HUMA 2740

Lecture 19

- Classical segment tends also to define itself microcosmically (through

internal repetitions of style or story material) and macrocosmically (by
parallels with other segments of the same magnitude)
- Each film establishes its own scale of segmentation
- Classical segment is not a sealed entity – spatially and temporally it is
closed, but causally it is open
- Montage sequence tends to function as a transitional summary,
compressing a single causal development, but the scene of character
action—the building block of classical Hollywood dramaturgy—is
more intricately constructed
- Each scene displays distinct phases
- First comes the exposition, which specifies the time, place, and
relevant characters—their spatial positions and their current states of
mind
- In the middle of the scene, characters act toward their goals
- In the course of this, the classical scene continues or closes off
cause-effect developments left dangling in prior scenes while also
opening up new causal lines for future development
- At least one line of action must be left suspended, in order to
motivate the shifts to the next scene, which picks up the suspended
line (often via a "dialogue hook")
- The Killers (1946) example
- The linkage of localized causal lines must eventually terminate
- There are two ways of regarding the classical ending
 - Can see it as the crowning of the structure, the logical conclusion of
the string of events, the final effect of the initial cause
o View has some validity, not only in the light of the tight
construction that is encountered in Hollywood films but also
given the precepts of Hollywood screenwriting

Based on the eventual creation of a whole series of competing local

stations governed by two overlapping govt bureaucracies: the Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
(CPB) which allocated funding to all various affiliates

- Initially, CPB oversaw operations of NET, then after NET, it was

folded into a new network (PBS) in 1970
- CPB oversaw operations of PBS and also responsible for allocating
funds for a public radio network – National Public Radio (NPR)
founded in 1970 and on air by 1971
- CPB set up to distribute and administer funding to local stations to
produce programming that fir into this educational mandate
- Since the production of TV shows was expensive, this approach
wasn’t very successful at first, few local stations had the resources to
create their own programming
- Reason why PBS created in 1970 – to distribute programs to local
stations that couldn’t afford to make their own
- PBS eventually developed into a network of more than 300 stations
today in which a small number of affiliates in the biggest cities (along
with independent producers under contract) make most of the
programming
- When issue of funding was raised, it was hoped that public TV would
adopt the model that BBC had used when it was founded earlier in
England—that TV set owners would pay an annual license fee to fund
the cost of the operations of the BBC
- Major problem for PBS, even today, was funding