Major Paper IPA 106 FALL 2009 Worked by: Zhilin Jin The purpose of my essay is to evaluate the musical Cabaret through the description of the primary theatrical elements of the Cabaret and their contributions. I will summarize the film’s plot and the theme of the movie. I will then analyze and interpret the style of this musical from a theatre perspective, such as how the dances used gesture and movement and how the music expressed the characters’ emotions. I will then evaluate of the theatric, dance, and musical elements that make up this musical film. Bob Fosse was the Director/choreographer who not only brought to Cabaret an interesting background and storyline, but folded the big musical numbers into the Kit Kat Club’s performances to better illustrate and emphasize the plot.
The opening scene of The Sixth Sense (1999) can tell us an abundance of information, hints and clues towards the narrative expectations throughout the rest of the film via the use of Mise-En-Scène. The first scene involves the powering up of a light bulb within a dark setting. There are multiple ways in which this can be interpreted. This could be suggestive of enlightenment, the sudden understanding of an idea as shown at multiple points during the film. When Dr Malcolm Crowe recognises Vincent Grey, When he realises that Vincent grey and Cole Sear have similar abilities in being able to see dead people and the main revelation at learning of his own death.
How does the author want the reader to feel while reading "The Cask of Amontillado”? Poe wants to feel the unreliableness of Montresor and wants to create the gothic and spooky thrill of stories like his. What techniques does the author use to help you visualize the place, the people, and the events that are taking place within the story? Imagery was used throughout the story to describe the catacombs so that you can picture how dreary and a terrifying place it must be. As well as when Montresor describes Fortunato especially with “the wine twinkling in his eyes”.
In this essay, I am going to argue that Steven Spielberg deserves be regarded as an auteur director. This can be backed up through the process of viewing and analysing several of Spielberg’s films, where reoccurring themes can be identified. These include: the absence of a strong father figure, representations of alien life forms, the lost child, and the frequent use of bright light. All of these themes can be traced to back to Spielberg’s own beliefs, childhood and personal life. The auteur theory of film criticism can be traced back to French film critics in the years after World War Two.
How do mise-en-scene and cinematography introduce character and setting in the first five minutes of the 2009 animated film “9” by Tim Burton? Cinematography and mise-en-scene are important aspects to consider when making a film, due to how important these micro aspects are in establishing meanings in a film. They are used both independently and interlinked. A sense of the approximate date of the film, setting, details about characters, narrative clues and the mood of the film can be created and communicated using these aspects of filmmaking. In this essay I intend to analyse how “9” uses cinematography and mise-en-scene to introduce character and setting and generate responses from the audience in the five minute extract which shows the creation of “9” and his discovery and reaction to the world around him.
2001: A Space Odyssey starts with an overture, then moves to an image of a white sphere rising out of a black object in a black background. This starts the progression of black and white within the film – but to obtain meaning from the images, a framework of rhetoric is required. Film is both an aural and visual artistic medium, but I will rely on visual rhetoric to assess meaning from colors. Color is a valid rhetorical subject because color is a part of film language (Blakesley, 2004). Blakesley’s definition of film rhetoric consists of four categories: Language, Ideology, Interpretation, and Identification.
Editing: visual transitions between shots that work to move the story forward. Watch the following clips. Each demonstrates the effective use of editing. The baptism murders – The Godfather (8/9) movie clip (1972) HD A Beautiful Mind (4/11) movie clip – Nash cracks the code (2011) HD § The shower – Psycho (5/12) movie clip (1960) HD Choose one of the clips and analyze the effective use of editing in one short paragraph. In your analysis, describe the transitions between specific shots and the overall effect this has on the scene.
The theatre based discussion that is conducted on the steps of Margo Channing’s home, is a scene from within Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s film “All about eve” that displays the lights and shadows of characters through the director use of varied persuasive filming techniques It is one of the more commonly techniques used, but the directors use of a variety of camera angles allows the audience to grasp the setting of the scene and let themselves feel apart of the motion of the story by tracking the movement of the characters. It is effectively done that the camera angles have a shift from displaying a long shot of the characters sitting on the staircase (a long shot) to what is known as a medium shot, where it isolates 3 characters. The purpose in the flow of the shots is the long shot allows the audience to establish the scene in their own mind, allowing them to see who is in the scene and their purpose for being there. Where as when the camera becomes focussed on Karen, Richards and Addison a more defined perception on the characters facial expressions and movement can be seen. Secondly, what is known as a tracking shot follows the movement of Margo Channing as she walks up the stairs into her room.
This territory is being shown in the film by an Arabian theme that reinforces and establishes the locale. We can hear a stirring statement of the “La Marseillaise” when the opening credits are shown in the beginning of the film. Steiner uses this to remind the viewers the French control of Morocco. This ends with a sour chord, coinciding with the director Michael Curtiz’s name to support the narrator’s description of dark days for Europe. A narrator also describes the journey people go through to come to Casablanca, and this was supported by repeated dissonant chords.
Offer an explanation as to why this is done/say what effect this has (eg The lighting reflects the naturalistic setting of the film and reduces shadows to create a dream-like appearance) and 3) Relate it back to the scene (eg The reduction in shadow helps create the dreamy appearance to reflect her high-energy state and to make the audience feel like they are living in a dreamy state). The Body is an episode from the American gothic television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, directed and written by Joss Wheddon. This specific episode is about Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) returning back home to find her mother; Joyce Summers (Kristine Summers), dead on a coach in her the living-room. The scene starts with Buffy casually entering her home; (from 00.25s) the camera always being at eye-level, starts from a medium close-up of Buffy walking towards her living-room. The eye-level shots of Buffy in a household environment, places the audience in her shoes and is symbolic to an average routine lifestyle, the background lighting has moderate-intensity to empathise the warmth and comfort of an ordinary home in what seems to be the afternoon; this section lasts five seconds before quickly merging into a close-up of Buffy’s face, this later reflects her shock from facial expressions, after she finds her