The Grapes of Wrath- Genre and Audience

The genre of The Grapes of Wrath is Drama. The topic of the Great Depression is addressed in the film, the story plot is about an Oklahoma family that moves to California looking for jobs during the 1930s. There are many obstacles presented in their trip to California and the grandparents don't make it to the promised land. Other work that might be connected to this film is Of Mice Of Men directed by Lewis Milestone and Our Daily Bread directed by King Vidor. These two film are during the great depression and face similar issues as The Grapes of Wrath. Of Mice Of Men in particular is an adaption from the book Of Mice Of Men by John Steinbeck, which is also the writer of the book The Grapes of Wrath, which was adapted into a movie and directed by John Ford. The producers of this film were Darryl F. Zanuck and Nunnally Johnson. In addition the cinematographer was Gregg Toland, whom had gain experience over the years in this area. This film relates to other significant work from Ford such as Young Mr. Lincoln and Drums along the Mohawk in terms of genre and story plot. They address social and political issues which develop the story in. In addition, the significant narrative addresses socialistic views. The people in the community are being victims of government land takeover and they're struggling to survive. They can't find jobs in Oklahoma and decide to move to California in search of opportunities. This narrative is communicated through visual and technical elements such as the variety of shots, mostly longs shots. Also the costume, setting and props help make the feel more realistic and appeal to the audience's sentiments. In relation to the audience, John Ford targets the an adult audience by exploring social issues and themes that they can understand and relate to. The theme of the film is growth and maturity; in the beginning Tom Joad is portrayed as a selfish character that as the story develops he become to understand maturity and responsibility.

From Silents to Studio' Golden Years

Part 1: Explore how the inclusion of sound in the movie pictures impacted the Movie Industry. Detail how it happened, who was effected, what was lost. The inclusion of sound occurred because the Warner Brother were struggling to survive in the Film Industry and despite the consequences of the "talkies", they  produced The Jazz Singer, the first film with dialogue. It only had 354 spoken words and background music, but it was enough to target the audience and revolutionize the film industry. The Warner Brothers immediately released another "talkie" called The Singing Fool which cost $200,000 to make and brought in $5M. However, this created an enormous change because most studios started to create films with dialogue even though they were sacrificing production value. In order to have audio the camera was housed in a soundproof, which made it immobile; thus making the shots static and non-creative. In addition, many actors had thick accents or their voices didn't match their image, therefore they lost their jobs. 

Part 2: The 20 years between 1930 and 1950 are generally recognized as the studio years. Describe what the pros and cons were of this factory system.The Studio Years, 1930-1950, brought pros to the factory system such as the expansion of film industry. They created elaborated sound stages across California, and theaters had 30 seats, 10 more than past theaters. In addition to the pros they also establish a medium price ticket with the purpose to have a combined audience of upper and lower class. However, there were cons to "The Studio Years" such as the people under contract were not being allow to work with other studios without permission. The term oligopoly also came in to play as a consequence. Oligopoly refers to when few companies control a large part of the industry which affects the rest. Overall, the Studio years brought more pros than cons because it contributed to the progress of the Film Industry. 

Film Writing

1.  The 5 kinds of film writing described in the article are Formal  Analysis, which requires the writer to break down the film and analyze the different components and how they contribute as a whole to the film. The second film writing is Film History, is about doing a research about the time period, the event occurring at that time of the film figuring out how that affected the the film. There is also Cultural Studies/National Cinemas,  this analyzes involves the different cultures from all around the world and how each individually influenced the film. In addition there is Ideological Papers,it involves believe, especially political beliefs that promote a certain idea/belief that are in the film.  Finally, Discussion of the Auteur analyzes how a single person, the director usually, incorporated his vision/perspective into the film.

2. Annotating a Film Sequence is a particular sequence where each shot is labeled. By doing this, it allows the note taker to identify certain patters in the shots and understand the type of editing or paste of it. It also helps recognized what were the key elements for the film to had a certain impact and comprehend the vision of the director. 

3. The term Thinking Beyond the Frame refers to think about the other elements that were involve in the film and not just the final product. This means to take in count the historical and cultural context because they are key factor to the final product. To analyze the director's style in previous films and thus the cast and crew. It's also important to think about the genre and how it was incorporated into the film. All these factors are know as Thinking Beyond the Frame because they give a whole picture of the film and not just what it's shown on the screen.