I have always been interested in knowing and understanding how movies are made. We all go to the movies with friends and family, talk about our favorite scenes or retell our favorite quotes, but a lot of times I am more intrigued by the actual ideas, inspiration, work, and techniques that are used to make movies. So when I saw this class listed in the Core IV classes, I was extremely excited!
In class, we focused on how the movie was invented and the most important early milestones and genres of movies. Understanding the history of movies was interesting to me because it was cool to see how simple and innovative the first movie makers were. They were able to take this new medium and develop new uses and techniques to convey very different emotions. I liked watching the short films by the magician George Melias. He would enhance his magic shows by using stop motion to make it seem as if people, objects, and, even, he was disappearing; this was the first use of the camera to produce movies with special effects and illusions. We also focused on aspects of movies that are thought of and planned before shooting begins. Some of these aspects includes: camera angles, choreography, video and sound editing, and set and props. Musicals and dance numbers are good examples of movies that utilize all of these aspects of movie making.
The cross cutting techniques is what the part of class that I enjoyed the most. After being explained how that worked, it was like personal epiphany. I started thinking about those lame sports movies that would have the action going in slow motion while cutting back and forth between shots of the game and the clock. My sisters and I would always laugh about how retarded the directors must have been, not knowing that it is a technique used to show things occurring simultaneously. I just kept having flashbacks of movies, most of them with time counting down, and thinking about how much more enjoyable they would have been if I had known what cross cutting was before.
I cannot wait to get my hands on a camera and begin on our projects! The most appealing part of this class, for me, was learning that we would be able to make our own movies in this class. I have always been more interested in making movies rather than watching them, and this class provides the perfect opportunity for that. I’m excited to see what kind of movies everyone’s going to make this semester!
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You talked about how you could now appreciate certain films because you finally understand a technique they were using, do you think you could think of any other kind of movies which at the time weren't 'fit' to be under the heading of a 'good movie,' but now and later on learning about the techniques in film making actually makes a difference to that genre of movies?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the cross-cutting comments. I never knew what it was, and I feel like I understand scenes in some movies now that I have learned about the technique. These scenes don't seem as ridiculous to me.
ReplyDeleteThe movie Atonement replays the whole first 5 minutes again under a different perspective, I was definitely confused until it started cross cutting shorter scenes at a time. I think its a neat idea, but there are probably specific tricks that are used to make it minimally confusing for the people watching.
ReplyDelete@Mariam i think it makes the movies easier to understand and i can appreciate the use of the technique. But I don't think knowing about one technique would change my entire opinion of a movie. Those movies were still pretty cheesy lol.
ReplyDelete@Katie Yeah, I remember that. I really like that movie, but i'll probably have to watch it again after this course to fully appreciate it. I could see how it could get confusing if used to often or for long periods of time...
Yes, the clock counting off the seconds in a sports movie -- perfect example!
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