Three Act Structure--Titanic

Titanic, film that we all familiar with, fits well in the 3 act structure that professor Ramirez-Berg thought in class on last Monday. The act I is the introduction which lasts about 30 minutes. The film starts with a treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team searching for a necklace “Heart of Ocean” which belonged to Rose DeWitt Bukator. When she was asked about the necklace, Rose recalls her memories aboard the Titanic in 1912. Then film begins with the backgrounds and settings of the story. Rose boards the departing ship with the upper-class passengers and her mother and her fiancé, Caledon Cal Hockley. Meanwhile, a drifter and artist named Jack Dawson and his best friend win third-class tickets to the ship in a game. The plot point in Act I is when Jack rescues Rose who was truing to suicide. Cal is therefore obliged to invite Jack to dine at their first-class table where he suffers through the slights of his snobbish hosts. Then, he spirits Rose off to third class for an evening of dancing, giving her the time of her life. It’s also the time they start know about each other and develop a good friendship. Act II is the complication stage which lasts about 60 minutes. Rose and Jack fall in love with each other; however, Cal and Ruth forbid her to see Jack. She defies them and meets Jack at the bow of the ship. They go to Rose's stateroom and Rose asks Jack to sketch her wearing nothing but the Heart of the Ocean, an engagement present from Cal. Rose and Jack’s romantic yet tough love journey is going in the Act II. The plot point in Act II is when Cal finds Jack’s drawing, frames him stealing “heart of ocean” and handcuffs him to a pipe. With all of these going on, Titanic hits the iceberg tragically. Act III is the resolution stage where the climax appears. Act III basically depicts the tragic sinking of the Titanic. The climax is when Rose decides she can not leave Jack and break Jack free with an axe. Then they runs and tires hard for saving their lives and their love.

Sitcom---Modern Family

Sitcom was first presents on TV in the late 1940s. Most of the sitcoms were thirty minutes in length and aired weekly. Episodic is one of the characteristics of TV sitcom.  “I love Lucy” was an example of early sitcom that we watched and discussed in class few weeks ago. The episodic show ends where it begins; it teaches a lesson to audience, and humorous. Modern Family is one of the sitcoms that I enjoy watching. It’s basically a story of three inter-related family and the trials that each of them face. There’s the rebellious teen seduced by popularity, the beautiful Colombian second wife, and dad who trying to be cool. Modern Family is a 30 minutes episodic sitcom that integrated current events into their storylines, such as new Apple product Ipad or upcoming Halloween. Audiences don’t necessary have to watch the entire season to understand what’s going on.

LS,MS,CU.

There are long shots, medium shots and close-up in the films. Each kind of shots denotes a specific meaning to describe the right mood, emotions of characters. I choose the film “The Notebook” to illustrate this concept.

Long shot: It was the night of the carnival, and that’s when Noah met Allie. It’s an orientation shot and gives a setting to the story. Allie just refused to dance with Noah, and Noah was standing there alone at the amusement park.

Medium shot: This is an information shot. Allie was there with her friends in the carnival, and Noah was trying to introduce himself to Allie. Noah fell in love with her at first sight and he wanted know more about her.

Close up: This shot reflects Noah’s internal feelings and emotions perfectly. This is where audience sense the affection Noah had on Allie from the light in his eyes. He was being drawn to Allie.

Star System

      The distinct historical and successful period of Classical Hollywood was 1920s through 1940. Studio system was the one of the key factors to Hollywood’s succeeding. In my opinion, the star system is the one particularly important because stars are the tangible products of immaterial production (film). Many studios discovered young actors and signed contract with them. Studios tried to created personas for each of the actors so that they could be the representation of what genre of the films was and what studio did.

      Star system definitely affected the kinds of films the studio made. As I mentioned earlier, an individual star had his or her own characteristic that developed by the studio. Each studio had their own star system and made films based on their stars’ unique personas. In other words, star system in some way determines a film’s genre. One of the examples is Judy Garland, who signed to MGM as a teenager. In many films she played, such as The Wizard of Oz, Garland had a consistent set of character traits which is associated with specific genres.

"All in the Family" VS. "Everybody Loves Raymond"

“All in the Family” is a comedy from 1970s, while “Everybody Loves Raymond” is from mid-1990s. Both of their main story lines were based on an ordinary family life in their period of time, however, the role within the family has changed over time.

From the episodes in “All in the family” that I watched from last screening, I noticed that the father is the most dominant role in the family. He is obstinate, stubborn and dismissive of anyone who has a different view of things from him. His arrogance seemed had created lots of conflicts and disputes between his son-in-law and himself. In contrast, the mother is the innocent, understanding and simple-minded role who always complies with his husband. While the stereotype husband-wife relationship does not present at “Everybody Loves Raymond”. The issue did “All in the Family” deal with that “Everybody Loves Raymond” doesn’t is living with parents. Because our changing cultural values and perspectives over time, the issues that deal within a family changed also. And it is still changing. Both of them had depicted the family life vividly in a certain period time and brought lots of fun to the audience.