The Duel side of the classical period

The Duel side of the classical period

Table Of Content Introduction..i What is classical Hollywood cinema ii The 3 Act Structure......iii 3 Systems of narrative films.......iv Editing, Space and Time...v Mise en scène.......vi Film Ending..... vii List of movies to refer.....viii Does Classical Hollywood style still exists?...ix How Classical cinema differed from alternative cinema?...x

Introduction Topic: The Duel side of the classical period Does classical Hollywood style still exists? About the presentation: A brief discussion about the classical Hollywood cinema and how they differed from the alternative cinema during that period of time.

Narrative is bound to human from the prehistoric times till the present date.

Classical Narrative of Hollywood A chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space by Bordwell and Thompson, Film art. The term classical Hollywood cinema was coined by David Bordwell, Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson. Over 40 yrs from 1917 to 1960s there were distinctive collection of movies which had the similar way of story telling which was called the Classical Hollywood cinema. The film style have a set of unwritten rules which was widely accepted by the film makers

THE PREMISE OF C.H.C The fundamental premise in C.H.C is that the narrative must cohere. All the questions raised at the beginning of the film must be answered at the end. Bordwell identifies narratives as having a cuse and effect structure: this means that the narrative will have a protagonist and it will follow the protagonist s story. The protagonst s objective becomes the real narrative engine. Stories subordinate time and space to the chain of events (linked by cause and effect) The narrative action must occur within a homogenous space. Character and camera movement must be organized in relation to space, in such a way as to present a congueous frame where foreground elements and backgound elements are staged with respest to the planes of action and the internal logic of the scene Action motivates camera movement, with the 180 degree rule ensuring the understanding of the scene. Camera movement will support the coherence of dramatic action by following a given character or focusing on an object. The composition of the frame follows a basic principle: the upper half of the screen (especially the central area, see the rule of thirds) constitutes a privileged zone of dramatic activity. The shot will be symmetrical, lights and darks will tend to be balanced andthe space won t come forward so that the homogeneity of the spectacle will be guaranteed.

The 3 Act Structure Routine life (Introduction of the Problem) Problem solving (The character logically works through the problem creating a story) Problem Resolved (end of the problem where the life comes back to normal)

Editing Editing plays a major role in films because they are important to make the film move forward. In classical period the Type of editing which was mostly preferred was continuity editing. The important goal of this type of editing is to make the cuts invisible.

Space and Time The time and space are unified and liner to match the perception of reality in the films For example: They prefer to take a 18o shot to move around the characters than using jump cuts.

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS Applying Bordwell s definition of C.H.C to Now Voyager

Does Classical Hollywood style still exists?

How Classical cinema differed from alternative cinema? The directors were bound to follow the Classical Hollywood style during that period of time were there was few movies that called themselves alternative cinema. One of them is Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock. Psycho can fall under the category alternative cinema which was coined by Laura Mulvey for the films that divert from the typical progression of a classical Hollywood film or what may be pleasurable to the audience.

Comparing classical Hollywood cinema with Alternative cinema Here I want to compare the classical Hollywood cinema in the movie Casablanca And Alternative cinema of the same period Psycho. In Casablanca : a problem arises and the lead characters try to resolve and the life returns to normal Whereas in Psycho : The lead character who is a girl is killed and the story investigates about her murder.

Psycho Is considered as the Father of horror films. Which broke the classical Hollywood Style during 1960. The movie hit a great block buster and its still used a reference for horror genre. The classical Hollywood period evolved from black and white to colour during this period but Psycho was still a black and white film. What do you think the reason for the films success? Visual Pleasure and unexpected twists.

Summary Classical Hollywood style is so predictable In the development of the plot and the story every scene is motivated The classical movie answers all the questions in the story by the course of the movie so by the end of a classical narrated cinema the audience does not leave home with a startled feeling like most of the contemporary films gives us today.

Conclusion The classical style is more like a formula of film making. It does not matter who the director is or the actor or the screen play writer is, but the mainstream movies have a similar layout. The classical Hollywood style serves as a base for the contemporary films. It is been used unconsciously since the birth of cinema and we be in existence far into the future.

Post Classical Style: Contemporary Hollywood Cinema. An Aesthetic Approach During the studio era (classical period), the rules for style were cemented into a well defined practice. Directors had to respond to certain aesthetic guidelines that were primarily a matter of taste and commodified rules (ex: you couln t cut in the middle of a scene, you should reduce extreme close-ups, in a way you had to serve the story in the most unobtrusive way possible). Each camera position was almost fixed in place. The result of this modus operandi was an invisible mise-en-scene. The French New Wave and New New Hollywood of the 70s, started to experiment with style, creating a rupture with the past, but the overall stylistic system remained commodified at best (see Van Sant s comment). In this way both experimentation and formula coexisted hand in hand According to David Bordwell what haschanged is not the entire stylistic system, but certain techniques, certain devices working within that system. These devices are always there to serve the same classical premise: to serve the story, but the manner in which they are used is different. We talk about a different intensity. The new style, this new kind of intensity is a reworking of earlier principles of

INTENSIFIED CONTINUITY 4 strategies of editing and camerawork are central to the new style: Rapid editing Extreme lenses Close shots Extensive camerawork.

Picking up the pace. The ASL (Average Shot Length) in the 20s was six seconds per shot, hence cut quite fast. The ASL with the advent of sound, slowed down. 11-12 seconds per shot. In the 60s, film makers started to increase the pace of their films. A- films of the period like Goldfinger (1960) clocked in at about 4 seconds. In the 70s the pace increased in almost every genre, from comedies to action films (4 to 5 seconds per shot, with more than a thousand shots per film). In the 80s, most films had 1500/2000 shots with an ASL of 5 to 6 seconds. In the 90s directors increased their number of shots up to 3000 or 4000, with an ASL under 3 sec (Armaggedon 2.3) Today films are cut much more rapidly than ever. From 2000 onwards the fast cutting has characterized all genres (Moulin Rouge has an ASL of 1.8 second) The quickening of editing has affected other techniques too. Nowadays we cut in the middle of a scene, in the middle of camera movement, hence denying the viewer a sense of resolution/completition inside a scene. We also tend to use other devices to enhance the spectacle on-screen (using light burts, rack

INTENSIFIED CONTINUITY. CAMERAWORK Camera movement is the standardized practice today of framing. Aestetically camera moves are today an extension (intensified) of what became prominent in the 30s (think of Touch of Evil for example). Both tracking shots and crane shots have nowadays become a commodity. In particular the prowling shot, where the camera follows a character with a track or a steadicam are very common. Sometimes these are inscribed within a more complex aesthetic system (the long take, see De Palma or Anderson). The crane shot which generally marked a high view point today is a form of embellishment. It can appear at any point in a scene and can also make expository moments more interesting.

The Prowling Camera The camera is likely to prowl even if there is no physical movement of the actor: a push in is generally used to accentuate a moment of realization or something that is about to happen. Or even characters sitting down around a table are shot with a circular movement, the arcing camera spiralling around them. Today, scenes tend to start with camera movemt, far or near. The crane helps in this respect. Whereas in the 30s you started with a close up of an object and track back, nowadays film makers start with an arcing movement of an unimportant object in the foreground (tree, car, sign). As if pulling aside a curtain, the camera slowly unmasks the action. This kind of autonomous camera movement so prominent in European Cinema (Fellini, Bertolucci) became the hallmark of US directors, bringing a cultural gravitas to their films. See Paul Schraeder and Scorsese s comments.

WHAT IS THE APPEAL OF CAMERA MOVEMENT TODAY? According to Vilmos Zsigmond (DOP) this technique gives you the third dimension, which is the way movies should look; camera movement separates the planes of action and provides more pictorialism. If you lock down the camera, there s only one view. The demand for camera movement also helped popularize handheld shooting. The cinema veite technique brought in by documentaries and the new wave has opened doors to new levels of realism in every genre. See clip Bourne supremacy.

COUNTER TREND OF DIRECTORS Whit Stillman, Woody Allen, David Lynch, M.Night Shyamalan. Clip: Last Days of Disco (8 to 12 seconds ASL)

OVERALL RESULT OF THE AESTHETIC According to Bordwell the new style suggests that we can t describe the viewer s activity with spatial metaphors such as absorption or detachment. At any moment sylistic devices announce themselves drawing attention to the cinematic apparatus (Gunning). The triumph of intensified continuity reminds us that as style changes, so do viewing skills. What have we lost?: 2 hours films, ensemble staging, static framing, performance is often sacrificed for camera movement and overall decor. This consciously stylish style has brought feature films very closely to music videos and to coin the expression: the language of commercial cinema.