Blog Post #8

The Lion king is based on the three act structure:

Act I:
Act one develops the setting of the story and the origin of the problem and ensuing action.  Scar, Mufasa's brother is bitter about the fact that he has essentially been cut off from the throne with the birth of Simba.  The first act ends after the death of Mufasa with Simba's decision to run away because he believes he is responsible for the death of his father.



Act II:
As problems escalate under scar's regime, Simba is hides himself away from his past.
In act two, Rafiki discovers that simba is alive, and the act ends with Nala's decision to go find him.


Act III:
The reuniting of Simba and Nala sparks love, but also brings Simba's past fully back to his mind.  Through Nala's reasoning with him, Simba decides to let go of the guilt he's held on to and go back to fight scar and avenge his father's death.  The final climax comes very near to the end of the film (about 6-7 minutes from the end) when Simba finds out the truth about his father's death and actually fights scar to take back the kingdom, which leads to the resolution of the story where Simba becomes king and peace returns to the Pride Lands.

Blog Post #7

One of the characteristics of the TV sitcom is that patterns are repeated throughout the run of the sitcom.  This repetition of patterns may present itself in the fact that the main characters often finds themselves getting into the same situations, making the same mistakes, etc.  Often, the plot of an episode will follow a familiar shell outline, the structure of with is filled in with changes in whom the main character interacts with, or other details switched, but the overall progression of the episode follows a very familiar pattern.  This often leads to two other characteristics of the sitcom - many sitcoms end about where they begin, and there tends to be relatively little character arch.

This familiarity, though it gives to predictability, allows the viewer to know what to expect from the episode.  The interest in following the episodes is in seeing the particularities of each situation, not necessarily in following the progression of the protagonist's character.

The TV sitcom How I met your Mother presents these aspects.  Throughout Ted's lengthy recollections of the events that led up to his meeting of the mother of his children, he often gets into, or out of, or back into a relationship with one person or another.  The episodes present sequences of the stages in these relationships, and also presents a repeating side show of sorts in documenting Barney Stinson's, the self-assured womanizer, many different encounters and attempts with various women.  Throughout the progression of the sitcom, the status and/or position of the different characters may change, but overall they remain largely the same, operating in the same roles they began with.

Camera Shots - The Lion King

Although a cartoon, Disney's The Lion King still uses the same concepts of "camera shots" in the animation that are used in other films.

The Long Shot as Orientation Shot:

This long shot showing pride rock, the surrounding area, and some of its inhabitants makes use of the wide view available when using this technique to orient and familiarize the viewer with the setting.

Medium Shot as Relationship Information Shot:

The medium shot is often used to portray visually the relationship between characters in a story.  In this medium shot, a decent amount of space is still available on the screen, although not as much as in the long shot.  Even with this space, the directory chose to place Rafiki and Mufasa close to each other, to symbolize their friendship and trust for one another.  Even in this portrayal of friendship, there is still a hierarchy  of power.  Mufasa is taller and placed on the right of the shot, both of which symbolize his position.

Closeup as marker of detail, emotion, and feeling:

Because the details of objects, facial expressions, etc. are more easily viewed in close-up shots, this technique if often used to reveal details and focus on emotions and feelings of the characters in an "up close and personal" way.  In this shot, Simba and Nala look lovingly at each other, and their facial expressions, easily seen in this close up shot, allows the viewer to better pick up on the emotions they are sharing.  In the context of the story, this shot also helps aid to the feeling of closure and resolve of conflict, and pulls the viewer into the happiness of Simba, Nala, and the rest of the Pride Lands that are now free from Scar's regime.

The Studio System

One of the main aspects of the studio system that developed in the late 1920s and early thirties was vertical integration - when a large conglomerate corporation owns key businesses in different but related markets so that they have the ability to handle many different parts of production "in house" and save money.

In vertical integration, the studios would own their own production crews, distribution systems and chains of movie theaters.

Because the production crews and directors were "part of the family" of the film company, distinct styles came to be associated with the different major film corporations.

Regulation increased in response to the mergers taking place, forcing the studios to part with some of their stakes in different part of the production process, particularly movie theaters.

A new wave of mergers started in the 80s and 90s when the industry's regulatory reigns were once again loosened.  Because of this, the modern film system in some ways reflects the old, especially in terms of vertical integration.

Because of vertical integration, movie franchises from film appear on TV and vice versa, such as the creation of a Simpsons movie, Movies based on Marvel Comics, and a Lion King cartoon series airing on ABC Family (which shows yet another example of cross ownership and conglomeration because disney owns ABC)

The studio system developed an organization based on cross-ownership and conglomeration, namely in the form of vertical integration.  This played a key role in the way movies were produced, what movies were produced, and how film studios are organized today.

All in the Family and George Lopez

All in the Family and George Lopez shine a light on important issues, involving prejudice, bigotry, and other serious social events. However there are significant differences on how the two shows bring these issues to the forefront.

All in the Family uses the character Archie Bunker as a mouthpiece to represent the countries more perverse opinions and attitudes towards minorities. The audience is meant to relate to the son-in-law when he admonishes Archie. Often times, this strategy backfires because the audience relates to Archie as an "anti-hero" or "lovable bigot" (link on this at the bottom). The George Lopez show aims to showcase the same issues but has the advantage of realizing social issues from within the minority group. This allows the audience to relate to George Lopez, preventing them from seeing the oppressed class as "the other" but instead more like themselves. So even though the desire is still to use a character driven comedy to encourage the audience to change their opinion is the same in both, The George Lopez show approaches it in a fresh and effective manner.



http://www.thestar.com/article/108423