Film studies

  BUSTER KEATON : 'One Week' and 'The Scarecrow' analysis . Use of Film  Form - Buster is not really known for cuts in his editing in his short films. However in the scarecrow,  there are many, more than usual. This is because of the scene where  buster is being chased by the dog. Dogs are clearly faster than humans so in the film he has to cut each shot to make the dog chase seem long , funny and entertaining. He does this by running out of shot, around corners and then cutting the shot to new scenery. -  mostly long shots (to frame large scale stunts, set pieces and gags); especially in One Week -exaggerated performances -long takes (to display large scale stunts, set pieces and gags in their entirety) -mostly invisible editing Buster Keaton's film persona In one week, Buster Keaton already HAS a love where as in Scarecrow, he is looking for his love and keeps failing. Another persona is in the scene where he is trying to have a posh dinner party, trying ...

  City Of God Openening scene analysis Through photography, mise-en-scene, sound, and editing, City Of God conveys the concepts of disorder and anarchy in the favella to the audience. This is demonstrated in the first scene, when the gang is chasing the chicken. The first thing we see in the movie, for example, is a knife being sharpened against a stone. Knives are normally hazardous things, and the fact that it is being sharpened against a stone suggests a barbaric lifestyle: this is foreshadowing Lil Z's brutal lifestyle, which he imposes on his gang through proxy. This quickly builds suspense and makes the spectator question the characters' motives. The editing heightens the suspense by using almost whiplash-inducing, flashing cuts between the knife and the dark screen, reinforcing the sense of urgency. Normally, a barbecue would be a joyful, tranquil, and familiar sight; but, the tight camera angles and fast cuts disrupt this. The sequence cuts back and forth between sever...

 How are the ideological themes in your chosen films resolved? Trainspotting Shaun of the dead Themes and issues to pick from in Shaun of the Dead... - social background Shaun lives with his best friend Ed and college friend Pete. Shaun's days usually end from him working to being in a pub called 'The Winchester'. He is usually there with his girlfriend Liz and her 2 close friends and flatmates, David and Dianne who he does not get along with. At the start of the film shaun's relationship with liz is on the ropes. - friendship Shaun is very close friends with Ed. Together they are both childish and still act like they were young adults. Although he lives with Ed, you can see that shaun sightly wants to move on and 'grow up' as he is under the influence of his other housemate, Pete. Pete brings the mature side out of shun as he reminds shaun the he is old enough to look after himself and keeps telling him that he should let go of ed as ed is 'holding hi...

  Do you find the ending of the film to be satisfying resolution ?  Why ? I do find the ending to be satisfying, as i feel like the ending was very different and took a different turn from other movies in general or movies of this genre. One main difference was the fact that the main character Llewellyn Moss died when the film was building up to one big final duel between him and Anton Chigurh however, moss died off screen by people not even related to Chigurh and it was very anti climatic. As well as this happening, there was another difference, because this death should of led to Sheriff En Tom bell taking over as the main hero figure. However, he didn't and he decided to step down from being in the law. This was because all this .new wave' of crime wasn't suited to him

Narrative Feature  protagonist - what information do we find out? How is it conveyed?  Example Unusually, we don’t see the protagonist’s face until the dream section… and then we aren’t sure if this is her, as we’ve only seen her shadow and fragmented body parts: hands, sandalled feet and eye. Creates mystery from the start. What can we tell about her from the first 5 mins?  My Example What can we tell about her from the first 5 mins?   Narrative feature Establishing other characters - what information do we find out? How is it conveyed?  Example The cloaked, mirror-faced figure is dressed similarly to the protagonist. Is this a dream reflection of her? There are also doubles of the protagonist - or are they the same person? The only other character is the male lover that awakens (or does he?). His behaviour is tender, suggesting intimacy. My Example Are all of the characters actually fragmented reflections of just one Narrative feature Establishing location ...

 How David Lynch uses film techniques to portray ordinary life as nightmarish? In the film, 'the grandmother' David lynch uses real life scenarios, but then twists and makes the situation very eerie and almost imaginary. For example, the first instance this happened in was when the child was born. He was born almost in a way that a plant grows, although the audience knows that he is a human and not a plant, this makes things kind of nightmarish as it seems like 2 scenarios, in this case being a child's birth and the growth of a plant, are combined together when they shouldn't be, and this sort of imaginary scenes would happen in ones dream. Another way this binding of a action and another action which are not related to each other is when the family are all on all 4's and are barking like dogs. Although it's meant to be scary, it seems on the whacky side of the spectrum, which is another reason why the film seems very nightmarish, because things are happeni...

 WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE PERSPECTIVE IN FILM MAKING? SUBJECTIVE - where the scene shows one person's emotion . OBJECTIVE - where the scene shows a group of peoples emotion, and shows whats going on in the scene as a whole. WHAT WAYS CAN A FILMMAKER IMMERSE YOU INTO ONE CHARACTERS PERSPECTIVE? They can do this by: -POV (point of view shot) -use of sound  -soundtrack -camera movements -colour/filters -close-ups -hallucinations/dreams -camera angles  -editing

Connect explores how imagination and emotion binds in with the real life, one major factor that shows this is when the camera shows all of the civilians faces on the bus by uing close hand held shots. When the camera zooms in on their faces they look emotionless, almost as if they are disjointed from reality, from the real world. This could be because they are imagining certain things and feeeling emotion on the inside. When the girl puts in her headphones as the music fades in she also zones out and starts imagining things primarily being shown that as soon as she zones out all of a sudden the businessman assassinates the old lady to take her seat, but then the girl zones back in so the music is stopped and the scenery is back to normal.

 What are the first impressions of the lifestyle and nature of the family the audience gets ?  The film opens with the scenery of nature at its finest. in the woods, catching the river flowing, rocks, grass, trees and wildlife. This may give the impression of a post apocalyptic world as then the family of humans are introduced. It also could resemble a era in the past where there are no industrial places to live and it is far from the current state the audience lives in. The wide shots of the landscape captures the audiences attention as it makes it feel very natural and almost real as the audience feel emersed in the films reality, especially when the eldest son Bo attacks the deer. The impact and first impression of the family changes from the beginning of the opening scene to the endThis is seen as we go from thinking they are some sort of tribe to thinking that they're just stranded in the wild-life.  The usage of camera in this opening scene is mainly hand-held,...

Question ' The director is the most important creative influence on the production and content of a film '.     How far do you agree with this statement when applied to both of your chosen films ?   Films chosen: -Casablanca -Apocalypse now  Answer: I somewhat agree with this statement as Directors are seen as the lead role off-camera when a movie is in production. Michael Curtz (Director of Casablanca) and Francis Ford Coppola (Director of Appocolypse now) are the main reasons why both of the films recieved the attention and criticism it deserved.  An introduction to this point is the era of film making, 'new hollywood'. Links to our point as one of the most controversial films out of the 2 chosen was made in the middle of this era; Apocalypse Now (1979). In fact this film was released 1 year before 'New Hollywood' started to end, however it was in production for 3 years and it was set to release on Coppola's 38th birthday, April 7 1977. Compared to this, ...

 How did Wallace and gromit : The wrong trousers keep people engaged? One way the film kepth the audience engaged was through todorov's theory. In summary his theory had 5 steps which was; Equilibrium to Disruption to Recognition to Repair To finally a new Equilibrium. Now if we put this into example, the short film followed these rules in one of the final scenes where Wallace and Gromit are chasing the penguin around the house trying to capture it. For example Gromit is on the train at the back trying to get to the the penguin who is at the front and the penguin is shooting at Gromit, this is the first equilibrium. Then Wallace is on a train next to them and takes the gun from the penguin, however he is not looking and flies through the window onto a trolley, this is the disruption. Next the penguin is distrsacted by what happened and doesnt have a gun any more which gives Gromit a chance to make a move on him. However gromit gets the distracted by wallace trying to catch the vill...

 Coppola's creative signature always seems to create a powerful narrative, and its almost inevitable. We can see examples of this from, Apocalypse now, The Godfather trilogy and The conversation.  One of the tricks that Francis Coppola uses to create the sense of 'inascapable fate' is a technique called 'waiting the dolly' Francis stated in an interview that in the studio when he did film he would use this technique by using every sandbag in the studio and would lay them on the dolly as they did slow push-ins. This added an inertia to the camera movement and this also gave a great sense of gravity to the slow push-in shot. It give the shot a real sense of 'fate' when coming to an conclusion.A dolly movement is markedly different from handheld because it contains none of the camera operator’s small movements, their sense of humanity. This is neither good nor bad but is, rather, a stylistic choice on the part of the director. Some films use handheld movement t...

What film making techniques can you identify and what is their effect? -Sound overlapping dialogue no music -Acting naturalistic -Dialogue harsh, used swearing and slang not always heard -Editing Fast paced - sense of chaos, unrest -Use of camera (compositing),  Use of close ups, this shows deprivation/poverty as they were filming their feet going down council flat stairs. amplifies sense of dysfunction seperation. No establishing shot - sense of turbulence and unrest Handheld camera work, natural light -  makes it seem more realistic   ANSWER One way Arnold uses form of social realism is by  the use of camera compositing. Arnold uses hand held and close up shots to show the daily life of the main character, Zoe, to the audience. For example, the first shot is a close up shot of Zoe in her bare feet walking down the stairs of a council flat. From this shot the audience can already gather that herself and her family are living in poverty. Hand held shots are...

 Analysing social realism What film making techniques can you identify and what is their effect? -Sound overlapping dialogue no music -Acting naturalistic -Dialogue harsh, use f swearing and slang not always heard -Editing Fats paced - sense of chaos, unrest -Use of camera (composatitioning),  Use of close ups, this shows deprivation/poverty as they were filming their feet going down council flat stairs. amplifies sense of dysfunction seperation. No establishing shot - sense of turbulence and unrest Handheld camera work, natural light -  makes it seem more realistic

 MEETING KILLGORE Themes -Corruption -Evil -Disguise / Identity -War -Interventionism -Culture Cinematography -In shots he always centre, suggesting he is centre of attention. Even when the main character willard is in shot it almost feels like he is shadowing killgore. Editing   - Camera is always following killgore's movements, and is focussing on him however you can still notice events taking place in the background, not really any editing as there is no cuts. Mise-en-scene Iconography: -His cavalry hat -His shades.                - This shows his "Americanness" -His ring on finger -In shots he always centre, suggesting he is centre of attention. Even when   Sound  Performance

 Themes:  - Effects of war + Atrocity - "Heroism" - Evil - Power  - Colonialism - Chaos vs order - Corruption

APOCALYPSE NOW  OPENING SCENE Apocalypse Now  is a 1979 American epic war film directed, produced and co-written by Francis Ford Coppola. It stars Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Harrison Ford, and Dennis Hopper. The film is a  metaphor  for a journey into the self and shows how the self, in the face of war, darkens beyond recognition. As they move upriver, Willard and the PBR crew become more agitated and separated from reality. Each experiences his own kind of mental breakdown. The opening scene is a very important factor of the film. AS it mainly show the effect war has on the main hero Willard CINEMATOGROPHY -Opening scene of willard, his face is upside down. This shows the fact that his life is 'upside down' and the fact that his face is shown next to a vehicle of war (a helicopter), it suggests that war has made his life 'upside down' -These layers of different images is shown by the te...

  Question - How does the director make an impact on the audience through the character of girl? One way the director creates an impact towards the audience is the technique of framing throughout the film. From the start to the near end the director uses direct-to-camera address to make the short film experience seem more realistic. This type of shot portrays the girl as talkative and assertive, and this connects us to the character. This then gives a bigger impact to the audience at the end as they would never expect the situation to happen, because throughout the film the audience may feel like they know the girl and how she acts, whereas the ending seems almost out of character which creates more of an impact as it is not expected. However during this scene at the end, a more shocking mood due to a more varied use of framing. One of these types of framing is the 'crane shot'. In this scene the main character would be on the normal shot that she is in throughout the whole fi...

  STORY -  A Gathering It is a story of 4 siblings, Jack (The oldest, 24), Isabelle, Sandra and William (The youngest, 18). This films starts with Isabelle waking up, to then continue to with a calendar and a circled date behind her slowly coming into focus. Then a scene of her making breakfast getting washed and dressed going to the supermarket for food for 'later' and then a conversation with her siblings on her phone to decide 'what time they will be meeting' and then proceeding to see the two brothers playfully arguing on the group chat, showing the audience the type of relationship they all have between each other. However Isabelle types in the group chat and no one replies Later on in the film, the family arrive at Isabelle's house for dinner, where they will be having a Sunday roast. The table is already set out and every scene of conversation before the dinner will always focus on Isabelle with a sibling, never a conversation or interaction with other siblin...

WES ANDERSON What is the Wes Anderson Style ? Wes Anderson's style can be summed up as this: Direct-directing. Wes Anderson is the most direct director in popular cinema today, but his films are simultaneously idiosyncratic and relentlessly detailed. Wes Anderson is known for the quirky and humorous films which include 'The Royal Tenenbaums,' 'The Darjeeling Limited,' 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' and 'The Grand Budapest Hotel. It can be concluded that Wes Anderson is an auteur because his work is considered iconic and is instantly recognisable due to the ' Anderson aesthetic' visual style, along with his personal brand of cinematography.