man with movie camera revision and props de nice

in what ways is Vertovs man with a movie camera a city symphony?

What constitutes a city symphony is sort of experimental documentary that presents a portrait of daily life within a city whilst attempting to capture something of the city's spirit, and are influenced by the form and structure of a musical symphony. City symphony is a product of constructivism which in turn is a product of modernism and expressionism. in man with a movie camera it is Vertov uses constructivism which is the belief that art should reflect the modern industrial world. Sergei einstein Vertov was described by Sergei Eisenstein as a 'film hooligan' as he uses unusual techniques labelled as 'unmotivated camera mischief', meaning without any purpose other than being experimental. The constructivist view of Vertov means he would believe that the modern Russians should reject creating art forms based on the past (mainly capitalist Russia), as it stems from the rise of communism in Russia. This is why he wants to depict the fall of the Bolshoi Theatre to the spectators, as watching theatre was the normality of the bourgeoisie, therefore it's associated it with the upper-class.

AMY REVISION

Back to Black’ Sequence 47:15-50.00 ​

Mark Ronson’s Recording Studio (March 2006) New York​

• The clip begins with the backdrop of recording equipment​

• Amy’s V/O​

• Who is she addressing?​

• Emotional investment in the songwriting process​

Camerawork: angles, shots, movement​

• Wide-angle shot, then the framing and composition of a side-shot in M.C.U singing   into the mic​

• Camera movement/ zoom- realising close-up​

• Lyrics on the screen- significance as contextual factors​

• Intimacy with spectator; intimate emotions​

Performance

• Her presence on screen​

• How she uses the space in the studio​

• Her attitude/ pose and interactions with other actors/ characters​

• What she shares with spectator off-screen in the V/O- match with her on-screen presence​

• The authenticity of her voice/ presence/ performance- is she acting/ performing? Is the real Amy? ….​

Amy essay

Apply one filmmaker's theory of documentary film you have studied to your chosen documentary. How far does this increase your understanding of the film?

In Asif Kapadia's documentary Amy, which is about the life of Amy Winehouse, Kapadia could be seen as a personal documentary filmmaker due to the many hours of archive footage he collected and edited to make the film. Kapadia shares some traits with the observational filmmaker, Kim Longinotto, where they both delve deep into the lives of their chosen projects by making the spectator feel a part of their life; both use voiceover to create a commentary on their chosen subjects; however, whilst Longinotto personally speaks in her documentary voiceover, Kapadia is silent. Therefore, there is more of a sense of distance created by Kapadia from his subject. Kapadia’s documentary speaks directly to the spectator through voiceovers of the people who were involved in the time of what was being shown. This gives more of a sense of realism rather than the filmmaker's voice-over opinion on it. This, therefore, influences the spectator to create there own new opinions on Amy and not what is just being shown. Kapadia wants the spectator to feel a certain way about Amy and does this through the archived footage he edited in certain ways. This included handheld camera footage and paparazzi footage. All of these micro features help the spectator to feel more involved with the documentary, as they create a feeling of intimacy with Amy’s ‘real’ life. Kapadia's main theme he wanted to express was that of what publicity can do to your life and what the corruption of fame does to people. 

At around the midpoint of Amy, there is a section where Amy's song Love is a Losing Game is played over a series of videos and pictures over her and Blake. The song and the images are manipulated by Kapadia as they are played as the spectator learns of the demise of their relationship and the negative, destructive effect that it had on Amy and her mental health. This section and this technique are particularly effective as Kapadia manipulates the way the spectator views Blake throughout the film, this section, in particular, portrays him as corrupt and manipulative shaping the way the spectator will continue to view Blake. Whereas Amy is shown to be more sweet and innocent compared to blake, perhaps suggested by the inclusion of the song weaved into the background of the images, it is one of her more honest and open songs and develops the idea that Blake was the negative counterpart in the relationship and was the main destructive influence on Amy. This could be seen as a further manipulation by Kapadia to give the spectator a bias against Blake as a figure, possibly diminishing the objective element of the documentary as the spectator learns more about her and her relationship with Blake. Compared to an observational filmmaker such as Kim Longinottto who has more of an objective approach. Because she is purely just observing and filming, also Longnitto spends less time editing than Kapadia. He searches for archived footage and goes through a long process of editing and cutting all the footage down into a 128-minute film. Kapadia's personal documentary-style makes Amy a more subjective film because he spends more time engineering his work. 

At the very end of the film, where Amy's death takes place, there is archived montage footage of the scene and Amy's dead body is in extreme longshot, creating an uneasy feeling that we are spying on her. The footage is outside her house with the ambulance outside alongside with the voiceover of Andrew Morris, her bodyguard. The first witness to her death, explaining how Amy told him the night before how much she hated being famous. Asif Kapadia assembled the footage and Morris’ voice to magnify how little privacy Amy actually had even on her death bed, she was filmed and photographed, showing no escape from paparazzi even after her death. Kapadia wanted the spectators to sympathise and empathise with Amy, to show her lack of control and abuse of drugs as a form of escapism from the shock of sudden fame, as well as a cry for help and a lack of hope. Kapadia style of personal documentary depicts Amy in a certain way, as spectators we are compelled to sympathise with Amy, through the interviews with Amy loved ones as well as compelling montages of Amy being her charismatic self, but we are also forced to see her at her worse. Therefore at the end of the film, we are left to our own devices of judgment on Amy Winehouse but we are encouraged to feel sorry for her due to Kapadia's personal documentary style. To compare Kapadia’s work with that of another filmmaker, Longinotto and her observational style, Kapadia’s film seems more subjective because he takes more time manipulating his work; more process has gone into influencing spectator response, making it more subjective and leaning favour towards Amy.

in conclusion, my understanding of film has increased because the comparison I made between Longinottos observational style showed how it differs from Kapadia's style in Amy and that allowed me to become more aware of the big spectrum of the documentary film differs as a whole. As well as to evaluate to what extent can documentary can actually be objective rather than subjective, and how far Kapadia successfully illustrates Amy in an objective light. and how Kapadia illustrated to me how the editing processes differed to make a different ending result of the film.

REVISION city of god and panslabrynnth

exam question : Explore how aesthetic qualities canbe  used to enrich meaning in city of god.

In the city of God foot shooting scene, Meirelles uses aesthetic qualities such as cinematography and mise-en-scene to present the themes of violence and power and how they manifest themself into the Rio de Janeiro slums. Cinematography played a big role in how the characters were portrayed, especially the fast pace handheld camera, gives the sense of chaos and unpredictability of the camera is aligned with the unpredictability of steaks decisions making on whether or not he should shoot the young boy. As well as the extreme closeups on the 2 boys distressed faces this gave the effect of claustrophobia and allows the spectator to sympathize with the children's sense of fear. It then transitions to a high canted angle shot of the gang interrogating the boys this angle gives the effect of a CCTV camera this amplifies the crime that's about being committed. Because it replicates the evidence that may be used against them. Aesthetically, the handheld camera shots, combined with the high-angles and the over-saturated, grainy look of the film, imbuing it with a documentary feel, almost as if it is war reportage.

Another key scene that has distinctive aesthetic qualities in the city of god is the opening montage scene and 360 shot of the rocket.  The opening scene introduces the audience to the film and gives us visual signifiers of what's to come. The first opening shot depicts an extreme closeup of a kitchen knife being sharpened, we see this image intercut a few times. This successfully introduces the idea of violence. A knife is seen as an everyday object so its evident that violence is going to be a recurring theme in this film. in terms of colour, it's very cold with a range of blues and greys, making up the colour palette. The opening scene uses "colour isolation" in a couple of shots, this is when only one colour is present and the other colours are dulled down almost to monochrome. This is especially evident when a young female is cutting a carrot. The orange colour of the carrot is extremely vivid and portrays the idea of freshness as well as the mass killings of the chicken was in vivid colour this sets up the assumption that they're in an urban setting, and that its a cold and unfriendly place. However, there are several displays of rich vivid colour in the opening scene, for example, the spices. this is a representation of the more traditional side of Brazil, but its use more to show us that it's not your typical representation that will be shown. These aesthetic qualities help contribute to the overall effect of the film on the spectator because of the give a snapshot of what the basis of what the film will be about.

Also, the 360-degree shot reflects a time-jump, as the camera winds around rocket anti-clockwise to represent, going back in time and a representation of rocket feeling trapped. As time rewinds we see a rocket in the sixties with a yellow saturation instead of the blue which was originally in the present Rio de Janeiro. Yellow aesthetically is deemed to be a happy colour and connotes a calmer time in the favelas. Meirelles uses filters to indicate the passing of time. Meirelles uses his cinematographic skills to represent the poverty and the true reality of the city of God through the grittiness and the use of natural light this perhaps signifies the poverty in the slums and the lack of electricity, furthermore, this demonstrates how the aesthetic qualities in the city of god can contribute to the overall feel it has on the spectator.






PANS LABYRINTH

PALE MANE SEQUENCE:

It is the underworld, literally because Ofelia has to go down to reach the pale man and enter the catholic

church to find the table similar to vidals table. there are historic references of the dark repercussions of war such as the holocaust, this is evident with the pile of children shoes.del toro does this to show that all wars end in disaster and suffering and how history repeats itself, so will the Spanish civil war that vidal (the facists) are currently fighting will end in unrsolved pain and suffering.  this underworld where the pale man is parallel to vidals world e.g military and the church. it symbolises how Vidal and his army, as well as the Spanish catholic church concealed identity, is dark and monstrous and that they cause much pain and suffering this is highlighted through how Ophelia tries to take food from the feast on the table, but she is not able to eat it, because punishment will follow. this symbolises how war is a time of rationing and the church possesses all the food(money) but not willing to share it. Del toro uses the pale man sequence as a microcosm to represent the greed and dark hidden world of the church and the Spanish civil war.

the irritable noices of the fairies add to the tension to the scene when ophelia attempts to take a grape, also the shallow depth of field is evident when ophelia attempt to eat the grape whilst the pale  man sneaks behind her, creeping up on her without her being aware.This shows that the punishment of eating food from the table which repersents the riches greed consequently means the punishment is the paleman eating you, this is evident with the pile of shoes of paleman last victims who fell for the trap,this thereofre symbolises how the poor and less fortunate succumb to temptation and are always in the hands of the rich who hold power over them. But ophelia is able to get away .