Intro to Film Blog

On Sunday, before Halloween, my group and I set to film the scenes we needed for our fascination project. We decided to meet at the Bloomberg Lab in the business building so that we would be able to incorporate the business aspect of the comedy/horror/business genre we were attempting to create a film. We met up and began to review our storyboard created during previous meetings to see what shots would be plausible, what exactly we needed to film, and especially figure out any "b-roll" that we would need to have so that Josh had a comfortable amount of material to edit together. Our group was very lucky that Josh had previous editing experience and was able to execute the group's vision for the film in a way I never thought possible.  Being an actor in a film was definitely a first-time experience for me and it was certainly an awkward one. Because we recorded ideas as they came to us, we certainly had limited rehearsal time for most of the shots, and we had to figure out...

Monty Python Black Knight GIF from Monty Python GIFs After being introduced to the fascination project as a group film, I was able to join a group looking to create a film with a business/comedy/horror theme. I took that to mean a very cheesy type of horror where the characters are in typical horror movie scenarios but something about either the acting, the setting, the props, or even the music adds a very light, comedic lens to the traditionally terrifying scene. During the first class, we were provided with time to work on the projects, my team and I used it as a brainstorming session to just share any "bits" or scenes that we think would work well and to get a basic grasp of the type of film we were looking to produce. Never Give Up No Surrender GIF from Never Give Up GIFs Personally, I think that movies like Monty Python and the Holy Grail would be a good type to try and match in terms of humor and such. I especially think a scene with either the victim...

Growing up, my family and I have always enjoyed watching and reading anything that fell into the fantasy or science fiction genre, and Pan's Labyrinth falls perfectly into that fantasy section. Pan's Labyrinth can be described as a dark fantasy film and Guillermo del Torro fully embraces this description. He does so by creating a realistic fable that leaves you wondering if any of the events Ofelia went through were real or if it was all in her head. Throughout the film, del Torro shares both the wonder-filled, child-like side of fantasy as well as the darker side through his iconic monsters, with some genuinely horrifying moments to snap the viewer back into a sense of reality.  The primary lens of the film focuses on Ofelia, who discovers that she is supposedly the daughter of the King of the Underworld. To prove she hasn't become entirely human and still contains an amount of  "godly" essence within her, Ofelia must complete three trials that will test her stre...

After watching Lost in Translation, while I do think that the movie was very well-made and the cast did a good job with their characters,   I did not truly enjoy the film. Along with what seemed to be a large part of the class, I found the film was a little too dull and it felt slightly lethargic. I think part of the reason I did not enjoy the film was the age gap between the actors themselves as Scarlett Johansson was 17 for most of the filming and turned 18 around the time the film premiered.  The opening credit scene was certainly a part of the reason I felt this way, as it was intentionally long and awkward. However, even though I personally did not feel the scene was necessary, I can understand the reasoning Sofia Coppola might have had behind putting that as the opening credit and tackling the major question many people likely had about what type of gaze she would utilize being the writer and director of the film. She might have felt others wouldn't take her work serious...

  In general, I am not the biggest fan of horror movies. They are typically my least favorite genre and I try my best to avoid watching them however, I was a little excited to watch a movie from Jordan Peele because I always heard amazing things about the three films he has directed,  Get Out, Us,  and Nope. In comparison to any other films I have watched, either in this class or on my own time, Peele's style appears to be very unique, especially when compared to how horror movies are traditionally portrayed. In every film he has directed he tackles stereotypes that those apart of the Black community face every day.  In this film, the opening shot sets the feeling the viewer has for a large part of the film. Setting the scene with a feeling of uneasiness as Andre walked down the poorly lit street and the main source of light becomes a white car heading the opposite way, only to turn around and drive right next to Andre. The first immediate jump scare comes from the m...

             I slightly enjoyed the mise-en-scene in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou  more than I anticipated. I had never previously watched any Wes Anderson films however, I was aware of his style and am familiar with how unique and specific his style is. Mise-en-Scene can be defined as "putting on a stage" from the Moving Pictures textbook. This is strongly  reflected throughout Anderson's film through his use of color schemes, lighting, framing, costumes, and even sets, big or small. Anderson can be seen practicing this by taking mise-en-scene by its definition setting the stage for his films.           To focus on some of the specific design aspects he embraced all throughout the film, Anderson sticks within a color pallete unique to every film and remains true to it, no matter the emotion or setting of the scene. For an example from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, remember the funeral scene after Ned...

    During the fourth week of this class, we moved forward with continuing to explore new films and their specific formats. The focus was on a well-known classic directed by Alfred Hitchcock, "Rear Window". This film was a groundbreaking film at the time of its release, as it explored new shots and angles that had yet to be used or popularized while largely relying on the visuals telling the story, as the audience's knowledge and view are limited to that of the wheel-chair bound main character. Hitchcock found an inventive way to take advantage of a small, confined space and make it feel unrestrained.      While I still largely prefer more modern movies, I continue to enjoy all of the films we have watched so far, regardless of how old the film is. Rear Window in particular maintained a balance of curiosity and suspense even with the slow-moving storyline, culminating with L.B. being thrown out the very window he observed his neighbors from, ending the film with...

In week three of this course, we were introduced to a new type of film, following the viewing of old movies like "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" from 1920, and watched a short film. This documentary was simply called "Snowy" and showed the unfortunate life of a turtle named Snowy who lived as a family pet for over 10 years at the time this documentary was filmed.   Snowy spent almost all of his life locked away in a small fish tank, banished to the basement window, and was typically visited only once a day, by his caretaker Larry. The directors Alex Wolf Lewis and Kaitlyn Schwalje saw how Snowy was living and felt a need to help improve his situation, helping Snowy go from surviving every day to truly living. Throughout the telling of Snowy's story, the directors used certain shots and angles to create an unignorable contrast of Snowy's tiny window in the basement to the thanksgiving feast with the family all together. Creating this shot of viewing both situa...

Looking back on the previous week of classes, I have already learned so much interesting information about the history of film that I would have never considered delving into without this course. Starting with the reading from Moving Pictures, and just how surpising it was to think that the modern day multi-billion dollar ($91.83 billion in the U.S alone) movie franchise was started by a "wealthy robber baron" who was bored and wanted to win a bet against his friends.  The series photography, which was used to win the bet, later became more and more developed with first silent films like "The Cabinet of Dr. Calgari" from the 1920's, followed by "unpredictable and trangressive" films such as "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967, and just 10 years later in 1977, the very first Star Wars episode was realsed and "Hollywood would never be the same" as Moving Pictures, and many others have claimed.  Personally, I have never had much of an interest ...

 Hi everyone! My name is Maureen Sweeney, but a lot of my friends and family just call me Mo. I am currently a senior at North Central College, and I am working towards my Electrical Engineering major. I am from Lombard, Illinois which is about 20 minutes away from campus, so I have been lucky enough to be able to live at home and save some money. Growing up, I competed in martial arts for around 12 years and started playing volleyball and softball once I began middle school. I also spent this past summer working as a Design Engineering intern for Littelfuse.  Ever since I was a kid, I enjoyed working with my hands and physically building things. I started off as most do, with legos as a kid and it has now evolved into building circuits. Engineering was something that I always liked, even before I knew what it was in practice however, I landed on electrical engineering after being selected to attend a week-long program called the Honeywell Leadership Challenge Academy, during ...