Friday, March 19, 2010

The Showdown

Analyze the film techniques Sergio Leone uses in the final shootout among Blondie, Tuco and Angel Eyes. Think of the camera angles, music, and camera movement especially. How does he reinvent this typical Western device?

quick cuts from person to person
pan
extreme close ups on faces, hands, eyes
wide angle shot
long shot
medium shot
birds cawing
tense music- bells, flamenco clappers, drums, cymbal

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Evolution of the Western

Read the article about Westerns. How has the Western changed over time? How does this reflect changes in the U.S or the world?

Over time, the western has developed to be more modern. We see westerns being about controversial issues such as the film Brokeback Mountain. Also, they have developed into action movies and science fiction movies, such as Star Wars. This change reflects what issues and what genres are acceptable in the US and in the world. The western has many key elements and a certain style, that by applying it to a different genre, it's still a western.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Reinventing the Western

Look back at your original Western Blog. What were the characteristics of the Western? How was The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance a Western? How is The Good, the Bad and the Ugly different from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? (They both have really long titles!)

The characteristics of the western were having the film set during the civil war/post civil war time, and there being an official hero, an unofficial hero and a bad guy. The unofficial hero is the one that has to work harder to show that he is a good guy.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Film Timeline and Film Techniques

Right now we are around the 1950s, such as in 1959 with the French New Wave.
In the 1960s, American cinema was challenging the Hays Code.
In the French New Wave, some film techniques are jump cuts, tracking shots and mise en scene.
Kurosawa used tracking shots, shot-reverse shots, flashbacks, point of view shots, low key lighting and wipe transitions.
In Children In Heaven they used a close up of the shoes everywhere, and the tracking shots of the children running.

Cost of a Soul

I thought that Cost of a Soul was an amazing movie. The acting was fantastic and the way that it was filmed made it seem more real life. The film was really good and I dont think that there needs to be any improvements.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Film Critic

Group 1 Alex Robles & Diriye Ibrahim:
Acting 3
Film technique 3
The scene choice was good, try to eliminate back ground noise and maybe add some more editing.

Group 2-21:
Acting 3
Film Techniques 4
the scene was really well done. The use of voice over and the sound editing added a lot and was really well done.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Iranian Cinema

What makes Iranian Cinema unique is the choice of actors that it has, also the history in where they film their sets. Like they can film in some historical villages or landmarks to the country. Mainly it was influenced by its history and the little movies that came about like Taste of Cherry and also Gabbeh. So really we know that it had a good history and influenced by actors and stories that came abroad