Cinematic Techniques
The extraordinary film The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959) skillfully uses cinematic devices appropriately within the context of the theme. Part of the underlying theme of this movie as explained by Truffaut himself is, “... to portray a child as honestly as possible...”(Writing About Film, 1982). It is the scenes in this movie that are most helpful in disclosing the overall theme of the film. Within the scenes, the camera angles in this film play an important role in accentuating the emotions behind the scene. The camera angles used in this film will be the primary focus of this paper. The high angle shots utilized in The 400 Blows are effective in helping to develop the overall feel of a scene. This movie uses the high angle shot in three different scenes to evoke three different emotions and it still works extremely well.
The opening sequence uses a series of high angle shots to assist in establishing a feeling of childhood innocence and indeed, the child in this film, Antoine Dionel (Jeanne-Pierre Leaud), starts out innocent. The camera focuses of the city buildings and the sky above. As shown from a ground point of view, the buildings are larger than life and intimidating. This is how most children view the world, as being large and intimidating. Take, for example, the scenario of dropping a child off for his/her first day of school. Most of them are devastated because they have to deal with a world that is larger than the one they know, an...
November 1998, written for FILM 220: Aspects of Criticism. This is a 24-week course for second-year students, examining methods of critical analysis, interpretation and evaluation. The final assignment was simply to write a 1000-word critical essay on a film seen in class during the final six-weeks of the course. Students were expected to draw on concepts they had studied over the length of the course.
Films are designed for numerous purposes, some entertain, frighten, enlighten, educate, inspire, and most make us think about the world we live in. This paper will be focused on the cinematic interpretation of the film "Stepping Razor Red X", the Peter Tosh Story. The makers of a film from the writer, director, cinematographer and the art director, design, and conceptualize what they want the viewer to see.
Macbeth’s tragic downfall into insanity could be modernly diagnosed as the mental disorder schizophrenia. Many of the actions carried out by Macbeth during the play lead the reader to believe that Macbeth is crazy. However, by today’s medical standards, Macbeth falls into several of the categories under the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is defined as, "a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life, and by disintegration of personality expressed as disorder of feeling, thought, and conduct."
Wes Anderson’s film, The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), trails about a dysfunctional family coming together for a reunion. The purpose of this essay is to examine and evaluate Anderson’s use of various film techniques to support in building the plot and thus presenting the story. Additionally, reasons as to why the events are presented in that manner would be stated.
The Dressmaker is a film based on the novel by Rosalie Ham and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse that portrays the morals of the people living in the community of Dungatar in the rural Australia. The film mainly engages with the themes of bullying, isolation and grief and loss. The director’s unique and distinctive visual style that has focused on the strongest aspects of the conservative society of the countryside in the 1950’s explores the lives of people settled there. Moorhouse has used cinematic techniques of symbolism, cinematography and sound effects in the film to enhance the audience’s engagement.
As Benjamin Disraeli once said, “Man is not the creature of circumstances; circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.” Although Macbeth’s insanity eventually led to his decease, it was his murderous intentions that brought him to insanity. Macbeth’s deeds could not be blamed upon the deception of the witches nor on his imperious wife but only on himself.
What do you think about when watching a film? Do you focus on the characters' good looks or the dialogue? Or do you go behind the scenes and think about what made the film? Maybe, it's even a combination of all three. No matter what comes to mind first, an important part of any good movie will be what you see. A camera and good director or cinematographer is needed to make that possible. Different directors and cinematographers will use different camera techniques to make you focus on what you see. Camera techniques show emphasis in films, because they make you focus more on situations and people. They are especially important in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream.
For this assignment I have chosen to analyze a scene from the 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums, directed by West Anderson, where Richie Tenembaum, portrayed by Luke Wilson, attempts to commit suicide. This scene provides a shift from the previously established editing style of the film, its mood, pace, and camera movement as the filmmaker presents the climax in this one character’s story. This is done through the use of a specific mise en scène and an editing style which conveys the emotion behind the character’s actions.
O’Neill, T. (2013, February 27). Why African rhinos are facing a crisis. National Geographic News. Retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/02/130227-rhino-horns-poaching-south-africa-iucn/
With this short but very interesting and informative class I have just scratched the surface of the what it takes to make a full fleged film. It takes much more than I had presumed to make a movie in Hollywood. The number of people that it takes to make a minute of a movie let alone the entire movie was astonishing to me. There are many things that it takes to start making a movie but without an idea of some sort there is no movie to be made.
As an audience we are manipulated from the moment a film begins. In this essay I wish to explore how The Conversation’s use of sound design has directly controlled our perceptions and emotional responses as well as how it can change the meaning of the image. I would also like to discover how the soundtrack guides the audience’s attention with the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds.
Spirited Away, titled Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi in Japan, follows a young girl named Chihiro on an adventurous, yet threatening journey into a magical realm after her parents are turned into pigs. She forms relationships with people that will help her find her way back home such as Haku, Zeniba, and Mr. Kamaji. She also encounters those like Yubaba who try to make her time in the realm of spirits difficult. Spirited Away quickly became Japan’s highest grossing film of all time. It received many great reviews in every aspect of filmmaking. It won several awards, including A Golden Bear in 2002 at the Berlin International Film Festival, and an Academy Award in 2003 for Best Animated Film. Hayao Miyazaki, the film’s writer and director, strongly encourages Japanese culture and its survival. He believes that “surrounded by high technology and its flimsy devices, children are more and more losing their roots”(Reider). Hayao Miyazaki’s aim is to present not only an animated motion picture, but a work of art. He does so by using certain animation and film techniques, applying Japanese culture, and creating in depth characters, all of which highlight key symbols in the film.
Cameroon, Chad, Mozambique and Congo are the primary countries being affected in South Africa from these anonymous poachers. From the year of 2000 to 2013, the rate of poaching has elongated from 6 to 946 and standing alone in 2012, over 668 rhinoceroses were shot dead in account of the SADEA. Although the staggering rates on poaching of rhinos for their horns seem have caught the attention of millions of individuals across the world, many people fail to realize the significant impact it has on the environment, and so does the Professor of Political Science at the University of North Dakota, William Montgomery.
Due to the film’s quality and interest it became an award winning film. The film had excellent sound effects such as the battle scenes. The image quality was also outstanding; it used many different angles to depict the actor to make you feel involved in the scenes. In the action scenes the most common viewpoint used was a close up shot which allows the audience to see and feel the intensity of the scene. The second viewpoint mostly used was a tracking shot due to the actors c...
Main (2013) adds, The Western black rhino was declared extinct by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) in 2011, with the primary cause identified as poaching. Perhaps the most shocking thing of all is why these animals are being killed in the first place. These animals are being killed, often for just miniscule parts of their body that are in some cases useless. For example, the major reason rhinos are being poached is for their horn. Many countries believe that the rhino horn is an important ingredient for many medicines. This is false, there has been no medicals or scientific proof that these horns provide any medical benefit. This really forces you to ask yourself why the animal was even killed in the first