This is a question filmmakers and production companies ask themselves frequently. How good was our last film and how can we make the next one even better?
This desire to produce bigger and better films is a driving force in the movie industry. It creates sequels (Indiana Jones, Lethal weapon, Fast & Furious), franchises, (James Bond, Star Wars, Toy Story, Jason Bourne, Harry Potter) and whole new dimensions (Marvel Universe).
Often Hollywood and the film industry will pick up a story that has been told before in an attempt to revamp, reinvigorate and reinvent a popular narrative. Below are four different stories this has been done to. There are many more.
IT - 2017
IT - 1990
Get Carter - 1971
Get Carter - 2000
The Italian Job - 1969
The Italian Job - 2003
Ghostbusters - 1984
Ghostbusters - 2015
Looking at these trailers/films can help us to identify the key factors that we have improved and built on from our own work, from our Preliminary Task to our Foundation or Advanced Productions.
We improve by looking at what we have done, breaking it down in to key areas and seeing how we can improve our practice.
Though we might think of film as an essentially visual experience, we really cannot afford to underestimate the importance of film sound. A meaningful sound track is often as complicated as the image on the screen. The entire sound track is comprised of five essential ingredients:
Music
Atmospheric sound
Dialogue
Sound effects
Foley
These five tracks must be mixed and balanced so as to produce the necessary emphases which in turn create desired effects.
Wesley Wales Anderson was born in Houston, Texas. His mother, Texas Ann (Burroughs), is an archaeologist turned real estate agent, and his father, Melver Leonard Anderson, worked in advertising and PR. He has two brothers, Eric and Mel. Anderson's parents divorced when he was a young child, an event that he described as the most crucial event of his brothers and his growing up. During childhood, Anderson also began writing plays and making super-8 movies. He was educated at Westchester High School and then St. John's, a private prep school in Houston, Texas, which was later to prove an inspiration for the film Rushmore (1998).
Anderson attended the University of Texas in Austin, where he majored in philosophy. It was there that he met Owen Wilson. They became friends and began making short films, some of which aired on a local cable-access station. One of their shorts wasBottle Rocket (1994), which starred Owen and his brother Luke Wilson. The short was screened at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was successfully received, so much so that they received funding to make a feature-length version. Bottle Rocket (1996) was not a commercial hit, but it gained a cult audience and high-profile fans, which includedMartin Scorsese.
'I have a way of filming things and staging them and designing sets. There were times when I thought I should change my approach, but in fact, this is what I like to do. It's sort of like my handwriting as a movie director. And somewhere along the way, I think I've made the decision: I'm going to write in my own handwriting.'
Well, the name comes from combining two Greek words: kinema, which means movement, and graphein, which means to record. In film, cinematography refers to the photographing of the movie itself. The person in charge of this is the cinematographer, also known as the director or photography or the DP.
Understanding Cinematography
In the hierarchy of a film set, the director's two key creative people in the crew are the art director and the cinematographer. The art director is in charge of the art department and the cinematographer is in charge of the camera, electric and grip departments. The camera department maintains the camera and has it ready for the shot while the grips and electrics handle the lighting. Electrics set the lights and run power to them and grips shape the light by using flags and diffusion. Grips also provide support to camera department when there is camera movement for the scene. An example of this is a dolly shot.
Below is a link to the blog created by Tim Woodcock, presenter of the 'Making Film Opening Sequences' workshop Yr 12 & 13 students attended on Thursday 19th November.
On the blog are the presentations and resources used on the day. I have also included links to Corin Hardy Director of The Hallow who came to talk to the assembled students in the afternoon about his latest realease and his route in to film.
Every film; sorry let me correct myself, every good film has a memorable scene or is filled with memorable scenes. The power of the scene and the narrative it gives almost becomes a story in itself. These are the scenes we return too again and again, or will watch the entire film just to capture that moment and be reminded of something within, something that stirs a powerful emotion.
To list all of the scenes I feel capture this would take more than the capacity this blog allows. Below I have included just two I feel evoke the strongest emotional reaction. If they stir emotion in you then I highly recommend you watch the entire film, it will be well worth it.
Later also think about what the director has done and how they have managed to draw out the emotion in the scene and from the actors.
Very little of what you hear in the movies is real - in this lesson we take a look at the art of Foley, how to classify it, the history of the man who started it all and take a crack at doing our own Foley work.
In preparation for your evaluations you need to put together a plan showing you understanding of each question and the outline of the content for each informed answer. You also need to list some ideas for the format of how you plan answer each question. Below are the questions I need to address in my
evaluation. I will be explaining and clarifying each question in my own words
plus start to think about which creative method I will use to answer each
question.
In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
This question requires me to demonstrate my
understanding of the conventions and techniques of film language and how I used
these elements in my own production. I will need to talk about the research I
carried out and what conclusions I made which effected my main task. There are
a number of creative methods for answering this question:
This is a familiar cry in every household, either that or the commencement of the adverts are a chance to put the kettle on. It's even possible forward past the ads now so you don't have to be bothered with pushy Meerkats or exaggerated Brummies talking enthusiastically about their holidays. But adverts can offer us a moment of brevity or anguish that their big brother programmes can sometimes miss.
Adverts - good ones - are a concentrated burst of film language that can showcase what it is to create a meaningful text in less than a minute. The Media Guardian has highlighted a selection of new ads currently on our TVs that offer us a slice of the bizarre, the dramatic and the though provoking.
Above is the pivotal scene in Christopher Nolan's film 'The Dark Knight' starring Christian Bale as The Batman and Heath Ledger as The Joker.
As an avid Batman fan this scene brings these two legendary characters together and begins the telling of the Batman/Joker saga. These two opposing forces which act has each others driving force and nemesis creates a relationship unique in popular culture and film. One can not exist without the other which makes comment on the philosophy that good can not exist without evil.
Brilliantly acted by both Bale and Ledger this scene has a solid place in the 'great movie scenes of all time'.
Need to find a scene from your favorite film? With more than 12,000 film snippets, Movieclips has one of the most comprehensive collections available on the Web — and there's no need to wade through duplicates. You can search by film title, character name, actor or keyword. Searching for "fight" yields an interesting library of Rocky moments, period sword duels and even a pillow battle or two, whereas "first kiss" brings up famous on-screen smooches from the likes of Romeo, Scarlett O'Hara and the cast of Grease. But Movieclips is a quintessential film index with a twist. With a built-in editing tool, users can create their own video mashups with relative ease. We opted for a Wizard of Oz–Inception mashup — watch it here — and were able to create the entire thing in less than 10 minutes.
Throughout the course I will be adding to this list of recommended films. Films that have influenced and effected the way I view film and have been landmarks in their own right within the industry.
Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two thugs who tried to break into/steal his truck. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.
2. Oldboy 2003
Storyline
An average man is kidnapped and imprisoned in a shabby cell for 15 years without explanation. He then is released, equipped with money, a cellphone and expensive clothes. As he strives to explain his imprisonment and get his revenge, Oh Dae-Su soon finds out that his kidnapper has a greater plan for him and is set onto a path of pain and suffering in an attempt to uncover the motive of his mysterious tormentor.
3. Little Miss Sunshine 2006
Storyline
In Albuquerque, Sheryl Hoover brings her suicidal brother Frank to the breast of her dysfunctional and bankrupted family. Frank is homosexual and expert in Proust, and tried to commit suicide when he was rejected by his boyfriend and his great competitor became renowned and recognized as number one in the field of Proust. Sheryl's husband Richard is unsuccessfully trying to sell his self-help and self-improvement technique using nine steps to reach success, but he is actually a complete loser. Her son Dwayne has taken a vow of silence as a follower of Nietzsche and aims to be a jet pilot. Dwayne's grandfather Edwin was sent away from the institution for elders Sunset Manor and is addicted in heroin. When her seven years old daughter Olive has a chance to dispute the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, California, the whole family travels together in their old Volkswagen.
When two Chicago musicians, Joe and Jerry, witness the the St. Valentine's Day massacre, they want to get out of town and get away from the gangster responsible, Spats Colombo. They're desperate to get a gig out of town but the only job they know of is in an all-girl band heading to Florida. They show up at the train station as Josephine and Daphne, the replacement saxophone and bass players. They certainly enjoy being around the girls, especially Sugar Kane Kowalczyk who sings and plays the ukulele. Joe in particular sets out to woo her while Jerry/Daphne is wooed by a millionaire, Osgood Fielding III. Mayhem ensues as the two men try to keep they true identities hidden and Spats Colombo and his crew show up for a meeting with several other crime lords.
John Singleton's portrayal of social problems in inner-city Los Angeles takes the form of a tale of three friends growing up together 'in the 'hood.' Half-brothers Doughboy and Ricky Baker are foils for each other's personality, presenting very different approaches to the tough lives they face. Ricky is the 'All-American' athlete, looking to win a football scholarship to USC and seeks salvation through sports, while 'Dough' succumbs to the violence, alcohol, and crime surrounding him in his environment, but maintains a strong sense of pride and code of honor. Between these two is their friend Tre, who is lucky to have a father, 'Furious' Styles, to teach him to have the strength of character to do what is right and to always take responsibility for his actions.
6. In America 2002
Storyline
Following the tragic death of their two-year-old son Frankie, Irish couple Johnny and Sarah Sullivan and their remaining two offspring, 10 year old Christy Sullivan and 5 year old Ariel Sullivan, emigrate illegally to the United States via Canada with little in their pockets. Their final destination is Manhattan where Johnny hopes to work as a stage actor. They move into a unit in a run town tenement housed primarily with drug addicts, transvestites and one tenant coined "the man who screams". They do whatever they can to eke out a supportive family environment in this difficult situation, the support which ultimately extends to those around them, most specifically "the screamer" who turns out to be an African-American artist named Mateo with AIDS. But the memory of Frankie hangs over the family in good and bad ways, especially as Sarah learns she's pregnant.
George Bailey has spent his entire life giving of himself to the people of Bedford Falls. He has always longed to travel but never had the opportunity in order to prevent rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town. All that prevents him from doing so is George's modest building and loan company, which was founded by his generous father. But on Christmas Eve, George's Uncle Billy loses the business's $8,000 while intending to deposit it in the bank. Potter finds the misplaced money and hides it from Billy. When the bank examiner discovers the shortage later that night, George realizes that he will be held responsible and sent to jail and the company will collapse, finally allowing Potter to take over the town. Thinking of his wife, their young children, and others he loves will be better off with him dead, he contemplates suicide. But the prayers of his loved ones result in a gentle angel named Clarence coming to earth to help George.
While visiting the Earth at Night, a group of alien botanists is discovered and disturbed by an approaching human task force. Because of the more than hasty take-off, one of the visitors is left behind. The little alien finds himself all alone on a very strange planet. Fortunately, the extra-terrestrial soon finds a friend and emotional companion in 10-year-old Elliot, who discovered him looking for food in his family's garden shed. While E.T. slowly gets acquainted with Elliot's brother Michael, his sister Gertie as well as with Earth customs, members of the task force work day and night to track down the whereabouts of Earth's first visitor from Outer Space. The wish to go home again is strong in E.T., and after being able to communicate with Elliot and the others, E.T. starts building an improvised device to send a message home for his folks to come and pick him up. But before long, E.T. gets seriously sick, and because of his special connection to Elliot, the young boy suffers, too. The situation gets critical when the task force finally intervenes. By then, all help may already be too late, and there's no alien spaceship in sight.
In a remote area of Northern Kenya, activist Tessa Quayle is found brutally murdered. Tessa's companion, a doctor, appears to have fled the scene, and the evidence points to a crime of passion. Members of the British High Commission in Nairobi assume that Tessa's widower, their mild-mannered and unambitious colleague Justin Quayle, will leave the matter to them. They could not be more wrong. Haunted by remorse and jarred by rumors of his late wife's infidelities, Quayle surprises everyone by embarking on a personal odyssey that will take him across three continents. Using his privileged access to diplomatic secrets, he will risk his own life, stopping at nothing to uncover and expose the truth - a conspiracy more far-reaching and deadly than Quayle could ever have imagined.
Set on an island off the coast of New England in the 1960s, as a young boy and girl fall in love they are moved to run away together. Various factions of the town mobilize to search for them and the town is turned upside down -- which might not be such a bad thing.
