HUM3321 EXAM 1 STUDY GUIDEInstitution: Organization or establishment devoted to a causeExamples of common institutions:- Religious- Banks- Universities- Marriage and Families- CultureWhat is the purpose of institution? To govern social order/behavior by conveying ideologyIdeology: Body of doctrine guiding a social movement or institutionHegemony: Leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others (Gramsci)- Appears natural/social consent- “Hegemony connects ideology to public culture.”Four aspects of cinematic institution: (Belton)1. Economic- Designed to make money- Establishes itself as an industry- Industry establishes basic technology- Industry establishes systems which are commodies- Star systems- Genre systems2. Social- Provides contact between people- Communal activity- Leisure time3. Technological- Dependent on products of industrial revolution- Cameras, screens…- Post-industrial4. Psychological- Encourages movie-going habit by working what Americans want to seeKinetoscope: - Allowed people to view a short, 50 foot film- 1839-1894- Kino: movement, scope: to watch- Invented by Thomas Edison- Showed “actualities”Nickelodeon: - Small, 200 seat theaters devoted exclusively to the showing of motion picturefilms called actualities- Actualities included things such as documentaries, Vaudeville acts (recorded)and scenes from popular plays- Appealed to lower class because it was only $.5 to viewMovie Palace:- “A Garden of Dreams,” luxurious, beautiful theaters- An escape from the dirty, congested, urban area- Featured both films and other performersMotion Pictures Patent Company:- Created in 1908- Sought control over all aspects of production, distribution and exhibition- Producers began self-censorship (What would offend middle class?)- Cinema began to create middle-class- Actors were owned by the studio; 7 year contract- Could be loaned to other studiosHayes Production Code:- Set of moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of most U.S. motion pictures between 1930-1968- Known as Hayes Code because of Hollywood’s chief censor at the timeRSA/ISA/Althusser:- RSA: Public domain, one at a time (dominant), government agencies that use force- Examples in ‘The Social Network’: The Courts- Examples in ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’: The School- ISA: Private domain, simultaneous (church, family, educational) non-government agencies that teach beliefs- Examples in ‘The Social Network’: Harvard-President, “Harvard law,” Final Club (Men only – RSA)Dream Factories:- The studio system- Factory which manufactures dreams- Coined by Hortense Powdermaker- 1950 anthropological study of film industry- Major studios:- Paramount- Lowe’s- 20th Century Fox- Warner Brothers- RKO- Vertical Integration: Studios now control the production, marketing, and exhibition of the films- End of studio system:- Paramount Case (1948) – Changed the way films were produced, distributed and exhibited- Strikes by labor union- Change in leisure time activities- Rise of independent production companies usually owned by the actors who starred in the films- Blockbuster era (fewer/more expensive films)Passive viewing: Receiving or subjected to an action without responding or initiating an action in returnActive viewing: Thinking and forming opinions about what is being shownMeritocracy/American Dream: Idea that America is the land of limitless opportunity in which individuals can go as far as their own merit takes them. A system in which able and talented persons are rewarded and advanced.Marginalizing: To regulate to a lower or outer edge; “We must not marginalize the poor in our society.”“Othering”: US vs. THEM- Example of “othering” in “Perks of Being a Wallflower” – The outcasts at schoolSemiotics: Study of meaning- Signifier + signified ----- semiotics- (ROSE red, petal flower fond of)Zeitgeist: “Spirit of the times”Representation/Hall:- Representation links signs in order to understand meaning (semiotics)- Representation connects meaning and language through signs- Culture constructs the meaning so it seems natural (ex: red means stop)- Meanings can change over timeShared Conceptual Map:- System by which things in the world are correlated with concepts or “mental representations”- Concepts = Chair, bottle, love, war, etc.- Shared conceptual maps make communication possibleSymbol/Language:- Communication requires the translation of conceptual maps into shared language of signs- Signs = words/sounds/images which represent concepts and carry meaning- “Language” = broadly understood- “System” = Just as conceptual maps relate concepts to one another, relates concepts with signs- Signs are arbitraryNarrative Pattern: Refers to the way in which shots comprise a scene and in which scenes are woven together to give meaning to the entire picture. May be linear or more complicated, involving devices such as flashbacks or circularity.Status quo/Disruption-Conflict/Resolution of Conflict: “Narrative process follows an orderly pattern in which an initial state of affairs is introduced, after which something occurs to disturb this equilibrium. Subsequent events attempt to restore the original status quo, but this is repeatedly frustrated, and order is recovered only at the end of the film.”Exposition/Rising Action/Climax/Falling Action/Conclusion:- Example of narrative structure in “The Social Network”3. Move to Cali Eduardo freezes account Sean arrested2. FB Intro 4.Depositions “Stolen idea” Sean Parker1. Meet mark 5. New Order: SettlementSegmentation: Process of analysis in which films are broken down into individual shots or sequences in order to discuss them as part of a larger whole. (Narrative units)- The general criteria of such analysis is expressed in dramatic unities of:- Action- Time- SpaceCircular/Journey/Modernist: - Circular Pattern: The spatial movement of the film is away from a place and then back to it in a symmetrical pattern (ex: Chaplin’s The Gold Rush(the entire movie is a dream))- Journey to a New Place: Move from locations and/or psychological moves (ex: Some Like it Hot) (the film moves from Chicago, to the train, to Florida) (also moves from static and stereotypical gender norms toward an unstable questioning of those norms)- Modernist Manipulation of Time and Space: A number or narrative perspectives are used (ex: Inside Man) (vital information is
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