The classical Hollywood style, its central format, and narrative
The classical Hollywood style, its central format, and narrative
The classic Hollywood narrative is a term used in film industry, to describe the aspects of ensuring that sound and visual elements fuse together well. It was used in production of movies in the American film industry. They are mostly based on one basic underlying factor called “continuity editing”. It ensures that the sounds and pictures ensure continuity of the story and not stand on their own. (Bordwel D ; Staiger J and Thompson K ,1985).
Discussion
The Style of these movies, according to HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bordwell” o “David Bordwell” Bordwel D, has been greatly affected by the opinions and views that were presented during the renaissance period. They have been focused on the reinvention of the human beings. In the case of these movies, they have progressed by the will-power of the people in an attempt to ensure they attain their intended objectives. The main characteristic features of Hollywood movies are the romantic features that are mixed with other life aspects that may either be business or crime. This is evident in the case of the films by Hitchcock. One aspect of continuity in these movies is time .They only use the aspect of flash back, to manipulate and change the times. This flash back is used to illustrate the order of memory in a character for example in the movie called Casablanca. They also aim to display the two dimensional approach to the film industry. Most of the scenes in these movies are based on how the people express themselves facially and the use of gestures. The aspect of treatment of space is made of four major aspects. These are ensuring the play is centered, balanced, frontally correct and is deep. The main actors are always central to the play and are always being focused. The aspect of balance comes in to ensure that the actors re well distributed throughout the play. They are mainly geared towards the person who is watching .Lastly, the clothes they wear and the type of lighting is used to distinguish between the elements in the foreground from those in the back. Another distinctive style of these movies is that the actors are made to be the cause of the problems. They have distinct behaviors that are displayed throughout the play .For example if an actor is bad; he maintains this throughout the play. This is mainly displayed trough their undying attitude tom achieve their goals (Bordwel D, Staiger J and Thompson K, 1985).
Narrative
Most of the Hollywood movies aim at ensuring that the viewer gets the story. the story may consist of different scenes that are ordered to lead to the overall quality of the whole story. The producers of these movies have perfected the art of using camera and language to ensure the story is as interesting as possible. Another style used in telling this story is the aspect of cutting across. This is where the producer puts together the stores that were in different places but happened the same time in an attempt to increase the tension in the narrative. Another narrative device is the use of point of view. This is where the producers aim to put the viewers in the shoes of the actors .this is mainly used for the main actors (Bordwel D , Staiger J and Thompson K ,1985).
The central format
The main characteristics of these films can be broadly identified within the following characteristics. these include; the general set up, the actors ,the narrative ,the way the play is arranged .Others are the main point the play aims tom bring out, how the audience will respond and how they can fuse the above features to ensure a product that is acceptable to their audience (Bordwel D Staiger J and Thompson K ,1985).
References
Bordwell, David; Staiger, Janet; Thompson, Kristin (1985): The Classical
Hollywood Cinema. Film Style & Mode of Production to 1960. Columbia University Press. 1-59 . New York
