5 Most Valuable Minutes: Taxi Driver

The one of the intents of Taxi Driver is definitely concerning the portrayal of New York City and how it is a city that is disintegrating. I selected these five minutes of the film because the audience finally gets to see the intent of the film come into fruition. The entire atmosphere helps to show how the city is corrupt and is becoming poisoned by people like the pimp.

Martin Scorsese has directed a variety of films including the Aviator, Shutter Island, The Departed, Goodfellas, and recently, Hugo. However Taxi Driver relates most with Goodfellas, a film he directed that portrayed American gangs. Although both emulate much different tones and environments, both films do a good job of inspecting the main character and their deterioration and transformation. In Goodfellas, we are presented with a young man making his way up criminal society. However, he eventually loses grasp of reality because he is taken away from that lifestyle.

In Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle is a war veteran with a haunted past who drives around New York City and finds solace in it. However, he eventually feels a need to stand up for what he believes in and becomes a vigilante and takes matters into his own hands. This is where these five minutes come in. The audience finally sees Travis Bickle succeed in getting rid of the "scum" of New York City. This extract does a good job of fully realizing his character. Because he is shot at and sustained fatal injuries, he is able to display his motivations and beliefs to the whole audience; he has nothing to lose and in this near-death experience, there is nothing left to hide.

This extract relates to the narrative because it almost serves as a resolution to the film. If the climax of the film was when Travis Bickle failed to kill the senator, we are given this scene in order to see Travis come to terms with himself because he feels a need to "flush everything down the toilet". Killing the pimp and saving the girl would bring him peace because he would feel like he is doing something about the corrupt city.

This extract highlights Scorsese's intent by manifesting all of the corruption in the New York City and using the pimp's compound to personify it. By taking out the people who are involved with prostitution management, Bickle is used to show how the corruption can be eliminated through individual involvement. Because Bickle sees that the senator is unsuccessful with getting rid of the "scum" in the city, Scorsese's use of Travis Bickle and his subsequent murders illustrates his intent.

This extract definitely has the elements of an action/crime film. This is done through the use of weapons, the frequency of deaths, and the criminal issues in these five minutes. However it also has elements of film-noir due to the stark criminal aspects of the scene. The shots of the bodies laying inside of the room best shows this connection to film-noir and that genre's style and conventions. In relation to history, this extract shows how Travis Bickle may have been affected by his service in the Vietnam War. Because he has been so lonely and out-of-place after the war, this scene shows a return to his lifestyle during the war. Being set after the Vietnam War is important because it is the main cause of Travis' isolation from the rest of the city.

The American Anti-Hero

The American anti-hero is a type of character found in films that perform heroic acts, yet with unheroic intentions. There are various historical factors that contributed to the rise of this type of character from 1945 into the 1980s. One of the reasons was because America emerged a new country after WWII. America was not as innocent and pure as it was before and characters on screen needed to reflect that. Characters became more gritty and real and flawed. The article by Andrew Henneberry also mentions how America was more rebellious. Protagonists reflected this by being morally questionable. Filmmakers encouraged audiences to sympathize with these characters and in turn realizing the wrongs in society.

The American anti-hero contradicted the Classic Hollywood Ideology because the characters in Classic Hollywood Cinema were clearly definable whereas anti-heroes had a variety of motivations. Heroes in classic cinema would have traits that were immediately recognized, while in anti-heroes, these traits were not always apparent all the time.

Intensified Continuity: David Bordwell

According to David Bordwell, there are four factors that contributed to intensified continuity.

The first of which is from more rapid editing. Almost as a result from "American and British filmmakers experimenting with quicker cuts,  the entire industry moved forward because audiences soon became accustomed to cut action. The long shots found in realist films would bore the audience and wasn't visually stimulating. Realism became irrelevant and the average shot lengths of movies rapidly decreased.

A second style was from different lens lengths in between shots. Wide angle lenses was able to capture more of the action and provided deep focus that filmmakers were looking for. Filmmakers also used longer lenses because they were "all-purpose tools for close-ups, medium shots, and even establishing shots". This shift was caused partly because of the ease of use in exterior locations. Filmmakers could use longer lenses to shoot action much farther away and proved to be a multipurpose tool.

A third style was the use of tighter framing for dialogue shots. This technique was aided by "Panavision's sharper, less distorting lenses" in order to give the amount of detail close-ups needed. This technique became popular because it placed more importance on the actors' performances as opposed to the aesthetics of the shot.

One final style that Bordwell mentioned was the use of a free-ranging camera. This was the use of shots that incorporated motion into the shot. this was done in order to convey an emotion that dialogue couldn't be able to portray. For example, "pushing-in"could create a sense of tension that the actors wouldn't be able to effectively convey alone.

"Arrival of a Train" vs. "Damsel in Distress": Realist vs. Classical

In "Arrival of a Train" the film is composed of exactly one shot. This reflects the beliefs and ideals found in realist films where the filmmaker gives the audience a plethora of details to take in within one shot. The picture is composed of essentially an establishing shot as well as an anticipatory shot of the train in the beginning. The movement in the shot is organic and is composed of people entering and leaving a train. The editor isn't inserting shots to raise awareness with certain details but instead is trying to capture reality, therefore a story isn't necessarily constructed by the filmmaker by instead is left up to the audience's interpretation

"Damsel in Distress" represents more of the classical ideas of cutting where details are highlighted within the scene. Contrast cutting is used to create tension as the film cuts from shots of the damsel to the train quickly approaching. The types of shots used is varied in composition. However, the composition of the shots emphasize the tension build-up as well as the nobility and heroism of the dog. The narrative is told using sub-stories as the dog tries to help the damsel in distress. In doing so, borders in the frame help to emphasize details that help to focus the filmmaker's intent into the story.

Advanced Editing Notes: Soviet Montage & Realism

Soviet Montage and Formalism

Pudovkin insisted that cinema use images to create new meanings. Using lengthy shots would resemble reality too closely, therefore Pudovkin said that only close ups, symbols and other details be used to express the filmmaker's message. The Kuleshov effect is using the juxtaposition of images to create meaning. He did an experiment with experienced actors and juxtaposed different images and achieved an effect that brings meaning to the scene. The Eisensteinian montage is the use of sharply contrasting images. He believed that each shot needed to be incomplete so that in the edit, juxtaposing images will bring meaning to the film. In the Odessa Steps sequence, Eisenstein uses this method to create a sense of hopelessness amongst chaos by juxtaposing images of the chaotic running, to close-ups of the individuals, to the uniform and orderliness of the soldiers.

Andre Bazin and Realism

Andre Bazin was frustrated that classical and formalistic cutting didn't reflect reality as cinema should. He believed that by cutting the film, the director's intention and interpretation of reality is being imposed on the audience. He also argued that the editor is placing his own analysis of reality by cutting the film a certain way. Realist filmmakers strive to create the illusion of reality. Their goal is to bet recreate reality for the audience. Cutting to close ups would be forcing the audience to see certain things so instead Bazin liked deep focus and long shots. These techniques give the audience the chance to form their own opinions of the scene.

Production Portfolio: Bridge

A. Rationale
My group members and I set out to make a dramatic film entitled "Bridge". I wanted to create a film that pushed my own abilities as a filmmaker, which included using more majestic locations, different methods of cinematography, the use of an original soundtrack, and to tell a story using images more than dialogue. The intended audience was for anyone who had to deal struggle and determination. I believed this film would be successful because we intended to incorporate a more complex story and add more production value in the form of locations and camera work.

Word Count: 96

B. Commentary

I was the writer-director of this film. I also was in charge of sound design during post-production.

Some problems arose while I was developing the concept and drafting the screenplay for the film. I wanted to make a film that played around with non-linear storytelling. However, from the feedback we got during our pitch, we needed to develop more of a main character and to get rid of the death at the end. This ended up changing the script entirely. There was no way to retain the same concept from the original idea in order to conform to these parameters. The revised treatment followed a ten scene arc. Once I had the treatment done I wrote a rough draft of the script. It consisted mainly of voice overs. It took me an entire week to arrive at the final script. I received feedback from some industry professionals that I met while on set of an independent film. They told me that the use of voice-over is a lazy way to tell the story. Instead, they told me to show rather than tell. I ended up taking out all of the voice over except for two small snippets at the beginning and the end. I feel like this made for a much better story because all of the information isn't fed to the audience, but instead requires and element of interpretation.

We made sure that production would be smooth by scouting locations ahead of time to check for the conditions at the bridge and the Golden Gate Park. We figured out that there is much less people on the bridge during the early morning, which would make shooting much easier. There were parts of the bridge that worked better for scenes then others. We also looked at parts of the Golden Gate Park that would work well for our montage.

Pre-production brought forth a lot of frustrations for me as the director. I needed to make sure the conditions for shooting were optimal, and this included casting actors. Because we were rushed during our 3 day pre-production period, the casting call I wanted to hold did not go as planned. Initially we wanted to cast professional actors outside of our own high school. Unfortunately, working with professionals involved extensive planning and discussion with the actors using time that we didn't have. As a result none of the actors showed up to the casting call, and we needed to screen actresses from our own high school. This was an improvement from our last film because we had the opportunity to see the performances of the actresses before they went to act for us. As for the male lead, we needed to use our editor in order to avoid any scheduling conflicts.

I needed to completely block out our first day of shooting because we needed to shoot all of our scenes that take place on the bridge. This included filming scenes out of sequence. We made sure we filmed the shots that would require more moving space on the bridge so we could get shots require the steadi-cam. One particular shot that attracted a lot of attention on the bridge was the shot where Sasha passes out. Because I had to literally tip over and fall to the ground to get the shot, many people was staring and wondering what we were doing. I didn't notice them. I had no time to worry about how ridiculous I looked because I was determined to complete the shots that we needed. We ran into a little set back when the bridge ranger came by to ask us what we were doing, but he didn't kick us off the bridge which was very good for our production. The first day of shooting was successful, but due to time constraints, I was forced to shoot all of the bridge scenes in one day which limited what we could do because we couldn't go back to re-shoot. It was difficult to have our actors act exactly the way I want especially for the running sequences.

Filming Scene 3 posed some problems. We needed this location to include a view of the Golden Gate Bridge as well as a fence of sorts for Julian to take his frustration out on. Therefore we ended up finding the location during the day of the shoot. We also overcame this problem by blocking the shot so that we were able to frame both the bridge and Julian looking up at it.

One huge problem that we encountered was finding a location to shoot our "hospital" scene. We tried going to several different hospitals to no avail. Therefore we resorted to using our "Plan Z", shooting in what was to be Sasha's room. Although the impact of the location is not as powerful as a hospital, the room served the same purpose by creating an atmosphere that Sasha would be comfortable in. As a group we solved this problem by contacting out various friends in order to find a location that was ideal for shooting.

Shooting the long-anticipated Scene 2 was very challenging. Because we shot during the night time inside of a house for a shot that needed to simulate daytime, we needed to use lighting equipment in order to compensate. In terms of production design, we also needed to convey a lot of information in just one shot. We constructed a collection of medals, pictures, and get-well cards in order to convey how Julian used to be a great runner, but his injury has rendered him unenthusiastic towards running. The shot also involved a continuous take that required a lot of blocking and planning. We needed to move around the set in order to properly capture the shot. We made this process more streamline by having friends aid us in moving around and setting around the set.

From the feedback we received, our cinematography was a success in this film. I felt that the quality of our cinematography was a result of our attention to detail and amount of preparation and conceptualizing when designing the shots. We made sure we were meticulous with the focus, as well as the variety in shots because we knew the film would be redundant due to the constant running in the script. I thought we did a good job of keeping the shot selection new and exciting. However, I think in order to improve our cinematography and not have the shots be so redundant, we could have incorporated shots that implied that Julian was running instead of directly showing the audience shots of him running.

In terms of directing and acting, I felt this film improved greatly from our last film in terms of the quality of the acting. Although the bedroom scene was too dramatic, the acting throughout the film conveyed the kind of emotions that I wanted to a greater extent. Although not perfect, I felt that we put out a great effort. We could improve this area by having more communication between the actors and myself so that the actors knew the character they were playing internalized. This could be an effective method because the acting will be more natural as opposed to being forced. I felt this was the case between John and I because I made sure I discussed the character of Julian extensively and encouraged John to practice the role outside of shooting. Practicing before the day of the shoot definitely helps for better acting.

Our editing was effective in telling the story. We displayed many classical techniques in editing. We didn't use lengthy shots, but we did use wide-shots to help tell the story. As a director, I also had details within the image be emphasized to give the audience a more personal connection since tighter shots gives off a more intimate sense. Using flashbacks also was a technique that worked well in the edit and reflects more classical styles. However, given more time, it would have been nice to incorporate more abstract and impressionistic editing that transcends mere assembling clips together. This could be done by placing more emphasis even in the script itself so that the ideas in development and pre-production can carry over into post-production.

Our soundtrack was also a success. Because we used original music, I felt that I had more control of the types of emotions the music was going to bring to the film. This is effective because we ended up with a product that was free of copyrighted music that also sounded great. I spent time with the composer in order to tailor a soundtrack that would complement the film well. However, we relied on music too much and didn't apply enough ambiance and sound effects that would help create the environment of the film more organic. This is an issue we hope to address in our next film.

We believe that our film was a success due to the well thought-out cinematography, improvement with acting, and use of original music. However we do want to include more production design and sound design in our next film.

Trailer Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

The trailer for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy does a great job of getting the audience interested in the plot of the story. This is done through the trailer's slow exposure of the premise of the film as well as using a soundtrack that creates a sense of mystery, perfectly suited for the genre of the film.

In terms of the editing, shots were chosen that parallel the voice over being used in the trailer. This is done as opposed to trying to tell a narrative that many trailers do in order to introduce the audience to the film's story. For example when the voice-over is revealing the premise of the film, shots of the possible suspects fade in and fade out showing how each of them are labeled by a nickname that they are given. This shot of Colin Firth also lends itself to a discussion on cinematography in the film. Because this shot is the first time the audience is exposed to the suspects, it is important that the subject of the shot is clearly shown. This is done through a very narrow focus that creates blur in the background and bringing into attention Colin Firth's face. The guilty expression on his face helps to communicate to the audience that he is indeed a potential suspect in the film.

The soundtrack is also important in this trailer because it creates the foundation for the atmosphere of the trailer. Right from the beginning, the eerie music creates a sense of uneasiness in the audience. This is important to the rest of the trailer because this is the initial point of suspense. Immediately, the audience is treated to a sense of mystery, which lends itself to a more interesting and captivating trailer.

The use of text in the trailer also helps to create intrigue in the audience by serving as an aid to expose the premise of the film. It helps the audience make sense of the information being presented in the trailer by attaching text to the images shown in the trailer. Bolding the word "eyes" also helps to anchor down the shots being shown by associating a group of images with a single word. The simplicity of the text also helps for the audience to understand the meaning behind the text since the time a trailer has to reveal information is inherently limited.

Also by choosing to show shots that are ambiguous helps to draw in the audience by leaving the audience with more questions than answers. This creates a lasting sense of curiosity with the film which is ideal in order to market a film to an audience. The job of the last shot of the trailer is to ultimately spark interest in the audience. This shot of what seems to be Gary Oldman does a good job of this because it is near impossible to come to a conclusion about the purpose of the shot within the context of the film. Because the goal of a trailer is to get people interested about a film, techniques like this are essential in creating a successful trailer.

Run Lola Run Critique

Our presentation focused on the Ideology aspects of the film Run Lola Run. We also inspected some of the cultural aspects of the film.

We first looked at the cultural aspects of the film. The film reflected a lot of the ideas that were prominent during the New German Cinema era. It was during this era that young directors explored new things and wanted to break away from the visual style of the time. They wanted to explore ideas that were not seen in cinema at the time. Some of these ideas are seen with Twyker's focus on feminism and having Lola be the protagonist. There is a gender switch in the traditional roles of the characters. Manny is seen more as the damsel in distress as opposed to the hero figure. Some of these ideas were also effected by the German youth at the time. The film's upbeat and modern approach was designed to appeal to the youth as opposed to an older audience.

Next we looked at Game Theory and how that was seen in the film. As an ideology, the game theory explores how people's decisions effect each others. This is clearly seen in the different endings of the film. Each time, the characters end up choosing different paths, resulting in different outcomes. This film is almost like a visual presentation of the game theory.

Lastly we looked at Post-Modernism. This is the idea that the values and perspective of the individual is placed higher than the collective perspective. Subjectivity is valued highly in post-modern films as opposed to objectivity. Twyker explores how the world can be meaningless and that it's up to the audience to interpret the film. He presents 3 completely different storylines to help emphasize this. The director is more interested in presenting a compelling film as opposed to making a film that makes sense.

Some of the challenges that we faced was just finding the topics to talk about. We really had no knowledge of these ideas prior to our research. And because we had no knowledge on these topics, made it difficult for us to understand the ideas within the time frame since these ideas were very complex and debated upon.

However I think in the end we gathered a vast amount of information that was relevant to the film. It was actually surprising the see the final product because we explored these ideas thoroughly and in depth. The coherency and the relevancy of the analysis also was surprising because everything fit together well. Also because all of the topics were new, I felt that we succeeded in capturing the audience's attention. This was most relevant on our discussion of the game theory. Michael did a good job with describing the idea and incorporating that with the rest of the film. Jenevieve did a good job exploring the ideas of the german youth especially with how the youth affected the film and the intended audience.

Treatment: Bridge

Logline: A man fondly reflects upon how he came to meet his jogging partner.

A man is jogging on the Golden Gate Bridge en route to his friend's house. He describes how there has been over 1,500 suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge since it's completion in 1937 in a nonchalant tone. As a matter of fact, he just heard on the news how another person had jumped off the bridge on the news this morning. He begins recalling the first time he met his jogging partner as well as the first time he ran on this bridge. 

The Golden Gate Bridge is seen against a clear sky. The man is jogging on the bridge with a woman jogging in the distance, similar to how he was jogging before the flashback. He marvels at the architecture of the bridge and doesn't pay attention to where he is going. He clumsily knocks into her, making the woman drop the iPod that she was listening to. The man apologizes and picks up the iPod, noticing the song that she was listening to. The man and the woman start to jog with each other conversing as they are running the length of the Golden Gate Bridge. They talk about the beauty of the architecture of the bridge (because that's why he ran into her). She jokes about how if she had the choice to live her last moments on this bridge, she would. They finish running on the other side of the bridge and agree to meet the next day.

The man is again seen jogging on the GGB as he continues to recall how they became jogging partners.

From that first encounter, they would soon run on the bridge each day together, each day progressively going farther until they are seen to jog to the woman's house. These day-by-day sequences happens in a series of montages.

He arrives at her house and starts walking up apartment stairs. 

On one particular day, the woman is staring over the railing into the bay. The man arrives for the daily jog and they begin their daily jog. However she is noticeably sick as they run farther and starts to cough up blood and shows other signs of severe illness. He suggests that she goes to see a doctor, but she dismisses him and says that she is okay. They argue and she finally promises to go to see a doctor.

He calls her the next day to check up on her.

He notices that the door to her house is unlocked.

However she says that the doctor said that she was very ill. She starts telling him about how ever since she was a child, she wanted to be in control of her life. She also talks a lot about how she doesn't like to have people worried about her and that having people worry is considered a burden to her.

The man notices medical things scattered around her house, suggesting that she has been sick for a long time.

She thanks him for being so concerned with her. She says how special running on the bridge each day is. She says how seeing the bridge brings her to peace. The man promises to come to visit her the next day. She hangs up, gets out of her bed and starts walking outside.

Her bed is empty. 

The doctor is telling her that her sickness is terminal. She sobs uncontrollably. He tells her to run in order to extend her life a little longer. The man bumps into her while she is running. 

He pulls out [the miniature GGB] that he was going to give her as a get-well gift and looks at it. Everything makes sense.

She is walking alone on the GGB around sunset. The bridge looks majestic and calming . . .

Broadcast Critique: Procrastination

Pre-Production:

When it came time to come up with a concept for the first Fall broadcast piece we were to make, I didn't want to make a usual piece that you would typically find being aired in the first months of the school year. Instead Choy and I wanted to make a piece that would have a broader audience, perhaps a little beyond just the students and teachers. At first we wanted to do a piece that was a bit larger in scale, but it proved to capture little interest and was difficult to come up with an original way to approach the topic (the Casey Anthony Trial) since it has been covered so many times before. In the end we decided to do a piece on procrastination with a focus on technology. I envisioned the piece to incorporate both procrastination's effects on students as well as how education is being effected by technology. However, these were two separate topics and we decided to focus solely on procrastination's effects on students.
Coming up with how the segment would look like was already pretty much decided early on. We were to follow the old, yet wildly effective, method of coming up with an over-arching voice-over, collecting an interview or two, and filming b-roll that we thought would correspond well with the segment. The interviews were framed so that we would get the types of responses we wanted (cheap, yes I know, because honestly why would anyone put in interviews that didn't support their topic) and we interviewed people who we knew were bad with time management (which is basically everyone, except for a select gifted few).

Production Quality:

We filmed all of our b-roll without SOT, or at least knowing that we would not be using the location sound. We paid special attention to the framing of the shots because we knew that we would lose the audience's attention if we filmed boring shots (but really I would never allow anything boring to make the final cut anyways). What we did to make the shots a little more compelling was that we constantly was using the manual focus feature on the Canon Vixia HF-M300. We knew that the focus capabilities of the camera was competent so we took advantage of that feature. Virtually all of the shots we took utilized some narrow focus. For one of the shots in particular, we set up a few science related objects in the foreground and the class in the background. This made it so that shot seemed like it and purpose and communicated the classroom setting clearly.

Script:

The script was written with the intent of the segment in mind. We wanted to explain how technology is amplifying how students procrastinate now more than ever. I made sure I put in some expert opinions (though we never really stated in the segment that they were) in the piece to give the segment more weight. Striking facts were inserted into the piece partly due to the fact that I have heard them before and thought that they were extremely thought provoking. Our ending consists of some (BS)  advice that we can give to students who seek to improve their study habits. We found several of these suggestions from various sources online. We determined that these were the most important because they make logical sense and that they actually work (at least with us). The last line in the segment was a little cliche anecdote that we though summarized the list of advice.

Editing:

First and foremost, Choy did a lot of the editing. Our editing was really basic stuff, partly because there was nothing flashy needed for the piece. The titles we inserted were basic stuff; we made two layers of text so that it was easier to see the words on-screen. In terms of the workflow, we basically slapped the voice-over and interviews into the timeline and layered b-roll on top. Classic documentary style editing. The overall quality of the editing was flawless in terms of cleanliness, but the audio is not consistent in terms of quality and sound-reproduction.

Overall: Definitely not our best piece nor was it done to the best of our abilities, but it is a nice addition to the portfolio. The lesson to take away from this bad-boy, come up with a complete and holistic vision of the entire piece before venturing into pre-production and production.

Character in Time

The intensity in her eyes transcends her mere 16 years on this planet. She is looking into the camera that is taking her portrait, but her mind is focused on the atrocities that she has witnessed growing up. As the European photographer takes her picture, she thinks about the day she first saw a European man: the same day that her mother died. During that day, the white men came into their village and savagely started taking the women and putting them into large crates in trucks. She remembers how she ran to hide in the one place she knew would be safe, under the the floor of her house. She sees through the crack of her floor her mother struggling with the white men trying to resist capture. The white men seized her mother and threw her into the large truck. She tries to yell, but she remembers that if she does, she too will be taken away. She stares helplessly as her mother is driven away by these white men. Her mind flashes back to the present, the camera gives off a bright flash, and the white man thanks her for letting him take her picture.

Focus on Cinematography: The Coen Brothers' "World Cinema"

"World Cinema" by the Coen Brothers is very interesting in the sense that the entire film is essentially comprised of three main shots.

The first one is a symmetrical long shot of an small movie theater. This is also essentially the establishing shot of the film for it tells the audience where the film is taking place. Because this is such an important shot in the film, the composition must contain a significant amount of value. It is important to note that the titles of both of the movies are placed in between the upper third and middle third of the shot. Because this is usually where cinematographers places a subject's eyes, which is also referred to as the eye-line level, it feels more natural for the audience to focus on the text that is on display. The lighting in this shot has not been manipulated because they are taking advantage of the natural lighting. The angle of the shadows can also indicate the time of day, although at the end of the film, the shadows have not moved (although the temperature of the shot, perhaps through a lens filter, is slightly warmer indicating a passing of time) which is an error in continuity.

The second and third main shots make up a conversation between two men that are facing each other in the two shots: one is a movie-goer, and the other is an usher (or ushers, as there is a second usher in the second half of the film, but applies the same exact composition techniques). Both of these shots use the rule of third to help compose the shot. In the shot with Josh Brolin, the movie-goer, his head is placed on the upper right hand intersection. By doing this, the composition looks more natural to the audience. His face is also lighted properly, insuring that the audience's eyes are immediately drawn to his face without lingering around in other areas of the shot. The edges of the walls are vectors that creates lines that also helps to draw the audiences' eyes directly to the subject. It can be said that the brightly lit spot on the purple wall helps to balance the image by providing a visual counter-weight to the main subject.

The third main shot is of the usher (who is wearing a shirt with a purple star, that suggests a color motif). This shot is also composed with reference to the rule of thirds because the subject's head is in the upper left intersection of the frame. Like the previous shot, he is also properly lit, ensuring the audience is directed to the subject. However, this shot differs from the second one because it utilizes a frame within a frame. The frame in this case is the movie-goer's body. And not only does Brolin's body serve as a frame within a frame, it also acts as a visual counter-weight to balance the image. Again there are vectors created by the counters and desks that draws the viewer's eyes to the subject. Deep staging is used in the shot with Brolin's body used as the foreground, the subject as mid-ground, and the room as background.

Production Portfolio: The Retreat

A: Rationale
The Retreat is about a boy who loses his father and feels guilt about it, but learns to cope with his loss with the help from his friend. My production team and I decided to make this film because it incorporated interesting plot elements that we haven't approached before. Also from a personal standpoint, I didn't want to direct any romance stories, so this script was really appealing to me. I wanted to experiment with different camera techniques and a deeper attention to detail with this project. This film can definitely appeal to people who have experienced losses before.

Word Count: 99

B: Commentary
My role in this film was the Director, basically the one who oversees production as well as pre-production, and post-production. I was thoroughly involved with the whole project from start to finish. Although the bare-bones idea for the story came from our cinematographer, I wrote most of the script and contributed many of the ideas that tied the whole script together. During the production process, played the director, making sure everyone knew what they had to do, as well as direct the acting and crew. During the post-production process, I made sure that the editing was precise and purposeful. I unknowingly also became the Sound Designer as I was searching for sound effects and an accompanying track to go with the film and each of the scenes.

Problems that arose early on during the whole film making process was definitely coming up with an idea that would work well into a script. We tried multiple treatments that were to no avail until we finally were enlightened and we came up with a coherent concept for the film. During the script writing process, I took most of the control of the script and the types of shots we needed to shoot during production.

As a director the biggest problem was working with the acting crew. It was difficult to get the types of emotions I wanted because their acting skills were still very amateur and unrefined. I tried my best to describe to them the types of emotions that were needed for each scene, as well as occasionally acting out the scene for them.

One of the biggest challenges that arose was audio. Because I take a very involved role in the cinematography, I saw that audio was a constant struggle. Two times during our production, the shotgun mic wasn't working, another time the cables weren't fully plugged in, and most of the other times it was difficult to get audio that was crisp, clear, and without fuzz.

As a Sound Designer and a director of the editing process, I solved the problem with audio with a variety of ways. First I needed to fix the audio that came out with fuzz in the background. I accomplished this first by lowering the audio, then by adding cross fades to the beginning and end of each audio clip every time audio with fuzz was present. This helped transition the viewers to become a little more accustomed to the fuzz as the movie is playing, as well as avoiding sudden increases in fuzz during playback. Because a very vital scene was missing audio, we needed to resort to dubbing one of our shots. We did this using another camera, while watching the clip playback on the canvas. Amazingly, it wasn't even that bad. But "not even that bad" isn't good enough. Next time I intend to get everything involving audio to be perfect.

A problem with cinematography was that shots were slightly out of focus when I went back to watch the dailies. The constantly reminded my cinematographer to check the focus every time. A problem I had with him was that he would point the camera at the subject, place him in focus, then move away from him. This caused it so that the footage was slightly out of focus. This is without a doubt something that needs to be worked on our next project. Focus is key.

Editing was especially troublesome due to the processing speeds of our computers. Because our computers couldn't handle HD footage, we needed to share another computer with another group. This made it so that we couldn't always use time in class when we needed it to edit the film. And due to time constraints, we were forced to edit our entire film at home during the break on laptops, considerable less capable of handling editing. We managed to extract all of the video files from our computers at school, but we were unable to export the EDL from the project. This made it so that we needed to essentially start editing the film from scratch since none of the edits were transferred.

In terms of directing, I have many things to work on. First and foremost, I must be able to extract more emotion from my actors better. Such techniques to accomplish this is to act out the scenes for the actors so that they know where to begin with their emotions. I also need to have more control over the set and crew, because problems arise once people start to fool around. In my next film, I need to focus more on paying extreme attention to detail. I intend to perfect every shot so that the scene can play out consistently, continuously, and without errors. This may even require that I shoot scenes across separate days if needed. Either that or making a production schedule so tight yet flexible that we can accomplish all of our shooting in time AND up to my expectations. I will continue to play an involved role throughout the film, not just with the production. I believe that in order to achieve a film that fits your vision, you must be involved with the whole film making process. Starting from the inception of the idea to directing the production to editing to delivery and the final product.

I intend to incorporate moving shots in our next film much more frequently, I'd say about 70% of our shots should have some sort of movement in them. Also with motion, new problems arise. Focus must be constantly be maintained during the movement, and I realize that will definitely something we need to master. I also want to play with the depth of field and compressing space in a shot, such as using techniques like zooming in but dollying away.

One problem with the film is that many shots are shaky wen they are supposed to be still. This makes the overall quality of the film drop considerably in my opinion.

We can definitely improve our editing techniques and color correction with Color. Also since we are now dealing with HD footage, I believe that we should learn to DEAL with HD footage. HD footage works way differently than normal miniDV footage. the settings for Final Cut Pro must be changed so that it can work well with our footage.

The last and possibly most important thing to focus on with our next film is to master audio. Audio has been a constant drag because the cameras we are using record fuzzy audio. I would love it if we found a way around this so that our audio next time is flawless.

Word Count: 1110

Oral Presentation Critique

My oral presentation showed a good understanding of how meaning is created through various aspects such as editing style and cinematography. I analyzed how specific editing techniques added meaning to the scene. I explained the context of the extract and placed the scene. I briefly talked about the plot and how this extract fits into the movie. I commented briefly on how this movie fits into the genre of bio pics. This presentation talked about sociocultural context and connected that with how OCD is portrayed in the movie. This can be considered as socio-cultural context due to the growing number of children with OCD. I also discuss how the scene is essential to the movie as a whole. Analysis is thorough and is mostly coherent and concise.

Marks: 19

Part III: Narrative/Film Language and Representation

Narrative

Because the narrative follows Howard Hughes through a period in his life, the narrative is tied together using coherent events only relevant to the plot. Scenes essentially revolve around Hughes' obsession with aviation in chronological order, with only important events of his life being shown. Events in his life are omitted because they don't add to the story and doesn't propel the narrative forward. Many times however, entire parts of his life are played out like in the scene where he spends months in a screening room. The narrative is based around Howard Hughes' pursuit in aviation and events in his life that revolve around his passion of aviation rather than telling his life story chronologically. The plot not only revolves his pursuit in aviation, but also explores his OCD condition and his various love interests.

Film Language and Representation

The first apparent stylistic use in editing is the use of an effect that recreates the "two strip technicolor"look from films of that era of Hughes' life. This effect is used from the beginning of the film to about halfway when film of that era progressed past technicolor and into more modern uses of color in film. This effect causes the audience to not only view events of that time period, but also in essence view it through the lens of that time period. It creates an enhanced effect on the audience watching the film because it "brings" the audience back to the era of the film through the use of effects of that period before 1935 with editing. Another use of editing to create meaning is a short montage of scenes leading up to the H-1 Racer, showing that making the plane was a result of years of development.

The cinematography is very tight, glorious, and purposeful through the first half of the scene. There are various shots of the Hughes H-1 Racer, the first plane Hughes sets his mind to making, that show the glory and magnificence of the technological breakthrough that the plane represents. Shots reveal various parts of the plane as Hughes is maneuvering the plane into flight and while he is in the air. These are almost anticipating their purpose of the various levers in the plane. There are also various close up shots of the gauges while the plane is in flight to foreshadow the malfunction of the plane later in the same scene. Once the plane begins to falter, shots of the gauges are used to communicate that the plane and Hughes are in danger.

Music and sound is also used extremely well to present the H-1 Racer as a glorious piece of technology, as though it were a leitmotif associated with heroes of epic films. Sound bites are used alongside close-ups of gauges and switches to communicate the complexity of flying a plane that is covering new ground. Parts of the sound during the film present Hughes almost as a western pioneer through a use of hoove-like sound in the track. This shows that Hughes is truly a pioneer in the field of aviation.

Part II: Historical and Socio-Cultural Context

Being that he already directed two biographical films prior to The Aviator, Michael Mann decided against directing this film and instead gave the helm to Martin Scorsese. This film curiously didn't win Best Picture during the 2005 Academy Awards, despite being nominated for the most Oscars (11), earning the most amount of Oscars (5), and winning Best Picture at the Producer's Guild Awards.

This film has also been credited to have portrayed OCD very accurately by doctors. OCD, or obsessive compulsive disorder, during the time period being shown in the movie had not been diagnosed and many considered Howard Hughes crazy. This film contributes to American film because The Aviator was essentially the first film to depict Howard Hughes, the first definitive American billionaire. There had been failed attempts to portray Howard Hughes including planned films with Johnny Depp and Edward Norton as Howard Hughes. Many previous attempts were unsuccessful largely due to the large production budget required. Being the first successful film on Howard Hughes, there wwas naturally immense pressure for Martin Scorsese and the producers to create a quality film. There had to be a lot f budget and support for this film to actually become reality. This film was also the first to have a received an Oscar for an actress portraying a real life Oscar winner.

The intended audience is without a doubt the many who have been waiting for a film depicting the life of Howard Hughes. Not only was this film geared towards audiences that enjoy bio pics, this bio pic was especially different because it is essentially the first to portray the life of the first American billionaire.

Sound Treatment

Logline

This will take place at crystal springs trail on a bench overlooking the spring. Near sunset, since sun sets over the springs

General ideas continued from where left off-
Then middle age couple walks by in the background from right side. The boy doesn’t notice, but they talk about how they always love coming back to this trail and how peaceful it is.
Boy is looking out at the spring as they are walking by and finish
Then old couple walks by from left side and they sit down next to the boy on the bench. Boy takes off his headphones and says sure you can sit here.
Old couple are talking and they are audible and they are talking about how much they enjoy each other, boy puts his head back down in his hands still in distress. Old people respond. Old man tells him some words of wisdom about relationships (not too cliché) maybe some humor about himself and his wife. Old lady says time for us to go, so they both get up, old man tells boy it will be “alright kid pull through”.
After they leave out of the WS. All isolated sounds. Boy relaxes back in his park bench and looks at the spring again (hears small sound of waves). Boy looks at Grass and hears the sound of crickets, and soft wind sound as wind is blowing nearby grass. (if theres no wind it will have to be man made and sound effect can be put in later). Boy looks at free way in back of him and notices sound of cars passing by. Boy looks out at the spring once again and now all sounds are audible. Boy pulls phone out of his pocket with right hand. Looks at it (seems like he is contemplating something) then puts phone down, face down, on his right leg and slouches further back in bench. ONLY THING AUDIBLE Phone starts ringing (ringtone differences genuwine). Boy turns his phone back over and looks at the front and caller ID says Katy and picture is of boy and Katy smiling (happy). Boy looks at it then looks out at spring and left to right (now all previous sounds in green are heard) then he looks back at phone (only ringtone is heard) boy sighs and pushes silent on his phone. (WS from beginning) Gets up and walks out of frame. Time lapse until night time then fade out.
WS- the sun will outline the boy in black and the area around him is in light.
Boy walking (head down) sits down on park bench.
FROM HERE ON 180 line shouldn’t be crossed until final scene. CU
Boy sitting down (sighing)
CU different side
Boy putting face in his hands (distressed)
WS in front of boy
Young couple walks by in background, they come from the left side (can hear them talking how much they like each other)
Dollying of couple walking
Continue how much they like ea other
WS
Boy turning as couple walks away so he only sees their backs (they don’t see him)
CU
Boy shaking his head, pulls out ipod
CU of one side of his ear
puts his head up plugs in his head phones (we can hear his music- sad heartbroken stuff)

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Part I: Director's Influence

The Aviator is definitely a biopic centered around the life of Howard Hughes, an eccentric movie director and aviation pioneer. This film definitely depicts characteristics of a biopic because whenever the time period in the film shifts forward, filters are constantly changing. Filters are used to indicate the time period that the film is taking place in. This work takes place among other great biopics that depict a prominent character during history. This film, lie many others, doesn't stay in one period of history. Instead, the Aviator depicts various time periods and shows how the character adapts to the changing times.

Martin Scorsese is no new name for many film fanatics. His work includes Goodfellas, The Departed, and the recent Shutter Island. Many of his films shows the gritty side of whatever he is trying to depict. To the general public, aviation seems like a heroic undertaking. But as we see in the film, Scorsese shows the pains and struggles that Howard Hughes has to go through in order for his investments in his planes succeed.

A definite theme of The Aviator has to be that struggles must be overcome in order for one to stick to their goals and pride. Hughes manages to overcome heartbreak, his disorder, and near death experiences in order for him to pursuit his aviation dreams