Cinematic Techniques In Dirty Dancing

Released September 29, 1950, Sunset Boulevard is a film noir of a forgotten silent film star, Norma Desmond, that dreams of a comeback and an unsuccessful screenwriter, Joe Gillis, working together. Ultimately an uncomfortable relationship evolves between Norma and Joe that Joe does not want a part of. Sunset Boulevard starts off with an establishing shot from a high angle shot with a narrative leading to a crime scene shot in long shot (a dead body is found floating in a pool). The narrative throughout the film established a formalist film.

As the camera zooms out slowly and we hear crickets chirping, we are introduced to the charming world of “What’s eating Gilbert Grape”. The film that many have come to love, along with its extremely famous actors, was released in 1993 in the United States and directed by Lasse Hallstrom. Endora, Iowa is the home of the Grape family, it’s a small, unchanging town where the main character Gilbert (Johnny Depp) feels trapped and death seems to be the only way out. Gilbert provides for his mother, sisters, and his autistic brother, Arnie (Leonardo Di Caprio). “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” is in many ways an unrealistic and demeaning view of autism. Arnie is represented throughout the movie as a burden to Gilbert and the rest of the Grape family,

The play, A Chorus Line, is about a group of people who have gone through many hardships and are trying out for a spot in the chorus line of a musical. The play opens with a group of people, some of which get eliminated, and the other move on to the interviews. Throughout the play, the characters give many soliloquies in the form of a song while a different person on stage appears to be talking to the director about his or her life. The play takes place in New York One of the conflicts in the play is the relationship between the two leads, Zach and Cassie who were dating each other until it fell apart, and Cassie went to California to act, but decided she liked dancing more and moved back to New York and auditioned for the chorus line.

Forrest Gump (1994), an American comedy-drama film based on the novel by Winston Groom, with the screenplay adapted by Eric Roth, tells the story of a mentally disabled and very kind-hearted child that comes to lead an extraordinary life. The movie revolves around the irony that the protagonist, Forrest Gump, even though the most simple-minded character in the film, becomes the most successful, as his talents involve him in US history's most prominent historical events between the 50's and 80's. The storyline is very character-driven and resembles a ‘vignette into one's life' as opposed to having a traditional story structure. This is seen through the feather motif and the well-known

INTRODUCTION QUOTE OR FACT. The Breakfast Club was a film produced in 1985 by John Hughes in Shermer, Illinois, that involved 5 different stereotypical teenagers in detention who were assigned an essay to tell his or her story. When the day ends, they all queried if they were all somehow the same. The experiences they had throughout the film made them question the stereotypes given to them. The purpose of The Breakfast Club is to inform teenagers and adults of the negative effects that stereotyping and parental pressure has on young adults. Through the use of a younger cast and romantic relationships, the target audience was definitely reached and moved by this film. By effectively using the rhetorical appeals, the audience was able to relate to some of the ideas shown and look at their community through an entire new lenses.

German Expressionism has influenced thousands of films and filmmakers since the art movement began in the 1920’s. It is known for its dismissal of the standard conventions of Western filmmaking for a more off-kilter style of storytelling. Some film historians consider Metropolis (1927) to be one of the most groundbreaking German Expressionist films ever made. However, there are many instances throughout Metropolis in which it deviates from the eccentric Expressionist style.

‘Flash Dance’(1983) dir. Adrian Lynn follows the story of Alex Owens, a young 18 year old welder who dreams of one day being able to join an elite group of ballet dancers. In comparison to, ‘West Side Story’ the narrative of ‘Flash Dance’ is one that concentrates on the women and how they control their bodies, the plot focuses on the passion and lustfulness in a relationship compared to previously mentioned filmed which concentrates on the love aspect of romance. ‘Flash Dance’ challenges the patriarchal system that Alex, as a woman, finds herself in.

An archetype is present in every society and culture. Familiar characters, symbols, and situations are used in film to convey basic human experiences that will resonate with the viewer. Archetypes send an understandable message to viewers as to the details of a character or scene. Whether the viewers realize it or not, they will have interpreted what is being conveyed without even thinking about the insertion of archetypes. In his film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien incorporates archetypes into his setting and characters to convey basic human experiences.

The first event I attended was the film on October 14 that was put on by the SDSU men’s basketball team, Hoop Dreams. Before the movie started we got to hear stories from two of the seniors on this year’s SDSU’s men’s basketball team. One of the things I learned while attending the event was how basketball changed the lives of those two seniors. The senior players that spoke where from Flint, MI and Chicago, IL. Both talked about how basketball changed their lives for the better. They both grew up in the inner city were school wasn’t very important. It was very eye opening to see how much sports can change the mind set of young individuals. If you want to be play at the next level you do need to succeed in school as well as in basketball.

A slow fade from black to colour reveals Brian Wilson in his bed, panning in and over the camera breaks room the blinding white light in the corner to focus on the lit but shadow engulfed character. Surrounded by grays, blues and beiges it looks like the making of a prozac commercial. Blue is a colour that is seen as calmness and as the relationship with Melinda progresses the two share an assortments of blues and white, the change in colour shows his regression back to a previous state without the light she offered. Jump to a close up of him in his bed, his eyes wander with half his face covered in light shadows, the slow falloff intensifying as the scene progresses. The camera follows the index vectors created by his eyes upward before

The week that we watched Written on the Wind we were discussing Mise en Scene which is what appears in front of the camera. In this film there was an immense amount of lighting and color used to emphasis ironic details. The mise en scene portraying characters and setting the mood for each scene. The director wanted to direct or attention to certain details in the film that we would have otherwise overlooked. He also used different ironic details to describe or define people in the film. Starting the movie with Kyle’s untimely death sets the mood for the movie with the backdrop of the title which gives the audience a foreshadowing for what is about to take place in the movie. The director’s use of lighting and mise en scene in this film is

I remember the use of color is during a scenes at Tyrell's penthouse. The future world of Los Angeles in the film is filthy , and dark . His penthouse of orange light contrasted with blue and white lights reflect from the windows. This along with camera movements that always have the actors moving upward to get to Tyrell implying he is like a king on a high mountain, a creator of this future world who stands apart and away from it.

Considering the collaborative process of filmmaking, especially nowadays in most film production, the concept of there being a singular creative supervisor is debatable. Nonetheless one cannot deny the existence of directional motifs and instances of thematic and stylistic elements within the work of filmmakers like Tim Burton and Alfred Hitchcock. These directors indicate that within traditions and genres lies the overall definition of an auteur: a director whose inventive traits are listed throughout his or her work like a signature. Auteurism rose to the surface in the 1950s French New Wave criticism as an appraisal of Hollywood directors who were ready to deny the rules of the studio system and create films that were distinctively

In Vincent van Gogh’s later life, he breaks through with a unique style that he developed over years. He was one of the Post-Impressionists who approached art differently by going further than just aesthetical attributes. Vincent van Gogh engaged with emotions and expressed them through his art (Metmuseum.org, 2014).

Gondry’s use of lighting is one of the most important filmic techniques employed to successfully construct the abstract memory scenes. As seen in figure 2, in the present time (in terms of narrative) lighting is usually natural or realistic. However, in memory shots Gondry creatively modifies this in order to distinctly differentiate the change in narrative. Darkness and low-key lighting are often used in these shots as seen in figure 3, with lights fading into black or turning off to represent Joel’s loss of these memories. Although in my opinion, the most captivating use of lightning is the circular spotlight that follows Joel around during the erasing procedure.