Inspiration from crit

Laslo Moholy Nagy's view of the ground from atop the Berlin Tower. Do you see how the ground and the structure itself begin to flip between foreground and background in the image?


A closer view.


Here is an image of the Eiffel Tower Nagy took. See how the lattice work and sky behind it begin to shift to the same picture plane as well?

I also remember mentioning Stan Brakhage in regards to Solina's piece. I wanted to originally show you guys a film entitled The Riddle of Lumen but it has since been taken off the internet. You can read about it and see some film stills here. (Also on that page are film stills and descriptions from his other work)

An awesome piece by Dan Graham - "Body Press"







Also, I found a textual recording of all the letters narrated in Sans Soleil. If you're interested you can read them here. The dvd of the film is available to check out from library west.

That's all I can remember for now. I'll post more as I remember.

Bazin Reading Response

I really enjoyed reading about Bazin and the way in which he perceived cinema as well as life. The interaction between film and life is interesting in a myriad of ways especially when he talks about the mummy complex. Using film, and/or photography to capture a moment in time is something that really interests me personally because I think the result is so beautiful. It also plays into the way in which he talks about cinema as never quite merging with reality because that is what allows it to be an artform whose mission is to reveal life. When taking a photograph or filming a movie the reality of what is captured is subjective in nature and representative of the artists thoughts, intentions and understanding of the subject matter being presented because they alone control what is captured. Along this same line, I disagree with his stance on montage. While I understand his emphasis on the continuous and uninterrupted nature of film, montage is just another form of presenting ones perception of what moments in time were most essential to understanding the nature of the film. In this regard I think he is somewhat close-minded but I love the way in which he views cinema and integrates a spiritual aspect into his perception of the art form.

Setting Up Your Shots Response

Dramatic angles, panning, tilting to look over large objects/buildings, fast or slow zoom to draw attention to certain aspects of scene, tilted horizon, dramatic and extreme angles.

To analyze the way in which shots were set up in movie productions I watched Inception. This film uses a lot of interesting angles and shooting techniques that are discussed in this reading to enhance the experience of the film itself and the understanding of the occurrences on screen. The most primary aspect of the film is the architecture, which is conveyed in a variety of forms throughout the film but starts out with the basic understanding of it in the shapes of buildings and cities. To initially disrupt the conditioned understanding of architecture the director creates dramatic and extreme angles while tilting and panning over the setting as the buildings/cities bend, shift, move and grow in various directions. As the narrative becomes more dramatic, so do the filming techniques; certain scenes are zoomed in on in different manners to draw attention to certain aspects within the frame, a tilted horizon is used in multiple scenes to further disrupt the idea of gravity and the normal layout of a landscape, tilting is also commonly used to disrupt this idea as well and create an overwhelming awareness of the architecture and its sheer size in relation to the viewer.

The Innovators 1950-1960: Divining the real

Bazin's stance on "the real" in film is interesting. The artists that Brazin seems to review and associate with are of the "fine art" caliber — the author places "Hollywood's geniuses on a lower rung." The use of film as art, and the ability of film to become art does seem to have roots in realism more so than the stories that our films depict so often nowadays. Fine as art seems to have a raw connection, not objective, but subjectively pure in its not trying to be anything else that commercial film downplays. The film is art is about the artist, it ties back to him or her — not the product.

The Innovators 1950-1960: Divining the real

I found this article to be quite interesting!  The part I was most interested in was Bazin's belief that the movie camera is science, and yet it "testifies to the miracle of God's creation".  This almost contradiction intrigued me, especially since today the video camera is seen neither as a tool of religion or of science, but that of art.  Also, Bazin's insight on "the mummy complex" shows that he was very observant and picked up on an intriguing idea.  Humans posses "an innate human need to halt the ceaseless flow of time" that has been around since the first cave painting, and has lead to not only the invention of art, but of photography and video as well.

André Bazin Reading Response

This was definitely an interesting read. I am intrigued by Bazin's views on cinema--"reality made art" in particular. His religious, reverent way of looking at the world and art/film was kind of a breath of fresh air. I feel that artists (not all, of course) can have a very narcissistic attitude when it comes to their work, so it was nice to see some humility and wonder within Bazin's mentality.

Overall, I thought this corresponds nicely with the project that we are currently working on. I found it interesting that Bazin disliked montage so much, especially since it is the route I am taking with this first short film. He seemed to feel that long, developed scenes were more true to reality; which I think is a good point but it depends on what you are trying to do with your piece. I enjoyed the read all together. It gave insight to a time before cinema was studied seriously and some different theories surrounding it.

The Innovators 1950-1960: Divining the real

I found this article really interesting. I love to watch movies as many people do and to read about Andres Bazin as one of the first film critiques was a bit surprising. From the article I got the feeling that Bazin saw cinema more as I would view a photograph, as a representation of reality, and was dissappointed by works that would "bend reality out of shape and force it t o reflect pervasive states of mind. My first thought was the opposite. I have always found movies as an escape from reality or my daily life, even though they often depict everyday life. It made me think a bit more about the representations of reality in movies I have seen recently and how many serve to be very realistic or true to life, while others are set in fantasy worlds or show things that could never happen in reality. I also found it interesting that Bazin saw the demise of montage in the year 2000, when clearly that has not been the case.

Andre Bazin Reading Response

Early in his development as a critic," Bazin longed to be a teacher. This passion for knowledge, teaching, and learning can later be seen in his ideas towards cinema - one that depended upon the viewer for interpretation. Bazin's opinions of film were no doubt based upon the societal view of photography, in which later fed the creation of motion picture. Like photo, film also had an "obligation" to reflect reality. For Bazin their were two types of directors, those who depend upon reality and those who did not. Bazin rejected montage because it directed the viewer, told them how to see things, and ultimately how to interpret it. It seems Bazin resented films that directed thought instead of creating it. His views about truth in cinema are vastly different from today's movies. Instead of truth, many films nowadays are not based upon reality, but often times far from it. Even today's "reality" television shows reflect the current trend of breaking away from reality. Even a "film" meant to represent truth is instead altered and is instead a created reality, as opposed to documented reality.

Andre Bazin

The reading about Andre Bazin was very inspirational. I really like how growing up, before he got his name famous, he did a variety of different things to get where he wanted to be. My favorite part was the cine club where they watched secret movies they weren’t suppose to! Another important part about Bazin was that his main source of inspiration was faith. I feel that faith is a very important part of daily life and I think that Bazin would agree. The idea that the world should be captured first and then critiqued is an interesting concept. The fact that Bazin followed by this is amazing. The world is such a beautiful place and I, too, think that we look before we think. Bazin also had a liking for montages and the simple things, as opposed to crazy and loud. For example, nature was something he fancied very much. 

The Innovators 1950-1960: Divining the Reel

Frenchman Andre Bazin had an early desire to teach; it's no wonder that he was the one to prime cinematography through the lens of the scholar. He was sent to teach kids whose education had been neglected with the start of World War I, creating a perfect audience for his anti-Nazi, banned cinematic screenings. After the war he got away from his educational ambitions for awhile in order to direct the cultural center at the Institut des Hautes études Cinématographiques and critique cinema at the paper Le Parisien libere. Following that, Sartre hired him to write for Les Temps modernes and he began to write for a variety of other publications as a cinematic expert. His life work was cut short after being diagnosed with Leukemia.

Andre Bazin's complete authenticity in his writing was often equated with his original desire to educate, and not function within his profession as a mere seeker of praise or stature. It may also originate from his belief in the camera's capture as the divine miracle of God; it fulfills that innate desire -within all of us- to see the world exactly reproduced outside of its original context in time. According to him, its successes stems from the lack of the human presence in the creation of the work, in contrast to the inadequacies of painting due to its subjectivity.Under his ideology of the true "real", he blatantly opposed the idea of the director's stylizing of reality, exposing the artifice of montage. Recognizing Hollywood movies for their "Classical" taste, he preferred the simple ideals of directors who approached their -realistic- films in a spiritual manner. Though he was afterward criticized for his desire over complete purity of truth, the over-stylized cinema of today makes it look as if there may be a turn towards simplification.

Andre Bazin Reading

After reading The Innovators 1950-1960: Divining the Real, my ideas of cinema and photography were contested. It is amazing how a single, frail man can start a whole new movement of cinema critics and ideology of capturing reality versus making art. I thought it was interesting he believed photography and the video camera were created to capture God’s beautiful work exactly as it appears in reality. But when a human uses the device to create a cinema, that pure reality is lost due to the artist’s decisions on what to capture. Therefore he believed cinema could never show reality without losing its artistic qualities. It is a shame this amazing mind was lost at such a young age, and I am curious to how movies and shows of today would be different if Bazin was still around developing and sharing his critiques and theories.

Blog Response: Bazin Article

This article was informative of a certain form of cinematography. Bazin was a man who was "married" to cinematography and the technique thereof in a spiritual sense. As referenced in the article he believed that the ones who filmed or photographed the world around them were preordained to reveal the recurring beauty of reality. He was concentrating on the pureness of the filmed image as one that shouldn't be touched or stained by an individual's ideologies or biases. He was not a fan of montage because it eluded to a cause, whether it be plain as day or somewhat sheltered within the images of the film. He was a avid participant in the movement known as personalism. It envisioned or admired the right of the creative individual to use their own will and right to make choices and take risks in life. I believe that Bazin eluded to a purer and more simplistic/natural form of cinematography. He believed in the capture of time and space - or the mummy complex as he called it. I agree with this aspect of photography and cinematography alike in that I enjoy points in time where certain details that are often overlooked are recorded and put into spotlight, if not only for a brief moment in time. It is often today that our society has grown tired of reality because I believe that roughly 1 out of every 3 movies produced today either have computer generated effects or are 3 dimensional. This is a direct opposite to the ideology of Bazin. The conscious choice to create something entirely abstract from reality is an ideal of the producer or the person who created the film, leaving the viewer to be capsulized by this set ideal. However, with realistic films, unless shot in a unique manner, the viewer may become bored with reality and wonder why they purchased a ticket. Bazin's ideology was based on the pure and untouched image. In society today, that image has all but disappeared behind the foggy glass of the tv.

Response to Bazin Article

I enjoyed the way the article described Bazin. Although I do not agree with all of Bazin's ideas and theories specifically regarding cinema, I still believe them to be very relevant. The article points out Bazin's undeniable influence and credibility in the introduction and conclusion of the article. Bazin may have shunned or misjudged other methods of filming, and, in turn, 'the budding generation of film pedants' and others did the same to him. Instead of bashing Bazin for the fallacies in his precise, specific strategies and theories in cinema, the article more or less dismisses them and focuses on his ideas and methods as an optional approach to filming.
I agree that Bazin was wrong in connecting the idea of realism (and/ or his idea of true realism) to cinema as one and the same. I find it even harder to agree with Bazin that specific things should occur or not occur to portray reality such as dramatic lighting and montages. Filming of reality is always bias, reflecting some what of an individual's influence and perception, whether it's through montages or long extended time frames. To relate cinema or photography, for that matter, to absolute reality was a very common misconception, however, and is still debated today!
Finally, I agree with the article and Bazin's assumed beliefs that while I am happy to have film now taught as a serious discipline, it is unfortunate that film is sometimes made into only a formal study of a discourse.

After reading this article I learned that Bazin is against most things that film stands for today. He believes that the director should be invisible, inevitably hiding artistic vision. He believed that films that stayed true to reality were true to god. His philosophy is interesting- "the mummy complex" which is the human need to halt time by embalming it in an image- and after reading this I understood why he had this perspective for film. I agree with it for certain things, but to extend it to the entire film industry would destroy it. His extreme realist view is such a contrast to modern day art films. It is almost the exact opposite to what is considered "good film."

I watched my favorite movie gladiator and after learning about montage I realized that the director uses it to show Maximus's past and thoughts. It is a key element in showing his afterlife and whats waiting for him. One important scene was the fight at the Tigris of Graul. The roaring crowd, swords clashing, and all the wounds are all experienced by the viewer through the sound and the camera angles. In particular, the fading in and out of the crowd while the fight is going on really engages the audience. The different angles during the fight scenes, showing the colosseum at a birds-eye view, the outside of it, then head shots and only body shots was another successful element of the movie. During the more conversational parts of the movie the director used mostly head shots to capture the emotion in their faces, especially of commodus and how he would react to suggestions and statements. How he reacts throughout the movie is a clear indicator of his character development.

Movie Review

For my assignment I chose the movie Zoolander. I find it very visually entertaining and dramatic in the way it is filmed.

Cinematic Techniques: Amélie

For this assignment I chose to watch Amélie, a french film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It follows a naive girl in Paris where upon finding an old metal box that used to belong to a young boy who lived in her apartment decades before, decides to return it to its rightful owner. Afterward she feels incredibly happy and decides to devote her life into making others happy. The cinematography in this film is breathtakingly beautiful. The streets of Paris are so rich in color and life. The color is heightened and selective which give it that warm rich feeling. When they show Amelie growing in the her Mother's stomach it is shown throw time-lapse photography.At the beginning of the movie when they introduce Amelie as a child the camera is zoomed in close to the objects she is playing with, and also her hands. This gives us a sense of intimacy with the child. When introducing the Mother and Father, they both stand at a distance giving a full body shot then zooming into their face to see the emotion on it. When the shots have people in it, it is not panned out to show the entire scene, but usually zoomed in on the faces and over the shoulders. Overall the movie gives a sense of magical reality through its colors and special camera techniques.

Movie Exercise

While watching the movie Caddyshack, I focused on the elements described in "Setting Up Your Shots." The 1980 film shows, to me, how certain techniques and styles fall in and out of favor. I noticed prominent use of pan (the nature of the golf-course setting in the movie lends itself to that), as well as plenty of cut transitions that were used to keep up with a lot of the fast paced dialogue. Screen directions also plays an important part in a scene depicting boats speeding about in a harbor.
What does tent to date the film, I think, is the use of fast zoom to emphasize. That sort of really quick movement is used in older movies from the 70s and 80s more than today, in my experience.
I'd say the camerawork was basic and clean for the most part, but based on the nature of the film, that doesn't really surprise me.

Exercise- Movie Review

I chose to watch the movie “Red Eye” since I have seen it a few times. I wanted to pick an action movie because I assumed there would be a lot of dramatic scenes. The movie begins with a montage with a mix of music and background noise from the opening scenes of the movie. There are various scenes with people opening boxes and cars driving by. This set up the storyline very well. There were also several shots of with various camera heights. Medium camera heights were used at some scenes so that we couldn’t see the faces of some of the characters to keep their identity a secret and adding intensity. Later, I noticed that there were no fading scenes, only cut transitions. There was also a lot of dollying following the main character, Lisa, as she rushed through the airport. There was a scene when Lisa was in the bathroom where it was focused on the back of her head and then the camera changed its focus to Lisa’s face in the mirror. I didn’t notice any tilting or use of mechanical techniques for varying angles. As the movie continued, there were still only cut transitions. There were a few small montages when the scenes were changing. Intense music was used and quick zooming across a landscape or a building. The movie had decent variation throughout and had good overall quality, in my opinion. 

Setting Up Your Shots Excercise

I watched "In a Day" and indie comedy. There a small montage in the very beginning, with shots of the town that are later seen later in the film. This movie also seemed to often use kind of "shaky" camera movements at certain moments following the characters while they were walking. In fact, almost anytime there was movement from a character the camera seemed to mimic their up and down movements, and when they stopped, the camera would be steady. Like most movies, a variety of film techniques were used. In one scene, a character is recalling when his saxophone was smashed after a performance. During this scene it almost mocks "serious" movements, because it keeps zooming in upon his face and finally stops with a major closeup of his eye. The dialogue used changes the over feeling the zooming in was creating, from one of seriousness to being humorous. The transitions in this film were usually made after fixating on a character silently for a few moments before cutting to a new scene. Panning was also used as a transitional element, going from one scene to the next in a fluid and natural way.

Digital Screenshots Assignment.

For my assignment, I chose the movie Grown Ups. The main characters in this movie are Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider. It is based on a story of a basketball game that they played and won as children. They were all brought together by their coach. The phrase that was the whole moral of the story was "Live your life like champions so that you regret nothing when that last buzzer sounds." Years later the boys had grown up and had their own families now. The thing that brought them back together was the death and funeral of their coach. In the end, they learn that each family has their own differences, secrets, and advantages, but they are all part of a single event that connected their lives together. In this movie, there was a lot of panning to the left and the right to give a sort of setting for the scene that is about to unfold. When people were in direct conversation with each other it showed them in close up in order of the one who was speaking at the time. He also showed close up shots to emphasize some kind of special conversation or private moment between couples in the movie. In the scene where they all go to the water park, which takes up a good portion of the movie, there is fast motion panning for effects that make the park seem new and fun. In some areas of the movie, there are points where the camera is elevated in the air and zooming in towards the horizon, giving the effect that the groups of families are out in the woods somewhere. This helps portray the cabin/lake house setting for the rest of the movie. The transitions throughout the movie are crisp and quick. There doesn't seem to be any fancy transitioning going on within the movie. The cuts of this movie and the composition overall make this a humorous and inspiring story.

Movie Review

I watched the movie “27 Dresses” because I have already seen it a few times and would be able to concentrate on the theatrical techniques. Throughout the movie, the majority of transitions were clean cuts and it was not until the very end was other transitions introduced such as fading into black and then back into another video. As a romantic comedy, there were not a lot of action scenes such as fighting or suspense but they still used different camera movements. Whenever the main character was walking, the camera would pan in the same direction to keep them in frame, but then would jump to close ups and then master shots to provide more movement and focus on specific areas. I did notice whenever there were conversations, it was always a close up shot and would cut to frame whichever character was speaking at the moment. If it were a very serious conversation or a lot of tension the cuts would be more abrupt to create tension and uneasiness. Moving trucks and the outside of buildings were also used to transition from scene to scene. When she was in her apartment, they did an upward tilt and subtle zoom from the street view up to the third story of the apartment video before quickly cutting to inside her apartment. This provided the viewer with direction and less confusion. Overall, there were only a few techniques used throughout and every so often random unique transitions or camera movements would be used.

Exercise: Cinematic Techniques

I revisited one of my favorite movies, "Once." The story follows a heartbroken street-musician and the feisty keyboardist he befriends. In the span of one week the two work together to write and record an array of songs. This movie has a low-budget, home-video kind of aesthetic (I am pretty sure this was an independent film). The way the camera moves and sways even during a still frame gives the impression that it is being held by someone. To me, this adds an authentic quality to the film. It seems as though someone were watching and filming these two individuals in their real, daily lives. A good amount of the shots are Dolly--the actors are usually seen in full-body and from far away. I noticed upon this viewing that a lot of times, rather than zooming in the camera, the cameraman actually moves closer to the scene. I felt that this was a very natural movement. In many instances, particularly when the characters are on the street, the shots are multi-leveled. In the opening scene, the street-musician is positioned far away from the camera on the sidewalk of a busy street. As the scene continues, cars pass in front of the camera blocking the action from view. There are also times throughout the film when the characters are in a public location and the other passerby walk in front, behind, and around them. To me, this once again added to the feeling of an actual event rather than something staged. All of the scenes flowed nicely. Transitions were usually quick cuts between angles, but they were never very dramatic. The director usually used Depth staging when the characters were talking to one another. All in all, it was an interesting experience paying attention to the camera techniques rather than the movie's plot.

Movie Review

"Best in Show", the dark comedy about the dog owners of the prestigious Kennel Club, humbles any the view of the elite by revealing the foolish, mundane, and ordinary lives of those within esteemed group. As I examined the movie's mechanical characteristics, I realized it was the truth of the composition to the documentary parody that was a key component in my appreciation of the film. Like a true documentary, the film encompassed such techniques as an alternating dolly from speaker to speaker, usually those being interviewed. Tilt is less commonly used, as it is more superfluous and less straight forward as the style of documentaries, but is employed most obviously to capture irony. Alternatively, pan was mostly used to capture more serious movements, like the owner walking with their dog across the kennel club stage. There are very few "mechanical" techniques, because it makes little sense for a film supposedly on a low budget -also with the pure truth in mind- to distort reality in that manner. Zoom and Pull focus was also used to capture a great deal of irony, and fit easily with the aesthetic of the low-budget film for the certain quality for the focus. Transitions were mostly just sharp shifts from scene to scene, no fade or anything smooth. Obviously, a documentary shouldn't have any form of video editing done to it, as to stick with the purity of the original capture. There is no montage, because that would discredit the truth of events. Mostly, the film tries to stay relatively "close up" in order to focus on the unique individuality of each character.