Blog: 5 Most Valuable Minutes- Research Practice

                                                                     06:06-12:50
I chose the very beginning of the film because it really characterizes the person that Travis Bickle is. It also shows how his everyday life seems to just be a living hell, as he lives and works on the unforgiving streets of New York. Throughout the film, it is visible that this environment really shapes who Travis Bickle is as a person, and how this everyday environment really affects him.

The beginning of the film displays Travis's life. It shows the job he works in, how he is a desperate person for love, and how he really doesn't know how to apply himself to formally greet people. In this shot, we see Travis driving what seems to be a man with his wife. We can see that Travis uncomfortably doesn't like what he does for a living, and doesn't appreciate how others treat him. The darkish tint to the shot also gives that gloomy appeal; this makes us, the audience, feel like Travis is living in an uncomfortable environment. This relates to the plot throughout the film because Travis has to drive a bunch of people that show him no respect, and he's force to live with it. This is a probable explanation as to why he is the kind of person that he currently is. This also show's the director's intent to show how Travis will eventually develop as a character. By showing these kind of scenes, it shows the worst of Travis, and how he's going to have to eventually develop to become a better person.

This scene also characterizes who Travis is as a person. Him drinking in public shows him as a person who doesn't abide by the usual standards of being normal. This also shows how he has a drinking problem; this is significant because it shows that he's weak. By drinking in public, it also shows that he's trying to drink away his problems, and he doesn't care what happens to him. The director's intent here, as previously state above, is that he wants to establish what kind of person Travis is, and how this characterization of him plays out throughout the film. 

These two scenes show Travis' Bickle's life without a female. In the top scene, it shows how he sadly tries to flirt with the cashier with the hope of getting her number, but eventually gets shut down. This also shows how he is a desperate person; he flirts with a person that he doesn't even know, and hopes that she'll respond to him with interest. This shows how the director wanted to depict Travis as this person that has to get what he wants in order to satisfy his needs. 

In the bottom scene, it shows how Travis is a even bigger desperate person. He watches porno's as a way to contemplate for his sorrow's in life. This also shows his desperate as he really wants to find love. These two scenes really show what kind of person Travis really is. He really wants to make an effort at finding love, however, he is inexperience in it, and has to result to watching porno's to make up for it.

This scene is a turning point in the begging of the story. Travis finally seems to found a women that could possibly satisfy what he is looking for. Once again, however, his inexperience as to how to approach a women properly is still not present. This makes him out a a creeper, and not suitable for the women. This shows the director's intent of really trying to show how this women would be his driving force to attempt to get better for a period of time. This is a big part of the film because Travis really tries to better himself to really impress this women, however, this is not evident later on in the film. This shot also shows how the lady works to support the future president. This foreshadows what Travis has to do in order to impress this woman.

Short Film Portfolio/Critique

A. Rationale:

The film that me and my group made was a simple short film on our main character's life without his mother around. We chose this type of movie in an attempt to really capture our audience and engulf them in the main character's compelling story. We thought this was a good idea because we thought that by making the main character as real as possible along with good flashbacks, it would really make the short film believable. Also, we really wanted to make a film that broke the fourth wall, and this hasn't really been done by my fellow colleagues.

B: Commentary: 

My area in the film was mainly cinematographer and editor, along with being the director at times. I chose to be the cinematographer and editor mainly because I was very familiar with these roles, and the director just came along naturally. Usually with these many roles there would be difficulties, but I surprisingly rose to the task and made very few mistakes. The only troubles I had was ensuring that I had proper lighting for many of my shots as we shot a lot inside and it was usually dark.

I also had trouble maintaining continuity throughout the film I wanted pure perfection in the film. I fixed these problems by ultimately stopping the filming process, and fixing up everything. I made sure that we had natural lighting from the sun by making sure that light came into the house, and I made sure that I took as many possible takes on a scene as possible. Problems that arose throughout the film was actually coming out with the concept of the film as a whole. We had to usually improvise a lot of the film on the spot, however, it still came out good. We got a lot of pretty unique shots, such as the one's in the beginning, that set the basic location of the film.

We only had three people all together on the film production, with usually one person just lagging off, but we still do good. One main problem we had was deciding whether to keep the entire process where the main character dresses up to leave, or just skip to him leaving his house. We ultimately ended up just keeping the dress scene, however, it was a mistake as it was deemed "unnecessary" by our fellow colleagues. Although we were shorts on personnel for the shoot, we still was able to keep that one person who never helped useful by making sure that he worked on our film site. Overall, we thought that the film was a good success. Our initial thought was tat it would be a failure because everything was really falling together, but surprisingly it did. A lot of the credit has to go to Justin Pieraldi, for stepping up to the task and really acting from the heart. 

We thought that the film also had some pretty good cinematography. Many of our shots, although not that noticeable, took a lot of time as we tried to set up each shot with good lighting and fluidity. We also tried to ensure that mostly every shot had purpose; the flashbacks ensured that sense of sadness, and this was one of our main goals in this project. These flashbacks basically were the backbone for our project as it really allowed the audience to feel for the main character.

We also that we had really good editing. Throughout the film, it was visible that there was clear continuity. This was one of our main goals from the beginning of the film. By maintaining this continuity, it allowed our film to seem really fluent and really kept that sense of realism. Also, this editing really did capture great continuity as it matched well with the flashbacks. Whenever the main character said something with significance to the past, a flashback was included to show what he was talking about, and this couldn't be done without such good editing.

Our sound came out pretty decent. We had some minimal trouble making sure that the mic was kept steady to prevent that scrunchy sound, however, that was still visibly heard. We made sure that the mic was as close to the main character as possible to ensure that everything he said was understandable. The sound quality still came out exceptional as it played it's role in ensuring that it flowed with the film. 

The music choice we used also worked out very well. It set the stage for making the sentimental scenes really stand out. The music we used was to ensure that it really brought out the sincerity of the main character and that it would make the audience believe his sincerity. It took a lot of research to find the perfect song, but it was worth it when we found ours.

C: Supporting Evidence:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tYuTL7eTbJbRu6W7Xl1SWG_R0RCZhry27Npwt2xWObE/edit?hl=en_US

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eLhA6kdzJlPB9HfIHy4eTpiNV9RQjyLYo6CuSPrTqjY/edit?hl=en_US

https://sites.google.com/site/capuchinoshortfilms/cinematographer

Blog Response- Article- Intensified Continuity

According to David Bordell, explain how and why continuity has intensified in Hollywood cinema. Also consider whether anything has been lost with this change.

David Bordell explains that Hollywood Cinema has intensified over the years. Film makers have deterred themselves slowly from the use of wide angle shots and transferred over to a more fast pace cutting. Also, film makers now a days now use narrow lenses rather than the standard wide lens.

"Between 1930 and 1960, most Hollywood feature films, of whatever length, contained between 300 and 700 shots, so the average shot length hovered around eight to eleven seconds." This shows that each shot was usually a long length shot that stood still. In the mid 1960's many filmmakers began to experiment with faster cutting. Filmmakers began to edit their films more faster to make the film seem more interesting rather than showing one long continuous shot. In the 1980's, the tempo had continue to pick up, however, average shot lengths began to vanish. ASL's in movies began to now reach an average of four to five seconds. This shows how filmmakers began to go away from ASL's, and move toward more faster shots. 

Faster cutting of shots had become a 'must' for films. Shot lengths went to the extreme of lasting 1.5 seconds per shot. "No film is one long sequence." This shows that films have gone away from the traditional ASL, and now have become more fast pace. 

"From the 1930's well into the 1960's, directors often played out stretches of scenes in a plan americain, which cut off actors at the knee or mid-thigh level." In recent decades, filmmakers have been inclined to build scenes largely out of singles. These singles allow the director to vary the scene's pace in editing. When widescreen process were introduced, filmmakers often felt obliged to rely on long shots and medium shots. This shows that throughout the years, the style of shots had continually changed and filmmakers emphasis on it increased.

"Today's camera movements are ostentatious extensions of the camera mobility generalized during the 1930's."  This means that camera movements are now used to attract the audience's attention rather than focus on the main meaning of the shot. Today's camera use the "push in" to show the emotion displayed in a person's face. Push in's underscore a moment of realization and build continuous tension. Today's camera work has further pushed itself from the classical Hollywood styles of film, creating a new era of film making.

Blog Response- The American Anti-Hero

What historical factors influenced the rise of the American Anti-Hero in cinema and how does this hero contradict the Classic Hollywood Ideology.

The Anit-Hero became popular between 1945 and 1980 after World War II.  According to Wikipedia, "An anti-hero in today's books and films will perform acts generally deemed 'heroic', but will do so with methods, manners, or intentions that may not be heroic" This describes them as heroes that aren't really smiled upon. After the war, America was looking for a new type of Hero and they wanted this hero to be rebellious to their society. America also wanted this heroes to represent what life was really about, and to reflect the human spirit that everybody embodied. From 1945 to 1980, there was mass amounts of anti-heroes in American movies. "Within the American cinematic gestalt, we are continually offered portrayals of the individual redemptive journey. Filmmakers repeatedly portray versions of the hero and anti-hero. These figures have their roots in age-old mythologicaland religious characters..." (Fitch 1). This shows that filmmakers made these attempts at portraying this "hero" as what the American people had wanted. "The anti-hero gained popularity in the 1940s and 1950s, probably due to the cynicism during and following World War II."

"The anti-hero was daring the audience to relate to doing wrong or being wrong even for the wrong reasons. " We can personally relate to the anti-hero because we too make mistakes and do wrong doings. These characters gave the audience a sense of something tangible lost or gained, which gets us, the audience, thinking what these anti-heroes go through. The anti-hero can also be described as "rebellious", as he prefers conflict rather than comfort, which shows his true intents as this hero figure. Within Classical films, the hero is usually the one that is courageous and always looking out for others, but that contradicts what a anti-hero is. The anti-hero goes against the Classic Hollywood Ideology by defying this stereotype that all hero's do good as it is the right thing to do. The anti-hero looks out for themselves and fight off authority figures simply for reasons unknown. Although this isn't what the audience is typically looking forward to when seeing a film with the average hero, it creates a sense of something new rather then having the audience already know what type of person this hero is.

Blog- Advanced Editing Notes- Overview/Classical Paradigm

1. How would describe the difference in camera work: composition, angle, movement?

In the "Arrival of the Train" and the "Damsel in Distress", there are major differences that are clearly shown. In the "Arrival of the Train", there is only one whole continuous shot, while the actors in the movie just move around the scene. Although it is a somewhat unique shot as it shows the train at an angle, it is too long, making the whole entire shot seem boring and simply useless. In the "Damsel in Distress", there were a variety of shots that made the film seem really intense. There was a lot of PoV shots, reaction shots, such as when the man was tying up the women and noticing that the train was about to arrive, and Direction Match Shots, such as when the women was constantly looking back to see where the train was. These shots added together make the film seem more interesting as it makes the audience more interested in the film.

2. How would describe the differences in the edit?

In the "Arrival of the Train", there was absolutely no cutting at all, and there was just one long continuous shot. This makes the film seem really boring, although there seems to have a lot of movement in it. In the "Damsel in Distress", there is a lot of quick cuts, that add on to the intensity of the film. This gets the audience more into the film, rather then looking at once long, continuous shot. 

3. How would describe the characteristics of the story being told/narrative?

In the "Arrival of the Train", the people in the shot seem to really gitty and rushed. However, there wasn't much emotion displayed, as we couldn't really see what the people were feeling. Also, we, the audience, seem to want more out of a shot, rather than just simply stating the title of the film. In the "Damsel in Distress", we knew what was happening. We knew that the man was the evil mastermind at hand, and the lady was the one in trouble that needed to be saved. The film uses excellent shots, such as close ups in necessary moments, to see what the character is feeling. Also, we see how the evil mastermind acts, showing that he truly is the evil person in the film.

Blog: Advanced Editing Notes: 3. Soviet Montage and 4. Realism

3. Soviet Montage and Formalism

a. What was Pudovkin's concept of constructive editing and how did it manifest itself on film?

Pudovkin insisted that each shot should make a new point. He believed that each shot created new meanings to itself. He believed that riffith's close ups were too intrusive to the actor/actress, which showed no meaning to the shot. The way Pudvokin put close ups together was in a way to create meaning, and stating that long shots were too far from reality. An example of this is when a there was a close up of this man, then it cut to a close up of this bowl of soup, then back to the man, show his emotions and his need to eat the soup.

b. What was the Kuleshov effect and give me an example of how is it used in today's film's?

Kuleshov believed shots were linked together framentarly through details to produce a unified action. The Kuleshov Effect shows that the emotion is produced not by the actor’s performance, but by the juxtapositions. The viewer creates the emotional meaning, once the appropriate objects have been put together by the filmmaker. 

c. What was Eisensteinian Montage and how does it work in the "Odessa Step" sequence?

Eisenstein believed life was about constant change and this dialectical of contrasting opposites, because all phenomena are in a state of becoming. Eisenstein also believed art of film was in the edit, that each shot must be incomplete, contributory rather than self-contained, but not too linked.  Eisensteinian used this technique in the Odessa Step. Critics of Eisenstein argued that his films lacked a sense of realism. They also guided the audience too much. 

4. Andre Bazin and Realism

a. What were Andre Bazin's frustrations with Classical and Formalistic film making?

Bazin claimed that he was not a film maker. Bazin was responsible for creating an approach to analyzing a the body of a Director's work in order to discern patterns in style and themes. He believed that editing could destroy the effectiveness of a scene. Distortions in using formalist techniques, especially thematic ediing, can violate the complexities of reality. Formalists were egocentric and manipulative.

b. What do Realist filmmakers strive for in their work?

Realism in film is accomplished by using long shots, wide screen, lengthy takes, deep focus, panning, craning, tilting, or tracking rather than cutting to individual shots.  Realist filmakers strive to ensure that each shot was as realistic as possible, and that it flowed smoothly, rather then doing unnecessary cutting to a shot. By not following these guidelines, realist filmmakers cannot create this sense of reality. 

c. What techniques to realists use in their film making?
Realism in film is accomplished by using long shots, wide screen, lengthy takes, deep focus, panning, craning, tilting, or tracking rather than cutting to individual shots.  Details within a shot are presented more democratically, without the special attention a close-up inevitably confers. 

Trailer Review - 8 Mile

The trailer I chose to do for my review is 8 Mile. Although it doesn't have great cinematography, it makes up for it with a powerful story line. 8 Mile is about a wanna rapper who has to go through the obstacles placed in front of him to reach his dream of becoming a successful rapper. He has to go through the harshness of the environment that he lives in, the threat of losing his job, not being able to win a rap battle to gain street credit, etc. These obstacles  not only make it difficult for the main character to succeed, but also push him farther from his dream. This trailer shows snippets of what the main characters has to go through on a daily basis in order to get closer to reaching his dream, while also showing the difficulties of life that he has to also endure a lot.

Like many other movies, this one establishes its narrative by showing the audience what the main character's life is like and what they have to go through in their everyday lives. As in relation to 8 Mile, we see B-Rabbit's life as harsh and really gloomy, however, must live in this environment until he flourishes out of it. In the trailer, it establishes how harsh life is for the main character, along with showing his environment and how it plays a role in deterring him from reaching his goal. Also, it shows the basic plot line; we see him struggling to reach his goal, and how it really affects him along with his mom and daughter. Throughout the trailer, we see tiny glimpses that hint us towards what we think of, such as what life experiences are like and what significant events alter the way he is.

 The cinematography, throughout the trailer, was mostly all the same, yet it was still able to display what the story was about. Many of the shots had a dark tint to it, symbolizing that his environment is harsh and dull. These shots are able to communicate to the audience that the main character lives in a difficult environment and has to endure it in order to reach his dream. Also, many of the shots seem simplistic as it only depicts what the actors are talking about, but the background and their surroundings also add onto the constant harsh tone that is constantly shown. Also, there are many shots in the trailer that show what the main character is experiences; we see him either as scared, confident, nervous, anxious, etc.

The editing throughout the trailer is pretty unique. There is a lot of face pace cuts that show the intensity of the story line, along with words that summarize what each shot is about. The face pace shots really catch the attention of the audience, while also making the movie seem like a "must see". The words that pop up state what the main character is going through in his situation, and is really interesting in how it really has a nice touch to the film.

The sound was crucial in bringing out the film as a success. Throughout the film, the main character is rapping, either in a rap battle, with his friends, etc. There are also instances where there is a altercation between two forces, such as the main character and his opposing enemies. The sounds of gunshots, people fighting, the grunts, all add into the film's main intent.

Run Lola Run Presos

I. Interpretation of the film as it related to your assigned section and use of film language.

My interpretation of the film was vague and somewhat weak. The analysis I did wasn't there because I was too nervous and couldn't remember it. My assigned section was the plot, however, I literally told the plot without talking about the underlying meaning of it. I used little to no film language that didn't really demonstrate my knowledge of the topic.

II. Strengths of your presentation

I was able to talk about the plot with some analysis that somewhat informed the audience of the meaning of certain things. I was able to describe the main parts in the plot and somewhat analyze the author's intent within it.

III. Challenges and Areas for Improvement

Major challenges I faced was the oral presentation and analysis itself. I was prepared to analyze the plot, but I froze when I went up to present. My plot analysis, as said before, was vague and weak. I need to work on my confidence in order to fully talk about my points of analysis. I also need to stop reading off the slides as it tends to show that I'm weak in certain areas of the film. If I can improve on these requirements, I'll be better off in presenting certain parts of film.

Short Film Treatment

Logline: Jacob owes money to a loan shark. Loan shark captures his girl friend. Jacob is given a time allotted to get the money or his girl friend will be killed.


Beer cans on the table, trash on the floor and clothes hanging on the couch. Man is still asleep with despair.
He dreams of his girlfriend being taken away from him and receiving the threat of her death.
Man awakens from dream sad and depressed.
Man thinks of how he must get the money to pay off the loan shark.
He decided to rob his neighbor's house.
Man breaks into his neighbor house.
He is able to break open the bank and steal the money.
Neighbor opens the front door just as man is about to open it.
Man is forced to put neighbor to sleep out of panic.
Man calls loan shark and tells him that he has the money.
Loan shark tells man to meet him at his house in the remaining time left or else.
Man runs off to meet Loan shark.
Man makes it to the house.
Girlfriends voice is behind the closet door.
Loan shark assures man that he'll give her to him for the money.
Man gives Loan shark the money and opens the door.
Girlfriend is lying in the chair, wrapped in rope, with tape recorder next to her.
Girlfriend was already killed.
Man looks back at Loan shark.
Man is shot.
Man wakes up from dream.
Girlfriend comforts him and tells him to go back to sleep.

Volleyball Segment Critique

I basically came up with this idea because I thought it would be interesting to do a segment on something I probably would never want to do. I was able to interview the volleyball players I knew, such as Anissa and Gabby, and they were able to give some pretty good responses to our questions. Our questions were somewhat direct as to the individual itself, but somewhat general as to the team as a whole. I envisioned there to be many intense shots that would accompany the music's pace and that the b-roll for the interviews would match what was said exactly.

For the interviews, I basically just chose the upper spirit court and the front of the school. I thought that by keeping it simple, it would ensure the simplicity of the film but show intensity. I think the b-roll was good. There are a lot of shots that look up to the subjects and many of the b-roll shots accompany what the people say in their interview well. We had a lot of trouble with the positioning of the people because we wither placed them with too much headroom or in the direct middle of the shot. Many of the shots, such as the b-roll shots, were smooth, such as there was no shaking of the camera and their was no focus problems. There was only one problem we had with lighting and that was during the b-roll when I tried to focus on the players but weirdly it got dark and I was forced to zoom out to regain the light. The audio in the interview came out as expected with little to no errors.

We didn't believe that a voice-over in the beginning was necessary because we let the intensity of the screen shots and b-roll explain everything. Out segment was pretty much informative because their was information about their team, their expectations, and how they operate their practice. We only used a voice-over in the very end as a way of ending off the piece on a suttle tone. I wanted to people to remember our piece with that "wow" feeling mainly because of our opening's quick pace shots.

The interviews and the b-roll match very well. Whenever a person talked about a certain thing, there was a shot of their practice that supported their saying. We used basic title sequences from live type with the Capuchino colors. In the beginning, we used screenshots of the players to build up the viewers anticipation, then added b-roll of their practice that was also a montage of shots. In some of the interviews, the people said some interesting things but we couldn't find any b-roll to accompany it so the interview seemed somewhat long. Throughout the segment, their was no continuity errors and it seemed very fluent with the interviews and b-roll.

I honestly loved the beginning of the segment. The building of anticipation, in my opinion, was the only good part of the segment and the b-roll that accompanied it was very exceptional. If I had more time, I would redo all the interviews and ensure that it would actually look like interviews. After doing this segment, I realized that I need to review my notes on how to position people in interviews and also to ensure that the lighting in my b-roll is not too dark.

Character In Time

This picture of Obama explains a lot about time. All over Obama's body are things he has to deal with, such as the Haiti disaster and the Iraq war. Within his 4 year term, he's expected to solve all of these issues and bring the U.S. back to its feet politically, economically, and socially. As portrayed, Obama's doesn't have enough time to solve all of these issues and it will be a struggle for time. The emotion in his eyes show that their is no hope of accomplishing this or even defeat. His hand on his mouth may mean that it will be too difficult to accomplish this. The words all over his body vary from small to large, meaning minor to major crisis’s. As shown, there are a lot of major crisis’s that will need more than 4 years to solve, not including the minor ones. Overall, this image displays how Obama has to deal with these difficult problems in order to ensure that the U.S. stays a float.

Short Film Analysis

MEMORIES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85HDu87TGy0

Memories is a short film based on the revival of memories and cherrishing moments long ago for the main character, the old man. Throughout the film, the main character conitinualy finds these strips of film that reveal moments that meant a lot to him. For example, the main character's foot is entangled by the first strip of film that shows either his childhood or possibly his son.

The main character then embarks on this journey to find more of these strips of films that would reveal more of these past memories. Towards the end of the short film, the main character goes through this picture book that relate back to these strips of film and eventually ends with the old man closing his eyes.

Throughout the film, there are many close ups on the main characters face that display many of the emotions he feels. These close ups really set the tone of happiness and also show how the main character changes his character. In the beginning, the main character seems to be grumpy and uncaring, but as he gathers these strips of film. his expressions began to lighten up. There are also many quick pace shots that sort of add on to the intensity of the film. This means that as the main character began to find more of the film strips, the quicker the film's pace went. Also, towards the end of the short film, as the main character finds more and more of these strips of film, there are a few cross dissolves that quicken up the pace of the film too.

 There is also a few pan shots that capture the main characters emotions in finding these strips of film. The camera is mostly on a waist shot level and usually pans from the main character onto the strips of film. This is repeated numerous times throughout the film, but is effective in establishing the happy tone. Sometimes there are traveling shots when the main character walks through the streets in search of the film strips.

The lighting in this film is also pretty unique. Their is an effect throughout the whole film that makes the setting seem somewhat dark and gloomy, such as though it was a rainy day. This establishes the probability of how the main character felt in the beginning of the film, but doesn't contribute to the renewed feeling of joy during the rest of the film. This could refer to low-key lighting.

As far as the editiing, in my opinion, it was well done. There are many continuity shots that somewhat add on to how the main character is feeling after finding the film strips. For example, in the end of the film, there is a perfect example of great continuity editing that supports how excited the main character was to go home and look at the film strips.

The music was also good because it really contributed to the film's tone and how the main character's journey to find the film strips was an accomplishment. It also gives the film a sympathetic tone to how the main character feels throughout the film and it gives us, the audience, the impression that this man is able to be happy once again due to these film strips.

Sound Project Peer Review

1) What is the INTENT of the scene? (what is the scene used for dramatically)
The intent of the film is to show the audience what the character can't see but what the audience can see. This creates suspense and really gets the audience attached.

2) What are the PLOT POINTS? (points that move the story forward)
 The main character is doing his homework on another average day. All of a sudden, he hears a noise downstairs and the horror begins.

3) What is the CLIMAX of each scene? (what is the turning point)
The main character meets the creature and is in horrified. 

4) What is the RESOLUTION? (how is the theme resolved)
 The creature caught the main character and the film ends.

5) What is the CONCLUSION? (how does the scene end)
When the main character wipes his eyes, he loses sight of the creature. He then finds the creature behind him and the creature gets him.

6) What are the important LINES OF DIALOGUE? (contain story points)
The main character hears something downstairs. He sees something moving and eventually meets the creature. He tries running away from the creature, but eventually gets caught.

7) Which character CONTROLS the scene? (who pushes the story forward)
When the creature is found, the intensity of the film increases, and the main character is put in a life or death situation.

8) What suggestions do you have to improve the narrative?
We could have a better runaway scene. The main character could be running to other places and every time he tries, the creature is always near by. Another suggestion could be that the creature keeps eluding the main character, which creates more suspense, and when he does find it, the story ends.

Sound Treatment

A boy is just doing his homework on another average day.


As he's finishing up his last problem for math, he hears a sound downstairs.

He puts his homework down and he gets up to see what happened.


As he comes down the stairs, he sees something move in the shadows.


Before he gets caught up with terror, he walks towards the scene, only to find nothing there.


As he opens the door to the kitchen, he sees a figure in the distance.


The figure begins walking towards the boy, and the boy jolts back upstairs.


When he looks back to find nothing there, he looks forward and sees the figure right in front of him.


He then jolts downstairs and hides in the garage.


As he begins panicking and sees nothing after him. he hears the door open.


He sees the figure walk towards the middle of the garage.


As the boy wipes his face and looks back, the figure is gone.


When the boy sighs with relief, he feels a presence behind him.


He looks back, and see's the figure there....

In the opening shot of the film, it'll show the boy in his room doing his homework. In the background, there will be a storm sound effect used. As the boy comes downstairs and sees the creature and runs away, rhythmic match will be used. When it comes to the suspenseful part when the boy is hiding and the creature is after him,  scary music will be incorporated into it.

Textual Analysis/Oral Exam Part 3

Part III

IV. Narrative
The Road was told throughout a short period of time.It shows the father and son trying to survive this post-apocalyptic disaster in most of the film with some flashbacks to the the father with his wife. With the flashbacks to the fathers previous life, it gives a sense of sadness because the father was such a happy man with his wife, and now that's she's gone, he only has one person left in his life: his precious son. At some points of the movie, there are parts that express horror and suspense that add on to the film's genre. The Road really makes us attached to the father and son, especially the son. The father would do anything to keep his son out of harms way, which includes death, and this really makes viewers understand his intentions. With his son, we see him as this innocent little child who shouldn't experience what he has experienced, and this makes us really feel sympathy for him.

V. Film Language and Representation
The father and son are represented as basically the last people on Earth. They are wearing dirty, worn out cloths and their usually always covered in dirt. Their acting contributes to this because they act desperate as in they are always looking for food and water that is very scarce. Many of the shots capture the father and son being seen as the last people left on Earth and survivors of this epidemic.

The style of editing gives the film a unique feature. In some of the shots, such as when the father and son were running away from the hunters, they are quick and fast pace. The lighting is also very well because it really makes the environment which they are living in look really desolate.

The sound and music is also very well because it matches well with the situations the father and son are put in. The location was perfect because it really does display an post-apocalyptic world. For some of the special techniques, Hillcoat used hollow tress that were designed to fall down when triggered during the scene when the father and son were running away from the hunters.

Part 2 - Historical and Instituitional Factors/Socio-Cultural context

II. Historical and Institutional Factors

Institutional factors that may be important to the film is the producer Nick Wechsler, who also produced The Time Traveler's Wife. Their film production was distributed by Dimension Film and The Weinstein Company, who has agreed to acquire a 25% stake in Starz Media. This was essential to the film because it won the Utah Film Critics Association award for Best Cinematography, and San Diego Film Critics Society Award for best actor.

The Road is the story of a father and son witnessing the apocalypse. Unlike many end-of-the-world films, there is no explanation for what happens and no hope for the survival of human life. The last people on Earth that are alive have nothing to look forward too other than the inevitable: death.

III.  Socio-cultural context

The Road was really able to open many people's eyes of what can happen to us. It made people really frightened because this movie is an example of what Earth would be like if we continue to do what we do. Not only did this movie frighten people, but this really did set the fact of what a disaster or war could do to the Earth and impact it so severely.

Textual Analysis/Oral Exam

Part I. Genre and Audience
The Road is a post-apocalyptic fictional movie. This movie is based off of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road. The Road directed by John Hillcoat and produced by Nick Wechsler, Steve Schwartz, and Paula Mae Schwartz. This movie is connected to The Book of Eli because they have similar themes and storyline. He created this movie because he wanted to show how devastating a major disaster could affect the whole world and show how surviving it is an extreme challenge.

Destruction, survival, isolation, and death express the film's theme. All of civilization, buildings, and wildlife has already been obliterated by this catastrophe.

The love and sacrifice a father has for his son is another theme expressed in the film. Throughout the film, the father has been put in numerous situations where he has had to put himself in the way of danger to protect his precious son.

The target audience could be anyone because this movie basically explains how we need to be cautious of our actions. These actions could lead to major disasters that can affect human life, and basically this is what the movie emphasizes.