elisabeth's blog

So here I sit in after my movie extravaganza. As much as I enjoy a good movie I do view them differently these days. I can no longer simply watch a movie and enjoy the story, I am totally engrossed in the light. If this sounds familiar to you you might be a student of photography.
I was out of town during the movie fest but I did a little watching of my own. Her are my results for you to enjoy.

For this assignment I decided to revisit some movies I had seen before I ever began school. This way I could concentrate more on the assignment than the story line.

I was fascinated to see things I never would have caught had I not learned everything I have in school.

The first movie I chose was Gladiator.

In this movie Russell Crowe is a high ranking general who is the best Rome has to offer. He wins every battle, has the respect of all his men and most importantly, the love and admiration of Caesar. The son of Caesar is very jealous of Maximus and discovers the intent of his father is to make Maximus into the next leader. He kills his father before this has a chance to occur and becomes the next Caesar. He then plots to kill Maximus and his entire family. Maximus survives the attack and becomes a gladiator to plot his own revenge against the new Caesar.

From the beginning of the movie I very quickly discovered the use of color-temperature – to create mood. When they were in a harsh battle or cold snow of dark of night, they cast the screen in blue light. When they were in any scene of warm emotion, they cast the scene in amber. They used a fairly large aperture to create distinction between the characters in focus and the blur of those in the background. Throughout the movie these were consistent with the use of these things as well as rule of thirds and many other photography techniques.

This is one of my all time favorite movies and would suggest anyone to see it, particularly now that I can appreciate the skill to make this movie outside of the actors.

The second movie I chose was The Hunt for Red October.

This is about a Russian submarine Captain who wishes to defect with his upper crew members and take the vessel with him to hand over to the USA. An analyst for the government figures out the plot and begins an adventure in an attempt to assist the crew of the Red October.

In this movie they also used the use of color, but in a slightly different way. Blue lights were used in the Russian ships and amber in the American ship. However, when the Red October was about to be handed into the hands of the USA the lights changed to amber there too. Upon the arrival of a second Russian ship that one now had the blue lights. The movie was also filmed very tight inside the ships to create a feeling of claustrophobia. I am unsure if that is how everyone feels when watching this movie but I definitely felt closed in.

The plot for this movie is pretty good but again the use of photographic techniques is what now draws me in at this point.

The third movie I chose was A Walk in the Clouds.

This is one of my all time favorites. It is the story of a young woman from a very traditional family who finds herself pregnant and alone in a day when is simply wasn’t acceptable. On the bus ride home she meets a GI who has returned home and in order to make a living for himself and his wife becomes a traveling salesman. She tells him her story and he steps up to the plate and pretends he is her husband in order to for her to save face with her family. The plan is that he will accompany her home and after a day or two so that she will be able to face her family and he will be the bad guy who left his pregnant wife. It of course doesn’t work out that way and they fall in love. He divorces his wife and intends to marry her but her very shrewd father puts it altogether and so goes the movie. It takes place on a vineyard which burns down seemingly t the ultimate loss but our hero finds a piece of a vine and the movie ends with forgiveness and hope for all.

It is filmed with beautiful rich warm tones of every color and with a wide angle lens out of doors to give the viewer a feeling of the vastness of the vineyard. Indoors it a small aperture and most everything is in focus.

It is beautifully filmed, romantic and rich with heritage and culture. It as wonderful movie which makes you laugh and cry filmed in a beautiful countryside. I want to live there.