3-Act Structure of 1408

The film I chose to apply the 3-Act Hollywood structure is the 2007 horror film, "1408", which is based off the short story "1408" written by Stephen King and stars John Cusack.

The first act of the film commences with a scene in which we are introduced to the protagonist of the film, Michael "Mike" Enslin (played by Cusack), as he is driving through torrential rain to a haunted inn. He investigates the reportedly haunted room of the inn using scientific devices like a spectrometer and electro-magnetic field detector and finds no paranormal activity in the inn. As the scene progresses, viewers learn what Michael Enslin does for a living, and we see his personality take form. He's a very skeptical occult writer who travels to haunted locations around the country to debunk or otherwise witness any evidence of paranormal activity. We see that he has a very cynical outlook on life, though we do not figure out why until later in the film, and he is very stubborn and self-absorbed in his work. When he checks his mail one day, he finds that he has received a postcard from the Dolphin Hotel in New York City warning him not to enter Room 1408. Considering the warning to be "cute," Mike decides to travel to NYC, where we find out that he has some unfinished business,to stay in Room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel. Despite the dark history of the room and the warnings and bribes from general manager, Gerald Olin (played by Samuel L. jackson), Mike insists on staying in the room. The first act peaks about 28 minutes into the film, when Mike is left to his own devices to fare alone with whatever lies in 1408, and viewers are left to wonder what really inhabits Room 1408 and how Mike will handle it, whatever IT is.

The next act of the film, which lasts roughly 55 minutes, shows just what kind of evil inhabits Room 1408. As things become complicated, we see Mike try to rationalize all the events that happen in the room and write them off, but as things get progressively worse, he begins to realize just what he has gotten himself in to. Trapped in the room with no way out whatsoever, Mike tries at every attempt to reach someone outside the room that can help him. When yelling out the window, knocking on the walls, and calling on the phone for help all prove futile attempts, Mike takes out his laptop and turns on his Yahoo! messenger account, reaching out to his wife, Lily (played by Mary McCormack), whom he hasn't spoken to since the death of their daughter a year before, in a desperate cry for help. before he has the chance to explain the situation, the sprinklers in the room are set off, destroying his laptop hard drive. With nothing to do but wait it out as the Mr. Olin's warning, "Nobody lasts more than an hour," starts to become more of a reality with each passing second. But when it seems like Mike might lose the fight with 1408, he comes to, and he is lying on his back on the California beach just as he had earlier in the movie after a surfing accident, indicating that everything that had happened in the room was all a dream. At this point, the viewers are left to wonder what will happen next. If Mike's whole experience in Room 1408 isn't real, what does that mean for the remainder of the movie? Or IS it all real? Hmm...

The third and final act of the movie lasts about 25 minutes, though it depends on which version of the film you are watching, since there are multiple endings to the film. In the theatrical version, after thinking that he is rid of Room 1408, he discovers that he never actually left the room, and all the time he thought he was out, it was just the room playing with his mind. In this act we see the climax occur about 10 minutes from the end of the film. Mike decides to end the evil reign of 1408 forever by setting the room on fire, because if nothing else in the room is real, fire must surely be real. This climax leads to the resolution for the film, because Mike's decision to set fire to Room 1408 made it so that no one else would ever have to lose their lives to such evil. Different endings involve what happens if Mike makes it out of the room alive and others show what happens when Mike dies in the fire, but either way, the decision is a chief point in resolving the complication of the film.

1408 Trailer

Happy Halloween! 3:-)

My life could be a sitcom... sorta =S

I turn on the television and put one of my favorite shows, Two And A Half Men. I don't always have the chance to watch it whenever it comes on, but I do not lose much from missing a couple episodes here and there. Why? Because this show is just an example of a TV sitcom that follows an episodic plot flow that allows viewers without having any prior knowledge to watch an episode and understand and enjoy the show. 

 

One characteristic of the TV sitcoms is the tendency to lean towards an episodic nature, meaning that the sitcom is separated into episodes, and each episode, which usually last half an hour, is for the most part independent of each other. Each episode follows a modified 3-act structure, reaching a mini-resolution in the end, which returns the "world" in the show back to normal (or at least back to how it was at the beginning of the episode). Because each episode lasts only a short amount of time, characters do not have the opportunity to experience much, if any, growth, and characters tend to fall into distinct identities with clear-cut character traits that define their roles, carrying through each episode. This allows new viewers to connect with the characters without having followed the series from the beginning. In addition, we can deduce from character's distinct traits how that character will behave in following episodes.

 TV sitcoms usually develop a cyclical/repeating pattern through their episodes. Characters, with their defined set of personality traits, will presumably encounter a conflict of some sort towards the beginning of the episode, and the episodic storyline follows the characters as they attempt to resolve the conflict so that by the end of the episode, things have returned to "normal."

In Two And A Half Men, for example, the character traits of Charlie, Alan, Jake, and Berta are clearly defined so that with each passing episode, they do not undergo any drastic growth. Throughout the seasons, Charlie has been the hedonistic, free-wheeling bachelor brother to the up-tight, divorced doctor, Alan, who moved into Charlie's Malibu home with his son, Jake, whose character identity reflects that he is clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed, while Berta has been the bitingly sarcastic housekeeper. These traits are the same in each episode and have not changed significantly over the seven seasons that the show has run since 2003. They are easily recognizable characters in each episode, so regardless of any prior knowledge of the show, it is easy to pick up for new viewers. The show is organized so that episodes do not need to be watched in chronological order, which is convenient in today's society of on-the-go TV watchers who record episodes when they cannot be home to watch them when they come on. Each episode usually consists of Charlie getting into some sort of predicament, while Alan tries his best to keep Jake from engaging in any dangerous or dumb activities, all the while, Berta inputs her sarcastic comments. By the end of each episode, the conflict is usually resolved, whether that means Charlie got caught and he managed to get away with whatever he did, and the show reverts back to how the episode began.

Amityville Horror at a glance

The first scene of the 2005 remake of 'The Amityville Horror' depicts the night of November 13, 1974, the night Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his entire family in their sleep with a .35 caliber rifle. The scene centers on the Ronny's movement through the house on that night and the intensity building up as he closed in on his younger sister, Jodie.


This particular scene does not stick to the general to specific shot progression. One of the very first shots in the scene is that of an extreme close-up of Ronny's face. This Extreme Close-Up of the reflection in Ronny's eyes provides viewers with extremely personal information about Ronny. Through this shot, viewers can see just how much of an effect the voices and images in his head had on him to make him do what he did.


There were several instances of close-ups in this scene, so I chose two of them. This shot of a close-up on Jodie DeFeo in her closet after Ronny finds her hiding there highlights Jodie's fear and her concern for her brother. This is the shot where she says, "What's wrong, Ronny?" In the next shot of a close-up on Ronny, we can see the tears running down his face. We also catch a glimpse of the emotional battle within himself as he gives in to the voices telling him to kill his sister, despite how much he loves her.


This medium shot of Jodie hiding in her closet with her teddy bear gives the audience a better view of Jodie's body language as she moves into somewhat of a fetal-position as she hugs her teddy bear tightly, showing how frightened she is as she listens to the gunshots echoing throughout the house. This shot also functions as a way of showing how powerless she feels since she takes up relatively little space in the shot. In addition, this shot includes Jodie's teddy bear, an important detail that reappears later in the film.


The last shot of the scene is a long shot of Jodie's room from the outside of the house after Ronny's last shot is fired. This particular shot is very important as it ties the whole scene together. The sign that reads "High Hopes" highlights the horror of what had just happened in the house, because there were high hopes for the future of the DeFeo family, and that was all taken away in one night. The shot also shows the weather outside the house: torrential rain, thunder and lightening - very fitting considering the dark deeds that had just occurred inside the house.


Though the scene does not follow the basic shot progression from long shot to close-up, it effectively represents the emotions and feelings of the important characters (Ronny and Jodie) and also pays close attention to details that will become important later in the film.

Classical Hollywood Studio System

Classical Hollywood can partially attribute its success to the effectiveness of the studio system of production and market control. One aspect of the system that I find particularly important is the star system. Within the star system, stars were discovered by the studio, signed a contract committing them to that studio, and then the studio would use them to promote their products, including other stars of that studio. The star system also created a net of associations connecting stars to certain genres within the studios they were associated with. Contracted stars would develop consistent sets of character traits that defined what roles they played in the studio's films. If a star became associated with a  "gangster" set of character traits, then the studio decided to make such a film, that star would be the most likely candidate to fill that role for the film, and as the star's popularity rose, a studio would be more inclined to produce gangster films with that star. For example, Humphrey Bogart's status as a contracted star with a knack for gangster roles for Warner Brothers led to a spurt of criminal/gangster films during the 1930s and later to detective films in the 1940s as the genre changed. As Bogart moved from gangster films to detective films, his character traits were still very consistent, and the image of Bogart wearing a raincoat and fedora became iconic for Warner Brothers Studio. 

(picture from http://www.forumgarden.com/forums/films-cinema-forum/49194-humphrey-bogart.html)

Sitcom Comparison

When asked to compare "All In The Family" to a contemporary family sitcom, the first one that came to mind was one of my favorite shows, "Two And A Half Men."

"All In The Family" is set in the 1970's in the Queens borough of New York City and depicts the family of Archie Bunker, a stubborn, white, heterosexual, conservative Christian who dismisses anyone who opposes his values. His wife, Edith, and daughter, Gloria, act as foil characters to Archie with their contrasting gentle and understanding natures, while Gloria's hippie-esque husband Michael often clashes with Archie over political and social issues such as homosexuality. We see the relationships between husband and wife and the differences between the way Gloria and Michael lovingly interact and the way Archie demeans Edith as well as anyone else who humiliates or challenges him.

 In contrast, "Two And A Half Men" is set in the 21st century in Malibu, California and depicts decadent bachelor, Charlie Harper; his divorced brother, Alan; and Alan's son, Jake, all living together in Charlie's Malibu home. There are no permanent female characters in the Harper household aside from their sarcastic housekeeper, Berta, so the family structure is very different from that in "All In The Family." The dysfunctional family structure in "Two And A Half Men" can also be traced to Charlie's womanizing and drinking antics, which frustrate Alan, who tries so hard to raise Jake to not be like Charlie.

While the shows are quite different from each other, they do contain some similar elements. They both have central characters who are likable despite their obviously bigoted thoughts and questionable morals. Both shows contain characters whose personality thrives off sarcasm and and facetious comments, and both also have characters that possess the ditzy, screwball personality that create a light-hearted comedy that contrasts the snarky comments made by other characters.

"All In The Family" dealt with issues of topics such as sexuality and racism in a time when doing so was not considered suitable for television. In contemporary sitcoms like "Two And A Half Men," sexuality and racism are not as controversial as they were in the "AITF" days, but television networks still have to be wary of the content released in their shows. The prospect of homosexuality and racism is seen as more of a comedy bit than a controversial subject as long as it's within certain bounds. "Two And A Half Men" highlights more on male humor and how two men and a boy deal with every day life together whether it's dealing with women, work, partying, etc. The show focuses on manhood and, in Jake's case, becoming a man. There has been controversy over Charlie Sheen (Harper) and his on-again-off-again engagement with rehab for his alcohol and drug addictions, with reports of the show being adversely affected if he could not get his act together.