So…What's Memorable About This Walk?
So...What's Memorable About This Walk? Romance, tears, and not a well developed character in sight - what else do you expect from the director of the so called box office hit The Wedding Planner? Adam Shankman conjures up another film that targets such a narrow audience that it completely misses the sweet spot with the majority of movie-goers. A Walk To Remember may have been ignored by most film viewers, but the posters featuring Mandy Moore and Shane West lured enough preteens and early teenagers to actually make a profit. Although, put a good looking male who falls in love with a "Plain Jane" on the screen, and the girl masses will follow. This film gave the audience two narrative arcs for the price of one. It first began as a typical teenage movie where opposites attract, but then progresses into a mawkish tear jerker. Putting two narratives into a 100 minute feature length film forced Shankman to cut a few corners. By doing so, the characters were poorly developed, subplots were wrapped in unconvincing ways, and the entire film seems rushed. Even after all this, the tender faces around me still gasped on cue and shed tears when the characters did. Landon Carter (Shane West) and a bunch of his beer-drinking, blaspheming friends begin the film with an initiation rite gone terribly wrong when another young man jumps from an industrial scaffolding into a shallow river.
Television now stands in the foot prints of where film was once stranded. This statement is referring to television being viewed as an art.
Television now stands in the foot prints of where film was once stranded. This statement is referring to television being viewed as an art. Over the last few decades film studies within universities have elevated film to that of an art. Television studies seem to be few and far between. So where does television stand in terms of art and what needs to happen to elevate its status and acceptance within the art community. Television today is produced much like film during the major studio hay day. When something works (ex. Reality TV) they run with it until it runs dry. This is naturally part of the TV enterprise because viewers are needed to keep advertisers interested, and advertising is needed to keep the networks financially happy. Old Hollywood's answer to the studio was the auteur. This was a filmmaker who was able to work within the heavy constraints of the studio and still add his/her artistic touch. In television today you have a handful of shows that cross this boundary (ex. X-Files etc.) and overcome the constraints of a national broadcast. Another positive for TV is networks such as HBO which have done away with constraints altogether. Since HBO has its own in house productions and doesn't rely on advertising (viewers pay to have access to it) it gives its own productions much more time to develop into there potential. This is in sharp contrast to that of major
In what way is 'The Quick and the Dead' both a typical and untypical film from the Western Genre?
In what way is 'The Quick and the Dead' both a typical and untypical film from the Western Genre? In this essay I will be looking at the main points of the film to show how it is both typical and untypical of the Western Genre. The film 'The Quick and the Dead' is a Western film that is mainly situated around 1 central character and their motive to get revenge. Ellen, 'a Cowgirl' rides into town to take part in a gun-fighting contest that is held every year. At first when asked she claims that she is simply taking part for the $123,000 prize money, however we later discover that she is taking part to avenge her feathers death. Her father was hung while Ellen was at a very young age, she was made to watch this happen and although given the chance by her fathers killers to save him, she couldn't. The main person responsible for her fathers death was a man called Herod, he is the 'Outlaw' of the town where the gun-fighting contest is being held, the people of the town re extremely afraid of him and Herod knows this and takes advantage of them. For example a young boy told Ellen that Herod takes 50c of every $1 in the town. As a young child whilst witnessing her father being hung, Ellen was given a chance to save her father. Herod gave Ellen a gun and told her she could have three shots to shoot through the rope that her father was hanging from. Ellen was extremely scared and
Film & Ideology - FIGHT CLUB
Topic 3 - Film & Ideology - FIGHT CLUB (David Fincher, USA 1999) Ideology is "the body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture. A set of doctrines or beliefs that form the basis of a political, economic, or other system" (Oxford Dictionary). Self-destruction, purpose, reality, perception, control, masculinity, violence and chaos are all given thorough examination through the interwoven journey's of the main characters in the film. Fight Club is a film that challenges these ideological underpinnings to which our society is founded upon. It questions the audience's view of reality, and brings forth a culture of somewhat misguided hope that through an altered perception, anything is possible. Fight Club by David Fincher, is one of only four films made by the director whose credits include: * Alien3 (1992, Twentieth Century Fox) * Se7en (1996, New Line Cinema) * The Game (1997, PolyGram) * Fight Club (1999, Twentieth Century Fox) All four films could fit into the category of dark thriller, even though their styles range from sci-fi, through film noir and mystery, to surrealism. All his films tend to exist within a "realm of darkness" (Brozy, 1999-2000:14) "Rarely is there a scene in the daytime that isn't under lit, or blackened by a thunderstorm. Fincher once said that he believes in making movies that scar. He
Film Analysis - Edward Scissorhands - by Tim Burton
Film Analysis "Edward Scissorhands" - Katrin Dreher "Edward Scissorhands" by Tim Burton is a fantasy story contrasting both fairytale and horror-imagery. Dominated by two controversial themes, it is a love story between a beauty and a beast as well as a dark parable about loneliness, nonconformity, and the intolerance and tyranny of suburban small minds. The story is about an Avon lady named Peg Boogs who discovers the unfinished experiment of a mad scientist: a weird looking and shy man/monster called Edward living in the neighborhood's old abandoned castle. The scientist died before replacing Edward's large shears with real hands and so his creation is left unfinished and all by himself until Peg shows up. She attempts to bring Edward into her subarban uniform world to live among her skeptical family and gossipy neighbors where at first he experiences positive reactions when he transforms the neighborhood into a fantastical garden by coaxing beautiful topiaries from tress and bushes and when he invents new individual haircuts for all of the town's women. He almost becomes somewhat of a celebrity. But it is hard for Edward to find his place within the superficial harmony and uniformity of suburbia and so later on we find him turned into the hated, mistreated figure of a weird and dangerous outsider and, in the end, he has to flee back to his own environment. The
Film Analysis - The Matrix.
Yr 12 Second Term Assignment - Film Analysis The Matrix The clip that I have decided to analyse is from the film Matrix, it is the main climax form the entire film. The visual signifiers within this clip are Neo and Agent Smith as these are the people that are emphasised within the clip. During the clip, both of the characters do not make any direct mode of address with us and the camera, they only make eye contact with each other. The mise-en-scene of one particular frame is of an empty underground station. This is evident, as within the frame you are able to see disposable coffee cups and used newspapers flying around. The used newspapers flying around are placed within the frame to emphasise that the underground station is completely empty and also helps to stretch time as the newspapers fly around in slow motion. It can also be described as an indexical sign as it shows that it is a windy day. Also, within the mise-en-scene the character of Agent Smith is given the image of a serious and menacing man, this is shown through the stiff grey suit he's wearing and his stern facial expressions. Neo's costume is a long black leather jacket this is the typical costume of the heroes within the film. His relaxed hairstyle shows that he is a 'cool' type of guy; however within this particular clip his facial expressions show that he is angry and full of vengeance.
"The Blair Witch Project" - review.
The words on screen which open "The Blair Witch Project" are somewhat manipulative, since this documentary of filmmakers disappearing in the woods is moreover mocked and staged. Haxan films, the responsible minds behind this Sundance Film Festival hit, have pulled out all the stops to convince the world that what they shall see is indeed fact, filmed in a style which dialogue is easily improvised, and situations are lifelike. There's a Sci-Fi channel exclusive telling of the "Curse of the Blair Witch," TV spots focusing in on vivid cries of terror, and even an official website with journals documenting these filmmakers' frightful journey (up to a point). All of these efforts may seem somewhat ridiculous in convincing audiences that the movie is completely factual, but nevertheless they are needed, and appropriate, to help set up the movie itself. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, the directors, know for a fact that they have to convince us these things are genuine in order for them to scare us. And with everything they have done in the months leading up to the nationwide release, people will walk into the theater convinced that they are watching something authentic. That factor alone might scare them more than what they actually see on screen. Oh, but that doesn't mean what happens on screen isn't horrifying. Most of the events chronicled in this "lost footage" are
Film And TV studies Assessment - Write an analysis of the clip: having identified the clip's main themes, show how the textual strategies convey the meaning of the clip.
Film And TV studies Assessment-Write an analysis of the clip: having identified the clip's main themes, show how the textual strategies convey the meaning of the clip. In terms of genre, my intertextuality has enabled me to classify this film as having a hybrid of both the thriller genre and the horror genre. Within the Mis en Scene, editing and sound, there are generic convections of the horror that make us classify it as a horror film. The iconography is discussed one by one. Firstly, the nature of the monster is significant in defining the film as a horror. There is a violation of our normal sense of what is possible as soon as the 'normal' men transform into monsters. The 'claw-like' furry gloved hand almost like a zombie's hand, the beastly barbaric teeth that transform the tramps and the commentative sound effect that enables the tramps to make a growling sound emphasise the 'horror-like' nature of the monster and horrifies us as the audience. The body language of the monsters is violent and disgusting with unprecedentness explicitness-another feature of a horror movie. Therefore, it follows horror convections as it emotionally affects us. The 'normal' people becoming invisible also add to this 'supernatural' horror like theme as it violates the boundary between the dead and the living. The crossing over the bridge also reflects the boundaries have become violated.
Film criticism - Mystic River.
C.T.I.F.S FILM CRITICISM - 9TH FEB. 2004 MYSTIC RIVER By STEPHEN DE VILLIERS Set to clean up at the Oscars this year, Mystic River is a dark, social-realist drama/whodunit set in contemporary Boston. This book, turned movie, directed masterfully by Clint Eastwood, omits very little in so far as the story goes, and leaves the audience, blindly guessing, right up to the end of the intense and brilliantly constructed final climax. Perhaps one of the elements within Mystic River that make it such a successful and engaging story is the fact that, ironically, the major elements of the story are so subtle and creatively constructed that they appear almost non-existent. I.e. the story is constructed with much originality and vision, giving it sufficient depth to make the classic stereotypes of story structure and story elements, refreshingly difficult to spot. As an audience we are left trying to work out exactly whose story we are witnessing and within that, who the goodies and who the baddies are. The strength of a story like this is it's a more accurate depiction of reality; that, as within all life, within each character exists elements of both good and bad, black and white. Much of the time the characters experience themselves, and thus depict themselves in the grey, as can happen in reality. Having said that, let's explore in more detail the elementas of story. Firstly,
Film Genre and the Genre Film.
Mohamed Younis 900020481 September 29, 2003 Dr. S. Al Kassim Film Genre and the Genre Film During the classical Hollywood period genre films were soundly established as the norm. In defining the genre films one must make the distinct separation between film genre and the genre film. Thomas Schatz in his article, Film Genre and Genre Films, maintains a clear distinction between the genre film and the film genre; "Whereas the genre exists as a sort of tacit contract between filmmakers and audience, the genre film is an actual event that honors such a contract." In discussing the Western genre in light of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, by Sergio Leone, and The Great Train Robbery, By Edwin Porter one needs to address the set of conventions which govern and distinguish the western film as such. The first western, The Great Train Robbery, By Edwin Porter combined and included three elements: crime, chase scenes, and retribution for wrongdoing, which would eventually constitute and find their way into a great many of the westerns to follow. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is one of those movies that appears to characterize the western genre. It includes all the characteristic elements of a western. A vast empty and barren Western landscape, the camera pans across it. In the opening scenes the setting is apparent; Sergio Leone portrays the rugged western landscape which is
