Film Theory Documentary Final Stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0IUbJ7wujA just find it.

Step Outline: Paper Loveeeeeeeeeee

Paper Love

Family eating dinner, all of which are wearing paper bags on their head with faces on them. Parents having small talk as the daughter sits the farthest away.	Establishes the characters and their choice to wear bags on their heads. Incorporating the unknown.  Also reveals the rift between the daughter and parents as she is distanced away.
Father turns to daughter and she conveys how she wants to have a boyfriend and go on a date. Father drops fork into meal and they both stare surprised at her.	Conflict where in the daughter wants to go on a date but the father is doubtful. Tense mood revealed through the dramatic utensil dropping.
Father agrees under the condition that he must meet the boyfriend in person. for the boy might not be truly accepting of her.	Quick resolution and shows the character struggle.
She goes to school with a bag on her head and meets him there. Hugs and promises to reunite later.	Shows relationship and shows a strong bond between them.
Boy walks into house and notices peculiarity of the house with its abundance of paper bags on everything. Boy is afraid but handles the fathers questioning to go out.	Setting is established as it defines the character and her ability to own everything “paper bag related.” Also shows desire to overcome the father and be able to date the daughter.
Sitting on the beach looking at the sky. Boy and girl asks why she wears the bag on her head. She explains that her family suffers from a severe case of chronic facial ugliness type II. (deformed face?)	Romantic mood until the boy desires to see her face where time stops and she reflects on her life.
boy wants to see face, and demands her to take it off if she’s at all interested him. She explains how that is something she cannot due, and she apologizes.	Obstacle that she does not want to reveal her face but decides that their relationship is futile.
crying scene and looks over at a clock that reads 3:00 AM. looks at picture of her and the guy. cries in her pillow and looks away.	Girl is sad and shows that she feels guilty about the fact she can’t show her face.
girl walking up a lot stairs (stairs representing something) all the while the boy is trying to find her by visiting her house and looking for her. she makes it to the top of the hill and stares off into the sky. a longing paper bag face.	Different settings create a chaotic and fact paced scene where both characters are struggling without each other.
about to take the bag off her head until she turns around because she hears her name being called and sees the boy walking to her.	the audience desires to see her face but is quickly thwarted when the boy comes to rescue her.
boy comes up the stairs and sees her out of breath. Him holding a paper bag in his hand and going up to her and taking his bag and putting it on.	Putting on bag shows their relationship having grown stronger and how they are in love. The goal finally being reached where they date each other.
Holding hands and them staring into each other with lovey-dovey hearts and they happily sit down and stare at the city together.	In love, and ends with them being content to each other. the happy ending.

Realism Formalism and Classicism I Guess.

Formalism is a style of editing where the director intends to manipulate space and time. This technique creates several emotions within the audience, yet it creates a clear narrative. Certain elements create formalism such as the thematic montage where several shots are connected via theme. Also, abstract cutting is a purely formalistic and just completely manipulates the senses. Shots are more concerned with the duration of the shot rather than the actual film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_b6S8tpQtdw

This clip is a clear example of formalism because it manipulates time and space several times during this scene. For instance, at 1:10; when he jumps on the hood of the car. Everything slows down, it seems unreal but it’s purpose it to highlight the impact of the jump. Then everything suddenly speed up and that's putting back what was taken away previously which is speed. Furthermore, after he jumps to the car we see a reaction shot of a passenger indicating how scare he is. This is called constructive cutting because the meaning is creating through juxtaposition. Continuing with the scene, next we see the first car he jumped crashed in slow motion, in an unrealistic time period and space.

Realist films use sequence shots to tell the story. They are continuous takes for one recording of time and in realist films, these sequences last uncomfortably long. They never have any edits or cuts at all because directors want the audience to decide for themselves what they want to focus on. Early cinema started with long shots taken in one lengthy take. With this technique for filming, directors could only make simple stories.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCEFOx5Hc2Y

The clip above is the opening sequence from Saving Private Ryan. The movie may be a war movie, but this opening sequence has a realist feel to it. Many of the shots are from a certain point, mainly off to the side and the shots are no shorter than 5-10 seconds long. The camera moves with the people, giving it a realist feel trying to make it seem as though you are in the battle along side all the soldiers. The shots are held or a very long time and the camera doesn't move from certain spots much. There is little editing, at least for a war film and the scene is a realist style of filmmaking.

Classicism is an editing technique directors want in their films to create a more complicated sequence of events. It tries to show fluidity of an event without literally showing every single step (from point A to B). By condensing actions without leaving anything essential out, an editor can make a film that establishes a clear cause and effect relationship. Also, classicism in editing interprets and action by emphasizing certain details over others (e.g. with the use of close ups etc.). Overall, a director wants this because he or she wants the audience to focus on certain aspects of a film in order to show the one meaning a director is trying to get across.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Grr8-7bqOfA

Aside from a brief sequence of quick cuts between 0:23 and 0:30, the clip above taken from Roy Andersson's En kärlekshistoria is exemplary of classicist editing in that the cuts between the characters Annika, Pär, and Eva are done with the intention of emphasizing the impact of Pär's initial departure and regretful return.

Contemporary Media Analysis

1. What does the media say about the world we live in?

Media mirrors our society, and our wants and desires for society. For example, in current media, there are many new portrayals of different social groups such as the LGBTQA and women. In TV shows such as Glee, there are gay and lesbian characters that are successfully integrated into the show without it being a major deal, highlighting how American culture is learning to accept another social group fully into the "norm" of media. Although media can portray racy themes and ideas, it mostly depicts what has been accepted in society, thus showing an acceptance of the LGBTQA, even if it's not a full acceptance yet.

2. Do you notice any one trend that keeps resurfacing through multiple media forms?

Throughout any form of media, the blurred lines between good and evil is a trend truly reflecting the human desire to empathize. We don't want the character that is perfectly good or perfectly evil because, frankly, we can't relate to them; we don't feel what they feel. In shows such as Breaking Bad or The Vampire Diaries, probably the most interesting characters are the flawed ones. In The Vampire Diaries, the character of Damon Salvatorre is an arrogant, impulsive character that is supposedly the worse of the Salvatorre brothers, but he is by far my favorite character mainly due to his flaws. He may be arrogant and brash, but he also has a deep seeded love for Katherine (another vampire) and cares a lot about the other characters on the show, even if he pretends to be the sarcastic, apathetic

character. In The Dark Knight Rises, Harvey Dent definitely shows the blurred lines between good and evil. Dent, a hero of the city's legal system, begins to seek revenge when the love of his life is killed, but does that truly make him evil? I personally empathize (not to that extreme) with the desire to seek revenge when something bad happens to me, so I can't see Dent as a truly evil character. He was simply a good character pushed to the point of bad.

3. What do you see as the best and worst of what media portrays?

Media is great at depicting a sense of community; it can bring together social groups that have been outcasted and stereotyped throughout our culture and make us appreciate them. For instance, I hate Fantasy Football players (definition) but watching the TV show The League gives me a better appreciation for them and lets me accept them more than I did before I started watching the show. Nevertheless, the media in America at least is pretty bad at the portrayal of sexual content versus violent content. Why is it that movies with violence are more appropriate for younger children to watch than movies with some (not a lot) sexual content? In our society I'm pretty sure it's more socially acceptable to kiss someone rather than punch them. It's just always confused me on why the opposite is true in media.

4. Where do you see yourself contributing to the conversation?

Throughout last year in film and some of my analysis pieces, I feel I contribute to the portrayal of community and relationships. For example, in my presentation last week, I felt like I relatively covered the topic of LGBTQA in the media (and it's also in #1). Also, last year my films Return to Sender and Truth be Told highlighted relationships pretty well throughout my contributions in cinematography and sound design.

Top 5 Films of All Time!

• Mean Girls

• Mean Girls is by far my favorite movie, primarily because of it's comedic yet truthful spin on American high school girls. As a girl in high school, I just get so wound up in the plot of Mean Girls because I empathize with the characters in one way or another. Also, the comedic aspect of the film was truly emphasized by the use of comedy during moments of suspense or strong emotion (refer back to last blog post for more Mean Girls)

• The Breakfast Club

• The Breakfast Club is an all time classic story depicting a Saturday detention with a motley crue of high schoolers and is in my favorites for plot line, character empathy, and soundtrack. The plot of The Breakfast Club gives me such a desire to get Saturday detention just to see if I'll have the same experience that Judd Nelson did. The movie makes you WANT that motley crue of friends, and it really does show how people all have a little bit of each of those characters in them (watch the movie, ending super important). Finally, the soundtrack to this film is heartwrenching, especially with their opening and closing song just tying together all the emotions conveyed by the actors.

• The Devil Wears Prada
• The Devil Wears Prada is the movie I watch when I'm sick; I swear I've watched it over a hundred times just because it's that good. First of all, basically any movie with Anne Hathaway I will watch and love, and, second of all, THERE'S MERYL STREEP TOO. Choice of actors was spot on. However, the one thing I truly love about this movie is that it centers around a woman and juggling her job with her personal life, BUT not necessarily her love life. I love how the film can focus on other aspects of Andy's (main character) life and not just be absorbed in her romantic affairs like every other chick flick.

• Fast Times at Ridgemont High
• My sole reason for putting Fast Times at Ridgemont High on here is because it is hilarious. The screen writers of this film did a fantastic job of conveying comedy that wasn't over the top, but more just a series of unfortunate events for some of the character that were ridiculously funny. The cinematographer also did a fantastic job of catching Jeff Spicoli at his prime moments, such as the pizza in class scene was perfect.

• The Princess Bride
• Now I could not bear go through this entire list without putting up my favorite childhood movie: The Princess Bride. No matter how much we the audience crave imperfect character development, sometimes you just need to be able to watch that perfect love story. When I was younger I never thought of marrying any old prince, I wanted my Dread Pirate Roberts (the Wesley One). The director of this film did a great job of conveying the plot of the novel, and created extremely desirable characters.

(Wesley do this for me pleaseeeee)