Twin Warriors

The movie twin warriors deals with a lot of Chinese background. It is interesting how integrated that it is because it is a Chinese movie but it can be categorized under American cinema. The moral of the story seems like something that would only be done in American cinema. This movie is full of special effects. There is a special form of fighting called Tai chi that is used mostly in the ending of the movie. It looks like it consists of the matrix and bullet proof monk. The first time that i saw the movie i thought that all of that flying and special tricks like having no center of gravity was possible. The effects were really impressive because you could not tell that they were fake. The movie is about best friends who become worst enemies. The final battle is where the effect are used to their full potential. I don't feel like the sound effects were up to par. The wind felt like it was too close to the recorder because the volume was not that loud and you could hear the static.

A knights tale

A knights tale has a lot of first person shots. The whole movie was about a boy who wanted to change his stars. The director took this idea and ran with it. As the main character went through different experiences in life it was all filmed from a first person view. The whole movie seemed as if there was a camera and voice recorder inside the main characters head and the whole movie was being taped from inside. I personally like this effect. Especially when the main character is in the middle of a large crowd of people being insulted. It seems like you are actually in his position looking and listening at the crowd. It reminds me of when i was a child and my mother used to scold me in public. The costumes reminded me of prince and the pauper. Although through out most of the movie people were wearing knight costumes when they were wearing regular clothes you could separate the lower class from the upper class by looking at how they dressed.

Crocodile Dundee

In the beginning of crocodile Dundee the lady is going to the out back and she says to her boyfriend that she will be okay she is a new yorker. Then the settings switch extremely fast from a city with skyscraper to a vast expanse of land with only dirt and mountains. This drastic change shows that the lady will have a rough time dealing with the change. in the next scene she gets off of the helicopter and into the car. The helicopter follows the car as they both leave the camera view. This shows that she is going to have a transition in her life as she goes to Australia. The sound effects in the cocaine scene is so good that if you close your eyes you feel like you are really getting high. When he takes out his knife to cut the boy's shirt it looks like a special effect because he gently passes the knife along the boy's jacket and it gets ripped to shreds. At the welcome home party the camera blurs the closest object to it (table center piece) and sharpens the woman. This can indicate that that particular night was all about her. In the new scene with the mansion the director does something very odd four of the upper-rooms windows have yellow curtains one doesn't have any and the other two have white. Usually everything would be properly proportioned.

Seven Samurai

The seven samurai is very well thought out movie. The brightness of he lighting makes the movie look like the people were slaves and going through a rough time. This ties into the story because they were being run down by bandits. It also tell us that they worked hard. The fact that the movie is in black and white gives it a drastic covering because there is so much black everywhere. The beginning of the movie seems gloomy. I noticed that when everyone was talking they had a raspy tine in their voice. It seems as if they spoke with fear or caution so that they don't say the wrong thing. Everyone in the movie seemed poor, not only because of they place that they lived but also the clothes that they wore. They either wore torn up clothes or just a torn up pair of pants. The setting was in a poor village because everything was made out of wood. The streets were not paved they were dirt, and when it rained the street was turned to mud. In the beginning of almost every scene the shots are taken from afar. I have also noticed that the director does not have any foot shots, most of the shots are taken from either just below the knees or just above it.

final

When it comes to the monsters in the movies Del toro gets very personal. There are many different ways in how he creates the monsters in his movies. A lot of the monsters come from childhood memories and experiences. In order to come up with how monsters should look he converts their role to attributes of things, such as insects, in real life. The creation of every monster depends on him and how he feels that they should look. In his movies every character is done differently and individually. He likes to give them different personalities. For example even the fairies even though they have the same base they still all look different. All of his monsters are protagonists.
There is a faun in the movie that comes directly from him. He said that he wanted a neutral guide for the girl in the movie. He wanted someone that she could not trust, and as the faun got younger he became less trustworthy. When he was young he had lucid dreams that at midnight in only his grandmother's room, a faun would come out from behind her amour. He said that that is where he gets the idea for the faun in the movie.
He converts the role of monsters in the movie to attributes of animals in real life. For example he said that he always felt that an archangel should look like an insect that was armored. The pale man sitting at the table in the movie is derived from the disturbing underbelly of a manta ray. He said originally it was an old fat man the had lost a lot of weight which gave him the excess skin. This shows that the monster had not eaten in a long time. He also said that the monster had stigma and that he remembers as a child they would always draw a hand and then some eyes or a mouth. That is what gave him the idea to put the eyes in the monsters hands and not on his face.
In most horror movies the monsters are the bad guys. But Del toro put the picture in a new frame. He decided to reverse that effect and that made his movies unique. He treated his monsters as if they were real people with real thoughts. In “The Devil's backbone” Sante was a ghost. Although he was out for revenge he helped the boys in the movie. That is like the the guide for the girl in “Pans Labyrinth” he was bad but also a big help for the girl. Although there were some bad monsters in his movie “Pans Labyrinth”.
Del toro treats the creation of monsters in his movies fairly differently than others. Most of his monsters come from child hood memories or dreams. He converts the role of the monsters to attributes of real life animals, then he molds it together to get the effect that he wants. Lastly he creates most of his monsters to help the main character. His monsters are mostly goo guys.

Rambo: First Blood Part 2

This movie is very action packed. It was directed by George p. cosmatos. It is about a soldier sent into Vietnam to do a fake mission to find PO W's. When he arrives there he really finds PO W's and tries to bring them back however when he gets to the extraction point the helicopter pulls out without anyone on board. He is then held captive but escapes and is now on a path of revenge in order to rescue the rest of the PO W's and get back at the one in charge of the extraction operation. The lighting is that of the rain forest because it can be bright at time and dark at others. This is because most of the movie takes place in the forest where the enemy base is holding PO W's captive. I don't recommend that you watch the movie on surround sound because the sound is perfect. Every bullet can be heard leaving any gun. Only do this if you are in need of a fine for disturbing the peace. The costumes are that of soldiers in world war one. You have to keep in mind that they are old PO W's. The other soldiers wore up to date clothes for their separate armies. The sets looked like professionally built houses made out of wood and straw in the forest. The only special effect that i found amazing was when they got the helicopter to rotate in one direction while the main character was moving the joystick all over the place. I was confused because in the end of the movie the helicopter caught on fire after they landed and the soldiers never put out the fire. We all know that that would have taken first priority after the PO W's.

Mr. Nice guy

This movie has everything to do with the title. The main character Jackie Chan is a cook who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He saves this reporter from the "bad" guys. Now the "bad" guys are out to get him and the reporter at all costs. Most of the movie was filmed in the day. Extra lighting was added in order to get the affect that the director wanted. I think that he did a good job of conveying his thoughts through the movie. Surround sound rules, a cell phone rang in the movie and i was looking all over the house for the phone. The effects of the movie was clearly heard but when the voices of the characters came into play you had to turn up the volume. I hated constantly changing the volume to high so you could hear the words and low so you don't go deaf from the explosions. The costumes were basic, it looked like something that everyday people would wear. The business folks obviously wore suits. The movie was directed by Henry Wolfond. There were many sets in this movie, but my favorite was the mansion. There was so much glass that you would think that there was no other form of support for the mansion. This however had a good effect, it was also very smart on the directors part. This allowed the main character to be able to see into the building so he would know when to make his entrance. The whole scene with the mansion was very bright. This indicates that the actors were in a very hot environment. The director built up the suspense dramatically because visitors in the mansion had to wear socks over their shoes so as to not get the house dirty. This indicated that the owner loved his house very much. Then at the end of the movie the main character comes with a very large and dirty truck and demolishes the building. All of the work that the owner did to keep the house clean went to waste. This made the audience go into a tone of serious remorse humility and humor.

The peach orchard

This movie kind of goes along with the saying "you never know the worth of water until the well has run dry". It takes place on a day that celebrates the peach blossom. The boys family cut down the orchard, so the spirits left. Eventually the boy caught up with the spirits and they told him that they would never come back. The sixth girl that he sees appears to be the princess of the peach blossom so to speak because she has on the same colors as the orchard in blossom, and when she runs into the open hills the spirits of the orchards come in a way that seems to guard her. The boy cries because he will never see the blossom again. The dolls dance in a way that seems to classify the blossom. It gives the blossom a sense of art, beauty, proportion, and equality. The colors white, orange, and green signify art and beauty. They are very bright, and bring the scenery to life. They blend in and also help the background to stand out. The way that the spirits are placed on top of the stages on the hill gives the whole scene proportion and equality because it looks like you could fold the screen and it would be the same on both sides. The tree that the "princess" runs behind stays alive after all of the others die. It seems as if her spirit resides there.

Sunshine through the rain

This clip depicts the certain events in a childs everyday life. The child is told not to do something by its elder but disobeys them. There is then a serious consequense that is to be paid for disobedience. in this case the consequense is death. He can beg for forgiveness but most likely he will not be forgiven. I believe that the child symbolizes ignorance and curosity. The foxes symbolizes pain and suffering in the world. The mother symbolizes warning, advice, and protection. The child does not listen to the warning and is then exposed to all of the pain and suffering in the world he or she dies.

The road home

This movie was directed by Zhang Yimou.I did not like it. In the bright scenes the light reflected off of the scenery a lot. This gave the movie an unprofesional tone. The girl didn't talk a lot and her running looked like it was fake. Who REALLY runs like that?

Chinese cinema vs. American cinema

All of chinese cinema is based on their traditions. They mostly make fighing type movies. These kinds may have a little love and romance but they won't drown you with that subject. You can find martial arts in almost every chinese movie. The chinese used to film every scene once and then improvise on how they can make it better. Now they may film a scene once at three different angles and try to collaborate all of them. Most of their special effects are not done on computer. When a man is shown jumping extremely high they did the exact opposite. What they did was film him jumping down and then reversed the strip to make it look like he was jumping very high. Their movies are very artistic composing of a lot of color and rythm.
On the other hand American cinema is very different. They tend to make films about science fiction or life.When I say life I mean that they write about how a person's life can go bad and different scenarios that can happen. These movies can range from love to war. Fiction has a very large range. We use computers to generate our special effects and some stunts that are too dangerous to be done physically. This is where we are different from the chinese they hardly use computers to generate special effects. We write more about different life scenarios than about traditions.Our range of topics vary a lot their's is very limited.

Family matters

Family matters was about children who were tryimg to get their mother back. Their mother was a drunk who was forced to take rehab in order to get them back. The only problem was that she kept slipping up. It was shot like a home made video so the lighting was realistic. I don't remember anything being filmed at night. The sound wasn't too impressive either for a movie. But for a documentary it was good because it was shot live. When they were on the phone with their mother you could barely hear her. There were no costumes they were kids and they were wearing up to date clothes. The grandma wasup to date on grandma clothes also. I belive that the only special effect was when they sped up cars in between scenes to cut to another environment.

Throne of Blood

He melded drama and japanese culture as we think of them. The drama came in when the soon to be king denied that he wanted to be king in the bottom of his heart. Then all of the actions up until his death consisted of drama. Starting from when his wife told him that his only chance of killing the king to become king was at the time that the king came to his house. It does seem that he retold hamlet in his own vision of it. I only say this because the main characters sort of did the same thing in killing the king. But they both killed the kings for different reasons. In hamlet the king was kiled for revenge, in Throne of Blood the king was killed so that another could take his pace. In both movies however the previous king was killed so another could take his place. Noh theatre comes in from the very start of the movie. Just the fact that the background of the movie is basically japanese culture gives it away, especially the uniforms that the soldiers had on. The storyline is the only thing that intertwines with shakespare, everything else is Noh theatre. He himself, I believe, had very little thinking to do. All he did was take the drama and a little of the stotyline from shakespare, and mix it with the old japanese traditions in Noh theatre. The singing in the beginning of the movie sounded like it came from shakespeare. I only say this bacause shakespeare is english and the singing reminded me of the very early english church, and how they used to sing in deep and high tones at a very slowpace. The fact that the movie was in black and white adds to the feel of the movie deeply. It gives an eerie feel to the movie and this adds to the effect that the evil spirits and the quiet foggy, windy places give off. It gives off a constant sense of murder and conspiracy in the air. There were two special effect sthat i noticed in the movie. The first was when the spirit first appeared and then dissappeared in a gust of wind. The second was when the last king looked out of the window a saw that the trees were attacking. You could see the trees but not the people pushing them. Their feet were totally concealed by the fog, it seemed that wind had stopped blowing indicating that someone was about to die.

Mojave mirage

The mojave Mirage was directted by Dereck Roberto and Kaarina Cleverley Roberto. It was about a phonebooth in the middle of the desert. People came from all over the world to see it and answer calls. They kept a record of every call made and received.
The whole movie was very bright because they were in the desert. When nightfall hit it was dark but not too dark. It also seemed that it got very cold at night because everyone either had a blancet or a sweater.
The sound seemed that it was centered around one point, and that was the phonebooth. When people moved away from it you could not hear them. Even the gunshot in the background was not as loud as it would really have sounded. It looks like a doctored up home made movie.
I don't believe that there were any costumes because everyone came in casual clothes. It did not seem as anything was planned. It looked like they just filmed people as they came and went.
There were no sets either because they just filmed things as they were. The phone booth itself was the only thing that you could count, but it was already there.
Iliked the special effect where it seemed like they went through the whole day in just a few seconds. The clouds started to move extremely fast as if you were fastfowarding a clip on the sky.

The Accidental Spy

The movie accidental spy stars jackie chan. It was directed by Teddy Chen. It is about an orphan who is reunited with his father just before he dies. The orphan then finds out that he came from a long line of spies. Now he is forced to play a game that only he can win.
The overall lighting was good. The transition from day to night looked like it was done on a day to day standard.
Everything sounded realistic. If you have surround sound it soundslike you are really in his place in the movie, from car chases to gunfights.
The costumes looked like everyday casualware. The only exception was the businessmen. They would have obviously worn suits.
The part of the movie with the most sets was the rooftop getaway scene. They had lawn chairs, umbrellas, and even boxes.
I loved the explosions scene in the end of the movie. But I would have to say that the best special effect was when he jumped off of the roof holding an umbrella. It looked as if he was really going down on his own.

Hero

The movie hero was directed by yimou zhang. The story was about a man who was trying to kill someone he thought was a tyrant. But what goes around comes around.
The lighting was pretty good. I loved the way he changed the amount of light to go with the different colors in the movie. Also the effect that the sun had in the bak of the arrows was nice.
I believe that the sound was the most detailed part of the movie. You can hear every move of the sword. It sorts of paints a picture of how fast the sword is moving for it to make a sound seeing as how sharp it is.
Their costumes were how we Americans would view their culture without having ever seen them. The soldiers wore suitable clothing for a dynasty.
I liked the set with the candles in front of the king. Also how they gave it the quality to be able to sense feelings. Everything else I don't believe was a set especially not the buildings.
In my opinion the best special effect was when the two girls were fighting in the forset. As the girl got stabbed the color of everything changed from yellow to red. It shows the transition from life and happiness to death and bliss.

The Devils Backbone

This movie is directed by Guillermo del Toro. I believe that this film was a very good one, one of the best ones that we have watched so far. You can tell the difference between the quality of the equipment used in the past from that of the equipment used in the present.
The lighting throughout the movie was not very bright, and that went well. Most of the movie took place in the dark, because they showed more of the night than the day. The director knew what he was doing with that.
The sound was good. Every whisper was heard but not to the point where it seemed like the actors was yelling. I like the effect that they added to Santi’s voice to make it seem like he was a ghost.
The costumes looked the time period, but I got confused. When the boy first came to the orphanage he was wearing some school uniform. But throughout the rest of the movie you never see it again. I guess that was to make him look equal to the rest of the boys because the clothes made him look like he was a rich preppy boy. But when he put on the orphanage clothes he looked poor like everyone else.
I don't believe there were any sets. I think that they built that building to go along with the movie. They built it so that it looked realistic and there would be enough space for the camera’s and other equipment to get in.
I marvel at santi’s special effect. There is a bloodstain over his head constantly throughout the movie. When he moves too fast the bloodstain stays in the air, and he develops a new one.

Journal2/16/07

Personal Entry

I am always concerned about my grade therefore I would like for it to constantly go up. Can I redo assignments that I recently got a low grade on? Does our spelling and punctuation count in these journals?

News article

This article was written by David E. Williams. It was written in september of 2006. It is about the movie Creepy Crawlers. This movie takes place in the wilderness and in caves underground. This is important because it tells about the movie breifly and goes into detail about different shots and techniques used. If you were an aspiring cinematographer you would leran a lot from these articles.

Journal 2/09/07

Personal Entry

I need an “A”. What is the laughing club. I wasn't here for it. I should not have a zero on it. We should watch “The Count of Monte Cristo”. I can bring it in.

News article

This article was written in december of 2006. It was written by Jon Silberg. It is a bout the movie casino royale starring james bond. It seems that the setting of the movie takes place mainly in a casino. This article is important because it gives you background information on the movie. If you like what you read then you will support it by watching the movie.

Journal 2/02/07

Personal Entry

I wonder why we watch old movies and not up to date ones? I wish we would watch up to date ones such as: 300, king kong, the davinci code and so on. I want an “A” in the class, it is not that hard. I'm all out of stuff to write about in these journals.

News article

This article was written in october of 2005. It was written by Rachael K. Bosley. It is about movies that were made a long time ago. The movies took place in many places but they were mainly filmed in the city and on their streets. This article is important bacause it helps people appreciate the quality of movies these days, it also informs people abut the type of movies that were made in the past, and the type of equiptment that was used.

Journal 1/26/07

Personal Entry

I am so happy that I got my first “A” in the class. Atleast I know that I am now doing my work right. It's not that hard really. But you do have to reaserch some background information. I hope that I continue to get “A's” in this class.

News Article

The article was written by Simon Gray. It is about the not so new movie King Kong (protector of the jungle). It was written in december of 2005, the day is not specified. The movie that he is writing about takes place in the city and in the jungle. He wrote this article to inform people about the background information of the movie so that they might want to see it.

If i still have to do another critique the right a comment, don't grade it right away.

Lawrence of arabia

This movie was directed by David Lean. He did a good job for the time frame that he was in, and the supplies that he had to work with.
This movie was one of the brightest that I have ever seen. I understand that the brightness was because they were in the desert. But that is only to an extent. The light was so bright that it seemed that there was a glare on the screen. This might just have been an effect to make the viewer feel that he was there in the desert with them, but it was still too bright.
The sound was okay, but it could have been more realistic. It felt as if you were a third wheel in a group. I think that this is something the director needs to wrk on if this is how he does most of his movies.
The costumes were good. The arabs had what seemed to be the right type of clothes for their culture and their desert. The english soldiers had on their uniform that looks like it is up to date on the uniforms the army wear today.
The only set I believed that they used was for the army base in England. I highly doubt that they can get a set for a desert, I mean where would they put it. I was confused because I did not know that the deserts had rocks like that. That looks like it might have been put there.
I did not like the effect where the camera spins to follow lawrence when he gets shot. It seemed like it was there for no reason. They sould have edited that out. I don't know what type of reaction the director was trying to get from that.

Hotel Rwanda

Hotel rwanda is an amazing movie. It is about a heroic man who tries to save a group of people from oppression. There are lots of mishaps along the way ,but despite the troubles and the sacrifices he saves them all.
The film was written by Keir Pearson and Terry George. Along with being in the genres' of thriller, war, and history it also has a lot of suspence.
The lighting was very moderate during the daytime in the movie. It was not as bright as a saturday during the summer. This was a good effect because it shows that the movie is in a bad setting. At night it is very dark. You literally can't see the road ahead of him when he is driving.
The sound is pretty clear. The whole Movie sounds like you are hearing everything out of his ears. Every emotion from when he cies to when he laughs can be heard cleary, no matter how low his tone is.
The costumes seemed realistic. It looked like what we Americans would see the Africans wearing back in the day. I found it hard to tell who was houtu and who was toutsie. They all had on just about the same clothes. That made it a problem to keep track between the groups. However this would be smart for the director because he can make some people switch sides without us knowing.
When I saw the movie it did not look like they had any sets. It looked like they went to an island, bought or built a house (for the hotel), and started filming on the spot.
I only saw one special effect and that was when they came back from getting rice and beer. Along the road fog came in, and they could not see anything. I don't even know why they kept going. When the fog cleared up they saw all the dead bodies alon the road. Fog doesn't naturally clear up that fast.

Rear Window

This movie is directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is based on the story “it had to be murder” and was considered to be one of his best movies. The cinematography was done by Robert Burks. The movie is about a man and woman who spy out of a window to look at the lives of others. They witness a murder and try to bring it to light. In the end the murderer finds out and tries to kill them.
The lighting is relatively good. But when nightfall hits it gets poor. When the women go down to the floor and try to dig up the dead body the lighting is too dark, and you cannot see the dirt that good.
The sound was appropriate. Each scene had some sort of incentive and the sound helped to bring the directors thoughts to light. When the killer came back to his house and the girlfriend was trying to hide the music started to speed up. That gives off a sort of chase and hurrying effect.
The costumes seemed right for the time frame that the movie was in. The dress for the dancer was not too big. The only problem was that the man never really changed his clothes. He is at home isn't he supposed to take baths regularly.
I don't really have anything to say about the set. The set is the same throughout the whole movie. Even when they went down into the garden, nothing really changed because you could see everything from the bedroom window.
There was only one special effect, and that was at the end when he felll out of the window. The camera moved back away to make it look like he was falling away from the screen. But really he was being suspended on a rope and dangleing in midair.

1. extremo113


2. REviews and Ramblings


3. Huu -ahn


4. Gabby


5. Razberri <3


6. Gr@h@m's Empty Blog


7. The Rejection Board


8. A.Jones


9. Rufusness


10. Jonas


11. Calder Class

class

i've created my blog