Roberts Film Blog

Paper 2A exam question: In both Pan's Labyrinth and City of God, cinematography is commonly used to help build context, for instance in the flashback apartment scene where we see the progression of the apartment becoming less and less domestic as the lighting changes as the scene starts with very hot lighting and eventually becomes much colder making the apartment look like a husk of its former domesticated. We see lighting is used a lot in City of God to reflect the darker reality in the present and the nostalgic light hearted past as the lighting is very warm at the beginning as Rocket recalls his childhood. The camera in the flashback scene is still fully static and does not move one bit. Particularly the Pale Man scene inside Pan's Labyrinth as the camera is on a dolly zooming out of Ofelia's face to show the long hallway creating a sense of mystery as she entered the underworld again not knowing what could be lurking, as Ofelia enters the underworld we quickly realise ...

Silent Film conventions For example, a simple lack of dialogue and making the actors who perform need to act even more quirky with non-diegetic sound to better represent emotions throughout the films follow particular conventions. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Harold Lloyd, John Bunny and so on are key figures in the silent film genre. Soviet Montage: A form of silent film that relies heavily on editing French Impressionism: A form of silent film which uses non-linear editing attempting to portray dream sequences and fantasies and other methods to tell a story from a protagonists point of view.

Pans Labyrinth's opening scene shows the cyclical framework associated with the City of God thus linking both Post-civil war Spain's practical random violent and fascist truth in 1944 with the underworld where laws and consequences make sense Pans Labyrinth immediately begs the questions from the beginning inside the audience-is the underworld real? I don't personally think that way. I think it can be argued both ways easily, but we are evident to me by film type in which world we really live in. Mercedes Melody, which we also hear in the closing sequence, opens the scene. The contextual subtitles not only create the harsh reality in which our heroine lives, but also the one from which she desperately wants to escape. Then a close-up that eventually opens into an intense close-up in Ofelia's eye follows to convey that we are really in her mind, perhaps to the people who assume that the underworld is a coping mechanism for Ophelia The cinematography has a very dim and co...

The final scene is important to the exploration and presentation of the film's ideolo gical themes such as escape, urban life, and the evolving nature of its crime. In terms of his escape, Rocket starts to see light at the end of the tunnel towards the end of the film. We are positioned in a professional office setting by the use of mise-en-scene, which shows great hope for our antagonist as we have not seen before outside the area, but the cool tone Before, however the cool toned lighting that looms over the current day is still prevalent outside the city. Finally, he gets another camera from a photographer he's looking up to in relation to Rocket's escape. This can be seen as symbolism for his journey, but Rocket is not the only character to upgrade his weapon-both gangs are buying police weapons, but Lil Ze is not paying for them. And so the scene of the' beginning of the end' begins and the City Of God is turned into a war zone. We are taken back to the opening ...

  City Of God The Turf: in this short two minute clip we are shown a lot of narrative. The film uses multiple flashbacks in this two minute scene. the story is linear and is being told from different view points. it shows an armature drug business being turned into a large professional one. the narrative uses comedy to make light of the situation as throughout the narrative it gets darker, this shows how the city of god changes as well as it went from a armature to large, her business starts of as a means to help raise her daughter, we are quickly taken away from this and the business has become only for profit and power. this short 2 minute scene has enough narrative and plot to create another film, however the film quickly briefs over them and you still get the key points. rockets story flows within the film as he is at the wrong place at the wrong time. the characters throughout the flashback of the turf get worse, the first owner of the business using it for good, while the sec...

  city of god opening: performance: lil ze- aggressive, smiling, close ups rocket - relaxed, mid shot sound: traditional Brazilian music, street noises, knife sharpen mise-en-scene props: guns, knife, camera. casual use instantly  setting: urban blood chicken: brief freedom, blue sky, straight back to the street City Of God Editing: kinetic, quick, visible, stylised editing  flash forward to the end of the film (narrative structure)  lil ze pulls out his gun - jarring cut focuses on him even more matches the music  Cinematography:  lots of close ups/ extreme close ups of preparation of food, low angle (on lil ze showing power) sunlight, no sky, small shots of sky, only light is blinding, oppressive chicken, low angle (street level) dint see anyone face  trapped in the streets. theme and ideologies:  violence, danger urban life poverty, inequality.  post: warm lighting- brown, friendly, huge sky,  rocket is in the middle of the shot facin...

do you remember when robert gilbert fade in: scene 1: *roberts state of mind seems to be antisocial shown with the news paper covering the face* camera is on tripod andb holds a still frame alfies and riacros state of mind is clear its clear theat they could or couldnt be thinking about a lot  robert is the clear fateher of the boys and just wants to converstate with them  *camera uses quite a wide lense on the scene* *the house we are shown is very clean and tidy shpowing the family to have a nice lifestyle and coming from richer parents we are unknown off the time period as the only thing that shows the period is the vhs camera *vhs filter* *family room will have photos of the 3 however any photo of robert in it the face will be removed or the whole person will be cut out* *dim lighting in the room with most of the light coming from the lamp* creating mystery to why there isd someone removed from the photo and trthe lighting is d...

Original film planning: the genre that i have choose for my film is horror and alternate reality, my short film has been influenced by, possibly in Michigan, little baby ice cream, Jam and Dining Room or There is Nothing. i will be focusing on character development. music is going to be upbeat to throw off the audience, the setting is going to be 1980, filmed in a old fashion vhs camera/ vhs affect. the lighting is going to be high key and most scenes taking place in the morning and in public areas with no people around. the colouring will be typical 1980 vibrant. i will have characters volume frequency go up and down and they're speaking changing tone. in this film, in an alternate reality where a family is having a normal conversation about their most recent murder acting like it was years ago. the shot is in upper body ending in the zoom out of to the dead body.

Short Films: Wallace and gromit the wrong trousers is experiment in many ways, the main way it is experimental is having only one characters speak, this make sense as animals cannot speak, humans in the film are show to be stupid but smart at the same time whilst animals are shown to be the smart ones. this film has lots of oxymoron's in it as the main character Wallace is an inverter but someone who is very stupid, this shows that the film doesn't follow stereotypes. this is also shown with gromit as stereotypes of dogs are shown not to be as smart as humans, and gromit in the show is shown as the hero as he is smart and quick witted. Wallace and gromit has a playful atmosphere although it has some deep tones with the playful music over someone trying to get killed with a penguin with a gun it is also very weird to see a crime show animated as the genre of Wallace and gromit is crime and animation i think they execute it well as it mixes in with the stupid com...

La Jetee This French science fiction short film was made in 1962 and sticks to this genre as we are shown the tests on time travel as the man being tested has research equipment attached to him like tubes coming out of his eyes and the setting is underground as the film is set in a post-nuclear wartime world helps to establish this atmosphere of science fiction as images of war torn France are used to Portray the destruction of nuclear weapons.The film uses a number of still images in the film using a photo-assembly and rarely uses any video because the narration is provided by a narrator explaining the tale of what happened and telling the storey of a prisoner being experimented on, the colours used throughout the film are black and white. The narrative structure uses conventions such as how the narrative comes into full circle, but their resolution is not new, but an ending as the film begins with an underground prisoner experimented on as the scientists investigate ...

Elephant by Alan Clarke One interesting thing about this movie is the lack of dialogue within it, relying on other sound effects, as well as other film form aspects. One advantage of choosing to leave most of the dialogue out of the short film is that it forces the audience to pay attention to the other aspects of the film, as well as to make the other, no dialect sound, portrayed as louder and more jarring. Within this short film, this is especially useful in making the many gun shots heard in the film , making each of the shots stand out in the minds of the public. Another way in which the film focuses the audience's attention on the film's brutality is by repeated long lingering shots on the bodies of victims. The use of these shots draws the viewer's attention to the brutality of the crimes being performed,there is nothing to divert from the victims, the mind is concentrated solely on the victim, the lack of sound means there is nothing t...

 Wasp: The short film's plot consists of a young single mother named Zoe, 4, living in poverty in Dartford, struggling to find food for her and her children, when one day her ex-boyfriend drives by and asks her to go on a date, pretending that her children are not really hers, as she is afraid that he will go on like her and abandon them for hours, as she is on her date.The key shots used in the film are close ups of the characters faces to show their feelings this shot was normally used on the mother as we see her reaction to leave her children and the children faces, the colours and lighting are exceptionally bright for the darker tone of the film as in most of the film's natural colours such as greens and whites. The blues stand out most and the natural lighting tends to emphasise those colours. The minimalist style with no non-diegetic music being present in the entire movie and the camera moving to handheld adds authenticity to the movie and plot. Conflict is present ...

 short films: The Wrong Trousers is a short film, produced by British stop-motion in 1993, directed by Nick Park at Aardman Animations featuring his characters Wallace and Gromit. It is the second film, after A Grand Day Out (1989), featuring the inventor Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis) and his dog Gromit. Throughout the film, a sinister penguin uses the robotic Trousers used by Wallace and Gromit to steal a diamond. genres of short films: animation  witch has genres of 2D/ 3D / motion graphics comedy witch has genres of dark comedy/ anti humour/ shock humour  drama witch has genres of classical/ comedy/ romance  documentary witch has genres of animation/ interview/ poetic horror witch has genres of mystery/ comedy/ Gothic fiction romance witch has genres of fantasy/ mystery/ humour  thriller witch has genres of crime/ action/psychological sci-fi / fantasy  witch has genres of alien/ cyberpunk/ superhero...

the product of their environment One way in which the characters of the film are a product of their surroundings is the pub vs restaurant theme that is present throughout the entire film and is a divider between Liz and Shaun. Liz has more middle class views overall, saying she doesn't want to waste the rest of her life At the pub every day, offering the general premise that restaurants are safer and the alternative that is more "grown up" (lamer). We may presume that Liz had a middle-class upbringing, like most characters in the film, and her opinions of restaurant over pub are possibly a result of her upbringing, after her parents had a relationship with her. Her entire mission is to try to make Shaun a middle -Adult gender, and to her, the only way to really be an adult is to be a middle-class adult, not realising the life Shaun is experiencing as an adult. Another way we see the film's middle-class values is through Shaun's wife, Yvonne, who has a c...

Shaun Of The Dead: Narrative Structure And Genres. Shaun of the Dead is a blend of several different genres, mixed together to create a tale of interest. It's a sitcom, a romance and, most obviously, a zombie movie. The film uses its fusion of different genres to address problems and rebalance the balance. The horror to using inside the horror helps this film to tell even darker things than if the film were to stick to one genre. Uses  Edgar Wright uses Visual humour to tell the storey inside this film, a key example of this in the open by using a gore. When Shaun and ed find a girl in their garden they are still clearly unaware of being ripped from the world of rom-coms and thrown into a zombie movie, before Shaun impels the zombie with garden furniture (the deadliest of all weapons) through the chest. By making the framing expose them in the circle through the chest of the zombie, Edgar Wright literally places Shaun and Ed inside the zombie. The movie then uses tradition...

trainspotting themes and binary opposites: The theme of the past vs future is prevalent in the film as the scene in which Renton is in a club later in the film as he narrates how everything shifts like music, drugs, and people as techno plays in the background and also the soundtrack has a lot of techno reinforcing this idea of changing times. An earlier scene near the beginning where Renton is from another bar, too Contrasts with the later scene to express the change which is occurring as the earlier scene shows people drinking alcohol as people dance to typical 80s music, whereas the later scene shows people on ecstasy and the places where these scenes take place are different as the previous episode in Leith. And the later scene in London also takes place a drug change as Renton talks about ecstasy becoming much more popular as the popularity of heroin losing popularity as this change in the film shows a shift in culture from the 80's to the 90's within these two scenes...

trainspotting opening: The beginning of the film throws the audience into an action-packed scene later in the film making the narrative non-linear as someone starts to narrate as a close-up of a character presents to the audience that he is the main character and we are in alignment with him because we first see him and hear his voice and the plot. Renton's narration tends to be a rather sarcastic look at life as He lists stuff like "choosing life, choosing a career and choosing fixed-interest mortgage repayments," as it seems like Renton denounces what society wants us to live and the audience knows like Renton is the main character as we have a freeze frame of his name that makes it obvious to the audience that he is the main character.  After having us connected with Renton. In his narration he says "choose your friends" and it cuts to a shot of all the other characters and Renton's friends having a football match, but this scene can be seen somewhat a...

captain fantastic dinner scene analysis: the dinner table scene is the most awkward scene throughout the movie. we have two polar opposite families together and there are a lot of silent scenes that makes it more awkward. the camera is hand held in most of the shots, this works as when characters stumble and are talking very awkwardly, the camera is the other family inner voice as they do not want to be in that situation. the use of camera angles are wide shots, this shows the two family's at the dinner tables and shows how different their life styles are. there is also a lot of close us and focuses on when camera are speaking, the close ups show the characters emotions and how they interpreter what is being saying within the dialogue, the lighting on the left is more bright and symbolises that the family is more functioning in society and are more happy minded. whilst the lighting on the left is more dark, this implies that their family is more dark and scarie...

Captain fantastic opening and ending: the opening: in the opening we are shown a crazy family who are killing an innocent dear to make someone into a man, however as the opening goes on we see the family yo be sweet and caring who care about them and wants to protect family at all costs. In the start we are aligned with the males as they are seen as the powerful and important ones as we are listing to dialogue from them and they are the main focus in the shot. the main character that we are aligned with is the dad as he is the alpha of the group the opening title has him in it showing that he is captain fantastic. we believe we should alliance with the father as he knows what he is doing as he can take care of a large squad and be a good father.  We are introduced as the males being the powerful and in control of everything and the females being side charters who have to follow what the males say, this shows that the dad is traditional and believes the male should do everythin...

No Country For Old Men Opening: The first character that we are introduced to is Tom Bell, we see nothing but all we can hear is his voice, from the first 5 seconds we implies that he is a old man who knows about the town he lives in. he is is shown to be non fearing of much and having a careless attitude as he has been a sheriff for so long he knows what to expect. He is a old time foe, without seeing him we already know what type of person he is. he tells us a chilling story of a murder in a  monotone voice showing that he sees this stuff all the time. we know that he is a man that is finding it hard to get with the times as crime is shifting and is getting more and more scary but he knows what to expect from this work. We dont see him in the opening, this will later on work with the film as he is always late to stuff and just wants to be retired. the second character that we are introduced too is Anton Chigurh. Anton is a mysterious character in the opening with li...

Apocalypse Now Ending: in the ending of apocalypse now francis coppla use film form to explore the nature of war, he does this by using music the music used in the final scene is a slow fade in to the end witch is played at the start of the film,m this implies that he has been mental unstable throughout the whole film, before the music starts we have the chilling voice over of how disappointed he is witch society this again links in with the start as he is always scared of the word that he is in. the voice over before the music lets you get inside the head of the character and show why he is the way he is, the slow fade in of the music works as it gets more crazier as it gets louder this shows what is going on in the scene and how tense and crazy that what is going to happen. the slow fade out of the music implies that the craziness is done for now and he can be at rest for now, the lightning strike signals that its over and he can return home to believe everything will go back to no...