Hurt Locker

1. The movie "The Hurt Locker" by Kathryn Bigelow is about a small team of soldiers who difuse bombs during the Iraq war. The movie not only immerges the audience into the world of the characters, but depicts the trials and tribulations that soldiers undergo in war on a regular basis. The film details the unique perspective of a man by the name James William who is a bomb diffuser with lackluster methods of working with his team mates and care for his own life. This idea of a mysterious character in the film adds to the fantastic characterization of those around him and makes this film one of my favorites. Overall I thought that the movie was exhilarating in the encompassment of shots and depictions of soldiers lives in Iraq.

2. The film takes place in Jordan, Iraq about an (eod) team or explosive ordnance disposal team (USA). The individual who came up with the script was Mark Boal who was a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb squad team. This movie especially details the troubles of war on the physch of the American soldier and the day to day struggle depicted in maintaining ones composure on the battle field. The story line has the theme of survival and personifies in the characters this idea of the possibility of dieing everyday. Also, another theme is loss of innocence personified in the specialist who has to clean the blood off of the .50 caliber bullets when under sniper fire. Then in the opening scene with the explosion and death of a bomb squad member tensions are immediately felt by the audience and the immersion into the story begins.

3. The visual design of the piece was interesting in the depiction of the background housing and city life providing a clear picture of what it would be like to be in Iraq. The actors Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty all played their parts excellently. The uniforms and the natural environment that the soldiers were put in all helped make the piece realistic and undoubtly amazing. One costume was the bomb suit, which played a crucial role in identifying certain characters and there personal ideals connoted with the suit. The production design looked very thorough throughout the film and everything seemed well organized and expertly shot of course, yet the shots in this movie were exceptionally good. The wide shots with the foreground, midground and background created great depth in the environment and each individual situation whether good or bad that the soldiers were placed in.

4. The style of cinematography was extremely realistic throughout the entire movie and is shown in a lot of the action scenes with character eyeline match and cause and effect shots with the explosions and the consequences. The typical camera shots are wide, extreme closeups medium shots and long shots. Also first person shots were used in the beginning with the insurgent typing in a phone number to the bomb. Throughout the film the shots all have the a dusky coloring that creates this middle eastern vibe that adds to the realism and evironmental factor that occurs with this piece. Also images connote certain issues or past disturbances like that of a burned rusted car in the middle of the street. Throughout the piece the light was consitent during the day and even the darkeness was consistent at night. The use of color correction was prominent throughout this film especially in the sniper scene where an orange hue was used over the piece to represent the setting sun as the characters look and wait to see if there are any remaining snipers still alive.

5. The editing style of the piece has a lot to do with cause and effect, where character actions are shown leading up to the piece and the individuals commiting the actions beside that of the main character are placed in first person perspectives. The editing style was so interesting especially in the opening scenes where the manipulation of the speed of the explosion could be seen in the car the dirt vibrating as the explosion is happening. The length of cuts throughout the film seemed to be a mixture between short and long where the amount of time placed on a single shot was determined by the importance and the significance desired by the director to convey an overall message to the film. No flashbacks were used throughout the film, only the present time was shown adding to the realistic aspect of the environment and plots occuring throughout the movie. The use of flashbacks deters the film away from the realistic aspect for me because of that idea of recreating past events. Also the use of a montage of sequence shots in the beginning with the first explosion really conveyed the overall message of the film and the preceding experiences that the characters will have to deal with, including death and ofcourse bombs and the effects mentally and physically.

6. The style of the movie follows the theme of tension and complete immersion of the audience into the life of a soldier and especially the life of a bomb squad member. There are many symbolic elements incorporated into the film as well which add to the overall effect, especially that of security and peace of mind. Most of the scenes have the consistent flow of the following scenes before it. However, in scenes that portray the "enemy" an eyeline match and a close up of the "enemies" eye is used and a first person perspective.

7. The narrative structure of the film deals with the portrayal of the three characters lives throughout the film and their tribulations of being in a bomb squad. The use of sarcasm to show characterization when difusing a bomb and the unconventional nature of acting and doing his "job" are all portrayed throughout the film. William James who is the unconventional bomb difuser, warps the plot around this idea of no fear. This character also helps develop the other characters as well and the theme of Death and how to go about with loss. The use of humor for the character James was ideal in portraying a mysterious character who's morals and character traits were so unconventional to that of the typical individual.

8. The genre of the piece is a documentary and is one of the few movies to to pull off the idea of being a documentary, yet diverges to that of a war movie. However, war does not neccessarily encompasse this movie because the movie focuses a lot on character developement, which is why it is considered a documentary. The idea of focusing on James william to me is the ideal character surrounded by mystery and motives for his actions, which make the film extremely fun to watch over and over again being the 8th time that I have seen this Movie.

9. Overall I thought that the film was really good and loved the character developement of James William throughout the film and the idea of him being the crazy careless hero of the entire film. It's also Ironical to say that he has saved those with him by being as crazy as he is and as careless. Overall the film was a success and I really enjoyed watching the different perspectives that the film gave me on shots and character developement through certain shots and concepts. I think that we should watch a movie like this again....

Preproduction: Film Going to state

Pre production

Aim: To show the struggles of being a runner, injuries, and daily training.

Contact: Aaron Jones (Aka: super runner) Is going to state to compete after making it through CCS.

Interview questions: How has running shaped your lifestyle and your experiences as an individual?
What have you accomplished as a runner, that you are proud of.?
What experiences have made you desire to go into cross country? Family lineage perhaps?
How do you prepare for a race?
What do you clear in your mind or what do you do mentally to prepare for the race?
When you run how do you feel, does it relieve stress, what do you feel?
This is the last race of your senior year how do you feel?

General flow:

The beginning we will build Aaron’s character as being a relaxed individual, sort of the average joe, yet when it comes to running he does things that make him unique. Show the change in persona of Aaron on race day. Also show the injury that he has been coping with and the precautions that he has to deal with. Then we will show him after the race and show his emotions and how he feels he did?

Shot list:

Close ups of Aaron along with background to show his environment . I will get shots of him training for the race practicing. Photos from the year’s cross country program along with times. B-roll of running will be used. use voice over the piece. on pictures.

script:

Basically the entire piece will Aaron talking and the only text will be used to establish context on Aaron , like general things like his age and location (San Bruno) . Also where the race will be held.
Opening: motion opener, Establishing Aaron as the main focus of our topic and the central theme of our film as documenting Aaron’s life as a runner.

Closing:

Will finish with Aaron’s final words on how he felt he did this year and his opinion on that race being his last, or just the beginning.

Short documentary blog post: True life I'm rehabing my injury

1. Narrative theme

The narrative theme of True life: I'm rehabbing my injury, focuses on the build up and characterization of the individuals being focused on in the Topic selected. It also focuses upon the different individuals dilemas presented to them, from the typical way of life. The narration in this show is limited to that of the individuals themselves and text giving a little background (etc location). Also the series focuses on this idea of experiencing the problems of another individual and essentially the experience that comes with seeing anothers way of life. Narrative themes are usually incorporated throughout the show and some themes being Fallin

2. Camera work

The camera work is all handheld, which allows more versality on the shots that encompass the short film. Also camera shots are used to portray the actions and also character emotions. Emotions by the snapshot to the left showing Mason rehabbing from a torn ligament and the use of such a low camera shot to me conveyed the emotion he was feeling, depicting him as reaching an all time low in accomplishing his dream and his career as a basketball player. Also the camera work is used to depict the struggles of the individuals being focused on in the film.

3. Editing and sound design

Throughout the film, it seems as though the camera man or director asks questions to the individuals to give an in depth view of the person and then the question is edited out of the film

it creates the illlusion of the people talking about themselves. This tactic also provides good commentary on the part of the individuals and flows well. Also in the editing the inclusion of photos allow background for the people being followed. Most of the photos used in this episode of true life, characterize the individuals as being "dedicated" by which their lives revolve around sports even when they were little. This also provides a certain atmosphere by including photos in the edit creating tension and an "all or nothing" mentality from these people, that is seen only in a minute of film. Also there was no sound design well at least throughout the entire show. This creates tension and also allows the individuals to create the mood for the audience rather than the music which is played in the background. This concept of having no music allows a very biographical mood in the show rather than a cheesy reality T.V. show. Looking back at the idea of Music being almost nonexistent gives great insight into the production and conveying of messages feelings to the audience.

Baraka Film blog

The film Baraka was awe inspiring in the shots alone and the symbolic interpretations that I saw in numerous shots taken. With pun intended, the first shot of this film was better than anything I had ever done in film class, either that symbolizes my work ethic or the extremely high level of shot execution and geographic exhibition of nature that this film displayed. I think it is the extremely difficult shots that supposedly took 13 months to take and traveling to 24 countries. The idea of nature being awe inspiring has always had that effect upon me, however the scale of this films awe registered an 11 out of 10. 12 out of 10 is awarded if i actually get to go to any of these places displayed in the film. This concept of Awe inspiring to me is different to relatively every person. The indigenous of these places who are used to such cultural environments would see our civilization and be completely awe struck as i am merely witnessing their own cultures and environments. So, alien their "world's" seem that I have been inspired to travel, to my hearts content until witnessing with my own eyes, these places of beauty. (opinion).

This mountain shot alone is something for the beginning of a mythical movie,...ahem (lord of the rings) perhaps or maybe something in a nature magazine never known to exist to the typical suburban kid. These shots have meaning in their brilliance and shot difficulty, yet the story line of this movie is still unclear. A possible reason is that we did not watch the entire film, thus an interweaved idea in the film from the beginning to the end could not have been percieved. However,

I can see the prevalence of the idea of cultural experience and diversity in differing countries around the world. Thus, I have concluded that the idea of this film was to inform the individual of such differing cultural experiences, so as to shock the individual watching the film as well as opening their minds to the possibilities. From most of these shots a feeling of detachement can be felt as though you are an omniscient being observing the people of these countries and these cultures as though you are supposed to pass judgement upon the orthodox or the ordain objects and methods from our own society.

This is a rock garden in kyoto Japan, intriguing to me in its shape and its paterns as well as its methods of creating such "art" or cultural distinction. This film shows views being shattered through out the world. The shots are often wide mixed with close ups, but there is no shot displaying something insignificant. Shots often have foreground, midground and background giving such depth to shots that it's ability to make your jaw drop unprecedented in society today.
these shots also have music associated with them, though my memory is enriched by the depth of each shots beauty. The sense I felt when listening to the music was that of natural connotations of music in such environments, which enable the feeling of being apart of something much more than yourself. This idea of peace and unorthodox ways of using natural music in my suburban lifestyle suprised me. Though the suprise is associated with the beauty of the shots and the atmosphere surrounding the cultures and natural music that enhances them.

Epic failure Film Critique

A) Rationale: The Film that we made was about a basketball player that took the game a little to far by falling in love with the ball that he played with. Inevitably the Character, sees the ball as his way of defeating anyone who plays against him in the sport, treating the ball with human human qualities trying to seduce the ball into letting him win against the opposing character in the film. We tried to make the film comedic but the execution on one of the versions was not as coherent in the plot and design as another. (And pretty harsh criticism, though it was deserved in a way)

B) Commentary

1. Some of my areas of responsibility involved me being the cinematographer of the piece. Also I did a lot of the work on the setting up of the beginning scenes where Zafir and Vince are playing each other on the basketball court. The rest of the shots I am not proud of because the locations that were chosen were based on whims and on the issue of time which plagued our 2 man team since the beginning. However, I enjoyed some of the background that I was able to capture in my piece especially with foreground, midground, background in the basketball court shot, setting the scene as being urban, instead of rural. Also I was responsible for the initial story and script design though we changed the approved script and story line throughout shooting, due to the issue of timing.
2. Some factors that arose while being the cinematographer involved the lighting at specific scenes. This was due to scheduling difficulties on all members who had matters to attend to on days where scheduling was originally set. This led to dim shots that were off balance in color and lighting difficulties due to the time on different days. Also the locations of certain shots were used in the spontaneous developement of ideas that could (improve) the plot and that would make our film better, but obviously that backfired and sent us and our film crashing down like a world war 2 fighter. Anyways, being the cinematographer I tried to use lots of establishing shots and zoom shots in the piece as well as having long shots that establish the character and then the scene as in Amelie. Some other problems that I encountered being a writer of the script was the idea of not having a set plan of dialogue yet because we were unsure on whether we wanted the ball to have a voice for itself and Zafir speaking to the ball as a person.
3.Since we did not get shots that were perfect in color temperature or in setting as well, I tried to place filters over some of the parts. However, looking back at the significant differences in color, we were pressed for time due to our poor planning, from excessive fooling around since my partners were my friends and the organization of shots was not the best. Therefore, fixing this problem in the future, I will not use Zafir or Vince bolla as any of my casting or partners because I really enjoy this class and I dislike having such a terrible grade when I know I can make better films than this and be proud of my work instead of hiding under my jacket when viewing the film. Another problem of the film that I had to address in my role as the cinemetogropher was the issue of lighting in the piece, obviously most of the lighting shots were not perfect, but they could have been much worse, given the time our group had in developing and shooting the scenes. Also, I acted as a mediator in the group when things started to get out of hand or when individuals were getting bored and wanted to do something else. Basically, I had to force some people at times to continue on with the film so we could get it done as the light gradually faded, my desire to be apart of the group faded as well.
4.Some problems that arose from the film as a whole was the acting choice. We thought that having (vince) as our actor would make our film Funny yet he stole the show and our film died a horrible uncomedic death. Also looking back at the day of showing our film, there was a lot of tension being that the Western Baptist church came to our school to protest the Laramie project and since Zafir's edit had some, "outtakes" which I am not proud of, we deserved a lot of the criticism that we got. Also the audio was off for all of our shots making editing strenuous which, I remebered was probably the inconsistent use of the same cameras in the shooting of individual scenes as well as the mics that we used. Also when we were shooting at Allen there was apparently an afterschool daycare that was playing on the courts the same time that we were shooting our scenes which made us, have to void a lot of shots and audio. Also, on a major day of shooting the camera died on us and we were forced to resume the following day which resulted in a different color temperature and thus, a film which looks a lot worse than it could have been. However, it was our fault, so we can't really say anything.
5.We were not able to fix our problems because we were pressed for time. One being our acting choice which was terrible beyond belief, yet available whenever we needed him. yet he did not take any of our shots seriously and the performance as seen in the edit was all that I could muster from him (vince). Some problems that I tried to address in our piece was the lighting because a lot of our shots were taken at different times making the effect of viewing a clean cut or action less realistic. So I tried to use color correction to make some of the scenes seem as flawless as they were going to get for the amount of time that we had and the quality of the shots that we had taken. When dealing with the children on the playground as stated earlier we had to void a lot of our audio and some shots where kids got in the way of our footage. However, we tried to wait for the children to go inside to resume shooting, yet the color temperature was a little off, thus, filters. Also we had Viince bolla as an actor and I tried to get realistic shots from him however, when he was able to give me a shot that seemed like it deserved to be in the film Zafir couldn't stop laughing because it seemed so unusual, for VINCE to be trying.
6. I am not going to lie, but this film was absolutely terrible in every aspect and individual that I worked with. I am not going to work with the same individuals again because my grade has fallen and when making such films it is wise to not do it with your friends because everything seems to take longer and becomes more of a joke. We found ourselves in disarray at multiple points during the shooting which made my work and our project a lot harder to receive a grade worthy of our original desired outlook. Some aspects of the film that I enjoyed were, some of the shots that I did with the zooming in and out on the individuals face to give background to the scene and to me added another element to the film playing with the zoom. Some things that I thought were quite fun to play around with was the magical appearance of the ball in the places, which was funny to us in the initial ideas behind the film. Some shots could have been edit and cut better to preserve continuity and make our film seem much more fluid. Also some of our acting was just terrible and we need to have better actors because we were not cutting it when it came to some of our expression. Also there was rarely a scene where we were not joking around and we had to put a lot of those scenes in our film, because there were no other scenes that could encapuslate specific ideas that we wanted to portray.

Words: 1615

Film Treatment

Jermaine is always seen on the basketball court shooting hoops from dawn to dusk.(1) At school he is always drawing pictures of playing basketball or of him holding the championships.(2) During practices Jermaine runs down the court and players just fall out of his way as he crosses over. (3) However, Jermaine has a weird habit of taking the basketball everywhere he goes. EX. school (4), gym (5), shower (6). Jermaine looks at his basketball, Ex. Jermaine talks to the basketball. Shots of Guys and girls 2 shots and then close up of Jermaine and then the gradual zoom out of him with with his basketball smiling at it. (7) The ball begins to talk to Jermaine over time and tells him not to talk to girls or look at them. Much of his time is spent with the ball now. ex. carrying, talking, eating. (8) In the end the ball takes over so much of his life. The ball basically becomes his girlfriend. pic of stuff on the ball. (9) The boy is about to get a tattoo of the basketball on his back. When he is on the way in the car and he realizes the basketball is taking over his life. (10) Realizes he has to basically break up with his basketball. He goes home and starts pacing back and forth about how he is going to break up. His Friend and him are talking about it. He enters the house (dramatic) and sees the basketball. He sits down with the basketball and says its over. (11) Ending of the ball leaving rolling out the door. (turn up the dance music when the ball leaves). (12)

Amelie Textual analysis

When Amelie goes into the tunnels, music can be heard from a blind man who is holding a record player playing a song about love. The use of sound by the director allows the following action of Amelie running into a man underneath a photo booth, (future lover) be seen. I also think the blind man was used to symbolize the obscure nature of their love by not knowing/ (seeing) the other. I also think it is pretty ironic that the song is about living with love, which is a dilema of Amelie in the end. Also color correction with a tint of green creates an eerie/mysterious feeling making the audience lonely in a way.

Amelie tricks her father into believing the dwarf is traveling around the country as a way to make her father travel as well, instead of waiting behind. I also see this act of kindness as a way of comic relief in the story to relieve the tension of Amelie helping so many individuals. The symbolism of the dwarf can also be seen as part of the freeing of Amelie through helping others.

Magical realism is used in the film, which can be seen in this part where the key magically appears in amelies pocket. The use of such a device made me think about Amelie's (hobby) of helping others and the creation of Magical powers almost as a connotation of helping others as being "holy". Symbolic opening the lives of others to provide aid and assistance and also in the punishing of those who have done wrong. This idea emphasizes Amelie taking on, almost a divine figure punishing those who have sinned and rewardings those who are kind or troubled. For example the shop owner who Amelie switches his toothepaste and his foot cream, as well as changing his clock, for revenge against the abusing of his worker.

Irony can be seen in this image by the skeleton being Amelies future lover. Silence is used by the author to emphasize the characters words..."booooo" to focus this silence between the 2 characters, which reaccuring throughout the movie. For example the end when Amelie is kissing, no music is in the background of the film. Thus I think I can conclude the Author is trying to make the audience step out of the world of Magical realism and show a more realistic event, converging fantasy and reality through the sound alone.

Plots that kill

I am going to use the punitive plot, style where the character is punished for his wrong doings (except I will do it in a comedic like perspective). One film where I have seen this type of plot structure is called, "Jumper", where a boy is given powers that he uses to jump from place to place and begins to abuse his power and then the government comes after him, with others who can teleport from place to place as well trying to punish the boy for committing crimes. My story will deal with a Boy named sean who gets hit in the head and then is given the ability to transport within a confined space (5ft) anywhere. Basically, I am controlling the distance from which "sean" can transport, instead of the transporting of characters around the world like in the movie. Then I am making the story more comedic with Sean being annoying and messing with kids around the class unlike the movie where the characters are in "life and death" situations. The character Sean in my short film will be dealing with the idea of abusing his power and then being punished in the end. Sean immediately seperates himself from everyone else when he gets his powers, believing he is better than them. This shows the teaching of a moral as well, showing that "with great power comes responsibility" (spiderman #?) Sean goes about, the class room committing acts of being an "A$$ h#$%" like disrupting students work by transporting around the room. Then, knocking people over and preventing others from getting their work done. Then a student gets angry and throws a book at sean while he is zipping back and forth hitting sean's head, making him lose his power. He then gets outcasted by the students of the classroom. The end (This is just a little summary still pretty rough). Yeah....

Treatment revised

There is a man named Sean who realizes that he can transport anywhere, whenever he is happy (use of his face with a really big smile). Sean attains this power by hitting his head on the floor after falling on spilled water. Sean doesn't realize that he can transport in any direction yet, but he realizes when he goes up to a the door for film and smiles. (Voice over of Sean saying," Film is his favorite class"). Sean then transports through the door and then starts to transport all over the class room. Then Sean goes off and begins testing the limit to his power and then starts transporting through doors and walls and around campus finding that whenever he is happy he transports (though, not controlled). Also, hitting on girls and such using his powers to help this one girl catch her books before they fall. Then he realizes that his ability is much worse than he thought transporting whenever he is happy, creating awkward moments inadvertently with people around him (transporting into a bathroom stall someone is using). Transports in on couples making out (awkard) trying to get out of the weird confrontation. The climax happens when Sean realizes that he needs to remain sad to talk with people, not trying to be happy/laugh. (jokes/ dangerous) starts screaming closing his ears). He then tries ways of him losing his powers and then a student throws a book at the moment when Sean loses hope and then it hits Sean in the head. Sean loses his power and then goes back to being a normal kid and appreciates everything that he has now. Such as the people around him and being able to be happy, whenever without transporting.

dramatic moment

Sean is a boy who randomly hits his head falling on the ground and gets the power to transport (5ft) in any direction. Before, Sean feels alone in the classroom as if no one wants to talk to him. You can see this in the way sean keeps himself in the corner of the class and tries to seclude himself from the rest of the class. On the computer screen there is a game where there are certain characters with super powers and you can see drawings of super heros on the paper in front of Sean's computer. This shows sean desiring to escape from his normal self to be something special and stand as the symbol of good. There is a lesson going on in the background, but sean keeps drawing his superheros. Sean is dressed in a black and white shirt signifying him choosing later on in the short film whether or not to use his powers for good/ show off. Someone spills a drink and then sean slips and falls on his head. Then he realizes he has powers and ponders using them to help those around him or not. He chooses to not help those around him seeing people who didn't talk to him as being inferior to him and begins to disrupt the students using his power. Such as annoying them zipping by asking them obvious questions (what are you doing?) repeatedly. The setting in the classroom (mr. bigue) is appropriate for the situation of sean (tj) to portray a disturbed child who hates life. (just kidding). But, having Sean in the corner of the room will be able to portray the idea quite well of isolation and the actors will be able to play their parts fine. Also the contrast of the noisy room in the background of sean who is really mellow, will show isolation.

Italian neo realism

Some of the main characteristics of Italian neo-realism is the "emphasis on real lives [...] an entirely or largely non professional cast, a focus on the collectivity rather than the individual [...] solidarity [..] criticism of the status quo". This is all put together to emphasize the idea of escaping from the fantasy typically seen in the movies during ww2 which conveyed "happy endings" when life was not always so forgiving. Italian neo realism showed the audience the dark side of reality moving away from fantasy to reality.

The history behind Italian Neo-realism was the problematic era of ww2 and Italy was under the strict leadership of Benito Mussolini where the harshness of reality was seen in the streets and the people. In 1935 the anti-Fascist journalist, Leo Longanesi promoted the idea of the filmer going into the streets to document the reality of the situations plagued by the people of Italy.
Thus the development of the Neo realism era commonly taking place in the streets instead of sets.

Some of the cinematic techniques that were used in the Italian Neo Realism era involved the idea of music as a way to express the social problems conveying mood and tone for the films. Also the idea of taking filming to the streets to display realistic lifestyle capturing ruins or slums to show depression under the Italian neo realistic style.

Some contributers to the Italian Neo realism movement involved: Cesare Zavattini who was known as the "godfather" of the Neo realism movement. He wrote a guide on the creation of Neo realistic films playing a major role in the production as well as the influence of other filmers to pursue Neo realistic films. Also another key contributer to the Neo realism era was Leo Longanesi who wrote in an anti fascist journal in 1935 telling film makers to take footage of the reality of life in the quote," go into the streets". signifying support towards the idea of Italian Neo realism and contributing to starting the movement throughout Italy.

Some key movies that influenced the Italian Neo realistic style involved "obssessione" by Visconti which portrayed bleak interior and street shots of 3 protagonists heightening the Neo realistic affect and helped establish long takes to convey mood and tone between the characters. Also another film,"Open City" in 1946 showed the link between the Italian Neo realistic style and the resistance movement going on during ww2. This also signified the resistance against the typical "American" movies by the Neo realistic films which deterred away from the American ideas of happy endings and fantasy contrasting the neo realistic films which centered around realism.

student film finalists

The name of the short piece is "job security which has 2 security guards and one is very dedicated to his job, while the other is more relaxed trying to pass time reading "hustler". The 2 differing personas allow the development of the plot, which involves a treasure chest, that is being stolen from the security guards and the more serious security officer goes after the masked culprit.

Here is the monitering room with the serious, "your an idiot" expression portrayed by the security officer and in the background the moniter has an image of the mysterious chest. This character takes his job much more seriously than the other security guard. The picture below is self explanatory for many reasons.

First of all this security guard is much more relaxed and laid back, as you can see by the earphones and illicit magazine in his hand, he doesn't take his job seriously. Ohh by the way this is the scene where a mysterious assailant walks in, who has some sort of shady back ground (wearing a ski mask) and kills the the security officer while he is, ummmm yeahhh....... doing his thing with that magazine, you get the idea. Anyways the 2 contrasting characters make this story somewhat funny with a little bit of horror, as shown in the picture below.

As you can see the masked antagonist walks out of the security monitering room, after depriving that misfit security officer of any dignity left, while the other security guard goes into the truck to check the chest. This is a magor part in the plot of novel where the security officer is whisked away in the back of the antagonist's car into the vacuous depth of the night. A little overly dramatic, but it works.

Solitude

As you can see the trailer for solitude makes it appear as though it will be a horror film. Either that or a really bad comedy. However, there was an amount of skill used in the creation of certain shots.

This shot faded in one of the character's hands to a close up of the phone bringing curiosity not only towards the hand, but the phones consistent noise of being off the hook connotating emptiness and loneliness, thus the title, "Solitude". Also this is an example of a Rack focus as the hand is gradually focused into the shot with the phone.

Here dramatic irony is conveyed as the highschool/college students realize that they are alone. Since I am the viewer I can either be terrified at the fact that they are going to be killed or laugh hysterically at the thought of the overly anxious students venturing out into the world, but meeting with death and despair,.....just kidding that would be completely cynical and crazy to think like that in my opinion, but a lot of my friends have a strong distaste for movies that are based around the typical "students" being terrorized and picked off one by one by some masked killer who is insane.

Yes, the masked crusader looking even more mysterious through the use of lighting and a little light illuminating the "villians" lucious hair. The dark background really adds on the effect of evil maniac trying to kill students who have realized they can accomplish something in their life by going off to college. This dominating "worm eye" camera position really adds to the, I am going to kill students look that the director was going for. Overall the film doesn't look as bad and would probably be somewhat decent and interesting to see.

Reverie

Wow, the ability of the camera to capture the amount of detail/pixels reminds me of an HD Tv or movie theater quality.

Especially the sweat dripping down from the man's face is really defined and vividly seen in the still image i took. Also the reflection of light in the man's eye is extraordinary considering in my camera a tint of red is always seen. Anyways, no part of the still image looks grainy, even the little pigments on his skin are visible. The detail and definition is amazing, for a video, but even cooler since it is a camera changed.


The ability of the camera to take such clear video in low light is symbolic with the effect of a low f stop, which is much lower for cameras than it is for video cameras. I think the cameras ability to show the light eminating from the building was extremely cool let alone the definition made me feel as if I staring at the building except i am staring at a screen, but the point is the definition is great.

I think this scene is really cool mostly because he is wearing shades and the reflection off of the shades is easily seen giving a mirror effect that adds the surreal mood and environment the character is in. Also the character is wearing shades and it is dark outside proving a point that I displayed in "the Hit" that you should be able to wear shades anytime of the day because they look cool.

Edit demo critique

1) Our story demonstrates our concept well considering our shots could have been done a little better. However, Me and Dazzy were able to get the idea of the concepts, point of view and 180 degree rule, to be explained clearly. For example Jr. looking at someone pick up his dollar on the floor in first person point of view, creating conflict followed by Raul and Jr. "fighting" each other using 180 degree rule. This was somewhat difficult because some of our shots could have been placed better, such as a shot of Jr. and Raul walking behind one another to create background and foreshadowing of plot. Also lighting was difficult to control when filming outside and filming seens of characters in door ways where the differing contrast of light flowing through the camera created a multitude of shadows that may have made some of our shots more difficult to see.

2) Our actors were joking around a lot throughout our piece, but that made our piece a lot more fun, considering they were supposed to be mad at each other or at least their characters were. Overall we were able to capture our actors, quite well throughout the film except in the end after the fight, they began to smile, which is a major blunder, or the characters became good friends and couldn't be mad at each other, finally reaching a level of maturation within their young adult lives signifying a desire to do something better in life than fight, but that is (B.S.). Overall our shots could have been better and we should have had more examples of point of view and 180 degree rule. However one good shot that I thought was done well was where the characters are seen through the door way, which seemed unique to me, with the entire school court in the background. Although we were able to portray some interesting shots, we could have done many more things, which really shows the various takes on certain situations that a director or editor can illustrate when creating a film, whether it is 30 seconds or 3 hours.

3) some of the challenges, being an editor involved trivial matters such as learning new ways of manipulating footage to portray individuals and make the film, overall, more interesting than it would have been just playing the original recorded information. Also, the placement of certain clips in areas to convey action seens or continued motion through doors was difficult getting the exact timing. One thing that I had to do to demonstrate my concept in the edit was to do the voice overs to give context and talk to the audience about the concepts, point of view and 180 degree rule. I also had to break down the individual actions of the characters to demonstrate the aspects of the concepts and to slow down the film, such as the scene where Jr. is looking at the dollar through the door way, slowing down the rate.

Avatar

1. James Cameron faced most of his challenges in the production of the movie in correlation to the technology that was needed to create the characters for the movie. The immense amount of technology that went into the fictional characters, to make them seem real and have realistic expressions is absolutely amazing. I also think he had a difficult time with the story line only with the incorporation of characters for a multitude of viewers, otherwise the plot has a very similar resemblance to Pochantas.

2. The process used in Avatar is based upon science fiction incorporated with many diffferent aspects of love and relationships with nature allowing the adaption of of certain CGI contraptions and animation to create the landscape and animals used in the movie. Also the process is very time consuming and challenges the actors and graphic design to make a spectacular effect in the fictional world "Pandora".

3. Performance capture has changed the film making process by allowing the actors to act, but have animated bodies embody their facial expressions and actions. This has changed the way people see animation because it no longer requires the actor to stand in front of a mic and record their voice while an animating team goes to create certain facial expressions and essentially emotions. Also most of the animating is live action so the actors are still being used to a much higher extent.

4. The marketing for Avatar cost 150 million. News corp is going to receive about 1.26 billion from Avatar. The massive budget does not affect the films concept, but the technology used to create the movie was revolutionary and was affected by the massive budget.

5. This film is a recycling of the plot of Pochantas, but since the era and new characters add another aspect to the plot and meening of the story, the movie has more oppurtunities for interpretation. Such as environmentalism, used by the representation of the scientists and the greedy American business man who wants money. This movie follows some of the typical stereo types of American culture, money, power. However, the idea of the Americans coming into another world as the evil oppressors, against the indigenous natives is the typical plot behind Pochantas. Therefore, this movie shows a significant similarity to Pochantas making the plot not as unique, but I understand because so much money was put into the making of the film the Plot had to be safe and commonly enjoyed.