PHILMBUFF

2007
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis

Cast:

Ray Winstone - Beowulf
Anothony Hopkins - King Hrothgar
Angelina Jolie - Grendel’s Mother
Crispin Glover - Grendel
John Malkovitch - Unferth

This film to me seamed more like a computer game in every way then an actual film. Perhaps becuase it was heavily laden with animated computer graphics. Whereas in movies like 300 the main characters are left untouched, the actors in Beowulf are coverd over with layers of computer enhancement. The closeup shots are the actual actor’s faces but for anything else the actor amounts to no more than an animated character. I guess this why why Angelina Jolie’s character can exhibit full frotnal nuditiy and not actually have it considered full frontal nudity becasue her body isn’t real (but close enough). These are some of the first things you notice about the film.
Aside formt htis the story is actually pretty engaging. It is adapted from the oldest surviving Anglo-Saxon poem written in the 4th century A.D. Both the poem and this film recount the heroic figure of Beowulf and how he was summoned to defeat the monster that laid great King Hrothgar’s (Anothony Hopkins) Meade Hall in bloody carnage. The monster’s name is Grendel and it is perhaps the most gruesome and pitiful creature I have ever seen on Film. His movements and expressions were carefully captured from Crispin Glover whose specialty is playing deformed characters. And thanks to some very skilled computer graphics technicians he is both weak and also very strong.
Beowulf arrives in the scene boasting of past victories over monsters and soon he is fighting the monster int he great hall on his own terms or a la natural(in the nude) becuase Grendel doesn’t wear any armor either. Nevermind the fact that Grendel rips his enemies in two and bites off their heads. Killing Grendel it seems requires quite a bit of dexterity. You would have thought Beowulf had grown up in the Circus the way he leaps from the rafters in the hall. Eventually he pins Grendel and rips off his arm (or rather smashes it off). Grendel fles to die in his mother’s arms.
His mother (who is never named) is a demon/siren who can’t be killed with any sword. Whereas Grendel represents the physical manifestation of evil, Grendel’s mohter is an archeatype, an idea, but this one can be seen and she is utterly irresistible - to most men anyway and apparently any king. Apparently King Hrothgar and Grendel’s mother had a fling together and then Grendel was concieved.
Beowulf goes to defeat his motheronly to be seduced by her. He may be courages, strong and brave but he still has his weakeness’s This will be one weakness that will come back and haunt him - one that he must confront before the end.
I think this film couldn’t have been made any other way than with computer graphics. Perhaps it was imbellished too much in the characters or perhaps this was done so as to have a seamlessness of sorts between the real actors and the imaginary characters. It is excellent though and worth watching just for the effects. You can do many things with CGI (such as establishing the setting) that you just can’t do with a real camera. The acting could have been better though. King Hrothgar’s young wife is perhaps the most melancholy character ever. It doesn’t seem like she can ever be happy - married to Beowulf or not. Beowulf is the stereotypical or (archeotypical?) hero. His best friend and confidant in the movie even calls him the prince of heroes. After watching the movie, I believe he is right.

2 1/2 stars

Paul Greengrass

If you’ve seen United 93 or The Bourne Ultimatum then you have seen a Pual Greengrass movie.  But did you also know that prior to this decade Paul Greengrass was practically unknown to the general public (at least outside of the United Kingdom).  Indeed his hollywood career officially “launched” just back in 2002 with Bloody Sunday.  Since then he has been making some of the most thought-provoking films to hit hollywood all in style that is all his own and still in the making.

Paul Greengrass became interested in film from the very beginning.  While in secondary school he directed several short Super-8 films.  Afterward he attended Cambridge University which led the way into a documentary series “World in Action(ITV,1963-99).  This is where we first see Greengrass’ social concious emerge.

What gave Greengrass international acclaim was his film Bloody Sunday which uses a documentary style approach to portray the violent 1972 protest in Northern Ireland.  The picture earned Greengrass a Best Film Award from the Brussels Film Festival.  The picture became a worldwide hit and garnered Greengrass some 17 awards.

Aftward Greengrass took a route different to his usual documentary approach with The Bourne Supremacy.  As he says: “After Bloody Sundya I felt I needed a change becuase I’d make three films back to back that were all quite political and stripped down and spare.  I wanted to do something new and meet new people.  Then this came along and I thought I could do something with it becuase it’s close enough to me; it’s real and it’s edgy.”

Overall the Bourne Supremacy was a huge success, grossing $175 million in the United States alone.  His 2006 film; United 93 was also a huge crowd pleaser, winning praise from critics worldwide for its artful and sensitive portrait of the final minutes on the terrorist hijacked flight on september the llth.  Both of these films feature his trademark handheld camera style.

Greengrass’ style continues to get more and more fast paced and cutting-edge with each film he does.  He is certainly a director to keep an eye on not only becuase of his style but also becuase he chooses subject matter that few directors will go near.  Films to look out for are Imperial Life in the Emerald City and They Marched into Sunlight

Filmography

Birdsong-(Director)

They Marched into Sunlight-(Director/Screenplay)
Imperial Life in the Emerald City-(Director/Screenplay)
The Bourne Ultimatum-(Director)2006
United 93-(Director/Producer/Screenplay)2006
The Bourne Supremecy-(Director)2004
Bloody Sunday-(Director/Screenplay)2002
The Theory of Flight-(Director)1998
Resurrected-(Diretor)1989

Terminology D-F

Here is another installment in the series of editing terms that will continue through to z…

D 

data rate: The speed at which data can be transferred. Often described in megabytes per second (MB/sec.). The higher a video file’s data rate, the higher quality it will be, but the more system resources (processor speed, hard disk space, and performance) it will take to work with it. Some codecs allow you to specify a maximum data rate for a movie.

decibel (db): Unit of measurement for sound levels.

decompression: The process of creating a viewable image for playback from a compressed video, graphics, or audio file.

device control: Computer software that allows Final Cut Pro to control an external hardware device, such as a video deck.

digital: A description of data that is stored or transmitted as a sequence of ones and zeros. Most commonly, this means binary data represented using electronic or electromagnetic signals. QuickTime movie files are digital.

digital video: Refers to the capturing, manipulation, and storage of video using a digital format, such as QuickTime. A digital video camcorder, for example, is a video camera that captures and stores images on a digital medium such as DV. Video can then be easily imported.

digitize: To capture an analog video signal and save it to a digital video format.

drop frame timecode: Timecode that represents the actual time duration of NTSC at 29.97 frames per second (fps). To achieve this accuracy in numbering the frames, two frame numbers are dropped every minute on the minute, except for the 10th minute.

duration: The length of time that a segment of audio or video takes to play from beginning to end.

DV: See digital video. Also used as the name of a tape-based video format.

DVD: A DVD disc looks much like a CD-ROM or audio disc, but uses higher density storage methods to significantly increase storage capacity.

E

EDL (Edit Decision List): A text file that sequentially lists all of the edits and individual clips used in a sequence. EDLs are used to move a project from one editing application to another, or to coordinate the assembly of a program in a tape-based online editing facility.

edit: The process of combining audio, video, effects transitions, and graphics in a sequence to produce a program.

Edit to Tape: In Final Cut Pro, the Edit to Tape command lets you perform frame-accurate Insert and Assemble edits to tape from Final Cut Pro.

effects: (See transitions, filters, and generators.) A general term used to describe all of Final Cut Pro’s capabilities that go beyond cuts-only editing

encoding: The process of converting digiatal video into a particular format, for example, savinga  video project in MGEG-2 format for DVD distribution.

F

favorite: A customized effect that you use frequently. You can create favorites from most of the effects in Final Cut Pro.

field: Half of an interlaced video frame consisting of the odd or the even scan lines. Alternating video fields are drawn every 1/60th of a second in NTSC video to create the perceived 30 frames-per-second video. There are two fields for every frame, an upper field and a lower field.

filters: Effects you can apply to either the video or audio component of a clip or sequence. Filters affect the visual or aural quality of the clip to which they’re applied. A video filter might change the colors of your image. An audio filter might reduce background noise. In addition to using the filters that came with Final Cut Pro, you can use some third-party filters, such as Adobe After Effects. You should note that while filters can correct problems with video and audio quality, they are no substitute for proper exposure and recording techniques.

FireWire: Apple’s trademark name for the IEEE 1394 standard. FireWire is a fast and versatile interface used to connect DV cameras to computers. FireWire is well suited to applications that move large amounts of data, and can also be used to connect hard disks, scanners, and other kinds of computer peripherals.

fit to fill edit: Editing a clip into a sequence such that its duration matches a predetermined amount of track space that you specify.

frames: Video consists of a number of still image frames which, when they play back over time, give the illusion of motion. NTSC video plays back 29.97 frames per second, and PAL video plays back 25 frames per second. Each broadcast video frame is made up of two fields. This is different from the way film handles frames. A film frame is a single photographic image, and does not have separate fields.

Milwaukee for me has become something of a second home and a city that, despite some shortcomings (and what city doesn’t have them), I have come to take great pride in. So when I heard that a new film starring Johnny Depp was going to be using a Milwaukee landmark I became really excited. Its not often that Milwaukee has been showcased in feature films. The last time I can remember was Mr. 3000 and that was in a now demolished baseball stadium. The new movie is titled: Public Enemies and Johnny Depp stars as the 1930’s gangster John Dillinger. The location is the now Milwaukee County Historical Society which was in the early 1900’s a savings bank that still showcases a huge iron vault and marble staircases.

This should be exciting and I will definitely keep you abreast of the films development. Shooting for the scene will start in late March after set construction. I hope that this will start to be one of many films that will use Milwaukee as its backdrop in the years to come. Thanks in part to the new state tax incentives for filmmakers that may just be the case.

Directed by: Andrew Dominik

Cast:
Brad Pitt - Jesse James
Casey Affleck - Robert Ford
Sam Rockwell - Charley Ford
Paul Schnieder - Dick Liddil
Jeremy Renner - Wood Hite
Sam Shepard - Frank James
Mary-Louise Parker - Zee James

To write a review for the Assisnation of Jesse James is not an easy thing to write for some reason. Perhaps it is because the movie is not easy to watch. Not that this is a bad thing. Throughout the movie there are scenes so ripe with anxiety you could cut it with a knife. Brad Pitt as Jesse James does an excellent job playing the dule role of family man and cold blooded killer. Casey Afleck as Robert Ford is his devoted fan. He idolizes him and keeps a box with newspaper clippings dealing witht the outlaws latest escapades. By the time Robert is 20, Jesse James has become something of a celebrity. Robert at first dotes on him; pretends to be him but as he gets to know Jesse learns the cold hard truth that Jesse is very untrusting and kills anyone he even suspects of having it in for him. Most of America makes Jesse James to be a god; a symbol of the lawless west but Robert knows better. As he says Jesse is “just a human being.” Read the rest of this entry »

2007
* In Subtitles
Directed by: Laurent Tarad

Cast:
Romain Duris - Moliere (Jean Baptiste Pouqulin)
Fabrice Luchini - M. Jourdain
Elmire Jourdain - Laura Morante
Eduourd Baer - Dorante
Moliere for me brings to mind scenes of Pride and Prejudice and of Victorian England only this film is set in France at least a hundred and fifty years before Jane Austen’s Novels. Moliere is also much more entertaining and it truely lives up to its genre of being a romantic comedy. To its credit it doesn’t push either of these envelopes too much. The story is central as are the chracters. If you have ever seen the play Tartuffe, this is supposedly the inspiration for it. The story begins as Moliere a young French Playwright is thrown into debtors prison. He is rescued by a rich member of the French aristocracy; a M. Jourdain, in order to teach him how to act a play that he has written so he himself can seduce a young, snobby marquis. Despite M. Jourdain’s interest in the arts he has no talent whatsoever and an even lower I.Q. He doesn’t listen to Moliere’s advice that his play is crap. Moliere really doesn’t want to help me but it keeps him out of debtors prison and he can woe Mr. Jourdain’s beautiful wife. Read the rest of this entry »

Editing Terminology A-C

This third tip will be broken up into editing terminology from A-Z.  For this particulary entry I will cover terms that start with A and run through C.  The next week will be terms that start with D and run through F and so on.  If you are familiar with editing some of these terms will look familiar but some are bound to be new.

A-Only Edit: Editing the audio files or video files of your base track only.

A-Roll: Editing clips that contain audio data from the base track or a narration.

AIFF: Audio Interchange File Format. A common format for storing and transmitting sampled sound. The format was developed by Apple Computer and is the standard audio format for Macintosh computers. The AIFF format does not support data compression so AIFF files tend to be large.

Add Edit: This function will divide one clip into two or more clips. Read the rest of this entry »

Lighting Tips & Techniques

 When under a budget - and what filmmaker isn’t - it is often necessary to use on’e ingenuity to its greatest extent. Lighting is just one such area where this is the case. Knowing how tous ewhat you have can save you hundreds of dollars in a pinch. Keep in mind these three tips below when filmming your next project.

1. Don’t ignore Practical Lights (or lighting considered part of the set) as a light soruce. The lighting already present should be examind to see how it fits with a scene. Sometimes all that is needed is amplifying the light sources already present. Perhaps a 75 watt light source can be rigged to take a 200 watt light.

2. To light really large spaces try Lumapanels. These lights are generally seven feet long and consist of a series of flourescent tubes that cast an even light giving ambience to large spaces.

3. When shooting a sujbect always have a backlight. It provides seperation between the subject and the background and it also gives depth to the setting. For an easy setup put a 100-200 watt fresnel on a boom arm and postion it behind the subject.


Next Time: Mastering 3-Point Lighting.

 

How to Create Convincing Characters
It is important to remeber that films are about people. We may leave the theater talking about that great special effect or the imagery but without people or the characters all that is just icing on the cake. How well they are portrayed or how convincing they are can make or break your film. After directing a few films myself I’ve looked at them again and realized I’d drastically neglecting developing my characters. Its something that stays with you. I am certainly going to learn from the mistakes I’ve made in the next film I make. I’ve learned a lot along the way and hopefully this entry will make you learn something new or enforce something you already know about charcter development. Read the rest of this entry »

2006
Directed by Christopher Nolan

Cast:

Hugh Jackman - Robert Angier
Christian Bale - Alfred Borden
Michael Caine - Cutter
Scarlett Johansson - Olivia Wenscombe
David Bowie - Nikola Tessla

Movies about magicians as of late love to pull tricks of their own on the audience and The Prestige is no exception. However the way the prestige reveals itself in its final throes is not by clever trickery but by fantasy - making the ending unbeleivalbe.

The picture takes place in the very late 1800’s as Christian Bale’s character, Alfred Borden is put on trial for the murder of Jackman. The rest of the story is told as a flashback where we see what events led up to this situation.

Robert and Alfred start out as stagehands to a magician. Robert’s wife is set to perform a dangerous act where she must get out of a knot and a large tank of water. Borden who ties the knot, ties it in such a way that she can’t get out and thus drowns. Robert never forgives him and thus starts a spiral of vengence that spins out of control. Both become rivals trying to steal each other’s tricks and become the best. Along the way they loose the people they love. They become just as adept as dispencing lies to the general public as they do in their personal lives. Borden seems to be bipolar and unstable. Robert is single minded and obsessed. He gives up his beautiful assistant Olivia Wenscombe (Scarlett Johansson) to go spy on his rival. She ends up falling in love with him until she too discovers his duel personality.

We pay so much attention to these two characters that we ignore the minor characters such as Borden’s silent but ever present assistant. Caine’s charcter (Cutter) appears to be loyal to Robert but by the end of the film we too are wondering about his loyalties and finally we figure out that we were never shown the real role he had to play in the plot or that he didn’t have any role whatsoever. In either case it is unfortunate that his character wasn’t better utilized. Johannson herself seems to go from one man to another on a whim and we feel there isn’t much of a connection between her and the two competing magicians even though it is implied.

The introduction of Nikola Tesla makes him out to be more sorcerer than scientist. What he produces is something straight out of Star Trek. We know he was brilliant but it pushes the envelope just a tad.

In the final analysis The Prestige certainly engages us with an interesting plotline though we can’t really root for any one character as all characters seem to have dark agendas of their own. The main characters become downright dislikeable. Neither of them seems to care for people besides themselves despite Robert’s extremely long winded speech at the end (Ever notice how someone can stay alive long enough and with enough energy to expound a dialogue summing up the driving ambition of their lives before they die?). If you think I’ve given away the ending, think again. In The Prestige nothing is as it seems. If the hallmark of a good magic show is to leave us wondering when we leave the theater then this film does the same thing.

2 1/2 stars