Independent Film - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Independent Film

Films funded outside of Big Hollywood Studios or Films that are made with an “independent spirit”Slide2

Birth of a Nation

DW Griffith

Thomas Dixon

1915

Extremely Racist—pro

Klu

Klux Clan

Griffith just thought it was presenting the Southern perspective

Shown in the White House (Woodrow Wilson)

First Blockbuster 60 million also first Independent film Slide3

Conventions

I

ndicates

the “establishment”, the established way of doing something, or understanding something. It’s what we see as natural, we’re so used to these conventions that we don’t even see them anymore, and definitely don’t see what their effect is, or how they affect us. Slide4

Structuralism

Umbrella term for many different movements that share approaches to the analysis of the world

Everything is available as text and can be analyzed on the same terms

Roland Barthes, Mythologies 1957

Originated with Ferdinand

de Saussure’s linguistic studies (

1857-1913

)

Film has its own language and structuralism allows us to understand

it

Filmmakers tend not to use the language of structuralism, but they implicitly use its approaches Slide5

Signs

In narrative, they are the most fundamental units of meaningSlide6

Filmmaking

Involves keeping the audience “on track”Slide7

Signs

Signifier

Signified

A sign has only one signifier

And multiple signified(s)

The signified is a unique response determined by a range of personal factorsMany links between signifiers and the signified are due to conventionsSlide8

Metaphor and Metonymy

Metaphors establish a relationship between two things— “light as a feather”

Metonymic establishes a relationship based on association– The bottle for drink, hands for workers, The crown for monarchy

A metonym replaces numerous changeable things with one single vivid and fixed image Slide9

Visual texts are characteristically metonymic

What is seen replaces or substitutes for what can’t be seen

Synecdoche: the relationship of the part to whole

A gunslinger is his gun, Julia Roberts is her smile

Flags are metonyms standing for a country or a causeSlide10

Denotation vs

Connotation

Denotation: the primary direct ‘given’ meaning a sign has

Connotation: the secondary indirect meaning derived from what the sign suggestsSlide11

Meaning is the result of the interaction between the film and the audience—it is a fluctuating process only partially at the filmmakers commandSlide12

Codes

Enigma Code

Connotative Code

Symbolic Code

Cultural Code Slide13

Text

A verbal written or visual artifact

Can be analyzed in terms of its meaning Slide14

Structuralism, as the name suggests, is about structure, and the smallest elements that go together make up structure; this means that it can be used to ensure precision Slide15

Structural Analysis

Narrative appears in many forms

Narratives are constructed, they don’t just appear;

they are selected and ordered.

Narratives apply to all human and cultural interaction Narratives are trans-historical Slide16

Narratology

Is the name given to the study of narrative and narrative structure Slide17

Story and Plot

Plot is about causality—how one event or action leads to another Slide18

Classical Hollywood Narrative Structure

Equilibrium is Established

Disruption to the equilibrium

Characters identify the disruption

Characters seek to resolve the issue to solve the problem to restore equilibrium

Reinstatement of equilibrium Slide19

Three Act Structure –Syd

Field

Act 1: Comprised the first quarter of the screenplay

Act 2: The next two quarters of the film

Act 3: the final quarter of the film Slide20

Intertextuality

The relationship of texts to other texts

Any film refers to other filmsSlide21

Types of Intertextuality

Appropriation

Dialogue

Reference

Self Reference Association Style Slide22

Primary plots

Achilles

Cinderella

Jason

Faust

OrpheusRomeo and JulietTristan and

Isolde

Slide23

Genres

French word meaning type

Sub-genre

Horror film with a sub-genre of

slasher

Or with a sub-genre of post-apocalyptic Slide24

Industry Branding

The film industry uses genre as a mode of classification and therefore as a product label for marketingSlide25

Narrative and Genre

When we recognize the genre we anticipate being taken on a particular kind of journey

Films that lack genre definition, which slip between categories are less likely to get made Slide26

Early Career

Fan of Science Fiction and Horror

Made 8mm shorts with his friends

Made a monster movie publication (

zine

)

Dark Star 1975

Assault on Precinct 13 1976Slide27

Halloween 1978

Made with girlfriend Debra

Hill

One of history’s best and most successful horror

films

Hill and Carpenter wrote the screenplay

320,000 to

make

Carpenter directed and composed the

score

Screen debut of Jamie Lee Curtis Slide28

Carpenter claims that the film isn’t about a psycho

killer

Criticism

arose

about girls being murdered (after they are sexually active

)This became a convention of many horror films to follow

Carpenter claims that he meant to portray the main character “Lori” as being as sexually repressed (like Michael)

What does this convey about women?Slide29

Most violence occurs

offscreen

(not a bloody film)

Subjective

camera

Michael can be seen in the foreground and background while the other characters are unaware of his presence Darkness is used a lot in the frame

What Makes it Scary?Slide30

Leit

Motif

a recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or

situation

https

://

www.youtube.com

/

watch?v

=A9QTSyLwd4wSlide31

Diegetic vs. Non-Diegetic Sounds

Score vs. Location Music

Dialogue vs. Voiceover

Sound effectsSlide32

Suspense

Suspense in editing is not about quick cutting

It is about longer strips of film

Anticipation