Lecture 9 - What Does it all Mean Part 1: My Little Underground

This week we walked off the beaten path and discussed art films and art house theaters. In that regard we watched Jean Vigo's L'Atalante (1934).

 

If you missed the screening you can watch the film here on Hulu Plus. 

To continue on this discussion I would like to include this video of French New Wave filmmaker Francois Truffaut talking about the first time he saw L'Atalante and it's influence on him.

 

I don't want to understate the importance of the art house scene and how it changed cinema. Below are several links to points of interest. Please review all of them.

• We venture into the sinister underbelly of cinema with a look at Arthouse Directors Who Aren't Afraid of the Dark.
• The late Roger Ebert reviews Bunuel/Dali's Un Chien Andalou.
• In a follow up, witness the film that highlighted the Dadaist movement by watching Un Chien Andalou in full on Vimeo. WARNING: ONLY FOR THE BRAVEST CINEPHILE.
• The Guardian makes a list of what they consider the 25 Best Arthouse Films of All Time . 
• The concept of Trash Cinema was discussed and many were interested in this classification. Here's an article by The Guardian about art house director Quentin Tarantino: Champion of Trash Cinema (although I disagree with the article's writer stating Tarantino failing as a "serious film-maker") and a Now article about the Myth of the So-Bad-It's-Good Movie.
• Listverse creates a list of the Top 10 Avant-Garde Filmmakers and examples of their work.
• And for those of you interested in seeking out many of these art house films look to The Criterion Collection on Hulu Plus.

Finally, one of my personal favorite Avant-Garde films, Sincerely, Joe P Bear (1999), and my own film made in tribute to it, Frozen in Wonderland (2009). 

If this discussion resonates with you and you want to lend your voice to stream please comment below with your personal favorite "art film" and what makes you consider it such. Be kind and play nice.

Lecture 8 - The Soundscape and the Soundtrack

Discussion dealt with the concept of soundscape and the use of soundtracks. While Singin' in the Rain (1952) was shown in class I also advocated watching The Conversation (1974), which is streaming on Netflix.

Below are articles I found of interest related to soundscape and soundtrack:

• AMC Filmsite is back with their list of the 100 Best Movie Soundtracks
• This video features a 10 minute tribute to The 30 Most Famous Film Scores.
• Whatculture! lists what they feel are the Top 5 Film Composers You Should Know About.
• Filmsound.org, a site dedicated to sound design in film, has a 4 part series on The Early History of Film Sound.
• Sound and Music discusses the horror genre and asks Is There a Sound of Fear?
• The Cinephile Fix discusses The Power of Sound and Editing by discussing The Conversation and Psycho. 

Lecture 7 - The Edit and the Editor

During this lecture we discussed the idea about how a film's editor creates meaning as well as how emotion can be manipulated through techniques such as the Kuleshov Effect. The film screened to go along with this discussion was (500) Days of Summer (2009).

During the discussion I also featured a video of Alfred Hitcock discussing the Kuleshov Effect, re-posted here:

 

Below are links to various articles and post that expand the lecture. Please be sure to overlook and examine all of them as I could choose to pull elements from any article to include in the exam. 

• We talked a lot about editing and how it creates meaning and emotion. This article delves much deeper in how by explaining Why Film Editing Works.
• Listverse proposes their Top 10 Best Film Editing Sequences. 
• A major topic regarded Soviet Montage and how the Kuleshov Effect works. This IO9 expands by asking Can the Kuleshov Effect Really Control Your Perception of Other People's Feeling? 
• On the lighter side, this articles list 8 Magical Movie Montages with videos featuring Rocky, Up, and Rushmore. 
• We discussed the idea of Theatrical Cuts VS Director's Cuts.
• In a follow up are three articles featuring the Director's Guild of America establishing the history of the Directors' Cut, Mental Floss citing examples of 10 Director's Cuts that Changed the Plot of their film, and A.V. Club arguing 13-Plus Movies Weakened by (their) Director's cuts (which brings up the E.T. director's cut we discussed in the lecture).

Lecture 6 - The Production Design

We discussed the importance of production design as well as the role of the Production Designer for film. The film chosen by the class to be screened was Batman Returns (1992).

Below is a second video outlying the making of the film...

 

 ...as well as links to articles I think would be of assistance with the understanding of production design:

We talked about the Elements of Art but this article uses the visual elements to springboard into a discussion of the Elements of Film. 

Meet in the Lobby outlines their 4 Films that Helped Define Production Design. 

The New York Times get Inside the Production Designer of 'The Hobbit' and discover it takes a whole country to make Middle Earth.

Finally, I would not normally post a Tumblr tag but this one dedicated for Production Design is stunning. Take the time and investigate.

The slides for this week lecture can be found here. Enjoy.

Mid-Term Review

We reviewed all the lectures and films we have seen up to this point.
We also watched Harold and Maude (1971).
 

 

Mid-term Review

Lecture 5 - The Cinematographer and the Camera

We discussed the role of the cinematographer and basics of the film camera.  We started the film Children of Men (2006).

Below are several articles I would like you to read in correlation with the lecture.

A more detailed description of How Cinematographers work..
The Black Box Blue blog list their Top 10 Directors of Photography (Cinematographers). 
TvTropes outline a decent description for The Oner while also providing an extensive list.
Shot4shot goes into depth about the Oner and various other tracking shots from Children of Men.
The New York Times outlines the decline of film stock and How Digital is Changing the Nature of Moves.
And finally, a video on the oners/long takes of Children of Men

Lecture 4 - Film Genre

We discussed the role of the film genre with a focus on the horror genre. Going along with this we screened the horror film Session 9 (2001).

Going along with the horror genre I would like you to go out and seek out a horror film to screen independently and be prepared to discuss next class. While watching the film of you choice be sure to look for the elements we discussed that help group genre film such as:

SETTING

THEME / TOPIC

MOOD

FORMAT

On a side note, once you have identify the elements of genre then perhaps it would be benifitial to go ahead a write a review for the film you screened for your blog.

Here is a list of the 100 best horror films that have been deemed significant by Time Out London.

Below are several links the articles I would like you to read in relation to our classroom discussion.

• Filmsite.org is a film website that has a extensive list of the Main Film Genres as well as sub-genres and hybrid genres. Warning: Website has pop-up windows.
• allmovie.com also has a extensive list of Movie Genres and Subgenres with many film examples for each genre.
• Life123.com gives us some examples of Characteristics of the Horror Genre. 
• And finally, another article about Writing a Film Review, including writing about genres.