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.