Questions on Independent Cinema Screenwriting and Independent Black Cinema

According to Murphy, what are the two major faults of the traditional screenwriting manuals in their treatment of independent cinema?

 

Murphy says an awful lot about the 3 act structure and the downfalls of Hollywood structure that is preached over and over in screenwriting manuals.  I believe his first fault in traditional screenwriting manuals that he explains is that the formulas are believed to generate salable Hollywood projects.  By plugging into a formula, the movie script that fit in the formula have a great chance of being successful economically.  The second fault with the manuals is that all the preaching of formulas puts the independent screenwriting in a position of writing within the formula but having the mindset of not following the rules if it seems creatively sound.

 

 

Why did the filmmakers of the "LA Rebellion / Los Angeles School" (including Charles Burnett) reject traditional Hollywood production values?

 

The LA rebellion was a way for independent black filmmakers to reject Hollywood production values because of the way Hollywood had portrayed the black race.  Schools like UCLA produced black television through athletes like Jim Brown.  Hollywood believed that independent black filmmakers were technically inadequate which turns out to not be true.  The independent black filmmakers had mastered the technical aspects of Hollywood filmmaking and chose to reject it.  Lott says that the alternative style of the LA school aimed to politicize the question of technical competence.

 

 

According to Ed Guerrero, what were the three phases of the black image in Hollywood films?

 

The three phases of the black image in Hollywood films started as early as 1918.  The first phase was a pre-blaxploitation era, during which a mainstream image of black accodationism and submissiveness prevailed.  The black people basically conformed to the demands of the white people.  Next, there a blaxploitation era of resistance and co-optation dominated by black action films employing strategic reversals of mainstream ideology.  I believe this phase to be the time of Shaft, which was parodied by the movie Undercover Brother in certain themes.  The final phase is filmmaking practices of both black independents and blaxploitation era filmmakers slowly moving together into a new black cinema.  I believe this is talking about some black films being politic and others being for entertainment like Big Mommas House.

 

What are the two distinct notions of "guerrilla cinema" exemplified by Spike Lee and Bill Gunn?

 

Spike Lee’s notion of guerrilla cinema is that independent black cinema sphere is really a stepping-stone into the Hollywood industry.  Lee is the leader of a new generation of black filmmakers in Hollywood.  On the other hand, filmmakers like Bill Gunn have use guerrilla cinema as a way of contestation.  The example of how Hollywood hired him to make a black horror film and instead he made two consciously political black films that were never released theatrically but constantly play at film festivals.  Lee has found a way to fit into the Hollywood system and still get his message across with movies such as He Got Game and Do The Right Thing.