Sac 236-Exam 2: Lectures 1

Front 1

Classical hollywood narrative

Back 1

A system of storytelling
tied to industrial
practices designed for
maximum efficiency and
predictability.

Front 2

What isn't Hollywood Narrative?

Back 2

An outdated style of
storytelling that
happened in the blackand-white days and is
gone now.

Front 3

3 ways to study classical Hollywood Narrative

Back 3

As a REPRESENTATION
that refers to or
signifies a world
or body of ideas.

As a STRUCTURE
with components
that combine to
create a distinct
whole.

As a a DYNAMIC ACT
that presents a
story to a
perceiver.

Front 4

Two words of Russian formalism

Back 4

Syuzhet and Fabula

Front 5

Syuzhet

Back 5

The sytematic presentation of the
film as it is shown on screen.

Basically the plot

Front 6

The Fabula

Back 6

The narrative events in causal,
chronological order. Constructed by
the spectator.

Basically the story

Front 7

The Classical Hollywood system is ______ ______

Back 7

efficiently predictable

Front 8

Description of narrative

Back 8

A psychologically
defined
individual...
will struggle to
solve a clear
problem...
or accomplish
specific goals.

Front 9

Two things of narrative efficiency

Back 9

1. Manufacturing predictability
2.Self-effacing (not drawing attention to oneself), not “invisible”

Front 10

The fabula will..

Back 10

emphasize clear
cause and
effect...
as it moves toward
either clear
victory or defeat.

Front 11

The syuzhet will...

Back 11

open with a
disruption of the
status quo...
that will
eventually be
resolved.

Front 12

Two linked plotlines of syuzhet

Back 12

One will involve
heterosexual
romance...
and the other will
involve another
sphere.

Front 13

Sequence efficiency

Back 13

Scenes are
clearly...
demarcated by
standard stylistic
means...
and defined by
unity of time,
space, and action.

Front 14

Style encourages

Back 14

encourages
consistency and
coherence in terms
of space and time.

Front 15

Normativity

Back 15

The prescriptive process of
actively encouraging certain
standards of behavior or beliefs
upon a group.

Front 16

Ideology

Back 16

A guiding set of beliefs and ideas that
define a paradigm or worldview.

Front 17

Hegemony

Back 17

A process in which a dominant group manipulates culture so
that its ideology becomes normative, which then is
perceived as beneficial to all of society -- but only
actually benefits the dominant group.

Front 18

Jim's definition of Classical Hollywood Narrative

Back 18

“Somebody wants
something badly and is
having difficulty getting it.”

Front 19

Bordwell's definition of motivation

Back 19

The justification given in the film for the presence of an element.
This may be an appeal to the viewer's knowledge of the real world,
to genre conventions, to narrative causality, or to a stylistic pattern
within the film.

Front 20

Self conscious narration can be a _____

Back 20

zoom

Front 21

4 different types of genres

Back 21

Fictional feature (western, horror, musical, science fiction, gangster, drama, comedy), documentary (propaganda, educational), experimental (essay film, avant garde), animated (shorts, anime)

Front 22

3 things that genres are made of

Back 22

Building Blocks (“semantics”)
• Locations / spaces - e.g. “the West” in Western
• Characters - e.g. monster in Horror
• Props/costumes - e.g. tommy gun in Gangster Film
• Iconography - e.g. dark cityscapes in Film Noir
• Structures (“syntax”)
• Plot theme - e.g. backstage musical
• Plot structure - e.g. lone hero enters society in Western
• Principles of narrative construction - e.g. suspense in Thriller, emotional
“rollercoaster” in Melodrama
• Extratextual Aspects (“pragmatics”)
• Industry Discourse
• Systems of Expectation
• Regimes of Verisimilitude

Front 23

Generic verisimilitude

Back 23

what is probable, or likely, within the “rules”
of a genre (e.g. characters sing and dance in
musicals)

Front 24

cultural verisimilitude

Back 24

What is probable, or likely, with respect to
audiences’ beliefs about what is “true,”
based on their social / cultural experience

Front 25

Two reasons why defining genres is tough

Back 25

Historicity: genres and genre definitions change over time
• Hybridity (“genre mixing”): genres are not “pure” categories.

Front 26

5 things that genres do

Back 26

• For the studios/producers:
they standardize production
• For the distributors/exhibitors:
they facilitate advertising / targeting audiences
• For the critics:
they provide templates for evaluating films
• For society:
they provide opportunities to reflect upon social values
• For the audience:
they guide choices and expectations, provide regimes of verisimilitude

Front 27

ritual approach theory of genres

Back 27

• Genres are social “rituals” like holidays
• “A genre is a society collectively speaking to itself” (Thomas
Schatz, Classical Hollywood Genres)

Front 28

ideological approach theory of genres

Back 28

• Genres manage and smooth over social contradictions
• But also: genres expose social anxieties - e.g. film noir, woman’s
film.

Front 29

A documentary is a film that _______ __ ______

Back 29

might be lying

Front 30

5 things that Christopher Doyle incorporated in "In the Mood for Love"

Back 30

¡ Blocked Views
¡ Internal Framing
¡ Shallow Space
¡ Limited Focal Planes
¡ Mobile Framing

Front 31

3 things that experimental films hope we accomplish

Back 31

Innovation
Experimenting with
the medium
Self-Reflexivity
Commenting on the
medium
Perception
Making us see things
in a new light

Front 32

How to watch experimental film

Back 32

¡ Let the film teach you what to look for!
¡ Identify formal motifs:
§ The play of shapes and forms
§ The interplay of light and dark
§ Recurrent movements (camera movements,
movements of objects)
§ Cinematographic motifs
§ Etc.
¡ Identify formal patterns:
§ Repetitions
§ Themes and Variations
§ Progressions
§ Reversals
¡ Think about what the film tells you
§ about the medium of film itself?
§ about perception?
§ about the role of art?