The Popular Subconscious: A Question of Morality and the Capabilities of the Human Mind

In my film research script, I want to study something having to do with the treatment of the subconscious in popular films that are meant to appeal to a wider audience.

So far, the films I am looking at are

Paprika by Satoshi Kon (Japan 2008) or Perfect Blue (1998) by Kon

High and Low (1963) or The Bad Sleep Well (1960) Japan, both Akira Kurosawa

Inception by Cristopher Nolan (US 2010)

Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock (US 1958)

I find that these movies are "mind-trippy" in a way that the average viewer can generally grasp without being a TOK student. I like this because it shows an important part of the Hollywood films/non-Hollywood counterparts, as in what makes blockbusters work; the knowledge curve combined with something that draws people in with the want to know what they do not know, to be tricked and then figure out the trick in a way that they can debate with others over. Also, the questions and ambiguities of morality are very important in the films listed; this makes audiences question their own morals, what is in their own subconscious, helping to interest the audience by making them question their own definitions of morality. That is what makes such movies so critically acclaimed while being so very popular among the general population; the appeal of a "grander-than-normal-life" world that relates and shows the issues we face in our everyday world, forging a personal connection between the viewers and the film as a whole, especially its characters.

As such, I developed the following research question:

Compare and Contrast the ways in which the subconcious in relation to morality and perception of the truth is explored in an audience-aware manner across these films from two different time periods and two different countries.

Now I understand that is a very rough question so far, but that is what I am most interested in through these movies so far.

Here are some of my comparison diagrams, but it is hard to combine the four films together in one diagram without it being a venn diagram of some sort.

Vertigo

Inception

-use of double identity signature of Hitchcock -use of special effects that were relatively advanced at the time to of the film to show the psychosis of the characters -plays with the viewer’s mind on which character is in the right and who is in the wrong -the main character has a psychological issue, as in a fear of heights, that leads to more psychological issues, as in the longing for the female character -slowly reveals what is true in the film, not telling the viewer relatively clearly until the end

-uses perception of what is reality and what is a dream; something that the audience can relate to -also the audience can relate to wanting a dream to become reality; the world-building necessary speaks to the audience to interest them, as if they are acting out their own dreams, and even more than they can imagine -connects such a fantasy world to the real world, real hopes and dreams, like with Cobb wanting to return to his children -yet appeals to how people want to escape into a world that they can control, just like Cobb and Mal did for a long time in their own world, but then leaves the question "If it was you, would you leave it?" This attracts viewer emotionally -heavy use of action sequences that "blow the mind" to interest the viewer in that regard, for this is a very long movie, to make the movie goers think, but still have the familiarity of an action film -the ending serves to make us question whether or not its good that Robert Fischer had that catharsis with his father through inception, for it was good that he was able to reconcile with his father, but that reconciliation was false, untrue, done for an impure reason. Does that make such a feeling of good-will bad for Fischer? In general? That is left up to the viewer, and that is part of why this movie is so popular, at least I would think.

Paprika

High and Low

-examines rampant dreams coming into reality -seems like newer movies focus more on the dreams rather than morality, at least in Paprika, but Inception has a more undercurrent issue of morality; its not the main issue of the film, but effects the main issue in certain ways, especially in respect to DiCaprio's wife, but not so much the corperate son

-morality issue with the question: do you still “do the right thing” even if it will hurt your loved ones financially? -powerful presence of the main character, a person who seems to have a very sound mind with few "follies"; sets him up for a downfall -movies in 1950s, 1960s could not have too many special effects, so it seems like an emphasis on something that can be portrayed in a familiar situation of sorts; a dream land would be harder to orchestrate, though possible at the time, though not necesarily wanted One of the greatest cops-and-crooks films ever made, High and Low is a combination of immensely powerful psychodrama and exquisitely detailed police procedural -James Roche, Netflix

My three areas of interest are the persona of the main character, the world of the characters and special effects.

Persona of the Main Character

Vertigo	Inception	High and Low	Paprika
-the main character is James Stewart, an actor who gives of a strong, respectable vibe that appeals to the audience; he is the everyday American man who evokes a sense of familiarity and respect -still, despite his appearance, he has a major flaw; his acrophobia	-the main character is very mysterious, letting the viewer know very little at the beginning -the viewer is drawn into his character by his love of his children, his seeming grounding in reality	-Mifune has a strong, authoritative appearance -he seems very grounded in reality, not so much about h	-seems to be very confident -a female lead, with high power in her world and outside of it

The World of the Characters

Vertigo	Inception
-normal world, San Fransisco -goes between the city scape and the country side	-dreams can be contoled and infiltrated by other people

High and Low	Paprika
-the world is normal -Japan in the early 1960s, but the corporate world that few people know of; it has a certain glamor in the way that most people	-dreams and the real world collide in this movie

Special Effects

Vertigo	Inception	High and Low	Paprika
-very limited to show the pathos of James Stewart’s character -also, technology of the time was limited, but could show how the character was losing his mind at an important shift in the film, with the swirls and	-this movie is heavily reliant upon special effects to portray the worlds of the characters and the conflicts displayed -much of the action and movement of the story relies on the special effects in the “dream” world and how the characters can manipulate that world	-this movie uses no special effects that I can see -this is important because it shows how the crew wanted the story to portray morality in a more “human” and comprehensible-using-societal-convention ways.	-high use of technology because it is animated; used with a very colorful design with extrodianary images abound of the dream world -some camera angles shown would be very difficult to achieve with normal filming techniques

These are basic; I have seen the most of Vertigo, and I have seen parts of High and Low and The Bad Sleep Well. I plan to will see if I can get copies of Perfect Blue and Paprika.

Final Film-An Exploration of Horror

As far as group members go, it is our normal group with Crystal Ding, Crystal Dwyer and myself.

Logline: A girl is haunted by her watery past.

A girl is eating dinner in her parents house. We circle around, looking at the empty chair at the table, Worms' eyes view up the chair; look at the family. Complete silence. Her mother suddenly brings up, "So, its been 10 years since, your brother ..." "Yeah mom, I know! Tsk, And we still don't know who killed him..." the girl responds as she looks down to the side. Her parents look at each other.

Sound bridge, water drips as screen goes black. Close up shot of the girl sleeping, then flinching and suddenly waking up to turn off the dripping faucet. She gets up to turn it off, floor creaks. We see her footsteps in close up. She looks in the mirror fearfully.We see the faucet in close-up as she bends over to turn it off. She looks up, back in the mirror and sees her brother behind her, his hair dripping and him pale, and screams. She looks back and he's not there. The mirror is fogged over, in writing there is "Tell Them" or "Tell the Truth." Footsteps sound, mother opens the door and asks, "Did you have another nightmare?". The girl looks back at the mirror, now clear of fog, and says "Yes" as the screen goes black.

Long shot of a pool with the family enjoying itself, and the father saying "Its okay to let your self have a little fun again." She eases herself into the pool and wades out into the middle of the water. She suddenly starts to be pulled down by her brother, triggering her flashbacks to the day he drowned. She remembers playfully pushing him in, but then he begins to flail in the water and she just watches him. Intercut between the brother flailing and the girl being pulled down into the water by her brother. In the flashback, the girl only watches her brother drown. Flash to the present, we see her drowning, but with out her brother pulling her down. Flash to black and show her brother drowning her again. Finally have an extreme close up of her face as she yells, "I killed him!" Flash again, camera looking down at her brother decending into the water in the past and then to the present looking up from the water towards the light with her father bringing her up.

The end.

The genre influences are mainly in the horror genre. The horror genre often depicts characters who are terrorized by some being that that is intending to harm them. The victims are often innocent of any major crimes, but there is also when the victims are the victims of revenge for a maldeed that they did in the past. The later is more like the main character in our story. The girl did not mean to kill her brother, but she is still haunted by his memory, literally.

As far as setting goes, the unsuspecting, quaint setting is important to the genre, for it leaves the viewer with the idea "Something is going to go wrong." The home is a pretty quaint place, but it will have eerie qualities, such as the pictures of the brother and the empty place setting (not like a plate set everynight; the parents don't really need to be as neurotic as the sister). It is also is important to mention the potential creepiness of the water in the setting, for it can always drip and it can represent death, but also life, like with the light reflecting on the water. The conflict is influenced in the way that the characters are plagued by a supernatural being who is haunting them and making them weak, using their natural weaknesses to the advantage of the evil being.

The themes of the lasting guilt of sin, even if unintentional, as well as the potential for redemption when telling the truth.

The machinist and Saw, as well as some of those black box short films will influence our visual style and perhaps the structure of the narrative. In Saw it is interesting how they use a green tint throughout much of the 4th movie, and a blue tint in the ending of the 1st movie. The use of these tints is very creepy, and think that this could work with how there is a major water motif in our movie.



The blue tint makes the frame look very sparse and helps create a sense of fear and apprehension in the viewer.



Very creepy looking scene; could be good for showing a moment of realization, but I prefer a blue tint for our movie.



A character that has been tortured by her past like the character in the machinist is very important, for our character has now forgotten that she killed her brother in the past, but she is still tortured by that past, whether she knows her transgression or not.

Keyboard Tapping- A Short Film Treatement

1. A guy who hates the sound of computer keys clicking falls in love with a girl in the computer class he dreads.

2. A guy walks into his new class full of computers, holding his schedule. Immediately he hears all of the keys on the computer clicking and freaks out. The teacher points him out to a seat. He focuses in on the keys clicking and awkwardly tries to look away towards the door to distract himself. He sees an attractive girl and a leitmotif plays. The girl sits at some computers with flatter keyboards, behind the boy. The boy looks over awkwardly, she returns his gaze, so he looks away. She then notices how much the keyboards next to him bother him, so she commands him to sit next to her, moving the person next to her to his seat. She exaggeratedly taps the keys and says that “See, this isn’t so loud. Get over it. You got OCD or something?” He laughs nevrvously and begins to try tapping the keys. “I’d tap that” he says with a creepy smile. “That’s about all you’re getting” she says, pointing to the keyboard. He gives an awkward yet creepy smile.

3. This film shows character through the sound design with the main character being described by his annoyance about keyboard clicking noises; the story and the change in the main character is catalyzed by sound. Also, subtext is made important at the end in the way that the main character is showing interest in the girl, showing an evolution in the confidence of his character. Also, there is a use of a light motif whenever the boy is looking towards the girl. Sound Bridge can be when the boy hears the sound of a bazinga and then looks over to the sound of the girls phone ringing. The foley work would be in the keyboard tapping, bazinga and the tap on his head. When the girl taps him on the head and tells him and the person next to her to move, then starts the rhythmic match with her closing his binder, picking it up, forcing him up get up, and pushing him down into his seat.

The Hurt Locker Analysis

The movie The Hurt Locker is about a group of soldiers with a reckless bomb diffuser who risks his life and others for the adrenaline rush of war. The story centers around the combat that a trio of soldiers, Sanbourne, James and Eldridge, and their various combat encounters and their reactions to such situations and the loss and stress involved. Out of the three, the bomb diffuser James is the most reckless and puts others in danger to do what he believes is right, above his superiors and anyone else in general. His adrenaline rush is really a main theme in this movie, for the soldiers both love and hate war, making them have extremely conflicting emotions. War breaks down all the characters at some point, but James is the one who has perhaps experienced the most of the worst of war out of the three in the respect of him causing the downfall of others, but he is also the one who gets the most satisfaction, the most rush from war, and therefore stays in it, even losing the option of seeing his son grow up. War is "like a drug" and James is the one who is most addicted out of the three soldiers, explaining the quote at the beginning of the movie. I really liked this idea, for it is a bit of a different take on war from what I have seen before in other war movies, but this is the first movie I have seen about such a recent and controversial war, so that probably affects my reaction to this as "something different." It was a hard and depressing movie to watch, but it does have a lasting message of how some people do "enjoy" one of the worst types of situations to be in: war.

I. Context

This film takes place near the current time, as in 2010 or 2009 probably, for the movie was made recently and takes place during the Iraq war, which started in the early 2000's. There has long been much opposition to this war because it has been thought to be unnecessary and American and Iraqi civilians often resent the war and what it represents. The war was originally meant to get rid of weapons of mass destruction, but there were no weapons of mass destruction, causing the war to be questioned and many American soldiers and Iraqis in general being killed. This probably results in much of the violence and hate against the American soldiers, a violence that the soldiers must fight to protect themselves and the civilians who generally hate them.

This being a war movie often reminds me of other war movies like Black Hawk Down, but I rarely watch war movies, but I have seen part of that movie and how both movies show much of carnage of war to shock the audience and show them the horrors of war through the movies. I have only watched really parts of older war movies like The Dirty Dozen and Patton, and in those movies I can see more of how they glorify war and being a soldier, but this film does the opposite: it does humanize all of the soldiers, but some, like James, are shown not to be glorious in their "bravery" but instead rash and full of hubris, trying to be the hero when they cannot be. This lack of glorification is probably due to the lack of support for this war, but it does in no means say that soldiers are bad people; some of them just have bad characteristics.

3. Setting, Acting and Costumes

The visual style is quite jarring in the way that handheld is often used and the editing is very fast. The color correction generally makes for a harsh visual tone, with harsh yellows and some blues used throughout. The actors are quite good, I think, for they can be harsh like a bitter soldier, but they can portray a believable breakdown when their characters have "had too much."

The production design is really harsh in the way that area around the soldiers is set, with a set of the run down buildings and and dust all around, also making sure to emphasize the small details in the surroundings of the soldiers to show the horror and danger of their surroundings. The iconography of the whole piece is connected much to the technology of war, including guns, tanks, robots and even the bomb-diffuser suit. This is characteristic of a war film, for the technology is very important to the plot of the story, for the technology moves the story forward by causing the conflicts/ being the catalyst for many of the conflicts in the story. The soldiers are always struggling with the effects of these weapons both psychologically and physically, creating conflicts like when James and Sanbourne are in the desert; they come to terms with their relationship while they fight for their lives against the enemy, bringing them closer while defeating the enemy. A lot of focus is put on the mechanics of the gun in this scene, emphasizing its importance in this scene and throughout the film.


4. Cinematography and Lighting

The editing style goes towards a more formalistic ideal, for the director is unafraid to manipulate a moment in time in many different ways, representing a certain idea, like the damage caused by the first bomb in the movie when the first bomb diffuser dies, replaying the same moment over and over again, emphasizing a few different objects that get damaged by the blast.

The camera is often shaky, bringing it a bit closer to realism, but this is done in a way that is formalistic, for the shakiness demonstrates the tentative and dangerous nature of the situations the soldiers are in. The framing and angles are not always stable, as previously mentioned, but can also contribute to the idea that people have of documenting war as something that cannot be controlled by Hollywood conventions of smooth camera work: the war is meant to be gritty and raw, not conditioned to the expectations of Hollywood. A long lens is used during one battle scene where the solders are having trouble shooting down some terrorists from a long way away.

The dominant imagery is of guns and bombs, for those are the main issues presented in the film and how they cause death and general loss. The main color throughout is a dull, sand yellow, for that is the color of the dust around the area and it really represents the dulled down feelings of the soldiers towards loss because of the amount of loss they have faced.

5. Editing

The editing is semi-formative, for it manipulates time but still maintains a plot structure of some sort. The shots can be very short, like at the beginning when the soldiers were trying to save the other soldier from an imminent bomb, and very long, like when the soldiers were waiting to get a good shot on the terrorists from a far away distance. The movie is made to make extra tension, and the tension is created by these conflicting cutting styles depending on the situation, whether it is cut quickly or slowly. Sometimes the cuts between one point of time and another is rather sudden, like when the soldiers are talking about all of the death and the harshness of war and then it cuts to James shopping at a grocery store when his tour of duty was over.

The parallel action in the piece is very tense, for there is a lot of parallel action only in the most desperate situations to create a sort of sense of terror, like when the guys are in the alley way searching for the guys who sent the bombs into the residential area. There are no real montages, at least by my standards; its not that "semi-formalistic", or not that interpretation of semi-formalistic.

6. Score

I didn't notice the soundtrack throughout the movie too much, but that might be the point of the movie. It focuses more on sounds that are in the background and emphasizing the small details of the situation, like a bomb sound going from a low sound to a crushing loud sound, to create surprise. As far as the actual soundtrack music went, the style went for a hardcore sound. There seemed to be a sort of mesh of musical styles all together, including a little Arabic music combined with metal.

7. Script

It is interesting to note how the narrative starts off with one of the characters that seems to be like one of the main characters dying. After that, the other two soldiers who are introduced at the beginning are not really the main characters as much as James. The beginning seems to put Sanborne in a position of power at the beginning, but then the focuses mainly on James and his power over the others and his story.

I think that this movie is more character driven than plot driven, for there is more focus on the struggles of the soldiers and how they deal with war and their personal lives, and their actions are relatively repetitive; there is always tension because they always are diffusing bombs and shooting down enemies, but that is the same action and it is more about how the soldiers react to such situations.The dialogue is very terse, with a lot of cussing and dark humor used, like the wedding ring being "something that almost killed" James. the archetypes of the hero are blurred, for James is not a traditional hero; he does save people, but it is not for as good as a reason as heroes are normally considered to have; he also does it for the rush, as he explains to his son that he has to leave him because war is the only thing he really loves.


8. Genre

This genre is an action/war film because it places much focus on combat and its stress with characters hardened by war, making sure to keep the action interesting, but then showing the converse, the characters with emotions that are so affected by the action. The characters are not the glorious heroes, but instead some guys trying to fight a non-glorious war.

The action is what makes sure that this film meets the requirements, including the technology of war. It is really gritty and creates strong bonds between the men, the soldiers. This brother-like bond is very important to the action film, for that sense of camaraderie in such dire times is signature, like in Lethal Weapon and The Fast and the Furious. The genre was subverted a bit with the more formalistic editing, like by focusing on bystanders and cutting the same moment in time several different ways and using slow motion. Also, there is a lack of glorification, like I mentioned before, which is more a part of general action movies rather than war movies. Older war movies seem to glorify war more rather than ones about more recent conflicts, like this movie and Apocalypse Now.

Conclusion

I thought that the jarring nature of this film was very interesting, especially since it was about a more current conflict that we are still in, bringing this film "closer to home" than movies about older conflict. I was interested in the tone of the film and the way that the soldiers were presented as many different types of people, from soft to harsh to somewhere in the middle, even within the main trio throughout the movie, Sanbourne, James and Eldridge.

Short Documentary Blog Post

For this blog, I decided to watch the True Life Documentary called "Resist the Power: Saudi Arabia".

Narrative

I found that this documentary had a very interesting narrative that would really appeal to a Western audience, for it shows four people or groups of people who are very similar to the normal middle class American teenager that cannot do the same very basic, almost rudimentary things that American teenagers know are commonplace and generally accepted for themselves. This documentary tailors itself to its younger audience by showing the oppression in Saudi Arabia by showing the actions young Americans take for granted being banned in Saudi Arabia, each of the four stories in the documentary showing struggles varying in importance to the general society and with varying levels of success in resistance, but all held together by the common thread of youth empowerment in any situation, indicative of the overarching issues in Saudi Arabia despite the levity of the issue at hand. The issue of a young man, Aziz, searching for a girlfriend to meet up with from Facebook seems really light, not important to the grand scheme of things, but the documentary shows how even his small resistance is important, for the narrative focuses much on the world around Aziz and the other subjects that are affecting his actions, surprising to the Western audience, like how young men can't go into the mall without their family being their with them, preventing Aziz from meeting up with a girl.

Some issues are shown to be more important in the "grand scale," like the work of Ahmed trying to get women to be able to be a part of city meetings and giving back to the poor people in Jeddah.

Of course, it is not like we get more emphasis on this aspect in the narrative because the narrative emphasizes all of the different stories, not just focusing on one, trying to create a more balanced issue, focusing on the important as well as the not so important according to general ideas.

The narrative usually involves switching between all four stories, basically switching 2 or 3 times for the beginning, middle and end of each story, to keep them matching to make a flowing story between the 4 stories. There is a lot of narration with characters doing some simple actions that does not distract much, combined with dialogue. The narrative ends very hopefully.

The narrative is lead by each of the characters for their own story, only with an overarching narrator to introduce the situation at the begining; its kind of weird not to have the narrator finish the story off, but it works for the set-up of the narrative itself, ending on the voice of each of the youth on their own, a vestige of their power, an important part of the theme of empowerment throughout.

Camera Work

The camera work can be shaky at times, when they are in a situation like a dialogue or something, like when Aziz is talking to the guard or when the band, Breeze of the Dying, is getting kicked out of the concert in Bahrain.

Much of the rest of the time, the shots are relatively fluid, with shots of what the characters do in their lives, like a slightly less planned movie, only slightly shaky, but only at times. A lot of the hopeful ideas, especially at the end, are developed by showing the characters walking towards a symbolic statue, like bicycle that Fatima walks by while talking about her plans for the future.You only really see talking heads at the beginning, in order to establish the characters and their voices and their conflicts.

Editing/Sound Design

Like I said before, the stories are intercut between each other at about three or so points, edited in order to keep the stories and the entire piece flowing. The editing intercuts dialogue, talking heads and narrative while seeing the actions of the characters that correspond to the narration/story, keeping the story interesting and the viewer involved because of the changing situations of speaking and action. I liked the sequence where we see Fatima narrating and then talking the store owner; the type of action is varied between us watching what she is doing while narrating and an actual dialogue that affects her efforts in her part of the documentary.

The sound design focuses much on the stereotypical Arabian music, but it works for the piece because it keeps it throughout, and kind of even works in its contrast to the metal band's music, showing just how much they are going against the norms of their region. Also, the music is a bit more adapted to the youthful vibe of the documentary, with some western influence, and is constant throughout, all of the music matching the rest throughout the rest of the piece. Sometimes its varies a bit with some dissonant music.

Youth Commission Documentary

Purpose: To inform people of what the Youth Commission is and what they do for the community.

Contacts: Lynsie and Seren-Youth Commission Coordinators, Youth Commissioners, veteran/co-chair Jessica, a new person (?), board and commissions member, policy track member

Questions:

“What was last year’s project/ your project last yr? (or other past projects)”

-“What made you guys chose this/these?”

What is this year’s project?

-What made you guys choose this?

Questions to YC members: Why did you decide to do Youth Commission and why did you continue with it?

What is the funnest thing you guys have ever done together and what’s the story behind that?

What is the best inside joke you guys have?

Overall Flow:

1. Show the setting in which the Youth Commission is based + Explain Commission

2. Explain past/current projects

3. Have people explain why in commission/serving it

4. Any Jokes/Fun Times

5. Conclusion

Script with Intro and Closing:

[Note: all interview shots are established before B-roll when they are answering question for the first time, then is unnecessary; MCU with speaker on right for all shots, sitting down preferably]

[Ask interviewees to answer in complete sentences]

B-roll of building, using the tricky elevator (maybe joke shot of trying to get into elevator quickly; sound edited for convenience and jest, explanation in words on screen), Coupa, lingering on it on way to the office, the office itself, the quirks, the noisy windows, also the public meetings, the dome building in Redwood City to signify government, mostly ELS, some CU on quirks, LS and CU on elevator.

VO: “A bank building in the middle of San Mateo seems like a strange place to put a non-profit, possibly even ironic, but yet here resides the Youth Commission. Here, up a creepy elevator that closes even as you are still walking through it, is a program run by the Youth Development Initiative to empower youth through its programs and nurture their growth. The Youth Commission has existed since 1993 and is an officially sanctioned San Mateo County Commission that meets in the Redwood City Supervisors’ meeting room for public meetings and in this office in San Mateo next to some inexplicable business. What is Coupa anyways? Regardless, in this building is where much of the actions happen for the Youth Commission.”

Have Advisors answer questions about “What is the structure of the Youth Commission?”

VO: Over the past 17 years of the Youth Commission’s existence, the Commission has evolved into an organization that has students either individually or in a group produce an annual project that benefits the community on a certain project.

Have people answer Question about “What was last year’s project/ your project last yr? (or other past projects)”

-“What made you guys chose this/these?”

­B-roll of magazine, depressed people in pictures, Gunn H.S., etc

What is this year’s project?

-What made you guys/you choose this?

B-roll-Alco-pops in liquor stores, party cups, % alcohol in alco-pops and other liquor, $ of water or some other drink vs. alcohol, panning over alco=pops, CU or ECU for all.

VO: Perhaps students originally came to the Youth Commission to garner community service hours to pump up their college apps, but for many that’s not the only reason they have stayed.

Crescendo of Music (inspirational type) B-roll of meetings, magazines, working together, up and out ice-breakers

Questions to YC members: Why did you decide to do Youth Commission and why did you continue with it? Advisors: Why did you chose to work with the Youth Commission?

VO: Of Course, this group has fun too; it is a bunch of teenagers all together.

B-roll: The group doing an activity, a teenager leading an activity (i.e. in icebreaker, team building activity, like at public meeting probably), LS, MCU on teenagers, activities

What is the funnest thing you guys have ever done together and what’s the story behind that?

What is the best inside joke you guys have? (Nick and the apple juice, acting as a pterodactyl)

VO: As is apparent, the Youth Commission is making a difference in our community, regardless of whether or not you see it as large or small.

B-roll: Everyone together, camera leaving the building, showing the grand area of the public meeting.

Baraka (Not Obama)

(The Inspiration For Both Avatars)

Introduction and General Analysis

Baraka is a "silent" movie made in 1992 about the different parts of the world, their physical features and their cultures in general. It contains no dialogue, forcing the viewer to focus on the screen and the sometimes eerie sound design. My general view on this film is that it is like an "acid trip" of sorts that is meant to highlight the beauty in the diversity of our world and how in this diversity we can still be quite connected. It also has a message about how our modern society sometimes fails to see the beauty of the past and our surroundings and keeps on moving in a flurry around it to go on with our "progress", like when the monk walks through the street of that Asian city and everyone just walks around him, paying little head or just being annoyed by his presence.

Also, the environment is affected by progress in the way that the movie shows many amazing sights of the environment in the movie at the beginning but then moves on to more cityscapes and even trees being cut down and hills being blown up. I like the message conveyed and I feel that the movie is quite trippy, but it is interesting to note the "naturalist" ideology behind the film and how some of the movie's messages seem almost outdated, if not just out of current vogue. It is about the negative effects of modernization and deforestation (as well as general environment abuse), which are topics that are still important today, but now such issues seem more "commercialized", as if they are such a part of life, like "going green" that they are almost unnoticeable, but this movie brings up such issues again, instead of about things like the evils of the exploitation of natural resources by world powers like in Avatar, a movie with a similar earthy tone that is more recent. Later on in the movie it involves more of the negative effects on humans with the depiction of genocide in a genuinely scary way, focusing not on the actions of the genocide but instead what has been left behind, emphasizing the humanity of each person killed by showing their photographs. I am not sure what the end of the movie is, so it is hard to judge what exactly I believe the film makers want us to take away from the movie as a whole, but I think they want to inspire an appreciation for life and perhaps give some insight and hope for how we can change the world for the better through increased unity as people as a whole, not just as separate cultures.

(some of #3 is mentioned in this part)

Questions Answered

1. I think that the movie is named Baraka because the film seems to be meant to give a "breath" of fresh air into the human culture, as is to tell people to take a deep breath and look at the world around you in such a time of globalization and modernization. This is sort of like how the monkey at the beginning looks very contemplative; the shot lingers on the monkey for a very long, almost uncomfortable time, forcing us to take the "strange" situation in, to "breathe in" the atmosphere. This long moment is trying to make us breathe and contemplate our lives in comparison to everyone else in the movie, to take time to respect the world for what it is and enjoy the differences around you and step back from "progress" for a little while seems to be the message in this movie. Also, progress is not always progress, for in our modern time we have been able to cause much destruction with our "progress" in technology, like genocide and the destruction of the environment. The title really shows an ancient mysticism, the awe of life that has always existed on earth because of its amazingly good and horrible attributes.

2. It is representing a critique of the modern world for it is kind of saying that we live our lives at too fast of a pace, too out of reach of nature. A lot more time is spent on shots of people in more traditional environments, a lot of time spent on each of their individual faces for the most native people. As the movie starts to get further away from traditional environments, like in the slum parts of the city where people do stop and think for a while, are more "slow going" like the more traditional people, less time is spent on their individual faces; we spend more time on their faces in groups, but that time spent is still less time that the time spent on the faces of the people in more traditional groups. In the big cities, mostly New York we see much less of the individual, with the shots time lapsed really fast to place no focus on one individual person but instead the flurry of the collective. There is no time spent on the individual or even small groups; this demonstrates how disconnected the "modern " world is from person to person.

3. I think I have basically explained this before.

4. This absence of dialogue is really important because it means that there are no subtitles, that everyone in the world can see the same film presented in the same way, weeding out the subjective translations and meanings of words. It also brings everyone together in way that it speaks in a way most people no matter where they are from or their education level is: through pictures.

5. Culture and city often involve a lot of people, a lot of rich contrasting colors while the nature involves cool colors with little contrasting colors; it is of course very natural. In both, there is sometimes a lot of movement, like with the clouds and the people in New York, and but often there is not, like in the water reflecting the sky and the people staring at the screen. The main contrast in movement is the sometimes people will move a lot and in very coordinated ways, like with those Asian men and their coordinated movement that probably helped inspire the similar movement in the movie Avatar.

6. This juxtaposition of the monk after all of the cigarette packing seems to show how modern industry, modern society, has taken a departure from the past, from the culture of the past, and now leaves it behind and ignores it, even if it is still an inexorable part of society. Spirituality is still present despite the flurry of modern day and it has the ability to coexist and should be accepted, but sometimes people are "too busy" to do so.

7. This representation of the poor shows us that much of the world is poor, no matter where they come from. It is something that is shared across countries, but it is not a good thing like much of what the world shares in its diversity of culture and race.

8. Much of the music seems to echo, as if the tracks are played "into" each other, a nice use of stereo it would seem (I am not sure if that is correct, it just seems to be so). The music where the people were all singing in their own languages stood out to me, for it was eerie since I did not understand it and it was very booming and echoing in the way that I mentioned before. The transitions were really nice when it went from a lot of movement to no movement, like all of the men swaying all together like in Avatar then suddenly changing to a still mountain/volcano top with only a bit of movement pulling into the mountain from the side. As a side note throughout the movie I really liked the way the camera kind of moved in on the side of the still pictures, like with that one white or tan building towards the beginning of the movie; it is more interesting that moving straight into the shot (it is revealed more artistically).

9. We probably watched this film because it was somewhat trippy and it forces you to focus on its editing style and "background" sound design. I am not sure what you mean by vision, but I guess if a more traditional movie wanted to imitate the effect of this movie. it could do it to some extent, but more of the traditional barriers like language and the subtlety of meaning of words in each culture, but a similar effect could be made with a protagonist touring the countries, but that also leaves less of the scenarios up to the viewer to interpret. A sense of awe could still be made, for the cinematography is still amazing in any movie, so it would still affect that attraction to nature all humans have. I think that I still do want to travel, but I would probably still chose more commercial places, which is not exactly what this movie is trying to emphasize.

Conclusion

Baraka is a movie that has power in its epic undertaking, but simple basic idea: show the world as it has been and how it is. In this idea it succeeds. I wonder how the "sequel" Samsara will be, with the changes in this world since 1992.