In the films The Last King of Scotland by Kevin MacDonald and 12 Years a Slave by Steve McQueen, I will be discussing chapters Three "Types of Movies", Seven “Acting”, Eight “Editing”, and Nine “Sound.” These two films are great examples for us the viewers for that reason that they both illustrate humility and power. In chapter Seven of Looking at Movies entitled “Acting,” Richard Barsam and Dave Monahan discuss the importance of movie actors. “Each of us creates a persona, the image of character and personality that we want to show the outside world. For movie actors, those personae are their appearance and mannerism of moving and delivering dialogue unique creations that are consistent at least on some level from role to role and from performance …show more content…
“Even the actors who star in genre movies factor into how the genre is classified, analyzed, and received by audiences (3, 83).” In the film 12 Years of Slave, McQueen uses Solomon Northrop as the main character (“Star”) who changes over time to force the audience to see slavery anew. In the conditions Solomon is living as a slave makes him rebel, lying, and a dishonest person. The first time Solomon rebels is at Ford's house. In that scene we see the crucial way Solomon whips Tibeats. After that Solomon knows his punishment is going to be worse. As we see Solomon's punishment it made us reveal the real consequences of being a rebel slave can turn out to be. The words freedom fighter is the way of seeing Solomon rebel lioness. However, we begin to encounter the lies of Solomon when he is with his second master Epps. Solomon lies "to live not to survive," like he mention in the beginning of the film. He starts by lying to save himself from getting killed. Throughout the film we see how honest Solomon is but nothing stops him by being dishonest. Once Solomon starts protesting his freedom. We see how badly that turns out to be. "Free Man," is the words Solomon starts using yet he stops once he sees what it has cost him. McQueen emphasis the dangerous of those two words "free man," as a crucial punishment, since we see Solomon's back full …show more content…
In the film The Last King of Scotland, I liked how Nicholas being a doctor and having the opportunity to go work in a hospital or have his own office. He decides to give back to the community by volunteering in a way that changes his life and the life of others. His decision made me think that giving back to the most needed is sometimes good and bad because we don’t know how life will treat us at the end. For instance, if Nicholas wouldn’t have accepted Amin’s offer he would’ve ended up saving others people’s lives and not getting into trouble like how he did. This film has made me think about making decisions in life, now that I have watched Nicholas made the wrong decisions in his life, I want to make the right decisions of my life. Life is too precious and making the correct decisions will make it easier. In the film 12 Years a Slave, I liked how the scenes looked realistic, perhaps that one scene where Solomon is hanged from a tree, also the scene where Solomon whips Patsey. In the film 12 Years of Slave, I will never forget how bad slaves were treated, the harsh conditions they live were cruel and I wouldn’t want anyone to live that crucial life any more. I’m against
Braudy, Leo and Marshall Cohen, eds. Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, Fifth Edition. New York: Oxford UP, 1999.
Phillips, Gene D. Conrad and Cinema: The Art of Adaptation. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1995.
In his true-life narrative "Twelve Years a Slave," Solomon Northup is a free man who is deceived into a situation that brings about his capture and ultimate misfortune to become a slave in the south. Solomon is a husband and father. Northup writes:
Film is a form of entertainment which is admired due to its capability of creating an escape from one world to enter another. Therefore, it is important to mesmerise and intrigue the target audience to captivate their interests, developing an understanding and loyalty. Award winning films of Hollywood exemplify and present a powerful meaning using techniques established by the director. These techniques can be shown through the production and distribution, film language and the influences and, narrative choices such as plot, structure, and character.
Whenever books are adapted for film, changes inevitably have to be made. The medium of film offers several advantages and disadvantages over the book: it is not as adept at exploring the inner workings of people - it cannot explore their minds so easily; however, the added visual and audio capabilities of film open whole new areas of the imagination which, in the hands of a competent writer-director, can more than compensate.
An actor often has to take on vastly different roles for the production of a large variety of films. In the development of these roles, the actor constructs different sets of personae by the use of specific gestures, vocalics as well as speech content, in order to aid the communication of ideas and thoughts. Hence for an actor whose profession involves the practice of portraying fictional characters with authenticity, it is almost impossible to determine if his persona off the screen is truly authentic. This is especially so for widely acclaimed actors, in particular Oscar nominees, whose portrayals of characters have been done with such expertise that it has earned them accolades. This paper will analyse and compare the personalities of Russell Crowe and Peter Sellers, two widely acclaimed but controversial actors, with their public personae that surfaced in televised interviews. Major discrepancies will aid us in determining the inauthenticity of their personae, which may have seemed genuine in the absence of prior comparison. Since audiences are unable to accurately determine the authenticity of these actors’ personae displayed in broadcast interviews, the use of authenticity as a yardstick when analysing personae seems to be irrelevant in this context.
”[1] From the above quote it’s fair to suggest that when answering this. question importance lies in the discussion of Film Language. The assignment will therefore look at the various Film Languages. The text that will be used is Macbeth[2] (Shakespeare), and Roman.
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.
... movie stars like royalty or mythical gods and goddesses, viewing the drama between great archetypal characters in a personal psychic realm. By considering the statements made and their societal impact from a Marxist perspective, Benjamin’s method is highly effective, as it does not simply consider art in terms of pure aesthetics anymore, but considers art’s place in a society capable of mechanically reproducing and endlessly duplicating film, photography, and digital art. His qualm with losing the aura and mystique of an original work is negated by the cult of movie stars, the adoration of fame, the incorporation of soundtracks which embody a particular time period, cinematographic allusions, and time-capsule-like qualities of a film such as Basquiat, a 90s tribute to the 80s, produced both as a part of and resulting from the art movements and trends it addresses.
Lacey, N. (2005). Film Language. Introduction to film (pp. 16-22). Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Viewing 12 Years A Slave for the first time was excruciating. The director of the film depicts a vivid view of the horror that African Americans endured during the slavery era. He illustrates one man's journey, Solomon Northup, starting out as a free man, being captured, becoming property, to finally being able to see his family in this same lifetime. The writer's objective for the viewer was to create a timeline of events that could happen to one through this horrific stage. By glimpsed into one person’s life of bondage as a viewer, you can truly empathize with the main character as well as others who endured enslavement.
The acting in a film plays a major role during the whole experience. In a way it sets the mood and how the audience sees it, and if they take it seriously. The actors/acting portraying the characters should be able to fit their character perfectly and each actor in the film seemed to portray their character just the way they were meant and, the movie seemed accomplish it. The acting showed the emotions each character felt, and the audience could understand the characters completely. The acting helped understand how realistic it was and how some of the scenes might be relatable to some.
Acting is not about being famous, it is about finding the message behind stories. It is also about expressing yourself and the character that is being played not matter how well you try to interpret a character there will always be a part of you in the character, that is what makes it acting. Formation of cultural and personal thoughts is an expression that creates beauty in the world, this relates to acting because the creativity in movies and shows depend on an actor’s thoughts and actions. The passion for many people also know as acting has had an impact on everyone because actors inspire many people, are successful, and become role models.
Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universally understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films; Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films; Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society using sound and editing.
I have seen many films, episodes, and all time favorites throughout my life. Attitudes, styles, and feelings are carried out in each film. You learn to enjoy watching these characters assume their role and act in such a notorious way. Every character has his or her way of acting. For example, to be considered a hero in a film, you must be the underdog and be victorious. You can be in romance if you are confident, good-looking, and soft spoken. , you must be the underdog and be victorious. You can be in romance if you are confident, good-looking, and soft spoken. You can be the bully or the nerd. All of these internal and external appearances are all based on performance.