Archive for April, 2008
VISUAL LANGUAGE - Braveheart
Produced and directed by Mel Gibson, who also starred in the title role, portraying legendary Scot, William Wallace, who gained recognition when he came to the forefront of the First War of Scottish Independence by opposing Edward I of England.
One Sheet
The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. This film is one of my all-time favorite films. I chose a segment from the film that we might find ourselves in. Read the script segment, think how you would shoot it, how many set ups, coverage. And then we’ll break it down.
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I first saw this film in 7th grade and it was then that I realized there was someone called a director. Fresh off the critically panned and commercial bomb of 1941 (I love that film!) the film told the tale of an archeologist and adventurer named Indiana Jones who is hired by the US government to find the Ark of the Covenant, before the Nazis do.
Indy One Sheet
I remember the trailers on television “Indiana Jones, the new hero from the creators of JAWS and STAR WARS!”. The film blew my mind. Nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, Spielberg would be robbed by the Academy.
This scene study is simple, yet very effective. Read a passage from the script and decide how you would block this one out. How many cuts ? What kind of coverage ? Then we’ll take a look at the scene, shot by shot.
AUTOMATON TRANSFUSION - Review
I first heard of the film Automaton Transfusion in 2006 on dvxuser.com (my other online home). Shot for $30,000 in 9 Days, the film deals with a zombie outbreak created by the military and the local high school students banding together to survive. This was a movie after my own heart; I have an affinity for zombie films, especially one shot on the bad ass mojo making DVX100-24p.
Yesterday, after having the internet down, I was cruising my cables ON-DEMAND and saw the name Automaton Transfusion. I was like “Oh Hell yes!”, purchased it without a blink and was left completely entertained.
Now, the movie is not without its flaws. From the technical side; line axis crossing, a boom mic dropping into the frame and not the greatest, but competent audio, to the artisitic merit; a storyline that more often than not, seems forced into exposition and fill.
But, you gotta put things in perspective. Before Peter Jackson made The Lord of the Rings, he made Dead Alive (Brain Dead), before Raimi made Spiderman he made The Evil Dead. And those films are close as bad (bad, good) as this one. Low budget, splatterfest, guerilla horror filmmaking. You gotta love it, where most of these films fail, this one succeeds with empathy.
VISUAL LANGUAGE - Tombstone’s ok corral
Tombstone, 1879. Legendary Dodge City marshall Wyatt Earp, his wife Mattie and his brothers come