Broadcast Fall -- New Psychology Course

Pre-production:
We came up with the idea because I was interested in taking the psychology course myself last year. However, I did not want to give up my IB Film course so I decided to just learn about what the course would have been about if i had taken. Also i wanted to let others know what it was about since it is a new course at Capuchino. It was very easy to find interviewees because there was a plentiful amount of people that were taking the course that i knew. Our interview questions allowed the interviewees to answer personally instead of objectively so that our audience could truly feel whether or not they would be happy taking the course. The questions directed towards the teacher were more about the course itself so that our audience could know what they could expect to learn in the course. We did envision something special for the piece which was the format that we asked our questions. We incorporated unique camera techniques such as whip pans to make the piece more interesting to the audience.


In conjunction, our audience would be more interested in taking the course which was after all the goal of our broadcast.

Production: Quality:
We chose to film the teachers' responses in their classroom since that was where the psychology course takes place. The students we interviewed we filmed outside of the classroom and in various places to make our piece less repetitive. Unfortunately, when we filmed the teachers there was construction work occurring in the back ground and some of that noise was picked up by our mic. Fortunately, the noise was less apparent when we added a soundtrack to our piece. Our B-Roll typically matched what the interviewees were saying, however, at times we ran out of ideas for B-roll so we just showed the interviewees. Our most creative shots were the ones with the questions. This is because they were a bit surreal which made them very interesting and funny. We did take note of the background objects in our shots and we tried to avoid having anything very distracting in them. Also, because we filmed mainly on sunny days we had to continuously change the exposure settings to get a pleasing shot.

Our audio overall came out well because we used a boom mic. However, the final audio clip came out very strange for some strange reason. We could not refilm it because our actor became busy. Still, the audio was not too horrendous.


Script:
Our voice over leaded into our topic and it provided for easy transitions between interviewees. To grab our audiences attention we used interesting shot transitions, but to keep our audiences attention we kept our questions short and simple. Our segment was informative because it outlines what the course was about and it gave detail of how students were reacting to taking the course.

Our final closing voice over added humor to keep with the tone of our piece. Additionally, this gave our audience more reason to take the psychology course, or to at least research it more so that they can decide if the course is right for them.

Editing:
Our B-Roll accurately reflects the audio in our voice overs and SOT's to add coherency.

We did use transitions between shots so that our piece was fluid. The opening sequence of our piece involved the use of the application "Motion" because i wanted to create an animated sequence of words connected to psychology. We also used lower third titles to give our interviewees names and small back ground info [i.e. teacher or student]. The only effect that we added to our piece was a bit of color correction to the teacher interviews because the original footage came out a bit dull. So i added color correction in order to make the footage more exciting and alive.

There were no jump cuts in our piece because all of our interviews were taken in one take.

Overall
I like the entire piece as a whole a lot. I think our interviews are really informative and I love the transitions that we used because they are creative and it took me and my partner a good amount of time to come up with different ideas. The only flaw in our project was one interview with one of the teachers because she was not facing directly towards the camera. It did look awkward when she was looking to the side of the camera. This interview could serve as a lesson for our next piece because now i can see how important it is to guide the interviewee's eyes.

Character in Time

Age 1: Girl is sick. Parents cannot afford to buy her any medicine and the mother is panicking because she does not want her only child to perish. Late at night the mother whispers to her sick baby "one day someone will come to us and help us. I promise". The mother says this as her tears fall on the tiny girl's forehead and cool her body. The following day the baby girl awakes healthily.
Age 2: Girl is learning how to walk. The mother is teaching her meanwhile the girl's father is in a factory working in grueling conditions making pennies an hour. In the afternoon, as the men are away working the girl's village is raided. The mother clutches her little girl and they hide in a small trench. The mother tells her daughter to stay calm . . . that everything will be alright. The mother's tears of fear hit the girls forehead. The girl remains silent and the invaders leave their home untouched. That cannot be said for some of the other villagers.
Age 4: Little girl is helping her mother find vegetables in the fields. It is a tedious task but it has to be done so that the mother can make a complete meal for her small family. The mother and girl look up to see foreigners in large cars drive to their villagers. They claim to be anthropologists and they ask the mother several questions. The little girl keeps wondering if this is the day that someone will help them. The anthropologists ask to take the little girl's picture. The mother says yes and she receives a few cans of food. The girl's eyes stare through the camera to see the anthropologist's eyes. It appears that they will not help her. The little girl's eyes become filled tears, yet the anthropologists ignore her and return to their large cars. The little girl turns to her mother is walking back to her. The little girl realizes that only they can help each other. The mother and daughter return to picking villages in the hot fields.

Review for Camera Exam- Cinematography Focus

The film starts with a blurred shot of straight lines of white light. Soon a woman, the main character, rises and her head is in an extreme close up -- note that the camera has remained static. The extreme close up allows us to see the emotion that the woman is feeling. She is out of breath and appears to be confused. As her head rises the film cuts to a medium shot of the woman to reveal that she is in a confined room; this room is very gray and dull just like a jail cell. The film then cuts to a medium shot of the woman and it seems that she is wearing a hospital patient's gown. There is some blood on it. The woman is very lit up which contrasts with her back ground as it is stark black. Perhaps this is done to draw the audience's eyes to the woman and away from unimportant details in the room so that they can see the blood on her gown. The scene then cuts to her rushing to a small mirror in the room. Several match action cuts are made that show the woman breaking the mirror then picking up a piece of the broken glass to see where the blood came from. The glass reveals that there is sort of a barcode on her neck. A reverse shot then shows this barcode more clearly and then another reverse shot gives a close up on the woman's face and shows the horror that she feels. The woman turns around and then looks at a wall behind her. A rack focus reveals writing on the wall.

Actually, it is not writing but rather engraved tally marks. As the woman turns away from the wall the rack focus blurs out the tally marks and again focuses on the woman's face.

She is still confused and unsure of what is happening. Then a long shot of the room reveals how small the room indeed is. This long shot however has been edited to appear like a security camera shot in which the image is black and white and there is a time indicator on the bottom left corner of the shot.

The scene continues and several varied shots show the woman exercising in her room. After all what else can she do? Eventually the woman starts to look for weaknesses in the room's architecture. She discovers a large gun that creates "portals". Visual effects bring these portals to life and a mirror like effect shows how the portals work -- you can go into one portal and you'll come out of the sister portal.

The woman utilizes these portals to escape security and she eventually goes outside. It appears that she is about to be free but as the camera pans around the city the city becomes 2 dimensional.

In all honesty, this is one of my favorite shots of all time. The camera panned around the woman in 3D space and because it was in 3D space it became apparent the background of the shot was indeed linear and just a wall. It turns out that she can not escape and is confined in whatever building she is in. There is no escape for her.

Oral Presentation IB Grading

Self-Assessment:
I would award myself a 20 because i feel that i did an excellent job in evaluating and analyzing my extract in a social cultural context. Also i did quite well in analyzing the financial institutions effect on the film's production. The inclusion of Walt Disney's nature to produce children's film and its phase in producing musicals such as The Beauty and the Beast was insightful and shows careful research. The history of the genre relating to the film also was very insightful. The history of course included the themes of the spirit of Christmas and themes of love. I also discussed the sound design and analyzed its role in the film. The connection between the actors and the non-diagetic sounds was a good point and it was relative to both the extract and the film as a whole. On a narrative level i did well at analyzing how the extract created conflict and why it's so important to the film as a whole. The tone that i spoke in sounded convincing and confident which added to the credibility of my points. However, the reason that i do not deserve the highest marking is because i failed to focus more on the extract. I tended to stray away and talk about the film as a whole and that is not what the presentation is about. Still, when i did focus solely on the extract is was insightful and coherent which is why i gave myself a 20.

Critique for Plenny's Presentation on I Am Legend

Plenny exceeded the extract time limit of 5 minutes and instead picked an extract of 6 minutes. The socio-cultural context is present, but it isn't relevant to the film or the extract itself so more research is needed for that part. The inclusion of the director's thoughts and reasons for creating this film is great because it supports her theme that Will Smith's character feels isolated, and that was the director's intention. The Butterfly Effect was an interesting idea, very original but i think that some expansion on it could be made. The presentation is a bit repetitive because she talks about isolation various times throughout the presentation, but it should be talked about once and during that one time all of the ideas should be presented. The lighting was adequately talked about. Still, there was some more time left in the presentation which i believe could have been utilized to explain why she chose that specific extract and why it is so important to her. I would award her a 15 because the analysis was adequate and the director's intention was clearly explained. However, she received this mark because she didn't go in depth of film techniques create meaning.

Oral Presentation - Narritive

Part 2
IV. Narrative
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a film that discusses the theme of emptiness in one's self and one's longing to fill that empty void with things never experienced before, while still maintaining their original character. Burton's characters Jack and Sally exemplify people who long to fill their empty void, and they fill this void through the love that they develop for each other.

V. Film Language and Representation

1. How are characters and issues represented?
The characters are represented through their dialogue and through the actions that they perform. Jack, the main character, is especially characterized by his own musical monologue and by the musical score itself. In the extract chosen he sings that "there's an empty place in my bones that calls out for something unknown. The fame and praise come year after year does nothing for these empty tears." Jack feels that those around him don't understand him because they don't see anything to Jack other than that he's the king of Halloween. However, there is much more to Jack and Jack knows this. That's why there's something in him that "calls out for something unknown." The "unknown" is the central problem that Jack has to face in order to become happy once more. In the film Jack first believes that the "unknown" is Christmas which is why he goes out and explores Christmas land. However, it turns out that what's missing in his bones is love. Sally is the one that grows to love him as seen by the extract. She follows him to make sure he's safe, and at the end of Jack's monologue detailing his longing for something new Sally says that she "knows how [he] feels." From this critical scene the story follows Jack's journey to fill his emptiness, while Sally follows Jack to get him to realize her love for him.
2. What is the style and effect of acting and performance?
The style of the movie is a claymation animation meaning that the actors are dolls, and because they are dolls the movie had to be filmed with stop motion technology. Because of this every single frame had to be individual manipulated to create fluidity. In order to add realism to the dolls the art crew created about 400 individual "Jack" heads. Every Jack head had a different facial expression which varyied on whatever word Jack was iterating, or depending on his emotion in any given shot. Of course every other character had a bountiful number of heads as well for the same purpose as Jack's heads. The purpose for this is to make it seem like the dolls are really saying what the audience is hearing. This of course adds realism to the film, and to the performance of the "actors" because they are able to change facial expressions fluidly. Also, the art designers gave each doll a special body with movable and fixed joints. So whenever a character had to walk or raise an arm or tilt their head the film crew was able to move the doll accordingly. This also adds realism to the film. Lastly, the dolls were voiced by phenomenal voice actors who were able to bring the characters to life with purposeful and articulate language. Jack, for example, was voiced by Chris Sarandon whose voice brought the characterization of life out. He was able to sound gloom when needed, or excited when needed. However, the most noteworthy voice in "Nightmare" was the voice of Danny Elfman. Danny Elfman was both the score writer and the lyricist. Because of this he was able to sing every note to the music as it was intended to be sang by its creator, since he was the creator. His voice in the scene showed how glum Jack was and how misunderstood he felt. It greatly brought forth the emotion within the character. Whether Jack was praising himself as being the menacing Pumpkin King or if Jack was in dismay due to his realization that there's something missing in his life, if you will, Elfman was able to bring forth these emotions through the sound.
forms?
6. How is meaning created by lighting, shade and color?
The use of dark colors simply reinforces Jack's location which is a cemetery. Also it adds to the dark feel that the holiday of Halloween gives, and of course Jack is in Halloween Land. There are several cast shadows on the grave stones which adds darkness to the scene, but they also edge out the grave stones themselves and make them clearer. For example, there are several grave stones in the shape of the Christian "cross." Perhaps this is to show a connection between Halloween and Christmas. Halloween usually is depicted as being a dark holiday because it celebrates the spirits of the dead, as represented by the grave stones. However, the grave stones are in the shape of a Holy Cross which may be Burton's way of showing that Halloween isn't a pagan holiday as some Christians view it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween#Christianity). Rather, Christians should view Halloween as a holiday of mystery meant to fascinate kids with spooky yet visually enticing images. Like the trademark pumpkin of Halloween. They are interesting because kids can carve them and place lanterns in them, but in the film they are spooky as well as shown by the pumpkin patch whose pumpkins are releasing the spirits of souls. These souls are the typical white color because "people have always used white to dress up as ghosts(http://www.knowswhy.com/why-are-ghosts-white/)." So the white color keeps in line with the Halloween tradition.
7. How is meaning created by sound and music?
As previously stated, Danny Elfman wrote the score for the film. He spent 3 years working alongside Selick and Burton when ever he was present. These 3 years allowed Elfman to score music that pleased the director and producer. The score pleased them because it added meaning to the scene. When Jack is trying to escape the townspeople, he enters an ally which has musicians playing a sorrowful tune. From here a new more hopeful tone starts to play when the audience sees Sally. The score shows that Sally may be Jack's salvation. In this sense the score foreshadows the end of the film which allows the audience to become more alert of Sally and her characterization. After Sally Jack is all alone. The music becomes louder and more exciting and somewhat scary. This adds to Jack's characterization because he is currently quite mysterious and scary. The music also adds a sense of malevolence to Jack's characterization. This of course is supported by Jack's singing in which he proclaims scarily that "He is the Pumpkin King!" But then the music shifts to a more dismayed tone when Jack starts to explain that "somewhere deep inside of these bones an emptiness began to grow." This makes Jack uneasy because he doesn't know what this mysterious thing is. The music then picks up and goes to a more malevolent tone again as Jack praises himself as being a well known person because he's so scary. Yet again, almost instantly Jack starts singing in a melancholic tone and the score shifts accordingly. Jack explains again that "there's an empty place in my bones that calls out for something unknown. The fame and praise come year after year does nothing for these empty tears." The music follows every note that Jack says. If Jack elongates a word then the score follows, this creates a very intense relationship between the score and the actor's voice. In a way, it feels like Jack himself must have written his own score because the score very accurately and precisely depicts Jack's every emotion. The fact that the score kept changing from spooky and exciting to melancholy almost instantaneously shows how confused Jack is in this scene. He has no clue of what's missing in his life, but he knows that something does exist that he must experience in order for him to be happy again. As Jack leaves the cemetary, his music slowly fades out. Then the music changes when Sally is revealed and it becomes hopeful once again. This again reminds the audience that she will have an important part in Jack's journey for him to become happy again.

Oral Presentation- Part 2 - Historical and Socio-culutural

II. Historical and Institutional Factors-

1. What are the institutional factors that may be important?
1. "Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1994) released through Disney’s Touchstone division due to concerns over potential controversy due to its dark themes, but later wholeheartedly embraced by Disney as evidenced by its merchandising and the annual change of the Haunted Mansion into a “Nightmare Before Christmas” theme." Walt Disney funded the Nightmare $18 million dollars. That's an average of $6 million dollars every year that Nightmare was in production. This budget is actually relatively little when compared to other Disney blockbusters but it grossed $50 million dollars in its first theatrical run in the United States.
2. What is the film’s historical significance?
1. as a document of its time? None?
2. as a part of history of film?
This film wasn't the first stop motion film, but it was the most advanced stop motion film during its time. The film ran at 24fps so there were 24 movements per second. The movie is 76 minutes long which means that the film crew had to move the characters a total of 109,440 times which was unheard of. The team was made up of over 100 animators and technicians and it took them 3 years to finish the creation of the film. No stop motion film ever needed that much dedication for it to be produced.

III. Socio-cultural context

In the making of this movie and i learned that Jack Skellington is somewhat of a parallel to the Grinch. But instead of hating Christmas Jack finds and becomes infatuated with Christmas. From here i can see a theme relating to the true "spirit of Christmas" which basically revolves around love. In the Grinch the Grinch lacks a heart, figuratively, but gains one at the end of the movie when he sees that the world is a kind place. Jack on the other hand literally has no heart and says that theres a longing he's never known, something that he's never experienced. He at first believes that the longing is for Christmas, but it turns out to be for love - the same thing that the Grinch was longing for. Jack of course finds love with Sally, and Christmas is then experienced by those in Christmas Town, and those in Halloween Town -- those in Halloween Town experience snow. In the end the spirit of Christmas brings joy to all who take part in it -- those in Christmas Town, Halloween Town, and the Grinch too.

Something else that the film explores is some aspects of Christmas, and additionally the film contains several children themes. In the Christian Christmas, the exchange of gifts has become a core aspect in modern day. In Christmas town the residents receive presents from a Santa Claus. Santa Claus is said to bring gifts to the homes of the good children during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24. As Jack travels to Christmas Town he sees only benevolent kids of all races. This was probably done so that Tim Burton wouldn't receive any criticism for being an advocate for racism, and he's not as shown by the children in Christmas Town. Anyways, these sweet children were excited to receive gifts from Santa Claus, but when Jack delivered them "gifts" all of Christmas Town became hectic because they were given gifts of horror. The military tried to shoot down Jack because he was an impostor of the real Santa Claus. Perhaps this shows another underlying theme. The theme that people shouldn't strive to be what they're not but should instead be happy being what they are because they're good at. At the conclusion of the movie Jack realizes this and says to himself that he is the Pumpkin King, not Santa Claus. Of course the children in Christmas Town receive their gifts, and Jack is able to find love. Jack is able to of course because he realized that what he did was wrong and asked Santa Claus for forgiveness. This theme relates especially to children who must learn between what is right and wrong and always stick with whats right. Of course these themes are present because this movie was released during the Christmas holidays and was meant to be a kids movie. Or rather kids of ages 8 and up. Also the movie revolves around the Christian and Halloween holidays because the film was released mainly in America. This makes sense since Americans practice these holidays yearly and like watching Christmas movies.

The last and more obvious similarity between "Nightmare" and other Christmas films is that they are musicals. Musicals tend to catch kids' attention because children like catchy tunes and like the magical feels that musicals have. Also musicals are happy and exciting for the kids. This explains why Burton recruited Danny Elfman to create the songs -- he is an extremely good song writer and lyricist who's easy to work with and who is dedicated to his work. Also, the musicals are very dreamy for the kids because Walt Disney is the company that the movie was being produced under. Typically Walt Disney creates kids' films which explains Burton's move towards a musical approach.

Oral Presentations- Director's Influence-

I. Genre and Audience-

1. Fantasy
2. The movie is purely fictional, and takes place in a cartoon world. The movie targets kids and kids usually like fantasy which is why this movie is a fantasy.
3. Vincent, The Grinch, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
4. Tim Burton. He grew up watching films like the Grinch which inspired him to want to create animated films. 10 years prior to the movies creation, Burton was writing plays in which the character of Jack manifested itself. He presented the idea to Disney but was shot down. 10 Years later Disney reexamined the play and bought the rights. They only bought the rights then because of Burton's success with "Vincent." In his eyes "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is the opposite of the Grinch because Jack Skellington finds and falls in love with Christmas. Also, Disney knew that this film would be entirely made via stop motion. So Disney wanted to test the limits of stop motion and wanted to advance it with "Nightmare."
5. The producer and writer Tim Burton is famous for dark and quirky films. That explains why he used several silhouettes and shadows in the film more specifically in "Halloween town." He's worked as Disney's animator for several years which is why he decided to make this kids film. The director, Henry Selick enjoys to make scary films for young kids.
6. How does it fit within the director’s other work?
1. Not necessarily, because it is a kids film the main theme is basically good triumphing over evil.
2. Yes, stop motion animation is the director's trademark. The Corpse Bride shares the same use of stop motion. This film has been credited as being dazzling and unprecedented because of its incredible visuals and usage of stop motion that had never been seen before. About 400 "Jack" heads were created to emulate every sound and facial expression that he would make when he speaks. The dark imagery, heavy use of shadows, and silhouettes is present in Burton's "Vincent."
7. Good triumphs over evil.
8. Kids. By creating a surreal and magical world that both scares the kids, but brings out several other emotions such as laughter and wonder in kids.