Entry #29

May 25

Today we started the Criterion B part for our Wong Kar Wai. First we got back our grades. In total I got 4-5 marks off, which is a little bit more than I was expecting but I'll live with. I was happy with my chase scene mark so all is well. 

The scripts that were chosen were Andy's, Jeff's, Adrian's, Joyce's and mine. We were all de facto leaders. I was hoping to work with Jeff and Andy because we're all good friends and we work well and I wanted this last unit to be really enjoyable but since we were all leaders it wasn't possible. I was willing to work with anyone anyway so it doesn't really matter. In the end the group that I formed is comprised of Ashley, Louise, Catherine and Ella. It'd be interesting and a challenge since we never worked with each other in this semester of film, and we don't really know each other's abilities or personalities all that well, but I'm sure we'll manage.

We started off slow, expectingly since everyone had to read and familiarize themselves with the script. I wrote mine kind of novel-ish so I think they all got a clear understanding after one read. They didn't have any questions about the plot or dialogue or anything so I guess that's a good sign.

We immediately started off thinking of roles, cast, equipment, locations, and storyboards/shot list. Here are the roles we allotted:

Director: Me

Sound Director: Louise

Cameraperson: Ashley

Editor: Ella

Producer: Catherine

The director is me since it was my script so it was basically automatic. Louise is the sound director because it's a role she hasn't done before and since we are allowed to use copyrighted material for this project, she can share her good music taste with the world. The cameraperson is Ashley since she has never done this role before, and I believe she has a good vision as well as taste on how a shot should look like. Originally Catherine was going to be the editor but because she is very busy with Prom as well as other things, we'd thought it'd be best to give the job to Ella. Ella was I believe the editor for the chase scene project so at least she has experience in using Final Cut Pro, so we are in good hands. The producer may seem like a cushy job, but there's a lot of things to handle such as getting the locations down, the cast down, costumes, etc. Because she is organizing the prom, I believe her organization skills will come in handy. Hopefully it won't be too much of an obstacle.

 In my script there are 4 main characters: Lydia, Danny,  Larry and Lauren. Lydia and Danny appear for the majority of the movie while Larry and Lauren finishes it off. While I was writing I did keep in mind that my script has the possibility of getting chosen so I had already thought of actors. Here is my list and my reasons.

Lydia = Katrina. I know Katrina of being a theatrically as well as musically talented. She takes Drama extended has worked with Ella before, so Ella has first hand knowledge on how good she is. I have heard her sing (during some classes) and it's pretty good. She also can be very expressive with her face, at the same time be subtle. Also this role requires some Cantonese speaking, which she can also do. I think she'll be great for this role.

Danny = Nathan. Frankly I think I was being too idealistic in my decision for Nathan to be Danny. He does take Drama extended, and I have no doubts on his work ethic. I just don't know if he can act or do the character Danny that much justice simply because of his personality. I think that I will have to work with him like I did with Andy and Medora in the film noir so that he can understand the character and will be able to perform the emotional scenes we have in store for him. The main reason I wanted Nathan is because of his look. He does look old and has a fast growing beard. He is also American, which is what Danny is. Also some of his playful and light-heartedness in his personality may become helpful too. I also kept in mind the chemistry that needs to be sustained with him and Lydia (Katrina) I think that he and Katrina are pretty good friends, so I'm not concerned about the atmosphere of the film being too awkward.

Larry = Chris. We already confirmed Chris is playing this role. I thought he acted well in his film noir, and I think he is a good naturalistic actor. Also his voice is deep, which is necessary for Larry's voice overs to be effective. I'm quite confident in my choice with him and I think he'll deliver.

Lauren = Asia. Lauren is a really small role so I wasn't too concerned with who should play this part. I just need someone Chinese and won't slow down the production stage. Asia seems to fit.

Ashley already organized what equipment we need: HD Camera, Boom mike, lights, stand, dollies, the whole 9 yards. She is currently working on the storyboards; a grueling task, which I appreciate her doing. I thin Louise will have a fun time picking songs.

There are two main things I'm worried about: 1) Time, 2) Locations. We only have less than 3 weeks left until school ends, and we have less than that time considering of all of our obligations. I think that we can film the reservoir scene this week if the weather improves, the restaurant/bar scene some time next week along with the apartment scenes. Since I have Final Cut pro at home, I'll probably be having Ella over a lot to edit. The main problem is that she lives in Kowloon, so I don't think the visits will be too frequent.

The locations are a problem. I don't think there will be a bar or hospital that would let us film. For the bar, we changed it to a restaurant. In Catherine's chase scene they used the local restaurant down Braemer Hill, so we'll probably use that. It's still Wong Kar Wai since it is a local Hong Kong restaurant. 

For the hospital scene, we'll either change the script so that Larry beings Lauren back to her house, or we use a clinic (if we can get one). Or (Ms Wong suggested this) we get an establishing shot of a hospital, and decorate a room so that it looks like a waiting room. I think that would be hard but it's the most possible solution we can do without compromising too much.

By the end of the day, I'd be lying to say that I wasn't worried. Hopefully I'm being overly paranoid, but already this project seems complicated. But I have confidence in my group as I think today was a productive session. Next class we'll get Chris' voice overs and some more organizational work.

I was an IB Learner because:

Communicated: Discussed options with group and explained to them my ideas and choices

Balanced: Discussed the roles everyone wanted to do as well as changing them according to their personal interests.

Open minded: I was willing to modify the script in accordance to practicality reasons.

Entry #28

May 20

We had part 2 of our test today.

Entry #27

May 18

We had a test today on Wong Kar Wai and briefly about editing. It relates to our script. 

Above is the image I used to write my script.

Entry #26

May 6

We watched Hannah's group's film. My notes are below.

Blanche

Overall:

-Confusing, underdeveloped concept/script

-Deeper meaning is not conveyed well and not really effective

-Dragged in the end

-Cinematography was okay, nothing special but nothing bad.

-It just didn't made sense. Would've been much better if more time was spent in creating a narrative.

-The pace was too consistent throughout. Felt slow even though there was a lot of chases.

-Portals? Only one really good one, which was the bathroom one.

Sound: 

-Music was appropriate but it felt as if the song was monotonous. I think it's mainly to do with the script not having any climaxes or peaks and didn't help the song. Also, near the end of the movie, the volume of the song decreased quite randomly. It was more of a disruption and ruined the illusion of a movie. 

-Just did not work with the movie that much.

We then moved on to our next unit, which we will be dealing with Wong Kar Wai. I learned a lot this class not only about Wong Kar Wai but of making montages. It's certainly one of the exclusive aspects film has over other art forms.

Although the concept of montages aren't new to me, I had no idea there were different types of montages: metric, intellectual, rhythmic, tonal, and overtonal. They can help enhance either the story telling, the atmosphere, or even the symbolism. 

The most interesting thing I learned today was the Kuleshov Experiment as well as an explanation by Alfred Hitchcock. It is where there are two cuts, a close up of the person's eyes, and another shot. You can substitute the second shot and convey different opinions and emotions towards either the person or the film itself. I thought it was a really interesting and clever technique/experiment.

We learned about Eisenstein and his belief that 'editing could be used for more than just showing a scene. The collision of shots could be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create film metaphors". 

From the movies I've seen, I've seen plenty of montages, usually from sports movies that shows either the player or team working out (i.e. Rocky). But there are a few movies that uses montages very effectively. "The Departed" by Martin Scorsece uses a lot, but my favorite in particular is the one where the title finally appears, and Leonardo DiCaprio is in prison while Matt Damon is enjoying his new home. Click here and go to 9:50 in the video. Another one is from the Godfather and its famous scene with the murder of the 5 families. Click here. And there are other movies that have montages like American Gangster, The Dark Knight, Snatch, etc. 

I think I'm pretty familiar with Wong Kar Wai even though I've only watched 3 of his movies: My Blueberry Nights, Days of Being Wild, and In the Mood for Love. I liked the first two. In the Mood for Love was probably only for devout WKW fans.

His style is needless to say unique, probably under the 'artsy' film genre. His kinds of movies are generally hard to appreciate because they are so unconventional and slow. We gathered from watching his movies that his style is disjointed, vague story line, ambivalent plot, and sporadic appearances from characters, which all defies the audience's expectations and makes viewers conscious that they are watching a film. This made me wonder why WKW is so critically acclaimed because he basically just does everything your not supposed to do in making a movie.

I think it works because of two things: his very stylized, beautiful cinematography and framework, and his 'poetic' approach in making films. Even though it makes it very difficult to understand and appreciate WKW, if/when we do, the reward is much sweeter. 

For the next task we are to write a script based on any image. The script needs to incorporate WKW style. 

I was an IB Learner: 

Communicative: discussed my opinions about WKW and the film

Reflective: Reflected on the pros and cons of Blanche.

Inquirer: Curious about WKW and montage editing.

Entry #25

May 4

Today was screening day for our portal movies. Here are my notes for each besides Hannah's since we didn't have time to get to that. I'll focus on the sound portion of each film since I played as sound director. I'll also include a brief self-criticism.

Say Cheese

Overall:

First minute was pretty good. There was genuine suspense.

Bernice randomly appeared.

Sarah was just there.

I don't really buy a person in crutches as a serial killer.

I wasn't really scared because it was just underdeveloped as a plot.

Needs to watch Silent Hill gameplay to learn how to build suspense and how to scare someone

Sound:

Don't like the music. I think it's from some 80s action TV show. Also the music doesn't seem to contribute to the suspense or really flow with the movie; as if it was a separate entity.

I think that for a thriller, the use of silence and diegetic sound would be really useful. Although there were a few diegetic sounds, it didn't help and were kind of useless.

The sound in the beginning were great with the crutches as well as the beeping with the camera. I thought silence was going to be a motif in the film but it wasn't and I was pretty disappointed when the music came on.

Babooshka (I think that's how you spell it)

Overall:

Plot didn't really make sense and underdeveloped.

Not many portals.

Sounds

Overall it's pretty flawed. The music, the song, I thought was good but inappropriate for this task.

The diegetic sound did no help at all, and if anything made it worse. For one, the scene where Chris was walking towards the camera, the sound made it seem like he was walking towards a camera (quiet when far away, louder when near), and it broke the illusion for me. Also, the scene with Xiang Yi running we can hear Camille's flip flops.

The sounds just seem flawed.

High Octane

Overall

"high artistic awareness". Really had a style.

pretty good story, maybe a bit underdeveloped.

The chase scenes weren't really thrilling.

Just a cool movie.

Sound:

Music appropriateness maybe could've been better.

Abstractness worked

I like the breathing sound and the zip

Overall pretty seamless

Clean sound at least.

Wabbit Hunt (self evaluation)

Overall (based on peer reaction and criticisms):

-Funny, a lot of good moments and a lot of laughter.

-"Good artistic awareness" in terms of emulating the Charlie Chaplin style.

-Subtitles were okay but maybe a bit unclear. Video quality maybe got in the way

-Overall concept (in terms of teleportation) was good. Simple and well executed.
-actors were good but debatable whether it could have maintained the humor if the audience didn't know who they were

Sound:
-some unnecessary sound effects
-inconsistency between silent scene and 'normal' scenes sometimes were weird but worked in the end
-music worked very well with the scenes; added the Charlie Chaplin effect
-some effects were too fake
-other sound effects were good; abstract and comedic

I was an IB learner:

Open Minded: Accepted criticism from peers about my work
Communicator: Communicated and discussed my thoughts about my peer's work
Reflective: Evaluated my own work fairly and honestly with plenty of justification

Top Ten Movies

10) The Fountain

Maybe not the greatest love story but the most magical and unique. Stunning visuals and music with powerful performances, it's probably the most epic artsy movie ever made. It's too bad it didn't receive that much attention or money. 

9) Goodfellas

In my opinion, the best Martin Scorsece film (maybe the exception of Raging Bull), though you can't really go wrong with any of his movies. It's one of the pioneers in gangster movies and sparked a trend in wise-guy films. Joe Pesci deserves his Oscar and creates a niche for himself as the ultimate wise guy. Other mentions to Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta. Dialogue and conversations were never so entertaining. 

8) Sideways

Paul Giamatti was snubbed for an Oscar nomination. You learn a lot about wine as well as the miserable parts of love (works well together I guess). It's depressingly funny in the sense that you will laugh a lot at the jokes but would feel the same melancholy the character feels. This is the story of the good guy that finishes last. Finally.

7) The Dark Knight

Need I say more? It earned every cent it received. It's the most epic movie ever made, and every dollar of its $180 million budget was used wisely and was compensated enormously. With an outstanding cast and a rising director (Christopher Nolan), it's not only the best comic book movie ever made, it was arguably the best movie of 2008. And Heath Ledger gives the best acting job of that year too. The fastest 2h 30 min movie ever made.

6) Slumdog Millionaire

When everyone though the Dark Knight was so good, along came this movie. It's pretty much the anti-Dark Knight. Its heroes are poor, its city undeveloped, but in no way the story is any less incredible. It seems like your typical love story: Boy loves girl, girl loves boy, obstacles in the way, boy finds girl. Why then when you watch it are you constantly surprised? It's definitely the most beautiful, elegant love story of the last decade. And during these economic troubles, this movie brings hope and how life can still be valuable without any money. It's the movie that definitely should represent the year 2008 (winning best picture).

5) There Will Be Blood

My favorite director, Paul Thomas Anderson, makes his 4th feature film, this time with Daniel Day Lewis; the perfect combination. It's such a dark film that discusses traditional themes of greed, business, and family. It's cinematography brings forth so subtly and effectively the calculating mind of Daniel Plainview. Lewis gives another Best Actor performance, saying lines brilliantly adapted by Anderson (from the book Oil!). 

4) The Godfather

(see the Godfather Part II)

3) Lost in Translation

I've always felt like this movie is a sequel of Groundhog Day, except 20 years after that February 2nd, and that the news Producer Bill Murray ended up became his wife. Murray doesn't really use the same sarcasm or cynicism, but something more mature and intimate as he meets a much younger girl in the unfamiliar streets of Tokyo. With clever, charming dialogue written by Sofia Coppola, this film managed to acquire chemistry between two very different actors of two very different generations. It's heart breaking, it's heart lifting. It doesn't need anything grandeur, but uses the intimate, personal emotions of the characters utterly lost in their lives, but finding themselves within each other. Fantastic.

2) Children of Men

I saw the trailer for this movie and I remember really wanting to watch it. Months later, I acquired a DVD copy of it. Sometimes I would watch movies to sleep, but in this case, how could I? So many moments I just had to sit up and be in awe because I couldn't believe what I was watching. In this dystopian world where women are infertile, it seems very real on what would happen. War, famine, deportation, etc., etc. Really, I think this movie is based on what's happening now, just a mild caricature. It's more than another "What-if" scenario, and its not really a fantasy, sci-fi flick. It's too real to be true. This is the most compelling, visionary movie I have ever watched. My only regret in life is that I didn't watch this in a cinema room.

1) The Godfather Part II

The reason why I didn't say the Godfather trilogy is because of Part III, and the reason why I split between Part I and Part II is because they are different movies. Part I is still brilliant and for the same reasons. I think the reason that Part II is better than Part I is really Michael Corleone. Everyone hates him as a good guy. He's not as interesting or compelling pre-murdering Sollozzo. And really, since Apollonia died, Michael has not smiled once until Part III. 

Francis Ford Coppolla, Mario Puzo, Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, and Al Pacino teams up and creates the original gangster film. The difference is that these gangsters don't want to be gangsters, but is looking for legitimacy in society but without mitigating any of their success. Because of this they lost their families and their sanity.

Everything is just perfect in these two movies. Great story, the most memorable dialogue (I'll make him an offer he can't refuse), great cast and acting, great everything. It's really not a surprise this makes number 1 for many top tens. It says family is the most important value, and how business can turn you into an evil, cold creature. Every shot is basically a photograph, and the whole thing is simply a piece of art. Put is simply, this is the best movie ever made.

*Outside Looking In: Fight Club, Moulin Rouge, Scarface, Princess Mononoke, Malcolm X, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Groundhog Day, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Film Review: Requiem For a Dream

Directed by: Darren Aronofsky

Released: March 2001

Cast: Jared Leto, Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans

There are many films that discuss the fall of a person because of drug use, like Henry Hill in Goodfellas, or Jim Carrol in The Basketball diaries. But Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem For A Dream represents both the consequences and the experience of drug usage. Yes, this film is like no other.

            The story follows the lives of four characters, Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), Sara’s son, Harry Goldfard (Jared Leto), Harry’s friend, Tyrone C. Love (Marlon Wayans), and Harry’s girlfriend, Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly). Moreover, we follow their addictions. For the entirety of the movie, we witness the fall of their lives from Harry and Marian’s heroin use, to Tyrone’s drug dealership, and Sara’s enslavement to television.

            Similar to people experimenting with drugs, Aronofsky experiments with montages, split screens, and rapid editing. Despite using about 2000 cuts, it was not over done, as it was necessary to express the perspectives of the characters.

            The four main characters were not overshadowed by the director’s vision however. Their portrayal’s of troubled, paranoid junkies penetrates into the viewer’s minds, and reverberates even after the ending. A special mention has to go to Ellen Burstyn, who’s role of a lonely widow intensified the already chest burdening scenes. A well deserved Academy Award Nomination (Julia Roberts won that year with her role as Erin Brokovich).

            A special mention must also go to the Kronos Quartet with their haunting theme that has been adapted for films like Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers. Their work in this movie was under received, but nevertheless as powerful and significant as the directing and acting.

            When watching this movie, it would be reasonable to walk out halfway into it. It is a heavy, relentless hour and forty minutes with dots of graphic, fast paced scenes. But every second is used to its potential, and the vision of the director grasps the attention and breath of the audience. Perhaps the director should allow some moments of peace so we can survive the whole movie. But perhaps that would mitigate the theme, which is the essence of the film.

            Although this film would not be popular or a blockbuster movie (grossing about 7 million dollars USD it establishes the unique style of Aronofsky, and places him among directors such as Baz Lurhmann, Quentin Tarantino, and Tim Burton, who has an identifiable approach of filmmaking.