Chapter 2
Content
What a movie is about, the subject, story, the ideas, the plotpoints
Ex: The plotline for Moana
Narrative
A way of structuring a story, type of movie
Genres, western, comedy, fantasy
Structured on Cause and effect sequences
Can use flashbacks
Name all 6 genres?
Gangster
Noir
Scifi
Horror
Western
Musical
Plot duration
The amount of time the film covers
Above the line/below the line costs
Above-the-line costs (~30%) = creative people (actors, director, writer)
Below-the-line costs (~70%) = technical and production (sets, cameras, crew)
Parallel editing
The cutting back and forth between two or more scenes that are occurring at the same time
Ex: The FBI breaking into random house, while Agent is breaking into Killers house
Observational
Goal is to immerse viewers in an experience as close as one cinematically can, doesn’t interact with anything
What is a genre
A way to categorize narrative films, no genre is absolutely defined
Story duration
Length of Implied and Explicit events in the characters life
Central producer system
One main producer controlled everything — they focused on making lots of movies fast rather than high quality. Think “factory-style filmmaking.”
Versimillitude
It’s how believable something feels in comparison to the real world
Ex: Spiderman, it feels real but your not recognizing that superheroes aren’t real since the fake world is so consistent
Participatory
The camera is participating with the viewers, interviewers, interactive
Hybrid genres
Blends two or more genres
Ex: Twilight, La La Land
Diegetic vs. non diegetic
Diegetic- Whats actually in the film ex. footsteps
Nondiegetic- Not in the actual story ex. text on screen
Producer unit system
Studios got more organized — each producer handled a few movies, which made production more efficient and standardized.
(Example: a producer might be assigned to all the romantic comedies that year.)
Kuleshov effect
Using editing to create meaning between shots
Ex: A shot of a man paired with a shot of food tells the audience that the man is hungry
Poetic
Provides a subjective interpretation of something, no words or narration
Homage
Respectful Tribute, Dedication to a specific film, artist, or style
Familiar image
When a visual or audio keeps repeating
Ex: California dreaming repeating
Package unit system
Instead of one studio doing everything, an independent producer assembles a “package” — hires a director, writer, actors — and pitches it to get funding. This gave more creative freedom to artists.
Occams Razor
It’s when someone chooses the simplest explanation
Ex: In Get out you assume the family is racist rather than thinking it’s all a metaphor for how aliens will take over the world
Reflexive
How the documentary was created or the process that led to the outcome
Pastiche
Creative Imitation, When a movie takes inspiration from another movie
Omniscient narrator
Narrator knows everything
Vertically integrated
Studios owned
The production (making the movies)
The distribution (sending movies to theaters)
The theaters themselves (where the movies were shown)
That’s why they were called “Dream Factories.” Studios had huge lots where hundreds of movies were made and stars were under long-term contracts.