Category: Short Essays

So for the Pan’s Labyrinth, which is a horror movie, but there are not too many usual horror movie editing signs, I am talking about those jump scare shots. There are more about how the movie shapes its environment, as those dark, scary，gloomy scenarios. The most “jump scare” scene in that movie I’ve seen is when the monster without eyes suddenly gets up and chase after Ophelia. Pan’s Labyrinth is a very good example of cross cut editing because it introduces the story line of the civil war. A lot articles have mentioned about Pan’s Labyrinth two storylines because it’s uniqueness. Also, The masterful place of this film is that it does not have too many scary scenes, but by setting up the atmosphere, the audience can be filled with fear of the unknown world in the movie.

Pan’s Labyrinth uses cut on action in many parts of its film. The camera easily transitions through the simplest of edits, for example the scene where Ophelia goes to sit on the bed beside her mother. The shot starts with Ophelia walking towards the bed and ends with her sit at the edge. Next the edit cuts to show her feet coming up and putting a blanket on herself and her mother. This easy transition made it a more effortless to zoom in and bring the viewer in on the intimate conversation that would soon take place.  

Cinematic sound is one of the fundamental elements of the film medium. It changes the film from a purely visual medium to a combination of audio-visual media, and makes the relative spatio-temporal structure expressed by visual factors in silent films in the past turn into a relative spatio-temporal structure expressed by visual and auditory factors. The sound in Pan’s Labyrinth, the most outstanding sound is the background music.  For horror movies, quiet time is like walking in an abyss, and the quieter it is, the more it can arouse people’s fear of the unknown. Music, on the other hand, can somehow reveal what’s going on. Obviously there is no music that can give the audience a sense of mystery and fear.

Garden State demonstrates a variety of editing styles. Eyeline match cuts can be seen in the beginning of the film at the funeral where Andrew Largeman (Braff) is shown staring off in his father’s direction, ultimately landing on the grave digger and a familiar face. The next seen cuts to Largeman walking up to talk to the grave digger and newly pointed out childhood friend Mark.  

The film garden state uses continuity editing and at certain important time the editing mistakes are highlighted at its most pivotal point of the film. A large emphasis on the movie is Largeman finding a way to breakthrough through his emotion wall built from his dependence on prescription medication and trying to distance himself as far as possible from his biological mother and father. An unfortunate editing mishap occurs when Largeman finally is able to cry. The opening seen makes a point to show even from the death of his mother an inability to feel real emotions and cry. While Braff may assume the viewers are caught in the moment it is hard not to see the jumping done from Natalie Portman’s character. Originally leaning and then kneeling near largeman in the bathtub.  

Garden State music is composed of a soundtrack which for its time had many up-and-coming artists and some newly gaining popularity. A generous portion of why garden state has such a strong following can be contributed to its song choice that not only has a great soundtrack but incorporates the music well into the film. 

There are times where the music is diegetic like where Sam gives Andrew her headphones and we are introduced to the shins and song which is found on its soundtrack. Then there is non-diegetic music which can be heard when Andrew is taking what we can assume to be a form of ecstasy. This music starts after Andrew is zoning out making one assume the music is not being played at the party as it does not match the actions of the other individuals at the party.  

Moving Pictures says that a movie is made three separate times. Once by the screenwriter, the second time by the director and crew. And finally lastly by the editor in post-production. (Sharman 163) Editors have a lot of control over the final product of a movie. There is a ratio in movie making called the shooting ratio. This ratio is the number of hours of shot vs the amount actually used. It has evolved from a 10:1 ratio to around a 308:1 ratio. Joker’s editing is very conventionally safe. There are no ruptures, mistakes, or shenanigans when it comes to this film’s editing. It’s serviceable and kinda generic when compared to other dramas. It is exactly what you expect from a drama, but nothing like you would expect from a superhero film. This is because of a theme surrounding my appreciation of this film. It’s a drama film first, a superhero film second

There is this scene about halfway through the movie where Arthur is being harassed by three guys in the subway. There is a segment in that scene where Arthur is pushed onto the ground and is getting kicked repeatedly. The lights in the subway flicker as Arthur is being beaten, almost like his lights are about to be blacked out. Arthur then pulls a gun on the three guys and shoots them, illuminating the dark subway. After that, the lights in the subway never flicker again in that scene.

Moving Pictures says that “The soundscape around us shapes our understanding of the world, becoming its own meaningful context for every other sense perception.” (Shaman 190) The original score of Joker is perfect for the film. The score was nominated and won many awards for best original score in 2019. The best scene of the film. The interview with Murray uses music impressively. The shot of the close-up of Arthur telling Murray that he is awful is met with no music, it’s dead silent besides Arthur’s dialogue. It’s tense, without the music telling you it’s tense because there is no music. Your understanding of Arthur thought the film is informing you that something is about to happen. Immediately following that sense of uh oh, the music kicks back in and is ramping up higher and higher. The scene reaching its climax with one of the most extreme sounds known to man, a gunshot.

Moving Pictures says that a movie is made three separate times. Once by the screenwriter, the second time by the director and crew. And finally lastly by the editor in post-production. (Sharman 163) Editors have a lot of control over the final product of a movie. There is a ratio in movie making called the shooting ratio. This ratio is the number of hours of shot vs the amount actually used. It has evolved from a 10:1 ratio to around a 308:1 ratio. Monty Python’s editing is one of the only relatively conventional things about the movie. While every aspect of Monty Python is usually rule-breaking, its editing is pretty simple. The most extreme aspect of editing is the back and forth editing between live-action acting and something like stop-motion animation. The absurdity of the back and forth between real life and stop-motion is funny and shows that some of the scenes in Monty Python are hilarious because of the editor in the post-production

One aspect of Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s editing that I found interesting was the scene where the same clip of Lancelot running is used over and over for comedic effect. Using the same clip is usually a Faux pas in movies, but Monty Python breaks this rule, which is a common theme around this movie. The confusion of the guards in the scene is the exact confusion that the audience is feeling and the whole joke is from the editing. A lot of scenes in this movie have the editing of the scene itself is the joke. There was a scene where someone is listening to the forest and sounds of power tools and other things that wouldn’t fit in the current time period. A sound effect that doesn’t fit the time period usually takes the audience out of the movie, but because Monty Python doesn’t take itself seriously there is nothing that takes the audience out of the movie.

Moving Pictures says that “The soundscape around us shapes our understanding of the world, becoming its own meaningful context for every other sense perception.” (Shaman 190) The sound design around Monty Python is conventional when it sets up the false expectation of a grand adventure movie, and unconventional when it comes time to be a comedy. Typically for films in regards to music is that the music should fit the surrounding footage. Action music during an Action scene, sad music during a sad scene, etc. This is why the music in Monty Python is usually conventional. Scenes where King Arthur is walking in a field as he adventures through to find the Holy Grail are met with music that is equally adventurous and for a lack of a better word, epic.

These are all good examples of a good mise-en-scene like props, costumes and all other elements that relates to the movie.The most seen element in the Ford Vs Ferrari off course is the race cars and all kinds of machine elements that related to the race car field. The Le Mans race setting were smoothly introduced to the audience too. By introducing a significant amount of racing element to the audience, it helps the people who watches the movie have a more solid understanding of what was going on with the movie. By watching the movie for many times, it’s clear that the movie is trying to link everything with their theme, the race. Since it’s very historical, all its locations, props, costumes were realistic as much as possible. For a biopic based film like this, it’s very normal and necessary for the movie to respect history. The movie should do its best to present what exactly happened before at that particular time. The viewers are satisfied of its retro model cars used in the movie. It’s exactly like the cars back in that Le Mans race.

The book suggests performances through the concept of gesturality. 「Traditions of performance, then, have national as well as individual resonances and need to be borne in mind when analysing a star’s performative style.」 (Cinema Studies, Hayward 183). Since this movie is commercial but also a biopic movie. Its performance is realistic because it’s required to fit into the actual situation, the reality. The facial expression and voice stands out more in this movie. These are two good tools to show the passion of the film and make the movie more expressive. The star performance element in that movie is given by Christian Bale and Leonardo DiCaprio. Two huge stars from Hollywood and show outstanding performances in this movie. Bale as Ken Miles and DiCaprio as Shelby, as two most important roles in that movie, leading characters as well. Especially the scene that Ken’s championship been stolen by another racer, that kind of disappointed and helpless expression is performed by two people very vivid.

Dialogues are typical in the movie, because these biopic kind movies need tons of background info to tell the audience what was exactly going on at that time. So the best method is to use dialogues, let the audience gather information from the communications between characters. And the movie is bright itself, it does not need all those colors for heightening the atmosphere of the movie. what’s unusual is that It’s easy to see that the narrative rhythm and technique are in place, and a lot of hooks are used to keep the audience, but Miles’ actions are basically forced, while Shelby is always on the initiative. Fortunately, Bell’s acting makes the character alive and makes up for the lack of being the puppet of the plot. About the camera angles. In the race when shooting the race cars, it’s narrower and keep two cars to fit the whole screen. When shooting Shelby, the camera is wider, to make a compare with him and the audience in the movie. This cinematography fits the movie since the whole movie is basically telling a story.

Directors often experience, capture and design the keynote of films based on their own life experience, artistic sense, and social speculation and insight, according to the performance content, film themes and selected styles provided by literary scripts. Each creative department decides its own creative tone based on the keynote of the whole film determined by the director, such as the keynote of performance, modeling, photography, color and so on. In the end, the keynote of the film is expressed in the medium of abundant scene modeling elements and sound modeling elements, which is manifested in the main style characteristics and artistic characteristics of the film. All these elements are meant to help the movie to get better and make audiences adore it.

Moving Pictures is quoted as saying that Mise-En-Scene is “referring to every element in the frame that contributes to the overall look of a film.” (Sharman 64) Moving Pictures says that the elements of a film that continued to Mise-En-Scene are set design, costume, hair, make-up, color scheme, framing, composition, and lightning. I really like the coloring chosen for this movie, the dark colors in certain scene vs the bright almost sickening colors in others just show the kind of mess Arthur is surrounded by. The lightning of Joker (2019) is pretty standard for DC films. DC superhero movies have always been darker in terms of lightning and tone when compared to Marvel superhero films. The difference between the lightning in Joker in comparison to something like The Justice League is that the dark lightning in Joker serves as a symbolic representation of the story, rather than just a stylistic choice.

Moving Pictures compares actors to athletes, “They spend a lifetime training, perfecting their technique, honing their bodies to be the perfect instrument of their craft.” (Sharman 218) Moving Pictures says that the perfect performance is more than the sum of its parts, like lightning in a bottle. The acting in Joker is top-notch.  Joaquin Phoenix is such a talented actor and you can tell that the script for Joker was written with Phoenix in mind. Joaquin Phoenix’s performance is so well done that it seems almost real. The performances can be realistic in some scenes like the interview scene, and exaggerated in others, like the staircase dance scene. Joaquin Pheonix’s performance in the scene linked in question 5 is a star performance. There is so much raw emotion in that scene, to where you feel your eyes glued to the screen. Phoenix received the best performance of the year award for his work in Joker and I feel that this scene played a big part in that award.

Joker (2019) has a very dark color scheme. Many scenes in the movie are either very green, like the scene where Joker shoots the three people in the subway, or orange like the scene where Murray Franklin interviews Arthur. Scenes can change between these two color schemes in different shoots. In the scene where Joker shoots the three people in the train, the inside of the train is almost a sickening green while the outside in the subway station is a very deep orange. Just looking at the color scheme of a single scene you can see the progress the audience is feeling. The green in the scene is sickening, which is how the audience should react to how the three people treat Arthur. The orange of the outside area symbolizes the attraction of attention which represents the attention Arthur will get from the people around him for his actions in this scene.

Joker (2019) uses very few special effects, which is a surprise coming from a superhero film. There are no iron man transformations, no superman eye lasers, nothing. The small number of special effects that are used are color correction in certain scenes and gun/blood effects for very obvious reasons.  The reason I believe that Joker doesn’t use as many special effects as other superhero films like Justice League or Avengers is that it’s a different type of story to those films. Joker (2019) isn’t an action-packed story of special effects punching other special effects like those in the first Avengers film. It’s a story of a character’s descent into madness, a story like that doesn’t need any special effects besides those to ensure the safety of actors. A character study film like Joker (2019) doesn’t need special effects, the proficiency of the main start and the cinematography cover any aspect that special effects could improve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbliHNs4q14 (Links to an external site.)The scene that most prominently shows mise-en-scene is the interview scene between Murray and Arthur. This scene is my favorite one in the entire film, bar none. Every aspect of this scene is perfectly executed, The music, performance, cinematography, everything was done so well. My two favorite aspects of this scene are all in Joaquin Phoenix’s performance, the voice crack in the line “I’ll tell you what you get, you get what you f**king deserves”, and all of Arthur’s body language. There is a voice crack in Phoenix’s delivery in the first part of “I’ll tell you what you get” that was most likely not a part of the script but it adds so much emotion to this scene. What also adds emotion to this scene is the very subtle body language given by Phoenix. At around 2:55 of the link I provided, you can see Arthur’s chin shake and his voice is very shaky. You can tell Arthur is incredibly mad without a single line telling you so.

Moving Pictures is quoted as saying that Mise-En-Scene is “referring to every element in the frame that contributes to the overall look of a film.” (Sharman 64) Moving Pictures says that the elements of a film that continued to Mise-En-Scene are set design, costume, hair, make-up, color scheme, framing, composition, and lightning. A typical set design might be just a simple house that you might see in your neighborhood but something extreme could be a house of a might only be seen in certain regions like the house Bilbo Baggin’s house from The Hobbit was based on. Most movies past 1960 are shot in color, but some and very few movies are made in black and white for stylistic reasons the “The Lighthouse” in 2019. Most of the aspects of Monty Python and the Holy Grail are pretty standard in terms of Mise-En-Scene. The costumes look good, lighting is pretty standard as the movie uses natural lighting for most of the film, the only aspect of Mise-En-Scene that the film uses that’s interesting is its use of props. The coconut prop in place of an actual horse is the film’s most famous gag.

Moving Pictures compares actors to athletes, “They spend a lifetime training, perfecting their technique, honing their bodies to be the perfect instrument of their craft.” (Sharman 218) Moving Pictures says that the perfect performance is more than the sum of its parts, like lightning in a bottle. The acting in Monty Python and the Holy Grail is exaggerated and stylized, yet typical for the comedy genre. The scene where the joke is the character’s reactions to the insanity of the film are overdramatic and that makes it funny. One scene that I find the actor very funny in is when King Arthur talks to the rude Frenchman at the top of the castle. The mere absurdity of the scene compared to the other scenes in the film makes the acting very comedic. The actors start using words not commonly used in a fantasy or medieval setting, like “weight ratios” and “airspeed velocity”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4_9kDO3q0w

The Cinematography of Monty Python and the Holy Grail is somehow both typical and atypical at the same time. Monty Python is typical in the fact that the coloring and scenery of its scenes match its genre, but atypical because of the fact that it changes genres almost every ten minutes. For scenes that give an adventure vibe, we have shots of King Arthur slowly approaching for faraway on a hillside or similar scenery. But when the genre changes to something like a documentary, the shot type also changes to make the new genre. When the scene is a documentary, we see a pull-out shot of a historian, which matches the new documentary genre. When the genre shifts into the horror genre the color scheme goes into very dark and muted colors with shots of either extreme close-ups or far-away shots, to either match the feelings of claustrophobia or extreme loneliness

The very low budget of Monty Python and the Holy Grail brought a lot of smart usage of special FX. A vast amount of the special FX is used to make jokes. And the FX look is not realistic at all and that makes it a lot more fun. The stop motion god they use for scenes looks like a puppet and it adds the absurdity of the joke. Most of the effects in the movie are practical effects. The giant 9 something foot forest guardian could have just as well been done with special effects, but due to the budget, it’s multiple people standing on top of each other. The FX of the movie is mostly camera trickery, the french guard yelling at King Arthur and his knight isn’t actually standing on the top of the castle, it’s a separate shot of the french guard standing in a cutout of the castle. The scene where a castle is in the background it’s just a cut-board cutout, they even say so in the film “it’s only a model”

Nearly every function of Monty Python and the Holy Grail is there to be funny and entertaining. The performances are over-exaggerated for the sake of humor, the cinematography also serves to complement the current genre the film is in, the playoff the contrast of a genre shift. The FX are such bad quality and it’s humorous and plays off the rest of the lack of budget. The narrative of the film is constantly being convoluted to add to the confusion of the audience that the movie used to be humorous. The narrative is supported by the psychological aspects of the audio that also confuse the audience, such as the sounds of power tools in what we can assume to be the 5th or 6th century. One scene I enjoyed was Lance-a-lot running towards a castle and it would cut back and forth between the guards and Lance-a-lot. Every time the scene cuts back to lance-a-lot its the same shot of him running up a hill so when it cuts directly to Lance-a-lot stabbing the guard, it makes no sense but you can’t help but laugh

      In the Pan’s Labyrinth, a lot of dark matters emerge, for instance the creatures that we don’t see in our lives which we call monsters, the herb that can cure anything, the elf that guides Ophelia. But one the other storyline, the soldiers fighting each other, its color is brighter than the trials given by Pan to Ophelia. And the costumes and the film props are normal, people wear soldier costumes and take pistols just like in real life. This movie is a horror movie, so the horror scenes, the frightening creatures, the setting beyond the imagination is the typical of this movie. Doug Jones has played villains and monsters in many movies.

      The book suggests performances through the concept of gesturality. “Traditions of performance, then, have national as well as individual resonances and need to be borne in mind when analysing a star’s performative style.”(Cinema Studies, Hayward 183). The Pan’ Labyrinth performance is exaggerated because the movie has to display the cruelty of the civil war and the danger of Ophelia’s adventures. Which stands out is the performance of the Pan, the mystery god from the underworld. The expression and movement of Pan is so real to the audience because it is not special effect but real man in a real suit. One specific detail is that when Ophelia broke the rule and chose not to give out her brother’s blood. Pan seemed disappointed but relieved. The star performance given by Doug Jones really put it together, he displayed a gentle monster. He is a outstanding monster player. He is also the player of the water monster in Guillermo’s another movie The Shape Of Water. A real master of action acting since monsters usually don’t have dialogues.

      Pan’s Labyrinth is a horror movie. It’s typical for horror movies to set dark depressing environment. Going back to the two sets of storylines, the scenes in this film are very dark indeed, not just the normal civil war storyline or the fantastic adventure storyline. The director used dark scenes to heighten the depressing atmosphere of the whole film. It’s like a harbinger of the movie’s sad ending. I think what’s unusual about this movie is that there are no reversals, and usually movies have all kinds of reversals, like sadness to joy or vice versa. The film doesn’t give the audience that element, and the dark scenes are used all the way to the end, as if Ophelia’s fate is doomed and will not change. Cinematography of this movie sets the tone of the movie. For instance in the Pan’s Labyrinth, the dark scenes has already told the audience that this movie will be a tragic.

In A Knights Tale there are multiple segments that stick out. The beginning where you are seeing Wills current part and the loss of their current knight. Then the portion where will takes his place and wins and convinces the others to go along with him in falsifying his identity. There is then his winning sequence where you see his tournament after tournament winning. And then of course the scene where he meets the girl, wins the girl and then is exposed by the other knight, he returns home to his father. Then prince Edward saves him and knights him as well. A lot of the segments also go along with the dramatic arc. The film is building up to Will winning the girl, going back home to his father and then of course being found out who he truly is which is going to ultimately happen where he came from. So the actual drama of this movie isn’t to unexpected it follows the arc.A Knights Tale is a story, it has all of the makings to be a story and follows the drama arc. We see a poor man left with no choice but to steal and identity to be able to earn money and survive. He always had the dream of becoming a knight but did not come from royal blood so his father sent him away at a young age to assist a knight with his requests, this was the best his father could offer him. Everything leads up to Will becoming a knight and in the process of his knighthood be finds a lady who he falls in love with. There is competition though for her another knight has made arrangements with her father to wed her but her heart belongs to Will. The final tournament is in Wills home town and that is where he is exposed for being an imposter and not a true knight which is punishable by death. But Prince Edwards saves him and then knights him as well so his dream becomes a reality and he gets the girl.