The Constant Change of Shots a Bad Thing?

It was only until I was told by another person that I actually found this possible. Can the
constant change of shots taking on different angles actually make the portrayal of an action more confusing when its sole purpose is to do the exact opposite?

The example in this case would be America’s Best Dance Crew. Obviously this show appeals to dancers all around and before this show came on, they would learn and watch off the internet (Youtube). Checking most of these dance videos they most often use one shot and one camera motion; a Long Shot to portray the entire body and Handheld to avoid the hassle of having to set-up a shot. Knowing this, it makes it fairly reasonable to see why some people who watch this show have a hard time or are annoyed following the dance which proves the question stated in the beginning.

And as said in the beginning, I never found this to be possible. This was until I thought through the realms of Film instead of TV Shows. Recalling most of the action movies that I’ve watched, ALL of them had a sequence or more of suspenseful music, rapid cuts and crashing sounds. This to me was a pain in some cases. An example of this would be the car chase scene in the Bourne Ultimatum where it is simply dominated by short reaction and insert shots. Just when you’re about able to analyze what is going on in the frame, it quickly cuts to another and you go through this same process until the sequence stops.

But these explanations may not be the same case to the other billions of people on this planet. So the question remains: Can the constant change of shots taking on different angles actually make the portrayal of an action more confusing when its sole purpose is to do the exact opposite? (316)

Fluid or Not Fluid? That is the question

Upon editing our final film for Explorer Film, I stumbled upon some areas where various editing options were available but would still portray the film properly only affecting its fluidity in the decisions we took. In our film we relied on delays and cutting on action (generally timing) to provide the audience with film coherence despite the staggered plot. We were never really taught or shown the more advanced and in-depth techniques in terms of timing. By techniques, I am referring to for instance, the speeds of an object in one shot as well as its position in the camera compared to the next shot. Another technique that we could debate is if it is more fluid if we place the object in an earlier, later or the same exact position where the previous shot had left it. The delays could be those that create a sense of time being passed because in the situations that we can relate to, we can accurately predict what would happen next. In our film this delay would be where Mr. Oomens points Kento out to the HS Office and we can imagine what Kento would do before going to the Office. In technical terms, I was able to experiment and somewhat match the length of the delays of both shots (the camera staying still with a Medium shot of Mr. Oomens pointing out the door and in the next shot the camera staying still with a Medium-Long shot of a door until Kento actually exits). Generally, we can say that there are much more techniques to explore in the world of film as well as the varying effects that they create and furthermore, understand which of these techniques would be best for a certain situation. (292)

On Way to the Final Film

With the fast approaching end of our year in Explorer Film our class struggles but strives to get another film made in these last few weeks of school. Though there is more difficulty in this project in the creative aspect because we aren’t following a sequence like in the reverse engineering project, we are now given much more room to operate in filming where we can be less lenient and more creative on the composition of our shots. Also taking into account the problems of our current equipment (having only three cameras with double the number of groups filming) it seems very doubtful to finish this year strong especially with only a crew of only two members. We have no plan however, of finishing the year weak so despite the problems we will try to overcome all odds against our films and hopefully produce a quality piece of work by the end of this year. (155)

Completion of the “Students of God”

We recently completed our first film for this school year which was our reverse engineering project. Being the editor, I spent countless hours producing a final cut of our film and after watching it over and over there was always an uneasy feeling whenever I screened it. As the day came to view our films, I was simply astonished but also confused with the positive reaction coming from our audience saying that it was a piece of work to be looked at. Even more surprising were some remarks saying that our film had effective editing where I thought the editing was only sufficient enough to hold the film together. Feedback and suggestions from the audience were essential before we actually sent our film to be viewed in the Film Festival because we discovered small areas that could be changed but would improve the structure of the film greatly. Through this I learned that in Film your crew can’t really predict or expect the exact reaction of the audience until they actually see it. (174)

Subconscious Contrast Between Freedom Writers and Coach Carter

There are various films where someone from an opposing world in life enters the lives of a bunch of young and talented teenagers. Some examples of these films coming from my personal experience are Coach Carter and Glory Road. The film Freedom Writers is a film that I have watched recently and falls into this category of films. However, there was definitely a different impact in the way that the characters in these films usually develop and evolve in order to form an inseparable bond among them. In Freedom Writers, the outsider (Mrs.Gruwell) is the one who changes in order to allow the children in her classroom to develop. This is often the opposite as in Coach Carter, the team discipline themselves to Coach Carter’s desire no matter how difficult it is. The film Freedom Writers does belong to the same general genre of these films but takes on a whole new approach in characterization. Through these differences we get to understand that maintaining the in-depth genre while switching around roles in films can possibly create a variety of effects that can greatly affect the film overall. On a technical note, this film had notable switches between the voiceovers/thoughts of the students in the class even when the camera took different movements which emphasizes their bond. (216)

Second Screening of I Am Legend

This was my second time screening the film I Am Legend and it has been over a year since I have last seen it. The experience I have gained in the past year or so and the foiling (contrasting) characteristics with majority of the other films that I have watched has allowed me to realize and appreciate the dominating Ambient sound throughout this unique film. One of the unique key characteristics that I admire in this film is that it possesses the ability to generate climactic suspense without the widespread utilization of crescendo in music pieces. Another idea that I theorize is that our understanding of Robert Neville’s character is superior compared to our level of understanding among other characters in films not only because of our empathy towards his certain situation but the fact that he is basically the only character that we are exposed for about 3/5 of the film. (152)

The Oscars

Many of the nominees for the Oscars seemed familiar such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt, Changeling, The Dark Knight, Tropic Thunder, Wall-E, Kung Fu Panda, etc. As I checked back at the nominees of the Golden Globes, majority of the names and titles were nominees at both of these prestigious awards. Seeing this similarity, I’m pretty sure that the winners at the Oscars will too be somewhat related to the winners at the Golden Globes. On the real side, word has also started to go around on some of these pictures to be great films as well as the actors portraying never-forgetting roles. Knowing this, I pushed forward by checking the films’ synopsis on the site only to be dazzled by the unique pitch of the film. With this in mind, these films have further intrigued me into the thought of finding a chance to see them. (150)

First Week of Production

On the first day of the production, I immediately discovered how difficult it was to actually set up on location and film the shot. This was the least of my worries because compared to my last film project (PSA) where there was pretty much only 1 actor, in our reverse engineering project were supposed to have about 5 extras and 5 actors. But due to time constraints we soon realized that this wouldn’t work and began slicing down the cast to about 3 main actors and 2 extras. Now, our crew must adapt to this new situation which is very distinct from the actual scene. A number of our shots were also changed but still capture the same concept of the original scene which we hope will be enough accompanied by proper editing to make this recreation a success.

From this past week of production, I have definitely learned that your mind needs to explore the planning and not just do it for the sake of it in order to push ALL the pre-production problems aside. After helping on the set of the recreation for the “Midnight Cowboy” group, I also saw how much work, effort and cooperation was needed in order to get a perfect shot. (207)

Reflecting on the Golden Globes 2009

Naturally, I was surprised by the results of the Golden Globe awards. It’s mainly because of my weak knowledge of famous films outside of Hollywood that I don’t recognize any of the award winners. However, I did recognize some of the winners such as Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin in the category of Comedy on 30 Rock as well as Heath Ledger’s performance in Batman: The Dark Knight.
From watching recent episodes, there was no reason to oppose Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey from being nominated in their respective categories. What I noticed is that their comedy is somewhat silent but the presence is definitely obvious. In terms of film, I certainly enjoy the constant upbeat of the atmosphere and the shots that always take you into the action or conversation. In my honest opinion, I was rooting for one of my favorite TV shows, Entourage, to have won the award of Best Television Series – Musical Or Comedy for obvious reasons.
In connection to Entourage, I also believe that Jeremy Piven should have won the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television because he portrays his character so evidently that when I saw him in Rush Hour, I was laughing from the great difference in the characters that he had played.
I wasn’t too surprised with Heath Ledger’s awarding because his performance in Batman: The Dark Knight was mind blowing and it was obvious that he would receive an award if not a Golden Globe.
From the results of the competition, I am hoping to screen the films Frost/Nixon and Revolutionary Road sometime soon as most of the nominations seem to revolve around these films possibly indicating their success in various aspects of film offering me much to learn. (304)

My Top 3 Films Viewed in 2008

The Dark Night (2008)

The Dark Night focuses on how Batman and the city of Gotham deal with the havoc caused by the Joker.

I enjoyed The Dark Night mainly because of the characterization which made the characters as well as the story more believable. This action-packed film also kept you on the edge of your seat constantly.

21 (2008)

The film 21 follows a group of MIT students that count their way through the casinos of Las Vegas.

I enjoyed this film because of the attachment to the characters and the plot structure allowed the audience to tie the beginning with all the events throughout the movie at the very end.

The Pursuit of Happiness (2006)

The film The Pursuit of Happiness follows a father who has gained custody to his son and tries to work out his financial problems in order to make his life work.

I enjoyed this film because of the story and its characters. I was attached to this film eager to see how Chris Gardner would cope with problems when all the odds were against him.