Boyhood: Blog Post

This is a very unique film that took a span of 12 years to make and some may say it is a one of a kind film. There were many interesting features about this film besides the fact it took so long to make. We are able to see a family grow right before our eyes and see all the ups and downs a family goes through. The cinematic aspects of this film are very interesting and well done, but the one that stuck out to me the most was the camera shots/angles. A scene where I thought this was displayed very well was when Mason and his father went to one of his fathers buddies shows. As they sat on the top level overlooking the ban, Mason's father friend notices how big Mason has gotten since the last time he had seen him. He looks above from the stage and tells him how big he's gotten and all of the wonderful things his father has told him about Mason. I found this to be interesting, almost as a turning point for Mason as he appears to be standing all high and mighty at the top as he over looks the band and his told all these positive things about him. I feel the director was trying to portray that things for Mason were finally looking up as he was getting ready to take off for college. That he was starting to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. Another scene that used this aspect well was the very last scene when Mason is off at college and is hiking with his new friends. He is sitting with a girl he met and they are having small conversation, nothing important, just getting to know you talk. But in the moment, it seems more than just small talk, Mason overlooks the mountains realizing this is were he starts his life. The open space symbolizes all the opportunities he has in life and it all starts here.

A moment in this film where I thought that this aspect wasn't used to its full potential was when Mason is getting ready to leave for college with his mom and his mom begins to cry and review her life as a waste. This is the first time we see Mason's mom really show a negative attitude and I thought was a key part to the film, but there was nothing special about the scene. I thought they could of had more interesting cinematic aspects to it, especially with the camera angles.

I felt that this cinematic aspect helped emphasize the importance of someone's childhood. The free and careless aspect of a childhood is important, to do whatever you want and be able to try new things out and see what you like and dislike. It also shows some of the traumatizing things some people have to go through like seeing your parents get a divorce or experiencing your first love slip through your fingers, thinking you'll never find anyone else like that again. This movie does a great job letting viewers observe this and maybe help us reflect on our own childhood or help people that are passed that stage in life to make sure that they will look at their own kids childhood differently.

I think that another movie that used this cinematic aspect well was The Dark Knight. This was a very high spoken movie and many peoples favorite, but what I felt made the movie so effective was the unique camera shots they had throughout the film. Christopher Nolan did a great job of making Batman look even more powerful than he already is with his camera angles. The scene that stands out to me the most is one of the very last scenes where Batman is faced with a decision on whether to try and save Harvey Dent and turn him good again, or eliminate him to save innocent lives. During this scene, the camera angles are shot at a low point when facing Batman to make him look more superior than Harvey Dent. This gives the viewers a sense on who might come put on top at the end of the scene.

MYST Post #2

Good Will Hunting:
This is a movie of opportunity and willingness to take a chance when no one else believed in you. Its a movie that shows that it doesn't matter what background someone comes from or "what kind of hand" they were dealt with at the start, but that anyone has true potential in life but sometimes it takes a certain individual to reveal that hidden talent. I felt that after watching this film, I found that the best cinematic aspect was the camera angles. One of the most powerful scenes was when Matt Damon meets Robin Williams for the second time and they sit at a park bench overlooking the pond. Robin can see that it is going to take some work to get through to Damon so he begins to try to relate to him through his hardships as a child. The camera focuses on Robin as he tells his troubled past and we no longer can see Damon as the film really wants us to focus on what Robin has to say. As he is almost done saying what he has to say, the camera slowly drifts back and allows us to see Damon's reaction. He sits there almost puzzled and afraid as this angle helps us go through Damon's realization of his own problems through Robins experience.

One of the most important scenes in this film was the very last one when Ben Affleck, Damon's best friend, slowly walks up to Damon's house, as he always does every morning, and knocks on his door to pick him up. But for the first time, Damon isn't there to answer the door. Affleck confused knocks again and looks through the window to see if his friend is inside but he seems to not be home. Affleck takes a step back and just gives a small smirk as he heads back to his car knowing that his dear friend took his advice to go make something of himself. He told him earlier in the movie that he has an opportunity that everyone around him would kill for. That he shouldn't accept the position he's at in life and take a chance to go do something. Throughout the movie he had people telling him to step up and do what his unique knowledge would allow him to do, but it took his best friend to finally give him that eye opening wake up call and pursue what he wanted in life and not let his past hold him back any longer.

If I had to compare this movie to another, I would choose The Internship. This is a classic Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson comedy but it has a positive message to it, one similar to Good Will Hunting. Its about these two best friends that just lost their jobs and are looking for a new career path to take, so they decide to get an internship with Google. They are both not familiar at all with all the demands that are asked of an employee of Google but work their way up the chain. They have many people who doubt them and try to discourage them throughout the movie, but these two friends push each other to be better and really believe that they can be better. Without the support from each other, they would both fail to achieve the goal they set out for themselves. So with that said, it just takes one person who truly believes in you and supports you for you to reach your goal in life and that anyone can do anything with the right mindset and surroundings.

Short Term 12: Blog Post

A young and very emotionally damaged teenager named Marcus is one of the main characters in the film Short Term 12 and as we learn during the film that he has been apart of the program for a while now. He is portrait as a very lonely kid that seems to block everyone out. In one of the scenes, he is sitting in his room when Marcus walks in and wants to hear the rap lyrics he's been working on. We get a unique close up camera shot focusing on Marcus while Mason is in the background, almost seeming irrelevant to the scene. Marcus begins to rap and his lyrics show his troubles in the past and how he really feels. Mason is in shock and has no words to express his sorrow towards him but as he talks, the camera is still focused on Marcus, waiting for a response from Mason. Another great example of the excellent camera angles in this film is when Grace and Mason are shaving Marcus's hair for his birthday. After they are done and tell Marcus to check out his hair, he just hangs his head low and refuses to look into the mirror. We get an interesting angle from the back of Marcus, only being able to see his face through the mirror he is sitting in front of. This angle really gives us a good feel about what Marcus is going through, as he is too ashamed or scared to even look to see his own reflection knowing it will only remind him of his dark past.

I thought that this was an incredible movie all the way around regarding cinematic aspects, but there was one scene where I felt that they lacked with the camera angles. In the very last scene of the movie when Mason is telling the rest of the staff about the very heart warming story about Marcus after he got out of their program, I felt that the camera shots weren't very productive for a scene that I felt was extremely important because it showed the impact they had on these poor kids lives and helped them be able to have a future.

Throughout this film, the director uses many close up scenes to really capture the emotion of the characters. As being a viewer, I really felt through these close up shots that I knew these kids and could really feel their pain. This is a very impactful movie and allows us viewers to peak behind some of the dark curtains that kids in real life have to go through. I was honestly really affected by this film and the close up shots helped me a lot to be able to jump into the movie.

While this movie did an excellent job with their camera angles, especially the close up shots, I think that A Place Beyond the Pines was another good example of this cinematic aspect. These movies have very different plots and overall settings as well, but both have the same emotional level. And this is achieved with the very good camera angles. Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling were the main characters in this film having Cooper playing the role as a cop and Gosling playing as a intense biker guy. The most significant scene from that film is when Cooper finally traps Gosling and finally has the chance to arrest him, but ends up wrongfully shooting him, ending his life. This scene really captured the suspense to it with the close up shots on Cooper and Gosling. When Cooper slowly draws his weapon thinking Gosling is as well, but is only expecting his own fate, he is mistakenly killed.

MYST Post #1

Short Term 12:
     I thought this was an outstanding movie from every way you look at it. It delivered a powerful message with constantly great acting throughout the film. I also thought that some of the cinematic aspects of the film were very good, like the camera angles. This film did a wonderful job in capturing some of the emotional scenes with certain camera angles. The angles that were shot really gave us a better view on these kids and what they were going through. When Jade was telling Grace her short story she made, you could begin to see a hidden message from hear story by the way she told it. The camera angles did a good job depicting that for the viewers.
     I can honestly say after watching this movie that it is one of my favorites now. The overall message that it brings is very emotional and ground breaking. It gives a peak behind the curtain of how some kids aren't as lucky as most and what they go through on a daily basis. When I really think of it, there isn't a movie I can compare it to, I have never felt as emotional as I did after watching this movie and I got me thinking about some of the advantages I have in my life that some kids don't, so therefor this movie made me very grateful for the things I do have.
     There were many tear jerking scenes in this film, but if I had to pick one scene it would be when Marcus is showing Mason his new rap lyrics in his room and he really opens up through his song. It leaves Mason pretty much speechless and for the first time was able to see how Marcus truly felt. There were many scenes in this movie that showed the kids not being able to just simply tell them what is going on inside their head, so they would use songs or stories they made to reveille their deep pain.

    

MYST Post #2

Inception:
       There are so many things about this movie that make it so great, the mind blowing concept, the intense actions scenes and unbelievable acting cast, but not many people really look into a movie like this and take a deeper look into things like the cinematic aspects. An example of this would be the editing. There are not many movies that can compare to this one when looking at the editing work. Christopher Nolan really out did himself on this film, especially in the scene where Joseph Gordon- Levitt was being chased down a hotel hallway and all of the sudden the room completely flips upside down as they are battling while trying to keep their balance with the constant atmosphere change. The scene continues to Joseph struggling to get into his room to reach the device that helps them transport from level to level, when all of the sudden in the real word, s friend is pushed into the water making his level lose control. The slow motion scene of his friend being pushed into the water was one of the most dramatic scenes throughout the entire movie. As he was falling, the viewers could tell that something wrong was about to happen.
       This is hands down one of the most interesting movies I have ever seen. The overall concept absolutely blew my mind to the point where I had to watch it multiple times to fully understand what was going on. This movie honestly doesn't compare to many, but if I had to pick one movie I would have to compare it to Momento. I pick this movie not because it exactly has the same concept, but the way the movie was portrayed can be relatable to Inception. Momento is another movie I had to get a second glance at because I didn't fully understand what the director was trying to do, but once again I viewed it another time, I understood and like inception, but very pleased and intrigued.
       There where many heart pounding scenes in this movie, but if I had to pick one, it would be the scene where Leonardo DiCaprio is face to face with his wife who is on the edge of a ledge about to jump. They exchange words but its no use, she jumps to her death as Leonardo can only watch helplessly. This scene though, was in another level, in other words not real time. So the interesting part is when she died, she just moved into a deeper more dangerous level that no on dared to go in.

      

 

Mometo Blog Post

This was hands down one of the most interesting films I have ever seen, and with that said, the cinematic aspects were very impressive to me. If I had to really focus on one of the aspects it would definitely be the unique way Christopher Nolan used the black and white scenes as a flash back. While watching this movie, I honestly didn't understand what he was trying to do with it while I was watching the movie, but once I really looked into it I realized what he was trying to piece together. As we all know, the movie wasn't exactly put together from start to finish and that itself made the movie very intriguing, but throughout the movie, it would cut back to a black and white scene usually with Lenard talking on the phone with an unknown person. This was meant to be a flash back and show us Lenard piecing together his thought process of this "story" that he was trying to understand himself, when in reality, it was him telling this person all about his own life without him evening knowing it. With his difficult condition, he isn't able to remember much of anything since his accident, so throughout the coarse of his life, he was able to train his brain to think that what he did actually happen to someone else, so he wanted to be able to relate to it and figure out how he dealt with this condition and help himself out. I also feel that the black and white scenes had a hidden message, telling the viewers that something wasn't exactly right with Lenard's story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Formal Film Study (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, The Thin Red Line)

2.) Style: The three movies I watched are from a very impactful time period in the United states past, with that said, it was very important to capture every key moment in each movie. Steven Spielberg was the director for two of the movies that I watched(Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List), and I personally thought that he did a wonderful job with the cinematic styles throughout both movies. In the first scene of Saving Private Ryan, the United States storm the enemy beach and take a heavy hit. I found the camera angles were very impressive in this scene. When a bomb went off by Tom Hanks, his vision began to become blurry and the angle they were filming at perfectly portrayed Hanks distress and also showed the faces of his men under his command in complete fear. In Schindler's List, I thought it was very creative to make the entire movie in black and white. I felt that this was a message to the people viewing this as showing them the horror during the Holocaust and really brought the movie to life without having it filmed in color. The third movie I watched was The Thin Red Line, I thought that the aesthetics were very key in this film. They really captured the beautiful atmosphere of the Guadalcanal when the soldiers would wait back for any signs of enemies up ahead. There were scenes that just overlooked the land and in a stressful and fearful scene, somehow was able to portrayed peace.
Politics/History: All three movies are about an extremely important period of time during World War Two. The Holocaust is looked at as one of the biggest tragedies to ever happen in man kinds existence. Millions of people did under the wraith of Adolf Hitler. Schindler's List did not hold back on the horrible things that took place and personally had an effect on me. I caught myself becoming very emotional throughout the film, can not even imaging what it was like to be those poor innocent people during that time. At the beginning of Saving Private Ryan, it started out on the very well known day during WWII known as D-Day. This was a key battle during the war for us and helped us gain further into enemy territory.
4.) My Biggest Discovery: After watching all three movies , I found that the changing of the tempo in all three movies was very interesting. What I mean by this is that in a war film, we expect much violence and saddening and depressing scenes, which was true for all three, but I thought that the more calming scenes in the movies were brilliant. In The Thin Red Line, they had so many scenes where everyone would be peacefully gazing over the field and a ray of sunshine would reflect off of the grass perfectly, then just like that, gun shots were fired and people were dropping left and right. For a second, it almost was like I wasn't even watching a movie about war, as if it was some kind of nature documentary and I was viewing the beautiful landmarks of an island. In Schindler's List there was a scene of a party with plenty of happy people having the times of their lives, looking as they don't have a care in the world. Then it would immediately jump into the next scene of the German Soldiers torturing the poor Jews.
5.) A smaller interesting detail about the films I watched were that all three very good soundtrack. I thought that they did a great job capturing an important scene with the right kind of music. In Schindler's List when the man with one arm is taken away by the Germans to be executed, they begin to play soft music that builds up as the poor man gets closer to his death. Also in Saving Private Ryan, when Tom Hanks is left wounded on the bridge and helplessly shots at the enemy tank, the music starts to set in indicating to us that he is inching towards his last moments.
6.) http://evanerichards.com/2009/55 (Saving Private Ryan camera angles/shots)