Evaluating Arguments in Film
Although films are a relatively new form of art, they have shaped the modern world more than any other. It is true that visual art is equally compelling, but films appear as persuasive and capture the viewer’s emotions and interests. This effectiveness is on account of a movie’s magic, which is simply the cinematography techniques that filmmakers apply. These techniques are esoteric, and so hidden from the eyes of an ordinary viewer. Only trained eyes can detect the filmmakers’ approaches and judge whether or not they are relevant. When evaluating a film, one resorts to two objects. As it were, the first is to assess the film’s magic, which refers to the ability of a film to capture and demand a viewer’s attention. Design, costumes, and lighting often appeal to this quarter. The second object is the film’s content. In other words, the story matters more than the representation. Through the story, the filmmakers can postulate an argument, which the viewers can subtly engage (Winkler 13). In many cases, the audience can forget the set designs and the costumes, but not the words and actions of the characters. “Troy” is one of the movies with a powerful argument.
Indeed, “Troy” is an epic film, and would continue to entertain and educate for generations to come. It is a great film because of the presentation and the economic use of words. Each phrase seems to be in a perfect place. The film is an adaptation of Homer’s “Iliad,” a great story of
The creation and consumption of films are a common favorite pastime for many people and have been for hundreds of years, but while some films can seem deceptively simple, many elements go into creating a scene, much less an entire movie. Directors use these elements which include, but are not limited to style, mood, composition and special effects to create a product that we often don’t acknowledge without looking deeper into the film. These components together are called Mise en Scène (Ebert). Of course, film can be enjoyed leisurely but there are so many more aspects of film to be explored and analyzed such as the composition of camera movement, lighting, color, sounds and music. In this case, I chose to analyze the “Redrum” scene from the renowned film, The Shining directed by Stanley Kubrick. In this scene, Danny Torrence, a five year old boy wanders around his mother’s room with a knife in hand, muttering the word “Redrum” over and over again before scrawling it across the door. I feel that a lot of this scene’s mood and style relies heavily on the camera work of the scene, the lighting and colors, and the music incorporated into the segment.
The film, “the Power of One,” followed the life of a boy named P.K. from a small child to a handsome young man. It showed all the hardship and tragedy he had to endure throughout his life. Although the movie could have focused more on the apartheid, it instead portrayed the vulgarity of those times through the eyes of an English boy. As time went on, P.K. slowly began to realize the full severity of the apartheid. It was difficult for a child to comprehend how horribly people could treat one another for no apparent reason.
Article Three – Author: David Bordwell / Title of Article: The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film
As a child, most children become infatuated with the newest Disney movie. Although Disney movies target children, watching them as an adult, we start to notice hidden messages and themes in our favorite childhood movies. A category of Disney packed with secret meanings is the Disney princess films. We watch in awe a young girl living, for the most part, the perfect fantasy life. She sings to animals, her hair is always perfectly in place, and there is always a prince to come and save her. In reality, there is much more to the princess persona than we realize. In 2014, Disney’s Frozen took the world by storm and became the highest grossing animated film ever. Frozen takes us on a magical journey with Princess Anna to find her sister, Princess Elsa, whose power to create ice has forever trapped their homeland, Arendelle, in eternal winter. Elsa is haunted by the memory of almost tragically killing her younger sister Anna because of her icy powers. Isolating herself from the world, Elsa dedicated her life to concealing her powers and learning to control them. The movie Frozen teaches the importance of social development among children.
Movies have the ability to transport people to different times and places and distract them from ordinary everyday reality. They allow for a range of emotions to be experienced. At their core, movies examine the human condition. There are plenty of deeper truths woven into screenplays and plenty of lessons to be learned, even when an individual is solely seeking entertainment.
According to Richard Maltby (2003) commercial aesthetic is used to describe Hollywood’s aesthetics system, driven as it is by the existence of entertainment as a commercial commodity. From this perspective, Hollywood’s most profound significance lies in its ability to turn pleasure into a product we can buy. An understanding of Hollywood’s commercial aesthetic requires a consideration of both the formal conventions of Hollywood movies and the external social and cultural pressures that regulate movies as products of a system of mass production and distribution (pp. 580-581). Each Hollywood movie is best implicated as an 'opportunist ' congregation of unalike 'elements ' as reasoned out by Maltby. In order to best mollify the (perceived) market-place at a particular point in time these rudiments are transported together by producers and production companies.
In the early 1900’s silent films amazed audiences with images, later talkies impressed with sound, today we have 3D. As technology continues to evolve so too will film genres. Genres, while having some shared characteristics, also differ in terms of stylistic devices used. For instance, the dramatic film “The Notebook” effectively uses color to reinforce theme and has plausible performers as the two main protagonists.
Being one of the world’s most popular art forms, it was inevitable that these archetypes would find their way into film as well. In this essay I will argue that the
What attracts us to the movie theatre on Friday nights? Is it the commercials we see? Or is it all the gossip we hear from friends and TV talk shows? Well for many, it is the critiques we read and hear almost every day. One who specializes in the professional evaluation and appreciation of literary or artistic works is a critic. The profession of movie criticism is one of much diversity. Reviews range anywhere from phenomenal to average. Not only are movies created for the entertainment and sheer pleasure of the audience, they create a market of jobs and open doors to the world of financial growth. The success of these films, whether they are tremendous or atrocious, is not only dependent of the actual film, but
Film and literature are two media forms that are so closely related, that we often forget there is a distinction between them. We often just view the movie as an extension of the book because most movies are based on novels or short stories. Because we are accustomed to this sequence of production, first the novel, then the motion picture, we often find ourselves making value judgments about a movie, based upon our feelings on the novel. It is this overlapping of the creative processes that prevents us from seeing movies as distinct and separate art forms from the novels they are based on.
Over the thousands of years that the epic story the Iliad has survived, there has no doubt been some form of alteration to Homer’s original. Last May, Wolfgang Petersen directed a movie based on the Iliad. This movie, Troy, has proven to be a very loose adaptation of Homer’s original, as are almost all stories that are made into movies, unfortunately. With its timeless storyline, amazing scenery, gorgeous actors/actresses and most of all, its reported two hundred million dollar budget, it is easy to see why Troy was hyped up to be a box office hit. However, the film critics were harsh on this movie, as they had every right to be, and it ended up being a total flop. Compared to Homer’s Iliad, Troy is rather
Over the thousands of years that the epic story the Iliad has survived, there has no doubt been some form of alteration to Homer's original. Last May, Wolfgang Petersen directed a movie based on the Iliad. This movie, Troy, has proven to be a very loose adaptation of Homer's original, as are almost all stories that are made into movies, unfortunately. With its timeless storyline, amazing scenery, gorgeous actors/actresses and most of all, its reported two hundred million dollar budget, it is easy to see why Troy was hyped up to be a box office hit. However, the film critics were harsh on this movie, as they had every right to be, and it ended up being a total flop. Compared to Homer's Iliad, Troy is rather disappointing. But, to be
In service of this argument, the essay unfolds in three parts. The first section sketches an appropriate framework for understanding how cinema marshals and moves viewers by engaging them in a fully embodied experience.4 The second section offers a brief overview of the film's plot before turning to an analysis of its triptych narrative and affective development. The third and final section considers the methodological, critical, and theoretical implications suggested by the preceding analysis.
Understanding movies comes from describing and analyzing the cinematic, theatrical, and literary elements that combine to create meaning. These steps create a basic understanding of the artistic and technical elements found in moviemaking. In addition, the major characteristics of different film genres and classic movies will be analyzed. The purpose of this paper is analyzing the Academy Award winning film Chicago. This paper will describe the six steps that a person should think about when watching a movie. These steps include, (1) analysis of the narrative: story, plot and meaning; (2) theatrical elements, (3) cinematography, (4) editing, (5) sound and the (6) complete package.
The BBFC has commissioned me to undertake research as part of a project to ascertain to what degree films can be regarded as powerful within contemporary society. In this assignment, I will comprehensively explain the relationship between audiences and films with well explained examples. I refer to the different sectors relating to the topic that include the following: