For the last homework the ending that I chose was from the 2005 film ‘The Descent” the film is about a group of friends that journey down a cave to explore it and end up meeting some pretty horrifying creatures down there. The girls fight to survive but ultimately all get killed off from the creatures in the bottom. In this ending scene, the main character who has survived the longest seems to have hopes of being the only one out alive.  Just as we have hope for her we see that she sees a birthday cake reminding her off her deceased daughter. We then see what appears to be her daughter staring back at her. At first it’s confusing to the audience (it confused me the first time I saw it) but after deconstructing the movie due to the ambiguous ending,  I found out that in fact she never makes it out alive. The full ending shows her getting out and escaping to her car before this scene is shown and we realize that that was just an hallucination. She along with all the other girls end up dying down in the cave. I just found the ending to be so powerful and I liked the kind of “hopelessness” it leaves the viewer feeling when they discover that nobody makes it out alive. I’ve always found movies that don’t necessarily end on a happy note so much more interesting and intriguing than the simple and predictable “happy ending” Movies like that to me remind us that things don’t always work out and life is a balance of bad and good. To me they come off as a bit more realistic.

Watching  Attia’s video based on the film location of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963’s The Birds really puts into perspective how much time has passed by since the original filming of the movie. As Attia revisits these places we can see changes in the locations the film was shot at. One of the locations that really stood out was the revisit of “The Tides”restaurant. The restaurant had a cozy neighborhood type of vibe in the movie but looks much more grand and modernized today. It looks more like a chain now than an independently owned place.

I found the matte backdrops that were painted on in the film so much more atmospheric (as it was intended to) than what it looks like in real life present day. Obviously Hitchcock had a vision in mind and decided to recreate nature in a way that seemed more fitting to him. This is also apparent in the scene where Tippi’s character Melanie, along with Mitch walk towards the hills overlooking a matte painted background rendition of the countryside.  The lighting on the characters and the fact that there is no wind indication as the grass isn’t moving makes it obvious to a modern viewer that this was replicated in the studio. It’s interesting that Hitchcock was such a control freak to the point of trying to manipulate nature for his own artistic vision.

https://youtu.be/K2GPBBxFpEw

In this sequence for the movie “Royal Tenenbaums”, the character Richie Tenenbaums goes to the bathroom to shave himself. The use of jump cuts in this sequence is necessary both visually and timely. Shaving is usually something that is considered to be a monotonous task and can take a while. In order to show the impact of the character’s physical transformation while keeping the audience engaged and not bored, the use of jump cuts were implemented to suggest the passage of time as Richie shaves himself.

The opening scene that I chose was Pulp Fiction’s. This movie being one of Tarantino’s most  recognizable and impactful starts out with the two characters Pumkin and Honey Bunny eating breakfast at a diner. Pumkin then gets the idea to rob the place when he realizes that robbers never rob restaurants. Honey Bunny his girlfriend becomes excited with the idea and soon the two pull out their guns and rob the place.

I find this opening sequence so interesting for many reasons. The first is that it just kind of starts abruptly. Tarantino stated numerous times how he did this on purpose to set the tone for the non-linear narrative of the film. The two after discussing plans to rob the place seem to start getting really turned on by each other by the idea of the act.  In the end of the film we see the continuation of this scene and what proceeds after it and it ties the end of the narrative of the movie.  This scene is very non conventional like the rest of the movie and immediately dives right in to the story. We don’t really know much about these two characters, but it’s sort of explained as you see their dialogue unfold. We get an idea about who they are and what they do based on their plotting of their next heist. After some convincing Honey Bunny agrees to rob the diner and the two engage in a passionate kiss before they rob the place.

Another interesting thing to point out is the reasons for the non-linear narrative in the story. In this opening scene we get Pumkin and Honey Bunny’s perspectives but when we catch up to them later in the movie we get the overall perspective thanks to the other characters later introduced.