Psycho, One Hour Photo and Sunshine Cleaning

Psycho is a 1960 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch.
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood.

Although when watching Psycho, I laughed at the poor effects and simple plot, I was able to appreciate how in the 1960's the film was a big hit.



One Hour Photo is a 2002 American psychological thriller written and directed by Mark Romanek and starring Robin Williams. Fox Searchlight Pictures distributed the film in the United States. One Hour Photo also starred Connie Nielsen, Michael Vartan, Gary Cole, and Eriq La Salle. Williams won a Saturn Award for Best Actor (2003) for his work in the film.

I really enjoyed this film but couldn't look at Sy without thinking its Mrs Doubtfire!



Sunshine Cleaning is a 2008 film starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt. Directed by Christine Jeffs and written by Megan Holley, the film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2008. It was purchased by Overture Films for distribution and opened in limited release in the United States on March 13, 2009. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 25, 2009.

A really good film - and saw our own opening using a similar style.

Black Swan

So yesterday, a few us went to see Black Swan and as a Media student I feel that I was able to appreciate the film that little bit more.

Here's the trailer.



At first, I really did not know what to expect from this film and the only reason I wanted to see it so badly was because of my dance background. However, I held high expectations of the film due to its flattering reviews.

And the reviews were right. This has to been one the best films I have seen in a long time, although I'm not sure if it's because I can appreciate the ballet in the film.

Oh my god..or this!!

Slightly leaning more towards this one!

Cinema Trip!

Original plan was to go see Catfish, but after poor reviews, we thought it would be wasting our time.
I definitely think this film could qualify as fussy-media-students-at-enfield-county-decent-enough-film material.



Release date: 28th Jan.

Thoughts??

Credit..again

Here's another attempt of making a credit, to be fair, it does look a bit crap but it's just an idea. I don't feel that the darkness of the credit fits our film and so it needs re-filming, perhaps with a brighter background (same reason applies to why we changed our opening shot). The "strobe light" effect also proved difficult in editing as continuity was difficult to maintain.


Anyway, here is the credit.





Here is the video about our opening shot.



Thoughts??

Music!

      Too get the effect we want for our film, we have to use a copyrighted song! Miss Foster emailed Pete, an official OCR moderator, for his okay and....

yay! :)

Credits

Here's a very rough idea of a credit we could use in our film!
So far, the editing of our film is going really well and we're really happy with the results. I wanted to upload our film so far but Foster won't let me :'( too impatient!!!

Anyway, here's the credit...

17th Jan

JUST FINISHED FILMING WOOHOOOOOOOO
just uploading our footage now :D

Here's a video of our day filming!

Finally the BFI Trip Video!

Favourite Advert!!

Not only is this my favourite advert at the moment, but also my favourite song. I'm completely mesmorised everytime it comes on!



The effects in this amaze me, especially these:

Also...

Supposed to be doing maths revision...exam tomorrow, howevever fronter is now impossible to use due to my brother.
Curse older siblings.
Resorted to blogging.

IMPOSSIBLE TO BLOG!

So once again, blackberry has broken. Now using the coolest nokia which the whole media class seemed to be jealous of.
Also, because my brother is doing media and post production and something else computery at university, when he comes home for a night he feels it is his duty to do something new or download some other programme for the computer...it is now slower than ever.
Thinking of establishing the Buy-Joely-A-Laptop fund.
Thoughts???

127 Hours

Last night I went to see the film 127 Hours which has recently come out at the cinema.
Here is the official trailer.

***FILM SPOLIER***



It's now impossible to watch a film without thinking about media! I'm seriously undecided about this film and can not work out if the ending lived up to my expectations. There were however, a few things that really did stand out for me (as the film is so new I won't be able to post screen shots etc.)

The credits in the opening scene fit the genre well but it was the title of the film that stood out and I didn't realise that we hadn't actually seen the title of the film until it appeared. After the credits and the opening scene, the film goes straight into the story, the character (based on Aron Ralston's real life story) begins his journey (this also produced some amazing shots which you see in the trailer, along with the split screen effect) and you become engaged. He meets two women, shows them around, promises to meet up with them again and moves on. Its not until he falls and realises that he's stuck that the title "127 Hours" appears boldy on the screen, and this is at least 15 minutes into the film. After the title appears, everything goes silent (including the audience) and you realise just how stuck he is.

The soundtrack to this film also stood out and some what shocked me. You would expect there to be heart pumping tension music as Aron (played by James Franco) tries to free his arm. But no, much like Mark Ramely suggests in his article "Creative Film Making For The Creatively Challanged", the film breaks the rules of the genre and instead uses upbeat acoustic folk music throughout.

The shots, mentioned before, throughout this film were amazing. The location obviously made this possible however they were practically breath-taking. When the film is released and if I am still blogging then, I will try to find some screenshots of these shots.

The end  perhaps was dissappointing. Throughout the whole film you experience with Aron his horrific story and practically feel as if you are with him. You and the character are physically and emotionally drained after watching it! I had high hopes that at the end, he'd be freed in a way that we would never expect. However instead, he chops his arm off.
Would not recommened to those who are squeamish. Definitely should of followed Se7en in the idea that less is more with the ending and how much gore should of been shown!

Here is Aron Ralston speaking about the events.

Back to Blogging!

My beloved blackberry broke and mother hijacked the computer :(
But now, it's back to blogging! Now awaiting Lana's arrival to storyboard our film :D will post videos and pictures throughout the day!