Ashley Beechey: Film Deconstruction Experimental Film

Dramas are films with realistic plots, settings, characters, and situations. Dramas tend to be driven and somewhat dependent on powerful actor portrayals and good direction, rather than CGI effects or action. Dramas tend to include characters that are complex and well-developed throughout their films. But perhaps one of the most key elements in dramas are the themes of intense and real struggle centered around the human condition. These themes can be expressed overtly through the plot and story or symbolically through several different film elements. Denis Villeneuve is a director whose all but mastered the art of creating dramatic films, consistently making films that become exemplary models for what drama films should evoke in an audience. His three films Prisoners, Sicario, and Arrival do not fall outside of this classification. Each of these are unique in their own respect, yet Denis Villeneuve uses several different thematic elements, particularly color, in all three to craft complex symbols and commentary that reside deep in the recesses of each film's narrative.

The Graduate, a film directed by Mike Nichols in 1976, is a film that has influenced the way I view the world. It is a story of a college graduate, Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman), who finds himself trapped in the superficial or “plastic” world around him. Because of this, he feels trapped, depressed, and insecure about his future. This makes him an easy target for Mrs. Robinson (played by Anne Bancroft), the middle-aged cougar and wife of his father’s business partner. At Ben’s Graduation party, Mrs. Robinson manipulates Ben into driving her home and coming into her daughter’s bedroom, supposedly to look at her daughter’s picture, where she appears before him naked offering herself to him. Ben refuses her at first, but when Ben feels like he cannot escape the pressure of his future, he decides to start an affair with Mrs. Robinson as a way to mentally escape. Ben continues to meet Mrs. Robinson at night until he realizes

What were Edwin S. Porter's significant contributions to the development of early narrative film? In what sense did Porter build upon the innovations of contemporaneous filmmakers, and for what purposes?

Rarely has a film impacted an audience and held the test of time as the film Gone with the Wind. I have always been curious if director, Victor Fleming and producer, David O. Selznick and screenplay writer, Sidney Howard knew what they were creating a masterpiece and how this film would have such an enormous impact on audiences for years to come. Interestingly enough there were some who thought the film should not be made, as Irving Thalberg said to Louis B. Meyer in 1936, “Forget it Louis, no Civil War picture ever made a nickel” (Ten Films that Shook the World).

The Main Point of the Movie Fed Up is an American documentary film written, directed, and produced by Stephanie Soechtig in 2014. It focuses on the causes of obesity in America and gives evidence which show that processed foods with large amounts of sugar may be the root cause to this overlooked problem (Soechtig, 2015). It also points to the lobbying power of companies which block the policies designed to address the obesity epidemic. Both Stephanie Soechtig and journalist Katie Couric explore how the food industries in America may be liable for a multitude illnesses; much more than previously realized.

I remember watching this film for the first time back in 2001 when it was released and having not watched it in over a decade, I feel I can say that this film is still solid. The Others holds up so well due to the film relying on storytelling, atmosphere and sense of impending doom to create its tension. The Others is one of the rare big budget, well cast horror films that seem to pop up every couple of years and I love it when they do. I feel horror often gets the short end of the stick when it comes to Hollywood.

This French action production may sound and look correlative to an American action production. There is a plenteous use of guns and car chases. District 13b contains a certain aspect that the majority of American films don’t comprehend, street ballet

Both films explore rivalry and obsession through the directors’ use of film techniques. The use of symbolism, motifs, dialogue, acting styles, and costuming help convey that nothing

Casey Neistat was named Youtuber of the Year at the 8th Annual Shorty Awards, an award show centered around social media. This father, filmmaker, producer, director has taken the social media world by storm with his dynamic videos. So much so, he even co-founded a social media platform, Beme, for “the simplest and most unfiltered way to share your personal experience.” Social media has allowed him to freely tell his stories whether they be about his exciting life snowboarding through Times Square or exposing the battery life of an iPod.

Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run (1998) is truly a brilliant film. It is very seldom that a film manages to combine the high pace of an action thriller and a deep philosophical subtext without botching it, but Run Lola Run does an excellent job at striking a balance between both. Tackling the very abstract and philosophical concepts of chance and cause-effect, Run Lola Run is truly a modern foreign classic. Tykwer manages to postulate one simple theory through the film, that the simplest of choices can completely change everything. The film is supported by stellar performances from Franka Potente and Moritz Bleibtreu as the protagonist Lola and her boyfriend, Manni. The film’s use of cinematography to add to the narrative, clever use of the aspects of mise-en-scene and explosively-paced soundtrack add a whole new dimension to this film. One of the few German films to be both a critical and commercial success, Run Lola Run is a smart and stimulating film, which demands active watching in order to understand fully. I will now analyze the film comprehensively using three main parameters; the mise-en-scene, the cinematography and the sound.

By analyzing film it helps the audience visualize and understand the message the director is trying to cross. We put ourselves in the director’s shoes and reflect upon the plot what’s happening in the film. Also people can relate to the characters and situations on set that we experience in our day-to-day lives. The way I see movies has helped me see a deeper purpose in the films and examine the theme of the film. Examining the films I’ve seen has made me see a different cause what the message of the film is explaining and sometimes I would be out of focus because the lack of entertainment in the film. Now I realize that watching a film with a motive can help you develop critical thinking skills. Comprehending the use film theory and criticism

The film could also be seen as a response to the American Monogram Pictures, which is famous for B-movies, particularly film noir. In the sequence, the place is rapidly changing; the time is uncertain. What stays is a criminal (reducing to voice, and perhaps gaze) and a femme fatal (reducing to beautiful profile) in a relatively still car in a sunny day with the lasting jazz music. The jumping-cut is an elegant tool to simply the image with what to be focused, with which film noir is stripped down to bones. To begin with, the constant appearing fast-paced, hysterical Jazz music could be thought of as an acoustic signal, which seems to repeatedly remind the specter that it is a film noir cinema and that everything is happening under the structure of it. Music is counter-image here in the sequence. When the Michel and Patricia are talking about trivial things under sunny daylight, the unsettling music in the background brings the image back to the circle of film noir. Another obvious counter reflection on the genre would be the natural light light-weighted handheld cinematography. The high key cinematography, as well as the trivial conversation under the exaggerated music, seems almost absurd. This absurdity runs through the film: Michel killed a police for no reason, Patricia's sudden betrayal and Michel's

For the purpose of this assignment, I have selected three different methodologies of Production, Auteur and Genre to analysis and discuss the movie “Ex Machina”.

Through its use of violence, suspense, and surprises, the thriller has long been one of film’s most popular genres. Since the father of the thriller, Alfred Hitchcock, released Psycho, thrillers have captivated audiences with the combination of suspense and anxiety. Today, most thrillers follow formulaic storylines and methods to create suspense and very few filmmakers are willing to experiment or deviate away from proven methods that make a successful thriller film. Micheal Haneke, however, has challenged the filmmaking techniques of traditional thrillers. His reliance on an ambiguous storyline, long takes and long shots to create suspense differs from his predecessors who relied more on music and fast cuts to create tension. His innovative style of storytelling and filmmaking is evident in his 2002 movie, Caché. Despite Psycho and Caché both being classified as thrillers, Hitchcock and Haneke have different fundamental approaches to how they create suspense and tell a story. Despite their fundamental differences in filmmaking and storytelling, both directors are unique in that they employ voyeuristic film techniques to manipulate the audience's place in the story.

Coming into this class, I did not know what to expect. Unlike most of my classmates, I chose this class due to scheduling, rather than a pre-existing interest in and passion for this field. From the first film assignment to the last, I constantly learned new skills pertaining to filmmaking and storytelling. Before this class I did not know what being a filmmaker truly meant, and what all skills they must obtain and utilize to create a visually appealing and captivating film. My initial goal for the class was to make a B or higher, so my HUM 101 class did not pull down my GPA. My expectations for this class, watching movies and writing papers, were fulfilled by the first essay and the first couple of films. After the first month of class I had new expectations as well as a new goal for the semester. My new goal was to create films that have meaning and personality as well as continuing to learn new filmmaking skills. I became more interested in the process of filmmaking, and expected the class to provide opportunities for me to explore with filmmaking, I was not disappointed.