Friday, 27 February 2009
Lateness Update
The reason I haven't posted recently is because of the facts that firstly our group was busy filming the preliminary exercise. Secondly we have had a number of discussions between ourselves which we have recorded of which will be posted soon, as well as another film analyses. One problem though is that I have been unable to get my hands on the film Old boy so the next film analyses will be Death note and Death note 2 the Last name, both of which precede the film L change the world.
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Thriller conventions
- A crime at the core of the narrator (often murder, but not necessarily).
- A complex narrative structure with false paths, clues & resolutions.
- A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which the viewer expects to be resolved.
- A protagonist who is systematically - empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by the antagonist.
- Extraordinary events happening in ordinaty situations
- Themes of identity
- Themes of mirroring
- Themes of voyeurism
- Protagonist with a flair which is exploited by the antagonist
- Titles often reflect an aspect of the protagonists/antagonists psychological state
- there is oftenn a scene towards the end of the film in which the protagonist is in peril.
- Mise en scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonists plight.
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Future analyses
The next film I hope to do an analyses of is a film which was created in south Korea called ‘Old boy’ like Casshern this is a live action movie based off a Japanese series of the same name that from what I’ve sticks closely to the original ploy unlike the previous film I analysed and its part of the thriller genre so I hope to get my hands on it soon. (Also it ranks 32nd in all-time national movie box-office records).
Message to anyone else in my media class who see's this
Because we cannot use copyrighted music in our projects I will be searching the internet for sites with music that should be okay to use so as I find these sites I shall post them here for people to use. (Keep in mind any music used must be credited respectfully).
http://www.ocremix.org/
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/
only two for the moment but I'll add more as I find them.
http://www.ocremix.org/
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/
only two for the moment but I'll add more as I find them.
Casshern analyses
The film Casshern is a Japanese action film based from the anime series that was originally created over 30 years ago by the company Tatsunoko and since has been updated and this film reinvents what the series is about. The series is originally about a boy called Tetsuya Azuma who dons a suit that turns him into a neoroid so he can face the armies of the black king because of what it’s going to humanity. Now this live action feature does somewhat stick to this bases but it changes the bases of the protagonist and everyone around him to a degree and also adds a lot of characters that are main characters. Now at first I will admit I was sceptical as most movie adaptations of something that already exists almost never work especially when they change the plot so much as this one, for example the Transformers movie added a ton of human characters alongside the pre-existing characters and many of the fans now feel alienated. Back to Casshern now. Casshern this time round tells the story of the boy Tetsuya Azuma (played by Yusuke Iseya) whose father Kotaro Azuma (played by Akira Terao) is trying to create a cure for his wife Midori (played by Kanako Higuchi) who has a terminal illness. Through the use of a finding of his called neo cells which are very similar to stem cells of now days except these can be taken from a certain ethnicity of people from any time in their biological life. From an accident the antagonists are made. Now when I watched this film it was far from what I thought it would be like especially as I’m a big fan of the previous incarnations of the series, although this is stated to be a film of the action genre I would use the term action loosely to describe it as there are actually only 2 fight scenes in the entire 142 minute long film, instead it delves into some more philosophical matters such as, is getting what one wants after so many have lost something important to them right and whether one can be seen as good or the other as evil, especially when two enemies will think the same things about the other, also throughout the film there’s a big WW2 Nazi overtone to both protagonist and antagonist but that will be talked about in the mise en scene part.
Sound
The use of music in this film is of an excellent standard and does a great job setting the mood and tone of each scene, in the film there is actually hardly a moment where no music is playing but that doesn’t mean the music is intrusive in any respect, it usually plays out usually quietly in the background while people are talking and such, though when the action starts to pick up the music grows very loud from an orchestral piece to a very quick rock theme of sorts. In quite a few scenes through the film there is no dialogue spoken at all but instead the actors use body language and facial expressions to get the characters feelings across and the musical score will often give use a rather large clue to what is actually taking place. The film actually starts with a well known piece of music called moonlight sonata – 1st movement originally played by Ludwig van Beethoven, this song plays out for a rather long time as things taking place in the film go from bad to worse for the characters, this one song gives us a heads up of what’s really going on before it even happens in the film as the parents of Tetsuya find out that their son is dead and clips of Tetsuya in a war zone are played, it is here where this one song starts to play on a lower key and really symbolizes the anguish of the characters. During the fight scenes the music becomes either some kind of quick techno beat or rock music to show how quick the action is moving along and to across a feeling of intensity to the audience watching. During these scenes as people are fighting sound effects are used to great effect like in many other Japanese films, as people move sounds like whistles are heard to show how fast they are moving almost to show that their bodies are literally cutting through the air. As with most films sounds of things such as a fist making contact with someone’s face is greatly exaggerated with the sound used being made a lot louder.
Camera
Although this film is shot entirely in front of a green screen there is quite a lot of camera movement. The first notable one is where professor Azuma is giving a speech about his medical breakthrough, the camera takes on all kinds of angles going from panning across the audience listening to a close up of the lead chairman who is hooked up to a ventilator as he struggles to breathe, a long shot is then shown of professor Azuma as it pans slowly around him. The Camera shots in the fight scenes are quite short before going to another angle, much like a fight scene in one of the Matrix films. The camera will stay out of the action just enough so that it gives a clear shot of what’s going on but it wont show much of what is going on around the people very often unless what the actors are doing involves the scenery in any way. After these shots it will sometimes go into a an extreme close up of the peoples faces that are fighting when they either get hurt or they are the person dealing out the damage to show how they feel also close ups are used when the actors are doing some flashy looking stunts such as spinning swords around, doing high jumps and generally getting thrown around the room. During the second fight scene when Casshern fights an entire army of robots lots of long shots and crane shots are used to show just how many of these things the protagonist is actually fighting which gives a real sense of epic the scene at hand is. Often times in the film shots are taken from a distance where the frame is in deep focus and what actually takes up a lot of the frame is the surrounding environment so often times in this film the camera will either be in a close up or a long shot but hardly ever in just a normal shot. One reason why the film constantly has everything in focus is that the film is mostly filmed in front of a green screen so everything that’s edited in would look sharp.
Mise en scene
The entire film is set very artistically and has a strong use of expressionism about it as the dominant colours through most of the film are white, red and black and the overall feel of the film is quite steam punk quite reminiscent of Final Fantasy VII in some parts. Often in scenes these are the only colours that can be distinguished. The characters costumes range from mostly people wearing black suits or coats, a main antagonist who wears nothing but a red cloak and has pure white hair, the main antagonist’s underlings who wear only black and red as well as the robot army that they have gained controlled of, and the protagonist Casshern who is in a suit of futuristic white armour. One thing that is really striking though is the costumes of the army that is supposedly the side the protagonist is on as they also only wear complete black but they have black leather masks around their face and goggles on around their eyes which are tinted black, this gives the look of gas masks or the look of them being as much machines as the antagonists army, creating a strong similarity between both the armies even though they are on opposing sides it shows how similar these two are as Casshern realises at the end. As mentioned in the introduction there is a large world war 2 Nazi overtone through this as many of the backgrounds are black and red, not to mention the laboratory that professor Azuma works in has something written in German on the walls, though the Nazi overtones are strongest when looking at the side of the antagonist. When the main antagonist Burai first takes a cloak he rips a flag off the top of a building, this could be metaphor for him soon to be trying to take down the country much like how Hitler changed most of the flags with Nazi ones in use of propaganda. Also when in the castle that the main antagonist finds it is decorated with symbols that ominously look similar to the swastika if it had only three points instead of four and on red banners no less, the place is decorated in black with many animals carved into furniture as well, the one which strikes out most being the eagle over the bed in which Midori is sleeping in. The robots of the antagonists army obviously were created by CG but one the way that they look is similar to storm troopers of the Nazi’s as they wear all dark colours, they all march in perfect sequence, and on top of their heads they have spikes pointing directly up much like the helmets German soldiers would wear. At one point in the movie the new leader of the humans begins giving a speech which is full of empty promises and lies that everyone begins to hear around the cities much like how Hitler used to get his messages across in his propaganda. The architecture in the film is odd as it looks very old in one sense because all the machines that are being used have big gears and cogs turning which make them look a lot older than newer as though they have come straight from the industrial revolution. One scene shown is of the robot army going through a city destroying everything and everyone in their paths and they are all shown marching in unison march like soldiers would, again the dominant colours portrayed are red, white and black, but the streets are all coloured in a deep blue colour and the sky is a jet black which although doesn’t look natural does make it seem more high-key in terms of lighting otherwise it would make it hard to see what going on in the city rather than what’s in the sky. Later on the characters Naito and the general’s son are in a battleship on the way to the stronghold where Burai’s army is the sky is set as an orange/brown sunset, this could be the day coming to an end, this could symbolize how this war is about to come to an end one way or another, with either the forces of the humans prevailing, or the dreams of Burai’s conquest becoming reality. The battle field that both armies fight on is baron and muddy much like how in the old wars trench warfare was dominant also both sides when moving don’t seem to move quickly at all, but they walk slowly towards each other much like how the war was fought back in world war 1 when the captain on either sides of the trenches blew their whistles and went over into what was called no mans land.
Editing
The film is mostly CG, parts of scenes are either all CG or they have the actors playing their parts inn front of a green screen before it goes into editing while some props are real. Through the entire film there are about two ways the camera is used to change and distort the picture, one being that in certain scenes everything white creates a blur on the camera lens so often times when Casshern is in the frame his armour is very distorted giving him the look of something holy and just almost like an angel or something else ethereal the second effect is that when shots of the outside world where there’s a war taking place, the frame starts to look very grainy and the colour is faded out to give it the appearance of an old war film. During the fight scenes of the film where Casshern battles the antagonists many special effects are used such as bullet time, which does seem a little over used in one fight scene but isn’t really used much afterwards, the second effect is slow motion when actors make contact during battle, as said before this is often followed by an extreme close up, thirdly a lot blurring is used on the backgrounds during these scenes to show how fast the people in the frame are moving during the first fight scene the tapestry on the walls is all a blur as the camera is moving all around the room following the actors, papers and documents are also flying up in the air to give the effect of the actors speed, it gives the impression that they were moving as fast as a tornado spin and after the fight has ended. The machine army in this film was created through the use of CGI; the robot army during one particular fight scene with Casshern are edited in to make them look like they are being fought by Casshern as he rips through them literally with his bare hands. A host of special effects are also used such as another green screen effect that shows Casshern running up alongside of the wall and an effect used when he jumps off the top of a building from atop of a building, also when Casshern jumps several feet in the air where he then lands on top of the tank Burai is standing on top of a tank that is also created through CGI. Towards the very end of the film as the final battle between the two armies is taking place montage is used to further build the feelings of war as black and white footage from the German side of the war dissolves in and out as the fighting continues of people killing and dying in the war to show that it doesn’t matter when, where or even who the war is between, war is always wrong and always has consequences.
Things to take away
One thing to take away is the art direction of the film, now I know when I create the 2 minute intro project I wont be able to afford the editing software or green screens to create the special effects of those that were in Casshern but one thing that could be done to give our film a certain art direction is the use of costumes, props and location also, things that could be used is that I could use specific colours and tones of lighting. A second thing to take away is the use of music that is used the entire way through, maybe when I come round to making my project I could use music the entire way through with little gaps of silence. One last thing to take away and probably the most important thing is how a good portion of the scenes are filmed with almost no dialogue but with the viewer understanding all that’s going on through the actors use of body language and facial expressions.
Sound
The use of music in this film is of an excellent standard and does a great job setting the mood and tone of each scene, in the film there is actually hardly a moment where no music is playing but that doesn’t mean the music is intrusive in any respect, it usually plays out usually quietly in the background while people are talking and such, though when the action starts to pick up the music grows very loud from an orchestral piece to a very quick rock theme of sorts. In quite a few scenes through the film there is no dialogue spoken at all but instead the actors use body language and facial expressions to get the characters feelings across and the musical score will often give use a rather large clue to what is actually taking place. The film actually starts with a well known piece of music called moonlight sonata – 1st movement originally played by Ludwig van Beethoven, this song plays out for a rather long time as things taking place in the film go from bad to worse for the characters, this one song gives us a heads up of what’s really going on before it even happens in the film as the parents of Tetsuya find out that their son is dead and clips of Tetsuya in a war zone are played, it is here where this one song starts to play on a lower key and really symbolizes the anguish of the characters. During the fight scenes the music becomes either some kind of quick techno beat or rock music to show how quick the action is moving along and to across a feeling of intensity to the audience watching. During these scenes as people are fighting sound effects are used to great effect like in many other Japanese films, as people move sounds like whistles are heard to show how fast they are moving almost to show that their bodies are literally cutting through the air. As with most films sounds of things such as a fist making contact with someone’s face is greatly exaggerated with the sound used being made a lot louder.
Camera
Although this film is shot entirely in front of a green screen there is quite a lot of camera movement. The first notable one is where professor Azuma is giving a speech about his medical breakthrough, the camera takes on all kinds of angles going from panning across the audience listening to a close up of the lead chairman who is hooked up to a ventilator as he struggles to breathe, a long shot is then shown of professor Azuma as it pans slowly around him. The Camera shots in the fight scenes are quite short before going to another angle, much like a fight scene in one of the Matrix films. The camera will stay out of the action just enough so that it gives a clear shot of what’s going on but it wont show much of what is going on around the people very often unless what the actors are doing involves the scenery in any way. After these shots it will sometimes go into a an extreme close up of the peoples faces that are fighting when they either get hurt or they are the person dealing out the damage to show how they feel also close ups are used when the actors are doing some flashy looking stunts such as spinning swords around, doing high jumps and generally getting thrown around the room. During the second fight scene when Casshern fights an entire army of robots lots of long shots and crane shots are used to show just how many of these things the protagonist is actually fighting which gives a real sense of epic the scene at hand is. Often times in the film shots are taken from a distance where the frame is in deep focus and what actually takes up a lot of the frame is the surrounding environment so often times in this film the camera will either be in a close up or a long shot but hardly ever in just a normal shot. One reason why the film constantly has everything in focus is that the film is mostly filmed in front of a green screen so everything that’s edited in would look sharp.
Mise en scene
The entire film is set very artistically and has a strong use of expressionism about it as the dominant colours through most of the film are white, red and black and the overall feel of the film is quite steam punk quite reminiscent of Final Fantasy VII in some parts. Often in scenes these are the only colours that can be distinguished. The characters costumes range from mostly people wearing black suits or coats, a main antagonist who wears nothing but a red cloak and has pure white hair, the main antagonist’s underlings who wear only black and red as well as the robot army that they have gained controlled of, and the protagonist Casshern who is in a suit of futuristic white armour. One thing that is really striking though is the costumes of the army that is supposedly the side the protagonist is on as they also only wear complete black but they have black leather masks around their face and goggles on around their eyes which are tinted black, this gives the look of gas masks or the look of them being as much machines as the antagonists army, creating a strong similarity between both the armies even though they are on opposing sides it shows how similar these two are as Casshern realises at the end. As mentioned in the introduction there is a large world war 2 Nazi overtone through this as many of the backgrounds are black and red, not to mention the laboratory that professor Azuma works in has something written in German on the walls, though the Nazi overtones are strongest when looking at the side of the antagonist. When the main antagonist Burai first takes a cloak he rips a flag off the top of a building, this could be metaphor for him soon to be trying to take down the country much like how Hitler changed most of the flags with Nazi ones in use of propaganda. Also when in the castle that the main antagonist finds it is decorated with symbols that ominously look similar to the swastika if it had only three points instead of four and on red banners no less, the place is decorated in black with many animals carved into furniture as well, the one which strikes out most being the eagle over the bed in which Midori is sleeping in. The robots of the antagonists army obviously were created by CG but one the way that they look is similar to storm troopers of the Nazi’s as they wear all dark colours, they all march in perfect sequence, and on top of their heads they have spikes pointing directly up much like the helmets German soldiers would wear. At one point in the movie the new leader of the humans begins giving a speech which is full of empty promises and lies that everyone begins to hear around the cities much like how Hitler used to get his messages across in his propaganda. The architecture in the film is odd as it looks very old in one sense because all the machines that are being used have big gears and cogs turning which make them look a lot older than newer as though they have come straight from the industrial revolution. One scene shown is of the robot army going through a city destroying everything and everyone in their paths and they are all shown marching in unison march like soldiers would, again the dominant colours portrayed are red, white and black, but the streets are all coloured in a deep blue colour and the sky is a jet black which although doesn’t look natural does make it seem more high-key in terms of lighting otherwise it would make it hard to see what going on in the city rather than what’s in the sky. Later on the characters Naito and the general’s son are in a battleship on the way to the stronghold where Burai’s army is the sky is set as an orange/brown sunset, this could be the day coming to an end, this could symbolize how this war is about to come to an end one way or another, with either the forces of the humans prevailing, or the dreams of Burai’s conquest becoming reality. The battle field that both armies fight on is baron and muddy much like how in the old wars trench warfare was dominant also both sides when moving don’t seem to move quickly at all, but they walk slowly towards each other much like how the war was fought back in world war 1 when the captain on either sides of the trenches blew their whistles and went over into what was called no mans land.
Editing
The film is mostly CG, parts of scenes are either all CG or they have the actors playing their parts inn front of a green screen before it goes into editing while some props are real. Through the entire film there are about two ways the camera is used to change and distort the picture, one being that in certain scenes everything white creates a blur on the camera lens so often times when Casshern is in the frame his armour is very distorted giving him the look of something holy and just almost like an angel or something else ethereal the second effect is that when shots of the outside world where there’s a war taking place, the frame starts to look very grainy and the colour is faded out to give it the appearance of an old war film. During the fight scenes of the film where Casshern battles the antagonists many special effects are used such as bullet time, which does seem a little over used in one fight scene but isn’t really used much afterwards, the second effect is slow motion when actors make contact during battle, as said before this is often followed by an extreme close up, thirdly a lot blurring is used on the backgrounds during these scenes to show how fast the people in the frame are moving during the first fight scene the tapestry on the walls is all a blur as the camera is moving all around the room following the actors, papers and documents are also flying up in the air to give the effect of the actors speed, it gives the impression that they were moving as fast as a tornado spin and after the fight has ended. The machine army in this film was created through the use of CGI; the robot army during one particular fight scene with Casshern are edited in to make them look like they are being fought by Casshern as he rips through them literally with his bare hands. A host of special effects are also used such as another green screen effect that shows Casshern running up alongside of the wall and an effect used when he jumps off the top of a building from atop of a building, also when Casshern jumps several feet in the air where he then lands on top of the tank Burai is standing on top of a tank that is also created through CGI. Towards the very end of the film as the final battle between the two armies is taking place montage is used to further build the feelings of war as black and white footage from the German side of the war dissolves in and out as the fighting continues of people killing and dying in the war to show that it doesn’t matter when, where or even who the war is between, war is always wrong and always has consequences.
Things to take away
One thing to take away is the art direction of the film, now I know when I create the 2 minute intro project I wont be able to afford the editing software or green screens to create the special effects of those that were in Casshern but one thing that could be done to give our film a certain art direction is the use of costumes, props and location also, things that could be used is that I could use specific colours and tones of lighting. A second thing to take away is the use of music that is used the entire way through, maybe when I come round to making my project I could use music the entire way through with little gaps of silence. One last thing to take away and probably the most important thing is how a good portion of the scenes are filmed with almost no dialogue but with the viewer understanding all that’s going on through the actors use of body language and facial expressions.
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