What historical factors influenced the rise of the American Anti-Hero in cinema and how does this hero contradict the Classic Hollywood Ideology.
After World War II the American anti-hero emerged in order to bring something new to the theaters. The anit-hero was not only what the Americas wanted but it also reflected the American culture. Studios believe that the actions portrayed are not fiction in which they design but more along the lines of what society has come to portray in its world. Whether it is good, bad, or ugly the American anti-hero embodies a change in cinema just like the world began to change after the war. In addition, by allowing for the heros to rebel against the status quo the anti hero would emerge and in a sense provide propaganda to the people to have themselves rebel as well. "Thus, the anti hero can be seen in earlier american cinema as well, but was in no way as popular as it became in World War II." After the bomb drop on Hiroshim, America had lost its innocence and needed a new kind of hero that would represent the dark side of America. America NEEDED and anti hero.
A controversy over the American anti hero arrised where there was confusion as to why the title had gained so much popularity if it portrayed the Americans in a demonic fashion. John Garfiel made a name for himself in the 1940s because he allowed the audience to love its protagonist and love its villain where the villain can sometimes be the anti hero. He believed that staying true to the characters personality was more important than creating lies in the story even if it meant loosing and audience. "Audiences throughout the 1930s and 40s were enthralled by the darker side of human nature, as Film Noir was truly a guilty pleasure, but when the likes of Garfield and Brando and Clift began to rock the boat, they absolutely ate it up." The audience comes back to these films primarily because they can relate to the wrong doings; people are evil people and most of us cant help but to commit a sin or wrong doing. What I understand is the goal of the American anti hero is that by portraying evil and commiting evil actions, the audience can learn from this and respectfully do the right thing based on what they watch. It was said that the American anti hero was a also a representation of human anger that arose after World War II and the skepticism as to what really is heroism.
Unlike Garfields characters, Brando's American anti-hero comined masculinity and vulnerability. As a result, this mixture provided a sense of depth and a more complex nature to the character. "America in the 1950s was a country full of Terry Malloys. Men and women have been through tough times, who had been knocked down a time or two but still got back up, who did what they had to for their family, who may have done wrong, but could still do right." After the Cold War, peopel embraced that a character can have two side to him or her. They could display a good and evil side that accompanied mixed emotions from the audience. Characters can neither be heroic or demonic. What they represent is the best of both worlds and are never seen for what they truly are. The complex American anit -hero in my opinion questions society and even after the movie is over the audience is able to go back home and reflect on life or even themselves, whatever needs to bee reviewed in terms of whether it is right or wrong.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Intensified Continuity
According to David Bordell, explain how and why continuity has intensified in Hollywood cinema. Also consider whether anything has been lost with this change.
David Bordell descrbibes four new ways of how continuity has been intensified in Hollywood cinema. http://chs.schoolloop.com/file/1093918504865/5099174491148334296.pdf
Over the course of film making, the Average Shot Length (ASL) has decreased in length from 19 seconds to even as short as 2.7 seconds. This extreme change in editing has caused for rapid transitions between shots alowing for the plot of the movie, short film, or clip to progress. This, i believe, is one of the reason shots have decreased in length. "As Kuleshov and Pudovkin pointed out, clasical continuity contains built-in redundencies: shot/reverse shot reiterates the information about character position givin in the establishing shot, and so do eyelines and body orientations." Generally the audience has a short attention span including Americans; they are a prime factor in the film industry. It is probably true that Americans watch more cinema than any other coutries in the world. In order to keep an audience intrigued to the story, you not only have to have a good narrative but David Bordell describes that the shots have to be shorter. And although an average shot length of about 3 seconds should be enough to keep the story moving towards its climax the audience looses time to focus on details within the shot in order to find a deeper meaning within the story.
The bipolar extremes of lense lengths is the second part of intensified contuity; it explored a variety of lenses that have been used throughout the film industry and the movies apart of it. From the 1910-1940s normal lenses with focal lengths of 50 mm - 2 inches and longer lenses with 100 mm - 500mm and shorter lenses with 25 mm - 35 mm were the foundation of film making. By the 1970s, cinematographers had been able to manipulate the lenses throuhg anamorphic processes which would for example distort a shot on a wide angles lense. Wide angle lenses became the standard for most shots: establishing shots, close ups, and medium shots. In addition, long focus lense is also apart of the standard shot list mentioned earlier. "Altman, Milos Forman, and other directors might use long lenses for nearly every setup in a scene." Intensified continuity arrives when new stylsitic forms of filming such as the "wipe-by" cut makes its appearence. "Here a long lense shot picks out a figure, and then something closer to the camera slides into view; cut as our view is completely masked; when the obstruction leaves the frame, we have a closer framing of the figure." Generally, even though we loose our ability to focus on whatever we want to in the film whether it may be an orrange or a coffe mug in a shot I believe it is best to trust the directors vision in deciding which shots he or she wants the audience to focus on.
More close framings in dialogue describes the change that filming has undergone when framing a shot. From the 1930s to the late 1960s the plan americaine was another standard in filming. It composed of more than one person but in recent times it has gone to singles. Singles are shots where, as suggested in the name, there is only one person in the shot. With single shots the director is able to cut out the best performances of the character which is ultimitaley best for a film. Plan Americain consisted of medium shots that go from the waist-up, medium close-ups that go from the chest-up, standard close-ups that get a full facade, and extreme close-ups that only get a part of the face. After the introduction to widescreen film showings, the plan american was no longer good enough. Long and wide lenses dominated the shot compositions in movies. Also, tighter framing has been introduced. "Mouths, brows, and eyes become the prinicple sources of information and emotion, and actors must scale their performances across varying degrees of intimate framing."This other form of intensified continuity has proven that facial expression communicate lot more than a full body shot. The face provides a lot of emotion and with tight framing then it often eliminates the need for establshing shots.
The free roaming camera also intensified contuity. Utilities that allow for the camera to move in different directions with efficiency has allowed for impressive shots. Although during there introduction they seemed impressive they have developed into a cliche. But I believe that we are so used to these camera motions and that they are so visually stunning is what appeals to us continuously. "As a figure of style, the free-ranging camera may have been popularized by the late 1970s horror films which implied hovering, slightly shaky camera might represent a monsters point of view." Camera work defines a character, it will either make them look foolish or serious; we appreciate the camera work only because it will do justice to a character or not.
David Bordell descrbibes four new ways of how continuity has been intensified in Hollywood cinema. http://chs.schoolloop.com/file/1093918504865/5099174491148334296.pdf
Over the course of film making, the Average Shot Length (ASL) has decreased in length from 19 seconds to even as short as 2.7 seconds. This extreme change in editing has caused for rapid transitions between shots alowing for the plot of the movie, short film, or clip to progress. This, i believe, is one of the reason shots have decreased in length. "As Kuleshov and Pudovkin pointed out, clasical continuity contains built-in redundencies: shot/reverse shot reiterates the information about character position givin in the establishing shot, and so do eyelines and body orientations." Generally the audience has a short attention span including Americans; they are a prime factor in the film industry. It is probably true that Americans watch more cinema than any other coutries in the world. In order to keep an audience intrigued to the story, you not only have to have a good narrative but David Bordell describes that the shots have to be shorter. And although an average shot length of about 3 seconds should be enough to keep the story moving towards its climax the audience looses time to focus on details within the shot in order to find a deeper meaning within the story.
The bipolar extremes of lense lengths is the second part of intensified contuity; it explored a variety of lenses that have been used throughout the film industry and the movies apart of it. From the 1910-1940s normal lenses with focal lengths of 50 mm - 2 inches and longer lenses with 100 mm - 500mm and shorter lenses with 25 mm - 35 mm were the foundation of film making. By the 1970s, cinematographers had been able to manipulate the lenses throuhg anamorphic processes which would for example distort a shot on a wide angles lense. Wide angle lenses became the standard for most shots: establishing shots, close ups, and medium shots. In addition, long focus lense is also apart of the standard shot list mentioned earlier. "Altman, Milos Forman, and other directors might use long lenses for nearly every setup in a scene." Intensified continuity arrives when new stylsitic forms of filming such as the "wipe-by" cut makes its appearence. "Here a long lense shot picks out a figure, and then something closer to the camera slides into view; cut as our view is completely masked; when the obstruction leaves the frame, we have a closer framing of the figure." Generally, even though we loose our ability to focus on whatever we want to in the film whether it may be an orrange or a coffe mug in a shot I believe it is best to trust the directors vision in deciding which shots he or she wants the audience to focus on.
More close framings in dialogue describes the change that filming has undergone when framing a shot. From the 1930s to the late 1960s the plan americaine was another standard in filming. It composed of more than one person but in recent times it has gone to singles. Singles are shots where, as suggested in the name, there is only one person in the shot. With single shots the director is able to cut out the best performances of the character which is ultimitaley best for a film. Plan Americain consisted of medium shots that go from the waist-up, medium close-ups that go from the chest-up, standard close-ups that get a full facade, and extreme close-ups that only get a part of the face. After the introduction to widescreen film showings, the plan american was no longer good enough. Long and wide lenses dominated the shot compositions in movies. Also, tighter framing has been introduced. "Mouths, brows, and eyes become the prinicple sources of information and emotion, and actors must scale their performances across varying degrees of intimate framing."This other form of intensified continuity has proven that facial expression communicate lot more than a full body shot. The face provides a lot of emotion and with tight framing then it often eliminates the need for establshing shots.
The free roaming camera also intensified contuity. Utilities that allow for the camera to move in different directions with efficiency has allowed for impressive shots. Although during there introduction they seemed impressive they have developed into a cliche. But I believe that we are so used to these camera motions and that they are so visually stunning is what appeals to us continuously. "As a figure of style, the free-ranging camera may have been popularized by the late 1970s horror films which implied hovering, slightly shaky camera might represent a monsters point of view." Camera work defines a character, it will either make them look foolish or serious; we appreciate the camera work only because it will do justice to a character or not.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Blog: Advanced Editing Notes: 3. Soviet Montage and 4. Realism
Soviet Montage and Formalism:
a. Pudovkins style of constructive editing insisted that each new shot should make a new point. By putting shots on top of each other he could juxtapose them to create new meanings. Instead of close ups, which were to intrusive to the film, he created a montage.
b. the Kuleshov effect was a way to put two shots together. By editing together two seperate shots with two seperate meanings you can form a new meaning. For example if u see a man and then a picture of an apple than you can tell he is hungry, but if you see a man and then a picture of girl playing you would think he is a creeper.
c. The Eisenstinial montage was a "mythical process." Each shot had to contribute to the overall meaning of the sequence rather than contain all the info in one shot. It had to produce a new thought process that provoked new ideas. It contributes to the Odessa Steps because it allows for coverage of most chraracters. When everyone is running away from the shooting soldier we see people dying and people falling and we overall see how everyones reactions contributes to the overall distress of the film.
Andre Bazin and Realism:
a. Bazins frustration with Classical editing was the fact that peopel were not able to experience the entire scence. He felt by cutting the shots into a specific order than the audience was deprived of information.
b. Realist film makers want there audience to chose what meaning they want to put together and form an opinion.
c. Realism in film is accomplished by using long shots, wide screen, lengthy takes, deep focus, panning, craning, tilting, or tracking rather than cutting to individual shots.
a. Pudovkins style of constructive editing insisted that each new shot should make a new point. By putting shots on top of each other he could juxtapose them to create new meanings. Instead of close ups, which were to intrusive to the film, he created a montage.
b. the Kuleshov effect was a way to put two shots together. By editing together two seperate shots with two seperate meanings you can form a new meaning. For example if u see a man and then a picture of an apple than you can tell he is hungry, but if you see a man and then a picture of girl playing you would think he is a creeper.
c. The Eisenstinial montage was a "mythical process." Each shot had to contribute to the overall meaning of the sequence rather than contain all the info in one shot. It had to produce a new thought process that provoked new ideas. It contributes to the Odessa Steps because it allows for coverage of most chraracters. When everyone is running away from the shooting soldier we see people dying and people falling and we overall see how everyones reactions contributes to the overall distress of the film.
Andre Bazin and Realism:
a. Bazins frustration with Classical editing was the fact that peopel were not able to experience the entire scence. He felt by cutting the shots into a specific order than the audience was deprived of information.
b. Realist film makers want there audience to chose what meaning they want to put together and form an opinion.
c. Realism in film is accomplished by using long shots, wide screen, lengthy takes, deep focus, panning, craning, tilting, or tracking rather than cutting to individual shots.
Blog- Advanced Editing Notes- Overview/Classical Paradigm
The following two short films: the "Arrival of a Train" and "Damsel in Distress"- relate to Realism, Classicism and Formalism...
Editing is normally an association of ideas connecting multiple shots with another. Continuity brings together MULTIPLE shots together in order to create the illusion of continuous and clear editing. In the arrival of a train, the directors used realism as a form of editing. The long continuous take of the train moving into the station and stoping establishes the scene. After this we already know it is a train station we begin to look at the characters we see in the shot. Not much is moving, so we dont notice anything besides the men and women exiting the train. This long conituous recording of time is a sequence shot. It is a device the director uses to allow the audience to determine whom they want to focus on in order to create a story of their own.
Damsel in Distress is an example of Classicism because it tries to show the fluidity of an event by editing shots together that does not leave anything important out. Reaction shots are incorporated in the edits obviously to get reaction shots. The lady blows the dog whistle to call the dog and the dog comes and she is happy. And the most important use of camera work is the parallel action, the train, the dog, and the biker/man, all work together to show that al these things are constantly moving at the same time. The suspense keeps rising up and the audience is anxious to know whether she will get run over or not.
Editing is normally an association of ideas connecting multiple shots with another. Continuity brings together MULTIPLE shots together in order to create the illusion of continuous and clear editing. In the arrival of a train, the directors used realism as a form of editing. The long continuous take of the train moving into the station and stoping establishes the scene. After this we already know it is a train station we begin to look at the characters we see in the shot. Not much is moving, so we dont notice anything besides the men and women exiting the train. This long conituous recording of time is a sequence shot. It is a device the director uses to allow the audience to determine whom they want to focus on in order to create a story of their own.
Damsel in Distress is an example of Classicism because it tries to show the fluidity of an event by editing shots together that does not leave anything important out. Reaction shots are incorporated in the edits obviously to get reaction shots. The lady blows the dog whistle to call the dog and the dog comes and she is happy. And the most important use of camera work is the parallel action, the train, the dog, and the biker/man, all work together to show that al these things are constantly moving at the same time. The suspense keeps rising up and the audience is anxious to know whether she will get run over or not.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Trailer Review
Pearl Harbor Movie Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx6HnLvK9M0&feature=related
I chose the movie trailer for “Pearl Harbor” because I love war movies. Personally, by watching these movies I can achieve a great sense of pride in my own country. The movie “Pearl Harbor” was based on the actual historical even that occurred at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This date “that will live in infamy” (as Franklin D. Roosevelt said in his speech to the presses) occurred on December 7th, 1941 where the Empire of Japan “suddenly and deliberately attacked” the United State of America. I can say already that I have seen this movie and based on the trailer and what I have seen from the movie, the plot follows two main characters Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) and Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett) who are army pilots.
The narrative is established by the voice over representation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Throughout the trailer we hear his speeches that he makes to the cabinet in a combination with the one he makes with the people. He says “how long is America going to pretend, that the world is not at war.” This immediately implies that the movie will be taking place in America where they will be forced into a battle to defend its home front. The trailer than introduces “Japanese aggressive movement” which shows that there will be conflict between the two countries. A montage of dog fights are played in a sequence to show that there will, in fact, be a struggle that keeps the protagonists (the Americans) from winning the battle.
The cinematography in the film proves to add dynamic characteristics in the plot. For example, the navy ships at Pearl Harbor represent America’s symbol of its power and a symbol of hope because these vessels provide relief to countries all over the world. When Japan destroys the several dozens of ships docked at Pearl Harbor it portrays that Japan is a force to be reckoned with. Another piece of cinematography focus is when Japan is sending all of its bombs off on the ships and the camera focuses on just one as it descends towards a ship. As Roosevelt is describing how the attack was deliberate it reminds of a quote from Call of Duty that says “friendly fire, isn’t.” This quote relates because throughout the beginning of the movie, Japan deceived America for continued peace. Meaning that a true ally would never wage war even if it meant fighting over resources like oil, which described in the movie, is what Japan lacked.
The only technique of editing I see in this trailer is the use of montage. Montages in this trailer represents a continuous battle where the action never ends, thus, compelling the audience to seek the thrill of war through this movie.
The sound effect in this trailer that is dominant is the sound of airplanes. Now, besides this obvious use of character placement (the airplane is a character of this movie) we notice an overwhelming noise from the flashes of the cameras that take pictures of Roosevelt. This is a representation of the bombings that occur at Pearl Harbor only because the flash sounds so intense that it makes itself to be like an explosion. By bringing this flash noise to the cameras on the president it’s like saying: when you bomb America, you bomb the president himself – and that is an act of war.
Word Count: 562
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Run Lola Run Presos Critique
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AR1PzkzRGcEFZGY2emh0anpfM2Ria3BmbmZn&hl=en_US
I. Interpretation of the film as it related to your assigned section and use of film language.
My assigned section of the movie run lola run was the sound. My interpretation of the film through sound was very strong and i believe that i demonstrated a strong understanding of what the director was trying to achieve. Although i can support that assumption with what the audience had mentioned, i know for a fact that while i was presenting i realized that i had forgotten to use the film language relating to sound. This i believe did not help in my presentation but for someone who had no knowledge of film language this presentation would have been fine.
II. Strengths of your presentation
The strengths in our presentation was definitely the beginning of the presentation where we were able to show a bit from youtube that played one of the key songs in the film. While the music played Justin was presenting and it made it seem "bad-@$$." To bad we couldnt have the music playing the whole presentation but what i did to help was correct each slide. I tried to make sure that the text was aligned nicely with the pictures and or links. By making the presentation visually appealing this was able to keep the audience, i hope, focused on the presentation.
III. Challenges and Areas for Improvement
The challenges in creating the presentation was being able to stay in sync with the mac computers with my pc computer at home. whenever i edited it at home it would come out different on the mac and vise versa. Also there wasnt much communication between my partners and i. Although we did our own thing with out talking to each other we were able to present some solid information. The area for improvement is that i need to be able to communicate with my partners while also incorporating the film language relating to sound.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Run Lola Run Treatment
Pressure of time involvment - Main character has several affairs to attend to. These tasks are given to him right after he has settled a date with his lover. He must do these tasks quickly because he might not get another chance with this girl because he has dissapointed before. He is assigned two tasks but is also settling matters with a previous girlfriend that wont take a hint. She will later proove to be a powerfull tool against his primary goal.
Extreme camera motion - sudden 90 degree pans that direct the viewerd focus. Establishing shots, ECU on body parts.
Location - an office (job date interview changed), at his home his car breaks down, on the streets miscellaneous roads avoiding ex gf, the lake (romantic love scene).
Symbolic Item - a person shoving the character for dozing off into space in the middle of a walk way.
Musical Tension - ...
story line:
flashback with previous accounts with girls which involves failures
asks her on a romantic sunset date
during that same day he must accomplish two assignments that were privided to him suddenly
after completed assignments ex gf proves to be a huge nuicance
is able to escape from her
makes it on his date
the ex interrupts rudely after finding the new couple
guy looks at camera with FML face leaving the audience to ponder as to his next actions.
Main character: Logan
Treatment:
The beginning of the story starts with a sequence and montage of black and white footage showing scenes of Logan and his ex-girlfriends all ending in a dissapointing manner.
We here a repeating sentence in an echoeing manner that he mentions to all of his ex's: "don't go, I can make this better, just give it time."
Escalating noise that flashes out into white and then a first person camera shot of Logan waking up and getting out of his bed.
Camera switches to first person and eyeline match occurs with pictures of several of his ex's on his desk. Camera goes back on him and he nods his head.
A fade out transitions us to the next morning and Logan has a happier expression because he knows who he going to see that day.
By walking out of the frame a sweeping transition brings us to a hang out in Jamba Juice. Logan sits down and starts drinking his smoothie and while time passes the majority of his friends leave and he leans in to Marie and asks her: "do you want to hang out with me later tomorrow and watch the sunset?"
The camera moves in on her and she says "sure, i'd love to, but i got to go so ill see you tomorrow then?" logan than nods his head in approval.
Logan get a phone call that says his job interview was moved to tomorrow.
Logan gets a really unhappy look on his face because it was set up close to a late time.
When he arrives at the interview all he can hear is a clock rumbling. He stares around the room and is shaking his leg.
After the interview is over, he arrives home and he is walking to the front of the house when his car suddenly breaks down. Smoke is coming out of the front of the car and he exclaims "crap!"
Tight framing is focused on Logan when he is making a phone call to a mechanic.
Camera does a trucking shot of a car passing by.
In slow motion we see the driver and its his ex girlfriend.
She stops the car and parks and comes over to Logan but Logan starts running away because he knows how crazy she is.
The ex girlfiend starts running after him.
Logan loses her after a while and then ends up running into the meeting place that he set up with Marie.
Logan sees Marie and starts walkign towards her.
Marie turns her head and smiles. She stands up and starts meeting him halfway.
They join hands together, very intimate eye exchange, there about to kiss when...
The crazy ex girlfriend shows up and interrupts by saying: "Logan!"
Logan turns towards the crazy ex then we see the crazy ex with googling eyes
Logan faces directly at the camera and says:"fuck!" but with a cencorship.
Extreme camera motion - sudden 90 degree pans that direct the viewerd focus. Establishing shots, ECU on body parts.
Location - an office (job date interview changed), at his home his car breaks down, on the streets miscellaneous roads avoiding ex gf, the lake (romantic love scene).
Symbolic Item - a person shoving the character for dozing off into space in the middle of a walk way.
Musical Tension - ...
story line:
flashback with previous accounts with girls which involves failures
asks her on a romantic sunset date
during that same day he must accomplish two assignments that were privided to him suddenly
after completed assignments ex gf proves to be a huge nuicance
is able to escape from her
makes it on his date
the ex interrupts rudely after finding the new couple
guy looks at camera with FML face leaving the audience to ponder as to his next actions.
Main character: Logan
Treatment:
The beginning of the story starts with a sequence and montage of black and white footage showing scenes of Logan and his ex-girlfriends all ending in a dissapointing manner.
We here a repeating sentence in an echoeing manner that he mentions to all of his ex's: "don't go, I can make this better, just give it time."
Escalating noise that flashes out into white and then a first person camera shot of Logan waking up and getting out of his bed.
Camera switches to first person and eyeline match occurs with pictures of several of his ex's on his desk. Camera goes back on him and he nods his head.
A fade out transitions us to the next morning and Logan has a happier expression because he knows who he going to see that day.
By walking out of the frame a sweeping transition brings us to a hang out in Jamba Juice. Logan sits down and starts drinking his smoothie and while time passes the majority of his friends leave and he leans in to Marie and asks her: "do you want to hang out with me later tomorrow and watch the sunset?"
The camera moves in on her and she says "sure, i'd love to, but i got to go so ill see you tomorrow then?" logan than nods his head in approval.
Logan get a phone call that says his job interview was moved to tomorrow.
Logan gets a really unhappy look on his face because it was set up close to a late time.
When he arrives at the interview all he can hear is a clock rumbling. He stares around the room and is shaking his leg.
After the interview is over, he arrives home and he is walking to the front of the house when his car suddenly breaks down. Smoke is coming out of the front of the car and he exclaims "crap!"
Tight framing is focused on Logan when he is making a phone call to a mechanic.
Camera does a trucking shot of a car passing by.
In slow motion we see the driver and its his ex girlfriend.
She stops the car and parks and comes over to Logan but Logan starts running away because he knows how crazy she is.
The ex girlfiend starts running after him.
Logan loses her after a while and then ends up running into the meeting place that he set up with Marie.
Logan sees Marie and starts walkign towards her.
Marie turns her head and smiles. She stands up and starts meeting him halfway.
They join hands together, very intimate eye exchange, there about to kiss when...
The crazy ex girlfriend shows up and interrupts by saying: "Logan!"
Logan turns towards the crazy ex then we see the crazy ex with googling eyes
Logan faces directly at the camera and says:"fuck!" but with a cencorship.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Broadcast Critiques
During class Mr. Bigue asked us to brainstorm ideas for a broadcast segment around school and someone voiced the idea of new teachers. I decided to mark on the board that Elizabeth and I would do the segment on new teachers. The simple research involved for this was very easy. In the class room there was "the master chart" which had the list of all the teachers and their schedules during the day. Izzy (the teacher assistant) highlighted for us the new teachers. I contacted the teachers through schoolloop mail and wee then later interviewed them about general questions of what they though of cap and what they expected in general. The shots I envisioned were slow zoom ins like in the documentaries (did not work so well - could not use the shot).
The B-Roll reflects the audio and its not hard to find variety since there is not that much in the first place: school, education, etc.. The graphics and titling involved a purple strip alongside the lower half of the shot and with a short description of the teacher presented. There was one montage of B-Roll footage and that was a freeze frame of each teacher appearing one after the other and the beginning of the sequence.
The thing I like about this piece was the information provided by the teachers, it was solid information that the students could appreciate. If I had more time I would spend more time on lighting and set up a better interviewing position because some shots looked to busy. The most important lesson here is time is critical.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Character In Time
This man looks like he has fun, no? His room is somewhat creative, I bet his friends help add to his pile of entropy. The person you see here is very naive, although he is eager to try out new things he is very stupid and is poor in making the right decisions.
Brad (our character in the picture) is very keen on impressing people and wanting attention from them. Brad is able to do this through the internet and by posting pictures of himself online he knows for a fact that people are seeing him every day. As you can imagine this could put a dent in your study time. On top of going to work every day to be able to pay for college Brad is somewhat of an idiot meaning he spends extra time at the books than others normally would.
Treatment:
During the 21st century anything is possible with todays modern technology and today Brad has moved into his new college dorm at University of California Santa Barbara. As an eager freshman he wants to be able to impress his teachers and upper class man.
It is the first day of school and he has already been able to get a gig with the UCSB paper. He was formally invited by the seniors (by chance) to come and take funny random pictures for a column in the paper.
During his interview with the seniors to see if he was capable for the job he was speculating to much about the fact of how he is going to create interesting pictures for a paper.
(Camera is slowly moving in on his face while you hear an interior monologue.)
While going on facebook he realizes that with the camera next to him and several different props in his room he could with no problem do his duty and justice to the paper he was apart of.
A montage of pictures of him in different assortments and mixtures of props are made and just as he is about to look at the pictures he made he realizes that one of his pictures is similar to a picture of his grand-dad.
(When he notices the picture the camera will slow motion while he is turning his head or eyes opening in shock.)
His grand dad was a soldier that had to fight in the middle of toxic gases during the war. His dad aproaches behind him and tells him: "I only wish it were that happy when MY dad described his experience to me."
(War clip with gas masks to show a flashback from the grandpa's story.)
Feeling ashamed Brad decides to delete his pictures and goes up to the seniors and tells them that he isnt up to the task anymore.
Although the seniors are pissed, Brad does not give into peer pressure and walks away while war noises are ringing in his head from a war movie he had seen.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Crime Cops - Cinematography Focus
In the short film "Crime Cops" there is a set of character: two detectives, two nerds, and the enemy they are after. Watch as they put together there skills to find the suspect in order to aprehend he or she. Who knows, the ending might surprise you. For a link to the video on youtube click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF_qQYrCcns
At first when we start watching this movie our eyes are focused on the first nerd who enters the door. His role in being shown first is a way to hint towards the fact that in the end of this whole investigation it is his software that figures out the culprit. The low key of the shots shows a dark mood that emphasises the intensity and importance of what the characters are doing. The camera is relatively close to the action because it is as if the camera operator would be right in front of the actors. Being close to the characters while getting the shots allows us to focus on there expresions and emotions. The camera angle is a mixture between up and down. The camera faces downward on the computer "savies" because they work for there boss which is the dark skinned detective; the camera is pointing upwards on him because he is on a high ranking level. The dominant color of this short film is variations of the color blue, some shades of blue are bright and some are darker due to a dark shadow in the room since the only light source is the monitors in front of the computerists. The visual information received is at a moderate level because although we might notice a stale background with some objects laying there there are several characters to focus on. 1, 2, 3, 4, and lastly the fifth in the end of the film who gets shot. The framing is tight, since the camera is zoomed in on a close up at there faces there is not room for free movement. This might portray a commitment to ones job that he or she will not move nor rest until the work is done.
The cutting in the film "Crime Cops" is relatively fast paced in order to allow suspicion to build up until the climax of the film is reached. The cutting allows us to move on to the next idea mainly because there is not much to think about what has just transpired in the scene because the only thing these nerds are doing is pressing buttons and enhancing images like never done before. The shots are fragmented and it goes with the idea of a faced paced story because the bosses have no time for bull shit. This is shown through the caucasian detective as he is unpatient that he is not getting results. The cutting is manipulative in the sense that each shot is changed as quick as a computer processors mind. Computers work fast and in nowadays information comes to us so fast that by popular demand people want answers immediately; and what these shots do is even though they don't give away the ending right away they move at a fast enough pace that we can tolerate because we know any minute know that the truth will be revealed.
The director keeps the camera motion close because even though not much is going on in the shot, the added sound, dialogue, and camera swaying allows for the viewer to feel like there is so much action in just a simple shot. The shots seem to be lyrical due to the fact that even though the shot movements may seem random it is in fact usually moving slowly towards the next person that the action is going to focus on. For example if the dark colored detective is talking the camera is swaying to the bottom left and when he finishes his speech the camera simply drops towards the nerd that says his own line. The symbolic implication is that we dont always have to understand what the character is saying, we just have to notice that the story is moving on and that we can see there is progress within the shots.
First of all no sound is distorted within the short film "Crime Cops." the sound is orchestrated not from an original track but obviously fabricated by the directors or editors, most likely the sound designer. Each seen where in this case there is only one, the sound changes and differs from settling into there location from suspensfull tunes all the way to stopping all the sound whenever they hit a eureka moment. A repeated motif within the sound is the suspense violin (I think) accompanied by a metal beat (tink, tink, ta, tink ta tink tink). The music is used to underline the speach and any part of the short movie. The dialogue is very comedical because every single one of the character says something exeptional where the detective is saying random computer talk that isnt real in order to mock the computer lingo. For example he is says "coreo beb abb algorithm." In this clip we know what the characters want, not specifically, but we know where in a general area because all the characters gather around a monitor to look at a piture and they analyze it from different angles.
The type of actors featured in the short film "Crime Cops" are amateurs even though they act professional. I believe that all of them are the friends of the dark skinned detective since he owns his own youtube channel for himself just blogging about where he goes and what goes on. The actors are treated as camera material because they dont really portray art but what they can show is how americans are able to find any workplace and do something significant with there lives beneficial to the world even if it isn't paramount to the grand scheme of things. The culture information revolved around this clip has to do with the fact that typicall americans, since we live in a progressed nation, we rely on computers to do most of our work. This is shown through the white detective because he says lets just go and check it out while the brown detective insists on using the computer. We learn that although it is easier and a lot more efficient to use computers to do solve our problems that we should never forget our basics and go back to review them even on the field.
The time period of the short film "Crime Cops" is modern where people are free to wear whatever they want and some jobs require a suit. For the average middle class citizen these would be common clothing for them making them feel comfortable especially since there are so many who are in the same situation. The costumes are appropriate for age, but as we see with the nerds they still wear teenaged clothing and this shows that your never to old to use a computer. The costumes are meant for work and every character stands proud and tall except the nerds since they are worried that they might not be able to give results for there superiors.In the short film "Crime Cops" the story tells itself. The characters there voices are almost at a point of mumbling but this is because it seems like they have done there job before and that everyone knows what there talking about providing the viewers with a sense that everyone trusts each other. The darker detective provided the authority figure in the film, and so his presence forces the geeks to do there jobs better and to anticipate what they need to do next. For example, one of the geeks say "im already five steps ahead of you." And to rap it all up the white detective is there to provide the pressure that there is no time to mess around with technology because he provides the sense of urgency.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Zombieland - Narrative and Scene Analysis
IV. Narrative
The film is constructed as a simple story line where a teenaged boy is trying to find his way safely away from zombies. Silent moments like dialogue between two characters are added so that the movie can be prolonged. This movie would have consisted of only zombie killing if it weren't for character backgrounds being introduced into the story. Without these profiles, the story would b dry.
The film uses a new and different way of narrating the story. At the beginning of the movie, several rules are introduced so that as spectators we know what to expect. In a sense this is a foreshadowing tool. Rules such as 'check the back-seat' come in handy when the boy looks in the back of a Hummer and finds a bag filled with guns. Another situation is the rule 'double tap' where you shoot a zombie once and then one more time for good measure. Throughout the movie, when situations arise that include these rules the rule pops up on the screen (sort of like a "i told you so" moment).
V. Film Language and Representation
The issue in the film is introduced at the very beginning where the main character explains how an infection of mad-cow disease went extremely crazy causing a chain of zombie mutation. Later, in the film issues are given to you on a silver plate (so to speak) and you have to find out instantly what it is. It is simple enough to understand right away.
The acting was great because everyones body built suited everyones character. The shots do not have deeper meaning because they were simple wide shots and close-ups. One classic scene reveals itself at the end of the film. All our lives we've known the train running over a person scene. The same parallel action is present at the climax of the movie where the main character saves the girl he likes and his sister from a zombie climbing up at them. We see the boy fighting a zombie clown and at the same time the director cuts to the helpless girl being attacked by a zombie and so on.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Zombieland - Historical and Institutional Factors
1. Institutional factors for the making of Zombieland was to actually get 'extras' who would play the parts of the zombies. This was a decent production where it was important to have all of the factors needed or else the movie would have failed. For example, the carnival where the sisters create there own retreat is necessary because it is essential to the climax. The carnival set a stage where the heros finally kill off most of the zombies and they get a sense of relief as if everything is going to peaceful now. In addition, the carnival is known as a 'fun thing' so in this case it represents the fun in fighting zombies in other words... adding comic relief to the intended horror in these creatures.
2. After WWII, atomic warfare and rumors of alien visitations expanded the zombie genre into the realm of science fiction. In Creature with the Atom Brain(1955), a sterling artifact of this era, ex-Nazis use atomic zombies to murder the district attorneys cops and gangsters who get in their way. The films historical context consist of African and Haitian voodoo. The first 'zombies' were known as silent souls who behaved as slaves who were seen working the night shift in Haitian bakeries, mills and factories. The sight of these unsettling imaginations of the night formed a prototype for cinematic zombies. Now a days zombies are taken for granted, they are incorporated in video games and basic media to the point were people are used to the idea; the excitement has worn out.
III. Socio-Cultural context
Zombies are known to be the flesh-hungry undead whom were often in the form of ghouls and vampires. They come from the world of mythology and date back to The Epic of Gilgamesh where the goddess Ishtar promises: "I will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld,/ I will smash the door posts, and leave the doors flat down,/ and will let the dead go up to eat the living! / And the dead will outnumber the living!
Religion also played a roll in the creation of zombies. According to West African Voodoo a dead person can be revived by a sorcerer. They stay under the control of the sorcerer since they have no will. Often times, zombie souls were kept in vials for good luck and were sold to clients and later God himself would come to take back the soul. It is said that if you feed a zombie salt then it returns to the grave.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Sound Design Short Film- Brainstorm and Treatment
1. At a lunch table or anywhere there is a group of friends where there is always one person who kills a joke with something stupid and they eventually kill him in a bathroom stall.
3. Explain how the film meets the requirements below.
Narrative:
- Sound Design plays an important role in the development of character because we hear an echo every time he talks. this echo is at first loud and isolated then it becomes even more quite when it leads to a climax.
- Subtext is emphasized in the use of dialogue when one of the annoyed characters tells the annoyer:"i got something for you in the bathroom." he eventually pulls out a water gun and shoots him with it. the audience thinks its a real gun but the comic relief is that the annoyer only gets sprayed with water but he actually falls on the ground.
Production Elements:
- Foley Sound Effects incorporated in film are used when the annoyed characters have there eyes wide open and you hear a burning sound thats how much it scars them, the words that the annoyer is saying.
- Rhythmic match at some point in the film is present when it is froma wide-shot to close up to extreme close-up as the head is turning towards the annoyer.
- Sound Bridge as a scene transition is when an annoyed character gets up from his bed and you here school bells or cars on a road next to a restaurant and that is where the group is to hang out. the sound brings us to the place where the characters are going to be annoyed.
- the Leitmotif tied to the character is a ringing that is suspensfull but you already know what is going to happen.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Zombieland - Genre and Audience-
1. The genre of "Zombieland" is zombies and the tradition of the undead army is criticize real world social ills such as slavery, greed, and exploitation (or the selfish utilization for profit). These characteristics have been apart of human culture for centuries. Even though we know zombies do not exist we feel that we should deviate from normal human life and create a monster that is relatable.
2. The scenes in the movie relate to apocalypses which will forcefully incorporate action and suspense. The features determining genre are the type of characters in the movie. For example, it is very obvious that not only does the title says Zombie in "Zombieland" but there are zombies in the movie.
3. Zombies date back to the year 1932 where the first ever Zombie film came out. The name of this zombie movie was "White Zombie" and it was arguably the first mainstream zombie film that took cues from real life ancient religions like voodoo. Over the years zombies have been symbols of nuclear experiments, alien invasions, the rotting undead, and Nazi-voodoo. One other feature movie Zombieland relates to is 2012. Both these movies describe the world nearing an end. Both movies focus on a group that is trying to survive, they face many challenges like food and shelter.
4. The comedic film was Directed by Ruben Fleischer, Produced by Gavin Polone, Written by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese
5. What we notice about these movie writers is that they are very childish as in they ridicule and mock the end of the world. We as an audience know that if everyone was a zombie that there would be no one to crop for food therefore the food supply is limited. The directors turned the end of the world into some type of comedic game. Ruben Fleischer never wanted to be a director growing up but after working as an assistant on a movie he wanted to see what it was all about.
2. The scenes in the movie relate to apocalypses which will forcefully incorporate action and suspense. The features determining genre are the type of characters in the movie. For example, it is very obvious that not only does the title says Zombie in "Zombieland" but there are zombies in the movie.
3. Zombies date back to the year 1932 where the first ever Zombie film came out. The name of this zombie movie was "White Zombie" and it was arguably the first mainstream zombie film that took cues from real life ancient religions like voodoo. Over the years zombies have been symbols of nuclear experiments, alien invasions, the rotting undead, and Nazi-voodoo. One other feature movie Zombieland relates to is 2012. Both these movies describe the world nearing an end. Both movies focus on a group that is trying to survive, they face many challenges like food and shelter.
4. The comedic film was Directed by Ruben Fleischer, Produced by Gavin Polone, Written by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese
The reason for making this film is unapparent but this movie idea was in the directors heads for four years before production in the pre-production phase. There script was updated every week constantly with new ideas.
5. What we notice about these movie writers is that they are very childish as in they ridicule and mock the end of the world. We as an audience know that if everyone was a zombie that there would be no one to crop for food therefore the food supply is limited. The directors turned the end of the world into some type of comedic game. Ruben Fleischer never wanted to be a director growing up but after working as an assistant on a movie he wanted to see what it was all about.
This fits in with the directors other work because his new pation led him to make bigger and better productions that audiences actually enjoyed.
The theme that this film describes is to create your own code or set of rules to abide by so that you can survive and never be lost in the world.
The target audience is anyone who is interested in science fiction or zombies.
The theme that this film describes is to create your own code or set of rules to abide by so that you can survive and never be lost in the world.
The target audience is anyone who is interested in science fiction or zombies.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Pre-Production Template
Purpose: (What is the message or intent of the piece?) Contacts: (Who do I need to speak to in order to get the information for my piece?) Interview Questions: (What do I want to focus on in the interview? At least 5 questions and avoid Yes/No questions.) (REMEMBER THAT WITHOUT STRONG CONTENT YOUR PIECE WILL FALL FLAT!!) Shot List- What images do I need to make the visual part of the story work? Interviews use mostly Close-ups, Waist shots, and B-roll. Background should also be considered. Usually at least 5 to 10 different shots are combined for a sophisticated piece.
General Flow: Describe the beginning, middle, and end of your segment. Include any narration you might include as well as graphics or interviews. (Try to imagine the piece playing in your head) Scripts: This is the written portion of your piece that is included either for the broadcast script or for a voice over that pulls the different interviews together.
Intro:
Closing:
Shot List- What images do I need to make the visual part of the story work? Interviews use mostly Close-ups, Waist shots, and B-roll. Background should also be considered. Usually at least 5 to 10 different shots are combined for a sophisticated piece.
Scripts: This is the written portion of your piece that is included either for the broadcast script or for a voice over that pulls the different interviews together.
Intro:
Closing:
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