The Black Swan Film Review

On Monday, Lauren and I spent a day planning out our film opening with our chosen genre. We wanted to watch a film that would inspire us for our own opening, so we chose the film, The Black Swan as it incorporates the genre of thriller.

The Black Swan is about a women called Nina (Natalie Portman) who is a ballerina whose passion for the dance rules every facet of her life. When the company's artistic director decides to replace his prima ballerina for their opening production of "Swan Lake," Nina is his first choice. She has competition in newcomer Lily (Mila Kunis) however. While Nina is perfect for the role of the White Swan, Lily personifies the Black Swan. As rivalry between the two dancers transforms into a twisted friendship, Nina's dark side begins to emerge.

This was a very good film and I was surprised how dark and chilling it was as there were parts were it was quite graphic and gruesome, such as when Beth is in the hospital and starts stabbing her face with a knife. Even though I probably wont watch it again, I do believe it was very useful as it gave us both ideas for our film opening. W

We want to use the idea of someone who suffers with physiological problems who start seeing things that aren't actually there. This character will come across very vulnerable and the audience will grow an attachment to her which will inherence fear.

Mr and Mrs Smith- Film Review

Last week I watched a great film, Mr and Mrs Smith, staring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. This film is an American action comedy about a couple who are both spies from opposite agencies. However, they live together for  'five or six' years without telling each other that they are spies and live their lives in secret. Till one day when they both are on a mission to kill the same person and find out about each others job. To their surprised to learn that they are both assassins hired by competing agencies to kill each other.
This film is fast pace and exciting and a great film to watch for action ideas for my opening.

Foley Sound

A couple of weeks ago we learned about Foley Sound and the importance of it in the film industry.

What is Foley Sound?

• Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality. The best Foley sound is when the audience are unaware of the sound that has been pre recorded.
• It helps to create a sense of reality within a scene, without these crucial background noises, movies feel unnaturally quiet and uncomfortable.

To understand a bit more of Foley Sound we watch an extract from a film called Hunger. This was quite a dark and depressing film, especially the scene we were looking at. Hunger is about the Northern Island Republic prisoners who fought till their death, by hunger strikes. The main character was Bobby Sands who in this scene died from starvation. Foley sounds were very important in the scene we watched as there was minimal dialogue. This meant the audience realises on sound. Foley Sounds such as heavy breathing, birds calling, foot steps and doors closing were all of the sounds we heard in this extract to put more emphasis and Bobby's death.

Jurassc Park- Film Review

Last Night I watched the family classic Jurassic Park, a science fiction/ adventure film. This is a great film as although it my be unsuitable for young children its still a film that kids, teens and adults can all watch together. I went with the family to watch it at Pinewood studios in the gardens on a big screen with a superb sound system. Even though I have watched this many times I still managed to jump at parts that I knew where coming due to the fact of the booming sound and the way Steven Spielberg's directs it to make each and everyone sit on the edge of their seats.

The film was made in 1993. Dinosaurs had walked the earth 26 million years ago and that is why this film is so special as it isn't like anything before as everything looks realistic especially for a film made  this long ago.
Jurassic Park is about dinosaurs that were brought back to life thanks to a man called John Hammond (played by Sir Richard Attenborough). By doing this he creates a park on a island full of different species of dinosaurs, so that one day he would be able to open it to the public. He invite a couple who study dinosaur fossils, along with his two grandchildren. This soon turns into a disaster as the original and amazing park becomes life threating as the dinosaurs escape from their encloures and hunt and dominate as they would have done.

This is such a thrilling film to watch and even though I have seen all of the Jurassic trilogy plus the newly released Jurassic World, I still absolutely love it and the special effects of the dinosaurs are so good that you really believe they are watching you, which is quite terrifying!
 

Saving Mr Banks- Film Review

Saving Mr Banks- Film Review

Saving Mr Banks is a drama based on the classic film Mary Poppins. With a great cast of actors such as Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks, Saving Mr Banks is based on a true story.
The story is about Pamela Lyndon Travers - the writer of Mary Poppins and Mr Walt Disney and the relationship they share as he adapts her book to screenplay.  With very different priorities  for this classic book Disney wants to fill the film with songs, dancing animated penguins and made up words to the horror of the writer.  We soon learn that Mrs Travers is a hard to please and opinionated english woman. With flash backs to Mrs P.L Travers childhood we see that Mrs Travers was effected by her childhood and her fathers death making her  a very closed and protective character. .

I really enjoyed this film as it incorporated many feelings such as laughter,( a wonderful scene where the song writers and Mrs T sing "Let's go fly a kite")  empathy and grief ( the scene when Mrs Travers father dies.) As well as the subtlety of shooting her childhood in sepia and the Disney film in technicolour.  We all know and love Mary Poppins, the family film but Saving Mr Banks adds so much more background information and layers to the main characters and storyline, and gives us an insight into the remarkable lady who wrote the book. Emma Thompson gives a fine performance  as P.L Travers and as a difficult, unlikable character, who we slowly come to understand.