REVIEWAnd Screening/Lecture about Halloween

Early Career Fan of Science Fiction and Horror

Made 8mm shorts with his friends

Made a monster movie publication (zine)

Dark Star 1975

Assault on Precinct 13 1976

• Halloween 1978

Made with girlfriend Debra Hill

One of history’s best and most successful horror films

Hill and Carpenter wrote the screenplay

320,000 to make

Carpenter directed and composed the score

Screen debut of Jamie Lee Curtis

Sex and Evil

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Carpenter claims that the film isn’t about a psycho killer

Criticism arises about girls being murdered (after they are sexually active)

This became a convention of many horror films to follow

Carpenter claims that he meant to portray the main character “Lori” as being as sexually repressed (like Michael)

What does this convey about women?

Most violence occurs offscreen (not a bloody film)

Subjective camera

Michael can be seen in the foreground and background while the other characters are unaware of his presence

Darkness is used a lot in the frame

What Makes it Scary?

Leit Motif

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a recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9QTSyLwd4w

Diegetic vs. Non-Diegetic Sounds • Score vs. Location Music• Dialogue vs. Voiceover • Sound effects

Suspense

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Suspense in editing is not about quick cutting

It is about longer strips of film

Anticipation

Birth of a Nation

DW GriffithThomas Dixon1915Extremely Racist—pro Klu Klux Clan Griffith just thought it was presenting the Southern perspectiveShown in the White House (Woodrow Wilson) First Blockbuster 60 million also first Independent film

Oscar Micheaux

“It is only by presenting those portions of the race portrayed in my pictures in light and background of their true state that we can raise our people to greater heights” --Oscar Micheaux

By 1928 there were over 700 theaters catering almost exclusively to African Americans

The “race” picture industry was wiped out by the depression and the invention of the sound picture (made production and distribution cost prohibitive)

Continued• The Homesteader 1919•

Within our Gates 1920, First film to depict lynching from an African American perspective.

• More of a businessman than an artist

• Would travel from town to town with his films and Advertising materials

Lois Weber • First woman to direct a feature The Merchant of Venice

(1914)

• Made social issue dramas (over 400 of them!) (controversial, because of her activism regarding contraception. It was illegal at the time to distribute information about contraception or sexually transmitted diseases)

Avant Garde • Maya Deren, Meshes in the Afternoon• Deren studied journalism, literature and dance • Used primitive 16mm equipment • Externalizes her inner world much like Un Chien Andalou

(surrealist film by Luis Bunuel)

Genre• Type of Film • How do we recognize them as such?• Within the context of other films• What genres have we viewed in class?• Is determining genre an exact science?• Conventions

Plot?• Plot vs Fabula?• Plot vs Story?

Scene• How do you determine what a scene is?• What is a shot?

Ida Lupino• The Hitch-hiker• Quotes• Production Company “Filmmakers”

Carnival of Souls • Director?• What did the director do before he made the film?• Did he make more features?• Plot?

Hollywood Blacklist • House Un-American activities committee investigating alleged disloyalty

and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist ties.

• First hearings held in Los Angeles in 1947• The event moved to Washington and ten screenwriters and directors

refused to answer questions • The “Hollywood ten” were sentenced to six to 12 months in prison• They were blacklisted as well (couldn’t work in Hollywood again until the

60’s) • The hearings continued through 1953• “Even during the period of its strictest enforcement, the late 1940s

through the late 1950s, the blacklist was rarely made explicit or verifiable, but it directly damaged the careers of scores of individuals working in the film industry.” (more than 300 artists) Being a Communist was never against the law during this time

B-Movies• What does the term refer to?

George Romero—Night of the Living Dead

• What do we know about the representation of race in this film?

• What are some of the meanings of the film?• How much did it cost?• Where was it shot?• How much did it make after a decade (internationally)?• End

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1978)

• What was it about?• Describe Cassavetes’ sources of funding.• Were his films financially successful?

Cinematography• Lens• Film Stock• Lighting• Contrast• Framing

Mise en Scene• Settings• Costume• Figure Behavior• Performance • Casting• Staging