As probably one of the more popular types of movie genre out there, the style of comedy have been around for centuries. Since far back as the Greek culture, Comedy is just as old as playwriting. Most of the plays that were performed were comedies, just people acting goofy, but it wasn't until the time of Shakespeare when he added the aspects of love, hatred, and drama into the style of Comedy. In one of his plays, A midsummer's night dream, Shakespeare tells the story of two couples whose love is basically controlled by fairies, who cause mischief in the humans lives. Aspects to his comedic plays involved the comedic individual whose misfortune and the characters ability to act in a funny manner through his lines, and the comedic action, where crazy things make the audience laugh made Shakespeare's style of comedy popular.
Comedy through film still carries that same aspect, but these days, comedy movies deal with real life situations that the audience may find funny. Comedies such as Dumb and Dumber where two men travel cross country to return a briefcase to a beautiful woman, its usually the actors who make a movie a comedy such as that one with Jim Carry and Jeff Daniels act has the two men who are basically dumb and go through some goofy times.
One of the classic comedy films of all time though is Ferris Buellers day off. A high schooler named Ferris tricks his parents of letting him stay home from school, by faking sick. And while his parents are out, he spends the entire day with his girl friend and best friend traveling the city of Chicago. As a true comedy, Ferris Buellers day off is all about timing. The lines and actions are right on key to make the audience laugh. Ferris's antics provide us a hilarious movie full of funny lines that may be inappropriate to some, but in this present day of film, inappropriateness is what makes the audience laugh the most
1. IMbD
2. Shakespeare-online/plays
Friday, December 16, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
O' Brother where art thou
In the film O' Brother where art thou, three men who escape from a prison chain gain, travel across Mississippi on a journey which will lead them to find treasure. Everett Ulysses McGill, who is played by George Clooney and his partners Delmar and Pete run into many different characters along the way to get to Everetts house, while also trying to avoid the police who are chasing after them. After picking up a black man with a guitar, the trio record a song to raise a little extra cash for their travels, but the song will eventually save them in the end.
This movie is based off of Homers epic Novel the Odyessy, in that the characters they come accross are simular to the characters in the novel. The group of three girls they run into on the river sing with magical voices which eventually make the main characters fall asleep, this is supposed to represent the Sirens in the Odyessy. They then run into a man with one eye convered, who offers his buisness to them, but ends up stealing their money and car. He represents the Cyclops. Along with those characters they meet, are a KKK mob, a blind prophet, and a campaining govener. When the trio find out that there is no treasure and that Everett just wanted to see his ex wife, they end up helping the govener win the election by sneaking into the campaing dinner as a folk band, and end up sinning the song they recorded earlier in the film to find out that the song is a hit. They then are pardoned from returning to prison.
This film has many different aspects throughout it. Such as religious views. It shows Everetts partners accepting God into their lives, and how God can help them in their journey. The movie also shows the sign of the times of the 1930s with racism looming over the south. since the film is set in the 1930s we as an audience see an old style setting, and the warm sunny swamp like plains of Mississippi. We also see the rich side and the poor side of society, when the trio goes to visit one of theirs cousin, and also when they go eat at a fancey restuarnt where the meet the cyclops man. The actors also do a good job in portraying a southern personality and created the southern accent to give us a good sense of where the setting is.
1. Understanding Movies
2. IMDB
This movie is based off of Homers epic Novel the Odyessy, in that the characters they come accross are simular to the characters in the novel. The group of three girls they run into on the river sing with magical voices which eventually make the main characters fall asleep, this is supposed to represent the Sirens in the Odyessy. They then run into a man with one eye convered, who offers his buisness to them, but ends up stealing their money and car. He represents the Cyclops. Along with those characters they meet, are a KKK mob, a blind prophet, and a campaining govener. When the trio find out that there is no treasure and that Everett just wanted to see his ex wife, they end up helping the govener win the election by sneaking into the campaing dinner as a folk band, and end up sinning the song they recorded earlier in the film to find out that the song is a hit. They then are pardoned from returning to prison.
This film has many different aspects throughout it. Such as religious views. It shows Everetts partners accepting God into their lives, and how God can help them in their journey. The movie also shows the sign of the times of the 1930s with racism looming over the south. since the film is set in the 1930s we as an audience see an old style setting, and the warm sunny swamp like plains of Mississippi. We also see the rich side and the poor side of society, when the trio goes to visit one of theirs cousin, and also when they go eat at a fancey restuarnt where the meet the cyclops man. The actors also do a good job in portraying a southern personality and created the southern accent to give us a good sense of where the setting is.
1. Understanding Movies
2. IMDB
Reservoir dogs, ideology
In Quentin Tarantino's debut film, Reservoir dogs, is about a group of criminals that have been brought together to retrieve diamonds and rob a local bank, are pitted against each other throughout the film trying to figure out who the undercover cop is within their group. The movie starts out with a man screaming in the back of a car and blood all over as he had been shot. The audience is immediately brought into the climax of the film and must figure out what went wrong. As they retrieve to their hideout spot, tempers flare as they begin to investigate who rated them out.
The film chose not to show the heist. but instead decided to show how the characters paranoia and mentality cause them to lose composure on themselves and become enemies. Half the movie shows them arguing in the safe house. The only thing we do see of the heist is the criminals running away and shooting at the cops, and while Mr. White, who is played by Harvey Keitel and Mr. Orange who is played by Tim Roth, try to hijack a car, Mr. Orange is shot and thus we find out what happened to the man we met in the beginning.
Tarantino also delivers stories within the film. For each of the main characters, such as Mr. White, Orange, and Pink, there is a back story of how they came to be in the group for the heist. We find out during this flashback stories who the undercover cop is, and how he became involved in that group. Tarantino gives us a very unorthodox type of movie, one where when I first saw it, I was confused to why the heist is never shown. But that's the point of the whole movie. He made it this way on purpose to show how paranoid a criminal can get when things don't go the way they planned.
Works cited
1. Understanding movies
2. IMDB
The film chose not to show the heist. but instead decided to show how the characters paranoia and mentality cause them to lose composure on themselves and become enemies. Half the movie shows them arguing in the safe house. The only thing we do see of the heist is the criminals running away and shooting at the cops, and while Mr. White, who is played by Harvey Keitel and Mr. Orange who is played by Tim Roth, try to hijack a car, Mr. Orange is shot and thus we find out what happened to the man we met in the beginning.
Tarantino also delivers stories within the film. For each of the main characters, such as Mr. White, Orange, and Pink, there is a back story of how they came to be in the group for the heist. We find out during this flashback stories who the undercover cop is, and how he became involved in that group. Tarantino gives us a very unorthodox type of movie, one where when I first saw it, I was confused to why the heist is never shown. But that's the point of the whole movie. He made it this way on purpose to show how paranoid a criminal can get when things don't go the way they planned.
Works cited
1. Understanding movies
2. IMDB
The Usual Suspects, Storytelling
Another well known aspect to the making of films, is the use of storying telling. Some of the great films that have been made, have had some sort of narrative to go along with whats going on in the movie. For example in the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption, Morgan Freemans character Red, tells the story of how he met his friend Andy in prison, and the events that took place throughout their time in Shawshank prison. This is an example of narrative storytelling.
Films, along with novels, always seem to follow one true guidline to telling the story, and the is the use of the classical Paradigm. Films use this type of narraive formula to keep the film orginized and to make sense. It starts out at the expostion where the story begins and we meet the characters. Then leads to the Rising Action which can start within the first 20 min of the film, but usually occurs in the middle. The rising action shows us differnt conflics that the main character must face and what they go through. That then leads to the climax of the film which occurs towards the end and shows how the charcter overcomes the conflict. After the conflict comes the Resolution, when the film is coming to an end, and we see the outcome or effects of the characters conflict.
In the film, the usual suspects, Kevin Spacey's character Roger Kint, is being interegated by a detective who is investigating the murdur of a dozen men and the destruction of a ship in the harbor. Kint tells him the story of what happend, which turns into a narrative for the film. He discribes how he met five other criminals in a police lineup and how they planned on taking revenge against the local police, which begins the rising action of the film. They all decide to take a heist job which had been offered to them by a mysterious man that they have never met, Keyser Soze. The climax of the film occurs during the heist of the ship, where the five men and Kint are in search of drugs to claim for Soze, but we soon find out that one of them has upset Soze in someway and that the heist is a revenge job against that person leaving many dead on the ship. At the end of the film Kint finishes his story to the detective, and when the detective believes that Kint is telling the truth, he lets him leave. however while the detective is looking around the room, he then sees on photographs and posters names, and places that were simular to the ones in Kint's story, leading to the resolution and the end of the film where we find out who Keyser Soze really was.
Works Cited
1. Understanding movies
2. IMBD
Films, along with novels, always seem to follow one true guidline to telling the story, and the is the use of the classical Paradigm. Films use this type of narraive formula to keep the film orginized and to make sense. It starts out at the expostion where the story begins and we meet the characters. Then leads to the Rising Action which can start within the first 20 min of the film, but usually occurs in the middle. The rising action shows us differnt conflics that the main character must face and what they go through. That then leads to the climax of the film which occurs towards the end and shows how the charcter overcomes the conflict. After the conflict comes the Resolution, when the film is coming to an end, and we see the outcome or effects of the characters conflict.
In the film, the usual suspects, Kevin Spacey's character Roger Kint, is being interegated by a detective who is investigating the murdur of a dozen men and the destruction of a ship in the harbor. Kint tells him the story of what happend, which turns into a narrative for the film. He discribes how he met five other criminals in a police lineup and how they planned on taking revenge against the local police, which begins the rising action of the film. They all decide to take a heist job which had been offered to them by a mysterious man that they have never met, Keyser Soze. The climax of the film occurs during the heist of the ship, where the five men and Kint are in search of drugs to claim for Soze, but we soon find out that one of them has upset Soze in someway and that the heist is a revenge job against that person leaving many dead on the ship. At the end of the film Kint finishes his story to the detective, and when the detective believes that Kint is telling the truth, he lets him leave. however while the detective is looking around the room, he then sees on photographs and posters names, and places that were simular to the ones in Kint's story, leading to the resolution and the end of the film where we find out who Keyser Soze really was.
Works Cited
1. Understanding movies
2. IMBD
Thursday, December 1, 2011
The Incredibles and Action
Throughout the history of the film industry, Action movies have been the highest grossing and one of the more popular genres out there. From the old western films of the 1940's and 50's where John Wayne was always the hero shooting up the old west villians, to the 1970's and 80's where Star Wars became a cult phenomenom with Luke Skywalker and the rebles fighting for peace against the Empire and Darth Vader, movie goers continue to flock to the movie theatres to see action mixed with drama and to see their heros overcome unimaginal feats. Almost every film created these days have some sort of action mixed in. just a simple car chase, or gun fight/fist fight has people in awe when the exploisons go off.
In the Disney Pixar movie The Incredibles, a family blessed with super powers, hide in their secret identity because the law has banned any super heros from saving the world. This film is a true action film. To begin with, the Music can faintly be recongnized. Some of the score in the Incredibles emulates the music that was played in the old James Bond films, one of the most popular franchies ever made.
In every action film, a villan terrorizes society and the hero rises up after being beaten down and tortured, to defeat the evil. The Incredibles follow this same rule. Syndrom, who as a child idolized the hero, Mr. Incredible, attempts to take revenge of being humilated by his idol. Syndrom captures Mr. Incredible, tortures him, and seems to have won. Mr. Incredibles family comes to his rescue, and together they defeat Syndrom.
Movement in this film is really what makes this such a great film in the film making aspect. As a company, Pixar always seems to out do itself with every movie they make, and this movie is no exception. Dash, the son of Mr. Incredible, and the middle child in the family, has the ability to run a super speed. In many scenes, the camera shows off his abilites as in showing his feet move and his hair flow through the wind. The fight scenes and explosions always show off the high movement involved in this film.
Disney has never really been known to have such violence in its movies, but In this film it is packed with every Action aspect there is. It is still mixed with drama and love and family, which is why It became such a great movie amoung all ages.
In the Disney Pixar movie The Incredibles, a family blessed with super powers, hide in their secret identity because the law has banned any super heros from saving the world. This film is a true action film. To begin with, the Music can faintly be recongnized. Some of the score in the Incredibles emulates the music that was played in the old James Bond films, one of the most popular franchies ever made.
In every action film, a villan terrorizes society and the hero rises up after being beaten down and tortured, to defeat the evil. The Incredibles follow this same rule. Syndrom, who as a child idolized the hero, Mr. Incredible, attempts to take revenge of being humilated by his idol. Syndrom captures Mr. Incredible, tortures him, and seems to have won. Mr. Incredibles family comes to his rescue, and together they defeat Syndrom.
Movement in this film is really what makes this such a great film in the film making aspect. As a company, Pixar always seems to out do itself with every movie they make, and this movie is no exception. Dash, the son of Mr. Incredible, and the middle child in the family, has the ability to run a super speed. In many scenes, the camera shows off his abilites as in showing his feet move and his hair flow through the wind. The fight scenes and explosions always show off the high movement involved in this film.
Disney has never really been known to have such violence in its movies, but In this film it is packed with every Action aspect there is. It is still mixed with drama and love and family, which is why It became such a great movie amoung all ages.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Snow white/sunny with a chance of meatballs.
When someone mentions any name of the seven dwarfs, or the song, Hi-ho Hi-ho, automatically they think of the animated classic Snow white and the seven dwarfs. Snow white became the first full length cel animated film in history as well as the first animated film in America. Walt Disney's first full length animated feature film gave way to a new brand of film making
Before production began in June of 1934, Walt Disney was already famous for the creation of the animated shorts of Mickey Mouse. But Disney wanted to make his studio more famous and increase revenues by created feature films. Snow White was made by using a multi-plane camera to create depth and a large sum of artist, drawing the scenes and characters on a drawing board. Unlike previous animated shorts the Disney made, which he used animals, Snow white introduced human characters such as the huntsman, the prince, the queen and snow white herself. Production of the film cost a staggering 15 million dollars, which lead Walt Disney to mortgage his home. People would say that he was a fool to be doing what he was doing.
Snow white Finally came out to the public on VHS in 1994 and sold millions in only a few months. It was the last of Disney's films to be released to the public on home video.
Fast forward almost 73 years, animation has made major strides since the release of snow white. Yes there are still artist that draw the characters on a drawing bord, but all animated films are created using computer technology which was first used in the early 1960s.
Cloudy with a chance of meatballs is one example of how animation has evolved since Snow White. Immediatly once the movie starts you can see a huge difference. The way the characters bodies look, how theres so much going on in one scene, such as the background where other people are maybe walking, the clouds are movie, or the birds are flying. Cloudy with a chance of meatballs also has a lot more action going on then what Snow White showed. Throughout the evolution of aniamtion, films have got a little more action packed and somtimes more violent then what films used to be. But I think that makes for a better movie. the choas that erupts when the food storm occurs, is a far cry to that when compared to when the seven dwarfs are chasing the queen up the hill in a storm. many animated films although have kept to one main focus in the theme, and that is family orented and love stories.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Wizard of Oz review
For almost 70 years, the Wizard of Oz has captured the imagination of everyone who has seen it, from the songs, to the most memorable lines, such as "I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." It has been known to be the most popular movie ever made
The wizard of Oz may have not have been possible without the success of the animation film Snow white and the seven dwarfs. Snow white showed that films adapted from popular children stories and fairytales, could be made succesfull amoung the public. In January of 1938 MGM bought the rights to the popular novel written by Samuel Goldwyn and began production that same year. It was MGM's most expensive movie made at that time.
One of the main reasons of the Wizard Of Oz's popularity, was the way it was filmed. The opening and closing scenes were filmed using black and white and then colored in a sepia tone to make a kind of brown ash color. In the novel, the author described Kansas as being "in shade of gray," the farm house and property were situated in the middle of the prairie where the grass was burnt gray by the sun. The use of sepia tone was a stylistic choice that made the Kansas countryside seem dull, gray, and unattractive. This was all made on purpose to set up for when Dorothy opens the door to see where she has landed after being picked up by the twister, thus exposing the colorful land of Oz and how important and attractive Oz was compared to Kanses.
The wizard of Oz may have not have been possible without the success of the animation film Snow white and the seven dwarfs. Snow white showed that films adapted from popular children stories and fairytales, could be made succesfull amoung the public. In January of 1938 MGM bought the rights to the popular novel written by Samuel Goldwyn and began production that same year. It was MGM's most expensive movie made at that time.
One of the main reasons of the Wizard Of Oz's popularity, was the way it was filmed. The opening and closing scenes were filmed using black and white and then colored in a sepia tone to make a kind of brown ash color. In the novel, the author described Kansas as being "in shade of gray," the farm house and property were situated in the middle of the prairie where the grass was burnt gray by the sun. The use of sepia tone was a stylistic choice that made the Kansas countryside seem dull, gray, and unattractive. This was all made on purpose to set up for when Dorothy opens the door to see where she has landed after being picked up by the twister, thus exposing the colorful land of Oz and how important and attractive Oz was compared to Kanses.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)