Blog 8 - Harry Potter and the Three Act Hollywood Structure

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, like most mainstream American Films, follows the Three Act Hollywood Structure. In this structure, films are divided into three parts; the introduction, complication, and resolution (beginning, middle, and end). The climax is shifted toward the end, and plot points serve as mini climaxes within each act. The Three Act Hollywood Structure serves well for quest stories, which well describes the Harry Potter series.

The first act begins by introducing Harry Potter as a baby as he is left on his Aunt and Uncles’ doorstep. The audience is introduced to a number of key characters, including Dumbledore, Hagrid and Professor McGonagall. This opening scene foreshadows the complications to come, as hushed whispers are exchanged about the circumstances surrounding Harry’s parents’ deaths and the rumored demise of the Dark Lord. The scene fast-forwards ten years, and the audience is introduced to a humble and amicable Harry Potter. The major plot point during the first act occurs when Hagrid hunts down Harry and the Dursleys in order to inform Harry that he is a wizard, and has been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The second act is composed of the majority of Harry’s first year at Hogwarts. Harry meets Ron and Hermione, who will become his best friends during his time at Hogwarts. The story takes the audience through the trio’s day-to-day lives, highlighting events such as Quidditch matches and the Halloween ‘troll scare’. Soon after Christmas break, they learn of the Sorcerer’s Stone, which has the power to grant the user eternal life and has the ability to turn objects to gold. The second major plot point occurs when Harry comes into close proximity with Voldemort, whom Harry concludes is plotting to steal the stone.

The final act is Harry, Ron and Hermione’s journey into the depths of Hogwarts in order to prevent Voldemort from obtaining the Stone. They must overcome the obstacles that the teachers of Hogwarts have erected in order to protect the stone. Tension continues to mount until it peaks at the final plot point, when Harry comes face to face with Voldemort and discovers that it was Quirrel, not Snape, who was aiding Voldemort. Harry defeats Quirrel and the Dark Lord, and saves the Stone from the hands of evil.

The Episodic Sitcom - Blog 7

Sitcoms can be designated as episodic or serial. In an episodic sitcom each installment is fairly unrelated to its preceding or following episode. In the Simpsons, regardless of the shenanigans that Homer and friends get into, the slate is wiped clean for the next episode. Characters don’t age, nor do they normally grow as individuals. They tend to remain flat in comparison to the more multifaceted characters in serial sitcoms. For example, Homer Simpson does not experience significant character growth from episode to episode. He remains large, yellow and bumbling from show to show. He may achieve some sort of growth within an episode, but it does not carry over. Animated Sitcoms tend to be episodic.

Camera Shots and The Notebook

Shot progression and camera angles are an integral but often overlooked part of filmmaking. As an audience member, one rarely notices these tools unless they are improperly or clumsily used. Generally, a good shot is one where the camera goes unnoticed; its effect is meant to be subconscious.

In “The Noteook”, soon after Allie and Noah have met for the first time, there is a scene where Noah asks Allie if she wants to dance. As he leads her out into the street to dance, without music, the shot focuses on the couple from a low angle at a medium distance in order to convey a sense of empowerment that the two hold by breaking conventions of the need for music and a dance floor. Their closeness in the medium shot conveys their growing bond.

In the scene in “The Notebook” where Noah and Allie are riding in Noah’s canoe just before the storm hits, the cameraman uses a variety of long shots and medium shots. The camera pans the boat repeatedly in a long shot in order to orient the audience with the lake and give the illusion that the canoe has traveled a significant distance. This long shot also connotes loneliness, which both of them feel due to their complicated relationship with each other and others.

In this same scene, medium shots are used to give the audience information about character relationships. In the medium shots, Allie and Noah are not shown together until after Allie’s confrontation (“Why didn’t you write me?”). This physical distance reveals their emotional distance to the audience.

Blog Post 5 - Classical Hollywood

The star system was integral to the Classic Hollywood studio system. It was way in which Hollywood created new stars and used them to endorse their movies. Actors were discovered at a young age and trained by studios become stars.

 Stars defined movies in the way that producers or genres define movies in the modern film era. Audiences went to the movies to see Humphrey Bogart or Judy Garland’s newest films, rather than for a specific genre or producer. Because stars were a means of audience identification, studios tended to place actors and actresses in similar roles from movie to movie.  For example, child star Shirley Temple repeatedly appeared in movies as a lovable, singing, cheery orphan.

RTF Blog 4 - Sitcom Families

ABC’s hit comedy show “Modern Family” and the 70’s well-known “All in the Family” both portray the lives of American families in their respective eras. They are similar in their function of depicting social and cultural issues, while they differ in the stances and portrayal of the issues themselves.

Both TV shows play off of day to day high jinks in order to entertain their audiences. They also deal with social issues such as sexuality, minorities, and religion. Both shows cast narrow-mindedness in an unflattering light.

A significant difference between these two shows is the makeup of the families themselves. Archie Bunker’s family in “All in the Family” consists of a father, mother, their adult daughter and her husband. “Modern Family”, however, is made up of three separate family units that are all related. There is the “classic” family – Two white parents and their three children, a gay couple raising their adopted Asian daughter, and an older man married to a younger Hispanic woman with a young son. This difference shows that the idea of a traditional family unit is not necessarily the norm anymore. The issues of homosexuality that pushed the envelope during the 70’s certainly still exist. However, nowadays issues of intercultural relationships, divorce, gender roles and age differences are taking rise.