In week 5 we had a new lecturer...Jason... Charismatic American fella' that actually reminded me of a an American mate of mine whilst I was living in Sweden.. He discussed a lot of things but this is what I think I derived from it: -Net Art: How the net can be used -The internet is apparently too slow, especially in Australia -The internet = "A bunch of dumb ass computers" -1997 was the .com boom = internet millionaires -However 1999 was the .com crash -Myspace was sold for like a billion dollars and was only popular for 3-4 years. Facebook took over and is currently #1. Twitter will continue to rise and then most likely fall people will get sick of it. -The Hungarian government created a site that shows dangers/hazards in countries all over the world. -We will be creating a "my map" in google maps in the upcoming tutorials. -Google owns youtube, and google is publicly owned. -On www.sketchcast.com you can draw and records it as you do. -And finally we finished off by watching a youtube clip - United breaks guitars:
The task for this blog was to find internet delivered short films (max 10min) and upload them in a post and discuss why we have chosen each particular film... Now what's the first thing that uncoils and springs to mind? That's right youtube, where else right? So in the great words of boxing referee Mills Lane; "Let's get it on!" Since I have already posted the 2 short films from the lecture in a previous post ('BMW's Hire: Star' episode and 'Troops') I went hunting for a fresh batch of short films. There were many I found over the 10 min mark, however there were also quite a handful that were under. I had no idea there were so many really intriguing short films posted on youtube...
LOVEFIELD (5:29 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4meeZifCVro Directed by Mathieu Ratthe Starring: Pierre Lebeau and Bianca Gervais "Lovefield is a film that combines elements of horror, suspense and drama to create a story that takes the audience on a roller coaster ride of emotions. It also plays with the familiar stereotypes we have come to accept." http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4meeZifCVrohttp://vodpod.com/watch/1646636-lovefield-short-film What a simplistic psychological masterpiece this truly is. I never thought One location, two people and a crow would be able to suprise me as much as this did. The ending is very amusing and shows that with the right camera work and editing that anything is possible on a low budget. There was only one sentence of dialogue in the entire thing, so for Director Mathieu Ratthe to be able to manipulate our thoughts while simultaneously giving us a human behaviour lesson is nothing less than brilliant.
BLACK BUTTON (7:06 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrKnhOJ-R80 Directed by: Lucas Crandles Starring: Robert Grubb ad Hayden Grubb "Mr Roberts finds himself awoken inexplicably in a white room. A man sits before him at a desk and in between them stands a black button. If Mr Roberts pushes it, he will receive a briefcase filled with millions of dollars. Or he can take the key to the door and leave penniless. The catch? Pushing the button will result in the death of a human being. What would you do?"http://www.freshcreation.com/entry/black_button_short_film/ I chose 'Black Button' because of the idea that was portrayed and the choices we have of wrong and right, not only after death but in our every day lives. Regardless of if there really is a heaven or hell, the film still sends out a powerful message. Just as 'Lovefield', 'Black Button' is shot on one simple location with two people. However in this film it is more the dialogue than the camera work that is appealing and well executed. Long after the film is over I am still asking myself, what would I really do?
SPIN (8:16 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP59tQf_njc Directed by: Jamin Winans Starring: Hayz II "Spin is the tale of a mysterious DJ, sent to a busy city block. The disk jockey plays god, using his DJ turntables as a time machine. It is a demonstration of how the smallest things can make the biggest differences, and has already won 35 film festival awards worldwide." http://www.flixxy.com/dj-film.htm Wow is what comes to mind after watching 'Spin'. I chose this particular short film because the editing in this is truly amazing. It conveys a sort of butterfly effect and from this gets one thinking, what if? What if I arrive somewhere 1 minute earlier or one minute later, would I still be alive? Who knows. I guess that is when fate and destiny come in to play. There is no need for clever dialogue in the film, merely an extemely talented editing team. 'Spin' quite simply rocks.
STRANGERS (7:11 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpjHSiQLPmA Directed by: Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv Starring: Guy Loel, Sami Samir, Ooky Etinger, Gil Rimer, Guy Eliayahoo and Dudu Kadosh "Strangers is a short film about the racial divide between Arabs and Jews and what brings them together." http://ajiminnicoup.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/strangers-short-film/ I chose 'Strangers' because race and religion can often be extremely touchie subjects, almost like tip-toeing over glass. However, in this short film we jump straight into the deep end and the suspense you feel throughout watching it is huge. It needs no dialogue to convey its message and really does give us food for thought. Actually its more of a three course meal we get to ponder over. Who are we really fighting against? I think it attempts to bridge the gap through this well thought out idea and shows that, we really aren't so different after all.
BMW SHORT FILM - THE HIRE - TICKER (9:46 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBdOaIiz60I Directed by Joe Carnahan Starring: Clive Owen, Don Cheadle, F. Murray Abraham and Ray Liotta Plot: "The Driver finds himself in a dangerous, yet highly political situation; this time being pursued by a helicopter gunship while carrying a passenger with a suitcase... the contents of which will decide the fate of a nation." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340398/plotsummary I chose 'Ticker', not because of it's amazing all star cast of actors, but quite frankly because of the great suspense and meaning behind the story. The suprise ending was really well executed with clever editing that saved all of the vital information from the audience until right at the end. It proved to be much deeper than I had intially anticipated with the future of an entire country in my mind. It sheds light on some important yet on-going subject matters, like dictatorship in the hands of the power hungry. We do not here much about these matters because they do not apply to our country, however it does not make it any less important in our overall society. Sure the action was really cool to watch, with hectic driving and shooting, although it was the deeper meaning in the end that made me want to share it.
BMW SHORT FILM - THE HIRE - BEAT THE DEVIL (9:44 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qQvXawnmjk Directed by: Tony Scott Starring: Clive Owen, James Brown, Gary Oldman, Danny Trejo and Marylin Manson Plot: "Decades ago, the legendary James Brown sold his soul to the devil for fame and fortune. Now he wishes to renegotiate. Hired to take Mr. Brown to a rendezvous with the devil (Gary Oldman), the driver soon finds himself entangled in fiendish plans." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338768/plotsummary On a lighter note, I chose 'Beat the devil' because it has to be my favourite short film from BMW's Hire series. Therefore I saved it for last because I believe it to be the best and most entertaining short film in this current post. Tony Scott has managed to capture and convey so much humour into this one short film. How coud you not love Gary Oldman as 'The Devil' and tough guy Danny Trejo as his side kick. Throw in the king of soul, James Brown and a surprise appearance by Marylin Manson holding a bible and you have the makings of one very entertaining story and a classic short film. Clive Owen plays his cool calm and collected role as the driver making me wish more and more that he was the man selected to play James Bond (However I am still a huge fan of Daniel Craig). The excellent editing, sound and cutting sequences all proved to be a mixture for success in my eyes. Drag racing the Devil in Las Vegas for an all or nothing wager? Oh hell yeh!
Why is internet distribution important for short films?
It is important because it is a cheap and effective way to distribute films for audiences toview. Since short films are usually on a tight budget then posting them on the internet acts as a perfect way for heaps of people to see them, without forking out extra cash. Not only does it save a lot of money for the distributor, it saves money for the consumer also.... I found some useful information from The Media Production Blog:
"Here is a list of websites that can help you with Short Film Distribution. The list primarily consists of internet distributors for your short film."
Today during the lecture we discussed a time line of the big screen to the small screen scaling from 1895 to present day, however we only got up to 2002.
1895 - Birth of cinema (moving images of everyday things e.g sneezing, walking etc.)
1906 – First feature length narrative film (Australia was the first to do this, film was about Ned Kelly)
1927 – “Talkies” – First film with talking and sound. Live music was played previously in silent film. “The Jazz singer” was the first film with sound.
1929 – First all colour film
1933 – First drive-in Cinema/Theatre – was in New Jersey and only cost 29 cents!
1937 – First all colour, all singing animated film “Snow White”
1939 – First TV
1952 – Birth of 3D (Hollywood turned out most movies in the 40’s and 50’s)
1955 – Hollywood sells their movies to TV stations so as viewers at home can watch them.
1956 – First VCR/VTR
1959 – Percepto vision – Mild electric shocks given to audiences in horror movies. Smello vision – incorporating smells into the cinema experience
1963 – Birth of multiplex theatre – Allowed films to be played on more than one screen at the same time
1967-69 – Portapax – Portable VCR player and camera (Sony)
1970 – IMAX
1972 – Pay TV
1985 – First blockbuster video store opened
1986 – First CGI animated short film mad. Luxo Jr. (Pixar)
1995 – Toy Story (Pixar)
1997 – DVD video and laser disk. “Troops”
(Hollywood not yet grasped concept of watching films through the internet)
2002 – BMW – “The Driver” (8 short films approx. 10mins each). A lot of money invested into short films.
We finished off by watching two very funny clips. The first one was from a series entitled “Troops”, where star wars storm troopers are blended with reality cops to give an extremely amusing outcome. The second clip we watched was a short film, directed by Guy Ritchie featuring Clive Owen and Madonna. I thought this was a fantastic short film and have been watching a few others on you tube. They are very entertaining indeed. I hope more time, money and effort will be continually invested into short films so we can all bear witness to more of this particular genius in the future.
I did something yesterday that I don’t usually do, I went and saw a romantic comedy, and not on DVD either, but at the cinemas! Strange I know and why would I spend money on seeing something as predictable as a romantic comedy? I mean they do all pretty much end up the same anyway with the guy and the girl getting together after going through various trials and tribulations. In my defence, it was after much objection on my behalf but even more persuasion by my partner and close friend that I finally succumbed to the excess peer pressure that was bestowed upon me. We ended up seeing the ugly truth and too be honest the film wasn’t quite as ugly as I thought it would be. Compared to other romantic comedies I’ve seen in the past, this one is certainly up there with the best of them. Dare I say, it quite possibly could be the best one I’ve seen (although in all honesty I haven’t actually seen all that many).
It is about "a romantically challenged morning show producer, Abby Ritcher (Katherine Heigl) who is reluctantly embroiled in a series of outrageous tests by her chauvinistic correspondent, Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler) to prove his theories on relationships and help her find love. His clever ploys, however, lead to an unexpected result."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1142988/plotsummary
Actually this "unexpected result" is just BS. It was predictable in terms of the lead characters (Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler) getting together in the end, however the many amusing parts of the film definitely made up for the cliché ending. Although even the ending was funny. I think that any film that can get me laughing, smiling and talking about it long after it’s over, is more that ok in my books.
Now since it was suggested, in the previous lecture, that we could write our next blog about the uses of the various screen shots, I took the liberty of analysing 'The Ugly Truth', to see if what was mentioned in the lecture did in fact hold true to this film.
There were six questions that were discussed in the lecture with eight possible shot sizes that could be used as answers.
The questions were: Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?
The shot sizes (possible answers) were: VLS/WS (Very Long Shot/Wide Shot), LS (Long Shot), MLS (Medium Long Shot), MS (Mid Shot), MCU (Medium Close Up), CU (Close Up), BCU (Big Close Up) and the ECU (Extreme Close Up).
The Who: The CU shot was used in most instances to emphasis each characters expression in detail so we could get a better understanding and insight about each character (what makes them happy, sad, puzzled etc.).
A Close up shot of Mike Chadway's (Gerard Butler's) to emphasis his mischievous expression...
The What: The MS was used every time a character would perform an action to emphasis hand gestures like Abby Ritcher (Katherine Heigl) is doing in the scene in the elevator.
The Where: The LS was used at the beginning of each scene to establish where the action was taking place (overview of the city, landscapes etc.). This is a similair Long Shot picture of the air balloon scene at the end part in the film.
The When: This was discussed in the lecture to be the most difficult to capture on screen. During the film the WS was used to emphasise whether it was night/day and the CU was used to show specific time (as in the hands on a clock or watch).
This is an example of a Wide shot of a sunright to show the when...
The Why: The BCU was used well to answer this question because it showed the feelings that were expressed through the faces of both Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler.
It was difficult to find a good Big Close Up shot from the film, but this is Katherine Heigl in an interview about the ugly truth...
The How: The MCU was used on occasion but it was more so a series of close ups that was used to explain the how, for instance when Abby Ritchter (Katherine Heigl) was getting to know Colin (Eric Winter) who was Mike Chadway's (Gerard Butler's) competition in winning Abby's heart. A nice set of close ups were shown in a montage.
Overall, the shot sizes mentioned in the lecture were the same or very similair to the ones used in the ugly truth to answer the six questions.
It was quite apparent that each of the shots used did serve a purpose and did drive the narrative forward, all the way from the beginning of the film to the end. So well done to the director of the film Robert Luketic for achieving this and coveying everyone in an understandable and often humorous manner.
ECU could be...... The Electronic Control Unit - "controls the fuel injection system, ignition timing, and the idle speed control system. The ECU also interrupts the operation of the air conditioning and EGR systems, and controls power to the fuel pump (through the control relay). The ECU consists of an 8-bit microprocessor, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), and an input/output interface. Based on information from the input sensors (engine coolant temperature, barometric pressure, air flow, etc.), the ECU determines optimum settings for the output actuators (injection, idle speed, ignition timing, etc.)."
European currency Unit - "A composite monetary unit consisting of a basket of European Community currencies that served as the predecessor to the Euro."
écu - "Can refer to one of several French coins. The first écu was a gold coin (the écu d'or) minted during the reign of Louis IX of France, in 1266. Ecu (from Latin scutum) means shield, and the coin was so called because its design included a shield bearing a coat of arms. The word is related to scudo and escudo. The value of the écu varied considerably over time, and silver coins (known as écu d'argent) were also introduced."
"In the wide shot, the subject takes up the full frame. In this case, the girl's feet are almost at the bottom of frame, and her head is almost at the top. Obviously the subject doesn't take up the whole width and height of the frame, since this is as close as we can get without losing any part of her. The small amount of room above and below the subject can be thought of as safety room — you don't want to be cutting the top of the head off. It would also look uncomfortable if her feet and head were exactly at the top and bottom of frame."
"As with most shot types, the wide shot means different things to different people. However the wide shot seems to suffer more from varying interpretations than other types. Many people take the WS to mean something much wider than our example, i.e. what we would call a very wide shot."
"The very wide shot is much closer to the subject than an extreme wide shot, but still much further away than a wide shot. The subject is (just) visible here, but the emphasis is very much on placing her in her environment. This often works as an establishing shot, in which the audience is shown the whole setting so they can orient themselves. The VWS also allows plenty of room for action to take place, or for multiple subjects to appear on screen."
"In the extreme wide shot, the view is so far from the subject that she isn't even visible. The point of this shot is to show the subject's surroundings. The EWS is often used as an "establishing shot" - the first shot of a new scene, designed to show the audience where the action is taking place. The EWS is also known as an extra long shot or extreme long show (acronym XLS)."
"the medium shot (MS) is generally defined as a waist-up shot of a person. Medium shots help place a subject in context--and they are also necessary for people who gesture a lot. This is the shot that Jay Leno does his monologue in, for example. The problem with medium shots is they don't show as much detail as a close-up and they introduce more of the background which can be distracting to the viewer."
Wow, talk about ignorance on my behalf. I have never been especially good with computers and certainly had no idea about its history for that matter. Although, it really is much more lengthy and complex than I had previously given it credit for.
The fact that we have gone from Charles Babbage’s mechanical adding machine in the early 19th century to Alan Turing’s first working computer ‘the bombe’ used in world war 2, to today’s advancing technology really is mind boggling. I think we have a lot of things that we take for granted in regards to our computers like instant access to email, the internet and cyber space, which has become an ‘imagine zone’, used for communication of knowledge with people’s huge investment of emotions and feelings. I mean just take Facebook as an example. I know a lot of people that practically live in that place, telling the world what’s on their mind continuously throughout the day, even if they have absolutely nothing to say what-so-ever. I didn’t even realise that the World Wide Web and the internet are not the same thing. The World Wide Web is only one part of the broader internet, sort of like a slice of pie compared to the pie as a whole. I told one of my mates about this newly acquired and enlightening piece of information and he looked at me with his eyes screaming douche bag and his mouth kindly saying, you’re a bloody idiot!
It was as far back as the 1970’s that computers really took off though with accountants using them for storing their numbers. I guess it was a perfect apparatus for bookies too. It was amusing to hear how massive the first apple computer was and how it was sold for the devils number $666.60, do these digits represent an underlying message perhaps? It's hard to tell. What isn't hard to tell though is that Bill Gates is one smart yet ruthless nerd indeed, although I guess he had to be in order to be where he is today. He was the first person to charge people for his Microsoft software and in turn became the billion dollar man. All in all it has been a productive and insightful week so in the great words of Forrest Gump: ‘That’s all I have to say about that.’
"Technological convergence is the tendency for different technological systems to evolve towards performing similar tasks. Convergence can refer to previously separate technologies such as voice (and telephony features), data (and productivity applications) and video that now share resources and interact with each other, synergistically creating new efficiencies. Today, we are surrounded by a multi-level convergent media world where all modes of communication and information are continually reforming to adapt to the enduring demands of technologies, changing the way we create, consume, learn and interact with each other. Convergence in this instance is defined as the interlinking of computing and other information technologies, media content and communication networks that have arisen as the result of the evolution and popularisation of the Internet as well as the activities, products and services that have emerged in the digital media space." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_convergence
GPS watch for golfers: Pyxis RGPS-3000 (this is pretty crazy technology! I guess it's better than a compass...Unless you run out of batteries!)
"A Korean company recently unveiled their new GPS watch designed for golfers. Called Pyxis RGPS-3000, this GPS watch will allow you to load your favorite golf course on to the device and keep track of your score. In addition RGPS-3000 will come in handy in many other outdoor activities such as running, bicycling, hiking, etc thanks to its software which can adapt to many conditions." http://http//www.navigadget.com/index.php/2007/07/30/gps-watch-for-golfers-pyxis-rgps-3000
Xbox 360 "The Xbox 360 Pro delivers the complete HD gaming and entertainment experience. With hundreds of HD games available, and amazing entertainmenta vailable through Xbox LIVE, this console comes fully loaded with a 60GB hard drive, wireless controller and headset." http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/hardware/x/xbox360prosystem/default.htm
Communication Devices
iPhone "The iPhone has a Multi-Touch interface so you can make a call simply by tapping a name or number in your contacts or favorites list, your call log, or just about anywhere. Visual Voicemail lets you select and listen to messages in whatever order you want — just like email. iPhone shows off your content — music, movies, TV shows, and more — on a 3.5-inch display. You can add to your collection by downloading music and video wirelessly from the iTunes Store. You can also scroll through songs and playlists with the touch of a finger. Even browse your album artwork using Cover Flow. iPhone uses fast 3G and Wi-Fi wireless connections to deliver HTML email, maps with GPS, and Safari. It has Google and Yahoo! search built in. And since iPhone multitasks, you can make a phone call while emailing a photo or surfing the web over a Wi-Fi or 3G connection." http://www.apple.com/iphone/why-iphone/
