Lumiere Films Tell Stories

Lumiere so far seems to have the smoothest films because his films are not jumpy and are not edited therefore it does not look like the film was cut or broken within the movie. You get to watch the film straight through without having to adjust your eyes or try to get back to the story at hand. His films tell stories like “Leaving the Factory” which displayed actual people leaving the workplace the factory just walking. Today that might seem a lilttle interesting but overall altogether boring something we would probably not want to look at twice, but for them it was something new it was life caught on film so it was interesting. Most of these films shown were only a few seconds long, but they showed enough to tell what was going on and what the situation was at the moment. It also kind of zoomed in more on the people instead of the landscape or surroundings. He only showed enough background to show where they were coming from and what they were doing not so much of  their landscape. He definitely did not show any important buildings or statues or anything nearby. Maybe he possibly never shot films by nearby outdoor significant buildings or maybe he just chose not to show them. Who knows?! Whereas later Edwin Porter began to show outdoor scenes and we watched as other cameramen captured location mostly on film showing important rivers or capes and boats and buildings of importance, but we did not particularly see that in Lumiere films on Friday in class. I wonder why. I talked about Edison alot last time because I was film illiterate and did not know the good from the bad, however after watching these films by Lumiere, Thomas Edison has nothing on Lumiere. No real action, no story, and no point.

Set Vs Setting

Today we talked about a set which is to my knowledge a place where a movie or film is shot.  A set is a particular formed or built area. It can be a realistic area or just where some of the action takes place. It could be a realistic setting where it is a natural habitat or a building or area that was already there. Basically a setting is where things take place the physical area. Which one is more important if either: the set or the setting? Or in other words which one matters the most and has the most affect on people? Does it matter? Can the setting be any city and any state in any building as long as the set is right?

Plot N Story

A story as explained in class is a series of events, but a plot is a conflict and also a series of events arranged in a certain way. However we failed to point out that a plot in not the story itself and not all stories have plots. The plot or plots are foundation for most stories. Sometimes the plot can start the whole story and then characters and other things can form from that one plot. A good story is based on a character that makes a choice in the plot or conflict which can then lead to another plot point which makes the character or characters have to make a change or make another decision. A good writer or film writer must have a good story and plot in order for the movie to form a strong reaction on the audience. One thing leading to another or one change or choice leading to something else for the audience is how a great story is formed. According to something I found online (forgot which site), there are only 4 “simple plots”: 1. Man versus man. 2. Man versus nature. 3. Man versus self. 4. Man versus man’s work. Which to me posed a question for me: In every movie, film, book, or story can you always point out one of those plots? Sometimes stories are written for a reason. Sometimes plots or stories are meant to make the audience think and wonder what the author is trying to say or get across to them and sometimes the audience is left to wonder why the author made the movie or film made or chose to write a particular story. Do we always look for a lesson, theme, or conflict in a movie, film, book, story, etc?

A New Outlook On Movies

In class we talked about how people react to movies and how certain movies cause problems. I believe that when any interpretation of things going on in the world is different from the norms of our society, it causes problems and conflict. This is the reason why movies, films, and books are often banned or thrown out. They want everyone to be on one accord thinking alike and that is just not how the world is. Besides people get tired of looking at the same stories and same ideas on screen over and over again. Some things are and should be made for confrontation. The different outlooks on society displayed in movies, books, films, and even art and music become interesting because they stir up problems and make you think differently than you once might have thought about an issue.

Instead of banning some things, instead they censor them in a certain fashion so that only a certain group of people or age group will be able to access viewing of these ideas on screen. But what about the people who determine what and how things should be censored? Why do they censor them based on what they think and who are they to say something should be rated R versus PG-13?! I find that some things that should be censored for adult content and violence are not censored properly and movies such as one of my favorites “Hav Plenty” is censored as an adult movie for a few curse words, no sexual contented scenes other than a kiss, and one fight. But why?!

Does all of this happen because society is egotistical? They are all about what they like and what they want and what others should see or not see. We are a Me Me Me society. Everything is surrounded around us individually and essentially for the most part. Whatever we want we get so whatever owners of theaters decide is good to them they show in their theaters, but what about the people? How do they know what WE want collectively? Every movie is NOT going to sell tickets like they think. Everybody is not going to think the same about everything.

Film in 1800s

Monday we watched old films and some of them seemed pointless like the films shot on location; they seemed to have no purpose for wasting film capturing them. However, most of the films were by Edison, the cameraman. A few things that I noted while watching were that Chalfa mentioned that color is usually added in with hand drawings which of course is intriguing to me being an art major. I would like to know how they worked the little pieces of color into the films and how they included text into the films. Most of the films we watched were rather short definitely only a few seconds long. They seemed to be rather comedic in their own ways. What was most interesting was trying to put a story together while watcing the film because of course none of them really had any words and of course none of them had any sound although we could see that people were making noises in the videos. One example was of the kids on the beach jumping off the dock. We could see through their expressions and behavior that they were talking to each other and really having a good time. From the squinches on their faces we can also observe that it was possibly a hot summer day and that they jumped into the water to both cool off and have a little fun. I would also like to know how the music was added in and how the producers of these films decided which music to add into the films. Most of the music in these short films fit perfectly for what was happening and also helped in the attempt to tell the story.

Another thing these films did was to show the same things we are obsessed with today in society. One example was the film of Sandow (The Strong Man), it showed a man that was buff perfect body and of course strong, domineering, and masculine. What a man “supposedly” should work to be like today. Another interesting piece was the Elroy brothers boxing which we look at as a sport today as well. So in other words the world is going in a circle. The same things people watched and enjoyed years ago are still prevalent and prominent today in entertainment. In other words, film in the 1800s captured interests of people long time ago and still captures interests of people today.

Hello everyone

Hi My name is Ashley Redden. I am from Memphis, Tennessee. Im a senior Art major and a Sociology and English minor. I am taking this Communication and Film Course because I love entertainment and wanted to try something new and different. I also thought it would be rather exciting since I love films and old movies. This is my first CTA class and I hope it as as interesting as I thought it would be when I signed up for the course.