- intro to zodiac (director, Year ext)
- into to Boston strangler (director, Year ext)
- plot of each film
- context (what was happening at the time)
- hays code Boston strangler
- compare murder scenes
Daily Archives: July 15, 2019
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Clips – Happy Death Day
This clip appears at around the 100/110 minute mark towards the end of the film, and is important because it appears at a time where Tree has gone through so much emotional and physical trauma throughout the film, that she has began to develop her personality and character arc.
Clips – Alien
This clips occurs slightly after the halfway point of the film, at around the 80 minute mark. Ripley discovers that Ash has tried to bring the Alien back, which is a significant turning point for the film but also shows the character as smart and resourceful. However, this is also juxtaposed by the fact that she is choked by Ash and saved by the male character of Parker. This is supported by the films social context because despite the growth of second wave feminism; there was still the common perception of women as meek and needing to be saved by men. This also ties into the common misconception around early examples of the ‘final girl’ before the 1980’s being a survivor opposed to a stand-alone final girl character typically because they are saved by male characters.
For example, Laurie Strode from Halloween (1978, John Carpenter) is often referred to as the first strong example of a final girl. However, many theorists actually debate this, because she is saved from Michael by Sam Loomis. Even Clover herself to coined them term, argues about the difficulty of distinguishing between a final girl and a female survivor character.
Full Metal Jacket clips
This 10 minute clip employs multiple different camera techniques. For example, there are many uses of one point perspective, the most notable one being at 00:22 where there is the classic shot with all of the soldiers lined up along the end of their beds. Additionally, a tracking shot is used to help change the viewers focus from character to character as the sergeant moves forward, even though the shot is in deep focus, because the shot tracks backwards and the sergeant stays the same distance relative to the camera, it helps the viewer to be constantly focusing on where the sergeant is, and since he is constantly moving it shifts our focus without actually needing a different shot or zoom or focus. This is an excellent piece of cinematography that helps Kubrick stand out, to be able to do something (change viewers focus) in a way that is hardly done at all, and do it perfectly helps solidify his title as an auteur of cinematography, even without Alcott. The question is now, was this a shot influenced by Alcott or purely by Kubrick himself?
Here is another example on one point perspective and symmetry. Pyle is in the exact middle, center of frame and attention. All the other soldiers are lined up symmetrically on either side in a repeating pattern, as if they are all the same and don’t matter.
a very large portion of this scene are tracking shots, both Steadicam and tracks were used to create this effect.