Final Project Presentation and Critical Review of the Project’s Aims January 19, 2012
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My final project will be a short film – adaptation of Roald Dahl’s short story “Lamb to the Slaughter”.
A summary of the story:
Mary Maloney is sitting in her warm and clean home, waiting for her husband (a chief policeman) to come from work. She is 6-month pregnant. She is happy, in love and there is a sense of calmness in everything she does.
He comes home on time, she fixes him a drink, but as they’re sitting in the living room he tells her he’s leaving her. In a state of shock she goes to prepare dinner. Reaching in the freezer in the basement she grabs the first thing her hand finds – a frozen lamb leg. On her way to the kitchen she sees him standing in the living room and suddenly, overwhelmed with feelings, she hits him on the back of the head with the lamb leg. The hit kills him instantly.
She decides not to surrender herself for the sake of her baby. She puts the lamb in the oven to bake and goes to the supermarket, pretending everything is normal and, smiling, gets some groceries because “she’s cooking him dinner tonight”. When she returns home she calls the police explaining someone must have gone in while she was away and murdered him.
The police arrives, they spend the day investigating and sometime later one of her husband’s ex colleagues reminds her she’s got something cooking in the oven. Mary says she can’t possibly eat now but as a sign of gratitude and hospitality offers the lamb to the police officers. They accept and as they’re having dinner they’re discussing how the murder weapon must be somewhere around, probably right under their noses. In the other room Mary Maloney starts to giggle.
I chose that particular story not only for the original plot, which intrigued me personally, but also because it has very little dialog and most of the narrative is developing through the thoughts of the leading character – Mary Maloney. This will challenge my directing and editing skills and will give me the opportunity to use my imagination and apply a broader range of filming/editing techniques in order to convey meaning and action.
As a CCM student, having studied Film and semiotics, I am familiar with different editing structures and ways of conveying meaning, i.e. Institutional Modes of Representation (for example a Hollywood-style production will use different connotations and structure from a Bollywood, a Chinese, a Korean, or any other type of regional production). Nevertheless, my personal and professional interests lie in Western high-budget TV series productions, which follow the Hollywood IMR. This is why I chose to film my short film, applying the Hollywood IMR’s semiotics and techniques of conveying meaning.
Although the story does involve murder, I do not intend to show it in brutal detail. My target audience I would define to be quite broad – above the age of 12, any gender, any social class.
In order for this to be a legitimate piece of work, my first step was to acquire the rights to the story. After some struggle and polite persistence on my part, Mark Casarotto (the solicitor for the Dahl family in charge of the filming rights of the author’s works) contacted the family on my behalf and came back with their blessing and a contract, granting me the filming rights for that story for the period of 9 months. The only conditions were that the finished product will not be shown in its entire form anywhere outside of university and that I sent them a copy.
My research showed me that the story has been officially adapted for screen twice over the years – once in 1958, as an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, where, as the title suggests, it was directed by Hitchcock himself; and the second time later in the early nineties – for the British TV series Tales of the Unexpected. Hitchcock is one of my biggest influences in terms of filming techniques in general, which led me to the decision not to see either of the adaptations – I don’t want to be directly influenced by their way of constructing the story. This will allow me to imagine and choose my shots and techniques on my own and thus make my work different from what is already out there.
For my future career I hope to work as a director/producer in television and more specifically – on TV series, music videos and/or commercials. My course has provided me with solid theoretical knowledge to support me in that career. This short film will boost my portfolio and enable me to put to practice that knowledge and demonstrate my technical skills as well.
Being not only the director, but also the producer of my project, other skills which will be challenged and used will be my organizational, time management and leadership skills.
When it comes to organizing my work I have followed a quote, found in Steven Dawkins and Ian Wynd’s book “Video Production: Putting Theory into Practice”(2010).
It is by Steve Cartwright : “As a general rule […]we often devote as much as 70% of our time to the pre-production process and 30% to post-production with the remaining 10% (if you work 110% like I do) devoted to the actual shooting. […]The percentages should tell you where the real work and success of the program lie.”(1996:4)
Here is how I have planned my work:
20 October – 09 March
Pre-production
For those dates I have also taken into consideration the fact that I will also be busy with other university work, such as group projects, lectures and essays.
The pre-production will include:
- Fixing the dates for every step.
- Finding a filming location – I have already established this to be a friend’s house, the street and a supermarket nearby
- Writing the script – Already written
- Making the storyboard – Production in process
- Arranging the filming crew – I have already contacted the crew, students from the Media Production course, who I have already worked with on a few other projects.
- Casting the lead actress and actor – scheduled for 11th and 12th February; will try to secure one of the ET theatre halls as a casting location, or alternatively will try to secure the cinema hall in the Hub.
- Securing extras– 3 policeman, 1 groceries store salesperson; many friends have already volunteered.
- Budgeting production expenses – my initial casting will try to find the two lead actors, who are willing to help me for free. (In exchange they will be allowed to use snippets of it for their show reels and put it in their CVs). Worst case scenario, if none of the applicants under these conditions are even remotely suited – I will offer to cover the journey fees and accommodation costs and conduct a second casting with the new conditions.
- Booking equipment from the Media Loan Shop –
- 2 JVC GY-HM700CHE cameras;
- 2 JVC GY-HM700CHE battery chargers;
- 2 JVC LCD Video monitors;
- 2 Manfrotto HDV 503 Video tripods;
- Manfrotto 114MV Dolly (plus tracks);
- 1 set ARRI 800 red head lights;
- lighting gells;
- boom mic
- boom poll;
- 3 small SENNHEISER (clothes) microphones
- SENNHEISER headphones
- 1 Ediroll
- Securing sound effects – Have already secured the BBC sounds archive
- Conducting a project risk assessment – already completed, back-up plans are in place
- Producing a shooting schedule
- Test shoot on location – in order to test the exact positioning of the cameras and lights; scheduled for 4th February in order to leave enough time for story-board corrections and worst case – to change location to the back-up one.
10 March – 14 March
Production
- Day 1,2,3 and 4– shooting indoor scenes
- Day 5 – shooting outdoor and supermarket scenes
15 March – 14 May
Post-production
- Logging the footage
- Capturing the clips, selected as useful at the logging stage
- Digital editing – assembly, rough cut and final cut
- Exporting
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Bibliography:
Cartwright, S. (1996) Pre-Production Planning for Video, Film and Multimedia. Oxford, Focal Press.
Dawkins, S. and Wynd, I. (2010) Video Production: Putting Theory into Practice. 1st ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
An established network May 5, 2011
Posted by Elena in 201MC - Professional Experience.add a comment
Through this experience and the festival I got to meet many new people and professionals, which might prove to be helpful connections in the future. Here are some of them:
1. Adam Torel – Owner of Third Window Films, which is one of CUEAFS’ main sponsors and one of the biggest distribution companies for East Asian cinema in UK. With his knowledge of this particular branch of cinema and his experience in this line of business, he could provide invaluable advice in the future, since I am now considering a career (event) management. Plus, who knows, maybe one day him and his company could be my clients. 
2. John Gore – Film programmer for The Warwick Arts Center. He is certainly a man who knows how to work with people and organize events, and his many years on this position have undoubtedly made him well-informed and well-connected. He can also provide invaluable help and advice.
3. Ian Conrich – A film academic and businessman, with an interest in Eastern European Cinema, who already offered me to work with him on a certain project, involving film ditribution.
4. Daniel Green – Editor of Cine-Vue, an award-winning film blog, for which members of CUEAFS have written for over a year now. He is (of course) well informed of all the downsides of starting your own business and what managing a website entails, so his advice could also prove invaluable in the future.
Curriculum Vitae May 5, 2011
Posted by Elena in 201MC - Professional Experience.Tags: cv, curriculum, vitae
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* Note: For privacy purposes, I have excluded some personal details.
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EDUCATION
2009-2011
Coventry University - Communications, Culture and Media BA (Hons)
2004 – 2009
7th Secondary School “Saint Sedmochislenici”, Bulgaria (college) - A-level equivalents in English language and in German language
1996 – 2003
7th Secondary school “Sveti Sedmochislenici” – Primary education
WORK EXPERIENCE
01.2011 – 02.2011
Third Window Films & CUEAFS – Coventry, UK
Official Administrator/Event Manager for the “2011 East Winds Film Festival” and “Asia Exposure” academic symposium
- Managing and coordinating the promotion of both events.
- Managing and coordinating Box Office shifts, sales and handling ticket revenues.
- Managing and coordinating fundraising activities.
- Working with the assigned budget.
- Securing and managing of the transportation of guests for both events.
- Contacting catering and publishers for collaboration and sponsorship.
- Managing both events on the spot and assisting guests.
10.2009 – 03.2011
Coventry University East Asian Film Society - Coventry, UK
Secretary; Head of Promotions
- Organizing and leading any promotional and non-promotional event, connected to the society; responsible for both promotions and fundraising.
- Transcribing during meetings, correspondence management.
08.2010
TV7 – Sofia, Bulgaria
Intern reporter
- Finding, writing, filming and editing material for the daily Morning show.
04.2010
Cine-Vue and CUEAFS
Reporter at the 2010 Udine Far East Film Festival
- Writing daily reviews for the screened films; transcribing during interviews with directors.
06.2010
Sonysphere – Sofia, Bulgaria
Press corner assistant
- Providing VIP and guests from the press with their tickets; managing the queues in front of the box offices.
04.2009 – 09.2009
Villis Inc. - Sofia, Bulgaria
Sales assistant and cashier
- Assisting customers; working with the cash register; taking care of the good looks and atmosphere of the store.
2006 – 2009
E-Lingua – Sofia, Bulgaria
Translator
- Verbal and written translation from Bulgarian to English and vice versa.
04.2008 – 09.2008
VAIA LTD. – Sofia, Bulgaria
PA to the Head of the company
- Human resources (staff selection); office management; leading the company’s correspondence with local and international associates.
2008
7 DAYS TV – Sofia, Bulgaria
Teen talk show host
- Finding, writing, filming of material for a teen talk show; hosting the show.
2007 – 2008
CINEMA CITY BULGARIA Inc. - Sofia, Bulgaria
Cashier
- Selling tickets and giving information to the customers about the screenings.
2006
MM TV - Sofia, Bulgaria
Music show host
- Hosting, directing and editing the show “Wanted”.
SKILLS
Excellent communication, teamwork and time management skills, acquired throughout my varied work experience, alongside with problem solving ability and commercial awareness. My experience as a student in an international university has taught me to adapt quickly to new situations and switch easily between languages. I am organized and creative, and work well under pressure. I am also very self-demanding and a perfectionist when it comes to my work.
10 years of professional dance training and performing have taught me good stage behavior and I have no problem with public speaking.
Languages:
- English – Excellent ( Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English)
- German – level: intermediate B1
- Bulgarian – native
- Italian – level: beginner
Computer skills: Microsoft Word, Excel, Power point, Internet explorer, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Ulead Studio, Avid, Adobe Premier, Adobe Audition, Sony Vegas, Audacity
First Aid Training: passed – once in Bulgaria and once in UK
Active driver: category B
REFERENCES
References available upon request
In possession of a valid passport, UK work permit and UK National Insurance Number.
The “East Winds” film festival and my professional experience on it April 13, 2011
Posted by Elena in 201MC - Professional Experience.Tags: administrator, asian, east, event, experience, festival, film, management, professional
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The following essay/presentation aims to reflect on the professional experience I had during my second semester of the current academic year.
Finding a professional experience was never an issue for me, because I am generally a pro-active person and by the time I learned I had to do one as part of my course – I was already involved in several projects. In my proposal a few months back I outlined 3 of them – a research assistant to one of Coventry University’s lecturers and his project European Dreamscapes; a co-manager of the third year CCM students’ international projects; an administrator of the East Winds film festival & symposium, organized by Third Window Films and the Coventry East Asian Film Society.
Due to unforeseen circumstances the first two positions were terminated, but this gave me the opportunity to focus my attention and energy on the third project – the festival administrator position, which turned out to be a goal-changing experience and introduced to me a new and exciting career path I hadn’t considered before.
The festival took place on the 11,12 and 13 February in the Warwick Arts Center, but the whole project took a good two or three months of preparation. During that time there were many small events and organizational tasks I had to fulfill, which were all part of the bigger experience and have enriched me in some way. Nevertheless, for the purposes of this essay/written presentation and the given word limit I will focus on the final month before the festival, which was the most intense, and the week after the festival ended, as it turned out to provide me with some invaluable life lessons.
I’ve been a central member of the East Asian Film Society from its’ very creation at the beginning of last year. Working with the society quickly made me realize that one of my strongest aspects are my organizational and problem-solving skills, and others must have seen that too, because by the end of the first year I was practically running the promotional aspect of things, and as of the beginning of the second year – I was officially made Head of promotions.
This may not sound like much to an external person, but for me it has been an educational path from the sort they don’t teach you in classrooms. I learned that indeed one of the hardest things to do is work with people and especially to motivate them to do work on a professional level without any material compensation. In short – it thought me social politics. So when Spencer Murphy asked me to become one of the 3 administrators of the festival and take large chunks of its organization in my own hands – I knew my skills were going to be challenged further.
A part of the festival was the Asian film symposium, which took place the first two days, but my responsibilities lay more with the actual film festival and more specifically – with the organization of its promotion. At first I had to come up with new ways of promoting and with schedules for the promotion shifts. The last was quite difficult to construct, since people don’t give up their free time that easily and we had promotions going for 4 to 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. To say that my social and persuasion skills were tested to the absolute maximum, would be a slight understatement and the entire time I had, threateningly hanging over my head, the realization of how important those promotions are. After all – what use is a film festival if there is no one to come and see it?
This required also a lot of organization of my personal time, since I was “on-duty” even when I was “off-duty” – i.e. I was in Facebook and on my email and phone, organizing people and shifts at 11PM practically every night, because circumstances changed almost by the hour.
A situation, which arose out of nowhere, was the matter with the transportation. We had promised all students a free transportation with minibuses from Ellen Terry to the Warwick Arts Center and back; we had promised the same to all delegates, but their minibuses would directly pick them up from the Coventry Techno Center, where the symposium was to take place.
Two weeks before the actual festival it turned out that in all the work-load, nobody had actually gone up to the Students Union to book minibuses and arrange drivers. I offered to take this on, but when I went to the SU it turned out that all minibuses, save for one, were already booked for those days. In the following two weeks to organizing the promotional shifts, and the box office shifts (because at that time we had already started selling tickets for the films) were added a desperate search for transportation vehicles and drivers and I had to take my organizational skills yet another level up. Looking back on it, I can honestly say I have never in my life been so pressured or busy. These are the moments when you also appreciate the people close to you, so this professional experience has actually made a difference to me in a personal sense as well, because without the support of my friends the stress would have surely beaten me down.
The situation got complicated additionally and I had to face a new level of pressure when one of the members of the society and a very close friend of mine passed away only 10 days before the start of the festival. I had to very quickly learn to separate my personal struggles from my professional duties and looking back on it now, I believe for the next couple of weeks I sank in a state of denial and was rather grateful for the loads of work to distract me. We decided to dedicate the festival to her and raise some donations for her family, so now I had to assign additional “fundraising” shifts, but luckily people were very willing to take up those.
And so the symposium+festival came. The pressure from the last month was slowly dying away, since the only thing I had to do now was ensure everything ran smoothly. I did still have to deal with the minibus rotations (since we only got the one, I had to come up with a schedule, which would allow it to pick up delegates from the Techno Center, drive them to the Warwick Arts Center and still have enough time to pick up the students from Ellen Terry and drive them as well), but at that point my head was already in the “chess” mode and was used to thinking organizationally and a few moves ahead.
To cut things short, the festival went extremely well; everyone – from the delegates, to the students, to the external organizers from the Warwick Arts Center and Third Window Films – were happy. I was so happy and proud and frankly – grateful for it all to be over.
But I had one more lesson to learn before I closed the chapter of my professional experience. A week after the end of the festival I was called on a short meeting between the administrators. After the initial short congratulations, I was personally pointed at and asked to answer why the whole minibus situation occurred and holding me responsible for what was called “a failure”. According to the main organizer the minibuses had been my responsibility from the very beginning, and apparently some kind of misunderstanding has happened and I hadn’t realized that. It was pointed out to me that on the last evening the fact that we had to call additional 4 taxis had cost 300 pounds out of the pocket of one of the administrators. Very few times in my life had I been so shocked and offended, especially since apparently I was the only one who realized how much time and effort and even money I had sacrificed for it all to even happen in the first place.
But then another thing was pointed out to me – even if we leave the misunderstanding aside, I had volunteered to take up the responsibility for this aspect and since in retrospection there had been a large problem with it – naturally, it was me who was to be held accountable.
This was a point I couldn’t argue with so I had to swallow my pride and draw some conclusions for myself:
- If you take up the responsibility for something – make sure you have enough time to execute it, because if there is any kind of a problem afterwards – you’ll be held responsible.
- Always confirm, confirm and confirm again, so as to avoid any sort of misunderstandings. NEVER assume.
In conclusion, this has been one of the most educational and invaluable experiences in my life. I am deeply grateful to Spencer Murphy and Adam Torel, who gave me the opportunity to participate in this and to all the students I worked with, for all the support and smiles and tears we shared together. Not only did I learn many life lessons, but I also got to push myself further than I had before and it’s made me realize how much I love to organize events and see people smile because of them. This has made me consider a new career path – in event management, and now that I have all that’s happened around this festival behind my back – I also have the confidence that I can do it.
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* NB!!! – By the time it was announced that we had to write a diary for 20 days for this module (201MC) the whole experience had ended. This is why as a confirmation I am choosing the other option – Spencer Murphy will be able to sign off/confirm full 20 days of my work.
The Host (2006) – Review April 7, 2011
Posted by Elena in Reviews.Tags: burch, carroll, cinema, film, fourth, host, IMR, institutional, korean, look, mode, monster, mulvey, noel, representation, the, willemen
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Although The Host promises a familiar plot, the film as a whole is full of moments, which are likely to take the Western audience by surprise. Although incorporating a lot of the Hollywood’s institutional mode of representation (Burch 1986), the Korean box-office hit has elements and connotations, which ring “local”, rather than “global”.
From the very first scenes one can sense an obvious dislike for Americans. All American characters throughout the film are acting cruelly and irrationally (borderline mad), without any justifiable reason. The criticism reaches its peak when the Korean authorities in the film decide to release against the creature a chemical with the name “Agent Yellow”, which many might recognize as a direct reference to the Vietnam war and the highly-toxic chemical “Agent Orange”, which the Americans use, completely disregarding the fact that besides killing the plants – it is also incredibly dangerous to humans.
In his mind, the Western viewer might still compare it with a Hollywood film and expect that since we witness such criticism towards a foreign nation, the Korean characters will be portrayed as downright heroes. What comes as yet another surprise is that that is simply not the case. In fact, the entire plot revolves around the adventures of a completely dysfunctional family of people with average and even below average skills, and instead of the dashing and beautiful multi-talented hero we are used to seeing as the lead character in an American production – here the lead character is partially mentally-challenged and not physically attractive at all.
But then again – none of the characters are. All of them are shown deliberately to be not perfect, not beautiful, not particularly smart or skillful. (In that sense, although the film uses obviously professional actors, one can draw a parallel to the style of Italian neo-realism.) But for all their clumsiness, for all their mistakes – the film doesn’t judge them. It simply portrays them and makes no excuses for it. To an extent it even champions the fact that despite their flaws they still have the bravery and courage to face the monster. Even in moments when they fail the camera looks at them quite favorably and shows their actions in an epic style and composition.
The rescue team
The characters convey to the audience another interesting notion in the film – a deep sense of mistrust in official authorities. Not only are all authority figures portrayed with ridicule: as clumsy, as completely useless, and most of the time – as cruel and disregarding. It is interesting to see how none of the characters seem particularly interested in contacting them and seeking their help in any way and the fact that the first instinct of action of the grandfather is always to bribe is quite suggestive.
Having discussed the audience, the characters and the camera looks (Mulvey 1975) we can now “have a look” at the fourth look (Willemen 1994) – the moments, when the audience suddenly gets the feeling that the characters on screen are aware of them. Indeed, we can find such a moment at the very beginning with the man, preparing himself to jump off a bridge and suddenly uttering words, which seem to directly address the audience, for the lack of anyone else there at that moment. More as a devise to invite the audience “in”, rather than push them “out” of the film’s world, the words “Did you see that guys?” tickle the audience’s curiosity and slightly nervous anticipation.
To sum up, one couldn’t instantly say what the film is about. It has two very distinct reading approaches, or tiers, as Noel Carroll calls them (Carroll 1998). One could say the story is depicting the relationships in a dysfunctional family, while, with the obvious mistrust in authority and with the scenes of friendship betrayal – uncovering a dysfunctional society. Or one could say that the film is simply telling the story of the kidnapping of a little girl and the adventures of her family, while trying to save her from the monster. In any case – a film definitely worth the time.
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Burch, N (1986). Praxis du cinema. 2nd ed. London: Gallimard.
Noel Carroll. (1998). The Future of Allusion: Hollywood in the Seventies (and Beyond). In: Rothman,W. and Andrew, D. Interpreting the Moving Image. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p240-264.
Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. In: Screen. Vol. 16 no.3
Willemen, P. (1994). The Fourth Look. In: Looks and Frictions. London: British Film Institute. p99-110.
The Bicycle Thieves (1948) – Review April 7, 2011
Posted by Elena in Reviews.Tags: Bazin, bicycle, cinema, De, elena, film, italian, neo-realism, rapondzhieva, Sica, the, thieves, Vittorio
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“My purpose… is to find the element of drama in daily situations, the marvelous in the news, indeed, in the local news, considered by most people as worn out materials.”, says Vittorio De Sica about his film The Bicycle Thieves (Marcus, 1986). And he has definitely succeeded.
In a post-war world, where his country has recently been defeated and is struggling to get back on its feet, De Sica turns to showing the every-day reality and creates a truly memorable piece of Italian neo-realist cinema. The film is quite high-budgeted ( it cost about 100 million lire) and De Sica had contemporary equipment at his disposal. Yet the people aren’t perfect and beautiful; the shots are done on location, rather than in studios; it uses non-professional actors – those are the methods of the Italian neo-realism, which, as an answer to the so-called “white-telephone movies” produced during the fascist regime (in which no crime or any sort of immorality was shown), instead confronted audiences with their own reality.
“The Italian films have an exceptionally documentary quality that could not be removed from the script, without thereby eliminating the whole social setting into which its roots are so deeply sunk.” (Bazin, 1971)
The tough life is shown from the very beginning, the drama escalates when the family has to sell the bed sheets in order to afford a bicycle for the husband’s new (and so desperately needed, as we see in the first scenes) job. But the true scale of the dramatic situation is shown in the later scene, after the husband has reported the theft of the bike, when a reporter asks whether there is any news and the policeman’s comment is “no, nothing, just a bicycle”.
Given the realistic representation of the social situation at that time and the seemingly ordinary, it-could-happen-to-anybody event, by this point of the film the contemporary audience easily identifies itself with the characters on the screen. The audience has already witnessed the scale of importance this bicycle has in the life of the lead characters, so the policeman’s words, although technically true, sound like an extremely cruel and unjust understatement.
While the film strives to represent social reality and chooses a somewhat mundane occurrence as its plot engine, the film incorporates other ideas as well. One could easily argue that the film is actually about the relationship between a father and a son. Or maybe the development of this relationship as a result of the personally-dramatic circumstances is part of the message the film carries about reality – not always happy, not always sad.
Another element of realism, incorporated in the film, is the ending. Throughout its development, the film has shown us a number of times (in the market scene with the numerous bicycles; with the explanations that there is more than one such market around the city etc.) that finding the bicycle is in fact highly unlikely. Rather than offering the audience an escapist resolution where by some rare strike of fortune the bike is found, De Sica (and his partner and scriptwriter Zavattini) choose to preserve the realistic quality of the production.
By and large, the Bicycle thieves is a film, which must be seen. More than 60 years after its creation, the film still manages to reach out and evoke a deep emotional response from the audience, and any film, which manages to do that, is most definitely worth the time.
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Bazin, A. (1971). An Aesthetic of Reality: Neorealism. In: Gray, H. What is Cinema: Vol.2. USA: University of California Press.
Marcus, M. (1986). De Sica’s Bicycle Thief: Casting Shadows on the Visionary City. In: Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism. Chichester: Princeton University Press. p55.
Citizen Kane (1941) – Review April 7, 2011
Posted by Elena in Reviews.Tags: carroll, cinema, citizen, deep, diegetic, elena, film, focus, hollywood, kane, noel, orson, rapondzhieva, time, transitions, wells
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Hardly anything can be written of Citizen Kane, which hasn’t already been written. Seems like anyone who’s-who in the film academic world has either discussed it or commented on what other people have written about it. And it’s not surprising either – a film so ahead of its time is bound to cause a stir.
Let’s have a look at the technical aspect of the production first. A true pioneering technique is the Deep Focus, which Orson chooses to use. In the famous scene where Kane’s wife is lying on her bed, having just taken an overdose of pills and Kane is trying to get through the locked door, we have the pills positioned at the very front (seemingly placing the significance on them), but the near background (of Susan-Alexander, lying in her bed) and the far background (of the locked door and eventually Kane bursting through it) are not blurred. This demonstrates a new (for that time) level of trust in the audience’s visual intelligence, allowing them to choose which part of the picture to take in first. It also manages to convey a sequence of events and visual accents in a single shot (rather than a series of edited shots, as films were doing at that time).
Kane and Susan-Alexander
Another important and skillfully done innovation are the transitions, showing the passing of diegetic time. A passage of some 20 years or so are shown in a second-long transition, which shows two separate cuts, connected by the saying of “Merry Christmas… and Happy New Year!”, each part by a different male voice. The continuity of the diegetic space is conveyed in the continuity of the expression, while the difference in diegetic time is conveyed through the difference of the male voice. Other such transitions in time are done by the usage of newspaper headlines, which convey in a single image+sentence the events happening over a certain time period, which is not shown in detail.
As we’ve seen Orson Wells’ production is highly technical and highly innovative, yet successful in those techniques. But this is not what makes it “the most brilliant film ever made”, as so many are willing to name it. It is the reading of the film – the famous “Enigma” and “Rosebud” interpretations. As Noel Carroll explains in his essay “Interpreting Citizen Kane”, the enigma interpretation says that the nature of a person is ultimately a mystery and a man can have many faces, while the rosebud interpretation claims that the key to a person’s character can be found in early childhood. (Carroll, 1998) In this essay Carroll describes the debates this film has sparked over the years. Some argue the Rosebud sled has no other purpose than to give the reporter an excuse to visit all these different people from Kane’s life. Others see the film as a deeply psychological and Freudian, in particular, by classifying Kane as a “regressive, anal-sadistic personality” as a result of an early separation from his family.
Whatever the opinion, hardly anyone can argue that Orson Wells has constructed his film in an extremely clever way. And this is where the true “film classic” quality of the Citizen Kane comes in. One can’t help but feel that the mere fact that people are still discussing the film so many years after its release is strangely starting to resemble the plot of the actual film itself, where Charles Foster Kane is a figure of large discussions not only in life but also in death.
In his essay “The Future of Allusion: Hollywood in the 70s and beyond”, Noel Carroll suggest the so-called “two-tier” approach: one is simple and gives the audience immediate satisfaction, and the other is more complicated – there to satisfy the more film-literate audience (or the critiques) (Carroll, 1998). What sparks so many discussions around Citizen Kane is that, although at first glance the two tiers in it seem to be the Rosebud (as the simple one) and the Enigma (as the more complicated one), Carroll argues that the film deliberately places the two interpretations as equally “simple” and thus puts them in competition to one another. The audience comprehends both of them and is made to choose. And since both are somewhat interconnected – the choice is extremely difficult, suggesting a new level of interpretation – a third tier. Perhaps it is in fact this third tier, which has made Citizen Kane the “Thirteenth night” of cinema – a true classic.
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Noel Carroll. (1998). Interpreting Citizen Kane. In: Rothman,W. and Andrew, D. Interpreting the Moving Image. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p153 -156.
Noel Carroll. (1998). The Future of Allusion: Hollywood in the Seventies (and Beyond). In: Rothman,W. and Andrew, D. Interpreting the Moving Image. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p240-264.
The Killer (1989) – Review April 7, 2011
Posted by Elena in Reviews.Tags: action, burch, Chow, danny, elena, fat, IMR, institutional, John, killer, korean, Lee, melodrama, mode, noel, rapondzhieva, representation, the, woo, yun
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One of the first things one notices when watching John Woo’s The Killer, is that it is filled with moments, which Western audience would classify as “over-the-top”. This being set, the “over-the-top” inclination seem to work entirely to the film’s advantage, giving a wonderfully foreign breath to otherwise quite universal film topics like the need for redemption and the cops-versus-bad-guys situation.
But the film reaches deeper and asks its audience to re-evaluate its ideas of “good” and “bad”, as the lead character is an assassin (Chow Yun-Fat), who happens to also be a genuinely nice and likeable guy. Moreover, the narrative is developing through his point of view, which invites us to sympathize with him.
As a whole, this is a highly psychological film. Depicting the friendship, which develops between two men on the opposite sides of the law barrier, the film acts to reinstate the old (but not out-dated) values like honor, justice and friendship. In fact, the relationship between “the killer” and the detective (Danny Lee) and the way it is shown might struck members of the Western audience as a bit odd, with critics of the film classifying it as “homoeroticism”. While the director himself has declined such intentions, it is interesting to think about why such readings of the film would arise in the first place.
Perhaps it is Hollywood’s Institutional Mode of Representation (IMR) (Burch, 1986) and Hollywood directors’ general refusal to show on screen men’s emotions. This is something John Woo is not afraid to. The camera lingers on their faces, we see tears and openly expressed inner suffering, which, as natural reactions as they are, simply do not have a place in Hollywood (and most Western) productions.
Chow Yun-Fat as "The Killer"
In fact, melodrama is a huge part of this film and the juxtaposing it with action is one of the most memorable features of The Killer, again compared to Hollywood productions, which are very reluctant to mixing the two genres. The action scenes truly deserves praise as the style and visual technique are unmatched at the time of the film’s making, and are both brutal but at the same time beautiful.
The skill of the director is evident also in the “peaceful” moments. For example, the outdoor scene where “the killer” and the detective are discovering their shared values and establishing their friendship, the camera breaks the 180° rule, and yet does it in such a manner that it doesn’t confuse the audience or disrupt the continuity. Rather it could be (subconsciously) interpreted as pointing out to the opposing, yet similar positions of the characters, or to use the old cliché – “two sides of one coin”.
Another element of the plot, which might strike anyone, over-familiarized with the Hollywood IMR, is that there is no sexual relationship of any kind between Chow Yun-Fat’s character and female lead character. The dependent position in relation to “the killer”, which the plot has put her in, is a recipe (and a very popular one) for this kind of relationship, but the only intimacy between the two is on an emotional and psychological level, rather than physical.
In conclusion: A contemporary viewer might like the film, on account of the different portrayals of the characters, compared to most Western productions. But he/she might also fail to appreciate it, as it is 20 years old and most of its techniques, which were seen as innovative at that time, have now been assimilated and incorporated by Hollywood (as it usually happens).
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Burch, N (1986). Praxis du cinema. 2nd ed. London: Gallimard.
Soundtracks and composers, which really WORK September 12, 2010
Posted by Elena in Other Articles.Tags: 28, a, aeterna, al, alone, am, apocalipto, artificial, at, avatar, babylon, bad, brando, can, casper, catch, clint, code, conquest, davinci, days, dollar, dollars, dougan, dracula, dream, e.t., eastwick, ecstasy, enemy, ennio, enya, few, film, fistful, for, gates, geisha, godfather, gold, good, harry, home, horner, i, if, in, intlligence, james, jaws, John, jumanji, jurassic, karate, kid, later, legend, leonne, list, lord, lost, lux, mansel, marlon, mask, matrix, me, memoirs, metallica, minority, more, morricone, movie, murphy, music, nino, of, of the, once, OST, pacino, paradise, park, perfect, potter, private, report, requiem, rings, rob, rotha, ryan, saving, schindler, sergio, seven, soundtrack, spagetti, star, storm, sunshine, superman, the, tibet, time, trilogy, troy, ugly, upon, vangelis, war, wars, west, western, Williams, witches, worlds, years, you, zathura, zoro
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There is no denying that a bad soundtrack can turn a promising film into an annoying disaster, just like a good one can translate an average film into billions of dollars (as is the case with “Mamma Mia”). No wonder then that a huge percent of all major productions’ budget goes to hiring composers , orchestras, studios and so on, all to make sure that their film does not follow the first path. And of course, a good OST is a serious cash-bringer in itself, if offered as an album or on iTunes.
So how does it work? Is it the film that makes the soundtrack legendary, or is it the other way around? I can’t say, but here’s what is true: not everybody has seen “Requiem of a Dream”, but hardly anyone will have trouble recognizing the following music:
The name of this piece is Lux Aeterna, by English composer Clint Mansell. After “Requiem of a Dream” it has been used in commercials and has become one of the industry’s favourite melodies to use in trailers (“The Da Vinci Code”, “Sunshine”, “Lost”, “I Am Legend”, “Babylon A.D.”, and” Zathura”. A version of it was also used for the trailer of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers).
Here’s another classic:
The man behind this piece is John Williams. He is one of Hollywood’s biggest composers, responsible for the soundtracks/theme songs of most of their biggest productions. Just check out the list. And those are only the most famous titles!
“Jaws”
“Jaws 2”
“Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace”
”Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones”
“Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith”
“Star Wars IV: A New Hope”
“Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back”
“Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi”
“Superman” (1978)
“Dracula”
“E.T.”
“The Witches of Eastwick”
“Home Alone”
“Home Alone 2”
“Hook”
“Jurassic Park”
“Schindler’s List”
“Seven Years in Tibet”
“Saving Private Ryan”
“A.I.:Artificial Intelligence”
“Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”
“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”
“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”
“Catch me if you can”
“Minority Report”
“War of the Worlds”
“Memoirs of a Geisha”
Yes. Yes that was also his doing.
Moving on, here’s another unmistakable tune:
James Horner is to blame. Another big name from the realm of Hollywood’s favourite composers, whose other works include “Jumanji”, “Casper”, “The Mask of Zoro”, “The Perfect Storm”, “Enemy at the Gates”, “Troy”, “Apocalipto” and the most recent ones “Avatar” and “The Karate Kid”.
He is also the composer of my personal all-time-favourite theme song. I have seen the film only twice, many years apart and many years ago. But I can honestly say that until this moment, the second I hear the first tones of this music, my hearts starts beating faster and I get butterflies in my stomach! Here it goes again:
Next on my list (which is not composed in order of importance) is the titan Ennio Morricone. If you’ve never heard of him, grab the “noob” hat and go sit in the corner. OK, OK, come back, and I’ll explain what you’ve been missing. To quote Wikipedia, “He is considered one of the most prolific and influential film composers of his era.”. (I never quote Wikipedia, but this time I just couldn’t say it better myself).
I couldn’t post a list of the productions he’s worked on even if I wanted to, as there are more than 500 of them. Among his most famous works are those with director Sergio Leonne and his so-called Spagetti Westerns – A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
Here’s the theme song of “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”, called “The Ecstasy of Gold”. It has become a symbol of an entire era in popular film history (that of the “Spagetti Western”). In fact, Metallica have done their rendition of it and have developed a tradition to start their concerts with it (and trust me, the crowd goes MENTAL).
Moving on with the list, we find another Italian composer – Nino Rotha. Worldwide, he is most famous for his soundtracks of “The Godfather” trilogy. Here’s what plays in the background, while Marlon Brando and Al Pacino make us “an offer we can’t refuse”. 
Now here’s a score which makes me shiver! You might not have seen the film “1492: The Conquest of Paradise”, as it didn’t do that well in the box office back in 1992, but it’s music became a worldwide hit. It is the baby of Greek composer Vangelis, regarded by critics as one of the greatest composers of electronic music of all time.
Next comes one score I simply can’t miss. UK television has made sure of that, featuring it as a soundtrack of Big Brother and numerous commercials through the years. Here’s Rob Dougan’s “Clubbed to Death” or “The Matrix” theme song.
Finally, I’m going to post a piece, which has in the latest years become so used in film trailers, that is has become a cliché to an extent. But I’d still rather regard it as a classic. English composer John Murphy is responsible for it and you have to admit – when it comes to raising tension, that music does it spot on! Originally, it’s the main theme of the film “28 Days Later”. (To give you a little visual, this plays in the background at the opening of the film where at a point a guy is running in an empty field, being chased by zombies and with nowhere to go. Enjoy! )
Oh, and just to make one last point before I finish this way-too-long-anyway post. “The Lord of the Rings” is one of the biggest cinema hits of all time. Did you know the theme song for the first film is called “May it be”? Can you remember the melody? Did you know Enya is the artist behind it?
Didn’t think so.
Drawings September 4, 2010
Posted by Elena in Other Articles.Tags: autumn, cabaret, dancer, drawing, dress, figure, hobby, picture, september
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To state the obvious, summer is over. Bye-bye flip-flops and sandals, farewell tops and short skirts. You’ll be dearly missed, as you are replaced with jeans, long-sleeves and 5 more layers of clothes. Urgh!
This is the first Saturday in three months that I’m spending at home. Not that I’m discouraged by the grey sky or the drumming of rain on the window, but it appears I’m the only one who’s not.
So I decided to share one more piece of my life with you – my drawing.
I’ve never been particularly good at drawing from imagination. I simply can’t picture the details. But some 5 or 6 years ago I discovered that drawing something, which I can see – now, that’s a different story. I was never into it enough to get serious and start drawing classes, but I enjoy sinking into it from time to time.
I’ve never uploaded my work on the internet until now, because I like redrawing other people’s drawings. Despite the fact I always make changes to things I don’t like in the originals, I’m still not sure about the ethical aspect of uploading them. It’s still my work, but at the same time, to an extend, it isn’t.
So now that I have said that, at least my conscience is clear and I can also say: here are 3 of my favourite and I hope you like them.
"Tough Night at the Cabaret" by *kmye-chan
As you might notice, I’m quite a fan of the whole cabaret atmosphere. In a perfect world I’d be a Moulin Rouge dancer. ^_^ I drew this in 2007 and it’s a bit old, but it’s still one of my favourites.
This is the drawing that first made me notice the wonderful and talented *kmye-chan. That’s her nickname on www.deviantart.com. I love her style, the sharp edges of her figures, the surrealist world she often puts them in and last but not least, the beautiful dresses, she chooses for them. If you have time – check out her profile, it’s quite amazing! http://kmye-chan.deviantart.com/
"Love is a Twisted Cabaret" by *kmye-chan
Yes, another cabaret. One of the first colour drawings I made. Also an oldie, this time from 2008.
"Cabaret" by *TinAngel
This is my last night’s work. For some reason I get creative after 10 PM.
The original can also be found on www.deviantart.com , courtesy to another wonderful artist – *TinAngel.
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Well, that’s all I’m posting for now. The main reason is I often don’t finish my drawings and you’ll basically get: half the alien, half the predator, Alice, staring at a blank sheet instead of in a rabbit hole and so on.
Thanks for reading and commenting
Have a dry and sunny September everyone!
