I'm not meaning to copy Hey Harriet with today's post, I've actually been trying to finish publishing a film blog for a while.
After almost seven years I started college again this year, and I'm taking my Berklee College of Music credits and applying them to film music/ film production.
so I've been killing several birds with one stone (the murder of a murder crows I guess). By watching french classics like the "Ballon Rouge" by Albert Lamorisse
(so good, I'm writing a separate post for it) or "Le qautre-cent coups" (The 400 Blows) by Francois Truffaut, I've been catching up on my french and enjoying my main obsession, which has been films/film music.
This is a scene from the 400 blows that made me laugh out loud. The main character sneaks out of school with his classmate and they have a some Parisian fun. I can't help but smile at the children in this scene as we watch them watch a play:
I go to the library weekly and check out 3 movies. So far I've gotten Psycho, Stranger's on a Train, Harold & Maude, the 400 Blows, Sunset Boulevard, Royal Tennenbaums, Citizen Kane, Steve Zissou, and The Third Man. I also have this book called "Cinematic Story Telling: the 100 film conventions every film maker should know." It shows all the important ways film can convey drama, emotion, language, etc. without words, then it gives a film example of each one, as well as the screenplay and accompanying shots from the film that exemplify this. For instance, in The Graduate, when Hoffman's character is running to stop his girlfriend's wedding, they use a telepohoto lens to add drama, because this type of lens flattens an image, causing him to look as though he is not really getting anywhere as he runs toward the foreground. A wide-angle lens, on the other hand, would have made him seem to run forward very rapidly.
After almost seven years I started college again this year, and I'm taking my Berklee College of Music credits and applying them to film music/ film production.
so I've been killing several birds with one stone (the murder of a murder crows I guess). By watching french classics like the "Ballon Rouge" by Albert Lamorisse
(so good, I'm writing a separate post for it) or "Le qautre-cent coups" (The 400 Blows) by Francois Truffaut, I've been catching up on my french and enjoying my main obsession, which has been films/film music.This is a scene from the 400 blows that made me laugh out loud. The main character sneaks out of school with his classmate and they have a some Parisian fun. I can't help but smile at the children in this scene as we watch them watch a play:
I go to the library weekly and check out 3 movies. So far I've gotten Psycho, Stranger's on a Train, Harold & Maude, the 400 Blows, Sunset Boulevard, Royal Tennenbaums, Citizen Kane, Steve Zissou, and The Third Man. I also have this book called "Cinematic Story Telling: the 100 film conventions every film maker should know." It shows all the important ways film can convey drama, emotion, language, etc. without words, then it gives a film example of each one, as well as the screenplay and accompanying shots from the film that exemplify this. For instance, in The Graduate, when Hoffman's character is running to stop his girlfriend's wedding, they use a telepohoto lens to add drama, because this type of lens flattens an image, causing him to look as though he is not really getting anywhere as he runs toward the foreground. A wide-angle lens, on the other hand, would have made him seem to run forward very rapidly.
Another common device is te have protagonists enter left to right because it is the direction we read and move our eyes in the most, and an antagonists do the opposite, because, subconsciously, it is a mild irritant to move our eyes right to left. You can see this in the beginning of Hitchock's Strangers on a Train.
Interesting about the left to right and right to left entrances...will have to start noticing that.
ReplyDeleteI love The Red Balloon. Watched it a few months back for the first time in years. Really brought me back. Isn't that the best looking balloon ever? So big and perfectly round.
How cool that we're both thinking of, & loving French films at the same time! I loved The 400 Blows, but haven't seen it for ages. I'm going to track it down again to watch. I haven't seen the Ballon Rouge, so I'm looking forward to your post about it. Wonderful post, as always! :)
ReplyDeleteOnce again- why are French children cuter than your average bear? I am in Paris again and I keep thinking if I could just stay a year I could get the language... but alas, I shall return to LA and work on my Spanish (also a good goal).
ReplyDelete*Enters from the right*
ReplyDeleteI do very much need to catch up on my French films!
Speaking of films, what's the status on zee cops and robbers? I didn't miss the premiere of the Amy and Glenn stop motion spectacular in my blogging absence, did I?
Also, thanks for your and your inanimate companions' concern about my absence. I have freed myself from avocados at last!
Update for both Glenn and Heather...I am almost finished with cop. So now I can get cop to Glenny soon and we can make a video.
ReplyDeleteGlenn, we're going to have to come up with a plan. what shall we do?
I tried to make a shortie stop motion. I suck. Cop didn't have the lower part of his legs either, that might help. Should I draw scenery too? Oh dear...