Citizen Murdoch

Citizen Kane lives! Rupert Murdoch and his conservative media machine make Randolph Hearst look like a fluffy kitten.

watch the video
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Bordwell vs. Elsaesser

I'm Not There: Film as Poetry

In my research for the film I came across a bunch of really great videos and other links so I thought I would share.

The Ten Most Incomprehensible Bob Dylan Interviews of All Time

Pat Garret & Billy the Kid trailer (cowboy Dylan)

Hearts of Fire trailer (campy Dylan)

Life Force: the strangest logline since Gummo

Owen, son of Donal, a member of the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea is struck with the fatal laughing disease Kuru after having reluctantly consumed portions of his father during a traditional cannibalistic “life force” ceremony.

definitely stranger than fiction

Improv Everywhere

Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 80 missions involving thousands of undercover agents. The group is based in New York City.

watch some of their missions

Before Sunrise: Precursor to Mumblecore?

One of my favorite movies ever! No time bombs, no chase scenes, no end of the world apocalypse, just a portrait of what its like to fall in love. There are a few cuts but the film is almost entirely one long steady cam walk and talk. I wonder how many young filmmakers this film has influenced, specifically the "Slackavettes".

view a clip from the movie

Gummo: Wake Up & Smell the Bacon On the Wall

I distinctly remember how powerful my first exposure to the work of Harmony Korine and Larry Clarks was with Kids. I felt like I had seen something radically new. I was left in shock and awe as to how something so intense and gritty could get produced and distributed. The potency of the explicit images of sex and drugs with actors at such a young age made for strange mixture of intrigue and disgust. The cinematography really stood out as this sort of non-flinching gaze, a portrait of what we as a society would rather choose to ignore of a uncivilized youth culture. The focus on the grotesque or the things that most of try to avoid is what connect Korine's work.

I was in New York a few years after this and got to see an exhibition of the Larry Clark's photography. It was every bit as explicit and the images had the same raw power. They had this sort of eerie resonance so that after leaving the gallery I couldn't shake them. This was the same sort of effect Kids and later Gummo would have on me. Clark deserves much of the credit for their work together. This is evident through looking at Clarks body of work prior to Korine and after understanding a bit of their history. I've read that Korine left his father, a documentary filmmaker, to live with his grandmother in NY. After a year of school/screenwriting, Korine dropped out and bumped into Clark in the skater scene. Clark had done a series of shockingly honest portraits of he and his friends in the eighties and had established his own style by this point. It's said that he approached Korine and asked him to wright the script for Kids and get his friends to play most of the parts. Korine and Clark eventually had a disagreement which ended their collaboration. Korine had a dry spell and there are reports that he was trying to team up with his friend David Blaine to make a movie that would consist of him going up to people and picking fights with them. Evidently he only lasted a few rounds and ended up in the hospital. This is just the tip of the iceberg into the strange world of Korine. To venture further into the rabbit hole have a look at the links at the bottom of this post.

Gummo doesn't seem so strange in the context of the filmmakers body of work. In fact, it is dense with interesting characters and situations, again very new to movie going audiences. This was Korine's intent. In an interview he said that he just wanted to make movies that he hadn't seen. He dreams up little moments, strange images and when he has enough he can make a movie.

Gummo holds that same power over its audience as Kids does. Long after they've left the theater they can't shake the story. There is the obvious shocking revulsion of certain parts of the story but I think its the layering of all these strange details that make the world seem so distinctly foreign. For all the films peculiarity it seems to be constructed by a number of classical techniques. The recurring motifs connect the seemingly disparate scenes. The gangster-like ritual of hunting for cats, the turf war, the struggle of children growing up without parents, trying to find their own identity and understand sexuality. There are a number of little moments in the film that I really like but there are also others that seem heavy handed, especially when the dialogue seems coached or forced. This is the case with the scene where Korine plays a character desperate for a black dwarfs affection. His persona and style don't seem to fit the rest of the characters that seem to have all been extras on the set of Deliverance. One of my favorite moments in class has been waiting for the collective puke noises of the audience during the bathroom scene. I was reading an article about Werner Herzog's first viewing of the film. I think his quote sums it up nicely, "When I saw a piece of fried bacon fixed to the bathroom wall in Gummo, it knocked me off my chair. [Korine's] a very clear voice of a generation of filmmakers that is taking a new position. It's not going to dominate world cinema, but so what?"

watch the clip: Harmony on Kids

Larry Clark (photographer/cinematographer)

view more Larry Clark Photographs

Harmony on Gummo

you have to read the comments on this post

Korine on Lonely Heart

Mumblecore

What has been the ongoing relationship between so-called mumblecore filmmakers and SXSW?
The 2005 SXSW Film Festival brought this group of filmmakers to out attention. The filmmakers cleverly built up their own promoting by co-creating a half dozen promotional shorts that screened before every film at SXSW. They shot the miniatures in the same format as their naturalistic movies and shared the co-creator credit with all involved, a testament to the DIY tradition of doing more with less and avoiding the trappings hierarchy. Many of the directors were on tour together during the festival circuit and so began to collaborate while on the road.


Broadly speaking, what characteristics define mumblecore?
I have to say I like "Slackavettes" way better! But "Non-jerk Films" also has a nice ring to it. Alecia Van describes this group of filmmakers as approaching film as a naturalistic portait of life and love of artistic twenty-somethings made popular by DV and the internet. I equate the movement to the cinematic equivalent of the indie rock scene. Scrappy young artists who care more about personal storytelling then polish, with a tendency for the sentimental and sincere. Although not all the films share the same stylistic traits, they generally include: improvisation and naturalistic performance by non-actors, tiny budgets, elements of technology, and otherwise ordinary plots.There is also another relationship to indie rock in that the fans of both the music and the films in question are sought out like flea market treasures, little upolished hidden gems that few people know about "or could possibly appreciate." A kind of snobbery that I must admit to being a part of. I think I'm definitely in the Slackavette club.

What have been the most common charges against mumblecore?
Some see the films as a way for the directors to figure themselves out, like a long love letter never sent and object to self-absorbed storytelling. Some go as far as calling the films/filmmakers pretentious, snobby well-to-do white kids pining about their petty lives.

How has the internet affected the DIY distribution of mumblecore films?
Filmmakers say distribution deals aren't really needed. They frequently get offers from garage-basement distributors and in many cases sell the movies directly from their website. Web posting of short and tv series spread the word about their work and drive fans to buy their feature length work.

IFC Films picked up Hannah Takes the Stairs for “day-and-date” distribution. What does this mean?
IFC Films would release the film, opening at the IFC Center series theatrically and at the same time/date deliver it on home video/broadcast on IFC on Demand. Movies like Soderbergh's Bubble (2006) did well in this release format. It was a scheme devised to make the greatest use of the marketing efforts for films that weren't expected to do well at the box office. Many forecasters predict that web releases will correspond with the theater release in the near future following the standard set forth in music by Apple.

The work of Trevor Van Meter

Trevor Van Meter is a fellow graduate from ECU who majored in illustration. He started out doing ecards in NY. He says that he locks himself in a dark room every single day and makes stuff on his computer. He is the co-owner, co-operator, & co-founder of Jamungo. 

He has his own company called TVM Studio Inc. 

For the past 4 years, he’s been working on web games, illustrations, and interactive design.

Check him out.

visit TVM Studio

some of his earlier work

Trev in the layer tennis battle

2D Animation Final: Dada Experiment

click to view

Warhol's Subtle Sadism

The Pope of Greenwhich, aka Ondine, aka Robert Olivio
One of the most memorable sequences belongs to the queen with the Bronx bray, Ondine. He decided to be "the Pope of Greenwich Village," taking the "confession" of Warhol's alleged favorite, the brainless, shrieking, drug-drenched Ingrid Superstar. Ondine is a powerful presence here, eloquently expounding on his many duties as "the Pope" in one breath and screeching his hatred of the church in the other. In a hilarious extended dialogue, he accuses her of being a lesbian — "I've seen you at Page Three and a lot of other dyke joints!" — while she alternately denies and embraces the idea, as the mood strikes her. "You're a subspecies, my dear. You're not even a vegetable!" he screams. Inevitably, the pressure of 35 minutes of improv, even for the self-consumed Ondine, proves too much, and when another woman enters the scene and denounces him as a phony, Ondine verbally and physically assaults her. Ondine's demand that the camera be stopped after he loses control were met with a bland but incontestable denial by Warhol, whose decision to keep the camera running at all cost produces some disturbing effects. Throughout the film there are moments where his refusal to stop shooting, his encouragement of the stars' hunger for the spotlight at any cost, skirts the sadistic. Perhaps "skirt" is too tame; Warhol biographer Victor Bokris mentions that "To turn the pressure up, Andy and Paul [Morrissey] would plant rumors about unpleasant remarks someone had made about someone else."

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Ode to Film from Black and White

Jack White channels Orson Welles channeling Citizen Kane channeling Randolph Hearst. Black Francis wishes he could be a debaser like Luis Buñuel.

The Union Forever - The White Stripes

It can't be love
for there is no true love
It can't be love
for there is no true love

Shure I'm C.F.K.
but you gotta love me
the cost no man can say
but you gotta love me

Well I'm sorry but I'm not
interested in gold mines,
oil wells,shipping or real estate
what would I liked to have been?
everything you hate

There is a man
a certain man
and for the poor you may be shure
that he'll do all he can
who is this one?
[who's favourite son?]
just by his action has the traction
magnets on the run
who likes to smoke?
enjoys a joke?
and wouldn't get a bit
upset if he were really broke?
with wealth and fame
he's still the same
I'll bet you five you're not alive
If you don't now his name

You said the union forever (x2)
You cried the union forever
but that was untrue girl
cause it can't be love


Debaser - The Pixies

got me a movie
i want you to know
slicing up eyeballs
i want you to know
girlie so groovy
i want you to know
don't know about you
but i am un chien andalusia
i am un chien andalusia
i am un chien andalusia
i am un chien andalusia
wanna grow
up to be
be a debaser, (debaser)
debaser, (debaser)
debaser, (debaser)
debaser, (debaser)
debaser, (debaser)
debaser, (debaser)

got me a movie
ha ha ha ho
slicing up eyeballs
ha ha ha ho
girlie so groovie
ha ha ha ho
don't know about you
but i am un chien andalusia
i am un chien andalusia
i am un chien andalusia
i am un chien andalusia

(debaser), debaser
(debaser), debaser
(debaser), debaser
(debaser), debaser
(debaser), debaser
(debaser), debaser

The End

Thanks to Bryan for the link. view the flickr gallery

Brownsploitation

Bombay the Hard Way plays like the soundtrack to some imaginary 1970s B-films with names like Shaft’s Bad-Ass Pilgrimage To India or Ganges Ghetto Payback. Featuring the music of Indian composers (and brothers) Anandji and Kalyanji Shah, who wrote and produced soundtracks for the so-called “Brownsploitation” films made in India’s “Bollywood” during the 60s and 70s, this saffron-funk project is the brain-child of Dan “The Automator” Nakamura, Bay Area producer / remixer of Dr. Octagon fame, with additional beats provided by the immensely talented DJ Shadow. The end product is a potent cross-pollination of Secret-Agent-Man guitar themes, Blaxploitation grooves, jazzy horn and flute riffs, hip-hop beats and loops, and traditional Indian instrumentation.

“I got no time to think / Cuz’ I need somebody to love / Yeah! / Baby, I love you so / But you can’t love me more / Why don’t you hold me closer / And I’ll give you more / Yeah!”

Throughout the album, there are fun snatches of dialogue lifted straight out of vintage “brownsploitation” films. These digressions add to the overall enjoyment, helping to make Bombay the Hard Way a classic party record for the new millennium.

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Wesley Willis's Joyrides

A portrait of the self proclaimed rock ‘n’ roll star and “Chicago City Artist”, Wesley Willis.

Despite impossible odds, Chicago native, Wesley Willis became an underground rock icon, revered artist and hero to many before his untimely death in 2003. Through his force of personality and his artistic talents, Wesley’s music and art attracted people from all walks of life. This film follows the prolific artist on his journey from obscurity to fame.

watch clips from the documentary

Hitchcock and Herrmann

I've created a mini-site to house Bernard Herrmann's catalogue of work for reference when reading my final paper. I've only uploaded the first season of the Twilight Zone so far. Much more to come including Citizen Kane, Psycho, Vertigo...

view the mini-site

Parabola Title Credits

view a few of the credits so far

Clark Gable Music Video

watch the video

Experimental: War Paint

watch the experiment

Free Music for Indie Filmmakers from Moby

"This portion of moby.com, 'film music', is for independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short. To use the site you log in and are then given a password. You can then listen to the available music and download whatever you want to use in your film or video or short. The music is free as long as it's being used in a non-commercial or non-profit film, video, or short. If you want to use it in a commercial film or short then you can apply for an easy license, with any money that's generated being given to the humane society. There are about 70 pieces of music."

visit the site and download free music

hear from Moby

The Birds and The Bees

Interview with Shyamalan: The story never touches on why exactly the trees and plants are so upset with us, what triggers "The Happening." Why did you leave that out?

That was always the intention of the movie—to have this open-ended quality—I wanted it to bleed out into the real world a little. For me, one of the great things about "The Birds" was that you never knew why it happened. By leaving it out you force the audience to consider what their own culpability is, to ask, "Are we blameless?" Because, of course, we aren't.

read the rest of the Newsweek article

Hitchcock Presents Online

An excellent episode from the self-proclaimed master of suspense. A cruel businessman is left for dead after a car accident renders him completely paralyzed. Joseph Cotton guest stars. There are interesting stylistic parallels to Schnabel's Le Scaphandre et le papillon. The Hulu website offers the entire collection of shows online if you're willing to suffer through the compressed file size. Lynch would be outraged but I think Hitchcock would have embraced another medium just as he did television.

Watch Breakdown on Hulu

Looking at Movies: Tutorial intros

Cut paper technique to match DVD introduction.

1. Focal Length
2. The Evolution of Editing: Continuity and Classical Cutting
3. Zoom and Moving Camera Effects
4. Lighting
5. Montage
6. The Moving Camera
7. The Kuleshov Experiment
8. The 180 Rule
9. Suspense and Surprise
10. Snapshot Sound
11. Snapshot Performance
12. Snapshot Editing
13. Shot Types
14. Setting And Expressionism
15. Point of View
16. Persona and Performance
17. Lighting (Night of the Hunter)
18. Introduction
19. Genre
20. Composing the Frame
21. Camera Angles
22. Actualities

Not coming to a theater near you

"If not discerned in its title, this site assumes a bias towards older, often unpopular, and sometimes unknown films that merit a second look. This site caters specifically to those who find an impotent similarity in the “New Releases” section of a video store and whatever’s “coming to a theater near you.”

visit the site

Where the wild things be at Spike?

"Forest Whitaker, who voices the Wild Thing 'Ira' in Where The Wild Things Are, has spoken up about the controversy surrounding the film and its apparent 'scariness' for kids. While it's still unclear how much Warner Bros is wanting to change, Whitaker, who saw an early version of the Spike Jonze film with his kids, says it should be left the way it is, citing that the sometimes dark nature of the film and the main character, Max, is important to the story.

Warner Bros. were unhappy with the original 'not-so-child-friendly' state of Spike Jonze's film, and have postponed the release until October 2009, pending possible reshoots."

read more

Monster Squad

Looking at Movies

>>view gallery of stills<<

Week 10: Mise-en-abyme

What are the five conditions that gave rise to the New Hollywood (here defined as post-1975)?

1. A new generation of filmmakers "Movie Brats"
2. new marketing strategies
3. new media ownership and management styles
4. new technologies of sound and image reproduction
5. new delivery systems

What does Elsaesser mean by New Hollywood being defined either as “the different as same” or “the same as different.”

Elsaesser writes, "The 'New Hollywood' of Coppola, Scorses and Altman: is 'new' in opposition to 'old' Hollywood (the different as same: Coppola playing at being a reclusive mogul like Howard Hughes and an 'auteur maudit' like Orson Welles), or is it 'new' in relation to Hollywood assimilating its own opposite (the same as different): Arthure Penn borrowing from Truffaut, Altman from Godard, and so on.

Elsaesser is illustrating a way to compare old and new Hollywood. Was this new breed of filmmakers simply a reflection or those from the past or were they really doing something different only to be assimilated into the Hollywood system.

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?

Elsaesser is referring to 'B-movies' like the sci-fi film, the 'creature-feature' or monster film, and the many other variations on the horror film. The horror film especially permitted deviations and transgressions of the representational norm. In contrast to maintaining a coherent diegetic world and the rule of narrative causality, horror films almost by definition disrupt the cause and effect patterns of such classical devices as shot/reverse shot, continuity and reverse field editing in order to create a sense of mystery, of the unexpected, of surprise, inconruity and horror, misleading the viewer by withholding information or keeping the causal agent, the monster, offscreen for as long as possible.

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

Elsaesser explains the use of sound and image as synchronized in classical hollywood perfectly reproduces the question /answer pattern of linear narrative. The horror film emphasizes the presence of sound in order that the absence of its source becomes localized by the min more vividly and more like a fantasm.

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

Elsaesser cites the commentary on commentary found in Coppola's pulp fiction of story telling. No less than sixty titles are referenced, thirty plus Dracula films and a dense intertextuality of others like Lumiere's Arrival of a Train (1985), Epstein's The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), Cocteau's La Belle et La Bete (1945), Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (1928), and the list goes on. The layering of interpretation of Stoker's Dracula through each of these intertextual references creates a sort of infinite reflection of the original text.

Synecdoche, New York

>>view the trailer<<

Charlie Kaufman, writer of Human Behavior, Being John Malcovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine, is making his directorial debut with Synecdoche, NY.

Had to do a little research to figure out the meaning of the word synecdoche. The use of synecdoche is a common way to emphasize an important aspect of a fictional character; for example, a character might be consistently described by a single body part, such as the eyes, which come to represent the character. This is often used when the main character does not know or care about the names of the characters that he/she is referring to.

Examples where a part of something is used to refer to the whole:
"The ship was lost with all hands [sailors]."
"His parents bought him a new set of wheels [car]."
Similarly, "mouths to feed" for hungry people, "white hair" for an elderly person, "the press" for news media.

The Blockbuster (or cookie)

Blockbuster or cookie was the name given to several of the largest conventional bombs used in World War II by the Royal Air Force (RAF). The term Blockbuster was originally a name coined by the press and referred to a bomb which had enough explosive power to destroy an entire city block.

The slangy nature of the term "blockbuster" made it a frequent popular culture reference during World War II, for example the Bugs Bunny cartoon Falling Hare, about a gremlin trying to detonate a blockbuster bomb with a mallet.

"Block Buster!" was a 1973 chart-topping song by British rock band Sweet, featuring the wailing sound of air raid sirens.

>>listen to the song<<

New American Cinema Manifesto

The First Statement of the New American Cinema Group
September 30, 1962

In the course of the past three years we have been witnessing the spontaneous growth of a new generation of film makers—the Free Cinema in England, the Nouvelle Vague in France, the young movements in Poland, Italy, and Russia, and, in this country, the work of Lionel Rogosin, John Cassavetes, Alfred Leslie, Robert Frank, Edward Bland, Bert Stern and the Sanders brothers.

The official cinema all over the world is running out of breath. It is morally corrupt, esthetically obsolete, thematically superficial, temperamentally boring. Even the seemingly worthwhile films, those that lay claim to high moral and esthetic standards and have been accepted as such by critics and the public alike, reveal the decay of the Product Film. The very slickness of their execution has become a perversion covering the falsity of their themes, their lack of sensibility, their lack of style.

If the New American Cinema has until now been an unconscious and sporadic manifestation, we feel the time has come to join together. There are many of us—the movement is reaching significant proportions—and we know what needs to be destroyed and what we stand for.

As in the other arts in America today—painting, poetry, sculpture, theatre, where fresh winds have been blowing for the last few years—our rebellion against the old, official, corrupt and pretentious is primarily an ethical one. We are concerned with Man [sic]. We are concerned with what is happening to Man [sic]. We are not an esthetic school that constricts the filmmaker within a set of dead principles. We feel we cannot trust any classical principles either in art or life.

1. We believe that cinema is indivisibly a personal expression. We therefore reject the interference of producers, distributors and investors until our work is ready to be projected on the screen.

2. We reject censorship. We never signed any censorship laws. Neither do we accept such relics as film licensing. No book, play or poem—no piece of music needs a license from anybody. We will take legal action against licensing and censorship of films, including that of the U.S. Customs Bureau. Films have the right to travel from country to country free of censors and the bureaucrats’ scissors. United States should take the lead in initiating the program of free passage of films from country to country.

Who are the censors? Who chooses them and what are their qualifications? What’s the legal basis for censorship? These are the questions which need answers.

3. We are seeking new forms of financing, working towards a reorganization of film investing methods, setting up the basis for a free film industry. A number of discriminating investors have already placed money in Shadows, Pull My Daisy, The Sin of Jesus, Don Peyote, The Connection, Guns of the Trees. These investments have been made on a limited partnership basis as has been customary in the financing of Broadway plays. A number of theatrical investors have entered the field of low budget film production on the East Coast.

4. The New American Cinema is abolishing the Budget Myth, proving that good, internationally marketable films can be made on a budget of $25,000 to $200,000. Shadows, Pull My Daisy, The Little Fugitive prove it. Our realistic budgets give us freedom from stars, studios, and producers. The film maker is his own producer, and paradoxically, low budget films give a higher return margin than big budget films.

The low budget is not a purely commercial consideration. It goes with our ethical and esthetic beliefs, directly connected with the things we want to say, and the way we want to say them.

5. We’ll take a stand against the present distribution—exhibition policies. There is something decidedly wrong with the whole system of film exhibition; it is time to blow the whole thing up. It’s not the audience that prevents films like Shadows or Come Back, Africa from being seen but the distributors and theatre owners. It is a sad fact that our films first have to open in London, Paris or Tokyo before they can reach our own theatres.

6. We plan to establish our own cooperative distribution center. This task has been entrusted to Emile de Antonio, our charter member. The New York Theatre, The Bleecker St. Cinema, Art Overbrook Theatre (Philadelphia) are the first movie houses to join us by pledging to exhibit our films. Together with the cooperative distribution center, we will start a publicity campaign preparing the climate for the New Cinema in other cities. The American Federation of Film Societies will be of great assistance in this work.

7. It’s about time the East Coast had its own film festival, one that would serve as a meeting place for the New Cinema from all over the world. The purely commercial distributors will never do justice to cinema. The best of the Italian, Polish, Japanese, and a great part of the modern French cinema is completely unknown in this country. Such a festival will bring these films to the attention of exhibitors and the public.

8. While we fully understand the purposes and interests of Unions, we find it unjust that demands made on the independent work, budgeted at $25,000 (most of which is deferred), are the same as those made on a $1,000,000 movie. We shall meet with the unions to work out more reasonable methods, similar to those existing off-Broadway—a system based on the size and nature of the production.

9. We pledge to put aside a certain percentage of our film profits so as to build up a fund that would be used to help our members finish films or stand as a guarantor for the laboratories.

In joining together, we want to make it clear that there is one basic difference between our group and organizations such as United Artists. We are not joining together to make money. We are joining together to make films. We are joining together to build the New American Cinema. And we are going to do it together with the rest of America, together with the rest of our generation. Common beliefs, common knowledge, common anger and impatience binds us together—and it also binds us together with the New Cinema movements of the rest of the world. Our colleagues in France, Italy, Russia, Poland or England can depend on our determination. As they, we have had enough of the Big Lie in life and the arts. As they, we are not only for the new cinema: we are also for the New Man [sic]. As they, we are for art, but not at the expense of life. We don’t want false, polished, slick films—we prefer them rough, unpolished, but alive; we don’t want rosy films—we want them the color of blood.

Bordwell

Thompson's model of stoytelling
Classical films large-scale parts tend to fall within the same average length range, roughly 25 to 35 minutes marked by definable turning points.

"Thompson argues that most mainstream narrative features consist of four large parts (sometimes 3 or 5), plus an epilogue.One or more protagonists seeking to achieve clearly defined goals. Thompson shows that Hollywood films tend to structure their large-scale parts around the ways in which goals are defined, redefined, thwarted, and then decisively achieved or not. Turning points are created by reversals of intention, points of no return, and new circumstances demanding that goals be recast."

Each running 25 to 35 minutes in a 100-to-120-minute film (when we combine Climax and Epilogue)

1. Setup - Establishes character's purpose and culminates at first turning point.
2. Complicating Action - Change of plans or entirely new challenge presented. Frequently ends at the films midpoint.
3. Development - Struggle toward goals
4. Climax - Can the goals be achieved
5. Epilogue - Confirming stability, settling subplots and tying up motifs


How do films with multiple protagonists work within the model?
Bordwell says, "The simplest instances occur when several characters share the same goal, as in dangerous-mission movies." The Thing seems to be a great example of multiple protagonists working together with a common mission, to kill the thing.

Bordwell also says, "Multiple-protagonist plots may bend their storylines to fit the four-part structure, but the fate of one or two characters is likely to dominate." He uses Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) as the example citing that only two of the fours salesman become central.

List and briefly describe the narrational tactics discussed in the section “Tightening the Plot."

Thompson shows how to derive a plot’s parts from a single principle—the ups and downs of character goals—rather than vague turning points that “spin the action in a new direction.”

A. usually two plotlines, at least one involving heterosexual romance
B. the dangling cause, each scene leaving issues unresolved
C. the dialogue hook, lines delivered at the end of a scene that lead us into the next
D. appointments and deadlines, building up expectations and foreshadowing
E. echoing dailogue, for chohesion
F. saturation of motif, illustrating character change or them
G. omniscience or cross-cutting between stories, narration acheives wider compass
H. balance of narrow and wider ranges of knowledge, keeping us informed but in suspense
I. classical narration is heavy at the begenning
J. montage, to condense storytelling

What does Bordwell mean by his claim that Hollywood narratives have “passages of overtness balanced with less self-conscious ones”?

Bordwell's seems to wax poetic in this passage but I would guess that he is saying there are elements of Hollywood storytelling that call more attention to themselves than others (more reflexive) but that they are always tempered with more immersive ones that draw us into the story and suspend our disbelief.

Which two changes in technology led to the “ancillary eighties”? How did these changes affect the “distribution windows” for films?

The rise of cable, video and the multiplex started it all. Attendance was falling sharply because of prime time TV and VHS rentals. Films had to hit their announced release date because the marketing campaign and exhibition venues had been coordinated around the all-important opening weekend, which could make or break the film in ancillary platforms. Studios had to create more of a buzz to get people to leave their homes with promo campaigns, products, etc. Televisions voracious appetite led to high demand and so independent production flourished.

What happened to the Paramount Decree (forcing the studios to sell their theaters after WWII) in the 1980s and 1990s?

Although court decisions of 1948–1949 forced the major companies to divest themselves of their theater chains, during the 1950s Warner Bros., Disney,Paramount, Columbia, 20th Century Fox, United Artists,MGM, and Universal controlled distribution, the most lucrative area of the industry. They suffered heavy losses dealt by television.

By 1980 the industry was earning stupendous profits. What changed? For one thing, a tax scheme sponsored by the Nixon administration allowed the producers to write off hundreds of millions of dollars in past and future investments. The studios also found ways to integrate their business more firmly with broadcast television, cable, the record industry, and home video.

Just as important, a new generation of filmmakers emerged. The young directors who found the biggest success were willing to work in established genres for a broad audience.

Who were the “Mini-Majors” in the 1980s?

The majors were Buena Vista (Disney), Columbia (later Sony),Warner Brothers, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, and MGM.

The "minimajors" were Orion, New Line, Miramax, and Lionsgate.

Who were the “prime packagers” in the 1980s and 1990s?

Walt Disney, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Time Warner

Which genres flourished and which genres declined during the 1980s and 1990s?

The "high-concept" spectacle film vs. socially conscious/art films.

Titles from Virgin Suicides

>>watch the clip<<

film study from Annie Hall

>>watch the clip<<

film study from the cuckoo's nest

>>watch the clip<<

Cucalorus Bumper Proposal

>> view animation <<

The Bablefish

>>>clip from the Hitchhikers Guide<<<

The Hobo Code

With a background in design and advertising I've come to appreciate the new AMC series Mad Men.

"Set in 1960s New York, the sexy, stylized and provocative AMC drama Mad Men follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising, an ego-driven world where key players make an art of the sell."

I was watching an episode entitled The Hobo Code the other night and I was intirigued by the backstory of the main character Don Drapper. They used a flashback to show a piece of his childhood during the depression era. A hobo had come to their farm and during his stay he explains the hobo code.

"This is how we talk to eachother. On the front of every house is a mark. A code just like you heard it on the radio. Thats a pie. It means the food hear is good. This one, that means watch out for the nasty dog. This one hear means a dishonest man lives here. And this one, means tell a sad story."

T-shirts for Film Geeks

‘Last Exit to Film Geekdom.’ Film Geeks like to show off; it’s in their job description. Whether it’s debating the merits of Lars von Trier or discussing which Evil Dead film is the true masterpiece, it’s just what they do. Thanks to entrepreneur Mike Ford, what they do has just gotten a bit easier to show off.

Last Exit To Nowhere, home to a collection of unique shirt designs which are inspired and pay homage to some of the most memorable places, corporations and companies in modern fiction.

>>> visit the website <<<

The Source

Below is a playlist of some of my favorite source music from various films. The playlist will load below this text in roughly 10 seconds depending on your download speed. Double click on a song to play it.

Looking At Movies: storyboards

Demo intro animation

1. atonement (option 1) >> click here

1. atonement (option 2) >> click here

storyboards for other concepts:

2. looking >> click here

3. mashup >> click here

4. posters >> click here

5. seats >> click here

What's in a Title

The main-title sequence of a film has become a form of art all to its own. The medium is shorter and in some ways harder to master. Titles are short introductions and closings to films and television shows that list the names of the cast and crew involved in the production. The craft has evolved from merely listing credits to capturing the essence of the film. Creating a distillation of the story by combining both graphic wit and cinematic prowess that honor the intentions of the filmmaker.







Saul Bass - Anatomy of a Murder
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. You can’t talk about the art of the title sequence without mentioning its first real pioneer, Saul Bass. Considered the father of the medium, his work made an indelible mark on the films of the 50s and 60s. He made a name for himself by creating bold film posters and so the transition to motion made perfect sense. A master of graphic minimalism and subtle motion design, Bass redefined the purpose of a film’s opening credits.

view the Saul Bass retrospective >>




Kyle Cooper - SE7EN
A living legend of the medium and master of symbolism, Kyle is today’s Saul. Cooper co-founded the now infamous studio Imaginary Forces in 1996 after a seven-year stint at RGA. He has since gone solo with Prologue Studios. His work for films like Se7en illustrate his graphic design background and typographic rule breaking similar to contemporaries like David Carson. The New York Times once said, “The opening and closing credits were so good, they were almost worth sitting through the film for.” Need I say more?

view the studio’s site >>




Jakob Trollbäck - Monsoon Wedding
Jakob Trollbäck is the founder and creative director of New York-based creative studio Trollbäck + Company. The Swedish self-taught designer is an acknowledged industry leader in branding and motion graphics design, best known for his clean, consistent and concept-driven design. The studio’s work is elegant and concise. Monsoon Wedding is no exception; with its simple animated line-work and vivid colors it sets the tone for the rest of the film. Perfection!

view the studio’s site >>



Terry Gilliam - Monty Python’s Flying Circus
The only American-born Python, Terry was the principal artist-animator of the surreal cartoons that frequently linked the show’s sketches together, and defined the group’s visual language in other media. Absurd Victorian cutouts that bounced around the screen uttering indiscernible phrases. His distinctive cut and paste style has become the trend of late in music videos for bands like The Hours, commercials for companies like Guinness and in television titles for shows like Desperate Housewives and Carnivale. Every once in a while someone comes along and creates something “completely different.” Raise your grails!

view the title sequence >>



Gareth Smith - Thank You For Smoking
How could something so bad look so good? This sequence is a celebration or mockery of cigarette packaging and its power to disguise the truth. Cigarettes presented like candy is a perfect metaphor for the film.

view the studio’s website >>




Olivier Kuntzel + Florence Deygas - Catch me if you can
Kuntzel and Deygas joined forces in 1990 forming their own studio and have been developing their unique style of illustration and animation ever since. The title sequence for the Spielberg film Catch me if You Can is both nostalgic and fresh at the same time. Based on a the real life story of Frank Abagnale, the animation captures the thrill of chase with jet setter typography and a period color palette.

view the studio’s website >



Sergio Leone - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Possibly the best spaghetti western ever, iconic in every way from the the Ennio Morricone’s score to all the great one-liners. Marked by a use of incongruous antique fonts and simple transitions of sand and flames. There is a sense-of-humor in every aspect of the film.

view the title sequence >>



Danny Yount - Six Feet Under
Self-taught Emmy winner and creator of possibly the best title sequence of all time for Six Feet Under. The brilliance is in the storytelling. The symbolism of death in the beginning with the hands and the trip down the hallway on the gurney into the light, the shot from within the grave. The integration of the typography is amazing, the text breaks apart when the crow flies through the frame, it follows the rising line embalming fluid and spins when the wheel of the gurney turns abruptly, and all timed with the music composed by Thomas Newman. Take a minute to check out the “making of” at the link below, great story behind the whole process including how they ended up with the tree!

view Danny Yount’s site >>
view the studio’s site >>
view the making of >>



Jared Hess - Napolean Dynamite
GOSH! It’s pretty much my favorite title sequence ever. Hess directed the film and as far as I can tell the intro as well. DIY titles to match a DIY film. Tots, burritos, deviled eggs, UFO Abduction Insurance, TV dinners, throwing stars, vintage carpet, and of course chap stick. Credits in ketchup and mustard, need I say more?

view the title sequence >>



Jean-Pierre Jeunet - Delicattessen
Spoiler alert, don’t read this review if you haven’t watched the film. Delicatessen is set in a post-apocalyptic version of 1950s France where food is in short supply. What do they eat; let’s just say Solient Green. The title sequence is amazing; the camera drifts through all sorts of memorabilia pausing on different items that relate to credit information. For instance, a broken record for the music director and a shirt collar for the costume designer. Even if you’re subtitle challenged you should check this one out. A new meaning to dinner and a movie.

view the title sequence >>
view Jeunet’s site >>



Click on the comments link at the top of this article and let me know if you have any to add to the list.