Star Wars: Fred Ott's Sneeze

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Star Wars (1977) is one of the world’s most successful films of all time. It has made a terrific impact on popular culture since its release. Furthermore, Star Wars changed the narrative and aesthetic style of future Hollywood films. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, illustrates how cinema has evolved when compared to films like: Fred Ott’s Sneeze. Ultimately, this essay will explain the historical steps that led to the making of Star Wars and describe the films place in history in the point of views of the: narrative and cinematic style, genre, auteur theory and the global film industry. Cinema was born around 1895, the first films that were made did not have much of a narrative/story structure and were less than fifteen minutes long. “Beginning…show more content…
Once narrative clarity was established, films started to have big sets, costumes, lighting and in the 1930’s sound and technicolor was introduced into the film world. Star Wars has all these elements of a typical Hollywood film to develop the narrative, illustrate the character’s inner and outer motivation and the film’s theme, mood ect. “Today we regard color as a realistic element in films, but in the 19030’s and 1940’s, it was often associated with fantasy and spectacle” (Bordwell and Thompson 221), even though during the time Star Wars was created color was seen as an everyday component. Color played a huge role because it symbolizes and represents the theme of good and evil. Another cinematic element is the production design, Star Wars had unique costumes, tons of props like the lightsabers and the locations. The film was filmed in different locations outdoors and in studios like older Hollywood films. Star Wars also took special effects to the next level, by having them computer generate. The film has visual and sound effects to help develop the narrative and the theme of the movie. The cinematography of the film uses a variety of close ups, medium, long shots, high and low angled shots and moving shots. The cinematography element helps develop the narrative visual, but the editing is what puts all the shots together to finalize the film. Star Wars has a mixture of…show more content…
Social and technological factors also contributed to the formation of new genres. In the mid 1940’s Hollywood started to experience a decline due to the talent and audience drain and the Paramount decision that eliminated vertical integration. The audience was more selective than ever and Hollywood was trying their best to make films that would appeal to the audience. As a result Hollywood tried everything they possibly could, “With greater competition for the entertainment dollar, the major firms gave nearly all genres a higher gloss” (Bordwell and Thompson 341). Genre became a big factor when making movies, Star Wars takes many genres to create an epic film. Its genres are science fiction, which teenagers loved, fantasy, adventure and action. Star Wars gained more respectability for the science fiction genre due to its inspiring storyline and amazing visual, special and sound effects. The mixture of genres illustrates the changes in storytelling and Star Wars shows Hollywood’s response to the decline. Star Wars was big, colorful, expensive, but the important part is that it made the studios money. To sum up, this film created a new standard and structure for Hollywood

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