Screen Arts S2 - Week 13



09/10/2019


 Jacqui spoke about the inclusiveness film conference in Auckland. It's apparently common for artists or filmmakers to suffer from imposters syndrome, including Niki Caro. This is something I can relate to; I felt like a fraud doing the graduate diploma at the start of the year because there was a lot of practical knowledge that I didn't know and was expected to know.

 The film had features common in films of that era like multiple characters to do with a relationship. The cast being represent in an ordinary setting and not as stereotypes. It's believed that this film is a response from African-American filmmakers to Birth of a Nation.

 Spike Lee
I have done a review on on of his films in a past Screen Arts blog, Malcolm X

Ava Duvernay
Repeating themes in her films are racial injustice and criminal wrongdoing. I have seen Selma, but the trailers for look very promising and engaging.
Blog task: Research into the filmmakers

Ross, M., & Lee, S. (1989). Do the right thing [Motion picture] United States: Universal Pictures



The opening sequence seems like it goes on forever.
I wonder if the warm colour grade in this film is meant to represent a past setting or the film being in a hot summer.
Some of the cinematography dominantly uses surreal fish eye framing, which also reminiscent of the cinematography in Natural Born Killers.
Scenes where it expresses how hot it is makes me thirsty.

 I would describe this film as a good slice of life drama
The portrayal of Itallian Americans in this film seem stereotyped

12/10/2019


 Bourke, B. (2019). Ablaze [Television film]. New Zealand: Television New Zealand.



Last night, I watched this TV film on TVNZ OnDemand

 Themes - loyalty, bravery, the worth of life

 Ablaze is a very subjective film based on the 1947 Ballantynes fire in Chirstchurch. It still remains the worst fire disaster in New Zealand's history. This TV film is an absolute artistic triumph in doing something with a New Zealand period drama. Robert Sarkies once said that '...dramas should be more like documentaries..' and I think this film has managed to succeed in doing so.

 I don't know if it was the lighting, the framerate, or something done in post-production, but it really did look a film from that time period, there something about it that looked surreal, and the use of black and white helped mask any sort of VFX and helped blend in with the archival footage from the actual event. 








Even the production design for the exteriors looked like it was on a budget like films from that era of cinema. I would compare the filmmaking style in this TV film to It's a Wonderful Life and films by Ingmar Bergman. It was more authentic looking than what Tarantino tried to do by using black and white film in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood


The subjective portion of this film is in my opinion, more into the slice of life drama before the disaster, portraying social aspects of that time period (gender roles, and the strains, roles and relationships in the workplace), which was reminiscent of what your grandparents would tell you of working at a hotel or a place like Ballantynes.
The exterior scenes during the disaster had handheld, amongst the crowd type of cinematography that tries to be like a drama as well as a documentary




The performances were solid and at the same time, it paid great respect to the historical figures related to the event like March Mitchinson as Mr Ballantyne and Hannah Marshall as Violet Cody. This film managed to make thrill and work you up like any other disaster movie, period or true story drama e.g. Titanic, Out of the Blue.

 Ablaze would be a delight to see on screen and would had been an exhilarating cinematic experience. The use of the letterbox aspect ratio contributes to what makes this film cinematic. With documentaries, you not only try to document history, but also make it a cinematic experience at the same time.
The film also had great use of drama and action. I would highly recommend this TV film and deserves a lot of credit than just being a simple TV film about a NZ disaster.


Blog task: Research into filmmakers

 https://www.acmi.net.au/ideas/read/spike-lee/

 https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/jul/06/news.spikelee

 https://www.vibe.com/2012/12/spike-lee-slams-django-unchained-im-not-gonna-see-it

 https://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5015524

 https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/16/movies/critic-s-notebook-spike-lee-s-jews-passage-benign-cliche-into-bigotry.html

 https://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/06/spike-lee-is-writing-a-video-game-campaign/
Spike Lee
Spike Lee has seen and applied film as an inclusive business. He has encouraged other African-American filmmakers to concrete on being significant in the film industry and make a balance on being productive with their work, and not to make yourself a member of the industry that would eventually make you redundant. His repeating style of filmmaking seems to be of expressing social commentary on racial issues, his social conscience towards African Americans, and often accomplishes this through making social dramas.

 When he made The 25th Hour, he was the first New York filmmaker to depict life in the aftermath of 9/11 in a psychological way.

 Spike Lee had been a big critic of films that include African-American slavery to a degree like The Patriot and Django Unchained
He has also been the subject of controversy like anti-sentism in his Mo, 

 Lee had heavy involvement in the NKA 2015 video game, especially to do with its writing
I stopped the research there because I was getting overwhelmed, flustered, and stressed about everything. These were also reasons why I didn't work on my presentation like I was intending to do today

13/10/2019


 I gave a go at putting together my presentation and managed to get a few slides done. I got stuck at what techniques conveys meaning. I thought I had it, but I lost it in my mind. I did embed a 45 second segment of my tests into the presentation.












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