Independent Study

Task: Write a list of things to do in order to complete the Independent Study effectively. Suggest a timescale for each stage, working towards a final deadline in May 2012. List even the obvious things (like choosing films, watching films...)

 

List:

1. Choose two films for two different countries

2. Watch the films

3. Make a script (8-10 pages)

4. Make a rationale for each film (maximum 100 words)

5. Annotated list of sources (materials used in the researching and the document)

The third man (1949)

The context of the film:

Where and when was it set, and what social and politic themes does the film explore?

The film was released in the 31 August 1949 at the UK. It was filmed at Vienna at different parts of the city.  


Genre:

What genre is the film? (You need to know this in depth) Technically, what are the features of this genre, and this film? Find 3-4 images to illustrate your point.

The genre of the film is Film Noir. This kind of films were developed during and after World War II. It was a style of black and white American films created in the 1940´s, and lasted until about 1960.

          Characteristic:

It has dark, shadowy images filmed in black and white. They are often at night and usually in a gritty urban setting. Many times the setting is nameless. Very often the films are based on a type of crime or a detective story. Characters are usually pretty likable and they sometimes smoke during the film. The main character is always facing a moral dilemma or any kind of threat. Women are usually dangerous and independent. It is common to see a director of a German school. The use of the flashbacks (a change of time from past and present) is very present . There is a voice over narrator, which are used mainly during flashbacks. All the authentically films noir don’t have a good ending.

Critical reception:

Find at least two essays, or works of critical analysis on The Third Man. Link them in your blog, and print them out ready for tomorrow's lesson.

http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/39053.html

http://www.filmsite.org/thir.html

http://varifrank.com/archives/2004/10/the_third_man_r_1.php

 

High school scene shots

Waiting for superman

Pre-production:

• Have many camaras
• Have many people to film
• Have a way to transport form a place to other
• Computer to make all the editing
• Plan all the questions that are going to be asked
• Know who are the most affected

Production:

The persons that were filmed are parents, children, teachers, etc. The place where they are filmed is in mainly in schools and houses at USA. All with the same target that is saying their opinion about the theme. All the filmed stuff is recorded and then edited, so it isn´t capured live, it is archived footage.

Post-production:

In the documentary I can see that there are some editing. For example there are parts where there is a voice and a a video about what is he or she saying. This is recorded in different moments and when editing they are put all together. Also there are some cut present in the film, when it changes the place or the person talking. There is a background music most of the time, but it is more remarkable in the most emotioning, shocking and tensioning parts. This is made in order to make the audience feel what the children feel at that moment

Six Point Plan

Car accidents

I have chosen this topic because i would like to know more about the theme. My message I want to leave to the audience is that people  drive or are starting to specially males drive fast and some adults drive fast too not knowing the damge that could cause to other persons or to the them, to make the audience reflex about what they will do while driving a car.

My target audience are thous persons that can legally drive a car. That means people aged 17 or upwards. But specially for the younger ones because they have less experience driving and they go faster than the allowed just for fun.  

To make my project I will use material from Internet like Youtube videos and if it is possible make a survey to some drivers to know what they think about the theme. I would consider the people that I interrogate the secondary sources because it is just one person´s opinion. And I will consider Youtube videos like a primary source because they are watched by much more people and  who watches a video can comment and put a like or a dislike to the video and that is giving the opinion of the audience about the video and that is better than one person giving his opinon of the theme.  

Documentary analysis

This is a triler called Waiting For Superman





In this video I can hear around 18 differnent voices from students, teachers and interviewers. I can also hear music at the back like a non-digetic sound. All the footage is many different interviews to persons with the same target, that it is to educate young children. And also there are some interviews to young maybe poor people. The main types of documentary are: reference of the interviewed person to let the audience know who is the person talking. The editing is good because it connects the voice of the person talking and the video about his or her life at school. And the education statistics are shown with a close up to the USA

Silent Cinema

Chaplin


Charles Spencer Chaplin,  (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977), known as Charlie Chaplin, was an English comic actor, film director and composer best-known for his work during the silent film era.He became one of the most famous film stars in the world before the end of the First World War. Chaplin used mime, slapstick and other visual comedy routines, and continued well into the era of the talkies, though his films decreased in frequency from the end of the 1920s.



Ince Thomas


Ince directed over 100 films but is better known as a producer who in 1912 founded Inceville, the first modern Hollywood studio. Ince established firm hierarchies, supervising all aspects of production and retaining authority over the final cut of all films. The studio used five self-contained shooting stages, production units each headed by a different director, and detailed shooting scripts with strict timetables that planned out production shot-by-shot. Inceville became the model for Hollywood’s industrial mode of film production.


Georges Méliès


While the Lumière brothers demonstrated cinema’s documentary function, Méliès is considered the first to explore the medium’s potential for fictional storytelling. In films such as A Trip to the Moon (1902), Méliès created whimsical adventure stories that were shot on elaborate stage sets and that became popular for their sight gags and otherworldly imagery. Méliès was a pioneer in the use of optical effects, editing, mise-en-scène, and lighting design. His inventive and fantastical films revealed the medium’s ability to convey artistic creativity and imagination.


Oscar Micheaux


Micheaux was one of the most important American independent filmmakers of the silent era. He established the Micheaux film company and, between 1918 and 1948, wrote, directed, produced, and distributed more than 30 films. An African-American, Micheaux made films with black casts targeted at black audiences, seeking to counter the prejudiced, historically inaccurate, and disempowering representations of racial minorities in the Hollywood cinema of the period.


Carl Theodor Dreyer


The danish director Dreyer directed what many consider to be the greatest silent film ever made, The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), a triumph of realism and spiritual expressiveness. Depicting the trial of Joan of Arc, the film’s courtroom scenes are shot almost exclusively in close-up, situating all the film’s meaning and drama in the slightest movements of its protagonist’s face. Dreyer continued to investigate the power of faith in a world of skepticism and hardship and the connection between the material and spiritual realms in acclaimed sound films such as Day of Wrath (1943) and Ordet (1954).


Silent Film’s Influence on Contemporary Cinema


Starting with names such as Cecil B. De Mille and Charles Chaplin movie making was revolutionized. They also opened up the way for future filmmakers such as Brian DePalma, Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola, and many others. Technology has also evolved in ways far beyond their wildest imaginations, yet the basic rules of filmmaking set back then are still around.


Cecil B. De Mille was the first man to shoot in Hollywood, and he set a precedent that would make this area world famous and synonymous with moviemaking. The first style of movies were called “Melodramas”, since they were simply plays that could have taken place on any stage (Drama) and had a melody, usually piano music, to it . At that moment music wasn’t recorded, so the music was played at the theatre. Early films usually contained few to no dialogue and were usually physically based comedies. It wasn’t until Charles Chaplin that moviemaking was taken to a higher notch of professionalism.



This new era of film gave birth to stars such as Carry Grant (whose real name is Archibald Leach) and James Stewart, also to one of the greatest movies ever made: “Citizen Kane” by Orson Welles. This movie was so groundbreaking, that most of its techniques are still used today (such as the angles, the play with shadows, etc.) It jumbles around in chronological order and shows the main character (who dies in the opening shot) from the different points of views of his friends. This delivers a mixed image and leaves the viewer completely on their own.


Another future star was Alfred Hitchcock. Starting with the first “The man who knew too much” which catapulted him to the status he was famous for he continually added to moviemaking. One of his most revolutionary films, “Rope” is shot in a steady-cam movement, which means it’s almost one shot. Hitchcock’s intention with this was to bring acting back to the stage.


Buster Keaton


The Three Keatons: Buster, his father Joe Keaton and mother Myra Keaton acts are one of the most dangerous in vaudeville, was about how to discipline a prankster child. Buster was thrown all over the stage and even into the audience. By age 21 his father was so alcoholic the stunts became too. After returning from ten months with the U.S. Army (40th Infantry Division) in France. His first full-length feature, The Saphead (1920), established him as a star in his own right. By the middle of 1921 he had his own production company--Buster Keaton Productions-and was writing, directing and starring in his own films. His first film for MGM The Cameraman (1928). His creativity becoming increasingly stifled, he began to drink excessively. His films around 1930 were his most successful. His drinking led to a disregard for schedules and erratic behavior on the MGM lot, and a disastrous confrontation with Louis Mayer resulted in him being fired. By 1932 he was a divorced alcoholic, getting work where he could, mostly in short comedies. In 1935 he entered a mental hospital. MGM rehired him in 1937 earning $100 a week. In 1947 his career rebounded with a live appearance at Cirque Medrano in Paris. In 1952 James Mason, found a secret store of presumably lost nitrate stock of many of Buster's early films; film historian and archivist Raymond Rohauer began preservations of Buster's work. In 1959 he received an Oscar for his life work in comedy. He died at 70 years of age.


End of the silent cinema


By 1929, "silent film" reached its peak - it was the international language If the movie is filmed, for example, in Germany, then it could understand, feel and experience in America, Britain, Italy, France. This did not happen immediately. For a while, "silent movies" have existed in parallel with the "talking".


Lilian Hill Davis was a great silent film actress, when she lost her job, then committed suicide by cutting his throat in France, the victims were sound, mostly Russian immigrants Shahatunin barely spoke French and had become a make-up artist Ivan Mazhuhin lost its popularity, but he continued.


The Jazz Singer

"The Jazz Singer" (1927), America came talkies in Europe, the film was originally shown in a silent version to its voice system was used Vitapfone - sound on a separate disc was synchronized with the image George Pearson. But the "silent films" were never silent - their show is always accompanied by live music.


The story is about Jakie Rabinowitz defying the traditions of his devout Jewish family by singing in a beer hall. Punished by his father, a cantor, Jakie runs away from home. Some years later, now calling himself Jack Robin, he has become a talented jazz singer. He attempts to build a career as an entertainer, but his professional ambitions ultimately come into conflict with the demands of his home and heritage.The silent movie was created by Louis Le Prince in 1888.

The first time ever that people actually paid money to see a movie was at Koster & Bial's Music Hall in New York City was on the 20 April, 1896.


Birth of a nation

The Birth of a Nation (originally called The Clansman) is a 1915 American silent film co-written (with Frank E. Woods), co-produced (with Harry Aitken), and directed by D. W. Griffith and based on the novel and play The Clansman, both by Thomas Dixon, Jr. It was originally released on February 8, 1915. The film was originally presented in two parts, separated by an intermission.


The film chronicles the relationship of two families in Civil War and Reconstruction-era America: the pro-Union northern Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy southern Camerons over the course of several years. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth is dramatized.


According to Variety, The Birth of a Nation, estimated $110,000, is the highest-grossing film of the silent film era, with earnings of approximately $10 million and has been praised for its technical innovations.


The film is also credited as one of the events which inspired the formation of the "second era" Ku Klux Klan at Stone Mountain, Georgia in the same year. Indeed, The Birth of a Nation was used as a recruiting tool for the KKK.

Modern adaptation

"Austin Powers" inspired by "The Great Dictator". We can see a connection between Chaplin’s character and the evil character from Austin Powers. They are both crazy and want to be the owners of the world.Produced by Warner Bros. With its Vitapfone sound-on-disc system, the movie stars Al Jolson. Directed by Alan Crosland, it is based on a play by Samson Raphaelson.

Here is a scene of the movie "The Great Dictator". That it was the first movie in which Chaplin speaks.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJOuoyoMhj8

Camera Shots

Tweety faces a long day at school. He doesn't like it one bit.

(High angle)

During break time, he tells Mati about his plan to escape.

(Low angle, close-up)

For some reason, Mati, who is 8 feet tall, looks down on Tweety to assert his manhood. In the end, he agrees to join him in his escapade.

(Close-up)

All of a sudden, Mati finds a way out! He is thrilled!

(Establishing shot)

Tweety climbs up the Sports Building, convinced it is the way out.

(POV)

Soon Mati joins him, trusting in his leader.

(Low angle)

Tweety nearly falls off, but no one seems to care.

(Extreme close-up)

Mati realizes that the break is nearly over, and decides to give up on the escapade.

Tweety can't believe Mati abandoned him, and decides to mope on a bench inside the school. He questions his existence in the world.

Strangers

This short is about two persons that meet in a subway. I can notice that both are Jews: one of them is wearing a necklace with a Jews symbol and the other one is reading an Arabic newspaper. Suddenly a group of persons who seem to be Nazis arrive. In the moment they arrive he hides the necklace inside his t-shirt. That group of persons sat near one and painted a Nazis symbol in the newspaper he was reading. It is full of tension everybody is watching straight at the other’s eyes like waiting for something to happen. When the train stops and when they were about to get out, rings the cell phone of one of them but not with any ringtone, it is a Jewish song. The Nazis noticed that he was also a Jewish. So the Nazis stared at him not only because of the music also because of the fact that he couldn’t find the phone in his backpack. Then he finds it, turns it off and put it away. An instant after that the Jews run and they Nazis went behind them trying to get them. They both passed through the door and one second after they passed the doors closed automatically leaving the Nazis inside the train, they seemed to be angry not to catch them and they were hitting the windows with anger. Once out of the danger the Jews yelled at them as they passed through, changed their backpacks, waved at each other and finally left going to opposite sides.

Religion is very present in this short video. These persons in the video represent the bad relationship between Nazis and Jews. This “hatred” between them started when Hitler assumed the power. Before the Nazis chased the Jwes and sent them to the gas chamber to be killed and also they were used as “laboratory rats” because they tested what effects had the new medicines in humans such us vaccines or drugs. In my opinion it is a good representation of the kind of relationship the different religions have when they meet.