American Beauty

American Beauty Trailer 


American Beauty is a film about a 42 year old who is having a midlife crisis when he starts having feelings for his teenage daughter's friend where it gets to the point where he is trying do whatever he can to impress her.

In this film gays are represented as being wrong and weird compared to the rest of society.They are also represented as being hated by others because of their sexual orientation.In the case of kernel Fitz his character despises gays as he him self is gay but has be in the army and has been taught that being gay is wrong so he doesn't want his son to be gay so that he doesn't feel conflicted like his father.

The american dream is the ideal that if you work hard hard enough that you will get what you want in life and live a good life.In the film the american dream is also represented through the fact that they are a middle class have a detached house with a white picket fence.

   

In this film americans are represented as being:
homophobic which can be seen from when the guy that was in the army threw his son out because he thought he way gay.
gun crazy which can be seen from the amount guns in the film.

In this film teenagers are represented as being:
missives and sex driven.
liking drugs.

4 weddings and a funeral

4 weddings and a funeral 

4 Weddings and a Funeral follows the adventures of a group of friends through the eyes of Charles, a good-natured but socially awkward Englishman living in London, who falls in love with Carrie, an American whom Charles keeps meeting at four weddings and a funeral.

In terms of social class the working class are represented as being:

lazy and unorganised which is shown from Charles staying in bed after his alarm went off and being late for a few weddings.

forgetful and clumsy which can be seen from Charles forgetting the rings at the first wedding.

In terms of the middle/upper class they are represented as being:

active and ready which is shown from them being on time for the weddings.

Considering that Charles is British and is considered working class and Carrie is American and is middle class(I think this because of the way she speaks and mostly dresses very posh) this represents British in the film are considered working class and Americans are represented as middle class.   

In terms of being american they are represented as being:

seductive which is shown from people saying that they are.

having a nice smell this is shown as Charles says she has.

having kissing be a big thing in america.

In terms of being British they are represented as: 

having a posh and with some a very posh accent("I think I love you, and eh, I-I just wondered by any chance you wouldn't like to... Eh... Eh... No, no, no of course not... I'm an idiot, he's not... Excellent, excellent, fantastic, eh, I was gonna say lovely to see you, sorry to disturb... Better get on...")

The Full Monty

The Full Monty
In this film class and gender are represented in a variety of different ways:
For social class working class is represented as being the criminal type which can be seen from gaz(Gary) and dave(David) are stealing some scrap metal from one of the factory that have not been shut by Margaret Thatcher
Swearing a lot giving the impression that all working class people are very rude disrespectful people who do nothing but swear at everyone.("Oh, fucking hell, Nathe!")
To be at a job centre a lot because in the 80s many people were put out of work as the steel mill was shut down by Margaret thatcher.








The context of film is that all the guys that did the full monty were all affected when Margret Thatcher began shutting down all of the steel mills leaving a lot of people unemployed leaving them to have go onto the dole and go to the job centre as there are not a lot jobs available to people that only know how to work at a steel mill.
Context is something that i should think about for my own short film as i'm making part of the film take part 100 years ago

The locations for The Full Monty are filmed in Sheffield at these places:
    
ASDA Supermarket, Orgreave Way, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK

Bacon Lane, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK
(Canal Scene)

Crookes Cemetery, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK
(Graveyard)

Meadowbank Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK
(Dave's House)

Sanderson Special Steels, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK

Shiregreen Working Mens Club, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK
(Strip scene)

Rolling Mill, Sheffield, England, UK
(Shirebrook Collery)

Eversure Textiles, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK
(Mandy's Factory)

Former Langsett School, Burton Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK
(Interiors for Job Club, & Gerald's dancing class- exterior Nathan's school)

Manor Oaks Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK
(Keep Fit sequence)

Pepes, Cambridge Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK
(Burger Bar)

Ruskin Park, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK

Lane near Ski Village, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK
(Where Lomper attempts to kill himself)

Whirlow Park Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK
(Gerald's House)

Haugh Lane, Sheffield, England, UK
(Dale and Jeanne's house)

66 Whirlow Park Road Sheffield, England, UK
(Gerald and Linda's Hose)

Oxford street Sheffield, England, UK
(Gaz's House)

Blake Street corner, Sheffield, England, UK
(Gerald sat on bench feeding pigeons)

Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, UK
(exteriors of Millthorpe Working men's Club)

66 Peveril Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK
(Lomper/s mother's House)

From all of these locations it is clear that it was filmed in it is clear that is was filmed in a a low class area meaning that the whole film does not give a representation of the whole of Sheffield.  

favourite film

A film that i really like is Jingle All the Way.Here is a clip of the film.
Jingle All the Way:Santa Brawl

Jingle all the way is a Christmas comedy genre film.The codes and conventions for a comedy film is that they have and emphasis on humor, the main goal in these kinds of films is to make the audience laugh and enjoy themselves by not focusing on such dark themes .The code and conventions of a Christmas film is that they are set at christmas and usually include a Christmas miracle and santa.
cinematography is a major thing in this scene as the camera angle and style changed quite often e.g. when when the small santa was sent flying  into the wall.

Autuer Theory

The autuer theory which was derived largely from Astruc's elucidation of the concept of caméra-stylo (“camera-pen”), holds that the director, who oversees all audio and visual elements of the motion picture, is more to be considered the “author” of the movie than is the writer of the screenplay.
The autuer theory is also a way of reading and appraising films.

Origin

The definition of an auteur has been debated since the 1940s. André Bazin and Roger Leenhardt presented the theory that it is the director that brings the film to life and uses the film to express their thoughts and feelings about the subject matter as well as a worldview as an auteur. An auteur can use lighting, camerawork, staging and editing to add to their vision.

The stamp of an auteur involved them scripting and fashioning the material.
The idea of an auteur gained currency in america in the 1960s.
Today actors, directors and producers may also be considered as auteurs.

Top 10 Auteurs

1.Alfred Hitchcock
2.Stanley Kubrick, Born in July26 1928 and died March7 1999.He was noted for his realism and dark humour.He is most famous for 2001 A Space Odyssey, The Shinning and Full Metal Jacket.
3.Ingmar Bergman was born 1918 14 July and died in 2007 30 July.He is most famous for The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries and persona.He often dealt with in films death, illness, faith, betrayal, bleakness and insanity.From these trailers you can tell he is an auteur as all of his trailers include music that complements what is happening in the trailer.
4.Akira Kurosawa
5.Federico Fellini
6.Martin Scorsese
7.Andrei Tarkovsky
8.John Ford
9.Paul Thomas Anderson
10.David Lynch

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Hitchcock was an English film director and producer who was known as the master of suspense.He was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England on August 13th 1899 and died in Bel Air California on the 29 April 1980 at the age of 80.

He was married to Alma Reville and had one child named Patricia Hitchcock.He began his career by working as a title card designer for famous players laskey.

After this he was by a new firm run by Michel Balcon called Gainsborough pictures where he worked on Woman to Woman, The White Shadow, The Passionate Adventure, The Blackguard, and The Prude's Fall.In this time he directed Number 13, The Pleasure Garden and The Mountain Eagle by himself.

His first work with sound was for a film called blackmail produced by BIP.This film started the tradition of Hitchcock using famous landmarks as backdrops.

He then went on to work with Balcon again for the film The man who knew too much.He then work on The 39 steps which introduced the term macguffin.

His next major success was The lady vanishes which the gardian called one of the greatest train movies from the genres golden era.Hitchcock then started to work in hollywood when David O Seiznick signed him to a seven year contract.

The last project that he worked on before he died was The Short Night where he collaborated with James Costigan, Ernest Lehman and David Freeman initially the screenplay was never released due to Hickcocks rapidly decaying health however it was published in the 1999 book The Last Days Of Alfred Hickcock.

He was most know for his work on:
Notorious Notorious Trailler

Rear Window Rear Window

Vertigo was a psychological thriller based off of the 1954 novel D'entre Les Morts vertigo trailer
Films such as Vertigo are considered to be connected to the auteur theory as Hitchcock himself is an auteur in the sense that he over saw the audio and visual elements of the film so that he is considered an author of the film rather than a writer of the screenplay.You can tell that vertigo is a Hitchcock film as it included suspence as can be scene from the screen shot next to this and this clip vertigo suspence scene.
You can also tell it is a Hitchcock film as James Stewart appears in this and has appeared in a lot of other Hitchcock films (as Hitchcock likes to work with the same people) like Rope, Rear Window and The Man Who Knew Too Much.
North by Northwest.North By Northwest trailer

Psycho is arguably Hitchcocks greatest work. Psycho Shower Scene

Powerpoint notes

Micro and Macro Features

Mise-en-Scene is everything that is on the screen during a movies.

Lighting creates the mood and atmosphere.
There are different types of lighting e.g. classic hollywood lighting also known as the three point lighting system.
The quality of lighting is the intensity.
Direction of lighting can create a mood or atmosphere.


Setting gives the location and what it can convey.

Props are items that might be key to the story.

The performance itself gives facial expressions, body language and position of the actors.

The costumes is the inc hair and make up.

Genre

Narrative

A clip from the film Batman Begins uses cinematography quite well as it shows different types of shot angles as the clip progresses giving the appearance that the audience is following the chase.This scene also uses sound quite effectively to match the intensity of the the chase scene.
The genre of a film like this would be a thriller or action film.The codes and conventions of a thriller like this is for there to be a lot of action, a chase scene and and a hero or protector.



A clip from Enduring Love doesn't use sound very well as the music doesn't match what is happening in the scene very well.The cinematography was very good with the clip as it showed the balloon from the woman's point of view and then a birds eye view at the end when the man falls from the rope of the hot air balloon.The genre of a film like this would be a romance film.The codes and conventions of a romance film is that there is two people who fall in love, a complication so they cant be together and a happy ending of them being together.

A clip from The Good The Bad And The Ugly used cinematography very well during the duel as it kept going from a birds eye view to a close up of there faces.As for performance the actors facial expressions added to the tension in the scene.The genre for a film like this is a western genre.The codes and conventions of a western is that it be set in the American old west,includes cowboys and usually concludes with shootout or quickdraw.      


Framing is the process of the cinematographer choosing what to put into the frame and deciding the shot size, angle and composition.

Shot size refers to the difference between the camera and the subject.
Wide shots allow the audience to see the whole area.
A medium shot frames a person from head to torso.
Close up shots allow the audience to see the facial expressions of the actors.

A camera angle is where the camera has been placed.
Low angle is camera pointing up giving the actors a position of power.
High angle is the camera looking down making actors look weak.
Canted or dutch angle is slightly tilted giving the impression of confusion.


In 1895 the Lumiere Brothers invented the Cinematogreaphe a machine that acted as a motion picture camera, printer and a projector all in one.

Up util 1929 most films were silent.


One of the first people to use special effects was George Melies which was created in camera.

If the camera is interrupted and then started up again it gave the illusion of objects or people disappearing and or reappearing.This was later know as jump cuts.

If the film ran through the camera twice it was known as double exposure  by masking one of the lenses.

Edwin S Porter was the first editor.In life of an american firefighter he created drama by cross cutting (parallel editing)between two scenes which was the house on fire and the firemen on the way for a dramatic rescue.

D.W.Griffith created the first full length feature films which were Birth of a Nation and Intolerance.

Editing terms:
Continuity Editing:Spatial Continuity
Establishing Shot is a wide shot at the beginning of a scene.
Shot/Reverse Shot is a shot that shows the action from the opposite side of the last shot.
Eyeline Match is where you cut in between to shots to make the illusion that a person from one shot is looking at another person from another shot.
Match on Action is where the editor cuts from one shot to the other where the actions match even when the shots could have been taken hours, days or months apart from each other.

Videotapes were invented in 1950 so people could have entertainment from there own home.
 Advantages of these were that they were cheaper than film and video tapes could be reused over and over again.
Disadvantages were that film had better quality and splicing was not possible for them

Scream's codes and conventions of genre is that of a horror film which is where you usually find a creepy killer usually wearing a mask or something to cover his or her face, usually at night, a weapon like a knife or gun, a chase scene where the victim tries to escape.