Task 3 - Todorov - Brief 4

Tzevetan Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher. Lived in France since 1963 writing various books and essays about literary theory, thought history and culture history. He has published a total of 21 books, Todorov has also been a visiting proffesor at several universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley.

Todorov's greatest cotribution to literaray theory was his defining of the fantastic, the fantastic uncanny, and the fantastic marvelous. He defines the fantastic as being any event that happens in our world that seems to be supernatural. Upon the occurrence of the event, we must decide if the event was an illusion or whether it is real and has actually taken place. Todorov uses Alvaro from Cazotte;s Le Diable Amoureux as an example of a fantastic event. Alvaro must decide whether the woman he is in love with is truly a woman or is she is the devil. The story of course continues...

Awards

- Bronze medal of the CNRS

- The Charles Lévéque Prize of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques

- The first Maugean Prize

- The Académie Française

- The Prince of Asturias Award for social sciences

He is also an officer of the 'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'

Task 1 - Flossary - Brief 4

Classical Cinema:

Classical Cinema is one of the names used to describe the methods of film making. It involves the use of recognisable actors and actresses whose lives blur the distinction between fantasy - reality. Locations, props, costumes and such may be determined by the film's genre, but are always different from the world lived in by the audience. The composition of picture on the screen occupies the centre of the screen, with standard shot sizes, also taking into consideration the lighting on set - Three point lighting, key light, fill light and black light. This makes stars stand out and makes the set and scenery look glamorous. Fast editing, shots not held too long. Long shots are usually held longer than closer shots.

Characters may be determined by the films genre, though generally heroes and villains: things happen in their world because of the actions of individuals. A single story that begins when the films begins and ends with closure at the end. Usually a happy or satisfying ending - this is called a Single Strand narrative. Continuous editing - cuts from one shot to another that follow the logic of the action, or the interaction between characters for example if a characters 'eye-line match' and 'shot/reverse shot'.

The Hollywood Studio System

The Hollywood studios that emerged in the 1910s and the 1920s - Paramount, Fox, Warner Bros' etc. All complemented their factory-based production operations with common business practices that helped them to collectively take over the movie industry in the US and increasingly world wide as well. Most of the early studios still dominate the industry on a global scale. During Hollywood's so-called classical era, when the studio system was at it's peak, and when the studios' collective dominion era. Film studios in other countries have enjoyed great success for periods of time, and occasionally to the extent that the terms "Studio system" and "national cinema" apply to them as well. This success often coincided with the national and international popularity of a particular type of product or film style, as with Ufa and German Expressionism in the 1920s. or the remarkable run of Alfred Hitchcock-directed thrillers from Gaumont British Distributors Ltd.

Cinematography

The history of moving images goes back to more than one thousand years. December 28, 1895 can be considered the birthday of projected film presented in a theatre. It was then Antoine Lumiére from Lyon, the director of a plant producing film materials and the father of August and Louis Lumiére, hosted in the Grand Café of Paris a show of living pictures.

Pre-planned camera positions and bulky equipment - little spontaneity and few extreme camera angles, or expressive camera movements. Light is necessary to create an image exposure on frame of film or on a digital target, the art of lighting for cinematography goes far beyond basic exposure, however into the spirit of visual storytelling. Lighting contributes considerably to the emotional response an audience has watching a motion picture. It reflects the mood on screen and helps the scenes atmosphere.

One aspect of cinematography that strongly separates it form still photography (aside from the moving imagery) is the ability to move the camera, which represents the audience's viewpoint or perspective, during the course of filming. This movement plays a considerable role in the emotional language of film images and the audience's emotional reaction to the action on the screen.

Task 2 - Propp - Brief 4

Vladimir Propp’s grew up in Germany and later in life he wrote Russian folk tales. He extended the Russian formalist approach around the narrative structure. By Propp breaking down these Russian folk tales into their smallest narrative units, or narratemes he was then able to arrive at a typology of narrative structures; some of which include

Absentation, Interdiction, Violation of Interdiction and so on…

Propps Ideas - He believed that in every film there was:

• The Hero - Seeks something
• The Villain - Opposes the hero
• The donor - Helps the hero by providing a 'magic' object
• The dispatcher - Sends the hero on it's way
• The false hero - Falsely assuming the role of the hero
• The helper - Gives support to the hero
• The princess - The reward for the hero, but also needs protection from the villain
• The father

Comparing these characters to 'Some like it Hot':

Sugar - The Princess: As she is the beautiful woman that is wooed by both men in the film.

Joe - The father, The hero: He wants to protect her from harms way and also saves/falls in love with her and they end up together.

Jerry - The Helper: Although both of them love Sugar Joe get's the girl in the end, but helps throughout the film as they try to disguise themselves so they don't get caught by the mobsters.

'Gangsters' (That they are running from) - The Villain: Because they want to kill Joe, and Jerry as they witnessed the gangsters killing someone.