God Of Love

The next film I wanted to talk about is the 2011 Oscar winning short film titled "God of Love". 

It tells the story of Ray, a lounge singing darts champions who finds his prayers being answered after mysteriously finding a box of love darts.

God of Love / Бог любви (2010) from Mir Festivals on Vimeo.

The reason again why I wanted to check this out is because it's the best. It won the big one so these are the films I should be watching. It tells a nice little story with a nice narrative with nice camera work, but nothing out of the ordinary. It shows what you can do with a good story and good planning and that is something I hope to achieve. 

In Bruges

The next movie I wanted to review was Martin McDonaghs 2008  film "In Bruges". I adore this film because of its simplicity in terms of story. It tells the story of Ray, who travels to Bruges after a job gone wrong.   

What I love about this film and McDonagh's films are his ability to strike the perfect balance between drama and comedy. His jokes are hilarious and his sad parts are devastating and that is so tricky to do. The reason why I watched it is for that reason. Picking up methods and tips on how he writes and how his films are shot. 

Also having important chemistry with your actors are so important. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are real life close friends and it comes across that way in the film. Also it's so important to maintain a positive and happy spirit on set because it'll make for a better film making process.

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime

The next thing I wanted to talk about is the show "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime ". I went to the theatre last Tuesday and was absolutely blown away with this production. "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime" tells the story of Christopher, a 15 child with aspergers who goes on a detective mission to find out who killed his neighbours dog.  

The story telling in this play was mesmerising. The performance of Joshua Jenkins as Christopher  was superb and it was really refreshing to check out another medium to tell a story other then film. The visuals during the show to were breathtaking and it was an absolute spectacle.  

  

It gave me a new look on how to tell a story and showed me how important character and actor chemistry is. The story flowed so smoothed and the actors connection was real and made me really want to ensure good story telling.

Soft

The next thing I wanted to review was the short 2008 Cannes selected short entitled "Soft". The story is about a young gang who terrorise a father and son as well as provoking them. 

The reason I checked it out was because it did well at Cannes and these are the type of shorts I should be looking at as they are the standard of film I should be aiming to make. 

The film itself was hard to watch at times and that is one reason why I didn't like it. However again it shows what you can do with simple camera work and a good story. It also used interesting elements to it like using poor camera quality which was recorded on a 'phone'.

Fight Club

The next film I looked at was David Finchers 1999 cult classic "Fight Club". "Fight Club" tells the story of an insomniac office worker who looks for a new way to make his life more exciting.

I love David Finchers movies. His style is something I really admire and it goes quite against the grain in ways. His editing style changes for each film he does and reflects on either the story or the protagonist. 

I thought this film was interesting to review as the whole psychological element is important to the film and is somewhat relatable to my project. A good guy gone bad could play a part in my story and learning from the best is the right way to go for me and my story telling. 

Cinematic Story Telling

I decided to look at some film basics this time and look at film grammar. Although I am aware of standards and techniques used, I decided to delve deeper in the subject by reading Cinematic Storytelling The 100 Most PowerfulFilm Conventions Every Filmmaker Must Know by Jennifer Van Sijill.

The book looks at film grammar and techniques used in film and how these techniques are used and what they mean to the story. It attaches part of a script, with screen shots from the film and a description on what the shots mean and what is happening.

It was a huge benefit to remind myself of these techniques as it refreshed my memory of shots and got my brain working in terms of thinking of shots.

Never Ending Nightmare

The next thing I looked at was the 2014 horror game "Never Ending Nightmare" created by Matt Gilgenbach. The drawings inspiration were a representation of Matt's personal struggles with depression and obsessive compulsive disorder.

The story follows our protagonist Thomas, who wakes from one nightmare into another. As the story progresses the nightmares get worse and worse, including to trips to graveyards, to asylums.

The use of sound in the game is brilliant and the use of 'Pleasantville' really adds to the drama. Again it is simple story telling but really impactful and dramatic.