MYST Post #3: "Cast Away"

For my fourth movie in my spare time I watched "Cast Away" directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks as the main actor. In the movie, Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) who works for Fed Ex is a system analysts who travels worldwide to make sure packages get delivered proficiently and on time. On Christmas he is called out of town on an emergency.  During the turbulent ride over the Pacific the engine breaks down and the plane collides with the ocean. The three crew members along with Hanks plunge into the ocean and are taken down deep with the weight of the cargo. Nolan uses an inflatable air raft that propels him to the top of the ocean. This whole scene is very suspensful and the use of computers and cinematography and lighting make this scenes very realistic.  You feel you are right there with Hanks.

For the director Robert Zemeckis, I did not know much about him so I did some research. Zemeckis first came to public notice around the 80's for his work put into the film series, "Back to the Future". While searching some more I fouund that he was actually born in Chicago, IL which I thought was neat to have this in common. Getting back to the movie, Zemeckis did a great job filming the movie using a lot of good tactics, as well as good costumes. As Noland stays on the island for longer period of time we start to see physical changes in him.  The growth of a beard and longer hair which is very realistic. Also, in his physic.  When he first comes to the island he's not in such great of shape, but eventually he slims down and appears muscular.  Regarding cinematography, the plan crash scene was the best. It looks unbelievably real. The part I like the most about the crash is when the plane is just about to hit the water and you get a glimpse of the ocean before you crash into its unforgiving, frigid waters. The picture above shows what Noland sees when drifting away from the plan crash.

Another chilling scene of this movie is his first attempt to leave the island after he sees the ship lights at night. Frustration sets in and Hanks decides he must save himself because no one will find him on the island.  He uses the air raft that saved him to try and escape. However, what seems like a good idea, turns disastrous. As he is trying to pass the breaker in the ocean he hits a few mid size wave then this BIG wave comes, knocks him off his raft and sends him plunging on top of the coral reef.  His leg is severely damaged. As this wave approaches him the camera is angled upward, towards the wave, which adds to the suspense.  The wave appears monstrous.  The force of the breakers turns over the raft and sends him plunging on top of the coral reef.  Once again you feel you are right there with him.

I enjoy watching the movie "Cast Away" and give it a 4 out of 5 stars. Being on an island there are a lot of cool shots. Hanks was there at the island for about 5 years, which is a long time. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes survival type of things because that is what this movie is all about.

"Formal Film Study": Quentin Tarantino- Reservoir Dogs, and Jackie Brown

Introduction: Quentin Tarantino is a well known American director, screenwriter, and actor who is mostly known for his style of movies as well as "Pulp Fiction" which I have also seen and is one of my favorites. The movies I chose to watch directed by him are "Reservoir Dogs" and "Jackie Brown".  Reservoir Dogs tells the beforehand details and the aftermath of a diamond heist that goes wrong, but they never show the heist taking place.  Most of the film is filmed in a warehouse where a bunch of events unfold from Mr. White and Mr. Pink arguing about who is the rat, to them torturing a police officer. On the other hand, Jackie Brown is about a women named Pam Brown who is an airline attendant who travels to and from Mexico from the United States.  Her salary is only $16,000, so to make ends meet she smuggles money into the United States for Ordell (Samuel L. Jackson).  Eventually, she gets caught up with the police while she is trying to smuggle $500,000 to Ordell and must play a double agent, helping out the police, but also helping out Ordell. Both of the movies were a great time to watch and a lot of things were similar/different between the two.

Styles:

The styles of these movies were kind of different, but similar in many ways.  I do not think that they both really had the full Tarantino style like the movie "Pulp Fiction" does. That movie is told in kind of a backward way, which is Tarantino's style. I feel like he always has a lot of dialogue in all his movies as well.  For instance, in Reservoir Dog's Mr. White and Mr. Pink have about a 15 minute dialogue about who the snitch is. I have a picture of the scene just off to the right. The diamond heist went wrong, and that is why they believe there is a snitch within the crew. In "Jackie Brown", there is a lot of dialogue between Melanie and Louis (Robert DiNiro), two people that Ordell counts on to carry out his plan of bringing his $500,000 from selling guns. These two characters just sit around at Ordell's safe house not really doing anything other then watching T.V. and smoking marijuana. During the scenes where they show Melanie and Louis there is a lot of dialogue about non-important things.

Industry/Technology
Considering that both of these movies were made in the 90's they fit into the story of Hollywood together. During the 80's and 90's started the home video era. It was the opposite of how times in the depression were where people would go to the theater multiple times a week. These films are different from any other because of the way they are directed with Tarantino's styles.  Both movies include a lot of dialogue that can sometimes get boring. As far as technology, like I said before the 90's was the era of home video. There are not any special effects in either of the movies except for the violent parts in both movies. One scene from Reservoir Dogs is when the guys bring back a police officer to the the warehouse and torture him in order to identify who's the rat within their crew. They use very gruesome tactics against the innocent officer including pulling out his teeth. In Jackie Brown, a violent scene is when Ordell kills Beaumont Livingston, soon to become an FBI informant. Of course in both movies, there are more advanced camera angles along with a more crisp view. There is a lot of violence, which means there is a lot of blood involved too.

Culture:
Between both of these movies there is a lot of overlap in sub-themes, such as you do not want to be the "snitch." We can see this being displayed in "Jackie Brown" when Beaumont gets arrested and Ordell things he is going to talk. So Ordell bails out Beaumont and then kills him. It is a coincidence because Ordell does the same thing with Jackie Brown, but he is not so quick to kill this time. In Reservoir Dogs we can see this theme clearly all throughout the movie with the men trying to figure out who the snitch of the group is.  They take extreme, violent measures to try and figure out who this person is. It is mostly Mr. White and Mr. Pink arguing over the situation in the warehouse where the movie is set. As far as American values go, the police are looked down upon and avoided because they are trouble. However, in "Jackie Brown" the two detectives that arrest Jackie Brown are being played by her. This makes them look like fools because Jackie Brown is being a double agent, still working with Ordell while barley giving these detectives information they already know. In Reservoir Dogs, the police are actually not present a lot, only when they bring the one officer into the warehouse and torture him to find out information. That obviously makes the police look like they do not have things under control and that they are sloppy.

History/Politics
The 90's was a very prosperous decade, not only for the United States, but also for other countries as well. It makes sense to make a movie about a diamond heist worth about 5 million dollars in a very prosperous decade. Someone would not really make a type of movie like this during a depression because it just does not fit in with what is going on economically. Same with Ordell trying to ship in his $500,000. That is a lot of money, especially in the 90's. Not only was business booming, but crime was as well and that's why i believe that there was a lot more crime movies that came out during this decade.

My Main Discovery:
The two things I noticed the most out of watching all the Tarantino films, was the way his stories were directed (style), and then of course all of the nonsense dialogue in his movies. Even in Pulp Fiction the first scene is John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson riding in their car talking for at least 5 minutes about a date with a woman. Another main discovery about Quentin Tarantino is how he likes to tell his stories backwards. He will give the end in the beginning and go back to how it occurred.  An example, is "Pulp Fiction" when he showed the diner scene in the beginning.
  

Create a Movie 1975: "Believe"

Believe
Staring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Al Pacino
Directed by William Friedkin


The name of my movie is going to be called Believe. Believe is about a detective that gets put on this case where the suspect is actually trying to set him up and frame him for the murder. Our suspect goes to extreme measures to make sure that he does a good job of framing the detective as well. I chose this title specifically because of the ending scene where we are left to make up the decision on our own if the detective was the murderer or if the suspect was the murderer. Hence the quote at the end “Who do you Believe?”  I wanted to shy away from the normal gangster/crime movies that have come out in the 70’s and head in a different direction looking for profit. The director will be William Friedkin who I chose because of the work that he did on The Exorcist.  This is suppose to be a great scary movie, so I figured I would want his talent and scary ideas in my movie.  One of the lead rolls will be played by Jamie Lee Curtis. She will be playing the detective that is being set up. I chose this roll for her because of the one she played in the film Halloween.  She was the one who was being stalked by the killer, so I thought it would be cool to switch up rolls.  The suspect is played by Al Pacino.  I chose this roll for him because of the wittiness, seriousness, as well as the fear that he portrays on his characters in many of his movies including The Godfather, and Scarface. This roll will fit him perfectly and I think he will do a good job. I think that the focus of the film will definitely be sound and editing.  Considering that we are making a scary movie, we would want to have a lot of dramatic sounds such as doors screeching, people screaming, and wind howling. We would also want to keep editing as a focus of the film because there is going to be a lot of scenes that are going to be switching back and forth quickly to scare the viewers and to give them a perspective of everything that is going on.  The MPAA rating is going to be rated R. This is a horror/psychological thriller movie, so there will be a lot of gory scenes that younger crowds may not be interested in. I also wanted to rate it R to make sure that I did not attract the wrong audiances considering that there is not really a PG-13 rating yet. Also sex and violence sells always. Some 70’s film elements that I wanted to definitely include were blurred, complex ideas of good and evil. My movies go hand and hand with this element because the audience is left to either believe the detective that is being framed, or the killer who is framing the detective. I also wanted to make a movie for more mature audiences. Even though kids are great profit that I am going to be losing out on, you always have to take risks to gain a reward.  In the 1970’s there are a lot of movies that are gangster/crime films such as The Godfather, so like I said before, I wanted to shy away and get a fresh genre out there. I also wanted to make a twist in this movie where the killer is trying to frame the detective, which I haven’t seen done in any other types of scary movies, so I definitely think my movie is a bit more unique. The studio that I have to go with for this movie was definitely Hammer Film Productions because during the 1950’s through the 70’s, they are known for making their Gothic “Hammer Horror” series.  They will be funding our movie, considering that there has been a drop in American funding for horror movies during the 70’s. Overall if I were to direct this film, it would turn out good and all the actors will fit their rolls well.

MYST Post #3: "Pulp Fiction"

MYST Post #3: "Pulp Fiction" 

For my third Movies in Your Spare time post, i decided to watch Pulp Fiction, a Quentin Tarantino film. I know that a lot of people have seen this movie, but a select few have not, so i will give a quick summary of what the movie is about. The movie follows four tales of violence in which all connect at the end of the movie.  We first have the two mob hit men, Vincent and Jules (Travolta, and Jackson), then we move to a story about a boxer named Butch, a gangster's wife, and then a pair if diner bandits that rob this restaurant. The movie is neat in its own way because of the way it is structured.  We bounce sometimes from story to story making the movie hard to follow and confusing at times though.

The famous director and film writer, Quentin Tarantino, did a fabulous job at putting this movie together.  I like the styles/techniques he used to set up the movie.  The first thing he did was he made the movie into 7 different parts, some including "The Gold Watch", and "The Bonnie Situation". I have never seen a movie structured like this before, so I noticed the difference right away.  The movie is also following 4 different tales all at once which i liked a lot.  It made the movie seem like it was four-in-one. I thought Tarantino also did a fabulous job with the costumes of the characters.  In one of the first scenes we follow Travolta and Jackson driving in a car.  When this scene popped up, i could not stop laughing because this is the first time that we see Vincent Vega (John Travolta).  He is wearing a black long haired wig, with a gold earring in his right ear. The costume fits him perfectly, and makes him my favorite character of the movie. 

The best scene in the movie definitely took place during the tale about Butch, the boxer. I would say about during the middle of this tale, Butch catches up with some colored man who is trying to beat him up. They start fighting at a stand still until Butch takes off running into a shotgun store where the colored man follows him into. There at the store, the clerk pulls out a shotgun on both Butch and the colored man unexpectedly. The clerk then proceeds to take them both hostage into the basement of his store where he plans to rape both of them. Butch is tied up first, while the black man is taken in the back.  At this point, instead of rutting only for Butch or the colored man, we are rutting for both of them against this clerk. Butch ends up untying himself from this chair and proceeds to leave the store, until he makes the decision to help the black man. Butch goes upstairs and finds a ninja machete sword and goes to the basement where he then takes his revenge on the store clerk and leaves the colored man to do what ever he wants to the man.  I know this scene does not sound as suspenseful as it really is, but it is hard to put it onto paper.

This movie differs from a lot of other movies because it does not focus on only one person. There is about four main characters i would say throughout the whole movie. The only thing i was confused about was how the Butch tale connected with the two mob hit men's tale (Travolta and Jackson). The only connection between the two was when Butch went to go look for his gold watch at his old apartment and he finds Vincent there and shoots him. We then flicker back to Vincent and Jules riding in the car. Overall I would rate this movie a 4.5 our of 5 stars.  The way the movie ended and started was very different from any other way i have seen.  I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes Tarantino films because this is where we see his styles and techniques displayed the most.

MYST Post #2: A Bronx Tale

The movie that i chose to watch for my MYST number two post was "A Bronx Tale" directed by Rober De Niro.  Some of the important actors include the father Lorenzo (Robert Di Niro), his son, Calogero, and a local mobster that Calogero admired aspires, and looks up to named Sonny (Chazz Palminteri). The plot of the movies follows Lorenzo's efforts to keep his son away from the mobster

Sonny. As Calogero gets older, he starts to notice that only Sonny and his crew members were wearing the nice suits, driving the fancy cars, and get all the bad women, something his dad does not get. Lorenzo is a local bus driver, so money does not come in a lot. Calogero is luered into Sonny's life and starts to hang out with him more and more untill his dad figures out. This movies goes on to have a lot of plot twists that make it one of my favorite older, gangster/crime movies. The Picture to the right is a scene when Lorenzo is scolding Calogero to stay away from hanging with Sonny.

The Director, Robert Di Niro, has a lot of different shot scenes and camera angles that are essential for people to notice to have to movie be shown to its best potential. One of the most important times when the lower camera angle is needed is when Sonny is being shown in any shot.  This is needed because he is a mobster, so it makes him seem powerful and intimitating. The low angle shot looking up at Sonny is a huge part of the cimematic elements. The picture that i have off to the right is a picture of Sonny. Even in this shot, we still see that upward angle pointed up at him. Another element is the lighting and camera work on scenes when Sonny and Lorenzo are fighting about Calogero. Both of the characters are contorversial about the fact that Calogero keeps spending more and more time with Sonny.  Loranzo doesnt like it and Sonny likes when Calogero is around. I was trying to find a picutre of both Lorenzo and Sonny fighting, but i could not, so i figured i would put up a picture of Sonny. The lighing is important for Sonny, and Lorenzo because those two are the conflict of the movie.

The scene that i liked the best that stook out to me the most was the scene where Calogero has known Sonny for a bit at this time and for the first time, Sonny invites Calogero into the bar. Suddenly Lorenzo bardges into the bar and starts a scene by yelling at Sonny for bringing him into an atmosphere that he he too young to be introduced to. Lorenazo has built up a lot of hatred toward Sonny and he tries to pick a fight with him in the bar, but Sonny's men do anything before the two can have an all out fight. Lorenzo orders Calogero to wait outside while the two talk it out. The scene made me jump up from my chair as soon as Lorenzo bardged into the bar looking for Calogero. The lighting in the scene was also a big part because it made me focus directly as Lorenzo stormed into the bar, and when him and Sonny have a fight. It is also very dim in the bar, so the light was needed to have a better video exposure.

Overall i thought that this movie was a classic. I give it at least four our of five stars because of all the plot twists and the random drama caused between Sonny and Lorenzo. This movie is similar to all the movies i watched in my formal film study in many ways (Casino, Taxi Driver, Goofellas).  All four of these movies are all ganster/crime genre with Robert De Niro starring as either a dircetor or a main
actor. All of the movies also had a lot of plot twists that kept me wating to watch more and more. One more thing that i want to say about the movie "A Bronx Tale", is that i think De Niro did a great job trying to set an example as a good father and try to lead his son Caloergo in the right direction.  Out of all the movies between the Formal Film Study and my second MYST post, i believe that Casino and A Bronx Tale are my favorite. Go see Both!!

30's Blog Post

The movie that we created was named The Struggle. Our movie is about a man named Dom Perri, played by Henry Fonda, who looses his job in the work force, and how his kids must quit school and go to work. The movie follows our main character through his stuggles and harships eventually to make it to the end where he finds this amazing job to bring his family from poverty to prosperity. He starting working at a meat packing industry where he was able to make a decent living, untill he has to get layed off because of the tough economic times. The family is then forced to rent house after house, barley being able to pay the monthly rent. Through all the trouble, Dom Perri is able to find a job as a construction worker. The style of this film is consistant with showing the horrific times for family in the great depression as well as sending our message that times do get better eventually.

Our genre of our movie is a drama. We chose to construct a drama film because it fits well with the history of the time. A lot of people were going through these same times, so we figured it would be a good thing to be able to relate to some of these people. This film falls into the catergory of a drama because we can see all the hardships and family problems that come with the Great Depression.

We chose 20th Centry Fox because they made a lot of drama films throughout the 30's that go along with this one. During this time, 20th centry and Fox had merged together to create one studio, so obviously both of these studios were in a depression themselves and needed help. We would want the film to be at a medium scale, considering that we want to be very known, but also we do not want to wear people out with the same stories.

Our Director, Henry King was a hard-working and contract director of 20th Centry Fox. We wanted a reliable director, as well one who could accuretly depict all of the struggles of the family with perfection. We chose Henry Fonda for our lead actor and protagonist from his roll in The Grapes of Wrath, which we thought he did a fenominal job at. We were not as concerned with the other actors for the family, because we really wanted to focus on how Dom Perri felt about the whole situation. In other words, we didnt want Dom Perri to get shadowed by some of the other actors. The other actors that we chose for the family are Jackie Searle, Jane Withers, and Billy Mahan.

The effectos of the Hays code were tremendous to the making of our movie. We could not show Dom Perri stealing anything such as meat or gains for his family to eat. Considering this movie took place in the depression, a lot of people would be stealing anything just to make ends meet. We couldnt also show any drug use to make the family memebers quality of life any better. We could not show the huband and wife of the family either in the same bed or kissing lavishly to make their relationship closer in hard times. We couldnt show the family starving of food either, which would be a great scene to show how badly the family was suffering. Really the only technology we would use would be a black and white film to show the difficulties of the time period. We would also want black and white coloring, so we would be able to relate to people without color televisions.

I think that we should only have the main actor, Henry Fonda instead of including the family right at the beginning. The focus of the movie is the main actor.  I think a good ending would be for him to reunite with his family and for them to live happily ever after.

Formal Film Study Project #1 Martin Scorsese: Taxi Driver, Casino, Goodfellas

Introduction

For this film study, i chose to view 3 movies directed by Martin Scorsese. The movies that i chose to watch were Taxi Driver, Casino, and Goodfellas. I wanted to give an explanation of each movie quickly so you can know if it appeals to your taste. Taxi Driver is about a man named Travis (Robert DiNiro) who plays as a man who is kind of an outcast in his society. He acts different than most people. The movie follows him through his journey as he becomes more violent and attempts to assassinate a senator at a public rally. Casino is a true story and another gangster/crime movie about a man named Sam Rothstein who is involved with the mafia and is sent to Las Vegas to run a casino. The movie goes on to follow Sam through his berserk stages with his wife and his friend Nicky. Lastly, GoodFellas, another true story, is about a mobster Henry Hill and all the things that he has done throughout his mobster career, only to enter into the witness protection program at the end. All three of these movies made a total of 191,211,343 in the box office.

Style/Mood

The style of all the movies differs in many ways. For Taxi Driver, the movie style is kind of goofy.  Travis acts like an outcast to society. You can see from the picture that i have below that he looks out of the ordinary. I'll give him this though, he does not look as bad without the mow hawk, but he did this hairstyle to disguise himself. The movie Taxi Driver is also a very dark film at times, since the main character gets a job all night as a taxi driver to cope with his insomnia. On the other hand, the style/mood for Casino was very serious. We can see this for example when Nicky and Sam agree to meet in the desert and they have a big argument. The movie is more bright and in a environment with a lot more people. The movie is different in the way that it has a lot of plot twists and kept me on my feet all the time wondering what would happen next. The style for GoodFellas is a gangster/crime movie with a lot of emphasis on the mafia. There is a lot of quick editing and screen freezing. The movie is about the mob in New York city vs Casino which is about the mob in Las Vegas.  All three of the movies are the same genre and all three of the movies have Robert DiNiro starring in it as one of the main characters. It turns out that Scorsese uses DiNiro in a lot of his movies. The styles in all the movies are serious because of course they are all crime movies. In the movies Casino and Goodfellas, I had felt bad for a character in each movie. I had felt bad for Sam's wife in Casino and Henry Hill in GoodFellas because it seemed that their lives were falling apart. In GoodFellas, it was an awful site to see when $60,000 of Henry's drugs get disposed of cause of the FBI. The movies GoodFellas and Taxi Driver end the same way, with the main character getting victory in some way. Whether it is Henry Hill becoming free after he rats on his fellow mobsters, or the Taxi Driver saving the girl from prostitution, they both end in a positive manner.

Industry/Technology

Both GoodFellas, and Casino were made in the 90's and they both have a mob influence in the movie.

The mafia in the United States was still heavily around, especially in Las vegas and New York, so it makes sense to be making movies about the mob still. In casino there is great sound when the camera is in the casino with all the chips being tossed around and all the slot machine games going crazy. The movies do a good job of switching camera angles so we can get a full view of everything that is happening at once. This also holds true for GoodFellas, because they are both mob movies with a lot of action happening at once. In GoodFellas they use a lot of freezing the frames to display that something important was happening in Henry's life.

On the other hand, Taxi Driver was more of a simpler movie in the sense of technology. There was not anything out of the ordinary that i have not seen in any other film. The movie is different from a lot of other films in the way that the main character is an outcast to the society that he lives in. He acts kind of weird around people and they do not like that about him. An example of when he acts weird is how he takes his girlfriend to an x rated film, nothing you would ever take your girlfriend to. Also when he was talking to the secrete service agent and asking questions like what kinds of guns they carry and things like that. He was talking to the agent is such a weird way with a lot of awkward silences.

Culture/Politics/History

All three of the movies that i have watched all have to deal with domestic issues. Two of the movies are about the mafia, while another is about an average person who becomes a hero because of his will to save this girl. In the movie Taxi Driver i think that politicians are looked down upon especially because Travis tries to assassinate a senator. In all, government is especially looked down upon in Casino and GoodFellas because all the guys are apart of the mob and want nothing to do with the FBI. One of the big messages in both these movies is definitely that anyone can make a difference, even if it is too late like in Henrys case. The films are stating that anyone can turn out to be a good person. It was surprising to me that there was no gangster connection in the movie Taxi Driver considering that it was made in the 70's where there is more mob influence than the 90's. In the movies GoodFellas and Casino there is a lot hatred toward the FBI and sometimes the press. This is normal in these types of movies because obviously all the people do not want to get caught.

My Discovery

In each of the movies, there is a theme that is consistent with all three of the films. The themes of these movies are that it is never too late to turn your life around and still do something good. These movies give you scenarios of these people, the lives they lived, and how they were able to change.  In Taxi Driver, Travis went from being a murderer to being honored for what he has done for the girl. At the end of the movie when he was seeing the girl he was asking her questions like don't you want to come home and it convinced her. I feel like Travis is kind of socially awkward, and he always has pauses in what he is trying to say. Casino ends the same way in the manner that it is a happy ending. After all the illegal things that sam has done, he was able to avoid prosecution or execution and he went on to straighten up his life and get out of the casino business.  Finally, in GoodFellas Henry is able to enter the witness protection program, even though it is the worse thing for a mobster to do. He is able to get free of all the crimes that he has committed and go back to living a normal life. All these movies have a theme that can be related in some way, either positive or negative.