For our 1975 film, we created Incubus. This film begins with a family traveling through the woods in northern California and they get a flat tire. The family dog then proceeds to jump out of the car and wander into the woods, with the family following close behind. The dog leads them to a cult, which the family had been warned to stay away from because of the cult's crazy and satanical practices. With no where else to go for help, the family approaches the cult. The cult members are very nice to the family and offer them food and a place to sleep for the night. The family graciously accepts the offer and spends the night. This cult is an all male cult and the father and son in the family are treated well by the cult members. The women, however, not so much. The family spends more time in the cult then they were expecting and the women get ultimately raped and killed. The father and son get trapped in the cult and are forced to join.
We chose to do a horror movie for our 1975 film because horror was a very popular and successful genre during this time, for example The Exorcist. Movies during this decade were also known for "pushing the envelope," which we think this movie certainly does.
Our cast consists of Dustin Hoffman as a cult member, Clint Eastwood as the leader of the cult, Richard Dreyfuss as the Dad, Julie Christie as the Mom, Melissa Sue Anderson playing the 12 year old daughter, and Jason Bateman playing the 6 year old son. Dustin Hoffman was a prominent actor during this time and was known for playing the roles of anti-heroes and vulnerable characters. Clint Eastwood was a very famous actor at this time and played many serious roles (Dirty Harry films), and I think he would be perfect for the leader of the cult. Richard Dreyfuss and Julie Christie were two very successful and established actors/actresses during the 70's and had leading roles in movies such as American Graffiti, Jaws, and Don't Look Now. Jason Bateman began his career at a very young age playing an orphaned boy in the show "Little House on the Prairie," and he was 6 years old in 1975. Melissa Sue Anderson also starred in Little House on the Prairie at the age of 11 and was a child star. She was 13 years old in 1975.
For our studio we chose Laurel Group Inc. who produced several horror films including one of the most famous horror films of all time, Night of the Living Dead. We thought this studio with their horror film-making experience would be the best for us. It is also an independent and pretty low-budget film studio. For our distributing company we chose Bryanston Pictures due to their great horror film experience with movies such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the Devil's Rain.
I watched three Tarantino films for my formal film study: Django Unchained, Kill Bill I, and Pulp Fiction. Tarantino's movies are known for their intense action and violence, cinematic dialogue, unique themes and story lines, and neo-noir characteristics. All three of these films fit this bill. The brutal violence, big-name casting, and unique plots of all of these films made them very captivating and enjoyable to watch.
Django Unchained was the first movie I watched and I was very excited to see it. I had heard great things about this movie and it received pretty good reviews. This film is about a former slave named Django, who joins a white Doctor named Dr. King Schultz, and the two become hit-men, hunting brutal slave owners and wanted criminals. This movie takes place in the 1800's before the Civil War, in the South. Being an African-American in the South during this time period, Django did not receive much respect from others. Django and Dr. Schultz visit several plantations and hunt down wanted criminals, killing dozens. They later visit a man named Calvin Candle, and they stay on his plantation for a good part of the film. My favorite scene from the movie took place in Candle's "big house" towards the end of the film after Dr. Schultz is killed and Django proceeds to kill about twenty to thirty men who are attempting to kill him. The action, violence, and just overall excitement of this scene was unlike any other I had ever seen. Tarantino is not scared to show a lot of blood, and there was a ton in this scene. This movie was also full of harsh language, which is typical for Tarantino films and makes the movies seem more realistic. The casting in this movie I think was also very good and Jamie Foxx, Cristoph Waltz, and Leonardo DiCaprio all did a great job in creating riveting and unique characters. The camerawork and cinematography in this film was also incredible. There were a lot of quick camera movements in the action scenes, point of view camera angles, and long dialogue scenes. The music in Tarantino films is also very unique because the songs playing in the background usually do not correspond to the time period, for example there was a Tupac song in Django Unchained.
The second film I watched was Kill Bill I. This is saying a lot because of how violent the other two films were, but I think Kill Bill was the most violent of the three. This film is about "The Bride," a former assassin, who is shot at her wedding by her former boss Bill. The Bride was also pregnant at the time and she falls into a coma for five years. After waking up from her coma, without her baby, she is hungry for revenge. She sets out to find and ultimately "Kill Bill." She collects several deadly weapons along the way and fights a number of Bill's accomplices. At the end of the film, she finally tracks down Bill. This film was probably my least favorite of the three, but I still really enjoyed it. I found the story lines of the other two to be more interesting and I thought this one was just too much senseless violence, however it was still very entertaining and full of great action and fighting. A unique thing about the cinematography in this film is the use of black and white for parts of the movie. I have researched this online and many people said that black and white was used as a "homage to past films," but others have said that because the movie was so violent, black and white need to be used in order for it to earn an "R" rating and be able to be shown in theaters. The characteristics that were evident in Django Unchained continued in this film, intense action and violence, harsh language, unique plot, and incredible casting.
The third film and final film that I watched was Pulp Fiction. I keep going back and forth between this and Django about which one is my favorite, but I thought both were fantastic. Like Django Unchained, this movie is about two hit-men, however these are modern day hit-men. This film was yet again, very unique. The movie was broken down into three separate tales. The Bonnie situation is about Jules and Vincent attempting to get rid of a dead body that they accidentally shot in their own car, and they go to their friend Jimmie's house to get help with the situation. Another tale involves the two hit-mens boss' wife, who overdoses on Heroin and Vince has to perform a miraculous recovery to save her life. The third tale is about the Gold Watch. This is all about timing, and how different things would be if you waited another few seconds. This is on display here because Butch is obsessed with this "Gold Watch" and time. He enters his apartment in which he finds Vince in the bathroom. Had Butch entered the apartment a few seconds later he may have been killed, but because of his good timing, he was able to save his own life and kill Vince, due to the fact that he was in the bathroom. My favorite scene was the "Pumpkin and Honey Bunny scene" in which two pretty crazy criminals are attempting to murder a diner, but Jules and Vince decide to intervene. The hilarious and also intense dialogue that takes place in this film make it really entertaining. Jules and Vince are these violent hit-men, however they have some of the funniest and most ridiculous conversations. I really liked this film and the incredible action and violence was on display once again. I also thought John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson were really cool and perfect characters to the play the roles of Jules and Vince. The camerawork and cinematography was also very cool with fast camera cuts, long dialogue scenes, and also some comedy mixed in there as well.
These three films were all very different from each other, but also similar in a few ways. The violence, language, and action was consistent throughout the films. Each film was also somewhat dark and depressing at times with Mia overdosing on Heroin, The Bride waking up from her coma only to find out that she had been getting raped by her nurse, and the horrible whipping and violence of the slaves in Django Unchained. Each movie also had a few comical scenes however, more so in Django and Pulp Fiction than Kill Bill, but there were at least a few scenes in each movie that made you laugh or smile. The plots of each film were also like no movie I have ever seen, and Tarantino definitely does an incredible job creating a story that will keep you captivated and not knowing what is going to happen next. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YujYTVQ4_S0
I saw Dodgeball for the first time when it came out back in 2004 and it was one of my favorite movies. Due to the fact that I was nine years old when I first saw it, I didn't really understand some of the humor and jokes, yet I still found it to be hilarious. I noticed that Dodgeball was on TV the other day and I watched it. It was even better than I remembered. Almost every scene in this movie makes me laugh and I think this is the best i've ever seen from Ben Stiller. Stiller's character "White Goodman" is a selfish, cocky, and ridiculous character who gets even crazier as the movie goes on.
I think almost all teenagers and young adults have seen this movie because it was so popular when it was first released. The movie is about a man named Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn) who owns a gym called "Average Joe's." White Goodman, the owner of a rival gym wants to buy and takeover La Fleur's gym and the only way that Peter can save his gym is by raising a lot of money. To earn this money, Peter and a few of his friends assemble a dodgeball team and attempt to enter a national dodgeball tournament in Las Vegas. They receive coaching and help from "famous" dodgeball coach, Patches O'Houllihan. With Patches' help they are able to make it into the tournament and get to the final round. In the final round they are set to play against the Purple Cobras, White Goodman's team, but before the match, La Fleur sells Average Joe's Gym to White for $100,000. Later, however, the Average Joe's win the tournament and you learn that Peter bet on his team to win the match and he ends up winning five million dollars. Peter then uses this money to buy Goodman's gym and takeover the business, sending White into despair and ultimately obesity.
I really like this movie and even though its just a made-up and kind of stupid comedy movie I think it was very well done. I think the characters in this movie were the best part of the film because each character is so unique. Stiller's character, "White," is very cocky and selfish and he thinks that everything is about him and he pretty much thinks he is the best person to ever walk the Earth. He gives stupid and ridiculous comebacks that make no sense and overall he is just a crazy and hilarious character. Vince Vaughn's character, "Peter," is a very down to Earth, modest guy that runs a gym called "Average Joe's." He is pretty much the exact opposite of White and he beats White in the dodgeball tournament and ultimately takes over his business. All of the other characters were pretty ridiculous including "Steve" who thinks he is a pirate, "Fran" the female Russian dodgeball player, and many more.
My favorite scene in this movie is when dodgeball coach Patches O'Houllihan tells the Average Joe's team that "if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball," and he begins throwing wrenches at all of the players. I think this scene is one of the funniest in any movie I have ever seen. He then goes on to tell them that if you can dodge traffic, you can dodge a ball, and the middle-aged, overweight "Gordon" from the Average Joe's team runs into traffic, only to get hit by one car and then as he is telling the team he is okay he immediately gets hit by another. ]
I would give this movie a 9/10 and I recommend that anyone who has not seen this movie or has not seen it in a while should watch it. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard watching a movie and it is certainly one of my favorite comedies of all time.
I saw this movie a few weeks ago and I am a big fan of all of the Lord of the Rings films. I was very excited when I learned that they were making three hobbit films because I had seen the other three Lord of the Rings movies and I thought those would be the last Lord of the Rings films made, but I was wrong. I thought that this movie would not be as exciting or action packed as the others, but I was mistaken. This movie was full of action and although the movie is very long, the tome flew by because there was so much exciting action going on.
Lord of the Rings movies are known for having great special effects because of all of the created characters and structures. The effects in this movie were again very cool like the others and they make this made up world seem very realistic. The Orc's and other monsters are very intimidating due to the effects and make up work. The music in this movie is also great, another thing Lord of the Rings movies are known for.
This movie is about a young Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who goes on a journey with a group of Dwarfs and Gandalf. They are on a journey to reclaim the lost Dwarf kingdom of Erebor. They set off on their journey and Bilbo doesn't really fit in with the group because he does not have much experience with fighting, but he later saves the life of the groups leader Thorin, proving his importance and worthiness of being in the group. They fight several Orc's and giants on the journey and Bilbo has an encounter with Gollum. Bilbo takes Gollum's sacred Ring and takes it with him, not knowing of its special powers. This movie is the first of the Hobbit trilogy so the journey will continue in the next two movies.
My favorite scene was when the group was in a Orc cave and they had to escape. They were running through the cave leaping from bridge to bridge with a horde of Orcs chasing after them. This scene was a little unrealstic because they fell hundreds of feet to the ground off of a bridge and were fine after the fall, but other than that the scene was exciting and my favorite of the film.
I would give this movie a 7/10 because it was really well done and intriguing, but the beginning was kind of slow and because of how long it is I don't know if I could sit through the whole movie again. Overall though I would recommend it to anyone who liked the other Lord of the Rings films.
I watched Life of Pi a few weeks ago and I really enjoyed it. I didn't really know what to expect before watching it because I hadn't really heard much about it, but the storyline, cinematography, and special effects were all great. It also won a few Oscars this year. An adult Pi tells the story of his life to a man who wants to write a book about him, narrating the story.
This movie is about a family moving to Canada from India. The family had a lot of exotic animals because they owned a Zoo, and they brought all of their animals with them on the ship to Canada. A violent storm at sea caused the ship to sink and the main character, Pi, escaped on a life boat. After the storm settled, he realized there were other occupants on the life boat. There was a Zebra, Hyena, Orangutan, and Tiger all on the boat with him. Pi spends a lot of time on the boat and the animals and Pi try to coexist. The hyena kills both the zebra and the orangutan. The tiger then kills the hyena and Pi and the tiger live together on the boat for a long time. Pi keeps his distance from the Tiger and he even builds a small raft off the boat to stay away from it. As the movie goes on, Pi and the tiger get closer to one another and Pi feeds the tiger by catching fish. The tiger, "Mr. Parker", serves as an inspiration for Pi and keeps him motivated to go on.
You later learn that all of these animals are symbols for other people. I believe the orangutan symbolizes Pi's mother, the hyena is the "evil" chef from the ship, and the tiger represents Pi himself.
I really enjoyed this movie because the plot was exciting, the special effects were some of the most interesting I have ever seen, and the symbolism really made you think.
My favorite scene was the huge storm sinking the ship because the special effects were amazing and the scene was exhilarating. The boat was getting destroyed, there were animals floating everywhere, the camera focused on Pi struggling to stay out of the water to catch his breath.
The camerawork in this movie was incredible. The effects and cinematography really made this movie special. The effects were pretty unrealistic at some points, but they were still fascinating. There is one scene where Pi is laying down on his raft watching the stars and the camera is above him looking down, and all around him in the water you can see glowing fish under the water. This was a very cool scene and probably the most memorable to me.
I really liked this movie and I would recommend it to anyone. I watched it with my family and we all enjoyed it.
Far Away Love is a story about an American soldier fighting in World War I in France. He meets a French girl on a farm, and they fall in love. The soldier then has to return to battle, but the girl secretly follows him. She ends up in a dangerous situation in the middle of the war zone and he has to save her life.
This is a romance/war film and I think it would greatly interest the public in 1935 because romance was a very popular genre at the time. One message behind this movie is that "love has no boundaries." We went with this genre because or studio, MGM, made a lot of romance successful romance films. Most of the actors and actresses that we chose had been in MGM romance movies in the past as well.
We chose MGM Studios because this is a very large scale film and MGM has the money to fund and support everything that would be needed to make the film. MGM has also created several other romance films. MGM also has a number of good actors and actresses including Gretta Garbo, Clark Gable, and more.
For the cast we have Clark Gable, Gretta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, and Fred Astaire. Gable and Garbo are the lead actor and actress, with Gable playing the soldier and Garbo playing the French girl he falls in love with. Crawford, Montgomery, and Astaire will play the supporting roles, with Crawford and Montgomery as the parents of the French girl and Astaire as another soldier. These actors and actresses were very prominent during this time and were some of the best. William J. Tuttle will be our make-up artist which is very important for this film because the actors and actresses that we chose are all around the same age, so we need a good make-up artist to make them look older or younger based on their part in the film.
Due to the fact that this is a war film, the Hays Code will prevent us from showing explicit violence. To avoid this we will only show people firing guns, but we will never actually show people getting hit by bullets. We will also not show any sexual interaction between the soldier and the French girl. This film will be in black and white so we don't need a technicolor camera, but there will be sound so we need microphones, and we need lights.
If I was working alone I would have changed the plot of the story a little bit, but other than that I was satisfied with everything else that we did. The plot we created I thought was pretty good, I just would have added something else to create more of a controversy and then add a surprise ending, for example: the parents of the french girl are rich, but they do not like that their daughter is spending time with an American soldier because they think it is too dangerous and they do not particularly like Americans, but at the end of the movie the soldier gets shot and he needs money for an operation in order to save himself from dying, and the parents of the French girl realize how much their daughter loves this soldier and they pay for the operation and the soldier is saved.
For my Formal Film Study I watched three horror movies, Nosferatu (1922), The Exorcist (1973), and The Ring (2002). I wanted to view three movies from different time periods to see how the style, technology, cinematography, etc. of these horror movies changed over time. I believe that horror movies have become less and less about developing a good plot, and more on the "shock factor." Modern Horror films seem to focus more on making the audiences jump than on making audiences think about the movie and be frightened.
Nosferatu is about a man named Tomas Hutter, who goes Transylvania to visit Count Orlok to try and sell him a home in Bremen, Germany. After a few strange experiences in the Count's castle, Thomas learns that Orlok is a vampire and tries to hurry home to save his home city of Bremen from being attacked by the Count. This film was made in 1922 and is a silent, black and white film, yet even without sound they were able to create a creepy plot with eery scenes. The music added a creepiness to the movie and whenever the music sped up you knew something bad was about to happen. There was also one scene where the camera was aimed down a hallway behind Thomas, and you could see Count Orlok appear down the hallway and he slowly gets closer and closer to Thomas. There was also another scene where Count Orlok was slowly creeping up to a bedroom door to attack Thomas' girlfriend, and all you could see was his shadow, and his long, pointy fingers reaching for the door handle. Due to the early time period in which this movie was created, the technology and special effects were not near what they are today, but the eery music, camerawork and creepy appearance of the Count, combined with the overall plot of the movie made for a good horror movie.
The Exorcist has been considered one of the scariest movies of all time due to its frightening story and terrifying scenes. This movie is about a girl named Regan who seems to have become possessed by the devil. She continues to act weirder and weirder and her mother becomes very worried that something is seriously wrong with her. She is visited by several priests, doctors, psychiatrists, etc. and they have a difficult time figuring out exactly what is wrong. They later determine that an exorcism is necessary to save her. The combination of the horrifying plot with the alarming scenes in which Regan is either throwing up on the priests, or spinning her head completely around make this largely considered one of the scariest movies of all time. The technology and effects improved a lot between the time when this movie was made and the 1920's when Nosferatu was made and it helped make this movie even more frightening. The deep voice used when Regan is talking in her "possessed voice" and the effects used to make Regan levitate were chilling. There is one scene where you hear someone walking around upstairs and then the camera aims towards the staircase and Regan crawls down the stairs on her hands and feet while upside down. I thought this was one of the creepiest scenes in the movie.
The Ring, also considered one of the scariest movies of all time, focuses on a video tape that people watch, which then prompts a phone call that says, "you're going to die in seven days." The video is of a young girl who was killed by her mother and thrown into a well. This girl continues to haunt the world, and in one scene crawls out of a TV to attack a man who is watching the video. The story in this film is very grim and the main character, Rachel, tries to figure out what exactly the video tape is about and why people keep dying after watching it. Samara, the girl that was killed that is in the video tape, has a very gruesome and ominous appearance. The scene when she crawls out of the TV is definitely one of the best scenes I have seen in any horror film. The special effects were clearly much better in this movie compared to the other movies. The appearance of Samara was traumatic. The complete silence every time someone received a phone call also added to the suspense and the voice on the phone was harrowing.
http://www.ramcigar.com/entertainment/horror-movies-throughout-decades-have-constantly-reinvented-genre-1.2852148#.UTVp3KVho-0
http://www.mhsuproar.com/entertainment/2011/11/02/how-horror-has-changed/
These websites both state that many horror films today just go for the "make you jump of out of your seat." The Ring is one of the better modern horror films because it has a very creative and creepy idea behind it, and it stands out from the other new horror films. Other movies today like Paranormal Activity, just aim for the unexpected jump in front of the screen to scare audiences. Older films such as Nosferatu, Psycho, and the Exorcist developed creepy plots to scare their audiences because the technology was not good enough to make horror movies like they do today. Horror movies should be about thought provoking ideas and plots, not making you jump because of an unexpected loud noise or sudden flash on the screen.
For our 1975 film, we created Incubus. This film begins with a family traveling through the woods in northern California and they get a flat tire. The family dog then proceeds to jump out of the car and wander into the woods, with the family following close behind. The dog leads them to a cult, which the family had been warned to stay away from because of the cult's crazy and satanical practices. With no where else to go for help, the family approaches the cult. The cult members are very nice to the family and offer them food and a place to sleep for the night. The family graciously accepts the offer and spends the night. This cult is an all male cult and the father and son in the family are treated well by the cult members. The women, however, not so much. The family spends more time in the cult then they were expecting and the women get ultimately raped and killed. The father and son get trapped in the cult and are forced to join.