Film Discussion

Throughout the movie, it is very visible that every scene holds the essence that has been evoked by the motivated repetition of Brady getting a tattoo from his friend, Brady working at the market, and Brady's relationship with the horse Apollo. From the beginning, the scene of the horse in Brady's dreams sets the tone and mood for the beginning of the film. Furthermore, Chloe Zhao's emphasis on natural light and the importance of it can be seen very prominently throughout the film. Another aspect of editing that is very interesting in this film is how Chloe Zhao utilizes sound to not only set the mood of a specific scene but also create impressions of people. An example of this can be seen from the clip shown in the lecture of the beginning of the film. Brady can be seen undergoing this "mundane" morning task in silence, and once he is outside, his father arrives creating a commotion and a sudden event within both the sound and visual aspects of the film. Brady is introduced in sounds of silence and on the other hand, his father, Tim is first introduced as a loud drunkard with sound coming out of the radio. The clip that is shown first starts off with a prayer, enacting a mood to the audience that it is a very serious scene and at the end the non-diegetic sound changes to match the glorious mood that is supposed to be evoked by Brady riding the horse. In addition, the landscape compliments what is happening as it represents the big obstacle that he is to overcoming of doing what he wants to do despite the advising of close family and friends to not to go back to the rodeo.

Stagecoach functions as a kind of national allegory for its historical moment by depicting the events that were happening at the time. According to the lecture, this was the time where the Great Depression left one third of Americans unemployed, banks were failing, and the United States of America had just entered World War 2. Some of the key iconographies can be seen from the portrayal of the villain, the banker who is supposed to be this respectable character who is not necessarily as respectful as we are led to think. Furthermore, the ambivalence between the town, representing civilization versus the frontier is a key factor in portraying the theme of personal freedom and escape from the hypocritical and judgemental that is implemented in the ambivalent town. At the beginning of the film, the initial scene takes place at the town with Dallas and the Doctor being kicked out, however, by the end of the film all these characters undergo a significant change that results in new friendships and an escape from the hypocritical and judgemental town alongside the settling into the frontier, a place for redemption and rebirth. The relationship between Ringo and Dallas underscores a key theme in the story about freedom and I believe it dissects civilization as a whole. Nearing the end of the film, the frontier becomes a very strong representation for the ideas of redemption and rebirth as Ringo gets his vengeance and Dallas is somewhat given a second chance, a sort of rebirth after being kicked out of the town.

One scene that I would like to focus on is the scene when the FBI agents are on the helicopter going towards the rooftop John McClaine is on with all the people and telling them to go back downstairs because the terrorists were going to blow the rooftop up. When John starts shooting in the sky to force the people back downstairs and the chopper begins to shoot at him this can be seen as an edit in order to make the film more intelligible to the action genre. In most action films such as Rambo, the hero can always be seen as being shot at from behind or have a huge explosion behind him. Furthermore, this scene shows both an explosion and gun shots. John

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barely escapes the explosion by jumping off the building tied by a fire hydrant and as he gets to the fire hydrant, he is being shot at by the FBI agents in the helicopter, two close calls to death. I believed a scene like this influenced the action genre to have more explosive scenes including the main character. The next scene I want to analyze is the scene that is shown before that. This scene portrays the FBI agents flying to the rooftop on the helicopter. The influence of Soviet theorists can be seen in this scene because there is collision within the scene. The camera's perspective is from the inside of the helicopter, a tight space, veering out into an enormous skyscraper. Furthermore, there can be more collision seen from a peaceful helicopter ride then to a scene of an explosion with the helicopter on fire.

I believe that the main differences between classical approaches to cinema editing compared to continuity editing has become more and more significant as films began to incorporate different factors. From the early silent cinematic era, the well known Soviet film theorists based their ideas off of the silent black and white films they were used to watching, however, as time gradually goes on factors such as color and sound became much more prevalent to the thought processes of contemporary film theorists. The main difference between classical approaches and continuity editing can be seen through the scene from Strike in Thursday’s lecture and the scene from Inglorious Bastards in Tuesday’s lecture. Russian theorists believed that film had to contain conflict and collision in and between the scenes in order to tell the story. This influence can be seen through the clip of Strike that we see. In one instance, we’ll see a close up of a numerous amount of hands juxtaposed to a wide shot of full-bodied people running and a slaughterhouse. Furthermore, Russian theorists also believed that these collisions and conflicts were the essence of giving the film political ideas to the viewer. On the other hand, we can see from Inglorious Bastards the example of continuity editing. This clip juxtaposes a numerous amount of scenes without breaking the 30 degree rule resulting in avoidance of jump cuts unlike classical approaches to cinema editing. Furthermore, due to the usage of title cards in the silent film era I believe the spectators, directors, and theorists believed that collision and contrast between clips were the norm.

I believe in the air was an exemplary piece for participatory filmmaking because it is somewhat obvious that the actors were not experienced, however, they were able to become meaningful pieces within the story. I believe this concept goes hand in hand with the place and settings chosen for In the Air by Johnson. As she said in the Q&A, she chose a place that she herself felt warmth and familiarity for and people that are native to the location she had chosen. The choice for her place was important because not only is she creating a movie, she is adhering to the fact that in this day and age, people want to learn more about rural people. Furthermore, she talks about what occurs after the creation of the film and how happy she was to receive the note from another native saying she understood the film. The scene that I wanted to analyze was the scene where the interaction between the various characters are first depicted at the school. Johnson talks about how she got her inspiration for this film from the circus school. Her experience is in direct correlation with the scene that I am referencing. The mise en scene portrays the students in various ages, races, and body types. This shows the inclusivity that caught Johnson’s eye initially when she first physically entered

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the school. This scene further emphasizes the concept that is shared by the various members of the school: some of the students are older in age, some come from opiate addicted parents, and some are just here to learn and have fun. All of the students are different but putting that aside, they learn to dance together at the school.

I believe that Laura Mulvey's idea of the cinematic gaze from the male perspective is very prominent in the contemporary historical moment. Whether it is from the shoulder or a direct eye line shot from one's perspective it provides support to the asymmetrical power of the two sexes. Furthermore, the asymmetrical powers act as a guideline and force to cinema and film in both our past and present. One example can be seen in Professor Trice's lecture about the movie Wolf of Wall Street, specifically the scene where Margot Robbie is in pink clothing interacting with Leonardo DiCaprio's character. In this specific example, you can see how the male gaze is focused on Margot Robbie's character, and I believe that the portrayal of her character was created in order to make her seem very seductive, inevitably, this idea and orientation results from the patriarchal ideas that create males to be the common target audience. The next example I point out will be from one of the screenings from the class itself, Double Indemnity. I believe, one of the key topics talked about throughout the class is the initial meeting between Walter and Mrs. Dietrichson. When they first meet she is not fully clothed with just a towel on, and as she goes down the stairs, we see from Walter's perspective, how his interest is being formed. Furthermore, there is a zoom into her ankle as she goes down the stairs, creating a female character according to the standards of the asymmetrical sex power relations.

In the movie Double Indemnity, the film noir genre’s habit of constructing gender can be seen between the relationship between Phyllis Dietrichson and Walter Neff. The first time they meet, we can see from Walter’s point of view how he identifies Phyllis. According to the movie, Phyllis is introduced without clothes on and just a towel to cover up her “appetizing torso”. This is one of the examples of how hypermasculinization of men in the film noir genre enforce the construction of gender. Alongside what Phyllis is covered with, the cinematography of the scene starts off with the zooming of the anklet she has on and through Walter’s narration, we see how much emphasis is put onto that anklet. Through the way she is introduced in the movie, Double Indemnity constructs the idea that for women to be attractive, they must involve themselves in seductive actions and wear eye-catching revealing clothes. Another specific scene that further exemplifies the construct of gender from the mise en scene can be seen through Walter’s apartment. The mise en scene of Walter’s apartment represents the hypermasculinization of males in the film noir genre. Throughout Walter’s apartment he has framed pictures of boxers and the lighting is very dark. The framed pictures represent the masculinity of Walter, he is represented as the manly man who lives in the dark alone, keeping to himself. The apartment’s orientation constructs an idea to the male audience that the cool, chic male is one that is alone, private, and enjoys sports such as boxing.

I have chosen to answer the 2nd option. The film’s portrayal of forbidden love surprised me at first. Both the characters acted by Tony and Maggie were aware of their respective partner’s infidelity but they did not themselves have

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an illicit affair. It was interesting to see the strength of their morality, however, by the end of the movie I wanted them to break their moral code and in a sense, take revenge on their partners. I agree with Teo that the message of the film was ultimately conservative. One of the scenes that enforced this idea for me is when they conduct the first enactment of their partners’ affair. In this scene Mrs. Chow tells Mr. Chan that her husband would not have made the first move for his illicit affair with Mr. Chan’s wife. (~31:20) This scene shows the strength of the importance of upholding morality to prevent themselves from doing wrong as their partners have. Furthermore, Teo talks about the didactic tradition and the moral triumph present in the film as a way of inspiring the audience. Throughout the movie Mrs. Chow and Mr. Chan both worry and fear about being judged by the other characters. I believe these characters are present in order to indirectly police the two from breaking their moral code and give the audience another incentive to accept the didactic message present in the movie.

Option 2 I believe the main two key locations are the residences of Jihah and Sophie. The location of their homes are the clear distinction that they should not be together, especially due to their financial differences. I want to say that if Sophie was living in the city, I believe that Sophie and Jihah never would have met. Furthermore, if Jihah lived in a more desolate home, the probability of Sophie and Jihah getting together would be almost zero. In the movie, Never Forever, I feel that Gina Kim purposely led the audience to make the assumption that both Jihah and Sophie are forced to undergo a paradoxical isolation, one where despite being around other people, they feel lonely. In the movie, Sophie lives in the suburbs that I believe that it is predominantly white at the time and when she encounters Jihah and the sperm bank, she is initially intrigued by him as he is a good looking Korean man willing to donate sperm. As the two become more intimate in their relationship, Sophie spends more time in Jihah’s home which is a lot more desolate than Sophie’s, however, Jihah’s apartment consists of more eye-catching colors such as the red wall and Gina Kim utilizes this to blossom Sophie’s forbidden love for Jihah. I believe that if Sophie lived in the city, with a more diverse population to interact with, and not only other families with children that could not relate to the problem she is having with Andrew like she did in the suburbs, she would not have the inclination to intertwine with Jihah. I believe that because Jihah was something strange and unfamiliar to Sophie, she was more interested in him then she would have been if she lived in the city and interacted with people more like Jihah. Therefore, if she lived in the city, she would be in a surrounding consisting of unfamiliar people like Jihah and other people that could relate to Andrew’s inability to give her a child.

Option 1 Historically, the lighting has been adjusted for white skin tones to be the norm as white people were predominantly the majority in the industry. This can be seen from the shirley cards by kodak that have been referenced in the lectures. Another evident observation can be made

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when one of the cinematographers in the talk about how they were taught to display people of color in the shot. The cinematographer was taught to use two certain colors, one being blue, however, as the cinematographer worked on insecure, she tells us that those are not the only colors that could be used and any palette could bring out a colored person from the shadows in a camera. Another evident observation can be made in the lecture where the Professor talks about Moonlight. The before and after pictures of one of the actors are shown to show how the cinematographer, Laxton encapsulates what he wanted to portray and how the after pictures shows the colored actor coming out of the shadows and much more well lit. Professor Trice also shows a clip of Selma, and how lighting is used in that scene. In the scene that is shown, there is only one small ray that provides lighting, however, in order to light up the colored actors, Ava Duvernay talks about how she and her cinematographer conversated about deciphering how to light the actors. She talked about the importance of emphasis and of bringing out the information in a scene.

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