Warner bros
. gritty crime
. Private detective thrillers
. Depression era America films
. Urban settings
. Snappy dialogue
. No  sentimentality
. Pacey
. Unremarkable looking guys as leads
. Strong personalities

. Slave wages
. Casablanca
. Mervyn Leroy and Michael Curtiz
. Michael Curtiz under Warner Brothers - most of them staged in a very realistic world, hard edged realism

People involved in Casablanca
. Jack Warner - Was anti-nazi, fully committed to the allied war effort (was a polish immigrant and executive producer)
. Hal B. Warner - budgets, actors, directors (He was producer)
. Very controlling people within the studio system 
. Michael Curtiz: could do different genres
. Style: High crane shots, unusual camera angles, complex compositions, much camera movement, subjective shots, high contrast lighting
. Cinematographer - Arthur Edeson: realism and expressionism, film noir, low key lighting, - casablanca uses expressionistic low-key noir style
. Max Steiner composer: godfarther of film music, memorable scores matching themes and characters on screen, perfectly synchronises music with action on screen

. Humphrey Bogart: hard boiled, no nonsense, mans man PI/ detective; laconic dialogue. A household name
. He did Maltese Falcon, film noir (could be considered the auteur of Casablanca)

Context:
. 1941 December pearl harbour
. Film noir + melodrama
. Contracts at warner brothers
. Hays code: moral guidelines for film (restrictions) these were enforced on films to some degree like casablanca, limiting an Auteur
. 'Shouldn't lower the morality of the audience, so the audience shouldn't feel sympathetic or aligned to crime'
. The villain to always be punished

Political contexts:
. American commitment to the war
. Rick as embodiment of America's reluctance to join the war
. Morocco as a French colony
. Refugee stories
. Propagandist intentions
. Rick from self serving to willing to make sacrifices - America from refusing to join the war to joining the war
. Casablanca 1943 January
. WW2 reignited the war genre   
. Casablanca - haven't done age, genre, representation,

Classical Hollywood film form
. stories that are clear, entertaining and vivid
. continuity editing, set design, and lighting that were developed during this era were designed not only to provide attractuve images but also guide audience attention to salient narrative events from movement to movement
. elements of style serve to shape the narrative, draw attention to, underline, and point out what it is that the audience needs to see or hear in order to understand the scene
. Conventions of classical:
- narratives are a chain of events in cause and effect relationship
. the films were shot un a controlled environment, often on the studio lot, yet display verisimilitude
. They have invisible or continuity editing
. there is one main plot with a limited number of sub plots

Classical hollywood film form:
. 1st establish time, place and relevant characters
. location might be indicated with an exterior shot
. Characters then take over the narrative
. The scene should reveal character's spatial positions (where there all located and their states of mind)
. establishing shot indicates where everyone is located
. Characters then act out their goals after this is established
. the classical scene ends with a step towards the goal and or/ a characters reaction to a new piece of information




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