Having studied Screen Analysis in semester 1 I found this lecture to go over a lot of familiar content, but the 3 Act Structure paradigm was new, and useful! Every movie I watch I now look for the two pivotal plot points! Although the topic 'Classical Hollywood Cinema' I covered, it seems it wasn't in this much detail.
In classical Hollywood cinema we often find two narrative lines of action, which interconnect by the film moving back and forth between them. You will often notice the secondary line, compared to the 'main line', is a romance between the protagonist and a character they meet within the constraints of the diegesis, meaning the story world (Thompson & Bordwell 2010, p.80). This is not always the case, but it is often enough to make mention of.
The protagonist will often dominate the narrative action, and be involved in both lines of action. Scenes in classical narrative will connect with the use of a "dangling clause" which involves the deliberate construction of a scene to leave issues unresolved at the end to be picked up later (Moran 2011). Other methods of connecting scenes involves the repetition of dialogue or significant objects. And an editing convention much used is the 'montage' in where a series of quick shots are spliced together to give the impression of time passing whilst the character is trying to achieve something, or perhaps travelling somewhere. All these conventions and an abundance of others are utilised in the classical Hollywood narrative.
The protagonist will often dominate the narrative action, and be involved in both lines of action. Scenes in classical narrative will connect with the use of a "dangling clause" which involves the deliberate construction of a scene to leave issues unresolved at the end to be picked up later (Moran 2011). Other methods of connecting scenes involves the repetition of dialogue or significant objects. And an editing convention much used is the 'montage' in where a series of quick shots are spliced together to give the impression of time passing whilst the character is trying to achieve something, or perhaps travelling somewhere. All these conventions and an abundance of others are utilised in the classical Hollywood narrative.
Bibliography
-- Bordwell, D & Thompson, K 2010, Film Art: An Introduction, McGraw-Will, New York
-- Moran, A 2011, Introduction to Screen Analysis 1009HUM Week 7 Lecture: Classical Hollywood Narrative: Features, retrieved from Griffith University, School of Humanities, Learning @Griffith website: <https://learning.secure.griffith.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_93829_1&frame=top>
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