Carter Vance

 As our team worked to create our movie, Chair, we were limited by resources and knowledge.  If we had endless time and resources, we could have really made our "chair" come to life. Shaman uses cutting to emphasize timing and we did use some cutting to show the "chair" stalking our poor victims.  We were really able to create a montage with the sequence of shots.  It would have been cool to create a montage of the chairs demise. Shaman uses montage to create emotion and show passage of time.  We could have shown the anger from the chair if we had done this approach.  We also could have used cross-cutting which would have let us show parallel events but that was way out of our scope.  This could have helped us build some tension to the story but alas, we had to work with what we had and I think it turned out pretty good! Dissolve is another approach Shaman uses.  Dissolve is a gradual transition between shots where you can fade in and fade out....

Swiss Army Man directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheiner used a combination of special effects, unusual imagery and creating storytelling to make a movie using a "dead body".  The premise of the movie is a man is stranded on a deserted on an island and out of loneliness befriends a corpse, Manny, and together they go on a journey of self-discovery.  They use imagery to make the connection loneliness.  In the first scene, the main character, Hank, is seen hanging himself which is powerful in conveying his desperation and level of depression.  Later, the directors use a dreamlike atmosphere that blurs the lines between reality and imagination.  At one point, Hank is firing rocks out of Manny's mouth to kill animals for food.  This level of imagination is seen throughout the movie intertwined with reality.  While Hank needed food, the idea that the rocks were being fired from a corpse was clearly imaginary.  Another example, is the use of the corps...

When watching a movie, how many times do we pick our movies based on who is acting in the movie?  In our reading this month,  we learned how actors make a difference in establishing the mood or changing the viewer's perspective.  One actor that I tend to like to watch is Benedict Cumberbatch and if you watch him, he has the ability to convey messages with just his facial expressions.  Actors use different facial expressions to create emotion or moods. Benedict has an intense facial expression that he uses to convey deep thought without ever saying a line in Sherlock Holmes.  Another way good actors can change how a movie is received is through their body language.  They use body language such as a confident stance to show power or slouch to show insecurity.  We all know the heroes in a movie because they stand with confidence.  The really great actors also interact with their surroundings. They can use their "sets" to change a perspective.  W...

 This weekend I invested three hours of my life in John Wick 4 and while I will never get this time back, I think it was time well spent from a cinematically interesting movie.  Here comes the spoiler- alerts for those of you who may want to still invest the time.  In the film, the use of stairs is an important part of the movie and represents John Wick's climb to overcome constant adversity.  At one point, there is a scene, where John fights his way up this very tall staircase.  As he climbs, the camera pans out to show the sheer scale of the climb and building at the top of the staircase emphasizing the enormous task ahead for John. Once at the top of the stairs, the camera viewpoint shifts to show John tumbling down the stairs through a very long scene with no noise.  The whole theater is merely focused on the fall as the camera shows him descending down the stairs and further away from his primary goal.  If he doesn't reach the top, he dies. The di...

The John Wick movies make use of several techniques in cinematography and camera angles to create a suspenseful and engaging story. The films frequently use wide shots to show the expansive, dangerous world that John Wick inhabits. These shots establish the setting and give the viewer a sense of the scale of the action. He is always position in large spaces with attacks coming from multiple angles. The films also use close-ups to create emotion, particularly during moments of violence. These shots focus on the actors' faces and show their expressions. They are meant to make you feel for the sheer brutality of the action and how each character is badly bruised and injured throughout. John Wick is known for its long, continuous takes, which add to the intensity and realism of the action scenes. These shots are choreographed carefully and you can almost tell how the camera shifts to show when John is winning or losing in the battles. Low-angle shots are used to make the characters ...

Cinematography and editing are two key parts of any moving picture as they work together to create visual interest.  Cinematography is the art of capturing motion pictures on film and then editing is the process of arranging the film to make for an interesting story.  When done right, this can enhance the story, create a mood or simply make you want to watch the film.  When I think about films I love its because these two principles were used correctly to make a story that is interesting.  How to establish the mood?  The way the scene is shot can determine how the viewer feels watching it.  For example, the low angle shot can make the character look powerful while a high angle can make the character look vulnerable.  In Thor, they use low angle shots to make Chris Hemsworth seem even bigger than he is in real life and making us think he is a real super hero.  How to build tension and suspense?  When done right, cinematography and editing can ...