Makayla Lovelace
Professor Juenger
Film 115
26 November 2018
                                                              Band Of Outsiders
     The film Band of Outsiders released in 1964 in North America and directed by Jean Luc Godard. The film was considered part of the French New Wave, which was a technique enhanced by French film directors Jean Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Jean Renoir, and Louis Malle. These famous French filmmakers wanted to get away from the standard film techniques during that time and abide by their own rules and create a whole other visual method for the film industry that would later be known as some the most influential parts of cinema history.

The French new wave was very much so different from standard techniques in a film because of the style of editing and camera angles, they wanted to make movies to recognize them for just what they were, and that was films. Also, the editing technique used in the French wave were much more noticeable and not hidden like most movies avoid showing. But they wanted viewers not to lose sight of the simple fact that it was a film and would set constant reminders of that throughout the movie during conversations and the movement of the camera. The movie Band of Outsiders was about two young, fearless men by the names Franz and Arthur who were close friends and wanted to plan a robbery that would make them wealthy. But , first, they had to convince a girl by the name of Odile to join them to help create a plan to break into her home and steal money from her uncle’s room. Both Franz and Arthur shared an interest in Odile, but only one of them indeed had her best interest at heart.

In certain scenes of the movie it was noticeable that Godard followed through with the unique film technique, in one particular scene Franz and Arthur are having a conversation outside near their car and Franz  “shot” Arthur, and he fell as though he was dead. The clear indications of editing throughout the film sort of takes away from the story itself and makes it difficult to understand the full concept of the movie. I know that Godard didn’t want to conform to the norms of the film industry; However, in some ways, it is best to make the story clear and straight to the point by using elements of standard cinema and hiding majority of the edit to primarily focus on the film.

 

Makayla Lovelace
Professor Juenger
Film 115
19 November 2018
                                                            Memories of Matsuko
    The film Memories of Matsuko is a Japanese film that was released in May of 2006. The film stays uniquely faithful to the culture of Japan by incorporating the colors that most often used in their lifestyle such as a very bright mixture of colors but the most commonly known colors used in Japan would be red and white. In the Japanese culture white is used to represent death, but in American culture white is a color used to symbolize pureness and righteousness.The movie is morally about the life and evolution of the main character who is Matsuko Kawajiri. Matsuko was a misunderstood person and everyone’s person to place their shame upon throughout the movie.The film is not told in a general sense but through music using specific songs that would correlate to each event that would happen in her life.

Most people would think that it’s a musical film, but it isn’t Memories of Matsuko has similarities to a musical, but there are huge differences. For example,traditionally a musical would consist of the music is an essential part of the story and spoken dialogue being used aid to tell the story. But it was the total opposite, Memories of Matsuko had much more spoken dialogue and utilized music as an aid to give watchers a sense of understanding and an emotional connection toward the film. The music is mostly used as an emotive device when something tragic happens, and the music begins to slow down, and other instruments begin to fade and one instrument is elevated to convey sadness.

One of the songs that were constantly reappearing in the movie would be a Japanese riddle that was considered Matsuko’s favorite song that would give herself a sense of confidence when she felt worthless and disowned by her family and people around her. Besides, the majority of the film is told in spoken dialogue and music added to back up what was happening in her life. Music is used as a theme in the movie when something significant or exciting happens to Matsuko were she is happy in a brief moment. For instance, in the scene where she is having an affair with a married man and starts to sing “Happy Wednesday” because he makes her happy and looks forward to him visiting her every Wednesday. The music told small portions of the story by it being used to describe her most fond memories as a little kid and as a remembrance of her in death.

 

Makayla Lovelace
Professor Juenger
Film 115
11 November 2018
                                                               Batman (1989)
Batman is a very well known superhero his whole persona is confident but assertive his entire image is to save everyone from bad influences or save people from being in a harmful situation.
Over many years the role Batman has evolved since the original creation of the character in 1939 by Bob Kane. Batman became a favorite comic character during the late 1930’s it first appeared in a favorite comic book called Detective Comics. The figure wasn’t put into a film until early 1943 when the first Batman movie was released. The original color scheme of Batman was dark navy blue, grey and yellow. But time has progressed, and the colors of Batman changed to black and yellow shown in the 1989 Batman film.
Also not only did the colors change but The symbol of the bat changed as well. For instance, take a look at the collection of different bat suits and shades you will see that initially the bat symbol was tiny and didn’t have a defined shape. But the next bat suits that made after 1943 had a much precise and defined shape. However, the form of the bat symbol changed through each film or tv show ever made. Sometimes the logo would seem much more significant and broader with a crisp definition but also would appear very tall and not well defined. Every batsuit after 1943 has different textures color to each suit in the most recent versions of Batman he seems to be much muscular and taller and where his suit is only black and dark grey. The textures of the bat suit were strong body armor -and his mask is bulletproof in the 2016 film Batman v. Superman. To betray Batman as fearless and unstoppable.
During the 1989 version of Batman, the film stayed true to its current year, based on the technology and other factors such as automobiles and fashion styles that presented in the movie. The director Tim Burton is known for his dark artistic artwork that appeared in Batman. Burton artistry was represented throughout the film. The first representation of Burton’s work was the illustration of the Batman mask. In this particular Batman movie, the bat-mask has an overcast that goes over the eyes that makes it difficult to see the eyes of the character to provide more mystery and curiosity about the true identity of Batman.
I’ve always known Batman based on the constant uproar about the character, but I’ve never understood the facts or anything about him like others who enjoy the comic series, films and tv shows. I personally never watched a Batman film or tv show until now. The film was straightforward to understand not too many plots and schemes throughout the movie like many current superhero movies of today’s time. Since it was my first time watching, it was easier for me to watch the film through the elements production design. The film had extravagance due to its time it may not have seemed as it was extravagant compared to the production design of current superhero movies. Technology has evolved and other forms of design that have been made and changed the whole dynamic of film and production design.

Makayla Lovelace
Professor Juenger
Film 115
October 29, 2018
There Will Be Blood
The film There Will be blood set in the 1800 ’s,and during this time there was a battle between religion and business. Most people who were religious believed that market is a secondary factor and religion is the main priority. A man by the name of Daniel Plainview was a very different individual, he felt in doing whatever was necessary for him to succeed; no matter the price. He was considered one of the most respected men of his time and a stern person who was concerned about his business ventures and also very precise about who he would include with his business interactions. Daniel Plainview was an oilman, he would invest his money into a land that held streams or dwells of oil that he and son discovered. Mostly everyone’s perspective about Daniel was that he was a satanist or a dark soul because he didn’t believe in religion he only thinks that business and money is the only way to live or the only rules to follow. Throughout the film, he goes through many changes that affected the person he was for the better and the worst. The film had such elements of performance that it immensely made the film very interesting and real to the storyline.
The character of Daniel Plainview was considered one the most well-developed characters of cinema history. Daniel Plainview was a compelling character because of the real emotion and ethic conveyed by the actor, the voice of the character was solely created by Day-Lewis. He wanted to take in the characteristics of the character which was to be charming, authoritative and charismatic and merge everything together to create a unique sound for the role.Daniel Day-Lewis is considered one of the most credible actors in Hollywood, not only is he an incredible actor his strategy is much more intense than many others. Day-Lewis would not only play the character he would actually take on the role as his own life.
One of his main strategies were to be a method actor ,many actors have also chosen this strategy to also deliver exceptional performance that would receive award-winning recognition. Daniel would prepare for several months to a year on pr for his roles he would do this by physical, mentally changing his “normal” environment into the environment and life of the character. He would entirely detach himself from the world and transform into a different person. According to Daniel Day-Lewis. He is always intrigued by the lives that are very different from his own life. He believed that it’s much more interesting to live in the life of others. He wants to be able to personally related to the character in which he is portraying or gain learning experience that could potentially turn into life skills.
The difference between Daniel Plainview and Daniel Day-Lewis is their behavior. Plainview could be considered more of a wild card because of his intensity and aggression towards other people, and also he is a serious guy who wants people to be accepted by everyone because of his beliefs no one really takes Plainview seriously. Day-Lewis is the total opposite, he is a very confident and reserved person who takes his craft seriously. He wants always to have personal connections with his characters and aims to perfect each of his roles by leaving his mark on the big screens. Lastly to continued being known as one of the greatest actors of all time.
In conclusion, the movie was fascinating to watch and learn about the difference between being the performer and performing. Honestly, I’ve never heard of Daniel Day-Lewis before watching this film or learning about performance. But, he is a good actor and allows me to express more appreciation for the film beyond the film itself but to the actor and respect how hard they work to bring life to a character and try to execute each scene flawlessly. Also, it’s very fascinating to see how well actors can stay into characters. Some scene aren’t acting some scenes are just the actor trying to improve their performance in any way such as having a heated dispute with another character or having a very intense high energy packed action scene that could totally make or break a performer’s performance.

Makayla Lovelace

Professor Juenger

Film 115

12 October 2018

                                                            Children Of Men

The movie Children of Men is a futuristic film and set in the year twenty-twenty seven.

In the year twenty-twenty seven, infertility was a big problem and it was rare for people to conceive children. Since infertility became a serious issue, people started to admire other’s children and idolize them, because they were considered the youngest people on earth. Furthermore, the world had become a corrupt and dangerous warzone that threaten the lives of mankind and killed the youngest person on earth. When the youngest person in the world died, it gave everyone a feeling of hopelessness. There was only one way to save mankind, and that was for someone to conceive a child. If a person gave birth to a child, the child would reign as the youngest person in the world; who eases the minds of others and put the world at peace.

The man by the name Theo Faron who was considered a well-respected person who had become accustomed to having a “rich” lifestyle and not being totally aware of the issues going on in the world at that time. Until he is put in a position of survival mode and faces many challenges trying to understand the issues and figures out how to save the world from danger by saving the life of a mother and a newborn child. In the film, there was a lot of cool techniques occurred in the film that is not very common in the movie business. Most movies take several shots through a film to execute everything perfectly, but in this film, everything was shot in one take  I believe it was very unique and different for the directors to do everything in one shot because it seems almost impossible or unrealistic for it happens. It was very interesting to see how the directors shot each of the action scenes and the processes they used, According to the director Alfonso Cuaron the reason why they wanted to shoot the film in long takes is that they wanted to take advantage of real-time and enhance the movie to make it seem more realistic. The long takes change the pace of the film ,because the watcher would grasp a better understanding of the movie . In addition ,they would develop an emotion towards the film  as it unfolds. If the film had a lot more cuts, it would make the pace of the film go by faster because everything would be glimpses of exactly what to expect. However, it is better to receive the full understanding of the film in longer shots, because with more cuts watchers would have to piece everything together mentally instead of visually. Even though longer shots seems to drag at times, it gives watchers a full explanation of what is going on in the film. Throughout the film, there is a lot of interaction between the environment and the camera to give watchers specific locations and also to give watcher a better visual idea of what the world may look like when the world ends or represent this moment in time as a period of survival. For example, towards the end of the film, Theo and Kee are trying to find safety while there is a massacre happening ending with many people being killed and many buildings being destroyed. In this particular scene, they were focusing more on the relationship between the camera and the environment by showing much more scenes of the abandoned and destroyed buildings that occurred during the commotion to symbolize darkness, chaos, and corruption that affected everyone immensely. In my opinion, this movie is one of the most interesting films I’ve seen in a very long time. The film stayed true to its purpose which was for the film to be portrayed to be as real as possible and visualized possible issues that could occur in the world. Furthermore, The movie had a great ending even though it was sad, because Theo died in the boat with Kee and her child heading to safety. But his death was much more meaningful ,he fulfilled his purpose  successfully by saving the life or a young mother and daughter .By Theo saving their lives it created a domino effect that potentially saves the lives of mankind and gave people a sense of security to feel as though there is hope for the future.

 

Makayla Lovelace

Professor Juenger

Film 115

October 1, 2018

                                                                      Memento

                                                                 

In the film Memento, it is about a guy by the name of Leonard Shelby who has a condition that keeps him from creating new memories called Anter and faces challenges every day. He lives life by his own rules, Leonardo has to take photos and notes of everything he sees or hears that he finds important or he will forget it ever happened. The very last memory he has is of his wife being raped and murdered. Even with his condition, he seeks revenge to find the person who killed his wife and took his “normal life”away forever. The film was considered one of the best movies ever made or it’s time and received several film awards such as best screenplay. The movie wasn’t a typical movie that has a build-up leading up to something big or a major event. But it was the exact opposite the movie wasn’t shot in chronological order everything that was considered to be important happened in the very beginning and the ending was showing his plans or journey leading to him finding the person who murdered his wife. If the film were placed in chronological order it would have been easier to comprehend because originally the first scene is the killed someone and my mind automatically wonder why he killed the guy and what led up to him committing the act. I would prefer knowing what led up to the murder first then to see the murder first and backtrack to what happened prior. The color and black and white sequences used in the film were used differently as previously said the movie isn’t in chronological order so everything was reversed. The black and white sequences representing the film going further along in the story and, the color sequences were used to represent the film going back like a flashback moment. In the film, the two sequences combined together to develop a structure for the story that watchers could feel as though they have insight into what happens in Leonard’s head. The pace of the film fast compared to other films such as Raging Bull because it would switch to different parts of the movie, to sum up, Leonard’s plans and understanding of what was happening. In addition, the film Raging Bull was much slower it seemed as though the pace of the film was prolonged and exaggerated so that watchers could have an understanding of Jake’s point of view and Joey’s point of view.  Mememto used several different editing techniques throughout the film. My personal favorite editing techniques were the montage and crosscut. In the very beginning of the movie Leonardo is waving a picture trying to make the image appear clearer, but before it reaches its full clarity the scene goes in a loop and starts over. In addition, that particular montage scene was used to intrigue the audience to be even more engaged with the film. My cross cut scene in the film was Leonardo creating his own tattoos in one instance and on the next it cuts to another scene where he is outside saying that he his chasing a guy, then he eventually realizes that he is one who is being chased. I thought it was a pretty cool scene because it seems to flow well together and it could be considered as a visual trick to deceive the audience. In conclusion, Memento was a good film and it was my first time ever seeing the film. Also, it was difficult to understand overall because the film was out of order and it was confusing because it would continue to jump one scene to another and somehow they were in correlation. But after getting a better understanding of why the film wasn’t shot in chronological order it made sense they wanted to enhance the movie more from in Leonardo’s perspective because he had a short-term memory condition they wanted to give a visual of exactly how he operates so watchers could have a better understanding of Leonardo.

 

Makayla Lovelace

Professor Juenger

9/17/18

Film 115

                                                                 Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park was a groundbreaking movie that changed the film industry in many ways. Before this movie was released people would use mostly visual effects in films that would consist of matte painting ,backdrops ,and stop-motion that continued to develop over 60 years in 1993 Jurassic Park was released.  The film was far more different from other movies of that time, because of the new found film technique. Computer generated images were used throughout the film to give a realistic image of the dinosaurs to enhance the texture of their skin to their movements. As I watched the film I looked at it from a different perspective paying close attention to the effects that were used in the movie. The film had a great balance when it came to using practical, visual and special effects.

One good source of practical effects in the film would be the dinosaurs themselves, the dinosaurs were computerized robots that were used to project lifelike movements of actual dinosaurs. In addition, I recently watched the behind scenes of Jurassic Park and it was very interesting to see how the Stan Winston crew rehearsed with the dinosaurs and everything about the movements of the dinosaurs seem very natural nothing didn’t seem robotic at all. American film director Stan Winston was the mastermind behind creating the animatronics for the film. Also, the film became known as some of his best work with special makeup effects. The movie pushed the limits of using visual effects and computer images and other cool effects in the film that made the movie seem like it was created before its time and become a glimpse of the next generation of technology would be cinematography. One of the best examples of visual effect in Jurassic Park would be when Ellie, Alan, and John first arrived at Jurassic Park amazed by the sight of the brachiosaurus and birds near the lake of water.

The scene seemed like it was a surreal moment for the characters because they were paleontologists so, it was like a dream come true to see dinosaurs alive.

Filmmakers did a remarkable job of blending the elements of the film together nothing was overused or misused everything was perfect. Furthermore they hid the early stages of C.G.I  with other effects such as visual effects and practical effects so there would be an emphasis on the realism in the film for not only dinosaurs but for the characters and scenery to capture the attention and emotion of watchers so they could have sense of connection with the film, Jurassic Park stills holds up the standards of today’s special effects because as said earlier the movie was released before its time so the film itself  was a “ blueprint” for movies of today’s film era. Most movies today are totally reliant on C.G.I to there point where it’s sometimes overused. Technology has improved over the last 25 years which makes C.G.I a more versatile technique to use in today’s films then it was in 1993, because of the resources and the film standards that was set for that specific period of time.

Special effect designer Michael Lantieri designed the special dinosaurs effects. According to Lantieri the hardest scene to shoot in the movie was the cup of water that was rippling on the dashboard of the cars when the T-rex was moving towards the vehicles. Lantieri mastered the water rippling by connecting the cup to a string that ran through the floorboard of the car and tuned the strings and began to pluck the strings to create perfect thuds of water to give the dinosaur support by emulating the size and impact a dinosaur would have in a modern world. The movie won three academy  awards one of which was the award for best visual effects in a film that well deserved it’s very interesting to learn about everything that goes into creating a film and all of the cool aspects that come along to make the movie appealing to watchers and  be as real as possible to give watchers sense of connection to film so they can visualize themselves in place of the characters to give a reaction to the film.

In conclusion, Jurassic Park was a good movie full of action and adventure. Before I was aware of the different techniques in film, I thought that Jurassic Park was great a movie with a lot of cool tricks in the movie. I always wondered how they used dinosaurs throughout the film it was a great learning experience. I recommend people watch the film to grasp a better understanding of the movie and learn how the effects were used to create Jurassic Park.

 

The documentary Blackfish was a very interesting film, the film was about the proclaimed “family-oriented” theme park Sea World and all the important aspects of the business. Also, some of the facts in the film were disturbing. One of the saddest scenes in the film was the orca hunters capturing the whales, they intended on taking the baby whales away from their families to be shipped to one of the Sea World locations just to be made apart of an amusement act to entertain the public and to make a profit. I don’t believe under any circumstances that someone or something should be taken away from their home or natural habitat by force, that in my opinion is inhumane. Sometimes as human beings we forget that we are not the only living organism on earth who have emotions, personalities, and most important things we care about such as family. Animals also have similar things we as humans have but it is expressed differently through their own communication

. One of the orca research specialist said that since each whale is from different areas of the world ,they have established their own communication within their own habitat In addition, when the whales are captured they are sent into captivity with other whales who are not from the same area and it potentially dangerous because it creates chaos between each other that result to violence that could be deadly. Us as a human take things for granted, we all have had a point in life where we do things unconsciously because we believe that it doesn’t affect the people that we care about or the people around us then we see no harm in doing unconscious things. The prime example would be the orca hunters, they thought that it was okay because it was to take the baby whales away from their families because it was their job, so they could provide a living for themselves and their family. But they never thought about the harm they were causing the whales until it was too late to bring them back.

On a lighter tip .one thing, I enjoyed about the film was that the filmmakers did a great job at exposing a lot of truths about Sea World and how they would try to cover up many of the scandals that happened between the trainers and the whales. A company that claimed to be family-oriented business should’ve had much more respect for their whale instructors and should’ve been honest with their employees about all the incidents that happened, so then they could use extra precautions with training the whales if they were truly concerned about their employees. Ultimately, the trainers were risking their lives, training probably one of the most dangerous animals in the world the killer whales and by the company not constantly given each trainer updates about how to interact with them is unacceptable and irresponsible because they were setting up their trainers for failure that could have killed them. Furthermore, Sea World is horrible company every time they were asked to speak publicly about the scandals they would cover up each story by saying senseless such as the trainers didn’t use proper procedures to interact with the orcas or summarize the story to stage it as an accident, when that was totally false not only did they lie to their employees, they lied to their customers as well. No company should be so concerned about their reputation to the point that they have sabotaged their employees and customers that is just completely selfish and dishonorable, then, in the end, they will be the very people who demolish their own company’s reputation.

Overall ,the entire film was great and enlighten me because I never really thought about how animals get to the zoo or aquarium until I watched this film that gave insight on what really happens for them to get there, instead of feeding people lies or taking advantage of people who are not as educated on the topic of animals as experts in the field. The entire film displayed several instances of implicit and explicit bias and objectivity. The filmmakers did a great job with making a well-balanced combination of implicit and explicit bias and being objective, nothing was overused. The film conveys these things by using stock footage such as clips of news reports and statistics. Also, the documentary itself is an example of implicit and explicit bias and objectivity because they are interviewing the former trainers and former orcas hunters about their experiences and morally their viewpoints on the different scandals that occurred at Sea World.