Acting and Acting Styles

Giselle (Amy Adams) – Impersonator

The director preferred for Amy to display herself as a kind and caring character with morals. This character would be displayed as a fictional princess from a fairytale, also being unaware to the setting of city life such as New York. Amy Adams took the direct rout and portrayed herself directly as the kind and caring person that Giselle was meant to be. For example, instead of screaming out curse words to an old man for stealing an item of hers, she called out, “You’re not a very nice old man.”

Prince Edward (James Marsden) – Character

James Marsden is known throughout the world of cinema for his outstanding work as a character actor. The knowledge is caused by his many different characters that he has played; a lover, a fighter, and everything in between. However, in Enchanted, the director asked him to portray himself as a knight in shining armor to save the day. He has not played in a movie where he is entirely conceited and naïve as this one. Because of these many roles, it has allowed him the classification as a character actor. For example, as a naïve character, Giselle asked him how his hotdog was. Having never heard of the item before, he looked at her with a grasp of fear. She reassured him that “hotdog” was just the name and there was no real dog inside of it.

Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey) – Personality

In most movies, Patrick Dempsey has been set as a character with little emotion and a small sense of humor. The director meant for this character, Robert Phillip, to be a non empathic man with no feel of imagination. There was a high chance that the director has seen his work before and noticed his style first hand. This character had then changed for the better, reflecting off of most of his past work in movies. For example, when he rescued Giselle from falling to her death, he didn’t want her sleeping over and took extra caution when his child changed his mind. This is something a character of his style would decide to do because his characters are known for being emotionally challenged when dealing with someone else’s feelings.

With all of the films that James Marsden has acted in, I think that his type of actor would remain character.  He has been in action films, sci-fi films (X-men), romance films (The Best of Me), thriller films (The Loft) and even musicals (Hairspray).  Throughout all of these films he has portrayed each character perfectly.  Every movie he has been in with all have different genre which means that each of the characters he was supposed to be all had a different story line and emotions throughout each film.  This shows that he is a very talented actor.  There are many actors that can only play certain parts in movies or films (like a villain or an angry character).  When actors are placed into the character category they have many different acting talents that can benefit many different films.  This category could also be looked at as a “melting pot” for actors.  The actor that are categorized as characters have a lot more to bring to a film or a movie on many different levels.

James Marsden in the movie “X-Men”.

Resources:

• Enchanted. (n.d.). Retrieved August 13, 2015, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0461770/?ref_=nv_sr_1
• Enchanted Picture. (n.d.). Retrieved August 13, 2015, from http://stuffpoint.com/fantasy/image/342002-fantasy-enchanted-wallpaper.jpg
• Goodykoontz, B. & Jacobs, C.P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
• X-Men Picture. (n.d.). Retrieved August 13, 2015, from https://nerdworldnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/500full.jpg

Categories and Functions of Sound

Dialogue: The conversation between two or more people.

Sound Effects: Is a sound or noise that does not consist of a conversation or music in a movie or film

Music: instrumental or vocal sounds used together in harmony to express specific emotions.

All three of these different categories of sound are used throughout the film “Wizard of Oz”.  For example in the scene where Dorothy meets the Tin Man, she knocks on his legs and hears a “ting, ting” sound.  Later in the clip she knocks on his chest and hears a rattling noise.  This is a sound effect.  As Dorothy and the Scarecrow are trying to oil the Tin Man they are having a dialogue to determine where the oil needs to go.  When they first find the Tin Man there is background music playing.

How does the use of sound inform the mood of the scene, or the film overall?

The use of sound is very helpful when trying to inform the mood of the scene.  Whenever the Wicked Witch is in the scene the music’s pace tends to pick up.  Having a quickening music pace helps the audience to know that something is going to happen.  When the music slows down and is a relaxing sound then you know that there is nothing bad to worry about.

Since each category of sound may produce a range of effects, how might you characterize the effects in your film? For example, realistic and expected sound effects may have a different effect on a viewer than exaggerated or unexpected ones.

I feel that this film has both realistic and expected sound effects and exaggerated and unexpected ones.  When Dorothy knocks on the Tin Man everyone expects to hear the “ting, ting” sound because it is realistic.  When the Wicked WItch was melting I do not think that the audience expected to hear her “sizzling”.

Assess how the scene or sequence would play differently if you changed or removed a key category of sound.

I think if the director took out the music or hanged to music it would have completely changed The Wizard of Oz.  The music is one way that  audience are able to relate to the scenes and understand the tone of that scene just by listening to the music or dialogue.  If the dialogue would have been removed I think that the movie would still play just fine because of the music tempos and the sound effects that are played throughout the film.

Can you identify specific sounds in your film that allow you to infer a particular genre?

This film is considered a fantasy film genre.  Some of the specific sounds that help to categorize this film is the dialogue.  In real life Tin Men, Lions and Scarecrows do not talk but in this film they all talk and can be understood by everyone.

Assess the impact of sound in establishing the theme.

Sound is there to help set the mood of the film.    It is there scene by scene to make sure that the  audience is feelings what the director wants them to feel.  Sound can also help to explain the theme of a film.  The director can choose certain songs  that help to explain the theme if the audience pays close enough attention.

Resources:

• Finding the Tin Man. (n.d.). Retrieved August 4, 2015. (video clip)
• Goodykoontz, B. & Jacobs, C.P. (2014). Film: From Watching to Seeing (2nd Ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
• I’m Melting! (video-clip). (n.d.). Retrieved August 6, 2015.
• The Wizard of Oz. (n.d.). Retrieved August 6, 2015, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/

Lighting

In the film “Stand By Me” the main lighting used throughout the film was the traditional three-point lighting.  There are many benefits of using this lighting in this movie.  The main benefit, in my opinion, is that it allows the audience to pay attention to the back ground and help set the time period for the film.  Using this lighting also allows the audience to know who the main characters of the film are.  Rather than having the movie focus on certain things, this film, in a way makes you feel like you are right there with the characters.  You are able to focus equally on the background and the characters without taking away from the overall storyline.  There was one point in the movie where the lighting had changed.  This was when a flashback occurred.  Although you were able to still focus on the characters and the background setting the color of the scene was a little darker overall.  This helped to show that it was a memory rather than something that was actually happening at that time.  In my opinion this film falls under the genre of adventure.  The reason I say this is because the boys go on a journey together to find a dead body.  I do not feel that the movie would have done so well if they had changed the lighting.  This film is about an adventure of a group of friends.  If the lighting would have been focused on the boys or one boy in particular then the whole idea for the “journey” or “adventure” would have been.

Resources:

Main Film Genres. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2015, from http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html

Full Cast & Crew. (n.d.). Retrieved July 25, 2015, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092005/fullcredits

The Saddest Scene In Movie History. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs4vgAGnHZg

Stand By Me

 

Title: Stand By Me

Writer: Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans (Screenplay), Steven King (Novel)

Director: Rob Reiner

Actors: Will Wheaton, River Pheonix, Corey Feldman and Jerry O’Connell

Release Year: 1986

Plot:

Gordie Lachance reads and article in a newspaper about the death of one of his childhood friends.  This article leads to him having a flashback about the time that he and his friends went on an adventure to discover a dead body.  His friend Vern had overheard his older brother and his friends, while looking for his jar of money that he had buried under the porch,  talking about finding the dead body of Ray Brower.  Rumor in town was that Ray was picking blueberries in the woods when he was struck by a train and killed.  Gordie and his friends Teddy, Vern and Chris decided to go on an adventure along the tracks to find the dead body and become the town heroes.  Before they started their adventure they stopped at Milo’s junkyard to fill their canteens in the well.  They soon encountered Milo’s dog Chopper.  Rumor had it Chopper was trained to the command “Sick balls chopper”.  Running and climbing up the fence the boys were able to get away from Chopper and continue their adventure.  As they continued their adventure down the train tracks, Gordie and Vern almost get run over by a train passing through because of Vern falling and panicking.  Once the boys make it over the tracks they decide to make camp for the night.  As they are all sitting there Gordie starts to tell his friends about an overweight man, who was in a fair pie eating contest.  This man had drank something before the competition to make him vomit once he had eaten some pies.  The next morning the boys pack up and continue on their adventure.  They decided to take a short cut through the swamp.  As they were making their way across the swamp they realized that they were all covered in leeches.  They worked together to get the leeches off one another, but when Gordie finds one in his undergarments he passes out.  This causes the other boys to wonder if they should carry on with their adventure or call it quits and go home.  Once Gordie comes to, he decides that they have come to far to turn back now.  Once the boys continue on and finally find the area where the body was located, Gordie starts to think about how his father favored his brother before he was killed in the car accident.  Vern’s brother and his friends showed up in a couple vehicles to come get the body and take it back to town so they could get the credit for finding it.  The younger boys started to argue with the older boys about claiming the dead body.  Ace pulled out a knife like he was going to use it to murder the boys.  Gordie then turned around and pulled out a gun that Chris had taken without his father knowing.  Ace and his group had left and Gordie and his friends decided to call in the dead body anonymously Once the boys had returned to school they all started to go their separate ways and not be as close friends.

Chronologically or non-linearly:  This film, in my opinion, would be Chronologically.  Although the film starts off as a flashback, the story is told in chronological order on how the main character got to the flashback.

How did this aesthetic choice contributes to the general effect of the audience?

The aesthetic choice contributes to the general audience because when growing up everyone dreams about going on an adventure with their friends.  It may not be to go on a search for a dead body but we all wanted some kind of an adventure with our friends.

How are elements like character development or foreshadowing impacted by the choice of storytelling methods?

In this film, the characters had all come from different social backgrounds which I think foreshadowed the end of the book because they grew apart and all went their own separate ways.

If film had a different presentation style, how would the general effect on the audience have been different?

I do not feel that the audience would have been that interested.  The fact that the story is about four young friends going on an adventure, people are interested in if they will make it to their destination and home safely or how they would handle certain situations without being a part of the real world on their own.

Resources:

Stand by Me. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2015, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092005/

Train! – Stand by Me (2/8) Movie CLIP (1986) HD. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gozRrRCtj6E