Sound and Drama

Goodfellas was directed by Martin Scorsese and debut in 1990.  The film is a literary adaptation of a book by the name of Wiseguy, by Nicholas Pileggi.  The adaptation was pretty close to the book in fact Nicholas Pileggi was involved in a lot of the making of the movie.  Nicholas Pileggi co-wrote the screenplay of the movie w Martin Scorsese.  What is great about this movie is that there are great actors involved and Scorsese and Pileggi both made the script but let the actors, Robert de Nero, Joe Pesci, and Ray Liotta more or less free style the lines as they rehearsed.

It is important to know a little background about the movie to understand the drama involved.  The movie is about the rise and fall Lucchese crime family.  They were essentially a gang that would go around stealing things to make a living.  They would then pay off anyone they needed to, to stay free.

The movie takes place in Brooklyn, New York.  Just the fact and the history that we already know about New York helps to create drama.  There is almost an untold respect that people have that when you hear someone if from New York you almost look up to them.  This I feel goes along with the movie credentials for creating drama.  This also is an important and big way that we see character development.  New Yorkers have had a reputation over the years of having a quick temper and a sharp tongue.  I think we see that a lot in all of the characters but especially in Tommy Devito.  In the scene below we see the New York temper come out as Billy Bats insults Tommy and ends up getting into a little rumble.

The costumes also are a big part of drama.  When you think about character development and costumes one has to think about Henry.  Henry went from a poor Irish kid that had to work from the time he was physically able to help provide for his family.  We see him at the beginning wearing poor old clothing and then as he starts to develop and make money his costume changes to always wearing nice suits.  This is also an example of how it shows differences in social class.  The low social class wears poor clothing and the higher the social class the better the clothing. That difference in social class can be seen below when we look at Henry from when he is poor to when he is rich.

www.independent.co.uk

I think another thing we can take away from how the costumes create drama is how it affects race.  I am not saying that the movie is racist in any means but when you look at “Stacks”, the African American in the movie he is never seen in any nice costume or at least as nice as a lot of the men involved in the heist that he too was involved in.  I think this just goes to show how still even during that time period we see differences in race.

Sound is an important part of this movie as well.  In the movie the directors in my mind did a good job of preserving the time period with the song choices.  In fact it was made a point to only put songs in the movie that you would hear in that time period.  This helps tell the story because it does not stray the viewer from where we are in a particular time.  This helps compliment the drama as well because music helps to make the viewer feel emotion.

Louis Giannetti Understanding Movies Thirteenth Edition

Synthesis Practice

         The movie Schindler’s List is an extremely moving and interesting movie. Liam Neeson did an incredible job in this film as he played the lead role of Oskar Schindler. The movie was directed by Steven Spielberg and this could possibly be one of his best movies the Steven Spielberg has directed. The film is a touching story during the start of World War II when the Third Reich was starting to imprison Jews in Concentration Camps. At first Oskar Schindler thought it would be smart to take advantage of the Jews not being able to own businesses and get help from them to run one of his own. He then started a pots and pan factory and hired in all the Jews from the ghetto. Through a lot of hardship Oskar is able to save over 600 hundred Jews because he makes so much money to pay off guards to protect them. This movie is even based on a true story.
         One of the most interesting scenes in the movie is the little girl with the red coat. One really important thing to note in this movie is that the movie even though it was filmed in 1993 is not in color except for the little girls red coat. The scene is shown below.

       We see in the clip a little girl walking around in a red coat at this point in the movie the viewer does not know why but the movie obviously makes a point to emphasize it.  We see also in the film a lot of different shots.  We see a low angle; close up shot on Oskar Schindler and his horse.  It is a close up shot because we only see from his chest up to his head.  This combination of low angle and close up shot gives a sense of empowerment towards the protagonist.  When we are looking at the little girl it is a long high angle shot until we see at the end it is a medium shot of her hiding under the bed.  When thinking about mise en scene this scene in particular and the really the whole movie is in an open form.  The open form tends to be stylistically recessive.  The movement in the scene is very critical.  The camera at the beginning of the scene does not move we only see reaction shots of Oskar as he looks on at the massacre going on at the bottom of the hill he is on.  The camera moves when we see the little girl.  The camera makes a tracking shot as the little girl moves a long in the street.  The scene is mostly edited to be seen from a bird’s-eye view.  I think this was very smart from a viewer’s stand point because you are now able to take in all that occurred and really understand how bad the situation was.  The sound also is what makes the scene very chilling.  There is music being played that sounds as if it were children singing a somber song and the only other things you here are screams and gun shots.  Towards the end of the film the viewer gets one more glimpse of the girl in the red coat.  The image of the scene is shown below and it is at that moment when the emotional effects of the movie and the real situation of the holocaust are made known.

retroflix.livejournal.com

Understanding Movies Thirteenth Edition Louis Giannetti

Movement & Editing

 

 

The movie Psycho definitely relies on careful editing and special movements of the camera to portray the thrilling and suspenseful feelings to the viewer.  Even with the movie being from the 1960s Alfred Hitchcock did a tremendous job of this especially in the climax scene of the movie.  The scene where the viewer finds out the truth about the mother, Mrs. Bates.  The scene is shown below.

 

The scene starts out with Lila coming down the stairs and the camera then enters a shot as if were in the mind of Lila looking out the window and we can see Norman Bates coming up to the house to find her.  Lila then hurries down stairs as the camera follows it ends up stopping into a floor level, low angle shot on Norman Bates as he comes into the house.  At this point the moving characters along with the camera angles are making the suspense.  As Norman Bates runs upstairs the camera then follows Lila up the stairs then there is a cut scene as we look down onto the fruit cellar door from Lila’s eye level once again almost as if we, the viewer, are being put into Lila’s mind.  Now at this point it is the camera movement that is creating the suspense as Lila realizes that Mrs. Bates is down in the cellar the camera follows Lila downstairs.  Once Lila makes it to the door a low angle shot looking on to Lila a low angle shot keeps the suspense rising.  After she makes it through the door once again we have almost the same tactic of building suspense.  As Lila walks through the room  the camera spins on an axis following Lila to the next door and after that the view is again put into a low angle shot as she walks through the next door.  As she gets to the next door it is the character movement and camera angle and positioning that is creating the suspenseful mood.  The camera and Lila both have our backs turned to what we are about to see as you can see below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWHYmNrAFlI (0:46)

We then make a quick turn around and we get the first glimpse of Mrs. Bates.  We are then turned back to Lila and we are taken backwards by the camera.  We turn back around as we finally see the truth about Mrs. Bates as Lila spins her around in the chair.  She screams and we are taken into a series of reaction shots as Norman Bates in his mother’s persona runs into the room.  The reaction shots are between Lila and Norman Bates and then with Sam as he races in to save Lila.  I think another thing to point out in this particular part of the scene is that the camera focuses in on the knife creating even more terror for the viewer.  As Sam restrains Norman Bates and takes the knife away we start to get a feeling of relief but then we are taken back to a close up of Mrs. Bates putting back the terror into the climactic scene.  The scene then ends with a mass of cars and people around the court house.

Understanding Movies Thirteenth Edition Louis Giannetti

Photography & Mise en Scène

When thinking about photography and Mise en Scene they are in many ways related.  The fifteen elements of Mise en Scene incorporate a lot of photography ideas into to it.  When analyzing a scene’s Mise en Scene it is important to know what elements make up Mise en Scene.  Mise en Scene is made up of: a Dominant, Lighting key, shot and camera proxemics, angle, color values, lenses, filters and stock, subsidiary contrasts, density, composition, form, depth, character placement, staging positions, and character proxemcis.  The Raiders of the Lost Ark was definitely an interesting movie to think about when you are looking for Mise en Scene characteristics.

The first scene that I looked at was towards the beginning of the movie when Indiana Jones is about to steel a relic and replace it with sand.  The scene is shown below.

drafthouse.com

The dominant of the scene is where the eye is attracted to first.  In this scene the eye is attracted to the face of Indiana Jones and the relic that he is trying to take.  This is really given away by the lighting key.  The whole scene while in the cave and including this shot is set in a low key.  There is a low light source that creates a dramatic effect and the only lighting is really on Indiana Jones and the relic.  The shot is slightly a low angle shot but level with the table that the relic is positioned on.  There are a lot of dark colors in the background of the scene that contrast with the lighting on the relic and Indiana Jone’s face.  The main eye-stop in the scene is the sandbag.  Once the viewer sees Indian Jones and the relic the next thought is to what he is going to do.  The attention is then turned towards the sandbag.  The image is sharp on the relic and Indiana Jone’s face but then seems to not be so sharp in the background.  The form of the scene is closed with a tight frame because it is a close up shot of Indiana Jones.  There is not much depth in the scene really no middle ground just the cave back ground and the dominant image.  The character Indiana Jones is centered in the scene taking up all of the frame space.  These Mise en Scene characteristics all have to do with glorifying Indian Jones giving evidence to who is and why Indiana Jones is the dominant.

The second scene is the digging process once Indian Jones finds the relic as seen here.

www.fanpop.com

The dominant once again is Indiana Jones it is a combination of low key and high key lighting.  The low key light from below and the high key light of the sun give a dark contrast.  The shot is a long shot and a low angle shot.  The colors of the figures in the scene are black with the contrasting lights showing just silhouettes.  With just the silhouettes the image is not really distorted but obviously not very clear. This in my mind was intended to give a feeling of fast moving time and a lot of work being done while once again glorifying the dominant, Indian Jones.  This scene is a lot more dense than the first scene because this is a long shot.  The composition and character placement of the workers just behind Indiana Jones gives a hero feel to Indiana.  The space between the characters is fairly uniform. The form is open with a loose frame giving the characters a lot of room to move around.

Understanding Movies 13th Edition Louis Gianetti

Writing & Story

In the silent film Sunrise, classical paradigm is evident from the start. Classical paradigm is the type of narrative structure that begins with an overt conflict which is increasingly intensified with the rising action of the following scenes. We find out early that the husband is the protagonist.  The antagonist of the film is the woman the husband is having an affair with.  She becomes the antagonist when she persuades the husband that he should drowned his wife and make it look like an accident so they could run away to the city together.  The next day comes and just as the husband is about to grab on to his wife he realizes he could not do it.  The husband and wife get into an argument and the husband asks his wife for forgiveness because he knows he is at fault.  The wife forgives him and the scenes that lead up to the rising action are them going through the city falling in love again.  The climax in the story is the storm that catching them off guard as they are sailing back home. The film then goes on to make it feel as if the wife has drowned and that all hope is lost but the closure comes in when in a last ditch effort the wife is found alive by one man who would not give up the search.  The husband then makes sure the woman he is having an affair with knows that he has done wrong and that he is not under her spell anymore.  With the film having closure, climax, a rising action, protagonist and antagonist one can see that the film follows classical paradigm.  The protagonist and antagonist are shown in a scene below where the antagonist is convincing the husband to drown his wife.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JuuueC3JNw&feature=kp (13:14)

          Sunrise I believe follows the classical narrative structure.  In classical narratives the audience is generally aware of the shaping storyline and the boring gaps are edited out by a discreet story teller.  In this film there was not a human voice as the narrator instead the film uses cut scenes with words to tell the audience what is going on or important information that the audience should know.  A good example of that in this film would be in the early stage of the movie when it is important for the audience to know that the husband and wife once had a happy marriage.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JuuueC3JNw&feature=kp (9:53)

This excerpt from the film gives evidence of a classical narrative structure because it shows that the film is cutting out boring gaps by telling the audience that the marriage was once happy.

In a silent film like Sunrise with literally no talking or voices it is really tough to find any figurative comparisons.  Metaphors, allusions, are really not anywhere in the film because it takes a voice to make that possible.  With a classic film you are not going to find homage in Sunrise either.  As I watched Sunrise the obvious reoccurring symbol was the moon.  The moon was always a symbol of something bad such as when the husband would go out with the woman from the city or the storm.  The sunrise however was the symbol for good and at the end of the film the sun came up and the husband and wife got back to the love that they used to have.

Understanding Movies Thirteenth Edition Louis Gianetti

 

 

 

Ideology Blog

          The Searchers and High Noon both classic western films both made in the 1950s.  The two films both take place in the post Civil War era.  Both films have a lot of similarities in their stories as well.  In short The Searchers is about a man named Ethan Edwards and his nephew fighting against Indians to get his niece back who was kidnapped.  High Noon is a film about a Marshal who has to fight a an outlaw coming to his town at noon and when he goes out to ask for help he finds that the town decides they do not want to help and would rather just give up then sacrifice their lives.  It is safe to say that both films fall into the category of implicit ideology.  The protagonist and antagonists represent conflicting value systems, but are not directly dwelled on.  In both films the protagonists have other small problems they are forced to deal with but in these two it is obvious to see the main problem between the protagonist and antagonist.  The protagonist in High Noon is Will Kane played by Gary Cooper.  He is the Marshal of the town in Hadleyville and has to bring down the antagonist Frank Miller who is an outlaw and was brought to justice by Will Kane years ago and is now looking for revenge.  The protagonist Will Kane and antagonist Frank Miller and his gang are shown below giving evidence of an implicit ideology.

The protagonist in the film The Searchers is Ethan Edwards played by John Wayne. He had just come back from the Civil War and moved in with his brother’s family. He was recruited as a Texas Ranger to fight against the Indians terrorizing the surrounding area. He was out on a mission when his brother and his family were kidnapped by Scar the protagonist in the movie. Scar is an Indian chief who kills all of the family members except for Ethan Edwards’s niece Debbie who in the end they save. The protagonist and antagonist are shown in a confrontation below in the scene from the movie, once again proving an implicit ideology.

These movies both possess a thing called personality stars. In the American cinema the star system is often a clue to values when the protagonist is played by a personality star. A personality star is a well-known actor or actress that people admire and respect. Good looks and sex appeal and a good set of values are compelling traits for personality stars. The personality star in High Noon is Gary Cooper. Gary Cooper is one of the well-known actors of the 1940s and 1950s. The personality star that is in The Searchers is John Wayne both are household names maybe John Wayne a little more but none the less both are well known. There previous movies is what also gives them the category of personality stars. Both of these movies possessing personality stars give the movies a set of values. The movies both being western movies both men give the values that you have to be tough and to never give up whether that be in anything in life.
In all both movies have the ideologies of implicit because both contain a protagonist and an antagonist. The set of values comes from the characters in the movies being personality stars.

Sources:

Understanding Movies, 13th Edition, Louis Gianetti