Presentation for POL 338 Dr. Kevin Lasher

Film Basics Profit motive Mass public Collaborative enterprises Avoid politics (generally) Storytelling Genre

Film Basics: Profit Motive Movie business – ultimate goal is to make money Sam Goldwyn: “messages are for Western Union” More money through DVDs, Netflix, streaming, toys, merchandising Liberal Hollywood is the most “capitalistic” enterprise Looking for next blockbuster (international sales)

Film Basics: Profit Motive Business supersedes ART Win awards, prestige films Certain directors (Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Steven Spielburg, others) can pursue artistic visions Young directors with early success may disappear if films fail to make money More outlets for “auteur films”

Film Basics: Mass Public Today the focus is on youth and repeat business Reflect opinion and tastes of audience (rarely challenge) Entertainment/escapism

Film Basics: Mass Public 1920s-early 1950s film was the primary source of mass entertainment Two-thirds of population went to the movies weekly

Film Basics: Mass Public Today: International mass public Today: mass pubic versus niche market

Film Basics: Collaborative Enterprise Least common denominator versus auteur theory Early studio system was an “assembly line process” Studio head, producer, director, screenwriters, editing, technical, others Audience is part of the collaborative enterprise

Film Basics: Collaborative Enterprise Studio system is dead but collaboration remains Any message can be “diluted” by multiple players, production companies, corporations

Film Basics: Avoid Politics Films about politics are not very appealing, not profitable and possibly too controversial Counterintuitive: politics is conflict Small subset of all films Directors want to send a political message (if they can), so they keep trying on occasion Many of the AFI’s greatest films are “political”

http://www.afi.com/100years/movies10.aspx

Human beings have been telling stories since the creation of spoken language

Movies take us to a fictional world to tell a compelling story about interesting characters ---- NOT REAL

Film Basics: Storytelling Classical Hollywood Narrative “A story built around an active protagonist who struggles against primarily external forces of antagonism to purse his or her desire, through continuous time, within a consistent and causally connected fictional reality, to a closed ending of absolute, irreversible change.”

Film Basics: Storytelling Classical Hollywood narrative Protagonist(s) vs. antagonist(s) Directional plot; conflict Three act structure (generally) Resolution of conflict (or failure) Political films contain these components

Film Basics: Storytelling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0yqUmedyOM

Film Basics: Genre Particular type of film in which audiences have certain preconceptions and expectations; which share comparable and recognizable patterns in theme, period and setting, plot, symbols and types of characters

Film Basics: Genre Genres developed because of nature of studio “factory production system” (1930-1960) Genres developed because audiences enjoyed certain types of films Genres are not permanent, borders are flexible, old genres can die, new genres can emerge

Genres Westerns Gangster Films Horror Films Film Noir Musicals Action/adventure Science Fiction Romantic comedy Superhero Others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS7EHDwIzPc&t=10s

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