MMED 3850 – Cinema History 1945 – Present

Assignment One – The Classical Hollywood Style

Submitted to: David Clearwater

Submitted by: Misha Wilkin

Spring 2003

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Table of Contents Classical Hollywood style ................................................................................................ 3

History............................................................................................................................ 3

Narrative Structure ....................................................................................................... 3

Classical Continuity...................................................................................................... 5

Conclusion......................................................................................................................... 7

Works Cited....................................................................................................................... 8

Filmography....................................................................................................................... 8

Appendix 1 – Set Decoration.......................................................................................... 9

Appendix 2 -- Props .......................................................................................................10

Appendix 3 -- Costumes................................................................................................11

Appendix 5 -- 180° Rule ................................................................................................12

Appendix 6 – Shot/Reverse Shot.................................................................................13

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Classical Hollywood style

History

The Classical Hollywood style is a set of conventions used to achieve a

cinematic style where the viewer needs to think very little to understand the plot

of a film. This style originated in Hollywood between 1910 and 1920 when the

consolidation of smaller movie making and distribution companies restructured

the industry (Kolker 2002, 26). The movie making process resembled an

assembly line enabling the studios to produce a finished product in less time

trying to achieve up to two films completed per week (Kolker 2002, 27). The peak

years of early studio production processes happened between the 1920’s and

1940’s (Kolker 2002, 28). The 1930’s are considered the Golden Age of film

making. The idea was to divide the tasks up of developing a film. Divisions

included a top down hierarchy approach starting from the top with the studio

bosses who communicated with the financial officers in New York, who really

controlled the movie studios. The studio head in Hollywood decided on the

actors, the script that would be used and delivered this information to the

producers. The producers decided on a director, writers, and the crew who would

be involved in the filming of the movie. This structure enabled the studios to film

movies in less time adhering to a specific plan of production. The result of this

was fewer mistakes and less time and costs exhausted on the film. Most shooting

was done in the studio using techniques like large sets and rear projection to

mimic the real world.

Narrative Structure

The Classical Hollywood style is focused on the characters more than

anything else and these characters are obvious in their intentions usually trying to

overcome some type of adversity to reach a certain goal. The characters are

psychologically motivated and clear in their intentions. The narrative is structured

in a way not to confuse the viewer and over the course of the film the main

characters try to reach their goal or overcome the adverse conditions set out for

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them. The narrative ends with the main character achieving their goal or their

triumph or failure. The film usually ends with a happy ending and the hero

prevails and the villain gets punished leaving the movie audience with a feeling of

satisfaction from viewing the film. The way an actor portrays their character

affects the audiences feeling towards that character. In the classical style the

hero’s and villains are clearly defined and the intentions of these characters are

obvious.

The classical narrative structure focuses on creating verisimilitude which

attempts to create a feeling of the situation the characters are in to be realistic to

the viewer. This is accomplished through the use of mise-en-scene literally

meaning ‘put in the scene’. This is a combination of set decoration, costumes,

lighting and the attitude of the actors in their actions and mannerisms. The use of

set decoration helps to portray an era in history or the conditions the characters

live in by placing distinct props in the scene. An example of this is from the movie

Almost Famous (Appendix 1). Another example is the use of accurate props that

would be used in real life and also the lingo or language of the activity the scene

tries to represent (Appendix 2). Costumes are the clothes the actors wear in a

scene. The costumes represent the characters attitudes reflecting their fashion

style and personality traits. Costumes can also represent the style of a particular

era (Appendix 3). Lighting can be used to create mood in a scene. The use of

light reflects how an image is perceived as well as the depth of characters to

create a center of interest in a frame. Classical Hollywood style uses the

technique of three-point lighting in order to accentuate an actor or another center

of interest with a perception of depth using lighting from three directions

(Appendix 4). A backlight helps differentiate the actor from the background, a key

light is brighter and highlights the center of interest in the frame, and a fill light

from the opposite side ensures that the key light casts only faint shadows.

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Classical Continuity

The following section will outline the conventions used in the Classical

Hollywood Style and give specific examples to aid in the illustrations of these

techniques.

The editing style of Classical Hollywood style is continuity editing. The

idea is to ‘suture’ the viewer into the film creating a seamless film watching

experience. The individual shots are arranged to maintain the continuity of space

and time following a temporal sequence of events that make up the story of a

film. A system of editing is used to create continuous action in the narrative of a

film resulting in a clear understanding of the films narrative structure. Each shot

in developed into a scene using obvious distractions towards the viewer to not

notice the cuts in a scene. Techniques used are eyeline matches, dialogue, and

music to draw attention away from the cuts. An eyeline match ensures the next

shot begins in the same proportion where the previous scene left off. Dialogue is

used by key words that distract the viewer from the transition of one shot to the

next. The amplifications of a certain word are an example of this technique.

Music is used to aid in the transition of shots adding another element to distract

the viewer from the cut. This type of continuity editing is still popular today and

the audience needs to analyze the film very little to understand the plot. This

approach is used to assist the audience in obtaining satisfaction from watching a

film of this classical style.

The use of an establishing shot is used in the beginning of a scene to

establish the spatial surroundings of a scene. The establishing shot is usually

filmed from a distance giving the audience and idea of what is involved in the

scene. The establishing shot aids the audience in understanding where the

characters are and who is where in the construction of a scene.

The next technique used is the 180° rule. The idea of this convention is for

the camera to never cross an imaginary line that is drawn creating a 180° space

for the scene to be shot within (Appendix 5). The idea is the film viewer would

become confused if the scene left the imaginary 180° radius of the scene area.

The viewer must feel that space and time are contiguous between shots that form

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a scene. A convention that is used in the combination with 180° rule is a 30°

camera movement between shots. The purpose of this technique is that the

camera would move a minimum of 30° between shots in a scene in respect to the

axis the camera is on and the axis of the action taking place in the scene.

The use of voice-over narration is used in classical style to bridge gaps

between a flashback or a temporal jump in a film. The audience will be viewing

an image where the character is not actually speaking in the scene; the voice

over convention is used to explain what the viewer is observing in a scene to

illustrate a situation that has happened in the past.

A point of view shot is used to help identify what the character is looking at

in a scene. The point of view is the characters eyeline showing what the

character would see. The first shot would typically be the character looking at

something and the next shot would be what he character is looking at.

The use of a shot/reverse shot is a convention of the classical continuity

style. This convention is usually used for dialogue scenes in a film. The scene will

start with a two-shot showing the characters involved in the dialogue. The next

shot will be an over the shoulder point of view listening to the dialogue of the

character. The next shot will be the response of the other character in the

dialogue responding to the dialogue of the character in the previous shot. The

scene will usually conclude with the original two-shot of the characters involved in

the dialogue scene. An example of the shot/reverse shot can be viewed in

Appendix 6. There is also an economic approach to this technique. The idea is

that each actor does not need to be present on the set for the shot that directly

involves the character in the dialogue. The dialogue of each character can be

filmed separately and edited together to give the impression of the characters

being face-to-face with each other. The use of a stand in can be used because a

person’s shoulder can look the same as the actor.

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Conclusion

The meanings attributed to the conventions used in the Classical

Hollywood style ensure the audience is able to understand the plot of a film and

have a feeling of time and space that is not confusing for the audience of a film.

The conventions used in the continuity style help to reinforce the beginning and

end of the main issues characters face in a film of the classical style. The

continuity editing style creates a seamless viewing experience that conveys a

story that cannot be questioned by the audience. If two people viewed the same

film using continuity editing , the impression gained from watching a film would be

similar between the people viewing the film. The purpose of early cinema was to

provide entertainment to the viewer. Using clear-cut characters with obvious

goals and intentions leaves nothing open to question for the audience. The

audience is unconscious of the construction of shots into scenes but is conscious

of the affects a film has as a whole in respect to the objective of the story a film

portrays. The Classical Hollywood Style is effective in entertaining the audience

and delivering what the film makers think they want. The intention of the film

maker, in this situation, is for the audience to obtain a feeling of satisfaction from

watching a film. The technique of continuity editing is still used today and is

appropriate for the right type of film that is targeting a certain type of audience.

Some may argue this type of film is brainless for the viewer but sometimes the

spectator of a film just wants to be entertained and does not want to have to

analyze a film to understand the meaning of that film.

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Works Cited Clearwater, David. “MMED 3850N: Cinema History (1945-present)” (Online)

[http://home.uleth.ca/~cleada/courses/cinema2.htm]. Accessed 10 February 2003

Kolker, Robert. Film, form, and Culture Second Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill,

2002. Needham, Coal. “The Internet Movie Database” (Online) [http://us.imdb.com/].

Accessed 10 February 2003 Prunes, Mariano Raine, Michael Litch, Mary. ”Film Analysis” Yale Film Studies

(Online) [http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/index.htm]. Accessed 7 February 2003

Filmography Crowe, Cameron, dir. Almost Famous. US, 2000 Dahl, John, dir. Rounders. US, 1998 Demme, Ted, dir. Blow. US, 2001

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Appendix 1 – Set Decoration Set decoration helps to portray an era in history or the conditions the characters live in by placing distinct props in the scene. Frame taken from Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000).

Identifies that the time of year is near Christmas

Movie showing is reflective of era of film

Identifies style of fashion of era, also the weather is warm in December

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Appendix 2 -- Props The use of accurate props that would be used in real life and also the lingo or language of the activity the scene tries to represent. Frame taken from Rounders (John Dahl, 1998).

Use of authentic poker chips and cards.

Actors mannerisms and lingo reinforces validity.

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Appendix 3 -- Costumes Costumes can also represent the style of a particular era. Frame taken from Blow (Ted Demme, 2001).

1970’s fashion, hair style and attitudes.

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Appendix 4 – Three Point Lighting Classical Hollywood style uses the technique of three-point lighting.

Appendix 5 -- 180° Rule Scene cannot cross over into this area

Back Light

Key Light Fill Light

Camera

Imaginary 180 Degree Line

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Appendix 6 – Shot/Reverse Shot This is an example of a shot/reverse shot for a dialogue scene. Frames taken from Office Space (Mike Judge, 1999)

Two-Shot First over the shoulder shot

Next shot Reverse shot

Next shot This shot ends the dialogue