3 Act Structure

How to lose a guy in 10 days is a good example of the 3 act structure because it has 3 acts and the climax of the movie is toward the end of act 3.

Act one is about 30 minutes long. In the introductory act this is where we get background on the characters and find out the main plot of the movie. Andie is a journalist who writes the “how to” column for a magazine company. She takes the story of How to lose a guy in 10 days in order to show her boss that she can go on to write stories that she actually likes. Ben works for an advertising company and competing against two women at his company for a campaign. He takes a bet with them that he can make any girl fall in love with him in 10 days. The women get to pick a girl for him and they pick Andie because she is in the bar that they are in. As Ben goes over to Andie and asks her out this is pretty much where act 1 ends. After the characters are introduced it switches into act two where the story unfolds.

Act 2 is about 60 minutes in length. In Act 2 the whole storyline is how Ben and Andie start going out together and how she is trying to do everything she can that annoys the average guy. She does all the things that the average girl does that messes up relationships or gets a guy annoyed with them so they don’t call her back for the next date. Ben just has to let all of these little things go because while Andie is trying to do everything wrong to get rid of him but he has to stay in the relationship to win his bet. He puts up with all of Andie’s problems and Andie doesn’t understand why he is sticking around. Towards the end of act 2 Andie and Ben go to visit Ben’s family and this is where Andie really starts to feel bad about using him when he’s actually a great guy. She changes her mind and goes to tell her boss that she doesn’t want to do the story anymore, but her boss tells her that she doesn’t have a choice if she wants to keep her job. This is mainly the end of Act 2.

Act 3 is about 30 minutes and this is where the story really starts to turn and the climax happens. Act 3 is at the dinner party that Ben is supposed to bring Andie and show the women that she actually is in love with him. When Andie is alone Ben’s boss goes up to her and he discovers that Andie actually is in love with Ben. Ben’s friends at work think that Andie might not be in love with him so they go up to her and tell her to play along that she is when Ben’s boss asks her. This is the climax of the story when Andie learns that Ben only used her to win a bet at work. At the same time Ben is speaking to Andie’s boss and he also learns that Andie only used him to write a story for her magazine. This is the point of the movie where you can’t go back after you learn what you did. Andie leaves the dinner party and packs her things to go for a job in another city. The next day she gets in a cab to leave the city. Ben realizes that he is in love with her and doesn’t want to lose her. He gets on his motorcycle and chases down her cab and makes him pull over on the highway. Andie and Ben realize that they are both in love with each other and the movie ends with her saying she will stay with him. This is the resolution of the movie the typical happy ending.

I think this is an example of how the movie How to lose a guy in 10 days is a three act structure because it has 3 acts and the climax and resolution are in the last 30 minutes of the movie.

http://www.productreview.com.au/p/how-to-lose-a-guy-in-10-days.html

Sitcoms

Many sitcoms tend to be episodic which means that they tend to have things happen only once during that episode and usually they are not brought up again in other episodes. Sitcoms also tend to be based on TV’s. The set is usually set up stage like and the living is usually focused around the TV. Most of the time you don’t see the TV in the set but it’s always implied that it is there by the way the furniture is set-up.

In the Cosby Show one episode Vanessa has a Halloween party and while daydreaming about one of her crushes she drops a tray of food and gets really embarrassed this shows how the Cosby show is an episodic show because this only happens in one episode and is never brought up in future episodes. The Cosby show also shows the TV set up very well. In their living room you usually don’t see the TV, but they usually gather in there and sit on the couch while they are looking at the TV. Their living room is set up so it implies that the TV is there and sometimes when they are in the living room you can hear the TV on but you can’t see it. These are some of the ways that the Cosby Show shows some of the characteristics of a sitcom that Mr. Tain talked about in Wednesdays lecture.

http://www.mycollects.com/products/The-Cosby-Show-Seasons-1-8-DVD-Box-Set-DVDS-2053.html

A Cinderella Story- Film shots

In the move A Cinderella Story the main shots they use are the long shot, the medium shot, and the close up shot. These shots are all shot at different camera angles and they really show the emotions and how the director wants you to view the film

This shot is the long shot which they also call the Orientation Shot. I think in this shot they are showing isolation. They are showing how Sam and Austin are isolated from everyone else at the dance. They are doing this to show that no one else at the dance seems to matter but the two of them. This shot is important because it shows that they don’t care what others think.

This is the medium shot also known as the information shot. In this shot they are really showing the two characters and how they are interacting with each other. You can begin to see the chemistry between the two of them and it really informs you that there is a connection between the two that could lead to something in the show. It really starts to introduce the character as this is the first time Austin has really noticed Sam.

This shot is the close up shot which is also known as the important detail shot. This is really where you dig into the emotions of the character. You can see the look in Sam’s eyes as Austin is going to take her mask off. You can tell that she is scared because she doesn’t want Austin to know he has been dancing with her. She thinks that he won’t like her because she is not popular and he is the star of the football team. The close up shots really allows the viewer to see how much the mask makes a difference to Sam, with the mask on she feels like a different person and now she is scared to reveal her true self and you can see it in her eyes.

http://www.teenidols4you.com/picture.html?g=Actors&pe=hillary_duff&foto=554&act=239&mv=719&pic=164431 

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1224513792/tt0356470

http://www.teenidols4you.com/picture.html?g=Actors&pe=hillary_duff&foto=554&act=239&mv=719&pic=237912

Star System

I believe the star system was an important part of the Hollywood’s studios because it helped establish the studio by which stars they had.

The star system was a way that the studios took stars and created a certain “image” for them. They became associated with genres and their own talents that they had. This helped out the studios in a huge way because they would take these young actors and create an image for them.  The stars would help out in not only the production part of the movies but in the distribution part also. If the star had a well known reputation people would more likely go see that movie because of the stars popularity. This really helped created the studio system for films. Stars images became the main focus of their careers and they never shifted away from them. Their image would appear in any movies that they were in. Another thing about the star system was that studios had the actors under contract, but they could rent them to other studios if the other studio wanted to make a film in the genre their star was ideal for.

I think the image I know best is of Judy Garland. She was a discovered as a young girl with a big voice. MGM took this into account and she became the image of musicals with the big hit musical The Wizard of Oz. Most people know Judy Garland from The Wizard of Oz, but she has done several other movies also. All of her movies include her having a singing bit in them somewhere because that is the image she is known for. I think this is an example of how the star system is an important part of the Hollywood studio system.  It creates stars based off an image and this is how the studios base their films.

http://www.fanpop.com/spots/judy-garland/images/890055/title/judy-dorothy-photo

"All in the Family" Blog

I think that the show “All in the Family” and the show “Glee” have similarities in the sense of how some of the characters view gay people. They are different in how some of the issues are shown and the environment of the shows.

In the show “All in the Family” the father of the family Archie has a problem with gay people. He thinks that one of his son’s friends is gay and he is just very rude to the boy. He judges the boy without even getting to know him. He makes rude remarks to the boy and this reminded me of the show “Glee”. In an episode of “Glee” a boy named Finn is moving into his mom’s boyfriend’s house and has to share a room with his son Kurt who is gay. Finn is very rude to Kurt at first and calls him all kinds of names. Finn reminded me off Archie in the sense that he didn’t get to know the boy he just judged him.

The shows are different in the sense that “All in the Family” deals more with family and home life while “Glee” deals more with high school life. The settings in the shows are completely different. “All in the Family” is shot mainly in the home of the Bunker family, while “Glee” is shot mainly in the high school of the kids in the show. In “Glee” they are mainly dealing with the everyday struggles in high school with trying to fit in. “All in the Family” doesn’t really deal with the whole trying to fit in like they do in “Glee”.

I believe that these shows are similar and different in these ways. “All in the Family” deals more with older issues from back in the 1970’s and “Glee” deals with present day issues that we can relate too.

http://nocureforthat.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/all-in-the-family-%E2%99%A6-this-day-in-the-usa-%E2%99%A6-january-12/

http://www.elisemoreau.com/favourite-youtube-videos/glee-piano-sheet-music-new/