Three inspirational films from our teachers extensive DVD collection

After pitching our film, our teacher had a better understanding about what we wanted to produce (suggesting the pitch went well!!) and she found us three films from her endless collection of DVD's to watch, which had some similar elements which we suggested in our pitch but as well as this, she gave us two films that are based around different cultures. One is Apocalypto, directed by Mel Gibson a very famous film director chooses to film Apocalypto in Yucatec Maya language which distances the audience from the film because you are clueless to what they are saying, yes you can add subtitles but the way that the film is professionally directed utilizing techniques which make the visual narrative stand out and tell the story more enables the audience to watch the film and follow the film easily but due to the language barrier the audience imagination becomes part of the viewing experience which both me and Blaine think is a very good way to get the audience involved and this is defiantly a technique that we will research further and try and incorporate within our short film.



The other is also directed by Mel GibsonThe passion of the christ, which both me and Blaine also watched and this film dramatizes the last 12 hours of Jesus' life and the visual experience becomes the dominant story teller for an audience such as ourselves due to the cultural differences.



These two films by Mel Gibson will act as great examples of were the visual story has to be excellent in order for the audience to follow the narrative and after watching these films myself and Blaine feel that we have gained good knowledge of this technique and how this could effect our short film if we chose to incorporate such techniques.
The last film that we were given to watch was Dead mans shoes, directed by Shane Medows and the reason for this film being relevant to our short film is the way the director can exhibit the most uncanny and bizarre events, within reality and realistic locations through the use of very well written dialogue and characterisation to make the audience think that that is normality.



Blaine Keneally has created a very analytical post on the films that we watched, follow the link bellow for a more depth deconstruction and extracts of the films:
http://blainekenneallya2media.blogspot.com/2010/10/directorial-techniques-to-consider.html

Whilst I was searching for a picture of the film Apocalyto I came across a review of the film and some views of a critic. They had very negative views of the film saying that the visual effects and cinematography were good but altogether the narrative just made him keep looking at his watched due to the fact he was bored.

"Here is a movie that immediately grabbed me almost from the word go. And then its grip loosened and loosened until I just didn't really find myself caring anymore"

After reading this I just couldn't disagree more with his views and that the man fighting to save his families life and unborn child offers a truly gripping narrative exploring the idols of selfishness and courage.
But this is my opinion and he is entitled to his.(even if it is wrong/I'm joking)

To view his views of the film follow the link bellow:
http://www.stomptokyo.com/reelopinions/2006/12/apocalypto.html