Ellis Parsley TV and Film Blog

 

Episode 1: Birth of the Cinema What was the episode about? The episode was about the creation of cinema and how it has progressed from 1895 to 1920 and showed us what the first film was about in 1895 and also how it was created, the people who were behind it and the people who starred in them. Editing was also talked about, involving who created it and how it was created.  What have you learned? I have learnt that money does not drive movies, ideas do and that it is hard to tell what will connect with an audience, empathy and sympathy play a big part in the movies. The Lumiere Brothers created the worlds first film camera by being inspired by a sewing machine and that it became illegal to film so they went to Hollywood. When Lumiere's film first came out with a train, the audience thought it was coming out of the screen towards them. Lastly, I learnt many types of editing and the fact that editing was discovered by a machine malfunction, like a magic trick. 

This is a clip from The Impossible, this shows the emotional scene where a family are reunited after a treacherous journey which befell them after a tsunami. Editing Analysis Gradually throughout the video, the shots and cuts start of longer and gradually get shorter building up tension due to its quickness to emphasize that it is not slowing down. A simple cut transition is mainly used in this clip. Firstly, we see the mother looking towards something behind the camera, a motivated edit, which then cuts to the shadow of what we assume to be the son behind a curtain. The son hesitates to leave, but finally does and there is a long pause onto the mother to create empathy towards her character. Parallel editing enforces the on-edge feeling as all of the family are near the same hospital making the viewer anxious and hoping that they will reunite, this is amplified by the fact that they can be viewed on the same shot transitioning (where the camera's focus switches to each cha...

What was the documentary about? This documentary is about how movies in general and how we shoot movies are changing and have changed, from the transformation from film to digital, which some people are against and others are all for, like George Lucas who is enthusiastic about it changing. It went through the way we used cameras and editing, then to how it has progressed through the years and how it will progress in the future. And the big question 'Is the time for film ending?' What did I learn from it? Our filming is changing from film to digital. One person said that if you do not go with the times, your time has ended, telling us that you need to follow progress because if you don't, you will stay in the same position you was yesterday.

Strengths: Our film was original and creative as it used up most of the weirdness of dreams and the way dreams go. Secondly, the scene in the darkroom was my favourite part to watch as the sound effects fit well with the aura of the room and the shot where the candle was seemed very appealing to the eye. We worked very hard to compromise in our project as we faced some hurdles, but the best part was that we were able to make it make follow a path or storyline which was closest to our original idea. Weaknesses: The weaknesses of our depict entry are that we did not have enough time to complete our filming (we also had to cut some parts to make our film seem more logical) due to the fact we thought 'too big' and didn't take into account our schedule. Next time, I will help to come up with a simpler idea and think ahead. Secondly, the storyline needed to make more sense and have fewer actors needed that took up too much time and it was harder to complete more important t...