Last Film 2 class Fall 2012

Hello guys!

I just wanted to tell you that I had so much fun working with you this semester. I am so glad that i got to know you.

The films that we made together were so much fun, and I am so looking forward to keep in touch with all of you.

Here is our lovely picture with our awesome shirts.

Thanks for all the awesomeness!

Anna Karenina by Joe Wright (2012)

Musical stage is the main background for the movie, and trying to present how musicals would present their story on a single stage. Because it is still a film, so the space of staging is using more than just the regular stages we see in concerts. The traditional audience seating area, the back stage and even the sealing were also used as part of the film.

Many of the switching frames are change by having actors turning circles with camera following with their turning, in the mean time having other actors change the background stage. It is so calculated that the changes are also part of the story that we need to see the transfer of space to know being in the different part of the story. There are also many direct cuts from one to another, but because of the brilliance of dancing while switching the seen, those did not stand out for me.

The screen is so beautifully present, there is no way I could have complete see everything, so planning to go back and see it again!

Top Gear U.K. by Andy Wilman and Jeremy Clarkson (2003-present)

Top Gear is one of the only reality television show that drives me mad. Many of the reality use comedy lighting, and with the same plot over and over without too much of a change. In Top Gear lighting isn’t too much different from the other reality shows when the seen is inside of the studio, but even with shots kept switching in the studio. Three casting members would always lead the audience from one to another, or distract the audience with sound so the swift between casting would not be out of place.

The beginning of Top Gear was very focus on showing cars, on giving opinion to rare luxury sports cars and putting celebrities behind a reasonably priced car. After few seasons, the show starting with many of the challenges to compete between public transportation to driving from England to South of France as the start, and got much more outdoor shooting there is for this show.  During the bright sun, cloudy day, raining, to complete darkness, with all different kind of climate, of course the camera would need to be treating in very differently.  

During all of the sunny or cloudy days, camera men always uses different tones of blue filters, to make the bright light much cooler to present the sharpness of the background and car itself. Sometimes the filter is from dark on the top to lighter tone at the bottom. With darkness, the camera will be the night vision and much more like a swat team following one another.

Though out many of the outdoors shooting, tripod was often use from the other end of street corner to shoot the coming car. Editing of cuts are also very sharp on the decisions, all the Top Gear seasons, personally have never felt an cut that could have be shorter. Since it is a reality show after all, there are also acting involved. It isn’t very hard some of the possibility those three casting are acting; however, the editing, shots, and sound are trying so hard for audience to focus on the subject they are acting out. It creates a kind of humour as the style for the show.

All of the shots from indoors to outdoors may not be anything new to reality television, but each presented screen are with an extra bit of care in it. By watching the show, could feel the whole crew is working as a team, with well thought ideas and the position of the camera to not only document it but also to impress the beauty and ability of the cars to audience. 

The Other Son by Lorraine Levy

The characters in The Other Son communicate with each other in French, English, Hebrew, and Arabic. This many different languages featured in the film represents the points of connection and disconnection the members of both families experience. The situations and relationships in which these languages are spoken adds tension to the movie. It was not always obvious which language two or more characters would use to communicate. Language was also a device to demonstrate certain character's development in reaching out to another, apologizing, making friends, etc. For example, Yassin and Joseph's fathers speak in English to each other, and the most we see them talk is about Israeli-Palestinian fighting, bombing, and politics. English, a language with a particular political alignment and agency, is their only common language. They speak it awkwardly, in my point of view as a native speaker. This awkwardness is brilliant -it fills the soundscape with tense pauses, mumbles and slurs. It becomes clear how difficult it is for the families to attempt to share anything (space, experiences, each other). There are beautiful subtleties in this use of language that tell the audience about the characters' relationships.

A prominent kind of shot in this film is like the photo above. There are  two figures shown together to show some unity and agreement. This is contrasted with shots where the pair is not together and positioned at the same height level. The agreement between the two married couples dissolves as the mother's accept the news and the fathers struggle against it. Thus the shot where two figures share the frame's space changes to be of the two women or the two sons -not the typical family structure seen more in the beginning of the film.

The still above is a wider version of this tense shot. The two couples are in their distinct pairs, and are further distinguished by the slight diagonal of the computer screen and the bookshelf in the background.  Even the colors of their clothes, the contrast between the light colors on the left and the darker clothes on the right, represent the differences between the families and highlight the tension in this scene.

I suggest going to see it. I don't want to share much of the story here.

A Gifted Man by Susannah Grant (2012)

This television show is absolutely boring for the decision the director had made for shots, cuts and sound. The angles of shots are nothing particularly eye catching, other than the Maserati the main character were driving in the Pilot, which despaired without explanation. Cuts are simply only from one character to another, can’t remember any special part of it. One of the choices of sound was horrible; the song’s lyric was singing about his father passed away, and the script is about his dead wife return to him.

Perhaps, all those money on the car, the interiors and the clothing, the time and money should be spending more on finding the identity of the show. Many of the shot’s style could easily be related to another famous show, and most of them are already shown in Polite; examples of the copies are from House, Lie To Me, and White Collar. It feels like the reason of making this show is just for some extra cash during this dry season.