What's eating Gilbert Grape

I just watched the film "What's eating Gilbert Grape" with Johnny Depp and Leonardio Dicaprio and really enjoyed it. I had heard a lot about the film and how good it was and it lived up to all the expectations as Leonaro Dicaprio and Johnny Depp played their roles really well.

The film is about Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) and about all the stuggles he faces in a year of his life whilst looking after and supporting his family. His brother Arnie (Leonaro Dicaprio) has a developmental disability and although he is turning 18 he has to be cared for as if he is a younger child, he has to be bathed by other people and watched wherever he goes. Their mother, Bonnie Grape, is morbidly obese after turning to food when her husband died and she had not moved from the house in 7 years because she was just gaunted at where ever she went by the rest of the village. Gilbert also has two sisters who also help look after their mother and the house.

At the beginning of the film there is a voiceover of Gilbert introducing his family and their past, this is similar to our film as it also opens with a voice over.

This is the trailer to What's eating Gilbert Grape:

Film Opening looking at credits

In class we looked at a few different film openings to look at where they positioned theyre credits and what kinds of other things they had such as the distributors and production companies names.

In the film "Derailed" the opening was in a prison and the first thing you saw was a black screen with "Miramax" production company. As the action started the credits appeared on the screen over the moving image. First it was the names of all the technical team, then the director, the main actor and actress' name, the title of the film and then the rest of the actors.

In another film "The life of David Gale" the credits were quite different and this time the production companies were "Universal" and "Intermedia". There is then a black screen with the distributors names on and a black screen for the tutle of the film. This is all before any action starts and there is a sound bridge over the black screen to introduce you to the conversation before you see any actors.

In another film opening that we watched "Bourne Identity" this opening was again slightly different with the credits. In this one the production company is again "Universal" but this time there is a little bit of action and then a black screen with the name of the film and no actors names are shown in the opening.


After watching these openings it made us discuss our own credits and decided that the name of our film should come right at the beginning rather than at the end to make it look more like a film than a trailer. We also decided that we should give each person in our film a role such as editor, producer etc to make it look more authentic.

Shutter Island

Last night I went to see the film Shutter Island with Leonardo De Caprio and really enjoyed it. I had heard reviews about how good the film was but did not actually know anything about the plot apart from that it was based around a mental institution on a remote island. I think that because I knew nothing about the plot this made the film even better because everything came as a suprise. There was a really good twist at the end that was unexpected and really well put together.

The storyline was at first quite hard to understand and was one of those films that only came together at the end when everything was revealed. I still really enjoyed it though and would recommend it to everyone but I think it would be best to see it in the cinema as it wouldn't have the full effect on a TV as some parts were quite jumpy.

This is the trailer to Shutter Island:

Premonition

Today I watched the film Premonition with Sandra Bullock and really enjoyed it. I thought it was a really good film with an unexpecting ending and thought Sandra Bullock played the role well and convincingly. The film is about a wife who falls into a time slip and experiences her husbands death before it actually happens and then has to think of a way to stop it happening but unfortunatly can't.
Throughout the film Sandra Bullock has various flashbacks which are shown in a similar way to how we have shown ours in our film. They are quickly paced short shots and are not in the same colour as the rest of the film. Rather than being in black and white like our film however, they have the flashbacks in a different effect which is a bit hazy and a drained colour. I think this type of effect looks good and maybe our group could try this effect on our own film and compare it to the black and white and see which effect we prefer.

This is a clip that shows some of the flashbacks and the colour of them that someone has made with music over the top:


This is the trailer to the film:

Paranormal Activity

Over the weekend I went to the cinema to see Paranormal activity.
Although it was not as scary as I was expecting I thought it was a really good film and the way they filmed it was really effective.
The whole film is filmed on a handheld home camera by the couple in the film.
The woman, Katie, has been followed to 3 different houses by some kind of ghost or demon, she believes, that watches her at night, makes noises in the house, whispers her name and breathes on her.
As an attempt to try to catch any of this activity on camera and get to the bottom of it, her husbad, Micha, sets up the home camera on a tripod in their bedroom with a microphone. The camera is placed so that you can see the bedroom and the door, and the corridor and stairs.
Each night different strange things happen that sometimes wake up, and sometimes don't wake up the couple. One night their bedroom door opens and closes, another night they hear footsteps coming up the stairs and into the bedroom, another night they hear a loud thud from downstairs in their front room.
As the film goes on, whenever it comes to the night scenes the whole cinema made groaning noises and sunk into their seats as they knew something unexpected and scary was about to happen, which I think was a really good effect to have on the audience.
The part of the film which I believe was most succesful and effective was the end. The woman becomes possessed by the demon and you see her get out of bed and go downstairs. As you cannot see downstairs you do not know what is going on and then siddenly you hear a desprate, terrified scream of Katie so Micha jumps out of bed and runs downstairs after her. After some kind of struggle everything goes quiet. You hear footsteps coming up the strairs towards the camera again and then it all goes quiet. The silence stays for a couple of minutes which had a huge impact on the audience because they were in suspence and it was left to our imagination of what was happening and what had happened downstairs. Suddenly the silence breaks when the possesed Katie throws a dead Micha at the camera.
The end was so effective and had everyone in the cinema screaming. The element of silence was what was so scary because you did know what was coming next. Also the fact that you did not see the demon or whatever was possessing her for the whole film had a huge impact as it was left to the audiences imagination of what it was.

I hope that the fact you cannot see our stalkers face in our film, has a similar scary or creepy impact on our audience.

Se7en

In our lesson on friday morning we watched the film Se7en. This was because Miss Foster had previously shown us the opening credits to get us thinking about our own opening credits in our film, but because we all thought it was so good and wanted to know more about the film she decided to let us the whole thing as a class.

The opening credits were really effective because you don't understand what it is or what is happening until you watch the rest of the film so it makes the veiwer interested and want to carry on watching.


The rest of the film is about a detective, Morgan Freeman, who is about to retire and has 7 days to teach the new detective, Brad Pitt, how to do his job.
Within those 7 days a serial killer starts his work by killing people according to the 7 deadly sins, gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy and rath.
You saw throughout the film how he killed these people and at the end find out his reasonings behind them.
I thought it was a really good film and really enjoyed it. Although many people in the class afterwards were saying that they thought it was a poor ending, I disagree and think it was really powerful. The fact that the audience are left to just imagine what it looks like inside the box I thought was really effective and the way that you can really empathise with Brad Pitt at the end and understand his anger and upset.
There were many things in the film which were used to add to the atmosphere and help you understand the characters. The lighting for example was low key and for almost the whole film it was very heavy rain which made the film very dark and gloomy to add to the mood and effect of the film.
There was also a part in the end when the two detectives are driving the killer to the destination he has told them and there is a conversation between all three men. This is a vital part of the film as the killer tells them his reasons behind all the killings and how he believes he was chosen by God to do this and how he admires the two detectives for their work. As this conversation is happening the camerawork is very clever to show the audience the different characters. Whenever the killer is talking, he is shown through the wire bars as if to show he is bad and should be away from people. When Brad Pitt is talking he is sometimes also shown through the bars to show he is just as bad as the killer in his attitudes, but when Morgan Freeman talks he is shown normally without the bars to show he is good.

There was also a part in the film where the detectives find the killers flat and one of his rooms is a dark room with lots of photos of his victims hung up. This looked like a really effective shot with a red tint so I think this has once again made our group think about maybe putting a red tint over our own dark room scene when editing using imovie.

Stalker/obessive films I have watched

Over the last few weeks I have tried to watch some films to do with stalking and obsessive people to help with our film when we are editing.

First I watched "Obessed" With Beyonce Knowles and Idris Elba.

This was about a woman who got a tempory placement at a job. She ended up becoming obsessed with her boss at that placement and tried everything she could to stay at the job and got a permenant place there. She was convinced in her head that she had a relationship with this boss and always tried to be with him and would do anything for him. As the film goes on her obsession becomes worse and she becomes jealous of her boss's wife (Beyonce).
There are interesting camera shots in this film such as when the woman is watching the boss's house which we included into our filming when Sarah's dad was watching Charlotte leave her house. I thought it was quite a good film and think it has helped me to think of some ideas to put into our editing now.


The next film I watched was "The Watcher" with Keanu Reeves.

This film is about a serial killer who watches or stalks girls for weeks until he knows everything about their routine such as when they wake up when they leave the house when they eat when they sleep and most importantly when they are alone. Then he finds them and kills them by slitting their throat with a piano wire. He starts to play a game with a certain police officer by sending a photo of his next victim to him in the morning and says if the police officer does not find the victim by 9pm the same day, he will kill them.
I thought it was a really good film, even though it had quite a disapointing poor ending and think it will really help with our ideas.
There was a part in the film where you saw him developing photos of his victims in a dark room. In our film we are still not sure whether to put a red tint over our dark room scene or not. In The Watcher they have a red tint and I think it looks really effective so I will show my group and see if they agree.
Here is the trailer for The Watcher and you can see the effective dark room scenes in it breifly



Finally, the last film I watched on this subject was "Single White Female"

This film is about a woman, Ellie, who breaks up with her fiance and is so left to live alone. She puts an ad in the local newspaper asking for a female room mate. The woman, Headra, who she eventually chooses to move in with her starts to act strange around Ellie and becomes obsessed with her and her life. She wants Ellie for herself and does not want her to get back with her fiance or to ever leave her. She cuts and dyes her hair so it is identical to Ellies and starts wearing her clothes. She sleeps with her boyfriend and pretty much steals her identity. When Ellie finally realises that she needs to get away from Headra, she does not let her leave and tries to kill her.
I thought it was a really good film and would recommend it and I also think it had interesting camera angles when she was watching Ellie and when Ellie was trying to hide from her in their apartment which we could try and use in our film when we edit.

Stalker research for our film - Skoda car advert

I saw this advert and thought it would be good for our research. The camera shots used in it are point of view and close ups of the people in the car who could be seen as the "victims". We could use these types of shots in our own film. I also liked the idea that in this you cannot see who or what is following and watching them, you can only hear noises which leaves it to the viewers imagination to who it is and what they look like. I think we should use this in our own film and not show the stalkers face so the viewer can make up their own mind on what he looks like.
Although this advert is not a scary one we want to make our film more mysterious and edgey.

Jaws Shot By Shot - Part 1

View more documents from The Cottesloe School.

The Jaws shot by shot was a lot more indepth and detailed compared to my analysis of James Bond.
The Jaws one starts out by looking at other films that have similar parts in it which I did not do in my analysis. This was good because it meant that they could then compare certain bits of Jaws to other films and say how effective that was.
The Jaws analysis also included the credits saying who was in the film and some background research about the film like on slide 4 and 5 that gave statistics and facts about how well the film did in the box office and the budget the film had. This was good because it gave the veiwer some background knowledge of it before they started their main anaysis incase the veiwer had not seen the film before.
Next time I analyse a film I will take tips from this slideshow to improve mine and consider writing about the credits, present screen shots to make it easier for the veiwer to follow and to write more indepth and expand my points. I also liked the way that the Jaws analysis looked at symbolism and the reason for why things happened like they did.

Full shot analysis of Casino Royale opening

The establishing shot in this scene is a wide, low angle shot. It gives you an idea of the setting that the scene is in and the low angle emphasises the size of the building and also adds to the mysterious atmosphere.

The next shot is a low angle close up of the first character and this allows you to see his nervous expression clearly and as it is from a low angle it makes you feel as if he is important and you're looking up to him.

The wide long shot in the next part of the scene pans along and follows the character from behind as he walks down the corridor. This is used to again show the eery atmosphere as you can see the character is alone in the corridor and perhaps walking into some harm.

The next shot is a low angle shot of the office the character is walking in to. The fact that the camera is at a low angle makes the viewer feel as if they should not be in that room and as if they are spying on the character.

There is a close up reaction shot next, which shows the viewer clearly the characters reaction to hearing an unknown voice in his office and the panic in his eyes.

For the next few seconds there is a shot, reverse, shot part where the camera switches between two characters as they talk to eachother. A medium long shot is used in this part which gives the viewer an idea of how far apart the characters are standing from eachother, to show they are not comfortable with talking to eachother.

The next shot is of a cricket game and a wide shot is used here to show the large amount of people there are and the whole action of the game. A shot, reverse, shot is also used in this part as it shows that one man has spotted another and keeps looking back at him to watch if he moves.

The fighting scene uses a mix between medium, long and close up shots. It uses a two shot so that both characters are in the shot at the same time. By using the long shot the viewer can see all the moves they are using to fight and then switching to a medium or close up shows the reaction and feeling on their faces. The fighting scene also has one shot from an aerial view which shows the viewer the two characters smashing through the toilet cubicles and you can still see the action from the fight.

Casino Royale film opening

The beginning of this film is shown before the opening credits to give you a background story to the rest of the film and explains the important history of James Bond and how he gained his 007 status. To gain this status he needed to kill two people.

The scene at the beginning shows Bond's lead up to his second kill and then uses flash backs to show his first killing. The whole of this beginning scene is in black and white to show that it is in the past and then everything from after the opening credits is in colour to show it is the present day.

The location is set straight away by the bit of text in the corner of the screen telling you where they are. There is no speech in the flash backs where James Bond is killing his first person, just background music which builds suspence with the viewer as they watch what the know is about to come.

At the very beginning of the scene the viewer can tell it is an eery atmosphere as when the man steps out of the car he looks around him before proceeding into the building. The first person you hear talk in the film is the main character James Bond and as he has the conversation in the office the camera work makes it look very shady and mysterious as Bond emerges from the shadows and the whole office is very dark, which adds to the tense atmosphere.