by Cybel Martin | Jan 3, 2014 | Art, Education, Film, Photograhy
BY CYBEL MARTIN
APRIL 8, 2013 12:58 PM
4 COMMENTS
It began with an innocent curiosity in a box of 64. Amplified by a French balloon. Hit a frenzy with yellow smoke and the smell of napalm.
I’m the type to discuss, ad nauseum, whether an object is aubergine, plum or violet. Not only am I fascinated by color nuances, but how their effect and interpretation can vary. I love bedrooms painted cerulean blue. Reminds me of the perfect summer sky. But others feel like they’re drowning. Imagine the power you have as a filmmaker with a solid understanding of color?
The cheapest way to increase the production value of your film is through color. You don’t need a gazillion dollars to live and dream in Pantone or Lee Filters. If you have a rigorous discussion of which colors to use and why during prep, you can spend your budget more wisely.
Let me expose you to my color addiction. If you’re short on time, bookmark this article and in the interim, click on“The Psychology of Color : A Guide for Designers” and flip through the books “If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die: The Power of Color in Visual Storytelling” and “Interaction of Color” by Josef Albers.
Much like my article on camera movement, I’ll certainly forget to mention several important films. The ones mentioned may not be the first to use color in a certain way nor the best example of it. What they did do is ignited previously dormant neurons in my brain through their use of color.
I love films that use color to represent two worlds or two states of consciousness: a filmic diptych. Of course, The Wizard of Oz comes to mind. It’s black & white. Wait! It’s color! Pretty effective. I adore Lynch’s “Lost Highway”. No one seems to agree on what the film means but for me, the key shift in the narrative occurs when Arquette’s hair changes from dark brunette to platinum blonde. Sounds simple but Lynch makes it terribly disturbing. “Silent Hill”, perhaps not the strongest horror film, made excellent use of a common way to differentiate two worlds: shifting in color temperature (from warm light to cool). (more…)
by Bob Martin | Dec 19, 2013 | Culture, Directors, Film, Movies
Lupita Nyong’o
The film “12 Years a Slave” is a remarkable film and different from previous films that I’ve seen about slavery. The injustices of slavery are evident and yet unknown to its practitioners. It’s a world they live in, because someone said it was OK.
There is no righteousness in “12 Years a Slave”. Steve McQueen is not relentless in his depiction of the cruelty of slavery in America. He is not gratuitous with the use of words, sex or violence. It is an even portrait of the times. We get the picture quickly, cruelty is what human beings have learned and now practice. We do what we can get away with or mimic what has been done to us. It is how we’ve learned, sadly. Unlike Sgt Witt in the “The Thin Red Line” we don’t question ourselves before we act. Why are we doing this?
“This great evil. Where does it come from? How’d it steal into the world? What seed, what root did it grow from? Who’s doin’ this? Who’s killin’ us? Robbing us of life and light. Mockin’ us with the sight of what we might’ve known. Does our ruin benefit the earth? Does it help the grass to grow, the sun to shine? Is this darkness in you, too? Have you passed through this night?” ..Witt, The Thin Red Line
The Hero’s Journey
Solomon Northup’s is metaphorically Pinocchio or more correctly following an abbreviated version of “The Hero’s Journey“. Solomon is naive because he believes that he is free and will be treated like all free men. He is unaware of the evil that lies in the south (The Unknown), because he can’t see it in the north (The Known). McQueen paints a picture of reality. The sky in the south is no less beautiful than the sky in the north. There are no visual manipulation or distinct musical cues. The people in the south believe that they have been given the right to own other people. The people in the north believe they have the right to declare others free. Where do these “rights” come from?
What is gracious about this film is that it avoids the temptation of Revenge. The audience doesn’t cheer at the end. The “evil people” (the people we are not like) don’t get there upcommance.
Edwin Epps, 12 Years a Slave: Sin? There is no sin. Man does how he pleases with his property.
There are automatic triggers that surface when the subject is slavery. People pick sides, assign blame, responsibility, declare ownership, causes, and race becomes the topic debate. Slavery is at times thought of as a unique and horrific American event, that happened in the past and no longer exist. None of which is true, we call it something else now like Human Trafficking, Unlawful Imprisonment or Forced Labor. Slavery may no longer be legal in the world and people still do what they can get away with.
by Sandy | Dec 12, 2013 | Blogroll, Film, Movies
Saying that line anywhere, while on a treadmill in the gym, at a Sunday brunch, after a boring mandatory office meeting or in the middle of a wine tasting, will get you nods/smiles of recognition – “yeh”.
The Godfather films by Francis Ford Coppola based on the books by Mario Puzo lives on. Parts 1, (1972) and 2, (1974), re explode every 6, 12 months on some TV channel. A cable channel just ran a marathon it called, the “Godfather Saga” with re edited parts 1 and 2. It went from 9am to 6pm on a Sunday. If you didn’t have 8 hours to devote to this great American story, you could plug in whenever, meal times, in between telephone calls or text messages and remember dialogue and revisit scenes that have soaked into our bones without even knowing it:
“It was never personal Michael, it was just business”
“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
“I know it was you Fredo, your broke my heart!”
“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”
.
Never gets old, still one of the best films ever. The Godfather is #2 with a bullet on the American Film Institute list of 100 best.
(I like to think of 1 and 2 as a neat package, one experience. I never mention part 3)
by Sandy | Jul 25, 2013 | Actors, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Books, CDs, dvd
Everyone knows who Mr. Belafonte is – just listening to a few chords of “Day-O” or “Ma-tilda” brings his handsome face to the mind’s eye. At 85, he is still attractive of course, but Harry Belafonte: Sing Your Song, a fascinating documentary on DVD, fills in and rounds out the well lived life of the entertainer to be more than a man in a sexy shirt and tight pants. Besides being a singer, actor, husband and father, Mr. Belafonte is an activist, a pioneer and a humanitarian. A full life.
BTW: There is a book My Song: A Memoir and a CD, Harry Belafonte Sing Your Song: The Music that also celebrate this man’s life and music.
by Bob Martin | Jun 12, 2013 | Actors, Movies
Mickey Sumner and Greta Gerwig
After two seasons of “Girls” any movie that is about a maladroit young woman has my brain going “copycat” especially when Adam Driver shows up in one of the earliest scenes and I then spend the next 15 minutes looking for Lena Dunham It is times like these when I need to ask my brain to take a time out. I am afraid I missed a lot of this movie playing “One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn’t belong, (Sesame Street)” in my mind.
Frances Ha was worthy of more of my attention and I’m looking forward to seeing it again so that I can enjoy it completely. Frances Ha is not Girls.
Little movies like Frances Ha offer their audience a banquet of opportunities to learn something new, or to be reintroduced to something we’ve forgotten. They are seldom copycats or sequels. Nothing gets blown up and the end of the world is not around the corner. (See “The Women are Gone”) Little movies are usually about something you recognize in yourself. They come close to being real.
by Bob Martin | Jun 11, 2013 | Art, Directors, Film, Movies
Just watched (again) The Thin Red Line and the question asked is “Who is Killing Us” I get caught in that question. Are the crimes we inflict each other for some reason and/or for someone. It’s seems insane to think that we do this daily for no reason at all. So what is it about and who is it for? Or are we just simply insane. I wonder why we are so afraid of one another, that there is no middle ground, someone has to lose. Even the winner loses.
Why can’t we, collectively, say we are done.
Terrence Malick..voice over narrative is like someone whispering in our ears while we sleep. But it not a nightmare, it is what we’ve done.
“We were a family. How’d it break up and come apart, so that now we’re turned against each other?”
It use to be that it took many generations for history to align itself with the truth so that the regrets and apologize can acknowledged . The truth is showing up a lot quicker now and I wonder if we will think war is still worth it.
