Prince of Egypt

In the spirit of Passover, I watched the award-winning animated film The Prince of Egypt, a Dreamworks production released in 1998. The premise of the film is in Ancient Egyptian time when Hebrews were enslaved under Pharoah's rule. The story follows the biblical figure Moses, a Hebrew who is adopted as an Egyptian prince when the Pharaoh Seti orders all the Hebrew male babies to be executed. According the the book of Exodus, baby Moses's mother places him in a basket and sends him down the Nile River in the hopes that a non-Hebrew family will find and take care of him. In the film, Pharoah's wife adopts Moses, who then becomes a brother to older Rameses, who is next in line to be Pharaoh. Fast-forward to when they are adults, Moses learns that he is a Hebrew and defends one of the slaves while they are whipped, and accidentally kills a guard.
He flees Egypt to Midian, where God "speaks" to him via a burning bush, telling him to return to Egypt to free the Hebrew slaves. He does so and Rameses refuses, so he unleashes ten plagues on all of Egypt. Rameses refuses every time until after the last plague, death of the first born. He angrily tells Moses they can all go, and that is when Moses and all the Hebrews cross the Red Sea. Rameses changes his mind and chases after them with the guards but the Red Sea crashes down on them. The film ends with them making it to the Holy Land, getting the commandments, and celebrating! Overall, the movie is pretty accurate to the biblical story of Exodus, and does not stray too far to make the story interesting.

Moses marrying Tzipporah, his wife.

Animation is only half of what goes into this film- the film so high quality because the actors' voices fit the characters so well. It features a star-studded cast of talented actors such as Val Kilmer (Moses/God), Ralph Fiennes (Rameses, who becomes Pharaoh) Michelle Pfeiffer (Tzipporah, a Midian woman whom Moses marries) and Sandra Bullock (Miriam, Moses' sister). Other prominent actors include Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin, and Martin Short.

Prince of Egypt is wonderful for a variety of reasons. There are a number of really lovely songs, including "When You Believe", which earned the movie an Oscar for best original song.

I also really enjoy this film because it is overall very artistic; each frame is very detailed and colorful!

Moses' mother places him in a basket to be sent down the nile while Aaron and Miriam look on in the background. Very nice depth of field, and nice use of colors.

Pharaoh reprimands Moses and Rameses. The large statue head is a reflection of Pharaoh's extreme power over Egypt.

Interesting frame composition; Moses leading the Hebrews through the two statues symbolizes his pride for being a Hebrew coming between his relationship with his brother Rameses.

The scene where Moses sends the plagues onto Egypt is especially good; the lighting is very dramatic, and there is a lot of screen area movement that shows the entire landscape. The song is also very ominous and scary, so the element of sound really enhances the fear depicted in the scene. This scene is where Pharaoh's stubbornness is shown most because his people are suffering so but he won't let the Hebrew slaves go. It is a turning point in the film, and very effective. Watch the clip below to see what I mean!

Prince of Egypt is streaming on Netflix, check it out!

"Dark Horse" Music VIdeo

Today one of my friends ran up to me and told me that he just watched the new music video, Dark Horse by Katy Perry and was going to have an aneurism after watching because it was so good. I decided to check it out because obviously it had to be SO amazing since he was going to have a freaking aneurism! I love Katy Perry and I am a fan of that song, however I can honestly say I have no idea what I just saw. The cinematic techniques used were very well done, however I found the story incredibly odd. It takes place in Egypt and Katy Perry is some queen of some sort. These Egyptian men constantly are bringing her new gifts to woo her and she is not accepting any of them. Instead she turns the men into some kind of powder..? I honestly could not explain the story to you if I tried. Ultimately the theme of the video is about the power she has over all these men.

This being said, the way this music video was shot was very well done. The lighting is very bright and really sets the mood. The color techniques are incredible along with the special effects. The camera movements are very smooth and work with the entire video as a whole. There are a variety of close ups and wide angle shots. One really well done shot was when Juicy J comes into the song. There is an egyptian statue and when it opens up, Juicy J's face is framed perfectly. Overall I thought the music video was very well done in terms of the way it was shot and produced.

This music video also reminded me of an intriguing conversation I once had with my friend who is very interested in culture. She told me that when adopting specific elements of one culture and appreciating it is called cultural assimilation. However, she said that cultural appropriation is taking elements from a culture and using it in the wrong context. One example she used was when Katy Perry (ironically enough) performed on the VMA's. She dressed up as a geisha, however that culture was completely misrepresented. Katy wanted it to seem as though she was appreciating other cultures, however it came across the wrong way. Dressing up as a geisha does not mean you are representing the Japanese culture. Very similar in this music video, she dresses up as an Egyptian and maybe not intentionally, but she makes Egyptians seem selfish and materialistic. When creating any music video, film, television show, etc it is important to keep in mind how one represents a certain culture.

Needless to say, I found the production of this video interesting, however I did NOT have an aneurism