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13 Cards in this Set

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Russia (revolutionary Soviet cinema)

Leader Lenin felt that film could propagate USSR spirit of revolt


1917-1929 Golden age of soviet artistic innovation



Montage/editing and documentary aesthetic


-Filmmakers were also theorists, critics


-Developed ideas about editing as key to film


-Lack of film stock in film schools led to many editing exercises for students


-Also led to careful planning(pre-editing) of all films


-Made very long takes difficult


-documentary favored over fiction, received most available film stock

Kuleshov's "school"

-Had students re edit available footage


-including Griffith


-Editing creates intellectual associations between shots


-Discovered famous Kuleshov "effect": Viewers assume a relationship between any two shots

Sergei Eisenstein (Russia)

Dialectal montage


-Eisenstein: cutting between shots would show contrast/collision and create meaning


Director of The Battleship of Potemkin


The film celebrates unsuccessful 1905 muting and revolutionary activity


-Breaks action down into parts


-landmark in editing


-admired griffith's art (not politics)

Dziga Vertov/ Denis Kaufman

-He starts a new newsreel- Kino Pravda (Film Truth) named after state newspaper Pravda


-Writes about Kino eye- the camera eye as superior to normal vision, able to go anywhere, reveal anything


His most famous movie is called "Man with a movie camera" (1929)- A city symphony (Day to night in the life of a great city)- popular silent documentary genre, often from day to night in large metropolis, cities fascinated people


It is a reflexive film-film which reveals itself or is about filmmaking.


Starts with theater showing "Man with a movie camera", reveals its shooting, editing, response of citizens to camera


-Tricks were present: Freeze frame, sloMo, split screen


It was a movie about movies


"Kino eye"- sees marriage, divorce, birth, shows you everything, it's a celebration of cinema


When Stalin takes control of Russia though, he attacks "Formalist" art (he thought art should be easier to understand), with that he destroyed art in Russia in his period

Germany: From Caligari to Hitler

Germany after WWI


-bad shape


-Government combines many small studios into one "super" studio- UFA


-intended to make films to promote German image abroad



The aesthetic of Silent German film


1. Importance of Mise-en-scene (sets, costumes, lighting- what's in front of camera)


2. Importance of studio filming (


3. Psychology of characters


Expressionism in German cinema- when you take the mental state of a character and express in physical environment


-German cinema also had realist tradition


-inner world, psychological states of characters or artist becomes reality through distorted, haunted non-realist imagery

Fritz Lang

-German director, one of two major directors of 1920s


-Epic productions with massive, often geometric sets (appealed to Hitler)


-Director of Metropolis (1926)- lang's largest production, future of two worlds, rich live in the sun, poor people toil below on machines, influenced many science-fiction, fantasy artists/filmmakers

F.W. Murnou

-Other major German director of 1920s


-Made first Dracula film- Nosferatu (1922)


-famed for long camera movements, careful compositions and lighting


-Wooed by William fox to Hollywood for Sunrise (1927). Directed sunrise. Dies young in car crash

Everything about sound

Sound on disc


-one 78rpm disc= 10 minutes of dialogue


-played simultaneously with projector


Obvious defects but commercially successful for a while


VITAPHONE shorts (and soon a VITAPHONE feature) have synchronized dialogue- not just sound effects or music (Warner brothers went from little studio to use VITAPHONE feature), changed entire course of film history



"The Jazz singer" (1927)


-mostly silent but had some music and sound


-first feature with some synchronized dialogue


-silent scenes have more camera movement, faster editing


-also featured musical star Al Johnson, famous line "you ain't seen nothing yet"


-smash hit!!! Audiences wanted more sound films



Standardization of Frames per second


-whether optical or on disc, sound is recorded mechanically at a consistent speed


-previously cameras (and early projectors) were hand cranked


-cameras now had to be motorized and record at a consistent amount of frames per second (then projected at same) to synchronize with sound


24 fps produced good quality


-film standardized at 24Fps with sound transition



A rapid transition


-1927- films are silent, a few have scenes/sound effects on optical soundtrack and one with some synchronized dialogue on disc


-1929- last groups of silent films released, most films are sound


-1930- a few films released in silent versions for theaters, which have yet to convert


-1931- all films are sound


-audiences are used to radio and demand sound film



Some technical challenges


1. Early sound cameras were noisy- had to be behind glass, far from actors- and basically immobile


-Films briefly became static, distanced, amplification problems


-some scenes of action/movement were shot silent and sound was added later



2. Microphones- at first only one microphone, in fixed cameras



Solutions:


1. Cameras- blimps or barneys placed around cameras for sound proofing


2. Sound- boom mikes which could move and multi (?)



Other challenges:


-studios had to borrow $$ from Wall Street for conversion in 1928-1929


-major economic event of 1929


-by 1933, many studios were bankrupt or close to it


-careers were ruined with transition to sound:


-actors with inappropriate voices to their star image


-unsatisfactory voices (Keaton)


-directors- D.W. Griffith most noted- who failed to make transition


- Beneficiaries- actors, writers, directors with Broadway experience


-Many writers came to Hollywood to write dialogue


Genres which benefit with sound: Musicals had been impossible before and gangster films with sound machine guns, tough dialogue

The golden age of classical Hollywood

-Movies as THE mass medium


-"Going to THE movies", "not going to a movie"


-65% of us population went to the movies, 1938- 80 million admissions


Going to the movies 3 times a week was normal


25 million/week in 1994 less people going to the movies, wayyyyy less people than in 1938

The major studios (The Big 5)

-used assembly line method of Ford, vertically integrated


These major studios constantly producer films for distribution to exhibitors catering to a highly enthusiastic public


Typical studio schedule- 1 film/week



1. Paramount Pictures: "mountain surrounded with stars"


-The "director's studio"


-lacked strong, legendary production boss


-allowed creative freedom to directors


-had many financial ups and downs


-known for wild comedy and sophisticated, European style risqué material


Comedy tradition


-Mae West (said risqué things, open sexuality)


European sophistication- Ernst Lubitsch, German emigre, master of sophisticated comedy


-done with a great deal of taste



Josef Von Sternberg


-upside down and silent


- painstaking lighting


-elaborate sets


-objects between camera and characters


-made Marlene Dietrich a star- glamour queen



Cecil B. De Mille- one of the most famous producers at paramount studios


-known for epics, spectacle


His most famous film The Ten Commandments



2. MGM (metro Goldwyn Mayer), used to be in culver city, now Sony


Also called the producer's studio


-Run by strong studio boss Louis B. Mayer


- glamorous and wholesome studio


-had the most stars- made many forgettable star vehicle


-made fewest memorable films


-spent the most $$ on films (made the most $$)


-biggest, most elaborate sets


-always brightly lit


-didn't do well with gangster films


-even working class characters seem affluent


-all American tone, patriotic


-we remember MGM most for musicals, especially wizard of Oz



3. Warner brothers studio


-Jack Warner, production boss


-cheapest sets, costumes


-fewest extras


-dimmest lighting (not very brightly lit)


-spent wayyy less money than MGM


-famous for gangster movies


Warner's sensibility: urban settings, fast-talking, working class characters, tough-guy, conveyed by stars, gangster actors (James Cagney),


-cartoon


Early 1930s: WB pioneered 3 genres/tendencies 1. Gangster film, 2. Backstage musical, 3. Social problem film (showed poverty, homelessness, problems of the Great Depression), all expressed warner's sensibility


Social problem- I am a fugitive from a chain Gang (1933)-dark WB lighting, one of most famous lines in film history: "how do you live?" " I steal"




4. 20th century Fox


-Formed by merger of Fox's studio with 20th century (1935)


-William Fox


-two companies (Fox with 20th century)


-Darryl F Zanuck- head of production


Zanuck: producer at Warner brothers, early 1930s, connected to social problems films, brought social consciousness to Fox, individually produced films


"The Grapes of Wrath" (1940), based on John Steinbeck's novel of Dust bowl victims moving to California, directed by John Ford


John ford: worked intermittently at fox over 30 year period, often considered greatest director of classical era, populist (sympathetically presents virtues, decency and troubles of the "little guy", chronicler of American history, famed for directing westerns, discovered John Wayne (the most famous movie star of all times according to the professor)


-Fox's biggest star(and savior after merger) - Shirley temple- most famous child actor of all times)




5. Radio- Keith Orpheum (RKO)


Radio (RCA- radio corporation of America owner of NBC)


-Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chain


Founded after transition to sound


Smallest, least stable of the big studios


-most adventurous, lacked coherent sensibility


Took chances such as: King Kong (1933) and citizen Kane (Orson Welles)


Citizen Kane: Orson Welles- star, director, co writer at age 25, given total creative freedom in contract


Wins only 1 academy award- script


Aesthetics triumphs (citizen Kane):


1. Narrative's structure (flashbacks as journalist interviews Kane's acquaintances searching for "Rosebud"


2. Self conscious style, viewer aware of camera


3. Dramatic camera angles- low angles required trenches dug, roofs on sets)


The Little Three studios

1. Columbia


Harry Cohn- classic tyrannical studio boss, was a horrible person


Mostly produced "B" films for bottom half of double features


-released a few major films annually


-directors were given freedom despite Cohn's personality


-major directors worked at Columbia


Howard Hawks: most "classical" of filmmakers, highly conventional, commercially successful, master of all genres (westerns, musicals, comedy, adventure, gangster, etc)


-known for casting iconic players like John Wayne


-made the original scarface


-brilliant, witty dialogues



Columbia's #1 director Frank Capra


-made Columbia's biggest film most years


-populist, socially conscious like Ford


-little guy vs. the system


- mr. Deeds goes to town (1936)


-meet John Doe (1941)


-"it's a wonderful life"- impossible to not get choked up




2. Universal


-_another "B" studio


-despite early predominance, mostly made "B" films during 1930s and 1940s


-would make 1 or 2 "A" films/year


-made classic early 1930s horror films (not B movies initially): Dracula and Frankenstein




3. United Artists


- Fairbanks (retires 1934, dies 1939)


-Pickford (retires 1933)


-Griffith (last film 1931)


-Chaplin (makes 4 films in 1930s and 1940s)


-becomes distributor of major independent productions


Stagecoach: a famous film that united artists distributed.


Stagecoach: revives western genre, popular genre in silent era, but lapsed into "B" level by 1930s, made star of John Wayne, first of many Ford/Wayne westerns


C. Major independent producers

David O. Selznick


-started at RKO- produced King Kong


-Married Louis Mayer's daughter


-most famous for Gone with the wind (a civil war story, ultimate classical era film)



Walt Disney


-1st sound cartoon- steamboat willy


-1st feature cartoon- Snow White and the seven dwarfs (1937)

B studios

-The "B" movie


-exhibition practices- aside from very top level theaters, audiences saw double feature plus a cartoon, shorts, newsreel, coming attractions


-"A" and "B films


"B" films- no stars, often re used sets, 60-80 minutes


-B movies were made by all studios(mgm denied doing so, paramount did very few), sometimes as series films with many from universal and Columbia


Republic pictures: specialists in "B" westerns, made a few "A" films, still a B studio