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According to the textbook, “Editing is the selection and arrangement of shots and sounds” (Monoham and Barsam 282). The book list discontinuity editing alongside continuity editing. Discontinuity editing, “which emphasizes dynamic often discontinuous relationships between shots, including contrasts in movement, camera angle and shot type (Barsam 300). For example, documentary editing is used by Director Amanda Lipitz and editor Penelope frank used various documentary footage to develop the movie Step. By using themes of injustice and resilience they were able to intercut shots from more than 400 hours of footage to make the movie. A great youtube video of explaining editing in a short, animated video to keep the viewer engaged and able to retain information.

https://youtu.be/EVl__ioWAPo

In the film Supersize me one sees many clips of close ups and long shots. The film uses continuity editing. One would expect continuity editing to be typical for the film because having simple scenes helps to develop the theme of the movie. Spurlock has many close ups of him eating the McDonalds. There are many long shots of the entire restaurant in which Spurlock is at. Lastly, many close up shots of artistic portrayal of McDonalds. I could not find any information on the editing of the film. Within Editing one uses sound to concrete the theme and add emotion to the scene.

According to the textbook sound is transmitted vibrations received by the ear and thus heard by the recipient (Monoham and Barsam 453). In a documentary sound and music come from the environment in which it helps to create reality of truth. The sound and music is subjective in the film as it creates and environment of McDonald’s. The sound is also conversational as we listen into Spurlock’s test results and when he is ordering food. The music style is instrumental when viewing the artistic portrayal of McDonalds. The music is diegetic because the sound comes from within the world of Spurlock in New York City. The non-diegetic comes from the sound of the editing process. The music is in the background for information being presented to make it more interesting to listen to. There are other cities in which Spurlock visits such as Texas and the sounds come from those environments.

 

Monahan, Dave, and Richard Barsam. Looking at Movies /: An Introduction to Film. 6th ed., W.W. Norton and Company, 2018.

“What Is FILM EDITING? What Does FILM EDITING Mean? FILM EDITING Meaning, Definition & Explanation.” YouTube, 2 Mar. 2018, youtu.be/EVl__ioWAPo.

The film I have been studying is my all-time favorite movie, Meet the Parents. Meet the Parents is similar to Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, which came out in 2014. It’s also another Ben Stiller film. The budget for Night at the Museum was 127 million and made 17 Million on opening day. Which is much more then Meet the Parents budget of 55 Million and an opening of 28 Million. Meet the Parents is about a family that has many mishaps trying to prepare for the wedding of their daughter. Whereas Night at the Museum is an adventure film guiding Ben Stiller the (night guard of the museum) to make sure all animals and people are safe. Two very different films with two different budgets but our both ultimately made for all individuals to be able to see a clean, humorous, never before seen topic in cinematography before.

According to Jim Herzfeld, the movie was intended to have Jim Carey (Greg Focker) and Stephen Spielberg to direct the film a week before the film was to begin filming (Herzfeld and Hamburg). Then Ben Stiller was casted because he wanted to work with Robert De Niro signed on as Dad (Herzfeld and Hamburg). On youtube they show a clip of the film where Greg Focker says grace at the dinner table and ends up breaking the urn of Jack’s (DAD) mother. According to youtube they have a movie clip of Greg sharing grace and a comment underneath the film “Those actors should win a metal for keeping a straight face while listening to him pray.” I have to agree with the comment that this is one of the funniest scenes in the movie and every time I see the clip I break out in laughter.

The single element in Meet the Parents is the word “trust.” Greg learns about the “circle of trust” at the fitting for suits for the weddings. Greg is caught off guard and learns from there that he shouldn’t lie to Dad or it will have consequences. Like, being out of the circle of trust.Being out of the circle of trust means he won’t be able to marry his beautiful girlfriend. So instead of telling the truth Greg learns to lie better. In the end of the movie Jack puts Greg under a lie detector test at the airport where Greg confesses to all his lying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Herzefeld, Jim, and John Hamburg. “WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL? De Niro as the Future Father-in-Law from Hell.” EVSCOhost, 18 Aug. 2000, web.b.ebscohost.com.resources.ltcc.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=0a13abfc-cf62-4238-9afc-b50e28095d29%40pdc-v-sessmgr02&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=3450424&db=a9h.

movieclips. “Meet the Parents (1/10) Movie CLIP – Greg Says Grace (2000)

According to the textbook, “Mise-en-scene means literally staging or putting on an action or scene” (Monahan 154). In the textbook an example of Mise-en-scene is the county court-house in 1965 in Alabama during the civil rights movement. The scene would be constructed with objects and elements that reflect the time and era. For example they would expose warm lighting on wooden fixtures to invoke a sense of old southern tradition. According to youtube, Mise-en-scene means set design, “placing on stage.” In the movie Meet the Parents, the viewer we’ll see a lot of scenes containing the main characters as well as the house. The viewer will see bright lighting to invoke daytime. The costumes of Greg is the same outfit for most of the film as his luggage is missing and everyone else changes clothes based on the day and for their age. The backyard plays a crucial role in the movie as that is where the wedding will be held. One will see the prop of where the husband and wife will take their vowes before Greg lights in on fire. The colors of the film are bright and colorful to show there is life and the scenes are shown during the day because at night they are going to sleep and the scenes are darker to demonstrate nighttime. Critics notice the mis-en-scene is revolved around Greg and all scenes contain his character.

According to the textbook, Acting is “an actor’s performance on the screen goes beyond what we see and hear; it also includes many intangibles and subtleties” (Monahan 272). The performances in Meet the Parents is considered realistic as it is believable they are all human as they all speak in normal tone and speak English. The performance I find most remarkable is when Greg exaggerates what Dad has to say about the circle of trust. He makes a mockery with his facial expression and over annunciates how he says it using his voice. The film has star performances from the entire cast Ben Stiller, Robert DeNiro, Owen Wilson, and Blythe Danner. I associate myself with all cast members through their previous films. I find them all hilarious, great actors, and I know I will be seeing a great film with any of them in a film.

Cinematography of the film Meet the Parents is a comedy and therefore it is a well-lit bright movie to invoke happiness and laughter. There were no close-ups of the film It was all filmed in wide shots. The camera angles were wider to be able to include the entire cast in most shots. The framing was a long shot to show where they are as well as the characters. The camera position was high. The cinematography relates the genre as many comedy movies do not have close up because it entices a different emotion then what the director is going for.

 

 

 

Monahan, Dave, and Richard Barsam. Looking at Movies /: An Introduction to Film. 6th ed., W.W. Norton and Company, 2018.

“Understanding Mise-En-Scene.” YouTube, YouTube, 27 Feb. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMbWa8sqQOg.

A sequence is “a series of edited shots characterized by inherent unity of theme and purpose” (Barsam and Monohan pg. 453).  Whereas a scene is “a complete unit of plot action taking a place in a continuous time frame in a single location” (Barsam and Monohan pg. 453). There are many scenes within the movie Meet the Parents. I would personally have to say the one where Greg lies about milking cats and the second scene when Greg’s cigarette lights up the entire backyard. The chunks are made up of scenes belonging to the plot. I would break up Meet the Parents into three chunks. The different chunks represent the growth Greg goes through during the film. The chunks of the film relate to the dramatic terms of film because the terms represent the plot.

The dramatic key terms are protagonist, goal, actions, obstacles, antagonist, helpers, stakes, and resolution. The protagonist is Greg Focker. The goal is to marry his girlfriend. The actions are learning to tell the truth, attend the wedding and getting his missing suitcase. The obstacles are Dad. The antagonist is Dad. Helpers are Greg’s girlfriend, the mother of the girlfriend and the ex-boyfriend. Stakes are won’t be able to marry his girlfriend and return home single and not earn the trust of his girlfriend’s dad. The resolution is to marry his girlfriend by telling the truth about all the lies he has made during the visit. The inciting incident when he his girlfriend asked him to come home with her to attend her sister’s wedding. The rising action is losing his suitcase and constant struggles with girlfriend’s Dad. The climax of the film is when Greg spray paints a random cat to match the cat that he has lost. The cat, Jinxie, means so much to the family and is therefore forced to go home for lying about the wrong cat. The resolution is Dad showing up at the airport because Greg does not want his bag to be misplaced again and does not fit as a carry on. The denouement is Dad asks Greg a series of questions while hooked up to a lie detector test where Greg confesses to all the lies, he has made up on the trip

The last part about segmentation is the duration in which the film is presented. For example, the duration in the film occurs within minutes when in actuality they’re on vacation and the next day occurs without us noticing that time has skipped over. The audience is unable to witness multiple meals in a day as well as falling asleep. The audience knows more than the characters as we are aware of all of Greg’s lies whereas the family accepts it as truth because they don’t expect people to lie to them because they themselves are not liars.

 

Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies /: An Introduction to Film, by Dave Monahan, 6th ed., W.W. Norton and Company, 2018, pp. 116–453.

Meet the parents is a conventional comedy that does not match any other film.  Meet the Parents is extremely unique as it is unlike any other film. It is a comedy and stars a star-studded cast full of laughter. Meet the Parents is different because it is a plain jane film in the fact that there is nothing blowing up like comic movies such as Marvel or DC. Unlike its differences to comic movies, it is also similar to 50 first dates starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler. They’re both comedies and both are easy to view as they have simple scenes with incredible laughter. Even though both movies are comedies they are similar in the fact that they both rely on trust. In 50 first dates the trust is Drew Barrymore’s character trusting Adam every day to take her on a date until they eventually become married and have a child. Whereas Meet the Parents trust is about staying in the circle of trust and always telling the truth no matter the cause.

Meet the Parents style is conventional as the audience is able to see an ordinary family engaging in mishaps throughout the film. The audience is able to see everything they need to see as there is nothing surprising the audience is kept in the loop unlike the other characters in the film. The ending entirely resolves the character’s problems as Greg is hooked up to a lie detector test at the airport and Dad (Robert De Niro) as him all the questions he has been lying about. The truth sets Greg free and is able to marry his girlfriend because Dad can see the love he has for his daughter and can see he is actually a decent guy. The world of the film is clear and definite and looks very similar to the world we live in today. The film embraces that society is good, fair, and just because it focuses on trust within a family and that you can always rely on your family.

The genre of Meet the Parents is comedic. The symbol of the movie is a circle with a dot in it representing Greg inside the circle of trust. The Circle of Trust is not open and there is no way to go inside and outside the circle. Once you’re out then you’re out. The myth of the film is the Circle of Trust. As it is a foreign idea to the audience as well as the characters in the film. The Circle of Trust is an idea that represents the truth of the world and that no one can get away with lying. That lying is inappropriate as an adult and in order to get what you want you must tell the truth.

 

My personal favorite movie of the last decade was Denis Villenueve’s Blade Runner 2049. The film reaped $92.1 million domestically and $168 million abroad for a grand total of $260 million. At a glance these numbers might seem fine but the production was costly and the studio didn’t even break even with their endeavor, losing more than $80 million on the project. I truly believe that Blade Runner 2049 is a masterpiece of both visual and written storytelling but it would seem that audiences didn’t agree. Compare that to the profits Disney was able to reap off of the bloated nightmare that was The Rise of Skywalker (I know I professed my love for the Star Wars series earlier on in the class but this excludes the abomination that it the most recent trilogy). TROS made $515 million domestically and $558 million abroad capitalizing on Star Wars nostalgia to the tune of a $300 million net profit. I think this sheds light on a huge problem in Hollywood, that they will almost always go with the safe bet. A stylistic narrative like Blade Runner 2049 that explores themes of what it means to be human, to be alive, cannot compete with the bleak spectacles put out by JJ Abrams and his ilk.

The critics and audiences seem split on Blade Runner 2049. AO Scott of the NYT praised Villeneuve’s ingenuity and creativity in creating an “unnerving calm” in the movie that culminates in a storm. Mike LaSalle of the SF Chronicle called it one of the greatest films of our time. When looking at audience reviews there seems to be a consensus that it was too long and didn’t have enough action and explosions to keep their attention.

An element that I love about Blade Runner 2049 is the color of the movie. Roger Deakins the cinematographer takes a bleak futuristic world and instead of making it gray and boring injects brilliant orange and blue palettes that make the film absolutely breathtaking to view. Especially the sequence where K finds Deckard hiding out in the ruins of Las Vegas, the orange motif makes us feel we’re in some radioactive decaying Salvador Dali painting waiting to slide off the screen.