SCRN20011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Panavision, High-Concept, Auteur Theory
8 Jun 2018
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Lecture 5: reinventing the blockbuster
Shift in terms - blockbusters
• THEN: If it smashed in the box office = blockbuster
• NOW: spx, visual display, hollywood stars, action, franchises, sequels
• Competition with other entertainment media in different eras
Hollywood film school directors
• Commercial but also personal films
High concept film
• Parallels rise of the film school generation and the conglomeration of the film industry
• Budgets
• Spx
• Stars
• Publicity campaigns
• Action and/or comedy
• Film pitch, marketing pitch, the style / 'look'
• West coast directors played on the 2 tiered systems
• Amplified strengths of old hollywood
The summer blockbuster
• cinema as event -> saturated release schedule, uses tv to market the movie
• Obviously bigger, better than your normal film
• Pitched at a wide audience - get a PG family friendly movie
• Separated by the sheer size
• Pre sale success -> use things that worked / sold much -> adaptations of popular books etc
• Things you can easily pull out from the movie -> use for marketing
• Emphasis on taglines, soundbites etc
• Merchandising -> diversify profit
• Not closed narratives -> sequelisation
• Emphasis on action and spectacle blockbuster narratives that are dependent on the hollywood
generic storytelling traditions
The high concept look
• Iconic image to market film
• Stresses a style that exists in its own right
• Separate to the narrative
• Extension of a moment of wonder and awe
• The spielberg face - characters response to spectacle -> auteur stamp even within commercial
cinema
The blockbuster score
• Composer as auteur
• Leitmotif
• Marketable
• Emotional
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Shift in terms - blockbusters: then: if it smashed in the box office = blockbuster, now: spx, visual display, hollywood stars, action, franchises, sequels, competition with other entertainment media in different eras. Hollywood film school directors: commercial but also personal films. Stars: parallels rise of the film school generation and the conglomeration of the film industry, budgets, publicity campaigns, action and/or comedy, west coast directors played on the 2 tiered systems, amplified strengths of old hollywood. Film pitch, marketing pitch, the style / "look" Stresses a style that exists in its own right. Separate to the narrative: extension of a moment of wonder and awe, the spielberg face - characters response to spectacle -> auteur stamp even within commercial cinema. Lecture 5: reinventing the blockbuster: connection, orchestral, epic and grand - return to the studio era score style, allusions, scores made up of motifs from earlier films.
