Independent Research Critique

1. Research Question

A) Jason Torres, Research Question, Power through lighting and color in International Cinema. B) Carmen Carrillo, Research Question, Political thrillers. Some would say they provide us with more of the truth than our daily newspapers. They cause upset and leave us wondering what exactly is true, if there is a truth at all. They leave us on the edge of our seat and turn our world upside down with its accusations of political institutions.

2. Areas of focus

A) Lighting and Color

B) mis en cine, dialogue, color

3. Incorporation of sources

A) Jason incorporated quotations from various works consulted into the right column filled with commentary.

B) Carmen used her consulted works for general background on her movies and production processes.

Animated movie

Area of Interest:
Analysing the theme of alienation in Animated films. I will be looking at films from Japan and films from the USA.

Question: How is alienation is used in animated films in the USA and Japan developing the protagonists acceptance into society?

Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away. Japan
Katsuhiro Otomo, Steam Boy. Japan

Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, Beauty and the Beast. USA
Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, Mulan. USA

Areas of Focus:
Visual Imagery (colors, etc), cinematography (ex. wide empty shots showing isolation), and Mis en Scene

In Spirited Away a girl named Chichiro loses her parents and tries to get them back forcing her to take refuge in a bath house for the spirits. Steam Boy focuses on a boy whose father goes off to work in another country and leaves the boy by himself with his mother. Mulan is based on a girl named Mulan who is alienated because she is a girl wanting to join the military where men are only allowed, but she goes against the social norms and eventually becomes accepted by society. The Beauty and the Beast is a movie based upon a man cursed having beastly qualities superficially representing his inner personality, this isolates him from the world until he meets a special someone.

Music to my feet

Log line: A boy who is constantly moving from school to school is distant from those around him finding salvation through music in the beat at which people walk to, he finds a girl falls in love and has to beat another boy to her.

Treatment:

Voice over occurs of Boy named James who has been moving from school to school twice a year since he was 10. Voice over," My name is James and my life was never easy for me, everyone I meet always seem to pass by almost as though they were a blur" "Music is the way everyone appears to me beats specifically to me, my image of them fades like the end of a song on an ipod on to the next one". Basically a boy named james loves to listen to music and the subtle patterns in the background of songs. Everything James does is intertwined with musical beats which he expresses most frequently with individuals walking around school. When he is in class James uses his pencil to create a beat for each person as they walk by. Then as James is walking around school he sees a girl who he can't figure out a beat to. James has to meet her and right as he is about to go up to her another boy named Adam apears and starts talking to her. Flash back to the beginning of the semester he meets a boy named Adam who tries to make friends with him yet James just sees him as another boring kid and blows him off by just walking away. Adam becomes James archrival from that point on always trying to beat him like beating him to the classroom or first one to finish his test. James wants Rosy and stalks her, Eventually he finds her singing a song, which is the basis behing her beat and he uses that romantically playing it to make her fall in love. James in the end asks her out beating Adam.

Narrative:

The sound of the people around James will be specifically conveyed in their footsteps. Sound will be the basis behind the reader discovering who James is a person, (he is constantly seeking the unordinary/different beat), music of his soul, essentially something he cannot comprehend. The setting will be at a school and the conflict will be finding out the beat of the girl Rosy to whom he is fascinated at understanding. Dialogue will be used in the beginning of the film to set up the background of James constantly moving from school to school differentiating and defining people as musical steps as they walk. Voice over of James as the character in the beginning.

Production elements:
Sound bridges will be used when coming from the dialogue into the musical beat of individuals steps. rhythmic matches will be used in the beginning of the film when james is describing himself stating music as his one constant in his life. A specific beat will be produced with Rosy (leitmotif) to convey her unique beat to the audience and the character James seperating her from the others. Foley sounds will be incorporated expressively when steps are being examined by the main character James. Liet motif will also be used for Adam in an evil sounding way.