Blog #8: American Me 3 Act Structure

   The movie American Me, which I watched fairly recently has a good solid three act structure. The story is about a young Mexican American named Montoya Santana and his life growing up in prison and then afterward when he is released. The acts are divided like so; Act 1: Montoya's life from birth and then in prison, Act 2: after Montoya has been released from prison and tries to sell drugs to make a living, and Act 3: after several people overdose on drugs, eventually Montoya is arrested again.

     The first act begins by introducing Montoya. He is a young Mexican American who was the product of a brutal rape that was shown in this first act. Years later Montoya forms a gang with his friends, but they are soon arrested for breaking and entering. They spend the rest of their lives in Juvenal Hall, and then fifteen more years in prison. While in prison they join a large gang that is run by Montoya, and they begin selling drugs in jail. Eventually their gang starts to become divided and Montoya tells a new recruit to kill the other gangs leader to prove a point. This is the first major plot point of the film. Once the recruit kills this other man the story escalates into the next act. The first act introduces Montoya's gang and suggests that the gang might split up, and at the end we Montoya kills the man trying to split the gang to prove a point. But did his actions really stop this division?

        In the second act right after the recruit kills that man, Montoya is let out of prison. Once he is let out he is introduced to the drug world outside the prison. He resolves to sell drugs for a living on the outside. While he is doing this he learns how much things have changed while he was in prison. He is also introduced to his love interest of the movie, Julie. The two of them go through a romantic montage of sorts, but meanwhile in the prison things are not going so smoothly with their gang. The gang begins acting on their own and start to divide once again. They rape the son of a prominent drug lord that is competing with Montoya's gang. In retaliation the drug lord sends out pure uncut heroine to the Mexican community and over 30 die. One of which was the younger brother of Julie, who finds out that it was because of Montoya's gang that the rival gang retaliated and let these drugs out. She leaves Montoya, and all he has left is his gang once again. This act ends with the death of Julie's little brother, and afterward at the funeral. From this the film transitions into it's final act. Where Montoya learns of the rape of his mother and starts to questions his actions in the gang.

          In the final act Montoya is told by his father that he is a bastard child and the result of a rape. After this the recruit from earlier is released and marries. Montoya attends the wedding and gives the recruit cocain as a gift. However Montoya is eventually caught by the police and is sent back to prison. Thus the climax begins as the gang decides now to kill the recruit for getting Montoya in prison. Montoya tells them to forget about it and not kill him, but they set it up anyway. In this final act the gang goes against Montoya and kill the recruit using his own brother. The recruit is killed, Montoya is stabbed to death by the new leader of the gang, and several kids begin to set the cycle in motion again by forming their own small gang. The climax ends with Montoya and the recruit dead, and the gang starts over with a new leader.

       American Me wasn't the best movie, but it did have a solid three act structure and followed the formula well. Each act escalated the stakes, transitioned into the next, and implied complications for the rest of the film. If you want a recommendation for this film however I say no, but I'll let you watch it on your own and develop an opinion. After all it wasn't that bad, just really slow.

Blog #7: The Venture Bros' story structure.

There are three different types of Narrative Fiction programs in terms of the typical TV sitcom. Series, Serial, and Episodic. Of these the most common among sitcoms is an episodic story.

An Episodic story means that each episode ends with some sort of resolution and in the end the characters are all back to normal. There is not much character arc in this format, and even if a character “learns something”, inevitably they will just go back to their old ways in the next episode. Almost as if the events in the previous episode never happened. In fact it is rare that the characters will bring up past adventures in an episodic story line. For the most part all problems seem to be solved within a thirty minute time period, and then never referenced again. There are however some TV sitcoms that started as episodic and can either present features of a series or turn into one. One such example is my favorite animated TV show, The Venture Brothers.

The Venture Brothers is a story about a washed up 'super scientist' and his two sons, and all of the exploits and adventures they go on. This show started out as more of an episodic storyline. Each episode presented a problem, like the titular characters Hank and Dean Venture being captured by a super villain and their bodyguard, Brock has to save him. Each episode presented these conflicts and solved them, more or less with-in thirty minutes. However, after the completion of Season 1 the show adapted into more of a series. The episodes still resolved within the time frame of the show, but events and plot devices stayed with each character. Some characters began to die off, and did not come back, while other characters really developed throughout each episode. We the audience get to see this constant development of the characters, especially that of Hank and Dean. This show is as of yet not completed, with still just one episode left until the finally. So it is not known if the show was all heading in a single direction from the start. If the finally sums up the events that have happened and ties all lose ends together then yes, I would say it truly has become a series.

If you haven't guessed by now I am a huge fan of the Venture Brothers. If I could go off and tell you more I would, but I would not be following this blog prompt if I did. So I instead urge you to watch it for yourself. It is a great story, with great characters, references, and a brilliant theme of 'failure' and how we all are in a way. As for the prompt of this blog however, I would say that this is a perfect example of an evolution from episodic to series.

Taxi Driver is one of my absolute favorite movies of all time. I know how almost every scene looks exactly, and can quote it perfectly. However I had no idea that angles and shots had so much power, and part of the reason I love Taxi Driver is because of it's brilliant use of shots and angles. Three in particular really stood out to me, the High Angle Shot, Medium Shot, and Close Up.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCDXRTbXd2Q) <-- (Go to 5:15 for the shot.)
The best example of the High Angle shot in the film Taxi Driver is right after the climax, when Travis kills the gang members and sits on the couch sure that he will soon be dead. The police enter the room and the camera pans high above the actors and slowly moves out of the room and follows the path that Travis took to get up to the room. This scene shows that Travis has lost his power, He tries to kill himself after he kills the last gangster but, he has no ammo left. He also lost all four of the weapons he had, and now is back to being a ordinary man. The scene really evokes just how small humans actually are, despite how powerful we can be. In the end we are all helpless, and guns only give you power for so long.

My favorite Medium Shot is when Travis is talking to Iris in the restaurant. Travis invites Iris (a 14 year old prostitute) to get breakfast with him. Travis really wants to help Iris get out of the life of a prostitute and move back in with her parents. This whole scene uses medium level shots, which help to develop these characters' relationship. Travis feels that he has wasted his life and has nothing to really give to anyone, but he feels that maybe if he helps Iris he might feel better about himself for making a difference in someone's life. Iris has never had an older man like Travis treat her so nicely and she really comes out of her shell in this scene, despite the fact that she declines Travis's offer to help her. These two characters develop a lot in this one scene, and the viewer finally sees Travis's true motives as being good.

My favorite Close Up shot occurs quite often while Travis is driving his Taxi. Every time he looks in his rear view mirror we get a close up of his eyes. This is always a powerful shot because we see Travis's genuine reaction to what is happening around him. The first time he meets Iris she gets into his Taxi and tries to escape from her pimp. We see a close up on Travis's eyes staring at her through the mirror, which evokes to the viewer that this is important. Once Iris's pimp catches her he throws twenty dollars into the taxi and tells Travis to forgot what happened. We once again see this close up and Travis stares at the money on his seat. This whole scene tells us that Travis desperately wanted to help Iris but in the end was to slow to make a decision and wasn't happy with the outcome, without Travis having to say one word.

Taxi Driver uses shots and angles masterfully, and each one ca tell us something about the scene and the character without any lines being said. I hope to learn more about the use of these tools and master them just as well as this movie has.

Blog #6: The Star System, Sheila Buff

In the classic Hollywood era and even somewhat today, when an actor becomes prominent and popular they will tend to reprise similar roles in different movies. This has been true of actors like Bruce Willis, Samuel Jackson, Will Smith, and more recently Sheila Buff. When these actors are cast in a particular role (in this case let’s say action movie) and gather a lot of fame, they tend to casted in more movies of the same nature. Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson are almost always action heroes, hardened criminals/cops, or super powered beings. Because of their continued success within the studio system they will keep being casted this way. Looking at new stars like Sheila Buff, we can see the evolution of his roles in the film industry as he has bounced from family comedies, action/thrillers, and perhaps more dramas in the future.
With his first starring role in “Holes” the young actor really took notice of the public, having really branched away from his initial role in the television show “Even Stevens”. Although Holes wasn’t the type of genre he would eventually gain fame for, it is important to note his major debut. Afterward he had yet another major role in the movie “The Greatest Game Ever Played”, which was a family movie like Holes. However, his real breakout role into the action/thriller world was in Disturbia. This movie upped his personality even more, by showing a much more mature and romantic Sheila. However his awkward mannerisms stayed with him, making him the perfect type cast of the ‘awkward guy that gets the girl’. It’s from here that eventually he went on to what he is best known for, “Transformers”. From here any movie that needed a young kid in a major role would go to Sheila. He has starred in such roles as “Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and “Eagle Eye”. The studios seemed to cast him in the same role in all these movies. There is some variation like in Indiana Jones, but although he was supposed to be a Greaser he still seemed like the same old Sheila.
The studio system has not changed in the last 90 years, stars become popular, and they remain so as long as they remain acting in movies that people expect from them. Perhaps Sheila may break out in a different role staring soon with movies like “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”, but we can’t tell as of yet. Will Sheila remain popular and become the Will Smith of this generation, or will he fall and be forgotten?

Blog #5: All in the Family and Curb Your Enthusiasm

All in the Family was a family based situation comedy created in the early 70s. It was one of the first shows to cover risqué topics such as race, sexuality, gender roles, abortion, and religion. In comparison to contemporary shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm, these same issues have become normal topics and people no longer are surprised by their presence in today's shows. There are many similarities and differences between All in the Family and Curb your Enthusiasm.
One such similarity is obviously that they both cover much of the same subject matter. All in the Family and Curb Your Enthusiasm have both dealt with subject matter like racist attitudes, gender roles, sexuality and even make fun of serious things like death and abortion. However there are a few differences. Archie Bunker has been described as a 'lovable bigot' and as such expresses his conservative views and ideals, but is still liked by audiences. Larry Davis on the other hand is not a bigot at all. He is just a selfish individual who will gladly set up other people to take his fall, or resort to racist ideals or behave in a different manner then usual just to get his way. Although Archie is selfish as well, Larry is not a stubborn conservative. When Larry does or says something it is likely that he is lying. Curb Your Enthusiasm did deal with subjects that were not covered in All in the Family. Like drugs and prostitution for example. These particular issues might have been too risqué even for Archie Bunker.