Swiss Army Man

 

        As odd of a movie Swiss Army Man was it still told a story that has meaning for our lives. A lot of the movie included child humor and various things we would come across as we grew up. Manny came back from the dead and his constant odd bodily functions such as farting kept him going. As Manny finds his life's purpose, Hank wants to find civilization and Sarah was a significant figure in their journey to get back to a normal life. I think a lot of people now a days have trouble finding their purpose and Hank was on the fence of taking his own life and I think the movie was pretty bold for having that as the opening scene because that moment was very intense and I think there should be a trigger warning if there wasn't one already. Manny saved Hanks life because Hank was about to end up like Manny if Hank went through with his suicide attempt. Manny showed Hank indirectly that there is something worth living for as he lies on the shore and that theres no going back if you take your life. Hank ended up bringing Manny back to life and Manny's various superpowers made Hank feel alive again and Hank depended on Manny for a while to actually survive before Hank truly helped Manny function somewhat normally again. As they went through the forest they really created a home for themselves and as they tried finding ways out Manny and Hank became closer and Manny asked many of life's important questions and Hank did his best to help him as they finally found Sarah. Manny was "dead" as Hank and Manny escaped their fight with a bear and the police were called and Hank refused to give Manny up because he knew he was still alive. Manny was alive and Hank's dad, Sarah, and the others couldn't believe their eyes as Manny was farting and acting like Hanks jet ski as they zoom down the ocean in a blaze of glory. 

        I think that The Daniels did a great job in their film with the cinematography because it felt as if this was a film that was filmed with limited resources which it was. Like our short film project, Swiss Army Man was filmed with very limited resources and I liked this films style because it felt like it was a journey rather than a very scripted film like most films can feel like. I thought it was funny how close in proximity everything was to each other, like the island that Manny and Hank first met at was super close to the forest and then it turned out that the forest was practically the woods in Sarah's backyard. The woods/forest felt so huge when really it was probably less than a mile, because at the end of the movie as the police, Hanks dad, Sarah and news reporters chased Hank and Manny they went through the woods within a few moments, when Hank and Manny went through it for days and days. I thought the scene where Hank and Manny created the bus where Manny was going to talk to Sarah was cinematic because of the colors, the crazy series of events that went on, and the realistic, but odd way of acting it out. This way of portraying the story made it seem so relatable because there are times where you may want to say something to maybe a girl or guy you like, but really it wouldn't go well if you said the things you had to redo, so I thought when they had to redo so many parts of that scene was quite humorous and relatable.   

        My own thoughts on this film were not very positive after watching this movie if I am going to be honest. I just think we could have used our time to watch something more engaging and something more appealing to us as a mature audience because like I said, there was a lot of childish humor in this film, now yes some of it was funny, but I think theres better movies that tell a better story that Swiss Army Man told us. I understand why we watched this movie which was for the purposes of our short film making project, but I just think watching the short films from the past was sufficient. Swiss Army Man came from a Swiss Army Knife because Manny had his many purposes and messages just like how a Swiss Army Knife has its many purposes, so I liked the title and I believe Swiss Army Man was compared to the knife. I was 15 when this movie came out and I think I would have loved it when I was 15, but I am 21 years old, I don't think child humor is all that funny anymore, so I think that is why I didn't like the movie. I liked the story and its purpose, but a lot of the elements within the movie kind of ruined the story in my opinion because I think a movie like this could have been a little more serious and the meaning behind it would have been taken more serious if the humor was kept to a minimum. Those are just my thoughts. 

The Short Film

        

        When starting this project our group had a few challenges figuring out where to start. We came up with some good ideas for both cinematography and editing. We use a variety of shots and angles to try and mix up the viewers point of view. Along with that we made some editing choices with cuts and music that help give some more life to the film. With our success we can also look back on some things we can work on for both cinematography and editing. 

        In terms of cinematography, I feel like we did a strong job as a group. Some techniques we used include; over the shoulder shots, pans, tight, medium and wide shots. One thing that I wish we were able to utilize better would be the use of dolly shots. Dolly Shots are when the camera moves closer or further away from the subject when shooting. This came as a struggle to our group due to the fact that we didn’t have too stable of a camera for the process. There was no tripod which makes it difficult to get a still/non shaky moving shot. Another obstacle we faced was not being able to zoom in and move out at the same time. This is a dolly zoom, which is famously used by Alfred Hitchcock in many films. I wish we were able to use this effect to add the dramatics of the shots we were filming, sadly our resources limited us to what we could do.

        Editing is more of a preference when working on projects like these. The main issues we had was the software. When I have done previous videos I have been able to utilize adobe premiere pro. This helps with being able to make precise cuts, play proper music tracks, and add special effects that look good. The software used was still efficient(adobe rush), however the sound tracks were limited, along with the precision when it comes to cutting up clips. This may have limited our ability to use the technique of cutting on action. We did use a decent amount of cutting action shots, when door handles were grabbed, walking around corners, and the fight scenes. However, the use of these types of edits have been a little limited due to the fact that the precision is not as exact as on premiere pro. Also due to some shots not exactly lining up as in some people were not in the exact spots before and after the cut, there are some matching cuts that seem a little off. If we had more time we could try and incorporate these little tweaks better. 

Lighting

 

        I have never paid attention to lighting in films as closely as I do now because I now see how important lighting can be to tell a story within the story. If there isn't a lot of dark or dim lighting, then we can assume the mood in the scene is a happier scene or there isn't much conflict. If there is dark or dim lighting then our character or characters could be depressed, maybe the darkness plays into the character or characters personality, or maybe that dark lighting is telling us something scary is going to happen. It depends on the genre of the movie though. Or they are possible night owls naturally like we saw in rear window, Jeffries would stay up at night and his room would be dark and the natural moonlight would peer into his room as he watched Thorwald throughout the nights of his broken leg and the investigation he started from his room. It really depends on the movies context because I think lighting can be interpreted in many ways.

        In Chapter 5 of Moving Pictures, it talked about lighting a great deal. I thought the term low-key lighting was quite interesting, I have never heard of it till now and this term meant that the film has a lowering or removal of key lighting and relies on more indirect, relatively hard fill and back lights, these create shadows and high contrast in a scene. This type of lighting is used to create mystery and terror and reflecting back to many of the horror films I have seen low-key lighting has been used quite a bit, especially in the scary parts of a horror movie when the jump scares happen. I think a lot of the scary parts in a movie can be predicted, but some are so hard to see coming. There is also natural lighting and artificial lighting. A lot of movies use natural lighting from windows in a morning scene when someone is waking up and artificial lighting in maybe a lab where there is an experiment is being done. I think of the scene where Peta in the Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1 was going crazy in the white room as he was tied to the hospital bed when he saw Katniss again, but his brain was so damaged from the capital he couldn't think straight, that to me is what artificial lighting is in a scene. 

        The rule of thirds was pretty interesting to me too, we use this concept in drawing too when we map out how we want to draw something and certain areas may have more emphasis than others. The same thing to me is done in film, there will be certain boxes within the frame that will have more emphasis than others and that will depend where the character or characters are in the frame and where everything else in the frame is, it will vary for each frame. The lighting could feel proportionate in the frame or maybe it doesn't, maybe one area has more darkness than the other areas or visa versa with bight areas or even color or certain colors, even objects. There are many possibilities to tell a story by just breaking down a frame by its lighting and what is included in the frame. Some are easier to interpret than others, but each will tell a unique story. 

What we have done so far

 

            

        The group in the back as we call ourselves did not really write out a story board for our film, we just went with the flow of ideas we came up with and combined them all into our own story. Basically we did not write anything down, but we brainstormed quite a bit about what our possibilities are for our project. We also talked a lot about our favorite movies and certain scenes in the films and some of those ideas gave us ideas of certain camera shots and angles. Movies like The Hangover, The Godfather, and many others came up in conversation, but we just came up with something on our own, but it was good to think of our favorite movies for some ideas/inspiration. We honestly came up with a simple, but kind of confusing storyline, because we almost wanted to make it seem like we are in the process of making a movie within our own movie for class, but we were just talking about it, then had a fight about the idea and then agreed on an idea, but realized we didn't film anything, but really we did, we just didn't realize we were filming our thought process which turned out to be the movie we made. 

        In the book Chapter 5 on Cinematography, it talked about lighting and for our film we relied on natural light in some of the scenes and artificial lighting in the indoor scenes. Our movie was filmed either inside the Wentz Science Center or the outside of the Wentz Science Center, and I think we did a good job to have a balance in between the two settings. We wanted to make sure we had a variety of different types of lighting because not all of our film is just one type of lighting and we aren't fixed to just one room. We also wanted to make sure we had different types of shots. We had a few over the shoulder shots, medium shots, long shots, and a few close ups. There was some camera movement as well, but sometimes our cameraman stood still in one frame, but most of the time it was multiple frames in the filming process. Overall, I think we did a great job with the use of lighting and the various shots throughout our film. 

        I am not sure about how the editing process went, Matt did that for our group, but I can imagine he had to cut out the beginnings and endings of some clips because of laughter or things of that nature. Also he would make various edits to make sure the main parts are in the film when we were ready and expected to be filmed were concise, because he wouldn't include Derek or I saying "Are you recording?" then Matt saying "Yeah", he would just have all of the important parts included where we were acting. Matt also added the free music that was available in the platform he used to edit the film, and I think the music he used had great timing with how the film went. Music to me makes the films story truly come to life because of the added emotion tied to it, and I think the music in a film amplifies how the character or characters are feeling in the film. Music also sets the tone for the entire scene too. I think the editing process can take a while, but I think it is the best part of the film making process because we get to make our movie into something of our own, and put our own cinematic style onto it. 

Shots

     

                                                                        

       I think if people looked harder into the films they watched they would get an even deeper meaning behind the story being told. I remember during my senior year of high school I took a film class and the teacher told us that this class will ruin our way of watching movies because we will think about the concepts we learned in class as we watch movies. Long story short he was right because after taking that class I got more out of films than I ever did before because I thought about the concepts we learned such as the purpose of certain lighting, music, shots, angles and so forth. I was grateful for it though, because if I could get more out of a movie then I don't see an issue with thinking about concepts I learned in a class if it benefits my cinematic experience. I would re-watch my favorite movies and as I watched I would notice the deeper meanings in the certain scenes that I didn't see before and I was thankful for noticing the differences because therefore I understood the story even more than before. When I see like for example a over the shoulder shot or a medium shot of two people talking at a table, I will not just pay attention to the conversation itself, I will pay attention to the lighting, sounds and or music, what is going on around them, body language, and what the camera is doing too. Then I can anticipate what is going to happen next and I also get more out of the conversation other than the words being spoken. 

        For example, maybe the setting is a dark room and this is a superhero movie that we are watching and these two people are thinking of doing something malicious, but fool the audience with what they say, like their conversation is about something positive, but in the end these two people do something drastic. Then we can think back to what this scene in the dark room really meant, and think oh maybe that conversation wasn't really meant to be positive after all, the lighting and maybe the music was sugar coding what they really felt and wanted to plan. I feel like these kind could happen in more movies than we expect and we just never pick up on it until maybe the second or third watch. I honestly pay attention to the smaller scenes more at times and scenes that may not seem like they have a useful part in the story, because more often than not those scenes may include certain clues for the rest of the film that we may not have picked up on. Now it depends on the movie I am watching, but usually I do that with horror or adventure/action movies that may have a plot twist or something like that. 

        Personally my favorite type of shot in a movie would be a medium shot of a character. The image above is what I am referencing when it pertains to my favorite kind of medium shot. The Big Lebowski is a classic and I enjoy how close the camera is to Jeff Bridges's face (the actor who plays Jeffery "The Dude" Lebowski) because it doesn't have to be super close for us to know how Jeffery is feeling. We see a blurred bowling alley in the background so we know the focus is Jeffery at the bar with an angry look on his face. I like these shots the best because honestly any kind of close-up is just too much emphasis in my opinion and as an audience member I would rather not be so close to someones face as I watch a movie. A medium shot to me does justice in telling us what they are feeling in the best way in my opinion because we can see what is going on around them and it doesn't feel so isolated to the character. I think it is open to interpretation on which shot is best to depict emotion, but I just think medium shots depict emotion in the best way because we can see the background, lighting of the setting, and we can see body language too and objects around them too and not just their face. 

Marie Antoinette

 

Get Out

 

    There are many key scenes where oppression and racism occurs during the film and I think a lot of cultural relevance can be related to these scenes because Black people are still treated unfairly and differently from White people unfortunately. I think everything I am about to state makes Peele and auteur because Peele is Black and Peele creates Chris who is Black as the center of the movie because Peele is telling a story of how Black people are and can be treated through Chris's character. Peele has probably been treated in similar ways throughout his life, so directing a film making White people the antagonist was great in my opinion because unfortunately it is usually the other way around in films and in reality. My favorite cinematic scene was where it pans out over the groundskeepers shoulder and he watches how Chris was accepted "better than him" as he watched Chris meet his girlfriends parents. It all adds up in the end that it seems like he is jealous of Chris because we find out the groundskeeper is Rose's ex boyfriend and now slave. He is jealous that Chris was with her, but felt bad because he knew what was going to happen. An example of mise-en-scéene to me was how Peele had the same set up when Chris was watching TV as his mom died, and when he was trapped in the chair as he is about to be operated on watching a TV with similar graphics as when he was a kid really struck me because there was an over the shoulder shot that matched the same shot we saw of Chris when he was a kid and when he was trapped in the chair. That example of mise-en-scéne and how Peele staged the frame the exact same really made me as an audience member feel Chris's pain because of how the blind man and Rose's family especially the mom (through hypnotism) made sure Chris felt bad for the death of his mom and made him have flashbacks of the exact moment in his life. They neglected the fact that he didn't want to talk about it at the dinner table or at all, and that made me upset because it's like Rose's family didn't really care about his feelings and made his life and his trauma seem like it was meaningless. 

    Here are some examples of how racism and oppression were displayed throughout the film. This is how Peele is an auteur because he has experienced events like this in his life. To start, when the white officer asked for Chris’s ID for no reason and his girlfriend stands up for him, when Chris did nothing wrong was a prime example of a Black man being oppressed for no reason, when he didn't do anything wrong. Another scene/aspect was when Rose's family has a stereotypical house of black servants, but they don’t think of it as racist they appreciate what they do and actually care about how they are doing and they support Obama, (that's what they want us to believe and Chris to believe), but in front of Chris it seems to be different and Chris isn’t phased by it because he expected the racism to happen. The most important and moving scene in my opinion was the hypnotism the mom did on Chris made Chris think back to the day his mom died and how he watched tv in the rain and she made Chris think about the situation and Chris didn’t really want to talk about it, and he was afraid to call anyone and as the hypnotism kept going he couldn’t move and she made Chris feel powerless as he cried in the chair and then he sunk into the floor and felt like he was just floating in space. As the camera come back there’s a closeup of Chris in tears and then he is swimming up to the room and then wakes up breathing hard.

       A huge point in the movie where racism occurs was at the party. As Chris meets the family members at the party the first couple asked him about sports and golf and how they knew Tiger Woods and he wanted to see Chris’s form. This is clearly racist because Chris and Tiger are both Black and this gentleman wanted to compare Chris to see if he was like Tiger, and to see if Black people have a certain way of playing golf. The next couple asked Rose a very inappropriate question about her love life with Chris and how “is it better”. That would be very embarrassing, but I understand why she asked Rose that because she wanted to know if Chris was fit enough for the job he had no idea was coming. “Black is in fashion” the next guy says, making it seem like it’s not normal for a Black man and White Woman to be together during his time, but it is normalized now. Like really dude, why did you even say that?

    Chris later on during the party told Logan that he felt better about his presence there and the whole conversation seemed so awkward. It seemed like Chris knew Logan and he actually did, and Logan just seemed like he was brainwashed to Chris. Chris was just so confused and didn’t know how to feel about the people there. As Chris walked back into the house everyone went silent and then looked up and Chris went to get his phone and he noticed his phone was unplugged again because when he woke up that morning it was unplugged too. Chris thinks that the Black people have all been hypnotized by the things they say and how they’ve been acting, he is right. Especially with the lady who unplugged Chris’s phone, she started crying and smiling and just laughed and it creeped him out, it creeped me out too, like who acts like that. Then the Asian guy asked Chris about his experience as a black man in America which was uncalled for and Chris asked Logan the other Black guy to answer the question instead and then he began to answer the question and Chris took a picture of him with a flash accidentally, which caused a “seizure” and then Logan went after Chris telling him to “get out”. Roses father asks Chris what his purpose is, and then his father talks about how everyone dies and then Rose finds the keys but then the entire family turns on him and Rose turns on him too. All of these examples I believe is a way Peele is an auteur because Peele firsthand has been the minority in a White dominated space. 

    I also felt like there were a lot of key scenes where there was symbolism and suspenseful action. This scene creeped me out specifically! The scene was when Chris found a red box upstairs with all of the pictures of the house keeper, the grounds keeper and Rose was in every picture and it seemed like she set up Chris to be next. A key scene where something didn't seem right was when the groundskeeper seemed jealous when him and Chris talked about Rose as he chopped wood, it was like the groundskeeper knew her well and we found out that’s right because they used to be a couple. Rose attempted to manipulate Chris into becoming a slave because she was “in love” with him and she just wanted him to meet her family so they could hypnotize him so the blind man in the family could get his eyes. She was so close to succeeding. The teacup played a huge role in the movie and the tea cup put Chris into the “sunken place” and that teacup was used to hypnotize Chris and that is how they were able to then get him into the room outside of the medical room where he was going to be operated on. But Chris was like heck no, and bashed the guys head in and that guy ended up being Rose's brother and he was going to take him in to get operated on thinking Chris was out of it. He had ear plugs in so he didn’t hear the tea cup and wasn't hypnotized this time. He then killed the father that operated on the blind man who was going to get Chris's brain it seemed and his eyes. Chris then broke the tea cup and killed the mom next and then the brother came back to attack him and they fought and fought, but Chris killed the brother. Chris took a car and hit the “Grandma” and he went to save her like he didn’t save his mom, hoping that doing so would save him from his trauma of not saving his mom. That wasn't the case. Chris crashed the car because the grandma was going crazy and the grandma died in the crash. Chris was attacked by the “Grandpa” and then Rose went to shoot Chris and Chris took a picture of the grandpa and the grandpa shot Rose because the flash did something to the grandpas mind to turn him against Rose and then the Grandpa killed himself. Chris’s friend in TSA came to save him and they left Rose to bleed out as she watched them drive away.