Screen Arts - Week 9

08/04/2019

We watched trailers of Scorsese and Tarantino films like Pulp Fiction, Grindhouse, Age of Innocence, Raging Bull.

I have watched Pulp Fiction, I haven't watched Grindhouse and Age of Innocence, and the first half hour of Raging Bull. Lucky for me, we are going to watch Raging Bull as a class.

I had a one-on-one talk with Traci (my tutor) and she is more than happy with the content in my weekly blogs. She informed we have three weeks until the proposal is due, spelling and grammar is critical to this assessment (so I must get it proof-read by someone else before submitting), and when completing the proposal, to stick to the check list of things in the course outline. I told Traci that it is my intention for the proposal to do it on a scene where characters talk about engaging stuff concerning popular culture, which is a director's trademark of Tarantino that I'm interested in replicating in some shape or form.

As a result, Screenwriting is an aspect of his film that I'm interested in applying towards the proposal and will write up a sequence based on Tarantino's style of engaging dialogue (with pop culture references). Annoyed about the lights off.

Another Tarantino trademark I like is how he writes arguments and debates that are very well done, put together, and makes strong, good points.

Imagine if I did a discussion (for the proposal) between two people getting work done in a computer lab like The Cell or The Boom Room.

Chartoff, R., Savage, P., Winkler, I., & Scorsese, M. (1980). Raging bull [Motion picture]. United States: United Artists.

I tried to immerse myself watching Raging Bull with the class, but had a hard time getting engaged with the story and picking up on stuff in the film that was worth noting like I usually do in my blogs. However, I was watching the film with the class.

I like how they were able to pull off an archival 8 mm colour home movie look in the film in a montage with La Motta's wedding, family life, and his boxing career.

I managed to get three DVDs out from Chris for this blog over the term break and this week. The DVDs are THX 1138 (1971), Malcolm X (1992), and Natural Born Killers (1994).



Sturhahn, L., & Lucas, G. (1971). THX 1138 [Motion picture]. United States: Warner Brothers.

Having Buck Rogers at the beginning of the film was an interesting decision made by Lucas, since it was a serial that influenced him in his childhood and later when he made Star Wars, as well as the opening credit titles as having the hue of green that would later be used in the Lucasfilm logo and that they are scrolling down almost backwards.

Some of the visuals still hold up the test of time. It seems ahead of its time.

I like the lighting in this scene. I don't know how to describe why I like it.

THX has a distanced relationship with his mate under his sedation. When he is not under sedation, they have an intimate and sexual relationship.


Themes - Conformity, modern medicine, consumerism, surveillance, humanity vs inhumanity,

I would describe the film as Lucas' most thought-provoking piece of work, even more so than Star Wars. As well as being artistic, underrated, Orwellian, and unconventional in a contemporary way.

Radiation is like explosive acid in this film.

Interesting to show a justice system in this film's dystopian world. Not many films set in a dystopian society do. I quite like lighting to produce multi-colour silhouettes in this scene.

Overall artistic tone - White, pure, fluorescent, and clinical



The film seems to be an allegory of the counter culture movement at the time.

I only watched the first 37 minutes of the film because it was skipping on my PS4 and went forward 20 minutes further into the film, so I stopped there. I was paractically half-way through watching the film.

09/04/2019

I continued watching the movie on one of the computers in the Cell tonight


THX 1138 (1971) - continued...

I like how this mundane dynamic is complied in this scene and it's like computer technicians getting used to new technology and making mistakes along the way. 

I liked how the film was able to tell about a journey inside an endless abyss of pure whiteness. It would had been interesting to know how Lucas pulled this off in terms of production design.

I have noticed how they seem to like throw or drop things half-way through the film.

This part almost gave me a jump scare

The futuristic cars in this film look like cyberpunk Ferraris.

I managed to finish watching this film and how I have described the film yesterday still stands.

10/04/2019

Leva, G. (2004). Artifact from the future: the making of thx 1138 [Documentary]. United States: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

George Lucas claimed that the film wasn't about the future, it was a parable about life in 1970. It was also a sociological analyis.

It turns out I was right about one of themes being consumerism because it was discussed about the underground world in the film being a self-contained consumer culture. I was also spot on about it being Orwellian, because that's how Steven Spielberg defined the film as well.

Themes - Capitalism being the end of humanity, fear of leaving and going out into the world (consistent with all Lucas' films and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)

In retrospect, THX 1138 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest are films that have things in common with each other; they are both films that are an allegory of the counter culture movement against conformity, both released in the 1970's, and have a theme that is fear of leaving and going out into the world. 

Spielberg claimed that THX 1138 is one of the best science fiction films he has ever seen. Apparently, science fiction is his favourite film genre.

Francis Ford Coppola told Lucas that 'you won't be a good director, unless you're a good writer'.

Casting the character of LUH (THX's mate) was the hardest because many actresses reuses to have their head shaven for the role

Lucas and Coppola envisioned the film being set in the real world and desired to film it in Japan. Despite Lucas managing to do some location scouting in Japan, they couldn't film it there because of bureaucratic and budget constraints. It was filmed in San Franciso instead.

Almost all of the cast were locals and the even managed to get people from a local drug rehab to be extras and were paid $30 a day for their involvement.

35 days of principal photography

The film's camera department had experience in documentary filmmaking.

The experience of making this film was described as 'a very large student film'

Lucas has described the film as the most dramatic film in his career

Filming the nude scenes was in a Los Angeles film studio and proved to be an uncomfortable experience, especially for actor Robert Duvall

The endless white prison was filmed in a completely white film stage in Los Angeles tht was 150 feet long and 100 feet wide.

Grim scenes like Duvall's character (THX) being attacked by androids influenced Lucas for his next film to be funnier, which ended up being American Graffiti.

It was a big learning experience for Lucas because it was his first feature film.

Duvall would bring out his best performance in the filming rehearsals.

The film crew were amazed by Lucas' directing style because it was like he had been directing for a long time, despite only being 25 years old.

Lucas also called the film 'the documentary film of the future' and that's why he used real locations for filming. He referred to it as an 'artifact from the future'.

For filming on location for THX 1138, lighting was very minimal and at least used existing lighting in the places. It supported the documentary look and feel.

Despite wanting a documentary look and feel, Lucas didn't want handheld shots, but instead stylised cinematography with no camera movement. Almost stationary like a David Fincher film.

I would say that the only use of handheld was used in the scene with the causeway full of people. In that scene, they had 10 or 12 people moving close together and in circles to give an impression of a large crowd.

Getting the final shot was tedious because you had to hope to get the sun right in the shot and that could potentially take three days. It was shot at 24 fps on a 1000 mm long lens and wasn't a time lapse like the audience would think it was.

A lot of focus was put on sound editing and design during the post-production phase, particularly when establishing the environment for each scene.

Lucas' artistic intention with this film was to be abstract, which is potentially why Lucas and Coppola riled up Warner Bros. with the final cut of the film.

The film influenced 12 year old Frank Darabont (future director of Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile) into filmmaking. Spielberg later compared Blade Runner to THX 1138.