MYST

Over winter break i watched a movie called Blackfish. It is a documentary about the training of killer whales and all the harm it has caused. This movie was very fascinating and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I would give it a four out of five stars. I typically like to watch documentaries so i thoroughly enjoyed this. This really captures what happens during the training of whales. The purpose of this film was to show the real story of the tragedies that occurred at SeaWorld. It definitely does a good job of swaying the viewers opinion to think that training whales is cruel and not okay. I think most documentaries try to change the audience's view in some way. I watched another documentary over winter break called The Worlds Most Deadly Drug. This film is about crystal meth and what it does to your mind and body. The purpose of his film was clearly to show the audience how dangerous the drug is to potentially prevent viewers from trying it.



Blackfish has great cinematic elements to capture the horrors that occurred at SeaWorld. The technique used was switching back and forth from videos of the training done, pictures of victims, and interviews with those involved in the occurrences. The footage shown is so raw because a lot of it was taken from SeaWorld tourists and security cameras at SeaWorld. this realness aspect to the film is definitely what gives it its haunting feel.

One key scene that stood out to me in the film was when the death of one of the trainers in Spain was explained. The scene starts out with the trainers widow being interviewed. She is standing outside by the ocean telling the story of how he proposed to her. Starting off with his story made the whole scene a lot more sad because the viewer gets to know the victim more. Then its explained how whales were brought into an amusement park in Spain. They were put in unhealthy water and a very small pool. They show a video of the whales teeth being cleaned and it's explained that the whales did not have good hygiene because of the poor conditions they were in. The footage of the dirty whale was a good addition because it creates pathos and makes the audience feel bad that the whales suffered. Then it shows interviews with the trainers former coworkers. They described him as being the best trainer they had. When the story of his death is told there is a video of his wife recalling the feeling she had when she got a call from the amusement park saying her husband died. Throughout the scene there are images and videos of the trainer before he died. This scene was done in a way to really move the audience and create pathos.



Overall I really loved this film and would suggest it to anyone who wants to hear a fascinating story.

Formal Film Study Martin Scorsese

I watched three movies that Martin Scorsese directed for my Formal Film Study including Shutter Island, The Taxi Driver, and Goodfellas. There were many similarties and differences between the three. As far as the style of the films goes,  I thought that The Taxi Driver and Shutter Island both had a dark feel. The colors and lighting in these two films were darker giving off an unsettling feeling whilst the style of Goodfellas was more upbeat. The colors in Goodfellas were brighter and there were more shots during the day time then there were at night making the picture brighter. I chose these three films because they were all made in different decades. Shutter Island was made in 2010, Goodfellas was made in 1990, and The Taxi Driver was made in 1976. All three have different genres too. Shutter Island is a psychological thriller, Goodfellas is a gangster film, and The Taxi Driver is a drama. Shutter Island was a very complex and thrilling story that reminded me of other films made in the 2000's like Inception. Goodfellas is a true American gangster story that I think is similar to others like the Godfather. I have never quite seen anything like The Taxi Driver and i thought it was a very intriguing movie. In the movies Goodfellas and The Taxi Driver, there is a voice over of the main characters' voices. I thought this was a nice effect because it makes you feel closer to the main character. All three films had somewhat of an anti-hero main character. This is a 70's film quality that Scorsese seems to use alot. There werent many speacial effects in The Taxi Driver and Goodfellas besides in the scenes of violence. I would say there were alot more used in Shutter Island which is expected because it's a much more modern film. I think that all three of these films have alot to say about American culture. Goodfellas shows a man who thought he had acheived his American Dream through gangster activity and ended up losing all he had and living a boring life in the suburbs. I think the underlying message there is that your whole life can change in a very short period of time. The Taxi Driver is trying to provide perspective. It shows life in America from a Taxi Drivers point of view which I think is a cool experience. It was so interesting to see all the things they encounter while working. Shutter Island wasn't a movie that said a lot about todays culture but I think it portrayed a lot of the old techniques used in mental hospitals in a negative way to show how poorly patients used to be treated. 

I think something that Martin Scorsese does best is violence. Each film has a perfect touch of violence. I would say the most violence is in the film Goodfellas and the least is in the Taxi Driver. These two films have more straight forward violence with the use of guns while the violence in Shutter Island is more thrilling and horrific violence. The violence in all three films is so realistic from the dead body in the trunk in Goodfellas, to the horrific burning body in Shutter Island, to the massacre at the whore house in The Taxi Driver. Scorsese's use of violence is speacial to him because he has had personal experience with it with is reflected in his films According to Charles Breiner, "Mr. Scrosese grew up in a neighborhood where violence was simply a way of life. One of Scorses’s film professors “hammered away at his students with his anti-Hollywood aesthetic. ‘don’t reach for the revolver right away,’ he repeated again and again… He had never had a student like Scorsese. Guns were what he knew. ‘Everyday I grew up in the Lower East Side someone had a gun,’ he (Scorsese) says ‘It was like second nature.’”²One night Scorsese was riding around with some friends in a car. Only five minutes after he got out to walk home, the car was shot at, killing those still in it. A scene which would haunt Scorsese and become the climax of his breakthrough film Mean Streets. When Scorsese portrays a life full of violence, Scorsese in many ways is portraying the only life that he knew. After graduating from NYU film school, Scorsese began his long and influential career." 

Martin Scorsese also has great use of lighting in his films. The use of dark lighting and shadows in Shutter island really reflected the mystery in the film. The dark nighttime lighting in The Taxi Driver reflected the main character's dark personality. And the bright and colorful lighting in Goodfellas does a nice job of juxtaposing the violent acts of the gangsters. Overall I think Martin Scorsese is a fantastic director. I could tell that a lot of time and work went into each movie which I appreciated a lot. Now I'm not surprised at all that he is referred to as one of the best directors of all time. 

1975 Film

My movie, Someone’s Under my Bed is about a serial killer who lays down next to girls’ beds and waits for them to go to sleep and then he rapes and kills them. It works well for viewers in 1975 because horror movies started becoming more realistic which made them popular among audiences. I am going for a very realistic style so that the audience feels a part of the movie. This is always a good choice for horror films because the more realistic it is the scarier it is. My film doesn’t really have a message because the purpose of it is just to scare and entertain the viewers.

The genre is just horror. It fits into the story because it’s about a serial killer which is pretty scary. The actors I chose work well for this genre too. I know that Jack Nicolson was in the Shining as the killer so I used him as the killer in my film. I think that he would play this character well.

I chose William Friedkin as the director of my film because he did a good job with The Exorcist. That film seemed very realistic and I want mine to have the same effect, the lead actors are Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicolson. I chose Faye Dunaway because she would be good at playing an innocent teenager. I chose Jack Nicolson as the killer because he uses scary facial expression to play roles in horror films. My main focus will be the cinematography. The lighting will need to be spot on because most of the scenes are at night. Also, there will have to be good camerawork to get the most realistic effect.

My film is Rated R for sex and violence. Since most 70’s films are pretty explicit there will be terrifying scenes of the girls getting raped and killed which will not be suitable for children. 70’s films were the opposite of Escapism. There was a lot of realism in the 70’s so my film is very realistic. Also Auteur film was very popular and my film is made entirely be me.

I chose to make a movie on this story because my sister told me it a few years ago and it has always stuck with me and made me very scared. This is a true story that a parent my sister babysat for told her.  Jane in my movie is the mom that my sister babysat for. She told my sister that she had a sliding door in her room when she moved to her new house. One night she woke up in the middle of the night and noticed that it looked like there were footprints on her carpet leading to the bed. She counted to three and ran from her bed as fast as she could to her parent’s room and they called the cops. They went back to her room and there was no one there but the sliding door was open. The cops found the killer two days later and told her family that this man had been lying next to girls beds for a while and killing and raping them while they’re sleeping.

MYST

     Over the weekend I watched No Strings Attached. This film was made in 2011 and was directed by Ivan Reitman. It stars two very popular actors of the time, Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman.  This film is about the relationship of a man and women that is just supposed to be physical and emotionless. But their feelings for each other get in the way and they end up falling in love with each other.

 

 

                This film really exemplifies the values of people in today’s society. Many people strive to find love while others feel that they just aren’t cut out for relationships. This film is very comparable to another film that came out in the same year, called Friends with Benefits. This film also stars two very popular actors, Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake. I think that these two films are both trying to portray the lives of many people. Their message is that love comes unexpectedly and you cannot help your feelings. Also the actors used in both of these films are very popular and attractive. This shows that the producers of these films wanted to draw viewer’s attention.

                There are many cinematic elements of this film that are very interesting. The technique used in the beginning of the movie is interesting because it shows different time frames of the main characters lives. They both keep running into each other every few years. The editing is cool because the film displays what year it is on the screen as the time jumps forward. This effect reminded me of that in the movie When Harry met Sally because the two character’s relationship in this film developed in a similar way.

               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One specific scene that stood out to me was the scene when the two main characters are on their first date. They go to a really cool location where there is a bunch of light pools in rows. The setting with all the lights surrounding them illuminates the scene. In the scene they are having a fight. There is juxtaposition between the argument they are having and the romantic setting they are in. The camerawork is interesting because it gets up close to the couple. The camera follows the Natalie pushing Ashton around through all the light poles. There are many collisions between them and the poles because all the light poles are so close together. The camera captures this chaos perfectly and it makes you feel as if you were in the fight with them.

 

 

 

Formal Film Study

Formal Film Study 

Director: David Fincher 

Films Viewed: 

-Girl with The Dragon Tattoo 

-The Social Network 

-Fight Club

-Seven 

For my formal film study I watched four films that were directed by David Fincher. The four films were The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network, Seven, and Fight Club. I found many similarities and differences in all elements of all three films. The style used in all the films had a similar edgy feel. There wasn’t much color involved. All of the settings seems dull and lacked vibrancy. These films are all dramas for the most part. Seven is more of a crime movie, The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo is a mystery, Social network is a true drama, and Fight Club is a dramatic comedy. The scoring of all three movies was subtle but all the scores fit in well with the movies. 

All of these films seem to have the motive of sending a message to the viewer. They all have something to say about today’s culture. The Social Network is the story of how Facebook came to be. The message in this film is that you have to go to certain extremes in order to have a successful business. The movie Seven is about the murder investigation of seven murders based off of the seven deadly sins. What this film is trying to say about culture is that people today sin way too much. Fight Club is about a group of anarchists who rebel against the government. This film reflects how Fincher felt about the government and the message in the film is that there are too may rules in todays society. All of these films seem to be saying that there is a problem with today’s society and how we all live. The political messages in all three that show that David Fincher has liberal views. 

All of david Fincher's films are very edgy. For example the setting is always dull and dark. Nothing is colorful and fun. Everyone in the films are very serious and have strong opinions on things. All the main characters are stubborn. Many of the characters are monotone and sarcastic. "There is a generally down beat or grim subject matter, lack or resolution or "happy endings", dark colors and tones, low angles, dark subject tones, use of fear as motive for characters, violent content, lots of dark greens and blue tones that add to the tone of the film, more low angles, as well as wide angles, generally long-ish movies (over two hours.) "(Smith 2.) 

Overall, after spending some time viewing and analyzing the works of David Fincher, I can say that he is truly an artist. He is now one of my favorite directors and I will definitely be viewing his other films and anticipating many more great ones. 

30's Blog Post

For the 30's project my group wanted to create a movie that sent the audience a message while still being time period appropriate. We came up with Hit or Miss. This is a story about a girl who dreams of playing baseball but feels like she doesn't have what it takes because of the impact of society's views on women. She gets help from a professional baseball player who guides her through her learning experience. As they work together more and more, they slowly fall in love. The style we went for is a lighthearted easy watch. Since feminism was very popular in the 30's, our message to the audience is that gender does not make a difference when it comes to potential. The genre of our film is romantic comedy, so we chose the actors Ginger Rogers, Cary Grant, and Charles Coburn. We chose them because they all starred in the popular romantic comedy, Monkey Business. Ginger Rogers was chosen because she was one of the most famous and talented comedians at the time. We chose to use the studio 20th Century Fox because we want our film to be a large scale production, which this studio is known for producing. Our main focus for the movie is sound, which will be edited by Thomas Moulton. We chose sound because baseball involves a lot of sound like the bat swinging, the ball being hit, and the crowd cheering. this movie is Hay's Code friendly and does not include anything scandalous like kissing or drinking. Overall out group worked very nicely together and all agreed on everything so there is nothing that I would change about our project.

MYST

MYST
Over the weekend i viewed the film seven, directed by David Fincher. I would give this film a 4 out of 5 stars. I thought the plot was awesome and i could tell that a lot of thought was put into every detail in the movie. Its about the investigation of murders based off the seven deadly sins. Although it was like many other crime and mystery movies, it kept me entertained and interested the whole time. It wasn't predictable at all which was surprising to me because the plot makes it seem like the film would have been predictable, but i was surprised by things the whole way through. I haven't viewed many films in this genre but it reminded me of another one of David Fincher's films, The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. This film was a murder mystery just like seven. I felt the same feeling while viewing these two films. I couldn't wait to know more about the mysteries in these films.



This film included a lot of great cinematic elements. The film was well structured and you could tell it was well thought out.  The look of the film was very grim and dark. It is set in an unknown city where everyone seems depressed. The use of lighting is well done. At times the light is perfectly angled so you can only see the shadow of someones face. Also the camera work is phenomenal with the use of many long shots. The camera also captures action scenes perfectly.

One particular scene that stood out to me was when the two investigators first encounter the serial killer. They are knocking on his apartment door and he tries to shoot them from down the hall, then a lot of action occurs as Brad Pitt chases the serial killer through the building and the streets of the city. The scene begins with a perfect long shot of the serial killer down the hall, he notices the investigators and whips out his gun to shoot at them. The scene is quiet and calm until this moment. Then there is an abrupt change of feeling as Brad Pitt runs down the hall to catch him. The killer and Pitt chase each other and shoot at each other all over the building. The film work is awesome in this scene because it shows Pitt in the exact same places as the killer as he is trying to follow him. The camera angles are the same as both men pass through different spots in the building. This is my favorite scene because it shows great cinematic work and is the most suspenseful part of the film.