Metropolis

Where did the science fiction genre come from? Well the 1927 Metropolis film is a stylized and visually stunning silent film set in a dystopian future. It is because of director Fritz Lang's German masterpiece that brought the life to my favorite genre of science fiction. While searching YouTube, I noticed that there were many different versions on the Metropolis films. However, I did find a video that claimed they had as much of the original, including the original music, intact. 

The futuristic city is pictured as an industrial world with skyscrapers and bridges and appears to be divided or stratified into an upper, elite, privileged class of powerful industrialists and a subterranean, oppressed worker force. This directly correlates with what is happening in the time this film is being created. At the time, the Industrial Revolution was in its prime, the economy was falling to the rise of fascism in a pre-Hitler Germany and the rise of the American labor movement and unions during the 1920s due to oppressive working conditions. It also reflects the ongoing struggle between light and dark, good and evil, like in my favorite films of science fiction.

Additionally, Lang can be considered a profit of and the creator of science fiction. His vision is very impressive, and stands out as its own master piece next films that would later be inspired by his film. For example, Blade Runner is strikingly similar to the world and problems that Lang envisioned in his film. However, some of the most renowned players of science fiction did not care for Lang’s film. For example, while researching Metropolis, I stumbled onto a review by H.G. Wells himself. Throughout his review, he exhibits his distaste for “silliness” of the film. He also goes on to elaborate on how this film may have been copied from his own vision “When The Sleeper Wakes.” However, if you like the movie or not it has become more common for the Metropolis to be more easily admired than enjoyed.

http://www.filmsite.org/metr.html
http://erkelzaar.tsudao.com/reviews/H.G.Wells_on_Metropolis%201927.htm

Chuck Roberts-Year of China

            Chuck Roberts is a former CNN news anchor and has had the opportunity to teach media classes in China. Learning about his experiences was entertaining. It is interesting to find out all the differences another country has compared to our own. His students were not English speaking and he had to have a mandarin translator to relay the information he was teaching. This meant that he would have to speak a sentence, pause, wait for the translator to repeat the message, and then he could continue on with his lesson. That is something you would not find in America very often. That would be a lot of work and dedication to sit through a class with a professor you did not even have a common language with. Sadly, most American students would not be willing to go this extra mile and would not experience classes like this. Another thing I found interesting was the Chinese perception of Americans. He shared with us that Americans are seen as almost celebrities over there. They are not accustomed to seeing blonde haired people and will even take pictures with them if they come across them. This would be very odd for us to do since we are so used to seeing many differences in each person all over the county. As he described the way meals went in China, it was also a very big difference. While we may all sit around the dinner table and pass around food to each other, it would almost always be just enough food with hardly any leftovers. The way he was describing it was that there was obviously more food prepared and set out in front of them than there were people to eat it. Overall I really enjoyed Chuck Robert’s presentation. It was clear that he enjoyed what he was doing and loved being over there. He is even still in contact with one of his students over there. They will email him for advice on their works and even though they share no common language, it is still possible for them to communicate.

Chinese Cinema

“I would rather drift by your side than enter heaven without you. Because of your love, I will never be a lonely spirit.” This beautiful line would have never been known to me until I watched the film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It has been very invigorating year at my University; full of beautiful art and culture of China. Personally, I have had a very limited familiarity with Chinese cinema and only now getting the chance experience them. As a result, in this blog I will share my thoughts on Chinese cinematic film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

                As my first choice of choosing a Chinese film, I found the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to be one of my favorites. Although the film was an American-Chinese/Taiwanese co-production, I felt that the film really represented a great example of Chinese cinema.  While watching the film, I found the amount of passion the actors put forth into the film to be very intriguing. In this sense, the film gave off a more realistic feel which allowed me to immerse myself in their world.  I personally found the martial arts sequences to some of best cinematic shots I have ever seen. Back in the 90’s, I fell in love with the Matrix films because of it immense fighting scenes and in which the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon film matched almost completely. While digging up some history on the film, I found that the Matrix films received much of its influence from the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and would be used by other films to come.

                To add to the sense of realism is the amount of stunning cinematography shot throughout the film. The film was not afraid to show off many wide shots to capture the scenery that surrounded the actors. They also used exceptionally well place medium shots and close ups that allows the audience to see the dedication the actors had in the film. Furthermore, the cinematography of the fight scenes that put you on the edge of a sword all the way to the top of trees is truly stunning.  The amazing fight scene between Ziyi Zhang and Michelle Yeoh is probably the best example I could find that shows a variety of cinematography at its best. This clip shows a fight scene that virtually seamless of editing or cuts that would have taken place within the production.

                The cinematography maybe stunning, but it would be very bland if it did not capture mise-en-scene that went along with the film. These are the elements that make up land scape of the film in which the director did very well in adding. During the course of the film, our actors are surrounded by Chinese culture and architecture that it seems as if this film was just glimpsing the past history of China. Not only did the scenery match the time period, but the clothing that the actors wore was head to toe flawless.  To complete this feeling of realism, the actors would also speak in their own vernacular which matched the language during that time period. Most films like this, especially being partially an American produced film, usually would have these actors speak a broken English language simply for the ease of the audience.

In summary, I am very thankful for the encouragement to study Chinese cinema and how it all got started. Although I am starting off late, I have already been amazed by the beautiful film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Through the elements of mise-en-scene, and cinematography it is no wonder why Crouching Tiger continues to be hailed as one of the greatest and most influential foreign language films in the United States.

http://evanerichards.com/2009/377

http://www.llc.ed.ac.uk/cinema-china/briefhistory.html

Product Placement

Have you ever noticed how much product placement is in a film? While watching a good movie, it may not be as quite obvious; but if you take a second look, particular products will start to stand out at you. Product placement has been around ever since broadcasting has existed. Even through the advancements in technology, product placement has stuck around. In this blog post I will discuss a brief history product placement, disclose their business morals, and share many examples of extreme use in product placement in film.

                Product placement goes way back to the nineteenth century where novels and other books were our only source of media.  Jules Verne, known as a prophet of science today, was one of the first to introduce product placement after his release of his adventure novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Due his amazing success with his novel, major companies flocked to Jules Verne to request that he write in the name of their company in his next novel. Product placement is still used in some books today, particularly in major novels. Furthermore, this was one of the earliest recorded instance of product placement and has come a long way from then.

                Is it morally acceptable to influence consumers through product placement in films in order to sell products? Marketing has been around for years, so can we really say it is wrong? People have always strived to manipulate one another even for the smallest of things.  It’s the soul fact that most of us actually recognize product placements for what they are and in-turn we are not easily influenced. To an extent, product placement is part of our economy. For example people buy new cars and new Iphones more because of marketing.  One moral issue that has caused controversy amongst the industry is the marketing to children. Kids under 14 have not yet developed those filters to recognize when advertisements are targeting them. Advertisements manipulate kids to make them want toys they don't need and eat foods that aren't good for them. Ultimately parents are responsible for what their child does, however Ads are not always trying to sell food or toys. The big controversy in marketing to kids is when they try to make tobacco appeal to teenage kids. As a result, many commercials such as the Budweiser commercials featuring the frogs have been shut down due to it being to kid friendly.

               

  Through history we have seen many different attempts at product placement. Most films that we see try to keep product placement down to a lower key. However, in recent films product placement has been increasing to the point to be almost obvious in different shots. This occurs when products dominate the screen for a few seconds or have reoccurring appearances throughout the film. For example, the film I, Robot makes heavy use of product placements for Converse trainers, Ovaltine, Audi, FedEx, Dos Equis, and JVC among others, all of them introduced within the first ten minutes of the film. One particularly infamous scene borders into an actual advertisement in which a character compliments Will Smith's character's shoes to which he replies "Converse All-Stars, vintage 2004.”

In my conclusion, if you haven’t noticed the product placement before, you will notice it occur the second time you watch the film. Seeing where product placement started, there is no doubt that we will see more in the future. As a result, product placement has changed and will change as our form of media changes.

Stories unite people; theories divide them.

The Movie Industry

Of all the things to hit in popular culture, none is more recognizable in or mind than the movies. Most Americans instantly recognize images produced by the movies: Charlie Chaplin, the starving prospector inThe Gold Rush, eating his shoe, treating the laces like spaghetti. Recently I watched the documentary “Theses Amazing Shadows,” I was inspired to blog about the film industry and how the industry has changed my life.

These Amazing Shadows is a documentary about the Library of Congress and the National Film Registry. It offered a look inside how films are restored and contains interviews with some of writers and editors of major film industries today. Regarding the importance of film’s societal role as viewed through a cultural and historical lens, I found the quote “Stories unite people; Theories divide them” to be most poignant. Hence, this became the title of my blog. In the documentary, I learned that this registry has copy of almost every film ever made. Needless to say, their collection is very large and the painstaking efforts that must go into restoring those films must be equally as large. It was also sad to hear that before the registry, films would be disposed like common trash because film was not regarded as it is today.

When I think of movie, I personally think how they are cultural artifacts that offer us a chance to see into American cultural and social history. Like a time machine, movies can show us insights into Americans' shifting ideals, fantasies, and preoccupations. The film industry’s history is separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period. While, according to my class book, the Lumiere Brothers are generally credited with the birth of modern cinema, but it has to be American cinema that became the most popluar throughout the idustry. Although, throughout those periods, the film industry would change with the American society. Films would be made to focus on a particular area depending on what was happening at the time in the USA. For example, WWII and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, films were made to be more patriotic to gain viewers to help America cope. But nothing could prepare America for the revolutionary space opera film of 70s, “Star Wars.”

Out of all the movies that I have come in contact with from the film industry, the amazing space opera known as Star Wars has truly changed my life. I grew up with Star Wars. I had older brothers that were already in love with the Star Wars universe that I easily followed suit. I remember when was a kid watching Star Wars that when I first heard the music I was taken up into a world of adventure, space travel and imagination. I remember watching Luke Skywalker fly down the Death Star, watching it explode and being so excited that I wanted to jump up and down in joy for the success of the Rebels. The music, the visuals and the action were marked into my soul.

Something about the amazing sets and visuals and imagination continued to interest me as I got older. I got books from the library on the artwork, behind-the-scenes, even novels set around the Star wars worlds. Unfortunately or fortunately for my coolness, I never outgrew it. It stirred in me a joy of creating. George Lucas took my places I wanted to go. I didn't just want to visit, though. I wanted to create those places. I wanted to create magical worlds myself. Places of adventure, imagination and creativity. So I decided to pursue a career in film and hope to one day add and be a part of that universe that George Lucas created.

Master Chief Chili

Master Chief knows how to cook! In a documentary with the famed voice actor and radio host, Steve Downes, the fans get the chance to imagine the Chief off duty. In the Master Chief documentary, we follow Downes on a regular day and experience what it’s like as a hero of the suburbs. Throughout this blog, I will elaborate on what aspects the director focused on capturing to make up this killtacular documentary.

            Last Thursday, my professor lectured on what aspects make up a documentary.   One of the elements she expressed was the fact that a documentary must never be staged or re-enacted thus destroying its credibility.  In the Master Chief documentary, the director took the approach on making the film as familiar and simple as possible. In fact, the documentary literaly starts off with static shots of inside Steve Downes’s own home. Continuing to familiarize the film, the director takes the approach on filming Downes simply doing everyday regular things around the house. This includes him cooking and blowing off a telemarketer. I believe this was done to simply tell the story about a regular person could still be regarded as a hero to millions by just being him.

The structure on the documentary takes a very mediocre style which I also believe adds to the simplicity. The documentary begins with a few inserts of family members and Downes himself; simply discussing about his life and the reactions they have had since the halo games. After the introduction we start with Downes heading off to his job at a local radio station where he hosts. While there, we are given short interviews of Steve Downes’s colleagues about their personal relationships with him. Later we are back at his house, where again, we experience Downes as a simple man making his famous Master Chief Chili. The documentary ends with a medium shot of Downes in chair, possibly in his house, giving his final thoughts on his experience with Master Chief Character and how honored he is to give the chief character.

The message in the documentary may not be as clear to those who have not necessarily played the game. For me, however, I have been the Halo games since their release and have clear understanding of the message. If you are fan, then you know how it important the Character Master Chief is to you. All your life you know Master Chief as this stone cold invincible hero and the director knows this fact. He wants to show the Halo fanbase the voice behind the mask. That Steve Downes is still just as human as the players. In Downes final message, he lets us know that he wants the player to be the Master Chief and he will provide the voice. To quote Steve Downes, “I’ll do the talking, you guys do the shooting.

In conclusion, there are many important aspects that make up a documentary. The way the director structured and styled this film allows for more credibility with its more humble simplistic approach. As for the message of the documentary, I believe it was to show the irony of seeing the voice behind the mask and who he really is in the world.

Amelie Cinematography

From a director who created the murky, visionary film "Alien Resurrection,” "Amelie" might appear a little out of place. But once you get chance to see the film; that idea disappears quickly. Although we may not see scary slimy monsters in this film, the director still shows his love with bodily functions, close ups, and frenetic camerawork. In this blog post, I will discuss some of the elements of cinematography that I found interesting throughout the film.

If you have read my other blog on the mise-en-scene of Amelie, you may already have an idea of type of cinematography seen in this film. To begin, one of the most orginal scenes in the film is, well, at the beginning. Amelie's introduction into the picture isn't the normal introduction that usually accompanies the lead's entrance. The director chose to shows a time lapse photography that literally shows a pregnant belly going through the nine months of change, then the actual birth of Amelie. Not only is it a striking visual, but probably the best entrance by a character in some time. It is this attention grabbing scene that gives a hint to the personality of the film to the audience.

Additionally, original cinematography might have ruined this film and would have made imbalance between the style of the film and how the audience perceived it. Through the use of special effects and various camera tricks, the audience can have a better understanding and experience the world of Amelie. I love how the director chose to enhance the scenes with intricate camera placement and visual artifice, almost like he is showing the audience how Amelie sees the world.

In conclusion, without seeing the film, it is not that hard to picture the kind of film you might get into. I for one was not sure what to expect when I saw this film. But with proper cinematography and the amount of humor clashing with reality and make believe, I quickly fell in love.