The Pacific Review

The Pacific is a HBO mini-series about the battles between America and Japan in the second world war. The series is focused on three characters; John Basilone, Robert Lecky and Ugeine Sledge. All three characters are real people who were involved in the war between Japan and America. The series jumps from character to character dfrom timte to time experiencing different situations and battles throughout withoput losing focus of interest in the audience. The fact that the series is based on non-fiction makes it even more astonashijng to believe what takes place in the 10 part mini series. The sheer brutality experienced in the mini series is jaw dropping and portrays the dark side of war to the audience with mental tolls being experienced and great loss throughout. The Pacific grabs your emotions and shakes them brutally throughout the whole series as they experience exactly what each character feels at every stage. The series takes you on the journey of characters from home to war and back home and tthe bloody battles they toil through. The series also depicts what happeened to soldiers after the war and how mentally scaring they things experienced was and the toll it takes on them.This personally is one of my best things I have ever watched as it is an emotional journey and each character I understood and become attatched to. It is an experience like never before watching this mini series. Even the title sequence at the start of each episode is breath taking.

Django Unchained Review

This movie really got the grips of my attention right from the very opening and rattled it to the finish. With scenes of pure brutality and racism causes the viewer to really put themselves on the shoes of slaves. You begin to get to grips with the violence and the treatment of the slaves in that time period in which the film is set in (1800's). Django is a blossoming character. He starts off the movie with such little confidence and wit. But with the help of Dr King Shultz , Django turns into a sharp tounged with a presence that could easily wake anything in his path. He begins to develop verbal and shooting skills in a battle to save his wife Broomhilda. It seems throughout the entire movie that Dr King Shultz ( the bounty hunter that bought Django his freedom from chains) is the only white character to treat him respect and give him his human rights, portraying his character to be loving and faithful and Shultz really plucks the strings of your heart when you think about it as he should be cold-hearted as can be as he is a bounty hunter but he is really a nice heart warming character.

In conclusion the film is a brutal train ride with emotional drops and highs to portray the struggle of slavery and the sheer brutality of the contextual time the movie was set in. The blood bath of an ending is sheer chaos and the final scenes are something you have to experience to be over whelmed.

Taken Review

The movie Taken is about a former CIA agent who's 17 year old daughter is kidnapped on a trip to Paris for sex trafficking. I was not disappointed as Liam Neeson portrayed the nice guy with an unknown skill set . The film creates Bryan Mills as a tall iconic hero for the audience, building suspense from each and every turn leaving you breathless towards the end of the film. This is a classic example of a thriller, incorporating the classic codes and conventions of a thriller and utilising it to make it one of the greatest thrillers made in my opinion. It is a movie I recommend to anyone who is able to watch it as the experience of watching such a film is something i think everyone should experience. I don't want to give too much away about this movie so il let the final interpretation be what it will be for you when you watch this film.  This film has one of the greatest movie lines/threats in the history of film making. I heavily praise the director Pierre Morel for this splendid thriller that is Taken.

Mad Max Fury Road Title Sequence

The title sequence opens with the following titles: 

 The name of the actors has been displayed in a typography that resembles that of a rusting metallic finish. This is relevant to the film as the setting is a decomposing desert with destructions scattered across the place. The characters names under this are written in a sharp red font. The typography is almost like its something that has been scratched into a wall with a stone as it features jagged, sharp edges. This gives the titles a rough and rustic feel which matches the tone of the movie. The use of the red resembles how easily blood is spilled in this world. The use of the titles being as they are " Tom Hardy As Max Rotatansky" gives a comic book feel as if anything goes in this planet, even if it is utter chaos.

This second title is set on a heated metallic background. This is almost "lava" like which resembles the burning and decomposition of the planet. The titles again feature a rusting metallic typography, reinforcing the lack of care on the planet.

This next shot is of a group of trees being burnt by an explosion/shock.  This reinforces the decomposition of the planet.

The titles do not continue until this seen of the main character Max Rotatansky being dragged back into an evil lair.

This scene closes and the following titles appear:

These titles appear with a transition of closing doors from the scene above. This effect is like doors closing in on Max's fate. This creates a large amount of tension for the audience as they want to watch the rest of the film to unveil Max's fate.  Again the rusty, metallic typography has been used to reinforce the decomposition of the planet. 

The titles "Fury Road" are then slapped on top. This fiery burning typography resembles that of a brand. This suggest that characters may suffer the scalding pain and be scarred.  The burning animation sets the tone of "fury" and destruction of the movie.

Kidulthhtod Review

Kidulthood is a film set in the heart of London and follows a bunch of crime involved school kids on their day to day lives and the events that occur. The film exploits crime, bullying and use of drugs and alcohol by the teens making heads turn at all angles. This was our biggest inspiration for our main task idea as the film was some what relatable to me and sent chills of thrill down my spine when i watched this and decided we wanted to re create that. Things from the clothing to the dialect was such a realistic representation of real life that it related to us. The use of grime music throughout the film was something that stuck in my mind as it replicated the culture of the characters and environment. I highly recommend giving this film a watch as it was the biggest inspiration to us for our main task.

Shot Types

As the editor of the group, I decided to base our footage on a crime theme so that I can dwell on the fact of tension using lighting, different types and angles of shots and also putting dramatic music into our footage. I have contributed into researching different editing ideas and techniques to aid in the completion of producing our film.

Shot Types:

Medium shot-  This shot doesn't show the whole body, it only reveals half of the body. This will be a very nice shot to use when we film the mafia boss sitting in his chair awaiting his visitor in suspense like in the "Godfather"  scene below. We will film this scene with a low level of lighting in an attempt to build tension and anxiety for the audience like this shot in black and white below.

Extreme Close Up- This shot is a very close shot showing detail of an image or physical features of a person and is used to build tension. This shot can really capture the fear or frustration in the facial expression like this scen from "The Grey" below.

Over the shoulder shot- The over the shoulder shot is mainly used in conversation to give a dynamic view/perspective and is framed behind a person who is looking at the subject of the shot. The person looking at the subject should occupy only about a 1/3 of the frame. This shot helps establish the position of each person and gains the feel of looking at a person from another persons point of view. I will most likely cut between two over the shoulder shots whilst abiding by the 180 rule to give a dynamic and tense view of the dialogue in my preliminary task. 

Close up shot- a close up shot is one that frames distinctive close features of the face, resulting in the face being the main focal point of the frame. This emphasises the emotional state of the character in the frame more than a mid-shot or a wide-shot that delivers general information about the character. The close-up exaggerates the characters facial expressions drawing the audience towards their feelings and emotions unlike other shots.

180 Degree Rule

The 180 degree rule is mainly used when filming a scene which involves the conversation between two characters. The rule is based off of the one side of the conversation and that shots of the conversation should be shot from different points on the 180 degree line (axis of action). If the rule is broken and a camera is placed the other side of the axis , the shots when edited together will look like the two people involved in the conversation will have possibly moved or talking to the other person as the positions of the two people will not look aesthetically correct in that the two people are facing each other.

The image above displays the Line of action and the angle of axis round one side of it. As you can see camera A,B and C are all in line or one side of the axis. These give a clear perspective of the conversation between the two characters. Whereas, camera D is the other side of the point of axis and is breaking the 180 degree rule. This doesn't correlate to the other shots of the other side of the axis and looks as if the characters have moved or the shot has shifted slightly. The 180 degree rule is one that my group is going to abide by for our preliminary task as we want our dialogue to look aesthetically realistic and don't want the effect that the characters are shifting around the shot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bba7raSvvRo

This video helped increase mu understanding go the 180 degree rule and gives moving visuals and examples of when the 180 degree rule is broken and when it is followed.