Independent Research Script Part 1

 Research Topic and Question
1. My research topic that I will be doing is, the differences between American and Japanese Horror movie's antagonists.

In what ways does horror difference in American culture and Japanese culture?


Films that you plan to use in your analysis
For the American Horror film i plan to use, Friday the 13th (2009) directed by Marcus Nispel.
For the Japanese Horror film i will  use, Ju-On (The Grudge) (2002) directed by Takashi Shimizu.


3 areas to focus on in comparison

Antagonists

Ju-On (The Grudge):

Kayako; is a woman who was brutally murdered by her husband. She has long tangled black hair with very pale skin with tints of blue. Looks like shes been drowned, a spirit. Once a housewife, but was brutally murdered by her husband along with her son. Creates a sympathetic tone to her character.

Jason Voorhees:

Jason is a man who was drowned when he was young. More human portrayed. His most scary features are objects that include his hockey mask and his weapons. He doesn't see himself as the villain, he lost his mother at the age of 9, and was drowned. Also creates a sense of sympathy towards him.







Deaths

Ju-On (The Grudge)
Deaths are not directly shown, usually cut to black, very subtle.
Kills victims mysteriously, doesn't show how Kayako actually kills the victims. Never shows the body after death.

Friday the 13th
Gory, very violent and gory.
Jason uses weapons such as machete, axes. Always shows the body after death.

How the Suspense is Made for each Antagonists

Ju-On (The Grudge)
Quiet, usually dead quiet, with small sounds that add to the tension. For example the famous Grudge noise or a phone ringing.

Friday the 13th



http://www.japattack.com/japattack/film/juon_itv.html

Sound Treatment - Caroline&Nellie

Logline: An extremely shy guy with a heart problem is faced with the issue of confronting his biggest fear.

The story begins with the sound of him taking deep breaths as the pace of his heart slows to a steady pace. We then fade in to him in front of the mirror as he grabs his bag and heads into his kitchen. His mother begs him to take his medication, and they begin to argue. But eventually he ignores her and walks out the door.

Hanging out at his friends house, they’re sitting on the couch playing video games when out of the blue the friend asks him about his heart condition. The boy tries to change the subject unsuccessfully, because the friend is truly concerned and wants him to see his doctor again. The friend bombards him with his advice about what to eat, how to keep his heart rate low, and other important things that the boy obviously has no interest in. The friend gives up, and asks him how the girl he likes is doing. Reluctantly, the boy shrugs and says that he hasn’t spoken to her yet, and that he would eventually. The friend tells him to talk to her immediately.

The next day at school, the boy approaches the girl but then takes a step back. The friend eyes him and signals him to talk. She looks at him and says hi, and he stands there nervously as he greets her back. She asks him what’s wrong, but suddenly he faints as the screen goes black. All we hear is his heart beating as fast as possible, but as the girl’s voice surfaces, the heartbeat slows to its usual pace.

Hurt Locker Analysis

1.     The quote in the beginning of the movie really caught my attention because it compared war into being like a drug, being addictive. I thought this movie was going to be like every other war movie. The soldiers missing their families, their homes but the Hurt Locker was completely different.

2.     The director chose a good time to make this movie and show a different side of war. It was a good time because when this movie came out and still in the present the United States is currently at war and many can relate to the movie. The viewers can see and understand another view of war, the view that the soldiers don’t belong in the normal world anymore. Compared to other movies this one made war seem like a drug. Like I’ve said before most of the other war movies I’ve watched the soldiers couldn’t wait to get home and be reunited with their families but this movie the soldiers home was the battlefield. The normal world became a struggle for them, for example when Will James is at the grocery store and he has a hard time picking a cereal when it should be such an easy task to do. This relates to one of the themes that went throughout the movie, the theme that war becomes home to many soldiers for example it became a home to James and the Sanborn. This was apparent in James life because when he got back to his wife and son he didn’t feel like he belonged there anymore and the only thing he loved was war and being at war, war had become his home. 
      This was also shown with the Sanborn when he admits that he can’t make a son anymore, he doesn’t have the mindset to start at family anymore because his whole mind is at war. This also ties with the theme of war being addicting. It got to a point where not only was the warzone James’ home but he just couldn’t live without the excitement of war which was also revealed to his son during the scene that lasted just a few minutes.

3.     The setting, actors and the costumes had to be perfect for this movie to be believable. However, they did get all those things perfect because to me it all seemed real, like they were actually there at war feeling the pain that a real soldier would have felt. When I was watching this movie throughout the whole movie I felt like I was at war or watching a real moment in life. The way that the actors and their clothes were all dirty gave us a sense of time and that they’ve been at that setting for a long time, creating more realism. All these elements came together to create a realism that can make us connect with theme. 
     The scene that caught my most attention with the actors and wardrobe was the part where James and the black guy were sniping the enemies. They waited for a long period of time and with the amount of dirt that gathered on top of their faces it showed that the time was passing by, that they’ve been still there for a long period of time. If it wasn’t for the sand and dirt on their faces increasing I wouldn’t have known that the time was passing, I would of thought they were there for about five minutes but with the sand and dirt it showed that they were there for at least two to three hours.

4.     This movie was definitely realistic and that is what they aimed for. They gained this effect by one, was the camera movement. At times it was very shaky and not a perfect dolly or pan at all, which made it more realistic like I was actually there holding a camera. There were also a variety of close ups to show either what the actors are feeling, or to show good eye line match. There were many shots where eye line match were deeply important to each scene, it gave us a sense of what they were looking at and focusing on the same object that they were focusing on. There were also many establishing shots that was followed by a series of close-ups and waist shots that gave us an idea of what the location contains, whether it was people from Iraq, the soldiers or all the tanks and weapons that helped us tell a story.

5.   The editing  of this movie was really well put. In the beginning of the movie the edit caught my attention by having jump cuts from the people on the streets to the tanks to the army robot to the soldiers, it just covered a lot of the setting and it gave us a clue of what was going on and who was involved. They also did a good job showing time throughout the movie, with again the sniper scene they showed the time by first showing the soldiers with not much dirt on their face and then cutting back to them again with much more dirt over their face and the sun setting down giving us the information we need to figure out that hours had gone by. 

      They also do a good job showing time pass by at the end when James returns home. They show a short scene with his family and then straight to the plane with his army uniform, showing us that months had passed and he again had re-enlisted into war.

       The sound took great effect throughout this movie. Right in the beginning of the movie when we first meet James we hear a hard metal rock song playing in the background. My first impression of James was that he was badass. It made him sound tough and that he knew what he was doing and that he was in the right place. Throughout the movie there also was background music that made each moment more intense and gave us a feeling of wanting to know what will happen, it also got us worried for the soldiers, their lives were at risk throughout the whole movie and music helped set that tone. Another moment that sound was really important was every time that James put on the bomb suit all the surrounding sound went mute except his breathing. This made the moment more intense and it showed the viewers that what he was doing was very important to him, like a last breath. There were many other scenes where certain sounds were shut off and focused on others, and not every single sound in that scene. Overall the sound was a great help for the themes and the story.
       The story of the Hurt Locker involved around the story itself and the story of each character. The plot was basically to tell the story of soldiers who eventually make the warzone their life, their real home. While James plot was how he had this hero figure that he always had to maintain. For example when he thought that the soccer boy was dead with bombs inside of him he had to immedietly seek revenge and look for who caused it. However once he found out that it actually wasn't the boy he thought it was he felt embarrssed and shameful because he wanted to feel like the hero but didn't quite get that since he was wrong. These two themes were put together very nicely however because neither overpowered the other and both were still clear while watching the movie. What was also noticeable was the humor put into this movie. It didn't make it completely comedy but suttle comedy that  showed that these soldiers were still human above all the differences they go through and act. The message they send out is that even though soldiers can be completely different from normal everyday people they are still humans inside, just now they have a different home.
       The genre of this movie was a war action movie. It meets this goal because throughout the movie there's an excitement and shooting/chasing/fast cuts that all meet the genre of an action movie. This movie had an interesting ending that basically led us to think that the movie was going to start all over, that everything James went through he will have to go through it again, which i really found interesting.

Documentary Pre-Pro (Partners with Nellie)

Purpose: To show the life of a personal chef.

Contact: Pearl Villena

Interview Questions:

1. How did you come across the culinary art?
2. What is the relationship between you and the family you've been working for?
3. What is it that you enjoy about cooking for others?
4. What do you do in your spare time?

General Flow: The film will begin with certain details and objects that Pearl uses to do her job. A voice over of her interview will come in as we begin to see bits and pieces of her working. Throughout the piece we will show every detail of her life, such as where she goes to get groceries, and the kitchen/house she works/lives in.

Shot List: The interview with be set in her new house. The b-roll will consist of shots of materials that are used for her cooking (kitchen utensils) and food.  And shots in the grocery. Pictures of her, possibly with the family.

Script: It will be mainly the interview.

Intro: N/A

Closing : N/A

Short Documentary Review - True Life

The documentary i chose was True Life I Cant Sleep. The point of this documentary was to show the audience how this effects their life, their everyday life. How they can never sleep all night long to the point where their eyes burn from being opened. For example Kelsey doesn't sleep at night resulting in wanting to sleep at school, making her not pay attention in class and becoming a drop out. But all three; Krystal Kelsey and Newell are trying to improve their lives at home, school and socially with their friends/boyfriends. This documentary shows how they start off with these problems, they reveal the struggles and then throughout they try to fix this sleep disorder. Either by going to the doctor, taking pills, trying their hardest to control their emotions, and try to pay attention in school. For example, Newell is undergoing a series of experimental surgeries to fix his disorder who all don't seem to help him.
The camera work was way different then ordinary films. They were mostly following the characters around, and after the camera follows them to where they were headed they cut it into a close up of their face to see their emotion and what they are feeling. For example in this shot of Krystal we follow her all the way to her stand at the shoe store. Since this is real there is no control what is going to happen, so in most cases the lighting never really matches, and they use other tools like night vision in their camera while in real movies they would instead have a little light but enough to see that it was dark and all the lights were off. But in this documentary they had night vision to talk with them, and it wasnt held by a professional camera operator but by the people that were in the documentary. For example this shot with Krystal, telling us what time it is and how she is still unable to sleep. In some of the shots, there were also bumps that couldnt be controlled, while running or either something getting thrown on them. Its unpredictable because the ones in the documentary may want the camera out of their face and thats what the camera operator has to do, loosing some footage that they need.
The editing was decent. They cut each person's documentary back and forth, to see all their struggles together being compared which made me watch for their differences and what they all share. Then they move on to them trying to get better, and they go in the order of Krystal, Kelsey and Newell. To show how differently they all try to get better and how their results vary and relates. Editing the film like this is better then just showing one whole character then the next. It's better because while watching i keep remembering all three of the characters not forget the first or second one i watched. The sound design was great because it was very suttle. It had no sound effects, it was all the real sounds in the world making it feel realistic, because it is real and thats the way they want us to feel, to connect with the pain their feeling. There aren't any sound effects which is great because that would of been a big distraction. They just try to focus on the characters and they do that by just playing suttle music in parts of the documentary. There were many silent parts in this documentary where there were just dialog. For example when Kelsey was fighting with her father there was no music just their fighting dialog.

BARAKA Review!

When i first heard that we were going to watch a film with no dialog or no plot i immeadietly thought there was going to be no point watching this film. However, i was proven wrong, i loved Baraka in many ways. It inspired me to learn about other cultures in other countries through the shots of other religions and rituals. I really liked how there were so many different shots and it varied all around the world not in just one spot. By doing that it kept me interested in the movie because it made me curious about each country.
The locations they chose were amazing, it showed the true beauty of nature in the world in the beginning that i didn't even think existed. It showed the beauty that exists outside of city life. They emphasized the nature by showing how beautiful it was when  it was compared to the city shots. Their locations were also all over the world, either in poor parts, uncivilized parts, rich parts, impacted parts and even the dumps. Even though their locations varied in many different ways they still worked together to tell a story.
The story of Baraka was to show the different cultures around the world. They did this by shooting a small part of each culture, that told us enough to make us interested, but not all of it for us to fully understand, there was a mystery to it. For example there was a part of the movie where a tribe was doing some kind of loud ritual that involved hundreds of people. I didn't understand why they were doing it at all, or what was the purpose but i can see that they believed what they were doing was for something they believed in.  They also shot in places where we wouldn't know about if it wasn't shown in this movie, many cultures we couldn't see in everyday life.

The camera work was amazing, they shots all kind of shots but mostly wide shots where the whole picture was visable. Most of the shots had midground, foreground and background. The nature shots all had slow movements to them while the city shots had faster movements, which made us pay attention to the difference between the two. In this film there were also many shots that started with a focal point and dollied out to reveal a bigger picture. For example the part where the monk was lighting his candles, it started with focusing on one candle and then revealing hundreds of candles.The camera work wouldn't have had any effect if it wasn't for the editing that came along with it.
The editing told a story by arranging the shots in a order that made us see what cultures really are and how they are changing and may end up destroyed. They also edited to show that cultures may have similarities within them even though they are so different. For example they showed the asian man getting out of the hot tub with a large back tattoo and the shot after was a little girl in Brazil who had paint all over her body, both representing body art but in different ways. The music also helped create the moment more dramatic. When it was calmer, the music had a calmer feeling, but when they wanted us to feel pain or struggle they made the music louder and faster which helped  us get the emotion out of the movie. All these elements helped create this movie and tell a clear story even without text and voice.

Questions!

1.  I think they chose Baraka as the name of this film because every culture takes part in making a breath of the Earth. This was show in the scene where the taxi and the cars were going up the street in New York and the background music made it sound like the roads were breathing, a part of the Earth was breathing.

2.  I think this movie is critiquing the modern world. This movie says that we don't take care of our planet, the nature in our planet. This is shown when they show mankind sawing down trees and showing the trees falling down and dying. It showed a perspective that man were monsters and destroying the beauty of nature for their needs. They also warn the modern world by showing the ancient civilizations in ruins now, saying that we might end up like that.

3.  The main message i get from Baraka is that, every culture may be different from others but still have a connection in some way. They are each connected in all believing in something. Even though it may be different religions, they still believe in it and do rituals to support it, even though all may be extremely different they have something to believe in. Another message i got was how different city life is from not modern cultures.

4.  This film had a better result in having no text or voice because it makes us focus to the imagery and not get distracted by the voices. The image itself was enough to tell a story alone.

5.  The first couple of cultures related more to nature then the city ones. They lived around nature, with nature. Their routines and beliefs were also around nature, no harm and they didn't harm the nature either while the city life had many cars, buildings and factories. They contrasted highly to nature, they had tobacco factories and kept the animals cooped up, for example the baby chicks in the factory.

6. For the scene of the monk walking down the street and after that shot the cigarette factory and the streets showed me that he was maybe praying or making a blessing over the city. That maybe the city will get better and learn to appreciate the world more and not completely destroy it.

7.  By showing the poor parts in Baraka it showed that the world isn't completely happy and not everyone is satisfied and living healthy. By showing this and it shows the world that there is poverty still around the world, some people don't see that because they are so involved around feeding their needs that they don't even notice that there are people that have it even worse.

8.  Some transitions that really got me remembering were when the music suddenly gets really loud for a couple of minutes and suddenly it goes silent when it changes to a different shot. That mainly got my attention because it makes me pay more attention to the scene after all the music.  I also like the music choises where they interacted sounds from the scene itself with the music, showing a good way to show a connection between the music and the scene.

9.  We watched Baraka for one to see the amazing camera work that was involved along with the edit. But we also watched it to see that we dont need words or text to tell a story, but just the camera work itself with the edit. Aside from the editing and the camera work this movie showed us different worlds for different cultures for different people around the world. This makes me want to travel because it got me more interested in seeing how other people live their everyday lives. Also seeing the beautiful nature out there makes me want to see every bit of it and not just this city life i live in.

Habitual Critique

For the film Habitual there were many influences involved. The first influence came from the romantic comedy, Amelie. What i got from the movie was the concept of the little details do matter. In the middle of the story in Amelie, Amelie messed with Collingnon but changed little details in his room that made a huge difference in the end. I corporated that in my film by having the young man notice the small habits of the girl and changing them. By changing certain things about the cafe, it made it impossible for the girl to continue her habits. I was inspired by the little things in Amelie not by the main plot. Another inspiration i got from the movie was how the director chose to do his shots. He was very creative with his shots and many of them had movements. I was influenced and made some of my shots with movement. We followed the girl around while getting the sugar and made it one continuous shot. For me this made the film more interesting and more exciting to watch. I was also inspired by the cafe setting, because for me that is what inspired the rest of my film. The story was created around the cafe, i had to create little details that were doable inside the cafe, that were also realistic.
To accomplish our goals and use our influences to create a good film we had to use good actors that matched our vision. However that is hard to find since our only source was our friends who happened to be very impatient. We wanted our first character the girl, to come out as a busy girl who had strange habits that she happened to do everyday. We wanted the cafe to be her get away, a place that she can relax. But even there she had to follow a schedule that she did everyday. Our actress i think did a good job acting, she didn't make it cheesy but smooth and got the character through. However, our actor made our guy character not exactly how we wanted. We wanted the guy to be a curious yet mysterious who just happened to find interest in the girl and her weird habits. He wanted to make a difference in her life and change not exactly who she was but break her from her habits and live everyday differently not making it a routine. Our actor came out a little creepier then expected but still was the closest guy we could of used, and i think overall the actress and actor worked from our film. The only small problem with them was the scheduling and have them be committed to the film, we had to film later then we planned and we had to rush the ending because of their lack of patience.

My edit of the film had a calmer feeling rather then comedic. It was calm throughout the whole film, and i wanted it to be that way. I wanted it to feel dreamy and not overdue it. For me it flowed smoothly and it wasn't too calm to make you fall asleep, it was still interesting to watch. I also made it quiet, and no music in the beginning to introduce the characters to make the audience notice the characters instead of the music going on in the background. I started the music right after the young girl finished talking to her mom. I thought that added more emotion to the scene, since the music was also somewhat emotional. I only had one song throughout the whole film because i thought that was cleaner and the message was still sent through the shots, it didn't need sound to explain it. I didn't want to overdue it with sound and make it look cheesy, and just use any sound because i couldn't find the right sounds i wanted for each scene. I also didn't use any sound effects, but i wished i had used folly to create a little more realism in the film. Overall i really like the song choice i chose and the way i chose to edit it.
The camera work was really good, but could of been better. We used alot of continuous shots to relate to Amelie. It also created a more interesting look, for example the shot where the girl goes to get a packet of sugar, both of those shots were continuous. A couple of more shots we used were shots from a lower angle, to make the characters look bigger and more in control then the audience. We also made sure to not cross the 180 degree line to not cause confusion to the audience. I think our shots could of used a little work, but just minor mistakes for example using a tripod for certain shots, to make it look more clean and professional.

We chose the cafe Copenhagen to film in because we thought it fit the romantic image very nicely, and they were nice enough to let us film there for the whole day. We also used props to help characterize our characters. Such as the watch for the young guy who constantly looks at it, and it shows that himself and the girl are both at the cafe always at that time. The sticky note that the girl tally marks each day shows how constantly shes there doing the same thing, and lives a very scheduled life. We also made her wear the same outfit everyday to show that she comes from the same place everyday, a uniform from a diner. That confused some  of the audience because her wardrobe stayed the same everyday except the last scene. In mind i originally had a outfit that looked more like a uniform but couldn't find anything in my closet but that to work with.

The objective of this film was to show that by changing the little details in what someone does can actually have a big impact in the end. I could see that the guy observes her in the first couple of days, and then decides to change how she looks first, by fixing up her hair makeup and dirty clothes. She's confused of course and becomes suspicious. He later comes back and notices her little habits again, and the day after stops her from completing those habits which makes her realize that she should change and does change in the end. The only thing i would change would be the ending, because i thought that it ended too fast, it didn't show her brushing her hair and getting ready to see him and surprise him, but overall i think we did a good job in keeping our concept and achieving it.