Going Beyond The Still Image- "Wrong place, Wrong time."

Character:
In this movie, a grown man is the main character. In this shot, we get to see a lot about this man's character. He is a well-dressed man because of the tux, who happens to be in the wrong situation. When i first saw this, I thought to myself, why would this wealthy looking man, be locked up in a box? As we can see, this man is the good guy/protagonist. Also, later on we see a shot of him asking a valet for his car as he is coming out of a party, which may indicate that he is rich. Because of the fine quality of the camera, we can make out his face features, and his body appearance. We can tell that in this situation, he seems to be very frustrated and confused because he explains to us that he doesn't know why he is in this situation.

Conflict:

In this film, the conflict is communicated through a flashback. In this shot, we can see the reflection of the action through the car window. We can see that in this shot, 2 men are "adult-napping" the man. From what we can see, he is innocent and don't know why he is in this confliction. This is mostly communicated through the action that is going on. The two men that are approaching the other man from behind are zapping him unconscious. The actors in this shot are wearing all black and because of the reflection we can't make out every facial feature. This effect of using a reflection to show this shot is to leave a mystery feeling in the audience and to leave questions unanswered. This reveals to us the reason why in the beginning of the short film, he is trapped in a box.


The resolution & feeling:
In the end of this short film, we see that the resolution of the story line is that the man in the box will end up dead. During this shot, we feel a finished feeling because we know there isn't going to be anymore to the story once the man is dead. From being part of the audience, we understand that the good guy will not survive because he is unable to stop the villains from pursuing their plans.

This resolution of the shot of the picture show us a feeling of sadness because of the blue tint that is added to the shot. Also, we feel sadness because we know that this picture is reminding him of good memories which he will never have again since he is about to die. We can tell that the man is cherishing this photo as he will be taking his lasts breathe spent in a box under water. He is putting this photo in his mind, so it will never be forgotten even after he is gone. These shots are symbolic to the meaning of life. It is symbolic to the meaning of life because you never know when things are going to change in your life and sometimes things happen and you question it, but an answer is never revealed to you. Life is unexpected and this picture tells us to enjoy the good times and learn from the bad times in life.

Reverie and the DSLR Revolution

I picked this picture because when filming this, you didn't have to add much in order to get the lighting and its effect from going dark to light. The lighting is usually found in tunnels. I specifically picked this still image of the lighting because it could symbolizes the good and bad times in life. The character is traveling to find this one lady so he can give flowers to her and the long narrow tunnel resembles the on going adventure to find her. The lighting in the tunnel filters the shot to look black and white. This shot is used to show us the urgency the character has to find the women through the continually changing of lights and the speed of the car. The camera the Laforet uses, the canon eos d5 allows for his footage to be so vivid. In this shot the lighting is blown out to where you can't see anything, but it is perfect to the extent that you can still see the tunnel as it extends farther down. Usually when a light is aimed towards the camera, the camera self adjusts its self so that the lighting isn't to bright, but this camera takes in the reality of all shots. The lighting for the camera is just a minor detail to refocus on, but it doesn't make a big effect on the rest of the shot.


This shot caught my eye because of the lighting that is mirrored onto the water behind the lady. In a big city like the one in the shot, you may be able to see this with your naked eye if you find the right location. The lighting in the shot is very real and the director didn't have to add any effects in order to get this shot to be the way it is. The black and white lighting in the background really makes the women in the red dress stand out while it isn't over contrasted. We can tell from this image that the pixels the camera has reveals to us every little detail in the lighting that we normally wouldn't see with a normal camera. During each shot, the setting is usually taken place at night, so the lighting really stands out in the city. I believe that the city at night with all the lights symbolizes romance. I believe it symbolizes romance because at romantic times usually, its dark with light or candles. The camera's ability to capture such vivid images allows us to see the ripples in the water let alone, make out everything around the women. Lastly in this shot, we notice that the women has a spotlight on her. The vastness of the background lighting and the simplicity of the spotlight on the foreground/women represent the loneliness as the women is waiting.


In this shot, the lighting is really interesting. Laforet reveals to us his interest and what he is looking at through the reflection through is sunglasses. The camera really focuses on the man in the plane as he looks upon the city filled with lights as it starts to get dark outside. Laforet is well known for his picturesque aerial landscapes. He is well known for being up in the air while collecting his footage. He also shots a lot of footage in low lighting. When up in the air, there isn't going to be much light especially while the sun is going down. But the camera's super low f-stop allows the camera to shoot in the low lighting. If you notice, the city in the background is blurry which draws our attention to the young man and the reflection on his sunglasses. Laforet is also well known for his selective focus in his shots from up in the air. Because of the reflection through the young man's sunglasses we can see the extreme detail that the camera can pick up. (* I would die to have this camera with this type of power to capture this footage!)

Blog Film Review-- Solitude Trailer

This shot in the trailer caught my eye because of the scene location and the presence of nobody there. When I first saw this my eye was attracted to the empty swings that were swinging back and forth. My eye was attracted to this because usually on a play ground there is many children, but this shot really emphasizes the word solitude which corresponds to being alone. This shot is an extreme close up and a long shot. It's an extreme close up shot to the very first swing that we see and it becomes a long shot as we can see the objects in the background. I wouldn't consider this shot at eye level, but a show lower then eye level. The symbolic implication of the slowly moving swings is to emphasize once again the main idea of the movie. It is telling us that the group of kids is alone in the world. The color of the swings is black which in my opinion may be some sort of symbol. I think the color black symbolizes destruction and the color black can often connect to death. At funerals most guests wear the color black and that's why i think it symbolizes death.

This shot in the trailer caught my eye because of the lighting and how it reflects that they are alone in the world and its a dark place. When i first saw this my eye was attracted to the "spotlight" on the girl sitting on the floor against the wall with her arms over her knees. The position that the girl is in shows me that she is in emotional pain and I can see through her body language that she is upset. This shot is a long shot because we can see her whole body and the surroundings around her. Also the wall that she is leaning against looks to be a long wall and the depth of it could represent how life is a long road. I would consider this shot to be eye level because if I were standing far away from her i would see the exact same thing as the camera sees in the shot. The symbolic implication of the lonely girl with the spotlight is to once again emphasize the name of the movie "Solitude". Most of the scenes in the trailer that are given to us are to tell us that the group of teens are alone and I also notice that there isn't much of bright colors. Most of the colors are dark colors resembling a dark time and danger.

This shot caught my eye because of the lighting and the camera angle. What caught my eye was that you could only make out some features of the figure standing on top of what i think to be is a roof. The lighting is coming from behind the figure so you can only see parts of the sides on it. The figure looks to be studly because of the way its standing. Its standing tall and we can see that the body language of the figure reveals to us that it has power and can be dominant. This shot could be a POV, birds eye or long shot. It could be a POV because this shot could be the point of view of someone looking up at the figure from the ground. This shot could be a birds eye view because it could just be the camera looking up at the figure from the ground. And this shot could be a long shot because you can see the roof or wall that the figure is standing on and you can see most of its body and the dark background. From the figure with the lighting coming from behind it looks like the figure is wearing some sort of armor. The symbolic implication of the figure standing on the wall is to show how powerful it will be in the film. The figure standing higher up above everyone else kind of shows us that he is powerful then everyone and everyone else below him is weak and useless.

Avatar Blog Response

1. Production: What challenges did James Cameron have in realizing his vision?
The challenges that James Cameron had when realizing his vision was that he had to incorporate aspects on the real world. The themes of this movie were to relate to our modern world today. The theme of love and war were interpreted in this movie. The love connection between Jake Sully and Natiri is an example. Jake is suppose to be a Navi and see what they are really like and see their life style but then he ends up becoming one of them and betraying his own people. When war comes into hand, our world today is still in a war across the world. This war has been going on for awhile now just like what is going on in Pandora. In 1990 James Cameron first came up with the idea but couldn't move on because of the lack of technology that was around. 2009 was his year when the technology was their for him to create his world of Pandora and the film Avatar.

2. Creating the Virtual World: What was the process used in creating Pandora?
When it comes to the process when used to create Pandora the first step was the idea of it and what it was going to look like. James Cameron had to create the world of Pandora by hand first in order to get the feel for this movie. Pandora's rain forests take after the rain forests that use to cover the Amazon Basin. Having something to look at and get ideas from helps the process. Pandora was digitally created and relates to what some parts of our world looks like today but more fantasy like.

3. Performance Capture verses Motion Capture: How has performance capture changed the filmmaking process?
The performance in this film not animated but was captured by CGI technology. CGI technology replaces the prosthetic and allows actor's to play any character that is created on the computer. This film took the actor's physical action's and movements and puts them into the characters. The CGI technology saved time and money when it comes to a makeup and wardrobe crew. Suits with markers on it were worn by the actors. Camera's were set up all over the spacial volume in order to capture every movement on the actor through the makers on their body. When filming, the computer creates a real time moving skeleton of the actor's movements. Capturing the entire performance of the talent was the intent in order to make this film successful. To make this film emotionally touching markers were put on the actor's faces with a camera attached to a boom that was attached to a helmet. The camera sat right in front of the actor's faces capturing the muscles in their face. This allowed to capture the facial image base performance. What James Cameron's intent was to translate what the actor's are doing emotionally in any given scene and put it into the characters. The muscles in the face correspond the emotion to what the audience will actually see. The true human emotion that was captured allows the audience to understand the feelings that the characters are feeling through out the movie. A big ordeal in the process of the film was the actor's having to really step into their characters. Since the CGI technology captures every movement and emotional feature in the actors face they had to make it realistic. During the film making process the actor's really got into it and started hearing, feeling, imaging, and seeing the world of Pandora and their character. "It's not animation, it's capturing the avatar version of the norm". The character's have the actor's personality and soul through the CGI technology. This film is apart of a revolutionary experience in Hollywood.

4. Avatar Earnings to Boost News Corp:-

a. How much money was spent on marketing for the film?
$400 million was spent making and marketing this film. $250 million was spent to make the film while $150 million was spent for marketing the film.

b. What challenges does News Corp face in realising profits?
The challenge that News Corp faces when realising profits is to not spend all the money on a big film that will not succeed. And not to spend a big amount of money on a film that people will forget about in a couple years.

c. In your opinion, does the massive budget spent on the film effect the authenticity of its message?
In my opinion I think the massive budget spent on the film effects the authenticity of its message. In order to make the movie big you have to have big and experienced actors that know what there doing. Also, the narrative has to be good and in order for that to be good, money needs to be spent. The narrative of a movie is a big part.

5. Socio-Cultural Impact-

- Avatar Challenges Us to Be All We can Be
- Avatar is Marred by Racist Subtext, 2 and 3
- Fail Blog- Avatar's Plot Fail
a. Do you agree with the critic's claim that Avatar "identifies the profound spiritual bankruptcy that underlies our financial insolvency...and reminds us (to)... make new choices for the greatest good of all". Or is this film just a trite recycling of previous plots that reinforces racist stereotypes? Explain with examples from the film.
I agree with the critic's claim because in life there is times when we have to make new choices for the better of things. In the movie, the hero Jake Sully has to chose whether to be one his own peoples side or to take sides with the Navi's. Jake Sully is sent to understand and see the life of the Navi, but ends up falling in love with one. Also, the human's purpose in this movie was to destroy the race of the Navi's for greed and money. While at the same time, their own man has turned against them. Sometimes seeing things from another point of view changes the person's impression of the conflict. The human race's determination for Onobturanium in the movie shows us the greed for money because the amount that they could collect could bring them a great amount of money back on earth. The weaponry use in the war connects to today's humans and world. Humans are portrayed as dangerous, heartless, and greedy when using the weapons for not protection but to hurt others in order to get what they want for finical issues. The finical issues in our world connects to the issue that appears in the movie and how human's fight for what they want and need. The plot to me seems original and fresh because from what I can remember, I can't think of any other movie plots like this one. From reading several articles I can understand why someone would say that it has a racist subtext, but I still agree with the critic's claim.