Blog Response- Article- Intensified Continuity

      When looking at continuity in film making and its progression throughout the twentieth century, it's important to look at first why the continuity of films increased. In the article it says that at one point in time a film would have 500-700 shots, while now an average film has at least 3-4000 shots, all with an average shot length of 3-6 seconds. So first it's important to ask what caused this. During the mid to late 1900's, the United States was in a constant state of panic as a result of the foreign relations with Russia. In addition to this, earlier, near the beginning of these significant changes, the United States was in the great depression and had just been part of the conclusion to WWII. Like the anti-hero, people began to connect to film as a medium through which their resentment and frustration with their society and their government could be channelled. During this early time period the film industry needed to adapt to the demands of its people who were rapidly becoming restless and needed excitement to distract them from the terrible state the country was it, out of this was born.
   
       From this birth of faster cutting experimentation quickly became demand. It started with "actions films tended to be edited more briskly than other types, but musicals, dramas, romance, and comedies didn't necessarily favor longer shots". After the incorporatino easily of quick cutting into action films it became rapidly populor as it touched on the people's desire for excitement. As a result of this the film industry began to adapt to the new interest of the people and began incoporating these quickly cut shots in to all forms of film. Onc this pheomena had grown substancially, it quickly became less of an interest in film and more a necessity. This narrowed the scope of film interpretation consideribly by almost imedialety eliminating a sense of realism from modern films. 'More important, no film is one long action sequence.' Withou this sequence of a single shot portraying a single scene with multiple meanings, a sense of realism cannot be trly obained. Always now it has to stand that each individual shot must be dynamic and portray some idea or message which cannot necessarily be controlled so easily in one continuous and unedted scene.

      This sense of intensity that was created through cutting in order to satisfy the peoples' changing interests when looking at films, was soon accompanied by many other changes that increased emotion and intesnsity. An example of this is the use of framing. In older movies it was very often the case that a very weide shot, possibly a horizon shot or one of an entire room was taken showing all the actions of all the subjects all the time. While this may help to clearly illustrate the ideas of the scene to the audience it tends to lack a sense of emoiton. In newer films, countless shots are taken in order to provide every ossible angle so that when time for editing arrives, the most dynamic, thought provokning and emotional shots can be evaluated and incorporated into the final piece. Through the use of these close ups it is very easy for someone to recognize the facial expresssions of a character giving emotion to the scene and adding an 'intense' moment where only the individual character is focused on. This is also negative though because "most important, pressure toward closer views has narrowed the expressive recources abailable to preformers". While it is true that a face and its expressions can portray numerous amounts of information, the language that a whole body can portray hold endless value. Because these shots limit to simply a close-up, we lose the hints, emotions, and ideas that are portrayed through body language like weight shifts or finger tapping.

Blog Response- Article- Intensified Continuity

      'The anti-hero can be seen in earlier American cinema as well, but was in no way as popular as it became after World War II' because following WWII people became nationalistic and rebellious. After the actions of our government the people had mixed feelings about their government. They were thankful because the government protected them, but at the same time harbored resentment as a result of the political, social and economic issues that accompany war. With the great depression about to come about, meaning economic collapse, many people blamed the government. Without the resources or ability to challenge their government and challenge the society they no longer loved, characters like Travis Bickle who could challenge the government and say what the people could not. Through the escape that movies allow people to have, a character like Travis could express the people's opinions about 'cleaning up society'. Following the war nationalistic emotions and ideas became very popular and people and they felt they needed to protect their country and its ideals as Travis does. 


    Adding to the connection people had to the anti-hero, admiration became a large factor in people's opinions. It was said that the anti-hero 'defies conventional laws of society and can sidestep rules of morality at anytime'. In film involving for example, a super hero, people can relate because they feel similar desires to break free of the confines of reality. Through a super hero people can imagine having the power they don't in real life, and they can save the world like everyone dreams. Similarly to an anti-hero, people can live a life they can only dream of. They can rebel and speak the truths that they actually feel about their government or their society. So the anti-hero became an easy symbol for people to connect to as the 'badass' that everyone wants to let out sometimes.

'Arrival of a Train' and 'Damsel in distress'

The short film 'Arrival of a Train' is a realist film that is composed of no cutting whatsoever. The single shot the scene is made of shows simply the arrival of a train at train station, thus the name. People are coming on and off the train and the quick scene wit the very upbeat and cartoonish piano score helps to give a sense of childishness to the scene. It's interesting to look at the scene on its own because while it's only 50 seconds long and doesn't hold as many ideas as other films, it quickly gives clear insight to the people who take the train every day to and from work. This being very monotonous for many people, in company with with music and the matching actions like the doors opening gives it an interesting impression that this day isn't as monotonous as the average day is. This scene greatly supports that it's a Realist film because of the long single shot that shows a period of time with no alteration to the actual time showing 'real time'.

The short film 'Damsel in distress', very different from 'Arrival of a Train' is a clearly Classical film with many quick cuts as well as having time sped up slightly. These aspects help to give the film a very high energy with a lot of tension built up around the main character. The main character being chained to the train tracks gives an interesting foil to the dog who is running long distances at high speeds metaphorically carrying the story on his back. By running from the woman to the man back to the woman and then to the train conductors he acts as a liaison between all of the characters in the film, sort of transforming him into the main character. At the end of the film the dog can be seen as the center more clearly when the people come together. It's interesting to look at this film because without the rapid cuts and the sped up action the film would not be abe to portray the numerous connections and ideas that it does, all emphasized by the lack of sound.

Trailer Analysis: Anonymous

This trailer does a great job at presenting the plot of the movie by presenting the controversial idea of Shakespeare being a fraud. It then does a good job of flashing back to the time period and using video in combination with titles to inspire the idea that Shakespeare may have taken credit for the work of another man who was banned from taking credit for his plays. 

Narration- The lead into this is good as we here very little dialogue, except for some key phrases that help to understand some of the possibilities that may surround the idea of Shakespeare being a fraud. For example we hear a woman sounding like the queen that is seen in the previous shot, saying ‘that none of your poems or plays will ever carry your name’. Giving

the implication that Shakespeare could have been used to publish the plays and poems that the original author could not as part of his punishment. 

Cinematography- The use of camera angles and specific shots help to greatly reinforce the plot presented through the trailer. The use of a close-up on the face of a man on a block used for execution helps to reinforce the idea that the original author of these works is being punished not only with anonymity around his plays but with death as well. This leads me to believe in the accusations toward Shakespear’s credibility as well as desire to learn about the

other facts surrounding this theory. Now knowing the evidence proving the possibility of another author who may have written these plays and had been forgotten by history. 

Editing- The editing in this trailer is very fast and very jarring making me extremely anxious. Some interesting editing techniques used besides the basic incorporation of shots and the manipulations of characters and lighting is the including of titles. With specific titles that encompass the screen, I’m more drawn and more inclined to think about the topic presented which peaks my curiosity as well as in the case of this trailer makes in personal. With the

title saying ‘We’ve all been played’ it makes me feel like I have a personal connection to this because I’ve studies Shakespeare and come to trust his poetic prowess. 

Sound- In this trailer, the music in the background music plays an important role for me in setting the tone. The music is slower and quieter, less prominent in the first half and then when the shots become much faster and more visually exciting, the music speeds up and becomes much louder. The music also has an operatic and tragic tone to it; sounding almost as if it’s wailing, giving a sense of tragedy to the movie, resembling the tragic plays Shakespeare, supposedly wrote. The audio of characters also comes in metallic and resonating giving a powerful and technologic feel to it as it overpowers the background music. 

Run Lola Run Critique

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AZESsT3AxJ0OZHp2and2cF81M2djcWd4cGM5&hl=en_US

In our presentation I felt that our use of film language was limited. While we did use some terminology and present adequate understanding of terminology in relation to editing, we did also leave out some information. This is because ‘editing’ being such a large topic, has many terms and many subsections, that even though attempted, we could not cover all of.
As far as our interpretation of the film went, I felt that as a group, we did a generally good job of analyzing the use of editing in the film. The use of of motion, cutting and the manipulation of time through editing is decently thoroughly discussed. We do an adequate job of explaining how the editing is used to portray themes and ideas; as well as show contrast and comparison of the three sequences in the film. Editing is used very interestingly in this aspect and we explain that through the use of flashbacks and flash-forwards, Tywker portrays the three sequences as having differentiated based on small aspects at the beginning of a time sequence. I felt our interpretation of this idea was very good as we explain that the sequences are a representation of the belief that we affect everyone and everything around us with our own actions whether we realize it or not.

I also felt we did a good job at presenting. We did use some limited notes on note cards as well as some small notes found in bullet points in our presentation; but overall I thought we spoke well. By reading as a little as possible, it helped to portray our personal opinions about the film and the editing of the film, rather than if we had read off notes we had. We also rehearsed many times making sure that our ideas were clear and that we were able to explain them well. In addition to speaking clearly, i thought we did a very good job at sticking to our subject. Some groups tended to digress from their topic and incorporate irrelevant ideas and opinions that distracted the audience from the purpose of their presentation.
Our biggest problem when discussing the editing in Run Lola Run, was finding information, facts, or opinions from others on editing in the film, which would have helped our presentation greatly. Some use certain scenes and color corrections we had trouble finding explanations for and had to either exclude the information or make up our own interpretation for with little evidence. Other than this I feel the only possible improvements could be working on our composure, as I personally became nervous and may have changed some of my rehearsed presentation. This could possibly be changed by simply practicing my speaking skills and working to build my confidence when doing  a presentation. I could also work on learning more film terminology and understanding the film better to increase my confidence for presentations in this class.

Short Film: treatment

    The camera sees a train passing by and reveals a boy sitting on a bench looking in the direction of the train. He looks around a little waiting for his train and checking his watch. We see him look in the direction of the camera and he begins to walk across the tracks towards us. Saying “I’m Ryan, you don’t know much about me and maybe you don’t care. But I’m gonna tell you my story anyway”. a Jump Cut brings him back to his bench and the train pulls up blocking our shot.

    On the train we see him walking to his seat, from a front view he starts telling his story, explaining how hard things have been for him. Starting a couple years ago, i was only a freshman in high school at the time. [fade into flashback of school and activities] That’s when i really began to struggle, school was so tough. I was in all the advanced classes, played basketball, went out with the prettiest girl in school. Back then things were easy, top of the class, captain of the team... had the world on a string. I didn’t have a dad, but it’d never really been a problem cause i had my sister and mom.

   

[return to a shot of boy taking seat and looking out the window] Near the end of sophomore year, i knew things would be much more difficult... My grades began to suffer a little, nothing serious, just a couple A’s turned to B’s. [flash to mom working and helping around the house] Mom worked as a teacher, she didn’t make a lot but it was enough for us to get by. She was a great cook and we always had food on the table.

[transition shot and whistle sounds] boy gets off the train looking around [story pauses as he walks down the train tracks to the station and enters. [inside we see him stop and ask a woman for directions to an address, not knowing what the address means] saying thank you and walking towards the camera he walks towards the exit. 

“where was i?.... o ya, it was sudden... you know, one of those ‘it’ll never happen to me’, kinda things. [flash of boy crying counselor's office]...Well it did and it was terrible. By this point in my story I'm a junior, I didn’t play basketball anymore, i broke up with my gf, and i had to pretty much care for my sister alone. 

i had to grow up pretty quick. [still shot of crying, picture of basketball falls in(breaks) picture of girl and boy falls in breaks, picture of boy leaning over sister studying + picture of boy cooking). [back to boy talking, hands money to vendor and receives coffee] I even had to get a job.... (ha) sleeping became quite a luxury for me.

we see the boy walking out of the cafe and towards an elevator, sipping his coffee he enters the elevator, jump cut to his exiting the elevator on a new floor. This has been really hard on me and my Julia, my sister [nods to someone outside of camera => sister runs into shut and hugs him. She’s been realy strong and has helped me out as much as she could. 

Boy and girl walk down the hall as the boy explains that as tough as it’s been he’s confident itll all work out. [stopping, and looking to the side] thank you for listening to my story, it’s been a lonely time for me and the company has been nice, maybe ill see u around [appearing on the verge of tears the boy fakes a smile and turns walking into the door]. 

As the camera pans to the left following the boy we see a sign on the door saying ‘Cancer Word’. We see the boy walk towards a woman laying in a bed. Hey mom, the boy and girl say in unison. [boy: how you feeling today, through muffled voice struggling not to cry] The boy and girl hug their mother, and the door shuts on the camera.   

Characters In Time

   A security guard arrives at the zoo, having only worked there for a few months, he didn't take his job very seriously. He found it amusing to tease the animals, nothing serious really, just some taunting, witholding food, simple things. His favorite were the monkeys, he loved holding bananas above the railing, to high for them to reach. He knew it wasn't nice and he might regret it one day, but right now it was funny, and that's all he cared about.

  The zoo didn't open till 9:00 am, so arriving at 7:30 allowed him to make sure the zoo was in order, no escaped animals or slacking workers; this also gave time to all his animal friends. Today he felt like giving special attention to the chimps, taunting them with the bananas he'd packed for lunch, throwing them the empty peels. Yelling and laughing, the guard drove the chimps nuts; running around, screaming throwing feces and toys at the guard who laughed the whole time. The guard walked away in tears, remembering his obligation to guide the soon-to-arrive students that were taking tour of the zoo.

  The class was young, full of kids no older than 11. The guard knew they would be a handful and laid out all the ground rules to the children who were anxious to start the tour. The guard took them through the zoo, starting with the tiger and bears, leading to exotic birds and reptiles, then lunch. After lunch the children took a ride on the zoo's train and were having the time of their lives. Anxious though, they begged the guard to take them to the monkeys and chimps section of the zoo.

  The guard led the children to the chimps section of the zoo where a special event was taking place where the trainers would take out the chimps for the people to meet. While the children pet and shook hands with the chimps the guard realized he'd never actually been so close to them. Intrigued, he walked over to one of the chimps and started petting it. At first the chimp seemed nice enough, but as it realized who the guard was it began growing more upset.

  Finally the chimp couldn't take it and started screaming, unexpectedly it grabbed the gun out of the guards belt, pointing it straight at him, and pulling the trigger. In the chaos of screaming children and chimps one of the head trainers managed to grab the gun and help the other trainers corral the chimps back into they're play area.

  Fortunately enough the guard had remembered and managed to follow the one piece of advice the senior guards had given him. "Never keep the gun loaded, it's just for show". The chimps were locked in their caged and the children were sent home with long apologetic letters written to the school. The guard lost his job and the 'Killer Chimp', as his name became, was moved to a reserve where very little human contact was had. The chimp lived happily on the reserve and the guard finally learned to respect animals as living beings of equal importance to himself.

Short Film Analysis: 'Strangers' (2004) by Erez Tadmor and Guy Natt

     Strangers, in my opinion, is an excellent short film as a result of it's directing and cinematography. The plot of the story, regardless of its 7:11 time limitation, is very intricate with many emotional, political, social, and cultural connections and references. The plot is set up by a white man who boards a train, sitting across from a dark-skinned man, appearing to be middle-eastern, possibly Indian. Exchanging no words, the two appear to make judgments about one another through mere observations. By looking at skin color, the material that the dark-skinned man is reading is in a foreign language, and the white man is wearing a silver necklace bearing a Jewish Star.

The reactions of the two men in addition to the design train and station, expresses the possibility of the time period being one where racial tension is still quite high the country this film is set in. The expressions and behavior of these men show a clear apprehensiveness towards one-another making for a tense scene as we wait for one of the men to act. Unexpectedly, four more white men bearing bald heads, menacing expressions, and tattoos enter the scene and sit amongst the men, adding to the already building tension as we know from their wardrobes that they are not friendly people. One of the men spray paints a black swastika on the dark-skinned man's newspaper revealed in a much-needed over the shoulder shot behind two of the white men. The dark-skinned man looks across the train at the man with

Jewish necklace, building the tension even greater, as the main character of this short film  could be revealed as a Jew any second, in order to save the Indian man's life.
       I really like this scene as it gives a great appreciation for the amount of thought in each scene of any film. While in many longer films, little scenes such as this will be added, unnoticed by many, extinguishing the importance and pride that director and writer may have in creating this individual scene. So by creating this scene in a short film, using these simple, yet meaningful angles and symbols, like the star necklace and the swastika, it helps to show how much thought and effort goes into each individual scene. This is scene not only through the directing, but the costume direction. The use of tattoos and 'trashy' clothing the white men are wearing, it shows that they are simple minded thugs, around merely to harass an innocent man who happens to be of the minority in the scene. Also the necklace the Jewish man wears is an important symbol that used very subtly, rather than a more obvious and amateurish symbol like a flag on his backpack. A necklace is used, not only to express sentimental value, but to express his need to hide as he conceals the necklace under his shirt.
        Further in the scene, the Indian man, having not revealed the true identity of the Jewish man, the Jewish man picks up his things to leave, when his phone rings, with a polyphonic ring tone version of a traditional Jewish song played at parties like weddings and Bar mitzvah. This recognition of sound design is very important because this is the first prominent sound in the entire film that has significant meaning. No words have been exchanged amongst anyone, so this ring tone breaks the silence and reveals the man's identity with a new piece of evidence instead of the necklace. This leads to the men attacking the Jewish man, but he as well as the Indian man fight back and manage to escape the

train safely. The concluding scene portrays the author's message of the unity among races and individuals. The film ends with the men waving good bye and exchanging their bags, showing how they looked out for each other by fighting and by doing something as simple and unnecessary as grabbing the things the other left behind.

sound treatment pier reviews

Tyler Mack’s treatment

1) The intent of the scene is clearly to create a short horror film, somewhat like what might be found in a goosebumps book.
2) The plot points of the film are the music that plays when the picture is viewed, foreshadowing the death of the beholder, and the number of fingers being held up by the girl.
3) The climax of the scenes are obviously the deaths because they are the release of tension built up by the past knowledge of the pictures power and the music.
4) The resolution to the film is also the death i must say because their is no clear end to this cycle of death that results from the mesmerizing picture.
5) The conclusion to the scene is the same because it doesn’t show or even imply an end to the deaths it simply ends with another open-ended death.
6) While there is no spoken dialogue, there is the message of the fingers being held up clearly showing the number of deaths along with the music foreshadowing the approaching death.
7) The girl in the picture clearly controls the scene as she is the one who causes the deaths.
8) Like Dazzy said to fix the typo, but otherwise it is pretty good if you can add a conclusion and even better a resolution, like if some guy found the picture and broke the spell and burned it or something, but otherwise great.


My own film

1) The intent of the scene is to use only voices in order to eliminate distractions from the importance of the music and the voices of the man and  little girl.
2) The plot points of the film are the cups, and man’s voice, and later the background music of the scene.
3) The climax of the scene would be when the man knocks the cup down and begins to cry.
4) The resolution to the scene would be the girl comforting the man and the man apologizing, attempting to recompose himself.
5) The conclusion to the scene being expressed through bells as the man and girl leave the coffee shop.
6) While the majority of the film is monologue, the important points would be the girl’s comforting of the man, and the man’s expression of sadness and regret from his lost love.
7) The character that controls the scene in the aspect of audio and the audiences’ thoughts would be the man whose story causes an opinion of him to grow in the audience. On a visual level, the first mug viewed controls the scene because it gives the audience a focal point while they listen to the story and also keeps their thoughts simple without allowing them to think to in depth about the man’s words and more listening to him speak.
8) I think that the only thing i would need to change in the scene, is possibly the age of the man because finding an elderly actor may prove difficult.

Milk presentation part 3

   The film itself directly coincides with the narrative which is a recreation of Harvey Milk's recorded will. The narrative is based on time sequence as well as plot because it is a recounting of Milk's experiences. The narrative helps to build the story especially in the introduction as it quickly establishes the mood, ending, and beginning of the film all in the same instant, while showing actual news footage from the faithful day of Harvey Milks death.

      In Milk much of the mood and climactic events of the film are either intensified or set up by small things such as lighting or camera angles. For example, when his boyfriend Jack hangs himself, the scene begins with Sean Penn running up a stair well looking at all the papers and fliers in the hallway. There is a lot of quick cutting as he runs up the stairs and looks throughout the house for Jack, this adds a lot of tension as we know something tragic has just occurred and out of suspense we wait to see what that is exactly. We can assume that something has happened to Jack though, as he portrayed as shy, nervous, and overbearing, we can assume that because Milk was late he must have done damage to something, most likely himself.

          Another shot that I really enjoyed watching, eventhough it was set in a very bleak and depressing scene, is in the first 20 minutes of the movie when Milk is explaining how the system they developed within the gay community to use whistles, as a cry for help. In the scene, a young gay boy is being zipped up in a body bag, clearly he had just been murdered and Milk and a police officer are talking to eachother about the incident. The interesting part of the scene is that it is all filmed in a relection of the actual scene taking place. This reflection is viewed in the side of the whistle of the deceased boy, which is clear because it is lying in the street and covered in blood, as the boy was. This is interesting because the whistle makes it more unclear when looking at it because it is simply a reflection of the actual scene but with all the dialogue included, and because this is taking place at night, it makes the scene seem even more bleak and hopeless for Harvey Milk's movement.
         In addition to lighting and angles, emotions are extremely well incorporated into the movie and are done so well as to make the audience feel them. A prime example would be after Harvey Milk's big birthday party; keeping in mind that we know Dan White kills Harvey Milk because of the establishing shots in the movie.

After the party we see Dan White, drunk, come up to Harvey Milk, and this is soon after Harvey Milk had shut down the proposal for pay raises for those in office, proposed by Dan White. Drunk, White begins talking to Milk and leaving off ambiguous statements that can be interpreted in a negative way. Such as White's yelling about his personal "problem" that he has, and telling Milk that he, "has something for him" that he'd been wanting to give him, which we also never see. Sean Penn then portrays his discomfort by trying to avoid White and this seems like a prime murder scene, causing the audience to go into hysteria due to tension.

   These are just some of the numerous manipulations of emotion and the audience through the use of characters acting skills and different cinematographic methods of tension build up.

Milk presentation part 2

  MILK is a movie about the gay rights leader Harvey Milk. One of his greatest accomplishments next to becoming City Supervisor, is the ultimate repeal of Proposition 6, better known as The Briggs Initiative which would remove all gay citizens from their jobs, mainly focused on teachers as well as the removal of anyone who supported them. This prop came from the idea that gay teachers were molesting students and were raising them to be gay and be pedophiles which was ridiculous but was used as a violent and easy exploitation in places like Orange County. Thirty years later in 2008 during the production and release of this movie, prop 8 was being voted upon by the people of San Francisco, over the right for gay people to marry. This being a very controversial subject, as was prop 6, where many argued that these were both attacks on people's constitutional rights. This is likely an inspiration for the production of MILK 
  
I think the sets used when filming this movie were extremely important. Harvey Milk lived in the Castro district of the city of San Francisco and he lead his movements and lead his people through the streets of San Francisco. Gus Van Sant Filmed on location in San Francisco, visiting places and walking he streets that Harvey Milk lead in and built his movement upon. Being from the area and being that I have visited San Francisco often, this film hits extremely close to home and has twice the impact it would have had if I had lived anywhere else. This also relates to the intended audience and message of this film. While it does effect and show this great man's effects on the rest of the country, I feel this film, almost naturally creates the people of San Francisco as it's audience. Especially during the strenuous time in San Francisco when it was released during the battling sides over prop 8.

Milk presentation part 1

     Milk is a biography(the accounting of one's life, or a section of one's life)/drama(passionate in depth expression of emotion through visual art) about the rise, struggle, and assassination, and his effect on the people of the United States, mainly the city of San Francisco, of which he was the City Supervisor at the time of his tragic death.
     Gus Van Sant, the director, has mad other films which I feel relate very will in the theme and messages that this film sends. A few examples of other movies made by this director that are similar in theme are Good Will Hunting,and Finding Forester. In all three films, the common theme of a great person rising from a troubled life of prejudice and pain to becoming great in their eyes as well as others as they meet their true potential is dramatically expressed through the showing and emotionally incorporating the hardships that many people go through every day, without anyone recognizing their true potential.

Milk= A gay rights activist runs for City Supervisor in San Francisco in hopes of helping to unite the community while attempting to focus the people on the true issues that threatening the city. While ignoring and fighting off numerous attacks on his campaign and even on his life as he attempts to become the first openly gay person to be elected to a position of political power. All leading up to his tragic assassination.

Finding Forester= black teenager begins writing for a prestiges school, with the help of a retired author and learns to hone his natural skills as a writer and proves those who condemned him for his race wrong.

Good Will Hunting= poverty stricken delinquent with unlimited potential in the field of mathematics is exploited and damaged as a child from foster homes who grows up and learns to survive in a normal society and even build relationships while working with others to live up to his full potential.







   It is quite clear that the movie Milk, as many would agree has a direct correspondence to it's openly gay director Gus Van Sant. Many would argue that Van Sant must have felt so much anger or resentment or just simply sympathy thinking about his part, being gay at the time, and being gay now thinking about the progress that has been inspired by Harvey Milk. But ironically they would be wrong. While it is true that of course some emotions must connect to the film, overall Gus Van Sant has been quoted on more than one occasion, throwing this notion out entirely to some extents. When asked about his emotion towards the film, he first explained that he was a director and a man, and that being gay doesn't change his film. Secondly and even more suprisingly, when asked about his emotion and what he was doing on the day Harvey Milk's murder. Van Sant said that he was actually driving across country and had never heard of Harvey Milk until a news report informed Van Sant that a gay City Supervisor in San Francisco had been shot.
    Also while discussing those who took part in making the film I think it is extremely important to at least briefly touch on Sean Penn's opinion. I think that Penn gives a great point of view and  greatly expresses what many and possibly what even Harvey Milk himself may have thought. While also giving many something to think about when looking at the biases that many people have towards the gay community and the faulty grounds these biases stand on.


“I also think it’s important to remember, in the long run, that the tension is not between the gay and the faith community,” Sean notes, “The tension is between a gay community, which is in fact, really is gay and a pseudo-faith community, which has nothing to do with God, love, or anything of real faith. So it’s really just hypocrisy and hatred. So any community that really deserves the title of faith community really won’t have a problem with these issues.”

:Sean Penn_on gay rights_interview_Milk

Oral Presentations wrong one

Good Will Hunting, is a drama featuring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Robin Williams. This film is classified as a drama because while it does have some comic moments, the majority of the film is focused on the "real" life of a genius in the slums, and how is life changes and how he effects the people around him as a result of his hard past. In many parts of the film his troubled life is brought to the surface through emotion, as an example being when he comes close to the point of abusing his girlfriend when she challenges the lies he has created about his life.
Gus Van Sant, the director, has mad other films which I feel relate very will in the theme and messages that the films send. A few examples of other movies made by this director that are similar are Milk,and Finding 
Forester. In all three films, the common theme of a great person rising from a troubled life of prejudice and pain to becoming great in their eyes as well as others as they meet their true potential.

Milk= gay man speaking and becoming well known and respected for fighting for gay rights.

Finding Forester= black teenager begins writing for a prestiges school, with the help of a retired author and learns to hone his natural skills as a writer and proves those who condemned him for his race wrong.

Good Will Hunting= poverty stricken delinquent with unlimited potential in the field of mathematics is exploited and damaged as a child from foster homes who grows up and learns to survive in a normal society and even build relationships while working with others to live up to his full potential.

Good Will Hunting was written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote the screenplay and was later picked up by Gus Van Sant who instantly knew it would be big. "Halfway through, I was so positive about it I called Joaquim Phoenix, who had Casey's telephone number -- Joaquim and Casey had remained friends after To Die For . Casey had Ben's mom's number, Ben's mom had Ben's number. So I eventually got to Ben, told him that I really loved the screenplay, and that I would do it. And I would do it right away, too, which made them really excited."

Sound Treatment

The scene will be visually simple.
We hear a woman shouting to pick up an order. You see a man's hand on a table leave the shot, it comes back down with a mug in hand.
The man sighs, we hear him start  talking about his hardships and tribulations.
After talking to himself for a short period, we pan out and see another mug, revealing that he has an audience.
Continuing with his stories, we hear nothing from the mystery audience knowing nothing of age gender or race.
after a few minutes we hear him stop as the sound of the music playing in the cafe is focused on.
Silence
and the man begins sobbing, he rants about his lost love and how this song makes him think of her, we hear a bang on the table and the mans arm hits the cup over.
We then for the first time hear the voice of his partner who we have no knowledge of.
A young girls voice (4-5 y.o), confused tries to comfort her grandfather out of embarrassment.
Apologizing we hear chairs screech as the man and girl get up and and a bell signifying their exit.
the closing shot of the two cups left on the table.
B-roll throughout the film if any would consist of pictures or memories of the mans youth.