Blog #8

The famous Broadway musical Mama Mia is a classic that was reproduced as a movie in 2008 and is a good example of a three-act film structure.  The film starts with Sophie, the main character who is preparing to get married. Sophie has never met her father and has no one to walk her down the aisle and for this reason looks through her mother Donna’s journal. She discovers that she has three potential fathers, and thus invites them all to the wedding behind her mothers back in order to find out who her true father is.  When they arrive, Donna abruptly runs into all three of them and immediately tells them all to leave. This ends the first act and is the first plot point or “mini climax” that implies a conflict needing resolution that will arrive in the second act. 

Donna is consoled by her two best friends, and Sophie convinces all three men to stay. Sky, Sophie’s fiancé talks with Sophie about how he is so deeply in love with her, but is then taken by his friends for his bachelor party and Sophie’s bachelorette party begins.  The three men attend the party and while there, Sophie convinces one of the men that he is her father and he thus agrees to walk her down the aisle. Later, the two other men realize that they could potentially be her fathers as well, further complicating the situation. With all of the hype, commotion, and confusion, Sophie who is circled by her mother and all three of her potential fathers faints. This concludes the second act. Sophie’s faint is the second plot point and mini climax. The resolution to Sophie’s dilemma provides a cliffhanger for the third act. 

All three men decide to share Sophie as a daughter and Sophie decides to have Donna walk her down the aisle to less complicate things. With this resolution comes the greatest dilemma. Sky learns that Sophie is responsible for inviting all three men to the wedding and becomes unsure about the wedding. This is the climax of the film in the third act. The entire movie has been centered on the wedding and the wedding is now postponed. Bill, one of Sophie’s potential fathers, proclaims his love for Donna and they decide to get married on the spot. The wedding plans for Sophie and Sky’s wedding are changed into the plans for Donna and Bill’s wedding, which is the resolution. Sky and Sophie decide to travel the world together and sail off into the sunset, beginning their life together.

Mama Mia follows the traditional three-act structure with the climax near the end of the film. The first act introduces the characters and the dilemma, the second act presents the complication, and the third act resolves the problem.

TV Sitcoms

It’s always a relief to know that if you flip through the channels on your T.V. and can’t find anything to watch, you can almost always fall back on a T.V. sitcom. Sitcoms, or situation comedies, do not require you to know the history of the characters to be able to understand the episodes plot. Most sitcoms are based around a three-act plot (centered around two commercial breaks), and have rather hyperbolic and absurd conflicts that are resolved within the episode.  These characteristics provide short parable-like stories that are perfect for viewers looking for short increments of entertainment.

            As a young girl I used to be enamored with the Disney hit series Lizzie McGuire.  Lizzie McGuire was a sitcom based on a young girl, Lizzie McGuire, and her struggles she dealt with in her middle school life with her parents, brother, best friends, and school cliques in general.  The conflicts of each episode varied anywhere from Lizzie buying her first bra, to going on a date with the school nerd, and even to dealing with a best friends eating disorder. All of these episodes begin with a problem (act one), a plan is conceived to fix the problem (act two), and finally the fulfillment of the plan (act three).  In the end of every episode, a lesson is taught and everything retreats to a problem free life for Lizzie McGuire.  Lizzie McGuire was a popular TV sitcom that resonated with many elementary and junior school children.

Shots and Angles

The scene that I have chosen to describe the long shot, medium shot, and close up shot is Leonardo DeCaprio’s famous “I’m the king of the world” scene from the movie Titanic.

The scene begins with a long shot that begins with a low angle of the front of the ship, which emphasizes the magnitude and enormity of the titanic. Raising the angle and zooming out, Leonardo and his friend are shot at from a high angle, emphasizing their miniscule size compared to the ship. Leonardo’s character is also a lower class, poor man, and the high angle denotes his power.

            The scene continues with a long shot that establishes the location and gives an orientation to the location, and presents the characters in the scene.  The camera then zooms in on Leonardo’s face for a close up. This shot of him on the bow of the Titanic portrays his strong emotion of happiness and confidence. The low angle shows his emotion of victory and power and is only enforced with his exclamation of “I’m the king of the world!”

            Many different types of angles and shots are used in this scene. The variation give certain effects that assign power and give information to the actions that are taking place by the actors in the scene.

"I'm the king of the world" scene 

Stars and their Genres

In the times of Classical Hollywood, there was a strong association between stars and genres.  Studios at the time produced films at a fast rate, which gave actors the possibility of a quick rise to stardom.   The defining of genres through actors in studio systems paved the way to the establishment of several popular genres that exist to this day.

            The five major Classical Hollywood studios had several actors on contract that continuously appeared in several films. Because of their strong association with certain genres, studios were identifiable through the genre of the film. Warner Brothers produced crime films, MGM produced musicals, and Universal produced horror films. The actors that studios had on contract influenced the genre of the films produced by that studio. 

            An excellent example of this is Humphrey Bogart and his gangster roles with Warner Brothers.  Bogart, who was featured in over 70 films in his lifetime, was ranked by the AFI as the greatest male star in the history of cinema. Bogart, often dressed in a raincoat and fedora, played the role of a gangster in most of the films in which he appeared, giving Warner Brothers the defining characteristic as the crime genre.  Although gangster films were banned for a time, Warner Brothers merged Bogart’s role from a gangster to a detective, thus tweaking the standard genre of crime with gangsters as the tragic hero to detectives as the real hero.