Chalk

Ok, so I watched this movie a few nights ago, and I would just like to applaud it for the following reasons:

1) It was funny, but not too funny. The humor level was at the point where I'd chuckle to myself a little bit and every once in awhile pull a Mr. Roddy and burst out with one laughter note.

2) The characters were easy to follow, with their problems/goals very reasonable and easy to understand. It wasn't a big 'figure it out' movie, it just happened, without questions.

3) The length was BEAUTIFUL. 84 minutes. Solid. I love a movie that starts, gets its point across, and ends. I don't need a trick ending, and I don't need anything to drag on. It was just enough of suspense to keep me enjoying it and it was just enough wrap up to not make me wonder too much.

All in all, well done.

His Girl Friday

While drawing a blank on what to write about for His Girl Friday, because I feel like my opinion is getting a little bit boring, I decided to explore why it fits so well as a screwball comedy instead of a romantic comedy (I know, really thrilling, right?).

First of all, the characters are ridiculous. Take Earl Williams for example. Looking back on the film, he killed someone after sitting in a park for awhile and losing a job and shot someone maybe to escape something? Whatever his true story is, it's very wacky and no one ever challenges the validity of what he says or does.

Also, the romantic aspect is not played up at all. There is one kiss (I think) in the whole film, which is literally just a goodbye peck. This adds to the screwball-ness of the film because the focus isn't on the lovey dovey relationships, it's on the fact that Walter and Hildy have a career together and nothing - not even Bruce - can keep her away from it.

Lastly, there is only one main time when the audience ever "agonizes" over whether Hildy and Walter will get together, and it only lasts for maybe a minute before they've made up their minds.

unfor-who cares.

I did not enjoy the movie unforgiven. I don't like movies with a lot of violence in them, and this movie was too painful to watch. However, I do not think that there would have been any other way to get the message of the movie across without the brutal killing scenes. To get into the head of Will Munny and to get into the emotions of the Schofield Kid would not have been possible without seeing them actually kill innocent people. I also think that Ned almost gave the audience an 'out' (before he was killed) to rest assured that at least someone was being a good honest person. The fact that the movie didn't just end with the two men dead made it a whole lot more of an emotional wreck for the audience. They couldn't just end it with getting money and meeting up with Ned; they had to bring a whole new aspect to the film, killing Ned unjustly and making Will need the revenge aspect. I think that there wasn't really another way to get the audience that involved in their lives, but personally I do not support it.

this has nothing to do with film; it is sweet, learn about it.

Finding out a lot more about Nemo

So initially when starting this film assignment, not going to lie, I was a bit of a downer thinking "oh shoot, I forgot to rent a really 'intriguing or thoughtful' movie of my choice so I'm stuck with my own movie collection which doesn't consist of many 'quality' movies." However, after watching Finding Nemo (one of three movies I own on the list of top 100) and viewing the special features I realized how crazy tough and really intense animation is!

Finding Nemo, written and directed by Andrew Stanton, is a Pixar/Disney film about a clown fish (Nemo) who gets taken away by a SCUBA diver from his overprotective father (Marlin). The story follows Marlin's journey to find Nemo and Nemo's attempts at escaping aquarium life.

The whole inspiration came from writer and director Andrew Stanton, who wrote the story based on his experiences living near the ocean and looking at the aquarium in his dentist's office. He completely wrote the story (which was eventually tweaked and whatnot by everyone working on it) with many challenges facing him and his team.

Their first struggle was getting the look of the ocean. I know, it seems general, but there was actually a LOT of trouble getting the water to look just right. The animation artists had to understand the physics behind water, and how that would play a role in the look they were going for. The light sources, the density of the water, the swells and currents of the water, and the visibility within the ocean all played huge roles in how the film would end up looking. With the ocean looking just right they then had another rather important task. Fish.

All members of the film making team were SCUBA certified and went on dives in the coral reefs around Australia to observe fish in their natural habitats. They also used dead fish from aquariums in the local area to observe exactly how their bodies look and how the appendages move and are shaped. There was a sculptor on the animation team that would literally sculpt every character that was developed by the artists; the sculptures were then used by the animators to get a full sense of how the character could be digitally produced. There were several scientists that helped the crew make sure all the fish in the movie were accurately (minus the talking and emotions) depicted and very realistic.

The lighting was one of the most difficult aspects of the film that they had to face. Dory, one of the main characters, is a blue fish... swimming in a blue ocean. Having Dory and contrastingly orange Marlin swimming in the same frame together for the majority of the movie was a struggle for the animators in regards to being able to see everything clear enough continuing to have a blue ocean as the setting. Also, the light reflections and refrations through and about the water were very difficult to show realistically, but amazingly, they did it!

Through a long (3.5 year) process, the team of writers, producers, art directors, animators, and computer specialists, all produced an awe-strikingly spectacular animated film.

Interesting Interview
Pixar Site w/ behind the scenes info
ocean website

Stage Coach

I am going to expand on the question we were asked in our packet about the role of the indians in the film- or how they are portrayed and why, yada yada yada.

I think that the director was trying to make the native americans in the film seem like very stereotyped, not that big of a deal indians. The way that we never really see one of them close up, or know any of their names makes them seem very distant. The lack of attachment or recognition of any of them individually really makes it easier for us to be alright with them all being killed. I think that if we had followed the story of how the indians came to hate the stagecoach and who they were exactly, we might not have been ok with the brutal attacks and might have actually felt some sympathy- or any emotion at all - towards the indians.

I think at this time period in movie making, that was a typical view of the directors and general public, so it wasn't really thought of much. I think that the stereotyping and lump summing of the indians just adds to the 'western' style and shows the political time period the movie takes place in. I don't really have any personal anger towards it, I'm just throwing it out there.

....and here's a picture to clear the mind...

Citizen Kane

In Citizen Kane, I thought the most influential part of the movie was the use of cinematic elements by the director. There were several shots that were carried throughout the movie to retain continuity and there were also several stand out shots that made the movie unique.

One shot that was used a couple of times was the framing of Kane in the center of the frame with other people talking about him using the deep focus lens. The first time we see this is when he is sledding (you can see him out the window) and his parents are talking in the foreground to get rid of him. The second time we see this is when Kane is at his party and he's shown dancing in the reflection in the window while in the foreground his two friends are discussing him. These shots make Kane seem very uninvolved or almost careless as to what is happening in the world around him. It shows that the people closest to him have level heads while he is somewhat up in the clouds, unconcerned.

Another shot technique that was used several times was the crane shot. We see this when the narration goes to Susan in her night club, through the sign and down the sky window. We also see it at Xanadu a few times craning over all Kane's stuff and outside views of Xanadu. This crane technique really makes us seem like we're the investigators right along side Thompson. It helps us to creep into scenes and have a sort of "outsiders" perspective.