Class Forum

Digital video foundations has been my favourite course this semester mainly because I am interested in movies, but for other reasons as well. During my studies in grade 11 and 12 I learned the basics about movie making elements such as framing and lighting, but I don’t feel as though I was able to study different types of movies than in this class. Because the movies we watched during the lectures were not what I would normally pick, I found that it can be easy to watch something new.

As well as opening my eyes to different types of movies, I feel that I have also learned more about the technical aspects of movie making. During class and in our readings we have found out more, this interested me because I made some short films during high school last year. I found that with making videos or short movies, lighting takes a lot more effort than other things, and what we learned in class reflected that. But apart from all the things that make up each movie, we have looked at different genres.

I think watching movies from genres that I wouldn’t normally pay attention, really helped me focus on more than just the story lines. When I usually watch a movie, it’s mainly for relaxation, so it’s normally just about the plot. I liked how we were told exactly what to look for in each movie and I realised that made it a lot easier to notice exactly what was going on. Because I was so used to just zoning out when watching movies, it was a bit weird to try and focus at first, but it was easy to get used to. When we looked at framing, composition, lighting and audio it inspired me to think about something I could make on my own. This is probably because I find the process of movie making interesting and would’t mind studying more about it in the future.

I think I learned more from this class than my high school film class mainly because we went into more detail about each aspect of the movies. I found all the notes on each lecture interesting because I felt like I was learning, but not reading a really boring text book. I preferred reading the information during my own time and then just enjoying the movies and taking it easy during the lecture time. I found this was less confusing and I didn’t have to focus on everything at once. In other classes I sometimes feel that everything is thrown at me all at once, but the pace of this class has been really comfortable.

During this course I have found the assessments to be slightly challenging because I had to change my way of thinking about movies, but more fun to complete than any other class at uni. The blog has kept me interested because I don’t have to write it all at once so I have more time to think about each entry. I also liked how each week we have a completely different focus to write about. This makes me feel like I’m not really writing an assignment, but just making my own blog. I find this way of making an assignment so much more interesting than writing an essay.

Commando

As we have learnt, lighting is extremely important, especially if you want to make your own professional looking movie. Hollywood movie makers know exactly how to create a well lit environment for filming that provides a clear picture. We know that too much light washes out what’s being filmed, and not enough makes it too dark and fuzzy. So in order to get a clear picture, the right balance of lighting is very important.

Commando is the next movie we are watching in our digital video class. We were told to pay attention to the use of lighting throughout this movie. Already at the beginning of the movie interesting lighting techniques were used with natural light. Natural light is good for filming because it surrounds the subject and makes the scene look more realistic. Already in the introduction of the movie, the character played by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Matrix) is lit with natural light from behind the head. This technique alone grabbed my attention because it was different. Normally when I watch movies with natural light, it just seems like normal surrounding brightness, not really from one particular point like behind the head. So even really early in the film I was focused on the use of lighting, and this was just the beginning of the movie.

There are many other scenes in the Commando movie that include different ways to use light. This movie also includes scenes that are shot to be during night time. The film makers have managed to use lighting in a way that creates a balance between too dark and too light. The picture doesn’t look grainy at all so they have used a technique that allows the scenes to be filmed effectively. Clearly artificial lighting had to be used during the night time scenes so that the subjects would be visible. Perhaps the images were shot before it was completely dark so the picture was clear, and then darkened with effects to look like night time. This is one option for movie makers shooting night scenes. It’s hard for me to tell exactly what method they used during these scenes. I found this movie to be an interesting example of lighting because of the variety of methods they used.

Elephant

This week we watched the movie ‘Elephant’ directed by Gus Van Sant. During this movie we were asked to pay attention to the soundtrack of the film. I found that this movie included music and sound effects that really added to the mood of the story. Elephant is about the Columbine school shootings that happened in 1999. The movie follows particular characters through their day and sometimes their stories overlap. This means that the audio also overlaps which ends up giving a really interesting effect.

The whole story is only about one day when the shootings happen. So the characters are living out a normal day completely unaware of what is going to happen. What made it more interesting was that it is based on true events. When thinking about the sound on this movie, sound effects is the first thing I think of. Many noises were very clear in the movie including the car, guns, footsteps etc. There was also music in the movie that really set a sort of eery feel. There was no modern sounding music, but classical songs that made the footage seem more ‘deep’ compared to a reguar movie. I really enjoyed how the music brought more emotion to the overall experience. The sound effects also kept the story interesting because it helped the focus and built more suspense than if it was just all dialogue.

There is no narration to this movie, but there is music, sound effects and dialogue. This movie doesn’t really need narration because the story is understandable without it. The music combined with the sound effects and speech are enough to give the right mood to the audience. I enjoyed watching Elephant because there was more focus on the sound track than other movies I have seen, and it didn’t use typical music. At first I thought the movie would be boring, but as more of the story was revealed and how the characters’ lives overlapped, I found I enjoyed it more than expected.

Kill Bill Vol. 2

This week we watched the movie ‘Kill Bill Volume 2′ which is sort of an action movie with lots of violence all about a woman’s quest to kill her father. We were asked to pay close attention to the framing in the shots of the movie. We watched Kill Bill because the shots are always dramatic and varied. Lots of other movies usually keep to basic shots that are just set up so we don’t notice the framing and only watch what’s actually going on in the story. I really like how Kill Bill Vol. 2 is different in this way because I think it makes watching this movie a lot more exciting than others.

There are labels for specific shot sizes that range from ‘very long shot’ to ‘extreme close-up’. There are 8 main shot sizes that include different sections of the actor in the shot. These 8 shots aren’t always used because director’s can choose to make up their own shot sizes and angles to be more artisitc. But overall, they try to go for a look that appeals to the eye so that the viewer enjoys watching their movie. Using the right shots determine where the audience looks and what they take out of each shot, so it’s important to make the important element of the shot to stand out.

I felt that while watching Kill Bill Vol. 2, my focus was always on the character who was talking or performing an action. This may have been just because of what I chose to look at, or maybe it was due to the director’s choice of shots. Without noticing, I could have been directed into watching the main focus of each scene. Also, lighting and focus of the scenes could have also effected what I was watching.

Overall I found that Kill Bill Vol. 2 used focus, lighting and framing in a different and interesting way compared to other movies I have seen. It really kept me interested, probably because there were so many different shot sizes and angles along with dramatic music and lots of action. There were also slower parts of the movie that still grabbed my attention even though the dialogue was not that interesting. Normally when I watch a movie with lots of talking I zone out, but this movie really kept me watching to see what would happen next.