Hollywood filmmaking standards and techniques

The principles of Hollywood cinema have been developed since 1910s and consist of a specific way of making films and fixed conventions of film practice. 

Titanic, the first movie to gross more than 1 billion dollars, has become an enormous success by following strict Hollywood filmmaking patterns. First of all, the movie has two parallel plots, a struggle between surviving a disaster and presenting a romance, director James Cameron, quoted in Maltby(2003, p10), says “only by telling it is a love story can you appreciate the loss of separation and the loss caused by death.”

Bordwell (p.18) highlights the idea by suggesting that “The classical Hollywood film presents psychologically defined individuals who struggle to solve a clear-cut problem or to attain specific goals.In the course of this struggle, the characters enter into conflict with others or with external  circumstances.”

Moreover, the romance was between the lower-class Jack Dawson(Leonardo DiCaprio) and well-heeled Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), emphasizing the social class difference but in the same time showing to the audience that love is stronger than anything else, a typical Hollywood film motif.

Thus, we can state that Titanic has the Classical Hollywood narratives which is addressed mainly at women, with about 100 minutes of the movie concerned with the romance between Jack and Rose.  

Different people identify themselves with different aspects of the movie with a diverse range of emotions being transmitted to the audience. Like in the majority of Hollywood films, there is a pick moment which creates the thrill of the action to  be presented. When Rose tells Jack that she will leave the ship with him as a result of her love, the ship hits the iceberg. The spectacular action movie begins. 

However, a Hollywood fixed convention about film is that it has to have a “happy ending”. Bordwell(p.21) suggest in Hollywood filmmaking there is “the pressure for a happy ending" and "the need for a logical wrap-up.” The movie is designed for the pleasure of the viewers.

Another important aspect present in Titanic is the narrative transitivity. In The European Cinema Reader (2002, p.74-75) the concept is defined as “ a sequence of events in which each unit (…) follows the one preceding it according to a chain of causation.”

In addition to that, Hollywood film patterns include well know stars and spectacular settings. The female viewers had the opportunity to gaze at Leonardo DiCaprio, a well known actor, while the action happened on a luxurious ship.

Titanic can be seen as the visual definition of the principles of Hollywood cinema.

Another movie in which we can see the characteristics of Hollywood filmmaking is A walk to remember. The story presents the main characters, Landon Carter and Jamie Sullivan, as living in different worlds because of their social status. However, the story takes an unexpected turn when a joke planned by Landon and his friends goes terribly wrong and his punishment is mandatory participation in various after-school activities. This is the moment that the two start interacting and after a while they fall in love with each other. However, Jamie Sullivan has a secret, she is affected by terminal leukemia, the movie ending with Jamie's death, but only after the couple are married in the same chapel as was Jamie's deceased mother. All the characteristics presented earlier of Hollywood filmmaking standards are valid in this movie as well.

In addition, because it is a typical Hollywood film it had to have the “happy ending.” The last scene presents Landon and Jamie`s father talking, when he reveals he has finished college and been accepted to medical school; prior to meeting her he had no plans for life. This showed how much Jamie changed him. 

Reference List

Books

• Bordwell, D. (1985). The classical Hollywood Cinema. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p.18-21. 
  
• Fowler, C. (2002). The European Cinema Reader. London: Routledge. p. 74-75 
• Maltby, R. (2003). Hollywood Cinema. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. p. 10-14.

 Online

• Ramos, J. . (2011). On James Cameron's 'Titanic'. Available: http://amateurfilmstudies.blogspot.com/2011/08/on-james-camerons-titanic.html. Last accessed 2nd March 2012. 
• SunSeven. Titanic, the epic success of a movie. Available: http://sunseven.hubpages.com/hub/December-10-Epic-Success-of-Titanic-the-Movie. Last accessed 2nd March 2012.