Introduction week- Lesson with Helen

Backing to Uni we had a lesson with Helen Keelan, we analysed romantic scene with Rachel and Deckard from "Blade Runner"

 Saket Vaidya. (Aug 2010). Rachael and Deckard, Romantic Scene from Blade Runner. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjO8wsjPqbg. Last accessed September 2015.

• What is this scene about?
• After watching this scene, what do you understand about the characters thoughts and emotions?
• How did the scene make you feel?

Once you determine what information and mood the scene conveyed , prepared to figure out  how cinematic tools and techniques were utilized  to communicate the scene's intended meaning.

After watched a movie again, we had to discuss the scene one more time- especially if we saw more

• Do your best to see beyond cinematic invisibility . Remember that a great deal of a movie's machinery is designed  to make your forget that you are experiencing a highly manipulated and manipulative, artificial reality. Ones of the best ways to combat cinemas seamless presentation is to watch the movie more then once . Repeated viewing will give you the distance required for critical observation.
• Now what do you see?

You may not get it all on first or second viewing....

• Be conscious of the fact that you may be blind  to a movie's political , a cultural and ideological meaning, especially if that meaning reinforces ideas and values you already hold
• The greater your awareness of your own belief system (and those you share with your culture in general, the easier it will be to recognise and interpret a movie's implicit meaning.
• Ask yourself how your expectations shaped your reactions to this movie? Had you watched it before? Seen the trailer? Hear of it before from friends, read about it in the media?
• did your previous experience of the Director or star inform your prior understanding, of what to expect from this particular film?
• Did the movie fulfil, disappoint or confound your expectations? In the other words...did you get it?

The movie title..

• Before and after you see a movie, think about direct meaning, as well as the implications of its title? Is it specific or is it a metaphor for something else
• Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko (2001) make us wonder if Darko is a real name ( it is) or if it is a non-so-subtle clue that Donnie has a dark side ( he does)
• Spend two minutes in your groups to try and explain the title's meaning, if it isn't self-evident.

Very interesting lessons, especially if I never wonder about meanings of a movie.

Motifs in Film

What is a Motif - 

• Repeated idea, image, pattern
• Throughout a film
• Helps reveal the theme of the text

 Three steps:

- Identify the reoccurring pattern
- Track the pattern
- Propose meaning from pattern or items in that pattern

Examples:

Raiders of a Lost Ark

• Colours

  

Unknown. (unknown). Raiders of the Lost Ark image. Available: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/80s-films/images/431412/title/raiders-lost-ark-wallpaper. Last accessed September 2015.

Speed

• Phrase = "pop quiz"

The Guardian . (July 2014). Why I'd like to be Keanu Reeves in Speed- image. Available: https://apps.xplr.com/xplr/news/Show-topic-Dianne-Reeves?. Last accessed September 2015.

Jaws 

• Items = Barrels 

- Shoot the shark with barrels to bring hi to the surface

- We see the gradual adding of barrels

- Don't see the sharks just barrels

Unknown. (unknown). 40 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About 'Jaws'. Available: http://news.moviefone.com/photos/40-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-jaws. Last accessed September 2015.

Summary

• Motifs are in movie and literature
• Reoccurring patterns
• Help reveal the theme (the message) of the text

Introduction to Films Genres

                                             Genre -  category of type of film

Warner Jordan Eduction. (Nov 2011). Introduction to Film Genres.mov.Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS7EHDwIzPc. Last accessed Sept 2015.

How did this develop?

• Studios wanted to standardize products
• Realized that unique films would sell better
• 1930-1045 : Compromise between repetition and variation 

 Genres Applied 

• Later.. 1970's
• Film critics looking back and labelling what they saw 

What are some Genres

• Western
• Gangster
• Musical
• Romantic - Comedy

Terms in Genres study :

• Stock characters

- flat characters

- secondary

- think of reality TV 

• In most shows , what is the pattern of the "cast"

                                   Themes

• Messages that the films share about the world
• Westerns 

- individualism 

- end of the Frontier

• Detective

- World is corrupt

                                  Iconography

• Repeated images
• Seems throughout individuals films
• Seems amongst genre

                                  Mood 

• Emotional settings of the genre

- Western

- Detective 

- Sci-Fi

                                 Cinematic Style

• How the genre is shoot

- Western

- Detective

- Sci-Fi

Stages of the Genre

• Primitive

- Patterns are a established

- Themes are developed

- Iconography created

• Revisionist

- Iconography similar

- More complex and ambiguous

- Questions the values inherent in the original genre

- Ties to original genre must be looked for

• Parody

- Genre is mocked

- Theme may stay the same

- Iconography highlighted 

- Stock characters over- embellished 

• Extension

- Basic values- themes of the genre reappear 

- Film's structure may be divergent

- Film's iconography / settings may be divergent

                               The Western

• Primitive

- The Great Train Robbery 

• Classical

- Stagecoach

• Revisionist

- The Wild Bunch 

• Parody

- Blazing Saddles 

• Extension

- Blade Runner

- Star Wars 

                                               Modern Day

• Many current films don't fit onto one genre
• Uniqueness is sought more then speed of production
• Some films do retain "throwbacks" to  genre of the 1940s-50s

How to read a movie...part2

1. Dramatic Aspects

• Those things that films share with live drama like stage production of play or musical theatre
• Identify a movie you went to see just because a certain actor was in it
• Which of these movies would you say had excellent acting? Why?
• Identify a movie in which the costumes, make-up or sets were effective or unusual
• Sometimes we notice dramatic aspects because of a flaw in the film. Can you identify a ovie in which  the acting, sets, make-up or costume attracted your attention because they were flawed ( bad ) in some way.

Which of the Following Do You like better...Why?

• Romeo and Juliet
• Hamlet
• Ocean's eleven

     2.Cinematic Aspects

• Technical terms associated with films

-  Cinematography

-  Sounds

-  Editing

-  Special Effects

This aspects make a truly film

Cinematic

Staff that only Film can offer an audience

 

How to read a movie...part1

Warner Jordan Eduction. (February 2012). Film in Three Levels 2.0 - 1.mov. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suUZe3ogaV0&list=PL_tdNe4QkPjEWIyJzGBwtnZcwP9FACT5h&index=12. Last accessed September 2015.

Why ?

1. To make film more easily understood
2. Break into  parts to analyse
3. Can them compare to the whole

We have a three important aspects:

• Literary aspects
• Dramatic aspects
• Cinematic aspects

1. Literary aspects

• Those things that films share with literature

        -  plot

        -  characters

        -  settings

        -  themes

        -  point of view

Plot

What do we know about plot and plots elements for instance; exposition, resolution, rising action

Characters

What do we know about characters in literature for instance; protagonist and antagonist, few characters, meaning characters, 

Settings

What is setting in literature for instance; time, place and motion settings

Themes

What are themes in literature for instance; author comments- like do we learn something seeing this text, do we challenge our believes, lessons or moral of the text and human condition

Point of View

What is point of view in literature for instance; is it camera its focusing on anyone 

Sum up

Questions for literary Aspects

• Briefly summarise the plot - like is it a story
• Who are the characters in the films? 
• What is the film's settings?
• What is a theme of the film?
• What is the mood of the film?
• Are there potential symbols?
• From whose point of view is the story told?like is it a buyers, do we trust a narrator in the film

Introduction

Second year student at Southampton Solent University. This year I am looking forward, because of the subject- make-up for Tv, this is what I really want it, I hope the knowledge, experience and new skills which I  achieve,will makes me more confident as a make-up artist in my future work.