Break Down Cinema

Introduction: The Phantom Stage Some time ago, I learned about Soundstage 28, the oldest Universal Studios sound stage where numerous Universal films were shot over eighty-nine years before it was demolished in 2014 (theStudioTour.com, 2014) as part of Universal's plans to build several new theme park attractions (Erik, 2014). I found it rather depressing to hear about the elimination of this site that was so major to film history for decidedly capitalistic reasons. It motivated me to seek out the silent film adaptation of  The Phantom of the Opera  (Julian, 1925). In a sense, I thought of it as my way of helping keep the memory of this article of film history alive. Featuring it prominently on-screen, this film is arguably the poster child film for Soundstage 28, so much so that it is often colloquially referred to as "The Phantom Stage." Since its demolition, the image and memory of Soundstage 28 survive to a certain extent in this film and other images that documen...

The following is a slightly edited version of one of my pieces of written coursework from my undergraduate university studies. I have posted it here with a slightly altered title alongside my later works for the purpose of showing the development of my academic research and writing skills. I wrote and submitted the original version of this essay for university coursework in 2019. Content Warning: this essay features occasional references to violence. Reversing Roe (Stern and Sundberg, 2018) is a Netflix documentary about the ongoing US political conflict over the issue of abortion and its legal history. The film’s central focus is the supreme court case Roe v. Wade , 410 U.S. 113 (1973) ruling abortion access a constitutional right (Planned Parenthood, 2019). The following is an analysis of the documentary’s cinematic techniques within the framework of Bill Nichols’ six documentary modes (Nichols, 2010, pp. 167-211), and an evaluation of its documentary values using Michael Rabiger’s ...