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)

Citizen Kane: Blog Post

Riley Farra
There were many good cinematic aspects in this film, but I thought that the transitions from scene to scene was very well done and interesting. And when I say interesting, I mean they left me puzzled at times in a creative way. There were many scenes where they would jump from one scene to another completely different setting that made me really think about what was going on. My favorite transition was when Kane and his second wife just got done with a heated argument and the movie takes us to the balcony where we are awaited by a bird that lets out a loud screech and for some reason doesn't have any eyes, allowing us to see through it. It made me take a step back and really try to understand what the director was trying to say to us and I think that this hidden message was telling us that Kane towards the end of the movie was finally being reveled for who he truly was as a person and was no longer dominate in his own eyes. Throughout the movie, he had this ego where he could do whatever he wanted to and that he was untouchable, but after this scene of his vulnerability being reveled, we see that he is slowly being broken down. Movie critics call this movie one of the best films ever made, and I believe they were talking about unique things like this transition as being one of the main reasons why.

1935 Movie Project

Lunatic,
This 1935 film, featuring Barbara Stanwyck performing as Nicole Freeze, Jimmy Stewart performing as Dylan Freeze and James Cagney performing as Daniel Turner, is a thriller/horror, directed by the famous Robert Flaherty, film that in some scenes will chill you to the bone. 20th Century Fox is the new kid on the block but intends to have their viewers at the edge of their seats throughout this film. Nicole and Dylan are a newly wed couple that just moved into a small house located in Dallas Texas. Their new home is surrounded by nothing but open land and loneliness. One day they have an encounter with a strange man and he wont leave them alone until he gets what he wants. This film is something for the people that want to experience a thrilling story that will take their minds off of the war being fought over seas. This film is put in black and white because at the time color movies weren't as popular yet and also it gives an eerie vibe towards the movie that will create more of a suspenseful feeling for our viewers. This partly violent film will might have a difficult time dealing with the Hay's code not allowing certain things in a movie that might be beneficial to a movie like Lunatic. This happily married couple tries their best to stay alive while keeping each other safe from Daniel Turner, a local with a troubling past that losses his mind and is motivated to inflict his past pain on the new comers. Some of his actions in attempting to put this couple through absolute misery would go against the code so there will not be any gory scenes or gruesome stab wounds. Rather a more suspenseful or not as violent way in his actions. This film felt the need to hire a well experienced and respected cinematographer like James Wong Howe. His unique techniques with he way he used his camera to get the perfect shot or angle was brilliant and Robert Flaherty thought he would be the right man to capture this heart pounding film. At the end of the story, Dylan and Nicole freeze battle their way to safety and put Daniel Turner Behind bars for good. Nicole is crippled from an intense car chase that ended in her car crashing full speed into a tree but she is thankful for coming out alive. This movie would be a big hit with young couples that are looking for a gripping and intense movie that will have them covering one eye at all times. With the help of James Wong Howe capturing every powerful scene, there is no reason why this movie shouldn't take off and be nominated for many awards.