jueves, 25 de noviembre de 2010

Short films

The Short films are technical descriptions originally from the American film industry in the early period of cinema. The description is now used almost with short subject.
The short films have no more than 15 minutes and they can have a developed plot but it has to be short because of the time.
Although the North American definition generally refers to films between 20 and 40 minutes, the definition refers to much shorter films in Europe, Latin America and Australasia. In New Zealand, for instance, the description can be used to describe any film that has a duration longer than one minute and shorter than 15 minutes.

The North American definition also tends to focus much more on character whereas the European and Australasian forms tend to depend much more on visual drama and plot twists.
It is a derivation of the feature film form, usually acting as a platform for aspirant Hollywood directors.

jueves, 11 de noviembre de 2010

The light in the movies

Ligth is one of the most important things in the movies. Without light there is no cinema. The lights creates shadows, wrinkles, rejuvenate the character or make him/her older, it created psychological effects on the character and depending on where you pput the light it changes the atmosphere of the movie. If you don´t use the light for any documental or films, the film will be incomplete, it will be difficult to see what is actually happening during cameras and will not complete the director's truly idea.

Ratas, ratones y rateros

Hi, this week I am goin to talk about an Ecuadorian movie released in 1999. This movie is called Ratas, ratones y Rateros and was filmed by Sebastian Cordero. This film talks about the delinquency of the country and how the thiefs haves to live everyday in poverty, in drugs, and with unhapiness. Is a drama film that talks about the lost of Salvador's childhood and how he had to handle his live living this way.
In this movie they are not special effects, we see here a lot of camera movement, maybe because the director wanted the audience to feel the excitement of beeing in that kind of poor places of the city of Quito. We see a lot of full shots and medium shots. There is a song that is repeated 3 or 4 times around the movie, maybe to make a feeling of suspence.
At the beginning of the movie we see that is a naked part, basically this movie has an strong content, I actually didn´t like it so much, I thougth it has going to be better, but is wasn´t also the worst. It was okay, but for me the movie was to slow, sometimes the dialogues were boring and there is a lot of use of bad words but I think that Sebastian Cordero wanted to make it s real that even the most insignificant details were importants

jueves, 21 de octubre de 2010

SPECIAL EFFECTS : PHYSICAL EFFECTS

Physical effects are usually planned in preproduction and created in production,this effects are performed in front of the camera, we can see that what is placed here is what is going to be putted in the movie.For example:

*the weather effects
*collapsing buildings
* water effects
* pyrotechnics,
* explosions
*weather effects ( the wind) like huracans that can created wind with fans of different sizes and create the effect of a huge mass of air.
*Fire, etc

The greatest changes in the revolution of Physical Effects happened in the 20th century. For example we can see that in Titanic the effect of the water sinkin the boat was a Physical Effect.

jueves, 7 de octubre de 2010

Importance of directors in film

*The Director or the film's creator is the main creative force in a film's production, and acts as the most important link between the production, technical and creative teams.
*Directors are responsible for translating the film's written script into actual images and sounds on the screen.
*He/she must visualise and define the style and structure of the film, then act as both a storyteller and team leader to bring this vision to reality.
*Directors' main duties include casting, script editing, shot composition, shot selection and editing.
*Directors must also always be aware of the constraints of the film's budget and schedule.
*Directors are ultimately responsible for a film's artistic and commercial success or failure.
*Directors make crucial decisions, such as selecting the right cast, crew and locations for the film. They then direct rehearsals, and the performances of the actors once the film is in production. Directors also manage the technical aspects of filming, including the camera, lighting,sound,design and special effects departments.
*At all stages, Directors are responsible for motivating the team to produce the best possible results. Directors must also appreciate the needs and expectations of the film's financiers.

For me, director is the head of the film without him/she there will not be any movie because he is the one that make it, the one that create's his own point of view after watching the script and the storyboard. He put all his imagination, his thoughts and everything on it.

Edward's Scissorhands

Hi this week I am going to talk about a movie called Edward Scissor's hand. This movie was directed by the famous Tim Burton and starring with Johnny Depp. In a empty casttle near the city lives Edward, he is a young man created by a death cientific. Edward was like an experiment. He was almost like a human but he had scissors instead of hands. One day a nice make-up Avon seller went to this house and he meet Edward. Later on she decides to take him to live with her and her family. Now he was living in the reality of life and he will discovered love, intolerance, loneliness and pain because he was not accepted. I really love this movie, it is one of my favorite movies because here we can see how is the reality, that if you are different form the other you will not be accepted and that is the thing that we have to change. But a girl makes a difference, Kim that was Peg's daugther ( the make up seller). Kim begans to fall in love of Edward and Edward falls in love with Kim. But his boyfriend was a mean guy that wanted Edward out of the family and he ended up figthing for her love.
We can see in this movie that the costume that Edward use is a black one. He doesn´t have any hands, he has scissors, big ones. He is palid, very whiite with no color and he was cuts in his face because of the scissors. We can see that in the movie there is a prepaired scene for each part. For example the neighborhood is all settled by the director. They use a lot of wide shot, bird eye angle and medium shot.
They use slow motion picture at the end when he is making the snow.
The time the movie is settled is about the 80's

domingo, 3 de octubre de 2010

Beetlejuice

Hi! This week I am going to talk about a movie that i really like that is called Beetlejuice, he is a character created by the director Tim Burton and this movie was released in 1988. and he is a ghost that lives in the "no live world" that is the representationof the real world but with the dead´s vision of it. Beetlejuice works as an exorcist of the living people. He help ghosts kicking out the living people of their homes. Beetlejuice is a dirty, rude and rogue man that eats cockroaches. He always use a striped dress and he can transform himself in what he wanted to be.
The movie starring with Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice; Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz, a very dark girl that hated her father and her step mother. Charles and Delia Deetz, are por Jeffrey Jones y Catherine O'Hara.The film, a delirious black comedy was a huge success the year that was released, earning only $ 73 million in U.S.

In this movie we can see that the make up and the customs are very important because Lydia is represented as a sad, dark girl. And the make up and customes that the director use are a black drees, dark hair, with a pail white face and dark tones of make up. Also beetlejuice is a ghost and they use a white pail tone for his face and a black shadow for his eyes and lips. In this movie we can see a lot of effects, but by this time it wasn´t to credible like in this time they are. For example the snake they use is CGI. They use the effect that make a character disappears. They use a lot of whide shot, and high angle.

jueves, 23 de septiembre de 2010

CLONE EFFECT

The clone effect is one of the most common, funny and useful effects for a lot of movies in where twins or similar people appears on the screen for a certain reason. With this effect you can use the same person and you don’t have to use doubles or twins, just with the computer and a program in it you can create your twin! And this is not had to do it, you have to record you twice but with an still camera, and when you are ready, you combined both and with the use of the program you will have them done…

CHEAP BY A DOZEN

Hi, this time I am going to talk about this comic and funny film that was created by Shawn Levy during 2003 and 2005. This film won 2 Oscars awards. It had a budget of $40.00. We can see in this movie a big and great family that shared good and bad moments. These twelve siblings started always fighting but they ended up with hugs and kisses. This movie doesn´t have a lot of special effects. There is a part in the movie that the director uses slow motion when the dad is going to fall over a kid (very funny part jaja). The light is high-light because it is a comedy. Full and bright colors. This is a comedy film, where we can see most of the movie wide shots, because the director want to show us the hole family during the sets, where the entire family appears. In my opinion we should share our moments with our family, because they are the only ones that are going to be with you in bad and good times. If we have little brothers we should take care of them every time, because they need our help. If we have older brothers we should love them a lot, because they know a little bit more about life, and they would teach us how to make the things in the correct way.
This movie "Cheaper by the Dozen" is a remake of the 1950 film based on Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth's book about growing up in a large family, according to a resource.

domingo, 19 de septiembre de 2010

The mummy returns

Hi! this week I am going to talk about one of my favorite movies, called the mummy returns directed by Stephen Sommers and it talks about the facts that already pass in the first movie. It had been passed 10 years from the first movie and Rick and Evelyn appears in Egypt again, but this time with their son. They got married. Their son has earn the intelligence of his mother and the fearness of his father. In Egypt they discovered a mysterious brazalete of Anubis, and at the same time a woman with the help of other mans had made an excavation in Hamunaptra and they found Imhotep's mommy. When Imhotep returns to live he discovered that he can kill King Scoripion and he would have the control of everything but he needs the help of Alex with the brazalet. At that time Evelyn is kidnapped but later she is saved and the other kidnapped is Alex. Later they have to save Alex and many thing happend. This movie has a lot of special effects and they use CGI for the mummy. For the explosions and the part of the water they usea natural special effects. The clothes and make up let us see that the time is in past, and in the part of Egypt the clothes are mmini skirts like they use in the old Egypt with silver and gold make up. The places are in a lot of locations, in Africa... Europe

jueves, 29 de julio de 2010

Costumes and custome designer

There are a lot of elements that influence the costume design, including the place and the time in wich the character is develop.
-Every piece of clothing used in a film is considered a costume. They are used in films to tell the story:
*Character's personality
*Character's history COSTUME DESIGNER:
-They help the character come alive.
-They are the ones that creates the costume that the character will use in the film, the costume that will represent the personality of the character.
-They have to reseacrh in internet, magazines, books to find the perfect costume for their character to make the people see what the director want to transmitt in his film.
-The designer may exaggerate the color, style and silhouette for dramatic effect.

THE LAST SONG !

Hi, this week I will like to talk about a drama, romance movie call The last song, that was released this year 2010, the director is Julie Anne Robison. A seventeen years old Veronica got upset when her parents got divorced, and her father moved to Tybee Island. She remained angry with her parents, until her mother sended her and his brother to spend the summer with their father. Her father was a former concert pianist and teacher, where he will become the centerpiece of the local church. She found a cute guy in the beach, with the one she started getting in love.

They pass all summer in the beach, knowing from each other. Veronica's father died after been detected of cancer. The message of this film is finding the love in different ways, with your family, friends and your boyfriend.

I think that most of teenagers have problems with their parents, but I think that in this age it is normal to have this kind of problems because we teenagers wanted everything and we have to understand that we have to earn the things we have, also that there are some rules that we have to follow because life is not only fun it is also to have responsabilities but not forgetting the people you love. I think that the most important in the world is our parents, because they are the ones who give us support and ideas, the one who care about us, so we should be glad of having them alive

jueves, 22 de julio de 2010

CHARLES CHAPLIN

Charles Spencer Chaplin was an actorm directos, guionist and musician. He was born in Great Britain in 1889 and died in Swetzerland in 1997. He was a complet autor, because he often wrote the music of their movies. He acts in films during a lot of generations, his comic's performances sparkle during the screen plays. His only prescense in the movies was a secure success for the filmakers. He was the first international star and a living leyend since his early ages.

13 Going to 30!

Hello there! I would like to talk about this comedy film that was released in 2004 by Gary Winick. This movie show us how a 13 young girl wanted to be 30 young woman. She wanted to be a young woman because she wanted to make with her life what she wants. She was not popular when she was young and she was the typically teneager that wanted to have more age and to grow up fast until become adults. I think that teens want this because they want to be free, to do whatever they want. I think that they want to be aduts because they can party everyday, the can drive, drink, they can buy whatever they want, and they can take any decision. In my opinion been a child is the best part of your live and you have to enjoy it because it is a short period. Is different from adults, because adults has to work to survive, pay bills and have many responsabilities. We should take advantage of our childhood and enjoy every moment with our friends, because is the best parto of our lives which we would never forget.

In this movie, we can see that the director doesn´t use a lot of special effects, because it is a comedy. The light they use is high key lighting.

jueves, 15 de julio de 2010

MUSICALS

The musical movies are cinematography genres that are characterized because the dialogues and speches are interrupted by musical fragments and also they are joined by a coreography. At the beginning the objetive of this genre the musical fragment was only to impress the people, with no conection with the dialogues and the narrative. But later on the musicals began to be more mature, to be better and the plays were connected with the film.

The industry of film creates their first musical called "THE MELODY OF BROADWAY" form Harry Beaumont. This movie earns the Oscars and with this the musicals began to apears in the 30´s and it was joined with the black films.

The most famous character of the musicals was Vincente Minnelli.

The 60's saw a lot of extraordinary musicals like:West Side Story; Camelot; Willy Wonka and The Sound of Music (1965). Later the genre began to decreas, but in 1996 there was a movie called Evita and was protagonized by Madonna and Mouling Rouge that was released in 2001, this movie was a great success. Later Chicago, High School Musical,Hairspray,Sweedney Tod and a lot of musical were later created and this put the musicals on the top again.

MOULING ROUGE

Hi ! this week I am goingt o talk about a beatiful movie that is called Mouling Rouge. Christian is a poet that went to live to Paris to work in the Mouling Rouge,the famous cabaret of the french city but his father was against that.
There he will fall in love of a girl called Satine.She was the star of the place and the most famos courtesan of Paris. Later she will inspire Christian to write his first theather work and one man that was the Duke will pay the money for that play, but he was also in love of Satine.

This movie is a lunatic,a love and a comedy film. In this movie there are a lot of songs that are recopilated like songs of Madona, Nirvana, Kiss, The police , etc.
We can see that the movie has extraordinary and very fancy settings in which the characters develop theirselves. The film also use a lot of wide shot, medium shot and close-up. The colors of the movie are very brigth because is a comedy and in comedy they use high key lighting to show all the events that the director wants to put in the film.

This movie was nominated ofr 8 Oscars like best movie and best actriss but the movie only got 2.

domingo, 4 de julio de 2010

John Q

Hi this week I am going to talk about a movie that is called John Q and was directed by Nick Cassavetes ; starring Denzel Washington as John Quincy Archibald. He is a father and a good husband whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and then finds out he cannot receive a transplant because HMO insurance will not cover it. He is desperated because he has not the money to pay the surgery to save his son so he decided to make a extreme answer od this. John walks into the hospital emergency room with a gun and begins a hostage situation. He gathers the hostages and sets his demands: his son's name on the recipient list as soon as possible. And there was a lot of people in the hospital that were rehens. But he was only interested to save his son's live, even he was decided to give his heart to his son , later the police came and finally his son recieve a heart form a dead woman and saved his life but John has to go to jail.

I really like this movie because it teach us the value of a son's live to a father. this man was decided to make everything to save his son's life. That's the true love of the family. n this movie there a lot of special effects like the part when the woman is killed byte train ando also in the surgery part.

jueves, 24 de junio de 2010

CAMERA MOVEMENT

PAN SHOT: a fixed camera pivots on its axis turning form left to right for the puropose of following the action within a shot. In movie and television, pan shot is released by turning horizontally on a vertical axis, but the effect may be enhanced by adding other techniques, such as rails to move the whole camera platform.


CRANE SHOT:A camera positioned on a crane can swoop down or up covering great distances and producing unusual camera angles.They are usually, but not always, found in what are supposed to be emotional or suspensful scenes.





DOLLY SHOT: The camera moves toward a subject (dolly-in) or away from a subject (dolly-out) The camera is mounted on the dolly and records the shot as it moves. Dolly shots have a number of applications and can provide very dramatic footage.


TRACKING SHOT: The camera tracks alonside of the object or person.


ZOOM: Camera stays stationary as the focal length of a lens zooms in or out. Framing gets tighter id the camera zooms in. Framing gets looser of the camera zooms out.Zooming means altering the focal length of the lens to give the illusion of moving closer to or further away from the action.




ZOLLY SHOT: A dolly shot in combination with a zoom.

jueves, 17 de junio de 2010

FIRE PROVE

Hi! This week I am going to talk about a film that is call Fireproof that was released in 2008 by Alex Kendrick.
This movie talks about a fireman, Caleb and he always use to said, "never leave your partner behind", He was married with a young woman call Catherine.
Their marriage is in a bad situation, they are always fighting, they have no communication and it's almost over. Later the father of Caleb gave him a book with advices of how to save his marriage.
I think that in marriage you need to have a good communication and respect, because those are the bases of marriage, also to have respect because love is the synonym of respect. And also you have to think very deeply whit whom you are going to married because this is the most important decision that you are going to take in your life because you are choosing the person that you wanted to spend all your life, that person that will be always with you, in the good ones and bad ones, giving you all your support and love. In every marriage there are problems and fights but that´s life, nothing is perfect and with all that problems you will learn to don’t commit the same mistakes that you commit before.
*This is a drama film, they used low-light, medium shots, back of the shoulder shot and close up.

MAIN FILM GENRES

Films were created to make the audience feel fun,fear,mistery,sadness, etc. Each film has a different story, different plots,and each movie has its own genre that characterized them. Here I am going to show you and give a brief explanation about each filme genre.

ACTION MOVIES: This are movies that usually include:
*high energy
* big-budget
* physical stunts and chases
* battles, fights
* escapes
* destructive crises (floods, explosions, natural disasters, fires, etc.)
*heroes figthing agaisnt bad people.
This kind of movies have a lot of special effects and one example is James Bond.

ADVENTURE MOVIES: They are exciting stories, it includes exotic places and settings, and they are very similar to the action genre. They can include:
*traditional swashbucklers
* serialized films
* historical spectacles.
The adventure movies are usually the searching of something extraordinary, expeditions, treasure hunts, etc.
One example is "The mommy"

COMEDIES MOVIES: Comedies are fun stories about different situations, plots that are created to amuse and provoke laughter by exaggerate the situation, the language, action, relationships and characters.
One example is "White chicks"

CRIME & GANGSTER: They are develop around the sinister actions of criminals or mobsters, particularly thiefs, and people that doesn´t respect the law and they earn the life stealing and murdering. This category includes a description of various 'serial killer' films.

DRAMA: Dramas are serious, with realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories. The characters has an intense development and interaction. Usually, dramas don´t are no focused on special-effects, comedy, or action. One example is : "The notebook"

EPIC MOVIES: They include:
*historical dramas
* war films
* medieval romps
*panoramic backdrop.
Epics take an historical or imagined event, legendary, or heroic figure, and add an extravagant setting and costumes, with a unic scneraio, dramatic scope, high production values, and a very good music score.

HORROR FILMS: designed to frighten and to invoke fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale.
Horror films use range of styles. They are often combined with science fiction when the menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology, or when Earth is threatened by aliens. They are accompained with blood, scary carachters and a lot of death.

MUSICALS: are cinematic forms that scores song and dances routines in a significant way, they are films that are centered on combinations of music, dance, song or choreography.
One exaple is "High school musical"

SCI-FI FIMS: Sci-fi films are films that uses a lot of special effects because they has to describe heroes, aliens, distant planets, impossible quests, improbable settings, fantastic places, great dark and shadowy villains, futuristic technology, unknown and unknowable forces, and extraordinary monsters, etc.They are also related with fantasy films because nothing of thismovies is real.