Favourite film from the summer 2015

My favourite film this summer was Paper Towns. I thought, it having an element of mystery other than your usual ‘chick flick’ made it more interesting and exciting. I first heard of this movie through a social networking site where I found its trailer, which left me looking forward to it coming out in the cinema.

The title of this film is a metaphor in itself meaning no one really cares about anything which matters in life. People are so side tracked on other things like status and money, that they almost forget what is really important, for example family and respect. This is highlighted in the film when shortly after Marlo goes missing, the only people who really care about her absence are Q, one of her ‘true’ friends and her sister. Marlo’s own parents weren’t even bothered and told the police investigators not to put ‘missing’ signs up around the neighbourhood, which is unusual behaviour for parents.

This film is set during the last year of high school where the students are making that vital decision of choosing the next path which determines their future. As a student who has just made that difficult decision, I can relate hugely on Q’s frustration of not knowing where he stands and not knowing what to do and being anxious for the future.

De-puzzling the clues about where Marlo had gone, allows many ‘firsts’ for Q. For example he had never missed a day of school before nor gone to any parties. These are the moments we realise Q is changing for the better and is becoming his own person and also taking responsibilities. The fact that Q has his best friends helping him along the way depicts the strong relationship and allowed me personally to relate as I would do anything for my best friend. I believe that this illustrates that you shouldn’t ever be alone in life as it is unhealthy as you lose your communication skills and aren’t usually happy.

Although this was one of my favourite films over the summer, I do think it had a major bad point. I believe the ending could have been improved and made more stirring. It was very much a ‘let-down’ when Q eventually found Marlo. She was shocked to see him standing in front of her, Marlo then explained to Q that the clues were left just so he knew she was okay, not so he would come and actually find her. This meant all his efforts of finding the clues and traveling to her, was all for nothing.

The ending does provide the audience with the juxtaposition of Q finding Marlo and immediately losing her and yet over the journey discovers himself.

 

Jurassic Park

Jurassic World was the first ever movie to make $500m at the global box office within its introductory weekend. It has accumulated $1.4billion so far and experts believe it will be in the top 3 movies of all time alongside Avatar and Titanic. The question is how.

There are many reviews on the Jurassic World movie which elaborate how the film portrays human arrogance through futuristic knowledge and how people get bored so easily unless they have something bigger and better being produced. This film illustrates this as the theme park is already so popular. However that isn’t satisfying as they are constantly modifying it in order for more visitors, generating more money for the corporation. Without retelling the story of the film, here are some of the reasons for its success.

Jurassic World was first planned to be released back in 2005. However they spent 10years improving the script and the quality of the film in order to make it better by relating it to real-life. The new modified dinosaur (the Indominus Rex) symbolised the greed of humanity and how we humans always want bigger, faster, louder etc. This is controversial because they are trying to stop the dinosaur completely as they have finally realised they went too far. Does this mean humanity is just waiting for that ‘too far’ moment where they are hoping they never made that decision in the first place?

Steven Spielberg (executive producer) is one of the world’s best known and most respected film directors. He directed the Jurassic Park 1 and 2 and produced Jurassic Park 3. Clearly the 4^th film had to be a success, financially and also for his reputation as a great director. This will be one of the reasons why the film was delayed and why so much effort was placed on the story line, the special effects, the casting and the music. 

Having modern media especially social networking sites allows the official advertisement of the film (trailer) to be easily shared in far more places. This will increase the number of people with an interest of watching the film. The picture below depicts an interesting mix of old and new technology- for example the 4x4 and the broken pod and the juxtaposition of the business lady and the ‘outdoor guy.’ Strong imagery like this help create an interest in watching the film making it even more so successful.

Not all reviews were good, for example shortly after Jurassic World was released there was some commotion with the paleontologists as they found out that the Pterodactylus dinosaurs originally had feathered wings, not scales. As this discovery was found out before the releasing of the film, they wanted this small detail to be put in the new Jurassic movie, however it wasn’t. Although this made the news at the time, this didn’t deter people from watching.

Having seen the movie myself, I believe the critics were correct in their review. The film was “visually dazzling” and the story kept me captivated from start to finish.

References

cinemablend.com

theguardian.com

wikipiadia.com

flavorwire.com

Horror Films

Horror describes a genre of films that sits closely with thrillers, gore and even some sci-fi movies. There is a number of conventions however, that define the horror genre. This essay will explore these features and give examples of where they are used.

 

The scripts of horror film are usually made to play on peoples natural fears, for example fear of the dark or fear of the unknown. One film which makes great use of this approach would be 'Sinister', by Scott Derrickson. In this movie the main character works alone at night where all the surroundings are in low key lighting. This makes the audience anticipate something bad coming out of the dark.

 

I believe it takes a certain type of actor to carry off a role in a horror film. Nowadays it is unlikely to have actors crossing genre into horror, currently it is the less known actors who seem to do well in this field. However this hasn't always been the case, for example Christopher Lee spent all of his career in horror of some sort, from Dracula in 1966. What makes a successful horror film actor is the ability to make the audience believe, giving the film a sense of realism.

 

A good story well-acted is important but there are other things which contribute to success. Music plays a huge part in creating suspense and tension in a film. This is achieved by the contrast of low notes and high notes that signal to the audience when something bad is going to happen. For example in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' the high, almost screeching violins used in the murder scene in the shower. In contrast, in Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws the low sudden notes of the chello are used when the shark is approaching. These cases illustrate how music can be used to condition the audience when to be scared.

 

Cinematography has a lot to do with the creation of fear for the audience. There are a number of techniques which emphasise what is taking place. For example in Jaws they often do a panorama sweep of the ocean to portray how big it is and how isolated the characters are. In contrast eye-line match is used in the scenes where people are in the water seeing the shark is close and the shark looking at its pray. When someone is trying to escape from danger, back tracking shots may be used. Like Jaws when a person is trying to swim away from the shark and it is as if they are swimming toward you (the audience) emphasising the shark being behind her. Additionally if the camera is hand held it allows the film to be more realistic, this makes the audience scared and uncomfortable as they wouldn't like to be in the actors shoes. There are many different techniques available and often it is the camera angle that builds the suspense of a horror movie.

 

Finally and perhaps most importantly the title of a movie can determine what a movie is going to be about. For example the title 'Sinister' we can already tell this movie is going to be about something evil and demonic. With good graphics a film can be marketed effectively- see image below.

 



The Quick and the Dead

In this particular scene, the very first shot is a long shot of a person cantering on a horse. This long shot then turns into an extreme long shot which reveals the mise-en-scene illustrating the dead, deserted mountains which emphasises how there is no civilisation and that she is all alone. Shortly following a diegetic sound of her horse which adds to the typical western genre.
The hand held camera does a slow establishing shot from left to right doing a mid shot of a pony and does a low shot portraying the dry soil of which a man is digging up. When the man hears the diegetic sound of the horse, he jumps up with a close up of his face illustrating his confusion of where that noise came from. After the man notices the horse, he scurries for his shot gun and then a non-diegetic, high pitched noise portraying his next action isn't going to be good. The high key lighting would typically symbolise that it is going to be a happy movie, however we already assume something bad is going to happen. Therefore the opening of this film has already challenged this stereotype.
The man then points his gun at the person on the horse and we see a point of view shot from the camera which also reveals the mise-en-scene which emphasises how alone they are. The man then fires giving out a diegetic sound of the gun shot and knocks the rider off their horse, the distance between the rider and the shooter is revealed to be very far, therefore we know he is used to shooting due to him being right on target. Furthermore, the director has used the rule of thirds to make the man seem more experienced, we know this because the rider is directly in the middle of the screen. The man then runs over to the person and prods them with his shot gun to see if they were dead. This makes me feel anxious as the camera does a mid close-up shot on his face and i expected something bad was going to happen. Looking down at the person, they roll over and hits the man onto the floor, there is a low shot of the man lying on the floor illustrating how he didn't succeed in killing the rider. Then it cuts to a high shot of the rider standing in the way of he bright sun, looking down at the man. There is a slight shimmering glow around them from the sun which could portray heroic status, therefore we already assume they're going to be the 'good guy' of this film. Shortly after the rider takes their hat off and throws it on the man revealing that the rider is in fact a woman. This is very contrasting as me personally would expect the hero to be a man as this is the usual stereotype.
After that, the scene then changes and the camera tracks from left to right foreshadowing the mise-en-scene of a graveyard, this could signify death and that something bad is going to happen. As the women walks through the town on her horse there are many eyeline matches as the people of the town watch her mysteriously and close the shutters on their windows. There is then a zooming out of the camera turning into an extreme long-shot emphasising the deserted town as if everyone is scared to walk outside their houses. This makes me feel uncomfortable because I would not like to be in her position.
Additionally, I realised the camera was handheld after she jumped off her horse and she went and sat down to have her shoes polished. This gives the film a sense of realism. The lighting at this point is still a high key tone, however there is an orangey, brown mist/tint to the mise-en-scene. This portrays the fact that they are in the middle of a desert, this emphasises the genre being western due to that being the stereotype of how a western should look.
Minutes later the women barges through into the low key lit bar and there is a static camera revealing the rule of thirds of the door from the inside as she walks in. As the door opens a light shines through from the sun coming from behind her. This could symbolise that she is heroic. However, it may also depict that the good is behind her and that she is walking into danger.