'Inferno' - Weekly Film Analysis By: Unknown No comments

'Inferno' is a crime/mystery/action/thriller directed by Ron Howard and based on the novel by Dan Brown of the same name. It is the third Ron Howard film adaptation of Dan Brown novels, after Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci code. It is also the third Ron Howard/Dan Brown film to star Oscar award winning actor Tm Hanks This film also stars British new comer Felicity Jones and well as Irrfran Khan. The film had a budget of $75,000,000 and since it's release on the 28th of October 2016, it has already  made a worldwide gross of $148,000,000.

The film follows the story of world famous symbologist Robert Langdon on a trail of clues tied to the great Dante himself. When Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia, he teams up with Sienna Brooks, a doctor whom he hopes will help him recover his memories. Together, they race across Europe and against the clock to stop a madman from unleashing a global virus that would wipe out half of the world's population.

Inferno has a naturally gripping action/mystery plot which had the potential to be extremely entertaining for an audience however, narrative-wise, despite the use of title cards to show changes in place/time, the film seems to move far too quickly making it hard to understand and no very easy to believe as the character's discover everything in an unrealistically quick amount of time. Due to having read the book before, I would say that production wise they could have spread this book into at least two, if not tree films rather than trying to squeeze everything in to one s it clearly didn't wok as rather than just keeping the best bits they rushed all the bits so much that all of them lost their beauty individuality and value. 

The special effects used in the film were surprisingly unrealistic especially in the hellish nightmare/vision scenes and falling scenes, considering he high budget of the film and the creative technology available to  use in the film production industry today. Likewise, the acting of most of the actors bar Tom Hanks and Irrfran Khan was pretty poor considering.

Overall however the cinematography., mise en scene and editing used within the film were very good and successfully demonstrated the themes and overall atmosphere of the film to the audience. They were both aesthetically pleasing and true to the book an d in my opinion helped to redeem he film a little in it's success.

'Undefeated' - Weekly Film Analysis By: Unknown No comments

Undefeated is a 2011 sport documentary directed by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin. It follows the story of three working class youths from Manassas High School and their football coach who aims to help them beat the odds on and off the pitch.  

It is an extremely moving story which was made even more touching and tear- jerking due to the fact that we know it is true to life. The film touches upon a huge range of extremely important and hard hitting themes, some of which include class, friendships, privileged, opportunity, masculinity, determination, drive, aspiration, family, father/son relationships, failure, success, strength, positivity, perseverance, motivation and the idea of 'never giving up'.

One of the most important, and therefore memorable, quotes from the film is said by the Tiger's volunteer coach Bill ~Courtney and that is:

"The character of a man is not measured in how he handles his wins, but what he does with his failures ."


This, I believe, is the overall message and moral as the film because, as it is of course a true story, unlike in many fictional dramas where the protagonists team will never lose the final match, in undefeated the Tiger's don't actually win the playoff game however what they learn is that it is always about winning and that that is one of the harsh but helpful realities of life. Therefore, this statement becomes very important for not only the character's in the film but also for the audience who can come away from the film having learnt that lesson. Something which many dramas may not have been able to do, or at least do with the same effect.


A common convention of documentaries which helped to portray this message along with the other main themes of the film was through the use of narrative. For example, title cards, and animated info graphics such as the map animation, really helped to move the story along as well as making it even more visually appealing to the audience, whilst also informing of the facts, statistics and realities on the subject.


Furthermore, the animated graphics weren't the only visual aspect of the film that would be appealing to the audience. The clever and varied use of cinematography was also key in achieving this. For example, there was a wide range of camera, shots, angles and movements, even during interviewing scenes and a beautiful and fitting color palette also helped in creating and solidifying the mood of the film throughout.


All of which came together to create a beautiful piece of work that was both visually and emotionally/intellectually appealing and I believe, would really move and inspire any audience member as well as also teaching them the same important life lesson that we see the character's learn on their journey throughout the film.

Documentary Presentation By: Unknown No comments

'Hot Girls Wanted' - Weekly Film Analysis By: Unknown 4 comments

'Hot Girls Wanted' is a 2015 documentary directed by Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus. It follows the story of five amateur pornstars in Florida and sheds light on the ever growing amateur porn industry through the experiences shown and talked about by the young women throughout.

It is interesting to note that both the directors are female as this begs the question of how much, if at all, did this influence the representation of the women and their issue within the documentary. Did it make it biased against them or in their favour or neither? It is easy to argue both ways as some could say it was biased against them as it made them seem like victims that are easily taken advantage of and abused. However, it could also be said that it shows the stronger side to them, as it was a chance for them to speak up and have their say about their experiences and shows them as more than just a pretty face... and body, but also a real person with thoughts, feelings and opinions.

One could definitely say however, from what we were shown and taught throughout the documentary, that the representation of the women within the industry is extremely sexist. With females shown as being weak, submissive, victimised sex slaves. One part of the doc in particular which I believe really got that message across to the audience was in the section about the new 'Facial Abuse' fad in pornography. Where young amateur were forced to participate in rough oral sex until they vomited and were then forced to eat it whilst also being verbally abused by the male porn stars in the videos using offensive racial and sexist language.

This links in with feminist Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory which in short is the theory that everything in the media, and particularly this specific industry is done in the interests, particularly visual interests of men. The theory goes on to explain 

As a common convention of documentaries, 'Hot Girl's Wanted' also included a good deal of title cards featuring facts and statistics on the industry. Many of the facts shown were extremely shocking. For example; the fact that Porn hub is visited more times per day than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter collectively.  

So, in conclusion therefore, I believe that although the industry was portrayed as representing the women as weak and victimised I think the documentary on the whole showed them as somewhat empowered.

What Is A Documentary? By: Unknown No comments

When John Grierson first coined the word in 1926, he described documentary as the 'Creative treatment of actuality.' 

In film, a 'documentary' or 'doc' refers to a piece which strives to record or represent an event, a life story or a social issue. This can be done using actual footage or as a reconstruction. Often they are made around a fact or statement however, they are also often found to be based on a question or hypothesis, and, in accordance with this, they often use a lot of facts, statistics and other data which could be gathered from primary or secondary sources. 

A common convention of film documentaries is to use, either full or sections from, video or audio interviews which are a great primary source of data that can prove to be very helpful in obtaining firsthand information which is high in validity. Of course, due to these interviews often being unstructured, or at the very least unscripted, they don't tend to be the most reliable or reproducible sources of information. Which is why official facts and statistics are so often used in addition to these.

However, one of the good things about this convention is the fact that it helps in achieving the aim of a documentary which is to inform an audience to the point that they are able to form their own opinion on the person, event or issue. Sometimes the writer or director will have particular opinion that they want their audience to form in which case they will bias the representation within the documentary to fit this purpose. However, as we know due to the several different audience reception theories including negotiated and oppositional, the way the audience receives the piece still may not always be as desired. 

Another common convention of documentaries, in terms of the narrative, is the use of narration. Common forms of this include voice over or an on camera host which help to put across the events or opinions shown within the documentary, to the audience. This therefore, is one of the many ways in which they are different to dramas. This is why, unti much more recently, say the last 20 years or so, documentaries and dramas attracted very different audiences. As well as, of course, each different type and genre of documentary attracting it's own individual, 'niche' audience due to it's subject matter.

However, for mainstream audiences documentaries weren't very popular and therefore often missing out on the market for young people due to their non fiction narrative style and the lack of common drama conventions such as action explosives, special effects and fantasy or animated characters. Moreover, this meant that those who weren't educated or well informed film lovers who were able to appreciate all types of good cinema, a stigma formed around documentaries, about them being 'boring' and 'uncreative' or not being fun, interesting or beautiful to watch. 

However, in recent years they've become much more popular not just critical, but also commercial success. They continue to enter the mainstream market, and our increasingly becoming just as popular as dramas for not only film  lovers, experts or critiques like they were previously, but also your average mainstream media consumer. The market for documentaries at the moment is really booming both in terms of films but also TV series on popular mainstream channels as well as worldwide film/TV show streaming sites such as Netflix. Some recent examples include the series 'Making A Murderer' (2015) as well as films such as Bowling For Columbine (2002), Super Size Me (2004), The Act of Killing (2012), Blackfish (2013) and Amy (2015).

'Winter's Bone' - Weekly Film Analysis By: Unknown 1 comment

'Winter's Bone' (2010) is an indie drama written and directed by Debra Granik. It is a film adaptation of Daniel Woodrell's 2006 novel of the same name and stars Jennifer Lawrence as the teenage protagonist Ree Dolly (17) who is on a journey to find her drug - dealing father in order to save her mentally ill mother and two younger siblings from eviction.

The film explores the themes of family, poverty, struggle and the law through the use of micro features such as performance, as well as through it’s cinematography. For example the dull, washed-out colour palate of the film which helps to support it’s bleak, haunting mood and story.  

Winter's Bone won 63 awards and was also nominated for a further 122 including four Oscars in 2011; Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay,  Best Supporting Actor (John Hawkes) and Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence).

This was therefore a very pivotal moment in Jennifer Lawrence's acting career, as she was nominated for this award at just twenty years old which is a lot younger than, not only the other nominees that year, but also the majority of nominees for that category in the history of the Academy Awards. Not surprisingly, therefore, the award for Best Actress in a leading role went to then 30 year old, Natalie Portman for her role in ‘Black Swan’.

However, even though Lawrence didn't win the award, this was clearly still a very important and significant moment in her career up until that time as from then on Lawrence’s career really began to pick up even more with her landing roles such as Raven/Mystique in X-men (2011) and Katniss Everdeen in ‘The Hunger Games’ (2012) in the following few years.

Likewise, just three years after her role in ‘Winter's Bone’, Lawrence won her first Oscar, again for the category of Best Actress in a leading role, for her performance in ‘Silver Linings’ (2012).

In hindsight it could therefore be argued that her performance in ‘Winter's Bone’ and the reception of it, was what started this positive evolution in her career.

Overall, ‘Winter’s Bone’ was a very emotional and hard hitting coming of age film which cleverly explored the themes of  family, poverty, struggle and the law, as well as showing the intense and inspirational growth of Jennifer Lawrence’s character Ree’s strength, femininity and self identity through her determination, perseverance and durability.

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'Chances Are' - Weekly Film Analysis By: Unknown No comments

PRODUCED IN: 1989

RELEASED IN: 1989

TYPE: Feature film

GENRE: Romantic Comedy

CERTIFICATE: PG

RUNNING TIME: 108 minutes

FILMING LOCATION: California, USA

LANGUAGE: English (U.S.)

DIRECTED BY: Emile Ardolino

PRODUCED BY: Mike Lobell

WRITTEN BY: Perry Howze, Randy Howze

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Tri-Star pictures

CINEMATOGRAPHY: William A. Fraker

EDITING: Harry Keramidas

MUSIC BY: Maurice Jarre

KEY CAST MEMBERS: Cybill Shepherd, Ryan O’Neal, Robert Downey Jr.

BUDGET: $16,000,000

BOX OFFICE: $16,250,000

THEMES: Love, secrets, trust, betrayal, memory, death

NARRATIVE:

The story is told in a linear structure, however, where jumps in time take place, these are shown using title cards such as ‘One year later’ or ‘23 years later’. These appear rather often within this film as there are several changes in time.

Likewise, the film is divided into naturalistic and non naturalistic parts with the use of a fade to/from white which create dream/fantasy like sequences appropriate to the idea of the afterlife.

Furthermore, due to the first ten minutes being completely different to the whole rest of the film , which is completely unexpected, one could comment that this was an interesting use of narrative, as by introducing the audience to the characters just enough, SPOILER then killing one of, and then flashing forward 20 years, it confuses the audience and makes them want to know more and understand what else could possibly happen within this story.

Likewise, within this film two actors represent the same character which is unusual for most films. It also includes many elements of fantasy without losing the real depth of the romance or making it seem unrealistic.

KEY SCENES:

• The wedding
• The death scene
• The reincarnation scene
• When Alex/Louie and Corinne first meet
• When Alex/Louie tells Corinne who he is
• When Alex/Louie breaks up with Miranda
• When Corinne finally believes him
• When they go out together
• When Philip catches them
• When Phillip and Corinne sleep together
• When Alex/Louie gets hospitalised again
• When Alex/Louie finally gets the injection to clear his memory
• The final wedding scene

COMPARABLES:

In some ways this film could be compared to the romantic comedy Just Like Heaven (2005) starring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo, as that film too is about someone hospitalised after a car crash and includes fantasy elements through which the ghost and the love interest all in love, just like in Chances Are where it is the reincarnation and the protagonist who fall in love.

Likewise, Heart and Souls (1993) is another romantic comedy fantasy starring Robert Downey Jr. which is about misplaced souls, though this time the souls are stuck with him after a traffic accident at the time of his birth.

OTHER:

Actor Robert Downey Jr. and actress Mary Stuart Masterson both later appeared in the documentary The Last Party (1993) around four years after this movie was made and released.

‘The Loft’ - Weekly Film Analysis By: Unknown No comments

PRODUCED IN: 2014

RELEASED IN: 2014

TYPE: Feature Film

GENRE: Thriller, Mystery, Romance

CERTIFICATE: 15

RUNNING TIME: 108 Minutes

FILMING LOCATION: Belgium

LANGUAGE: English (USA)

DIRECTED BY: Erik Van Looy

PRODUCED BY:  Hilde De Laere, Matt DeRoss, Paul Green, Adam Shulman

WRITTEN BY: Bart De Pauw

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Open Road Films, De Vivjer Media

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Nicolas Karakatsanis

EDITING: Eddie Hamilton

MUSIC BY: John Frizzell

KEY CAST MEMBERS: Karl Urban, James Marsden, Wentworth Miller, Eric Stonestreet, Matthias Schoenaerts

BUDGET: $14,000,000

BOX OFFICE: $48,000,000

THEMES: Secrets, lies, mystery, love, romance, betrayal

NARRATIVE:

Although the majority of the narrative is told in chronological, linear structure, the film does begins with a high speed montage of intriguing clips which immediately engage the audience and make them want to find out more. It then flashes back to explain the rest of the story and how we got to that point in time.

This technique of flashbacks is also used often in other places through the film in order to explain further depth into the lives of the characters or previous events which have lead up to a moment of importance, in most cases therefore they are used to give the audience more in depth information.

KEY SCENES:

Opening scene where we are introduced to the fact that there has been a gruesome murder for the first time.

The initial flashback where we are given our first introduction to our five protagonists.

The bar scene where their secret is nearly revealed to their wives.

The scene when the drugs vincent

The kitchen scene when we discover the second twist within the film.

The balcony scene where Luke commits suicide.

The interrogation scene where we think Vincent is going to jail.

The flash forward scene when we find out what happened to the characters in the future.

COMPARABLES:  

‘The Loft’ was a remake of a 2008 film ‘Loft’ that was an enormous hit in its native Belgium, which was also previously remade in the Netherlands in 2010 - Erik van Looy, the director, not only helmed the original but also worked on the Dutch version as well. ‘The Loft’ is also comparable with the 1960 film ‘The Apartment’.

'Would You Rather' - Weekly Film Analysis By: Unknown No comments

PRODUCED IN: 2013

RELEASED IN: 2013

TYPE: Feature Film

GENRE: Horror, Thriller

CERTIFICATE: 15

RUNNING TIME: 93 Minutes

FILMING LOCATION: USA (Pasadena, California)

LANGUAGE: English (American)

DIRECTED BY: David Guy Levy

PRODUCED BY: Maura Anderson, Zak Kilberg, David Guy Levy

WRITTEN BY: Steffen Schlachtenhaufen

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Periscope Entertainment, Dreamher Productions, Lambrick Foundation, Social Construct

DISTRIBUTED BY: IFC Films, Ascot Elite Home Entertainment, Cinemax, Klockworx

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Steven Capilato, Steve Callitri

EDITING: Josh Schaeffer

MUSIC BY: Daniel Hunt, Bardi Johannsson

KEY CAST MEMBERS: Brittany Snow, June Squibb, Jeffrey Combs

THEMES: Dilemmas, choices, psychology, humanity, morality, determination, scruple, conscience

Desperate to help her ailing brother, a young woman unknowingly agrees to compete in a deadly game of 'Would you rather', hosted by a sadistic aristocrat.

The cinematography in the film holds consistent tone and presentation, and with horror films especially, I very much believe that uniformed cinematography is crucial to preserving the mood. 

Throughout the film director of Photography Steve Calitri paints an unchanged vision for the audience. However, because of this, in several scenes, this constantly unchanging lighting was so out of place, that what should have been a scary or tense atmosphere was completely ruined. When the film returned to the game room to continue on with each round, the cinematography was really strong and balanced, exactly how it needed to be. However, the camera was never taken off the tripod for scenes that required it which created a true lack of kinetic atmosphere and tension in the scenes where people are running about and shooting.

Would You Rather is part of a horror breed lead primarily by Srdan Spasojevic and Pier Paolo Pasolini which is an attempting sociopolitical jab at those born into power, and their twisted definitions of pleasure and excitement. Combs’ Lambrick is very similar in many ways to Aldo Valletti’s President (of the 120 Days of Sodom) and Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman (of American Psycho). In that they are all sadistic power players manipulating people to their gory ends.

One could also compare it to 'Saw' and, due to the torture parts, it could equally be compared to Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s 'Inside.'

Although horror film abominations such as Eli Roth’s 'Hostel' or Tom Six’ 'The Human Centipede' attempt to follow in the same trend, I believe Would You Rather comes a bit closer to this intention. It has very strong moments, however the lack of understanding in how to shift moods effectively does become a burden. 

At times, the writing can be very stiff but Schlachtenhaufen does show promise as a thriller and horror writer, and it’s nice to see his primary background in special effects didn’t bleed too heavily into this film. This film was a fair attempt, however, I don't believe that it was as successful as it could've been. That being said, when it was excelling, it was a gripping and fascinating piece.