Three Act Structure in Final Destination

In Final Destination, the first act is mainly taken up by the build up to the plane crash. The main character begins to feel tension as he senses the impending crash. There is foreshadowing building up suspense as the audiences gets clues as to what is going to happen. After the main character has his dream, there is the suspense as to whether his dream will actually happen. The mini-climax of act one is when the plane actually crashes and the main character's fears are confirmed.

Act two consists of characters being killed off and the suspense of the hero trying to save his friends. The clock ticks down as characters are killed one at a time. The main character gradually figures out who is going to be killed next using a diagram of the plane. The moments where the main character knows what the audience does not builds up suspense. The second act ends when the last character to die dies and the main character takes fate into his own hands.

Act three has the main character in a building he has rigged to be completely safe. The movie concludes with the main character seeming to give up his life to save his friend. The final scene shows that the main character has survived the incident, but a cliff hanger ending reveals that death is still coming for them. The conclusion happens quickly as there is only one scene after the main climax, displaying that this film is using the Hollywood three act structure.

TV Sitcom: The Middle

The TV sitcom originally was filmed in front of a studio audience or just with a laugh track. The sitcom usually takes place with a recurring cast of everyday characters in everyday places, such as a suburban home or common workplace. Usually the main characters are all members of the same family. It is common that in the featured home, there is an implied television where the camera is.  Sitcoms were originally episodic, with a situation coming up and resolving itself all in one episode, returning the situation of the characters to normalcy. Each episode usually would end with the characters learning a lesson.

The Middle is a good example of what the classic sitcom has morphed into. While featuring a normal family, with the members in fairly normal careers (car saleswoman and quarry manager), there is no live studio audience or laugh track. The show also uses more locations than sitcoms originally would, transitioning more like the average movie than a classic sitcom. The show is, for the most part, episodic. While situations are resolved, they occasionally come back in another episode. For example there is an episode where the son Axle gets a girlfriend his mom doesn't like. The episode ends with them breaking up, but the girl comes back in another episode when they begin to date again. Unlike the standard sitcom, there is not always a lesson, but episodes occasionally end on the theme of family camaraderie.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Shots

In the scenes around twelve minutes into the Texas Chainsaw Massacre,the director uses close ups at the beginning to show a gruesome scene from a few angles, adding to the horror before a quick cut to a close up of a character's reaction of disgust. A close up of the back of the van as it drives off adds dark humor as a round about way of proving the characters statement that she would never go back into the van wrong, because it does not show her, but it assumed she is in the van. Finally a medium shot is used as the whole group of main characters are shown in the van, displaying the tension and disgust they are all feeling. As a character speaks the camera cuts closer to other characters faces than his, because he is saying something which they don't like, so their reactions are currently more important. Long shots are later used to show that they are in the middle of nowhere and also to set the scene of the beat up old shop that they pull in to. This really sets up the feel of desolation which is aided by the lighting, color scheme, and attitude of the characters. Mid shots are used to display the actions of the characters, while close ups are used to show reactions and emotions.

The Star System

One of the most important aspects of the studio system was the star system. The star system is when a studio uses the popularity of a star as the primary force to get people to see movies. Stars would be in several movies in a row and became some of the most remembered figures of their time.

Unlike today’s times, where actors often surprise audiences with their versatility, in the early 20^th century actors would always fit a similar role. Movies and characters would often be rewritten just so a specific actor could fulfill his or her typecast. Studios presumed that they knew what audiences wanted from specific people and would not allow those actors to veer from that idea.

An example of how the star system has moved into modern times is the career of actor Will Ferrell. When you go to watch a Will Ferrell movie, you know it’s going to have at least some goofy comedy in it. Even one of his more serious movies, Stranger Than Fiction, still featured some over the top comedic moments from Ferrell. When Will Ferrell’s name is on a movie it is often assumed that he is solely responsible for whether the film is successful or not, showing the huge power one star can have over audiences and studios.

All in the Family compared to Modern Family

The show Modern Family is similar to All in the Family in many more ways than just having the word family in the title. The older father character in Modern Family is very similar to Archie in All in the Family. He tends to be grumpy and scrutinizes the other characters.  The gay son in Modern Family seems to have the same lack of approval type relationship with his father that Archie has with his son in law. Both fathers have son in laws, although in very different circumstances.            

One major difference between Modern Family and All in the Family is that Modern Family shows three different related families all linked together, rather than one small family unit. This allows the show to display characters in very different familial situations. A big difference is also that there are kids on Modern Family, rather than all adult characters. Modern Family is also shot in a fake documentary style, while All in the Family is shot like a standard sitcom with a laugh track.

          

Modern Family has to push issues much farther to make a point than All in the Family did, because society has become so desensitized. All in the Family did one episode about homosexuality, while it is a recurring theme on Modern Family due to two main characters being a gay married couple with a baby. Modern Family has had an episode very similar to the episode we watched of All in the Family, where the father suspects that one of his friends is gay because of his son’s intuition, but it is by far not the only time homosexuality is brought up. Modern Family also has the occasional crude moments, which would have been much more controversial at the time All in the Family was showing.