Reflection on Intro Film Class

The first film class I’ve ever taken, Intro Film class helped me with film making. I was always interested in film making. Intro class is full of people like me, who are intersted in the film, but not as good as the other film makers in the world. At the first, when I was in the film class, I hated to be there. I even hated the day when it had block C. Now I can think why I hated the Film Class that much. I did not know anything. The action makes a person to be experienced. When we started the real film making process, I became experienced. After the film making, I found out that I already know quite a lot of elements in film. Long take, insert shot, eastablishing shot. Even though I was on the position of taking care of sound and lighting, I had our scripts made and those things really helped me all the time.

Soon as I knew those elements, I started to analyze the film or dramas when I watch them. I really think that the Intro film class changed my life. Not just watching a film with giggling, I have my thinkings during watching them. I really appreciate that I know that myself being that, and knowing the elements of the films.

Film Analysis – Pleasantvile (1998)

The world that does not have any feelings, weathers, and colors. This film is really interesting, through the beginning to the end. Bud and Sue ( 2 main characters) went into the Pleasantvile, through the TV. Bud likes it, as he always watched the TV, mostly ‘Pleasantvile’, while Sue, who more likes to go out all the time and have some fun with her friends, hates herself in the ‘Pleasantvile’. Obviously Bud knows everything about the community and village, but Sue does not know anything about it and somehow, she influences the community. She likes a guy, in the village where they do not have any feelings, including the real ‘love’. In this community, if boys and girls hold their hands, it means somehow really deep deep action, but Sue was very popular outside of this community. She likes to have big actions with their boys. She wants to have sex when she has a boy friend, and this influences the community. The use of colors – was very interesting. Each color kind of represented one single feeling. When Sue had sex with a guy, the guy sees a color red, which seems to be representing the feeling of ‘love’.

 

I’d like to recommend this film to everyone. The use of color and lighthing were very interesting. There were no colors in the ‘Pleasantvile’. Like I said, when a person has a feeling, they see a color, red for love. This change of color can not be explained – as all the people in the village had some new expereinces, they had some feelings that they never ever felt before, crying, shouting, and loving.

It is my own thought on watching a film. Now, I know some use of shots, such as high angle, low angle, eye level and so on. I feel myself judging the film while I watch it. It works really fun way. I even sometimes think how would it be if they used other angles. I think it was really funny, that in the Pleasantvile, I always thought about some insert shots. Seeing through this film, I felt that I never saw a insert shot in this film. I was kind of hoping, if they had one. Like we talked during the discussion in class, I really liked the how insert shots give ideas to the audiences. thing I liked most is the eastablishing shot at the beginning. It’s not a really a shot, but the exposition gave some ideas about the background of the village. I really liked this film and I really recommend this film, too.

The Film Analysis ‘The Election’

1)Elements of Mise – en Scene

Focus on a central character/actor. How would you describe his or her acting style in the film? Does the style seem compatible with the story? With the genre?

Mise – en scene is the scene where the film freezes or stops and goes into some other parts of the film, throughout the film of election, the Mise – en scene occurs quite many times. Usually at the beginning, the film stops and explains who they are. Like when Tracey is talking, and then the film freezes and the other voice comes in and the other scenes comes in and talk about something. When this scene is over, the film goes back to the scene where it froze. The actor, Tracey acts like some childish student. She always presses herself on everything, and over-acting to be elected. She always wants to have a good comment from the teachers, and that over-acting made the film more comedy.

 

2)Elements of Cinematography Examine one or two shots in which camera movements – tracks, pans, zooms, or others – are important. Why is a moving frame of a single shot used here instead a series of shots? How does that movement comment on what is happening in the shot?

 Zooms were important that people keeps focusing on the film because the way of zooming tells us where they want us to focus on. Zoomed scene or shot increase its importance of the object, which we usually get to put more focus. Like the telephones at the room, it was zoomed and used by the actors, and we could predict them using it. So after the zoomed scene or shot, we may keep thinking about the object while we are watching the film. Look for a pattern of compositional distances in the film or sequence. Do there seem to be a large number of long shots? Close-up? Some other pattern? Describe one such pattern and explain how it reinforces one or more themes of the film. The Mise – en Scene was used lots of times with voice over. The voice over was used lot of times at the beginning of the film, like that the scene freezes on a character’s face for like 10 seconds and starts the voice over. After the 10 seconds, the film shows usually an introduction of a character, like it has the flash back and goes back to the time where they describe the actor/actress well.

3)Voices, Music, And Sound Effects To what extent do sound effects add to the film’s sense of realism? Can you locate an example which sound effects are rpimarily responsible for creating a particular impression of location, action or mood?

 The buzzing bells in the school hall ways, while Jim was running, it really a good match between the music and his actions. He gave the pop quiz to the students and ran out of school to prepare the things at motel. Like the limit of time, and its fast beat of background music, were really cool that we could enjoy his hasty actions in 70 minutes of class time.

Film Production

According to the things we’ve done so far, I learned that it is not easy as we know. All the materials should be kept safe and we need to follow steps. Last time, I do not exactly when we went to shoot without our shot log, but it was bad really. When we were putting the footage on the computer after we have done the shooting, it was horrible. We could not do anything because we had to write the times all over. After that time, I realized that it is important to bring shot log and pen with us.

Shot List Plan

SCENE #1,2,3
1 Dead scene (Black)
Non-Diagetic sound (Voice Over)
“When I was young, I used to believe that one day I’d turn different”
2 Bird-Eye view shot on Julie’s past photo #1 (her with puppy) + Voice over (detailed in the script)
Non-Diagetic sound (Voice over)
“I wanted to be different”
3 Cross cutting shot onto current Julie playing with current puppy (same breed)

4 Cross cutting shot on Julie’s past photo #2 (Bird-eye view shot)

5 Cross cutting shot on current Julie doing a presentation
Non-Diagetic sound (Voice over)
“But when I look back to where I was before”
6 Bird eye view shot on Julie’s past photo #3
7 Cross cutting on current Julie playing flute
Non-Diagetic sound (Voice over)
“I realize that I’ve been rolling in a spiral shape, making same circles that are just larger than before.”
8 Dead Scene
Non-Diagetic sound (Voice Over)
“And one day I realized that’s what people call growing up”

Three Best Film in 2008

The Good, The Bad, The Weird (Korea, 2008)  Action Comedy film by Kim, Jee Woon

There are 3 men in the film, who are looking for the map of treasure in 1930s, China. In   the time, there was nothing illegal, every people shot each other and rob everything.

The solitude location, harsh lighting and sneaky music help create horror mood of  ’The Good, The Bad, The Weird’. Kim, Jee Woon action and comedy ’The Good, The Bad The Weird’ follows the jouney of  Park, Do Won, Park, Chang Ie, and Yoon Tae goo who didn’t know each other but had same object. In her action comedy film, Kim, Jee Woon uses balanced lighting , dusty and harsh lightings to create the western film.

August Rush (USA, 2007) Drama Fantasy Film by Kirsten Sheridan

It’s seems to be musical movie when you see the post, one man with a microphone and a boy with a guitar. I heard it from my cousin. When I saw the poster, it gave me feel of musical movie, and since I hate musical film, I didn’t watch it. But, my cousin said that I should watch it so I watched it and recognized that it is not musical. It is kind of fantasy movie and journey of a boy. The spectacle and big location, warm colored lighting and it has many music help create warm-hearted mood of August Rush. The film has good music. Since the boy learns how to play guitar and borned between two musicians, the movie has so many OSTs and all of them are so good. You should listen to it.

The Sixth Sense ( USA, 1999) Horror, Drama, Thriller, and Twisted Film by M. Night Shymalan

I had to watch this film for my film project. I’ve heard about this film so many times from my friends and teachers. As they said, it is a really good movie. The best twisted movie I’ve ever seen. M. Night Shyamalan horror The Sixth Sense follows the jouney of Dr. Malcome who is a ghost that helps a boy who claims that he sees the ghosts.

StoryBoard

Scene#1
The bird-eye view shot on Julie’s past photos and current scene (cross cutting) to show the changes and similarities and how Julie grew up

Scene #2
Julie is drawing something on the wall (turns out to be a teacher’s calendar) First close up shots, then mid-shot, and long shot when the annoyed teacher appeares. (there will be a close-up on the calendar in between to show her birthday that she marked)

Scene #3
THe main character starts to run (long shot), then some high/long angle shots when she is going up the stairs. WHen she’s running through the hallway, it will be a leveled shot, looking as if she’s passing by the camera

Scene #4
Julie finds out she made it in to the selection for thimun, be happy and runs away close up on the selection list), then panning shots on her movements

Scene #5
She chats with her friend about the “concert” of the night. WHen she turns around the corner, there will be a change of costume from sophomore shirt to a formal, concert clothings

Scene #6
Julie is standing right infront of the FAT with voice over talking and talking (Long, full shot)

Scene #7
Someone calls Julie saying that is almost time (mid shot of Julie turning around) the hallway light must be used because ot the reversed lighting from the front

Scene #8
Julie disappears behind the FAT door (low angle shot)

Film Review – Crash (2004, USA)

I watched a film called ‘Crash’. It is about discrimination in Los Angeles, USA. The main character is a half black and half white. In the film, its background was a time when the discrimination was strict. White people thought they are better than the other colors of the people all the time. The main character had a hard time because he was neither a white nor neither black. At the middle of the movie, he is been caught by a white polices, just because he is thought to be a black person. After that, the thieves stole his things. The thieves were people who always steal something from white people. The character was really hard that he had a hard time in the middle of discrimination. Not completely white and not completely black. He is not the one to blame. What did he do so wrong? It is really sad that the discrimination still exist in the US society.

During the film, there were some surprising sound effects. As its genre are mystery, crime and thriller. The sound effects are sudden, dark and scary. It got me into the film; I was falling into the film. The structure of the film was really well done. The six characters came out of the film in all different point of views and situations. At the beginning of the film, I could not understand, but as it went on and on, it made sense to me at the end. The six characters and scenes, it is such a cool idea to have the six characters in all different situation and point of views. To summarize, I suggest you to watch this film. I would like to watch it again either. I want to know the secret meanings in the film. It was a great film anyway.

Specific Scene plan

Scene 1
There is a cross shots between 3 past photos and 3 shots of Julie’s present. This scene, although dialogue-less, gives comparison of main character’s past and present at the same time. Also, it works as an exposition shot where the character is introduced by step-by-step pattern. It shows her main interests, her growth, and etc.

Scene 2
Julie is secretly marking her birthday on teacher’s calendar (prank). This shot shows her playful personality, along with some of more detalied autobiographical information. In this scene, she will be wearing her sophomore t-shirt which indicates her age and birthday. Also, the audience can get the sense of what kind of person she is through her accesories, expressions, and actions (stereotype perception).

Scene 3
The teacher who owns the calendar appears, and Julie starts run away with a smirk (a.k.a HAHA face). This scene works as a bridge from scene 2 to following scene 4, and also builds up to the climax. Audience still percieves the “unspoken but obvious” personality of the character.

Scene 4
While Julie’s running, her friend passing by tells her that selection list for MUN trip is out. Julie then runs up to the second floor bulletin board, finds out that she is in, and expresses her “happiness”. This scene establishes her interests in school (her activity at school) and sets up another area of her personality/characeristics.

Scene 5
She cheks the watch and runs downstairs back to the FAT area- there is a costume change when she turns around the corner, and she is holding a flute. This scene connects with the “present-shot” foretold in scene 1, and her main interest is signified once again. (her interest connects to stereotypical image of band student in campus) Her another friend passing by tells her that show starts in 15 minutes. (This pattern of friends passing by her and talking to her breaks the archetypical image of band student being “loner”, and shows the viewers that she actually has many friends ; ) )

Scene 6
Julie is standing in front of the FAT area, holding her flute. She seems to be preparing herself for the “show”, staring into nothing infront of her. During this scene, the voice over narration is accentuated because nothing is happening at all. Also, this scene is where her name is revealed through:
(GENERAL IDEA- *there might be a change in the script)
Narration : …..oh, by the way, my name is-
Diagetic-sound in the scene: Julie! It’s gonna start now!
Narration: yup, Julie.
This is very significant because by revealing the character’s name, it slightly disengages the audience from the character because the character got its own “divergence”- it’s about to finish. Also, for basic reason, the character’s name is finally revealed which is one of the most important component of a main character in any movies.

Scene 7
Julie is about to go into the FAT. Then, she suddenly stares into the camera, and after a few seconds of pause, she disappears behind the door. Same principle of the voice-over-narration being accentuated from the previous scene applies here also. And because the main-character goes away, with camera finally stopping from following her, it indicates that this is the last scene.

Proposal

Title : Julie

Proposal:
The film revolves around a daily life of Julie at school. It is depicted through her running around the certain area of the ISM campus which is significant to her (e.g. FAT and Band Room Area because she is part of various Fine Arts event). Although there is not much of dialogue, the audience can still get a sense of her biographical information through her costume, reaction, things she does, and places she goes to. Instead of dialogue, we are going to use voice over (Julie’s voice) which will focus mainly on her thoughts/ideas. By this, the audience can engage themselves and correlate their own life to the Julie’s day at school, because they would perceive information about Julie through sight and link themselves through her ideas they hear. So the main aim of this film is not only the autobiographical aspect about Julie, but also to engage the audience and make them agree/compare.
Roles:

Director- Julie

Cinematographer/camera man- Jimbo

Editor/photographer- Ana

Sound/lighting- Seok Hyun