La Jetée - Chris Marker

• 1962
• French sci-fi 
• B and W 
• 28 mins long 
• 92% rotten tomatoes 
• inspired the film '12 monkeys' feat. Brad Pitt 

http://filmslie.com/chris-marker-la-jetee-analysis-temporality/

http://sensesofcinema.com/2015/feature-articles/la-jetee/

https://zoetrope0.wordpress.com/2007/06/25/time-memory-and-time-travel-in-chris-markers-la-jetee/

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/apr/15/thrilling-prophetic-chris-marker-experimental-films

Investigation Presentation - Auteur

Christopher Nolan -

How does Nolan portray a flawed protagonist within his productions? 


Item 1
Batman Begins from the Batman Trilogy 
Bruce Waynes parents are shot when he gets scared from an opera. Thus gives him a motive to fight crime as the Batman for justice and for that to not happen to anyone else in the future. Nolan gives this character a troubling backstory therefore, conforming to the common feature through-out his films. His dead parents are the recurring feature in the this film compared to his others.

Item 2
Inception
The main character called Cobb as played by Leonardo DiCaprio is troubled by his dead wife. The only way to see his wife is to live in the different variations and layers of his dreams. He's not happy in the real world. Therefore, this is a really useful narrative as the main character is damaged. This relates to my question.

Item 3
Interstellar
In this film the recurring stand point is that the mother is dead and the father goes on to do the huge job so that his family has a better quality of life. But he end up taking too long and doesn't see his children until they're on their death beds. This creates a very emotional atmosphere as the father missed out on his children growing up. This film follows the narrative of the main character being troubled, which applies to the way Nolan directs his films and what he tries to achieve.

Item 4
Film Studies by Andrew M. Butler.
As I am completing an Auteur study I am going to apply this theory to Christopher Nolan.

Item 5
Known by journalists as the Blockbuster Auteur.
I find this important to my reaseach as this is his own opinion on himself and what he tries to achieve in his movies.
I think audiences get too comfortable and familiar in today’s movies. They believe everything they’re hearing and seeing. I like to shake that up.” – Christopher Nolan.

Item 6
https://impossiblevsreality.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/authorship-in-film-christopher-nolan-auteur/
This website is valuable as it talks about how he became a director and why he's good at what he does. Therefore, leading on to how he was able to tackle this films effectively making a name for himself.

Item 7
https://youtu.be/nQqZNZE9ByE
this clip discusses Memento - an interview with C. Nolan himself - he answers questions that reiterates that short term memory loss affects people in real life as well. Therefore, this character is flawed; which links back to my question of how Nolan creates a flawed protagonist.

Item 8
Book - The Fictional Christopher Nolan by Todd McGowan. Summarised, the blurb discusses Nolan's films and how his protagonists are deceived and lied to by others, causing them to be trapped in their own mind with no clear escape. This links back to my questions and I am able to quote this book on multiple occasions.

Item 9
http://movierdo.com/the-flawed-heroes-of-christopher-nolans-films-the-evil-in-the-good/
With the title of 'The "Flawed Heroes" - The Evil in The Good'. This website specifically discusses Nolan's use of flawed heroes making particular reference to my focus films.

Item 10
http://the-role-of-females-in-christopher-nolans-films.wikia.com/wiki/Grappling_With_Gender_Roles_in_Christopher_Nolan%27s_Films
Focussing on the Inception section part of this article it discuss how the female roles can also be flawed. In this case it is Mal Cobb. This 'beautiful, depressed woman' finds it hard to trust her husband and is conflicted on what side she is on.

Item 11
http://www.gradesaver.com/interstellar/study-guide/character-list
Talking about Interstellar, this article goes into depth talking about character analysis and why the character do what they do.

item 12
https://narrativefirst.com/articles/meaningful-storytelling-an-analysis-of-inception
discusses the narrative and why the characters in Inception do what they do. This piece is able to give an extra understanding on what is going on during the film.

Rejected Items
https://filmschoolrejects.com/culture-warrior-christopher-nolans-asshole-protagonists-7ff7416c579c/
I rejected this as it did not give me enough research in order to quote and add into my presentation script.

http://movierdo.com/the-flawed-heroes-of-christopher-nolans-films-the-evil-in-the-good/
I found this unhelpful as it states why they are flawed I. the movies. However I take interest in the title of the article "the evil in the good".

https://www.slideshare.net/kieranfalzon123/christopher-nolan-auteur
This is an unreliable source.

Dunkirk. I have rejected this as it doesn't focus on one protagonist. Reinforcing that they're all in the war together snd they all have to do their own part. Everyone is equally flawed and at the same time not at all but no one is portrayed in the same way that other characters are in Nolan's other productions are. 

La Haine

Compare the attitudes to poverty conveyed in the films.

They go to an art gallery after Vinz comes back to Hubert and Said when they miss the last train home. Said says “c’mon what have we got to lose” in order to convince the other two to go with him. Id imagine for the most part that they’re only going to amuse themselves for a while as they can’t go anywhere else’ but a little part of them actually wants to go as it’ll be an interesting place they’ve probably never been to. They appreciate a higher-class pass time.

Compared to where they live ‘The Projects’, the gallery would never be found there as it is run down and not cared for well. For then to have this opportunity would be great but by the end they result back to being how they always are. Aggressive and loud; not caring to others and making a mess to leave their mark.

While they’re there, they don’t understand the art and say it’s awful. Unfortunately for them, they stick out like a sore thumb and get noticed by the man who’s in charge of the show casing. This is because of their clothes. This mise-en-scene makes them jump out and easy to see.  Some of the shots they use are all at head height so that we feel that we’re there. To help contribute to this idea is that when they go in to the gallery the camera is positioned from across the street and doesn’t move while they walk in. this gives the sense of realism and that we’re someone out with them and watch them go in.

Back home Vinz and Said go to visit Hubert and discover that the gym is burnt down. Said questions it more than Vinz and Hubert replies with “I don’t want to know who did it”. This shows that Hubert’s character focusses on what’s next and moves on, even more so when he knows he can’t do anything about it. But, as a result, cares less about his values as he smokes a joint. Said is confused as he thought he stopped but H

US Blockbuster Doctor Strange

• The budget was $165 million but the box office made $579.7 million!
• The main big stars are: Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams and Tilda Swinton. 
• The genre is fantasy/science fiction.
• The production Company was Marvel Studios
• The films Certificate is a 12A
• The marketing cost around $80 million
• Its release date was October 13th (Hong Kong)

Some good reviews:
"Benedict Cumberbatch is unpredictable and intriguing as the Marvel superhero in a brain-melting tale that reinvigorates the genre." - The Guardian 

"The giddily enjoyable Doctor Strange is part of Marvel’s strategy for world domination, yet it’s also so visually transfixing, so beautiful and nimble that you may even briefly forget the brand." - The NYTimes

"Marvel's most satisfying entry since "Spider-Man 2," and a throwback to M. Night Shyamalan's soul-searching identity-crisis epic "Unbreakable,"." - Variety 

I think that these reviews are good as they give good points to why the film was a success. I believe it was a success as the visuals were amazing, as it added to the Marvel universe it sets up for more sequels and the cinematography was excellent.

Aims and Context

I am going to create a short film in the genre of an action. My target audience will be a 12A due to the statistic that most people who go the cinema are between the ages of 15-25. Therefore, this will help maximise sales as ore people will be interested in watching it.
Some techniques that i use are varied camera shots such as: extreme close ups to make it seem more intense or i am trying to show the audience something that is important to the story, establishing shots so then more can be shown of an area (an establishing shot would be effective if it was a shot from a helicopter overlooking a large area such as a forrest. For some of the editing i'd want the shots to last for longer such as Quentin Tarantino but then includes quick shots too to build suspense if there were to be a fight.
I'd like to be the director/Camera as well as an actor. But some cinematography may be represented from film noir a there might be a main male character, main female character and others who heavily effect the outcome.

Reflective Analysis - Short Horror Film

Our objective is to produce a piece of horror/thriller film around a minute long. We were going to include conventions of both such as: hand-held shots, extreme close-ups/ close-ups and mid shots. We will film these: canted angles, low angles with some panning and tiling. All of the shots that we will film will be used in the hope that the audience will be shocked, nervous or on-edge. We will film this in black and white and we will use a simple setting so that the audience can relate to it and experience a similar feeling just like the characters felt in the piece of film.

After filming the 14 shots that we filmed we managed to include the horror conventions as listed above as that was our aim to try and make the audience feel uneasy. We also included shots where the characters walk away from the camera and shots where the camera pans and the character comes into view. This also adds to the effect on making the audience feel worried and slightly claustrophobic as the first few shots were filmed in a small room. This is a good convention as normally horror/thriller films are filmed in small spaces; it gives the sense that the character who is trying to run away will get trapped and caught. This makes the audience even more scared as they empathise that they can't get away as they are confined, which could leave them wanting more as they will be curious to know if the main character escapes or they get captured.

I think that teenagers and adults will benefit more from this film compared to younger children and it might scare them. As a result of this I think that the rating of this film should be a 12/12A rating. As a character dies it makes it a violent production which some viewers may not want to see. This is also a convention that you would find in a horror film as it links with death and normally someone dies in a horror/thriller feature. Another convention that we used was to film it in black and white which makes it darker and more mysterious. As most horror films will include low key lit places I thought this would be a good idea to include because it takes away at least some light causing the image to seem darker. This is also a good idea because light can be associated with hope or faith so taking this away can also take away the hope of the character who is being chased. Someone being followed or stalked is another common convention in thrillers as it is a very real thing but at the same time irregular. Irregular behaviour much as stalking another is well used in the genre of film and as we were able to include all of these conventions, I believe that this is a good piece of film which can be described as a horror/thriller film.

Textual Analysis

Kill Bill Vol. 2

This whole scene is in black and white and that gives me the sense that this is ether a dream or a flashback. However, the first shot is a medium close up and the camera is tracking backwards to we can she her face. As she is walking therefore the camera is tracking backwards at a walking pace. She soon turns and as she does this the audience can see that she is happy. Also as she continues to walk more of the background is revealed and it shows that she’s walking out of a church.

The next shot is a doorway, as the outside is brighter than inside the church, it gives us a sense of she’s passed away and this is her last memory as the doorway could signify ‘going into the light’. This shot is a ‘Point of View’ shot (POV), and as she looks at the doorway she can hear music.

The third shot is a reaction shot as her facial expression changes from happiness to concern. This shows that whoever is playing the music causes her to be irritated. To shows her uneasiness she turns to look over her right shoulder. Then she looks back at the doorway as she wants to see whoever it is. The camera shot uses a static camera but as she breathes more and more heavily, the camera slightly zooms in to show the audience that it gives the character something to be concerned about.

After a couple of shots go by there is a low-angle shot and there’s lots of distance between the two characters. Her back is to him which shows she doesn’t want to look at him and something has happened in their past for her too unfriendly to him. This shot also obeys the rule of thirds as when the camera is on her, she is on the far left leaving a lot of negative space, this could represent the past they have had together, but when the camera is on him he is on the far right. This gives them distance and makes the audience feel more immersed as the space would be filled by the viewer. Therefore, giving whoever is watching a sense of that they’re there.

After this the next shot is a close up as she turns to face him. The director would’ve used a close up for this shot as you can see her facial expressions and how she reacts to his presence. This shot is also a low angle shot as it seems to be taken from where he is sitting. This also shows dominance.

When he speaks the camera is shot from her point of view and therefore is shot at a higher angle as she is standing and he is sitting… these shots are repeated as he is playing and she is looking at him over her shoulder, but the screen time of each shot is shortened to give tension. More tension is added by non-diegetic music in the background and gets louder until he stands up. By him doing so, he knocks out her dominance as they’re now at the same level. These shots remind me of ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ which is a film featuring Clint Eastwood, this reminds me of that as switches back and forth between a few shots with non-diegetic music, which builds tension and the shots are close ups on the eyes to see each other looking at on another.

There is a shot that goes from a close up to a mid-shot, by him standing up the camera: tilts, pans and zooms out in order so that the audience can see what he is wearing and so you can see his body language and how he holds himself. In the next few shots of the male character, you can see that he is quite relaxed as he leans against a post that holds up the shelter. While he does this the female character leans with her hands on another post, this could show they have something in common as they are standing in the same way.  

As he leans on the pole this shot ends up obeying the rule of thirds as well as it splits up the screen perfectly into thirds as the pole is meant to represent one third and the other third is shown as a background pylon. However, this shot is filmed for a very long time compared to ones just before it. this is because the characters begin to talk but still the camera shows him to be on the far left side of the image and when it cuts to her she is placed on the far right. Which shows they have distance. This makes me feel concerned as I want to know what happened to them, they’re acting as though they were close at some point but as something bad happened, they could’ve fallen out?

Soon after and as the conversation continues, the director starts to use some shoulder shots to fill up the entirety of the screen and to give us a look at what it’s like for us to be standing with them, helping us feel more immersed. Another idea the director did this is because he can give a look at what it’ like to be seeing it from their perspective.

They start to take one step at a time closer to each other as they talk, they take one step each, and to show this the director chooses to use low angle shots of their feet and these shots also obey the rule of thirds as the porch which they are standing on creates a line and the road that the church is in front of creates the other line. They continue to take a step closer to each other until they’re very close. This shows that as time goes on in their past they got more friendly and closer together. And as they’re talking, there is an eye-level shot which last for the next couple of minutes.

Once again it switches back and forth to shoulder shots which fill the screen. Overall this scene makes me feel curious as I want to know what has happened in the past and what is going to happen next.