Thursday, March 31, 2011

Critiquing: 3 Simple questions for 2 Scripts



1. What was their research question?
2. What areas did they choose to focus on in their comparisons?
3. How did they incorporate sources both primary and secondary into their doc.

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JASON TORRES:

1. He investigates the portrayal of individual and hegemonic powers in international cinema
2. He focuses on Color and Lighting.
3. For {primary} sources, he uses actual scenes, music, and settings of the two movies he researches. For example, he shows the scene "Tsotsi, LS of village as TSOTSI carries the shopping bag to the orphan children"as evidence for his research, also using the actual village in Tsotsi as his backdrop in one part of his documentary. For {secondary} sources, he incorporates other opinions into his documentary in order to reinforce his point: "ROBERT RODRIGUEZ (V.O.): We had to isolate the actors from the background in order to create that very stark black and white."

CARMEN (Sandiego?)

1. She investigates the significance of political thrillers in the role of society's opinion of politics in the government during the Cold War era. "to make us question our own political institutions and to shed light on the politics of the time period."
2. She focuses on Camera Work, Editing, and at time Acting.
3. For {primary} sources, she interviews the director of on of the movies she was researching "Gavras (translated to English from French): Besides the fact that everything in the film really happened, I think this kind of thing has happened everywhere.." For {secondary} sources, she incorporates the information she gets from secondary sources into her narrative. "1. http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/polithrillers1.jsp  This site gave me insight into what a political thriller is and the history behind the genre."

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Familial Conflicts: Research and Compare.

1. Research Topic and Question
2. Films that you plan to use in your analysis
3. 3 areas to focus on in comparison-
  • Each Topic should have a t-chart that includes specific examples from the film.

1. The portrayal of familial conflicts pertaining to the role and responsibilities of parents.
2. The four movies I chose are respectively, two Korean movies and two Japanese movies. 
  • Punchlady, a Korean movie surrounding a family subjected to domestic abuse by a boxing father, where the mother decides to stand up and face her husband in a boxing match to stop the abuse once and for all. 
  • A Family (Gajok), a Korean movie centering around a pickpocket daughter and how she reconnects with her father and brother.
  • Nobody Knows, a Japanese movie that centers around a mother and her abandoned children.
  • Marathon, a Japanese movie where an autistic boy guided by his mother and his coach in training for a marathon.
3. I will be looking at Camera Movement, Sound, and Dialogue.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Picture Perfect -Lame Title is Lame-

Group Members: Mark Luttrell. Christian Pascual. Dazzy La

Logline: A lonely girl who loves photography makes friends in an interesting way.

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TREATMENT
Imagine if you will, the lens of a digital camera. snap you hear the shutter sound. Now you see the rest of the camera. snap off goes the shutter sound flash you're blinded by the flash. From the whiteness comes the wide shot: the behind-side view of a girl with her camera pointed to the sky through a window.

Now we see her face blocked by her beloved camera. She pulls it down and walks off, in to the hallways of her classroom. Misc. pictures of people around her are taken. The sequence is basically like that of a slideshow, the pictures piling on top of each other With shots of the girl taking the pictures in between. The girl enters her classroom, we see a close up of the girls face, and then the camera is brought up and blocks her face. Then it cuts to a shot of the classroom having fun, freeze-frame status, and then the camera is put down and the classrooms continues to have fun. The girl then takes a seat in the center of the room. but clearly all alone. We see in the background a boy surrounded by his friends laughing noticing the girl all alone, and is obviously bothered by it as he continues to talk to his friends.

The boy keeps looking over to the girl and is obviously wanting to talk to her. The bell rings, and everyone goes home. Just as he was about to go talk to her she disappears into the crowd. He's left at her desk, where her camera peeks out from her desk. He hatches an idea.

We see him picking up the camera, a smile, and fade to black.

The next day the girl finds her camera missing. She hears the snap of her camera's shutter sound and looks around. Everyone is flooding into the classroom, and the noise of her camera is gone. School has ended and she looks around her desk and bag for clues to her disappearing camera. One note.

I have your camera, let's go on an adventure.

She's puzzled. The next day after school a picture of her camera on a science table is placed in her desk with the caption

Adventure Time. Are you ready? Where was this picture taken?

The girl goes to the location the picture was taken, where she discovers a picture of herself in math class. Do you like photography? The pattern repeats, and pictures of her at various locations are shown one by one with questions on the back.

When did you take your first picture? Favorite color? Why do you love photography? Who's your best friend? Do you like the weather today? What's your favorite season? Do you have someone you like? When's your birthday? Something you're scared of? 

And the last question Are you lonely? It leads her back to her desk where her camera sits with a post-it note on top.

Turn me on.

She turns the camera on, and see the boy form before holding a sign that says "Press Left" Pictures of the girl with other people are shown continuously until finally, a picture of the boy and girl are shown, where it looks like they are sitting back to back, like they've known each other for years, with a sign that says "Have Fun?"

We see her smile, but not her face. A tear trickles down.

The next day the boy discovers a picture on his desk. It's the picture of him at the auditorium with his friends.

Adventure Time. Are you ready? You know what to do.

The boy enters the empty auditorium, taking a few cautious steps in.

"I love photography." A voice can be heard but we don't know where it's from.

"My first picture was taken when I was 5 with a Barney Camera." step the girl is on the stage.

"My favorite color is green" snap the sound of the shutter of her camera.

"I love it because pictures are memories I can always keep." Snap as she takes a step off stage into the audience.

"My best friend is Lily, this camera." snap another step


"I loved the weather that day, because the rain calms me down." Snap "My favorite season is Spring" Snap "I do have someone I like." Snap "My birthday is August 12th, 1992" snap "I'm scared of the dark" snap she's right in front of him.

"I'm not lonely. Not anymore." She smiles, and raises up her camera. flash


A picture of her and everyone in her class smiling materializes, and the credits role

The credits will be pictures of the production being made piling on top of each other with captions (if this is possible, that is) Uh, the end.

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The film was inspired by the romantic comedy Amelie. Although it may have some elements of the romantic comedy genre, its a little lacking in both romance and comedy. It's not funny, and it's not overly romantic, but it's cute and quirky. The female protagonist is sort of like Amelie, in the aspect that she's alone. The male protagonist is more based on Amelie's quirky "scavenger hunt" side, when she makes Nino go through these scavenger hunts for both his photo album and her identity. The conflict of the film is similar to that of Amelie's. The main outer conflict is to find the girl's missing camera, but the inner conflict is for the girl to overcome her shyness to make friends. It's set in a school because I'm still in school.

The theme of this film is mainly taking a step forward, and overcoming shyness. Films that influence this short film's style are Big Fish and Amelie. The film will  be shot in bright, but soft light as in Big Fish, but also with color schemes like Amelie.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Treatment of Sound: Going Crazy (Revision of Waiting)

Brainstorm//Logline: It's just another day in class, until a kid starts to notice the sounds in the classroom...

Treatment:

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnggg
Establishing shot of classroom as the kids pile in. 
Thumpthump ziiiip 
And abundance of sounds and close ups of actions as the class gets settled in 
Cut to wide shot of class sitting, bored, waiting.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
Cut to image of a clock as it clicks away.
Teacher speaks to class
We see the teacher starting to teach the class. 
Cut to waist shot of a boy whose already falling asleep, and lays his head on his desk.
Cut to ECU of boy sleeping.
Taptaptap.
We see pencil tapping, zoom out to see a bored student sitting at her desk looking at something in the distance
Cut back to ECU of sleeping boy; eyes twitch.
Siiiiiiiigh. (stops, and discontinues) 
A frowning mouth, zooms out to a waist shot bored boy who slumps down in his seat
Patpatpatpatpat.
Zoom out more to see the bored boy tapping his heel.
Boy's eye's twitch more
ZzZzZzZzZz
A boy with his head down sleeping, arms stretched out, hands hanging off the edge of his desk, snoring semi-loudly.
Cut back to ECU of boy; purses his lips and frowns.
Indiscriminate talking about a lesson
The back of a teacher as he moved back and forth from looking at the class, writing on the board, and reading off her notes
Clickclackclickclackclickclack
A phone zooms out to a girl secretly texting during class. "This class is killing me, I want it to end :["
Scribble scribble
The tip of a writing pen zooms out to a boy drawing the teacher in a funn
When will this class be over...
This is so boring.
ECU's of people turning to their classmates and whispering to each other
Cut back to Sleeping boy. Gets angry and sits up.
Waist shot of boy; frustrated by all the sounds. Sits there, looking around.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
Taptaptap.
Patpatpatpatpat.
ZzZzZzZzZz
Indiscriminate talking about a lesson
Clickclackclickclackclickclack
Scribble scribble
classmate's whispering
Zoom on frame of Boy gets tighter and tighter between each sound. Each picture to each sound is shown respectively as the frame gets tighter and tighter around the boys searching eyes. Sounds get louder and louder.
Sound Montage of all the sounds together loudly
We see the boys eyes shut tightly--maybe he's even sweating--trying to ignore the sounds as they get louder
SLAM--SCREECH all other noises but ticking and snoring stop. Ticking is almost near silent, and snoring is obnoxious but only heard once after long silence.
Wide shot of classroom. Boy stands up, slamming his desk, breathing heavily. Everyone around him is looking at him: Close ups of each "sound maker," ending with the snoring boy whom we hear snoring, and cutting back to wide shot.
I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!! 
Boy screams and runs out off frame of Wide shot. Everyone is frozen. Teacher resumes teaching, and everyone else goes back to their business. 
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.-->mesh of other sounds snoring slowly subsiding.
We see the clock, and as the ticking progresses the other sounds join in with respective images. As they begin to do so, cut to waist of sleeping boy, slowly panning in. 
Mesh of sounds slowly gets louder--> Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. (With echo)
ECU of snoring boy(not snoring anymore) slow zoom in, as the sounds mesh into a low ambience and ticking of clock gets louder. On last, significantly drawn out and loud tick, eyes suddenly open. Quick Fade to Black.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Treatment of Sound: Waiting For It To End.

Brainstorm//Logline: Just another day in class--waiting for it to end because time is just too slow when you want out.

Treatment:(The sounds add onto each other as they progress.)
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
We see the image of a clock as it clicks away.
Taptaptap.
We see pencil tapping, zoom out to see a bored student sitting at her desk looking at something in the distance
Siiiiiiiigh. (stops, and discontinues) 
A frowning mouth, zooms out to a waist shot bored boy who slumps down in his seat
Patpatpatpatpat.
Zoom out more to see the bored boy tapping his heel.
ZzZzZzZzZz
A boy with his head down sleeping, arms stretched out, hands hanging off the edge of his desk
Indiscriminate talking about a lesson
The back of a teacher as he moved back and forth from looking at the class, writing on the board, and reading off her notes
Clickclackclickclackclickclack
A phone zooms out to a girl secretly texting during class. "This class is killing me, I want it to end :["
Scribble scribble
The tip of a writing pen zooms out to a boy drawing the teacher in a funn
When will this class be over...
This is so boring.
ECU's of people turning to their classmates and whispering to each other
Noises blend into silence. Tick. Tick. Tick. Ding. ding. Ding.
You see the class as a whole. Then back to the clock. The five minute bell rings. The teacher looks at the clock, and starts wrapping up her lesson.
Cli-click
Pen stops writing and is put away, along with the other school materials.
Fwip
Phone is flipped down and put on desk as she puts her stuff away
Yaaaaaaaawn
Sleeping boy wakes up and stretches his arms out.
Screech (short)
The boy stops tapping his heel and sit up, putting stuff away, smiling.
Click Tap
Pencil is flipped around, led put away, and is tucked into backpack.
Abundance of zips
Montage of backpacks being zipped up
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
Goes from clock, to teacher, to each student in the class with anticipation on their faces, each shown differently.
Come on come on….patpatpat
Impatient boy leans over his desk and backpack tapping his heel again
taptaptap
Pencil tapping girl starts tapping her fingers
Clench
Girl grips her phone in anticipation
What are you going to do after school?
When is formal again?
The 11th
What color are you wearing?
I like your shoes!
I got them on sale!
Can I copy your notes?
Sure...
ECU of mouths of people around  the classroom talking.
Hurry Up. Come On. Why is this taking so looong… I want to go home.
Tapping of heel, fingers, and grips, eyes looking at the clock, checking watches all montaged together
Sounds come together and gets softer as ticking gets louder
Shot of clock gets closer and closer in sudden zooms in synch with ticking
Silence. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing
Abundance of screeching and footsteps and Yes’s and FINALLY’s come together and mesh into crowd noises.
Worm shots of chairs moving, feet stepping, Smiling faces, grabbing backpacks, and students filing out the door.
Silence. Slow swish and lock.
Students disappear from door frame as the door slowly closes and shuts.
Short silence. Until—tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
On last tick cut to black.

Why This Works:
From the beginning scene and abundance of noises we can tell that these are bored students in class, and they just want to get out, emphasized by the text and dialogue between the classmates. Many of the sounds are foley sounds, and the ticking and some select sounds will be used as sound bridges between transitions. Some characters have a set of noises associated with them (tapping of the heel, tapping of fingers/pen, etc) And that's pretty much all we needed. It's simply just a story of the agony in waiting for class to end. I might even add funny unrealistic scenes like moving from the shot of the teacher lecturing, and cutting back to the class as skeletons. But that's pretty unrealistic to do so I'll just have to think of more things to emphasize the long wait.