Screen Arts - S2 Week 3



24/07/2019

We are looking at Jane Campion and Sofia Coopla films for this week's week. For a related film to watch later for this class, we had a choice out of The Beguiled, An Angel at my Table, The Piano, and Top of the Lake. We ended up choosing The Beguiled.
Campion, J. (1982). Peel [short film]. Australia: Australian Film and Television School.

 Peel
I quite like the transition with the sound design at the beginning, going from a series of a abstract thud to an object bouncing against a surface inside a car.


Trailers of Jane Campion's films

 Stephaniedarling. (2009, January 11). An angel at my table trailer [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfMh-fRSH5E


An Angel at My Table 
It's a film I have seen and is one of my favourite NZ films
Movieclips Classic Trailers. (2015, May 14). The piano (1993) official trailer - holly hunter, anna paquin movie hd [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyTn4XIYH8M


The Piano
It's a film I have seen
4 All. (2009, October 23). Bright star - official trailer [hd] [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0nx5Iu6KQo

Bright Star
From watching the trailer, it seemed like just another generic Jane Austen melodrama
We also watched the trailer for Top of the Lake.

 BBC. (2013, June 27). Top of the lake: launch trailer - bbc two [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TujPm45jhLw


Sofia Coppola must really like having Kirsten Dunsten and working with her in her films. 

Trailers of Sofia Coppola's films

 Glows. (2008, October 1). The virgin suicides trailer (1999) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbz4-du3Ayg

 The Virgin Suicides
The trailer tells me that it's a teen drama and thriller.


Thecultbox. (2011, April 24). Lost in translation (2003) - official trailer [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU0oZsqeG_s

Lost in Translation
It tells me that the film has a story arc of being a comedy-drama to being a rom-com


Movieclips Classic Trailers. (2017, March 28). Marie antoinette (2006) official trailer 1 - kirsten dunst movie [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBWyKRoh98U

 Marie Antoinette
It's a brilliant film that really gets creative with using contemporary (motion graphics and music) with a period drama
The trailer makes the film seem like a mix of rom-com and melodrama


Movieclips Trailers. (2017, April 19). The beguiled trailer #1 (2017) | movieclips trailers [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBoLK5z_FHo

 The Beguiled 
This trailer also had something like a story arc, but this time it goes from being a melodrama to a psychological thriller




Blog tasks for this week
Differences between Campion and Coppola
Review The Beguiled

Henley, Y., & Coppola, S. (2017). The beguiled [Motion picture]. United States: Universal Pictures.
The movie title is reminds you of films of the era of the original film that this film is a remake of.

 Religious and historical context - American Civil War, The American South, Christianity

 Themes - War, innocence, jealousy

 There is a bit of sexual constraint / tension, and conservatism towards the women interacting with John

 The adult women are devout Christians, as well as strict, conservative authority figure. Despite Edwina trying to be like that, she is much flawed than Miss Martha

 The teenage women are clearly naive and innocent, and staunchly in favour of the Confederates.

 Edwina is potentially in between of the naive and innocence in the teenage women and the conservatism of Miss Martha

 The cinematography provides a soft, smooth, and elegant colours and lighting

 Strengths - Performances, screenplay, cinematography

 There is a clearly a dilemma on whether to let John die or amputate his leg

 John's hate towards losing his leg is not as dark as it was suggested in the trailer.




Over the weekend, I was in the mood to watch Hunger Games movies. I skipped the first movie because I have watched that movie heaps as teenager and I wanted to watch Catching Fire more. Another reason why I revisiting this franchise is because I hadn't watched the Mockingjay films of the franchise before and I had been putting it off for the past four to five years.

Jacobson, N., Kilik, J., Porter, A. L., Unkeless, B., & Lawrence, F. (2013). The hunger games: catching fire [Motion picture]. United States: Lionsgate.


Catching Fire is by far the strongest film in the franchise and it excels well in its characterization, screenwriting, visual effects, and performances.
Jacobson, N., Kilik, J., Unkeless, B., & Lawrence, F. (2014). The hunger games: mockingjay - part 1 [Motion picture]. United States: Lionsgate.

Mockingjay: Part 1 was underwhelming and barely past expectations just as much as The Matrix sequels. 
Bernard, J., Fisser, C., Jacobson, N., Kilik, J., Molfenter, H., Unkeless, B., Woebcken, C., & Lawrence, F. (2015). The hunger games: mockingjay - part 2 [Motion picture]. United States: Lionsgate.


Mockingjay Part 2 was even more underwhelming since there was no feeling of closure or satisfaction as I would expect from the final film in this franchise. I wish there were more in the epilogue and I would compare this film to the final season of Game of Thrones. 

 Like the final season of Game of Thrones, we have a character that has a sliver-haired ally to the protagonist (Daenerys Targaryen / President Coin) who burns people as a means to an end in taking power and ultimately gets killed by the protagonist (Jon Snow / Katniss Everdeen) afterwards for the greater good.



The film's strengths are the performances, but its weakness is in screenplay (but not all) and visual effects (Uncanny Valley in Phillip Seymour Hoffman's posthumous CG double, even Fast and Furious 7 did a better a job with a posthumous CG double of Paul Walker). At one point, Hoffman's character is on the very edge of a holographic broadcast, which was probably just the visual effects artists being lazy. 




An example of Lawrence's quality performance in this film is her monologue trying to convince a District 2 refugee and would-be assassin about the bigger picture. She brings great charisma to this scene and reminds me of something female Commander Shepard would say in the Mass Effect trilogy.


I could strongly empathize with Katniss' grief of losing her sister, it was like I lost someone too. I don't know how I would continue on with my life with the type of mental angst and trauma, and PTSD that Katniss had to endure.

 Overall and in general, both Mockingjay films were disappointing.


27/07/2019

Renee V. (2018). How filmmakers use aspect ratios to tell better stories. Retrieved July 27, 2019, from https://nofilmschool.com/2018/03/how-filmmakers-use-aspect-ratios-tell-better-stories?fbclid=IwAR0s73yPz7oLpDZSKKKeLC-hNaz7ldbA1K-p7vQe9LBF8Bn-3hmtKbjUBn4

 Fandor. (2018, February 12). Sfx secrets: aspect ratios [Video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/255452914
Stylistic and narrative reasons for filmmakers choosing aspect ratios

  • Claustrophobia.
  • Add context to the story.
  • Capture sweeping landscapes through ultra widescreen formats.
  • It's a critically thought-out, creative decision, rather than a default setting / decision.
  • CinemaScope aspect ratios became a popular choice for filmmakers in the 1950's. Beforehand, most films were shot in the Academy Ratio.


  • Time period.
  • David Fincher shoots in 2:35:1, which supports his films' sleek cinematography and wide environments.

  • A director's personal choice.
  • Andrew Arnold uses Academy Ratio to apply claustrophobia.

  • A Ghost Story was shot in 1:33:1 to apply isolation and to express how trapped the protagonist feels. A circular, home video type of border is used to express nostalgia / memory.

  • The Hateful Eight's use of an ultra wide aspect ratio (2:76:1) is to compliment natural landscapes, but also to support feelings of paranoia and unease.
The purpose behind films switching between different aspect ratios (e.g. The Dark Knight) can be because of different time periods in the story, interaction from on-screen characters, express characters' emotions and to differentiate between nightmare (much narrower aspect ratio) and reality.









Choice of aspect ratios for filmmakers in the first half of the twentieth century was limited and were forced to implement the Academy Ratio, whereas filmmakers of today are free to choose whatever aspect ratio they want.


Hellerman, J. (2019). When to use 'continuous' in a script?. Retrieved July 27, 2019, from https://nofilmschool.com/When-to-use-Continuous-script?fbclid=IwAR0INzMq5jJvdi8Cdkq0lWfx1vhKsLBheItb2twd090dtmsJYqj-jRIFaIk


You use cont'd in a screenplay when a scene is in the same location as the previous scene (you include CONTINUOUS in the next scene heading, rather than day or night) or you can have DAY or NIGHT with CONTINUOUS in brackets.


Hellerman, J. (2019). What is cinema verite and how can you use it in film and tv?. Retrieved July 27, 2019, from https://nofilmschool.com/what-is-cinema-verite?fbclid=IwAR0nyw6YbMDF6Ul8RUT2Oc_mGkZM9spFbv7OEsrSzOihW8npsYj5NmCGY8w


Cinema verite
  • It means 'truthful cinema' and is a filmmaking style that is defined by applying realism, which is mainly used in documentaries and avoids anything artistic or artificial. It's almost like Dogma 95.
  • It heavily influenced American cinema with 'direct cinema' and internationally with 'observational cinema'. 
  • The British called Cinema verite, 'free cinema'.
  • Like Dogma 95, cinema verite liberates film from commercial or mainstream virtues
  • You can simply create a cinema verite film by making a documentary


Quentin Tarantino screenplay for Reservoir Dogs



28/07/2019

'Tech Royale' screenplay



The differences between Campion and Coppola is that Coppola has a much more contemporary style to historical dramas like Marie Antoinette, whereas Campion has stayed in the generic formula towards her historical dramas like The Piano and Bright Star. Unlike Campion, Coppola hasn't directed biopics about literary figures like Campion did with An Angel at my Table and Bright Star. 

 Campion is an Australasian director, whereas Coppola is American filmmaker. However, Coppola does go back forth to making films set in Europe and America. Campion mainly sets her stories in Australia and New Zealand, if not set in Europe.

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