Steps for the independent project / propaganda and films

1. Choose two films.
2. Talk with Sonya about the documentary I choose.
3. Research about the film I selected adn the one which was appointed to me.  
4. Watching the films untill I know them by hard and untill I can get as many annotations and hypotesis I can.
5. Research the genres that I think my movies belong to.
6. Compare the genres with the movie and get as many similarities I can.
7. Reasearch social context
8. Message of the documentary
9. What was their aim
10. How it was made, why, by whom?
11. Target audience.

Production Portfolio

1.Title Page
Write your name, your production role and the title of the production you were involved in. 

Gabriela FigueirasRole: Editor 
Title: Chino Basico Supermercado

2. Pre-production. 
Define your production role, and how you worked within your group. 
Explain and evidence what planning you did, both in terms of your production role and your group. 
In the barrio chino project i was able to work as a director and editor. At the beggining i was assesed to work as a director. This role was was confusing to me, as i never had experienced to work as a director before, i didn't know what was the role of the director.  As we started to work we realised with my partner that we each liked more the role of the other so we change. I assumed my role as a editor but i still had a lot of saying when it came to film the scenes. I imagine each scene as i wanted to be. I wanted to show the supermarket in this case, very carefully but very quickly so it wasn't bored. In our pre production we went to explore the streets of barrio chino and take pictures for our footage. We entered several supermarkets to ask if we could shot inside. After many rejections we got the OK to shot in a supermarket near by. We were lucky that the people working there spoke chinese and were chinese. Unfortunately there weren't able to speak to us because they were very busy working. But as we shot the stabishing shots we looked for a customer which we could interview in chinese. 


3. Production
Define your production role, and how you worked within your group. 
Explain and evidence what planning you did, improvisations you made on locations, creativr solutions to problems that arose during filming. 
My production in the role as an editor was to imagine how the short film would look like. I would help the director with ideas on how to films the shots. As for example in the shot when we are filming the corridors we made a continuos shot all around the corridors. We had to improvise most of our shots, and we were continuously filming so we made sure we had spare footage. My role as an editor was to control the light. We went to film to barrio chino on a hour in which the light was horrible to film. We had lots of problems with the light, but my job was to find a solution as an editor. So when we edited the film, i converted all the shots which were very bright to black and white and i added contrast. 


4. Post-Production
Define your post production role, and your contribution to the final film. 
My post production was key to finish the film. As an editor i was responsable of getting all the footage down to my  computer and into imovie. I was responsable of getting the camara and remind all my partners of bringing the extra recorded sound. It was also my responsability on making the film work. I had to make sure that the film reached our aim. I had to look for the right music and edit the film in a way it showed a narrative of what we were trying to demonstrate. I also had to make sure that there were key parts were the public would realise it was china town before the actors started speaking. My final role in the film was to make sure the film reach the final structure and be able to import the film to a cd.


5. Evaluation
What could you have done differently throughout the process, that would have led to a better final film? 
What have you learned from this process? What production role do you think you will choose next year? Are you happy with your final film?
There are many different things that i could have done differently. The first problem we had was the background sound and the lighting. This wasn't much of an issue because we could fix everything we could as we edit it. The main problem we realise we had was transferring the footage and the dialogue was too quiet. We had to have a second sound recorded on a phone because the background noise was too loud. When we wanted to transfer the footage, this was erase from the phone by the owner because he claimed it wasn't going to be useful. We resolved this problem by inserting subtitles.  The other problem we had was the camara movement! To have a more efficent shot of the supermarket as we did not have a tripod we used a trolley. Finally we realised we were missing some shots because most of the shots we had were bad quality and couldn't be fix because they were too bright. We arrange this by Stealing! We stole footage from our partners. This problem we had should never happen again, for next year we should start by making a story board and make a good pre production.

Waiting For Superman

Pre Production
In my pre production i would investigate every spot and city i am going to shot at to have an accurate understanding of what´s going on and how hard are children being affected. I would also interview some children that will appear at my documentary and investigate a little about their life and their education standar. I will also make all the arrangements necesary to be filming inside and outside school life of the kid, his problems, to social and economic and with family. I will also check on my stuff and see if i need an extra camara or light to make the movie even better. Then i will reunite with important people. who are trying to change education and are involved in the education system and will make all the arrengements necesaries for them to appear at my documentary. If i have important people as for Michalle Rhee the DC Chancellor, or Bill Gates which many americans look up to as a great role model my movie will be more attracted to public. They would sure want to know what this two great powerful people would have to say and probably the documentary will have the effect it was made to make, move people an get accion.

Production:
The footage used for this documentary was used in two ways. We had footage that was captured live, filming in different states acrossed the country to reinforce the idea that it is not a problem of a single state, but of the entire country itself. The film was filmed in New York, California, Houston, between others. The documentary showed the schools, and the houses of the children. Another footage it was used was archive footage. This was put in to create and reinforce that the problem is not modern, it is being dragged from the past. They inserted footage as a youtube movie

Documentary: Six Point Plan

We have choosen to investigate about the piquetes because it is a very Argentine issue and throughtout this time there were lots of piquetes due to different social issues and have affected many people. Many argentine have strong opinions about this riots, and it should be intersting to hear them.
Our targert is the group of people who have ever been affected by piquetes. People who go to work every morning and sometimes can not acced  to it because they are interrupted by a load of other men who complain about their jobs. Although these are the type of people we want to reach and will interview, we hope the documentary will speak to many other people as well, perhaps the people that cause the piquetes. With respect to technical equipment, we will need a handheld camara, possibly a tripod if we need to hold it still and a computer with proper editing software. We could make use of a digital camara to take pictures to insert in the documentary.
Our primary sources will be those people that not only take part in the piquetes, but those thar are affected by them. As secondary sources, we could interview people who have been indirectly affected by  piquetes, such as people who were affected by those who were directly affected by riots.
The interviews will be conducted by Gaby Figueiras (me) while the questions will be composted by me with the help of Maria Figueiras. Tomas Christensen will be responsable for the actual filming and direction of the interviews. Maria Figueiras will be in charge of editing and lighting.

Barefoot Children

Barefoot Children

Short technical analysis

This trailer shows homeless abandoned little children who live on missery under bridges and on the street. Throught the documentary we only hear the sound of cars passing by, the sound the children hear all the time. We see short shots of children sleeping under bridges or drugging themselves. This makes the audience engage with the documentary and reflect. The text explains how these poor children lives every day, with the police who beat them and their parents abuse them and abandone them. The footage, text and even the sounds of the cars all combine to create a chilling trailer for a documentary about a serious issue told in a way few people have seen before.

Waiting for Superman

Waiting for Superman

1.Sound
We start by hearing voices of young people, students which are being interviewed and the voice of the authorities which are also being interviewed. Students talk about their dreams, what do they expect their futures will be and as everybody they expect the best but they are not getting even close to a good education. The sistem is failling and authorities are concerned about children getting ¨crappy¨ education.
In terms of non diagetic sounds we hear different music, which demonstrate and reflect what the director is trying to show, the tone of the music varies within this 2.32 minutes trailer.
There are also non diagetic dialogues. We hear the man who is interviewing people and a voice talking directly to the audience, presenting the problem.

2. Footage
In this documentary the different choices of footage are being used to attract audience. They use interviews as to emphasise with the audience and show them a clear and direct information of a social problem. They also show the children in a more deep way, they take you into the life of some children to emphasise with their dreams, dreams which everybody has as kids but for some are harder to reach. Through animation they also show clear points of the social issue used with creativity. They show flashfowards of an average of childrens which do not graduate from school which are likely to end in jail. Their lives depend on a lotery, who will win this number?

3.Sources
The first girl on being interview is a young girl which is apparently is in her bedroom. We can see she is a sweet young girl with many expectations about her future. The second girl interview also in her bedroom, is a young girl also with great aspirations and human values. The third interview which talks about the "crappy" education children are getting is a Chancellor of DC for public schools named Michelle Rhee. The interview taks place in a meeting room, privately. The fourth Interviewer is Geoffrey Canada a education reformer which critizes education on what it looks as he´s office. The fifth interviewer is a little boy which is trying very hard to get the best education he can have and to impresse his grandmother. The next interviewer is an authority from school, which also has a harsh critic over education and which speaks about the concequences of having a bad education and not graduating. The little boy appears again and reinforces his need and urgy to go to school. Parents of an unknown child appear and answer a question which is the nightmare of their child, if he does not win by a lottery the chance to go to school, he never will. The next interview is to another authority of the school, which reinforces the dramatic and serious problem of the education. The next interview is to a very important man, the creator of Microsoft Bill Gates which creates hope. The little boy appears again.

4. Text
There are texts being added to the movie to point out the serious problems and to reinforce the situation  of what the documentary is trying to show. Also there are texts being added when people are talking to let as know who there are and to let us know they are not just random people, they are important people insede eduation.

5. Editing
The movie is edited in a way that is very effective. It starts by interviewing the kids which talk about there dreams, this makes the audience symphathise with the kids and engage them to view all the documentary with full atention. They then show the problems and the authorities concern about the problems which are wiling to change. They kids are shown in their normal lives and finally they are shown in a big room waiting for their number to came out in a lottery so they can win their education.

CAT Textual Analysis Caché (Haneke 2005)

This sequence is taken from Caché, starting from the opening of the scene where Georges after expirencing Majid's suicide, returns to work where he feels confortable, respectfull and powerfull. Work is represented as his own world. My analysis will start from the moment Georges enters the building of his work.

One of the themes and mysteries of the film that Haneke involves: is who is sending the videos, and why? Until this scene Haneke has showed Georges’ reaction towards the videos, the  desperation to know who it is and the fear for himself and family. Haneke has developed a series of suspenseful scenes so that the audience suspects certain people. Georges is obsessed with Majid, accusing him of sending the videos and intruding in his personal life. It is not until a series of events that Haneke show us throghout different situations. For example when Georges has flashbacks and dreams when he was a kid and there was another kid killing chickens. then we know why Georges suspects Majid.

French New Wave

Between the years 1958 and 1964, a group of French film-makers created a body of work referred to as French New Wave. These film-makers were François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard,Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer, who were once all film critics for a magazine calledCahiers di Cinéma. They were driven by the notion forge a new cinema, and went on to influence how a film could be made.

Jean Luc Gordard

The movies featured unprecedented methods of expression, such as long tracking shots (like the famous traffic jam sequence in Godard's 1967 filmWeek End). Also, these movies featured existential themes, such as stressing the individual and the acceptance of the absurdity of human existence.

Many of the French New Wave films were produced on tight budgets; often shot in a friend's apartment or yard, using the director's friends as the cast and crew. Directors were also forced to improvise with equipment (for example, using a shopping cart for tracking shots).

In Jean Luc-Godard's À bout de souffle, after being told the film was too long and he must cut it down to one hour and a half, he decided to remove several scenes from the feature using jump cuts, as they were filmed in one long take. 

The cinematic stylings of French New Wave brought a fresh look to cinema with improvised dialogue, rapid changes of scene, and shots that go beyond the common 180º axis.

But there is no better way of explaining this than by showing it. Here we have a clip of a scene from Godard's À bout de souffle. 

Effects that now seem either trite or commonplace, such as a character stepping out of their role in order to address the audience directly, were radically innovative at the time. A clear example of this technique in a modern film was used by David Fincher in Fight Club (1999).

Modern examples of films that have been influenced by French New Wave are, among others,Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004) and Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994).

Here we can see a direct homage to French New Wave by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction

John Travolta (left) and Samuel L. Jackson (right) play two mob hitmen
in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994).

Two hitmen on the job.

Another clear-cut example, this time with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey kiss in Michel Gondry's highly
French New Wave influenced film Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind (2004).

Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in Godard's masterpiece,
A bout de souffle (1960).

Our own interpretation of a French New Wave picture:

Outdoors and spontaneous, a typical feature of French New Wave pictures.

A very natural looking picture, similar to the
one below:

A real French New Wave picture.

French New Wave has significantly influenced the way cinema has progressed. We owe a lot to these smart and idealistic group of talented film-makers, who have helped shape what a film can accomplish.

 Sources:

French New Wave (Wikipedia)

Hitchcok's The Birds

1.Note the details of each attack: who is attacked, and why. When is the first attack? What happens? When do the audience first know an attack is coming? How is this moment foreshadowed?

The first attack of the birds is during Melanie's journey with the boat back from Mitch's home at Bodega Bay, after leaving the love birds. A  seagull attacks Melanie and leaves her injured. Melanie finds out that Annie a school teacher has feelings for Mitch and she moved to the town to be near Mitch. Tension builds up and a second bird attacks.

3. Write one sentence description of the protagonists
Mitch is a lawyer  he goes to Bodega Bay on the weekends. As Melanie arrives he falls in love with her.
Melanie is the daughter of a celebrity, daughter of an important man. Falls in love with Mitch but this relationship is hard to deal with because the desaproval of Mitch´s mother.
Lydia the mother of Mitch and Cothy. She is very protective about Mitch and has hard feelings about letting him go with any women. Has bad relationship with the woman which have an affaire with Mitch. Has lost her husband and misses him, she is not strong without a man.
Annie is a school teacher. Goes to live to Bodega Bay to be near Mitch. She is jelous about the relationship of Melanie and Mitch. Mysterious.

4.How does Hitchcook builds up tension trough editing in the school yard scene?
Hitchcook builds up tension with Melanie goes to watch out for Cathy and while she is smoking, a mass of birds start to group together. Everyone start to run away from that place and birds attack the children while running.

7. What triggers the attacks?
I think that everytime there is something different that triggers the attack. That is why the movie was so good as still is good dispite that the movie was made long time ago and with no technology at all. Hitchcook creats a great tension throughout the movie as there is no reason or there is but everytime different, why the birds attack. We can think that it is because of Lydia´s and Annie´s jelousy but later on we can suggest other ideas as the birds attacking because humans mistreat nature.

Working on the horror movie..

Black Swan

In this psychomelodrama directed by Darren Aronofsky, Nina (Academy award winner best actriz Natalie Portman) is a naive, fragile vulnerable young bailarina who's obsessive about being perfect. As she winnes the role of her lifetime playing the swan queen her role as the black swan suddenly turns out as a nightmare. Everywhere she was it was claustrophobic. She stars to allucinate, she thinks everyone is trying to get rid of her and steal her role in the Swan Lake. Suddenly she was being chaised by her own shadow, her reflection was turning against her, she was nothing but a fragile girl obssesed with perfection. The role on the black swan was being reflected on her life, as if this role had seize her life. There was her mother also, a woman who's dream was to see her little girl, this sweet little girl who rapidly dissapears as she develops the black swan. Her mother who filled her dissapointment through out Nina on failing to her dreams, who drown Nina in her own fantasy. This is a movie which cuts with al the seen today, a film which you never know whats real and what is an allucination of Nina, it is mad, sensual and in some parts scary. A real work of art done by Aronofsky.