Screen Crit: Blog vision

With this assignment I wanted to produce content fem texts that I enjoyed, writing down the things that went through my mind while watching them in a sense my greatest thoughts while watching the screen. This blog gave me the chance to express what I thought about the screen instead of writing about something I did not enjoy watching making the process much more enjoyable. Some of these blogs also sparked from topics that I had learnt from earlier in University if not revisiting the films and information from High School.

Blog 1: Red Vs Blue

Blog 2: Drive

Blog 3: Sin City: Codes and Conventions

Blog 4: Based on a True Story

 

Thank you for reading

Based on a True Story

In todays screen society there are plenty of films that follow that based on the true story style that takes a story that has already happened in the real world turning it into film while telling the story how ever the directors want. As long as the film shows the tag ‘Based on the true story’ a majority of the audience believe that everything on the screen is true and happened sometime and somewhere in the world at a point in time, but this is a play on words. Yes the term does mean the narrative had happened sometime in the world but film allows people to mold the story to their liking, as a means to tell the story in a different way or to make the story more interesting for viewing purposes.

A popular series as of late named Narcos that can be found on Netflix as an exclusive to the platform had sparked this conflict in my head. The series follows the life of drug king Pablo Escobar and how he rose to the top and fell with other drug cartels and the American DEA hunting him down, what makes this series so interesting is that it follows the DEA characters trying to hunt Pablo down as well as telling Pablo’s story, and you want both sides to win. Now of course the film is based on a true story with many characters appearing who where actually there during the time of Escobar yet a major character was introduced by the name of Horacio Carillo who was a police chief in charge of the search block hunting Escobar down. This character was a favorite of mine due to his tactical and badass attitude towards the cartels and I was disappointed to find out that he was a made up character based on Colonel Hugo Martinez. Although the real life version of the character may have been similar it was still disappointing that my favorite character in the narrative was not there at the time and did not actually do the things he did in the film.

Not only that another character by the name of Valeria Velez appears in the film as a journalist who helps Escobar and at ne stage has a sexual relationship with him who is also based on another person like Carillo is killed off brutally. The scene shows her dead body in a news film van was so brutal I had to look it up to see if it actually happened, turns out it didn’t and she is still alive. Once again I was let down as the director had molded the story in a means to make the narrative more dramatic.

Little changes such as these ones affect society on a greater scale than one may think. Days after season two was released Pablo Escobar’s son released a statement on his Facebook page of about thirty points that were not true within the Television Series, A Television Series that was so hyped up millions of people have watched it gaining a different understanding to the Escobar story than what really happened. Yet the tag ‘Based on the true story’ allows directors to make a film on a narrative that has already happened while dramatizing it in order to make it more interesting for a film audience and due to my reaction to the Narcos series and how much I loved it, I really can’t complain with what they have done here I just have to ask the question, is it right?

Sin City: Noir Codes and Conventions

What differentiates Film Noir to other genres is the typical codes and conventions that these films must include,  for example large use of shadows that may be used to overshadow the location or characters. Film noir must also include specific character traits such as the femme fatal, a dangerous female and a main protagonist who usually fits into a investigator role, the plot mostly revolves around crime or criminal activity.

The film sin city is renounced for its use of this noir aesthetics within its narrative and follows these rules in order to produce a modern neo noir work. The film is based of comic book stories that follow three vigilantly type figures that each have some sort of mission usually to save or avenge a female from corrupt police or other dangerous figures. Firstly The film follows the film noir roles as the characters shown are given traits of those you would find in the genre, all the main protagonists seem to be hard ass, battle scared men with corrupt enemies, police and inspector characters and dangerous women here and there (most notably in the blonde narrative). The role of the women in this film is quite clear, to be hunted by the men or for sexual purposes, yet the femme fatal of the story still produces a dangerous aura.

The age of the film world can also be commented on as film noir aesthetic purely the reason was that the genre was one of the 1950’s and therefore most original noir films were set in that time era. The clothing such as trench coats and fedora hats, props and attitudes can all be attached to this era strengthening the bond between the film and noir genre.

Editing plays a large part of noir as the film must follow a distinct style of black and white which sin city follows although the film places emphasis on several characters and objects by using colour.For example blood is yellow that is easily noticeable as it contrast with black and white allowing for a more outlining effect. Colour is used as a means to single out what is coloured in the frame to everything else that is going on.

The relationship between the shadows and the city within the film is quite interesting as the city resembles a safe zone due to its use of film noir shadows allowing the protagonist to hide himself. No doubt danger may happen within the city but the protagonist always escapes or survives due to the shadows, although once the character leaves the city he is venerable and danger is present. For example the farm that is a shared location among the several stories acts as a place where good characters are injured if not killed.

Sin City uses these techniques well producing a Neo noir film that works as well as noir back in the 1950’s without dumbing down todays technology. I believe this film plays homage to a genre that in today’s film world is clearly to be dead.

Drive

 

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film was the reason why I was drawn into watching the film in the first place. During my later years of high school my media teacher had played one of the opening scenes of drive that included a long shot of the city at night with the song Nightcall by Kavinsky. The song had drawn me in as the melody had everything to do with the eighties style, deep and slow electric beats that just reminded me of that Miami vice cocaine genre vibe, it still remains at the top of my favorite playlist on my iPhone.

Aside from my liking of this particular song, most if not all of the music in the film contains this eighties vibe to it, this includes diegetic and non-diegetic sound. The film is rarely soundtrack dominated, music is very rarely played for example within the opening scene where Ryan Gosling’s character introduces his profession to the audience within the car he is playing the audio to a basketball game instead of music, although this contributes to narrative as he used this to time the end of the game in order to hide within the exiting crowd of the stadium.

 Narrative

As the film name suggests the film is about cars that give the impression of a fast paced narrative, I had felt that this wasn’t the case as the film was as slow as Ryan Gosling’s character. The only fast paced sequences in this film where the three car sequences which didn’t involve that much thrill or action and was incredibility un-climactic. The narrative follows a style that introduces Gosling as this get away driver that creates a relationship with Carey Mulligan’s character and her son who are his neighbors. After getting into a somewhat romantic relationship Mulligan’s lover is out of prison and owes protection money to the mafia, in order to get this Gosling becomes the getaway driver for a heist on a pawn shop that goes wrong. The ending of the film follows Gosling killing off the mafia leaders in order to protect Mulligan. The final scene becomes a somewhat Mexican standoff situation that results in the death of the mafia leader and although the narrative makes the audience believe Gosling is going to perish due to his injury he just gets up and drives off into the sunset. What makes this ending so un-climactic is the fact you don’t even get to see the fight between the two characters, the camera only shows the shadows of the figures fighting.

Characters

 Ryan Gosling’s character first of all has not been given a real identity within the film, he is regarded as the driver in this case and has not been given a name. His character is very slow and cold and maintains an attitude of a shut-in and someone who is socially awkward. In some cases he fits the role of a driver perfectly, someone who keeps his circle closed due to his criminal profession although his attitude is purely one of the reasons why the film was so anti climactic. The film does not give the audience any time to learn about the characters and as most of the character in this film has little screen time or are just cold there is very little character development in the film, as if the actor casted were playing dolls. The characters seem incredibly boring apart from the mafia bosses which had personalities that are pretty much taken from other films or are not anything new.

 Overall

My favorite part of the film has to be the soundtrack as it was something that had stuck with me for years even though I hadn’t even seen the film. The characters were very average and bought nothing new to the table for me and in combination with the slow story it denied any action packed representation I had of the film prior to the screening. Although its positives were the several small action scenes it wasn’t enough to carry the weight of the rest of the film. It by all means is not a bad film, it was not my cup of tea and was not what I expected it to be. On a last note I would describe the film as slow and cold as Ryan Gosling’s character.

Red Vs Blue

 

As I searched Netflix one cold afternoon in order to find a new piece to watch I had come across a gem within the rough, a web series of movie length shows by the name of Red Vs Blue. This series combines both video games and cinema in one to more of an extent of a film like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World which had made the video game genre popular, in Red Vs Blues case the series take place in the game itself.

Red Vs Blue revolves around a first person shooter game called Halo: Combat Evolved which was released in 2001 that pitches two teams against each other in order to win objects, one team being blue the other being red. What Red Vs Blue does is produce cinema within the game using the process of recording the game footage and using players of the game as actors with the main narrative being the one going battle between the two teams within the game world with comedic style. The voice overs are recorded in another program and placed in the video while each character nods his head up and down as a means of speaking as the game does not allow characters to open there mouth. Company rooster teeth that began with the Red Vs Blue title and now branched off into other web series while the series is available on DVD and Blu-ray have produced the show. I find it an interesting concept that recorded footage from a game made by a group of young adult gamers had become such a big series with thirteen movie length episodes regarded as ‘series’ on Netflix, it’s a project that anyone with a computer and recording software could of produced as the tool are easy to access.

The locations in the series are the range of maps that are playable in the actual game itself (map = the area in which the game is played), for example episode one of the web series places the characters of the show in the map blood gulch which was a favorite in the first Halo game and it became the setting for the episode. This spark nostalgia as I had played this game in the past as a kid and watching this web series had made me think about several memories I had with my friends at the time playing the game.

Another interesting feature of the series is its potential to upgrade as the next installment of the Halo games comes out. What I mean by this is the first episode was filmed on the first Halo game with minimal graphics and each time a new game would come out the team would switch over in order to take advantage of the games new features and graphics in order to make it more aesthetically pleasing. The final episode takes place in the latest installment of the game that has more weapons and vehicles which act as props in this case than the first installment of the game, new maps which mean more locations for filming and better graphics in order for the game to look more realistic.

In conclusion I had found Red Vs Blue to be an interesting concept as it can be described as a project almost any gamer can do as it combines narrative and gaming together that surprisingly became a big hit. This is an example of film being produce within an actual game using Machinima style techniques and is a much cheaper alternative than producing a actual film as all the props are within the game and the actors just have to log into the game in order to perform. All the footage is mashed together within an editing program and Red Vs Blue is created.

Cinema and Door

The doorway in film offers a somewhat entry to a different environment or reality, as you enter the door way you are transported into a new area, the character may be somewhat vulnerable to the world that he or see had just entered. Without doors in film it is highly unlikely that the narrative can progress, as the character cannot enter a new realm that differs from the one they are used to in the first act of the narrative structure.

 

A most common use of doors to create major narrative progression is seen in the 2005 film Narnia the door to the wardrobe offers an entry into another plain of existence that differentiates itself from the reality that the protagonists exist in. Without the existence of this doorway the narrative would come to a halt and the land of Narnia would not have been discovered

The door can act as a threshold or a portal in a sense, this is not only present in cinema, today I was playing a game called Dark Souls in which the character struggling pushed two heavy doors open in order to reach the next level, moving from one space to another.

Doors also are a means of protection, a closed door can seal off the other side of the so called portal which may contain danger or a foreign world. Take The shinning (1980) for example, the famous door scene in which the door acts as protection from the axe wielding maniac yet as it is pierced through the symbol of danger becomes more evident to the female character.

The door may be interpreted in several ways yet I believe it symbolises the entry and exit between two different realms, weather it may be from location to location or from safety to danger. The door will always remain one of the most common and important symbols within cinema and screen.

 

 

 

Window in Film

How are windows present on screen which itself is a window frame into a new world?

Windows exist as a means to view the world on the other side of the wall, quite similar to a screen that allows the audience to view a narrative on the other side of a so-called frame we can describe as a television. Yet within the film genre frames and windows describe characters in narrative however it is presented to the audience through Mise en scene.

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film Rear view is an example of how the window functions as a means to create narrative as the crippled protagonist is bound to a room overlooking the daily activities of his neighbors. The protagonist views neighbors and the people surround him through his glass window as a spectator encouraging the narrative to continue as the Mise en scene includes the first person view of the protagonist as a Peeping Tom through the window. It is as if each window in the scene offered a different narrative, for example you have the young girl half naked somewhat stretching seductively as she starts her day while present in another window is the married couple and so on.

The window also invites the neighbors and audience into the protagonist’s space, from the opening scene by looking through the protagonists from an outsiders perspective we gain knowledge of the character and the world around him. As the camera pans we gain knowledge of a heat wave in the city, the protagonist is crippled with a broken leg, the protagonist enjoys strong alcohol, we learn he has an interest in photography which can be determined as his line of work. All this information is determined by the cinematography as the audience (us) takes the role of a peeping tom peering into the protagonist’s window without any piece of dialogue spoken.

The window and frame is a two-way observatory tool as it can be used as a means to observe the outside world whilst letting outsiders observe the observer weather it may be characters or the audience of the film.

 

Sound and Film

This weeks lecture had made me think about the crucial transition from silent cinema to cinema accompanied by sound that we known and love today. What had changed during the transition and is there any way we can change sound in the future to achieve a next level.

I would place the first stage of evolution into sound cinema in 1925 when the Warner brothers, who had opened their first cinema in Pennsylvania in 1903 introduced sound into their film replaced the live orchestra that was the norm for cinema during those times. With the use of the Vitaphone it was possible to record music and replay the melody throughout every film in a warner brothers theatre, this also abolished the need to hire an orchestra. Although during that time the public was attached to silent film they did not want to hear the actors voices therefore theater companies decided to stick with silent film and record only music using the phonograph rather than record voices, yet as more films with music were produced the spectators realised that sound was not only just a fad and everyone grew into the vocal cinema.

Although along with this advancement of technology new problems that occurred recording this new type of film for example several qualitiy silent film actors did not have a pleasurable voice to accompany there on screen performance. Studios had to be built away from noisy areas in order to record quality sound and new equipment had to be bought in order to record these films and also to play them in theatres which effected the theater companies drastically.

[1] Through time sound quality evolved such as the introduction of optical sound using 70mm magnetic that furthered reduced noise while adding stereo channels which was first used experimentally during Warner films ‘superwoman’ (1978) and Apocalypse now (1979) before becoming the industry standard.

Gathering this information made myself think of the dilemma if sound in cinema can evolve any more than what it has today, every since those days of the creation of sound cinema we have evolved into surround sound in theaters and in home cinemas. As we reside in a world that is currently evolving technology in an alarming rate is there still room for improvement for sound in cinema?

For example, [2]Dolby released new technology named Dolby Atmos which was tested on Disney’s Brave in 2012 which introduced a new audio system that created an illusion of ‘an infinite number of speakers’.

Can voice and sound in cinema evolve to a further state and possibly revive theater cinema to what it was during the silent era in this day and age?

 

[1] http://www.cinematechnologymagazine.com/pdf/dion%20sound.pdf

[2] http://investor.dolby.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=683359

Film and Skin

How does a narrative displayed on a glass LCD screen cause a reaction in our body?

If you look at it our bodies are pretty amazing, we grow or shrink depending on how much nutrients we consume, heck our bodies even release a drug called DMT at the moment of our last breath which sends you into a trance that makes death seem so much softer as a last message saying ‘ everything is going to be alright’.

So if our bodies are so amazing how come we get goose bumps simply by watching television?

To go in depth, the spectator will usually maintain bodily reactions such as Goosebumps towards narratives most commonly of Horror and Adult pornography, in other words our bodies can easily reaction to the feeling of pleasure, disgust and fear.

The earliest example of the connection between skin and cinema would be the Lumiere Brother’s Arrival of the train at La Ciotat that caused a cinema full of spectators flea in out of fear and anxiety.

Both horror and pornography contain taboo content that is usually absent from our daily lives, the dismantling of the human body in horror usually leads to Goosebumps or a cringe reaction without the spectator’s control. Our bodies don’t always react to what is on the screen, sound also is just as important in producing a bodily emotion from film, the sound of bones breaking usually make by cutting watermelon or snapping celery is enough to produce a bodily reaction.

I guess in other words our bodies react to whatever emotion is presented to us on the screen and through sound. In a sad film the spectator tends to cry, while watching an adult film or scene the spectator tends to react physically and mentally, our bodies mirror the emotions produced from the screen.

This blog post gave me a reason to watch a scene from a film that’s a favorite of mine, 28 days later (2003). During Jim’s rampage on a encampment of British solders located in a fortified mansion in which he lets loose a captive zombie which mauls every last solider is a perfect example of the connection between skin and cinema. The moment in which two zombies tear apart a solider on the kitchen table formed several goose bumps and straightened hair behind my neck, yet I noted the main reason why this was so effective was due to the sounds, which included the spine shivering screams of the solider and the zombies mauling him to pieces. The camera doesn’t show the solider getting eaten yet the face of Jim through the window watching and the face of the solider hiding in the cupboard praying for his life.

 

In conclusion if a film has the power to cause a bodily reaction I assume it means its effectively playing with our bodies emotions depending on he genre of the content.

Cinema and the Brain

During this weeks lecture one slide had stood out to me questioning what characters or aspects have stayed with you after the film?

This made me think of an interesting concept, why do our brains become so attached to characters or ideals during a television series or a film?

Take Game of Thrones for example (spoilers ahead), a series run by hype and unexpected deaths of main characters, for instance the whole family we are introduced to in the first season which are regarded as the main characters at the time are pretty much all deceased by the fifth season. Main example was john snow that recently had been killed producing a huge uproar among the spectators of the series, as he was one of the most likable and attached characters of the narrative.

Not only characters but ideologies do survive with the spectator after the screen of a narrative, for example in my case after watched the anime Clannad Afterstory (2008) the dark and saddening narrative caused me to become attached to the narrative and take away lessons learnt and place them in perspective within my own life.

The psychology behind how the spectator responding to the fictional character lies in the structure of the brain, or the supermaginal gyrus. [1] This area of the brain attempts to understand the feelings of other humans and empathizes with others.

Yet if this area of the brain allows us to understand other humans and emotions how can we understand a fictional character?

Well a character is never fake, a person within cinema may be fiction yet contains real traits and emotion that the spectator processes. This is the reason why John Snow was a favorite in the Game of Thrones series as he represented some of the truest emotions out of the majority of the cast that allowed the spectator to connect the character.

 

[1] http://www.themarysue.com/the-psychology-of-fandom/