Citizen Kane & The Hays Code

The Production Code

1. Do you believe that film can influence people and have a moral influence on them? Give an example to support your opinion.

I do believe film can influence people's actions but not morals. Morals are what you hold dearest, they are the values you hold in life and they are very hard to change in the first place, I can't see a movie changing someone's morals but only their actions. There have been many instances in which the actions of people have been influenced by movies. Just a few years ago in 2012 in Aurora, Colorado James Holmes shot up a movie theatre during the midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises. He wanted to exemplify the villain in the movie. Another instance was when the the movie The Interview came out, it was about an interview with North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-Un, and it caused quite the stir both nationally and internationally. North Korea threatened the studio if it were released so it was released on Netflix. The hype of the controversy died quickly but for a few weeks many thought we were going to war with North Korea over a comedy movie. 

2. What do you think of rating systems for video games or movies? Are they beneficial , do you reference them, are they helpful to you? If not then why not?  If you were in charge of the world :) how would your rating system work?

I think that the rating systems used for movies and video games are very useful, more for parents buying their younger children games or deciding on what they should let them watch. They are necessary for our society today as we are more protective than ever over our young ones. I personally do not reference movie or video game ratings as I no longer worry about the offensive content sometimes contained in movies or video games. In reality I prefer movies and video games for adults, but I still watch "kid" movies and have low rated video games. They serve no real purpose for me but I understand why we need them. If I ran the world I would not change a thing about the rating system today, I feel it does a good job in regulating what content a movie contains and serves a valiant purpose. It is necessary in todays society to rate media in terms of who should watch it so our youngest kids don't watch films like Pulp Fiction or The Shinning. 

Citizen Kane

3. What elements in the movie Citizen Kane reflect that Orson Welles had worked extensively in radio and theater?  Give several examples to support your observations.

First off, Welles used many stage actors and they were on film for the first time in their careers. He thought that they were betted suited to play out the roles in his film. He also held rehearsals for scenes without filming, this does not happen in modern film making, there are many takes to a scene but rarely do they rehearse a scene like Welles did. Also, Welles love to use low angle shots and if you think about it, a low angle is the angle you would watch a play from, when you watch  a film from this angle it gives the actors a larger than life persona which is what you get when you watch a play and this film.

4. Citizen Kane is celebrated for its use of low-angle shots as a means of establishing point-of-view and of defining character.  Give an example of a  scene in which low-angle shots are used significantly.

When Kane is yelling at the departing boss Jim Gettys, the angle is from the bottom of a stairwell. Gettys is in the middle of the shot but still being heightened while Kane yells from the top of the staircase. It shows that Gettys is leaving his position of power by walking down the stairs and Kane is the sole person in charge by standing at the top of the stairs yelling a Gettys.  

5. Citizen Kane makes use of innovative transitional devices in the way it links different scenes.  Give some examples of how the film use transitions to bridge different time and space.

Kane uses the dissolve method in some scenes, where the one scene ends and it slowly dissolves into the starting of another scene. It is very cool watch and makes for a smooth transition. The first part of film uses montage editing, showing many different shots of objects, from a no trespassing sign to a creepy looking manor which is Kane's house. Another example of transition tools is when there is a close up of Kane's staff and him in a photo, but when it zooms out the picture becomes reality as it is Kane siting with his employees for a company photo. It is clear Kane likes to use many different transition tools. 

Fraley, Jason. "Citizen Kane (1941)." The Film Spectrum. The Film Spectrum, 13 Oct. 2011. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.

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The Artist

1.     Camera Work

The camera work used in The Artist is very similar to early sound films, the most of which is the framing of particular scenes. Most movies from that era focused on the faces of the actor and rely heavily on their expressions to communicate their emotions, as well as have very little background in the shot. The Artist follows this style exceptionally well, and it is hard to distinguish how the film was created so recently. One give away that the film was made recently is when the wife sees her husband being kissed by a girl on the front of the newspaper, the camera starts with the small picture of the headline and zooms out to show the whole scene. Back then this was very uncommon, most films would end a scene with the close up, not start it out with one.

2.     Sound & Music

The easiest reason for this being similar to an early sound film is the fact that it is accompanied by a musical score and it relies on this score to communicate the emotions of a scene. The music matches to the scenes of the film very well like most films from this era. During a scene where Peppy is caught kissing George’s jacket, the music quickly heightens as she realizes she has been caught. When it comes to sound and music I had a lot of trouble telling that the film was made in 2011, but one case is when the score does cut off the film is actually silent. It was hard for older films to be completely silent because the equipment was so loud.

3.     Dialogue & Speech

The Artist does resemble films from the early sound era in that you cannot hear the voices of the actors and the amount of actual dialogue in the movie is scarce. Movies nowadays often have constant talking between characters and silence is saved for dramatic parts, the Artist relies on the actors to portray their thoughts and emotions through kinesis. I knew the film was from 2011 with a simple middle finger gesture in the first part of the film, old films were not outgoing enough to show this in their films.

4.     Editing

There two distinct scenes in the Artist where they transition to another scene, one by folding the image over the old to create he new scene, and another by blacking out the screen to the middle then opening it back up to a new scene. This was very common for the early sound film era. It is clear the Artist was made in 2011 because of the sharp clarity of in all the scenes; they could not achieve this back in early sound films.

5.     Special Effects

Although I have never seen this in other early sound films, when George is at the bar he imagines a little version of himself telling him to change his ways as he is not doing anything with his life since he is no longer acting. They also show George being shocked in a clip of one if his films, the electric waves are faked but add to the scene. I could tell it was from 2011 because they did not yet have the technology to have people imagine little versions of themselves, and attempt to swat them away to no prevail.

6.     Genre Codes & Conventions

This film has a classic silent era plot, the man who has it all suddenly loses it and is torn between his crippling professional life and the new love he feels for a woman that is not his wife. He is emotionally beat with his personal and professional life and almost took his own life only to be rescued at the last second by his new founded lover. I new this film was from 2011 because they almost have a suicide occur, this was a much more sensitive topic back then and it surely would not have been in an older film.

7.     Acting

The acting in The Artist was very impressive as new age actors had to travel back in time and rely on their ability to show their emotions. This means many close ups and they must be able to change expressions based off the scene in an instant. The film was clearly from 2011 because well first off, I knew the actors in the film, and second, at the end of the film all sound can be heard and they act as if it is a modern movie for the last 30 seconds or so.

Local Film History

Before I start with the actual material of this project overview I would just like to say that I was more than impressed with Scarecrow Video and their staff. Everyone there was well versed in film history and was more than willing top help me this project. They clearly have great care for the education of film history and are true professionals when it comes to preserving their massive collection.

The reason I chose Scarecrow Video for my local film history project is because Mr. Austin had mentioned it many times earlier in the year and seemed very enthusiastic when he did. I did a small amount of research on the store and once I discovered it was the largest publicly available physical media archive in the United States, I had to see it for myself.   

I had never been to Scarecrow video prior to my visit for the interview and was blown away by the size of the store. They currently have over 127,000 different titles that are all available to rent, with their oldest film being released in 1895, their rarer titles have an RBA sticker that stands for “rent by approval” and this means the staff must approve the rental and you must put more money down because the films would be near impossible to replace. I was amazed with the vast amount of sections, 1,184 to be exact. Most of these sections are specific to one director, many of which are local filmmakers. Scarecrow is very invested in supporting these local filmmakers and has dedicated an entire room to local films. They host many rough and final edits annually and have hosted numerous movie premiers. Even though their viewing room is not exceptionally large, they offer it to rent out for free; all you have to do is set up a time and date. All of their viewing parties are set up by either customers or staff and are free to attend. From a cultural perspective Scarecrow is still relevant today, they have by far the widest range of genres, essentially if they don’t have the title then you are basically out of luck. Scarecrow represents 129 countries in its store with multiple films and clips from each of these countries. Their efforts to preserve film culture and history is matched by no one, they have 44 titles in which they may have the only publicly accessible copy, 33 titles where there are less than five other publicly accessible copies, and 88 titles that the Library of Congress does not even possess. Scarecrow discovered this exciting news when they launched an investigation earlier this year to find out just how rare their collection was. Scarecrow Video was not the first video store opened in Seattle but in time it has become known country wide for its vast title selection. They do any and everything they can to support local film arts and are always willing to work with civic groups, educational institutions and non-profits in the surrounding area. Scarecrow is the ideal video store and more should strive to be like them as I have not been more impressed with a film establishment.

Horror and Suspense

1. I personally do think M qualifies as a horror film, it is much more a thriller than a horror movie. When I think of horror movies I imagine a person terrorizing a town or small group of people, granted M does meet this requirement however there are other aspects necessary to be a true horror film. M never shows any true violence, they only mention the horrors that the antagonist has committed. In other horror films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the villain is shown killing his victims in very brutal ways unlike M. M does have a suspense factor but unlike most horror films the viewer and characters know who the villain is early in the film as other horror films wait on revealing a shot of the character until late in the film. Most horror films have scenes where you want to look away but can't, M never has a scene reach this level of magnitude, which in my eyes makes it much more of a thriller than horror film.

2. The only sub-genre that M could fit into would be psychological horror, as it relies on the emotions of the characters. All is well in the mind of the killer until he realizes he has been marked, and the movie quickly jumps into a rapid pace. M also relies on music and sound, the unique whistle of the killer is at first a frightening sound yet it turns into a symbol of hope as it is the only way of identifying the killer to the blind man. 

3. Sound and music play huge roles in the success of M. The killer is identified by his unique whistle late in the film, it reveals his one flaw in his actions and eventually leads to his capture. Before the killer is captured he is trying to escape from the room he locked himself in and when he is very close the door the knob turns as the criminals looking for him. The music slows in this scene to reveal the suspense the killer and criminals felt. 

4. Believe it or not, one sound in the film M is both diegetic and non-diegetic. At first the killer's whistle is only heard by the audience to show the horror of a scene as a little girl is found, later the whistle is heard by both the audience and blind man that later identifies the killer. 

5. Major characters are introduced using shadows, I believe this is to create suspense as to what the person actually looks like. This also creates an eery feeling when watching. 

6. I honestly do not know what the title M is supposed to tell us about the movie however I believe it refers to murderer as the killer is referred to as this before his true identity is revealed. 

7. I watched the movie King Kong, it is about a film crew that goes to shoot a movie on an unknown island and find themselves fighting for their lives against the indigenous people, animals, and most notedly King Kong in order to save an actress that was taken by the people and offered to Kong. This films falls under both the nature and science fiction horror genres. It is set in a jungle and contains many animals and creatures we would see today, except they are much larger than normal and thats where the science fiction comes in, as there is no way there could still be dinosaurs and a 60 ft tall gorilla. 

8.I watched the movie King Kong, sound is used mostly for a suspense and fear factor in the film. Before the giant beast takes Anne into the forest, the indigenous people of the island are playing loud drums to build up the revealing of Kong. When they sense Kong is close the music suddenly stops and they wait, this truly builds up the scene. When Anne sees the beast, she lets a truly horrifying scream, this shows the fear she was experiencing. 

9. Major characters are introduced in a simplistic manner in King Kong, the camera goes to a close up of just the face and another major character introduces them. Usually they are being exemplified as the best at what they are in the film, or the perfect fit for that scenario. Anne is scene by the director Carl and he clearly shows that she is just the girl he needs for his role. 

Early Silent Films

1. The main reason actors and actresses were not instant movie stars in early films is because of the studios that produced all of the early silent films. Actors were not credited for their work so it was very difficult to know the name of actors and who they were outside of their films. Studios believed that if the actors were credited they would demand more money. Another problem was that acting in movies was seen as lesser than acting in theatre at the time. Also, films back then rarely had close ups of actors and if they did the same person was not featured multiple times so very few actors had instant recognition like they do now.
2. The Great Train Robbery was a breakthrough film because it was the first narrative film and it introduced many techniques for the very first time. These techniques include minor camera movement, shooting at a location instead of a studio, and editing the film after shooting.
3.  The Edison Trust, also known as the Motion Picture Patents Company, was founded in 1908 and dissolved after ten years and was made up of all the major American film companies. The independent film makers absolutely won the fight. The MPPC relied too heavily on their patents which eventually led to their fall. By the time the big name companies released their first feature films hundreds of feature films had been released by independent film makers.
4. While Edison, Melies and the Lumiere brothers operated in the same time they were immensely different in the films that they produced. Edison used the sun for lighting but was still shot within a studio. They generally only lasted for 30-45 seconds from a single long shot which meant no editing. The camera also never moved in Edison's films, it was a single set with no movement of location. Edison's films also never contained any true plot or material value. They seem to be meant purely for visual entertainment with no message.
The Lumiere brothers were quite different from Edison but still shared some similarities. They too used the sun for lighting and shot from a single long shot angle. They also never edited their films. The Lumiere brothers' films were slightly longer at 60-75 seconds and contained scenes of everyday life. However the people featured in their films were average people, not actors like Edison and Melies used in their films. The Lumiere brothers shot out of studio at locations unlike Edison which was very different for the time. They also dabbled in small movements of the camera in some of their films but like Edison their films had no real plot.
Melies was by far the most different of the these three film makers but still had a few expected similarities. In his films there was no editing within the scenes, they were shot from a single long shot angle and contained no camera movement. Yet unlike Edison and the Lumiere brothers, Melies films were many minutes long. This meant multiple strips of film had to be edited and cut so they could be made into one film. His films also had a real story to tell to the audience, it was not meant for purely visual pleasure. It was meant to make the audience actually pay attention to a film for an extended period of time. Melies films used fabricated sets, so the set was made specifically for that scene in the film. These sets did not just include actors, his films had actors, acrobats, and magicians. A few of Melies films contain camera tricks, like the stop trick, which is pausing the film and adding or removing an object then the film was started again, making appear as if it had just magically appeared there. Lastly, some of Melies films had colored scenes which was very time consuming as each frame had to be painted by hand one by one. However the image it created was much more appealing to audiences.

Blog 1 Reflexive Films

I chose the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off and it was released in 1986. I chose this film because it is a major memory in my childhood. It is about a high schooler named Ferris who is infamous for missing days of school with elaborate schemes in order to make his parents believe his is very ill. The entire film is based around one day where he wants to skip school as usual but he wants to make it special. He convinces his friend Cameron who is supposedly sick to come to his house for a day of fun. They then get Ferris' girlfriend Sloan out of school with a fake family emergency. They proceed to hit the town and engage in numerous activities, all while Cameron is worried sick about his father's car that Ferris convinced him to let them take on their little adventure. The film is mostly comedic but there are a few problems that are unearthed between Ferris and Cameron as well as their immediate families. The film has a few moments where it is just Ferris and the audience; mainly giving advice and acknowledging the fact that it is indeed a movie. He even at the end says, "It's over, go home." I watched the film through DVD, as I own the movie.

Prior to watching Sherlock Jr. I had never seen a Buster Keaton film and I had only heard about him. I believe he was such a great actor because of his ability to control the room. Even without words you have to focus on him throughout the movie because he never breaks character in the slightest. He had the ability to be very animated and it feels as if he would have a full conversation with the audience with just a few simple expressions. As if right when he looked at the camera, you knew exactly what he was thinking. He created humor by his extreme animated movements and by being able to perfectly act out an emotion or thought. This unique talent is what created humor throughout his films.

All of these films, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Sherlock Jr., and Ferris Bueller's Day Off deal with breaking the fourth wall, all in their own ways. The Purple Rose of Cairo literally has a character leave the screen and come into real life. The whole plot is dealing with a character, Tom Baxter, leaving the scene of a movie and causing panic amongst movie goers and the company responsible for releasing the film. It focuses on the limitations movie characters have, as he knows only what his character in the movie knows. In the end, the girl he left the movie for, Cecilia, chose the real person and not the fictional character she fell in love with. This is especially disheartening because the actual actor in the movie stands her up. This shows how there is a fourth wall in the real world, as the actor would never go for a girl of a lower social status. Sherlock Jr. is very different because it was made completely for a comedic purpose. Because there are no words the connection between the main character and audience is much harder to form. Without this connection between Buster Keaton and the audience, the movie would be awful since it relies on this connection. Unlike Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Purple Rose of Cairo, you never know exactly what is happening in Sherlock Jr. unless you are paying attention the entire time. In the other films, the scene could be explained through the characters conversing with each other. Sherlock Jr. relied the most on the connection between the actor and audience. Ferris Bueller's Day Off acknowledged the audience the least in overall time yet still the most directly. Ferris in multiple scenes completely cuts away from the movie to talk to the audience, almost as if the movie is paused without him. Ferris almost acts as a narrator for the movie he stars in, yet he is looking right at the camera and directly talking to the viewers. All these movies deal with the connection between characters and audience and the success of the movie depends on the success of this connection.