experimenting with hope since sunrise (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} april_wednesday) wrote,@ 2005-04-24 00:39:00 |
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birth
i have 2 weeks break before starting the spring semester. it's already been a week and i've been going to school most of this week working on my character model. i was going to go to the lab over the weekend as well but the go bus doesn't run to school on weekends. so i decided to take it easy and catch up with reading and watching movies.
i got a call this morning from the library i used to work at. a book that i placed order months ago had come. stradivarius by toby faber, a book about the famous violin maker and story of his six creations. i wanted to read about the man behind the world-famous instruments and the history behind his work. believe it or not i find this topic quite fascinating. classical music in general fascinates me.
tonight i watched birth starring nicole kidman. it received considerable buzz last summer during cannes and its poster caught my attention immediately. more specifically, the look on kidman's face caught me offguard. it was a look filled with grief that i have yet to understand.
there's alot i can talk about this movie, but i have to tell you this is not for everyone. the story itself is rather simple and the concept isn't new. but i absolutely adored it. for one thing, this film had alot of patience, something that majority of the movies nowadays lack. the pacing is slow and builds up the atmosphere even slowly with long, still camera shots, giving the audience more than enough time to process the feelings of the characters and see the transition of expressions as they happen. there is one particular shot of nicole during opera where she came in after speaking to the boy in the hallway and she's completely distracted, beginning to get convinced that the boy really is her husband's incarnation. it's a sight to behold.
this film did brilliant jobs on original score, cinematography/lighting, and set designs. i was particularly impressed with interior lighting, the range of shades shown is perfect in creating the mood of this kind. mix that with elaborate floral wallpapers and solid colour backgrounds, most notably greens and browns.
now that i'm planning my own movie, i look at film's structure in different way, noting various techniques they use to sculpt a story and flow. one thing i want to do well is to emerse the audience into the main character's mind, getting them to fully understand their actions, motivations and consequences, and hopefully at the end of the film they'll feel like they've had 2 hours of a good conversation with the character that i've created. this aspect has alot to do with timing, more specifically, at which point in character's time does the movie start and end? the movie should have one single central focus and the movie starts and ends enveloping that focus. there's usually a build up or introduction prior to the main event and some cushion ending after the main arc. it's very much possible to cut back these two but there's the danger of alienating the audience if they feel as though they were dropped in the middle of nowhere and spend most of the time figuring out what's going on. but it is very much possible to do this properly and this is where the masterful filmmakers pull off their tricks. let me give you an example. there's a movie called cellular, came out last year, starring kim basinger. it's about a woman who's kidnapped and makes a random called to save herself and her family. a dude picks up the call and helps her out. to me, the protagonist is the dude and the most interesting aspect of the movie is what happens to that character, things he must go through in order to help this woman on the line. if i had the director's hat, i would have started the movie with the phone call because much like the main character, the audience needs to be totally convinced that this really is a random phone call and you don't know what the hell's going on. the movie actually started out with kim's character walking her son to school bus. i understand it was necessary to show the close-knit family kim has going but that's not the focus here. it goes on to show the dude's moments with friends prior to the call. by starting the movie with the phone call, you pick up on the high note, and like the character, you don't know whether to believe this woman. but in the movie you saw the whole kidnapping so you know it's real, so you loose alot of anticipation in whether or not you should go along the ride and ponder if the dude would actually go along with it as well. in turn you and the dude are in the same boat and the connection is made.
in birth, the movie essentially starts when the boy is already grown. it actually starts with the husband's death and the boy's birth but i don't think it was necessary. but i understand it. there were several movies of this kind, with the concept of reincarnation as the main selling point. they usually show the life before and how close those characters were and how they part, only to reconnect years later. but this film skips that predictable process and i applaud director's choice.
there were several things this film could have been better. 1, there were a number of dull shots in terms of colours and contrast, mainly outdoor shots. the interior scenes are absolutely breathtakingly well rendered with ambient lights placed beautifully to show off the set's contrast range but the outdoor shots seem lifeless. it does take place in the winter with snow on the ground but they could have use some filters to add some colours in there, something like orangish brown.
2, the "realization" sequence towards the end by a secondary character wasn't necessary at all. she's given only about 5 minutes of face time so the audience are fully aware of what happened when she was framed into the shot. the director should have given her a still face shot as she comes to realization, perhaps a slight smirk. that's what it would have taken.
other than those two little flaws, the film had an original voice and vision. if you like slowburning character study films, this is for you. make a note of the final scene by ocean. that tiny scene added a whole new dimension to nicole's character. brilliant.
i have 2 weeks break before starting the spring semester. it's already been a week and i've been going to school most of this week working on my character model. i was going to go to the lab over the weekend as well but the go bus doesn't run to school on weekends. so i decided to take it easy and catch up with reading and watching movies.
i got a call this morning from the library i used to work at. a book that i placed order months ago had come. stradivarius by toby faber, a book about the famous violin maker and story of his six creations. i wanted to read about the man behind the world-famous instruments and the history behind his work. believe it or not i find this topic quite fascinating. classical music in general fascinates me.
tonight i watched birth starring nicole kidman. it received considerable buzz last summer during cannes and its poster caught my attention immediately. more specifically, the look on kidman's face caught me offguard. it was a look filled with grief that i have yet to understand.
there's alot i can talk about this movie, but i have to tell you this is not for everyone. the story itself is rather simple and the concept isn't new. but i absolutely adored it. for one thing, this film had alot of patience, something that majority of the movies nowadays lack. the pacing is slow and builds up the atmosphere even slowly with long, still camera shots, giving the audience more than enough time to process the feelings of the characters and see the transition of expressions as they happen. there is one particular shot of nicole during opera where she came in after speaking to the boy in the hallway and she's completely distracted, beginning to get convinced that the boy really is her husband's incarnation. it's a sight to behold.
this film did brilliant jobs on original score, cinematography/lighting, and set designs. i was particularly impressed with interior lighting, the range of shades shown is perfect in creating the mood of this kind. mix that with elaborate floral wallpapers and solid colour backgrounds, most notably greens and browns.
now that i'm planning my own movie, i look at film's structure in different way, noting various techniques they use to sculpt a story and flow. one thing i want to do well is to emerse the audience into the main character's mind, getting them to fully understand their actions, motivations and consequences, and hopefully at the end of the film they'll feel like they've had 2 hours of a good conversation with the character that i've created. this aspect has alot to do with timing, more specifically, at which point in character's time does the movie start and end? the movie should have one single central focus and the movie starts and ends enveloping that focus. there's usually a build up or introduction prior to the main event and some cushion ending after the main arc. it's very much possible to cut back these two but there's the danger of alienating the audience if they feel as though they were dropped in the middle of nowhere and spend most of the time figuring out what's going on. but it is very much possible to do this properly and this is where the masterful filmmakers pull off their tricks. let me give you an example. there's a movie called cellular, came out last year, starring kim basinger. it's about a woman who's kidnapped and makes a random called to save herself and her family. a dude picks up the call and helps her out. to me, the protagonist is the dude and the most interesting aspect of the movie is what happens to that character, things he must go through in order to help this woman on the line. if i had the director's hat, i would have started the movie with the phone call because much like the main character, the audience needs to be totally convinced that this really is a random phone call and you don't know what the hell's going on. the movie actually started out with kim's character walking her son to school bus. i understand it was necessary to show the close-knit family kim has going but that's not the focus here. it goes on to show the dude's moments with friends prior to the call. by starting the movie with the phone call, you pick up on the high note, and like the character, you don't know whether to believe this woman. but in the movie you saw the whole kidnapping so you know it's real, so you loose alot of anticipation in whether or not you should go along the ride and ponder if the dude would actually go along with it as well. in turn you and the dude are in the same boat and the connection is made.
in birth, the movie essentially starts when the boy is already grown. it actually starts with the husband's death and the boy's birth but i don't think it was necessary. but i understand it. there were several movies of this kind, with the concept of reincarnation as the main selling point. they usually show the life before and how close those characters were and how they part, only to reconnect years later. but this film skips that predictable process and i applaud director's choice.
there were several things this film could have been better. 1, there were a number of dull shots in terms of colours and contrast, mainly outdoor shots. the interior scenes are absolutely breathtakingly well rendered with ambient lights placed beautifully to show off the set's contrast range but the outdoor shots seem lifeless. it does take place in the winter with snow on the ground but they could have use some filters to add some colours in there, something like orangish brown.
2, the "realization" sequence towards the end by a secondary character wasn't necessary at all. she's given only about 5 minutes of face time so the audience are fully aware of what happened when she was framed into the shot. the director should have given her a still face shot as she comes to realization, perhaps a slight smirk. that's what it would have taken.
other than those two little flaws, the film had an original voice and vision. if you like slowburning character study films, this is for you. make a note of the final scene by ocean. that tiny scene added a whole new dimension to nicole's character. brilliant.
