Set Design/Space (Star Wars, 1973)

The use of set design in this shot illuminates the surroundings of the characters in focus, and aids to maintain the verisimilitude, which is especially imperative in regards to the genre of the film being Sci-Fi and being made in the 1970s.

The backdrop has more than sufficient detail and creates the sense  of conflict with the Stormtroopers, adding layering of narrative within the scene.

Spike Lee View Point

Spike Lees view says that to tell a story around a political or racial view point you must belong to the group of people the story is about.

For example, a middle class white woman, in lees eyes, can not tell a story about working class black men. As she wouldn’t understand the struggles and hardships.

Do I agree?

  • To an extent, as although I believe they could tell the story in. a possibly successful way, they wouldn’t be able to tell the story with as much meaning and understanding as someone who comes from the same background as the characters he is telling a story about as if they come from the same background, then they will have special insight into how day to day life is for the characters of the story, in turn making the story more realisitic and relatable  to the target audience.

Long Take

When filming Rope (1948), Alfred Hitchcock intended for the film to have the effect of one long continuous take, but the cameras available could hold no more than 1000 feet of 35 mm film. As a result, each take used up to a whole roll of film and lasts up to 10 minutes. Many takes end with a dolly shot to a featureless surface (such as the back of a character’s jacket), with the following take beginning at the same point by zooming out. The entire film consists of only 11 shots.

This film is notable for taking place in real time and being edited so as to appear as a single continuous shot through the use of long takes. In film-

making, a long take is a shot lasting much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general. Significant camera movement and blocking are elements of long-taking, and elements used in the film “Rope”.

 

Summer Task

Favorites

  • Best picture: Logan (James Mangold)
  • Best Director: Edgar Wright (Baby Driver)
  • Best Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
  • Best Actress: Uma Thurman (Kill Bill)
  • Best Soundtrack: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

 

Oscars

  • Best Picture: Get Out (Jordan Peele)
  • Best Director: Jordan Peele
  • Best Actor: Garry Oldman (Darkest Hour)
  • Best Actress: Frances McDormand (Three Billboards…)
  • Best Original Screenplay: Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)

 

 

I find that a “good” film has a balance of many different elements throughout. For instance, a film can be directed incredibly, have amazing cinematography, impeccable sound design and talented actors, but if the writing is awful, it brings the whole film down, and this is interchangeable with many of the micro and macro elements of filmmaking.

As well as this balance, there also must be a reason for people to want to watch your film; this could be due to a unique but recognizable editing style, like that of Edgar Wright’s films, or Quentin Tarantino’s writing and directing style of extended dialogue and non-chronological storylines. The style of a Director will attract different audiences to see different films. It is also important for a “good” film to include things that many audience members will take for granted, like sound design and editing. In my opinion, these elements are some of the most important as they can really immerse the audience into the film, and help the director get across what they want the audience to feel.

In connection with this to this, there is the cinematography of a film, and while it is a slightly more obvious part of filmmaking that audiences will likely notice more than sound or editing, there are still many people who will take for granted the way a film is shot. For instance, when I saw ‘The Revenant’ for the first time, I took the incredible sweeping shots of the forest and natural lighting for granted, but after researching it, finding out how it was shot and how there was no artificial lights used, it made me appreciate an entirely different side to the film that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

The narrative of a film is shown in many different ways; most obviously there is the narrative through dialogue and characters, however using visual elements to convey the story, when used effectively, can produce a much more realistic and immersive world for the audience to get involved in.

In conclusion, a “good” film must have a balance of all the key micro/macro elements, as well as a style to distinguish it from other movies and directors, making your film recognizable, without people necessarily knowing whom the director is before hand. However, I find the most important characteristic of a film is to get the audience immersed in the film using all of the micro and macro elements.

Composition

I chose suicide squad as an example of good composition. In one of these shots, you see Joker lying on the ground, with all these knives and weapons pointed to him. Funny enough, it looks like he is some Jesus savior figure. The camerawork is great, it pants outwards and turns. Also note the laptops and baby clothes in the top-right corner. Perhaps his dreams of having a family with Harley Quinn (his love interest) You can see the roses, around the guns.