Author: Geofrey-Victory

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The Prism of Communication: How Arrival Tells a Story

Analysis

Arrival by Denis Villeneuve subverts filmmaking’s norms and the audience’s expectations through a protagonist’s journey of discovery. Villeneuve unpacks  plenty of questions towards the audience as the narrative moves forward. The protagonist, Louise, is in a position with the audience assuming a perspective that the film is told linearly. As they observe Louise aloofly pass by a crowd looking at the news of the aliens, the audience assumes that she is apathetic since her daughter, Hannah, passed away recently. Villeneuve invites the audience to attach the familiarity with linear storytelling to his protagonist—acting as a blank canvas. In a movie in which the premise hinges primarily on communication, Villeneuve utilizes the film as a medium of communication to his audience presenting the two sides of the lens of filmmaking.

Villeneuve’s method is not unique in a general way, but the specifications that composes his method to communicate to his audience amplifies and elaborates the story. By subverting the order of how the story unfolds, Arrival’s plot becomes far more robust. If films have the duality of restricting the information or providing an omniscient stance to the audience, Villeneuve amalgamates the two by restricting the information that he is providing omniscience. For example, the introductory scene is an encapsulation of Louise’s relationship with her daughter, but the audience does not find out that this scene is an introduction to Louise’s acquiescence of the alien’s non-linear language. Every aspect that Villeneuve presents is an invitation to an assumption based on expectations but is subverted once the arrival of the climax and the denouement.

Since Arrival’s narrative revolves around a focalization of Louise and on top of his invitations to assumptions, Villeneuve plays with diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, blurs the line between the two, and presents another layer of non-linear storytelling. In the scene where Louise is dreaming, sounds and echoes overwhelm the sensations of the audience on top of a symphonic orchestra playing in the background, suggesting and realizing the omniscience the audience already has. Villeneuve removes the restriction of information by mimicking the process of learning a new language through the focalization on Louise—the languages are blended and Louise experiences, for the first time, the non-linear language.

Ultimately, the film is a lens to examine the human condition similar to how scientists study the aliens through a lens. Villeneuve even makes the emplacement of the glass the scientists look through similar to a movie theater. But, as the scientists—moreover, Louise, explores the non-linear language of the aliens, Villeneuve shifts the study on the audience: why do we think linearly?

Conclusion

Arrival belongs in the Top 100 films. It uses the medium of film and applies it to a familiar aspect of our lives—communication. The film is significant because unlike any other film, Arrival explores the audience as the one subjected to the lens of the camera. It applies all the audience’s biases and subverts all their assumptions. The film pushes critics to analyze a subject in a critical manner than before. It can only be unpacked with the technical diction that is learned through studying filmmaking. Because of the subject matter it explores, the filmmaking lexicon provides a more specific analysis of Arrival.

 

Sources

Personal: https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/5cc7fb/official_discussion_arrival_spoilers/ (Links to an external site.)

Journalistic:

https://www.vox.com/culture/2016/12/8/13863260/arrival-director-denis-villeneuve-interview-spoilers (Links to an external site.)

Academic:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4628110/ (Links to an external site.)

https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/film.2018.0083 (Links to an external site.)

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Communicating to Your Audience: How Film Stimulates Your Senses

Below are select movies that film scholars chose to argue if they belong in the list of 100 Great Films or not. Evidently, we are able to articulate and argue better our opinions about a film because of the vocabulary we learned studying film. We are able to specify and accurately voice our opinion with the cache of terms we have at our hand. Here are the films:

Arrival by Denis Villeneuve

Reordering

    • Villeneuve’s method is not unique in a general way, but the specifications that composes his method to communicate to his audience amplifies and elaborates the story. By subverting the order of how the story unfolds, Arrival’s plot becomes far more robust. If films have the dichotomy of restricting the information or providing an omniscient stance to the audience, Villeneuve amalgamates the two by restricting the information that he is providing omniscience. For example, the introductory scene is an encapsulation of Louise’s relationship with her daughter, but the audience does not find out that this scene is an introduction to Louise’s acquiescence of the alien’s non-linear language. Every aspect that Villeneuve presents is an invitation to an assumption based on expectations but is subverted once the arrival of the climax and the denouement.

Arrival belongs in the Top 100 films. It uses the medium of film and applies it to a familiar aspect of our lives—communication. The film is significant because unlike any other film, Arrival explores the audience as the one subjected to the lens of the camera. It applies all the audience’s biases and subverts all their assumptions. The film pushes critics to analyze a subject in a critical manner than before. It can only be unpacked with the technical diction that is learned through studying filmmaking. Because of the subject matter it explores, the filmmaking lexicon provides a more specific analysis of Arrival.

The Sixth Sense by M. Night Shyamalan

Cinematography

    • While using shots, M. Night Shyamalan makes their shots to convey varied messages and emotions to the audience. For example, in the magic scene when Malcolm talks to Cole, there uses a tracking shot that move the camera to Malcolm. While moving, the audience only see Malcolm on the middle of the screen talking to someone in the chair. When the shot shifts to Cole, Shyamalan makes the audience a little confused about this “magic” moment and therefore pave a deeper clue for the existence of Malcolm. Then, Shyamalan uses a lot of continuity editing in many scenes to create a sense of smooth and flow for the story. For instance, in the scene of Cole is trapped by the other two boys, the shots of Cole’s mother’s upstairs create a high level of continuity that makes the body actions of the character natural.

Structuring

    • The biggest feature of this film is the complexity of its narrative structure. The director divides into two storylines, one is the romantic story between Malcolm and his wife and another is Cole and his mother. The narration is developed between the two storylines. Early clues make audience understanding of the film into confusion. Audiences will completely understand the whole story after the disclose at the end of this film. In this film, the director used temperature several times. There are times when the temperature drops and the characters breathe white. Among them, when Malcolm approaches his wife, she wraps her shawl tightly around her in her sleep, a clue that Malcolm is dead.

Sound/Eeriness

    • A key element of thriller films like this one is the method of editing used throughout the film.  “To intensify feelings of fear in the audience, film artists use sound, lighting, timing, motion and other stylistic devices” (Fu).  In The Sixth Sense they altered the lighting and sound during the suspenseful parts to create a deeper reaction in the audience. In the opening of the film you can hear an eerie sounding violin playing and the theme of classical music carries on throughout the film.  The high pitched whining of the violins really seems to put people on edge and adds to the suspense of the situation. Another aspect that adds suspense is how light or dark a certain scene is. For example, whenever Cole runs into his ghosts the lighting gets really dark and the violins in the background get louder.  “The unusual lighting causes tension in the audience” (Fu).

In 2016 The Sixth Sense was number 89 on AFI’s Top 100 list of movies from the last 100 years.  When this film was first released in theaters it was number one at the box office for a solid 5 weeks and raked in 40 million dollars (Atlantic).  The reason behind The Sixth Sense’s immense success is mostly due to how well they pulled off the twist at the end. The movie started off with a graphic scene of an old patient breaking into the psychologist’s home and shooting him in the stomach.  Before finding out what happens to the psychologist the plot line introduces the boy and you kind of assume that he just healed from his injury. At the very end it is revealed that the psychologist actually died from his gunshot wound and was one of the many ghosts visiting Cole to try and find the help they need.

Oculus by Mike Flanagan

Chunking

    • A way to analyze the segments of this film, you’d have to break the film into smaller more explainable chunks. The movie can be looked as broken  into 3 chunks. Life prior, during, and after the encounter of this evil mirror. Some chunks are spoken in past tense but during present time, something similar to a flashback. These chunks are unified by action due to the mirror and all characters being present in each segment. Some segments are in fact out of order. During some scenes the producer would have the character experience a in-depth flashback, allowing the viewer to build a logical bridge between the two actions. The producer also kept the actual meaning of the mirror away from the viewers to create a more dramatical suspense feeling. If the meaning was revealed earlier than the movie would not be as interesting.

This film wouldn’t be considered a great film due to it not having a significant impact on the overall genre of horror. The cinematography of this film is elite and usage of each individual segment plays a role in the huge success this movie had. Oculus is a tightly enacted chamber drama that just happens to include supernatural phenomena. By analyzing films critically, it allows viewers to get a better and well rounded understanding of the film prior to watching it. This way of analyzing films also allows the viewer to grasp a more enhanced ,thought out ,analytical conclusion.

Daughters of the Dust by Julie Dash

Atemporality

    • The film also plays with diasporic temporality. The film does not have a linear, straight plot line, which was a very different narrative style that was in opposition of the traditional Hollywood blockbuster storytelling. Dash wanted the audience to experience the film through the various connections between generations. The film is not plot-driven and is dependent on the relationships and dialogue between the family members. There are three narrators: unborn child (of Eula and Eli), matriarch Nana, union of what represents all of black women. We can see it as a visual poem – a focus on women and their bodies that doesn’t objectify or sexualize them. The broader theme of the film is thereby amplified by the interactions and visual images of and between the females of the film.

Daughters of the Dust, without a doubt, should be included within the top 100 list because of the groundbreaking historical factors in being the first feature length film directed by an African American woman and therefore distributing a story and perspective that was ignored for generations. It stands as a classic not only within the independent film industry, but of all cinema for its beautiful portrayals of female relationships, fearless themes and cinematography, and the cultural meaning for so many people of color around the world. It is incredibly important to analyze films critically because whether we want to admit it or not, they lead us as a culture. We invest so much time, money, and efforts in celebrating this industry. It is extremely personal when you bring into context of how we, as a society, plan dates or events around going to the movie theater or having movie nights in our homes. It is especially important in this newer generation, considering how we have such easy access to online media sites such as Netflix. We are bombarded with so many narratives and characters that we become desensitized to it all. However, those images and themes stay with us. But only the movies that have the big bucks and people who allow these films to be distributed are consumed by the mass. It is crucial that we participate in researching the development, production, politics, social, and historical factors that go into creating a movie.

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The Sound of Zombies: How It’s More Than Just, “HNNNNNNNGGGHHHHH!!!”

Image result for night of the living dead

Romero’s Editing Strategies

Both editing strategies (continuity and analytical) are utilized to enhance the viewing experience for the audience. Continuity editing is used in most shots of the film but there are some analytical edited scenes spaced throughout the film as well.

The main match-on action scenes that occur during the movie are when a character would spot a zombie and you see the look of terror on their faces and then the shot switches to a clip of the zombie running towards that character to attack them. This occurs several times throughout the film as many characters are attacked. This type of editing is done to create suspense, when we see the look of horror on the character’s face then it leads the audience to wonder what they are going to see in the next scene which displays the zombies.

There was also some sparse analytical editing that occurred during the zombie attacks. The camera would show a close up of the character being attacked to make the shot more intimate and dramatic.

I think the director chose to shoot the film this way using both analytical and continuity editing because the film had a need for both. The setting plays a key role in the film as they are on a rural farm in Pennsylvania and the continuity editing shots help familiarize the audience with the setting. But the close up analytical shots help make the film more dramatic and engage the audience more.

Image result for zombie listening to music

Examples from the Film

To convey suspense and tension in the Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero arouses expectations and subverts those expectations with uncertainty utilizing editing and sound. Around the 22-minute mark, Barbra surveys the house after a reassuring conversation with Ben. Ben’s consolation is not only received by Barbra within the parameters of the film, but Ben also consoles the audience—just enough words by Ben to put the audience at ease. As Barbra walks through a doorway, ominous music ramps up and takes away the comfort that Ben initially instills. Barbra fixates her vision towards something, using the music box as the variable for the transition. While the music box plays an innocent melody, a shot of Barbra with the music box out of focus parallels the dispatch to the audience of the focus towards Barbra.

Romero plays with the conjunction of editing and sound to convey to his audience the framework he placates. He juxtaposes the ominous theatrical music with the innocent melody of the music box. Romero constantly puts the audience in a disarray in where he simulates a roller coaster of tension subsequently subverting each other. Visually, Romero fixates on an inanimate object to impart to the audience where the focus should be. He displays Barbra focusing towards the music box and hinges conveying a tone with the object.

Oh! And Fun Fact…..

Other budget conflicts and the era in which the film was shot included shooting on a 35mm print, but only with 16mm editing equipment. The crew had to transfer all the footage to 16 mm before they could start editing it. Rousseau also notes that they rarely had time or a movie for more than one shot of any frame, and they did not have the opportunity to verify this. He had to believe that Romero was doing everything right. The sound was also mixed without seeing the picture.

Rousseau remembers the chess problem between Russell Streiner and the sound engineer in the laboratory. If Russ wins a chess game, they will receive a sound mix for free, but if he loses, they will have to pay twice as much. Some of the cast and crew watched the game, which Russ eventually won.

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Cutaway

  • A shot in a movie that is of a different subject from those to which it is joined in editing.
  • In film and video, a cutaway shot is the interruption of a continuously filmed action by inserting a view of something else.
  • For instance, a shot of a high school teacher lecturing to his students is followed by another one of the principal standing at the door listening. Then back to the shot of the teacher lecturing. The shot of the principal is the cutaway shot.
  • Continuity, as it relates to filmmaking or videography, refers to maintaining believable and temporal relationships within a scene in such a way that shots you intend to put together actually fit together in a natural and seamless flow of action, preserving the illusion of reality on the screen.
  • Use cutaways to solve continuity problems such as jump cuts.
  • Imagine another scene with a man working on a laptop sitting on a train, embarking on a long journey cross-country. Where is he going? What is he thinking? A cutaway out the train window shows passing farmland; the next shot shows him with an overnight bag slung over his shoulder, getting off the train. Clearly, without needing to say it, using only your cutaways, you’ve painted a picture of a businessman going to the city.
  • You automatically raise the stakes when you shoot a harried woman with her arms full of groceries unlocking and closing the door to her house at twilight, then you follow up with a cutaway of a set of dangling keys she left behind, still in the keyhole.
  • For an illustration to fulfill the purposes for which it is designed, it is often important that certain objects depicted not be blocked by others.

What is the concept?

The major use of a cutaway is to “guide the audience from subject to subject, and on occasion, to place the audience in the position of the actors” (Gessner 89).

It is important to choose cutaway shots that truly represent what the characters are feeling or thinking about or shots of objects – anything that serves the story, not just something you can use as a Band Aid to cover cuts. This is where the art of the cutaway truly lies. You could call this the art of momentarily distracting the audience. In the end, that’s what a cutaway truly is: a momentary distraction to the audience to serve the story.

What are different versions of the concept?

Different versions or types of ways cutaway shots can serve the film include:

  • Time Control — Cutaways can emphasize important details or add detail and meaning to a scene. From the cutaway shot of the clock, the audience might rightfully assume some of the following: the woman has to be somewhere on time, she’s probably late and therefore is in a hurry, etc. The assumptions are infinite. Of course, the shot immediately preceding the cutaway and the one that follows it, as well as the context of the scene (whether the woman is actually looking at the clock, her facial expressions, her overall demeanor, etc.), will help in the interpretation.
  • Unspoken Words — Use cutaways to increase tension in your scenes. You automatically raise the stakes when you shoot a harried woman with her arms full of groceries unlocking and closing the door to her house at twilight, then you follow up with a cutaway of a set of dangling keys she left behind, still in the keyhole. The audience will have no problem coming to the appropriate conclusions or assumptions.
  • Linking Action — You want to break or link action in scenes? Use cutaways. Jump people around by moving them from place to place? Cutaways. Use them for suspense or excitement, to reveal information, to smoothly join one part of the speech in a dialogue with another, to fix screen direction mistakes, even to confuse the audience. Be careful not to resort to cheap cutaways, which will make you look like the newcomer on the block. A cutaway shot whose sole purpose is to mask an overt mistake reminds the audience – or especially a trained eye – that something was fixed or removed. It is a delicate balance.

Sources

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The Misogyny of Ball-Busting

Gangster films represent a film genre that is often critically acclaimed. It displays gangsters, more often than not in an objective lens. Creators tend to portray a crime-induced life to steer away from. However, at times, the discourse of the crime film narrative is often sexist and inaccurate.

In a New York Post, Kyle Smith proclaims that “Women are not capable of understanding GoodFellas.” With an overt generalization, Smith ironically displays on how he, himself, did not comprehend Martin Scorcese’s GoodFellas. He reasons with the “wiseguys never have to work (…) doing what guys love above all else: sitting around with the gang, busting each other’s balls.” Fittingly enough, Smith also did not have to lift a finger in the level of thinking in digesting Scorcese’s film. Scorcese’s portrayal of “busting each other’s balls” and the male gangster camaraderie  is a precedent to the eventual downfall of the perceived close-knit brotherhood. In the end, Henry Hill breaks one of the primary rules of the mob: do not snitch on each other, so the idea that this exemplifies trust and brotherhood in a positive connotation falls apart with knowing how Henry turns out. In retrospect, the comedic relief of “cheerfully insulting one another” is the superficial shield to the insecurity that is masculinity (Smith). The men insult one another as if to display that nothing pierces their facade—a masturbation of each other’s egoes. 

But when this framework gets infiltrated by an outsider, the gang’s insecurity shows its fragility. In the infamous Billy Bats scene, Billy comments on Tommy’s old ways of shining shoes. Tommy overreacts with violent anger going as far as “whacking” Billy Bats. Smith describes Billy’s comments as “improper ball-busting.” The lines who can insult or not in the mob are arbitrary. It is merely an excuse to draw lines between “us against them,” which is the whole premise of a gang. Tommy displays how fragile his ego is when he assumes that the comment was an insult, but as Smith describes in his article, insults are often done “cheerfully” (Smith).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pQ6fd6iO_c

In opposition, in the scene where Henry exclaims of how Tommy is funny, Tommy teases and intimidates Henry of acting like he is insulted by the remark. The gang laughs it off that Tommy completely intimidates Henry, a harmless jab by two comrades. But, Scorcese carefully places a line Tommy says in the end, “I worry about you sometimes, Henry. You may fold under questioning.” The harmless joke turns out to be a foreshadowing of the downfall of the mob.

Smith makes the comparison of the GoodFellas to Sex and the City, and how the women in the critically acclaimed HBO TV show tend to bring up their personal problems; therefore, the men in GoodFellas are superior for not letting this poison Smith’s love for the bustings of the balls. However, the demise of the gang stems for the suppression of the information towards each other. Their lack of communication ends up being their downfall and mistrust with each other—along with the use of cocaine. A prime example of the effect of how the toxic masculinity that Smith seems to be so eagerly glorify is how Henry Hill ends up telling all. Because of the suppression of what Smith perceives as feminine qualities, Henry eventually comes to a rupture. Smith also presents the relationship between Karen and Henry to be that of exemplary ball-busting marriage. Smith states, “[Karen] promises to keep the party going” implying another form of suppression through the tough times. If Karen keeps the party going even with the DEA completely at Henry’s tails, Smith completely misses the point of the dangers of suppressing the inevitable.

The argument of ball-busting being a harmless promotion of the masculine ethos misses the fact that the demise of the  GoodFellas is what Scorcese wants to convey to the audience. Most of the film’s runtime involves the good times of the mob—how their camaraderie kept the ship afloat, so Smith’s comprehension of the events seems to leave out the ending. Ironically, the aspect he glorifies the most is the root cause of their demise. Gangster films are ultimately great, but the discourse around it seems to be inaccurate with the people that it is written for merley confirms their misogyny. Smith exudes of the male hubris Scorcese attempts to steer him away from. Sadly, he is just not capable of understanding the GoodFellas. Sorry, Kyle!

Sources

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7e9d/3db2be6a0b29b17933348d04490adc350297.pdf

https://nypost.com/2015/06/10/sorry-ladies-youll-never-understand-why-guys-love-goodfellas/

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/goodfellas-1990

 

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Black & White: Decoding Schindler’s List

In Xiaolin Chen’s The Use of Symbols in Schindler’s List, non-linguistic symbols are examined in the film by Steven Spielberg, and how these symbols “promote the development of the story in a unique ideographic manner” (Abstract). While he perfectly tells the narrative of Oskar Schindler in a very detailed manner, Spielberg’s use of color symbolizes the thematic binary of morality in Schindler’s List which is formulaic of a code to be decoded. Chen makes the argument that “All members of society have a common cultural belief (…) to understand the meaning behind the code” (1). The commonality of all society hinges on the basic difference between good from bad. 

Nothing actualizes the dichotomy of morality more than Schindler’s realization of the binary in the scene of the liquidation of the ghetto. Schindler sees a girl in red walking amidst the chaos; and throughout the whole film, the audience is restricted to the color palette of black and white. However, Spielberg carefully breaks this restriction when he chose to display the little girl in a red coat. While aesthetically an assumption could be made that the device is utilized to underscore the bloodshed, narratively, the moment is where Schindler gets down from his high horse and ascribes to the perspective of humanity. Spielberg’s option to work outside the parameters of black and white parallels that of Schindler’s watershed moment. From then on, Schindler empathizes to whom that suffers. Within Schindler, another binary arouses: the Oskar from the past is no longer—the Oskar post-girl-in-red is now the protagonist of the story.

The sound of bullets rapidly infiltrates the audience’s ears, but Schindler fixates on the girl in red along with the audience. The angelic choir attempts to drown out the sound of violence and horror, but it merely amplifies the complete dread that the film constantly unveils. The horrific side of morality is always concealed—it is mostly unsurfaced, but when it arises, it is far louder than the other, unfortunately. So, Spielberg invites the audience to recognize the girl in red like Schindler. 

A tracking shot of the girl assumes the perspective of Schindler. A group of to-be-executed is at a focus while the girl in red is still tracked by the camera out of focus. Spielberg overwhelms the audience with devices that conveys the chaos and confusion because what is ensuing has no explanation for it. As the girl hides under the bed the red on the coat is no more. She now joins every other victim of the massacre as a statistic. 

In his review of the film, Roger Ebert questions “Why did [Schindler] change? What happened to turn him from a victimizer into a humanitarian?” and he assumes that Spielberg does not truly answer the question. But, Chen’s argument certainly unveils Spielberg’s assumption of what changed Schindler. In Ebert’s binary of a victimizer to humanitarian, Schindler realizes that sitting idle and not doing anything is within the same parameters of victimizer. Hence, the girl while under the bed, does not differ from anyone anymore. She is immediately put in the restrictions of black and white like every other character in the movie. But for a moment, the girl in red is the catalyst to Schindler’s mission that is his list.

However, in a Time article, it is mentioned that an Israeli newspaper quoted the film as “Spielberg’s Holocaust park,” and questions Spielberg’s motivation of the movie. While the theme of binary is present throughout the film, another in the realm of the critique of the film gets deconstructed. Spielberg preaches of the evils of morality and displays it in an objective way, but this does not take away from the gratification of a lesson learned at the expense of those who truly suffered. The feeling of guilt is commodified within the film, and this is not an argument of how the film should have never even been made. But, an awareness should be explored on why a critique from the Israeli newspaper exists.

In the ending scene, Schindler repeats, “I could’ve got more.” It is a crowning achievement of Liam Neeson to convey helplessness that Schindler exhibits within his mission. However, it also begs the question as to why the audience needs a lesson of morality when the said binary of morality should be a commonality in all of society as Chen presented. This guilt felt in the film removes all agency of sitting idly like how Schindler is in the scene of the liquidation at the ghetto. The film tells of a lesson, but the conversation around the film tells of a greater story and accepts the perspective from the victims.

Sources

https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/iccessh-18/25898107

https://time.com/5470613/schindlers-list-true-story/

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/schindlers-list-1993

 

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Non-Professional Actors

Non-Professional Actors

Facts

A non-professional is typically an adjective attached someone or something not engaged within the profession.

Acting takes a lot of skill, but if you want to strip it back to its most basic, it can just involve talking while being filmed.

Training and education can only be a good thing in any artform, but sometimes it can take away the originality of a performer.

Their performance can be a real, authentic, and natural enthusiasm, rather than one that’s being forced through a fake smile after decades of auditions and rejections.

They give directors freedom and allow directors to play loose with the script.

Casting could effectively be a perfect fit if the non-professional’s role is actually their profession.

The concept of a non professional actor is an actor that has little or no experience acting before and they’re usually hired to save money. during production.

The larger category is just actors in general. Non professional actors contrast with professional actors because they are not as well trained, experienced, or paid as well.

If non professional actors didn’t exist, then it would be a lot more expensive to make movies. Non professional actors have proven in the past to be good actors in other films like The Florida Project, Wonderstruck, and The Rider.

The concept of non professional actors is important because it shows than you don;t have to find actors who have been groomed and trained their whole lives in order to make a good film and they are a good way to lower production costs. This reveals that finding someone to fill an important role in a movie may not be as hard as it seems to be.

Sources

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/nonprofessional (Links to an external site.)

https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/aug/12/why-i-love-non-professional-actors (Links to an external site.)

https://nofilmschool.com/2017/09/what-you-need-know-about-directing-non-actors

https://nofilmschool.com/2017/09/what-you-need-know-about-directing-non-actors (Links to an external site.)

https://www.indiewire.com/2017/10/performances-non-professional-actors-the-florida-project-wonderstruck-1201883212/

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Matte Shots & Paintings

  • A process shot in which two photographic images (usually background and foreground) are combined into a single image using an optical printer. Matte shots can be used to add elements to a realistic scene or to create fantasy spaces.
  • Matte shooting is one of the most common techniques used in studio filmmaking, either for economical reasons (it’s cheaper to shoot a picture of the Eiffel tower than to travel to Paris) or because it would be impossible or too dangerous to try to shoot in the real space.
  • A shot in which only a part of the shot, usually the area immediately surrounding any of the characters present on-screen, is a live action shot. The rest is a painting, most often used to portray a non-existent vista. Rather than build a vast set, they shoot the actors on a plain set with a few background elements, with parts of the camera frame matted off by opaque cards.

“combining two separately shot images into one is called matte work. To create a matte, one area of the image is filmed – either by shooting a real background directly or by painting one and shooting the painting – while the remaining area is left blank by blocking a corresponding area of the lens. The blank area is then filled by filming, with the opposite area being blocked, after which the two areas are combined in processing” (Sivok 163).

Matte paintings “not only (serve as) a background for the actors, the matte serves compositionally to tie two elements together” (Lipari 53). These paintings are used to extend or modify something that exists.

The concept of special effects includes a variety of means to create on-screen effects that are impossible when shooting in certain conditions.

VFX – Visual Effects – visual effects is a combination of video taken with a camera (Live Action Footage) with objects created in computer programs (CGI) using a computer and made during the editing of a movie or clip. The main distinctive feature of VFX is getting the result only at the post-production stage (post-production is the newfangled name of the installation). VFX includes CGI and SFX.

CGI – Computer Generated Imagery – literally translated as computer-generated image, or computer-generated images. This includes all objects or images created on the computer (characters, 3D-objects, decorations, locations).

SFX – Special Effects – real special effects made on the set of a video camera. These are explosions with the help of pyrotechnics, puppet animation, make-up of actors (turning into various monsters, changing appearance, imitation of wounds).

Images

видеоэффекты sfx

видеоэффекты vfx

Chris Evans Star Warsfinal march

Sources

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Steadicam

  • Steadicam is a brand of camera stabilizer mounts for motion picture cameras invented by Garrett Brownand introduced in 1975 by Cinema Products Corporation.
  • It mechanically isolates the operator’s movement, allowing for a smooth shot, even when the camera moves over an irregular surface.
  • The most widely used systems worldwide are Glidecam and its analogues such as Beestab, Easy Step, Flycam, Stabicam, MY Steadicam and some others.
  • Steadicam operators cultivated an invisible style to formally mimic a kind of faster and cheaper dolly shot and to mitigate the apparatus’s uniquely embodied quirks.
  • The Steadicam shot, like its operator, should be invisible to the audience.
  • To operators, the only thing organic about Steadicam is that a human body operates it. Its mystification as a term by directors, scholars, or critics seems to point to a Steadicam shot that calls itself out as such and fails to hide under the invisibility of a dolly shot or an ultrasmooth handheld shot.
  • A brand of camera stabilizer mounts for motion picture cameras
  • Invented by Garrett Brown and introduced in 1975 by Cinema Products Corporations
    • Garrett Brown worked in Philadelphia ad began his filmmaking in the early 1970s
    • Sold his prototype to the first company he showed it to
  • Mechanically isolates the operator’s movement, allowing for a smooth shot
    • Previously dolly tracks or cranes were used to take shots on the move
  • Enables “fluid” cinematic movement
  • “One key feature of film consists in its power to bodily engage the viewer. Previous research has suggested lens and camera movements to be among the most effective stylistic devices involved in such engagement” (ncbi scholarly article quote)

Sources

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Did You Mise-En-Scene?

If mise-en-scene frames the narrative of the film in a vacuum, then George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Deadencapsulates the tone and theme of it in the introductory scene of Barbra and Johnny visiting their father’s grave. Immediately, the audience arrives at a graveyard introducing the central motif of death. The two are alone yet not quite—assuming that the bodies around them count. Throughout the film, Romero teases the audience of solitude and desolation, only to be surprised that the characters are not so alone after all. The graveyard captures this recurrence—what is below and above ground is alive or dead.

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As they walk around in the graveyard, a shot at the four-minute mark displays them alone, only to be accompanied by the gravestones. A wide shot gives the audience a full perspective of the vastness of the graveyard with silence consuming the scene only to be disturbed by the rustling leaves. Romero’s choice of camera position to display the two introductory characters extends the tone of loneliness throughout the film. In addition, most of the time, the film is set on a typical American suburban house with dustless furniture. The setting juxtaposes with the ugliness and the horrors of the dead. Furthermore, the pleasing and comforting house serves as a point of reference to how much destruction the dead induces throughout the film.

During Ben’s struggle with a dead in the 18-minute mark, the camera angle favors whoever is in a dominant position with some shots specifying the wrench. Romero uses camera angles to create tension that conveys the battle between the alive versus the dead. At 18:13, Ben grabs the wrench with an angle above their heads as the two struggle. Romero’s choice constantly grabs the audience’s attention and aims at discomfort—and comfort for the non aggressive scenes. As for his use of SFX, Romero lucks out that creating and costuming the dead are not that difficult. In fact, rip a few clothes and makeup is all he needed.

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