http://www.filmsite.org
http://www.wikipedia.org
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/reviews/4256186.html
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/art_and_music/films.html#T
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
The Godfather- Identify Visual Parallels and Contrasts
The film Godfather was a all-action crime movie, winning Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay back in 1972. It was also ranked the second best film in American-made movie in history and have two sequels followed; The Godfather Part 2 in 1974 and The Godfather Part 3 in 1990.
We looked at an extract of the film, where the tension increases as it goes on and we had to draw some of the most important shots which brings out the meanings to what is going to happen later on in the scene.
1) Mother holding baby- This is where the shot starts and it focus mainly on the baby since it doesn't show the mother's head of the lower body. This might suggest that the baby is special and it's going to be a center of importance between the protagonists and antagonists.
2) Building gun- A change in scene and we can see another person building a gun. It closes up on the gun to show that he's an assassin and would be about to kill someone. The cigarette and where he is at (somewhere on top of a building) may suggest he is one of those bad people about to cause trouble.
3) Person cleaning car- The setting is somewhere possibly in the countryside and there isn't much of the person that is significant since we don't really see who he is. He then wipes the car with some kind of fabric might show he likes cleanliness, and maybe as well, hiding something which would be revealed later on.
4) Person shaving- The person in the scene doesn't seem harmful when viewing this shot. He is at the barber shaving his beard off and looks like he is relaxed. He also checks his watch as if he is in a hurry, which relates later on into the story.
5) Dropping gun on bed- This shot is a continuity of the previous building gun scene. The person drops his gun down from his bag which some metal chains as well. The paper bag represents they are hiding something. The gun is the main focus here because the camera only shoots the paper bag and the person pulls out the gun and laying it on the bed.
6) Person walks along the corridor- The shot is a long shot, but nothing out stands in the corridor. The place might be some high class building by looking at the background and the decorations on the walls. A person treads along it but it doesn't exactly show where he is heading which creates suspense to the audience. He might also be in a hurry, since his pace is quite quick and he walked in a curved line.
7) Police taps car and point- The setting changes to an outdoor area, maybe outside the building to the previous shot taken in the inside. The policeman taps on the person's car and guides him somewhere else. The shot aims only at the policeman and the person, this might bring that something might happen between the two person as there isn't anyone else around.
8) Person runs upstairs- There isn't much in this shot, only that another character is introduced, and he runs upstairs. The setting where he is at is quite similar to the person who builds the gun, so this might show they are probably allies.
9) Person exits barber shop- Finishing his shave, the man leaves the shop and takes off somewhere. His pace is also quite quick, showing he might be in a hurry as seen previously where he checks his watch.
10) People walking down stairs- The shot moves back outside to where the policeman is located, this time with two more man walking down the stairs. The stairs gives a comparison between the two men and the policeman, whose got the power currently.
11) Shaved person waits on stairs- The shot is quite significant since the person who had his beard shaved goes to a place where its like a private area. He waits on the stairs shows that he is probably under a command as there is maybe a boss he is following a guide to. The place is also very similar to the person who build the gun. This might signify they are on the same team.
12) Person waits in front of stairs- This person is probably the person shown earlier that walked up the stairs. He now awaits in front of the lift, as if he knows someone would come out. These set of people are allies to each other, waiting for the signal to be announced and then action would take place.
13) Person massaging- It doesn't seem this person is with the gang, since the others have took action and are suppose to be in position while this person is still relaxing. He may be a innocent person since he doesn't have much introduced to audience.
14) 'I do'- This shot probably is the most important shot of all through the extract. The man in the church, simply said two little words and the whole gang started killing people after. He might be the leader of those people with 'I do' as the command they were all listening to. It cross cuts to all the shots to where his servants were in position to show the gun scene as begun.
15) Elevator kill- We saw earlier that this person waited in front of the elevator, like waiting for someone to come out. This time, the elevator opens up and the person sprays them with a machine gun.
16) Massage kill- Another cross cut to this person earlier shown relaxing while being massaged. A person suddenly appears he gets shot in the eye. He might not be someone special since there weren't any dialogues between the person. He might only be seen to show the power of the terrorists arising.
17) Hotel kill- A bell-boy was locked inside one of those door spinners and was killed by a disguised terrorist. His status was probably unknown to anyone since the person killed was in front of him and mostly likely took him as one of the staff from the hotel. By the disguise, they probably have waited for this mission for a very long period of time.
18) Police kill- Another disguise this time, but it's the policeman we've seen earlier where he directed the car off somewhere. His disguise as police shows that people will be under his control and how he directed the car might be a set of commands to get ready for the gun battle. The spin he demonstrated shows that he's got control over the set of people.
We looked at an extract of the film, where the tension increases as it goes on and we had to draw some of the most important shots which brings out the meanings to what is going to happen later on in the scene.
1) Mother holding baby- This is where the shot starts and it focus mainly on the baby since it doesn't show the mother's head of the lower body. This might suggest that the baby is special and it's going to be a center of importance between the protagonists and antagonists.
2) Building gun- A change in scene and we can see another person building a gun. It closes up on the gun to show that he's an assassin and would be about to kill someone. The cigarette and where he is at (somewhere on top of a building) may suggest he is one of those bad people about to cause trouble.
3) Person cleaning car- The setting is somewhere possibly in the countryside and there isn't much of the person that is significant since we don't really see who he is. He then wipes the car with some kind of fabric might show he likes cleanliness, and maybe as well, hiding something which would be revealed later on.
4) Person shaving- The person in the scene doesn't seem harmful when viewing this shot. He is at the barber shaving his beard off and looks like he is relaxed. He also checks his watch as if he is in a hurry, which relates later on into the story.
5) Dropping gun on bed- This shot is a continuity of the previous building gun scene. The person drops his gun down from his bag which some metal chains as well. The paper bag represents they are hiding something. The gun is the main focus here because the camera only shoots the paper bag and the person pulls out the gun and laying it on the bed.
6) Person walks along the corridor- The shot is a long shot, but nothing out stands in the corridor. The place might be some high class building by looking at the background and the decorations on the walls. A person treads along it but it doesn't exactly show where he is heading which creates suspense to the audience. He might also be in a hurry, since his pace is quite quick and he walked in a curved line.
7) Police taps car and point- The setting changes to an outdoor area, maybe outside the building to the previous shot taken in the inside. The policeman taps on the person's car and guides him somewhere else. The shot aims only at the policeman and the person, this might bring that something might happen between the two person as there isn't anyone else around.
8) Person runs upstairs- There isn't much in this shot, only that another character is introduced, and he runs upstairs. The setting where he is at is quite similar to the person who builds the gun, so this might show they are probably allies.
9) Person exits barber shop- Finishing his shave, the man leaves the shop and takes off somewhere. His pace is also quite quick, showing he might be in a hurry as seen previously where he checks his watch.
10) People walking down stairs- The shot moves back outside to where the policeman is located, this time with two more man walking down the stairs. The stairs gives a comparison between the two men and the policeman, whose got the power currently.
11) Shaved person waits on stairs- The shot is quite significant since the person who had his beard shaved goes to a place where its like a private area. He waits on the stairs shows that he is probably under a command as there is maybe a boss he is following a guide to. The place is also very similar to the person who build the gun. This might signify they are on the same team.
12) Person waits in front of stairs- This person is probably the person shown earlier that walked up the stairs. He now awaits in front of the lift, as if he knows someone would come out. These set of people are allies to each other, waiting for the signal to be announced and then action would take place.
13) Person massaging- It doesn't seem this person is with the gang, since the others have took action and are suppose to be in position while this person is still relaxing. He may be a innocent person since he doesn't have much introduced to audience.
14) 'I do'- This shot probably is the most important shot of all through the extract. The man in the church, simply said two little words and the whole gang started killing people after. He might be the leader of those people with 'I do' as the command they were all listening to. It cross cuts to all the shots to where his servants were in position to show the gun scene as begun.
15) Elevator kill- We saw earlier that this person waited in front of the elevator, like waiting for someone to come out. This time, the elevator opens up and the person sprays them with a machine gun.
16) Massage kill- Another cross cut to this person earlier shown relaxing while being massaged. A person suddenly appears he gets shot in the eye. He might not be someone special since there weren't any dialogues between the person. He might only be seen to show the power of the terrorists arising.
17) Hotel kill- A bell-boy was locked inside one of those door spinners and was killed by a disguised terrorist. His status was probably unknown to anyone since the person killed was in front of him and mostly likely took him as one of the staff from the hotel. By the disguise, they probably have waited for this mission for a very long period of time.
18) Police kill- Another disguise this time, but it's the policeman we've seen earlier where he directed the car off somewhere. His disguise as police shows that people will be under his control and how he directed the car might be a set of commands to get ready for the gun battle. The spin he demonstrated shows that he's got control over the set of people.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Film Advertisement- Toilet Simplicity
Group Members:
Advertisement Outline:
- Tim
- Ines
- Winston
Advertisement Outline:
- Toilet Person is in toilet
- He needs toilet paper but there isn't any
- Calls friend for help
- Friend picks up but there is a bad connection
- The line cuts
- Slogan comes in with brand
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Questions on Battleship Potempkin (1925)
1. There is a mixture of thoughts brought up in the first 45secs of the clip given. It can be said to be quite delightful for the people or uncertainty for others. Due this clip was from a long time ago, technology limitations may restrict the quality of shots.
At the opening of the clip, we can see through the happiness and jubilation in the people's faces. They're all waving, giving their stunning smiles and not trying to hide themselves from the people they are going to greet. Although we can see them waving, it did not indicate who they are exactly waving to. This creates a sense of curiosity or suspense for viewers, not knowing what would happen.
There was a moment which might bring something out to lead us to what happens afterwards. Between 6-10 seconds, there were these 'moment's which I think, didn't really fit back into the scene. The lady had troubles in seeing, needing the help of glasses and then, she moved some kind of respiratory equipment onto her nose. By not knowing what it could mean, my assumption would be that she gets excited and then couldn't breathe properly. But I'm not convinced by what it's trying to tell audience, if reflecting back on the whole scene. There also wasn't this smile that lit her face before, this might be the fact she's got sight difficulties.
25seconds into the clip, a little child is introduced to the audience. He has this nervous emotion seen on his face, which signify he isn't quite so sure what is going on around him. It is then cut to another shot, which shows a white flag, wailing on top of a sail. This hazily forebodes what would happen next- there might be a war going on in sea. It then once again, cuts back to the little child, this time with her mother, which she encourages the child to wave. This would forebode a near incident that would happen.
2. Sergei Eisenstein mainly uses the stairs as to establish the status between the soldiers and these people. At the beginning of the play, the people scattered around the stairs and had control over it. But once these soldiers arrive on the top, they were running downwards, suggesting their power has ended and the soldiers are taking over.
The soldiers, compared to the people, looked high class and powerful. They all wore the same uniform, each had a gun which pointed the same direction, and it seems they were well trained by looking at the posture. They moved in a straight line, with every movement identically to each other. Shots were zoomed onto their faces which it did towards the people, so that it shows there weren't any significance between them. In contrast, the people doesn't have the regulations of these soldiers and they ran disorderly, causing a few deaths in the process.
The soldiers had no other duty, but to kill these people. With the people all killed previously, they just stepped over them and showed no mercy when the woman confronted them to spare their lives. There were frequent close-up shots on the people to show audience their dramatic emotions. This is changed because in previous, people's faces were full of joy and delightful. After going through the 45seconds, the sudden change of scene immediately brings down the happiness and sadness creeps instead. The music follows what the scene brings to the audience, before the 45sec mark, the tone was quite cheerful but after it, a much darker rhythm knocks on.
At the opening of the clip, we can see through the happiness and jubilation in the people's faces. They're all waving, giving their stunning smiles and not trying to hide themselves from the people they are going to greet. Although we can see them waving, it did not indicate who they are exactly waving to. This creates a sense of curiosity or suspense for viewers, not knowing what would happen.
There was a moment which might bring something out to lead us to what happens afterwards. Between 6-10 seconds, there were these 'moment's which I think, didn't really fit back into the scene. The lady had troubles in seeing, needing the help of glasses and then, she moved some kind of respiratory equipment onto her nose. By not knowing what it could mean, my assumption would be that she gets excited and then couldn't breathe properly. But I'm not convinced by what it's trying to tell audience, if reflecting back on the whole scene. There also wasn't this smile that lit her face before, this might be the fact she's got sight difficulties.
25seconds into the clip, a little child is introduced to the audience. He has this nervous emotion seen on his face, which signify he isn't quite so sure what is going on around him. It is then cut to another shot, which shows a white flag, wailing on top of a sail. This hazily forebodes what would happen next- there might be a war going on in sea. It then once again, cuts back to the little child, this time with her mother, which she encourages the child to wave. This would forebode a near incident that would happen.
2. Sergei Eisenstein mainly uses the stairs as to establish the status between the soldiers and these people. At the beginning of the play, the people scattered around the stairs and had control over it. But once these soldiers arrive on the top, they were running downwards, suggesting their power has ended and the soldiers are taking over.
The soldiers, compared to the people, looked high class and powerful. They all wore the same uniform, each had a gun which pointed the same direction, and it seems they were well trained by looking at the posture. They moved in a straight line, with every movement identically to each other. Shots were zoomed onto their faces which it did towards the people, so that it shows there weren't any significance between them. In contrast, the people doesn't have the regulations of these soldiers and they ran disorderly, causing a few deaths in the process.
The soldiers had no other duty, but to kill these people. With the people all killed previously, they just stepped over them and showed no mercy when the woman confronted them to spare their lives. There were frequent close-up shots on the people to show audience their dramatic emotions. This is changed because in previous, people's faces were full of joy and delightful. After going through the 45seconds, the sudden change of scene immediately brings down the happiness and sadness creeps instead. The music follows what the scene brings to the audience, before the 45sec mark, the tone was quite cheerful but after it, a much darker rhythm knocks on.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Genre Research Update
Science Fiction Movies mostly use sets to help correlate back into their world. They create these high tech-like back grounds so that it seems as if technology is advanced so that the characters can use more superior weapons, rather than normal swords and guns. It also makes these films unique as they would not used in another film, other than a sequel movie.
The Star Wars series is one of most famous sequel films, directed by George Lucas. The first episode came out way back in 1977. Back then, computers weren't as good as the current generation, so then there were areas which you can spot now are not too realistic. For example, the character Yoda, his body is not convincing to actually believe its real. Comparing the 1977 version of him and 2006 version of him, we can see how the computer world has developed which benefited the media industry and their ability to produced more believable scenes.
Going back on sets, the following two mini clips shows a series of computer generated backgrounds. It makes the scene more interesting as we've never seen anything like this before, and it also gets viewer's interests.
Star Wars Episode 1: Qui Gon/Obi Wan v Darth Maul:
Star Wars Episode 3: Obi Wan v Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader)
The Star Wars series is one of most famous sequel films, directed by George Lucas. The first episode came out way back in 1977. Back then, computers weren't as good as the current generation, so then there were areas which you can spot now are not too realistic. For example, the character Yoda, his body is not convincing to actually believe its real. Comparing the 1977 version of him and 2006 version of him, we can see how the computer world has developed which benefited the media industry and their ability to produced more believable scenes.
Going back on sets, the following two mini clips shows a series of computer generated backgrounds. It makes the scene more interesting as we've never seen anything like this before, and it also gets viewer's interests.
Star Wars Episode 1: Qui Gon/Obi Wan v Darth Maul:
Star Wars Episode 3: Obi Wan v Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader)
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Still Picture Thriller Plan
Setting:
Sha Tin City Hall- Outside Balcony and resting area
Characters:
Steven- Killer
Winston- Victim
Story Outline:
> Death takes place
> Investigation done by police
> Realize it is a murder
> Evidence and Clues is beginning to build up
> Murderer found and pinned
Sha Tin City Hall- Outside Balcony and resting area
Characters:
Steven- Killer
Winston- Victim
Story Outline:
> Death takes place
> Investigation done by police
> Realize it is a murder
> Evidence and Clues is beginning to build up
> Murderer found and pinned
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
科幻影片技術研究 Science Fiction Film Studies
Science Fiction is a very technical genre in the movie media. It contains clips of high quality animation that is taken, edited and clipped to create these dramatic movements. These movies cross-mix with other genres in order to make the film more interesting, and so, it attracts more people to watch.
Some cross-mix genres are to make a movie more appealing:
- Superhero Fiction
- Horror Fiction
- Fantasy Fiction or ‘Science Fantasy’
Some subgenres that link with Science Fiction:
- Soft Science Fiction- focus on human characters and relationships
- Characteristics- looking more into technology, outer space and future
- Eras- how science work different between each period of years
- Creation- using technology in creating unseen creatures
Some themes that relates to Science Fiction:
- War/Disaster, massive explosions where it can be huge in size and much more exaggerated than real-life.
- Alien Invasion, the inclusion of a technology-made alien, can be either a protagonist or antagonist.
- Far Future, going through time, traveling to different worlds and adventuring different lives.
-Robotic Films, showing communication between human and artificial lives. Usually ends up in a break-down between them.
Some examples of Science Fiction Movies:
- Godzilla
- X-Men
- The Matrix
- Spiderman
- Jurassic Park
- Star Wars Trilogy
Personally, I enjoy watching superhero and war movies in the science fiction category. Movies such as the Star Wars, Spiderman, etc- the computer generated monsters (for example, General Grievous) are made very realistic-like which can easily attract vast amounts of viewers to just enjoy these great graphical images.
Bibliography:
www.wikipedia.org
www.filmsite.org
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