I Am Legend

The movie I watched for this next blog was I Am Legend with Will Smith. I thought it was probably one of the saddest films I have ever seen. It ends terribly but I like the film because it allows you to feel what it would be like to be the last person on Earth at least that you know of. It was intense and had a lot of action. Basically the whole movie Will Smith has to try to survive and to save the world at the same time. It was crazy at times when the evil infected people came out of hiding at night and they tried to kill whatever came in their sight preferably human flesh. I have never been so captivated by a film before. Usually I might understand where the characters are coming from but I never actually feel apart of the movie or the life of the character this movie really did that for me. This movie never had a dry moment it was always on top of things and I really like that I never got bored with anything even if it was a slow moment. For instance when he is sleeping or when he is hunting for food/subjects to work on. Besides loving the movie as a whole there were also some really good details that made the movie what it is.

I thought that without the temporal relations in this film there would have been no drama and it would have been all action. The temporal relations give us a view of what happened to Will's character in his past life that made him the man he is today. It also had a lot of special effects for instance the superhuman people and the demented dogs etc. All these things helped to set up the overall movie but its not pulled off until Will Smith begins to act. He was definitely the best man for the job I couldn't have picked a better candidate. Will really knows how to present himself and he always finds a way to put himself into the shoes of the characters. He goes from one great role to another from Pursuit of Happiness to I Am Legend. He always seems to pull it all off. http://www.newsweek.com/id/77774

Personally I believe he is one of the better actors in Hollywood today. He doesn't do anything bad that gets him into the tabloids and he seems like a really cool family guy. In my eyes its not what you do that makes you famous its who you are inside that does. I don't know how many people would agree with this but I don't care cause I believe that he is a great actor and he has worked hard for his reputation unlike most young actors today. Like Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton.

The Language of Film Blog Entry

So far I have used the film notes for a lot of films while watching just to see if I can noticed any techniques. I really like knowing all the different techniques. Now I feel smart when I can say oh there doing crane work there and there they are doing deep focus. Personally I have liked learning all the techniques because it gives me a different perspective on films and it allows me to learn more about photography as well which I really like.

One example of crane is in Citizen Kane they do a crane shot in the beginning when they are going up the fence and when they are looking at the room of all the things he owned. Crane is a good technique because it gives a smooth view of a variety of things like a dance or a location.

My other favorite technique is spatial relations because it gives you a feel for the relationship the people in the scene have with each other whether they are good or bad. In not only Citizen Kane but also almost every movie we are shown almost every scene this way so we know the relationships and what each character is thinking. An example of this in Citizen Kane would be when he is with his first wife at the dinner table and each time we get a different time segment in their relationship we still see both of them and the things around them so that we get a feel for how they are acting towards each other. Like in the first segment she is in love with him and by the end they are far apart and her love for him is lost and we get a since that she is going to leave him.

Sound is another important aspect in a movie because it can other build or break a moment. For the most part music is used to build suspense for the watcher. Just recently I watched Pride and Prejudice and there is a scene where it seems like the music is nondiegetic but then we find out that she can also hear the music coming from the piano so it changes to diegetic. Another example of this would be in Jaws when we hear that dreadful music that tells us something bad is going to happen but its nondiegetic so the actor in the story has no idea what is about to happen.

So far these are the most noticeable techniques in films that I have seen so far. I look forward to learning techniques into finding these techniques easier when watching a film. I also think its very interesting when you learn the techniques that the director uses because some of them are so interesting and something you wouldn't think would fit with the film's setting but they do.