Three Acts.

In the film, Mean Girls, the first act consists of the protagonist, Cady Heron, meeting all of her new school friends, Janis, Damien, and all the Plastics. At first, the Plastics are "wonderful" to Cady, pretending to be nice and inviting her to sit with them at lunch, thereby inviting her into their little group. However, Janis then reveals to Cady that they are actually evil robots that will ruin her life, and they concoct a devious plan to destroy the group. The plot point of the first act, the point where the storyline peaks in this act alone, is that one fateful Halloween night when the Plastics trick Cady into their Halloween party to go as an "ex-wife". By the end of the night, the closing of the first act is created: the plan Cady, Janis, and Damien create to destroy the group. This plot point, like a classic Hollywood film, occurs closer to the end of the act.

In the second act, the plan is executed, and Cady starts being a secret spy for the less cool "art freaks", while attempting to maintain her reputation within the Plastics. However, not surprisingly, Cady gets carried away after she realizes that she has the power to bring down the leader, Regina George, and replace her on the social ladder. Cady gets invited to all the parties, gets all the attention from the Plastics' loyal worshipers and boys, and receives all the perks of living the life of a Plastic. The peak of the act, the turning point, occurs when Cady skips Janis's art show to hold a party at her house when her parents are away, resulting in the wrath of Regina's Burn Book being exposed to all the students in the school and Janis turning away from her friend, Cady, and this plan as a whole. The end of the act happens when the Burn Book is distributed to the school, all the girls in the school are forced to stay behind longer to make amends, and Regina gets hit by a bus. Again, the plot point occurs at the end of the act, and the climax of the film occurs close to the end of the film.

In the last act, Cady learns the lesson from what she has done, and what she has turned into. In a quick resolution, "Girl World" is at peace once again, the Plastics are demolished (all the members go on to do their separate activities), and Janis, Cady, and Damien are once again a happy group of friends: the happy ending structure.

Happy Halloween :). 

TV Sitcom.

The most important aspects of the television sitcom are that 1. it tends to be funny, and 2. they are usually episodic. These two aspects are important in the television sitcom because the episodes are usually a half-hour long, short enough to keep the audience interested in its humor, and long enough to develop a storyline. Because it is not a drama, it is better that is episodic because the viewer can skip a few episodes without being unable to understand too much. The stereotypical American sitcom is short and sweet, a show that viewers can sit down for a short while and be entertained and not bored. I believe that this way, the sitcom is able to attract more viewers because in the world nowadays, it is difficult for everyone to sit down and follow a television show longer than about 30 minutes without being an avid fan of it. American sitcoms often become the trendsetters of popular culture ("That's what she said!" ~The Office) and are subject to easy conversation.

For example, take The Big Bang Theory. It generally has a new storyline every episode (I can skip an episode on accident and not realize it, apparently), so it makes it easier to catch on for people who did not start from the beginning. It's short enough to keep me attentive (as I am easily distracted if I have to sit there for longer than 30 minutes), and it is extremely humor-based, but not so much so that it overtakes the storyline.

Shots.

From the lecture Professor Ramirez-Berg gave us, we learned that there are 3 different shots that are particularly important: the long-short, the medium shot, and the close-up. In 500 Days of Summer, there is a long-short shot of the main character, Tom, after his "girlfriend" gets married to another man when he's sitting in their spot, reflecting on life. This shot is important because it shows his isolation and loneliness, a shot that encompasses a lot of space, but no one else within it. There are many medium shots in this movie, many of them including when Tom and Summer are together, having a conversation. One scene, in specific, when Tom and Summer are sitting on the couch together watching a "movie", and it shows their intimacy with each other, showing the rest of the room while the two of them choose to sit very close together. It's almost like the long-short shot, but this time, there's less space and someone else is in it, showing comfort. Lastly, there is the close-up. The scene that comes to mind is the scene where Tom and Summer are about to kiss on the bed at Ikea, and the shot is very close up. This shows the most intimacy of all the shots, and it's easy to show the emotion the two have for each other in this close-up shot.

Studio System.

In the traditional, old-fashioned studio system, every aspect of production was in one place-- from the actual production of the screenplay to the film to the editing. This is interesting because the different film companies were therefore completely vertically integrated. This affected the films that were made because oftentimes the companies were linked to their own specific genre (Ex.: MGM = the musical). Long-term, this set the foundation for the different kinds of genres that are alive today. We still see detective films and comedies, all genres that developed from this studio system. Take the musical as an example. Because MGM had developed it from the beginning a certain way, there's a set of criteria that it follows in order to qualify as a musical and since that time, we've been able to develop it into what it is today.

All in the Family

All in the Family is different from, a modern, contemporary family-based television show (for example, Modern Family) because based on that one episode, every aspect of each episode seems to be a lot simpler. For example, the plot for each episode seems to be very centered on one story. Shows like Modern Family nowadays have several stories going on simultaneously, and they are all somehow linked. Also, there are much fewer characters in All in the Family. Total, there are 4 characters in the family. In Modern Family, there are 11 family members; even in the TV show from the 90s, Full House, there were 9 family members, plus a dog. (Perhaps families are getting bigger as time goes on!) In addition, the children in the family of All in the Family are not really children; they are adults, whereas Modern Family contains teenagers and younger. Lastly, the situation of the episode is based on trying to repair a mistake or attempting to accomplish something nowadays; however, for All in the Family, it was based a lot more strongly on belief systems.

However, the outline of characters is still generally the same: Fathers are usually silly, the "screwball" of the family; mothers are usually rational, but at the same time, hilariously overprotective. The children, of course, are still trying to get away from their parents' grip. The only difference in that now is that there is the existence of teenagers and pre-teenagers in the family now, rather than full-grown adults.

The issues All in the Family dealt with are much more controversial and serious (although they didn't make it seem serious) than ones dealt with in television shows now; if issues like that were handled on TV now, there would be arguments and possibly lawsuits. The issues that people deal with now on television are much more shallow and unimportant, probably to avoid controversy. If issues like that are mentioned in television episodes today, it would be handled in a much more serious light.