I bet i can make you laugh

So here we go! We have officially been introduced to our short movie project. I have been assigned to a group that consists of four other people. Our project must be somewhere between three to five minutes long. We have also been assigned to do the genre "Comedy". I have offered to be the camera man for the film, which does not mean that i only do the camera but i also get to do acting and contribute to many other factors.

Personally i think comedy may be the hardest genre to pull off successfully. Suspense, romance, action, those are all easy to do with the right story. Comedy just feels different. Not everyone enjoys every comedy out there. I love Dumb and Dumber. I love any movie by Will Ferrell. but other people don't. I feel like these other people are in our class too.

When ideas were being thrown around the group, i unfortunately was outside playing with the camera. So now i am going to brainstorm on here, and hopefully some of my ideas can still be considered :). I think comedy and i think of stupid stuff. Seth Rogen is the first name that i think of. Followed by adam sandler. will ferrell also makes that list. I think that people who enjoy comedy are intereseted in vulgar and stupid scenes. For a major plot line, I think that we will have to do something towards a romantic comedy. As much as i don't know if that is something that i want to lean towards, i think it may be the only thing completely attainable. I think that the people that we have, 3 girls and 2 guys, the two guys have to act like fools for most of the movie, and the girls have to be completely out of the reach of the guys. I don't know how easy this will be, probably not easy at all. With comedy, its really easy to do things that aren't funny. Looking at different movies outtakes, improvisation is the biggest factor in making a movie hilarious. It will be hard to write a script that is funny.

Improvisation. I think it makes any movie great. The funniest actors don't just act funny, they have to be funny people outside of the movie screen. With our group we will have to improvisate (is that the word?) -do improvisation- a lot. It will come together eventually, and it will be either hilarious to everyone, hilarious to only our group, or embarrassing to watch.

In the end, i just want people to laugh at our movie while we still implement as many of the techniques we have learned in class over the past couple weeks. I think we have got this in the bag.

I can hang on a lamppost too!

"An oldie but a goodie"

We watched "Singing in the Rain". For those of you like me, its a musical created in the 1950s based on the 1920s. The main theme is about the movie business in the wake of the shift from silent films to sound. The main actor is Gene Kelly, sweet name. Gene is a BIG POPULAR silent film actor, Don Lockwood who is slowly able to make the shift to sound, while his on-screen love, off-screen nuisance, Lina Lamont (Debbie Reynolds) is having a lot of trouble making the transition to sound. Kathy is the female protagonist who is a dancer trying to make it big on the theater stage, who becomes a big role in the film.

Enough of background, lets get into the movie. Being a musical it is extremely cheesey throughout, but what musical isn't?! The main feature in all musicals is of course the sound. The sound was pretty great throughout the film, and i did not notice a spot where there was a mess-up. There were scenes where the tap-dancers would be dancing and the tapping noise would have to be pre-recorded because it would be impossible to catch the sound of the taps in the middle of the acting and singing. The songs and dances were creative and fun to watch (entertaining!). Of course the infamous "singing in the rain" scene was amazing to say the least. The creation of a street so that the water will pool in one spot so that Gene may jump into the puddle in the middle of his dance scene is pretty big attention to detail. Also, being told that the street was created at a half circle around the camera is pretty impressive, because i did not notice that it was curved throughout the entire dance number.

Let's begin to speak about the breakthrough from silent to sound. As portrayed in the movie of course!
Kathy's line "if you have scene one, you have seen them all" is perfect. The whole scene where she bashes the silent movie business and actors is actually exactly what i would think (but never say to someone especially if they were a silent film star). Films from that period of time were all just changing an expression on their face, and having words go on the screen, BORING! Sound though, wow. i like sound. It was a huge innovation, the scene with the man showcasing the new type of film where he is speaking to the party, and the woman says "come out from behind the screen!" I think it shows how shocking it was for people who had never heard a film. The sound did make silent films look completely obsolete, and also pretty dull.

The movie as a whole was pretty good, i am not a big fan of musicals, but it did keep me interested for the most part.
Milk in the rain? That is innovative for that time, but come on... i dont want half and half raining on me.

Rule of thirds? Triumvirant?!

As there is snow all around, everything is bright. I need my stunna shades any time i go outside. Makes me think about lighting. I think that lighting effects are the most attainable techniques that we talked about. Lighting is definitely a huge factor as to how a movie is felt by the viewer. Dark movies obviously create a more scary of a movie, while bright movies with a lot of color give a happier tone. Most of the effects, backlighting, key light, are much easier to handle when compared to tricks with a camera. After all, lights are the easiest tool to get when it comes to making a small extremely low budget film.

The camera tricks, will most likely take a little bit more practice to fully understand when and where to use them. The "holy trinity of film" has tremendous power in how the film comes together. The aperture, shutter speed, and ISO all add a different effect to a scene, and using them all together in the appropriate way is a task in itself, but can be a defining factor in how great a film looks. The aperture is what allows the constant light in, by constant i mean that it does not shut or close. The wider the aperture is, the more light can get to the sensor chip inside the camera. The shutter speed closes a rapid number of times per second, the smaller the number, the more light is allowed in, the more it shuts in a second, the less light. finally, ISO controls how sensitive the camera is to light that is allowed in. These three factors all contribute a great deal to the look of the film, while two factors could be spot on, if one is off, the film may look out of focus or a little too bright or dark.

The different shots (wide, close up, long) all i believe are able to be done, and i would like to put as many different shots in our film as possible without making it too cluttered. I particularly liked the scenes in Citizen Kane where three different depths of shot were all still in focus. As far as the rule of thirds is concerned, i want to stretch it a little. Maybe go outside the rule a little, not too much, i don't want to crush the rule, but more of bend it. Nose room and head room i would like to stretch a little also now that i think about it. OOO my favorite shot that i saw in class is when from a film where a woman walks away from the conversation to answer the phone, and instead of the camera following her to the room, we watch her walk down the hall, sit on the bed and answer the phone. The only thing is, we don't see the front half of her body, and the first instinct is to lean to the right to see around the door frame. Such an amazing shot!!! If i could have a shot half as amazing as that one, then i think i wil be happy with the whole film!

On a different note. How about those super bowl commercials! and the saints too i guess!

My favorite super bowl commercial of all time is the one second commercial that a beer company did last year. Miller light i think. Great commercial.

Peace people, enjoy the snow while its still around here in C-way

HERE WE GO!

First of all, the movie was very interesting. I thought the woman was creepy. enough about that.

Now, I want to talk about whether or not to tell the woman that she is past her prime. I believe that it is a friend's duty to tell someone the truth. Norma Desmond may have been a famous actress, but people have to face the facts at some point. If i were a close enough friend to Norma, i would have told her the deal. Her life was centered around the fact that she is the center of attention, when she simply is not all she thinks she is. It's pitiful. I don't blame the director for not busting her bubble, but i blame Max for almost everything. 

Joe, should have told her, was put in a horrible spot. He picked the WORST house to hide out in. That sucks to get stuck there. I think that he did actually get trapped, Norma "toy'ed" with his emotions and coerced him into staying. Poor guy. Ended up losing his life. I would like to say that Norma is a great shot with a pistol. Three shots. All of them hit. Not to mention she held the gun with her left hand. Better than i could do. Norma is crazy though. 

All of this could have been avoided a long time ago, just by simply telling Norma that she is past her prime. Joe should have gone with Betty, because she is a better person. Even if she is engaged with a different guy, she is still better than Norma. 

I was overall frustrated with the movie, well, more of just the story-line. Movie was good. The scene looking up from the bottom of the pool was a great picture.