FIL 3006 Revew: Burton's Batman Returns

          In this classic story of hero vs villain, Batman takes on a slimy business man and sewer thriving penguin man who plot to corrupt and take over Gotham City.  In Batman's quest to save the day, he meets his match in the form of an ex-secretary turned cat woman.  As Batman fights false allegations against him set by these slimy villains, he attempts to clear his name to the people of Gotham while uncovering the mystery behind his newest mutant of the city, Catwoman.
            Burton does a fantastic job in this film by creating Gotham City as a world of cheesy surface smiles and dark underground dwellings. The camera shots are professionally placed and exaggerated to create meaning with each of the different characters.  The costumes are extravagant and over exaggerated to give the film an artsy and flamboyant feel. Music and scenery are used to build anticipation, suspense, and sadness throughout the film.
            Out of all of the movies screened in this class, this was possibly my favorite. Having only seen it once as a kid, i was captivated by the feel and story of this film. Burton's dark visionary film making, paired with an all-star cast, and outrageous scenery and props, paint a perfect picture of dark and mysterious crime and a classic childhood hero story. 

FIL 3006 Review: Boyle's Trainspotting

            In this dramatic yet dark film on the touchy subject of heroine abuse, director Danny Boyle paints a picture of crime and drug use in depressing Edinburgh, Scotland. A group of young boys and men ban together over a common interest in the use and lifestyle affiliated with heroine and other drugs and the pains that come with youth and boredom.  Main character, Mark Renton (Ewan McGreggor) throws away the societal norms and chooses a life filled with adventure, thievery, and above all obtaining the high that comes with abusing a drug. 
            The scene and feel of the movie is what most attracts viewers to the film.  It is set in a depressing town in Scotland that rarely sees sunshine and greenery. The characters live in longing to break free of the town restraints and its view of a perfect and ideal lifestyle.  The camera angles, especially in the "detoxing" scenes are key in creating a feel of pain and agony as well as mental instability in order to force the audience to really feel what the characters are going through. 
            Boyle used camera movement as well as music and lighting to his advantage in this film to create the ideal setting of drug abuse and poverty.  The dark scenes of haunting dead babies, filthy toilets, and the lengths these characters go through to get a heroine high makes the audience really feel the depression of drug use and creates the perfect feel to this grunge film. Boyle explains throughout the film why these character would be inclined to choose "heroine over life" and tells a captivating story while doing so. 

FIL 3006 Review: Spielberg's Jaws

            In Spielberg's break through film Jaws, a small island town named Amity is plagued by fear of a great white shark that threatens the lively hood of the towns economic welfare and its citizens. A motley crew of three men including the towns newest police chief, a marine scientist, and a disgruntled town fisherman set out to tame the beast. 
            The combination of the characters of these three men, paired with the small town feel, and an aquatic setting provide for a perfect scene to tell a great story. The music really played a huge role in the feel of suspense and action in the film. Throughout the film suspense builds through the limited showing of the monster as well as the dramatic camera angles and musical scores.
            There were also many instances where the camera angle or movement added to the feel of the film. In one scene, when police chief Brody was sitting on the beach, the shark began to show itself in the water and the suspense grew dramatically. Spielberg used Hitchcock's "Vertigo Effect" to dolly out and zoom in to create action in the shot.  Spielberg did an exceptional job in demanding audience attention through suspense and humor, especially in a film that ran 124 minutes. This film will remain a timeless classic thanks to the great storyline, powerful production elements, and its ability to captivate and audience through suspense.

FIL 3006 Review: Hitchcock's Rear Window

       Alfred Hitchcock's film, Rear Window, stars James Stewart and Grace Kelly in a tale about an injured photographer ridden with boredom who watches his neighbors from his apartment window.  When he becomes convinced that one of his neighbors has committed murder, he takes it upon himself to crack the case.
       Upon studying "The Gaze" in class, it became apparent that this film was a model example of not only Laura Mulvey's idea of the feminine gaze seen in many Hitchcock films, but also intra-diegetic gaze as Stewart views his neighbors from a pair of binoculars and a camera lens. Like many other "Hitchcock actresses" Grace Kelly was put in the spotlight of the film while the caretaker, played by Thelma Ritter, was much more subservient as a womanly figure. 
       The movie overall was a psychological thriller filled with suspense and themes of fear and voyeurism. Overall, Hitchcock does a great job keeping the audience engaged and on the edge of their seats and the movie plays out to send a message that things arent always what they seem. 

character structure of scrubs

Character Bone Structure of Turk

Physiology

Sex: Male

Age: late 20s

Height: around 6 feet

Weight: near 200

Color of Hair: none

Color of eyes: brown

Skin: dark

Posture: straight

Appearance: always in green scrubs with not many noticeable qualities except for a bald head

Neat: yes

Health: good physical condition

Distinguishing marks: none

Sociology

Class: middle class

Occupation: surgeon

Education: finished school now works in hospital

Home life: marries nurse and has baby

Religion: unknown

Political affiliations: unknown

Amusements: basketball, work, home life, sports

Psychology

Sex life: active with nurse Carla

Ambition: father, surgeon, friend

Morality: no known strong beliefs

Frustrations: complications in love life and friendship relations

Temperament: gets angry quickly but is funny and quirky and always gets back to original state of melancholy

Attitude: optimistic and outgoing, positive mostly

Complexes: comes off cocky in his area of work yet follows rules very well and is respectful to authoritative figures

Superstitions:  must wear lucky surgery hat while performing surgery  

I.Q.: medically highly intelligent yet socially quirky

Necessity of a Character Arc

In most stories, the reader or audience is given an inside look into the main character or protagonist’s mind.  This means that the emotional or mental changes that the character undergoes are fully explained to the target audience and a clear character arc is shown.  Although, in some stories the audience is not given that insight into the characters mental psyche and the audience takes on the role of the second person point of view.  In these stories, a clear character arc is not shown, mostly because we are observing the character from the outside.

            I do not believe that a character arc is needed to make a compelling story come to life.  There are many cases where the main character already has preconceived ideas about life and does not undergo the mental, emotional, or even physical changes that many protagonists undergo.  Stories that are told on the subject of a criminal mind are the most likely to omit character arcs through the tale. The audience is viewing the actions of the character and in some cases the mental decisions but the character experienced no inner complications that lead him or her to make a big decision or change drastically.  In the movie The Lady Killers, Tom Hanks plays a character that, from the beginning, has a pre-conceived notion that a bank robbery would make him rich and famous.  Sure he experienced complications that set his mission back some but he never undergoes an arc of personal change or transformation that makes him reconsider his true identity.  Another example would be the movie Rampage, in which a mentally unstable young adult kills many of the members of his community out of spite and hate.  We are never given a clear explanation of why he performs this act and a clear point of transformation is never drawn for the character.  It is more the audience viewing the climax of the story and less getting to know the character during its personal transformation.

            It is true that most action or drama movies will give the audience a clear insight into the characters and allows them to follow the climax of the story through the protagonist point of view.  In these cases, it is very easy to see the clear character arc and it helps create the climax.  But the character arc is not a necessity to the action of all stories especially those that do not feature a first person point of view of the actions in the story. 

            The character arc is helpful in creating a good picture of how a person changes through the story and if the story is based on the effects of outside occurrences on the protagonist, such as a holding down a job and caring for a family in Erin Brockovich, then yes, a character arc is most defiantly needed. But to say that a strong change in character is needed to create any compelling story, is not necessarily true for all cases.   There are many good stories where we never even know the character that personally. 

Critique of the Hedgehog Story

While listening to the numerous oral stories that were presented over the last few weeks there were a few that stood out to me personally for being structurally complete and having that extra comedic factor that kept my attention. One of these stories was based on a hedgehog, told by James Wayne.  Wayne's comedic voice shone through the tragic events that unfolded as he lost a newly obtained family pet.

The way that the story was delivered held the audience’s attention through the entire three minute time period.  He was very theatrical in deliverance yet not over the top with dramatic pauses or gestures.  It was astatically pleasing to watch the deliverance as well as amusing to notice the sarcastic tone in which the story was told.

The tale started off with James as the main character telling about the numerous pets his family had accumulated over his lifetime. He did a good job of describing the setting of the story with vivid detail.  It was easy to visualize a home setting with numerous animals and chaos especially when he introduced his mother as the “artsy type”.

 Yet the introduction of the mother character and her longing for a hedgehog confused me just a bit as I could not clearly tell whom the main character of the story was anymore.  The story was being told from an omniscient third person point of view but with two main characters.  In my opinion it would have made a clearer plot line to just use one character, but I did like the depth that both characters brought to the story. 

As we approached the action of the tale suspense built as the hedgehog was taken to the vet to be treated.  The comic relief Wayne threw in there was much needed and a great way to lighted a sad situation at the time.  Also the way he delivered the part about his sister imagining that the hedgehog was wearing a tiny oxygen mask was very well done and had the audience laughing, but I felt that he stayed away from the comedy a little too quickly as he abruptly switched tones to end the story.

The ending did well in summarizing the story but I felt it was a little to inconclusive.  We were not given personal emotions of the characters and how they felt about the hedgehog passing away.  The story did a great job in building suspense but then sort of dropped off at the end with no ties back to the mother, setting, or even main character.   This may have been due to a shortage of time while telling the story, which is understandable.   If ever made into a short screenplay, I would love to see the emotional sides of the characters and maybe even how the death of the hedgehog affected the story as a whole or led to a higher meaning or teaching. 

Overall I felt the story was very well put together in balancing comedy and tragedy.  Maybe narrowing the choice of the main character and giving a little work to the ending would make it easier to develop as a short film.  But Wayne did a great job with keeping the audience attention and telling the story of a fallen family pet.

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