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.

Storyboarding – Legally Blonde

We didn’t really have any real homework for week six, but I decided to post up a storyboard because I have done many before and wanted to put something different up on my blog. I decided to look up a movie script of a movie I haven’t seen for a while and to draw up my version of a story board for a few shots. I went to the website http://www.imsdb.com/ and picked the genre comedy, which happens to be one of my favourites. I chose the script of ‘Legally Blonde’ because I remember it being pretty funny and it would be fun for me to draw. I probably won’t draw a proper story board, so the shots won’t exactly be smooth or labelled properly, but I will make it just for the visual idea.

Film Review

We were asked to write a film review on a movie of our choice since classes were cancelled because of the Gold Coast show. I chose to write my review on the movie ‘Hostage’ because I watched it with my friends and thought it was a movie I wouldn’t normally choose to watch. I tend to go for funny movies and stay far away from action movies because they are usually too predictable, which makes them boring. But this was not the case for Hostage.

The start of the movie introduces the main character, Jeff Talley, played by Bruce Willis. You find out that he is a hostage negotiator in charge of many police officers. One of the hostage situations goes horribly wrong and he doesn’t manage to save a young boy. We are then taken to one year later, when he works as chief for a small town department.

Three teenage trouble makers break into a family’s house and demand at gun point for the keys of their car. Meanwhile a police officer visits their door and one of the boys shoots her. Talley turns up and tries to save the officer, but she dies in his arms. The situation is starting to get out of control and the other 2 boys panic and one knocks out the father, Walter Smith. A hostage situation is now definitely clear and the whole police department appears and it starts to be all over the news.

Talley manages to hear from the young boy captive in the house and gets some inside information about the house. Meanwhile, another group of people take Talley’s wife and daughter and hold them hostage because they want information on a disk in the Smith household and want Talley to get it. Talley manages to persuade the teens to give them Walter and they retrieve him from the house. The craziest of the teens, ‘Mars,’ then kills the other two just because he wanted to. He then goes after the hostage girl and boy, who manage to lock themselves in a panic room.

Talley breaks into the house to save the innocents as Mars is setting fire to the whole house. Talley and the hostages are making their way to the exit as they are confronted by one of the people who want the information disk. He shoots Talley in the hip before he even has a chance to give him the disks, which he does a moment later. Mars has finally reached them and throws one of his Molotov cocktails right at the mysterious stranger who is set on fire. Talley shoots him and then Mars approaches them from behind the burning man. You assume that he is about the throw the weapon at them, when he pulls a blank face and drops it on himself. Talley and the hostages exit safely.

Now Talley needs the help of Walter to go against the mysterious people who have taken his family and want the information only Walter has. They manage to trick the men and kill them all, saving Talley’s family.

I mentioned before that I normally find movies you would find in the action genre as boring, but this movie had a lot of drama and was unpredictable. There were so many plots going on during the story I think it would be difficult to understand the whole idea after only seeing it once. Even though it was quite confusing, I found this prevented the movie from becoming too boring and predictable. It made me realise that I could watch a movie with action as well as drama and stay interesting from start to finish.

I found all the suspense in the movie to be bearable. For example, usually all bad horror movies I watch have a lot of annoying suspense moments within the movie that drag on for too long and include annoying music. In the case of the movie Hostage, I felt there was no annoying drawn out pauses with the music growing volume. I enjoyed all the parts of the movie that would be viewed as suspenseful because they were presented in a way that wasn’t too in-your-face. I believe that most of the suspense parts in other movies ruin it if you ever decide to watch the movie again, but Hostage would be very easy to watch over again because the plot is not too obvious.

Overall I enjoyed this movie because it had a bit of action, was a bit of a thriller and also included drama that wasn’t too over the top. I felt that the main character was believable because he desperately wanted to help the innocent children inside the house, much like any police officer should want to do. So considering I would not normally sit down to watch a movie in this genre, I would have to say that Hostage was a great movie that I would recommend to others like myself.

Westworld

For week 4 this semester we were looking at storyboards and why they are used. Storyboards help movie makers to visualise what they will be shooting. This process is very important so that the director gets their ideas across to everyone so that they understand what the director wants. Actors could also use the storyboard of a guide of how they will be shot for the movie, which could help them practise their role. We learnt that you don’t have to be a professional artist to make your own storyboards, because they don’t have to be overly realistic. You can easily just draw what you think will get the right idea across.

We found out that you can use arrows to direct where the camera is going to go. This would help because then the actors will know whether the camera will be following them, or if the camera is going to move. Arrows are useful because it is hard to draw movement in images without them. You can add some directions under each frame so that it’s easier to understand what is supposed to happen during the shot.

We watched Westworld which was all about a futuristic amusement park themed in 3 different areas. The sections of the park were called medieval world, roman world and Westworld. The movie focused on the story of two men who decided to pay $1000 each day to experience ‘real’ old western life in Westworld. Everyone except the guests in Westworld were robots, and so were the animals. The operators of everything that happened were real people too. They repaired robots that were shot or had problems.

Peter and John find that they are having lots of fun in Westworld and know that nothing can hurt them. Unfortunately for them, the scientists start losing control over the robots and John is shot by the gun slinger robot. Peter understands that he is no longer safe and he has to run away or he will be killed by the robot. He uses acid to damage the gun slinger’s eye sight and manages to set him on fire and destroy him.

I found this movie fun to watch because it had a very interesting story and it included suspense and drama. I didn’t think this movie would appeal to me at first, but after I watched it I realise that I enjoyed it a lot.

Speed Racer!

‘Speed Racer’ is a movie that was released this year and is all about a young man named Speed Racer. The story is about the main character, Speed Racer’s, life and how it is all about racing cars. His mum and dad are business people who build race cars and his brother is a racer. Racing is all Speed would think about when he was growing up and it was all he wanted to do. unfortunately, Speed’s brother Rex dies in a very competitive and difficult rally when Speed is still a child. We are then taken into the future where Speed is now a racecar driver himself and is smashing racing records. He is then offered to race for Royalton Industries but he declines because he wants to continue to work for his dad. Speed then finds out that the big companies are rigging all of the races to get the most profit, and he is threatened to race with them otherwise his career will be over. Speed then gets the help from his girlfriend and the mysterious Racer X to race in the Casa Cristo. Speed is finally able to uncover the secrets of the Royalton Industry and finds out that his brother is alive.

This movie was based on the cartoon also named Speed Racer by Tatsuo Yoshida. The original ‘Speed Racer’ was actually japanese manga called “Mahha GoGoGo” before it was turned into a television series. Some of the producers of the Speed Racer movie were also involved in the Matrix series. Bruce Berman, Grant Hill, Joeal Silver and directer/writers Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski were all involved with the Matrix. This shows in some of the movie when there are dramatic special effects that really emphasize the drama during the races. These techniques include slow/fast motion and turning the camera completely around the subject to really give a 3D view of what is happening. This is similar to the Matrix movies and adds suspense, keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat.

There are 5 elements which can be applied to the movie Speed Racer. There is a believeable character in Speed Racer, he is a young person who has dreams and ambitions. Many people can relate to someone who just wants to follow their dreams. We are also positioned to be sympathetic towards Speed Racer because he lost his brother and it seems as though the world just wants to make his plans difficult. The urgent and difficult problem is that Speed finds out that the competition is rigged and that he will be taken out in order for the companies to continue with making their money. Speed and his friends attempt to beat the companies at their own game, but finds it near impossible, making them more desperate to win. Then Speed only has one more chance to win against them and prove what is most important. He wins the Grand Prix and he does so because he stayed true to himself and held on to what he believed in.

Enter… Zombie King

This is my first entry for my 1504ART blog, I’m using my previous account with WordPress that I used last semester for my 1501ART class. This class is about digital video foundations. We were asked to write about what we really thought of the movie ‘Enter… Zombie King’, so here is what I thought about it.

When the movie started, I thought it looked like a movie from a Youtube user because it didn’t exactly appear to be a box-office smash. The story was a bit confusing for me from the beginning (but I guess that’s because everything I see on tv everyday or at the movies is very self explanatory). I wasn’t sure what this movie was all about. I found myself losing interest quickly with it because I have a short attention span with movies, but I tried to be patient and wait for the story to unravel.

Unfortunately for me, I was unable to understand the storyline even as the movie progressed, I think it was because I thought the movie would be more about zombies than people dressed in wrestling masks. I was not sure what wrestling had to do with zombies and the characters’ behaviour confused me, so I couldn’t really follow what was going on.

I usually really try to understand what is happening in movies, but in this case I sort of gave up trying. I couldn’t figure out some of the dialogue and settings properly and the characters’ personalities. Maybe this had to do with the main female character being introduced as “the girl”, but I’m not too sure. The blood and human parts also looked really fake along with most of the violence in the movie.

Overall, my effort in trying to figure out this movie was pretty poor, and probably the only thing I have learnt from this movie is to give the next one a better chance. Next time I hope to not let the confusing story and bad acting deter me from focusing. So at least I found out something by watching this movie.