Professional Documents
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Hollywoo
d Cinema
narrative
Objective storytelling
Character driven
Mise-en-scne
Time and space
Classical continuity editing
Three-Act
Narrative
Hollywood plots are set
Objective
Storytellin
The audience in a Hollywood film
g
knows more than the characters
do. We are able to see what is
happening in other places at the
same time, and we can see what
other characters are doing. In this
respect we are god-like - we can
see everything (omniscience). This
makes the style of storytelling
objective, and it also allows us to
accept simultaneous time or
parallel editing.
Character
The American style of cinema is almost exclusively concerned with individual
Driven
characters (and stars). The objective of the Hollywood movie is to relate what
happens to the characters and whether or not they got what they wanted. The films
have strong individual characters who struggle to fulfil their hopes and goals. These
characters are arranged in a hierarchy, from hero or protagonist to antagonist and
then down to minor characters and supporting cast.
While earthquakes, alien invasions or cyborgs may act as catalysts to events, the
stories generally focus on the personal choices of individual people, say Bordwell
and Thompson. To confirm this point, Susan Hayward gives the example of Vietnam
War movies. Many movies take an anti-war stance. But in Hollywood movies we
learn about the impact of the war only by seeing how it affects our main 'G.I. Joe'
character. Only a few other surrounding characters suffer. We don't get to see how
the war affected society, or what caused the war, or what its long-term effects were.
Even if a cause for a war is proposed, it tends to be marked down as the
responsibility of one sole individual. For example, in Hollywood movies Hitler is
shown to be solely responsible for World War II.
Mise-enOne
of the most important aspects of Hollywood style is the mise-en-scene, whose
Scne
main function is to manufacture realism.
The arrangement of everything that appears in the framing actors, lighting,
dcor, props, costume is called mise-en-scne, a French term that means
placing on stage. The frame and camerawork are also considered part of the
mise-en-scne of a movie. In cinema, placing on the stage really means placing on
the screen, and the director is in charge of deciding what goes where, when, and
how. David A. Cook, in his book A History of Narrative Film, points out how a miseen-scne is formed by all the elements that appear within a shot itself, as
opposed to the effects created by cutting. In other words, if its on the screen and
if its a physical object recorded by the camera, then its part of the mise-enscne.
College
Time and
Space
Classical Continuity
Editing
Shot progressions in the classical Hollywood style A typical feature film
has between 800 and
1200 shots. Editing is
designed to render all
these shot changes
invisible or
imperceptible. Editing
in the invisible style
serves to hide any
jumps or
discontinuities that
would alert the viewer
to 'non-reality'.
Following are some of
the features of
continuity editing:
Point-of-view shots
Editing
Editing
Camera Shots