The Dolly Zoom

While watching Season 1 Episode 3 of The Wire this week, I noticed a camera movement that made me feel slightly uneasy. The scene shows a group of drug dealers sitting around in the projects, and one of them is telling a story.

In order to capture the perspective of each person listening to the story, the camera was trucked right while panning left to make the audience feel like they are rotating around the scene’s main character. However, as the story progressed and the situation he was describing got worse, a slow dolly zoom was introduced. This camera movement stood out to me for two reasons: first, it stood out to me because I can appreciate how difficult it must have been to accomplish this. Trucking right and panning left while dollying out and zooming in is not something that just anyone can pick up a camera and do. I was really impressed with the shot and the work of cinematographer Uta Briesewitz. As impressive as the shot was though, I felt it stood out to me because it wasn’t really necessary. The dolly zoom is a very dramatic effect, and can be great for communicating disorder or chaos when used correctly. But while simply telling a story like this scene in The Wire, it struck me as odd and out of place.

With my interests regarding dolly zooms piqued, I took to the internet to find more examples of times that dolly zooms were used effectively. I ended up finding this video on Vimeo that takes a look at the history of dolly zooms in movies, starting with Vertigo in 1958 and continuing to a couple films from 2005. Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo was one of the first times, if not the first time, that a dolly zoom was used in a widely popular movie. Because of this, the combination of dollying in/out and zooming the opposite way was was given the nickname “The Vertigo Effect”. The dolly zoom’s second most famous appearance come in 1975 with Jaws, giving it another nickname: “The Jaws Effect”.

After seeing all these cool examples of dolly zooms, I decided to take out my camera and try it for myself. Seven takes later, I came to a conclusion: a dolly zoom is tough to pull off (without tracks to smoothly dolly on). And although it might not have fit very well in the scene I first saw it in on The Wire, it made me appreciate the experimental camera work that past cinematographers have done to get the dolly zoom to where it is today.

The Fun Left in Hollywood

Hollywood has always been known as the cutthroat heart to the American film industry, usually filled with professionals and never much room for laughter. And all of this is totally acceptable when many budgets cross over a hundred million dollars and studios are looking for the biggest bang for their buck. But it was the seventies and the rise of the American auteur that gave Hollywood some of the most iconic films and at the same time showed that directing is really just about the inner child's imagination. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg both created so many films that will be ingrained into film history for the rest of time. And as they dominated the seventies box office looking back it almost seems as if they were playing a game with each other.

In the late seventies George Lucas was nervous about his new release Star Wars. So when he turned to his friend Steven Spielberg and saw that he was was working on Close Encounters of the Third Kind it just made him feel worse. Lucas believed that Spielberg was creating "the biggest hit of all time" and that Star Wars would fail miserably. So as a small bet at the time Lucas bet 2.5% of Star Wars in exchange for 2.5% of Close Encounters. What was a small bet at the time turned into a forty million dollar investment for Spielberg. But even that wasn't the end to their game.

For the next decade the two would play box office ping pong and when it came to video rentals the two would send letters to each other publicly about the others success. 

The two showed that what they were doing was something that was fun no matter how serious it was, and that through the millions of dollars it wasn't about money. 

For a long time in Hollywood I feel like we have lost that. The sense of fun behind the movie making and that no matter what, film should be about making something that you feel should be made and having fun with it. But hope is not lost! There has been a new resergence in the industry and in a way it comes from the same franchise, Star Wars. 

J.J. Abrams is deep into production on the new trilogy and is bringing the same atitude as Lucas once did. Meanwhile on the other spectrum Zack Snyder is working on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and between the two films they are both approaching the situation just as the original duo did. With a twenty first century twist the two have been crossing their respective franchises in a way to respect the massive amount of pressures they both hold. It's the fun that Hollywood was missing and I hope it continues to stay. 

                                     
These images have been sent back and forth to each director. And the video below is the most recent gag from J. J. Abrams.

Here's to hoping the fun is still alive. 

So Many Questions

There were a lot of questions to ask this summer. For me, there was the, how will I spend my free time? How many reruns of Friends can I watch until my brain rots? And, will there be a new drama this summer that can capture my attention? The new CBS drama Under the Dome was able to answer my third question with a big whopping “yes”. After watching the very first episode, which was filled with an intriguing plot, well-developed characters and breathtaking special effects, I was hooked. Based off the novel written by Stephen King, the show follows a small Northeastern town of Chester’s Mill that is sent into a panic when an invisible dome falls from the sky and cuts the town off from the rest of the world. The first episode is full of heart-wrenching scenes including a cow being split in half by the dome, birds falling from the sky, a truck slamming into the dome, an airplane crashing from the sky and so much more.

The residents of Chester’s Mill have their own questions to ask. The characters include a former solider who has recently committed murder, a young teen looking to get away from her boyfriend, a young teen seemingly obsessed with his girlfriend, a journalist (played by an actress from Twilight), the town’s councilor (played by Dean Norris of Breaking Bad), a lesbian couple and their daughter, the town’s priest, the town’s sheriff (played by an old Lost star), his deputy and two radio DJs. Their questions are pretty obvious. Where did this dome come from? Why did the dome fall in their town? What secrets of theirs will be revealed? And, what dangerous secrets do other people in the dome have?

The audience members have started to form their own questions. In fact, as soon as I finished watching the first episode I knew already that this show would be one full of surprising twists. The show is produced by Stephen King and Steven Spielberg and is receiving help from Brian K. Vaughan, the writer of Lost. In fact, many individuals on the crew and cast are formally from Lost. Likewise, the show has seemed to embark on a similar theme as Lost had. The show considers the possibility that the dome is more than just a random supernatural occurrence. Rather, the show suggests that every character has a purpose for being stuck under this dome. Like Lost and many other series based off of Stephen King novels, this series does not seem to have a concrete ending in the near future. When CBS had first announced Under the Dome as a summer mini series, it was exciting to know that we wouldn’t have to sit around for nine or so seasons trying to figure out who the mother was in a story about meeting the mother. However, CBS recently announced that the show is no longer a mini series, but due to high ratings, will be picked up for a second season. This shocking and bittersweet announcement has viewers question, will we really ever know how this dome got here?

CBS have a lot riding on the answers to their own questions. They were unsure if a summer series would really get any attention at all. Much to their excitement, we just couldn’t help but to get sucked into yet another Stephen King production. I’m sure now they are questioning, “how long can they keep this going before answering our many questions?”

Although Under the Dome may have given us what we needed, an entertaining summer television series, it has come at a high price. It has caused us to be addicted to yet another confusing, surprising drama, which we may really never stop asking questions about.

Kubrick's Napoleon Script

Last class I brought up that Spielberg was developing a project about Napoleon Bonaparte that Kubrick wrote, so I decided to spill a little more information about the upcoming project since this class now revolves around all things Stanley Kubrick.

Spielberg plans to make a mini-series out of the script Kubrick wrote after he finished filming 2001: A Space Odyssey. The story of Kubricks most famous unfinished script is actually quite fascinating. Apparently, after Kubrick initially wrote the piece, he was quite dissatisfied with much of it (not surprisingly, since he's known for his perfectionism) but did include a list a list of production and budget notes. When Kubrick mentioned his plans to bring Napoleon to the screen to Anthony Burgess, the author of the adapted novel "A Clockwork Orange" , he suggested that Beethoven's third symphony would work well as a template for its structure and musical accompaniment. Kubrick agreed and asked him to turn that work into a novel so he could make it into a movie. When Burgess sent Kubrick the first half of the Napoleon Symphony manuscript, Kubrick turned down a reunited partnership, stating that the piece:  "had recorded the chronology of events to the detriment of the story, lacked realistic dialogue, and that Burgess’s comic vision of Napoleon fell short of his heroic stature.” Kubrick's script has since laid untouched until now.

Below is a link where you can actually read the full script, complete with production and budget notes:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9DS_zk2FintNmFkZjM3ODUtMzY0ZS00Mzg0LWFhMzUtYWRjZjU1YjUwMTEx/edit?hl=en

The script, although wasn't deemed "ready" by Kubrick, is said to be very ambitious and full of potential, with maximum clarity and precise details that tell this complex story extremely well, all while keeping many of the same themes to Kubrick's famous style of film-making.

Although Kubrick won't be there to direct what is perhaps the last film to ever have his name on it, I have no doubt Spielberg will do it epic justice.

Broadway, Here I Come

Season 2 of NBC's musical-drama SMASH premiered 2 weeks ago, to an average size audience.  The premiere was a 2 hour spectacle full of guest starts like Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson and Tony winner Harvey Fierstein.  The show was largely revamped from last season's disastrous mess of characters that no one liked, story lines that were too ridiculous for soap operas, and writing that was so over the top even greeting card companies would have made fun of it.   Show creator and writer is Theresa Rebeck a well known playwright.  Add executive producer Steven Spielberg, actresses Debra Messing and Angelica Houston and you would think the show could survive right?  Well last weeks episode was rated an all time low for the series with 3.3 million viewers and .9 million in the 18-49 age range.  But what makes this show so undesirable?

A musical TV show is obviously a very difficult task to accomplish, having rarely been successful.  For example, Viva Laughlin, the Hugh Jackman casino themed musical TV show which was canceled after 2 episodes.  Smash aims to take viewers into the world of Broadway while following a young singer who dreams of singing on the big stage, as well as the crew and producers who try and turn their dream musical into a reality.  But this is no Glee where a bunch of 30 year old professionals attempt to play 16 year olds in a mis-fit Glee club.  This show uses real broadway experienced actors, performers and names in their show to really portray the world of show biz, in NYC.  It's sexy, sophisticated and the original music is phenomenal.  It's main song "Let Me Be Your Star" was nominated for an Emmy and a Grammy.  The music is written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (of Tony winning musical Hairspray and Catch Me If You Can)

So what makes this show so unlikable by viewers?  My guess would have to be the characters.  I can't say there is a character whom I wouldn't care if they died or were written out of the show.  They already have written a few characters off of the show since season 1, but they still have a lot more work to do if they plan on maintaining viewership.  I think characters are what keeps the audience for a Tv show, you come back each week to check in on your favorite characters.  They should be relatable and dynamic characters the audience can follow and cares about.  New to season 2 is Jeremy Jordan an Ithaca College grad.  He graduated IC with a BFA in musical theatre.  I'm so proud to see an Ithaca alum on the TV screen, even if I do happen to hate his character.  I think Smash needs to get it's act together before NBC cancels yet another one of it's shows.

Lincoln Movie Review

When I was on vacation last week over Thanksgiving.  I ended up going on a Disney cruise so I had unlimited access to different movies that Disney has under their different companies which included the Steven Spielburg directed, Lincoln. I saw it twice.  It was absolutely phenomenal.  From the opening battle scene of the movie, you already have the sense of how historically accurate the movie is going to be just by the way they showed the battle scene.  It was ugly, it was brute, it was dark, and it was realistic.  It accurately reflected how most civil war battles actually ended up after the initial gun fire volleys.  Then, it cuts to a scene of two black men having a conversation with someone.  We do not see who that person is at first but, finally his face is reveled and it is Abraham Lincoln, played by Daniel Day-Lewis.  Day-Lewis' acting in one word was phenomenal.  At times, you forget you're watching a high budget movie and instead find yourself immersed in America's past.  You also meet many other characters from the countries past such as Preston Blair, Alexander Stevens, Ulysees S. Grant, and my favorite performance and home town hero for myself, Thaddeus Stevens played by an incredible and inspiring Tommy Lee Jones.  I can go on and on about that acting but you honestly need to see it for yourselves to experience some of the best acting I think I've honestly ever seen.  I personally loved the cinematography in the movie, even though I know some people wanted much more from it.  Personally, I felt it complimented the story and honestly, I don't think they wanted to take away one bit from the absolutely perfect acting.  Another thing that was great was the scenery, the props, the make up, and especially the costumes.  Clearly it was a period piece and they did it in such a way that it was natural and didn't feel like a period piece even though it was exactly as they did wear at the time.  Another thing that was incredible in this movie was the writing.  There were so many memorable lines which is one reason that I say this, but the other, is much more important.  The movie is long, extremely long, and also a period piece and historically correct at that.  Yet, with all of these constrictions, the writing managed to captivate the entire theater of all ages and even myself, who can find myself dosing off in many of movies especially period pieces.  You can obviously tell how I feel about this movie and I feel that I am understating how good this movie actually is.  You have to see it, absolutely.  It is a movie that will be used to teach the civil war, president lincoln, and civil rights in college classrooms and high school classrooms for the century to come, it is just that good, and historically accurate as well.  I think it deserves to win every category at the Academy Awards because it is the full package.  Now, stop reading this and go out and see it.

The Longest Two and a Half Hours of My Life.

Okay. Maybe not the longest. But it was pretty close. I saw Amber's post on Lincoln and thought I would respond with what I thought of the movie. Over the semester there's been a lot of things that Amber has posted and talked about in class that I completely agree with, and we seem to share a lot of the same tastes in some things. I think it's safe to say this movie was not one of them.

When I went to this movie I went in with high expectations. I went with a pretty large group of people on Thanksgiving night, and my group came out split in half. Half were on Amber's side, and the other half found it mildly painful.

I have to admit, the story was solid and the actors did a good job. Daniel Day-Lewis was a fantastic Lewis. While I'm getting somewhat tired of seeing Sally Field as the same crying mother over and over again, I'll even give an a-okay to her performance. My problem with the movie stemmed from other aspects of the film.

In class, we spent a lot of time talking about how camera movement should help tell the story. You want reasons for everything that's in frame and every movement you make. However, during the long stretches of dialogue the camera would slowly pan and move up and down the table. I found this movement more distracting than anything else. Not only that, but it made the five+ minute stretches of dialogue feel even longer. I felt that if you are confident in your dialogue you shouldn't need to lean on painfully slow pans to add some interest to the piece.

Another aspect that I found distracting throughout the whole thing, which kept me from paying attention to the story, was the continuity...or lack thereof. Throughout the entire film, the piece is battling with constant smoke filling every room. Between cigars, furnaces, lamp, etc...the stuff is everywhere. However, there were a few different part in the film where the smoke would completely disappear in an instant. In one shot a character is faced head on and he takes a puff of the cigar, and a giant plume comes out. The next shot, where less than a second has past, looks at his back towards Lincoln across the room...no smoke to be found. In another scene a we find Lincoln's son outside by a flag that's blowing in the breeze. The next shot, also where less than a second has past, we see the same flag this time looking out of a window, and it's completely still. While these things don't seem that significant in the long-run, when you have a movie that is very dialogue heavy with very long scenes, little things like that can be very distracting. My brother's girlfriend who's never taken a film class in her life also mentioned these things, so I know I can't be the only one.

I would still recommend seeing this movie. I didn't absolutely despise it, and David Strathairn's role as Seward is enough to keep the movie afloat. I do think it did a good job at giving a bit of insight to a president that many people think is one of the best presidents to have ever led America, without really knowing much about him. I just think there were some...or many things that could have been better.

A Piece of History in Two and a Half Hours

Last Saturday, my brother called and asked if my parents, my other brother, and I wanted to go see the recently released movie entitled Lincoln directed by Steven Spielberg. The rest of my family seemed very excited to go see it, and I never turn down the opportunity to go see a movie, especially one directed by such an accomplished and talented director. Besides that, I love history so I was already intrigued. So, following our usual routine we show up to the movie theater five minutes before the 6:40pm showing... and almost crash into a tall man in a heavy winter coat. The line to the ticket booth was incredibly long. As we slowly approached the counter, I realized that more and more people were buying tickets for Lincoln. Long story short, we ended up changing our tickets to the 10pm showing in order to spare our necks from the pain of having to stare up at a huge screen for about 2 and a half hours.

The theater was absolutely packed. I could only stand there in wonder. This movie has really gotten people excited, and after watching it myself I can see why. From the intricacies of Congress to his personal life, this portrayal of Lincoln and the brief span that is covered in the film was filled with rich detail. It was hard to catch it all in just one viewing. I was so impressed with the sets as well as the truly amazing talent of Daniel Day-Lewis who played Abraham Lincoln. Not to discount the rest of the cast and crew who, with all of their skill and hard work, truly made the story come alive. It was just his performance was done in such a way that captured what I would consider the essence of Lincoln. From the funny stories to the distraught husband and father, he really encompassed a complete character, right down to the walk. The cinematography was truly a work of art as well. The cuts and the camera movements themselves drew you into what was happening on the screen.

The effect of the movie was probably the best part though. I was waiting by the exit for my dad, when I overheard one woman who said she was going to go home and look up some more information on Lincoln and his family. All I could think was that this was part of the reason I wanted to go into this industry. The ability to create such a spark in people so that they leave the theater still thinking, still wondering, and better yet, actually act on that curiosity and learn something they may have never thought of before. Even my U.S. history teacher in high school, agreed that it was a great film and was pretty accurate historically (and mind you, this is no easy feat).

Needless to say, I enjoyed this film very much, and whether or not you are a history lover like myself, you should definitely go experience this wonderfully produced story. It may seem like an old one that we hear about all the time in history class, but to see it in such detail and with such strength, you may be surprised that you learned something new. I certainly was. Here is the trailer:
~Amber Capogrossi

Spielberg's Lincoln

For many years as I can remember I have always been a fan of Steven Spielberg's films including Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, E.T, Indiana Jones, Artificial Intelligence, The Goonies, and many other great films. He has been a great inspiration to me as well as many other people. He has directed, and produced some of the greatest American films that most people watch today.

His newest movie "Lincoln" stars three Academy Award winners including Daniel-Day Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens.

One reason this movie was attractive to me was because it's about Abe Lincoln, one of America's most influential presidents and surely one of my favorites. I remember as a kid in high school loving to learn about Lincoln in the Civil War and what he did to abolish slavery. This movie takes place some time near the end of the Civil War which is sometime in 1865. As the movie progresses it explores Lincoln's tactics and techniques as he works with his cabinet attempts to abolish slavery.

I also chose to post about this movie because it is another movie that is based on a true story, movies I tend to watch more than others. Like I mentioned earlier, in school, i loved learning about wars, presidents, and other moments in history. One of my favorite topics was the Civil War and how our country worked to abolish slavery in the south.

From the love of this historical moment, I am interested to learn more from this film and see it on the big screen.

Mondays. Silly.

Hope we weren't supposed to post over break. Oopsie daisy.

Well, obligatory update on the GDK: we've reserved our equipment and have everything ready for our shoot this upcoming Saturday. What will be most difficult is the shoot after that- our cast is really only available on Saturdays, and only during the afternoon, so that makes our last shoot (outdoors, off-campus) pretty time-restricted, especially since we're running out of Saturdays. But I think with some good in-class prep and some editing of what we already have, we should be okay.

I didn't watch too much TV or movies over break- I know, I'm really regretting it- but I did manage to watch a movie my dad Tivo'd for me. It was called "Always" (I think), and it was about a firefighter pilot who dies and gets sent back from Heaven to act as an unseen guide for an up-and-coming firefighter pilot. It was directed by Steven Spielberg (I'm pretty sure- my memory is really failing me right now), and the script was great. It had some really nice moments. There was a part just before the end that I wasn't sure fit very well, but overall I really liked the characters (Richard Dreyfuss plays the main guy) and the dialogue. So overall, pretty good. :)

A Wild Post Appeared!

So I was Skyping with my friend last night, and he told me to go look at Steven Spielberg's filmography on Wikipedia and see all of the titles that he's been involved in. I saw a lot of titles that I had no idea he had a hand in: he was a producer for Balto and The Goonies, director for Minority Report, and a producer for The Land Before Time. So I suggest you go look at the filmographies of your favorite director/producer/film-y person and see what crazy stuff they've been involved in. Because I never knew that Steven Spielberg had a hand in The Land Before Time, the movie with the cutest dinosaurs ever.