Film Analysis

Clip C-Silence of the Lambs

Crosscutting is used, showing parallel actions of what is going on inside the home and what the police are doing outside at the same time. This way, the Kuleshov effect is created, because immediately we believe that the man in the house with the woman is going to be busted by the police simply because we relate the two story lines being flashed back and forth at us. Panning and zoom is used throughout to show the action of each shot. To add to the viewer's 'confusion', a restricted narration is used, allowing us only to gain information from the characters in the scene, of whom we have an objective depth of story from. This creates more of a surprise at the end of the scene, when we find out that the police were not targeting this man at all.
Low-key lighting is used inside on the man and woman, creating high contrast and dark shadows. Overall the shots of them are underexposed, creating a dark, uneasy feeling that something bad is going to happen. During conversations the 180 degree rule is never broken (i.e. when the woman officer comes to the door of the man.) When the man is talking to the woman in the hole, there are eye line match shots used to show where each character is related to one another. When the man is looking down at the woman, the camera tilts downward to mimic his eye line. The reverse is true as well--when the woman looks up at the man, the camera tilts upward to match her eye line and so on.

Clip D-Mangolia

This scene from Mangolia uses many elements to convey its message of the mysterious, or maybe even the dark side of broadcasting (from what I can tell from this clip). The most prominent elements are in the cinematography of the scene. First off, the use of the Long Take allows the scene to be seamless and continuous. This creates a sense of urgency in the situation, making the viewer feel the constant movement and bustle of inside the building. The scene is shot with a medium shot on the adults, however cutting of most of the little boy's body. This shows how small and innocent the child is in this adult world. It seems as though the scene was shot with a Steadicam. The way the camera turns to follow different people makes it difficult to be on a dolly, and it is too steady to be handheld. As far as perspective goes, a middle-focal-length lens was used to create a medium depth of field. This allows the viewer to easily follow the character that is being focused on in the story, but also see some of whats ahead or behind the characters to gain some context of the setting. Harder lighting is used from above the adult characters, creating shadows on their faces and making it hard to see their eyes. This gives the adult characters a mysterious undertone. However, when the scene jumps to shots of the child, frontal, high-key lighting is used, eliminating shadows and making the child seem innocent in comparison to his surroundings. When considering narration, and objective narration is used, as well as a somewhat unrestricted narration. This allows the viewers to discover more as the scene progresses, building the storyline from the bottom up. Going along with the 'unknown' feeling the clip creates, the background (nondiegetic) music shadows this as is playing mysterious, almost detective type music. Personally, I think these elements come together nicely to create the whole scene.



Clip E-Amadeus



There is an overall lack of music during the conversational parts of the scene. This silence forces the audience to feel the awkwardness of the situation when the priest does not recognize Salieri's work. The opera music during the flashback is both diegetic and nondiegetic. In the present, only Salieri can hear it while the priest truly believes the man is crazy. In the flash back, it becomes completely diegetic because it is a performance that the characters can hear. This is a nice, smooth aural transition from the present to the past. Composition centers the two characters, making them the grand focus of each shot. Also, the 180 degree rule is never broken, making it easy to follow the conversation and where each character is situated in relation to one another.
Cut transitions are used throughout, making the scene clean and easy to follow. A middle focal length lens is used throughout. During the flash back, with the low depth of field, the camera person is able to switch focus from the source of the melody, to the young creator. This way, the audience sits in anticipation to see what Salieri looked like 'back then'. Backlighting with fill light on Salieri's face makes him look old, cranky, and run down from his experiences. However on the contrary, the lighting on the priest is frontal lighting containing stronger high-key lighting illuminating his entire face, allowing him to be perceived as the young, naive character about to learn something important. Make-up and costume design are also very important in this movie. The make-up on Salieri's character makes him look very old and worn-down. In addition, the clothes the characters are wearing are from the period during which the story takes place, making everything seem authentic and real--especially during the opera scene.



Clip F-Zerkalo

This scene was also shot in a long take, to show the confusion or panic of the situation. The camera first zooms back to reveal the setting, then begins using a combination of zoom and panning to bring the story from room to room, capturing the situation as far as how many people are there, what they are doing, and what is going on outside. In order to create these shots, a zoom lens with deep focus was most likely used, so we can see everything that is going on in each frame. Most of the scene is shot is shot in Medium shot (especially on Michael) and Long shots on the people at the window, and the people outside. The last frame of the people outside looking at the fire is a long shot, showing everyone's body and thus their body language, which allows us to see that they are not only confused by how their shed/house caught fire, but also how they are at a loss of what to do. This scene also follows the rule of thirds, the house on the top horizontal line, the two adults on either vertical line, and the child running to more or less where the bottom horizontal line and the right vertical line intersect (a 'hot spot' used in photography). This gives the frame great balance and composure, maybe something that is counter intuitive to the situation. This scene uses no music at all. The only sounds we hear at first are the clock, dogs barking, and the bottle falling off the table, giving the home an eerie, abandoned feeling. Immediately after this, the concerned yelling of an older man gives us the sense that something is very wrong. Finally as we come closer to seeing the blazing house outside, the sound of burning wood grows stronger and stronger, giving the scene suspense and dread. All sounds in this shot are diegetic. The lighting in this scene is very underexposed. Most everything is dark inside the house, leaving just enough fill light to see what is going on. Because the lighting is so poor in and around the home, the blazing house outside becomes one of the only sources of light, giving more emphasis to the burning house as it holds significance and importance for the family. Overall, the sounds and sights of this shot convey the confusion, and dread of the burning shed/house outside, and what it might leave in the future for this family.

Best Picture

True Grit

1. Excellent acting, especially Hailey Steinfeld
2. A new twist on the traditional western
3. Script was well written, kept an entertained audience. Comic relief
4. The score was well done. I like how personally emotional yet classic the themes are.

Toy Story 3

1. Nostalgic
2. Good for all ages (adults have things to pick up on)
3. Entertaining references


The King's Speech

1. An interesting story to choose, revealing
2. Also excellent acting (these particular actors in these roles was impressive)
3. Cinematography was cool, camera angles and usage of scenery

Inception

1. predictable ending (saw the lack of one coming)
2. I didn't think the dream shots were that cool, could've been more realistic for the audience. Then again maybe it isn't supposed to be.
3. The whole premise of the movie was fun. I know the idea has been out there, but personally the whole idea of inception was relatively new to me.


Winter's Bone

1. The drab setting the color scheme of the movie was well done. The setting shadowed the emotions.
2. Seeing how other Americans live was enlightening.
3. The plot was slow at times, but it was appropriate as far as amounts of violence, gore, action...etc. is concerned.

The Social Network

1. Generational, appropriate (this is our time)
2. Music/college scene--captures attention
3. Too obvious, but good to know.
4. Intellectually stimulating



THE RANKING

1. True Grit

Overall, True Grit was the most satisfying among these films. The blend of old west, strong female lead and the Coen brothers' dark twists, the film kept me interested throughout, as well as left me heart warmed afterwards. The long shots of the wild west combined with the mellow classic west music was beautiful and nostalgic, reminding us of our history film-wise. I have to say my favorite part about the film was the twist on the relationships in the film. Instead of the lone cowboy toying with a woman from a frontier town, the relationship in True Grit was that between a fatherless girl and an old rugged has-been. Over time, the characters of Maddi and Rooster develop a deep bond that little else in life can replicate.

2. The King's Speech

Harry Potter characters anyone? It was fun to recognize all the actors that were involved in the Harry Potter films (always a good starting point). However, what impressed me the most was their versatility. As someone used to seeing them in robes and with wands, watching their performances in The King's Speech was inspiring. To me, the actors dropped all resemblances of their characters in other films, and assumed the roles of The King's Speech quite seamlessly. This attribute, that an actor can truly separate their roles from film to film, is one main point of good acting that I look for when I watch films. But my favorite thing about this film was the story. The fact that the Queen didn't want the film to be made during her lifetime truly backs the gravity of some of the more personal themes of the film, such as the relationship the young King had with his family. Really if you think about it, the overall story is unique; a true story of royalty befriending a commoner. It causes one to stand back and reassess what humanity truly means.

3. Winter's Bone

For what first strikes an audience as a slow, obscure plot, Winter's Bone turned out to be a pretty good film. One of the things I loved about it was the whole atmosphere the cinnemotography brought to the viewers. The rugged documentary-like shots of stray dogs, the faded winter colors, and the country banjo music playing glumly behind it, all truly brought the despair of Ree's situation to light. Being on the verge of losing your house, having lost your father and the help of your mother would truly make life as empty as this film shows. However, what stuck with me after seeing this film was how this story made me realize how secluded from the rest of the world I am. Where I live is somewhat of a bubble of paradise compared to the majority of the United States. In short, there are more situations like Ree's in this country then there are like mine. The innocence of childhood is something to be cherished.

4. The Social Network

The Social Network brought a good point to the table. The whole idea of how our generation is changing the world, how people communicate, and who controls giant sources of information is something to be discussed. In this film, this idea is portrayed rather well. By throwing the college nerds from Harvard, the business world, and the college party/club scene into a blender, the story of how Facebook came to be was made into an entertaining story. Throughout the movie, the audience is entertained by not only the drama of the lawsuits, but also some comic relief thrown in here and there--not to mention the intellectually stimulating script. The writers truly found the line between comprehensible and too far when writing the dialogue of The Social Network. This means in the film, the language the college kids were using let you know just how smart they are without leaving you completely in the dust. But, as entertaining as the story was, it was rather predictable. The world already knew the gist of the Facebook creation story.

5. Inception

What? Just kidding. Many people I talked to after seeing this film thought it was too hard to follow. I disagree. I found it relatively easy to follow, even though the whole concept of inception was pretty new to me. I'll be honesty, the idea of getting inside other people's dreams to control their actions is plain old cool. However, this film quickly turned into a mainstream action movie, something I'm not crazy about. Even so, in action movies I look for special effects, how realistic things are, and how believable the actions of characters are. When looking for these elements in Inception, I was rather disappointed. Yes, I realize most of the movie takes place in some sort of dream and therefore isn't real to begin with. But even so, I thought the effects could have been better, making the dreams more realistic, thus giving the audience a better thrill. Just think of how confusing it would be if there was no distinction at all between dream levels. Yet my biggest disappointment was the ending: how many times has the whole "is it real, or not?" thing been used? Overall, I found the film predictably unpredictable.

6. Toy Story 3

This film was a nice addition to my viewing list. For me, it was all about nostalgia. Remembering the days when I'd sit down with my family and watch Toy Story 1 was fun. I have always liked how these films throw in some humor for every one so even adults are somewhat entertained. I also thought the references to both prior movies of the trilogy and movies outside of the trilogy were clever and tasteful in the situation. However cute and nostalgic it was, it didn't have enough energy and captivation to be at the top of my list. (There have been many more annimations done in the past few years that top this.) Final words: Good, could have been better.