Film Language and Research.

TAKE IT ALL TO BITS!

Brief:
Research Essay: 1000 Words
Find a 1 minute sequence of shots- NOT A TRAILER

1: Context - Genre, social context,who made it.
Genre-

Context-

2: Analysis- Can choose to focus on Edit or Cinematography or Palette or Audio
(Depending on personal interest and clip)


Cinematography-

3: Does it work? Do you like it? Was it successful?- Is it Arthouse, box office, storytelling, immersive etc?
Does it work?


Look at reviews and consider the comments of critics/ general public consensus.

Look at DETAIL of shots.




Media that is interesting and useful to me.

TV/Internet/Comics in better detail.

Older films? Time periods? Generic of the time?

List of all films/media that I watch.

How tv manipulates an audience.-why they do it that way? Back stories?

Look at reviews and WHO has done the review?

Analysis Example;
Wallace and Gromit. The Wrong Trousers, Nick Parks

Lecture notes on 'The Wrong Trousers'

Lecture on Frames

Film Analysis 1:

Pride and Prejudice 2005

Pride and Prejudice Theatre Production Analysis:

My mum got tickets to see this adaptation in Norwich and while I found it interesting, I honestly didn't enjoy it all that much. However I thought it would be interesting to compare it to a film version to see how they did things differently.

Reviews Film/ Theatre Production:

Positive:

Guardian Review 2005 film: Joe Wright

And this is because of an outstanding performance from Knightley as Lizzy Bennet, which lifts the whole movie. She gives a performance of beauty, delicacy, spirit and wit; in her growing lustre and confidence she is British cinema's answer to Kate Moss, but Moss is a star from the silent era. Knightley is from the talkies. Only a snob, a curmudgeon, or someone with necrophiliac loyalty to the 1995 BBC version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle could fail to enjoy her performance.

Knightley's Lizzy is a naughty sceptic, a droll outsider; a team leader from the awkward squad, much given to fits of giggles and pert backtalk, with sisterly kicks under the table given and received. It is a great moment when she overhears Darcy describe her as merely "tolerable" in looks, and then flings the word in his face before walking insouciantly away. Knightley has demanding, emotional scenes in searching closeup and handles them triumphantly. Her star quality will quite simply roll over you like a tank.

Negative:

Theatre Review.

Positive:

'A perfect Pride and Prejudice: skittish, comical, easy on the eye and moving'

Daily Mail

As the Bennet sisters haplessly search for love in Jane Austen's ultimate romantic comedy, it is Mr Darcy who unwittingly finds his match. 
Following sell-out performances at Regent's Park Theatre, producers of the recent smash-hits To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies, Pride and Prejudice features the Olivier award-winning Matthew Kelly (Of Mice and Men) and Felicity Montagu (Alan Partridge, Bridget Jones's Diary, The Durrells) as Mr and Mrs Bennet. Celebrating the legacy of Jane Austen as we approach her bicentennial, this is Austen "still dazzling after 200 years" (Observer).

Negative:

There’s only one sensible way to stage Jane Austen’s seminal 1813 novel. And that is to make it very silly indeed.

Celebrating ‘Pride and Prejudice’s two hundredth anniversary, Simon Reade’s jolly Open Air Theatre adaptation is big on Austen’s wit and zingy one liners, low on the depth and richness of her writing.

It is, in a very real sense, a post-‘Bridget Jones’ adaptation, a larksome romcom of a night in which everything and everyone is uniformly giddy and frivolous save for heroine Elizabeth Bennet and her glowering love interest Mr Darcy. And the latter is played in so constipatedly brooding a manner by David Oakes as to come across like a pastiche of Colin Firth (‘Bridget Jones’-era) pastiching Colin Firth (‘Pride and Prejudice’ TV series-era).

Realistically, though, the zingers and the romance and the tall dark and handsome Darcy are the reasons Austen’s book remains so popular. So if you must condense it into a couple of hours’ stage entertainment, then give the people what they want. Deborah Bruce’s good-natured production is light on its feet, with a minimal, elegant set that allows for the whole thing to move on at a tremendous clip.

There’s really not a lot of gravitas to be found – Jane Asher’s Lady Catherine is practically panto. But newcomer Jennifer Kirby brings some much needed dignity to the table as Elizabeth. She is superb: hearty, throaty, charismatic and hugely likeable – like Austen’s heroine, she is surely destined for greater things.

Analysis: Song of the Sea

Honestly, this is one of my favourite animated films of all time and I was just really excited to analyse it.


My Notes

Reviews:


ike The Secret of Kells, director Tomm Moore’s first feature, Song of the Sea blends Celtic legends, bravura design and animation, and intelligent storytelling that understands but never patronises young viewers, to create an exquisite and rewarding work. In a vaguely 20th-century Ireland, pugnacious young Ben (voiced by David Rawle of Moone Boy) lives on a remote island with his lonely lighthouse-keeper father (Brendan Gleeson) and six-year-old kid sister Saoirse, a mute who, like the children’s lost mother, is a half-human, half-seal selkie.

Leslie Felperin, The Guardian.







Analysis 4: This Means War

I chose to look at this film for two reasons; 1) it's not the kind of thing I would normally choose to watch and 2) I thought the spy/ romcom genre would be interesting to analyses.

This film was not good (in my opinion) however it was interesting how the colour palette changed from warm tones in the romance parts of the film to the cold tone of spy elements. Also whenever Reese Witherspoon (the love interest) is in shot, the lighting becomes incredibly bright and when she isn't there the two main actors have in a much darker setting.

Reviews

THIS MEANS WAR's premise is admittedly cute, and it stars a trio of appealing, talented actors, but it doesn't have much else going for it. Unfortunately, it fails to deliver on anything but a few easy laughs and a constant reminder that Witherspoon is one of Hollywood's irresistible sweethearts. Its downfall is that the central love triangle features the stereotypical foils of a fun-loving and sweet (read: boring) single dad (Hardy) versus a womanizing cad with a secret heart of gold (read: edgy), played by Pine.

These guys act like fraternity brothers who've bet on who can bed a girl first, all under the guise of discovering true love. But true love isn't based on subterfuge and spies. And regardless of whom Lauren chooses, neither man is truly worthy of her, because they both lie to her and endanger their friendship in the process. Sure, there's a supposedly happy ending, but it feels like the decks are fundamentally stacked against the nice guy, since he doesn't undergo a big personality change during the courtship. While all three leads have all been great in other films, this one is a forgettable disappointment. 

                              - Common Sense Media

Analysis: Her

Notes on 'Her'

Rated: 'R' - Language, sexual context and brief graphic nudity.

Online Reviews:
 8/10 -IMDb
90% Metacritic

Other Reviews:

Positive:

'Sad, funny and quietly alarming romance'- Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

'Her may be the most technologically astute movie since Stanley Kubricks '2001: A Space Odyssey'. And as the friendly ghost in the machine, Samantha is a more inviting companion for the great leap forward than Hal 9000 could ever dream of being'- Joe Williams, St Louis Post-Dispatch.

'What's surprising is that Jonze has taken what could easily have been a glib, screwball comedy and infused it instead with wry, observant tenderness and deep feeling"- Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post

Negative:

'It is engagingly self aware and excruciatingly self conscious, wearing it's hipness on it's sleeve; it's 
ingenious and yet remarkably contrived' - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

'The story is too slender for its two-hour running time, and the pace is lugubrious, as though everyone in front and behind the camera were depressed. But the biggest obstacle is the protagonist (Joaquin Phoenix), who is almost without definition. He is just some average guy of the near future, totally bland, someone with no obstacle he needs to overcome and no powerful desire he needs to satisfy.'- Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

The Director: Spike Jonze- Known for high concept films eg Being John Malkovich and Where the Wild Things Are.

Makes unorthodox premises for a real and relevant insight in the human mind and relationships.

Jonze communicates the emotional state of a character arc progression through a series of cinematic choices:

Colour - Sepia washed cinematography

Shallow Focus

Montage

Editing - Scene to scene composition.

Cinematography- Hoyte Van Hoytema, also worked on 'Let the Right One in', 'The Fighter' and 'Tinker tailer Soldier Spy'



Her Quotes

Theodore: 'Sometimes I think I have felt everything I'm ever gonna feel. And from here on out, I'm not gonna feel anything new. Just lesser versions of what I've already felt.'


Samantha: 'It's like I'm reading a book... and it's a book I deeply love. But I'm reading it slowly now. So the words are really far apart and the spaces between the words are almost infinite. I can still feel you... and the words of our story... but it's in this endless space between the words that I'm finding myself now. It's a place that's not of the physical world. It's where everything else is that I didn't even know existed. I love you so much. But this is where I am now. And this is who I am now. And I need you to let me go. As much as I want to, I can't live in your book any more.'

Samantha: You know, I can feel the fear that you carry around and I wish there was... something I could do to help you let go of it because if you could, I don't think you'd feel so alone anymore.




World of 'Her' is seemingly familiar while still providing technological advances which give an element of scifi- slightly more interesting than current reality.

The Life Style he Wants VS The Life Style he Needs

Her is a love story narrative but is a character study as a movie, separating it from other movies of the same nature.


We follow Theodore exclusively throughout the film allowing us to relate to him. Theodore is in every scene of this film. - This allows us to have better comprehension of his experiences.

Dominant Theme - Loneliness,

From the beginning of the film, Theodore is in a state of unrest mentally, very effective way of allowing the audience to relate to the character from the very start- The audience gets a sense that he is underserving of the sadness he feels.

First Scene:
Living his life vicariously through something else. At first you think he is telling someone how much he loves them but it turns out to be him writing love notes for other people.
Background blurred out, his is dissociated with his surrounding and the world around him.
As it becomes a wide shot, we see that everyone around him is the same- Irony being that loneliness is a shared experience.

Theodore always seems to be travelling along a different path to the people around him signifying how lost he is.

Moreover T is Joaquin Pheonix is often tasked with holding the screen, often entirely alone, for most of the film - emphasis on his alienation from the outside world/ human interaction.

Shallow Focus:

Almost every shot with Theodore and the sky line of LA shows him in focus and the skyline out of focus: Technique makes the two seem detached from one another.

Rare occurrences where both T and skyline are focus directly follow where T begins to accept his situation and recognise that he should focus on his needs- Character arc can be utilised through visual metaphor.

This is a visual cue that the world around T is rejecting him or that he is rejecting it- his environment reflects his inner thoughts and feelings.

Colour:

Colour plays a tremendous role in Her,  firstly it communicates who does and doesn't fit in, T brightly coloured clothes signal that he hasn't quite found his way amongst his peers.- His clothes clash with the sepia palette of the rest of the film

As he feels more comfortable with Samantha (and himself) his clothes change and he starts to blend in more with everyone else.

Sergei Eisenstien Montage theory editing:

Explained here by Alfred Hitchcock: 6:34 onwards-

Jonze uses montage theory throughout the film to emphasise how T is feeling now:

Many of the montages in Her present scenes are intercut with T's past so we can learn how the past effects him presently as well as understanding his thoughts and desires.

Because of these scenes we can see that T has become a slave to his past giving further meaning to Samantha saying "The past is just a story we tell ourselves".

Moreover these montage scenes continue while he is with Samantha, showing his need for human contact.