Category Archives: Student Posts

Homework, Student Posts

Cody HOMEWORK#5: ENDINGS: THE BREAKFAST CLUB

1 Comment

 

 

Well, since my first Homework post was about the beginning of the Breakfast Club. Its only natural that my last homework post is about the ending of The Breakfast Club. In a way The Breakfast Clubs’s ending is rather typical and predictable. The bad boy(Bender) and the princess(Clair) get together and the jock(Andrew) and the quiet girl(Allison) get together. The nerd(Brian) on the other hand gets pressured into writing one final paper that all five of them can take credit for. What sets this apart from other movies that follow the same pattern is that you actually feel that each one of the five main characters have actually grown from the eight hours or so that they spent together. Each one of them almost does a complete 180 from the first time that we see them.

Bender is no longer the degenerate criminal that he once was at the beginning. Clair isn’t the stuck up, high maintenance girl anymore. Andrew has learned to relax and not take his wrestling competition as seriously anymore. Brian becomes more confident in not only his school work, but with his new found friends. And quiet Allison gets a new makeover and becomes more outgoing.  The Allison makeover part of the movie is pretty controversial, and it’s worth delving into. A lot of critics were upset that she needed to change herself and look more like a Claire-type girl in order to fully win Andrew’s affection. I personally believe that this really isn’t a big deal. The scene is less about becoming more “Clair like” and more about being able to see her face clearly for the first time in the movie.

The film’s final image freezes on Bender as he pumps his fist in place as the song “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” plays in the background. Its almost as if the movies is saying that it hopes that the five major characters don’t forget about each other and that the friendships will continue to last forever. Truly a great end to a great movie v

Homework, Student Posts

Homework#4- “The Birds”

Leave a comment

I think it’s always interesting to see films from a different perspective. In this case, in  a deconstructed view. It almost makes what you’ve seen in the movie more real. Tangible. But, at the same time it’s almost like you’re intruding in a way. You’re supposed to see it the way it was originally presented. By seeing the locations as they are almost feels like entering into another dimension too. Like something is off but it’s almost familiar. Scene at 6:33 into the Herve Attia film is a good example of this feeling. It shows the stark difference in landscape from the present outlook to the films original scenery.

Homework, Student Posts

HOMEWORK #4 FILMING LOCATIONS

Leave a comment

After watching Herve Attia’s fan film of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”, I thinks it cool and really shows the length some people will go to show us the beauty of film and the work that comes with it. It’s clear to me that there has been some changes to some of the locations and that is to be expected. It’s  impressive how much work his team and him did to make this film. It was a very nice touch when we saw a side by side comparison of his film and the original Hitchcock classic. From the looks of it took blood and sweet for them to get the best result. It  makes us appreciate the film even more to know that they went and did all this  for our viewing pleasure.

 

Homework, Student Posts

Homework#5: Ending of Inception

Leave a comment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhavsmsi_5M

I thought Inception was an overall great movie. Throughout the movie we witness the characters attempt to navigate the dreamworld while simultaneously fighting for their lives. Should they die in the dream, they should also die in reality. The difference between the two often becoming skewed. It is only with objects like Cobb’s (DiCaprio) totem is he able to discern the real from the fake. At the end of the movie he finally reunited with his children. The totem he has attempted to spin long forgotten. As the audience that last thing we see is the totem spin then almost come to a stop. But we never see it stop. Both Cobb and we have no idea if he had actually awakened into reality. It is an ambiguous ending. It leaves us with many questions. Perhaps even questioning whether Cobb even knew what reality truly was at all.

Student Posts

Bin Bin Zheng_Homework #4: Filming Locations-Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’

1 Comment

Watching the short clip of Attia going back to the set of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, I get a better understanding of how much effort went into filming the movie. Most of the roads and landscape where uneven and messy. Setting a tracking shot or having a flat area for the camera must have been hell to do. It looks like some of the areas were changed, implying some parts were filmed in a studio or somewhere else. For example, when the lady is driving in the car, you can clearly see there are lines on the road, however, when we switch to a side view, no lines in the road. It was nice of the town to keep some of the important landmarks of the film. It makes a good tourist trap. It was a smart move of Hitchcock to use the natural environment, fewer things to worry about later that needs to be faked.

It takes a true fan to walk back in the footstep of a great director like Hitchcock. It helps bring the film to life, creating a possibility that the events like the movie could happen because the place that it happened at is real. Attia’s short helps viewer discover a side that is never shown in the movie. We as fans see what has happened after 50 years, and the question, “did it really happen?” comes to mind.

Homework, Student Posts

Homework #4: Filming Locations

1 Comment

To think that people can actually go back to an area, deconstruct and check different locations similar to an original film and have it remade in a way that makes it look the same as the original is outstanding! A lot of time and preparation must have been taken in order to be precise in doing this. Anyone can get an idea of the original film and redo it in as aspect that displays the same idea, but to bring a different location back to life in the way that the original portrays is not as easy as it sounds. Also, if this was a random job description for someone to complete, it would not of came out the way it did. A major reason it came out the way it did is because of his hobby, which is more of being passionate and drawn to a certain aspect that makes you want to perfect its image, literally. I also believe that having workers and supporters are great to pull this off, but the overall thought process should be done by the one main person who wants to get the job done because they’re the ones that have all the evidence in front of them that they can compare and work to reconstruct the perfect location in every aspect, all the way down to the minor details.

Homework, Student Posts

Homework #4- Filming Locations

3 Comments

I think that it is amazing how some people can go back, deconstruct and revisit different locations of a film and compare it to the original look that was filmed. It’s clear to see, from the side by side video, that there has been some changes to some of the locations that has been made since the shooting days. From the videos there has been some remodeling done on certain buildings, some painting done, and some environmental changes. It’s really impressive how Attia can go to these Sonoma County and point out the various locations that were used to film “The Birds”. There must be a lot of preparation and research done to achieve this. The fact that it’s his hobby also adds to the quality of work he has put into this video. Everything is his work is so authentic all the way down to the small brief moments of the scene. He films the roads that Tippi Hedren drives on, to other smaller scenes by the bay.He’s also exposing and informing a lot of information for other fans of this film as well. It also makes other people further appreciate “The Birds” by being more knowledgeable and for others, a little nostalgic perhaps.

Student Posts

HOMEWORK #3 REQUIEM FOR A DREAM JUMP CUT

Leave a comment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR49jU4Ika4

Jump cuts are used to give the effect of jumping forwards in time. In this clip from the film Requiem For A Dream we are shown a man who is selling drugs on the corner in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn to help his girlfriend purse he fashion career because of the use of the jump cut we can see the progression of the amount of money he was making  starting to accumulate it seemed to be less than a minute but in the film it was a longer period of time.

Student Posts

Drive Jump Cuts Homework 3

Leave a comment

Drive uses jump cuts in a slightly different way than jump cuts are usually used here. Normally jump cuts make the in-your-face and urgency of a situation rise to the surface. Here the jump cuts work as normal, they are fast paced and motivate the urgency of the scene for the audience but  fail to phase Ryan Gossling (Driver). The Driver stays calm and professional to a degree which defies the jump cut. The Driver is not moved by the passage of time nor the neediness of the two robbers in his rear seat.  The camera constantly cuts to his very nervous passengers and the start contrast between the driver and the robbers is almost unsettling. After the viewer watches the scene they are rooting for the Driver, maybe for no reason other than its Ryan Gossling. Either way the audience is feeling the urgency of the chase scene and the calm demeanor of the Driver is reassuring and inspires confidence.  Then the Driver turn up the radio that we have been hearing between the police scanner,  The Clippers basketball game. This cut takes the Driver even further emotionally out of the scene, almost poking fun at the job he is doing. By the end we see that he has taken the criminals to the parking garage near the basketball game as cover for escaping, almost humorous. The jump cuts in Drive move the story along in a timely manner but function well as character development for the Driver. A difficult task but achieved to perfection here.

Homework, Student Posts

Homework 3: Taxi Driver

Leave a comment

This 70’s drama made by director Martin Scorsese stars Robert De Niro (shown in the clip above) as insomniac ex-Marine Travis Bickle who is a Taxi Driver in New York City. After an encounter with a malevolent fare (played by Scorsese), increasingly paranoid Travis begins to condition (and arm) himself for his imagined destiny. The series of jump cuts used in this scene show us (the silent audience) how paranoia has consumed him and taken over his life .