation: the primary direct ‘given’ meaning a sign has • Connotation: the secondary indirect meaning derived from what the sign suggests

• Meaning is the result of the interaction between the film and the audience—it is a fluctuating process only partially at the filmmakers command

Codes • • Enigma Code Connotative Code Symbolic Code Cultural Code

Text • A verbal written or visual artifact • Can be analyzed in terms of its meaning

• Structuralism, as the name suggests, is about structure, and the smallest elements that go together make up structure; this means that it can be used to ensure precision

Structural Analysis • Narrative appears in many forms • Narratives are constructed, they don’t just appear; they are selected and ordered. • Narratives apply to all human and cultural interaction • Narratives are trans-historical

Narratology • Is the name given to the study of narrative and narrative structure

Story and Plot • Plot is about causality—how one event or action leads to another

Classical Hollywood Narrative Structure Equilibrium is Established Disruption to the equilibrium Characters identify the disruption Characters seek to resolve the issue to solve the problem to restore equilibrium • Reinstatement of equilibrium • •

Three Act Structure –Syd Field • Act 1: Comprised the first quarter of the screenplay • Act 2: The next two quarters of the film • Act 3: the final quarter of the film

Intertextuality • The relationship of texts to other texts • Any film refers to other films

Types of Intertextuality • • • Appropriation Dialogue Reference Self Reference Association Style

Primary plots • • Achilles Cinderella Jason Faust Orpheus Romeo and Juliet Tristan and Isolde

Genres • • French word meaning type Sub-genre Horror film with a sub-genre of slasher Or with a sub-genre of post-apocalyptic

Industry Branding • The film industry uses genre as a mode of classification and therefore as a product label for marketing

Narrative and Genre • When we recognize the genre we anticipate being taken on a particular kind of journey • Films that lack genre definition, which slip between categories are less likely to get made

Early Career Fan of Science Fiction and Horror Made 8 mm shorts with his friends Made a monster movie publication (zine) Dark Star 1975 Assault on Precinct 13 1976

• Halloween 1978 Made with girlfriend Debra Hill One of history’s best and most successful horror films Hill and Carpenter wrote the screenplay 320, 000 to make Carpenter directed and composed the score Screen debut of Jamie Lee Curtis

• What does this convey about women? Carpenter claims that the film isn’t about a psycho killer Criticism arose about girls being murdered (after they are sexually active) This became a convention of many horror films to follow Carpenter claims that he meant to portray the main character “Lori” as being as sexually repressed (like Michael)

What Makes it Scary? Most violence occurs offscreen (not a bloody film) Subjective camera Michael can be seen in the foreground and background while the other characters are unaware of his presence Darkness is used a lot in the frame

Leit Motif a recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=A 9 QTSy. Lwd 4 w

Diegetic vs. Non-Diegetic Sounds • Score vs. Location Music • Dialogue vs. Voiceover • Sound effects

Suspense in editing is not about quick cutting It is about longer strips of film Anticipation