Animal Crackers In My Soup

By: Stephanie Kubick

We all know the name ‘Shirley Temple.’ The first image that comes to mind is Shirley Temple standing on a chair at the end of the orphanage table singing “Animal Crackers in my Soup.” She was a spirited young girl who had the sweetest, most likable disposition and the curliest bouncy hair you’ll ever come in contact with. She was nicknamed Curley Top by one of the orphanage’s trustees, Edward Morgan when he visited the orphanage one day. He the takes a liking to her and decides to adopt her. Curley Top has an older sister, Mary,  who works at the orphanage as a maid and cook, though, and doesn’t want to leave her. So Mary ends up going with Shirley Temple and coincidently falls in love with the trustee. Long story short, they get married and all live happily ever after.

This is a perfect example of how television/film has evolved since its beginning. Curley Top is a perfectly clean, innocent, and cute story about love, friendship, and family. There are no curse words and no sexual activity, yet it is still a classic film full of twists and turns. Where has the movie industry brought us? Has the movie industry carried our culture into a norm of immorality and immodesty? Why has it become socially acceptable to exhibit immoral content for the whole world to see? Though the film industry has created many good, entertaining, and fun experiences, has it been worth all of the negatives effects it has brought along with it?

Cultures and Film

Most of what people know about other cultures comes from films. We love to watch movies and many of the things we know about other cultures is because we have watched a movie and seen what different cultures do, what they eat, how they dress, and a lot of them focus on they way they live and the places they visit. This is one of the reasons why films are an universal theme. Even if we cannot understand what the actors are saying we can still watch a movie and figure out what may be happening. Through film we learn to view and accept how different cultures are. Sometimes people by themselves don not get interested of the ways other cultures live, movies sometimes unexpectedly capture the attention of film watchers. It is very surprising to see how different American, Latin American, European, Asian, and African films have become global bestsellers and how far they have gotten and that many people have watched. For example, we have learned about France and the Eiffel Tower through love movies, for some reason we connect love with the city of Paris. We have learned about karate and food in Asia through Asian movies, about the ways people in the continent of Africa live through documentaries and different stories made from there. We have all watched war movies that come from different parts of the world like Europe and Latin America and we have an idea of different things people in those countries have lived through. Film is a very valuable technology that we have in our hands and that without maybe realizing it teaches us a lot about the world.

Sounds Of Silence: The Importance of Silent Film

By Cheyenne Naeb 2/26/2016

Although many contemporary writers and filmmakers have crafted dialogue that is quotable for ages (Quentin Tarantino & company), many modern critics and audiences have forgotten the importance of non-verbal communication in motion pictures. Here are several films and filmmakers who have pioneered visual storytelling, that anyone who appreciates cinema should view.

Nosferatu- Directed by F.W. Murnau, Nosferatu was created as an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and follows an extremely similar plot of a man tasked to sell a plot of land to a mysterious count living in the European countryside. The film helped pioneer visual storytelling techniques in horror films, particularly through its use of light and shadow, and the idea of a mysterious and monstrous villain.

Battleship Potemkin- A tremendous influence on Stanley Kubrick, the Battleship Potemkin helped changed cinema by implementing new cinematography techniques, particularly the extreme close up. Originally conceived as a communist propaganda film by its director, Sergei Eisenstein, the film tell the story of Russian navy soldiers rebelling against their oppressive rulers. One sequence commonly referred to as the “Odessa Step” sequence, is considered one of the greatest scenes in cinematic history due to its use of the previously mentioned cinematography techniques as well as its intense violence, such as people being shot and trampled, and an infamous shot of a baby carriage rolling down the a large stairway.

Haxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages- Another well-known horror classic (if slightly more obscure than Nosferatu), is sort of a pseudo-documentary regarding medieval worldview of the supernatural. The film was very controversial due to its disturbing and blasphemous content depicting nudity and murder in way before there was such a thing as an R rating. However, many forget that the director’s point of the film was to dispel these medieval beliefs by showing how irrational they were. It did not help that the director, Benjamin Christensen, played the devil in the movie.

Metropolis- Arguably the first “science fiction” film of the 20th century, Metropolis helped establish countless motifs that would later become the groundwork of the genre. The plot centers around the son of a wealthy businessman in a futuristic city becoming infatuated with a woman who is the religious leader of a group of unhealthy workers. While critical reception was initially mixed, with many criticizing the plot for being overly simplistic the films themes of class struggle, artificial intelligence/robotics, and identity in the modern world have become prevalent in the science fiction from the 1950’s to present day. This along with the aesthetics of the futuristic world have made this an important film in history.

Next week, we’ll be discussing the works of Wes Anderson.

 

Side-Careers of Film Stars

“How long is famous for?”, G-Easy asks himself in bestselling album These Things Happen.  As any one hit wonder or short lived film star can tell you, “famous” doesn’t last long. In fact, for most stars, fame fades in less than a year.

Career success in film seems to follow somewhat of a flavor of the month trend, with a star making it big with one role and fading back into the abyss of side-talent in the next. Although stars like Jennifer Aniston and Tom Cruise have consistently found work throughout their careers, many others struggle to maintain their success following small breaks. For many actors, the years after fame seem to mark the decline of their careers. The term “washed up celebrity” politely sums up what generally follows this period, but some stars are able to turn this lull into productivity and profit. For former stars Jessica Alba and Ashton Kutcher, entrepreneurship was the answer. For Ashton Kuthcer, after realizing his paycheck had gone from millions to thousands, he decided to go out on his own and founded Sound Ventures LLC. Now in it’s 4th profitable year, Sound Ventures provides Ashton with enough income that he’s considering giving up acting permanently. More recently, Jessica Alba followed suite when she quit her production agency to pursue the business world. Using her entrepreneurial savvy and networking skills, Jessica managed to transition from acting to working as CEO of Honest Company Inc, an ethical household products company. While Ashton and Jessica certainly are exceptions in their career changes, the transition isn’t surprising to some, especially entrepreneurs. According to Rasasacal O’Malley, CEO of HungryROOT, the life experience of actors and entrepreneurs are very similar. Both market themselves to find work, both stick to hectic and unconventional schedules, and both are successful based on their hard work and ingenuity in their against the grain lifestyles. Because of their similarities, some entrepreneurs like Rich Piana have made the opposite transition, switching from business to acting. Additionally, both Hollywood and business encourage the anything is possible mentality, an ideal many successful people credit with helping them succeed. If there is any coherent point to this article, it is that weather you’re a film star, small business owner, or average Joe, the opportunity to turn a new leaf is always around the corner.

 

The Story

Every movie that we have watched has a story behind it. With sounds, or without sounds when the history of film started the people behind it wanted to tell us a story. Some make us laugh, some make us cry, some make us realize the world out there beyond us, and some make us get scared, but they are all stories. Many movies have been based on real life events that marked the lives of many people like wars, natural disasters, kids stories, and astonishing scary paranormal cases. Other films are based on peoples’ lives like artists, musicians, world leaders like queens and kings, and important historical people that marked the old days and the present days too. Other stories have been made up but still make wonderful movies and capture the attention of children and adults.Human creativity in unbelievable the writers of all the movies do a great job portraying stories. We need to give them a lot of credit for their imagination and the different ways they find to capture us into the stories that make a lot of people follow series. Stories are very important let’s not forget where we come from, everyone has a story and they are all interesting to someone that’s why the film field has a lot of followers and many people that keep the history of film going. True or not, imaginary or real us humans love stories, in some way or another films and the stories behind them fascinate all of us.

Where It All Started

by: Stephanie Kubick

The beginning of film…

One of the world’s most used inventions would be the camera. The hunger for the ability to capture a precious moment, a monumental moment, or a simplistic memory guided man to a new form of technology. When the camera was made, it was a sensation.  Finally, man kind was able to preserve a moment in time. Something to treasure. Something to look back on and remember the emotions and feelings that correlate with that moment.

Yet it was not enough.

Why couldn’t we capture motion? If we can capture a second in time, why cant we capture multiple? What good does one moment do, if in the next and the one after that, something better happens? Something more exciting. Something more special?

Eadweard Muybridge asked those questions in 1872 and decided to started experimenting. He “placed twelve cameras on a race horse track, spread thread across the track, and attached the thread into contact with a camera’s shutter. Once the horse ran across the track, it’s legs broke the threads, causing the cameras to operate in sequence. The ending results were 12 photos showing a horse’s gait. With an invention of his called the Zoopraxiscope, he was able to quickly project these images, creating what is known as motion photography and the first movie to ever exist.”

This was the beginning of everything we know of today relating to film. We have Mr. Muybridge to thank for our binges on Netflix, for our midnight premiers of the newest movie. Without him, where would we be?

 

Works Cited:

“Introduction to Film History.” History of Movie Making. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.

 

 

The Motifs of David Lynch

2/20/16 by Cheyenne Naeb

WARNING: DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE UNFAMILIAR WITH DAVID LYNCH OR HAVE NOT SEEN HIS FILMS.

Very few directors have created a visual style as distinct and memorable as David Lynch.  With the possible exception of Wes Anderson, Tim Burton, and Terry Gilliam, there is not another auteur filmmaker off the top of my head that I can think of that uses several distinct traits to signify and define their work. Here is a summary of some of his most distinct features that allow you to know that a particular film is his.

• Supernatural/Metaphorical Monsters- From the very beginning, Lynch’s films have always contained suspicious and mysterious entities whose motives and origins are virtually unknowable. This can be seen in Eraserhead (the man in the planet, the lady in the radiator), Twin Peaks (the dwarf, the giant, BOB), up to his more recent works such as Mulholland Drive (cowboy, man behind the diner),  and Inland Empire (the polish producers, the rabbits). These entities can both be interpreted as actual figures manipulating the events of the narrative (Twin Peaks) or as complex metaphors representing the emotions or thoughts of the characters (Eraserhead).
• Curtains- This is just a little thing I’ve noticed from viewing Lynch’s work, but a major characteristic of his films are major scenes that contain red curtains (often on some sort of stage or platform). I’m personally unsure of the significance of many of these curtains, but I thought it would be worth pointing out.
• Electricity & Machinery – An integral element in all of Lynch’s work is the emphasis on machines and light sources in the context of the story. There have been many variations of how these elements are meant to be interpreted ranging from negative to positive. In films such as Eraserhead, the electricity and machinery can be interpreted as being a symbol of evil , control, or fate that are dictating Henry’s life. However in other films, such as Blue Velvet light sources are often use as simple symbols of goodness and hope rather than evil.
• Americana- Despite Lynch’s work finding more appeal to European film critics and makers, many of his works (excluding Elephant Man & Dune) often take place in idealized  versions of urban (Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway), suburban (Blue Velvet) and rural (Twin Peaks) America, often with a sense of underlying sense of dark desire and intentions.
• Dopple-gangers and split personalities – In his most recent works, many characters will undergo a change their identities. This can most easily be seen in Lost Highway, as in that film the main character literally changes into a completely different person halfway through the film. The other prominent example to point out is in Mulholland Drive, where during the last thirty minutes of the film we see the main characters Betty and Rita changed into Diane and Camilla. While they are both played by the same actresses, their roles and attitudes are completely different from how they were introduced in the film’s opening, making us question the reality of the film’s events. Did the characters literally change personas? Or was the first 2 hours of the film a idealized dream? If it was a dream whose dream was it?

These are just a few of the many motifs of this prolific filmmaker.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lynch

The Child Star Effect:

By Colin O’Neill 02/18/16

As many have learned from supermarket tabloids and MTV alike, child actors aren’t typically known for developing the most stable lifestyles. Some blame the toxic mix of excessive wealth and immaturity, others point the finger at the party culture in Hollywood. Regardless of cause, there’s obviously an issue to be dealt with. Amidst the cesspool of fast-life and cocaine overdoses, 19 year old actress and model Chloe Moretz stands out as an exception to the child star phenomenon. At the ripe age where most child star’s careers have gone sour, Chloe has instead set herself apart as a self-proclaimed role model for young girls and young stars in the film industry. “I hate partying. I’m the type to stay home with my friends, I can’t stand clubs and drugs”, Moretz states in an interview. When asked why she thinks her peers partake, she dryly cites that “…they don’t have anything else to do”. Though it may come as a surprise to us, even the rich and beautiful get bored with their chrome Ferrari’s and infinity pools. When that happens, they turn to substances and high-life vices to satisfy their thrills. To John C. Macionis, a Sociologist, this comes as no surprise. Many past studies on substance abuse and deviant behavior have revealed a strong correlation between high economic/social status and vice participation. For many film stars, the harsh reality is that they have so much they ultimately have nothing. Once you’ve done everything you can possibly think of in life without financial restriction, what’s left? According to Chloe, you can solve this dilemma one of two ways, either dedicate yourself to your career, or pick up constructive hobbies. Though the latter seems obvious, many stars fail to develop lasting activities to keep busy and ultimately fall prey to the evil forces of Hollywood’s drug scene.

In the sad world we live in, not only is it lonely at the top, but stardom has seemed to create more problems than it solves for the celebrity. The moral? Next time you catch yourself daydreaming about being on the silver screen, pick up a hobby instead.

Stanley Kubrick’s Contributions to Cinema

2/14/16 by Cheyenne Naeb

While there are many other directors who could arguably be considered the “greatest” contributors to cinema, such as D.W. Griffith (who’s self-titled award was given to Kubrick himself just before his passing), Eisenstein, George Mealier, Lang, or Murnau, Kubrick was unique in that he did not truly “create” cinema as much as he tried to constantly expand upon it.

– The Steadicam: The production of “The Shining” has created many rumors and urban legends surrounding the true nature of film’s meaning. What very few people talk about is Kubrick’s unique use of steadicam through the work. Invented by cameraman Garret Brown in 1975,  the steadicam is a camera mounting system that stabilizes the camera, usually on some sort of mobile object to have the camera follow an object of focus in the shot. Kubrick was an earlier adopter of the steadicam, employing it in several scenes in “The Shining”. In particular during the infamous tri-cycle scene, Kubrick made sure that the camera was always below waist-level. This was later called the “low mode” bracket, using an inverted post to allow the camera to reach below waist-level.

– Natural Lighting Techniques: In-between “A Clockwork Orange” and “The Shining”. There is the often forgotten film “Barry Lyndon”. Despite receiving very little attention upon its initial release and ensuing years, “Barry Lyndon” has now achieved critical acclaim not only for its content but also the manner in which Kubrick shot the film. Taking place in the 18th century, Kubrick wanted to capture the feeling of the time period by employing entirely natural lighting techniques. In other words no lights you see in the film are created using off-screen sources. Other than the candles and the sunlight/moonlight, no other light sources were used in the film.

– A Return to Visual Storytelling: Kubrick was also heavily inspired by the silent film-makers, in particular Eisenstein. These influences would later manifest themselves through his use of visual symbols and metaphors to tell his story, rather than dialogue or exposition. In particular one of my favorite films, “2001: A Space Odyssey” has whole 20 minute periods with no dialogue whatsoever, using symbols of light, shadow, geometry to illustrate its points. One of my favorite interpretations for example is that the blackNext wee monolith seen at the beginning of the film is actually a representation of the movie screen itself (hence its rectangular shape), and that the film is affecting is the same way the monolith affects the apes in the opening of the film… by expanding our minds.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steadicam

 

Film: A Dangerous Proffesion

By Colin O’Neill 02/12/2016 (2nd Posting)

We see them everywhere we go, their strategically placed charming and iconic faces seem to follow us throughout our daily grind. From billboards to click-bait we are bombarded with the warm but artificial presence of Hollywood’s talented and beautiful. If you haven’t caught on, I’m talking about celebrities.

We’ve never met them, yet we feel a warm connection towards their work, awarding these complete strangers the level of attachment we normally devote to our closest friends. Just like most wonderful and emotional things in life, there’s a cold and logical rationale waiting to ruin the mystique. It’s what psychologists call the “Screen-to-Face- Effect”. In this curious phenomenon, our minds are socialized to feel closeness with characters we see during our Netflix binges. In boring scientific terms, this occurs through the process of stimulus generalization, meaning our “subconscious” cannot differentiate watching your favorite T.V. show with actually socializing with the people in the scenes. So does that mean you’re really Johnny Depp’s best friend then? Well, not exactly, but it could mean you’re pretty close with Jack Sparrow. Part of being a convincing actor involves feigning very accurate emotional responses, sometimes to the extent of actually feeling them. Our brains then interpret these realistic displays of emotion as if the actor on screen were in the room with us. So how does this relate to film? Well, the relatively recent concept of Screen-to-face-effect was observed after the arrest of several stalkers following the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Deadman’s Chest. Following police interviews, forensic psychologists theorized that these unstable stalkers developed their obsessions by simple exposure to the actors media.  Unfortunately, this is an all too common occurrence in the film industry, and it’s fueling the film industry’s increased legal and security spending. In recent years, stars Jennifer Lawrence and Chloe Moretz have had their contracts amended to require security personnel on and off set due to stalking incidences.

In short, while being a Hollywood star may be fun, its generally much safer (and more entertaining) to be on the audience side. 

 

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/news/chlo-moretz-warns-off-stalkers-3045341.html

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1954.tb01243.x/abstract;jsessionid=99E8127B289C13F1F670BE641B07870.f03t04