Testament of Youth: cinema trip

Today, Miss Foster and the English department took us to a screening of James Kent's 'Testament of Youth'. It is the film adaptation of Vera Brittain's memoir detailing her war experience and losses during the first world war, as originally published in 1933. Here is the trailer:



The lead role was played by the wonderful Alicia Vikander, a flourishing Swedish actress with 8 upcoming films this year which I am thoroughly looking forward to.

The film was useful not only as an English Literature student, studying the literature of World War 1, but also as a Media Studies student. Me and Tayla were pinching each other throughout because of how beautifully it was shot!

We really liked the use of selective focus, especially in close ups of single characters as we thought it really emphasized the emotion and individual suffering of each character; this also made us consider the subject of war as a whole and that the idea that each member of an entire generation was impacted in some way or another.






We also liked the use of match cutting in the film - one in particular which stood out to us was the scene where Vera's tears fell, which followed into the raindrops in the trenches where her loved ones were, as it was particularly poignant.






 Here is a critical response to the film:

Testament of Youth: critics review

Although the critic argues that 'there seems no real thunderstorm', after watching the film through wet eyes, I disagree as the film did little to romanticize the war and still made the audience emotional - perhaps it was more appropriate to leave out the horrors on the Front line as it was central to Vera Brittain who did not fight in the trenches.

Here are some of the scenes which stuck out to us, in exposing the brutality of war:



Overall, Testament of Youth was a brilliant film which I'd definitely recommend.
Although it does not fall under the same genre as our two minute opening, we took inspiration from how it was shot especially in terms of framing, composition and sound which made each scene all the more effective.

Breaking Bad: match cut example

Mac 5 really likes the idea of using match cutting to create a smoother transition between our scenes, because it creates only a slight confusion when the setting changes. We think that this reflects our main characters behaviour at work, and supports the idea of our patient not being aware of her doctor's state, as we do not want to give too much away in the opening.

'Trouble concentrating/ confusion' was one of the side effects of valium that we highlighted for our character to exhibit. We think the match cut is a nice way of subtly underlining the idea that our main character's mind is constantly elsewhere.

Black Swan: editing and sound inspiration

Mac 5 have now almost finished filming (we hope) and we are about to begin editing! We have been researching movies with effective editing techniques. Black Swan (2010) is a perfect example of a psychological thriller in which shots have been manipulated to create a strange atmosphere. Here are a few I could find which are really effective in emphasizing the disturbance of the character:



I really like the fast-paced turn of the camera from 0:05-0:07 as it reflects the characters twisted thoughts, and I also really love Winona Ryder.



This is one of my favourite scenes because it is quite shocking for the viewer, and the use of the mirror to show more than one of Nina represents her multiple personalities. We really like the idea of creating layers showing more than one figure of our character to create a similar effect. We have already tried a similar technique out and we love the way it looks! It can be found under the 'editing practice' label on my blog.



The turning of the camera, and unsteady shot in this scene is really effective. We have filmed a shot in which the camera orbits around our actress and we would like to manipulate it in order to change settings - this clip helps us visualize how this would could be achieved.

This is a really inspirational movie in terms of editing, but also it terms of sound. Throughout the movie, we can frequently hear Nina's breathing over all the other sounds in the background. This is something we could think about when it comes to sound in our own opening.

Here is the full official trailer:

Donnie Darko: shot and sound inspiration

Donnie Darko (2001) is one of the weirdest, yet most captivating movies I've ever seen. Here is the rather bizarre opening, it is sort of split into two parts - a bit like on our storyboard:

This close up of Donnie's pupils dilating is one of my favourites because it is super trippy, and Mac 5 really like the emphasis on eyes - when we were searching for our actress, one of the main deciding factors was the colour of her eyes and our actress, Hannah C, has fantastic blue eyes which fit the role perfectly!




Donnie is also seeing a therapist, who prescribes him pills (that end up being placebo's). Donnie's behaviour is strange nonetheless, and the possibility of him having a mental illness isn't lost in the many alternative explanations of the movie.





Here are a few more cool stills which I could find:

This scene, in which the mirror ripples, is pretty peculiar (though important when explaining the film). It is also very inspiring in terms of sound - Frank sounds almost like a microwave, and the low bass drone in the background makes the viewer feel as if they are inside a television which is really effective in emphasizing the idea of Frank influencing the thoughts inside Donnie's head.



Though our character doesn't cross over and enter a tangent universe, she does have controlling thoughts which we would like to emphasize in our opening, and we would like Frank's tone and the mood these sounds create to have a similar effect in our opening.

Here are two more scenes which I really like:


 

Girl, Interrupted: character and editing examples

Girl, Interrupted (1999) is possibly my favourite movie ever, and it heavily relates to our two minute opening. I wont dissect it too much, but I think that the editing techniques used throughout the film are particularly effective.

It entails the account of Susanna Kaysen's stay at a mental hospital for 18 months. Susanna, played by the incredible Winona Ryder, is 18 when she is admitted to Claymoore and she is diagnosed with BPD.

Here is one of the sessions she has with her psychiatrist:



I really like how the scenes blend into one another through a match cut - it would be really interesting to try this out when we are editing to make our change of setting more visually exciting.

The character which probably relates to ours the most (due to her drug misuse) is Daisy, played by Brittany Murphy, who was one of my favourite actresses.


One of the best known lines in the movie is said by Daisy, here it is:

Here is the full scene - our character's behaviour is similar to Daisy's:

Spellbound: plot, shot and editing inspiration

Hitchcock's 'Spellbound' (1945) is a classic psychological thriller, which also falls under the genre 'film noir'.

This film is perfect for Mac 5, as it involves the idea of a psychotic psychiatrist (who is actually an amnesiac, but we can still take inspiration) and includes many scenes which are shot in the environment of a psychiatrist at work.

It was beautifully shot and edited - this is one of my favourite shots from the movie from an interesting perspective. The scene ends with the milk rising up towards the camera and the screen then flashing to white, flowing smoothly into the next scene.

This is similar to a shot we tried to achieve when we filmed, which is a POV shot through a pair of glasses. It is also really useful now that we are editing, as we want our scenes to flow smoothly into one another, but also remain interesting for the viewer.




This very climactic scene comes closer to the end - we have filmed a few POV shots as we hope to create a similar atmosphere of rising tension and a strange intimacy between the character on screen and the audience.




Perhaps one of the most memorable scenes in the movie, is the dream sequence, experienced by John Valentine. The thrilling sequence was designed by none other than Salvador Dali and the strong sense of surrealism not only increases the mystery in the plot, but also plays on the curiosity of the characters. Here it is: