Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014) uses character placement very well, In many photos you can see Chris Pratt’s “Star Lord” in the foreground, this aligns the focus onto him and reveals his status as the leader of the group.

A beautiful use of colour in movies is seen in the film “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (Wes Anderson, 2014).

Here, Anderson uses a large array of pastel colours to help set the mood or to show character significance. For example,in one scene, the workers wear purple to contrast with the red wall in the background, showing their importance to the hotel, however one of the guests wears red and therefore disappears into the background foreshadowing her demise.

additionally, characters like “Dimitri” wear black clothes to signify conformity – darkness taking over. And characters like Agatha had warm pink hues reflecting off their face which symbolises innocence and shows she is a lovable innocent character.

Spike Lee Task

Director Spike Lee believes that a film must be directed by a black person in order to authentically reflect black culture. He criticised both Django Unchained and Detroit for being directed by white directors because he believes that it misrepresents black narratives. Although I think he makes a valid point, I personally disagree with him as I believe it isn’t fair to film directors and writers to be creatively limited. I believe that people of both genders and people of all ethnicities should be able to explore different concepts and cultures in their films. It is unfair of Spike Lee to say that only black people should direct movies about black culture as it completely undermines the skill and knowledge of other directors.

What Makes Jurassic Park a Good Film?

    Jurassic Park is a sci-fi, thriller/adventure movie that released in 1993, was directed by Steven Spielberg and was written by David Koepp and Michael Crichton. The film is an adaptation of the sci-fi horror novel of the same name written by Michael Crichton and was considerably toned down to appeal to a younger audience. The plotline revolves around an eccentric businessman by the name of John Hammond who along with a group of scientists, manage to bring back genetically engineered dinosaurs in the hopes of creating a the “most advanced amusement park the world has ever seen”. The park’s systems fail due to sabotage and three scientists, two children and the park’s staff must try and survive whilst dinosaurs run free on the island.

    What makes this a good film? Firstly, the editing in the film is superb. Stan Winston, most known for his brilliant animatronic puppets featured in classics like Jaws and Alien helped create multiple animatronic dinosaurs and dinosaur suits for the film, including a life sized Tyrannosaurus rex animatronic.This added a new layer of realism that hadn’t been featured in older dinosaur films and the audience was shown dinosaurs that seemed almost real for the first time in cinema. Additionally, the CGI in this film is phenomenal considering the time it was made and shaped future film’s effects to this day. These combined created some of the most iconic scenes in cinema. Furthermore, the film takes place mainly on “Isla Nublar” which is an island west of Costa Rica and features many Jurassic and Cretaceous plant life and this setting perfectly creates a prehistoric atmosphere. The cinematography is also extremely well done as there are many tense shots throughout the film. This is mainly because Steven Spielberg is an excellent director. The film also features superb sound design which includes the iconic Tyrannosaurus roar as well as the equally iconic soundtrack performed by the king of film music, John Williams.

    The film is seen as a sci-fi thriller/adventure whereas the source material is a sci-fi horror. The violence in Jurassic Park was toned down significantly in order to appeal for a younger audience which in turn has been extremely effective as the film happened to be enjoyed by both adults and children therefore making it more successful. The key message in the film is both complicated and simple. The key message is that man shouldn’t play god and mess with nature which is simple enough to understand. However, the film delves deeper by explaining chaos theory and delving into its effects and how nature cannot be controlled because of how complex and unpredictable it is. This message can provoke a lot of thought onto the audience. Additionally, the plot doesn’t bombard the audience and focus too much on these aspects and instead focuses more on the characters. It revolves mainly around a paleontologist called Dr Grant who learns to appreciate kids through the events of the film. The film perfectly balances the key themes with the plot and its characters.

     Overall, Jurassic Park is a fantastic classic with an interesting plot and key message with fantastic effects, direction and an iconic soundtrack.

Ayisha Audrain

What makes a film a good film ?

I think that a good film has a unique and relevant story and it has to have a message that the audience can understand, for example The Matrix is set in a hypothetical future where humanity is trapped in an illusion that is created by machines and a chosen one rises up to defeat this evil force that is keeping humanity enslaved. Although this film was released almost twenty years ago it also incorporates some scathing commentary on our increasing reliance on machines, in addition, the film has many philosophical layers to it and this makes The Matrix a piece of cinema that will endure for years to come. My chosen film is a sci – fi film and it presents the audience with a bleak, dystopian future – the film was written and directed by the Wachowski siblings and the film stands out in the way that it integrates the colour green into its environments and it is also distinguished by its use of dark and muted colours in the environments and the costumes that the characters wear.

The film is written from the point of view of a hacker called Neo and we see his journey from a slave to the system to the chosen one who will save humanity from bondage and in the beginning Neo is scared and frantic but by the end of the film he has evolved and he has taken up the mantle of the ‘Chosen One’ and he is more calm and composed and this shows Neo’s growth thought the story.

The cinematography in The Matrix contrasts shiny office buildings with a bleak underbelly and this symbolises the illusion that The Matrix has created in order to oppress and enslave humanity and it shows the duality of all humans , in addition, the constant use of mirrors throughout the film symbolises Neo’s search for the truth and that is one of the major themes that encapsulates the entire film and it also serves as a cautionary tale about the arrogance of humanity and the potential power of technology, furthermore , sound is used to build tension in the film , especially when the heroes are being perused during the high – speed chase scenes and much of the background music utilises a lot of synthesisers and this is highly suitable for the theme of the film which is about computers and how they have come to dominate humanity.

The mise – en – scene in this film is sparse and minimal because the world of the film is very harsh and the characters in this film wouldn’t own anything frivolous , that being said most of the mise – en – scene in this film either consists of reflective objects like the spoon and mirrors and computers which helps to reinforce one of the key themes in the film which is the power of technology and the revolutionary potential it holds. The Matrix is a film about the destructive potential of human arrogance and it is also about hope for a better future , furthermore , the editing helps to extenuate the slick action scenes and it drives the story

forward because it makes said action scenes more dynamic and the editing becomes a story technique in its own right.

To conclude , I firmly believe that a film can only be good if it has a good story and plot and all of the other aspects that I just mentioned are secondary because if you don’t have a good story which you use as a starting point all of the other aspects of a film will fall completely flat and it won’t end up b