Week 5: Momento

This week's task is to analyse the first 30 minutes of the film "momento", starring guy pearce, in terms of character, setting and direction set-up.

The film is unorthodox in the sense that it plays backward. Now I know what your thinking... You do know the ending BUT you don't know how it all happened, which is what keeps the audience watching.

It begins with leonard (don't call him Lenny) killing a man. Ultimately, this is the end of the film, but each scene starts about 5 minutes before the begining of the previous scene, so the movie keeps revealing and reverting back, revealing and reverting back. Its confusing for about 7 minutes but then you get the hang of it.

Early on we learn that Lenord has a bizarre condition where he has no short term memory. We also find out that he tattoos himself with clues and facts about something. This "something" is later found out to be Leonards search to find and kill the man that raped and murdered his wife, who is also responsible for his condition.

Its quite a challenging movie to watch, however the plot eventually ties in at about the 20 minute mark and everything starts to make sense.

I definitely recomend it.

Week 4 Tute task

In order to get your head around screen writing our task this week was to download a script from www.script-o-rama.com and outline in detail the 3 basic elements of Act 1. The script I chose was "Enemy of the State". This was a movie I had seen before though I was interested to see how different the script was from the actual movie. Basically, within the first 30 pages (or 30mins) the movie sets up characters, setting, and the direction the movie is going. It begins with an "off the cuff" meeting between Hamersley, a member of the US senate, and Reynolds, a corrupt CIA officer. They are discussing a contraversial bill that Reynolds wants to get through congress and allow him to put camera's everywhere in order to fight terrorism. Hamersley is appauled by this and refuses. This pisses Reynolds off and he sets him up to be killed. The death is made to look like an accident and Reynolds has another obstical out of the way. However, Daniel Zavitz is a nature documentarer and gets the whole ordeal on film. He is inadvertantly thrown into the thick of things and realises what he has stumbled across. The CIA chase him and try to steal the footage back, but Zavitzevades them and runs into an old friend Robert Dean (Will Smith). Dean is an honest union lawyer. Family orientated, he is good at his job and when confronted by Zavitz, notices the fright in his eyes. Zavitz, overwhelmed by fear as the Agents pursue him, he secretly puts the films into Deans bags. Zavitz escape ends as he runs out of the department store and is destroyed by a bus. And so begins Deans pursuit on trying to find out why his life is being de-railed by the CIA and what the videos he found in his bag are all about...

Week Four: Into the Abyss......

This week we looked at the introduction to the dark art of screen writing. We covered pretty much everything you need to know to write a script, from character development to the "Sid Fields Screenplay Formula", which is basically the format of every successful screenplay ever. We also learnt that each page of your screenplay should equal 1 minute of film.
Here's a crash course: In Act 1 you should answer 3 basic questions.
1: Who is the film about?
2: Where is the film taking place? and
3: What is going to happen.
This should take up about 30mins of screentime. After this comes plot point 1. This is a hook in the action that spins it around and gives it direction. Now that the characters have purpose, they'll spend the rest of Act 2 doing it.
Act 2
Basically, act 2 should go for around 60 mins, and during this time you should be throwing absolutely everything you possibly can at your characters. Let them struggle as much as possible toward their goal. Then SMACK in the middle of act 2 should come the mid point plot. This mid point plot can sometimes be split up by "pinches".
Plot point 2 is at the end of Act 2 and is always the worst possible scenario. The characters are all like "YES, I'm actually going to do this!!!" and then wham, their smacked in the face with plot point 2.
Act 3
The Resolution! what more can I say? Though the actual resolution usually happens within the first 5mins of Act 3.

Week 3 tutorial task!

All story ideas come from a handful of structures:
1. Coming of age plot: The younger character matures to understand somethingabout the world he/she lives in, and his/her role in it. Some examples are :
"Thirteen" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0328538/ ,
"The Lion King" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110357/ ,
"Forest Gump" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/
2. Redemption: The character is saved, or saves someone else. Some movies that use the redemption structure are :
"Behind enemy Lines" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159273/ ,
"Big Daddy" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142342/ ,
"Monsters inc." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0198781/
3. Punitive: The character is punished for his/her wrong doings. Some movies where the characters are punished are :
"Emporers New Groove" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120917/,
"Liar Liar" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119528/,
"Chicago" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299658/
4. The Test: The character is tempted or challenged, but retains his/her values. For example:
"Lord of the Rings" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120737/
"Bruce Almighty" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266543/
"Waynes World" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105793/
5. Education: The character makes a deep change in his/her veiw of life, almost always from negative to positive. Some examples include :
"Spider Man" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145487/
"Jerry Maguire" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116695/
"Finding Nemo" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266543/

Week 2 Lecture

Ahoy hoy,
Week 2 lecture rolled around and we're into the 'learning' phase. Josh talked about the production process and although it was based on a larger scaled hollywood feature, it was nonetheless interesting. It was good for getting my head around some of the terminology I've always wondered about and learning all of the numerous jobs available on a set. The lecture for some reason got me thinking about scripts alot, and I'm glad Josh mentioned that it is important to have good acting (I used to be an actor and I'm the kind of person that needs to hear those things :) ). The feature we watched was awsome. It was called "Brick" and it had that dude from 3rd rock from the sun in it. I loved the wide shots that were used, yet it was still able to capture accurate detail with well timed close ups. We were discussing it in the tute with Salvidor who is the most chilled out guy ever, which made for a really relaxed and comfortable environment. We also talked about our fave films and what we want from this course. I'm excited about learning more and am looking forward to next weeks lecture.

Digital Video enthusiasm

Hey, Whats up. Its week 2 of the semester and I finally decided to set up my blog. So.... Here it is! The first lecture in week one got me totally psyched for the Dig Vid major because it sounds like its going in the exact direction that I want to head in. I'm really interested in documentaries but I got all excited with the thought of making a feature film. The music video subject next year sounds awsome too, I'll sleep with whoever I need to to get into that class. But yeah, this semester sounds like its going to be fun as. p.s. This is a random screen shot from my recent trip to NZ of my ugly mug... You know, just to give the whole blog thing a personality.