Use of vanishing perspective in key scenes from Mystic River

In the movie Mystic River, Clint Eastwood used a technique of  vanishing perspective in key scenes to convey the emotional vulnerability of  key characters that are in the center of the frame each scene. 

The opening scene has it's best use for vanishing perspective. In the part of the movie where Dave is looking back out the window and you can see Jimmy and Shawn staring back him as he gets smaller and smaller. The camera follows the car from the rear showing the road going on endlessly. Dave in this scene is seen vulnerable because of his pleading eyes and the fact that the car is going so slow, which indicates he is slowly losing his childhood innocence. Dave as an adult for shadows his death. Before Kathy is killed we see Dave at the var watching Katy dance with her friends. later that night he comes home teary eyed and covered in someone else's blood. As the movie progresses he seems to relive what happened to him all over again affecting his judgement. At the end when Jimmy stabs Dave, after Dave falsely admitted that he had killed Kathy. As Dave is lying there bleeding all his sins and worries are bleeding out with him. 


In this scene of the movie Jimmy s seen wandering down the same street that Dave was taken from. The way the camera is angled tells the viewers that he too is on a never ending road. As Jimmy grows up, he becomes this tough guy who will show people what he is made of. when Jimmy was a little kid though he acted all in control and ready for anything. As soon as Dave was kidnapped he protected himself like he should have protected Dave all those years ago. At the end of the movie you can see Jimmy standing in the street where both Dave and him were robbed of their childhood. Shawn finds out in the end that Jimmy killed Dave. They are both sitting on the curb where they used to play hockey and out talking about Dave. When Shawn ask's if Jimmy has seen Dave, he replies that he hasn't seen Dave in years. What he really means though is that he hasn't seen the real Dave.

In conclusion, Jimmy and Dave shared one common thing throughout this entire movie. They both had a secret that eventually came out in the end. As Dave is dying he is releasing all the memories that had haunted him all these years. Jimmy is releasing all of his guilt and killing of Dave.   

The Royal Tenenbaums

  

In the movie "The Royal Tenenbaums" it describes family relationships and how certain people work out their problems. In this movie there are many examples of how the director shows the meaning behind the scene that the actors are doing. For example when Chaz and Royal are fighting the closet, they are fighting in the dark until Royal turns on the light, piratically exposing all the feelings both of them have felt over the years. After Chaz storms off, Royal finds all the games that the kids used to play. In the back round while the camera is on Royal you can see the game risk, which in case means that he is risking everything to visit his family, even if it means lying to his family. It is very powerful how all the characters act against each other sometimes. In the scene where they are all at the dinner table and the kids and talking it over about if Royal should stay with them and Richie tells them that he is already staying there and Chaz freaks out. In the end of the movie though Chaz is the one that was with his father as he died. Which is interesting  since Chaz is the one that pushed him away the most.




For some reason in this movie, it appeared that every scene in the movie was filled with problems more than comedy. In all truth it was refreshing to see a dark film with just the right amount of comedy that doesn't make you think that this film is a joke or this film is too dark. During the film when all the secrets were being released from all the kids and the family, each character had a back round story that came to light. At the end of the movie when everyone was gathered around Royals grave, it read on the gravestone that he saved his family from a sinking battle ship. In truth he did. If he hadn't made up the lie that he had cancer none of them would have gotten together and expressed how they truly felt about each other. The funeral scene was magical and sad at the same time which is hard to achieve if you don't have the set of mind of the character.






      

Caroline 5 paragraph essay

Chapter 1: Photography; Blog Post #6

Caroline Stanish

Film Lit, Period 3

In the three films “The Usual Suspects,” “Gladiators” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” a character is driven by an overwhelming motive of self-preservation to do something that would be considered immoral by the society or group in which the character lives.  

In the movie “The Usual Suspects,” the character Verbal Kint is an accomplished con man who creates an elaborate tangle of lies to avoid detection by the police. Through the oblique camera angles and low lighting in the opening scene, the filmmaker sets up the con to demonstrate how far Verbal will go to protect himself.

Then in the realization sequence near the end, the filmmaker uses cinematographic effects (including slow-motion) and editing to reveal its secret without the audience feeling let down by a trick.¹  In a sense the filmmaker demonstrated great skill at contributing to Verbal’s con by letting the audience believe that his character was a victim. 

In “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” the character Dr. Howard convinced his assistant Mary to have her memories of him erased because he had had an affair with her and justified that to himself because he didn’t want to get caught by his wife. In the scene in Joel’s apartment Dr.Howard realizes that Mary is beginning to develop feelings for him again, even though he had her memories erased of him before. The repeated close up shots of his face, use of cool colors and the subdued lighting in the room worked together to show a sense of his dread that his previous problem is coming back.  The look of this scene represents a documentary lighting style which makes it seem more realistic. The filmmaker used very different looks in other parts of the movie to convey the full effect of memories. According to writer John Pavlus, “With its slippery shifts between reality and distorted memories, Eternal Sunshine required a look that could blend location-shoot authenticity with unpredictable flashes of whimsy.” ²

In “Gladiator,” Maximus (the Spaniard) convinced all the gladiators to stand together in the games, which was against the way the king wanted the battles to take place. Maximus banded all the gladiators together for self preservation so he could still be alive to take revenge on the king who had ordered his family killed. The filmmaker chose high contrast lighting and positioning of the gladiators in a tight grouping to show the power of the gladiators sticking together. The light accentuates the muscles of the gladiators, showing the strength they have in numbers. According to a similar analysis by Deborah Tudor, “When Maximus enters the arena, the framing shifts to a heroic low angle….the light falls from the upper-left, creating a halo on his bare sword arm, guiding the eye to, and emphasizing, his biceps. The acute low angle picks out the abdominal muscles sculpted on his torso armor.”³ By emphasizing the strength of the gladiators, the filmmaker conveyed the determination behind Maximus’ choice.

The characters of Verbal Kint, Dr. Howard and Maximus shared a common quandary. All were faced with a major problem that they had to resolve or it would lead to their downfall. All three chose a solution of self-preservation that meant doing something that was considered immoral or wrong in their society. In each of these films, directors chose clever techniques to convey specific aspects of the characters’ situations.

References

1.      “Sound Lies - Achieving Closure in The Usual Suspects,” David Mitchell, Autumn 2000, online blog http://www.zenoshrdlu.com/zenosusp.htm, accessed September 28, 2014.

2.      “Forget Me Not,” John Pavlus, American Cinematographer, April 2004, online http://www.theasc.com/magazine/april04/cover/, accessed September 28, 2014.

3.      “Nation, Family and Violence in ‘The Gladiator’,” Deborah Tudor. Jump Cut, A Review of Contemporary Media, 2002, http://ejumpcut.org/archive/jc45.2002/tudor/index.html, accessed September 28, 2014. 

The enternal sunshine of the spotless mind

 In the beginning of the movie when Joel goes out to his car and see's that his car has been dented he blames it on the guy next to him, even though later in the movie it was in fact Clementine who crashed his car. The way the movie plays out is that he is waiting for a train, and suddenly decides to go to the train Clementine  is on. He barley makes it through the doors which for me symbolizes their future relationship. There was a flashback to where they both met on the beach. Joel describes falling in love with the back of her orange jacket. In the scene where they are both in the house on the beach and you can hear her voice upstairs as Joel is talking to her as water is pouring into the house.






In the movie, the feelings in the movie were described with the lighting and the camera. For instance whenever Joel was in his dream land trying to remember Clem, the camera would always zoom out and become very light and dark symbolizing the feelings of both of them. It was cool to me that every time you saw her, her hair was a different color. She was impulsive and that is the one thing that Joel says he likes about her. If she hadn't been impulsive Joel and her would have never gotten together. In the end thought you see them on the beach in the snow just laughing and having a great time.

The usual suspects

I thought that the Usual Suspects was a great movie with a lot of twists and turns that provided me with a lot of detail that I normally would have missed. I thought that whenever Kevin Spacey was in a scene the cinematography was very dark and kind of mystery feel to it. He gave off this vibe of being the weak one because he broke down talking to the cop and had a lame leg that would have prevented him from fighting back. Whenever verbal was in the shot you could tell there was some back lighting in  the shot.

I thought the movie was very powerful in a variety of way. At the beginning of the movie when Mantis was on the boat wounded in the night time surrounded by fire and the mysterious figure peed on the fire, showing his dominance against him. At the end when Verbal was explaining how he watched his friend die, you never actually see Verbal in the shot only a huge pile of stuff. He could be lying or not to the cop who was grilling him. verbal came up with his story right on the spot spotting things about the guys office that were believable to come up with.

What's eating Gilbert Grape

I thought that the movie was amazing in so many ways. The way that at the beginning Gilbert didn't really know what to do with his life. Whenever Arnie was in trouble Gilbert always stood up for him and protected him. When brothers bond like that is sweet and wonderful. Gilbert developed over time to become a little more aggressive towards Arnie. Whenever Gilbert was in a scene or getting mad, the camera would be really zoomed in closing off a lot of open space around him. Gilbert felt like he was trapped inside. Halfway through the movie this girl Becky came into town and seemed to change Gilbert. Whenever Becky was around there was light where she was. I remember a the scene in the movie when the both of them were sitting by a fire outside in the dark, that to me feels like even when his world feels dark, she still has her light with her.



One of the scenes in the movie really touched me. The mother was ashamed that she was not what she used to be when she was younger. When Arnie got arrested for climbing up the water tower she went down the police station and demanded the release of her son, even though she hadn't left the house in 7 years. When she got out the station people were staring at her because she wasn't like the rest of them. Over the course of the movie she became more confident about what people thought of her. She hadn't been up to her bed in 7 years, she worked up the strength and courage to achieve something that not even her family thought that she could do. In the end though she ended up dying in her bed. Instead of having a big show for everyone to see when they carried her out, Gilbert and his sisters took all the furniture and beds out and set fire to the house. When Gilbert lit the house on fire, I felt that he was burning all his demons in there. I sensed that he was lighter and happier with Arnie than he was before. 


 

Basic terms (Caroline, Lena)

Term 1
Focus


Term 2
Story/ plot



Term 3
Editing
           



Term 4
Flashback
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls0XS6J3fs0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcmYFGCjYTA