Classical Hollywood Narrative

In the reading, Violence in Movies: Cinematic Craft or Hollywood Gone Too Far?, the response that states "Point: Hollywood, Stop Exposing Our Kids to Violence" is more persuasive than "Counterpoint: Hollywood Filmmakers Should Not be Villainized for Movie Violence" because it provides better-supported facts that are reliable and credible. The "Point" response explains how violence in movies has become very excessive and is allowing children to act out and think it is okay because of what they see on TV. While, the "Counterpoint" response explains how Hollywood filmmakers should not be punished for their creative writing and that parents should monitor their kids and decide whether or not they should be watching it.

From beginning of the film, it is entirely obvious the perspective of the film. At the first scene, Martin Scorsese, the film director, uses narrative, directors usually use this technique to give an introduction

Cinema often uses structured set design and camera angles to convey meaning to an audience. Throughout American Beauty, Mendesʼ use of set design and camera angles have been carefully structured to emphathise the filmʼs theme of imprisonment. In the opening scene the audienceʼs introduction to the

Burton uses different framings such as long shots, shot reverse shot, and point of view shots to make his viewers believe they are in the movie themselves. In Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and Edward Scissorhands Burton uses long shots to usually makes the audience feel that the character is small and vulnerable, but it also can create the effect of the viewer being able to see all that is going on. Also when shot reverse shot is used it develops a sense that the viewer is apart of the film. In Big Fish there is a lot of shot reverse shot because of all the conversations Edward Bloom has throughout his lifetime stories. In Edward Scissorhands one of the main scenes in this film that uses point of view shots to make the audience fantasy that they are in the movie themselves seeing out of the character

Another interesting use of camera cutting can be found in the in between scene where Cleo is roaming the streets of Paris. She is now becoming the one watching other people rather than being the one watched as she was in the beginning (probably because of her beauty and famous singer status). While she is watching the camera cuts between other people’s conversations and then while she is walking the camera is in essence her point of view. However during this walk, the people passing are watching her as well, thus proving that this is the transition time. The use of cutting between shots of her and shots of all these people passing her not only show this change in who is watching who, but also allows for a sense of time passing. Interspersed with these shots are images of people we have already met, the widow, the boyfriend, the piano player, as well as the images of a monkey resting on a clock and her wig resting on the mirror, these things conveying how the people who know her see her and how she sees herself. This is a genius montage because these two things represent the same thing, how people see her, how she sees people, and how she sees herself, and by interspersing them we see

As a child growing up, I was extremely creative and possessed a vivid imagination. You could often find me performing songs or dancing at home and at church. For hours at a time, I would lock myself away in my bedroom where I created colorful stories of faraway lands and fascinating people using Barbie dolls as my characters. As I grew older, I exchanged Barbie dolls for cameras and computers as I began to realize my passion for storytelling, my vivid imagination, and my love for performing could all be utilized through the creation of films.

Since camera movement was used to follow the characters actions more than cuts, each significant act was a cut. Thus making the shots very long, such as the scene where Mr. Thatcher confronts Kane about his publishing in the newspaper ‘The Inquirer’ about the public transit company. Having cuts in these scenes would kill the tension in the dialogue. Longer shots drag on the tension and force the audience to stay intact with the storyline. An infuriated Mr. Thatcher confronts Charles on his misleading front page articles published in ‘The Enquirer’ about the public transit company.

Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is a fusion of Alfred Hitchcock and Jean-Luc Godard because he creates a style different from conventional movies of the 1980s. Godard and Hitchcock are known for their outlandish, but revolutionary plays on storytelling. Tarantino does not abide by any rules in his film.

One late night my brother and I decide to sleep downstairs in our living room due to the fact that our room was hot, we had no AC and our fan wasn’t working. We didn’t go to sleep till 2:00 AM in the morning, we were extremely exhausted from watching the movie (Kidnap). I was dreaming about the movie we watched and I swear in my dream I was changing the movies outcome about things the main character could have done to get her child back faster. I was able to hear my cat coming downstairs to go the kitchen just to hang out like she always does, I could also hear my dog growling at her everytime she sees her. I chose to ignore all that and turn my head to continue changing the movies outcome to my point of view, but in my dream the kid kept dying, so my

A lot of these aesthetic choices worked well in the film, however, and prove that every small detail put together is what really builds and enhances a story, whether it is through pictures of

Even though it is necessary to switch back and forth to see both views of the story, it often flashes back to events that are nearly inessential for the plot of the movie.

The prolonged shots focused on characters’ faces add to the suspense of the film. This focus makes leads

From the first movie projections at the end of the nineteenth century, cinema was hailed as a mode of preservation, a hedge against death itself, preserving for future generations not only the images but also the actions of people now long dead. The twentieth century is now heralded as the first to be immortalized by Hollywood film. But is this immortalization the purpose of historically based films, and furthermore, is this accurate? Most modern historians have an opinion on the legitimacy of historical films, and most are not favorable, as surmised in the words of Robert Rossenstone - “Let’s be blunt and admit it: historical films trouble and disturb professional historians” But why is this? Surely a historical film is just another interpretation of events that have occurred, which is shaped by contextual factors, just like other historians. So, one must ask what constitutes a Hollywood film that is historically accurate enough to be considered a legitimate source?

Something very basic of Tarantino storytelling is that he tells the story in chapters. Because he tells the story in a disruptive manner, the chapters facilitate the audience’s understanding of what is actually going on in the film. The story is also told through visual text on the screen rather than just relying on the script and narrations to fill in the audience. These include short recaps of events that led

Before this class, I never knew that there was so much work and detail put into producing films. The camera work was put into these films for a specific reason, and when I realized this my thought process changed. I realized that in many cases the camera work is what made the movie, not the plot. Once, I had this understanding, I started to break down the camera work into the many different elements that composed it. By doing so, I could fully appreciate and understand the purpose of each element. The camera shot that is visible on screen was thoughtfully designed. The type of shot used, whether it was a closeup, medium shot, American shot, or long shot had a reasoning behind it. The director had to decide whether he wanted to focus on the character or specific details about the character’s actions or emotions as well as how much of the background to feature. The usage of only