"Plots That Kill" ? Assignment

The plot of Slumdog Millionaire from 2008 is an example of the coming of age plot in the drama genre. The genre conventions used in the plot include the classic story of how when the main character, Jamal, was a little boy he fell in love with a little girl (Latika). Variations of this set-up are also used in other movies of this genre, for they create much "drama", but the older-brother-younger brother relationship is also used much between the characters to create underlying tensions about the "love story" plot, with the conflicting ideals of the brothers and their power relationship. Also, an important part of coming-of-age dramas is an event that changes the way that the main character (as well as other characters) view the world and makes them have to "fend for themselves" in some way; in Slumdog Millionaire, the boys actually had to live on their own when they were very young. The narrative can vary a lot, but it is often told by a speaker that is older looking back on their childhood or is told in flashbacks from some point in the future (like Slumdog Millionaire). Sometimes there is a nostalgic tone, but not in this movie; it is more about the goal of Jamal's youth, his complete coming-of-age, was not reached until the end of the movie in the "present-time" when he was 18-years old.

2. My idea is somewhat similar to that of Slumdog Millionaire due to the fact that I want to interweave the story with flashbacks while the main character is in the present doing something towards reaching the goal set in the flashbacks. The idea is that the main character is running throughout an area searching for someone, hoping to get there in time to tell that person something. Throughout the time that the main character is searching, he/she has flashbacks to why this he/she is trying to reach the person in time after he/she runs into a few people who help explain the flashbacks before the flashbacks start. It is a very similar plot on a smaller scale, but I would want to have the character be trying to reach a goal less "cliched' than love in this situation. I was thinking of having the character say "I've done my duty." after the person he/she is searching for leaves right in front of him/her. Maybe the character was trying to clear up the relationship he had with the other person due to a misunderstanding that everyone believes. I would like the theme to be able to learn how to move past what was hindering them before, to learn to change only what they can, and to know that some things cannot really be changed the way we want them to; we can only try our best or adapt. I think that that is an important part of the coming of age plot line, realizing both what one can do and what one cannot do, and living based off of that. Not being able to change the past is also important in a coming-of-age drama with so many flashbacks, and maybe, learning from the past as well. I want the character to have put off action for a long time until it was pretty much too late possibly, or try to help as soon as he/she gets the reason to "search". This plot is a little bit too similar to other coming-of-age stories and might be a bit complicated to orchestrate, but it is possible and a lot of great cinematic techniques for scene transitions between the present and the past with lead-ins from minor characters, as well as perspective while running and such.

There seems to be a lot to explore in the coming-of-age plot based on how many movies there are on it, so it is a bit hard to make it original and plausible for a 5 or so minute film, but since it has been done so much, there are very good example of what to do and what not to do. If I were to do a film based on this plot, there would be a good amount of material to learn from, and maybe learning what works would create a more original plot.

Italian Neo-Realism

Our class watched the movie The Bicycle Thief as a quintessential Italian Neo-Realism film. Here is a summary of its basics.

Ideology/ Thematic Goals

The main ideology of this genre of film is the idea of "solidarity", as the importance of the whole community, rather than the importance of one person alone. The article shows this idea when it says that "[...]a focus on collectivity rather than the individual. Solidarity is important, along with an implicit criticism of the status quo." This type of cinema was against the ideas that had prevailed for so long under the rule of Mussolini, "the status quo". Also, it wanted to show a new view on the lives of real Italians, the everyday worker and his or her everyday, normal life, or " [..] an emphasis on real lives." These films were anti-fascist as much of Italy was after the fall of Mussolini, after World War II, or, as the article says, "Unquestionably, their greatest single influence was the anti-Fascism that marked World War II's immediate postwar period."

Historical Context

Again, Italian Neo-Realism emerged after World War II, making "[...] their greatest single influence [...] the anti-Fascism that marked World War II's immediate postwar period." Italy was in very poor condition after World War II; much of the country was in poverty, the government was in shambles and people were trying to rebuild their lives amongst all of this destruction. It makes sense that this movement broke from the idealistic, fanciful portrayal of life in Hollywood movies, for so much of the country was in despair, trying to rebuild. These people were probably disillusioned, and filmmakers wanted to capture this instead of normal escapist cinema.

Cinematic Techniques

-documentary-like style
-set up not elaborate
-not too complicated shots
-not many shot changes per scene (in comparison to now)
-used non-professional actors
-do not use sets; filmed on-location
-simple story


Key Contributors

DeSica: He was the director of The Bicycle Thief and made sure that the movie was shown as a piece of fiction, not as a documentary, but he did make sure to use non-professional actors. He focuses on the masses, not the individual.

Visconte:He made Obsession, and said that he could make a movie"in front of a wall" as long as he had something to say about humans in front of that wall. He liked to keep the movie "real", as in shot in real time and with unprofessional actors. Long takes, complex shots used.

Rossellini: Combined melodrama and actual footage into short bursts of intensity. It was not comforting. Also focused on the senselessness of war.

Important Films

The Bicycle Thief: This movie was important because it used non-professional actors in order to portray the real lives of people in Italy at that time. DeSica made sure to focus on the mass of people in this situation instead of the individual, showing the weakness of one and the power of a group of people behind one.

Obsession: This film used long complex takes to prove its point. affecting other films like this. It dwelled on the shots with bleak, natural light backgrounds.

Open City: This movie had a low budget, so Rossellini had to make a movie that combined the footage they shot as well as melodrama. This made the story episodic, with a jarring narrative.

Going Beyond the Still Image

It is interesting to see what just frames from a movie can tell us about the characters and the conflict of the film. Film is a combination of information from audio and video (moving pictures) used to create a feeling and to tell a story of some sort. In the short film "Wrong Place Wrong Time", a man is wrongly captured and then thrown into the ocean to keep the mistake a secret.

At the beginning, we see a guy in a tuxedo trapped in a box, and then we see a flash back to how he got into the box; two brutes ambushed him when he was coming from a high class event and put him in a box to bring to their master.

We can tell by the look on his face in normal conditions that he is a shrewd man of sorts, a person who is probably practical and calm. We can gather this from his dry humor in his lines also, making his acting match the character's personality.




When we reach the climax of the movie, it is easy to tell what the conflict is based on our prior knowledge of such situations with only the video, for the men are by a cliff and the two big guys are impending and would probably kill the man in the tuxedo if they did not get what they desired from the man on the computer. The following still demonstrates this idea:



Clearly, there is an issue, for the two taller men are the more powerful ones in the power relationship, and there is a dangerous and mysterious expanse behind them; the audience nor the protagonist know exactly where the characters are. Again, the tuxedo man is proven to be shrewd because he is trying to persuade his way out of danger, but he is loosing this battle.

Finally, in the resolution, the man is thrown into the water in the box and he looks at a photo of his while the water is gushing in. This part did not even need words to explain the depressing, hopelessness of the situation, with the man taking one last look at those he has left behind and will probably never be able to see again and at happier times in a photo probably of him and his friends, as shown:





This scene is blue with the water all around the man, depicting the hopeless mood well, and the picture is blue in this situation too, for the man is sad that he will never be able to have happy times like that and that he will probably die. The frame shows that the man has now resigned himself to his fate and wants to die remembering a happy memory. All of this can be shown through the pictures alone.

Overall, images can have just as much, or even more, of a message than words can in film, depending on the film. Images affect the power of a film significantly, for they are a main component; this can be the difference between and great, okay and horrible films.

Reverie

This film created very interesting effects with lighting, lighting up certain parts of the shot more than others and using interesting blur transitions.

An example of interesting blurring of the lights is at the beginning

From Jasmine's Film Blog

The shot starts off with both of the characters in an embrace in lighting focuses solely on them, making them stick out from the back ground of bridge lights. Then the focus fades out slowly, taking away that effect. The lighting was really nice and professional looking, and it really emphasized the couple and their intimacy from the beginning of the movie. It also set up their urban environment, making their relationship appear chic and appealing. The focus fade sort of shows how the man is now out of that dream world, back to the normal world.

From Jasmine's Film Blog

The lighting that is placed on the flowers is really rich and "sunny" in comparison to the background of pitch black. This is a very nice effect, because the stark contrast makes the viewer focus on the light part and understand how the man is yearning to come from the darkness into the "shiny" part of the night time with the woman in the "shiny" dress.

From Jasmine's Film Blog

The effects of the lighting on the cityscape are also amazing, especially in this picture, for the man has a very nice lighting on him that makes him stick out from the city at dusk, but the city is not totally in the dark either, for, though it is not in focus, it is still partially lighted and has a nice contrast to the man. Again, the focus on the man against the city adds a nice cosmopolitan, chic image to the film.

Edit Demos Critique

Shot Duration


Axis Match

1.Concept/Script

I think that both stories fit, for they emphasized the concepts pretty well. The cowboy scene, originating from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly film from 1966, is a classic example of long shot durations and short shot durations all in one. The axis match piece placed the two characters on opposite ends, with the tension building with each shot getting closer, and this of course showed axis match used to tell a story more intensely. I think that we did a good job portraying both concepts, but the Axis Match one is not as obvious as the shot duration one, for the shots that are on the same axis on the same shots are not usually directly after each other to show the idea as strong as possible because of the story involved, but there is still axis match in the way that shot is one the same axis for each actor despite the shots switching between the actors.

2. Camera Work

We shot the characters well most of the time, but the camera was probably not as steady as it should have been, sometimes changing the shot. Some of the challenges were trying to keep the axis correct because the camera kept moving each time we moved the tripod, so it left an unsteady shot. Also, it was hard to keep the same angle on the cowgirls in the shot duration piece, because they were at different heights and it was hard to visualize the same angle on their faces for both, so that neither looked bigger or smaller than the other. It ended up that Dazzy still looked a bit smaller than Nellie, making their power relationship unequal, but it worked out because Dazzy lost in the end of the fight anyways. The best shot was probably the pan in the shot duration piece, becasue it really showed how intense the scene between the two cowgirls was, but it could have been a bit shorter. It is very tense, a bit like a cowboy movie.

3. Edit

Some of the challenges I had in the edit were trying the keep the shots matching, because either way there was a lot of cutting between two characters in a conflict. I had to cut a lot of shots at the right time so that there would not be any jump cuts. In the axis match, I had to make sure that the characters and the camera were in the closest position to being the same as the last shot. Overall, the edit was not too hard, just a lot of cutting and putting the right shots in the right places, to create the correct power relationship between characters and to make sure the topic was being demonstrated clearly. In the shot duration, I just had to find matching shots, and switch between them at the right intervals to show either long or shot duration. In the axis match, I just had to cut with increasing closeness to each character as tension increased, then backing up at the resolution, but I had to cut some shots with bad lighting, but it still worked.

Solitude Review

Overall, I thought that this trailer was very well done for a student film. They knew how to draw people into the situation effectively with music and mis en scene especially. I really liked how they protrayed the lonely atmosphere in several different (though at times over-used) ways. They effectively built up to the action scenes and "kept us guessing" about what the whole situation is, while using appropriate music for the fearful and grave tone. Unfortunately, I must say that it was a bit cliche, and we have all probably seen traces of this plot and such in other movies. Still, it look professional enough to be a Sy-Fy Original movie; that is pretty good for a student trailer!


Mis en Scene
Throughout this trailer, I noticed that my eyes were attracted to the people in the shots, for often there were few or no people in the shot, emphasizing the sparceness of the evnvironment and the resulting lonely and fearful feelings of the characters.



The lighting is mainly low key, for this is a horror film, and the low key light like when they are discovering the situation in the house makes it seem creepier. There does not seem to be much high contrast, for a lot of it is just showing dark places and empty places in the daytime. The camera is usually in a sort of neutral postion to keep the audience on level with the characters. The camera is generally reasonably close to the action, though sometimes it goes far off to show the situation. The color values are either very dull or dark to show that there is something wrong going on in the area, to create a dark mood to create mystery. The eyes usally stop on the other people in the cackground, or the furthest line away, like the outer line on the highway. The visual background is somewhat stark, with plain beackgrounds, such as in a house or on the road, but with a sense of depth created through blocking, such as with the swing sets all going back to create depth, or the group of kids standing around a bit away from the foreground person.



The balance isn't not always there with the depth, though; sometimes the kids in the house shot are not angled correctly in order to create a more meaningful and interesting shot. The framing is loose in the opening scences to emphasize the
sparseness that is integral to the plot, but it gets tighter around the characters once the horror part of the movie starts. It also blurs focus a bit to disorient and
intrest the viewer. It is not cut ojectively, for the viewer is manipulated to feel the lonaly feeling the editor wants us to feel. Editing is a

Editing

There is a reasonable amoung of cutting, usually fadining into black each time, but the cutting is not extemely fast, showing different views to emphasize the intrigue and setting but not cutting to fast so that there would be a bit of tension created with the longer shots. The cutting is somewhat manipulative, for it places emphasis on the creepy loneliness throughout the piece. The rythym basically shows showthing interesting, they starts speaking, then while speaking it fades into another image. It is not cut ojectively, for the viewer is manipulated to feel the lonely feeling the editor wants us to feel. Editing is a language in this, since it is a trailer especially, for it shows us the feeling that the editor wants us to feel, especially since it is just putting the most interesting teaser parts together randomly to interest the viewer. It has sort of a sequence shot, for it is put in this order in order to interest the viewer.

Motion Analysis

The director does keep the camera close to the action for parts, especially when the tension is higher, but leading up to that the camera is a bit father away and the action is much more slowmoving, in order to create suspense. An example is when the boy is in long shot and comes closer up through fading in; this is not close, and is used to create suspense. The slow motion parts show good times, before the group found out about all of the disappearances. The movement is somewhat dramatic, with the slow and hesitant nature of all of the characters. The trailer starts with the camera being far from the action with the car, and getting closer as more intesity builds, like during the horror sceens. They frame these shots well, keeping the rule of thirds and such in mind.



Sound Analysis

The sound is generally innocent and not jaring at first, but it gradually it pounds and pulsates to create a forboding feeling. The sound is distorted a bit in order to make it sound more haunting during the jarring part. It is not very complex, and not much symbolism; perhaps the beinging music is symbolic of the innocence of the characters at the beginning. The motifs my be the road and the swings, for they represent abnormal sparseness. The sound often uses piano, deep drums of some sort (probably distorted), and synths. Music is often used to emphasisze language in this piece, making it sound more foreboding, ominous.

Avatar Film Analysis

1. The challenges that Cameron had were that when Cameron first thought of this movie about fifteen years ago was that the technology at that time could not actualize this film up to Cameron's expectations. Cameron knew that technology at that time would not look realistic and believable in creating the world of Pandora, integrating human and CG characters in a believable fashion. It seems that Cameron wanted to have this combination of CG and humans as a main part of the film to show more emotion, and especially wanted to show believable human emotion in the CG. Back in the 1990s, the time of the original concept, only animation could create somewhat convincing imaginary characters, but that would not mesh well with live action and animation for the entire movie would cause a great loss in audience. Cameron wanted technology that could bring the digital characters to life the same visual emotion and movement that had never been done before, integrating the actors into the visuals. Cameron needed to create his own technology to show hi-resolution compostitng, showing the background images with the characters in CG forms. Also, he had to develop technology that could capture the intricacies of the human expression and movement to show how very connected humans and Navi are even though they look differently; this could not be done with older fashioned CGI. Also, an issue involved in creating all of this technology is getting the funding to create it; Cameron had to find investers who were willing to invest a lot of money on a project that could fail, despite all of the money that went into it; this movie was a risk.

2. It was created by integrating much of know science and the state of today's society into the movie's world of Pandora. They used a solar system that was relatively close to ours to make the trip seem not all that improbable, even making the characters sleep cryogenically for five years. It seems that the creators of Pandora's attributes wanted it to be very different from earth, so that the similarities in behavior was accented in making the audience sympathetic with these very different humanoids. Even, it seems that they modeled much of Pandora after a prehistoric type of Earth, with pterodactyl-type birds and lush, green landscapes. This sort of shows how this world is pure, untouched by the greed that is not a part of Pandoran life, but can be in Earth life. They seemed to make it clear that Pandorans are symbiotically connected to their planet and that they knew that hurting it would be hurting themselves, not like humans. The air that humans cannot breathe makes Pandora a dangerous place for humans, showing how humans will risk their lives at times in greed, for unobtainium. Humans are clearly not welcomed by the atmosphere itself; they are only there to get what they want, not to develop relations with the Naa' vi. Pandora's name itself seems to be particular chosen to allude to the myth that a woman named Pandora was curious about a box she was told not to open, and thus unleashed all of the bad events and feelings into the world. Humans have entered Pandora, and have unleashed many problems onto themselves and the Naa' vi.

3. Performance capture is a lot more personal than motion capture is. Motion capture shows the general movement of a character in a moment, but does not connect the dialogue and the motion very well, not showing the subtlties of the performance as a whole. Performance capture, as in this movie, basically transforms an actor's performance into a digital character, as if that digital character is actually acting the scene. The dialgue and the movements are all in one in performance capture, creating a more realistic and well-acted chracter, unlike the separation of motion capture that distances one from the character and does not catch the same minute expressions in the face and such as performance capture does.

4. $150 million were spent on advertising this movie, consider to be a collassal amount. Some of the issues that News Corp has had in funding this movie was that its a big risk due to its huge pricetag; if this movie had flopped, it would hurt the company hugely. A considerable part of the initial money coming in from the movie tickets goes to the movie theatres, but the company can still make money from the rest of the ticket, DVD sales and merchandise. Also, part of the money has to go back to the investors. Another issue with the movie involves illegal reproductions, and cheeap rentals. News Corp is already weakened by the lack of newspaper advertisements in its main publications. The cost of the movie probably has, in my opinion, influenced the story of the movie; it has a common basic story that is proven to work through other movies like Pocahantas and such. Since this movie cost so much, the producers wanted a story that was proven to work, that was proven to make money, in order to reduce the risk of this movie flopping with so much money invested in it. It could not risk a story that might not work, for then all of that money would have been for no money in return.

5. I think that saying that the movie "identifies the profound spiritual bankruptcy that underlies our financial insolvency...and reminds us (to)... make new choices for the greatest good of all" is a slight bit of an overstatment, for the movie does show us effectively how trying to exploit the world for all that it is worth will only hurt a civilization; the Na'vi know this in contrast to the humans who hurt the Na'vi and themsleves in the process of exploiting Pandora's minerals. This is shown by the way that the Na'vi and humans both lost many lives and a part of their plans in the process of this movie; for the Na'vi their tree, for the humans their unobtainium. Even so, I think that since this plot is simmilar to movies in the past, it can only bring so much new insight into the topic of "spiritual bankruptcy" and "making new choices for the greater good". Avatar is limited by its cliches for since it is so simmilar to other plots, there is nothing that "sticks out" in particular about demonstating the themes, so the themes are not as memorable, in my opinion. An example of this is how Sully says "This is our land" after he has conquered the Turok and is calling the Na'vi to trust in him and work together to defeat the humans. This moment would be very touching if it had not been done in 300 ("This is Sparta!") as well as other movies; the issue is that this empowering call for union and trust to do what is right loses its power because it has been heard too many times before.

Also, as for there being a racist subtext, I think that is not really applied to this movie; yes, this movie does involve numerous white Americans going over and conquering a group of different looking people to exploit the land, but the movie is proving that this exploitation is wrong, that this is how people shouold not act in general. The Na'vi are portrayed as a relatively peaceful group of people who only fight because their land is in danger; this happens even between groups of people who look the same, such as the fights between Germany and France over Alsace-Loirrainne. Even so, that is not the point; this movie shows more how it is wrong to exploit a group of people for your needs, not considering theirs. It may be stereotypical, more so than completely racist, that the Na'vi are very tribal and based off of black actors, for often when Americans think of people being conquered, it is usually people of another race, as far as Western society goes. Of course, it makes sense that these people are tribal, for if they had had advanced technology, it would have been easier to defeat the powerful humans and their battleships. Also, these people are more connected to the land, like tribal people are generally attributed to be, more effectively showing the theme of the unbreakable connection between one and their environment. The only slightly racist thing may be that all the Na'vi had black actors and most of the humans were white; this is stereotypical, but I suppose the director used a bit of this physical difference between the actors just to further show how like blacks and whites, Na'vi and humans should treat each other more equally.