Early Hollywood

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)

“Artistic” Motivation

• “Moment of spectacle” or technical virtuosity• Unmotivated shift from the objective to

subjective perspective • Connections between sequences ruminate on

themes rather than causal relationships• Limited focus on a single goal• Musical numbers