Robb Oler’s Hum210 Blog

I found this source that I thought was pretty interesting about the reading. It wasn’t about the chapter but it had some interesting information about actors and what they could expect in the business.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos093.htm#training

When reading the Talent II I was fascinated at how much of a change has accrued since the 50’s. I did not realize that the studio had set wages and contracts that lasted years and could be cancelled at the discretion of the studio if the actor/ actress was not bringing people to the box office. I believe that it has definitely improved the industry to let actors and actresses freelance. It is the old rule that the harder you work the more you get paid definitely shows in cinema. Of course it helps to be pretty or handsome, but the real moneymakers are the ones who put every effort into their character and give a presence of real life. The actors and actresses that can adapt to the changing times and not be set in a certain role are the ones that the fans are going to keep seeing. One part of the chapter that I really like was when it talked about Tom Hanks on page 129, It talks about how the studios will support an amateur director in his first film (pretty much knowing that it probably wont be a box office hit) like That Thing You Do ($25.8 million) but because of his starring roles in Saving Private Ryan ($479.3 million) and Castaway ($229.2 million) which is what really mattered to the studios, will support him.

The movie that I watch was Top Gun with Tom Cruise. I picked this movie one because it is an awesome movie and two because this is when Tom Cruise started to write his own ticket. He has been in previous movies like Outsiders and All the Right Moves, but when Top Gun hit the theaters everybody knew who Tom Cruise was and it wasn’t a scientologist. He brought a character to the screen that made the women’s hearts pitter pat and made all the men want to become navel pilots. As a matter of fact the rate of enlistments in the Navy following that movie skyrocketed for the next two years.

The movie is basically what I was just talking about. It is about a Navel aviator named Maverick (Tom Cruise) who is a fly by the seat of his pants pilot that has all the right skills to be the best, but doesn’t always play by the rules. When Maverick and his reel Goose (Anthony Edwards) get there dream shot to go to Top Gun, which is a aviator school for the best of the best. Along the way Maverick falls for his instructor Charlie (Kelly Mcgillis) and had in the air boxing matches with Iceman (Val Kilmer). This movie has something for everybody and has shown that Tom Cruise defiantly was an up and coming actor and to date he is one of the top paid actors.

I responded to Denise Bedwell

http://www.dbedwell.uniblogs.org/

Heidi Wilhite

http://hwilhite.uniblogs.org/

Nora Martinez

http://nmartinez.uniblogs.org/ 

I really enjoyed the reading The Talent. I was surprised by how much film school played a role in coming out of directors. I do believe if it was not for a lot of the directors they mentioned in this chapter there would not be such a high bar for films today.

The director that I choose for my report is going to be Mel Gibson. I have always enjoyed him as an actor, but as a director I hope to find out more about how he directs. He has only made three movies Man Without A Face, Braveheart and Passion of Christ. Mel Gibson has made his mark as an actor and now has shown his talents behind the camera. I am hoping to learn his inspiration and different techniques that he uses in making his films.

The three individual film elements that I researched were Lighting, Film Stock, and Zoom Lens.

The page that I furled for Lighting talked about a basic lighting setup, which is called the Three Point Lighting. This setup can give your images more depth and clarity. The three types are the Key Light, Fill Light, and Back Light. The page also shows pictures to show how each is used and the final project when they are all put together.

http://www.stormforcepictures.com/theshoot-basicsoffilmlighting.php

The next page I researched was about Film Stock. The page I found told a lot about film stock. It was news to me about all the different type of film stock out there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_stock

The next page was about Zoom Lens. The page that I found was a general description of the zoom lens. It talks about the use of a zoom lens and what type of situation were it would be beneficial to use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_lens

In the recourse that I found for Scareface it manly talks about the story of the film and the sequences from the beginning to the end. But it does dabble a little on De Palma’s entry into a territory he has not explored. It was also a first for him in another sense; here he was part of a collaborative team on a picture designed to showcase its star, in this case Al Pacino. It also explains how it was one of his least personal efforts, while others consider it a masterpiece.

 
http://www.briandepalma.net/scarface/scar.htm

 
I found recourse for The Untouchables that I thought was a good explanation of the movie. It talks about to defeat evil sometimes it means playing by it rules, which is very true for this film. It also talks about how Elliott Ness’s own memoirs, how the movie is more legend than fact. One fact that surprised me that is when De Palma made this movie in 1987 he hit a level in the movie industry that he would not see again until 1996 with Mission Impossible
 
http://www.briandepalma.net/utch/utch.htm

 
On the resource that I found for Apocalypse Now was one that tells a lot more than the movie ever could. It took 3 years to make and was filmed in the Philippines. It’s initial budget was 12 million and the final cost rose to 31 million. The original version was 6 hours long and had to be severely edited for the theaters. It also encounters a typhoon named Olga and a near- fatal heart attack for star Martin Sheen.
 
http://www.filmsite.org/apoc.html
 
The resource that I found for American Graffiti talks about George Lucas and the shooting of the film. It was shot mainly at night and was done in less than a month. The film was Lucas’s memories of his own teenage years. With this movie he joined the ranks of Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola, who also produced American Graffiti, as a new breed of directors.
 
http://www.filmsite.org/amerg.html
 
 
 

The two directors that I pick to review movies on were Brian De Palma and Francis Ford Coppola.
            The films that I chose for Brian De Palma were Scareface and The Untouchables. The two films that I chose for Francis ford Coppola were Apocalypse Now and American Graffiti.
 
            The first time I saw Scareface was years ago and it was as good today as it was then. Brian De Palma did an excellent job of showing us the rise and fall of a man searching for what he thought was the “American Dream”, money and power. Well even that it would be nice to have those, but at what cost. The movie is about Tony Montana (Al Pachino) and Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer) two friends that were prisoners in Cuba. Jimmy Carter allowed refugees from Cuba to come to America, but along with the refugees Castro also sent a bunch of prisoners to the U.S., which began the Cuban Crime Wave. They both had a dream to make America theirs. The bases of the movie revolved around cocaine and the drug empire. From buying to selling to doing it was all there. He who has the most cocaine has the most money, and with the most money comes the most power. As you watch this movie you see a small time thug move his way up the criminal ladder losing friend and killing anyone that will prevent him from having it all. From crocked cops to backstabbing colleges, Tony Montana is a man that will settle for nothing less than everything
            

When watching the Untouchables you can’t but think that it is an absolute classic. These three words describe this masterpiece. De Palma and his top notch cast give us what we want. An intense drama about good and bad. A awesome performance by Connery (Jim Malone) an Irish-American cop with a knowledge of the underworld and how to stop it. Kevin Costner (Elliott Ness) delivers a great buy the book Treasury Agent hell bent on stopping Capone (Robert De Niro). With the help of two other agents Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith) and George Stone (Andy Garcia) they take on the mob with any means possible.

            Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola’s war is probably the most craziest war film I have ever seen. Capt. Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is a Vietnam soldier who is assigned to head a very dangerous and highly classified mission into Cambodia to kill one of his own Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a highly ranked and highly regarded army man who seemingly has gone completely insane and defected from the army, setting up his own society and helped by a bunch of people who think he is a God. Escorting him up the river to Cambodia are a handful of navy men, one of them being a young Laurence Fishburne (Tyrone Miller), and along the way, they encounter several interesting people (the best is Robert Duvall’s Kilgore, a love for surfing lieutenant colonel with a few screws loose) and some horrifying situations.
           

Although it was directed by George Lucas, Francis Ford Copala produced it, which some the of the directors did for others back then. American Graffiti is the best film about teenagers. It actually has a point, unlike the other teenage films where all that they do is get drunk and party. American Graffiti is about different types of teenagers doing different things on the last night that they all have together in 1962 after graduating. They all actually learn about themselves and what they want to do with their lives. One of the older teenagers, Curt (Richard Dreyfuss), is planning on leaving the next day. Steve (Ron Howard) is trying to work out his relationship with Laurie Henderson (Cindy Williams), while John (Paul Le Mat and Terry (Charles Martin Smith) have their own dates for the night. American Graffiti is a wonderful film on many levels. It is both funny and serious. At first I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy it, but I am glad I was wrong.

I responded to the postings of Nora M.

  http://nmartinez.uniblogs.org/2006/02/24/reflection-on-the-reading-and-the-viewing-m3/#comments

  And Heidi W.

  http://hwilhite.uniblogs.org/

  And Denise B.

 http://dbedwell.uniblogs.org/2006/02/24/reflections-on-the-readings-and-the-movies/#comments

  Some of the things that I learned when writing in the blog’s was different opinions that people have. Lot of the times they are the same, but will have a different perspective. I like seeing the different web pages that people research.

  The reading assignment was informative, but like I said in my reflection it just isn’t that interesting to me. It was news to me that the foreign film had such a grip on the U.S. prior to WWI, and how it significantly went down after U.S. took the reigns.

When finding a resource for settings I came across an article for people wanting to learn more info on movies. The article talks about finding a setting that will fit the movies budget. When finding a setting you have to make sure you will have appropriate sound. You don’t want a location that is to close to a freeway that will draw out the sound. The setting also has to be along with the picture that is being made. Most states have guides or directories listing production services available to filmmakers interested in shooting in their cities. The state film commissions to encourage productions to use local businesses to help the state’s economy usually put out the guides. In my opinion the setting is a vital role in movies for it gives the audience a sense of being there a putting themselves in the subject matter.

Works Cited

Filmmaking for Dummies: Picking Locations for Your Film. http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-2162.html

When finding a resource for casting I found some information on Wikipedia.com. The information talked about casting as the job of selecting the actors, dancers, singers, or other talent for a live or recorded performance. It typically involves auditions before a panel that may include the production’s producer, director and choreographer. In the early stages of the process, the candidate performers may present prepared audition pieces such as monologs or songs. Major productions that need to fill hundreds or even thousands of roles may use a casting director and a specialized staff; the last word remains with the director and producer. Casting of celebrity performers takes direct contact with the director. When it comes to casting picking the right person for the job can make or break the film. Even though the actors are very talented, certain people fill certain roles better.

Works Cited

Wikipedia: Casting. (2005) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casting_Directors

On the resource I found was a review about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon I found that it was informational about taking about the movie. In the article it mentions how the movie resembles “Bruce Lee meets Jane Austen”and how that was how Ang Lee pitched his movie. Crouching Tiger actually belongs to a genre in Chinese literature and film called Wuxia. These fantasy fictions told of 19th century warriors with martial arts skills that included superhuman strength and speed, and the ability to defy gravity. The rest of the article talks about the opinion of the writer , but has a great insight to the movie and how the audience will see it.

Works Cited

Chan, Al. Couching Tiger, hidden Dragon (review). MusicOMH.com. http://www.musicomh.com/films/crouching.htm

On a resource that I found for Lord of the Rings it is an article mainly about the author Tolkien. Tolkien was a student at Oxford University where he finished his degree and then joined the Lancashore Fusilliers as a secound lieutenenant. In 1916 Tolkien was sent to France, where he and his fellow soldiers faced the new mechanisms of modern warfare—machine guns, tanks, and poison gas—fighting in some of the bloodiest battles known to human history. Tolkien fought in the Battle of the Somme, a vicious engagement in which over a million people were either killed or wounded. During the war it said that Tolkien began writing the horrors of war that would later surface in the Lord of the Rings. “An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience,” Tolkien acknowledged, but he denied that his story was an allegory for World War I or II. When reading this article and realizing what Tolkien went through it does have a lot of similaries to WWI and WWII when it comes to world domination and others trying to fight it.

Works Cited

National Geographic.com. Lord of the Rings: Author and History. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/influences.html