Saturday, October 27, 2018

Sunday, October 21, 2018

Assignment 1b : MISE-EN-SCENE in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows


  For this assignment, I have chosen to watch the movie "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 2" to analyze aspects of mise en scène: costume, setting, staging, and lighting. I chose this film to analyze because it is very easy to analyze, I believe I have seen an advertisement for the universal studio, and due to the fact that I ain't have anything better to watch.

  SETTING: 
   The set designers from this movie chose to use multiple different settings, but all relates back to the idea that the movie takes place in a fantasy world, For instance; Hogwart, Gringotts wizardry bank, and Diagon Alley. To go more in depth, the beginning of the movie kicks thing off moments where part one ended, on the beach where Harry and friends are burying Dobby the Elf, who sacrifices himself to save the crew, giving off a more greyish-dark and serious tone that follows throughout the majority of the film. The setting of the movie is important because it creates both a sense of place and a mood which helps the audience pick up the Harry Potter film is going to be very dramatic and very magical.

LIGHTING:
   Majority of the film was in the low-key lighting due to the fact to match the tone of the main theme and story. Elaborating on the last statement, since the main antagonist, Lord Voldemort, became introduced in the cinematic series, the plot became to take a more dark tone rather than being as joyous and vibrant, such as it was in the first three films due to the reason there has not been a major threat yet. Low-key lighting is the fill light at a very low level, causing the frame to be cast with large shadows. This causes stark contrasts between the darker and lighter parts of the framed image, and for much of the subject of the shot to be hidden behind in the shadows, making this lighting even more efficient since the protagonist are being hunted by the dark forces as Voldemort grows more powerful in the wizarding world. Overall, this lighting just does the film more justice then the other lighting choices, such as three-Point lighting (although was sometimes used) and high-key lighting (which was rarely used) because it just set the mood for the movie from the beginning of the movie to the final battle in the movie.

COSTUME:  
  The use of costume conveyed during the entire film help to convey the plot of the story: a group of young and rogue wizard on the loose for seven Horcruxes to defeat a murderous and manipulative dark wizard out to rule the magic word. In other words; Harry, Ron, and Heronime are all wearing dirty clothes and looked exhausted, which may be the intention the makeup artists were going for. However all the other wizards and magical lifeforms all seemed to be wearing robes and hats, since the setting mostly takes place in the wizarding world. the costume is an important part the film because it helps to apply to the setting and plot. 

STAGING AND ACTING: 
  Better explain from the website of college and media studies: " An actor or actress’s performance can make or break a movie regardless of how engaging the story is or how well the editing was done etc… It is the actor’s duty to bring his or her character to life within the framework of the story, and his emotional input dictates how strongly the audience feels about the film. Acting depends upon gesture and movement, expression and voice."

  I felt like the whole acting from the entire cast was flawless as the movie progress you feel a certain way about certain characters, or in simpler terms, you either hate them or love them.  There is a reason after all how the Harry Potter cinema has over eight movies. The Staging felt realistic also as half the scenes were taking in real life locations but sometimes on set too.

Monday, October 8, 2018

Assignment 8

 5 Master Edits Post With Sound
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYZV52SyqK4
  the link above is my original masterpiece a few weeks back, but this time with more sound! I will not be explaining the scenes demonstrating each editing technique but rather how the noises, music and et cetera change the scene up and how it affects the human emotions.

  • SOUND SOURCE: 
  In some of our scenes, we use several sound effects during our film, the background music is considered a non-diegetic sound: any sound that the audience can hear but the characters on the screen cannot. Normally background music is used to help set a tone or a mood of the scene itself to help give the audience an idea of what to feel. One example found in the video is in Contrast, the relaxing piano music is used to show the audience is the character determination and what appears to be "unbroken" study habit giving a sense of pure focus. The complete opposite of a non-diegetic sound is diegetic sound: any sound that the character or characters on screen can hear. Which can be view in the leit motif because people are talking and clearly interacting with their background/peers. Also in Symbolism, the actor is standing up while listening to the pledge of allegiances which can also be considered a direct sound: all of the sounds that are recorded at the time of filming.


  • SOUND EDITING: 
  What was used a lot in the video is the sound editingwhen any sound is edit in a clip (obviously in the name LOL). Noticeable examples are voice-over: a sound device wherein one hears the voice of a character and/or narrator speaking but the character in question is not speaking those words on the screen. In the Symbolism and Contrast clip, the voiceover editing was either used to help the audience get a better understanding of what is happening, like when explaining how the American flag relates to the pledge of allegiance, or to simply help set up a mood (in this case comic relief) as the voice-over in contrast show us how "serious" the character is into his studies even though he goes and goof off minutes later. The sound bridge is used once in the simultaneity clip. A sound bridge is a type of sound editing that occurs when sound carries over a visual transition in a film. The suspenseful music is used during the whole clip as we transition between the classroom where the teacher is waiting for a student and the actual student himself slowly and walking to the room himself in fear. The creates suspense and panic with the scene and might with the audience.
 

 

Friday, October 5, 2018

Assignment 7: Five Editing Techniques in the Boondocks

Five Editing Techniques Found in "The Boondocks"
Producer: Aaron McGrudder

(No audio included)


LEITMOTIF: A leitmotif shot includes a recurring theme, where in this case the theme was a repeated scene. So in the following clip above, The theme seems to be the ice cream melting. As the ice cream melts it helps the audience realize that a lot of time has passed as Usher and Sarah continue to have pictures and talk (In other words they are flirting) in front of Tom, who is waiting patiently so Sarah and Tom may continue their anniversary dinner.




CONTRAST: A contrast shot includes two differing shots to make the difference between them clearer. In this case, the contrast is a scene  where Tom seems to be enjoying the anniversity  dinner so much he burst out singing to his wife Sarah mistakenly taken her smile as if she is also having a great time, while during this scene the shots taken of Sarah shows that she is embarrassed, bored, cringing and rather be with R&B singer Usher. This contrast highlights their definition of having a great time due to the fact Sarah finds Tom is so boring and really lame, as shown through her reaction and mood in the entire scene, meanwhile Tom is having a hoot by being a straight up loser.



Parallelism: This editing technique bring two different scenes together by highlighting both their differences and the similarities between the two. In this video, Tom is doing some sort of weird musical video sequence as he get flashbacks of being kicked out of the house. These two scenes are similar as they relate to the plot: Tom being kicked out because of his insecurity of Usher and Sarah. They differ however because the Flashback scene shows us actually seeing Tom being kicked while that whole dance sequence was him singing about his hurt feelings.





Symbolism:  A symbolism shot moves from one scene to the next where there is a symbolic connection between the shots. In this case, the symbolic transition lies between the Usher shirt on Tom's daughter, Jasmine, and the actual person Usher himself when he got slapped by Tom. Thus, the symbolism of the shirt panning out to reveal Usher reaction of getting slapped is a clever way of transitioning use with the symbolism technique (had to use a picture because the video kept getting corrupted).


Simultaneity: The Simultaneity editing technique uses two scenes that occurs at the same exact time or around the same time period.Normally, simultaneity is use to build suspense towards the audience. In this case, if these videos ever load you should be able to see that a crazy insecure chick is talking to a friend giving her terrible and illegal advice to deal with her suitors, while the suitor and his two grandchildren are hiding in the bathroom discussing how to get rid of her as she grows more dangerous taking the advice.