Early Hollywood. Transition to Sound Early on, when film prints traveled from small town to small...
-
Upload
drake-boman -
Category
Documents
-
view
216 -
download
0
Transcript of Early Hollywood. Transition to Sound Early on, when film prints traveled from small town to small...
Transition to Sound
• Early on, when film prints traveled from small town to small town in the American heartland, they were often narrated by a live raconteur, who would explain the action on-screen to audiences. "Intertitles"—those cards between moments of action—contained explanations of action, or important moments of dialogue, or even bits of poetry to set the mood.
• Read more: Movies and Film: A Brief History of Sound in Movies — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/cig/movies-flicks-film/brief-history-sound-movies.html#ixzz21JDxNS1y
• Synchronization and amplification were problems that needed to be overcome
• During the expansion in the 1920’s Warner Brothers was the first studio that invested in a sound system using records in synchronization with film images (Vitaphone)
• Vitaphone, which produced the first commercially viable sound system, essentially a very large phonograph hooked up to a film projector
• Don Juan (1926)• Orchestral accompaniment
and sound effects on disc • The Jazz Singer (1927)
(part talkie with some scenes accompanied by music
• These two films popularized the idea of sound on film
• The success of these films proved that sync sound could be profitable
• Sound films needed to be compatible with all projectors
• Eventually a sound on film rather than a sound on disc system had to be invented
• This became the standard• The sound track is printed on
the strip of film alongside the image
Technological Advances
• Setback for Hollywood style
• The camera had to be placed in a large casing called a blimp
• The camera couldn’t move except for short pans and tilts
• One solution was multiple cameras in a booth
• Boom Invented
• Diegetic Sound allowed for better continuity editing (sound bridge)
• Large studios developed distinctive approaches• MGM: Prestige studio (huge number of stars and
technicians under long term contract)• Warner Brothers was a smaller studio that made
more specialized features • They invested in sound because they were
interested in producing musicals (more fragmented like vaudeville acts strung together)
• RKO constructed musicals as classically constructed narratives
Deep Focus
• Some musicals in the 30’s were shot in technicolor
• This required a lot of light• The technical development
of using light on the set led to the development of deep focus films
• Greg Toland, Cinematographer for Citizen Kane used this technique
Citizen Kane: 1941
Frank Capra • Affectionate portrayals of the
common man
• Films deal with the strengths and foibles of American democracy
• Sicilian descent: came to the US in steerage
• Depicts a battle to prevent a power-crazed industrialist from taking dictatorial control of the country in "Meet John Doe"
Meet John Doe
Heroes of Capra Films • Homespun American heroes
• Naïve idealists who are up against evildoers
• The central characters win, because of their innate goodness
• "Meet John Doe" drew criticism for what was seen as a "cop-out" happy ending. But Bosley Crowther of The Times called the 1941 movie "superlative" and said it was "by far the hardest-hitting and most trenchant picture on the theme of democracy" Mr. Capra had yet made.
Career • In 1922 bluffed his way into making a
successful one-reeler• Columbia Pictures
(made a series of adventure films)• A Lady for a Day 1933• It Happened One Night 1934• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town 1936• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939• Meet John Doe 1941• It’s a Wonderful Life 1947
"I always felt the world cannot fall apart as long as free men see the rainbow, feel the rain and hear the laugh of a child”
Classic Narrative
• Representation: signifies a world or a body of ideas
• Semantics of narrative (semantics: the study of meaning)
• Narrative can also be studied in terms of structure
Fabula
• Russian formalist term for the narrative events in causal chronological sequence
• Narration: the process of cueing a perceiver to construct a fabula by use of syuzhet patterning and film style (the way the story is organized)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZyur2rlh6A
Syuzhet and Hollywood Screenwriting Formula
• Initial state of affairs which gets violated and must then be set right
• Undisturbed stage• Disturbance• Struggle • Elimination of disturbance
Causality
• The prime unifying principle• Cause and effect• Spacial and Temporal representation are
motivated by causality• This process is especially evident in a device
highly characteristic of classical narration: The deadline
Classical Syuzhet presents a double causal structure
• Heterosexual romance
• Goals obstacle and climax (Work war mission or quest )
Scenes
• Hollywood narration clearly demarcates its scenes
• Unity of time• Space (a definable locale)• “The bounds of the sequence will be marked
by some standardized punctuations: dissolve, fade, wipe or sound bridge.
Scenes or Sequences
• Usually are closed temporally and spatially, but open in terms of the overall causality
• Always move causality forward • Montage (Classical Hollywood) Compresses
time• Fills in information to move causality forward
Distinct Phases of a Scene
• Exposition specifies the time, place and distinct characters relevant to it
• In the middle of the scene characters act towards their goals
• They often struggle, make appointments, set deadlines and plan for future events
• The Classical scene either closes off cause-effect developments brought about in previous scenes or begins new ones
Syuzhet Variations
• A film in which the Syuzhet focuses on a single space for most of its duration will punctuate scenes in different ways
• A film that spans decades may need more than a simple fade to black to communicate that
Classical Hollywood Endings
• Smooth careful linearity• Logical conclusion of the string of events • The final effect of the initial cause • Arbitrary readjustment of the world knocked
awry in the previous 80 minutes• Sometimes this is predictable (in 100 sampled
movies over 60 ended with a display of a united heterosexual couple)
Transparency and Visibility of Narration
• Classical narration tends to be omniscient • Knows more than most or all of its characters• Conceals very little (except what will happen
next) • First few shots (Overt narration—exposition)• Once the action starts, the narration becomes
more covert (the character’s actions take over)
Montages
• Tend to become self conscious• Express narrations awareness of the viewer • A classical Hollywood montage compresses
time
Soviet Montage
• Aspects of cinema are juxtaposed for meaning or for heightened emotional effect
• Not always clear in terms of demarcated scenes
Experimental Film
• Causality is not always a factor
• “ambiguous interplay of subjectivity and objectivity”
“Realistic” motivation
• Audiences see films fully prepared• Conventions• Genre• Personality types • Transtextual motivation (star system)