Research Script

Tora! Tora! Tora! Saving Private Ryan (1998) Das Boot--German WW2 Pearl Harbor (2001)

Nationalism sense heroism, sense of justified actions, soldiers words and actions defending one’s own country, seeing the worst in the enemy

Heroism

Saving Private Ryan: Private Ryan: “Tell her that when you found me, I was here and I was with the only brothers I had left and there was no way I’m deserting them.” MS of Sergeant Horvath talking to Captain Miller

Tora! Tora! Tora! LS of Japanese women waving to the pilots passing by. LS of a pilot, the plane, and the surround crewmen clapping. (Great! We just sank Nevada!) OTS to show Furchida putting on the band around his head. Ends with 2S-WS of him and another officer salute to each other.

Pearl Harbor OTS of Major Doolittle talking to Rafe. MS of Doris Miller using the machine gun and shoot down a plane. LS of Rafe shooting down Japanese planes, ends with LS of Danny shooting down Japanese planes. MS of President Roosevelt giving Rafe the badge of honor, ends with ECU of the badge to Rafe. Das Boot-

WS-LS of navy men departing the port from their home base. FS of crewmen in the bunk bed areas while listening to the Captain’s announcement on the change of rest stop from La Rochelle to La Spezia in Italy. Ends with 2S-FS of Captain and Werner talking on the boat’s surface. 2S-WS of Captain talking on the surface of the boat after surviving the attack from British ships.

Extent of showing love for one’s country by directing defending their country or attacking the other through words and action

Saving Private Ryan: LS of old Ryan walking through the cemetery looking at the white crosses. MS to LS of American soldiers walking and looking at Miller’s crew while they are digging through a pile of military tags. LS of Captain Miller running while the rest of the crew follows him.

Tora! Tora! Tora! MS of Furchida welcomed enthusiastically by lots of lower ranked pilots as he gets off his plane. LS of men cheering after speech given by a high commander. CU of men bowing down to a statue before invading Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor MS of a Japanese pilot getting dressed for invasion of Pearl Harbor. BEV of Japanese planes bombing American navy ships continuously. ELS of people who were in the water attempting to climb back on the ship. FS of Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle talking to crowd of pilots. CU of Lieutenant Colonel giving a speech to Rafe and Danny.

Das Boot- MCU of Captain during eating with his crewmates OTS of crewman running towards the bunk beds to announce they’ve hit the first one as crewmen cheers. LS of enemy boat sinking and on fire while enemies try to swim towards the U-boat. MS of Nazi officer with his raised up glass of champagne enthusiastic about the U-boats success in sinking enemy ships.

Scenes that help audience feels sympathy or respect for country thus boasting nationalism

Saving Private Ryan:

LS of battle scene between the Germans and the Americans in Omaha. MCU to LS on dead soldiers in the water. WEV of Miller’s crew looking through the pile of military tags.

Tora! Tora! Tora!

LS of Japanese navy formation. LS of American navy formation. MS of Admiral Yamamoto talking in a meeting.

Pearl Harbor

MS of Rafe holding Danny as he is dying. FS of American flag.

Das Boot-

CU of Werner walking after the bombing of La Rochelle and ends with LS of Werner next to the dead Captain.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ -Reviews helpful because it gives insight on what audiences thought if the movie boasted nationalism or not

http://www.imdb.com/ -to search for movies as well as to get information about the year it was created, country, etc.

http://www.filmsite.org/warfilms5.html -helped categorize what type of war movie (heroic war movie, epic war movie)

http://www.dasboot.com/story.htm -Background and what the directed intended

http://www.english-online.at/history/kamikaze/kamikaze-suicide-pilots-worldwar.htm -historical context (headband part of uniform that showed nationalism)

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor/ngbeyond/people/index.html -background to some important characters in the pearl harbor

http://allaboutwarmovies.com/tag/pearl-harbor/ -A little blur of comparison between Pearl Harbor and Tora Tora Tora

Hurt Locker Analysis

1. Opening Remarks

The movie is about soldiers who is fighting in the Iraq war. The experiences of the soldiers made the film much more interesting and although the director chooses not to let the characters reveal their emotions through words, the audience sense and sees the struggle they are going through. In the beginning of the film, the quote that is used is the overarching theme of the movie. The last four words was still there (war is a drug) doesn't really make sense in the beginning as we see all the awful things the soldiers have to go through.

2. Context
The film is being shot at Jordon and only 3 miles away from Iraq to preserve the realism aspects. This is to keep the film's authenticity and what better way then "shooting in the Middle East". The director was concerned about the how authentic the film looked from the bombings to the locations no matter how difficult it is to pull it off, she pursued. The film also has a documentary feel to it to further realism. Kathryn Bigelow is a female director that is directing a film that is rather masculine. She wanted the movie to portray the modern hero instead of the "breaking of gender or genre traditions". She believes that her movie is different from other war movies because it is centered around a volunteer army. The time period also makes the subject a sensitive subject because Americans are all familiar with the war that is going on in Iraq. The thematic trends this film portrays is realism in a slightly documentary style.

3. Setting, Acting, Costume

The movie emphasize on the setting to create realism. The location is risky as we all know the Middle East is not a safe area. They used the location's natural elements to their advantage and incorporated that into the movie to create creditability. The costume, which includes the bomber uniform and the army uniform, are needed to also create realism even though the weather in the Middle East is not pleasant so it makes the costume much more harder to wear and keep on. The whole visual style the director is trying to portray is the war in Iraq and make it look as real as possible to keep the suspense and the story going. The director even uses refugees from the war to populate the setting. The main character, Sergeant William James, is acted by Jeremy Renner. He does a fantastic job with his image and look as well as his acting as the role of the Sergeant who is often times in dangerous situations. The believability of his acting contributed to the realism aspect of the film.

4. Cinematography and Lighting

The style of the movie is realistic. It is realistic because it is trying to portray the war in Iraq and let the audience see what is going on in Iraq everyday to understand it. The slight documentary style furthers the realistic elements of the movie with the hand-held work like zoom. It is formalistic because of the editing style in some areas like when they use complete coverage to cover one scene and the use of some music to create a mood at certain times. There is also some use of continuity editing because the scenes flows nicely since most of the scenes are relevant to each other. But there are also times where it lacks continuity editing because it just jumps to another scene without really knowing what happened to the end of the other scene like the scene when the soldiers are getting ambushed in the desert and the next scene they were in their base already. The angles, framing, and lens choice has variety in the film. In suspenseful moments, the framing get tighter and there are more angles they shoot from with an alternating lens choice. The camera and acting blocking also varies. The color used dominantly in this film is yellow because of the location in a desert area. The constant image of the gun, death, and blood relates back to the fact that they are at war. There is a lot of use of the long shot to give a general scope of their environment and the situation they are in. The time of the day usually determines the light. Since most of the time the soldiers are out, the use of natural light is dominant. At night though, there is more darkness therefore, more fast fall off.

5. Editing (picture shows parallel action and hurt locker respectively)

The editing style is documentary but also in a conventional way. The movie is shot in a rough documentary style but the editor wanted to bring out the "true, up-close-and-personal moments with the characters, emotions and storytelling" therefore, incorporating a more classical cutting style. The edit doesn't manipulate time since it follows a logical sequence. It skips moment in time and therefore, fast forwards to another point in the movie. The speed is sometimes manipulated to create dramatic effect like slow motion. The length of the cuts is relatively short and the pacing is therefore fast to create suspense. But during emotional parts, the shots are longer and the pacing is slower. There is use of parallel action to show tension usually between the three soldiers. The title of the movie, The Hurt Locker, is referred to the box that the soldier keeps under his bed of items. The items are things that caused him pain and suffering either mentally or physically.

6. Score
The music in this movie isn't dramatically noticeable so it's very subtle. The soundtrack music has eerie, synthetic/organic fusion scores. There was subtle background music that creates tension that was present only in suspenseful moments.

7. Script

The film is notable for its screenplay. It won Best Original Screenplay. The main characters, the soldiers, are enrolled voluntarily into the army and there is a countdown to the days of their enlistment ends. The storyline is driven by the character because of character motivation and their role in playing hero in the war. The main character wanted to play hero by diffusing bombs, and seeking revenge for whoever killed the little boy who he thought was dead. He went on this dangerous mission that is self-motivated to justify. He risks his life and the two other soldiers to his advantage for his desire to seek revenge as well as an adrenaline rush. There wasn't much dialogue in the movie as specific scenes like when they are getting ambushed in the desert because there was still tension and it actually adds tension too. There was a lot of swearing when they are at risk in the war either diffusing a bomb or getting attacked. The humor used is cynical and satire because of the bitter situation they are in but yet, they still enjoy it the same time. There was a lot of irony used. For example, when Sanborn asked the Sergeant if he could ever be the one diffusing the bombs yet he doesn't want to stay at Iraq anymore and wants to have a family. The soldiers archetype is hero, especially the Sergeant. He wants to be a war hero but ended up making a fool out of himself and dismissed the morals he believed in when he found out the little boy was still alive.

8. Genre
The genres of this movie is a war, documentary, action, and suspense. It is a war film because the whole film is revolved around war and in war with the soldiers in Iraq. It gives the audience a glimpse of what is happening at war therefore, it is a documentary too. The realism aspect as well as the shooting style of it being hand-held without classical conventions adds to the documentary style as well as the location and the events in the location is shown in the movie. The movie has action and suspense when they are in combat as well as suspense in the scenes where their lives are at risk. The action and suspense ties in with the war genre since a war movie has those elements in it. The part where those two differs is that war movies usually make the main character a hero of some sort and there is usually a defeated enemy. Action movies don't really have a hero in the end. The soldiers seem to have many missions of the same sort. They are just playing a small part in the large war so there isn't much contribution by them when compared to the larger scale of the war.

9. Closing Remarks

The ending of the main character reenlisting and going back to war ties back with the quote in the beginning where it says war is a drug. In his case, the quote is true since he finds the peaceful family life dull and in a way, pointless for him. He needs the adreneline and the thrill of being in the war and at risk. He likes fighting for his country and fighting for a purpose.

Short Documentary Blog Post

Narrative/Theme
The title of the documentary is called I Can No Longer Afford My Lifestyle. The documentary is about three people who use to live lavish lifestyles with great jobs until the recession hits. When the recession hits, they lost their jobs. They try to adjust to their new lifestyles and had to make compromises. Their standard of living decreased while they struggle to survive in this economy. The documentary began with their situations currently and comparing it with their lifestyles before the recession. Then, the story moves forward to show what measures they are taking to make a living. The b-rolls shows footage of their situation and environment they are in. With interview while rolling b-roll, I think it communicates the theme better as it shows their emotions and reactions.

Camera Work
The camera work is trying to portray realism by following the people who are being documented in their everyday life. The camera work consists of panning, tilting, hand-held, close-up, etc. The camera work is not specifically organized nor planned out. They film the b-rolls at the spot with some direction.

Editing and Sound Designing
There is a lot of inter cuts in the documentary because it is following and talking about three different people in different locations. The sound really follows the mood because since all three characters hit their low points in their life, the music is slow and somber and when the characters are reflecting back on how their life use to be, the music was also slow and somber to bring out the sad and nonstagia of the characters emotions.

Prepo

Purpose: Aspiring people making it into the fashion industry either modeling, photographing, designing, etc. Those different sections talk about their passion which gives an insider look into this industry and what it's really like.

Contacts: My friends for modeling the different clothing style, some of them trying to make it into this industry, etc. Perhaps even go to an art institute and ask some people if they want to be interviewed.

Interview Questions: What is the fashion industry? Why did you want to get into this industry? What is your biggest inspiration? What do you have to offer to this industry? What is the biggest challenge? How did you think this industry worked before you got into it? And after? Describe your journey trying or if you already made it into this industry. (what is it like?) What is your favorite part about the industry? In the end, do you think it will be worthwhile? What are your dreams into making into this industry? What is important to achieve that status in this industry?

General Flow: Begins with the models modeling several styles of clothing. Footage about the different sections in this industry beginning with the designer. Narration of talking about their passion, idea, and own personal touch. B-roll of someone drawing a design or looking for inspirations of what they're trying to create. Then, slowly reveal who the person is and cut to interview with the person answering some of the questions. Next, footage of a person making their clothes (cutting, sewing, decorating) while the person is talking about the industry. Then cut to interview. The next footage is going to be about the model and what is their role in the industry and then interviews of them. Lastly, the photographer talks about their contribution and interview. The b-roll and interview will inter-cut to show what the interviewers are talking about. Then, the different sections will come together sharing the screen while all of them are answering the same question that shows the differences and similarities in those sections. Shot List- Fashion show, photograpgher taking pictures, models posing, designer drawing of a rough sketch of a clothing or outfit, the seamtress putting together the clothes. The shots of the interviewers with close-ups, and waist shots mostly.

Scripts: Combination of what the interviewers will say. There will so definite script. Intro: Different people with different style of clothing walking and posing. The models show off their different styles: chic, punk, feminine, urban, professional (suits), true prep, etc. Speed up the walking but when they pose, back to normal speed. Closing: Same as intro but with close ups on the different clothing articles that make up the style. Using pan, zoom, and tilt.

Baraka

Baraka is a film that has no script, no plot, and no actors. It is a silent film whose main purpose is to capture the essence of the world. Without plot, sound, and actors, the movie is focused on visuals. The cinematography helps communicate the idea to the audience that the world is not in black or white, but in a multitude of colors and variety in life and nature. The different contrast of the imagery, from beautiful to ugly, magical to realistic truth, fast and slow pace, devastation to prosperity, the movie shows the different aspects of life from all angles and brings attention to those aspects that we can't see everyday. The imagery, along with the varying music that fits with the different atmosphere, overall makes this film stunning and memorizing. The audience gain a new perspective of the artistic beauty of the world, positively or negatively. With interesting shots and simple editing yet not making an understatement, the world is brought into unity by this film.

1. The Title Baraka
Baraka means "breath" or "essence", but it is the essence of life or breath of life that is spiritually captured in the movie. The entire movie has many countries and locations included which blends the multiple cultures and fasinations into context and gives the audience an essence of life from a different perspective. The world as a whole is taken into account and is being seen and thought about like never before so the breath of life (humans, nature, animals) is passed on.

2. The movie is not nessarily critisizing the modern world but instead, it's warning us. The movie includes the ancient and destroyed world and the modern and thriving world. The connection between those two is that human has both the ability to start and end their civilzation. By using imagery of destruction, the movie brings into light the negative and hardship that exists in our modern world and how it affects those people. It's trying to communicate to the public that if we don't end our ways now, the path of destruction will come to us.

3. The message I got from the film is a positive but insightful one. People on this world should learn about the culture and the conditions of other humans which will bring unity among the people of the world. Another message is more strightforward. It is to simply show the beauty and delicacies of the world in nature, life, humans, technologies, etc and how it shaped our world today.

4. I think if there was dialogue or text, it would just ruin the simplicity and beauty of this film. The film itself is trying to communicate through imagery so with dialogue and text, there wouldn't be anything left to interpret and it will just be unnessary since the images are communicating the ideas.


5. The images I see being applied to culture is of Tokyo and the chicks in the factory of a fast-paced modern world. We are always on the move and rushed due to our society still moving forward.

6. The comparison of the monk and the cigarette factory shows the clash between the past and the present. In the present, people are less concerned about religion and spirituality but it also depends on the location. In modernized places like big cities, people are more worried about their wealth and such. In other parts, spirituality is still being seeked.


7. The poor is still being neglected and cannot seek help because there is almost no one to offer their help. I guess most people are too busy minding their own business and became absorbed in our own world that we failed to understand and reach out to the poor. In a way, there will always be a social status so there will always be someone less fortunate.


8. When the scene was about the Khmer Rouge and Holocaust, the music turned dramatic and scary. It is to make us realize that those things did happen and it may be in the past, but the very thought of the possibility that it might happen again strikes fear. The music made me feel hopelessness and sadness.

9. We watched the movie to see cool shots but as well as to learn about the world. It shows that we can film anything and there is no limit as to how you want to film it, without sound and even without plot but there was a purpose in the film. The vision couldn't arise without seeing this movie because it inspires you to get out to the world and see these things for yourself and contribute something to it therefore, it inspired me to travel.

Box of Love Critique

Rationale:
Our whole film is based off a homeless man who was very bored and dull until he meets a girl that attracted him. He tries to win him over but ends up getting rejected but when love is least expected, he finds love again. It is more of an innocent romantic story of two people falling in love. Our team wanted to make this film a romantic comedy like Amelie and we did that successfully i believe.

Script/Narrative/Story


I believe our film does have a clear story line. Our plot is about a hobo who falls in love with a proper, rich girl but ends up rejecting him and the boyfriend of the girl pushes the hobo down. The hobo, upset and crying, is approached by another hobo who is in love with him and they end up together. Our theme is about finding love in the most unexpected way. The film has the genre of romantic comedy as shown through falling in and out of love and the personality quality of people like the girl eating and stuffing herself, makes the film funny. The personality does match each person. For example, the hobo is trying to win the proper, rich girl's heart by finding a present to give to her. In my edit, i do not have any dialogue because I feel like it's unnecessary and repetitious since the scene speaks for itself. The climax is when the hobo gets rejected and pushed down which ends all his dreams with the proper, rich girl. It leads the other girl hobo to approach the broken hearted hobo and pursue him.

Casting
The use of wardrobe and makeup really makes the hobos and the snobby rich girl convincing. We used the eyeshadow as dirt on the hobo's faces and the ugly and dirty, ripped clothes to characterize them as homeless. In one scene, the hobo was looking on the floor trying to find something to give to the proper girl. It characterizes him as homeless and penniless since his first reaction wasn't using money to buy a present. Physically, all the characters look different. Everyone has their own personality. The hobo is a thoughtful and sweet guy, the girl he falls in love with first is rich and snobby, the girl hobo is also thoughtful and sweet, the boyfriend asserts his dominance by pushing the hobo down.

Acting
The overall effect of the movie is cute and heart warming. We were trying to make the audience go "aww" by the end of the movie.
The hobo went through an emotional rollercoaster from bored to happy by the end of the film with sad, bittersweet, excited in the middle of the film. The main actor portrayed those qualities pretty well and the audience knows who he's feeling. For example, he was excited when he was doing his little dance of jumping up and down and he was crying to show that he was sad and heart broken. His choice of clothing and the dark dirty makeup helped characterize him as a homeless man which worked perfectly. His messy hair and wild look to him also helped.
The homeless girl was portrayed really well with the costume of her ripped jeans, shoes, and puffy jacket. Her hair and makeup adds to that effect of a hobo. Her hair was really messy and big like it hasn't been brushed in ages. She pops up randomly in the movie which isn't what i really wanted because there is no background information about her. She was also sweet as shown as giving him the chocolate box and smiling. Her acting was great; my favorite part was the bright smile she gave that really made her sweet, happy, and innocent.
The rich, snobby girl was suppose to be mean and rude which showed by her actions and her reactions. When the hobo handed her the box, she made a very disgusted look and threw the box away. The high heels and the outfit in a whole gives off a sense of richness and classiness, basically portraying her as higher up. The acting on that scene was believable and perfectly how i envisioned it. The audience gets better sense of her personality which has a mean attitude.

Music and Effects
I admit my music choices wasn't the most consistent. I thought having different styles of music is great at first since it shows the different mood throughout the movie so the different music follow with the different mood but not the overall style which i plan to incorporate next time. By the last half of the film, the music choices gets better. It becomes a more light-hearted classical music but yet, it still follows the different mood like from sad classical fairy tale music to a lovey, realization of the two loved ones. It also supports the magical realism aspect of the movie because it fits this genre.

Staging and Props

The set design is outside on the Avenue. We used Never too Latte as the coffee shop where we were first introduced to the characters. The street does have a lot of people so there was distractions. Overall, it is a good set location because when the hobo is observing people, it wouldn't make sense if it was located at a place with no people walking by. Another downside with filming at a busy street was the use of tripod so some shots were shaky. Since people are walking by, it was hard to use the tripod without getting in anyone's way. The day we shot was a Saturday which is the busiest day on the street. The props used like the box of chocolate, the apple cider, whip cream, etc helps create the mood and magical realism. It is cliche though but that is what gives it the quirkiness of the film.

Lighting

The lighting is outside so therefore, we have limited control over lighting. The abundant natural light is useful but at some times, the light could make alot of shadow. For example, the scene with the picnic was very bright but the light was way too strong which made shadows hard to avoid. We should've used a soft box or perhaps using zoom and shooting far away to avoid getting into the shots and creating shadows. The bright light in the day gave an consistent lighting throughout our film. My favorite scene was when the light was hitting Savannah's face which add the glow to her smile. It makes her smile radiant and gives off a joyful smile.

Conclusion:
I liked the concept of the film and i think we communicated that concept pretty well. As the cinematographer, I think i could've improved more in using different shots like I imagined like dollying and more interesting angle shots. Due to the limited time and the busy streets, I was not able to make that possible.

Short Film Treatment- Romantic Comedy/Magical Realism

Cupids do exist in everyday life perhaps as shown in the story of Mary.

Sunset in the background. A view of an open grass field. Music playing in the background coming closer and closer. A couple holding hands while walking. Slowly goes up to reveal the back of their heads and show them laughing and starts running off into the sunset. Narration starts: "I know you guys stop believing in fairy godmothers but here's a story worth remembering that might put your faith in them again". Rewind the whole story to back to where and how it began. "Once upon a time there was a girl, i mean young adult named Mary. Mary is in her teenage years and so far, has no luck in finding love". Mary (dark dressed, bad rebel look) is at bus stop with her hands on her cheeks and sighs loudly. The bus comes and Mary gets on. Mary is sitting with a spacing out look and a bit of a sad face and little boy gets on and sits next to her. He says "Rough day? What's your story" Mary says "yeah..a guy i like rejected me...again. You?" He says " I still can't do an olley on a skateboard and fell in front of the whole skatepark..again." Mary chuckles and scoffs at the loser kid. Mary says "That's preschool status for me". The boy looks confused and shocked. A pause between the two as an awkward silence filled the time. Narrator: "Yes...indeed an awkward silience filled the air but little did Mary know the little boy is going to do something to help her." Bus stops, they get off. Mary notices the little strange boy is following her but she continues to walk along. Everytime Mary looks back, the little boy looks away to the streets or stores. Finally, Mary says to the boy, " Beat it kid, i'm not in the mood right now" with a mean and nasty look. The boy say "Your perfect! Come with me!". The little boy drags Mary and starts running. Mary is shocked and starts exclaiming "What are you doing?! Let go of me little boy!" The little boy drags her to a skate park to meet his skate friends who are all older and makes fun of the little boy. He says she's my girlfriend and she can skate better than all you guys" He blows a raspberry like a immature little kid. Pause on the kid's face blowing a raspberry. Narrator: "Will Mary choose to embarass the kid even more by saying shes not or pretend she is?" Mary's reaction was initially shocked and was already turning around slowly but stops in her tracks and sighs quietly to herself and says "Yeah hes my boyfriend" with a big fake smile on her face. The little boy gains respect among his peers as Mary skates around. The little boy tells Mary "Thanks Mary" Mary says "Anytime little one" and smiles. Narration: "Mary feels delighted to be helpful although she did lie" Mary is walking out of the park and sees a guy come up to her asking if she is the little boy's fake girlfriend. Mary responds yes. The guy says that he promised the little boy to go out on a date with you if you said yes for lying about the girlfriend part and says that the little boy played cupid between him and Mary. Mary smiles and finally finds a guy that likes her.