The Perk of being a Wallfower

In this week’s screening of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, written and directed by Stephan Chbosky, we discussed how this coming-of-age story breaks many obstacles as it provides a unique twist to life. Based on the novel, this story follows Charlie, a 15-year old freshman entering into highschool as a naïve introvert. On his journey to becoming the person he wishes to be, an average high school student with friends, Charlie, unfortunately, can’t react to that happy ending without unpacking his past. Throughout the film, we understand that Charlie is attempting to cope with sexual trauma, mental illness, and his best friend’s passing. These traumas multiply as he tries to fight against them to be expected once again. In his attempt to figure out the real meaning behind love, he also unpacks the hurt he’s felt throughout his adolescence.

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What’s beautiful; about the film is its simplistic camera action to portray Charlie’s loving moments. In one of my favorite scenes, the tunnel sequence, the frame is shot in a medium to close-up to the pan to long shot. These sequences of images engulf the world Charlie lives in and him moving forward. Let’s start with the medium showing Charlie in the between his friends in the car. This emphasizes Charlie’s “world,” as his friends are here for him. They protect, grow, and feel with him. Second close-up, Charlie has to choose to move forward with his life or remain small in this world. In this case, he exits the window and be himself. Third, in the medium shot showcase, Charle, on top of the van truck, decides to be free. Last, the pan of the van driving away. This last scene emphasis Charlie is moving on with his life. This is also the point where the camera stops following the van as the story is finally done. Thus the editing of these shots creatively illuminates the challenges and overcoming Charlie’s go-through to be free from his past.

REFLECTION

 I enjoy this film course. I found this course to be an excellent opportunity to dive into the deconstruction of film. Each week, the class and I found time to watch a movie we probably haven’t seen before, discuss and display our thought. Each segment found ways to dig deeper into a rabbit hole of research and articles about the film, from shots to editing to mise-en-scene to the genre. I can honestly say before this class, while I understood the fundamentals of a movie, it is nothing compared to what I have learned. I found this class fundamental for any inspiring filmmaker or anyone interested in films as once in this class, you get a broad understanding of how they come to be. My take away from this course has to be the simplistic and complex attributes stories have in our lives. While a boy such as  Charlie, trying to understand what true love feels like, this simple story cares to mean that it can be recreated anyway. As a future filmmaker, the information is always there in us, but how we tell these stories for others makes it our stories. I would say my favorite section of this course was editing and sound. I believe this section opened my eyes to freedom of expression. In that’s section, I began to appreciate editors and composers as their compositions drive a story in the direction directors hope to feel. They are the real storytellers, and we don’t talk about that enough.

In Mood For Love by Wong Kar-wai (Genre Theory)

In the Mood for Love is a 2000 Hong Kong Romance-drama film written, produced, filmed, and directed by Wong Kar-Wai. Wong tells the story of a woman named Mrs. Su Chan (played by Maggie Cheung) and a man named Mr. Chow (played by Tony Leung) in Hong Kong in 1962. Moving to Hong Kong for job purposes, Mr. Chow purchases an apartment for him and his wife to pursue his work in journalism. Coincidentally, Mrs. Chan moves to the same apartment as her husband travels a lot for job purposes. Because of the absence of their significant others, they began to build a stronger friendship. Ironically, as they got closer, they soon realize their respective partners were cheating on them with each other spouse. As such, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan pretend to remake a love life, such as their unfaithful spouses. However, remaining cautious and reframing from stooping to the levels of their significant other. Simultaneously, tiptoeing around others’ gossip, they gradually fall in love with each other; But later realized it was too late.

       The sub-genre of Romantic drama is one of many genres that fall into the category of romance. Romantic drama nonetheless dives deep in the complexity of emotions found in romance and relationship. In contrast, to other genres it tackles issue like death, separation, infidelity and the introduction of love triangles that happens among others. (The Beat). While attempting to understand the depth of secretly falling in love while in matrimony, the characters are introduced to this love “square” and separation throughout the film’s progression. It is thus providing the component of depth that amplifies its selection in this category.

      Romance drama wouldn’t be anything without music. To name a few motion pictures such as The Titanic, Mouna Ragam, and Jungle Fever all carry sentimental scores that keen into the emotional obstacles each character undergoes. In the Mood for Love, the characters delicate progression was seamlessly portrayed through the scored ‘Yumeji’s Theme’ by Umebayashi Shigeru. “Umebayashi Shigeru’s sad waltz ‘Yumeji’s Theme’ is a short, hypnotic string arrangement that sounds both beautiful and unsettling, thanks to the harrowing isolated violin melody at the song’s core.” (TakeOne) The score emanates the strangeness and unwarranted that the characters feel towards their spouse and among each other. Using the score as a set-piece haunts the viewers as it mimics the relationship’s emerging stages. In specifically, “acquaintances passing each other down a narrow corridor; comforting friends; yearning lovers who have developed real feelings for each other” (TakeOne). As viewers continue to be taunted by the music starting and stopping, this is also a moment where the film is forced into slow motion, and dialogue contains. The harshness created in how this score is cut and placed perfectly encapsulates the tension and truth that there wouldn’t be a happy ending. Nonetheless, as the credit rolls and viewers hear the final time, the song will be heard in which we are left with a recalled memory of their untied relationship and what could’ve been.

      While In the Mood for Love is no love story, the shots ‘danced’ with the film’s period and the character’s development. The film was a reference in the early 1960s when Hong Kong was at the peak of Typhoon Wanda. Typhoon Wanda caused 130 deaths and thousands of people homeless. In the Mood for love, the most realistic and relatable points are when the characters are stuck in the rain. These are the points where the characters are vulnerable and seek a sense of oneself compared to other romance dramas such as The Notebook, where characters were stuck in the rain trying to find a sense of love.

Also, the 1960s was a “major stepping stone for Hong Kong” economically, the nation was in the process of raising its relatively low GDP rate by increasing jobs in factories and foreign companies. Comparatively, Wong used his knowledge of society steadily shifting away from their traditional “stone age” to a commercialized economy. Not only does this add to why the character’s spouses are traveling so often, but it illuminates the conservative mindset of Ms. Suen (the landlord) . Ms. Suen lectures to Mrs.Su Chan after noticing that she has been sneaking around stating that “It’s okay to enjoy yourself when your young, but don’t overdo it.” Ms.Suen’s lecture is the type of mindset that restricts Mrs.Su Chan and Mr.Chow from not exploring their love for one another. And clearly, Wong captures that restriction with themselves and the world within the uses of a “frame within a frame” shot. Their thoughts were confine in theses frames as society remain traditional from the outside.

After all, that was said and done, the social relevancy of In the Mood for Love pushed the buttons of the traditional mindset toward infidelity. This movie evoked emotions in which viewers were indecisive if the characters should remain together or not. As a result, In The Mood for Love, directed by Wong Kar-wai, placement as a romance drama genre will forever break the test of time as a beautiful masterpiece.

Citation

02, Jourdan Aldredge April, et al. Genre Breakdown: The Different Types of Romance Films. 1 Apr. 2020, http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/genre-breakdown-romance-films/. 

Adamscovell. Musical Parallels of In The Mood For Love (Wong Kar-Wai). 12 Oct. 2015, celluloidwickerman.com/2013/01/07/music-parallels-of-in-the-mood-for-love-wong-kar-wai/. 

Brindle, Lewis. A Deeper Understanding: In the Mood for Love and ‘Yumeji’s Theme’: TAKE ONE: Features. 26 Aug. 2019, takeonecinema.net/2019/a-deeper-understanding-in-the-mood-for-love-and-yumejis-theme/. 

Brindle, Lewis. A Deeper Understanding: In the Mood for Love and ‘Yumeji’s Theme’: TAKE ONE: Features. 26 Aug. 2019, takeonecinema.net/2019/a-deeper-understanding-in-the-mood-for-love-and-yumejis-theme/. 

Kaltenbach, Chris. “’In the Mood’ Is No Love Story.” Baltimoresun.com, 8 Dec. 2018, http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2001-03-16-0103160177-story.html. 

My Favourite Film: In the Mood for Love. 19 Dec. 2011, http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/dec/19/in-the-mood-for-love. 

“Typhoon Wanda.” Hong Kong Observatory, http://www.hko.gov.hk/en/informtc/no10/wanda/wanda.htm. 

     

Deconstructing Racism with the uses of Get Out’s ideology

In this week’s screening of “Get Out,” directed by Jordan Peele, we tackle Jordan Peele’s ideology compared to society’s central belief. 

Ideology is a system of ideas that cohesively form a cultural belief. Generally, my first reaction watching this film for my third time is that there is always more to see. Get Out is a horror/ thriller film that challenges the notion of racial microaggression and dehumanization within today’s society. While following the lead of an African American photographer, Chris, he goes on a trip to meet his white girlfriend’s family and later met with a terrifying reality. As the weekend goes south his girlfriend’s family reveals that they attend to have other things plan for Chris and black people as a whole. As viewers find out the white girlfriend’s family is harvesting black people’s bodies as a cocoon for immortality, Chris is in a rush to GET OUT. Literally!

Watching this film, viewers can note that Get Out is an emerging form of ideology. Peele has stemmed his belief from dominant racial issues in America known as racism and colonialism.

Throughout Get Out, “small social slights and tiny injustices of casual racism are heightened and intensified and finally revealed to be masking the hideous form of racism there is: slavery.” (vox). Illustrating that even though slavery may be foreign to today’s generation, Peele’s ideology on yesterday’s colonialism is today’s cultural appropriation, making it very real. Seen in today’s atmosphere within the death of George Floyd and the culture vultures of the Kardasians, the dehumanization of black people for our white counterparts’ success remains to be relevant.

Taking a peek into the construction of this film, the screenwriter display a huge scene, that may be missed by individuals with “causal ignorance”, between the altercation of the father of Chris’s girlfriend and Chris which illustrates the theme of the entire film. The father goes in-depth about his fascination with black people and their culture. Emphasizing his belief that people like Chris (black people) are born with optimal bodies while white people are intellectually divine. While this scene is “disguises “as praise, it instead shows the father’s fascination with capturing black bodies to create a “divine man”- illustrating today’s microaggression and dehumanization.

As stated in Robin Wood: Introduction to the American Horror Film

“In psychoanalytic terms, what is repressed is not accessible to the conscious mind (except through analysis or, if one can penetrate their disguises, in dreams)”

Get Out; ideology is fascinating as it surfaces repressed thought of racism that viewers may be ignorant or numb too. “What men express in their ideologies is not their true relation to their conditions of existence, but how they react to their conditions of existence; which presupposes a real relationship and an imaginary relationship（Cinema/Ideology/Criticism)
In its realest form, Get Out capsulate, what it’s like to be a black man in American. By consuming such a film that evokes emotions of fear, horror, doubt, suspense, and grief, viewers can only be left with awkwardness; as we realize Chris’s reality has always been happening around us.

“I Knew She Was Going To Do That…”: The Final Girls

What makes a horror film? While The Final Girls may not be the typical Horror film, it does a hell of an excellent job to provide a remake of a horror-comedy genre. Although many other movies may illuminate a “true horror film guidelines,” viewers can’t discredit the full 360 world The Final Girls has on the audience. As the plot follows Max, the main character, as she undergoes a tragedy of her mother’s death, Max and her friends are caught in a movie that Max’s late mother once acted in. Within this world, one can see a variety of comparisons to a more famous film Slasher. In this movie, the only characters’ goal is figuring out how to exit the film. Unfortunately, while they are trapped, they are trying to remain alive because a killer is on the loose.

Viewers experience a 360 world of a so-called typical “horror film.” Beginning with the tragedy of the main characters’ passing of her mother, one may presume the conflict starts here. However, this scene builds up the emotional content and foreshadows elements that add to the incline toward the climax. Nevertheless, it begins while Max’s and her friends are at the movie theater. From a viewer watching an audience watching the actual movie, it can be an annoying phenomenon. However, once Max’s friend’s realized they were in the real Camp Blood Bath movie, the friends recognize that the story’s sequence once identified each of Camp Blood Bath characters.

Like many other films that fall into the horror movie genre, the Final Girls mocks each character and their necessity to the ending of the story. Names such as the innocent girls, the smart girl, the rational one, the love interest, and the strong & brave character and who cant forget the Final girls, “the main character who defeats the villain and goes home.” Each name comes with its distinctive roles to heighten the story. This hilarious spin-off, the typical horror film character, successfully justify Slasher tropes’ uses to illuminate how basic and unoriginal many of the horror in that error was. Movie studio copying one another made many viewers guess what would happen next, mainly from identifying each character.

Nonetheless, while The Final Girl’s genre is horror-driven, it carries many comedic aspects that reveal itself to be categorized as a parody. In this movie, we mock the Final Girls to be a virgin. After killing the strong girl who in the original film kills Billie (the villain), everyone remains beings to pick who will be the Final Girls. Laughing that the few were nominated weren’t virgins, this scene truly bites on the fact that previous The Final Girls were innocents, sweetheart that no really except to kill someone. Also, Max’s friends believe they are invincible in this world but are third to get killed. Illustrates how comedic and unrealistic this world in especially in an actual horror movie. None the less The Final Girls, a spin-off of classic horror movies, was a hilarious poke at a well-needed rewrite in stories in this genre.

Editing & Sound: Post- Production

It talks a keen eye to understand the process of the editing and sound departments. In one moment, three scenes placed together can give off a melodic kind of emotion, then randomizing can create a new feeling of fear. In the early era of cinematography, the directors had no clue of the capability of an editor. In cases, editors were never even looked as important. The first completed films had no true understanding of lengthy and viewer emotions, so most of the film ran flat as it had too many similarities to everyday life. As editors, also known as “extra hands,” became familiar with slicing, piecing together, and overlapping, cinema’s new perceptive was born. Editor and Sound Engineers sooner became essential through the building process of a film. They played an enormous part in the visualization and sensational experience that the viewer experiences while watching a piece.

In this week’s screening of “The Cutting Edge” and “Score: A Film Music Documentary,” glimpse of the building process of both the editing and sound department deconstruct and later rebuilds one’s view on the creation of a film.

“The Cutting Edge” explains the relationship a director and an editor have while in post-production. As directors see a scene as a full story; instead, an editor finds the sensational meaning within that particular scene and magnifies it. In destroying each stage, there are cutting, adding, dragging, moving, which may turn into an extremely timely process as many scenes we see in the final cut are not one long shot. Also, potentiating to the scene’s length, studio reels were heard to be as long as 31 miles.

“Suppose the most challenging film I cut was “Lawrence,” because we had such a huge amount of film – I believe it was 31 miles! – which gave me an abundance of choices. – Turner Classic Movies“

Editors found their place in place with the director as they created the world that the editor shot. Master shots would welcome the setting of the characters, while coverage, close up, jump cuts, etc. reply to the emotion of the characters. While there are plenty of ways to cut a time sequence, the editor had to be particular with the feelings, lines, viewer perspective, and sound to tell the best story.

For the sound department in “Score: A Film Music Documentary,”; one can see how music gave the sensation that the editor needed to allow viewers to live in a particular story world. Music will always impact a film as it organizes molecules in one’s ear to envoke a sensation. The documentary explains how an orchestra can follow the melody throughout the story, but as it leads to the most dramatic point of the film, that melody will fill. Because the viewer has been trained utilizing hearing, the viewer can connect any future appearance of that sound to victory, fear, triumph, etc. Therefore, the sound can provide an ironic contrast to a film as emotions can be connected to a particular scene or nostalgia that was once felt while watching a movie.

5 Editors that Broke the Hollywood Studio System

Things can always always get worst

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Within this week’s screening of A Simple Plan, the director illustrated a story based on human nature. In some sense, we were asked what someone would do if there were in this situation? In particular, it asked what three close friends would do if they found a lot of money that didn’t belong to them. While many scenarios can happen if we, the viewers, were in that predicament, it remains to be interesting to see what extreme these friends went to save the money, which in the end, no one had.

Throughout this film, it followed a theme that things can always get worst. Starting with the black crow, symbolically, this bird is known for bad luck. In the history of movies, plays, and folk stories, crows’ presence either meant death and black magic, so it’s only expected that this movie would have terrible endings. In the next scene, with the fox stocking the chicken pen; as viewers, we know that the fox will get the chicken sooner or later, and as we follow along, it does. However, the fox almost got hit by the friend’s car. With my point that “Things can always get worst!” if we compare the fox with the main character Hank and the chicken as his two friends; Hank did get away killing them off to later have the money, but plenty of times he was hit by obstacles and in the very end got away only by a thread of luck.

In many ways, A Simple Plan follows similar styles of a classical Hollywood Narrative. As viewers know that finding the bag of money was the beginning act. Then not knowing if the money was clean and finding out every other character depended on this money position was the middle act. And lastly, everyone dying for this money, which in the end, no can obtain it, is the very end. This plot had a clear line that each character had to follow, or the story world wouldn’t make sense.

Specifically, there is a clear ending in A Simple Plan where the money is finally burned, which shows that this whole problem is over. As each character has their own goals and reasoning for their actions, in the end, they all had the same objective to have the money as their own. For example, Bridget, who is Hank’s child’s wife and mother, did and said anything to ensure Hank kept the money. As it was sought, this money would make family life better, but it would make her life better, so she has to work for the rest of her life. This became her goal as her character became swift and quick to making up plans and pushing her husband to dig himself in a hole of lies and sooner killing everyone.

Ben Franklin quote: “Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.”

Ben Franklin’s quote is actually what I said once the movie was finally over. Throughout the timeline of the film, we saw how human traits are emotionally driven. Hank’s friend and brother did things on emotions as they thought they had the best way of using the money, resulting in Hank also using his feelings to create a better good for everyone. I believe humans aren’t hardwired to act this way, but I see how an individual’s life challenges can affect the plan’s bigger vision. I wish to see if all the men were internal “okay” as Hank was in life previously to see if the same thing would’ve happened if they found this money.