Week 5 - Response to Content

The topic covered in this weeks lecture was 'The Language of Film.

More closely defined the lecturer discussed in detail what a typical movie nowadays is made up of.

This being the 'Three Act Structure', which is made up of:
1) Setup
2)Confrontation
3)Resolution

The lecturer also went through the five essential plot elements of a film:

1. Believable/sympathetic lead character
2. Urgent/difficult problem
3. Attempts to overcome or solve problem (hurdles)
4. The last stand/climax
5. Resolution/succeed or not?

The film Rubber which was viewed in this weeks lecture enabled us to get a grasp at the three act structure. This film was definately not your 'average story' type movie.

The first half hour set the audience up with the first plot point which was a bunch of people, acting as a kind of tour group (representing the audience of the film) out in the desert in California watching out over a hill, a rubber tyre come to life and start to roll through the desert.

As this tyre rolls it's way around it starts to learn that it can psychokinetically blow things up, starting with a plastic bottle and eventually moving into a rabbit and then a human persons head.

With much regret I have not seen the end of the film but can imagine what happened - the tyre perhaps found another tyre to be with? I came to this conclusion because the music played throughout the film indicated that the tyre was lonely.

This lecture was quite interesting and also works in with my subject 'Communication Performance' where we have also learnt the basic camera shots when filming eg. Close-up, Long shot, Medium Close-up.