Top Ten Movies of this Course

10. My Own Private Idaho - An interesting movie that focuses on a culture / community that is seldom shown within mainstream media, has some cool special effects the one standing out being the magazine stand.
09. Wendy and Lucy - An interesting movie that points out serious flaws within not only are class based system but also how those of higher power (police) can really affect a person because of the laws they are enforcing.
08. The Vanishing - An intriguing suspenseful movie where we actually see how the murderer prepares to get his victims, great acting.
07. Sherlock Jr. - Classic slapstick physical comedy that reminds me of the Three Stooges
06. Detour - Classic Noir film that has an ever evolving plot for our protagonist.
05. Freaks - A disturbing yet accurate outlook on humanity, especially when it comes to greed.
04. O Brother Where Art Thou? - Funny Cohen Brothers movie, where we have three convicts get into unusual situations.
03. Awara - A cultural phenomena with excellent singing, dancing; as well as the effects for the dream sequences.
02. The Good The Bad and the Ugly - A classic spaghetti western film, great acting and plot.
01. Moonrise Kingdom - Very stylish and artistic movie with a very original plot; phenomenal camera work.

End of Watch: A Question on Perspective

For this week’s blog post I am looking at these quick sequences of shots from the movie End of Watch, what is really unique about the filming technique of this movie is the constant cutaways to a first person perspective for the audience. This sequence being near the end of the film especially showcases this technique.

For the first shot we have both Taylor and Zavala running down a flight of stairs trying to escape away from the cartel that are after them.

The next shot does a cutaway to a first person perspective where the film seems to try to put the audience in the shoes of Taylor for this dire situation.

The next shot has the camera pan to the left with the hand moving towards to make sure there is no one who is after them from the left side.

We then cutaway to a third person perspective with Taylor facing opposite of the street light from the previous shot once again following the actions from his training to make sure both sides of the entrance they came out of is not surrounded.

We then cutaway once again to Taylor’s perspective where we are seeing the brush in their way with seeing a street light through a hole within the brush; having his vision blocked by that can have a strong impact morale wise.

We finally then cutaway to a first person perspective of Zavala going through the brush with Taylor not only showing his current physical condition from Zavala’s breathing but also we see how exhausted Taylor is as well as they run towards the street light.

Avant Garde? Moonrise Kingdom

For this weeks movie Moonrise Kingdom, we are treated to a very different method of camerawork where mostly every scene is shot as if its a portrait where you have to analyze the scenery, the foreground, and the background, along with other elements within the shot. I selected this shot because of how all the shadows make it appear as a painting. This is especially attributed with the roof of the building in the background being faded hence to emphasize that building is far away. The contrast of colors between blue and black makes me think of a certain style of cartoons which just use of the actions of the characters to tell the story. I'll have to say the color scheme really reminds me of some of the movie studio logos that use that same colors like Spyglass Entertainment or even Amblin Entertainment.