Movie Review: The Chorus (Les Choristes)

            A failed musician Clement Mathieu comes to a strict boys' boarding school, where the tough headmaster Racine rules over the youth with his motto of "Action-Reaction." Mr. Mathieu tries a different approach, introducing music into their lives, forming a boys' choir that allows the teacher to discover the secret musical talents of a quiet but troubled young boy named Pierre Morhange.

                In my opinion, Les Choristes is a GREAT film for all to see if you can read subtitles for 1.5 hours. It's a feel-good movie that made me cry at the end (of happiness). Nobody was even crying in the movie, and there wasn't sad music, and I was still crying. My favorite character in this movie is Pepinot. This child/orphan, is extremely shy and sweet. He thinks his dad will come pick him up at the school so he waits at the gate every Sunday I believe (not sure of the day). He plays a large part in this movie, as he starts the unraveling of memories. The Chorus is sweet and heartwarming movie I ever seen before.

Director Journal Week 9

Finally our shooting comes to an end. Here comes the editing process of the video. For your information, I’m responsible for the audio searching to find the most suitable background music and sound effect for our PSA video project.  So far, I have found a few suitable tracks, however it’s not enough if director have other sound effect request.  Though we might think of film as an essentially visual experience, we really cannot afford to underestimate the importance of film sound. A meaningful sound track is often as complicated as the image on the screen. The entire sound track is comprised of three essential ingredients:

·         the human voice

·         sound effects

·         music

These three tracks must be mixed and balanced so as to produce the necessary emphases which in turn create desired effects. However we do not have voice over/dialogue in our video, hence only sound effect and music will do. Background music is used to add emotion and rhythm to the video. Usually not meant to be noticeable, it often provides a tone or an emotional attitude toward the story.

STAY TUNED FOR OUR VIDEO!!

Movie Review: Kill Bill

Kill Bill Vol. 2 begins with the same segment that opened Vol. 1 and provides the full back story of The Bride's near-death at the hands of her former colleagues. Before that, the pregnant bride rehearsing her wedding in a quaint chapel in Texas. The Bride goes outside for some fresh air and finds Bill.They hold a civil conversation, Bill asking her why she's giving up her old life and The Bride describing how she's found happiness in this simpler life. Bill comes inside with her and she, in attempt to avoid trouble, introduces her former lover as her father. Tommy, the fiancé, asks "Dad" to give The Bride away, and immediately the scene takes a turn. Bill's tone of voice drops just enough to let us know that something's gone horribly wrong, and the director pulls the camera outside the chapel. From here we can know that the how the influence of camera brings our imagination on the next story by pulling the scene very far away.

In the end of the film, Beatrix locked in a bathroom crying until her sobs turn into laughter. Beatrix cries for Bill, whom she still loves in some way, but she laughs because she won and reclaimed her daughter. But in that laugh is a hint of madness, an indication that she will never find normalcy in life and that she and her daughter are in for a potentially rough ride ahead. 

Director Journal Week 8

Finally we comes to our real shooting day ---17 April.  Production Phase.

Looking for the shooting angle.

Lighting. 

Shooting begins.

Shootings.

Checking shooting script.

For this time shooting, I plays an important role as time keeper to make sure that the scenes able to be shooting finish on time. 

Movie Review: Super 8

Source:

tvtropes (2013), retrived from

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThreeActStructure

According to TVTropes(2013), the three act structure is a typical narrative structuring template. The idea is that the story is structured so that all of the action falls into one of three acts, with regular plot-points (or reversals) used to bridge each act, and send the narrative into a different direction than it had previously been going.

The First Act is the Setup. It’s the first quarter of the story, and is where the main characters are introduced and the dramatic The film starts with a steel plant in Lillian, Ohio. Elizabeth Lamb has been killed in an accident. Though their family and friends are sad for her husband, Deputy Jackson Lamb , their main concern is Joe Lamb, Elizabeth and Jackson's son. Joe was more attached to his Mom than his Dad, who was never really been there for his son. Joe's friend Charles has been shooting a Super 8 film for a film festival. Charles has rewritten the the story. Arriving home, Joe meets up with his Dad, Joe explains that he wants to help Charles finish his film. As they film the scene of the train thundering past the station. The truck hits the train, causing a massive (and explosive) derailment. The gang runs for cover, and luckily survives.

The Second Act, the Confrontation, is the longest. In this act, Alice is being captured by unknown creature. The next day, Joe and Charles go to pick up the developed Super 8 film, but Charles is rather upset and cryptic towards Joe. As they examine the film, their thoughts become turned when they see parts of a strange creature emerging from one of the wrecked train cars. As they wonder what it was they just saw, air raid sirens begin to go off. They emerge outside to find the town being evacuated, with everyone being asked to report to the local Military base. Joe and friends get back into town and rescue Alice. They first go to the Middle School. Joe assumes that there may be additional information stored in there to find out about the creature and how to possibly defeat it.

The Third Act, the Resolution, is where the story wraps up (Climax). Joe manages to save Alice, however the creature comes up behind them. Joe stands before it, reasoning with it. The creature acts hostile at first, but even in the face of its bizarre appearance, Joe does not react hostile like the previous treatment it has known. Suddenly, a sound is heard deep in the cave near the creature's lair, and it puts Joe down before returning. Everyone watches as the ship ascends into the sky. Alice and Joe finally get to reunion with their father happily.

Director Journal Week7

31 MARCH -3 APRIL

This week lecture, we learnt about the 3-act structure. 3-act structure is a very old maxim widely adhered to in storytelling and fiction writing today. It can be found in plays, poetry, novels, comic books, short stories, video games, and the movies. 3-act structure has proven to be a valuable weapon in the arsenal of any screenwriter. The 3 acts are labelled as: Act I: Setup, Act II: Confrontation, and Act III: Resolution. I think our PSA project had also applied these elements.

Our completed version of rehearsal PSA video are presented in front of the lecturer and other groups. We received a lot of comments and feedbacks; we will try to improve based on the comments given. Besides, we are still unsure which version is better for real shooting, we should have proper discussion as soon as possible to decide.

The real shooting had been confirmed, and it is on Friday (18 April 2014).Sincerely hope that the real shooting will goes smoothly as expected.

Movie Review:Lizzie McGuire

          Basically this movie is all about a teenage girl—Lizzie who have just graduated from middle school, and to celebrate, she is taking part in a class trip to Rome, Italy. Eager to celebrate their new maturity as high school students, Lizzie and her pals-Gordo hope to treasure Italy in exciting ways, but fate has something more spectacular in store for Lizzie.

This movie has a nice opening.  It grab our attention from the very first shot.In the beginning of the movie, it showed the most memorable part for Lizzie’s vacation in Italy.  Paolo bring her visiting around using motorbike. Then, the movie continues with the scene where Lizzie singing and dancing like a pop star which likely indicate her talent and dream. With this opening, there is a strong connection and indication with the middle part of the story when Lizzie discovers that she bears a striking resemblance to Isabella, an Italian teen-pop idol famous for her duets with heart-throb Paolo, he asks Lizzie to take Isabella's place for an upcoming concert. Lizzie, however, isn't sure she feels comfortable stepping into the spotlight, and is even less sure about the way she feels about Paolo, who makes no secret of his infatuation with her. (Rotten Tomatoes, 2003)

As conclusion, a good opening make people have good impression toward the movie and spark our interest in the story to look forward to see what’s next. Lizzie McGuire is a good example for this.

Source:

Rotten Tomatoes(2003),retrieved from

www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lizzie_mcguire_movie/‎

Director Journal Week 6

24-27 MARCH 2014

                This week lecture discusses pre-production in detail which consist production planning, pre-shoot technical test, story boarding and rehearsing and etc. Why are these important? According to Scorsese "If you don't put the time in during prep or you cut corners around the necessary equipment, you're going to put the time and money in during post and hope that you come out with maybe a silk purse that may be a really jazzed up sow’s ear.” Hence, pre-production it is crucial to make sure the project’s planning requirements against the other phases in the Cyclical Production Model.

                For the group discussion this week, every one of us are giving opportunities to voice out our ideas or suggestions based on the video that finished editing. Different people will have different idea. We trying to improve our project by different ideas, hope it works well. =) As we learnt pre-production is extremely important, and we are ready to prepare for the best outcome by taking our project seriously. 

    When discussion.

Other director's blog link:

1.Shinno Lim-- http://iamotw1tobe2director3practice.blogspot.com/

2.Kuek Xi Jia-- http://xijiajournaldirector4.blogspot.com/

3.Augustin--  http://bun-nana.blogspot.com/