Act I Sydney leaves home to join her mother's sorority at college. The peaking conflict in this act is when she is kicked out of the sorority at the big dance in front of everyone. she is left homeless and finds refuge in the vortex, the house of seven dorks. Everything Sydney had went through in the beginning of the film shifted when she was kicked out. she temporarily solves the issue by finding a place to stay. (38 minutes)
Act II While living with the seven dwarfs, Sydney becomes friends with them while going on dates with Prince Charming. Everything seems to be going well, the dorks had been successful at blending in with a greek party and Sydney and Tyler Prince are becoming closer. the peak of this act is when Rachel Witchburn, head of the sorority, breaks up the happy couple and publicly humiliates the seven dorks. (49 minutes)
Act III the final act is where the legend comes into play. the "rotten apple" is a strong computer virus that shut down Sydney's apple computer just hours before a big essay is due. this brings a major setback the night before election between White and Wichburn. The suspenseful moments lead up to Prince kissing and awakening Sydney from sleep, brought on because of her late night essay writing, followed by Sydney's appearance at election in the literal last minute of debate. following the climax is a happily ever after ending. (22 minutes)
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
"The Big Bang Theory" Sitcom
One peculiar aspect of the TV sitcom is the inability to remember life lessons. Each twenty-minute episode is filled with the same quirky characters, as always, who never seem to grow as individuals. There is always some sort of conflict for the characters, but at the end of the episode they have had a life experiment of their own and have learned their lesson. Oddly enough, the characters are unchanged in the beginning of the next episode. It is as if there is a big red reset button that is continually pushed. Sure, the characters are engaging with appealing personalities, but they never grow from their mistakes.
The hilarious Chuck Lorre sitcom, “The Big Bang Theory,” is a hit show about four nerdy scientists and the struggling actress across the hall. Although storylines such as Penny and Leonard dating on and off again change, everything else remains the same. The characters do some outlandish things and learn their lessons from their mistakes. Sheldon remains obnoxious throughout the entire series, not changing after his character learns something new. The same big personalities appear fresh at every new episode. In a recent episode one of the main characters, Sheldon, obtains a dozen cats. At the end of the episode he gives the cats away and then the cats are never mentioned again. Unlike a drama, this show repeats similar actions for optimal comedy.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Enchanted Shots
LS |
The scene from Kevin Lima’s Enchanted (2007), where Prince Edward (James Marsden) enters the three-dimensional world from a sewer employs various types of shots to set the scene. First, there is the long shot that, in this circumstance, is the wide view of Ney York Times Square. This gives the tone of the city and directs the audience to where the scene is taking place. It basically orients the audience, making them aware of the surroundings and background of the scene.
MS |
Next there is the medium shot, a closer picture that shows all of the characters involved with the event happening around them. When Prince Edward shoots up out of the street sewer the still shows the reactions of the construction men while showing Edward’s emotions as well. While this shot shows the New York City background, it is minimal to the audience after viewing the long shot of the city square.
MCU |
Then there is the medium close-up, different then the standard close-up because it is somewhere between a medium shot and a close-up. This image shows the prince confronting one of the construction men, holding a knife to the guy’s throat.
CU, OTS |
Closer to the characters than a medium shot, this still shows both men from chest up before there is a close-up of the prince speaking from an over the shoulder shot. This final shot shows the emotion in the prince’s facial expressions as he asks where the princess is.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Studio System
The fact that the studio system survived so long when it was full of vertical integration companies is somewhat puzzling. With the majority of business coming from the ‘Big Five’ (MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and RKO), an oligopoly was formed that made a large amount of income. With that, each made a name for themselves in respect of the type of a movie.
Because the major studios owned everything, from celebrities to directors to movie theaters, the companies were able to do whatever they wanted. Due to there being five of these corporations, they would come together and lend certain aspects of filmmaking from one to another. This included big stars, writers, and directors for specific movies. There were also the ‘little three’ studios, including Columbia, Universal, and United Artists, who did not own their own theaters. These companies had to collaborate with the ‘big five’ in order to screen their movies. Having the ability to trade with another company, each corporation took on a specific genre. Just as John Wayne became affiliated with the genre of western, these studios became affiliated with stars and genres. Most major companies had a ‘house style’ that helped promote their films, meaning that each studio had a specific genre they tended to stick to with the same big actors to insure their success at the box office.
In the 1940s the huge genre was film noir. A huge name of that era in movies is Humphrey Bogart. His most famous films are Casablanca (1942), The Big Sleep (1946), and The Maltese Falcon (1941). Along with Humphrey Bogart’s name tied to the noir genre, Warner Bros. is linked with them as well. As Bogart rose to fame he took Warner Bros. with him. Most famous noir films have Humphrey Bogart as the leading male, often costarring with Lauren Bacall. Although the story lines would change, the two had chemistry that was hard to match. After the positive reviews of their first film together, To Have and Have Not” (1944), the couple became a figure of Warner Bros. as well.
A close equivalent to this is modern Disney. Although they don’t own stars, the actors on Disney Channel tend to appear in only Disney titles. Disney also owns all sorts of steps in the production process. And furthermore, Disney has horizontal integration when it bought big networks like ABC and ESPN.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
"All in the Family" vs. "Modern Family"
“All in the Family” isn’t far off from a modern show when it comes to incorporating material that is acceptable. In its time, “All in the Family” was viewed as risqué to air on television. Television series of the 21st century have explored just how far a show can go. From showing the first belly button decades ago, TV has now seen less than men and women in their underwear. Modern family shows, like “All in the Family,” challenge what it means to be an American family. Often the parents are portrayed as quite childish while the kids struggle through adolescence and rebel from their parents.
The new hit TV series “Modern Family” has drawn much attention with its quirks. The show depicts family situations that have become an accepted part of society. The elderly grandfather has a new young wife with a young child. His character is similar to Archie because he is the head of the family and is set in his beliefs. His son is gay and married to a rotund character who is clearly homosexual. The situation is similar to the episode of “All in the Family” where gays are not widely accepted with the elderly. “Modern Family” proves that society has progressed and is now much more accepting of gay couples to the point of acknowledging them as a bonded couple and allowing them to adopt a child.
While both shows contained integration and freedom issues in society, “Modern Family” spikes popularity due to the strong hold on reality nowadays. “All in the Family” showed characters from the 70s who were not as planted in the ground for their time. Each character was created to form a comedic satire and make situations more amusing. The situations were shaped to over exaggerate racist circumstances while “Modern Family” The 1970s were a time of integration of races, genders, and liberal ideas. This was the basis for creating a satire that unfortunately didn’t achieve its original goal. The audience ended up laughing and relating to Archie instead of laughing at his ignorance. “Modern Family” does the opposite by showing how society has assimilated to understand such situations.
“Modern family” deals with issues due to the changes of societies’ view of what is now acceptable. “All in the Family” just dealt with the process of making those views, such as interracial marriage, acceptable. “Modern Family” instead dealt with the cultural clashes when it came to holidays or just daily rituals, issues that all interracial couples must face. The difference is the time in which the shows were created and the differences in comedy through the ages.
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