Research Script Documentary: Kubrick Auteur Theory

Check out my IB Research Script Documentary

Location as Character Project

Here is the actual Location as Character Project I made on the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA. I like this version better.

Location as Character Project: Director's Cut

This is a short project I made on the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA. You should check it out doe.

Realism/Classical/Formalism

In this blog post, I shall go into depth about Realism, Classism and Formalism editing styles. I will provide and example for each of these editing styles.

Realism

Realism editing conventions consist of a series of sequence shots for a sequence edit. These are just shots that are recorded for a long and continuous time. This was used in the early stages of film in movies like Arrival of  a Train (1895) by the Lumiere Brothers. Realism preserved the a life like perspective in film because of the non-manipulation of time and space. It usually captures moments in life exactly how they are. The US, France and Britain began making narratives from this style of editing. The Quarantine series and Cloverfield are both films that are supposed to be shot continuously, from a place of view (POV) perspective. Obviously, these movies aren't real or filmed completely in one take, but it is a simulation or rip off of Realism editing. I think the editing style gives an interesting way to tell the narrative of both films. I would not recommend these films to anyone that is suffers from motion sickness. Here are clips from both movies below.

Classism

Classism editing style is when the manipulation of time and space was inputted into film by D.W. Griffith. This was called "Cutting to Continuity" because of the fluid transitions from shot to shot that make a sequence of shots seem all taken at the same time from different angles. This created a cause and effect relationship that sparked certain conventions of editing that were necessary control time and space. These conventions were screen direction, action, etc... Classical Cutting in films created emotions in the viewer by emphasizing certain details over others. An early use of Classism editing was exemplified in Birth of a Nation (1915) by D.W. Griffith. The use of Classical Cutting changed film and made narratives more complex in a way, but simple to follow. This silent epic, Birth of a Nation, really showed an early example of manipulating time and space. This film did have a few traits of Realism editing though also because of the long, stationary held shots.

Formalism

Formalism editing style is when time or space is altered and creates emotion that is not exactly tied to a linear narrative. A Soviet director, Pudovkin, created a theory that all shots individually should provoke a new feeling or emotion when juxtaposed, which was called the Kuleshov effect. Alfred Hitchcock gave a well explained example of the Kuleshov Effect. Juxtaposition in film made the audience interpret their own meaning of a certain series of shots with a somewhat, straight forward intention. An early example of formalism in film is the Odessa Steps Sequence in Battleship Potemkin (1925) by Eisenstein. Formalism exists today in most films and television shows. An example in the show Breaking Bad is when a close up of a boxcutter is in the frame and then it cuts to a shot Walt looking at the boxcutter. These shots provoke a certain feeling or emotion in the audience or viewer. These shots manipulate time and space and emulate a narrative that is easily followed without cutting "classically" from shot to shot.

Contemporary Media Analysis

From the presentations in class, a lot of the groups talked about how violence in media has gone to an extreme and society's desensitivity to violence. Violence in media has reached a peak and is seen by all viewers no matter what age. It is so easily viewed because violence is not only portrayed on the big screen, but also on television on regular cable. Like people are being shot, tortured and beaten in some of the shows on television. Television shows that were brought up in the presentations were Breaking Bad, Justified and The Wire. All these television shows exemplify a mature level of violence through the actions of the main characters. The thing that all of these main characters have in common is that their actions create a blurred line between good in evil because of their reasons for them. For example, Raylan Givens from Justified is a sheriff that uses violence and killing to clean up his town from injustice.

This is common in media nowadays because it makes the character more interesting and dynamic, in both movies and television. One of the best things that I think media portrays is sexuality because of how open homosexuality is becoming now in today's world. It is making people more open to it and portrays same sex relations in a progressive manner. The worst thing that media is portraying is gun violence. Although it exists among us, the media makes it seem to show gun violence as a solution to a lot of issues. It causes people to really be on the line about guns and the safety behind them.

Children are becoming less fearful to weapon violence in general because of the portrayal of weapon violence in media. I really agree with most of the ideas of media's portrayal that was presented by all of the groups. I think the progression of media is reaching a peak and will begin to change depending on the social issues of the day as time goes on.

Hardest Decision of My Life

Yes, I have just made the hardest decision of my life. What was is it? Oh my top five favorite movies of all time (subject to change):

Number 5 on my list: The Harry Potter Series

Harry Potter I think should be on everyone’s top five or at least top ten. I know it is kind of nerdy and whatnot, but it has such a gripping storyline and would make you want to be at every 12 o’clock premier of the newest film to the series. Yes I did go to the premiers; no I did not go dressed in my Gryffindor cloak wielding a wand. The magic or CGI in Harry Potter really sold the magic that is portrayed in the book to complete the storyline. And then you really think of all the elements in the book and how they are a pieced together, I just think, “Man, what was J.K Rowling on to come up with something like this?”

Number 4 on my list: Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino is a mastermind of resurrecting these cheesy, cliché 70’s films. Django Unchained is one of his newest additions to his reel. First of all the trailer looked so tight that I knew I had to see it. Especially the fact that I knew it was a Tarantino and I was bound to see some blood and gore. Again with every film, I really judge it based on it’s storyline to determine if it’s a good film or not. All the technical extras are just a plus. I thought that this storyline was so damn good. And especially cause DiCaprio was in it already made it a great film.  One of my favorite parts in the movie is where Jamie Foxx’s character kills 3 men who had brutally whipped his wife. I felt so much intensity right in this scene.

Number 3 on my list: Kids

Kids is an indie movie from the 90’s that was pretty popular because it was pitched towards the teenage viewers. What made this film so popular was it’s message about engaging in safe sexual intercourse. The dumb and naïve main character named, “Telly” is just like any other teenage boy and is trying to have sex with anything that moves. When one day one of his victims of flowering, comes to find out that she has been infected with HIV. The story comes off so scary because of how it really only takes one time to become infected with an STD and really makes teenagers think twice about having sex.

Number 2 on my list: This is the End

This new movie has erupted much stir because of how hysterical it is. I really think Judd Apatow is a genius in all films that he had written. What got me to really like this film is the dialogue and casting. The storyline was “ehhh” because apocalyptic films are kinda cheesy but the casting was amazing. Even though it was really only focused on 6 main characters, the guest appearances from Kevin Hart, Michael Cera, Rihanna and many more stars really completed the film. Also because everyone played themselves in the film too.

Number 1 on my list: A Night at the Roxbury

Oh maaaa gawwwd. This movie really is, and forever will be, my all time favorite. I swear I probably have seen it like a trillion times and I still think that it’s so funny. The character development and how the Butabi brothers progressed and regressed in the film is something that I really liked. I love the cheesy bromance and stupidity in both Chris Katan and Will Ferrell’s characters. They give the film like a modern slapstick comedy genre. The dialogue is what sells the film too because it one of the most quoted films I have ever seen. I swear I probably quote that film once a day.

What makes a great movie?

What makes a great movie? The opinion varies from person to person but what I think makes a great movie is a solid narrative, good character development and cinematography. A movie that I feel had all of theses characteristics was the movie The Great Gatsby (2013). The storyline comes straight from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby.” What makes good narrative is a lot of interesting backstory and an almost seemless plot. Holes in a storyline is a common problem in films and I think because The Great Gatsby was based on a book, it had a few to none holes in it’s storyline.  The backstory in the film improved the character development of the two main characters, Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby. They both were extremely dynamic characters and also flawed. Flawed characters are becoming more and more common in films because they gain the sympathy of the audience. Jay Gatsby for example is suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and fathoms over the idea of him being married to woman named Daisy Buchannan and goes to extremes to get closer to her. Nick Carraway is a raging alcoholic. The cinematography in the film was really well done. But I also feel that a lot of the visuals were beautiful because of the CGI. Otherwise the cinematography was great.

One specific scene that had great cutting and angles was the scene when Nick Carraway walks into Gatsby’s party and sees all that has been going on.

What makes a great movie in my opinion is the narrative, character development and cinematography.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1343092/

End of Year Reflection

Final Reflection

Independent Film Research
I feel my strengths in approaching the research is my knowledge of mis en scene and collective eye for things of that sort. Also, I took really good movie notes for both movies that really helped me have information to look back to and compare. I think I need more training with the format or correct way to write it. There were no specific way to write it and I think I need to organize my ideas better. My suggestion for next year would be that you could give more class time to work on this so we would be able to discuss it with you.

Oral Presentation Experience
My strengths in approaching the oral were that I picked a good scene to analyze with a lot of things within the scene that I could talk about. I feel I need to go deeper into what exactly I am analyzing  and bring up key points that are more below the surface. I talk mainly about what is on screen rather than what is behind the scene. I think we should do more of these to practice them or do more socratic seminars to bring up film speaking skills.

Production Experience
I feel that I really improved the quality of my work this year. I have learned to become more organized and consistent with making deadlines. A lot of more time was put into my film productions this year and taught myself to take care of a bigger workload. I feel I need to work on my story writing process because there always is a lot of wholes in my narratives with rough transitions. More advanced tutorials for the IB students would be nice to improve the skills and techniques for camera work and editing. Also maybe less blog posts at one time because sometimes it got overwhelming when you would assign three at a time.

Brianair's City of God Analysis

In Brainair's article, City of God, he elaborates on background knowledge of the film and summarizes the film as whole while explaining the stories of two of the main characters in the film, Knockout Ned and Li'l Ze. In order to show a character's relevance in the film, you need to hear the backstory of another character(s). The story of the Tender Trio create backstory for Li'l Ze while Li'l Ze's story creates backstory for Knockout Ned. Then all three of their stories contribute to Rocket's life story.

The main ideology communicated in the film is based on how violent a character is in the film. From what I have noticed and read from a past article, the characters are place on a social hierarchy from their acts of violence. Li'l Ze stands at the top of the pyramid and is feared by everyone including rival gangs and also the police. While on the other hand, Rocket is at the bottom and not really feared by anyone because he is not violent at all. In a way the ideology communicated in the film can be closely compared to Social Darwinism or "survival of the fittest."

This film has been compared to films such as Pulp Fiction (1994) and Goodfellas (1990), but the author in the Brianair article brings up the conclusion that, "neither of these films actually deal with social problems or issues." I partially disagree because I feel that the ideology that was communicated in Goodfellas was similar to the one I brought up in the 2nd paragraph about City of God. The whole "survival of the fittest" theme goes hand in hand with the Mob/Gangster genre which is why both films can fall under that genre. Historical reference can be direct because this is a true story, but I think it can also relate back to the Vietnam War. The main character Rocket even gave a direct quote saying, "you got used to living in Vietnam," which is implying the favelas as a warzone.

The genre of this film really interests me the most for my research project because I feel there are multiple aspects of the film that create multiple genres. For instance, you can follow Rocket's storyline which gives a "coming of age" genre. Or you can follow Li'l Ze and Knockout Ned's storyline which follows under the Mob/Gangster genre. A lot could be elaborated on if I found films within these genres and narrowed them down to find a film extremely similar to City of God.

City of God: Cinematic Portrayal of Violence

In the article, Violence in The City of God: The Fantasy of the Omniscient Spectator by Jennie Carlsten, it discusses the depiction of of violence in the film through it's narrative, cinematography, edit and how it relates to it's "Action/drama" genre. In the beginning of the article, the author gives a brief plot summary followed by some background knowledge of Brazil. Her background knowledge of Brazil is interesting because she goes into detail about the social structure in the favelas where the movie takes place. The multiple storylines intertwine with each other because of the "self-enclosed

community isolated from the outside world." Next, the cinematography and edit is examined and how the favela enviroment affected it. Because of the tight, narrow streets and alleyways, a lot of rapid camera movements and quick cuts were incorporated to exemplify the urgency in the scenes that have the audience lose direction. The author also brought up how the favelas started to turn into a warzone and quoted Rocket from the movie as well from when he said "you got used to living in Vietnam." She discussed the meaning of this line because of it's relevance to the topic of war in the movie. Therefore, comparing the Vietnam war to the gang wars in the favelas. The second section, "Understanding the Violence," brings up a very interesting point. Carlsten says "the characters are defined by their relationship to violence." As I thought more about it, I realized how correct this comment is. Li'l Ze is infamous for how violent he is, while Rocket on the other hand is known for being sensitive. Their reputations exemplify both of their spots on the social structure in the City of God. She generally characterizes everyone in the film as "under-developed." I think this also is correct because of the isolation of the favelas which was brought up earlier in the article. Everyone from the favelas in under-devloped in the sense that very few of them have seen what is on the outside of the favela and also have  very low levels of education. Although there seems to be like a lot of violence in the film, the violence was very controlled in a way. Carlsten brings up the censorship on violence through the cinematography. She claims that, "The use of long shots and off-screen space prevents the audience from seeing much of the violence, and deprives the viewer of the catharsis that may be produced by seeing a violent act carried to its conclusion." The type of shots and angles that are used help the audience feel the right amount of fear, suspense, etc... for the act of violence on screen. For example, when Knockout Ned was witnessing his girlfriend getting raped, it was an over the shoulder shot from Ned's shoulder which makes the audience assume what's going on. In Violence in The City of God: The Fantasy of the Omniscient Spectator by Jennie Carlsten, violence is shown through it's narrative, cinematography, and edit.

Short FIlm: Genre Research

The genre that I would like to use in my short film is Teen Drama because I have a lot of resources to use for a film of this genre and would be able to come up with a lot of great ideas. Being a teenager, I know a lot of drama and common problems for a teenager. Teen Drama is a large genre because teenage years are an age for drama. Here are a some examples of Teen Drama films:

Juno (2007)

The Breakfast Club (1985)

Thirteen (2003)

Wassup Rockers (2005)

Kids (1995)

Films of this genre often have a protagonist main character with a flaw or issue that makes the character interesting or appealing to the audience. Throughout the story, they face rising actions and overcome their issue during the climax. Common issues in teen dramas are fitting in, drugs, abuse, relationship, teen pregnancy and sex just to name a few. The teenagers are usually stereotyped as nerds, punks, outcasts, jocks or cheerleaders in teen dramas. Also, most of these films have happy endings by solving their issue and or learning a lesson. The acting in these films are usually exaggerated about how teenagers act. They never really are portrayed exactly, but that is the filmic touch on the genre. The settings of these films often vary but common places are schools and big cities. These films do not usually have a complex cinematography and the film really neutral angles. Teenage Drama films usually have a score consisting of music for a teenage crowd. Music that is appealing to teenagers and young adults possibly, which is usually radio played music for the films that can afford to use those songs. The logline for my upcoming short film will be this:

Teenage boy suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, finds way to cope with his issue.

IB Film Oral Assessment - Psycho (1960)

For my IB Oral on a five minute extract from Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), I feel I deserved a 17. I really felt I could have done so much better on this assessment. The parts I struggled on were really finding a deeper, analytical interpretation of my extract. At the time I chose my extract, I did not realize how hard it would be to analyze the deeper meaning behind the scene. I had a lot of trouble trying to find real good information to bring into my oral. It also was really hard to figure out where to start because this is the first time that I have ever done an assessment like this. At some point I choked up and had a lot of pauses to think. After awhile, I felt that I starting just rambling, which is exactly what I did not want to do. I was nervous and probably should have better prepared for this. Next time I will do a better preplan and practice what i'm going to say more than I did.

Film Language and Representation

17:55 - 23:15
This exterior scene is from when Marion Crane exchanges her car and $700 for a different car at California Charlie’s used car dealership. Marion seems to be panicked, anxious and suspicious to the car salesman. The police officer who had stopped Marion earlier in the film followed her to the car dealership. California Charlie was able to tell right off the back that Marion was up to no good from her quick and panicky body language. Throughout this scene, the camera stays at neutral angle but makes quick cuts time to time when the scene starts to get more intense. The quick cutting is to create suspense among the audience and have them wanting to guess what is next. Suspense is increased when dramatic music is played with the quick cuts, which occurs often in this scene specifically. 

Ex. 1

Ex. 2

The first shot is a wide shot of Marion that cuts to a close up of eyeline matches to a California license plate (Ex. 1) and then to her Arizona license plate in the car dealership. She slowly paces past cars in the lot and looking at the license plates on them. After, she purchases a newspaper (Ex. 2) which is a foreshadow to a later event. California Charlie comes up to her and says, “the first customers of the day are always trouble.”

This dialogue is relevant because of it’s double meaning pertaining to Marion’s situation. As Marion and California Charlie negotiate for the car, the camera cuts quickly back and forth to Marion and the police officer. Because of these quick cuts and the fast paced music, the scene seems more intense and creates a build up. California Charlie is suspicious of her behavior and feels pressured by her to make a quick sale. Throughout the scene he continuously catches her looking at the police officer. From Marion’s dialogue, she seems anxious and nervous. She talks quickly, often stutters and cuts off the car salesman in some cases.

Ex. 3

When she makes her mind up to buy the car, she goes to the restroom to get her $700 in cash out in private. In the bathroom, there is a close up with her hands counting out the money for the car. Within the frame is her hands, her purse, and the newspaper she purchased. These are relevant because later on in the film, she goes into her room privately to hide the rest of her money inside of the newspaper. As Charlie walks her over to the bathroom, he looks at her with a confused look and back at the police officer (Ex. 3). This adds to his curious body language to Charlie about his suspicion for why Marion is acting like this. She comes out of the bathroom and Charlie comes straight forward with her about how she is acting apprehensive about the selling her car. Marion continues to rush him and reassures Charlie that nothing is wrong.

Ex. 4

Together they walk into the garage to finalize the exchange and the police officer pulls into the lot (Ex. 4). The scene intensifies more because the audience wonders what the police officer will do next. After, there is a wide shot of Marion walking out of the garage and notices the police officer with Charlie, the police officer and Marion in the frame. She seems to be spooked and gets in the car quickly and tries to speed off. All of a sudden, a voice yells, “Hey!” The shot pans to left and the police officer nor Charlie can be seen in the frame. The audience likely assumes that it is the police officer, but it happens to be the car mechanic with her bags she left in her other car (Ex. 5). Then Marion drives off, leaving the police officer, California Charlie and the Mechanic in confusion.

Ex. 5

Psycho: Narrative and the Film Extract

The film Psycho was known for it's advanced narrative structure for it's time. Hitchcock was able to really manipulate the thoughts of the audience in this film. The story starts off with a woman, Marion Crane, having an affair with a man in Phoenix, Arizona. The man she is having an affair with is from Los Angeles and carries a lot of money problems. This is a rising action that reveals conflict. The woman goes to work and is put in charge of $40,000 that she planned to steal and to resolve her lover's money issues. While skipping town, she ends up at the Bate's Motel where she meets the real main character, who is a young man named "Norman," that runs the motel. His mother seems to be mentally abusive towards him which makes the audience feel that the man is harmless and the mother as psycho. No pun intended. The woman from Phoenix is murdered in the hotel from who seems to be the mother of Norman. After following Norman for a little while, the story completely 180's and you come to find that his mother never existed and he pretends to be his mother. This film is told from a limited third person storytelling style. Time passes chronologically in this film over about a span of a couple of weeks. The scene where Marion is killed in the shower changes the structure to the film because who the audience thought the main character was, ends up being not as important to the film as they thought. Also when Marion's sister reveals the corpse of Ms. Bates, it alters the structure because it reveals basically the whole mystery behind the storyline. The involvement with the characters Norman and Sam are close because after Marion is murdered, the storyline follows basically only them two. Also they show character developement. For example, Norman's actions because more suspicious and the audience starts to question him. Sam also is revealed to be a more compassionate and caring character. Norman was casted to be a normal looking, slender man to be less obvious about the actual mental sickness of his character. From his appearance, he instantly comes off as a normal character but completely turns into a mentally distressed psychopath. It also was obvious that Norman had affection for Marion when he first met her. A side of jealousy was exemplified by supposively his mother was introduced to show a the abusive side with his mother. This reveals the theme of maternal attachment because his Norman's obedience and loyalty to his mother in a creepy way.

Historical and Institutional Influences

 The film Psycho is studied and lectured on today by college English classes in quite prestigious schools in the United States. The colleges are as listed here: “Theories of Authorship in the Cinema: Alfred Hitchcock” (Bryn Mawr), “Hitchcock: Cinema, Gender, Ideology” (Tufts), “Hitchcock in England and America” (Vanderbilt), “The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock” (University of Maryland), and a research seminar on “The Hitchcock Canon” (Berkeley) (The Canonical Alfred Hitchcock. Lewis. 1.). Because of Psycho, Hitchcock received much feedback and commonly been the subject of seminars and surveys throughout the country from Economic factors had a lot to do with this movie. Studios would not fund or support the film because of it's unmoral and gruesome acts. Studios also thought that the film would cause much drama and controversy among the industry. Eventually, Hitchcock was able to work out a plan with Paramount in order to help with the distribution and exhibition of the film. Paramount received roughly 60% of box office which ended a great deal for the studio. Politics at the time were rough because of post WWII and the Cold War aftermath. Censorship was extremely strict because of the government trying to censor anything that seemed as a Communist act. The violence in this film could have made it seem to be a Communistic act to the public eye and government. Not only Communist acts were a factor in this film, but also the "politics of sexuality." Because of Hitchcock's interest in human emotions, he wanted to learn and master manipulating them. In The Canonical Alfred Hitchcock by Michael J. Lewis, he claims that Hitchcock studied "the human spirit under duress, depicting the wry rebellion of the individual against the crushing and arbitrary forces of modern life, he achieved a monumental art within the narrow conventions of a popular medium." Psycho came down in film history as the first sub-genre of horror called, "slasher" which still exists to this day. The film's infamous shower scene sparked influence among many films such as the Friday the 13th series, the Halloween series, the Scream series and many other films. This film was extremely economically successful. Hitchcock small budget of $806,947 made approximately $50,000,000 in the box office. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times says that, "Hitchcock deliberately wanted 'Psycho' to look like a cheap exploitation film." (Chicago Sun-Times. Roger Ebert.)

Hitchcock - Genre and Audience

The film Psycho (1960) is a thriller/horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This film was one of influential horror films in history. It inspired the films such as the Friday the 13th series, the Halloween series, the Scream series and many other films along with a whole horror sub-genre called, "slasher." Psycho is categorized under the thriller/horror category because of it's cinematography, act and sound design. The cinematography really utilized quick cutting and blocking to give the audience suspense and manipulate their emotions. The act helped manipulate the emotions of the audience too because of violence and gore in the film. At the time, violence and gore like Hitchcock used in the film was rare and unmoral, but stretched the boundaries for film. In all horror films, sound design plays a big role. Whether its the score or the sound effects, it could make a film, a horror film. This film had suspenseful soundtrack to go along with it's suspenseful cinematography. Music in horror films are always kind of slow and have a build up that get the audiences' hearts pumping. The sound effects are big part in horror too like knife stabs, footsteps and other eerie things like that. In this movie specifically, during the infamous "shower scene," the knife stabs and screams sound so real and would scare people out of their shoes. Rumor has it that they stabbed some sort of meat to get that almost real sound to stabbing human flesh. From this film, we can tell that Hitchcock was really into manipulating the emotions of the audience. He wanted to be able to make the audience feel like they were really in the film and have the emotions that the characters seemed to have. The film can attract many theme's, but the main one is "you get what you deserve." Because of Marion's thief actions, she was murdered which is like karma in a way. The target audience is adults and he addresses them by his mature genre of the film.

From Silents To Studios: Part 2

The Studio Years

The years between 1930 to 1950 were known as, "The Studio Years." At the time, the film industry was being ran by the companies MGM, 20th Century Fox, RKO, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Columbia and Universal. Studios were updating to all the latest technologies and improving the quality of the films that they were producing. A system of production, distribution and exhibition was established and had the movie industry booming. Actual movie theaters went from 20- 30 seat theaters to larger, modern theaters. Movies were watched by everybody, no matter what social class due to its affordable prices. Actors working for the large studios were put under strict contracts that eventually affected their acting skills. CEOs that were in charge of these actors made them work such long hours that their acting quality started to deplete. Actors literally finished shooting one movie and got right into another one. This was a loss from the film industry because people became upset with the performance of actors that was being displayed.

From Silents To Studios: Part 1

Sound in Film

By the 1920's film had advanced to a turning point in which would change the whole industry. Film was now being produced with sound. At the time, studios opposed films with sound for many reasons such as: they were not sure if the public would accept it, stars had noticeable foreign accents, sound studios were expensive and many other reasons. All upscale studios besides Warner Bros. did not use sound. During this time, Warner Bros. Studios was slowly fading away and needed something new to bet their whole company into, in order to save them. Releasing their first feature length film with sound was a success. Their film called, "The Jazz Singer" had saved their business and caused buzz among the film industry. Studios were shocked at what this film had done. Soon after, almost all films had sound and were labeled as, "talkies." Many actors lost their jobs because they did not have the voices to fit their look or part in a film. Along with actors losing their jobs, the qualities of films started depleting. Film techniques were not being used as they were and storylines became boring. But as long as there was sound in their films, production quality did not matter as much.

Writing About Film

The five kinds of film writing are formal analysis,  film history, ideological papers, cultural studies/national cinemas, and discussion of the auteur. A formal analysis paper is where the viewer critiques a film in sections and how they contribute as a whole to a film. It also is one of the most common film papers. A Film history paper reflect history behind the film to show date or age corresponding to it's time from when it was made. An ideological paper films that promote religious, political or any other kind of beliefs. Discussing the Auteur is a paper about the film as a whole and the person who visioned it.

Annotating a film sequence is when you take notes in certain way, as you watch a film, just as you would take notes for a class or something. By annotating a shot sequence, you label each shot in the sequence. This helps you keep track of each shot in a sequence that has a diverse shot selection. Reviewing these notes can establish a visible pattern that the director, editor or cinematographer was going for.

When an authors says to "Think Beyond the Frame," they are implying to think what further meaning is behind the shot or shot sequence. The following question are ones you should ask yourself when "Thinking Beyond the Frame": Who is the director?, What is the production history of the film?, What do the critics and scholars say?, What can you learn from the film's genre?, Does the film reflect an interesting cultural phenomenon?.