Film Studies The Studio System

Faculty of English Llanishen High School Film Studies The Studio System Key point about the studio system could be: Despite being one of the biggest industries in the United States, indeed the World, the internal workings of the 'dream factory' that is Hollywood is little understood outside the business. The Hollywood Studio System: A History is the first book to describe and analyse the complete development, classic operation, and reinvention of the global corporate entities which produce and distribute most of the films we watch. Starting in 1920, Adolph Zukor, head of Paramount Pictures, over the decade of the 1920s helped to fashion Hollywood into a vertically integrated system, a set of economic innovations which was firmly in place by 1930. For the next three decades, the movie industry in the United States and the rest of the world operated by according to these principles. Cultural, social and economic changes ensured the demise of this system after the Second World War. A new way to run Hollywood was required. Beginning in 1962, Lew Wasserman of Universal Studios emerged as the key innovator in creating a second studio system. He realized that creating a global media conglomerate was more important than simply being vertically integrated. Gomery's history tells the story of a 'tale of two systems 'using primary materials from a score of archives across

  • Word count: 16882
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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The stimulus we were given to look at was the play 'Too Much Punch for Judy', written in 1987 by British playwright, Mark Wheeller. Mark Wheeller

Too Much Punch for Judy : Portfolio 2 Response The stimulus we were given to look at was the play 'Too Much Punch for Judy', written in 1987 by British playwright, Mark Wheeller. Mark Wheeller was born in 1958 and grew up in Bristol. He began writing plays during his schooldays and now 'Too Much Punch for Judy' is one of the most performed plays ever, having toured schools, colleges, prisons, army camps and the workplace, both here and abroad. The play tells the story of the drink driving incident which happened on 20th May 1983. Its main characters are two young sisters, Jo and Judy, who like to go out for a drink and have fun. It shows how one drunken night went too far. Jo and Judy had been to an aerobics session followed by a trip to the local wine bar. Judy hadn't been drinking as much as Jo, but had still had over three quarters of a bottle of wine. They began to argue about who should drive home, Jo had previously been convicted for drink driving so, even though it was Jo's car, Judy took to the wheel. Judy wasn't used to driving Jo's car and so when they approached a bend at Scratch Bridge, she didn't turn the wheel enough and the car came off the road, hitting the bridge. The scaffolding construction sliced through the car, Judy escaped unhurt, but Jo was killed outright. The first on the scene was a man called Duncan, who lived close to where the crash happened.

  • Word count: 12476
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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The route to achieving good production sound - pre-production process.

Pre-Production The route to achieving good production sound Good production sound does not happen by accident nor on its own. It requires concerted efforts from all the production executives (producer, director, production manager) as well as from members of the crew. Achieving good Production Sound, as does every aspect of filmmaking, hinges upon decisions made early on during the pre- production process. Location Scouting One of the most critical areas for Sound is the selection of the shooting location. All too often, sites are selected without even remote regard for noise or acoustic conditions. Unlike the camera lens, which can frame out those items which the director does not wish the audience to see, the microphone cannot be particularly selective in what it hears. Unwanted background noise is omnipresent, and will permeate a set irregardless of camera framing or the addition of a few flats & props. For example, imagine the production of an 1860's period western. The camera operator can remove a tall radio tower gridwork from the visual background by either framing it out or blocking it from view with a strategically placed foreground cactus tree. The sound mixer, on the other hand, has no simple method of "framing out" distracting sound such as a busy freeway directly behind the setup. In this situation-a western being shot in an urban location-the odds are

  • Word count: 11310
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Choose a modern day situation (e.g. at school, a party, a mealtime etc.) and create a short improvisation showing this. THEN choose a period of time between 1850 and 1960 and re-enact the same scene, as you think it may have happened at the time.

Historical Improvisation Notebook By Kate Graham 7th March In this lesson, we were some preparation work to prepare us for our historical improvisation piece. We had the choice of two tasks, . Choose a famous event from history and create an improvised piece which details this event, or 2. Choose a modern day situation (e.g. at school, a party, a mealtime etc.) and create a short improvisation showing this. THEN choose a period of time between 1850 and 1960 and re-enact the same scene, as you think it may have happened at the time. Our group decided to choose the second task, and we all decided that doing a piece set in 1960 would be very interesting. When we had chosen the time our piece was to be set in, the majority of our group wanted to set our piece in a party, but Kayleigh wanted to perform a piece set in a school, and the rest of the group all agreed that this was an excellent idea, and could turn out some interesting differences between the 60's and today's school environment. Donna didn't really want to base our performance in the sixties but eventually the group managed to talk her round to our way of thinking, and Donna was quite happy to perform with us. I decided to go home, and research everything I could about the sixties, so that next drama lesson, we would have plenty of information with which to make our piece historically accurate. I have

  • Word count: 10929
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Nights at the Circus

Nights at the Circus Nights at the Circus (1984), Angela Carter's penultimate novel, epitomizes her wildly inventive, highly idiosyncratic mode of fiction, centered as it is on Fevvers, a Cockney artiste who claims to have grown wings. Most critics and reviewers have seen the main thrust of the novel to reside in the portrayal of Fevvers as a prototype of the New Woman whose wings help her to escape from the nets of a patriarchal nineteenth century culture into a twentieth century feminist haven of freedom. The novel ends with Fevvers astride her American lover, Walser (she now playing the missionary role), enjoying apparently two triumphs - sexual and psychological - in one: "'To think I really fooled you!' she marveled. 'It just goes to show there's nothing like confidence'" (295). Yet when Carter was asked by John Haffenden what Fevvers means by this, she replied, "It's actually a statement about the nature of fiction, about the nature of her narrative" (90). The more you look closely at this novel, the more you realize just how literal Carter was being in that reply. More than any other of her works of fiction, Nights at the Circus takes as its subject the hypnotic power of narrative, the ways in which we construct ourselves and our world by narrative means, the materiality of fiction and the fictionality of the material world, and the contract between writer

  • Word count: 9318
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Temptation piece. We were asked to think about temptation, and discuss what we were thinking. This was a very suitable way to start the topic off, because it helped us to see all the different kinds of ways you can be tempted.

Temptation By Kate Graham 31st October We walked into our drama classroom and our teacher told us to sit down facing her. She then told us that we were going to have an exam, and that she would show us all the answers as long as we agreed not to tell anybody, as this would put her job in jeopardy. She then asked who would like to see the exam and everybody, including me, put their hand in the air. She then opened the folder to show blank pieces of paper, it had all been a joke! This fake exam, was used to show us how easily you can be tempted. It was an excellent way to start our discussion about temptation. We were asked to think about temptation, and discuss what we were thinking. This was a very suitable way to start the topic off, because it helped us to see all the different kinds of ways you can be tempted. Discussing this in a group situation was good too as we were able to swap and review ideas with other members of our class. We prepared for our topic by using a dilemma journey. This involves everybody closing their eyes and being told a story. Then you imagine you are in the story, and when you are tapped on the shoulder, you tell the rest of the class what you would do in such a situation. Our first story was about a car, left open with the keys in the ignition and we had to say whether we would be tempted enough to take it or not. This was a

  • Word count: 8774
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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job opportunities in performing arts

What is the work like? An arts administrator is in charge of administration for the creative industries: this may include the visual and performing arts. The job involves promoting, supporting and any managing jobs. An arts administrator's job can vary, it all depends on who they work for, for example, if they worked in a small theatre they can get involved in a big range of tasks, but if they worked within a big theatre, they will tend to have a specified area that they would work within. Responsibilities may include: * Planning a programme, securing dates and venues * Booking artists and performers * Organising accommodation and transport * Dealing with internal and external correspondence * Event management * General management * Overseeing the maintenance * Looking after visitors, this includes directors, producers and artists * Coordinating front of house * PR activities * Identifying fund raising opportunities * Advising on contracts and terms of employment * Managing a budget * Filling out grant applications * Briefing on health and safety requirements * Dealing with performing rights and other legal requirements. Hours and environment Hours can vary depending on what job you are doing, for example administrators that are working on exhibitions or performances may need to work evenings and weekends, but other may work more regular hours, part time

  • Word count: 8748
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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DIGITAL SPECIAL EFFECTS

STRUCTURED RECORD DRAMA Question 1 In what way was the stimulus material developed through the drama process? In the beginning we wanted our audience to feel relaxed and felt that music will be the best way to achieve this effectively. We used to pieces of music produced in the olden days, one was called 'Fings aint what they use to be' by Max Bygrave and 'I don't want to set the world on fire' by Inkspots. We felt that this music will help us set the type of mood we want our audience to feel. Our teacher brought in our first stimulus which was the film called 'The cream cracker under the settee' starring Doris who talked about her past life and present life and pointed out issues which effected her life as an elderly person. We wanted to portray some of these issues into our play and therefore looked deeply into these issues of old age, analyzed and discussed the different ways elderly people may feel at this present moment or may have in the past. These in addition help us deepen the drama because we came across some of the emotional feelings elderly people feel or may have felt. This is where we decided it would be best to focus our play on one character and portray her emotional feelings. We wanted to show the different stages of our characters life until she was classified as an old woman. We wrote down all the issues mentioned and talked about in the film called

  • Word count: 8611
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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The Devising Process

Structured Record - Section 1: 'How did your role emerge and how was it communicated?' Upon casting for our piece, I made the decision that I should play a character set in the Tudor period as apposed to a modern day character. This decision was made as I felt it would be a challenge. I also made the conscious decision that I would focus on the research behind a character, aiming to create sensitivity and realism to the role. I was cast as 'Isobelle' - a 14 year old Elizabethan child, living with her widowed Father who abused her and in receipt of this, sleeps and begs on the streets. The group felt that 'Isobelle' should be played with innocence, desperateness, sentiment and grit, and therefore I, as the youngest looking actor, with ability to present sorrow and fear, would play 'Isobelle'. As a play with many characters, it was necessary for the group to multi-role. Although this resulted in an inability to dedicate solely to one character, multi-role allowed us to take on and develop several different characters. Other characters I was cast as were 'script reader' in the Elizabethan Theatre, a maid to 'Queen Elizabeth' and a young child in the modern classroom. The role as 'script reader' emerged as the group felt another character should accompany 'Burbage's' rehearsal as he disrupts 'Shakespeare'. The character; in her 30's, a budding writer, stubborn and

  • Word count: 8237
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Performing arts skills

Performing arts unit one first assessment June 2010 Developing skills for Performance User 0/13/2009 Developing skills for drama The definition of actor or actress is; a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity. Their main job is to interpret a dramatic character. Actors, like singers, musicians and dancers are performing artists and specialists in the field of entertainment. Actors may act on stage or become involved in film, television or radio productions. Since singing, dancing and the playing of instruments form part of many productions, it is to their advantage to have some knowledge of, or talent for the other performing arts. During their careers, many performers choose to specialise in a specific field of acting. Some actors find live theatre demanding and rewarding, while others prefer acting in front of a camera. Depending on the media used, different skills are required of actors. Actors involved in live theatre make greater use of exaggerated movements and voice-projection than persons acting in front of a camera do. Film actors employ more subtle body movements and facial expressions as their audiences often view them from the close-up angle of the camera. Someone involved in radio production primarily makes use of voice modulation and intonation in order to create the desired

  • Word count: 7026
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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