our christopher nolan movies

main two movies : inception
                              the dark knight
                              the prestige
comparison films: Thor

Martin scorsese

For my auteur assignment I would like to learn about Martin scorsese , I really like his casting choices and I would say that he deserves to be classed as an auteur.

unit 38 outcome 2 notes

we went outside to get some nice clean audio , but it didnt workout well because the mic needed kept on picking out alot of ambiet sounds that were around us . here are some pictures of us recording

unit 26 film studies -sound+editing

Sound
Diagetic = sound in the film, dialogue , ambient sound
Nondiagetic sound = sound that is added on after , soundtrack /music ,v/o
Sound bridge is the sound that hoed over to the next scene
Contrapuntal is when the sound doesn't fit the image

Matrix : diagetic dialogue ,nondiagetic soundtrack , ambient, sound bridge .
500 days of summer :none diabetic sound track , ambient , diagetic dialogue , contrapuntal , none diagetic sound of bird .
Mean girls: ambient , music , diagetic dialogue , none diagetic voice over ,
Contrapuntal sound of wild animals , sound bridge ,
Casino royal : ambient , music to build tension , diagetic dialogue makes me laugh and feel his pain ,

Editing
Shot transition :cut, fade ,dissolve.
Shot duration :long time or short time
Parallel action : 2 things happening at the same time
Montage: lots of shots to send a message or showing the narrative quicker

Rocky 4:
Montage :the montage of the rockysnclose ups shots amd the blonde man beting his black friend ,it shows us how rocky felt about his mate getting beat and it shows us how angry he is , the montage also gives us incite of the character
Soundtrack: it makes us feel excited  ,
Ambient
Contrapuntal sound of the punch there is a boom ,it makes the audience feel like that punch was really powerful
Slow Motion editing to drag out the narrative

home work on light

 this right here is an aesthetics

 

 soft light

i reduced the exposure on the camera so it doesn't take it much light to create shadows

 

 hard light

 

 on this picture i adjusted the exposure so the camera lets in more light leaving her left side of the face with a big shadow and her right side too bright.

lesson with dan , light and lense ( week 3 )

aesthetics = visual beauty
director = he reads the scripts and then he decides how he will tell the story visually
cinematographer =
producer = he is in charge of keeping everyone in check
lighting technician= in charge of the lightning
pre production = getting ideas together
production= getting your videos and sounds
post production= picking out the best materials and making the final master piece
single camera production = your on location with a single camera getting videos : feature film , documentary ,tv drama .
 multiple camera production= live broadcast , pre-production tv show (in studios )

soft light , hard light , exposure ( how much light there is ) ,
soft light : a soft light is always hard to see diffused light
hard light : it creates more shadows because the light is more direct .
you always want the sun behind you whiles your shooting .
new word silhouette
tonal range : bright parts are highlights
                    mid-tone its anything in between , not too bright not too dark and its the majority of the  
                                     frame
                    shadows   are the darkest part , sometimes the most details is in the shadows when other                                          parts are too bright but the shadows cant be too dark or you will lose the details.

we expose the lense to light , we control this exposure with an iris
iris/aperture= they control ow much light the sensor is expose to .
 basic 3 point lighting set up : it allows us to illuminate our target
different lights are :key light
                              fill light
                               back light

Film studies weekend homework

For my homework I decided to break out of my little bubble of watching movies that are only made from 2005 up to now , I went back to 90’s and watched a few martin Scorsese movies.
I have watched a few other latest scorcese movies such as shitter island , the departed ,Hugo and the aviator , but steph talked me into watching his older movies like goodfellas , casino... and I realised how much i was missing .
Goodfellas was the quintessential modern day gangster film. Scorsese created a mobster movie with real depth and universal themes.  Scorsese focuses on ray liotta as the main character,henry hill, the film was being told on his point of view the rock n roll music blared both diagetically and none diagetically , the plot continually flies towards in a world of greed , drugs and violence , and betrayal. I read a little autobiography on martin Scorsese and i found out that he meticulously found a meaning behind every on screen action and reflects on his own struggles with cocaine as a young man living in New York.
The movie had a lot of dark humour and focused on the shadier side of life, not to mention that it was based on a true story.
The movie started with an equilibrium as they were killing a man by stabbing him as he layed in their car’s boot, I wouldn’t say that they were any heroes in the movie until up at the end Henry hill was offered to be put in protective custody or in witness protection system him and his family then i would say he was the villain turned anti hero and the federal police department were the heroes.
The movie did contain a lot of enigma codes such as when Robert deniro told Henry’s wife to go pick up a few dresses and it kept me guessing wither she was about to die judging on his facial expression and hers, or the time Henry was being followed by the helicopter, it didn’t look like police helicopter so it kept us guessing up until he got arrested and it all made sense. But i did not feel like i was the privileged spector whiles I watched this film, but it was what I expected from this type of genre (biography, crime, drama and thriller) it was a hybrid and also matched its genre well as the voice overs throughout the whole film gave it that biography vibe and the narrative and action in it were well suited for a drama, action and thriller movie.

the shining , review of the film

 the movie got a ratting of 8.5/10 of the imdb site , the critics at the rotten tomatoes site said "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" -- or, rather, a homicidal boy in Stanley Kubrick's eerie 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel. With wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and psychic son Danny (Danny Lloyd) in tow, frustrated writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as the winter caretaker at the opulently ominous, mountain-locked Overlook Hotel so that he can write in peace. Before the Overlook is vacated for the Torrances, the manager (Barry Nelson) informs Jack that a previous caretaker went crazy and slaughtered his family; Jack thinks it's no problem, but Danny's "shining" hints otherwise. Settling into their routine, Danny cruises through the empty corridors on his Big Wheel and plays in the topiary maze with Wendy, while Jack sets up shop in a cavernous lounge with strict orders not to be disturbed. Danny's alter ego, "Tony," however, starts warning of "redrum" as Danny is plagued by more blood-soaked visions of the past, and a blocked Jack starts visiting the hotel bar for a few visions of his own. Frightened by her husband's behavior and Danny's visit to the forbidding Room 237, Wendy soon discovers what Jack has really been doing in his study all day, and what the hotel has done to Jack." i tend to agree with them but the director did an amazing job simply because i left the movie thinking am i brain dead or... , due to the fact that i was even more confused than i was at the start .



actors reviews

jack delivered an outstanding performing as he had amazing facial expressions such as a devilish smile of his face as he was frighting his wife , he was a great psycho and really creepy . the actor that played Danny (Danny Loyd) was also great as he kept that innocence that all kids have with also having to play a really complex character who had horrifying visions, the wife wendy was great too , through her facial expressions we see a very terrified wife who has a lot of respect for her husband but also she shows that shes a carrying mother as she still loves her son even though he was a bit creepy. 

the cinematography was amazing , the movie started off with these exceptional Arial shots , every shot was very clear especially the bath tub scenes with the old lady in it , it was cut quickly but the image really stuck in your head . the director uses low over the shoulders shots , low mid shots and low point of view shots a lot as a way of making us the viewers feel as small and vulnerable as danny was . his camera movements went with the sound track very well ; every tracking shot that was made in the movie always maintained a very slow and creepy speed and this worked well with the soundtrack.

mise en scene
 the diagetic sound was heavy panting , breathlessness footsteps, crunching of the untouched snow , but the non-diagetic sound was threatening  background music , it was very loud and created tension and excitement.
 the lightening was dark  and lit up all the pure white snow which made it look heavenly and the bright surroundings compared to the dark shape of the boy.
the location had a maze which created a sense of entrapment , and there was a lot of snow in the last scene which wasn't the best place to be running or try to escape , the snow made it hard for the kid to run .
the costume  used by the boy in the last scene wasn't the idea cold weather outfit as he only had a jumper , trousers and shoes .

Audio and editing homework

sound

After listening to the sound audio i decided to do my task on the highly anticipated musical of 2012...les miserables , starring Hugh jackman , anne Hathaway , Russell Crowe and more , our task to watch a movie and describe how the music or soundtrack in it makes us feel , this particular film is filled with numerous music but i chose to talk about the very last song that the whole cast performed right at the end its called “do you hear the people sing” . the whole movie takes you on a huge emotional journey using its narrative by mostly by its score or soundtracks , right at the end after valjean’s death it was tragedy so of course the music made me feel upset and sorry for him but when the whole cast started singing “ do you hear the people sing” i immediately felt a lot of emotions such as happiness , pride , the song was very uplifting as it went from low pitch to high pitch ,the orchestra played the music so well to the point you didn’t need to hear the words of the song to know what it was about you could hear the vibe and the message by just listening to the orchestra.

Editing
For this particular task I have chosen to talk about David o’russel’s movie silver linings the playbook .

There is an over the shoulder close up shot of tiffany facing pat ( two main character),the reason i think the editor used this shot and the director wanted it was because it went well with the narrative , usually in the other shots the background of the frame wasn’t blurred out you could the mise en scene perfectly as it was consisted of other people in the dinner talking and a tv with the news on but as soon as pat asked tiffany to break the law by giving his ex wife a letter , a letter which wasn’t allowed due to the restraining order she had on him , the editor blurred out the foreground of the frame which had tiffany in it ,along with the background which had the tv and people in it . This was done so the audience could only focus on pat as they wanted to show his facial expression but also it was a close up because he lowered his voice as he was asking her to do something she wasn’t allowed to do, the close up made us feel like we were right behind tiffany listening to that conversation.
During this movie the editor uses a transition when pat and his mate Danny are in pats mum’s car then she decides to drop Danny off the hospital but we don’t see him being dropped off the hospital we see a transition as he dissolves out of the shot, leaving us with a mid shot of an empty car seat , the editor used that transition as a quick way of telling us that Danny has being dropped off to the hospital .
Shot during have a way of triggering emotions in us right near the end when pat and tiffany are dancing the editor cuts trough a lot of shot but right when the music is about to finish as they do their last move the director used a mid shot showing pat and tiffany,the camera movement was a rotating anti clock wise pan movement and what the editor did with that was he blurred out the background of the fame leaving the focus only in the foreground of the two shot then he made that shot last for a few second to show the audience exactly the emotion that pat and tiffany were feeling as he held her in his arms and starred at her intimately.

video editing 9 unit 16+21

final cut pro - none linear editing
                    - professional -video formats
                                          - audio formats
                    - none destructive editing - fcp does not harm the original footage.

Savig private ryan

The first frame shows a mid-shot of the soldiers being sick on a boat, the colour wash is a grey colour which makes the audience feel depressed, there is a tracking back. In the background you can see other boats.  Then we see a mid-shot of the driver of the boat, then we get a close up of Tom Hanks he's on the left side of the frame his facial expression shows fear and sadness looking off into the off screen space, on the right hand side of the frame you can see another boat with soldiers on and this boat is out of focus. We see a close up of a soldier, you can see that they are wearing their camo uniforms to blend into the scene, the colours of the costume fit into the grey colour wash and add to the atmosphere. and we can see fear on his face, the lighting is dark in this scene this gives it a depressing atmosphere. We then see a low angle shot of soldiers coming off the boat and getting shot. We then see a close up of a soldier being shot in the head and the special effects show blood flying out the back of his head. There is an over the shoulder shot of a german shooting the soldiers coming out of the boat.

On the next scene you see a low angle mid shot of dead soldiers and soldiers escaping from the bullets with a blue colour wash, you see props sinking to the bottom of the ocean. such as guns, helmets and bullets and a bullet proof vest. You see a mid-shot of bullets shooting through the water. You can see soldiers drowning in the ocean with a wide two shot. There is a wide shot of bodies being blown into the the water.

Media homework (mise en scene , cinematography)

Media homework

Mise en scene

The movie that i decided to watch for this task is Zach snider’s man of steel.
I choose to assess the final action sequence of the movie because it is was simply my favourite one out of all the superhero movies , the mise en scene of this last action sequence was quite interesting ; the setting was an outside location ,safe to say it was right in the middle of the city (metropolis) , the lightning was low key simply because it helped send out the disastrous vibe that the director wanted to plant in the audiences minds because the whole city was being destroyed by kryptoninas. They didn’t use a lot of typical props that you would normally see in an action scene such ass guns and so on..... , they used pieces of metal from destroyed buildings and cars as weapon due to the fact they possessed supernatural powers.
Identifying the villain and the hero was quite easy ,we already knew who the hero and villain was due to the narrative but looking at the scene from a person’s who wasn’t familiar with the narrative prospective the costumes pretty much indicated who was the hero and who was the villain simply because superman’s (the hero) costume was consisted of bright colours : red , blue and yellow ,but zod’s costume ( the villain ) was consisted of dark colours : black and dark grey . His facial expressions were also terrifying and were filled of darkness, anger and evil. Superman was the hero of course due to the narrative and his actions but also right at the end of the scene when he is left with no choice but to decapitate zod to stop him from killing an innocent family, you can see grief and sadness in his eyes and facial expressions as he moans for zod.

Cinematography

Looking at the cinematography of the final action scene in man of steel, I was amazed by it. speaking from a viewers point of view i literally felt like I was there on the set , certain micro elements of the scene made me feel like i was part of that world , especially the cinematography ; the camera shots and movements that the director used game me a clear indication of emotion and motive . One of them was an over the shoulder shot of superman flying towards zod then it cuts into superman’s point of view shot as he punches zod , the visual effects were perfectly done to the point where it made me feel like I just made that punch . it was a very typical fighting scene ,there was fire in the background of the frame as they were fighting , the lightning and colour was used perfectly to create the disastrous mood as the city was being destroyed which was typical because we saw this type of lightning work in the movie 2012 , the dark knight rises and many more . Looking at its macro and micro elements i would say yes it was a typical action scene but by far the best cinematography I’ve seen on a movie of its genre.

tech sound unit 38

'the better the sound , the better the image' - Walter murch.
he was an editor.

job roles :
sound recordists:  he is in charge of going on location with the boom pole and recording the sound during production.

sound mixer: he in charge of the post production , he mixes the sound during post production.

Foley artist : he mimics or recreates sounds that are happening on the screen , such as the noise that a pen makes when it clicks or the sound that a heal of a ladies shoes makes as she walks.

composer/score writer: they are in charge of the music , they make the soundtrack.

sound designer: the sound designer is in charge of all the sound department and they already know what they want before the even make it.

what do we record : dialogue to tell the story , individuals or groups . we also record real world action which is something a Foley artist would record.we also record background sounds such as ambient sound for examples the noise that cars are making outside on he main road. we might record animate and inanimate sounds .

sfx: sound effects.
sync and none sync : sync is when the sound is in time with the picture , its when the sound that must happen must be in time with the video so it can be understood (dialogue , real life action ), but none sync don't need to be in time with the video to be understood .
sync sound is dialogue real life action and more ..... none sync is the background noises and so on...

sound mixing: its balancing all your sound .

wild track: its a recording of ambient sound ( background sound ) .
                         
                                                     recording environment
where you record is important , its called your environment, you can control your sound easily in the studio but on location here are tips for shutting out sounds : choose the correct microphone :
lavier (clip mic): it can can be on your shirt
shotgun mic.
omni - directional: it can pick up everything thats around it , it needs to be directional
directional / cardioid .

mic position
the muffler/ dead cat , it can mute out all the other sounds and focuses only on the direction on which the mic is being pointed in.

in the studio you have perfect acoustics , you have sound control , additional sound recording and also Foley sound recordings .
ADR: additional dialogue recording . its when you go to record additional sound .

mixers , recorders & monitoring
a mixer can mix sounds or adjusts their volume levels on the microphone ,the mic cables are called xlr cables which connects the mic into the mixer . (levels= volume).
mixers do not record they only mix sounds.
there is different types of mixers such as field mixers which uses an sd card , studio mixers.......
you can monitor with headphones or speakers.

literal layer
subtext layer
fanciful

trainspotting emman