Week of 18/10/2010 Mr Thompson lesson

Stray dog presentation

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Info on Yoimbo

• Tells a story of a Ronin (masterless samarai), portrayed by Toshiro Mifane.
• title of film translates as "bodyguard".
• the film can be veiwed as an early example of the "man with no name" concept (which previously appears in a number of novels, including Dashiell Hammett's red harvest).
• The film's looks and themes were partly inspired by the western film genre, in particular the films of John Ford.

• The characters: the tacturn loner and the helpless townsfolk needing a protector- are reminiscent of Kurosawa's own seven samarai (1954) and have become western archetypes.
• The cinametography also mimics conventional shots in western films, such as that of the love hero in a wide shot, facing an enemy or enemies from a distance while the wind kicks up dust between the two.

Yojimbo made in 1961 by Akira Karasowa: Akira Karasowa is a icon of Japanese cinema...held up as an autever of Japanese cinema. Was also an influence to directors Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.

Emotional Response- Irreversible

The scene that had the most emotional response form me is 'The Rape' scene which was created mainly by the micro features.

My emotional response starts when the strange women tells Alex to 'Take the underpass. Its safer' because she couldn't get a taxi but a women going underground on her own form a night partying and all dressed up is not a good idea personally, here i feel quite hopeless and worried as all i want to do is scream at her (at the screen) to not take the underpass it is dangerous; Here the audience is put into a subjective view point, following Alex going to the underpass, this makes me feel quite anxious as it seem as if someone is following her down there.

As Alex's walk down into the passage i start to feel uneasy as the light is red, which connotes 'danger' and also before the rape took place Alex was saying to Marcos in bed that she had a dream/nightmare about a red tunnel... which is what she is going into. (narrative impact)

During the rape taking place, the camera seemed as if it was put down on the floor right in front of them, one so we can see the contrast in faciel expressions of Alex and 'The Raper'; this make me feel extremily useless and just want to help her, but also makes me feels quite scared as 'The Raper' is higher than the camera therfore higher than the audience which makes him seem like he is in more power, this is also supported by the knife he holds.

The sound during this scene is quite important; whilst watching this the first time, i found myself looking away as well as others, but even tho you look away you can still hear the Diagetic sound; such as Alex screming in horror, this makes me feel very insecure, helpless and scared all at the same time. When 'The Raper' starts to beat Alex (kicking her in the face) after raping her, theres a foley sound, made louder than reality which also increases the horror we feel.

Emotional Response- Face Off

This is one of the scene's in the film FaceOff that i have a huge emotional response to.
Face/Off is a 1997 action film directed by John Woo, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, which is about A revolutionary medical technique allows an undercover agent to take the physical appearance of a major criminal and infiltrate his organization.

Watching this clip, i know i had/have a strong emotional response as my heart sinks thinking about what is about to happen and i get all tearfull in fright and horror. My emotional response was not only personal but contructional as well... its a personal response because i put myself in the position of the character within the film and i realise how i would act, if i had a child and we was having an amazing enjoyable time together on the carousel and suddenly i hear and feel a gun shot, found myself and my child falling off and thumping to the ground and then seeing my child have a gun shot through his head and all this happening within moments, i dont think i would ever be able to move from it and somehow i would blame myself, and start thinking "what if's", i could never imagine this happening to anyone

My emotional response is also contructional by the micro features. At the begining there is a 'tinkling' sounds then soft violines accure, this sound is almost a sound you would play to a baby or a young one to help get them asleep, it also reminds me of a musical box of some sort which tells me a young child or baby is perhaps in the film and the sound being right at the start may suggest the film is based around that child/baby, this sound makes me feel all calm and relaxed as its a little like classical music.

The next shot is where the audience see's Nicolas Cage and this little boy for the first time, and instantly it is clear that their father and son spending time together, and by looking at Nicolas's faciel expression, he is esstatic and over the moon with his son, and this shot comes across to me, peaceful, this gives me a huge warm feeling inside knowing that these two are so happy, it just makes me happy too.


The next few shots i start to feel myself sitting on the edge of my seat uneasy, the Music changes instantly when a different man pulls a sheet of a sniper gun to a more deep, thumping type of sound that indicates to me that there may be trouble and makes me start to feel scared for the father and son, of whom are being watched through the aimer on the gun.







Then once this man has watched the father and son a a few seconds, i get the impression that he realises that the man is with his son having a great time, when the cemera is on a close up when the man removes his eye's from behind the gun to the side so that he can see the father and son in the normal view distence makes me feel anxious and wonder, i start to wonder if he is gonna go through with whatever he has planned, with his eye/faciel expression not giving to much away, it as if he is starring at us (the audience) which also makes me feel quite nervous.







The music suddenly changes back to this sweet 'child' sound that makes me relax just a little bit but i am still nerous knowing that the other man still has a gun and may use it, the camera goes back to the father and the son in a mis shot so we see them two unaware of this other guy and still happy as anything, im scared here as i know if that gun goes off, them two our involved and their happiness will dissapear within a mili second, we see the father kiss his son on his forehead, which shows love, normally this would make me feel warm hearted and happy/emotional however im quite the opposite... being extremily anxious and nervious this increase a great deal when you see the man go and look back into his gun, getting ready to aim and shot, by this point, i didnt actually want to watch this film anymore as i had a bad gut feeling about whats going to happen, however i also wanted to know if he would go through with it.



The audience see's the father and son as the man's point of view, seeing them through the aimer on his gun, by using this filming technique the audience notices the gun is aimed up on the a fathers upper back, then the camera switches to a close up of the trigger, instantly the audience here gathers what is about to happen and that he is going to pull the trigger, Here i realises that the father is cuddling his son, and the son's head is leaning on his father chest and opposite that is his upper back, by this point i find myself petrafied as i have realise what is about to happen and it wont only injure/kill the father.



As soon as the gun has been fired, the audience follows the bullet stright into the fathers back, the music is quietened and the sound of the bullet coming out the gun and going into the fathers back is loudened to make it more tensed, then is camera goes into a mid shot of the father being shot and jolting then falling off onto the floor, during the shoot of the man falling, we see the little boy still holding on to his father, this give me the impression he is even scared to move or the father is holding him tight then the camera moves and tilts up to follow three bollons into the sky, this connotes 'heavenly'... but then in the next few shots we see the bullet has gone through the father into the son's head, here i start to feel myself very emotional and my eye's start to water.





The performance here between the father and son is very emotional, where the father is dragging himself towards his son crying, when he gets to his son the camera moves so that the audience can see that the little boy is dead and has blood on his face, whilst this is going on there is a shot of the other man realising that he has killed the little boy and only injured the father, here i realise that he did not intentionally kill the little boy and that he only wanted to shot the father but this didnt happen and you see him shocked himself about the whole situation as are we the audience.



during this part of the scene, A 'heavenly' music/sound appears which also indicates to us that the little boy is in fact dead. When you see the father realising that his own son has been shot and has died, he dont want to beleive it and starts sobing his heart out, cuddling him, and you hear him crying quite loud, this makes me feel extremily sad and shocked that someone would even risk shooting a innocent child.





after this, the camera moves up into the carousel whilst it is still moving and there is a contrast of colours from earlier when the father and son were on it extremily happy to dark colours, almost black and white, which also creates the mood of the film at that precise moment, this almost makes me more sad and scared because the horeses has been edited to look scary themselves, when naturally they are peacful animals and with the beating/druming sound in the back ground just adds to the whole atmosphere.

Catch up from holiday

film perspectives;
first perspective is when the film only has one meaning.
second perspective means more than one meaning

film acts a construct- constructed by film makers so we can identify, we can then take them apart to see how they were put together.
film makers use identifable charcaters for emotional alignment (this is when we identify with them emotionally). They do this using micro and macro features.
They also do this to out us in a particular position, or point of view.

our repsonse to positions are; (according to stuart hall)

• preferred reading- we accept it
• Oppositional reading- reject it
• negotiated reading- partialy accept
  
  

Emotional Response- American History X

American History X is a 1998 American drama film directed by Tony Kaye and starring Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo and Avery Brooks. It was distributed by New Line Cinema.

Emotional Response:

i have choosen to talk about my emotional response on the ending scene of American History X; which is caused by the narrative not personal.

After watching the whole film; the ending is much more emotional than it would be if you just watched it on its own; this is created by the narrative and the relationship between Derick and his little brother Danny; Derick before he came out of prison as a changed man was extremily racists and had his strong views on black people and this had a huge impact on Danny who looked up to his brother like a normal little sibling would.

It wasnt untill Derick came out of prison that he realised his bad behaviour was for the worst and that his little brother is going to turn out like him; once the realisation of this hit him, he did his best not just to turn his life around but also his little brothers and to get him on the stright road, to do well at school and also be a role model for little people to look up to. Derick decides to pull out of the 'deciples of christ' and also Danny, Danny wasnt happy of this untill he knew the story of what happened to Derick inside and that he made best mates with a black guy Lemont and that he properly wouldnt of got out alive if it wasnt for him. After all this is when the audience see's a change in them both and has the emotion of relief in a way, as they are turning themself around for the best.

However when it gets to the ending scene where Danny is shot three times by the black kid from begining of film in school straight throught hthe chest, there much anger here as we have seen them change however others havent and they didnt give them a chance to prove themselves. Personally i also felt upset and sympathy, as Danny is only a kid who learnt the wrongs and rights wrongly which in a way wasnt his fault and noone deserves this.

Japanese cinema

Japanese cinema 1950-1970s:

• Japan in the 60s was a changing country. Economically it was growing and becoming a rich nation.
• Politically after world war 2, it was getting used to a new system.
• Pulturally
• After world war 2, America was an occupying force in the country.