3 Act Structure: Cinderella

My movie choice for this blog prompt might be seen as a tad bit childish and simple (because it is), but it has remained one of my favorite movies throughout my life and follows Hollywood’s three-act-structure of film perfectly.  I have chosen to discuss the classic Disney movie, Cinderella (everyone has to admit that the little kid inside of them still loves this “happily ever after” film too).

Act 1: Cinderella starts out like any other movie by introducing the characters, providing the viewer with an idea (and because it is Disney and the characters are simple, an exact portrait) of each of the main characters’ personalities.  We see that the main character, Cinderella, is a sweet and kind-hearted young woman, friends with all the little woodland creatures, trapped in her household being treated as a slave by her wicked stepmother and evil stepsisters.  The evil stepsisters are ugly and spoiled, given their every wish and demand by their stepmother.  The stepmother is wicked and cruel, manipulating Cinderella’s father into marriage for his money and using Cinderella as her own personal servant.  The first main event that occurs in the act is when the Prince invites all the young women in the land to his ball so he might find a wife.  Cinderella naturally should be invited, but instead is stepped on as usual by her stepsisters and stepmom, forcing her to spend all her time helping them prepare for the ball and leaving Cinderella dirty and with absolutely nothing to wear but rags (certainly not proper attire for a royal ball).  Cinderella starts to cry for it seems she will never escape this hell in which she lives and then magically her fairy godmother appears.  The fairy godmother scene is the Plot Point ending act one.  This is a magical event that has just occurred; the fairy godmother turns Cinderella’s rags into a beautiful ball gown with glass slippers, her to friends that are rats (Gus-Gus and Jaq) into two beautiful white horses, a pumpkin into a carriage, and so on.  This is a major plot point because now Cinderella has been presented with the opportunity to break out of her prison and attend the ball.  This is risky because her stepsisters and stepmother could recognize her (and she was forbidden to attend until she finished all her chores) and it is not really her world anymore.  The only catch is that she must be home before the clock strikes twelve for the spell ends at midnight.  This last little catch is key to this mini climax (plot point).

Act 2: The second act is the longest part of the film (although it might not look like it if analyzing the length of my description of act one above).  Act two begins when Cinderella’s carriage arrives at the castle for the royal ball.  She must be brave enough to enter, and when she does everyone is so captivated by her beauty and presence that the entire ball seems to stand still as the entire court takes notice, including the Prince.  Cinderella is approached by the Prince, making her the target for green eyes of jealousy by every other girl in attendance, and she spends the entire night at his side, dancing and talking.  Cinderella, infatuated with the Prince, and he with her, looses track of the time and is snapped back into reality when she hears the first strike of the clock marking midnight.  Cinderella embarrassed to reveal her true identity in rags as a servant rushes out of the ballroom, leaving the Prince with no explanation except for a frantic, “I’m sorry, I have to go!”  The Grandfather clock clanging out the twelve rings of midnight is the mini-climax, or plot point, of the second act.  Here there is a lot of action in that Cinderella is frantically running away, accidently leaving a glass slipper behind in the process, as her dress turns back into rags, while the Prince chases after her.  The Prince is too late though and all he finds is the sole glass slipper, picking it up and vowing to find the owner of the slipper and marry her.

Act 3: The final act of the film is the shortest act and it contains the resolution.  It consists of the Prince going door to door all throughout the land, having women try on the glass slipper (the only thing he has left of his dream girl), searching for the shoe’s (and his) perfect match (or fit).  When the Prince arrives at Cinderella’s house the evil stepsisters attempt to force their feet into the shoe and laugh at an embarrassed Cinderella as she asks if she might be given a chance to try on the glass slipper.  This is the true climax of the film because when Cinderella is trying on the slipper, although we know it will fit, it is unknown of whether or not the Prince will accept her and her true social standing.  Of course the shoe is a perfect fit and the Prince asks Cinderella to marry him, despite the rags she wears.  Their wedding is the “Happily Ever After” ending (resolution of the third act and film as a whole) that most films that use Hollywood’s three-act structure end with.

TV Sitcoms-Friends

           The great thing about the TV situational comedy is that one can sit down turn on the TV and start watching it for the first time, or after not seeing the show for a month and still be able to pick up on each characters unique personality and relationships, as well as what is going on in the show within the first couple of minutes.  Viewers are able to indulge in a sitcom whenever they want (there are usually re-runs) as means to unwind or just be lazy because the shows usually have very small levels of plot and character development.  One would not be able to just turn on a series show such as ‘24’ or ‘Gossip Girl’ in the middle of the season and be able to understand what and why everything was happening; they are too complex (each show builds off the last).  Sitcoms on the other hand are usually comedic, are pretty predictable with familiar plot development, and tend to end at about the same place where they began.

            The fact that sitcoms are usually comedic helps draw a very large audience.  The predictability of the shows allows for viewers to watch without much in depth thinking or understanding.  The main characters in the show never really stray from their defining personality traits, and almost always play the same role within the group of characters.  Most sitcoms are episodic, but some can evolve into serial sitcoms over time (think Boy Meets World and Friends). This occurs because sitcoms have a seasonal text along with episodic texts with mini-resolutions.  This means that although there might be a underlying story line or issue (such as a relationship) building throughout the season, each show brings up new issues and storylines that are almost always resolved at the end of that 30minute show.  The fact that some sitcoms become serial is just kind of like a reward for loyal followers to see what happens, but the topics of each individual show remain skin-deep to wear a random viewer can still come in and understand almost everything that happens in the first time watching the show.

            A comedic sitcom that started out as episodic but became more serial is the show about America’s favorite and most loyal group of coffee house buddies, Friends.  If you have ever seen Friends you know that from beginning to end the characters all stayed pretty much the same.  Ross was the nerdy and awkward guy that you loved, Monica that OCD, beautiful ex-fat kid, owner of the apartment the friends seemed to always gather in, Rachel the beautiful and trendy one, Pheobe the quirky one, Joey the aspiring actor/ weird ladies man, and Chandler the goofy one.  In every episode you knew that a conflict would arise in one of the friends lives or between each other, there would always be a coffee house scene, and every show would end with all the friends coming around the help each other out and all would be perfect again in their close-knit friendship circle.  Friends became a serial sitcom in that everyone was always asking the question, “Will Ross and Rachel end up together?”  Chandler and Monica also got together at some point near the beginning of the series and so on.  Loyal followers knew the deeper parts of each relationship between the friends, but you could also not watch it for a month and come back to find it perfectly humorous and make sense of almost everything, because for the most part, nothing ever changed.

Final Scene of Titanic broken down shot by shot

When analyzing how different types of camera shots can affect the mood and meaning of a particular scene in a film, I could not resist discussing my all time favorite movie, Titanic, and the scene that I personally believe to be one of the most moving, beautiful, and heartbreaking scenes in the film; the dream scene (ending scene of Titanic). 

The last scene of the movie starts out looking at old Rose’s pictures (her most prized possessions) while she is sleeping, and then goes to show us what she is dreaming about.  In the dream the camera first shoots a long shot of the entire ocean, blurred and slowly focusing in on the unsinkable Titanic at the bottom of the ocean.  The long shot emphasizes the isolation of the ship at the bottom of the sea.  The camera then starts to pan the hallways of the ship, as light starts to appear and the ship becomes new again.  These shots, still long shots, allow the viewer to become oriented with what they are seeing as the realization sinks in that what they are seeing is merely a dream; Rose’s fantasy.  The fact that the camera moves through the ship like a maze, long shot to long shot, builds suspense in the viewer because they know that the camera is leading them on a journey through the Titanic to something important.

The next shot is a medium shot where we have almost reached the important thing we are on the look out for.  People appear and the camera focuses on the back of a young man.  Because it is a medium shot we still do not see the man’s face, building the mystery factor of the scene.  The young man slowly starts to turn around to face the camera and extends a hand, informing the viewer the path they have been following through the crowd of people was a person walking (yet the camera has not yet shown this person); we are watching the scene through their eyes.  This medium shot is the information shot and it informed us that the man at the top of the stairs is Jack, and one can assume that the person he reaches his hand out toward is Rose.

The next shot is a close up, and here a woman takes Jack’s hand lightly, highlighting the safety of the relationship, and then the camera focuses on Rose’s face.  A huge smile lights up the scene as she holds Jack’s hand and they kiss.  The close up of their faces gives the viewer important details of the immense love of Jack and Rose’s relationship; lovers finally openly together and accepted.  Eventually the shot pans out and light floods the screen.  A final long shot reinforcing that this was yet a dream.  This closing shot emphasizes Rose’s sadness as her and Jack will never be, yet her joy in that he will always live on in her heart.

I have attached a link to the video of this final Titanic scene; found on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN_OmyAUrSU  

Studio System of Classical Hollywood

            When taking a look back at how movies were made during the Classical Hollywood period, it is obvious that things were done a little bit differently than they are now in the cinema.  One particular aspect of the studio system of classical Hollywood that proved especially important in influencing the types of movies made was the “Star System.”  In classical Hollywood production studios would actually contract talent.  In other words the actors that appeared in their films only appeared in films made and produced by that studio.  This idea of contracting talent is one of the things that helped expand the power of the big five studio power oligopoly as well as greatly influenced what type of films a studio would create.  Audiences could connect with the movie stars of the films they watched.  The stars were the only tangible and real product of the cinema, and they were the link that associated a film with a studio and set the studios reputation.

            Audiences slowly developed their favorite stars and fan bases built.  In Classical Hollywood people choose to see a film because of the actors in the film, not because what the movie itself was about.  Even the trailers for movies focused mainly on whom one could expect to see appearing in the film, never releasing much information about the actual plot of the film.  Because film studios contracted their actors they had actors that sang, others that acted tough, some that were mysterious, some could dance, and so on.  The film studios would produce a film based on the talents of the actors they had contacted.  For example, if a studio’s most famous contracted actor was a singer with great comedic timing, the screen writers would be instructed to write more musical comedy films; thereby the studio was producing several musical comedies purely because they have an actor that can draw an audience, so they are going to write more movies that he can flaunt his strengths in.  This idea of the Star System enforced the movie studio oligopoly of MGM, Paramount, 20^th Century Fox, Warner Bros, and RKO, because these studios had more money than the smaller ones to contract up and coming actors (and more than one power actor), thereby automatically gaining larger audience bases.  I already stated that audiences during this age tended to view movies based on what actors appeared rather than the actual quality, so if five studios have all the most popular actors in Hollywood on contract, what studio could challenge them?

            A prime example of the infamous “Star System” at work lies in the work of Classical Hollywood actor, Henry Bogart.  Bogart was very good at portraying the anti (outside the law)- hero.  This talent led the studios to place him in that type of film, so if someone was to go see a Bogart film they could expect to see him portray a character anywhere in the range of a gangster to a police detective.  It is all the same type of role though (mysterious man, outside of the law, always tends to be more good than evil, protagonist).  Because Bogart was such a big name in the film industry, with a huge fan base, the studio under which he was contracted- Warner Bros.- became known for its production of urban crime and war films (such as Casablanca).  Warner Bros. knew that Bogart could draw a crowd, so they produced as many films of Bogart’s strengths and genres that they could.

TV Sitcoms: All in the Family v. Everybody Loves Raymond

           When deciding which family based Television situational comedy to compare to the classic show of the 60s and 70s, All in the Family, my mind kept coming back to the infamous family sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond.  Everybody Loves Raymond began filming in 1998 and focuses on the current time in which it was filmed (late 90s/early 2000s), as All in the Family portrayed your typical middle-class family of the 1970s.  The strongest commonality between the two shows lies in the main characters of Archie Burker (All in the Family) and Raymond (Everybody Loves Raymond).  Both Archie and Raymond portray your typical hegemonic idea of what being a “man” entails.  Both enjoy beer, time with the boys, watching sports, and appearing tough with loud statements of their opinions combined with never-ending jokes at the expense of others.  While both Raymond and Archie are lazy, trouble-makers, always trying to avoid taking responsibility for their actions, the types of things the two characters get away with are different because of a difference in production times.

            In the 70s, the stereotypical family came hand in hand with the idea that the father was the man of the house, making all the rules, while the wife stayed home and followed the husbands orders.  While the family structure might be similar in both shows, the roles vary greatly.  In All in the Family, Archie’s wife, Edith, is portrayed as a “dim-wit” who while at times might disagree with Archie’s rude and judgmental statements does not ever raise her voice or attempt to put an end to it.  On the other hand, while Raymond’s wife, Debra, might still be a stay-at-home-mom, she does not remain subordinate to her husband’s demands.  She actually “wears the pants” in the family.  Raymond’s jokes are censored because he must please the wife or he will be walking on thin ice.  Archie on the other hand could care less about censoring his comments to his wife’s pleasing; she serves him, not the other way around.  This is where the difference in times between the two shows is the most obvious.  Roles have changed in the family.  Maybe not completely; we still see many households where the man “brings home the bacon” while the woman takes care of the house, but the relationship between the husband and wife is much more equal presently than it was in the 70s.

Although both shows are family sitcoms with similar main characters, the issues addressed in the two shows differ from each other greatly.  As observed in the episode of All in the Family screened in class, the issues addressed where very worldly (racism, sexuality, acceptance, etc).  The show’s comedic aspects came from the characters’ varied reactions to these issues (focusing on how a typical family would react with the controversial issues of the world).  These topics, although still controversial in today’s society (remember all the fights concerning “Don’ Ask Don’t Tell), are so extremely open and present in today’s society (gay pride; almost every TV drama today has a gay couple in it), that a show revolving around them would not generate much popularity (or acceptance).  That is why the issues addressed in Everybody Loves Raymond revolve around family issues such as annoying next-door neighbors, avoiding trouble with the wife, jealousy, etc.  The humor from this show derives from these issues, more commonly faced daily in your typical family.

Although the shows address different issue for the most part, Everybody Loves Raymond can at times still address the worldly controversial issues but does so by branching from conflicts originally derived within the family and their community.