2. Broadly speaking, what characteristics define mumblecore?
--The are slacker-like youth, "twentysomething," centered narratives on life and love, with realistic stories. With improvisational scripts, and the use of non-actors. They use long takes and handheld cameras,

3. What have been the most common charges against mumblecore?
--People have complained that they are pretentious, and the problems presented in the films are "trite" and "so-everyday" that people get upset and question why someone would make a film about basically "nothing."

4. How has the internet affected the DIY distribution of mumblecore films?
--Filmmakers started selling their films directly to websites who could distribute their films from the internet, and DVD sales are rising quickly. This gives these filmmakers a place to distribute their films, when distribution companies dont want to distribute their films.

5. What have been some of the negative consequences of the mumblecore label?
--Corporate companies are trying to get in on the action of the movement and there is and "unnofficial brand" of Mumblecore that they are marketing. Things seem to be headed to the mainstream.

6. IFC Films picked up Hannah Takes the Stairs for “day-and-date” distribution. What does this mean?
--They are not only theatrically being exhibited, but on the same day they are offering distribution for download from their website. So if people like the film they see, they can immediately purchase it.

1. Despite its use of improvisation, how is Gummo different from “execution dependent” screenplays such as Stranger than Paradise?
--It plays out well in the screenplay and on the screen, which execution dependent films do not play out well in the screenplay. Gummo "relies heavily on the screenplay."

2. According to Murphy, what function does the “nonsense” included in the dialogue serve in the film as a whole?
--It creates a sense of realism, a sort of "slice of life", things that people would actually say. While also "creating collage of different bits of information, thus establishing weird juxtapositions." (To tell you the truth, I'd kind of like to have this explained a little better. I'm not sure to exactly what Murphy is getting at?)

3. What specific connections does Murphy make between Gummo and New American Cinema (including Beat films)? How did Korine respond to associations made between his work and underground film?
He connects the nonlinear story and lack of plot to the New American Cinema, specifically Jonas Mekas' pursuit of the plotless cinema that would be the only way to the "rebirth" of American cinema. Korine argues that he is entirely a commercial filmmaker. He denies that an alternative cinema such as underground exists. He claims that he makes Harmony cinema, which is "a cinema of obsession and passion." Yet Murphy argues that his filmmaking style has kept his films from becoming successful in mainstream audiences, despite that they have been financed by major studios.

4. Besides as a filmmaker, how has Korine participated in alternative urban youth culture?
--"he's written a novel, produced fanzines, and done installations in major art galleries." He has contributed to an alternative urban youth culture in the form of art, which has been named "Modern Gothic" which is from artists who are obsessed with death and such.

5. If Gummo uses “collage techniques” instead of a traditional plot, what techniques are used on the image and soundtrack to make connections and associations across the course of the film? How are these techniques similar or different than the “narrational tactics” described by Bordwell? (Look at your Week Nine response, TWHTI, “Tightening the Plot,” starting on p. 43.)
--It doesnt follow the narrational tactics claimed in Bordwell because the continuity is thrown off by the constant change in format (photographs, home-movie, etc); It also does not connect scenes in the same continuous manner, through causal or temporal rationality. The soundtrack goes along with the images in the way that it is a sampling of many different formats, such as different genres of music, the reading of suicide notes, etc. (But I'm still not quite sure how the connections are made, other than the connections and allusions to things outside of the film?)

2. What are some of the connections between Stranger than Paradise with the New American Cinema, including Shadows?
--the ambiguity of the characters from shadows are alot like the characters in Stranger, leaving their motivations and actions unpredictable.

3. In what specific ways does Jarmusch’s script deviate from standard scriptwriting structure and format?
--The script was much shorter than an ordinary script that has 1 page per minute of screen time and the film is much longer than 50 min/50 pages. Many of the scenes don't contain dialogue in the script, it was used as more of a blueprint than a script. The film "operates on a purely visual and stylistic level." It is more like a brief description of each scene. It has three sections, but they dont do what most three section screenplay structures would do--Introduce characters, conflict, resolution.

4. What is an "execution dependent" screenplay?
-- They refer to this sort of ambiguous screenplay structure as "execution dependent," so financers would be unable to efficiently predict how the film might do because the entire thing is left to the creativity of the director while on set rather than a planned out process. So all faith has to be put into the filmmakers.

4. What are the similarities and differences between Stranger than Paradise and punk films?
--He was trying to avoid using characters that were stereotypes or a part of a trend. He says, he "wasn't trying to make a statement about a generation." Therefore Murphy writes that the film is "less punk than neo-beat." It has the attitude, but not the obsession with violence like the stereotypical punk film does.

1. What does Flo Liebowitz mean by “dialogue as behavior”?
--she rights that we learn much about the characters through their "conventional habits." WE learn more about them through when they choose to talk and not, their tones, and other characteristics like this.

1. According to Murphy, what are the two major faults of the traditional screenwriting manuals in their treatment of independent cinema?
--They rely on formulas that are targeted to writers who are interested in writing screenplays that would be typical of the Hollywood norms and successful only in the mainstream standards.
--There are too many rules and direct formulas that make it difficult to teach writers to follow and learn the formulas and also tell them to break from the formulas to write an experimental screenplay.

2. How are Murphy's claims about act structures in independent films different than McKee's model or Thompson's model?
Bordwell claims that art cinema films "lack clear-cut traits, motives, and goals" of classical narration, but Murphy argues that "character subjectivity plays" a larger role "in art cinema and, as a result the ensuing narratives tend to be much more ambiguous and open-ended."

I know I always right "to be continued..." and sometimes don't get back to it, but this time I plan to go back and do a lot of the questions, especially this weeks questions!

--What were the average shot lengths (ASLs) for the following periods?

1920s- 4 to 6 seconds per shot
1930-1960- 8 to 11 seconds
Mid-1960s- 6 to 8 seconds
1980s- 5 to 8 seconds (musicals, action, romances, and comedies tended towards ASL's of 4 to 5 second range)
2000 (“by century’s end”)- no more double digit ASL's.

--How has faster editing in Hollywood affected the other elements of film style?
There has been less focus on the clear cut edits, with the use of cutting on moving shots, "vehicles whiz through the foreground," cut on bursts of light, rack focusing, in general, a less "steady progression toward a revelation" creating an intensified continuity.

--Why are establishing shots less necessary in intensified continuity?
With this style, there are constant cuts within a conversation, even during the middle of a sentence, that allows the shot-reverse-shots and character positions and eyelines help orient the viewer with the information needed to understand where and what is going on, which leaves little room for the establishing shot that provides the same information while seeming redundant.

--How were wide angle (short) lenses used after 1970?
They were used to give good focus in "several planes or full shots of a cramped setting", also for "looming close-ups, expansive establishing shots,...and medium shots with strong foreground-background interplay."

--How were telephoto (long) lenses used after 1970?
They were used in exterior scenes and locations, which enabled the camera to be setup a good distance away from the subject allowing more versatility. On interior sets, they helped save time and they allowed for multiple cameras to be set up out of each one's view. They were also utilized for the" close-ups, medium shots, over-the shoulder shots, and establishing shots."

--Why did filmmakers start mixing long and short lenses within scenes?
They wanted to utilize the long lens advantages while also keeping with the "1940's tradition of deep-space shooting" (because the long lens flattened planes).

--Why have filmmakers moved away from plan americain staging and lengthy two-shots?
They claim that it is boring, and much like minimalism. By using singles and over-the-shoulder shots, the filmmaker is able to pick and choose from the best "bits of each actor's performance."

--What options do filmmakers have for emphasizing moments in a scene if most of the shots are already close-ups?
They can "pick the best bits of each actor's performance" and allow the editor to vary the pace of a scene. They have to work between the medium two shot to the extreme close-ups. The shots of emphasis have now become those "orienting long shots" because they are used less than the repetitive close-ups. They also have to rely less on the actor's body, because the close ups don't contain them, mouths, brows, and eyes have become the focus.


--Describe three moving camera techniques that have become common in intensified continuity.
Lengthy and intricate traveling shots, "the prolonged following shot"--with the use of lighter cameras and steadicams, the prolonged following shot has been over-exagerrated by new filmmakers. Even following one or two characters through crowded places and such. Another is the prowling of the camera "even if nothing else budges"--such as randomly zooming in on a character's face during a conversation or "a forward tracking shot." These movements enable the building tension, intensity of a scene, or emphasize a moment. Or even the arc around a single character which provides detailed information.

What sort of distribution and marketing strategies were utilized for Tony Scott's film Domino in order to appeal to audiences? And how successful were they?

Dempsey, John. “Courting ‘Violence.’” Variety.com. 23 Aug. 2005. 27 Oct. 2008. .

New Line Cinema and the use of the Red Carpet Treatment.

“Domino.” Variety.com. 6 Oct. 2005. 27 Oct. 2008. .

Tony Scotts use of extreme techniques, film stocks etc.

Gleiberman, Owen. “EW review: ‘Domino’ Lethally Numb.” CNN.com. 14 Oct. 2005.
Entertainment Weekly. 27 Oct. 2008. < http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/14/ew.mov.domino/index.html>.

The stylistic features used to drive the film for audiences.

Turan, Kenneth. “Tony Scott’s Action Drama Can’t Bail Itself Out.” ChicagoTribune.com. 14 Oct. 2005. Chicago Tribune. 27 Oct. 2008. < http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/cl-et-domino14oct14,0,4967987.story>.

How complex and confusing the film is for audiences and even the filmmakers, and how it is star-driven.

Dargis, Manohla. “The Strange But Somewhat True Story of a Bounty Hunter.” NYTimes.com. 14 Oct. 2005. The New York Times. 27 Oct 2008. < http://movies.nytimes.com/2005/10/14/movies/14domi.html>.

The extraordinary stylistic choices used to sell Domino, and the disapproval of their use.

Kelly, Brendan. “’Domino’ Decamps, Dealing Blow Fest.” Variety.com. 19 Sept. 2005. 27 Oct. 2008. .

New Line’s decision to drop the film from the New Montreal FilmFest.

Farinella, David John. “Set Sounds Get Bandwith Boost.” Variety.com. 14 Feb. 2005. 27 Oct. 2008. .

New sound recording technology that helped with production costs and time.

Rosenbaum, Ron. “The Scott Disorder: Of Brother Directors, Tony’s the Great One.” The New York Observer. 18 June 2006. 27 Oct. 2008. http://www.observer.com/node/39023.

Tony Scott’s stylistic features aimed for attracting audiences.

--“It really is not necessary for everything in the movie to be understandable my every member in the audience. It’s only necessary to make sure that everything in the movie can be understood.” 

• This means that the movie just needs to be understandable for each audience member, but the level of understanding doesn't have to be the same for each member.  Such as, a kid could be able to follow a movie and understand the story, and at the same time an film educated spectator could not only understand the simplistic layer that the child understood, but also understand the less obvious layer of allusions, genre reworkings, and the mix of post classical and classical techniques.

--What does Bordwell mean by “worldmaking,” and how does it affect the narrative design of individual films?

• Worldmaking is in reference to the post-classical technique of using extensive details that are almost unimportant to the actual story line itself, but it creates an entire world in which the story takes place.  These minute details have come to be appreciated while watching the film and even clues to even more of the story itself.  In films such as the Matrix, the worldmaking made it so that to truly understand every single aspect of the film it has to be entered from many different media levels outside of the film itself.  Worldmaking has only added to the intricacy and complexity of the narrative.

--What do Bordwell and Thompson mean by the claim that some films are “maximally classical”? What films do they have in mind?

• They utilize Hollywood's tradition of unity to the furthest extent. When "a film becomes more classical than it needs to be."  They go beyond the "standard causal cohesion" by giving "every scene several purposes; lines of dialogue point foward in unexpected ways; visual and aural motifs" usually only noticeable after watching the film several times.  
• ex) Back to the Future, The Hunt for Red October, Tootsie, Hannah and Her Sisters, Groundhog Day, Silence of the Lambs.

--What specific reasons does Bordwell propose for the rise and fall of contemporary genres?

• He says that once a specific genre has been done up to its current potential, and there seems to be nothing new they can add to it, it is better to go to the "road-less-traveled" genre.  Because, "they offer more room for originality and ingenuity.

--“Why do filmmakers bother with classical construction if ardent viewers consider it dispensable, even distracting?”

1. Plot may seem as obviously important as other aspects of a film, but it is the silent, underlying guiding-factor behind the rest of the film.
2. The layering the classical with post-classical serves to appeal to mass audiences--youth and then the intelligent audience.
3. Classical construction appeals to the mass audiences because it combines star power, physical action, and a other appeals.
4. Spectacle can only fill a small amount of the entire time of the film, so the rest has to be filled with those classical techniques of cause and effect and such.
5. Films can not only appeal to audiences, but also to other filmmakers who could help a filmmaker gain fame.

Elaesser article...

#1: What are the five conditions that gave rise to the New Hollywood (here defined as post-1975)?
1) A new generation of directors (the movie brats)
2) new marketing strategies (centered on the blockbuster as a distribution and exhibition concept)--most specifically he refers to the High Concept filmmaking as the most significant.
3) new media ownership and management styles
4) new technologies of sound and image reproduction (from digitalized special effects to Dolby sound)
5) new delivery systems

#2: What does Elsaesser mean by New Hollywood being defined either as “the different as same” or “the same as different.” (p. 193)Citizen Coppola
--different as same- meaning if it is new in comparison to old hollywood (coppola playing at being an auteur maudit like Orson Welles) or the same as different- in that Hollywood is making films that are something new all together in comparison to films outside of Hollywood. Creating something new while taking from films outside of hollwood (Arthur Penn borrowing from Truffaut).

#3: Elsaesser argues that unlike in Europe, where ruptures in realism were found in art-cinema, in Hollywood ruptures in realism were found in “minor genres and debased modes.” What genre in particular is he talking about? In what ways do you find ruptures in realism in this genre?
--The B movies of the 1980s and 90's such as sci-fi, the 'creature-feature', or monster film--the genre of the horror film.
--disrupts the cause and effect patterns to create mystery--misleading the viewer by withholding information.
--leaving things off screen longer than classical editing, creating horror and curiosity for the audience.


#4: How is the sound/image relationship in horror films fundamentally different than other classical genres?

--emphasizes the presence of sound in order to make obvious the moments of its absence--the desynchronization of sound and image--keeping the sources of sound offscreen helps to destabilize the primacy the diegetic world over the extra-diegetic or non-diegetic world--drawing on visual disorientation. It draws attention to the viewer and the characters within the story's limited perspectives.

#5. How do allusions in Bram Stoker’s Dracula function like a mise-en-abyme?

--it is a self referencing text in respect to movie history, technology, and paintings.
--the film makes citations of at least sixty different films, including 30 of the dracula films. ex) Louis Lumiere's Arrival of the Train and Jean Epstein's The Fall of the House of Usher--itself a remake of Murnau's Nosferatu.
--there are allusions to paintings--such as a painting that the Count points to that is a portrait of himself is in reference to Albrecht Durer's self portrait Self Portrait as the Young Christ --making it not only a citation, but also a mise-en-abyme of this citation as a metaphor as the self as 'other'.

#6: Elsaesser suggests that the film is a palimpsest for 100 years of film history. Why does he also conclude that the vampire film “qualifies as at once prototypical for movie history and for postmodernity.”? [Hint: see my recap of metaphors above.]

--the vampire myth and the story of dracula itself have been used so repetitively in films since Murnau's Nosferatu in 1922 that it is obvious that any postmodern representation of the vampire film would be in result or in reference to these previous films. In both our minds and the film itself, it is inevitable to think about those previous films.
--The theme continues to be used throughout film.
--and just like film, which is undead because as an audience views it it is always in the present, so is the vampire film. Bc it has continuously been reworked, repeated, and become a cliche theme that triggers an instant nostalgia for the ones that came before, it too is undead.
--Along with the fact that the vampire is usually undead also.

#7: Put the following in your own words (p. 199): [Bram Stoker's Dracula's setting in 1897] “can also be understood as giving the director a historically secured vantage point…to put into play several distinct modes of representation, whose coexistence and frictions in the film help to define what might—in retrospect, so to speak—have been at stake aesthetically as well as for media technology and audiences in the shift from classical to post-classical.
[Hint: Break it down just as we did with the Kramer/Tasker quote in class. What were the "distinct modes of representation" in 1897? This may lead you to look up symbolism, pre-Raphaelites and decadence in the arts. How did these modes both co-exist and create frictions in 1897? How is this similar to 1997 and today (in the shift to the post-classical)?]

--In choosing 1897 as the setting, Coppola sets up the inevitable references to the time period. It was a time in which Decadence in the arts and the Pre-Raphaelites were around. They represented a time period in which one period was ending and another was beginning. The Pre-Raphaelites and the period of decadence were an attempt to make a break from the previous techniques and standards in art and literature and that time. The decadence period is seen as first in the avant garde movement, associated with symbolism and aesthetic. And just like that period in which the film is set, the film itself was on the verge of breaking from one period (classical) to another period (post classical).
--The Pre-Raphaelites wanted to return to the aesthetic techniques of Raphael, such as the "classical poses and elegant compositions--the return to abundant detail, intense color, and complex compositions." The Decadence period also going on at that time was "associated with symbolism and aesthetic movement."

to be continued...

Week 9

--Multiple Protagonists in Thompson's model:

• Characters either share the same goal or the characters and their stories don't really have an effect on one another, but usually one or two of the characters become the main focus of the structure. The structure is guided by those focused characters' goals.

--"Tightening the Plot":

• Appointments and deadlines are helpful in the foward movement of a film, builds up expectations and anticipations, establishes the film's time scheme, connects scenes more smoothly, and form of foreshadowing.
• Foreshadowing presents an object or information that is repeated later in the film, this forms a connection between the scenes. This helps hold the film together, as does the use of motifs.
• Things that help move the action in the story forward and connects scenes to following scenes helps to tighten the plot.

--Bordwell's meaning of "passages of Overtness balanced with less self-conscious ones.":

• The overtness is in reference to things that "address the audience self-consciously," specifically in the beginning of films and the introduction of new things/places and at the end of films. Either in the written form of info, direct addresses from the narrator or characters on screen. The realization of the audience.
• But then there is a balance of less self-conscious passages too. This is the middle mode of the film, where things don't need to be handed to the viewer. They are less noticeable for the viewer, and they are easier to stay inside the story action.
• Hollywood narrative uses a balance of these.

Quick Question...

In the timeline from Bazin, why was Baroque out all alone in black? I had wondered in class that day, but I didnt get around to asking. Simple question.

Is the 'high-concept' film going to be a focus on the test? I need some clarity on what this is exactly? And the dilemna mentioned in "how hollywood..." about it?

Oh, and this may not be a question specific to the reading...I'm not sure, I may have missed it...but what exactly is a 'road film'? I hear you say the term often and I haven't been too sure. Is this in reference to films that were made for traveling exhibitors? I read yesterday, that The Sound of Music is considered a successful road film, but no explanation to why...

Questions concerning Modernism...
What is it?
--I feel like I might need this explained again. But from what I get from it, it is an artist utilizing a specific medium, like film in the case of the filmmaker. And this is in self-reflection and...and can't seem to find in my notes what the other one is....

Part 1 of questions...

In relation to the Package Unit System...

When it came about, or left, or what?  and a direct description of how it works?

From what I have taken from it, it is an assembly-line sort of set up for the production and distribution of the studios.  But, for some reason I haven't caught on to whether or not this system is still in progress.  Maybe this is a dumb question, but something I need to be cleared up briefly before any tests.

to be continued...

Dun-Dun, Dun-Dun, Dun-Dun... (a lame attempt at recreating, in words, the Jaws theme song) -- Week 7 Questions.

--Name three ways in which the publishers of the book and the producers of the film worked together to promote Jaws. How did they know that their logo for Jaws was successful?

• First off, the whole reason why Zanuck and Brown even won the screen rights to the novel was because they promised they could make the most successful film out of it (Daly, 84).


• Benchley's (the author of the book) publishing company, Doubleday, had him go on talk shows and used an enormous amount of television advertising in order to sell the book (Daly, 84).


• "Universal began promoting the filmin May 1973, two years before its release and a year before production was slated to begin" (Daly, 84).


• Universal and Zanuck and Brown sent out Press handouts aobout the film rights, casting plans, copies of the book were sent to people in the public's eye.
  
• Once the film actually started shooting, Universal gave paid vacations/visits to the location, tons of interviews with the cast and crew were taken, there was television coverage of production, and there was a tremendous amount of publicity about the difficulties that were occuring in production.

--What is “blind bidding”? Why did exhibitors object to the proposed blind bidding for Jaws? Why was the blind bidding for Jaws called off?

• Blind bidding is when exhibitors are allowed to make a bid on up to three films a year before they are screened/sneak-previewed. But in order to be able to make a blind bidding the exhibitor is to in no way have seen a sneak preview of film, they have to have blind faith in the producers, directors, stars, the story, etc.
• Many exhibitors objected because Universal had so much money riding on Jaws that they enforced specific bid letters that entailed the exhibitors having to agree to a deal in which they had to contribute a percentage of their profits from the film, depending on how successful it was, to the national television advertising campaign. But what was so scary about this specific agreement was that there was no telling whether the film would be a flop or not, so there was no telling how much money they would be in debt and how much they would owe to Universal.
• It was considered, by Universal, "a surcharge on the exhibitor for the privilege of running Jaws" (Daly, 89).
• The costs they would have to pay were up in the air, depending on their 'local earnings,' so many thought that it was an unheard of policy for a film that no one had seen, and couldn't base success on the book alone.
• But Universal "set up a series of preview screenings across the country so exhibitors could see Jaws" (Daly, 91). But in doing this, many of the exhibitors who attended these previews were later disabled from the running the blind bidding, since they had seen some of the film. So all previous biddings for the film were made obsolete, and the bidding started over again, open for all exhibitors, but it was not a blind bidding anymore.

--Three specific examples of genres/filmmakers/themes that are frequently memorialized in films by auteur filmmakers.

• Films like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Star Wars" are used to "as rememberances of things passed, of comic books and serials, and of times of which it is said that good and evil were sharply cleaved." Raiders of the Lost Ark is not a Replica of a B cliff-hanger...Rather it is the filmmaker's reverie on the glorious old days; if it has more action and adventure than Tim Tyler ever saw, then memory has worked its magic, heightening the excitement of Raiders' potboiler prototypes so that they are finally as breathtaking as we want to remember them" (62).
• Steven Spielberg is known for his use of allusions, "especially of cartoons." "His flying saucers zip along the highway like Road Runner...[w]hile the endings of both Close Encounters and Raiders feed off the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence of Fantasia in order to swathe their supernaturals in Disneyesque wonderment" (67).
• As referenced in Paul Schrader's Assault on Precinct 13's the scene in which "the cop in a tight predicament, has no alternative but to trust the outlaw," can be seen as a memorialization of a symbol of "mystic male bonding that cements the Hawksian brotherhood." Also the filmmaker Hawks's theme of "professionalism" is memorialized in many films. For example in "Walter Hill's alterations of Alien, culled in large part from The Thing, unambiguously show his indebtedness to Hawks. And some of his own films, like The Driver, only appear to make sense in the light of Hawsian cult of the professional...The protagonist has no psychological motivation other than the need to prove that he is the best at what he does." To Hawks, "the ultimate personal reality is skill." And in Hill's, The Driver, "[i]f, however, we keep Hawks in mind, we can at least begin to answer the question, "Why does the driver do what he does?" by saying with the accumulated profundity of feeling allowed us by Hawks's criticism, "Because it's his job."

--I am going to attempt to answer the question about how The Godfather, Part II's stylistic choices could be recognized in the same sort of way as the films Noel names in her article as the "style as symbol category that revive film noir as a means of commenting on their dramatic material..."

• In the article it states that "what the composition of film noir was said to express can now be appropriated simply by dimming your lights and tightening your framing." Also, in the example given of how the film Blue Collar's "images grow ominously dark while the story still seems comic and high-spirited...the stylistic reference turns out to have been a premonition of things to come."
• As in The Godfather, Part II, there is a distinct use of extremely dark lighting and even the fact that the film was pushed 1 stop to create the "brown and black" look could be a premonition of the dramatic and dark things that happen throughout the film. It at least somewhat looks like a film noir film.

To be continued...

Week 5

David Cook, “Auteur Cinema and the “Film Generation” in 1970s Hollywood.”

--How were young filmmakers in the late 1960s and early 1970s different from previous generations of filmmakers in terms of the following: how they broke into commercial filmmaking, how their films were financed, and who was in charge of the studios?

• The article states, "Bonnie and Clyde was produced by the 29-year-old star Warren Beatty for Warner Bros., and The Graduate was directed by the 34-year-old Nichols, inspiring several studios to hire younger, nontraditional producers and directors to appeal to a younger clientele."  This sudden popularity of youth films such as these and Easy Rider led not only to the hire of those younger new generation filmmakers, and making the door to commercial film a little easier to get into, but it also led to lower budget films.  "Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969)--produced by the independent BBS Productions for $375,000 and returning $19 million," which had a huge impact on the studios.  These films seemed to be popular with the new generation despite the low budgets, so even more were produced.   During this era, "the studios were one-by-one absorbed by larger, more diversified companies--all of the studios but Twentieth Century Fox, Columbia, and Disney."

--Compare and contrast Martin Scorsese with at least one other “Film School Generation” filmmaker, and explain why Cook suggests that in the early eighties Scorsese “was no longer a player in the New Hollywood.”

• "Martin Scorcese may have attained that goal of authorship more fully than any of his peers by consistently maintaining the quality of his art at the expense of its commercial viability," which I believe is one reason why the author, Cook, explains why in the early eighties Scorcese "was no longer a player in New Hollywood.  Unlike his other auteur colleagues of the period, Scorcese continued to make self-reflected work despite the success it had in the box office if they even made it to mainstream theaters at all.  A great example of this idea of Scorcese's continuous dedication to express himself through auteur filmmaking, is in the huge contrast between him and his fellow filmmaker of the period, Spielberg.  
• Spielberg's Jaws, for example, was so successful that it "permanently hooked the industry on blockbuster windfalls."  Spielberg's career continued on to make other successes, but it was his "collaboration...on the Indiana Jones series that would make him the dominant commercial force in American cinema for the next twenty years..."  As opposed to Scorcese, Spielberg seemed to be aimed less concerned with expressing himself through his films and more concerned with the mass commercial profits and success he would make.  Well, maybe that is a little bit of an assumption.  He may not have been as concerned with commercial success as it would seem he was, but his films surely made a bigger bang in the commercial film industry at the time than those coming from Scorcese.  Scorcese's films of this period were dark and said to be "an exploration of Catholic sadomasochism" which was less appealing to those audiences than the drastic comparison of Spielbergs films of "childhood wonder."
• So Scorcese was said to no longer be a player in New Hollywood by the early 80's, because his films were barely making profits, at least not profits like the other filmmakers were making at this time.

Todd Berliner, “The Pleasures of Disappointment: Sequels and The Godfather, Part II.”

--Give two specific examples of how Part II disappoints the viewer (according to Berliner) and how these disappointments “work” for the film.

• "The Godfather, Part II makes a success out of was sequels typically do in failure: it does what the original did but in a way that is less satisfying...the movie's success at failure is a source of pleasure for audiences, pleasure that paradoxically emanates from an experience of conspicuous disappointment."
• One example is how "[e]ven the murders in Part II let us down."  Although the murders may seem graphic when described to someone, it is not the actual murders that are disappointing, but it is the way "the movie treats them so nonchalantly that the result is forgettable."  And some of the murders just aren't as thrilling and intriguing as the ones in the first one.
• "Several events in Part II seem to repeat events from the original picture.  Both movies introduce their characters to us at religious celebrations, for example."  In Part II, "Anthony's celebration has none of the familial feeling or ethnic flavor of Connie's wedding." It seems less warm, and much more business like, unlike the first one.

Week 4

1. What is meant by “modernist” in the passage: “Critics engaged with a self-declared ‘New American Cinema’ exemplified by the work of writers and directors such as Jonas Mekas, Kenneth Anger, and John Cassavetes, certain aspects of which constituted, according to David Bordwell, a conscious ‘modernist’ break with Hollywood classicism”? 
   

• Making "conscious 'modernist' break with Hollywood classicism" meant that these 'New American Cinema' artists/filmmakers were breaking away from the "classical Hollywood" ways of filmmaking, and striving to find better and different ways to create and present films.  They strove for a more progressed form of film that had never been explored before that time, an experimental form of film, different than before--'modernist.'

     2.  What does Kramer argue was characteristic of the bulk of Hollywood-centred film             criticism in the 1960s?

• It was focused on a "small group of Hollywood directors" from the studio era "in well-established genres such as the western."

     3.  What was Kael’s critique of art cinema and the New American Cinema, and why               was Bonnie and Clyde “the most excitingly American American movie” at the time?

• Kael was disappointed in the New American Cinema because she was nostalgic for the way that 'traditional' film used to be.  She claims that there is a lack of storytelling and 'craftsmanship' in this new form, that used to exist in film.  She also states that "[t]he art-house audience accepts lack of clarity as complexity," which shows her disdain for this new 'foreign-like' form of filmmaking.  
• She claimed that it related to American audiences in a way that other new American films at the time hadnt been able to do in some time, in the same effect that the "European films" were able to do.  She thought that its invigorating technique in its use of characters was something to be praised, despite its difference from the traditional films from the past.  For once this new cinema wasn't something to complain about, but something to praise and anticipate what is to come in the future of film after this work.

Week 3 also...

• Some of the films that encountered legal problems in 1964 were Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures and Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising.  Both of these films were signaled as "obscene" films, that were outrageous enough to go after and punish the exhibitors for screening them to the public.  Jonas Mekas and some others were arrested for the showing of the Flaming Creatures, and Mike Getz arrested for the showing of Scorpio Rising.  "The brief flash of male frontal nudity," is the blame for the obscenity claims in Scorpio Rising, which can be seen as nothing in comparison to the creatures rape scene and fondling of a penis in Flaming Creatures.

Week 3

• The Charles Theater was important for the development of "underground film" in New York City mainly because it opened an even larger window of opportunity for "off-beat" small-scale films to meet the world.  Not only did this theater offer these "eclectic" films, but it also offered a place for other art forms and music to be presented to the public.  Jonas Mekas began planning the midnight screenings at the Charles and soon "he scheduled one-person shows for avant-garde filmmakers."  These films were amazing and shocking to the audiences, which began to draw in an even wider variety of people and crowds out to see these screenings.  The Charles helped widen the spectrum in film making and viewing, by opening a door into the world of "The Underground" films.  This gave many filmmakers the opportunity to get their work out into the film world for a larger crowd to see their work. 

• For Andre Bazin, why did the "classical" period in Hollywood end in 1939?

Bazin proposed that until 1939, film in Hollywood was "based on the principles of continuity editing" (Kramer, 64).  Although Bazin approved and was impressed with what Hollywood film had become by 1939, he knew that just like any other art form, its techniques could not continue on without progressing into something new.  He knew that that was an impossible idea.  Bazin claimed that this new realism style that developed in Hollywood depended on "bringing together real time, in which things exist, along with the duration of the action, for which classical editing had insidiously substituted mental and abstract time" (64).

• What was Gilbert Seldes's main critique of Hollywood in his book, "The Great Audience?"
  

Seldes believed that Hollywood "catered" to the popular culture or the younger crowds incredibly too much.  This is what he blamed for the decline in Movie goers in the 1940's.  He claimed that Hollywood should begin to aim their film topics and such towards adults rather than teens, because although those films temporarily succeeded with its audiences they wouldnt be so popular once those crowds reached the real world.  Seldes thought that the films Hollywood had begun to spew out in the WWII period were unrealistic and sugar coated in comparison to the much rougher world that was nearly never displayed on the big screens.