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.