Mise-en-scene “The Last Emperor”

This shot from the film “The Last Emperor” manages to convey a sense of power and majesty of an exotic culture, but it also hints at an end to this way of life. It shows or conveys a sense of power because of the position of the characters, they are all kneeling down in perfect straight lines looking forward and this evokes a sense of respect. At the same time another thing that evokes the sense of respect is that the shot is perfectly symmetrical and it gives a sense of order. The temple in the set looks very powerful and huge because of the difference in the size in the people kneeling at the front and the temple it self. This shot makes the audience feel inferior and weak because it is a wide long shot, which evokes the feeling of domination.

All the people kneeling dressed in weird costumes that makes us realize it is another culture. People look loyal and as if they were waiting for the end of something. It manages to do this by showing everything in a dark tone, which evokes a sense of doom. Also it does this by showing the throne at the beginning of the long path.

Director (Santos Espina, Sabrina Cantini)

Summary:

The director is responsible for the dramatic structure, pace, and directional flow of the sounds and visual images. He/she must maintain viewer interest: must position himself as audience and analyze the movie as a whole, but caring about every minimum detail in able to convey this “whole image”. The director works with the talent and crew, staging and plotting action, refining the master shooting script, supervising setups and rehearsals, as well as giving commands and suggestions throughout the entire recording and editing.

The director decides how the film should look, turning the script into a sequence of shots, therefore adapting it to reality –this gives him the responsibility of knowing how to correctly adapt the script, translating it to real images-. He takes the important decisions during the filming such as: camera angles and distances, lens’ effects, lighting and set design. He is also responsible for the hiring of new crew members (and managing the ones who are already working in the movie).

The director has to advise and order the actors on how to play the different scenes, in order to convey the desired mood/effect. He makes storyboards to illustrate the shot sequences and concepts (how the link with each other, ideas of the shot, etc). The director also has to participate in the general editing of the movie, advising on color grading, different sound mixes (both diagetic and non-diagetic), different shot sequences, etc.

A director has to have a general technical knowledge/understanding of the equipment being used (cameras, lights, etc). He needs to be able to have an outstanding communicative skill to interact with the other crew members efficiently through the filming. He should be extremely committed with the movie and an organized person (able to meet deadlines, work efficiently). A director is required a deep knowledge in visual composition, writing skills, technical applications, different software, and film structure in general (themes, moods, and how to create these!).

            A director must be able to have an accurate location planning, in able to convey scenery adequate for the script and the essence of the movie, shot pacing, acting styles, etc.  

The director has a los of responsibility on him.  He has to take care of all the problems in the film making. For example, if the actor refuses to do a scene, the director is responsible in taking care of this. The director is the one responsible in looking for the settings that sometimes they might not find.

The director must have the ability to see the movie as a whole, a unified and finished piece of work (even before it’s completed), enabling him to take care of the details which create this wider concept (He is the one in charge of putting together all the little pieces which make the movie together). This is because he is the one responsible of portraying/conveying the ESSENCE of the movie he is directing, and for being able to do this, he must pay crucial attention to every single detail which takes part in the movie.

Case Study: Tim Burton

Biography: born in 1958, in the city of Burbank, California, Burton was a very introspective person in his childhood, finding pleasure in drawing, painting, and occasionally filming short movies in his backyard. He graduated at CalArts and called Disney’s attention, in where he had a short work, because of his desire to follow a more solo career.

            His films have as a characteristic the setting of imaginary worlds, fantasy and exaggerated themes and a dark tone to many of his movies (Burton enjoyed reading Edgar Alan Poe in his early days). Between the actors he has worked with, there are some he particularly tends to use; examples being Johnny Depp (e.g.: Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sweeney Todd) and Helena Bonham Carter (e.g.: Corpse Bride, Big Fish, Alice in Wonderland).

State and Main

The Film: 

Director:

• Co-ordinates the other crew members.
• Tells actors how to play their roles.
• Take most of decitions.
• Makes orders.

Script Writer:

• Provides the initial story.
• Re-write story and change it depending on what the director decides.
• "You cant portray with the pictures what you are saying with the words

Cinematographer:

• Chooses which shots to use.
• Creates and designs the setting.
• Films the shots.

Producer:

• Makes the contracts.
• Gets the money for the movie.

Actors:

• Interpretates a character in the story.
• They have to learn their lines.
• Actors have script conferences.

Costume Designer:

• Designs apropiate clothes for actors to wear in every scene in the movie.

Assistant Director:

• He is the voice of the directos.
• He does every thing that the director asks him to do.

French Impressionist cinema (1918-1929)

1.

“Impression, soleil levant”

Claude Monet

(1872)

“Woman with a parasol”

Claude Monet

(1875)

Impressionism: The theory or method of suggesting an effect or impression without elaboration of the details; -- a disignation of a recent fashion in painting and etching.

3.Camera work: The distance, angle and movement or the images. 

    Lightning and decoration: shadows indicating off-screen actions.

    Magical effects.

4.Abel Gance (1889-1981)

Films:

“Un grand amour de Beethoven”

“Napoleon”

Louis Delluc(1890-1924)

Films:

“Le silence”

“La femme de Nulle Part”

Shot Film (Tomas Wetzel, Ernesto Trovato, Honorio Oleksuk, Sabrina Cantini)

The Black Hole

For the first class of film studies, the class and I studied three short films: "The Black Hole", "Strangers" and "Still life". After discussing the three of them we had to choose the one we liked the most to work on and write a review. Even though I enjoyed the three of them, the one that caught more my attention was "The Black Hole" because it was interesting and it also had a message.}I liked very much this short movie because it generated a lot of suspense without using any dialogue. The director uses background music that generates suspense and interest in the people who watch it.

“The Black Hole” lasts only about 3 minutes. This short movie was written and directed by Philip Ransom and Olly Williams in 2008. The actor in this video is Napoleon Ryan.

 It all started with a man, alone, at an empty office. The man looked tired, and they showed this by focusing the man’s face at the center of the camera. He looks as if he has worked for hours in a boring job. After the man printed a couple of papers he discovered the printer stopped working and he kicks it, so a page with a huge black circle is printed. He cannot understand why this happens but he keeps printing. Seconds after he discovers that the black circle is actually a black hole.

 I liked the special effects they used to create the black hole at the page because it looks real. The way the man introduces the plastic cup and his hand into the hole is amazing, because it’s perfect the way they`ve done it. The actor also plays very good his part because what he tries to express when he acts is exactly what public believe. He convinces the public very well.

After the man experiments the black hole by using it to steal a candy from the food machine he decides to steal something with a higher value. The character decides to steal money from the security box at the office, and when he was getting the last packs of money he entered the security box and could not escape.

I would say that the message of this short movie has something to do with “if you steal you´ll be punished in a way or another”

                                                                                      

      

References: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1430144/, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5_Msrdg3Hk

Film Studies

Film Studies is an awsome class in which students learn the history of cinema and every thing needed to create a movie.