When taking this class there was a dual purpose behind it. One was to get my general credits that I needed for my degree and the second was to learn more about something that I have always enjoyed, Movies. I definitely have learned more than I thought I would. To tell you the truth I thought that we were going to just watch movies and write a review. Even thought that was part of it, the reading really gave me a better understanding of how cinema came to be and where it is going.
I knew that it took a lot of different things to make a movie but I never knew that is was this much. I mean you have a producers, directors, actors, actresses, camera, casting, lighting, sound, equipment people, costumes, special effects, ect…All these people make the whole production come alive. Even though there are some people who get all the credit, everyone who is involved in the movie gets credit.
Directors are responsible for the casting, editing, shot selection, shot composition, and script editing of a film. They are the creative source behind a movie, and must communicate to actors on the way a particular shot is to be played. Directors usually have artistic control over all aspects of a film.
Producers are in charge of a movie’s production in all matters, except for the creative efforts of the Director. The Producer is also responsible for raising funds, hiring key personnel, and arranging for distribution.
Screenwriters adapt existing works for production into a movie, or create a new screenplay to be filmed.
Cinematographer is a person who has expertise in the art of capturing images either electronically or on film through the use of visual recording devices. Also responsible for the selection and arrangement of lighting. The Director of Photography is the movie’s chief Cinematographer.
All of these jobs are pretty much the hub of the movie. The most glorified and I hate to say the most important is the actors. Even though the true art is behind the senses the actors are the ones who bring life to the parts. And the better the actor or popular the actor the more seats will fill at the box office. To me acting is an art that can take years to master for some and for others they were just born to act, but today’s movies are more about the mighty buck. Even in the Oscars who are the award to reward great acting is all about dollars.
This course has taught me to broaden my outlook on movies; I was mainly an action junky with an occasional comedy thrown in there for a laugh. Even though I still love action movies I do have more of a respect for dramas and love stories. In these movies I believe the true actors come out and show what the have. They are not playing second to special effects or crazy stunts; they are putting their hearts and souls into their work. This is something that I never would have realized without taking this class. My love for movies will always be important to me because for me it is a chance to get away and sort of daydream. It gives people a chance to go places that they may never get to. To see people that they may never see. To experience laughter, love, suspense, and fear through the big screen. For me it is like a two-hour vacation to recharge my batteries and forget about the day-to-day grind. This class has taught me to experience that in different ways and different areas.
Mel Gibson – Actor to Director
Though introduced to American audiences as Australian, Mel Gibson was born on January 3, 1956, in Peekskill, New York, as the sixth of eleven children to parents Hutton Gibson, a railroad brakeman, and Ann Gibson, who was born in Australia and died in December of 1990. (The family had emigrated Down Under in 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War.) Gibson appeared in high school plays and loved acting, but went to work at an orange juice bottling company after graduating. Until his sister Sheila, going behind his back, filled out an application for him, and he was accepted at the University of New South Wales. After a season onstage with Sydney’s South Australian Theatre Company where he portrayed both Oedipus and Henry IV, he made his name as the leather-clad, post-apocalyptic action hero of George Miller’s Mad Max and in the radically different Tim (both 1979), for which he picked up his first of two Australian Film Institute Awards as Best Actor, playing a retarded handyman in love with Piper Laurie. Peter Weir’s World War I drama Gallipoli and Mad Max 2 (both 1981), Miller’s transcendent follow-up to Mad Max (released in the USA as The Road Warrior since American audiences knew nothing of the barely-released earlier movie), established Gibson as an international star. The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Weir’s film about the political upheavals of 1960s Indonesia, gave him his first romantic lead opposite Sigourney Weaver and launched him as a sex symbol and the beginning of an astonishing career.
Gibson got his start directing the sentimental drama The Man Without a Face (1993) in which he also stared as a lead role. It’s a story of trust, friendship and tolerance with exceptional performances by all but especially by the two leads, Nick Stahl and Mel Gibson.
In the movie Man Without a Face twelve-year-old Chuck (Nick Stahl) is an emotionally troubled, lonely boy who longs to know the truth about a father who his mother (Margaret Whitton) and older sister (Fay Masterson) never talk about. Because he is so unhappy at home, he decides to take the entrance exam to a military boarding school. The problem is that Chuck is academically deficient and in need of a tutor. He finds one in the most unlikely of people: Justin McLeod (Mel Gibson), who once was a gifted teacher. With half of his face badly scarred as the result of a hideously disfiguring accident, in which a close friend and pupil of his, burned to death. An accident, which also cost him three years imprisonment and his license to teach. McLeod is regarded as the local outcast, and is feared and mocked by all. Chuck keeps his tutoring a secret from his mother for fear she will stop it. McLeod has lived in the community for seven years and is always the subject of gossip at cocktail parties where there is much speculation about his past and wild and vicious rumors are concocted. As their trust and friendship develops, McLeod slowly reveals the truth of his past to Chuck who sees in him the father figure he craves. All is shattered when their tutoring arrangement is discovered and misunderstood.
In only Gibson’s second directorial start he also produced and starred as historical hero William Wallace in the swords-and-Scotsmen epic Braveheart (1995), for which Gibson took home Oscars for best director and best picture.
The story of Braveheart begin with William Wallace as a young Scottish lad growing up in the late 13th century when his father is killed during an armed rebellion against the British oppressor ruling their country. Adopted by his uncle he is taught to use his brain before using his fists, exposed to the cultures of the world, and grows to be a very educated man. Upon returning to his native land Wallace (Mel Gibson) meets up with his childhood sweetheart and expresses the desire to farm, start a family, and live in peace. Longshanks (Patrick Mcgoohan) believes that there is a problem with Scotland… it is full of Scots. Therefore, he devises a plan to get more English lords to reside there and at the same time breed out the Scots. The plan is to grant Prima Nocta to the English lords. That is, the lords can sleep with any girl in their district on her wedding night. In order to avoid this, Wallace and the love of his life, Murron (Catherine McCormack), are married in secret. Shortly after some English guards treat her like a bride. Her husband Wallace rescues her and once he thinks that she has made a safe escape, he goes to meet her. Unfortunately she did not escape after all and, in an attempt to lure Wallace out of hiding, is executed by the magistrate. In revenge Wallace kills the magistrate, and with the help of some neighbors, and neighboring clans, burns down the garrison where the lord of the district resides. This small spark starts the flames of rebellion that one day leads to the freedom of Scotland.
Not much is known about Wallace, known as Braveheart, except that according to an old epic poem, he unified the clans of Scotland and won famous battles against the English before being captured, tortured and executed as a traitor.
It can’t be stressed enough how magnificent this film is, especially in light of the fact that it was only the second film directed by Mel Gibson. Gibson shows an incredible feeling for the battle scenes. The movie is exceptionally well balanced between the romance and the violence. The sheer logistics of the film’s gigantic battle sequences alone would drive a veteran director insane, and yet under Gibson’s care, the film feels stable even when nothing seems so onscreen.
In his third directorial undertaking Mel Gibson’s The Passion Of The Christ is a film about the last twelve hours of Jesus of Nazareth’s life. The movie deals with Christ’s sacrifice and love for mankind as well as his suffering and death.
Sometime around the year A.D. 30, in the Roman province of Palestine, an obscure Jewish carpenter named Jesus of Nazareth began to teach publicly and to proclaim the coming of a ‘Kingdom of God.’ For centuries, the Jewish people had expected the appearance of a promised deliverer known as the Messiah –a figure who would restore their ancient dignity and free their sacred homeland from all evil and despair. In the minds of many, Jesus appeared to be this Messiah. Surrounded by a core group of twelve disciples, Jesus began to attract a massive following from among the common people of Galilee and Judea, who eventually praised him as their Messiah and King. However, Jesus also had many enemies in Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin, a governing senate composed of the leading Jewish priests and Pharisees, conspired to put Jesus to death. With the aid of Judas Iscariot, a member of Jesus’ own inner circle, the Sanhedrin succeeded in arresting Jesus, handing him over to the Roman secular authorities on unsubstantiated charges of treason against Rome. Although Jesus consistently maintained that his Kingdom was a heavenly and spiritual one, the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate, faced with the possibility of a riot, ordered that Jesus be taken outside the city and crucified as a common criminal.
Mel Gibson’s goal was to create the “most realistic” film about Jesus ever made. And his desire was to channel his personal views as an ultraconservative Catholic regarding humanity’s greatest example of fear and arrogance. The debate of whether he achieved this goal is better left to theologians and perhaps to those that share his evangelical Christian faith. The Passion was Gibson’s longtime pet project, and when the major studios expressed no interest, Gibson produced the film with $25-30-million of his own money. Nonetheless, this film is a wonderful testament to Gibson’s skill as a gifted director.
Married to Robyn Moore since 1980 and father of 7 children: daughter, Hannah (born 1980); twin sons, Edward and Christian (born 1982); son, (born 1985); daughter, Louis (born 1988); son, Milo (born 1990); son, Tommy (born 1999). Mel Gibson is described by colleagues as a consummate actor, practical joker, highly disciplined and a man of serious personal convictions with a deep Christian faith. Gibson has proved himself as a top actor and with the job his done on only three films his future as a director is just as certain.
Mel Gibson – Bibliography
Maltin, Leonard. “Biography for Mel Gibson”. 1994. IMDb. 14 April 2006
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000154/bio
Willis, D. “Mel Gibson Biography”. tiscali.film & tv. 14 April 2006
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/biographies/mel_gibson_biog/8
Nix. “Braveheart”. (1995). Beyondhollywood.com. 14 April 2006
http://www.beyondhollywood.com/reviews/braveheart.htm
“Sir William Wallace”. 1996. Highlanderweb.co.uk. 14 April 2006
http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/wallace/
“Mel Gibson’s Face”. Truthorfiction.com. 14 April 2006
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/m/manwithnoface.htm
Gerrs, Nat 1994. M. Gibson & M. MacRury: “The Man Without a Face”. Ellopos. 14
April 2006
http://www.ellopos.net/education/writersword_face.htm
Galloway, Stephen 15 November 2004. “Innovator of the Year: Mel Gibson.”
Hollywoodreporter.com. 14 April 2006
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/film/feature_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000719418
“Passion of Christ”. 2004. IMDb. 14 April 2006
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335345/
I replied to Denise B.
http://www.dbedwell.uniblogs.org/
Kari V.
http://kvosika.uniblogs.org/
Diane C.
http://dcantalupo.uniblogs.org/
I really enjoyed this module. First of all we got to watch Pirates of the Caribbean and also learning about Theme Parks in the readings and how many rides are based off movies. Reading some of the blog entries I was amazed at how many people put the movie and the ride together. I guess it is one of those things I am going to have to see myself.
I found this website for Pirates of the Caribbean, even though it does not have much to do with the movie it talks about the history of pirates. Most of you probably won’t enjoy it, but I have always liked pirates ever since I was a wee little lad. The best part was the facts, legends, and myths.
http://blindkat.hegewisch.net/pirates/pirates.html
This was a great article on movie downloads. It may make some of us feel a little older and some might not understand how we managed back a few years. It was interesting to see the years certain things came out. Pong, what a great game!
http://movies.monstersandcritics.com/features/article_1152330.php/Movie_downloads_an_evolutionary_idea?page=1
In this weeks reading I enjoyed reading about the future of cinema. Although it was no surprise about how DVD has taking over with its ease of use and the amount of information and extras that can be put on one dual layered disk. The information about the theme parks was very interesting. I was amazed at how many visitors travel to these parks every day let alone year. They were saying that 200 million customers a year visit amusement parks. 2000 people an hour for the Jaws experience, 2300 for Terminator 2:3D, and 2400 for Twister. That is huge dollars being generated for a 5 to 10 minute experience. If it weren’t for those movies doing so well in the box office and people being emotional involved with the characters, there is no way that many people would be traveling to these parks. With all the technology surrounding cinema there is nothing that cannot be done, I just hope that they don’t go to far that they forget how it all started.
What can you say about Pirates of the Caribbean, fantastic movie! I have seen this movie many of times and it is just as good the last time as it was the first. Johnny Depp does an exceptional job in this film as Jack Sparrow. His demeanor, facial, and body expressions really made the movie come alive. I have always enjoyed Walt Disney movies whether they are cartoons, animated, or real life they always produce a movie that everyone can enjoy. With II and III being filmed right now the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy will definitely be in the Walt Disney vault for years to come.
I replied to Nora M,
http://nmartinez.uniblogs.org/
Sarah P.
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And Jeanne D
The drafts that I responded to was Sarah P,
http://spolingyumptewa.uniblogs.org/
And Heidi W
http://hwilhite.uniblogs.org/
I did enjoy this module more than others because I am a huge Star Wars fan and enjoy watching those movies any chance I get. I do prefer the older ones than the new ones just because they rely on digital too much. I learned a lot about how digital is used and how often.
This article I found was a little have the beat and path. It talks about Attack of the Clones and the other movies in the Star Wars saga, but it centers on the musical score of the films. John Williams who was the producer in the movies 25 years ago is the same producer that is doing the newer films. Anyone who has enjoyed the Star Wars movies knows that the music plays a huge part in the saga.
http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/attack_clones.html
The web page that I found was one about Digital Cinema 101. It talks about the difference of digital and film. It also discusses whether the directors prefer digital to film and how it brings the movie to the screen the way that the director intended.
http://www.dlp.com/dlp_cinema/dlp_cinema_digital_cinema_101.asp
The reading this week was interesting to me for the reason that I did not realize how much digital was involved in Hollywood productions. It is in basically every movie now and days. Whether you are watching a science-fiction movie or an every day real life movie there is some sort of digital technology. With digital technology anything is possible with the right people and enough money. There are so many different techniques that are used and when you combine those you end up with a vision that is second to none.
I have always loved the Star Wars episodes ever since I was a little kid. I might be a little out of line but when watching Attack of the Clones I still think that the special effects that Lucas used more than 20 years ago was better than what was used in the new Star Wars. Sometimes I believe that movies now and days depend too much on technology and step away from the story being told. Other than that the movie was very good and I do enjoy seeing how Anikin Skywalker became Darth Vader.
