Monster's Inc. in Three Acts

Monster's Inc. is a movie about a monster named Sully. Sully, our hero and protagonist, is introduced to us as the employee of the month at his power plant that specializes in scaring children at night and collecting their screams for energy. All is well for Sully (except for the plant's financial trouble) when the film opens, but things quickly turn when he accidently brings a child back to his world. Children are thought to be extremely dangerous by monsters. She is soon discovered and a frantic city-wide for search Boo (the child) is started. Sully and his friend Mike make the decision to try and sneak her back into her room by returning her at the plant. This decision raises the stakes since they are at great risk of being caught by law enforcement. This is about 30 minutes in.

In act two, the trio is faced with Randall, Sully's enemy at the company, trying to steal the child for his scream extraction machine. The machine will produce more energy and save the company money, but it will harm kids and can only be used after kidnapping them. After a long chase, the trio discover that the head of the company, once thought trustworthy, is really Randall's accomplice. Sully make the decision to try and return Boo despite all the obstacles and expose his boss as a kidnapper. This is the peak of the movie. They are cornered by the boss and it looks as if they are going to lose Boo-and their lives. This act ends about 10 minutes from the end of the movie.

In act three, Sully exposes his boss by recording him saying that he will kidnap children in order to save his company. The boss is apprehended and the child is returned to her room. Everything has turned out well. Even the company, with Sully as CEO, is doing well now that Sully has discovered children's laughter is a better source of energy than screams. This is a Hollywood ending, wrapping up all subplots and the main plot with a happy solution.

Sitcom - South Park

South Park is a situational comedy about four young boys growing up in Colorado. Throughout the series, they are faced with the misadventures the world presents them. Although it lacks the usual telltale signs of a sitcom (a laugh track and live actors) it contains an important element that many sitcoms have-a lesson at the end of almost every episode.

Many sitcoms use a narrative to put one or more of the regular cast of characters through a moral quandary. Whether the character(s) makes the right or wrong decision, by the end of the episode, they usually are able to summarize what they have learned in a tidy speech. However, the characters are usually pretty static and have more to learn next week. And so it is in South Park.

Nearly every week either Stan or Kyle delivers a speech on what the episode’s events have taught them. On the 200^th episode, Kyle delivered a speech about not bowing down to fear. This was inspired by the events of the episode, where the creators depicted a censored version of the prophet Muhammad. However, the speech was never played in it’s entirety because Comedy Central feared what would happen as a result. The episode aired with Kyle’s mouth moving but his words bleeped out and there is currently no way to legally view the episode online.

Shot by Shot: Goodfellas

The following shots are all from the "Billy Batts" scene from Goodfellas. It opens with an exterior long shot to show the location of the altercation. It is clearly a bar, orienting the scene.

The original scene in it's entirety

The next two are medium shots. It is a narrow hall, so the film utilizes two medium shots to show that both Billy Batts' crew and Henry Hill's crew are there at separate parts of the bar.

The following shots are close ups of Henry Hill's crew. This is used to convey the emotions of each character. Joe Pesci is enraged and out of control. We as an audience now know that he has a terrible temper. Then there is a shot of Robert DeNiro, who might be just as crazy as Pesci's character considering he is beating a man to death with a certain amount of detachment. These are both shot from below, displaying their power in the situation over the man they are beating. Ray Liotta's face conveys horror at what is happening. 

Meet Me in Old Hollywood

1944’s Meet Me in St. Louis starred a young Judy Garland in yet another musical. This was a result of her being under contract to MGM. The studio system meant that the stars were all owned and only allowed to work under the supervision of their particular studio. The result of this was an abundance of Judy Garland musicals.  To keep up interest in their stars, studios would have to use them frequently. It also meant that since they had all the tools to make a successful film over again (the same writers, directors, stars, studios), they flooded the market with similar films. For Judy Garland, those were musicals. She did nine musicals just with Mickey Rooney. There were a trademark for MGM, and so they are now synonymous with their famous star forever.