The Golden Age of Hollywood motion picture making was a period of almost 30 years, beginning in 1928 and ending in the mid-1950s. This program focuses on the classical Hollywood era of the 1930s through the 1950s. The hosts discuss and present clips from some of the films which made this era of Hollywood so memorable including the musical Dixiana, the western (Fighting Caravans), A Star is Born, The Vampire Bat, The Little Princess (Shirley Temple), Father's Little Dividend with Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor..

Film genre, or the classification of film into categories is based upon designated characteristics that distinguish one film from another. Genre explores what characteristics indicate a film genre like horror, musical, Western and comedy and how viewers understand the story put before them. They remain a useful way to categorize and distinguish most films, so that audiences know what to expect. Most film critics agree on ten film genres: action-adventure, comedy, costume films, epics, horror, musical, science fiction and fantasy, suspense, war, and the western. This program discusses the following films and the genre of each - Angel and the Badman, The Road to Bali, Royal Wedding, My Man Godfrey and The Big Combo..

This program discuss three big jobs in motion picture making; screenwriting, producing and directing. The director is responsible for the overall feel and look of the film and decides on the use all of the other process of movie making - lighting, editing, mise en scene, cinematography and sound which ultimately reflect the director's control and vision. Explore films from major directors of cinema and learn how a script is formatted. Includes the opening scene from the Howard Hawks film His Girl Friday, Stanley Donen, the 1951 musical Royal Wedding, Vin-cente Minnelli, comedy film Father's Little Dividend, Frank Capra, 1941 film, Meet John Doe, John Huston, 1953 film Beat The Devi and Michael Gordon's 1950 film, Cyrano De Bergerac..

Flicker Alley and the Blackhawk Films Collection, in collaboration with Filmmakers Showcase, are proud to present Masterworks of American Avant-garde Experimental Film 1920-1970. This breathtaking collection includes 37 films, restored to pristine high-definition, from some of the foremost experimental filmmakers of the 20th century.. Commencing in 1920 with Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand's creative collaboration on Manhatta, successive generations of experimental filmmakers and artists have worked in collaboration or alone to create a cinema capable of expressing dynamic unspoken concepts in totally abstract visual terms.. To watch these films is to see the world anew through cinematic interventions: fast cutting, expressive camerawork, abstract animation, surrealistic collage, distorted and superimposed imagery, and many more extraordinary techniques. Essentially the filmmakers ask us to open our eyes and see, to permit the reception of pure sensations uninhibited by any complex web of predetermined associations dominant in mainstream Hollywood cinema.. Collected from archives around the world, and beautifully restored in high definition, the majority of vintage silent films in Masterworks of American Avant-garde Experimental Film 1920-1970 feature new musical scores from innovative composers Donald Sosin, George Antheil, Eric Beheim, Rodney Sauer, Gustavo Matamoros, Henry Wolfe and Phil Carluzzo..

Every June, a packed house fills the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco for a raucous showcase of the finest in short gay men's films. Frameline, host to the oldest and largest LGBTQ film festival, now brings the festival to you. The misadventures of the gay experience come to life in this variety of award-winning shorts-from awkward threesomes to dubious dating etiquette to the trials and tribulations of shopping excursions.. Settle into your finest boxers and enjoy brief films with Frameline Presents: Fun in Boys Shorts. After convincing his husband to retire their old lumpy futon, Nelson is forced to come out in a spectacular way while shopping in Spooners. A hopeless romantic learns a thing or two about relationships when he gets too close to the perfect couple in the awkwardly hilarious Housebroken. Love and acceptance for all hairstyles (or lack thereof) are found in the international musical sensation Bald Guy (Skallamann). Leo's dreams of being an international superstar are hard-fought working in a fish cannery in Alaska is a Drag. A cartoon character goes to therapy because he feels rejected in a "live-action" world in Unanimated. A break from a long-term relationship leads to surprising results in Sabbatical. And finally, an urban gay couple disputes their very different views on holding hands in public, in P.D.A..

Sound investigates the various types of sound, how they are recorded, and how they are incorporated in a film. Besides the visuals in moving pictures, sound also contributes to part of those magical effects. This program will focus on sound design and how life can be breathed into a project through the use of carefully selected and carefully placed sounds. When we think about or talk about them, we can categorize all sounds into one of three categories: dialogue or voice, music, and sound effects. Sound effects can be sounds that occur naturally within the film itself or sounds that add to the overall impact that the film presents. Music is quite often not part of the film itself, but a musical track that adds to the mood of the film. Both music and sound effects are usually classified as either diegetic or non-diegetic sounds. Simply put, non-diegetic sounds are those which do not occur within the film, while diegetic sounds occur inside of the film's action. This program features diegetic and non-diegetic music in the 1950 film D-O-A Atmospheric sound known as foleying in Meet John Doe and manufactured sound elements (suspenseful mood music, a ray gun emission, the whirling of flying spaceships) in the 1953 Killers From Outer Space..

This program focus's on lighting and how a cinematographer and lighting engineer work together to showcase what is put before the camera. Lighting is a crucial component to filmmaking because it enables the director to say, "Look here, not there," or to light up an entire scene so we can peruse what's in the film's frame. Without light we are left with this - LIGHTS OFF - nothing. We need light to see the film and we need lighting engineers to handle and control the lighting so the director can attain the look they want. Quite often what makes an average production exceptional is the lighting. This program discusses what tools are used to create different lighting set-ups and uses a number of examples to illustrate how this important element is decided. Lighting design falls into two categories, High-Key lighting and Low-Key lighting. High-Key lighting provides relatively bright, even illumination of the film frame or scene, the kind the director and producer of a big-scale musical productions may choose to showcase 60 dancers and 20 chorus singers and their elaborate costumes. Low-key lighting is focused lighting with strong contrast. Low-key lighting creates fast fall-off, which means that the image goes from light to dark very quickly, falling off into shadows or darkness. Low-key lighting works well in horror films, or any film in which a director wishes to create suspense or keep you guessing what is in the dark, inky shadows on the outskirts of the frame. This program discusses the following films and the lighting of each - Royal Wedding (musical) the scene is brightly lit throughout in both, wide and medium shots. Night of the Living Dead (horror) to enhance the suspense, the lighting creates shadows which heighten the mystery. Flying Deuces (comedy) like a musical, relies on a high-key lighting set-up, eliminating almost all shadows..