RTF 305- Eighth Blog Post

The structure that is most prevalent in today's films is the three act structure. The first act is the introduction, the second act is the complication, and the third act is the resolution. The three act structure is mainly defined not only by its three acts, but also by the climax which occurs late within the third act. A film that follows this general structure is Finding Nemo.

Within the first act, or introduction, the setting and main characters are introduced. In Finding Nemo, you are introduced to Nemo, Marlin, and a few other characters that live in their neighborhood. The introduction continues until the point where Nemo is picked up by a diver, which is when the complication is introduced. In all, the introduction only takes about 30 minutes or so to develop. By the end of it, you are well aware of the setting, characters, and the general path that the movie should take.

The second act, or complication, builds on the complication that has been introduced at the end of the introduction. It also takes up the majority of the time of the movie, taking about an hour or so to develop. Within this second act, Marlin, Nemo's father runs into Dori, a fellow fish with short-term memory loss. As the story continues, you follow Marlin and Dori through their multiple obstacles through the ocean as they try to find Nemo. While all of this is occuring, the story also follows Nemo in his journey to an aquarium in an Australian man's dentist office. Within this complication, Marlin, Dori, and Nemo must face multiple small conflicts while facing the main complication of them being separated and trying to find each other.  Marlin and Dori face conflicts with sharks, jellyfish, a school of fish, and are even swallowed by a large whale. Nemo, on the other hand, faces the conflict of being given to the Australian man's niece, who is known for killing fish. The complication builds on these conflicts and heightens tensions.

The final act, or resolution, still builds on these tensions, but then soon follows by resolving the conflicts after the climax. The climax, or turning point of the story, happens in Finding Nemo when Nemo escapes from the dentist's aquarium. After this, he runs into Dori and finally finds his father again. The climax and resolution in the third act only take about 20 minutes to occur.

In whole, the three act structure, as mentioned in Dr. Ramirez-Berg's lecture, is a very common structure that is well suited for stories of triumph and happy endings. Finding Nemo almost perfectly fulfills each aspect of this structure.

http://cynicritics.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/marlin-and-dory-finding-nemo-1003067_1152_864.jpg

RTF 305- Seventh Blog Post

The one thing that sets most sitcoms apart these days are their episodic or serial structure. Many modern shows seem to be taking more of a serial structure, while most older shows seemed to have an episodic structure.

It seems that when looking at older sitcoms like Full House, Family Matters, and The Cosby Show, they seem to follow a more episodic structure. That is, they usually have a lesson that is learned by the end of the episode, there is familiar and predictable plot development, and each episode is likely to raise and answer central question. I believe that this similar structure is attributed to the time period in which family sitcoms were very popular, and much of the plot revolved around the children learning lessons.

 http://www.carseywerner.net/cosbyshow_eng.htm 

However, modern shows seems to be shaking up the norms in sitcoms. Shows like The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Pushing  Daisies, seem to have more of a serial structure. This means that generally they advance long-term plots, plot patterns aren't as predictable, there may or may not be a central question raised, the show isn't as lesson-centered. The shows we see today are very different than those we have seen in earlier decades. They present different situations, and don't always center around the family. Because of the deviation from the focus of family, I believe that modern sitcoms have been allowed to create much more dynamic situations, and have in turn taken more serial structures.

http://www.jellostapler.com/the-office-downloads.html

In whole, modern shows seem to have taken a more serial structure while older sitcoms utilized a more episodic structure.

RTF 305- Sixth Blog Assignment

During Monday's lecture, Professor Ramirez-Berg spoke about many different types of shots, shot progressions, camera angles, and each of their meanings. With these different shots, a director is able to portray feelings of loneliness, sadness, happiness, confusion, and many other emotions within a scene.

One of my favorite films is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The film depicts the internal struggles that Joel Barish must face while undergoing a procedure to erase his memory of his ex-girlfriend, Clementine Kruczynski. By undergoing the procedure, he must relive every memory from the present to the day that he met Clementine.

Just like in any other great film, the director of Eternal Sunshine, Michel Gondry used different shots to portray different emotions in every scene.

In this scene, Joel Barish, played by Jim Carrey, is dreaming of one of the days he spent with Clementine. After realizing that he doesn't want this procedure done, he is pleading with his doctors to stop doing the procedure. The overhead, high-angle shot used in this scene is a powerful indication of the lack of power that Joel has. He is at the mercy of his doctors, and this shot does a great job of portraying it.

Another type of shot mentioned in Monday's lecture was the low-angle shot. The low-angle shot is used to give power to the given individual. Although this doesn't quite depict the traditional low-angle shot, it is still relatively low, and shows how the doctors have complete control in this scene. The shot is in the point of view of Joel, who is sitting in a seat and is being questioned by his doctors. This shot does double the work by not only giving power to the doctors, but by also taking power from Joel and the audience, who are watching this scene in his point of view.

A third type of shot explained in Monday's lecture was the close up, or extreme close up. The close up is generally used to provide information dealing mostly with emotion. In this scene, Joel has awoken in the middle of his procedure, and is panicking because he was just having a dream about drowning. The close up allows us to see his expression and watered eyes, which in turn depict the panic and pain that he is going through while undergoing this procedure.

As you can see, camera angles and different shots are very powerful tools. They have the ability to depict multiple feelings and emotions, and really have control of setting the mood in films.

RTF 305- Fifth Blog Assignment

The aspect of the studio system that seemed most prominent was its use of vertical integration. This meant that they controlled production, distribution, and exhibition; keeping everything in one place. Besides containing a great deal of power through their vertical integration, they also had writers, actors, actresses, and everyone else in between on contract. This meant that they were unable to work for anyone else or have much flexibility in doing anything other than their work for the production company.
Many of the films created under this studio system defined the Classical Hollywood era, a very important period for film that took place between the 1920s and 1940s. As a result of this vertical integration, many of the writers, actors, actresses, and other workers were used continuously and frequently. Because each person was on contract, some workers were forced to produce film after film at a much more frequent rate than that of today.
A perfect example is in the overworking of Judy Garland. The young actress starred in fifteen films between the period of 1941 to 1950, which is much more frequent than that of any actor or actress today. This led to the eventual retiring of Judy Garland and her disappearance from the public eye at a rather early age.
In whole, the studio system of the Classical Hollywood era was very efficient. It spat out movies at an incredible rate, most of which were extremely successful. It's use of vertical integration and contracts gave it an immense amount of power over many of its workers. However, despite being very efficient, it did overwork many of its stars at the time.

http://thompsonian.info/delconn.html

RTF 305- Fourth Blog Assignment

When watching "All in the Family", I was surprised to see how different the show was from most contemporary family-based comedies. The contemporary sitcom I chose to compare and contrast "All in the Family" with is "Everybody Loves Raymond".

First of all, the type of humor that was used in each show was very different. While "All in the Family" used a lot of silly humor, "Everybody Loves Raymond" uses primarily sarcastic humor. In "All in the Family", the wife is the perfect example of this silly humor. She is portrayed as a ditz and frequently says funny and silly things. This brings me to my next difference between the two comedies. In each show, each wife plays a different role, which I believe is attributed to the time period of the show. While the wife in "All in the Family" is a silly, naïve individual, the wife in "Everybody Loves Raymond" reflects a modern wife that pushes her own weight around in the family. The wife in "Everybody Loves Raymond" is smarter, and even does much of the picking on of the husband. Some other differences included the topics of discussion and focus within the shows. In "Everybody Loves Raymond", as well as other modern shows, there is little focus on worldly or controversial issues, as opposed to "All in the Family" which decided to focus on more serious issues such as the issue of homosexuality.

 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/278713/archie_bunker_quotes_all_in_the_family.html?cat=41

There were also many similarities within the two shows as well. In each show, the father seems to be the character that gets into many of the problems and gets picked on frequently. In "All in the Family", Archie was the character that was the most close-minded and everyone in the family seemed to call him out on it. Another similarity that the two shows share is the focus on issues that are between the family. In "All in the Family" there were minor disputes between the family that would sometimes be the focus of the show, and this is very typical of modern shows as well.

All in all, "All in the Family" had many differences and similarities to modern family-based sitcoms. The main differences were in the issues of focus, roles of the wives, and the types of humor. Everything else seemed to compare to modern family-based sitcoms.

http://download-everybody-loves-raymond.edogo.com/