Our film is based upon the classic love story that most people hope to experience. From The Gold Rush to Seventh Seal, love and romance have been prominent motifs that appeared in each film. We are hoping to follow through with this same theme, but in a more comical way for the audience. We decided to spoof other characters who stood out to us from the films we have viewed as a way of showing our understanding of their characters as well as in an effort to give the viewers a chance to relate back to the previous films. We spoofed two of our favorite characters, John Wayne and Charlie Chaplin. We did this by dressing like them and basing a couple of our scenes after their movies. For example, when Paola goes on a date with Charlie, he performs the “roll dance” for her. However, we took a comedic stance on this scene by having him accidently hitting Paola in the face with one of the rolls. Charlie finds comedy in unlikely situations such, like the gold rush of 1896. We use this same idea by using comedy even when Paola is discouraged after her break up and failed dates. A lot of times in films there are subtleties that are there for symbolic reasoning. These subtleties are not put into films for us to automatically know their understanding. They are put there as a foreshadowing and in a hope that viewers will gain that deeper understanding of the film to know why they are there. In our short film, we used a skull in our opening scene to foreshadow that something bad will soon happen. In the first scene, we see the bride to be looking through a bridal magazine with her girlfriends. They are all very excited about her upcoming nuptials; but in the background of the scene there is the skull. The skull is there in an effort to model the skull that we see in Seventh Seal. It symbolizes the fact that something bad is soon going to happen, and that something is that the blushing bride to be is going to get dumped. Although in Seventh Seal they use the skull in a way of portraying the fact that death is always looming, we attempted to take a more comical spin on the idea. Placing the skull in the background as a representation of something bad is soon to come contributes to our central theme that even in difficult situations, you have to stay positive in order to overcome. Our intention with our film was to show that when you are put in a tough situation, you can’t just give up and let those things get the best of you. You have to get up and pick up the pieces and put your life back together, and at the same time never take life too seriously. When the bride to be is broken up with, she is absolutely devastated because she was blindsided by her fiancé. Lucky for her, she has a best friend who is there to encourage her to get back out there and give love a chance. Though she goes on many failed dates, she never gives up hope that love is out there and that she will find it; and in the end she does. Although this is a silent film, we used exaggerated facial expressions and body movements to portray our story and its overall theme. For example, when John Wayne walks in and hands Paola the scalped hair, we understand that she is clearly disappointed in the date without any dialogue due to the disgusted look on her face. Another major aspect of cinematography that we use in our silent film is zooming. An example of our use of zoom is in our opening scene. The camera begins on a close up of a bridal magazine and then slowly zooms out so all four girls are in the frame. This creates the idea that the viewer is a part of the film and they are getting closer or further away from our subjects.
Directors Commentary- Group 7 November 2, 2012
ReplyDeleteOur film is based upon the classic love story that most people hope to experience. From The Gold Rush to Seventh Seal, love and romance have been prominent motifs that appeared in each film. We are hoping to follow through with this same theme, but in a more comical way for the audience. We decided to spoof other characters who stood out to us from the films we have viewed as a way of showing our understanding of their characters as well as in an effort to give the viewers a chance to relate back to the previous films. We spoofed two of our favorite characters, John Wayne and Charlie Chaplin. We did this by dressing like them and basing a couple of our scenes after their movies. For example, when Paola goes on a date with Charlie, he performs the “roll dance” for her. However, we took a comedic stance on this scene by having him accidently hitting Paola in the face with one of the rolls. Charlie finds comedy in unlikely situations such, like the gold rush of 1896. We use this same idea by using comedy even when Paola is discouraged after her break up and failed dates.
A lot of times in films there are subtleties that are there for symbolic reasoning. These subtleties are not put into films for us to automatically know their understanding. They are put there as a foreshadowing and in a hope that viewers will gain that deeper understanding of the film to know why they are there. In our short film, we used a skull in our opening scene to foreshadow that something bad will soon happen.
In the first scene, we see the bride to be looking through a bridal magazine with her girlfriends. They are all very excited about her upcoming nuptials; but in the background of the scene there is the skull. The skull is there in an effort to model the skull that we see in Seventh Seal. It symbolizes the fact that something bad is soon going to happen, and that something is that the blushing bride to be is going to get dumped. Although in Seventh Seal they use the skull in a way of portraying the fact that death is always looming, we attempted to take a more comical spin on the idea. Placing the skull in the background as a representation of something bad is soon to come contributes to our central theme that even in difficult situations, you have to stay positive in order to overcome.
Our intention with our film was to show that when you are put in a tough situation, you can’t just give up and let those things get the best of you. You have to get up and pick up the pieces and put your life back together, and at the same time never take life too seriously. When the bride to be is broken up with, she is absolutely devastated because she was blindsided by her fiancé. Lucky for her, she has a best friend who is there to encourage her to get back out there and give love a chance. Though she goes on many failed dates, she never gives up hope that love is out there and that she will find it; and in the end she does.
Although this is a silent film, we used exaggerated facial expressions and body movements to portray our story and its overall theme. For example, when John Wayne walks in and hands Paola the scalped hair, we understand that she is clearly disappointed in the date without any dialogue due to the disgusted look on her face.
Another major aspect of cinematography that we use in our silent film is zooming. An example of our use of zoom is in our opening scene. The camera begins on a close up of a bridal magazine and then slowly zooms out so all four girls are in the frame. This creates the idea that the viewer is a part of the film and they are getting closer or further away from our subjects.