CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD CINEMA Screen Language Film Foundation Degree zasasas

Aims of the lesson To introduce the concept of Classical Hollywood Cinema To explain the differences between classical narrative and alternative narratives To illustrate the technical, visual and narrative changes in the development of Classical Hollywood Cinema To enable students to research and present with their own examples the Classical Hollywood visual style

Classical Hollywood Style: the origins Term coined by David Bordwell, Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson. They analysed 100 Hollywood films from 1917 to Conclusion: there is a distinctive cinematic style that they called classical Hollywood style. The film style have a set of unwritten narrative and stylistic rules which have been widely accepted by filmmakers. two alternatives. Either they succumb to the classical Hollywood style and follow its example, or they revolt against it and try to consciously subvert the norms of that style.

WHAT IS NARRATIVE? An account of a string of events occurring in space and time. Not merely a cluster of random elements, a narrative presents an ordered series of events connected by the logic of cause and effect.

Bordwell & Thompson on narrative o Space (man is in office, bed, then bathroom; phone is elsewhere in the house) o Causality (argument causes sleeplessness & broken mirror; phone call from boss resolves conflict) o Time (sleepless night occurs before breaking of mirror; breaking of mirror occurs before phone call; action runs from one day to the following morning)

What? A man tosses and turns, unable to sleep. A mirror breaks. A telephone rings. How? A man has a fight with his boss He tosses and turns that night, unable to sleep. In the morning, he is still so angry that he smashes the mirror while shaving. Then his telephone rings; his boss has called to apologize.

Classical Narrative Structure Linear Narrative

Forms of Narrative Linear Non-linear Circular Episodic * To think Can you use a combination of these forms of narrative in the same story?

Forms of Narrative Linear: Chronological order Non-linear: May begin in any order, middle, then end, the beginning Circular: begins at the end and then tells the story in linear fashion returning to the end Episodic: story told in chapters, the chapters may follow characters, and then be in any order

Classical Hollywood Narrative An Affair To Remember (dir. McCarey, 1957) Alternative Hollywood Narrative

More on classical narrative Main character – a protagonist Active character Goal – desire (short term goals to achieve the main goal) Conflict – an opposite force Cause and effect (causality) – chain of events. Time is manipulate to highlight only the important events) Closure ending: it is learnt the fate of each character, the answer of each question, the outcome of each conflict

BEFORE CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD

timeline 1894 – 1906/08 Early Cinema/PMR/‘cinema of attractions’/emphasis on ‘showing’ 1908 – late teens honing of narrative techniques/transitional period 1920s – late 50s/early 60s development of Classical Narratives

EARLY CINEMA: /8 What film techniques, narrative and style have been used in the following films?

La Sortie de l'Usine (dir. Lumiere, 1895) The First Moving Picture

The Kiss (dir. Edison, 1896) First commercial film

The Gay Shoe Clerk (dir. Edison, 1903) Cinema of attraction

The Gay shoe clerk A flirting shoe clerk manages a peek at a young lady’s ankle. He is then pummeled by her escort after kissing the young lady Interior of shoe-store. Young lady and chaperon enter. While a fresh young clerk is trying a pair of high-heeled slippers on the young lady, the chaperon seats herself and gets interested in a paper. The scene changes to a close view, showing the lady’s foot and the clerk’s hands tying the slipper. Her dress is slightly raised, showing a shapely ankle, and the clerk’s hands begin to tremble, making it difficult for him to tie the slipper. The picture returns to the previous scene. The clerk makes rapid progress with his fair customer, and while he is in the act of kissing her the chaperon looks up and proceeds to beat the clerk with an umbrella. Then she takes the young lady by the arm, and leads her from the store.

Camera static One shot – no editing No dialogue Showing Long shot What film techniques, narrative and style have been used in the following films?

Cinema of attractions Audience were fascinated with anything shown on the screen – the important thing was the medium itself Subjects were very similar Simple storyline

influenced by photography & theatre camera at a distance use of long shot static camera frontal staging melodramatic acting style emphasis on display SHOWING (vs. telling from 1908) (John Belton) Primitive mode of representation (PMR)

timeline 1894 – 1906/08 Early Cinema/PMR/‘cinema of attractions’/emphasis on ‘showing’ 1908 – late teens honing of narrative techniques/transitional period 1920s – late 50s/early 60s development of Classical Narratives

1908 – LATE TEENS

Development in film language Audiences soon became bored with the “cinema of attractions” and filmmakers had to find new ways to keep their audiences entertained. They began to move to more complex narrative forms, but found it difficult because of the lack of sound. Began using intertitles to narrate films. At first, they were long to explain the story, buty as film language developed, they begin to only be used for dialogue

1908 – LATE TEENS D W Griffith, the Father of American Cinema

Watch carefully What innovative film techniques are used in the films of D W Griffith? 1.CAMERA 2. EDITING

Those Awful Hats (Dir. Griffith, 1909)

Broken Blossoms (dir. Griffith, 1919)

What innovative film techniques are used in the films of D W Griffith? 1. CAMERA - Use of tighter shots What was the effect on the: ➢ Audience – Could read emotion of a story from actors expression ➢ Actors – using more realistic techniques acting methods as opposed to melodramatic techniques 2. EDITING – Cross-cutting between 2 scenes that happening simultaneously What was the effect on the: ➢ Narrative – Heightens the suspense

D W Griffith, his contribution o Shifted from shorts to spectacular features, from a cottage industry to the classical studio. o Constant updating of techniques for delivering story information clearly and emotionally. o Griffith refined staging, shot composition, scene-to-scene organization, and editing rhythm to build character, suspense, and logical time–space relations.

timeline 1894 – 1906/08 Early Cinema/PMR/‘cinema of attractions’/emphasis on ‘showing’ 1908 – late teens honing of narrative techniques/transitional period 1920s – late 50s/early 60s development of Classical Narratives

1920s – LATE 50s/early 60s

Classical Hollywood Narrative Classical Hollywood Style REVIEW

Review of Classical Hollywood Narrative basic structure of enigma/resolution or equilibrium/disequilibrium/equilibrium linearity + cause/effect logic high degree of narrative closure psychologically rounded characters as active narrative agents spatial & temporal verisimilitude/realism

Classical Hollywood visual style ACTIVITY Create a presentation explaining the elements of Classical Hollywood visual style. Use examples to illustrate your points. o Lighting o Camera o Mise-en-scene o Editing o Any other issue Include a mood board/collage of films of iconic Classical Hollywood films from the 1920s – LATE 50s/early 60s Discussion: What was the effect of classical Hollywood style on the film production industry?