Oral Presentation Part 4 & 5

IV. Narrative

1. How is this film constructed according to narrative/story being told?

In this particular section of the film, the film is being told from two points of view. First, we glimpse into Desmond’s delusional over exaggeration of the people fawning over her and the like. However, in between her delusion of the people coming and asking her about how she was doing (which happened in reality, simply Norma’s mind over extended the happening), to a limited 3rd POV where we watched over the director and glimpsed in on his actions while away from Desmond.

2. Is the narrative organized by plot or time sequence, or some other way?

The narrative in general is organized by plot. We can tell this through the ways we get monologue from Joe’s internal thoughts when major events occur or certain major scene jumps. The audio inserts of Joe’s sarcasm is for comic relief, but also does well to give us insight on his true opinions and the transition from point A to B in the film as the events happen in corresponding order.

3. Does the film use other principles than narrative sequence as a structure (for instance, an argument?)

The film uses several different narrative sequences. It uses the voice overlays, car drives, arguments, and jump cuts. For this scene in which Norma is visiting Demill, it gives close ups on people’s reactions to give personalized sightings of the people’s opinions and feelings to the events occuring.

4. What is the nature of our engagement with the story or characters?

The nature of our engagement with the characters is done by hearing their thoughts despite everyone else not catching wind of them. We catch onto each characters personality through their displays and actions, surely, but we also get small insight tidbits of them on their own with their thoughts—Be it through their speaking aloud to ‘themself’ or how Joe’s internal thoughts are used in overlay.

V. Film Language and Representation

Now choose an extract that best represents or serves as evidence for the research you have done so far. Tie the particular details of the scene back to your broader research

1. How are characters and issues represented?

Norma Desmond’s issue is displayed through her visible winces and disgusted facial expressions everytime someone jabs that they don’t know who she is, or comments on her age. This happens several times in this five minute excerpt with the original cop guarding the gate and again with the director’s assistant. Everytime Norma is denied what she wants or someone gives wind that they have no idea who she is (or God forbid, her 100 years of age), we can easily see her discomfort and sensitivity to the issue of her inevitable falling out of stardom that she refuses to accept.

2. What is the style and effect of acting and performance?

The style and effect of the acting and performance is very exaggerated and seems almost obvious to the watchers, but not much at all to the actors. Norma must portray her anger and spite towards the people who don’t know of her without speaking aloud to allow the viewer to see the issue, but to almost hide it from the people in the scene. This way, it’s like a less obvious version of Joe’s narrarating certain opinions. Through this method, we explicitly hear Joe’s beliefs and feelings. Norma’s must be done through her reaction shots.

3. How is meaning created by camera angles, shots, and camera movement?

Reaction shots after certain events and dialogue is done to create this insight the viewers need to fully comprehend the situation. Albeit not all are close ups, they’re near enough shots where we can almost be seeing Norma’s reactions in a way where it’s ‘exclusive’ and everyone else in the scene isn’t. It separates her from the scene itself, seemingly, and gives us a private show of her reaction to the exclamations made by the people.

4. How is meaning created through proxemics, territorial design, or open and closed forms?

As I said above, Norma is a character who shows most of her true feelings towards things through a proxemic display involving primarily hand gestures and facial exaggerations of emotion. I’d classify this five minute excerpt as being open formed considering the close ups of Norma seemingly being ‘out of the actual film’s spectrum’ of happening events. Also, the way it jumps between Norma and the direction would also suggest so. However, it could also be seen as closed formed because of nothing being actually out of the films actual ‘universe’ in the scenes. Everything that occurs in this scene is, indeed, plausible.

5. How is meaning created by editing and sequencing?

The way the shots are edited are information to location and also show emotion through the actor’s facial expressions. This part of the film shows the devestating truth of Norma’s horrid script and how no one is able to really tell her that she is an item of the past.

6. How is meaning created by lighting, shade and color?

The lighting is very important and obvious to tell in this scene. When the crew man shines the light solely on Norma and people begin to flock to her, they are cast in near shadow while she is hit directly with the spot light. It puts her as the center of attention again, blocking out the reality that Demill is facing through listening to the other director’s mere wish of Desmond’s car.

7. How is meaning created by sound and music?

You can tell when specific, important events are occuring through the music in the film. For example, in this excerpt where Norma is visiting stage 18 and Mr. DeMill, the music gives way to the crescendo-ing of the people flocking to Norma. It starts off as a curious sound, hesitant wind instruments playing as the microphone scims Norma’s hair piece. Then it begins to pick up with violins joining the piece as the light shines on her from her old light crew friend, and it becomes louder as people flock to her.

8. How is meaning created by location, set design and mis en scene.?

This particular section of the film gives insight to the direct location of Norma’s past, Paramount Studios. The gates are shown at a grand angle, and as the car drives through the stages the viewer is able to see the name of the company and the stage numbers. Not only does this further tell us where they are precisely, but keeps a continuity of the location and ‘travel’ from the gates to stage 18. Once inside, there is an extremely wide shot shown of the room and all of it’s equipment. You can see the lights and mics, including the different actors and actresses in costumes as people rush by to perform various duties for the set. All of this is to give an overwhelming depiction of the business and how things have changed and even left Norma behind. As she tries to settle in, everything around her moves without her until the people and speak to her, and even then, she is not a part of the flux of what is being shot at the time.

9. Does the film make use of symbols, metaphors, or allegories? Share are they and how do they work within the context of the film?

Norma’s old, imported, overly priced car can be seen as a repetitive symbol. Considering how much she likes it and how outdated it is, can portray her liken to older fashioned things. As if, through purchasing an old car she will stand out and bring the old back through doing so. Another interpretation of the car can be how the car takes people from point A to point B, and yet it will only continue to get older. Just because it travels, as the decades pass, the car will never catch up with the future, no matter how hard it may try. In essence it is a representation of Norma herself. She has the means to get from one area to another, but that will never change the fact of her age the inevitability of it.

10. How is meaning created by technical elements such as production design, mise en scene, composition, special effects (matte paintings, models or animation, computer generated images….etc.)

The different scenes set up in the film add much meaning. The visiting of stage 18 portrays hollywood’s busyness and its quick pacing. The car ride into the gates shows the reluctance to allow Norma Desmond back into the studios until she calls over an old friend of hers.

11. What emotional information is conveyed through the filmmaking process?

Through all of these elements being put together, we can see Norma’s feelings to returning to her old work that she wishes to be a part of again. We have insight on the director’s true intent, the revealing of the other man wanting simply Norma’s car for his own film and hadn’t even read her script, and several other revelations. This particular section of the film is depressing, simply because it proves Norma Desmond is simply an idol of the past, she will never return to be what she was or what she wishes to be again.

II. Historical and Institutional Factors

The movie we watched in class, Sunset Boulevard, was produced during the successive depression the society faced due to WWII. Considering that, utilizing mainc haracters that were going through their own relatable trials (IE. money, social status, and fame) made them more appealing to the public. The cynical persona of the main character was almost, seemingly, a depiction of what the 'average' person could be considered for their time period due to all the strife going on around.

Sunset Boulevard can be seen as the ending of Noir films considering it was also produced towards the end of this WWII funk that the nation seemed to be in. So, it's almost like the last 'hoorah' of that time period for Noir films.

The films purpose in regards to history in film was to portray a version of the harsher aspects of Hollywood on it's contributors. It showed a darker side of Hollywood's progression and it's leaving hard workers behind. To keep up with the industry is shown as nearly impossible for the stories can't be published quick enough by the scriptors to keep up with fads, nor can the actors/actresses bask in anything more than their 'fifteen minutes' of fame.

Sunset Boulevard's creators wanted to depict Hollywood at it's harshest by making it nearly comedic with all the sarcastic inputs-When that's really not too much of a brutally portrayed Hollywood.

The film is in LA, California which can be seen as a further depiction towards Hollywood, fast paced culture, and a need for impossibly unobtainable percetions of 'beauty' and 'perfection'.

Sunset Boulevard's production was a bit after the ending of Silent films. It was near the beginning of dialogue and 'actual' sound induced films, making it's background story with silent actress 'Norma Desman' probably really relatable for some viewers.

The movie blatantly goes against the ideals and methods Hollywood is depicting through showing it in a sarcastic, satirized manner. Through this, it amuses it's viewers while also enlightening them to the issue.

In regards to genre it could be under: Mystery (to an extent), drama, and satire.

The film is stylized as a classic (now) and under the title of 'Noir'.

It's made in post WWII time where people were geared towards darker films that told more of the truth than sugarcoated 'fairytale' romanticism.

It delivers the cynical mind of a realistically portrayed man whose in a believable issue while still providing comic relief to entertain Americans.

It presents to the viewers Hollywood and it's darker outlooks. Through the desperate cling to youth and beauty, the quick transitions from one style to another, and the impossible pace of fads and demands—Sunset Boulevard shows the people faces of society in Hollywood that can be seen in other aspects of it as well.

Due to it's being Noir style and containing cynical dialogue, the film targets realists (or pessimists, whichever you choose to call them) to entertain their ideas and beliefs. The audience are people willing to accept and understand there is more to life than the happy depictions seen on TV and in most magazines.

I think the film was made to really give the audience something to chew on in mentionings to Hollywood's brutal pace and treatment of it's contributors. Of course it was wittily scripted and showed interesting characters to entertain, but it was realistic and satirized in a manner that really portrays what Hollywood is doing to it's stars and writers.

||Oral Presentation Part One—Genre and Audience||

1. Sunset Boulevard is a film that can fall under multiple different genre types. I would classify it under drama and noir primarily, with hints at comedy and mystery.

2.  For drama, considering Norma's own life experiences in stardom from being one of Hollywood's biggest to crashing as a 'falling star', her life is quite dramatic. Not to mention the twist of her butler, Max, revealing to everyone that he was her first husband can be considered as a very drama-cliche' take. In terms of film noir, Norma may not be exactly sensual, considering she's scary and creepy as Hell, but she does show some sort of inclination to at least attempt at playing the sexy female type. That, and Joe's cynical personality with everything fits that category well. Finally, the comedy can be seen through Norma's exaggerated outlook on life and her crazy delusions, the mystery is hinted at the beginning of the film when we see the dead man in the pool with no inclination as to how that came to be.

3. Sunset Boulevard can be connected to Double Indemnity considering both films had Seitz for the cinemotography and his style can be seen through that. Not only was Seitz adamant on challenging shots for that time period, but also, because of the way the sets are designed to balance both dark and light in several aspects. Not to mention, both films fall under the noir type category.

4. Billy Wilder was the director of this film and he produced during the post world war II time increment that inspired the newcoming of noir stylized films. It was dark and cynical, much like the time period then itself, and brought on a very realistic appeal as to how people around that time really did feel or act.

5. The creators can be inferred to be cynical/sarcastic people themselves with an affinity for darker humor and ridiculous twistts. It can also be assumed the creators were fans of messing around with the antagonist character since they went through and developed Norma.

6. The cynical, darker aspects found in Sunset Boulevard are an easy comparison to Wilder's take on films. The humor and touch of mystery put in as well are also similar and fit into his film type.'

The film explores different depressing aspects of almost all the characters presented in the film. Ranging from Joe's inability to pay his own mortage, Norma's fallen stardom, and Max's guilt of Norma's fall—All of these explore different, more in depth and diverse aspects of characters which is a trade of noir films as well.

A visual element manipulated well in Sunset Boulevard would be the lighting and the sets. For the sets, the way it takes place in Los Angeles, a busy and 'living' city in contrast to Norma's depressing life and surroundings is somehow a good clash in the film that doesn't breach too far into unrealistic. As for lighting, this can also fall under where it takes place and considering the film was in black and white, it's really a lot easier to see color shifts on the whites and blacks, so they had to be especially careful with that.

7. The film's theme would be...you should always marry your best friend's fiancee, otherwise you may be shot in the back several times and die in a pool instead and we all know which scenario sounds better That money isn't the answer to everything. Obviously it can't bring you back to life so whatever.

8. The audience target is obviously for anyone who can keep up with the sarcasm and cynical jokes. However, to make it more general, it's probably aimed for teens and up.