A brief overview of the work of an amazing editor Satoshi Kon, and the influence of his work in famous films

Satoshi Kon was a master editor who would play with different techniques of editing in order to alter your experience of a scene or the transition between scenes. - Link to Video

Although this video is a big joke, I find it quite interesting that these guys did not edit this video. From beginning to end, this video is one straight shot. To me, that makes the video very entertaining and fun to watch. With single shots like this, it keeps the viewers intrigued on what may or may not happens next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Juxtaposition

 

 

This scene uses juxtaposition to show what went on in the past in the present day.  It woks well in this seen because it gives the audience a visual component to Rebekah's story that she is telling Elena.  The flashbacks help us picture what went on in the past and how Rebekah and her family became what they are.

Editing of this super bowl commercial

I was looking for some funny anti-ford jokes when i found this super bowl commercial and found the editing to be decent. At the beginning, the viewer sees the ruins of a city in a very wide establishing shot. The cuts are used to create an effect of zooming in onto one specific spot without physically doing so, One cut also establishes why the city is the way it is, the apocalypse. Once the sequence reaches the pile of debris to reveal the truck and its passengers, the shot is cut to a close up inside the vehicle. Once his initial reaction shots are shown and he heads on his way, the shot returns to a wide shot that follows the truck through the city and showing some signs of what happened. In one cut, the driver is seen looking through his windshield in disbelief, creating an index vector. His observation is revealed in the next cut. He is driving under the remains of a decapitated giant robot. The next few cuts maintain a wide shot, but at different stages of his venture through the city. He is seen driving past a crashed UFO and the crater of a gigantic meteorite. The close up cut back into the truck shows the driver seeing something surprising. Cutting back to an establishing shot of the truck, it is seen pulling up to a group of other trucks and survivors. After the truck stops, a medium shot is used when the driver steps out of his vehicle. A wider shot is used in the next cut when he walks towards the group. Upon arriving to the group huddle, it cuts to a medium shot when he asks what happened to Dave. Cutting to the man across from him, an over the shoulder shot is used to explain why Dave didn't make it. Dave drove a Ford and paid the price. Cutting back to the main character, he bows his head in remembrance and he gets offered a twinkie as it starts to rain frogs. The last cut is to a close up of the Chevy logo and the slogan.

Editing and Sound Design in the Film "Gravity"

I recently watch Alphonso Cuaron's "Gravity", and was struck by his visual use of long takes and sound design to convey a sense of isolation and realism. The film's editor Mark Sanger worked closely with the director from the beginning stages of production until post production. What makes this so interesting, editorially wise, is that even before the actual shoot, the editing was close to final. This  allowed the director to focus more on VFX and acting. The film opens with a 12 minute cut, mixing both conventional editing and digital editing, with a balance between the actors and CG. Gravity really blurs the lines between pre and post production, and editing and sound design. For example in one of the long takes where the camera starts wide and gradually moves inside one astronauts helmet for a point of view shot, the sound changes with what the viewer is seeing, starting with what you would/or would not hear in space and moving in with what the astronaut hears inside in the helmet, then back out again. The movie intentionally uses minimal visual cuts and sound to relay what the character is feeling and experiences, simultaneously, to the viewer.

Invisible Editing/Casablanca- Emily Mortensen

The classical Hollywood style of editing emerged during the Golden Age of Cinema, between 1929 and 1945. Even after a colossal amount of time, the exceptional films produced are still studied and remade today. Continuity editing is one of the most influential elements that characterize hollywood cinema. The purpose of continuity editing is to make the cuts invisible and captivate the audience without them being distracted by the editing. To make the cuts invisible editors use the 180 degree rule. This can be done by matching eye lines, which allows the audience to see what to character is seeing. Or by using shot to reverse shot, which makes the audience assume the characters are looking at one another. 

Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1943) uses continuity editing because the cuts shown convey more than the plot alone. This scene from Casablanca is an example of continuity editing. This dialogue scene uses match cuts. Match cuts make sense spatially and ensures the audience will not be shocked or confused when the shot changes. The scene begins with a close-up shot then zooms out to establish the setting and characters. In other shots, the camera steadily zooms to the character until the close-up. The match cuts contribute to the continuity, making the scene aesthetically pleasing to the viewers eye. 

Brazil

    “The future is now” in Brazil, a movie that parallels with today's American society. The movie takes place in a dystopian, totalitarian bureaucracy where companies and paper work controls the populace. Consumerism has taken over in the form of upgrades for the ventilation pipes in every one's homes and machines that are relied upon to make day to day life easier for people but do not as they are flawed and prone to malfunction constantly. The over exaggeration on the formality of paperwork creates a comical overtone during a chaotic exposition scene. The film's government can be compared to the one in 1984 by George Orwell. The biggest difference being that in Brazil, there is no Big Brother.

   Sam can be depicted as a triangle because of his independent search for the girl from his dreams and his rebellious attitudes against his mother and the society at large, but mostly his momma. The lifestyle of the peoples within the society is secure, morose and oppressive, is represented through the square shape of his office and the city's infrastructure. His nightmares included many square oppressive elements after learning of his promotion. To Sam, Jill represents a circular personality where she influences him positively in such a manner where he feels freedom from the society as though he were a teenager feeling invincible.

   Terrorism ensues within the society and through the society's desensitization of violence creates an attitude of ignorance is bliss. The excessive paperwork creates a niche for people to work around the boundaries and legalities within the society, such as Robert Di Niro's character Tuttle. The scene where Sam returns home to find his apartment the new north pole comes to mind when thinking about the creation of rhythm in a scene. A rhythm is started after Tuttle arrives with a periscope. The pattern begins with a medium shot of the repairmen in the apartment, transitions to a medium shot of Sam and pans to Tuttle accessing the wall panel. The camera focuses on the contents of the panel next, followed by a return to the scene with the repairmen. 

Blog Clarification

Thank you to all who have posted blogs! Please keep in mind that these blogs should be editing-specific and preferably related to the material we are discussing in class, not simply movie reviews. I can only give partial credit for these. The idea is to get you to think about the material for our class in your own way as opposed to quizzing you.

Good posts on "Man With a Movie Camera." I'm glad people enjoyed the film, and I'd encourage everyone to finish it outside of class.

Sleeper

“Sleeper” was directed by Woody Allen in 1973. Woody Allen is well known for his slapstick comedy, and this movie is full of that. It used satire, sarcasm, and down right crude humor to create a film filled with laughs. Using Woody’s personality, and the vaudeville humor widely popular in the twenties, a comedy was created. It’s through it’s close quality to the humor of the twenties, and more modern humor closer to today’s that this can be achieved. 

This film’s dialogue is filled with sarcasm, and crude humor. It uses humor similar to that of today’s. Where the more inappropriate the joke the better. Often Woody makes references to sex. Right off the bat there are crude jokes. Also the popular vaudeville humor is seen frequently throughout. The movie begins with Woody having little control over his body, falling around the room in a humorous way. There are many occasions where Woody is being thrown about, whether it be because of a “stupid cheap Japanese jet pack” or a space suit filled with air. Humans for some odd reason have always enjoyed watching people hurt themselves. To this day this painful humor is still popular. Satire is also a widely popular form of humor. People love hearing jokes about their lives, and what’s popular in it. Whether it’s a joke about a state, the government, or someone famous poking fun at them is always a good laugh. Many jokes are told throughout making fun of New Jersey, a state still often made fun of. Also there are a plethora of jokes about the political system in both the “future” he is in, and about that of the past. The film revolves highly around making fun of things that were popular in the seventies. In the beginning they are asking about who the different people on the picture were, and as he answered it was one joke after another about people highly known in history. Self deprecating is another form of comedy that Woody likes to throw in there. It’s always enjoyable to watch someone make jokes about themselves, but at the same time having the next joke be about how sexy they think they are. This movie gets across the idea of a dystopian society while still being lighthearted. Unlike a lot of dystopian movies, it’s humorous. This society is highly ruled by technology, and one leader praised by all. Everyone is brainwashed into living their lives in one way, boring and emotionless. There is even a machine to create orgasms. This form of a dystopian society is popular, and also the perfect setting for slapstick comedy. People filled with humor and sarcasm wouldn’t do well in a society that is boring, so there isn’t a more perfect setting to put a character played by Woody Allen in. The movie is filmed also in a lighthearted way, with lots of color and lighting, it’s apparent that the mood is not supposed to be menacing. It’s also very fast paced which is used in many comedies to keep the audience attentive while also keeping the time between one joke to another short. It’s an all around comical and enjoyable movie.

Movie review on Blade Runner

'Blade Runner' is a movie about an innovative vision of the future in which man has discovered how to make human clones. Throughout this movie, the elements of deep space, cameo lighting, contrast and affinity of tone, saturation, and lines make the movie very intrguing. All of these elements give this movie, and even other movies, a lot of character.

At the very beginning of the movie during the opening credits, I found it interesting that it was complete blackness minus the words popping up on the screen. The movie was very dark with a ton a deep space throughout. So the opening credits tied into the whole movie being a dark one. There is also never any sun light in the movie. It is always darkness. However, during the opening script when it explains the back story of what is happening, the word 'replicant' is red. It made me believe that whatever a replicant was, it was bad. Also, it always seemed to be raining which brought gloominess to the film. The outside world is a dangerous, gloomy place.

During this movie, there was a high contrast in tone. Whenever we got a glimspe of the city, it was either black or some other color, very extreme. There was also a high saturation in color. The colors within the movie were very rich and vibrant.

During the very beginning of the movie, when Mr. Holden is interogating the guy, said guy's head is always tilted into a diagonal line. This indicates that this guy is bad news and that Holden should be careful.

When we met Pris, she walks past a whole bunch of yellow caution signs. At first I thought that meant that she was going to be in danger at some point. Then when J. F. Sebastian walks in and meets her, I noticed that he was wearing an orange collared shirt and whenever we saw him in frame there was yello behind him. He is the one in danger

Television and cinema would not be anything without any of the elements listed above. Quite frankly it would be very boring. These characteristics make a movie something worthwhile and give meaning to a movie.

Movie review on Farhenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is a movie based on an oppressive future in which no one is allowed to read books. Throughout the movie, there are moments with color, tone, line, and shape that help tell the story of what is going on and who some people are. Color was the biggest contributor to this film.

The firemen in the film are made out to be the bad guys. Every time you saw a fireman he was wearing black and they were driving a bright red fire truck. That, to me, make them seem scary and that everywhere that they went, danger followed. I found it interesting though that on the fire trucks, there was a small blue, flashing light on the front. That made it seem like they were supposed to be good guys, but the red overwhelmed that.

When we first see the teacher with Montag, everyone is wearing earth tone colors, including her, which shows the affinity tone. However, when she and Montag step off of the train you can see that she is wearing a bright blue skirt. That shows that she is a rebel and she’s different from everyone else.

When Montag walks into his house, there is a lot of yellow and red throughout. It makes me feel like at some point he is going to be in danger and that he should be careful. Also, when Montag and his wife first watch TV, the background behind the woman is blue and green. But as they zoom in for close-up for whomever is on the television, there is much more of the color green. The people on the TV are evil and cannot be trusted.

When we see Montag pick up a book for the first time, it is red. Books are dangerous in the world he lives in. Anyone who picks up one is putting themselves in danger.

In the school where Montag and another fireman were teaching, there were a lot of squares. The school seemed to be made of squares. It made me think that once you are there get taught these rules, that it is very hard to escape them. Also, the salute the firemen do. It is a diagonal line across their chest. Another indication that firemen aren’t who someone from that time wants to be around.

In any movie, there are a lot of indicators that can help tell a story. Whether it be color, tone, lines, or even shapes. These factors can really change the meaning of a story that is being told.

Movie review on 'The Hunger Games'

‘The Hunger Games’ is a movie based on a dystopian future. Throughout the movie, there are several scenes that involve many elements of telling a visual story. The movie had space, lines, shape, tone, and color. All of these elements gave scenes in the movie more meaning.

In many scenes during the movie, there were moments with deep space and moments with flat space. Whenever you saw a shot within district 12, it was a very flat space. This showed that district 12 was very boring, confining space to be living in. However when you are watching scenes that are taking place in the hunger games stadium, there is a lot of deep space, showing that it is a very dramatic, scary place to be in.

Color and tone also seemed to play a big role in this film. When district 12 is in the frame, there is a tremendous affinity of color. All of the people living there are wearing different shades of grey clothing and the color of the scenes themselves are hazy, making everything seem grey. That indicates that everyone there is one and the same.

When we first meet Katniss, she is dressed in grey like everyone else in district 12. However, throughout the movie her colors change. Her reaping dress is a pale blue, which makes me think of her as a security blanket. She makes everyone feel safe. Although during the tribute parade, Katniss is wearing black with blue, yellow, and orange flames trailing from her outfit. This indicates, to me, that she is a force to be reckoned with and that people can trust her but also must be cautious of her abilities. When we first see President Snow, he is wearing a black suit and the wall behind him is tinted red and yellow. That indicates that this person is dangerous. Same with Seneca Crane. Whenever you see him in the movie, he is always wearing a black and red suit. He is dangerous.

Finally, there were some stand out scenes that involved some lines and shapes during the movie. At one point during the movie, during the reaping, Katniss had her hair in a braid that wrapped around in the back of her head. This made Katniss seem like a circle and made her seem like the safe, trusting hero. During a good portion of the movie, especially when Katniss had her bow and arrow, her hair was in a braid that hanged down and seems to form a diagonal line. This showed that she was dangerous when she had a bow and arrow in her hands. Another moment of lines and shapes that stood out was when we first see Seneca Crane. The beard that is very triangular with lots of diagonal lines. His face reads danger.

When it comes to film and television, lines, shapes, colors, tones, and shapes can definitely help tell a story. If it were not for the elements above, film and television would be very boring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lighting and motion/placement of camera

 

This is just a random video that I was watching on youtube.  I found it interesting how the editor did not make any cuts throughout the entire video.  It made it very interesting to me. I also notice that whenever the camera was on a profile shot of the singers, that one was in the light and the other was in darkness.  It went well with the lyrics to the song, especially the line "Say something I'm giving up on you".  Both of them want the other to speak up and come out of the darkness.

Book Burnings and Dystopian Society

 Watching Fahrenheit 451, the first thing I noticed was the affinity of contrast. The movie uses a lot of greys and makes any color stand out. However, the colors themselves have been desaturated and made to appear gloomy and devoid of life. The monorail cars are a dark, drab yellow that seems to take the joy out of anything. The use of the color red is very prominent in the film. Montag's first book has a red cover which could symbolize danger or mischief. The most vibrant color is the red firetruck and firehouse exterior. Montag's wife overdosed on her red pills. Fire can be red or mixtures of red, orange and yellow. The two students wearing blue are constantly seen fighting.
   Knowing that Ray Bradbury authored the novel which the movie is based on, the underlying tones of totalitarian government and Aryan symbolism make sense. A fair number of the characters have the blonde hair and blue eyes that Hitler strived for. The firefighters all wear matching uniforms with the number 451, which is the temperature that book paper burns. I see it as an allusion to Unit 431, an infamous Nazi unit. The whole movie can be seen as a representation of Hitler's Germany. He also enacted book burnings to control the masses and prevent rebellion. One of the books shown in the library is Mein Kampf, Hitler's autobiography from when he was imprisoned.
    One scene that stood out to me was at the end, when everybody is walking in a circle during the winter snowfall. The scene starts out with a close up on Montag's face as he recites the book he is memorizing. The camera slowly zooms out to show Laurie is walking beside him reciting her book. As the camera transitions to a medium shot, it becomes apparent that all of the book readers are walking in a uniform circle. The scene zooms out to a wide shot showing everybody walking and reciting as the screen fades to black.
     I do have a few questions that never seem to be touched upon. How can Montag know how to read in the first place if books are illegal? How does the newspaper even make sense to anybody? How can the schools determine the potential of the students without tests? All of these questions can tie into the theme “that without knowledge, we are all equally ignorant.”

Blade Runner

       I recently watched Blade Runner, a future film noir that deals with themes of religion and . The religious symbolism is subtle at times The Replicants, the androids who are portrayed as the antagonists, are on a search for their maker. Harrison Ford's character Daggard is tasked with hunting them down and shutting them down. Considering that Tyrell is the creator of the Replicants; he can be seen as “God” with Roy, playing the prodigal son, Lucifer. The Nexus 6 Replicants are a symbol of Lucifer and the fallen angels that sided with him against their father. Lucifer defied God because he wanted to make himself better than the humans his father created. Lucifer was banished for this and trying to start an uprising in Heaven. In the film, Roy sets out to prolong the lifespan of himself and his brethren. When that proved impossible, he destroyed his creator. Daggard is Michael, the good son and the one that banished Lucifer and his comrades. At the end of their fight, Roy (Lucifer) redeems himself and saves Daggard (Michael) and compares his memories to that of tears in the rain. In his four years, Roy saw things no man could fathom nor experience. As he dies, the dove flies away almost as a symbol of his soul or the Holy Spirit going back to Heaven. 

      The scene near the end where Daggard and Roy are on the roof creates a rhythm. As Daggard is hanging off of the steel beam above the alley, the shot switches to an over the shoulder shot of Roy as he jumps the chasm. The focus switches back to Daggard as he watches Roy leap over him. The rhythm is created when the two stare each other down for what seems the last time. The camera focus switches between their gazes and Daggard's hands slipping on the beam. The rhythm ultimately ends with Roy grabbing Daggard's hand at the tension's climax.

      The use of shadows and total contrast strengthens the theme that living in fear makes one a slave. The dark shadows contain our worst fears and the darkness of the film hides all the dangers that lurk in these shadows. If we live in fear constantly, we can never progress as individuals nor achieve out dreams. If not for the constant theater doors being opened and shut, the tension built around the shadows and the threats they concealed would have drove the theme home. 

Man with a Movie Camera

I never realized how much I sort of liked silent films until I watched "Man with a Movie Camera". In class we talked about early editing and montages, but this film really pushed the envelope for what early film makers could do. The film is essentially a whole bunch of montage clips of the daily lives of humanity. The editing was fantastic; I was blown away as to how they were able to blend two shots together, or the fast cuts from the lady's eye ball and the surroundings around to give a sense of dizziness. The stop motion of the movie theater chairs, and the blocks I think they were, was just as stunning, how they were able to accomplish the moments seamlessly is beyond me. What Lez Keulshov said about cinematography being the organization, construction, and interrelationship between shots was very prevalent in this movie. There was a scene in which a magician I'll call him does some magic tricks and then it cuts to kids looking happy, as if you can indicate that they were enjoying the magic show without the kids even having to be there. Whether the kids were actually there is something I'll never know. I almost feel as if this technique of film editing, the Russian Montage film editing was done for a reason. humanity isn't doing the same things at the same time, so it gives me a sense that all these random montage clips are to indicate that while someone is doing this, someone is doing that and that there are things that we'll never know about happening right now and vice versa. But the scenes all seem to be connected so way or another. For example a scene in which people are going around in a merry-go-round, while interconnecting shots of race cars racing around a track. There's so much to learn from the pioneers who crafted film ethics because they were the ones who started it all, so I'm going to link the movie that we watched in class for anyone who happens to see this and hasn't seen the film, or didn't pay attention in class because I highly recommend watching this master piece. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZkvjWIEcoU

A Man With A Movie Camera

While watching this film in class it was apparent that this wasn't "typical" cinema. It appeared as random clips thrown together fashioned with music. But, there is a story to be told within these clips, one of daily life. Lez Keulshov said "Cinematography is the organization, construction, and interrelationship between shots". This quote further proves what this film is about, and how it works so well. As I said earlier, what appear to be random shots turn out making sense in a storytelling way. If you look closely the film begins with closeups of various items. In no particular order are these shots placed at first, but later they make sense. The minds ability to remember images it has previously seen is used carefully throughout. These once stagnant shots of things, later become action shots of these items being used in life. Various events in the typical life are filmed in a scattered way. Instead of a camera focusing on one person, or event, it follows a man with a camera as he records what is around him. This film uses the Russian technique of Montage film editing.  Montage being the joining of a series of shots into a pre-determined order from which a film is made, or the organization of cinematic material. Now unlike Lev Kuleshov or Sergi Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov believed in the idea of a society in which everyone uses a camera to capture what they see. Now this film also highly proves the film technique tested by Kuleshov. He placed a picture of a man with three other various items, and showed it to different audiences to see what they would make of these images. Everyone made connections between the man and whatever images were placed afterwards. Example: Man and bowl of soup must mean he is hungry. Now in this film there was a part that appeared highly confusing. It was various shots of people, at first you couldn't understand what they were doing, but then all you needed was a close up of the papers they were signing and you knew exactly why they were there; marriage, divorce. There were large differences between the two couples as they were singing the papers, the newly married were smiling, close together. The divorcing couple distant, and bitter. This section was by far my favorite part. It was showing all aspects of life that can be seen in one day that you're not even aware of. While showing these couples he also showed scenes of outside and the busy streets almost as if to say "while you're all going about your days there's people doing these exact things, and experiencing these exact feelings." Then there were shots of a weeping old woman feeling the pain of perhaps a lost love. A man being carried in a casket filled with flowers, and while all these shots are going you see a woman writhing in pain. This woman is giving birth. All of these images placed in random order create confusion since they seem to not correlate. But, it's a series of shots showing the two most significant events of life, death and birth. I really enjoyed this whole bit of the film because I often think about how while I am sitting writing this Blog post, there's someone whose marriage is falling apart or just beginning, a person whose life is beginning, and one that's ending. Montage film editing is one I enjoy quite a bit. Most of my works in film have been in the style of montage. I think it's fascinating to put a story together in a way where it can be interpreted differently based on who's watching. Instead of there being a definite plot it's open to the interpretation of the viewer, and I think that makes filmmaking more interesting. 

Sleeper Analysis by Tyler Johnson

Sleeper was a slapstick comedy that came out in 1973 about a pretty average guy who is frozen for 200 years and finds himself in an unfamiliar, confusing, and wacky future where technology has advanced to a humorous level and people are not as bright as they were in the 1970’s. The film does a good job of making the future look stupid. Not just the repeating jokes like the sex machine, drug orb, and the two soldiers who can never fire their rocket, but with the use of older film techniques and stretching out of issue’s and topics that were relevant the time the movie came out.

One way in which the movie makes the future feel odd is the use of old film techniques in the futuristic setting. By old film techniques, I mean that tactics like using fast motion and funny music over action sequences and chase scenes in order to add humor to the situation. These techniques hark back to the days of Charlie Chapman and black and white film. This feels out of place in a futuristic science fiction films because most other futuristic science fiction films have great special effects and more often than not they innovate in film techniques.

The scene where the secret project about the dead leader is revealed was very well done. It was dark and serious and a real shift in the overall feel of the film. It explained what the secret project was that they were always trying to unveil. And afterward the way the discussion between the two protagonists behind the screens was really creative. They were silhouetted against the projector screens talking about how they are going to steal a nose.

Blade Runner Analysis by Tyler Johnson

Blade runner was an excellent film about the identity of man and the question of who is real. It did justice to Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and created a motion picture masterpiece. The cinematography, setting, and acting in this film help to deliver a story that was dark, but exciting.

Something to note about Blade Runner is that the entire film takes place while it is raining, and it is always dark. The buildings are dark and it’s always nighttime. This gives a feel of mystery in some scenes, depression in other scenes, and fear in others. The scene where Rick Deckard(the protagonist) is interrogating Rachel, the darkness makes a little suspicious of her, which is right to think being that she turns out to be an andriod later in that scene. In the scene when she finds out she’s an android, the darkness adds to her despair. In the scene when Rick goes to Sebastian’s house to hunt down the androids, the darkness adds to the suspense.

The setting of the film is something worth noting. It take’s place in Los Angeles but everything and everyone is Chinese. Now this could be some political statement about eh social future of America but I don’t think so. Rick Deckard always seems out of place because of the fact that he is a white american who speaks exclusively english. In the beginning of the film he has to have a man translate for him. I feel as though this alienation of our protagonist is a good statement about him. Not only does he break the mold, but he thinks differently than everyone else.

Fahrenheit 451 Analysis by Tyler Johnson

Fahrenheit 451 is a 1966 film adaptation of the 1953 novel written by Ray Bradbury. It is about a firefighter in a future where the firefighter's job is to search for and burn any form of written literature, due to the illegality of books in the future. The film was very well done in its time and had a compelling story that was delivered expertly by the director, actors, and editors.

The creators of the film did a good job of giving the feeling that initial situation the protagonist is a bit “off,” as the story requires. For example, the firemen, who turned out being bad, had a feel to them that was similar to nazis. They all had similar uniforms, marched like soldiers, had a solute similar to that of a nazi, and most of them appeared to be German, or even arian. These were all things put into place by the director. He would make sure that the uniforms were uptight and the behavior of the firemen was uptight and strict, just like the nazis.

One good example of a great scene was the school scene. The only shot we saw was of the hallway with the camera centered in the hallway facing forward with a slow creep forward. The dominating sound that was constantly in the background was the children, who were chanting math problems in sync. It was creepy, which was exactly what the filmmakers wanted for that scene.

I really liked the editing, or the lack thereof perhaps, in the scene where the protagonist’s wife overdoses on her pills. There is this one shot that is continuous with no cuts in which the protagonist is walking room to room, switching phones and reading bottles to the doctor on the phone, it gave the feeling that the whole process was dragging on and taking forever, in contrast to how we really treat these situations, with panic and rush to get an ambulance right away.

Fahrenheit 451 the film did justice to its novel counterpart. It made the future feel as creepy as the author wanted, and told the story in a manner that immersed the viewer in the fullest way possible, which is exactly what a filmmaker should do.

Film Analysis of Blade Runner

In every movie there are always underlining story the director is trying to get the audience to see. In the movie Fahrenheit 451 the underlining story is that knowledge is power. The director was trying to show that even in total control the smartest people, end up being the ones to survive. In the movie Blade runner, the director wanted to show how in a society where humans build robots that look like other humans. The main character has to “retire” them. Which is the director’s way of saying killing them. In the movie they use the idea of creationism. At the end of the movie it made me think because the Blade runner is with

            The problem with the society is the fact that through the use of genetic engineers cops can’t tell which is a robot or which is a human. The reason why they need cops is because the androids look like humans. They have implants containing memories, eyes from animals and other body parts from other things. I think that this is a cool concept because the director is taking the creationism idea as the underlining idea. I like how the director leaves the audience a thought at the end of the story. They see the main character and Rachel going into an elevator after the main character killed the leader of the Nexus 6.

            Directors use underlining messages in movies such as creationism or communism to help subconsciously draw the audience into the movie.

Film Analysis of Sleeper

      This past Wednesday I saw Sleeper, a futuristic comedy by Woody Allen. I noticed some of the things we have been talking about in COM 101 and 103. I noticed the lighting was used to create an open and un-menacing atmosphere. I am starting to understand how lighting affects the tone of the the plot. The film would have a completely different tone if it was full of shadows and dark, deep space. This change of tone would most likely change the film from being a comedy into something more dramatic. 

     There are some themes that create parallels with issues in today's society. The topics of addictive drugs, mechanized pleasures, cloning and genetically modified food are brought up. The ball that was being passed around at the party gave everyone a buzz and got them all high. The 70s were a time of free love and experimentation of drugs. Two hundred years later, it still is but only more sophisticated and without the deadly side effects, although Milo did get really addicted to it. Hell, even sex has been mechanized and all intimacy has been removed. The Orgasmatron has removed all need for human bodily contact. The machine also has no relation to the song of the same name by the very loud rock n roll band Motorhead, I think. The main antagonist of the film is a dictator who apparently was the victim of a bombing almost a year before Milo was unfrozen. All that was left of him was his nose in which doctors were tasked in cloning cells from his nose to create an exact copy of the leader. Cloning was not a big topic until the 90s with the onset of the Raeliens and their claim of cloning the first human, dubbed Eve. It has only been recently in the last twenty years that cloning was questioned on its ethics and if it was right we even do it in the first place. The genetic modification of food is not opposed or condemned in the film, but if this movie were to be released today there would be a fire storm of anti-GMO protests. In this day and age, people are condemning GMOs and artificial ingredients. While it is true that some things are not entirely healthy to consume, genetic modification of foodstuffs has been going on for years. Corn is the poster child in their crusade against genetic modification, the irony of this is the fact that humans cant digest corn in its natural state. Just any look into a bag of popcorn will give the answer why we cant digest corn, the unpopped kernels are the natural, most basic form of the veggie. That corn we all know and love to eat slathered in butter has been genetically modified so we can eat it in the first place!!

     Overall, I enjoyed this movie for the comedy, the references, parodies of elements from 1984 and other dystopian future novels. It may have been a comedy but it still proposed a possible future scenario albeit a very exaggerated one. Totalitarian government, new world order, making the people into conformist “sheeple” are all occurring today and nobody is trying to stop it. It is a complete and utter disgrace, appalling in the face of humanity. “ Until you no longer know right from wrong, the Constitution is not worth the paper its written on” We the People written/recorded/played by Megadeth.

Battleship Potemkin (1925) - Full Movie; English

   

here is the full movie with the English so you know what is happening