The film City of god was directed by Fernando Meirelles in 2002 and then released on the 3rd of January 2003. the film follows the life of two boys growing up in the slum of Rio De Janeiro in brazil which is a violent neighbour hood. the film focuses on a true story from the 1960's.
the two boys in the film Rocket at li'l Ze lead completely different lifes and futures.
Rocket is the son of a Poor fisherman who's lifes ambitions are to become a succesful photographer who is trapped within the city of violence and the corruption going in within the city as well as watching the city boss as he rises and falls.
The only way for rocket to fulfil his life ambitions is to expose the citys violent back ground to the world through his pictures however this could lead to great consiquences as
Tuesday 10 November 2009
Wednesday 21 October 2009
Cinematography – Matrix scene 29
Cinematography – Matrix scene 29
The scene I’ve chosen to do this section of work on is scene 29 from the matrix, this scene consists of a lot of action and fighting consisting of gun fighting it also using a lot of slow motion editing when the character’s perform stunts. However the six shots that I have chosen to annotate are from the build up to the action.
The first shot in this scene is a low angle close up camera shot of the main characters boots which also shows his the bottom of his long full body length jacket shown just above his boots. The boots and the jacket are both very dark dual colours. The use of this low angle camera shot is showing us that the character that stands in front of us is a superior and that he has a lot of power it’s almost as if we as the viewer is a little cockroach looking up and this character. The sound affects used in this shots is the characters foots steps which would have been enhanced due to the nature of the camera angle and it also had non diegetic sound affects in the back ground to create a build up of tension leading towards the future events.
The next shot is an establishing shot this shot is shot from behind the main character’s head, within the first section of this shot it sets the scene by showing us two security guards at a desk near a luggage conveyor belt used for security checks and a clear glass wall which looks to be a large open space (empty room) which seems odd as its being guarded. The same shot then tilts down towards the main characters bag and tracks it as it goes along the conveyor belt and end as the bag passes through the security check part over the conveyor belt.
After this shot it opens up on a red flashing and rotating light at a low camera angle, the camera then tilts down to focus on a bar of separate green and red lights which I assume are used in reference of the metal detector and red flashy light which would tell us that the metal detectors result have raised a cause of concern to the security and needs to be further checked. The camera then tilts even further down revealing the main character standing in-between the metal detector. Again because this shot is a low camera angle it shows that the character has power and that he isn’t venerable to the events that are soon to occur.
This is followed up by a medium long shot showing the main character and one security guard. This show shows the two characters well spaced. The security guard is in a more serious stance as if he’s ready to pounce on the main character, as it is if the alarms on a metal detector go of they expect the worst. Whereas the main character is just browsing around visually scouting out the area paying no attention to the security in this shot the change in sound is as the security guard is talking to the main character even if he is paying barely any attention.
This shot is rather interesting as its a close up on the main characters torso as ha reveals that he is fully armed with weapons around his torso which doesn’t just take the security guard by surprise it takes the audience by surprise as you wouldn’t believe you could carry that many weapons! The camera then tilts up his torso towards his face before cutting to the next shot. The reason I found this shot interesting is because it takes us by surprise you don’t expect to see so many weapons on one person.
The final shot shows the main character using the palm of his hand to knock the security guard to the floor. This has been done using a slow motion editing affect the bring tension into the film and also mean that when the next shot is sped up it makes it more dramatic and the event give you more of a rush as it seems faster than it should be. The shot used as the security guard falls to the ground is a slow motion tracking shot, This shot is a medium close up, before the security guard falls the main focus is on the main characters hand as he hits him to knock him down. The sound non diegetic tension build up so far has now gone since the main character revealed his weapons which meant for the slow motion shot they could introduce the sound affect of someone being hit in the gut for realism. This means the sound affects used are now diegetic.
Sorry its late, will try to add pictures later least the important stuff is up now
The scene I’ve chosen to do this section of work on is scene 29 from the matrix, this scene consists of a lot of action and fighting consisting of gun fighting it also using a lot of slow motion editing when the character’s perform stunts. However the six shots that I have chosen to annotate are from the build up to the action.
The first shot in this scene is a low angle close up camera shot of the main characters boots which also shows his the bottom of his long full body length jacket shown just above his boots. The boots and the jacket are both very dark dual colours. The use of this low angle camera shot is showing us that the character that stands in front of us is a superior and that he has a lot of power it’s almost as if we as the viewer is a little cockroach looking up and this character. The sound affects used in this shots is the characters foots steps which would have been enhanced due to the nature of the camera angle and it also had non diegetic sound affects in the back ground to create a build up of tension leading towards the future events.
The next shot is an establishing shot this shot is shot from behind the main character’s head, within the first section of this shot it sets the scene by showing us two security guards at a desk near a luggage conveyor belt used for security checks and a clear glass wall which looks to be a large open space (empty room) which seems odd as its being guarded. The same shot then tilts down towards the main characters bag and tracks it as it goes along the conveyor belt and end as the bag passes through the security check part over the conveyor belt.
After this shot it opens up on a red flashing and rotating light at a low camera angle, the camera then tilts down to focus on a bar of separate green and red lights which I assume are used in reference of the metal detector and red flashy light which would tell us that the metal detectors result have raised a cause of concern to the security and needs to be further checked. The camera then tilts even further down revealing the main character standing in-between the metal detector. Again because this shot is a low camera angle it shows that the character has power and that he isn’t venerable to the events that are soon to occur.
This is followed up by a medium long shot showing the main character and one security guard. This show shows the two characters well spaced. The security guard is in a more serious stance as if he’s ready to pounce on the main character, as it is if the alarms on a metal detector go of they expect the worst. Whereas the main character is just browsing around visually scouting out the area paying no attention to the security in this shot the change in sound is as the security guard is talking to the main character even if he is paying barely any attention.
This shot is rather interesting as its a close up on the main characters torso as ha reveals that he is fully armed with weapons around his torso which doesn’t just take the security guard by surprise it takes the audience by surprise as you wouldn’t believe you could carry that many weapons! The camera then tilts up his torso towards his face before cutting to the next shot. The reason I found this shot interesting is because it takes us by surprise you don’t expect to see so many weapons on one person.
The final shot shows the main character using the palm of his hand to knock the security guard to the floor. This has been done using a slow motion editing affect the bring tension into the film and also mean that when the next shot is sped up it makes it more dramatic and the event give you more of a rush as it seems faster than it should be. The shot used as the security guard falls to the ground is a slow motion tracking shot, This shot is a medium close up, before the security guard falls the main focus is on the main characters hand as he hits him to knock him down. The sound non diegetic tension build up so far has now gone since the main character revealed his weapons which meant for the slow motion shot they could introduce the sound affect of someone being hit in the gut for realism. This means the sound affects used are now diegetic.
Sorry its late, will try to add pictures later least the important stuff is up now
Thursday 15 October 2009
Elephant – Gus Van Sant
The film elephant is a reasonably blunt film it doesn’t really have much going on in this film. The film is showing us several points of view’s from your average high school student. The film has a long build up to a traumatising ending which in my opinion emphasises how unexpected the final event is, however this does drag on quite a bit and I did begin to find the film rather boring.
However a few features of the film that I did like was how they repeated one shot several times as it re-introduce the timing of the film at which point they introduced a point of view from another character each time. I found this quite affective as it kept the viewer on track of what was happening, because if they didn’t do this you would assume that the event are happening over time and not at the same time.
Another affect of this film that I rather liked was how they introduced it with a sped up shot of the sky showing time passing as they also ended the film in the same way, In my opinion it breaks the film in and out, and show how un expected the event of the film are.
The film was packed with tracking shots and point of view shots. One of the tracking shots that stood out to me was when they was on the field as they had a kick around going on the camera stayed focused and then as people started to clear off the camera followed the guy in the red hoody (Alex I believe?) When I was actually watching this it gave me the impression that he was actually being followed by another character like a stalker. I was thinking it was like someone madly in love with him and I was even more confident of this when the camera stopped at the edge of the field and just watched the character walk back into the building. Then as the camera started tracking him around the school it became more obvious that he wasn’t being followed by another character especially as he approached his girl friend it was the moment for me when I decided no its just a camera shot otherwise his girl friend would have noticed.
Another camera shot I liked was when they did a 360 degree view of the classroom showing everyone in the classroom the reason I liked this shot was because it was unusual as you would only go up to 180 degrees normally and it showed everyone individually and well spaced that was in the classroom at the time, This brings me to another point that I noticed. The majority of the camera shots in this film were mainly fixed to one character giving them the spot light all the time there wasn’t many shots were more than one person was on focus, however there would be people in the back ground but they would generally be slightly blurred which showed that they wasn’t important at this time.
A point of view shot that I found affective was when Michelle was getting changed. This was because you could tell that she was a shy non-popular person from the way that she was getting changed all nervous. Another thing was the people that appear in the back ground was blurred slightly but you could hear what they was talking about but from watching the film trying to hear what they was saying felt like you was over hearing a conversation as they was mocking Michelle and this all made you feel as if Michelle is trying to council these people out of her life.
Lighting-
The appeal of this film wasn’t Hollywood at all and was like very standard and legit so the lighting was natural and realistic, nothing really seemed enhanced in this film as I believe that they film was designed to look as natural as possible as if it wasn’t filmed but you’re watching over the events that have occurred.
Editing-
Uses of editing in this film would be when they manipulate the film to bring it back to shot where they can then show the viewer a different prospective of what’s happening at the same moment of time from another characters point of view, another use of editing I noticed in this film was how they introduced every character with a blacked out screen with their name central screen in white writing. This was a simple form of editing but very blunt and to the point.
Music –
A lot of the music with in this film was non diegetic and would begin to build tension when nothing was happening, one of my favourite uses of sound was when they had the piano playing in one scene non diegetic and then cut to another scene with the piano still playing which then made the sound diegetic. I thought this was a good use of sound and bought 2 scenes together well.
Costume -
The costumes used for this film was very simple as it was a high school which meant that the students would be wearing casual every day clothing and the teachers would just be wearing a simple suit, the teachers were generally wearing dual coloured suits and the students was just wearing T-shirts or hoodies.
Use of off-screen space –
A good example of off screen space would be when they used the sound of the piano in the scene as showing a character at home then cut across to another character at home which linked on shot to another quite efficiently however it was unexpected that the next shot was going to be of someone playing a piano in their room.
The film elephant is a reasonably blunt film it doesn’t really have much going on in this film. The film is showing us several points of view’s from your average high school student. The film has a long build up to a traumatising ending which in my opinion emphasises how unexpected the final event is, however this does drag on quite a bit and I did begin to find the film rather boring.
However a few features of the film that I did like was how they repeated one shot several times as it re-introduce the timing of the film at which point they introduced a point of view from another character each time. I found this quite affective as it kept the viewer on track of what was happening, because if they didn’t do this you would assume that the event are happening over time and not at the same time.
Another affect of this film that I rather liked was how they introduced it with a sped up shot of the sky showing time passing as they also ended the film in the same way, In my opinion it breaks the film in and out, and show how un expected the event of the film are.
The film was packed with tracking shots and point of view shots. One of the tracking shots that stood out to me was when they was on the field as they had a kick around going on the camera stayed focused and then as people started to clear off the camera followed the guy in the red hoody (Alex I believe?) When I was actually watching this it gave me the impression that he was actually being followed by another character like a stalker. I was thinking it was like someone madly in love with him and I was even more confident of this when the camera stopped at the edge of the field and just watched the character walk back into the building. Then as the camera started tracking him around the school it became more obvious that he wasn’t being followed by another character especially as he approached his girl friend it was the moment for me when I decided no its just a camera shot otherwise his girl friend would have noticed.
Another camera shot I liked was when they did a 360 degree view of the classroom showing everyone in the classroom the reason I liked this shot was because it was unusual as you would only go up to 180 degrees normally and it showed everyone individually and well spaced that was in the classroom at the time, This brings me to another point that I noticed. The majority of the camera shots in this film were mainly fixed to one character giving them the spot light all the time there wasn’t many shots were more than one person was on focus, however there would be people in the back ground but they would generally be slightly blurred which showed that they wasn’t important at this time.
A point of view shot that I found affective was when Michelle was getting changed. This was because you could tell that she was a shy non-popular person from the way that she was getting changed all nervous. Another thing was the people that appear in the back ground was blurred slightly but you could hear what they was talking about but from watching the film trying to hear what they was saying felt like you was over hearing a conversation as they was mocking Michelle and this all made you feel as if Michelle is trying to council these people out of her life.
Lighting-
The appeal of this film wasn’t Hollywood at all and was like very standard and legit so the lighting was natural and realistic, nothing really seemed enhanced in this film as I believe that they film was designed to look as natural as possible as if it wasn’t filmed but you’re watching over the events that have occurred.
Editing-
Uses of editing in this film would be when they manipulate the film to bring it back to shot where they can then show the viewer a different prospective of what’s happening at the same moment of time from another characters point of view, another use of editing I noticed in this film was how they introduced every character with a blacked out screen with their name central screen in white writing. This was a simple form of editing but very blunt and to the point.
Music –
A lot of the music with in this film was non diegetic and would begin to build tension when nothing was happening, one of my favourite uses of sound was when they had the piano playing in one scene non diegetic and then cut to another scene with the piano still playing which then made the sound diegetic. I thought this was a good use of sound and bought 2 scenes together well.
Costume -
The costumes used for this film was very simple as it was a high school which meant that the students would be wearing casual every day clothing and the teachers would just be wearing a simple suit, the teachers were generally wearing dual coloured suits and the students was just wearing T-shirts or hoodies.
Use of off-screen space –
A good example of off screen space would be when they used the sound of the piano in the scene as showing a character at home then cut across to another character at home which linked on shot to another quite efficiently however it was unexpected that the next shot was going to be of someone playing a piano in their room.
Tuesday 6 October 2009
Editing
The use of film editing can create many affects for a film to meet the directors specification the majority of the time people won’t even notice the fine art that has been created by the editors within the film as its over within a second and by the time you might have noticed it your guaranteed to have missed a lot of affects in-between. With today’s technology a lot of editing affects can be made to look so real that you wouldn’t even notice it which is one of the main importance’s with editing today.
An example of the affects creating by editing out shown in the screen shot from the first scene of fast and furious when "Dom" is driving under a flaming gas tanker in the air which is on fire. I might be wrong in saying this but I’d believe that this fire has been created on a computer as it would cut costs and the pollution that would be created in doing this as well as the safety of the cast the fire would of been rendered but this is just an example of many editing affects that can be used
... I think I was talking more about special affects there but I’m going to leave it on here anyways just in case (:
With editing you can build and reduce tension in a scene by speeding up the transitions or slowing them down. if you are to build tension in a scene it would generally be an action sequence where you would be trying to get the viewer on the edge of their seats desperate to see what happens next and the way the tension would be built is by using lots of shots showing which creates a busy and fast appeal
If you wanted to reduce tension you would slow the transitions down and reduce how much is going on in a scene. the sort of scenes that would be slow would be the scene that are feeding the viewer important information which would prepare them for what’s going to happen next, the reason these would be slowed down and more relaxed is because otherwise the viewer wouldn’t be able to keep up with what’s happening because there would be too much going on at once flashing from one place to another and let’s face it 90% of the time when you’re watching films your switched off and trying to stay awake?
An example of the affects creating by editing out shown in the screen shot from the first scene of fast and furious when "Dom" is driving under a flaming gas tanker in the air which is on fire. I might be wrong in saying this but I’d believe that this fire has been created on a computer as it would cut costs and the pollution that would be created in doing this as well as the safety of the cast the fire would of been rendered but this is just an example of many editing affects that can be used
... I think I was talking more about special affects there but I’m going to leave it on here anyways just in case (:
With editing you can build and reduce tension in a scene by speeding up the transitions or slowing them down. if you are to build tension in a scene it would generally be an action sequence where you would be trying to get the viewer on the edge of their seats desperate to see what happens next and the way the tension would be built is by using lots of shots showing which creates a busy and fast appeal
If you wanted to reduce tension you would slow the transitions down and reduce how much is going on in a scene. the sort of scenes that would be slow would be the scene that are feeding the viewer important information which would prepare them for what’s going to happen next, the reason these would be slowed down and more relaxed is because otherwise the viewer wouldn’t be able to keep up with what’s happening because there would be too much going on at once flashing from one place to another and let’s face it 90% of the time when you’re watching films your switched off and trying to stay awake?
Costume and make-up
Costume and make-up plays in important role within films as it creates the characters overall appeal within the film and it can also help set the scene or it can tell you what the character will be doing.
The costume is usually your first impression of a character. The Costume which the characters will be wearing can be as simple or as crazy as the director wishes to have them. however the costumes have to show the characters life style and personality in order to work. For example if you had an actor playing the role of a homeless person the costume would be a simple dual coloured rugged costume which would generally be a simple, cheap and easy costume. then again if you had a rich and powerful character at the other end of the scale you would have, luxurious clothing maybe bright shinny clothing with lots of jewellery. this is because this would show the power the character has over the rest of the cast. As a standard this would work. However if the director was to do the dress a hobo with luxury clothes and jewel’s it would ruin the appeal of the hobo and the viewer wouldn’t recognise the character as a homeless person, unless the view from this point was a rich person that has lost everything and forced to live on the streets. However if this was the case then the luxury costume would probably then have to back roughed up to give it a rugged worn affect in order to make this work.
The Make-up in films is just as important as the costume as the make up is used to create the character as well as the costume. The make up can be used to show the characters emotion and the sort of person they are for example cheerful (: or miserable): . The make-up used in films is also used in correspondence with the lighting in the scene as the lighting can reflect the effects of the make-up.
The affects of make up being light and dark is also used to draw your attention to a certain character for example if you have a group of people with dark mark up and then one person with light makeup its going to draw your attention to the character with the lighter make up as they are going to stand out from the others.
The use of make up in films can also to create a character as the make up can be used to make someone look older or younger as well as completely changing there form as the make up is used to create non human characters(monsters).
The costume is usually your first impression of a character. The Costume which the characters will be wearing can be as simple or as crazy as the director wishes to have them. however the costumes have to show the characters life style and personality in order to work. For example if you had an actor playing the role of a homeless person the costume would be a simple dual coloured rugged costume which would generally be a simple, cheap and easy costume. then again if you had a rich and powerful character at the other end of the scale you would have, luxurious clothing maybe bright shinny clothing with lots of jewellery. this is because this would show the power the character has over the rest of the cast. As a standard this would work. However if the director was to do the dress a hobo with luxury clothes and jewel’s it would ruin the appeal of the hobo and the viewer wouldn’t recognise the character as a homeless person, unless the view from this point was a rich person that has lost everything and forced to live on the streets. However if this was the case then the luxury costume would probably then have to back roughed up to give it a rugged worn affect in order to make this work.
The Make-up in films is just as important as the costume as the make up is used to create the character as well as the costume. The make up can be used to show the characters emotion and the sort of person they are for example cheerful (: or miserable): . The make-up used in films is also used in correspondence with the lighting in the scene as the lighting can reflect the effects of the make-up.
The affects of make up being light and dark is also used to draw your attention to a certain character for example if you have a group of people with dark mark up and then one person with light makeup its going to draw your attention to the character with the lighter make up as they are going to stand out from the others.
The use of make up in films can also to create a character as the make up can be used to make someone look older or younger as well as completely changing there form as the make up is used to create non human characters(monsters).
Monday 28 September 2009
Leon Film Review (:
The film "Leon" was directed and written by Luc besson And released in 3rd February 1995 the film is a crime thriller
The film is about a man called Leon who is a cleaner, He is really good at what he does and knows nothing but what he does, however next door to him in the block of flats of which he is living at there is a young girl that has allot of family problems and all of her family get killed apart from her luckily for her Leon takes her in and saves her life. The girl (matilda) wishes to repay Leon for saving her life and also wishes to get revenge by becoming a cleaner just like him however Leon doesn’t believe she is worthy of doing so, However in the end they come to an agreement that he will teach her to clean and she teaches him to read and write. From this the two begin to build a good relationship with each other.
As the film goes on the girl tries to get revenge on her families killer which just so happens to be a police officer where in the mean time Leon is already getting revenge for her, and somewhere across the line the plan all goes wrong and there ends up being a blood bath of swat teams where Leon is fighting to defend himself as well as matilda,
The film ends fantastically however also with a tear jerker because, Leon manages to get revenge on the man who kills matilda's family, but in the process he dies. But I love the way it end with an explosion as he is completely covered in armed explosives and his last words are given to matilda showing that he cares. However the one thing I didn’t get about the ending is that it looks like before he blew himself up he got shot in the head?
Setting
The film was set in new York which is a good place to be set because allot happens in new York and as theirs allot of people around it would make a crime harder to disguise but at the same time because of new York having such a high population you can simply hide by moving down the street, but the fact that Leon's business goes un seen shows that he’s a professional assassin.
Props
The main prop within the hole film is Leon's plant near the start of the film we see him pruning his plant right through to the very end everywhere Leon went his plan went with him, in the film they mentioned about burying the plan and letting it grow tall and strong with roots to Leon however it wasn’t until Leon had died that the plant was actually buried I thought that this was a good way of showing that the plant was important to Leon and now it’s important to matilda as well
Lighting
Throughout the hole film the lighting seemed rather dual and dark which gives the film its thriller appeal and keeps you watching and raring for some action within the film, One of my favourite uses of lighting in the film is where they use the light shining through the door way as Leon opens the door to matilda because it’s like opening the gates to heaven on earth to her because if she wasn’t let in she would simply of been murdered like the rest of her family and she knew it.
Shots
The film had some great camera shots and one of my favourite camera shots was Leon's Point of view shot before he died because it put allot of power into the scene as you watch from his prospective falling after being shot and just before you die lying on the floor looking outside to the sunny city of new York, only a few steps from freedom before he is murdered. another camera shot I liked was the long shot at the start and end of the film when they are going over the wood leading into the city then at the end of the film in the city leading out to the woods where matilda buried Leon's plat which was basically symbolising burying Leon's life, putting him to rest (:
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