I definitely found it difficult in this unit to write up the scene analysis’ because truthfully they were a bit boring but mainly the way we had to explain it. It was hard for me to condense my writing and frustrating because I knew when things were wrong but I didn’t know how to fix them. I think though that I definitely became much better at it by the end of the unit.
The activities helped me understand film elements by explaining the reasons behind shots, before I did this unit I just thought it was to make it less boring and show the beautiful scenery etc, but now I know so much more about it and I understand it, the downside to this is the fact that it makes it hard now to watch even my favorite movies without pointing out different elements and things that I just notice randomly, that isn’t a good thing because it makes it less believable.
I like the technique I discovered of using cuts and sound to make scenes go much faster it was actually really interesting learning about that, also the huge changes that can be made in films and scenes by simply changing the colours. Colour reflects mood more than anything and by looking at the same shot in different colours it was surprising the different elements that were noticed and the affects it had on the mood and the possible storyline.
My planning and research helped me write my essay by preparing me for the style of writing that was needed. My very first research task, on the elements of a particular genre, ended up sounding really rather horrible because I had no idea how to write. After doing a few more exercises and reading a few examples it was much easier and I think my essay sounded pretty ok.
Condensing the information I had when writing the scene analysis was rather hard at first, I didn’t really understand how to write it so I basically wrote a whole shot-by-shot of the Aviator film, it wasn’t until later that I realized we were just supposed to use particular bits and talk in detail about them, not the whole entire film. Another problem was the horror story method we had to write, that one I really had trouble with, I’ve only ever seen one horror film and I don’t plan on watching any more, so I wasn’t very keen and I didn’t make my horror story the way it should have been, as in, it sounded more like a mystery.
I am pretty happy about my essay, at first I felt like I’d written it a bit oddly or I’d gotten something wrong because even as I listened to all the tips I asked for they just confused me a bit more and I was very worried about the way I wrote it and when I read it back to myself I thought it sounded weird. When I think about it now though it know that was just because I’d never written this type of essay before an it was actually not to bad, I do think that I worked hard on it for the most part.
There isn’t much I would like to change I just feel that my conclusion was too short and it sounded really bad and repetitive, my opening sentences also sounded pretty much the same with a few different words.
I would just be fine with the actually re-writing of it, because that is the part I feel needs to be redone, I would probably also just check over the scenes I used, I don’t think the Van Helsing scene really depicted the fantasy genre very well and it was a bit too short.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Moulin Rouge - Element Analysis
Concept -
From what was seen in this scene it seems to be about the story of a young writer who comes the France and falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge night-club, but she has apparently died ad he i left in a depressed state.
Theme -
The film is definitely a musical, this whole scene is being sung, it seems that it could also be a love story because of the mention that his love is dead and the saying 'the greatest thing you'll ever know, i just to love, and be loved in return'.
What Do You See -
The lighting is dark and dull, it is blue, black and just dark colours which don't highlight anything particular. It changes when showing inside the nightclub, the colours are bright, yet not lit to well, and shown all over the place, emphasizing the feeling of chaos.
What Do You Hear -
Not any background sounds, the voices and music are the loudest thing in the scene and they are very deep and sad. The typewriter is the loudest sound effect, by making it so noticeable the viewer can tell that it is important, in this case it's showing that he is a writer and that he is typing the story that he is telling.
What Do You Feel -
It feels very sad and depressing, with the combination of the low colours an voices, but scary at the same time, because of the bright colours being flashed around and the high, evil sounding laughs and at the end the way he says that his love is dead. Then at the very end it changes again and feels light and happy and like the beginning of a new story, when both his voice and the colours become bright and he says it was the center of the Bohemian Revolution!
What Do You Think About That -
It all makes me want to go and watch the whole movie, it shows just the right parts f the story to make me feel nervous and excited, it definitely has a great suspense element.
What Does It Make You wonder -
It really makes me wonder what happened, why is his love dead? What happened after he came to France and started his new life? What's going to happen next?
From what was seen in this scene it seems to be about the story of a young writer who comes the France and falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge night-club, but she has apparently died ad he i left in a depressed state.
Theme -
The film is definitely a musical, this whole scene is being sung, it seems that it could also be a love story because of the mention that his love is dead and the saying 'the greatest thing you'll ever know, i just to love, and be loved in return'.
What Do You See -
The lighting is dark and dull, it is blue, black and just dark colours which don't highlight anything particular. It changes when showing inside the nightclub, the colours are bright, yet not lit to well, and shown all over the place, emphasizing the feeling of chaos.
What Do You Hear -
Not any background sounds, the voices and music are the loudest thing in the scene and they are very deep and sad. The typewriter is the loudest sound effect, by making it so noticeable the viewer can tell that it is important, in this case it's showing that he is a writer and that he is typing the story that he is telling.
What Do You Feel -
It feels very sad and depressing, with the combination of the low colours an voices, but scary at the same time, because of the bright colours being flashed around and the high, evil sounding laughs and at the end the way he says that his love is dead. Then at the very end it changes again and feels light and happy and like the beginning of a new story, when both his voice and the colours become bright and he says it was the center of the Bohemian Revolution!
What Do You Think About That -
It all makes me want to go and watch the whole movie, it shows just the right parts f the story to make me feel nervous and excited, it definitely has a great suspense element.
What Does It Make You wonder -
It really makes me wonder what happened, why is his love dead? What happened after he came to France and started his new life? What's going to happen next?
Genre Research
This was the first one I did, before any proper work on the subject, and it isn't very well written because I didn't really understand how to analyze it. I'm not going to change anything though because it shows how much more understanding I gained on how to analyze films and genres.
Sci-Fi
Most science-fiction films or movies don't contain lots of hidden things in the background that the characters can't see, usually things like that in sci-fi are aliens in disguise or something and they are notice through strange actions or sounds.
The shooting of science-fiction varies between types of shots, when seeing alien ships or bases that are computer generated images they mainly show little parts of them with the people acting and not often large parts, in order to hide the fact that it's been animated and create a more realistic effect. They use close-ups when alien species or strange things things are being shown so viewers can see the differences between worlds or societies.
The sounds in science-fiction are usually similar, most are sharp, they stand out and sound adventurous and match the themes, some editors choose to use the same 'theme song' and simply change the length, loudness and speed to match the different scenes in the movie, keeping all the scenes related.
Many sci-fi films are quite different from other genre story lines and they often get quite full-on. To show this through the use of editing the lighting changes in almost every scene, there are many cuts to show how fast things are happening and the colours change often because of the alien influences in the stories.
Sci-Fi
Most science-fiction films or movies don't contain lots of hidden things in the background that the characters can't see, usually things like that in sci-fi are aliens in disguise or something and they are notice through strange actions or sounds.
The shooting of science-fiction varies between types of shots, when seeing alien ships or bases that are computer generated images they mainly show little parts of them with the people acting and not often large parts, in order to hide the fact that it's been animated and create a more realistic effect. They use close-ups when alien species or strange things things are being shown so viewers can see the differences between worlds or societies.
The sounds in science-fiction are usually similar, most are sharp, they stand out and sound adventurous and match the themes, some editors choose to use the same 'theme song' and simply change the length, loudness and speed to match the different scenes in the movie, keeping all the scenes related.
Many sci-fi films are quite different from other genre story lines and they often get quite full-on. To show this through the use of editing the lighting changes in almost every scene, there are many cuts to show how fast things are happening and the colours change often because of the alien influences in the stories.
Mise-En-Scene Storyboarding
These are the pictures my group took when we were trying to make a short story board about some type of horror film.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
List of Protangonasts and Their Antangonists
Protagonist Antagonist
Lief - The Shadow Lord
Eragon - Galbatorix
Naruto - Akatsuki
Harry Potter - Voldemort
Van Helsing - Dracula
Lief - The Shadow Lord
Eragon - Galbatorix
Naruto - Akatsuki
Harry Potter - Voldemort
Van Helsing - Dracula
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Hero's Journey
There are definately a few steps which just make ideas jump into my mind and will will be vary useful and helpful such as the Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, Supernatural Aid, the Crossing of the First Threshhold, The Road of Trials, Meeting with the Goddess and a few others, these steps definately bring good storylines to mind and i can relate them to quite a few movies i've seen myself. On the other hand there are a few steps which I probably won't use because I can't see how to make them fit into the storylines that come to mind, these include Apothesis, Master od the Two Worlds and Freedom to Live, for one thing having so many elements might just be far too long and also these steps mean that there has to be some strong spiritual or simular elements in the story and that could also be going a bit far off topic, but they could always end up subconsciously inthe background depeneding on what different events lead too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)