Final Presentation- Part three

I believe that Guillermo del Toro chose to tell his story through the myths of fairy tales to show children the reality of life not always being greener on the other side. He also uses this style of movie writing to help convey to children morals and life lessons they will need to learn when maturing such as; having consequences for ones actions, thinking before doing and the importance of obeying authority. I believe that Guillermo del Toro wanted to convey these life lessons in away that will connect with children and what better way than through fantasies and fairy tales, as well as using this type of story telling to make it scary and frightening to help aid children in remembering these life lessons as well as to keep the story plot interesting.

Final Presentation- Part two

 One of the main similarities between Pan's Labyrinth to Alice in wonderland is the plot. Both had main characters of young women, they both have the conception of real vs. fantasy world as well as they are both trying to escape from their actual world (Ofelia wanting her old life back, Alice escaping from her husband). Both movies entered into the fantasy world the same ways; fallowing animals and crawling into places. Both young girls experienced talking animals and were sent on series of quests by them.

When comparing Pan's Labyrinth to Alice in wonderland it became apparent to me that a lot of characters mirrored each other in these movies. For example, the main characters in both movies are young girl who are very curious and are seen wearing identical dresses as well as mirroring personalities. Another example of characters mirroring each other are between the rabbit in Alice in wonderland and Ofelia's step-father Captain Vidal. They both are male characters, who are obsessed with pocket watches (time) as well as organization.Both director used the same visual style when creating these characters, as well as the same way to capture the symbol of time through the pocket watch. 

Another similarity between these two movies were with the quests both Ofelia and Alice had to do. In both movies the young girls were guided through each quest by a male talking animal Pan and Rabbit. Both
movies use the imaginary doors that they need to go through, Both girls also have to encounter food multiple times. Both Ofelia and Alice disobey authority by choosing to eat the food when they were told not to which symbolizes children actions. This leads to the next similarity which is the Pale man's  and Captain Vidal's dinner is a replica of the mad hatter lavishing tea party. Notice that the lighting is similar to these two scenes as well, very dark and gloomy, as well as both the Mad hatter and Captain Vidal are very controlling about what is talked about. This is to create the visual style of creepy, scary, unfriendly atmosphere.

Throughout all of these similarities the two movies symbolized the same theme, which is a young girl enters a new world of adult responsibilities and concerns. She is guided on her journey by a male character and embarks on a series of quests only to come out the other side feeling more mature, confident like a woman.

Final Presentation- Pan's Labyrinth vs. Alice in Wonderland

Pan's Labyrinth uses the myth of fairy tales and their frameworks to tell a story that takes place during the Spanish civil war about a young girl who may or may not be a mythological princess of 
 fantasy kingdom. Her mother has just remarried an army captain Vidal, who is about to give birth to Vidal first son. Ofelia is forced to entertain herself as her mother and new stepfather get settled into their new home.  Ofelia ventures off into a tunneling maze by fallowing a bug to find a mythical faun, Pan. Pan begins to convince Ofelia that she is the lost princess of legend and in order for her to return to her fantasy home she must first complete a series of quests. Ofelia is intrigued and sets out to complete these series of quests.


Throughout the movie Pan's Labyrinths there are many similarities to other fairy tale movies. One movie that I found very similar in many different ways was the movie Alice in Wonderland. The story plot of these two movies is actually vary similar with Alice spotting a white rabbit staring at his pocket watch and Alice being curious  fallows him down a hole into a fantasy world with a long hallway full of doors she then is sent on series of quests to get out.

In short they have the same plot: The girl becomes a woman by entering a scary fantasy world, realizing the rules of this world are false and returns home.

Interesting Use of Music

I chose to do the famous song from Rocky Balboa. This song is known all over and people who haven't even seen the movie can tell you what part of the movie this song is from as well as the name of the movie. I picked this scene because I personally would listen to this theme song before playing sports and it would just pump me up before each game. This song is played in the scene where Rocky is training himself for the big fight and he is running throughout town and ends up running all the way up the Philadelphia Art Museums stairs.

Water

The movie water give viewers insight into want it is like to be living in a cast system, and how some countries treat others especially women. In this movie you see how women are treated horribly  because their husbands have died and they have become widows. This movie was named Water because of the insight it gives views on how important water is to the society of India. Throughout the movie you will see how water is being used for many different things such as; a cleanser for not only hygiene but holy cleanser as well, becoming pure, a source for transportation.

special effects

Special effects are used in almost any and every movie made now a days. Special effects has a wide range of components from sound effects to green screen. Above is an example of special effects that was used all over the movie Inception especially in this hallway fight scene.

Appropriate or Inappropriate use of music?

Throughout the movie Tsotsi, their is a common theme of music. From the opening scene to the closing credits you hear music playing. This movie took place is South Africa, where music is a huge part of their culture so naturally you hear African music played throughout the movie. You can hear up beat hip hop music playing when the main characters are at a bar drinking and talking, along with throughout the film where their is social gatherings, and in my eyes this is appropriate use of music. However, in different parts of this film you hear music playing where you may not consider it to be appropriate. For example, when Tsotsi is in his house and the baby starts to cry he decides to turn on the radio and have hip hop, gangster music playing for two different reasons. One reason is so that no one around his house can hear the baby cry and secondly as a attempt to get the baby to stop crying. To me this was an inappropriate way to use music because he could of chosen a more soothing type of music to help calm the baby.

Transition

Transitions are used all the time in movies. Film directors use transitions to literally transition from one scene to another. These transitions very in difficulty from a start/stop transition to a fading or overlapping transition. Even in movies like Napoleon Dynamite you can find some form of transition. The director in the movie Napoleon Dynamite used the transition type of start/stop transition when showing Napoleon walking up to Kip on the porch putting on roll blades. The author then stops the film production after Kip ask Napoleon if he could give him a ride into town, and then starts filming again with Napoleon is on his bicycle pulling Kip.

The Whale Rider- New Zealand

I found that The Whale Rider is an inspirational film. Certain tribes have traditions in which only the males take on the lead roles and are the heroes, while the females are helpless and weak. The Whale Rider, on the other hand, shows that the female can be the hero and will save the "people" even after being doubted and looked down upon. Traditions are big in tribes and villages, so to see Pai take on the task of saving the "people" even though she was told no many time is very inspiring. Pai grandfather did everything in his power to not let Pai a women be the chief, when she was destined to be it. If you think about it from the beginning of the movie Pai was destined to be the Chief. She showed extreme strength when she was the only who survived her birth. She then was named after Pai the chief what is a boy's name. Though out the film she then completes obstacle after obstacle that was set to not be completed by anyone but the chosen one.

Panoramic camera movement

The film director in Kill Bill used the camera movement of Panoramic tracking when Uma Thurman "The Bride" is walking through a party. I think this scene is very interesting because it starts by getting a panoramic view of the band and the dancers and then it moves into fallowing her walking down the stairs and into the women bathroom. This is interesting to me because it is using two forms of camera movement, one right after the other.

Symbolism in The road home

Throughout this movie there were a lot of symbolism present. One of which was the color red. From Di's scarf, pin, coat, and the banner for the new school red was present in a lot of scenes. In Chinese culture the color red symbolizes beauty and desire which is why I believe the Director used it. I believe that he also wanted the color red to represent the beautiful love connection between Di and the teacher, as we as it to be a desired new beginning when used for the banner for the brand new school.

Question for you?

In the Road home, why do you think the film director Zhang Yimou chose to have the present day in black and white, and the past shown in color? If you were the director would you have chosen to do it this way, if not how would you have done it?

Response to The 400 Blows

While watching the movie The 400 Blows I couldn't stop thinking about how much repetition went on throughout the film, and then I thought to myself is there any significance to this repetition? In one scene during this movie the Director chose to have the camera angle high in the air casting down onto the scene. In this scene you see the care free, oblivious gym teacher running down the streets of paris with his students following him. You then start to see the students one by one leaving the gym teacher until there is only a couple of students following him. With the director using this camera angle, the viewer gets the sense of funny, joking teenage boys enjoying a prank. Then at the end of the movie, the director chooses to film the main character Antoine running away from gym class again although this time it is much more serious because he is running for his life. The director proceeded to capture this scene with an eye level shot which allows the viewer to capture the seriousness in this scene. I think it is very interesting on how the director repeated a scene in the movie and just by the changing the camera angles he was able to capture two completely different emotions, reactions and scenes for the viewers.

Camera shot or angle?

This is classified as a close-up shot. This type of shot is typically captured from the shoulders of a character and up. The intent for this type of camera shot is to capture the emotion being portrayed from the character to the viewer, so that the audience can connect with the character. This example provided is a close-up from the movie The 400 Blows. As you can see this character Antoine Doinel just realized that he was in trouble for lying about his mother dying to his teacher, and this close-up shot captured his emotion for the viewer to see.

Hey, I'm Megan McCarthy a senior Nursing major! I'm looking forward to learning more about film and all the aspects of film that I am not aware of.