Here is a short film I watched the other week which I found very interesting starring Steve Buscemi.
The reason why I liked it is because of its lack of dialogue. It shows what you can do with no dialogue and backs up that statement of show don't tell. It shows as well that you can carry a narrative with just visuals and shows how important silence is when it comes to film making.
I wanted to talk aboutDenis Villeneuve 2013 movie "Enemy" which started Jake Gyllenhaal. The contrast of characters in the film is great and I also love the use of colour in the film.
The colour brings a mood to the film which really reflects on the films substance and themes which are very dark. This is something I've looked at and is something I want to create for my film as I think it is a great to tool that I think is over looked by students.
Here is a poem I came across by Shel Silverstein called "Kidnapped". It tells the story about a young student who gets kidnapped by 3 masked men. We later find she gets away as that was the reason she was late for school.
The reason why I liked this poem is quite simple. It's vivid. As I was reading it I could visually see everything that was happening. The writing was descriptive which is important. It made seeing this easier as everything was given to me, I just had to fill in the blanks. This what I need to do for my script so the actors and cinematographer know exactly what I want.
The next video I wanted to talk about is Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around". The song is about 8 minutes so they decided to make the music video into a short film. The video was directed by Samuel Bayer, who had first directorial works with Nirvana's 1991 single "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
The narrative tells the story of a girl Justin Timberlake is seeing who he thinks is "The One". Later on in the video we see she is cheating on him. The lyrics help carry the narrative, but the acting and the dialogue also help drive the narrative and shows you can carrying a strong narrative over a short space of time by being clever with your time. Timberlake is likeable and we don't want anything to happen to him, so when it does, we get annoyed as he does in the video.
Again I opted to look at a music video for inspiration however this time it is more suited to my theme and feel. The music video is for the song First Of The Year (Equinox) by Skrillex.
The video opens with an old man looking at a children's playground. He ends up following a young girl and puts chloroform on a cloth as he walks. Once he reaches a cellar the girl is there waiting for him. As he approaches the drop in the song kicks in and she starts to terrorise him with telekinesis.
The colour is something that I really like about the video as well as the simple story telling. We don't like the old man by the way he is dressed and by his actions. Although he doesn't do anything, we know his thoughts and it is why we are pleased when he attacks thrown around during the video.
Again I decided to look at music videos for inspiration and this time I want to talk about Muse's song Psycho.
Although they are in silhouette for a lot of the video, we still know what is happening by listening to the lyrics, by looking at the background visuals and by listening to the drill Sergeant scream at the young soldier. Again it shows how a story can be told by visuals and dialogue (or music and lyrics in this case).
In this next post I decided to take a look at music videos. After looking at various other music videos, it's giving me a fresher look on story telling as a lot of music videos tell a short narrative in the space of 3-4 minutes.
In this Kodaline video, a short narrative is told about a guy with a disfigured face who likes a girl he works with. In the short space of time we like him and root for him and hope he gets the girl. During the video we see that he is a good guy. With his best employee mug, and caring for his dog, we see that he is likeable. These small simple visuals make us want him to succeed and he does at the end. It is a simple way to make us like him but it manages to tell a short narrative to the music which works well together.
Nightcrawler was my number one film of 2014. I felt it was one of the most original movies I've seen in a long long time and I thought Jake Gyllenhaal's performance was mesmerising and it throughly deserved his Oscar nod.
I feel that the mood in this film is something I can portray in my film which is quite grim and edgy. It shows to how important good acting and good dialogue. This is so important for my film as to make it believable, I have to have dialogue that fits and to find the actors that will bring my film to life.
It's great to find a film like this and I am so grateful as it is a big inspiration. It also shows that even in todays society there is still scope for original content and for me that is a big incentive to go work because you never know when the next Nightcrawler will appear.
After my last Muse post, I decided to look at different ways of story telling and having listening to the album, I decided that poetry would be an interesting thing to look at in terms of story telling.
I opted to look at Robert Frost's "Road Not Taken"
Poetry is a strong medium for story telling as it leaves the visuals up to the imagination. The words are so strong on the page that it brings a strong visual and to me that is so important for story telling as it reflects on the treatment for my film. Visual writing will help me create exactly what I want visually and will help guide me for the direction I want to go.
This is a very interesting direction post for me. I get to talk about my favourite band "MUSE". On the 5th of June they released their 7th studio album entitled "Drones". The album itself tells an entire story of a young man who is brainwashed by the government to become a killing machine for the army, and breaking those shackles.
I found it really interesting because although most albums have a general theme, this album is completely structured on telling this story. Although it doesn't have much to do with my film idea, I thought the process of making the album was cool as they developed the story before creating the music, instead of the usual process of recording a song and finding a suitable place for it on the album.
2002's "One Hour Photo" tells the story of Seymour Parrish, an employee of a one hour photo lab who becomes obsessed with a small suburban family.
The reason why I wanted to talk about this is because I think there are a lot of similarities to my film idea and this one. Everyone finds Seymour odd, so much so he obsesses with this family and dreams of a perfect situation that involves him and the family. The whole film carries a strange under tone that is portrayed brilliantly by Robin Williams and is something I think could be interesting to tap into.
I wanted to take a different direction with this next post. I wanted to look at different ways of story telling in a short space of time and this music video does just that.
I actually saw this video years ago and it wasn't until recently that I looked at it from a film making point of view. Although it is a music video, it still carries a heavy narrative which is compelling and carries the attention of the viewer for 8 minutes. It delivers a nice story arc by using nice use of contrast as well as it composition and editing. The acting of course plays a huge roll in the video but it makes the video interesting to watch and that is so important for short films. There is such a short time to hook the audience so every second counts.
I wanted to review Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones" as it has a similar theme and vibe I want in my film. Although it is a feature film, I think the story they tell is doable for a short.
It also plays on that idea similarly to "Gran Torino" in which there is a character in the neighbourhood no one likes. It also carries on that idea of kidnapping and being held against their will.
The style of the film is something I can take inspiration from, except when the "ideal world" is created. There is a nice use of grey in the film and causes a mood over it which works considering the films overshadowing theme.
On this post I wanted to look at Clint Eastwoods 2008 film Gran Torino.
The reason why I wanted to look at this is because I've been reviewing my idea. Reviewing it in the sense that I'm exploring different ways in which I can have my characters for my film. I was thinking instead of having a prim and proper scientist, I could have the older man portray a disgruntled old man that lives in a neighbour where no one likes him and the younger character can play a bit of a renegade who tries to befriend. As he gets closer to him he then finds out his dark secret.
Again it isn't set in stone but I think it's important not to pigeon hole myself and to explores different options and choices of how to tell my story.
This post is probably the one that will be the core of my film. The post is about Genie. Born in 1957, she was a victim of abuse, neglect, and social isolation. Just 20 months old she was locked away by her father because he decided that she was mentally retarded.
She was found by social workers in 1970, 13 years after her father locked her away in isolation. Her father made sure her mother or her brother never talked to her or acknowledged she existed. After being arrested by police, Clark Wiley shot himself.
She was then analysed by scientists, as brain study had only started around that period. They wanted to see if the theory of human development and the human mind was correct. According to the theory, young people could only learn certain things at certain times, called critical periods. Language was one of these critical periods and according to the theory, Genie who at the time was a teenager, missed her chance forever.
This case was so important for science that the government gave money to back the project At the age of 13 she was the size of a 6 year old, and was as much a feral child, as if she was brought up my wolves. This is should a heavy thing to review and research but it is something I need to do as my film will carry this same weight. There are a few documentaries made about Genie and I will watch them during the week.
This will be a shorter blog post but it is something I remember that happened in the TV show "The Walking Dead"
During the series we are introduced to a character known as "The Governor" who was head of Woodbury, a small town safe from zombies. In season 3 we see him as a Mr.Nice Guy who is willing to help anyone. As the episodes continue we see he isn't as nice as we first thought and he is actually very sadistic.
We also see he is very fond of his daughter, who is actually a zombie and has her locked away so know one else finds out his secret.
He tortures her while caring for her, or what he thinks is caring, which is an interesting dynamic for a character. He has so much depth and has so much going on in his head that he doesn't no what is right in the world.
The next thing I wanted to talk about is the Oscar winning feature film "The Silence of The Lambs".
"A young F.B.I. cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims."
The reason why I think this is a big film for me to look at is it is the complete package. The direction given by Jonathan Demme is absolutely on the ball and the project he delivered was flawless. The performance given by Foster and Hopkins steal the show and they throughly deserved their Oscar.
Looking at the chemistry between the two leading actors shows me again that getting the actors in together and working together early is so important to have a natural flow between characters. The pacing of the film to is great and it goes down as one of the best movie performances of all time by Anthony Hopkins. The kidnapping in the film to is something I looked at in terms of set design and how Buffalo Bill treats his captive psychologically.
The cinematography is something I looked at to and it's quite stylistic although it's a "Hollywood" type film. Different angles were used to show Lecters dominance as well as Buffalo Bills dominance and this is basic film grammar, but is used really well to make them imposing.
The next film I wanted to look at is the 2013 Denis Villeneuve film "Prisoners".
"When Keller Dover's daughter and her friend go missing, he takes matters into his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads and the pressure mounts. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family?"
I really liked this film and I feel the vibe around is could be quite similar to mine. The use of colour and tempo is quite on the money to what I want, as well as the fact the film is about kidnapping.
This film is so nicely structured and shows how important good acting is to deliver a story line with a weight of "Prisoners". After looking at it made realise how important logistics are for my film in terms of set, costume and makeup because if it isn't done properly it'l look poor and I want a high production standard.
One case that interested me more so the others is the case of Genie in 1970. She wasn't raised by children, she was tied to a chair when she was 20 months where she remained until she was 13. Nobody talked to her thus she was unable to develop speech. The case was looked at bypsychologists, linguists and other such scientists have learnt valuable information from her case. Various documentaries were also made.
Robert Rodriguez is one of my favourite directors but many people don't seem to know who he is. His method of film making is so refreshing and is the prefect scope for amateur film makers:
"Creativity, not money, is used to solve problems."
He also came up with a concept for script writing. Don't write something you can't make, write the screenplay based on that list of things you can use like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on.
He also earned the nickname "The One Man Film Crew" for the work he does on his films, which is everything. RodrÃguez not only has the credits of producing, directing and writing his films, he also frequently serves as editor, director of photography, camera operator, steadicam operator, composer, production designer, visual effects supervisor, and sound editor on his films. This is a huge inspiration for me because his work ethic is infectious and the way he goes about things is something I love about him.
