Thursday, April 29, 2010

Set and Shot composition




This is a shot from the movie Pulp Fiction; this is an excellent composition of the shot as it has a lighting that catches the audience at the back of the main characters which are dancing. This lightning is very strong at the floor and at the bar. Also all the other people in the shot are staring at the dancers and this makes the audience focus on them. The woman that is dancing has a very strong lightning from her top which highlights her white shirt. By the other hand, the male dancer has a strong lightning on his hands which also catch the audience.
I think the director has chosen very good props on this shot, and a very shinny lightning, this dancer seems to look as the best dancers on the night club because of the lightning and the props. Nevertheless,the dancer look very important because of the low angle and their balck and white clothes.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

The Blind Spot

Director and Scene:
Name of director. Iñaki Diaz Ugalde

Name of film: The Blind Spot

Name of your character: Co-Worker

Brief description of scene/lines of dialogue: Ricardo is confessing that he has killed his sister.

What was the point, dramatic function or purpose of this scene? The madness of Ricardo that he thinks he has killed his sister and he didn’t.

Your character:
Can you give some characteristics of your character; their ‘backstory’: Policeman on duty that becomes angry when he discovers that the murder was fake.

How clear were the instructions given about your character? Very clear, an angry policeman.

Did you feel involved in your character? Explain why/why not? Yes, because the line I was given was easy to act.

Did you understand the narrative content of your scene: where it ‘fits’ into the whole Short Film? Yes.

Did you understand the relationship between your character and the other characters in the scene? Yes.

‘Is the director good to work with?: why, why not? (Be kind! It’s not easy!) Yes, because before acting he told us a little bit about the story, so that the actors and me could understand the short film, and he also told us what feeling did we have to demonstrate, in my case, anger.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Documentary Tittle


Today I have chosen a catchy, engaging, prominently displayed title for my independent study documentary which is: They Are Watching You!
This name is given to my documentary because it means that the horror movies are watching you. Besides of choosing a tittle we also choose an eye catching or intriguing image and a font choice and style that reflect the tone and style of your production. We did all this for the DVD main menu.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Forlorn

In a remote location, a farm. A lonely worker becomes crazy because his wife abandons him, as time passes he starts wondering between the real world and his imagination.

Themes: Loneliness: as the worker lives alone from the time that the mail delivery man stops going to his home.
Madness: as he starts wondering between his imagination and the real world.
Fear: of accepting the reality.



Cast: Worker



Forlorn, script

Script:

Week 1
Fade In:

EXT. FARM. DAY (early autumn season)

Entrance of the farm. Panning shot. A series of different shots of the worker tools and work place (a map of argentina). No people, no sound, natural sound.

INT. FARM HOUSE (In Bed). DAY.

The WORKER wakes up; he is in his bed all spread. He reaches with his hand the side where his wife should be sleeping. She isn’t there, instead there’s two letters. The worker sits on the side of the bed and reads the one from his wife. No face expressions are shown in the scene. Disappointed, he grabs a portrait of him with his wife; he takes a look, and puts it facing down on the table.

The letter says:

“No aguanto más. Chau”
(I dont take this anymore, bye)

The second letter looks more serious. It’s a letter from the state of Buenos Aires, it says that the Retenciones are going to rise to 65%, and if he avoids paying taxes he will be evicted in the 2 months. His face expression is of anger.
He Takes ring out of his finger; he looks it for a moment and puts it on the table.

EXT. FARM HOUSE. DAY.

The WORKER is cutting the grass. Driving a tractor.

INT. FARM HOUSE, DINING ROOM. NIGHT.

The worker is having dinner alone. There is two sets of silver wear. He looks to the open window.







Week 2

Ext. Porch. Morning

Worker Gets out, sits down on a bench on the porch. He ties his boots.

EXT.

(O/S)
Tractor sound.

Worker cutting grass.

Worker hammering woods, very strong until he hammers his finger.

Worker:
“Aaaaa!” (breathes heavily)


INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT.

Worker sleeping wakes up when he hears strange noises. Goes to the bathroom washes his face, watches at the mirror and stops hearing this noises.

Week 3


EXT. FARM. DAY.
Worker cutting plants with a machete, cleans up the sweat on his face, looks at the horizon.

EXT. FARM. NOON.
The clock points 5:22. Water boiling inside the kettle, worker grabs the kettle and goes outside. Sits down and starts drinking Mate, his site is of absolutely nothing. (signs of time passed can be noticed, His beard has grown a little, and his face looks exhausted). Worker goes to the entrance of the farm and closes the fence.

Week 4


EXT. FARM. DAY
Worker playing solitary game alone.
Noon, worker throws wood at a pile of branches and lights a fire (its cold, and the worker is shaking). He starts hearing his dog barking.

Worker:
“Que Pasa?” (calming his dog down)

He has a look at the open farm and sees a light far away, he goes and gets his shotgun. When he is close enough the light turns off and he shouts with anger:

Worker:
¿Quien anda ahi?; Repeats it again. Nobody replies.
WHO IS THERE? REPEATS IT AGAIN.


Worker looks worried & runs back home.

Week 5


EXT. FARM. DAY.
Worker digging with shovel, exhausted, hard breathing. The worker looks at the horizon & has an ilusination of a man who passes by the road.

Worker:
“Eeey, Eeeeey”

(There’s nobody down that road)

INT. FARM HOUSE. NIGHT.
He listens sounds outside, He opens the main door that has a particular lock. Nobody’s there.


EXT. FARM. DAY.

Everything in the farm is very abandoned, very dirty, disorder (the grass is quite long, tools are thrown outside the barn)

INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT.
Worker can’t sleep because of noises; he is feeling a lot of cold. Door opens alone.

Week 6


EXT. FARM. DAY.
Chain saw sound, fade. Worker cutting wood. Starts crying. (he is miserable without his wife). Throwing things, looking for his ring.

Worker enjoying a silent fire, a couple of beer bottles are thrown around him. He starts hearing sounds again. Picks up wood with fire and starts striking things with the fire stick. Faints (he’s clearly been drinking).

Week 6 day 2

EXT. FARM. DAY.
Fire turned off. Smoke. Worker wakes up with bright sun.

A rope that used to be in the barn is now missing. Worker tying the rope to a tree branch.



Fade Out:

-Credits-

The End

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Important Essay to read

http://www.jademyst.com/essays/10.html

Shared Nightmares: Horror films and society as mirrors
by Ronald Hogan

Works cited:

American Psycho. Perf. Christian Bale. Muse, 2000
Bellamy, Patrick. "Henry Lee Lucas: Deadly Drifter." Crime Library Court TV. 12 Dec 2003. http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial2/lucas/

Briggs, Joe Bob. Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking movies that changed history! New York: Universe. 2003

Briggs, Joe Bob. (joebob@compuserve.com). "RE: College Student Needs Your Help." Email to Ronald D. Hogan Jr. (solswolf@hotmail.com). 14 October 2003.

Carrie. Perf. Sissy Spacek. Redbank, 1976.

Dika, Vera. Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the Films of the Stalker Cycle. Cranbury NJ: Associated UP. 1990.

Dirks, Tim. "Film History Before 1920." Filmsite.org. 02 Sept 2003. http://www.filmsite.org/pre20sintro.html

"DVD & Video." Film Glossary Barnes & Noble. 12 Dec 2003. http://video.barnesandnoble.com/search/glossary.asp?LTR=M&TRM=1006136

Ebert, Roger. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre / Zero Stars." Chicago Sun-Times. 12 Dec 2003. http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert1/wpk-news-texas17f.html

Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn. Dir. Sam Raimi. Perf. Bruce Campbell. Renaissance, 1987.

Freeland, Cynthia. The Naked and the Undead. Boulder: Westview. 2000.

Gray, Brad. Box Office Mojo. 12 Dec. 2003. http://www.boxofficemojo.com

Grineau, Joel. "Origin of the Comics Code Authority." The Sideroad E-zine .12 (1998). Retrieved 12 Dec. 2003. http://www.sideroad.com/comics/column12.html

"James-Lange Theory of Emotion." Changing Minds.org. 12 Dec. 2003. http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/james_lange_emotion.htm

King, Stephen. Danse Macabre. New York: Everest House. 1981.

"Memorable Quotes from Scream (1996)." The Internet Movie Database. 12 Dec 2003. http://imdb.com/title/tt0117571/quotes

"Mother's Day". Futurama. 20th Century Fox. 14 May 2000.

Psycho. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Perf. Anthony Perkins. Shamley, 1960.

Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Dewey Defeats Truman – The Election." About.com. 12 Dec. 2003. http://history1900s.about.com/library/weekly/aa030300a.htm

Sheslow, David. November 2000. "Being Afraid." Kids' Health. 12 Dec. 2003. http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/emotion/afraid.html

Shining, The. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Warner Brothers, 1980.

Skal, David. Screams of Reason. New York: Norton. 1998.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The. Dir. Tobe Hooper. Perf. Jim Seidow. Vortex, 1974.

Waller, George A., Ed. American Horrors. Chicago: University of Illinois P. 1987.

Research skills

Books to read:
The Dark Sacrament: True Stories of Modern-Day Demon Possession and Exorcism by David Kiely and Christina Mckenna

Interview With an Exorcist: An Insider's Look at the Devil, Demonic Possession, and the Path to Deliverance by Jose

The Possessed: True Tales of Demonic Possession by Brian McConnell

The Division of Labor in Society by Emile Durkheim

Sites to visit:
www.imdb.com
http://www.bfi.org.uk/
http://www.filmeducation.org/
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film
http://www.cinenacional.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/
http://www.reverseshot.com/
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/
http://www.filmsite.org/
http://www.ukfilmcouncil.com/

Essays to read:
Possession and exorcism: an essay review Journal of Parapsychology, The, March, 1995 by Ian Stevenson

Student Essay on Comparing and Contrasting "The Ring" and "Ringu" By Barry Keith Grant

Anamorphic allegory in The Ring, or, seven ways of looking at a horror video - http://irishgothichorrorjournal.homestead.com/ring.html by Brian Jarvis.

DVD with director’s commentaries:
I am also going to watch besides the two movies I have chosen, “The Ring” (2002) a film from the USA directed by Gore Verbinski as it is the remake from “The Ringu”. And as a foreign film, “Chakushin ari” (2003) from Japan directed by Takashi Miike.

Other: (youtube interviews, makings of…)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGdbbVcKJlc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49xSaGM9stQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThPPK8A1qP8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh4euqjac9A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MdwxYQZpm4 (An Evening With Dr Mark Kermode)

Thursday, April 8, 2010

EDITORS

Editors:
This entry should be more about the role of the editor in the film process. You could choose your favourite editor and use them to illustrate the role of the editor. You should aim to answer the following questions:

- Who do editors work with?
It depends of the flexibility of the editor, in some cases, they have a separate auditory so they may work with the whole team, while in other cases, they may give the editor the raw material and "manage you way to edit it".


- Can you see, define, or even tell an editor's style
No, it's almost impossible at our position, maybe if you are another film editor, you can recognize anotherone's work. As Agnès Guillemot, editor of her last film "Un steack trop cuit" (1960) stated "It is possible to recognize the “footprint” of an editor as it is that of an orchestra conductor of a musical work. But the editor must embrace the personal rhythm of each director and not impose her own."


- How do editors define their work on production, or their own work?
They define their work as putting together the "stuff" gaved to them, or in other words to join the puzzle. Although this work is not on production but better said post-production work.

- How much creativity, or flexibility, are editors allowed - do they make any decisions or are the final cuts in the hands of the producers and directors?

I think it's kind of question one. "I would say there have been two main influences: 1) The good director who provides enough material to allow total flexibility—for his ideas, and for his tenacity. 2) The poor director, who provides indifferent material and often not enough of it. Here the editor’s left with only one way to go—to pull something out of the bag." Ernest Walter.

- How has the process of editing, technically or creativiely, changed over time?
The editing job has been changed through time in a possitive way, although its complex with the time, it has more support from technology advances. Renée Claude Lichtig, a XX century, french editor stated for the Editors Guild Magazine "The greatest transformation in the editing of the films of the Sixties was brought about by Jean-Luc Godard. He found a new continuity in the manner of telling a story in time by utilizing ellipses in the editing of the images. These changes took place after the first films of Godard. He influenced the filmmakers of the whole world."


- What will you do in the pre-production and production stages to fulfil your role as an editor?
Work together with the cinematographer and the director, in this case Matias Bianchi and Francisco Guerini, because in response to what we agree my decisions will vary, this is why I need to be involved in the discussions. I will always talk to my group before editing what I want, to see if they agree.