I furled a site about Independent Films. The site gives the definition and much more for example some history on independent film making. Another cool part on the site is the list of Independent films, there has been a lot of great movies that were independent films. The site is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_films
The part that I liked best about this chapter was learning more about independent film making I find it very interesting how much work goes into them, and most of the time on a small budget.
The first movie that I watched was Jungle Fever (Spike Lee, 1991). I didn’t find this movie very entertaining; in fact I spent almost the time waiting for it to get better. I did like the cast; there were some great actors in this movie. However I didn’t feel that this movie did any of them justice, I feel that it was a stupid plot and the way that it was written was terrible. I was sickened be the way the young daughter would sit up in the morning and listen to her parents having sex, and after her father moved out she told him that she missed the funny sounds that they made. I didn’t think that it had really anything to do with the rest of the movie, and I was totally repulsed by it.
The next movie I watched was Sex, Lies and Videotape (Steven Soderbergh, 1989) I didn’t like this movie that much either. I did however like it better than Jungle Fever. I feel that this movie was mostly about sex, and I found it creepy that he got off on watching women talk about sex. These movies had some similarities, for example the cheating husbands. At least Soderberg left out the raunchy sex scenes.
I thought that this chapter was the most interesting so far, and it seems like everyone else feels the same way. I like being able to choose the movie, because obviously it is fun to blog about a movie you enjoyed. Every ones replies were very positive and their blogs were interesting to read. The three classmates that I replied to were Sarah, Nora and Robb.
I chose montage and cutaway. Once again I used the web site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_editing#Methods_of_montage for montage. It tells about the three senses of the term “montage”. They are French, Soviet, and classical Hollywood cinema. If you click on them it talks about the differences of the three in detail. For cutaway I furled http://www.exposure.co.uk/eejit/lingo/index.html this site for helping you to understand film terminology. When you get to the site you have to scroll down a ways before you get to cutaway, which is basically the object or action that the character is viewing.
I wasn’t quite sure what to furl, that had to do with the chapter so I furled a site that talked about Tom Hanks. It is http://movieactors.com/winm/m93.htm this is a pretty good site. It has a list of all of his movies, and if you click “Tom Hanks” where it says “more about Tom Hanks” it will tell a little more about him. I personally think that Tom Hanks is an amazing actor. Here is a list of my favorite movies that he was in: The ‘Burbs, A League Of Their Own, Sleepless In Seattle ,Saving Private Ryan, You’ve Got Mail, The Green Mile, Cast Away ,Apollo 13 and last but not least Forest Gump.
All I was able to find was http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118055/ this site really doesn’t have anything special, but it does give a couple of reviews and a plot description. My favorite part is that it gives a list of “goofs” in the movie. It would be fun to watch the movie again to see the goofs or if you haven’t seen it when you watch you can look for them while watching the movie.
Chapter 5: The Talent II is my favorite chapter so far. I found the beginning to be very interesting, when it talked about how the actors used to work for the studios and had no say in what kind of role that they played and if they didn’t like it they would be fired. Wow how the times have changed, today the actors are approached with the scripts and asked to do movies, which the book also talks about. I find it funny how the once considered “grunge” actors like Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper turned into the “classic” type actors after a few years in the business. The other part I liked was when it talked about how certain actors have clear screen personas. For example Tom Hanks mostly plays the nice guy and Julia Roberts the corky girl. I think it’s funny that the book stated that the movie goers don’t like when the actors don’t play these roles, and I think that statement was right on. The best part about this chapter is that it talked about a lot of different actors and listed several of their movies; I liked this because I learned that there are many movies by actors that I love that I haven’t even heard of, and would like to check out.
The movie that I watched was Up Close and Personal (1996) staring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert Redford. I love this movie; it has such a great love story. The movie has so many different types of emotions going on, there’s anger when Sally (Pfeiffer) and Warren (Redford) are fighting, there is fear when Sally is inside a prison doing a story when a riot breaks out and she is trapped inside, there is love shared between Sally and Warren and there is plenty of sadness as well, but I won’t give away the ending by telling you what it is. This movie is a wonderful movie, a real tear jerker. Anyone who hasn’t already seen this movie should absolutely see it.
The director that I will be doing my paper on is going to be Peter Jackson. The films that I will be viewing are going to be Bad Taste (1987), Heavenly Creatures (1994) and The Frighteners (1996).These movies are supposed to have a little of both comedy and horror.
I chose Peter Jackson Because I loved The Lord of the Ring movies, and thought that it would be fun to see some of his other movies. When I was on the internet I found a site that had a list of movies directed by Peter Jackson. I was surprised to see The Frighteners on the list, I saw this movie when it first came out and would like to see it again knowing that it was directed by Jackson. I also tried to pick one of his earliest movies so that I can compare it to his latest work.
I think that the most interesting part of the chapter for me was the part about film schools and how much they have grown. I think films schools are continuing to become more and more popular even today. In fact my son’s father is going to school to be a producer.
It’s a good think that in the 70’s the industry was looking for writers, directors and producers fresh out of film school. I don’t think that if it wasn’t for Fancis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas there would have been any good movies to go see at that time. I think that even today the stars get most of the credit for the movies. I think that it is very important that the writers, directors and producers all get credit for the films that they work on, not just the stars. I also think that anyone working on the movies from directors to prop managers should get more recognition.
The website that I furled talks about the politique des auteurs. It is
http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC01folder/auturism1.html
Cinematography basically has to do with the lighting, and camera choices. The Cinematographers have a very important, making the shot look aesthetically pleasing. Steadicam is the term used when they have to hold the camera completely still even when moving the camera very quickly. Close-up is when there is an extremely close shot of something using the camera, usually to show detail of something or emotion in someone face. Close-ups are used more often in TV shows than they are in movies. A long shot is a shot from a distance. Used to show the person in the shot, in relation to his or her surroundings.The website I furled is one that I have furled before it is a great site. It covers and has the exact definitions of Cinematography, steadicam, close-up and long shot. Here it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
