The Classical Hollywood Narrative Style
The Classical Hollywood Narrative Style
Conventions for contriving believable images and sounds in film narratives.
Conventions has a shared meaning:
Development: Conventional style in the U.S. for film and TV. There is a dominance of U.S. culture which expands and globalizes. It is mostly single camera.
Classical: Also known as conventional style, it is the accepted model.
Conventions are things we don't usually have to think about. For example the conventions of editing are determined by continuity editing, we do no think about the cut because the cut tends to be invisible.
Style for contriving believable images and sounds.
We believe in the possibility of what we see in film narratives associated with american films but the conventions for narrative cinema are worldwide. Hollywood is just the word that represents the american style. There are competitive advantages in the industry.
"Willing suspension of disbelief"
This is the phrase used to describe the relationship between film and spectator. This is also the main goal for films in hollywood. What it basically means is that when you are watching the movie your role as a spectator is to willingly suspend your disbelief. In other words to view the film as something real and forget that it is not.
What kind of relationship does the spectator have with the film?
Hollywood style films are not experienced as either reality or as false, even if they are fantastic or fantasy.
Visual Conventions:
Naturalistic - We suspend our disbelief, we usually don't think anything. Hollywood films follow the conventions of naturalism.
NATURALISM:
You are not supposed to think, just live as if you were in the movie.
Three Illusions:
The willing suspension of disbelief is built on three illusions:
1. Movement: Illusion of movement.
Film is a series of still pictures. We perceive movement when they are projected rapidly. this is all because of how we see. When light comes into the eyeball the image is captured by a light sensitive surface at the back of the eyeball. It is then transmitted to the brain. The eye gathers patterns of reflected light which the brain translates into images we see. Cameras gather these lights too usually at 24 frames per second on the film. When the film is projected the lights lead to a stimulation on the back of the eyeball.
The persistence of vision is a psychological process. The image persist long enough for the next frame to connect the images. the optic nerve gets stimulated while the frames change giving us the illusion of movement.
We see continuous movement, however the projector is giving us intermittent black between the frames. The sequence is image - black - image - black, etc.
Intermittent motion:
Projector motion. The image through the projector is not continuous. The shutter in the projector closes and opens 24 times in a second. film is rolled through certain loops and then in front of the projector light. Lathan loops keep the film from breaking.
Film speeds are measured in frames per second (FPS). The U.S. standards are:
16 fps for silent films (hand cranking)
24 fps for sound films (standard)
30 fps for TV
2. Depth
The illusion of three dimension on a flat surface develops during the renaissance also called western perspective. These are conventions of naturalistic painting. It uses the vanishing point where for example parallel lines converge in the "distance". The emotional response to the vanishing point is of depth even if there isn't any depth.
Lenses on cameras are engineered to recreate vanishing points. A normal lense will recreate it as we see, while a wide angle lens will enlarge the distance which can be used for ironic or comic effect. The telephoto lens will shorten the distance.
The spectators positioning will always be opposite the vanishing point. The introduction of a vanishing point makes the spectator take a position where the illusion is more emphasized.
The point of view (P.O.V.) can be objective or subjective.
In film your positioning and your perspective shifts from place to place. The position also creates a pleasurable experience.
Depth in film: other conventions:
3. Continuity:
Continuity editing creates the illusion of continuous space and time between shots. It is invisible editing because we don't think how images are put together.
Thinking of film as:
..thus encouraging suspension of disbelief by disguising the process of image construction and the illusion of continuity. When there are breaks in continuity there is a break in the suspension of disbelief.
The goal is to make the contrived appear non-contrived.
Conventions for contriving believable images and sounds in film narratives.
Conventions has a shared meaning:
Development: Conventional style in the U.S. for film and TV. There is a dominance of U.S. culture which expands and globalizes. It is mostly single camera.
Classical: Also known as conventional style, it is the accepted model.
Conventions are things we don't usually have to think about. For example the conventions of editing are determined by continuity editing, we do no think about the cut because the cut tends to be invisible.
Style for contriving believable images and sounds.
We believe in the possibility of what we see in film narratives associated with american films but the conventions for narrative cinema are worldwide. Hollywood is just the word that represents the american style. There are competitive advantages in the industry.
"Willing suspension of disbelief"
This is the phrase used to describe the relationship between film and spectator. This is also the main goal for films in hollywood. What it basically means is that when you are watching the movie your role as a spectator is to willingly suspend your disbelief. In other words to view the film as something real and forget that it is not.
What kind of relationship does the spectator have with the film?
- Emotionally engaged (vs. intellectually)
- Un-critical
- Pleasurable, visceral (laughing, being scared, you feel it in your body)
Hollywood style films are not experienced as either reality or as false, even if they are fantastic or fantasy.
Visual Conventions:
Naturalistic - We suspend our disbelief, we usually don't think anything. Hollywood films follow the conventions of naturalism.
NATURALISM:
You are not supposed to think, just live as if you were in the movie.
Three Illusions:
The willing suspension of disbelief is built on three illusions:
- Movement: Illusions of movement.
- Depth: The film is screen on a flat surface and yet we get the 3D illusion.
- Continuity
1. Movement: Illusion of movement.
Film is a series of still pictures. We perceive movement when they are projected rapidly. this is all because of how we see. When light comes into the eyeball the image is captured by a light sensitive surface at the back of the eyeball. It is then transmitted to the brain. The eye gathers patterns of reflected light which the brain translates into images we see. Cameras gather these lights too usually at 24 frames per second on the film. When the film is projected the lights lead to a stimulation on the back of the eyeball.
The persistence of vision is a psychological process. The image persist long enough for the next frame to connect the images. the optic nerve gets stimulated while the frames change giving us the illusion of movement.
We see continuous movement, however the projector is giving us intermittent black between the frames. The sequence is image - black - image - black, etc.
Intermittent motion:
Projector motion. The image through the projector is not continuous. The shutter in the projector closes and opens 24 times in a second. film is rolled through certain loops and then in front of the projector light. Lathan loops keep the film from breaking.
Film speeds are measured in frames per second (FPS). The U.S. standards are:
16 fps for silent films (hand cranking)
24 fps for sound films (standard)
30 fps for TV
2. Depth
The illusion of three dimension on a flat surface develops during the renaissance also called western perspective. These are conventions of naturalistic painting. It uses the vanishing point where for example parallel lines converge in the "distance". The emotional response to the vanishing point is of depth even if there isn't any depth.
Lenses on cameras are engineered to recreate vanishing points. A normal lense will recreate it as we see, while a wide angle lens will enlarge the distance which can be used for ironic or comic effect. The telephoto lens will shorten the distance.
The spectators positioning will always be opposite the vanishing point. The introduction of a vanishing point makes the spectator take a position where the illusion is more emphasized.
The point of view (P.O.V.) can be objective or subjective.
In film your positioning and your perspective shifts from place to place. The position also creates a pleasurable experience.
Depth in film: other conventions:
- Multiple planes of action
- Movement from foreground to background.
3. Continuity:
Continuity editing creates the illusion of continuous space and time between shots. It is invisible editing because we don't think how images are put together.
Thinking of film as:
- Units of structured meaning (shots)
- Ways of structuring images of space unfolding over time.
..thus encouraging suspension of disbelief by disguising the process of image construction and the illusion of continuity. When there are breaks in continuity there is a break in the suspension of disbelief.
The goal is to make the contrived appear non-contrived.
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