Film Documentary: Usage of Realism in Gravity and Les Invasions Barbares

INFOGRAPH FOR CONCEPTS OF CONTINUITY

REALISM/CLASSICISM/FORMALISM

Realism/Classical/Formalism

For each film explain:

1. How would describe the characteristics of the camera camera work: composition, angle, movement

2. How would describe the difference in the edit?

3. How would describe the quality of the story being told/narrative?

GRAVITY-REALISM

 

A recent movie, Gravity, showed its emotional prowess through extremely long shots and the thoroughly engaging storyline.

Gravity uses A LOT of extebnded shots. I don't know how many edits there actually in the movie but the movie did a very good job at hiding these edits. Many close up shots that exposed true emotions and a plethora of extremely long shots that showed us the scale of space that the main characters had to face. The movie invoked great emotion as it gave us a sense of a known mystery. We know how space is like, we know what can happen, we think of what can happen, and we an astronauts worst nightmare unfold before our eyes. The story was well told and the acting was phenomenal. The streotypical characters were displayed in a much more different "space". Clooney played the experienced veteran, while Bullock played the "new guy". The environment of space, while being silent and calm, became more of a field of fear and death. It showed the worst case scenario that could happen in space: speeding shrapnel, no communication, empty space, no oxygen. The movie starts with an extremely long shot that introduces each of the characters and manages to start the intensity quick and keep the audience on the edge of ther seat for most of the rest of the movie.

RHYTHMUS 93- FORMALISM

Rhythmus 93, a film made in 1991, was one of the films in the series of 'Rhythmus' by Hans Richter. This version although is a manipulated version because it uses color and sounds were added into the film.

Rhythmus, from my perspective, had no discernible camera work. There were certain angles that were seen, only flat images. The edit is what makes this an abstract Formalist film. The edit seems to be random without any discernible pattern. A sense of rhythm is there, through the straight lines and the similar movements by the shapes and EYEBALLS. At first glance, there seems to be no certain story within this film, if there is one, tell me because I just do not understand.

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION-CLASSICISM

The Shawshank Redemption has very nice camera as it takes advantage of the many angles a prison can provide. It provides shots of low angle, showing the superior guards on the roof with their guns, it also uses pipes to block the certain beating that Andy Dufresne is getting. The film, being intense, uses a good amount of close ups in order to get the full effect of their emotion and also uses long shots to capture the emptiness of life within a prison.

The edit in this film seems to manipulate space and time as we see the main character, Andy Dufresne, become older as the film progresses. It condenses years of prison time in 142 minutes of film. The edit is much more tame compared to that of Formalism and much to that of Realism. It finds its balance within the middle of those two extremes.

The story told about a prison is only enhanced by the edit. The shots were not too long so that things would not get awkward between the characters, but long enough in order to get reactions from those same characters. Andy Dufresne's escape brings upon the downfall of the hierarchy of Shawshank. The story was very well told, as the plot was easy to follow while throwing some curveballs at the audience along the way. A good film that doesn't reveal the full story before it happens.

Contemporary Media Analysis: Presentations

IN A WORLD, WHERE MEDIA RULES ENTERTAINMENT, IT DOES.

1. What does the media say about the world we live in?

The media is a vital part of our society and it mirrors the many events and social problems and normalities in our time. We’re not talking about women’s suffrage in America right now. Right now, we’re talking the legalization of gay marriage, the Syria conflict, and the many leaks of information that has happened.
We are also in a society with contrasting view points of different subjects, mostly showing the black and white of these subjects.

The media glorifies bad things ( Several rap stuff )

Glorification of drugs (Molly)

The media parodies the bad things ( parodies of popular culture )

(bieber song parodies)

2. Do you notice any one trend that keeps resurfacing through multiple media forms?

 "#BLURREDDDDLINEEEEESSS!!!!" - Nathan Villavicencio

I mean come on, almost every presentation mentioned blurred lines between anything, mostly the hero/villain archetype. There has been more anti-hero types in the media represented in the shows such as, Breaking Bad and Dexter.

The anti-hero archetype has been showing in media more lately as it allows for more of a connection between the character and the audience  The anti-hero normally does bad things for the better. There are consequences to the anti-hero's actions and whether it is good or bad, there are benefits and repercussions. A more troubled character is easier to understand compared to a person who must do this because that's his job, instead of doing things for the good or bad of an event.

I OWN ALL THE PRESENTATIONS

3. What do you see as the best and worst of what media portrays?

Although media portrays easily relatable characters, these stereotypes overshadow characters who develop.

Examples - Reality TV

It exaggerates the wackiness or troubles that these people go through, allowing us to laugh at their misfortunes.  

For example, Jersey Shore. Many watch this mostly for the troubles and the fights that they go through. These over exaggerated events allow the show to grab the audience’s attention and keep them reeled in with the characters’ nonsensical babbling about how some is a “douche” (I am pretty sure this word was used many times in the show and to describe it)

The Best: There are some shows that spawn different ideas and such as this scene from the show, The Newsroom. This character negates all of the nationalism that the crowd felt with the facts that he has gained about America. It shows how ignorance sways opinion, but his knowledge gives him different opinions. It allows for the audience to think about what was presented upon them, what they could do with that new knowledge.

4. Where do you see yourself contributing to the conversation?

I view media as a platform, for entertainment and news. My job in this this discussion to not be fooled and not mistake the one for another. One could say there are "blurred lines" between news and entertainment within the media. I will contribute entertainment for all and allow it to have a deeper meaning, for the others who choose to delve deeper. 

(A scene from Courage the Cowardly Dog

where Muriel and Eustace are turned into puppets in the 

end of the first season. The theory is that Courage is mad

for the rest of the show's existence.)

TOP 5 FILMS!!! (OR HOW MANY I COULD THINK OF)

1. The Green Mile

This movie is one of my personal favorites. Fantastic performances by the cast and especially, the late Michael Clarke Duncan. Great visuals and an engaging story that breaks a part of realism allows it to be one of my favourite films of all time. A great film overall.



2. My Neighbor Totoro

A classic Ghibli/Miyazaki film. Whimsical visuals and the charisma of an oversized and fluffy monster give this movie its character. An internationally known animated film, its garnered a lot of attention. One of the studio Ghibli materpieces, this is one of my favorites out of all of them.

3. Shaun of the Dead

A play on the zombie genre, it pays homage to the Romero films and parodies it with a trip to the pub. A good comedy film with great gags that will make you laugh. The premise was great and it was executed nicely, showing the zombies as more of a nuisance than a problem.

4. Old Boy

A convuluted story of a man and his revenge ha never been so intriguiging. There are so many twists and turns enough to even make you question what is going on. A definite must watch and enough to keep you wondering what's going to happen until the end. A fun movie to watch and wrap your head around.












5. Matilda

I don't know, I just like this film. Matilda the story of a magical kid who is ignored by her parents. Why won't you like this? There's kids that fly, and not how you think. Just watch it.

What makes a good film??!??!?!??!?!?!?!?!??!?!??!??!??!?!??!??!??!

There are many different aspects in order to make a good film and there are also different opinions on what makes films good. So opinions are cool and stuff, but just be careful.

I know of multiple things that could make a film, but I think the most important things that make a good movie are a good script, believable characters, and good execution.



In order to to make a good film, you at least a good script. Without a good and cohesive script, films won't have the same effect. The script needs to follow the conventions of the genre it's trying to do because I don't think a horror film woould be as good if it was written for comedy. (ALL THOSE COMEDY-HORROR ARE EITHER HIT OR MISS). An example would be Cidade De Deus. The script showed great work and focus on the character development and intentions. Everything seemed to fall into place and there were a lot of things that the story did right.

Another aspect of a great film is great casting. Without good acting, that good script isn't going to be very helpful when the acting is garbage. Another example from Cidade De Deus is that they used actual natives of the City of God to act this movie. This made the acting very natural and gave the aspect of the movie being very real. These people probably lived the events that they recreated in the film that they were partaking in. This acting allowed the message of the film to be delivered easily and truthfully. The performances kept true to the heart of the message and propelled its success.

Now you got the good acting and the good script. YOU'RE GOOD TO G... NO. Now how is that gonna be put together? Do it right. Execution allows the films message to shine and make or break a film. There are many good ideas that fill the air but they're not made right and falls flat. City of God strutures the film with many flashbacks and chaos that fills up the screen. This can be portrayed as the unrulinees of the place where this movie is from. This execution allowed it to become a movie that portrayed the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Imagine if this film was done as a musical? NOT THE SAME. NEVER THE SAME.

Independent Research Script Reflection

Portfolio:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qGHwIr0qAbjFxe06vbsBJO2KXBEhTk9opapLk5UNmy0/edit

Write a paragraph for each of the criteria areas:

• Clear references to film history, theory or genre topic.

-  I feel as though I have missed many points of the assignment since I feel that my research script is a jumbled mess. I feel that there are only very obvious references between the two films and that I could have done better. There are no obscure or fascinating thing that I delved into, which makes mine very unappealing to myself.

• Clear engagement with the target audience, scope and depth of argument

- The argument is very one sided and provides no clear argument or showing off the other side. I didn’t pose an insightful script and it was very “summary-like” compared to being more of the analysis that this research script should have been.

• Clear  use of sources and structure of the script

- The structure of the script was all whack because I did not know how to structure and work out the details within each topic that I was considering. I feel also that I didn't use many sources that gave many important  details towards the topics that I was doing.

• Video and audio elements are detailed clearly and coherently described and linked

- Since I didn’t know the proper structure, I didn’t really know what to do with these audio/video sections. I was more than completely lost in the making of this research script, as I did not know what to make of it.

• All films referred to clearly relate to the topic and insightful comparisons are made with precision.
  -  I did relate them back to the main topic which the use of realism in these films, but I did not make many insightful because of my lack of understanding for this assignment and the fact that my information was more than lacking. I do feel that I could do better if I had more of a proper introduction to this assignment.

End of Year Reflection- Blog Post

Final Reflection: Self Assess with a paragraph for each bullet and add examples where applicable.

• Independent Film Research:
• What do you feel are your strengths in approaching the research required in the class?
• What areas do you feel you need more support or training with?
• What suggestions, support or additional training could you use from me to help you accomplish this?

- I feel that my side in researching is lacking compared to the standard. I need help in finding easier ways to research some topics as some may prove to be too obscure for a general search or even an EBSCO search. Researching for me becomes a chore when it is not interesting to me. This will cause to either put it off or don’t do at all. A different way in getting information might be a nice change of how we get information in film class.

• Oral Presentation Experience:
• What do you feel are your strengths in approaching the oral presentation in the class?
• What areas do you feel you need to work on in your preparation for this assessment?
• What suggestions, support or additional training could you use from me to help you

- In the Oral Presentation, I feel that I hit the main points that i need to talk about and I gathered sufficient evidence in order to back up the quality of my oral. I need to work on speaking more clearly and remembering what I had written down. I often found myself sounding nervous and often stumbling on certain subjects because of me forgetting the evidence for a short amount of time.

• Production Experience:
• What roles did you feel you accomplished well this semester
• What areas do you feel you need to work on in your productions
• What suggestions, support or additional training could you use from me to help you accomplish this?

- In filming, I feel that I fulfilled the role of director very well this year. My role as cinematographer in Return to Sender was mostly assisted and the time being director allowed to work in the production of the movie a bit more. I need to learn the other roles that are part of movie production. I want to learn how to edit proficiently and be able to be more crafty with camera placements and certain lighting. I feel that there should be more assistance within learning the certain in the production areas, but learning from experience allows the person to learn from a more natural sense, so a mix of both would teach children to learn better in the production positions.

Brazilian Cinema

The Bela época was a time in Brazil where movies dominated the the domestic scene and introduced many fiction films such as stories of comedy, dramas, adaptations of literary works, and musicals. Many limitations during the time hindered the quality of the films being made and Hollywood began to take over. This ended the era of the Bela época as the Hollywood movie became the standard and discouraged indigenous filmmaking.

Tha Chanchadas are musical parodies of American musicals that parodied the Hollywood view of "perfection. This opened up new markets and urged the making of new studios. This led to the urge of making highe quality films and opened up a bigger market for the Brazilian film industry. Although it was still in the hands of major companies, this still pathed the way to a progression in Brazilian movie making.

During the times of the 1960s, many social problems were arising in Latin America. Cinema Novo is a process transforming Brazilian society and reaching its level of being the cinema. Many different aspects were brought in during the times such as nonprofessional actors, location filming, intensive camera work, and etc. Cinema Novo tried to be a tool for political liberation but failed in trying to reach the masses.

Tropicalism, though conceptually related to cannibalism, is a complex Brazilian variant of pop with which a growing number of avant-garde musicians, writers, artists, and theater and film directors identify themselves.

Short FIlm: Genre Research

For this film that I want to produce an action/revenge film. I will use Kill Bill as a model but of course go in a very different way. The concept of Kill Bill just fits the concept of my story very well. The basic gyst of my film is that a man loses his partner/best friend while pursuing a criminal and is left to save his friend and kill his enemy. 

Themes/Narrative Structure:

 An action film like this would most likely be very linear as it has one goal it is set on and the goal drives the story. There may be some divergence in pathing to get to the goal but it will still be very linear. For my film especially, the film will come with twists and I think this will be different from most action movies. The hero must overcome physical and mental challengs in order to reach his goal.

Character/Acting Style:

 The main character would be driven by a single goal and that character goes out of their way to succeed in fulfilling that goal. The actors/character mostly stays two-dimensional instead of being very deep and complicated.

Settings/Production Design/Lighting

 The settings for action movies could be centered in one area or be all over the world. Action movies can take place anywhere and are not limited to any type of setting. The lighting that I am trying to go for is a more darker lighting where shadows accentuate the light. This can be seen in many different types of action movies since this genre is very broad. 

Cinematography:

 Since there are going to be fight scenes, that calles for fast and many edits or one long take of a fight scene. The action genre is too broad. There are very direct shots or very far shots to create intense moments and relates to the goals and ways of the characters.

Sound Design:

 The design must be very crisp and have a lot of the movement picked up by the mic. A very intense and fast song fits well with the genre of action films. Silence can also bring a lot of intensity to scenes where the noise of the scene is th eonly noise that can be heard.

Logline: An ex-cop tries to save his partner while seeking revenge on an old enemy.

Oral Commentary

Socio-Cultural Influences in Psycho

The film Psycho represents the movement of cinema during the 20th century. this film brought forth many new firsts according to behind the scenes footage and commentaries of people who had been involved in the making of Psycho. It has been said that Psycho had been the first to show lingerie or even show a toilet in a scene, more or less it being an important thing to move the plot forward. These were different from the American audience has been used to seeing because nothing like this has ever been done. And with the budget of a little bit below $1 million dollars, this was a very risky win or lose action by Hitchcock.



Hitchcock's Psycho has made the pathway for more movies of its type called "Slashers". Films that could fall in this place are Friday the 13th, Halloween and Nightmare on elm Street.

Film Language and Representation

People Just Come and Go

This scene is when Arbogast finally makes it at the motel and starts to talk with Norman Bates about Marion Crane.

 Norman in this scene can be scene as very nervous as he stutters a multitude of times and he nervously chews his candy. He knows of the deed that his mother has done and he is nervous while trying to cover for her.

Arbogast seems to be the antagonist of the conversation. One could tell he's very good at his job seeing as he manipulates Norman to expose a lot of information that was not mentioned. He has his ways with words and has a very good memory seeing as he build from everything that Norman says and contradicts Norman's statements.

The camera angles in this scene are mostly the same except for some parts like the picture in the left. It stays at the same angle as when he was facing the camera. It shows his anxiousness as this angle is not  a very normal camera placement. 

The area of the scene takes place in the office of Norman Bates. It feels like a very small somehwat cramped space which increases the tension between the two characters and the nervousness and uneasyness of Norman Bates. The small area also creates an authetic feel of a small motel and keeps true to its image.

The shadows and lighting are most important for this scene because color is mostly non-existent because it is black and white. The lighting highlights the things that the film wants us to focus to such as this photo. The shadow somewhat covers Arbogast's hand and a light is focused on Marion's face to show us what to focus to.

In this scene, Norman was just asked if Marion was still in the motel and giggles while saying no. The slightly jokish laugh shows some dramatic irony as we know what happened to Marion but Arbogast does not know the whole story. The place of that laugh was perfect as it gave out a small glimpse of the psycho side of Norman Bates.