Avant-Garde Films

H2O made me rethink film as an art form. It makes me question what I consider to be film. Typically, when I go to the theater or watch a movie at home, I’m prepared to follow a storyline/ characters. As with all avant-garde films, H2O uses the visual and sound aspects of the art to exploit certain messages and moods. Watching this non-human subject of water tested my definition of what I consider film to be. I began to think about the short videos that are played on televisions to demonstrate the features of the T.V. or even the ones that play in the museums in the background. In the sense of avant-garde films, all these I listed are considered art according to the definition. After watching H2O and acknowledging that it is indeed abstract art, I realized that the art of film extends beyond that of just narrative movies that I’m most familiar with because we are left feeling and thinking about what the filmmakers were intending for us.

As a bit of a stretch, the short film I chose to reference as an example of a Youtube video becoming viral is Lil Wayne’s Green and Yellow. As a response to a popular hit song called “Black and Yellow” about the Pittsburgh Steelers, Lil Wayne chose to create his own song featuring the opposing Super Bowl team, the Greenbay Packers. Recorded in just one night, his crew of workers created a music video to accompany the song before releasing it to Youtube. The video is an example of found footage, because the video consists of clips of the Packers throughout the season. The images of the team put together with his song spiked morale for the team as well as the fans across America. To put this song out there, Lil Wayne put the video on Youtube, released the link via Twitter, and overnight it became a sensation. Through the internet, people were tagging the video, friends of friends were viewing it, and Lil Wayne was able to convey the message he wanted: Greenbay was in it to win it! In the sense of the definition of film, this video, however nontraditional and farfetched, is considered film. It uses sound and visual images to invoke a message and feeling for the viewers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOTcj-baCa4           (sorry for some language!!)

The Hurt Locker: Writing with Style

Silence. Black screen. Words to Chris Hedges dissolve in. slowly, we see all the words fade away except, “war is a drug,” as we hear Arabic speaking in the background. Suddenly, the scene cuts to a shot of the ground with a shadow of a robot. As the camera joggles as it crosses the dusty, rocky surface, the Arabic conversations become more urgent. Underneath even that sound, we hear the Muslim prayer calls. As the robot passes rubble and debris, the camera cuts to a shot of the robot from the side. We see Arabic civilians being led the opposite way of the robot, away from the commotion. For a glimpse, we learn the setting is in Baghdad, Iraq. Cut to an overhead shot of the Baghdad street. As the camera does a quick zoom to relocate the robot once again. Children and women running. Car horns beeping. Army tanks filing in and unloading a troop of men. Shot from the outside of the butcher shop. Camera unsteady as we see the butcher talking to a soldier. Cut again to the army truck as the soldiers jump out and assume positions. Back in the point of view of the robot, we go down the dusty, old railroad tracks as sheep scurry by. People pass by the robot as the view switches again to a bystander watching the robot again. Sirens blaring. Chaos all around. The robot spots a pile along the way, the source of the commotion. Over the shoulder shot of the man controlling the robot as it cuts to the robot assessing the situation. The men lead the robot to uncover the bomb and discuss their tactics as they continue to operate the robot. We see them operating through eyeline matches. The many uses of rapid editing display the dire situation these men are in and allow us to cut back and forth to the soldiers’ vision of the computer screen, the surrounding civilians, and the robot. All of these shots are from a number of places in reference to the subjects. To the front. To the side. To the back. On top. Down below;. The soldiers fight to keep the civilians away from the perimeter as we get a high angle shot of the scene. Quick cut to Thompson preparing the wagon. Sheep pass by the camera in front of the men. We watch the robot crash the wagon and through a medium long shot, we watch 2 soldiers discuss who needs to suit up. As we watch Thompson suiting up in the bomb suit though a long shot, we see him from an overhead shot as he walks toward the bomb. Camera cuts to the viewpoint of a soldier looking though his scope to maintain security in case the bomb goes off. The camera does a tilt of the soldier suited up from the bottom up and quickly cuts to this point of view from within the mask. We hear his concentrated breathing. As an unauthorized civilian walks up into a two shot, the camera zooms in and out as if it were an amateur cameraman who takes a video of this encounter. We watch from above as Thompson fixes the wagon and heads back to the rest of the troops. As Sanborn and Eldridge converse, the camera cuts back and forth between the two of them, indicating a dialogue. As the man with the phone is spotted, things become urgent and quick. Sanborn and Eldridge begin running and the camera relays this excitement by being shaky and unbalanced, almost as if the camera was another soldier running alongside the two. We cut back and forth quickly between the two protecting the border and Thompson as he runs away from the bomb as they all try to prevent something from happening. We get the viewpoint of the terrorist as well as he dials the code for the bomb and as he watches the soldiers run at him. As the bomb detonates, time seems to slow down as we watch everything blow up and rumble in slow motion. Taken as an outsider, we watch Thompson try to run away in this classic Hollywood scene.

Another scene in the movie that contrasts greatly with the first scene is when Sergeant James finally is home again and doing everyday things such as grocery shopping. He’s having a hard time integrating back into society after being away for so long. He walks aimlessly through the grocery store with any real purpose. After he sees all that his girlfriend has done in the time that he’s done absolutely nothing, he is ordered with the task of picking out cereal. We get a long shot of him down the cereal aisle as he tries to decide on a box. This shot develops the idea that although he is there physically, mentally he’s far away somewhere else. It seems silly being tasked the chore of picking out a cereal box after what he went through in Iraq. Somehow, it’s harder than most decisions he was faced with which became second nature. As he looks up and down the aisle, we pan with his head from right to left at his choices. He seems slightly agitated to be there in the store with everything calm and almost trivial to him. This is immensely obvious with the soft, annoying music. In contrast to the beginning scene, which had chaotic noises throughout much of it, this scene is calm and silly. Also, in the store, Bigelow does not edit the cuts as rapidly because of the flow of the scene. The tempo of this cereal aisle scene is slow compared to the chaos that was very evident in the intro. James is also alone is the cereal aisle scene, no one spying or waiting to attack. In Baghdad, the multiple rapid points of view indicate that the soldiers were always being watched and cameras were always around, capturing their every movement. This is evident through the techniques she used such as rapid editing, zoom, points of view shots, and more. Through all the editing techniques, The Hurt Locker is a successful cinematic experience.

Use of Setting in Shark in the Head

            There are many moments in Shark in the Head where the setting plays a prominent role. The director chooses to use the setting to express the condition of the protagonist (main character that is shaped by events in the movie) rather than develop a detailed narrative (a storyline that revolves around certain events). In the particular moment I found interesting, we are given insight into the main character. In the painting scene, Mr. Seman is seen painting many ducks and roosters. He is in his cluttered kitchen space, dimly lit. At first, the ducks seem to just be regular paintings on a paper, but they soon begin to come to life and take over his room. You see the whole room full of his paintings of roosters hung on the walls, all flapping their wings loudly and angrily. Although we, the audience, know that the poultry do not really come to life, we understand that we are given insight into what the main character imagines through a point of view shot (aligning the audience’s perspective with the visual perspective of the character). The setting of this scene is important because we are shown his living space as being a cluttered, disorganized mess. Because the entire movie takes place in his house, we know that Mr. Seman is a very lonely man. This also illustrates the point that his whole world revolves around his house and the small radius around it.

               In my opinion, I feel this movie is purely stylistic. The director chooses to use mise-en-scene to greatly influence the scenes. I feel that she completely disregarded a concrete plotline, the classical paradigm, and any of the other typical techniques. Instead, she used many “tricks” and details to elaborate about the characters and leaves us to decide and draw conclusions on the issues she was addressing. Because we are given no backstory (events that happen before the movie’s pick up point), we literally pick up from the beginning of the movie and use only what’s presented to us in the syuhzet (events displayed in the movie). This leaves the events of the movie left up for debate; not everyone necessarily sees the movie the same way. I feel the director wanted an open ended movie that dares people to question what is presented and calls for many individual opinions.

Bound By Haiti Reaction

              I honestly did not like the documentary, Bound By Haiti. To me, I felt like the two story lines never met to give us closure on the main message of the video. The effort and time put into creating the documentary are definitely acknowledged. However, I felt that developing one storyline would have been more successful. The beginning of the film started as a narrative about two young people making a wonderful impact in the lives of Haitian children. It follows them through their daily routine of deworming the children as well as giving the backstory on how on how the two grew up and later met. I was really interested in the difference they were making together and began to lose myself in the film. The film changed once the earthquake hit. The actual disaster happened so quickly in the film. After that occurred, the mood switched to urgent and a feeling of powerlessness swept over me. The second part of the film didn’t tie together well with the first part. I wish the filmmakers chose to portray more of the disaster rather than the continuation of the deworming process. After the quick segment following more of the deworming process ended, the film took a patriotic mood swing. This happened while shadowing the Haitian gentleman when he met with the children and raised their spirits. I understand how much time was already invested into the film before the disaster happened. Because they already had footage shot concerning the deworming, it makes sense that they would feel the need to continue the story and follow the characters more after the earthquake. However, I think it would have been wise to find a different approach to connecting the two pieces of the story together. Perhaps shoot some feedback of the Haitians in response to the deworming and how it affected their survival during those desperate times after the natural disaster. The overall story did not mesh well from beginning to end, and I feel it could have been better somehow. In my opinion, as a whole, the documentary was interesting and the filmmakers are extremely talented. I don’t think I will ever get another chance to watch an inside look at the horrible damage the earthquake had left Haiti in if I hadn’t seen Bound By Haiti.

Full Metal Jacket Film Review.

          

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/full_metal_jacket/

              This review is hardly useful at all. The one sentence that it consists of gives a brief synopsis of the plot. This is not a reliable source to rely on in giving a thorough account of the movie in question. I would not base my decision on whether or not to see this film based on this review. It did not make me feel compelled to see it, nor did it try to discourage me from watching it. This review does not comment on the visual aspect or the narrative plot design. However, in the comments below the review, several readers took the time to mention Kubrick’s directing style. For example, Felix Gonzalez Jr. writes, “...Seems to be directing his vision beyond the reality of the Vietnam War to issues far more universal and timeless.” Many of the other commenters write about the film’s dark humor, a key feature to this movie. I feel that Gonzalez and the other writers are “literate” in the sense of being able to visually read and analyze film because they understand the complexity of Kubrick’s style of directing, the effect of certain point of views, and other visual and auditory elements that were included in making Full Metal Jacket.