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Film Lit Log #2 - Poster - Psycho

Posted by Jingyu Liu in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on

For the second lit log, I decided to revise a movie poster for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. The way this poster was laid out was mainly inspired by Marion’s death scene and continued with some tools and elements that are included in the movie. I renamed the movie on the poster as “The Room.” The room refers to the hotel room, basement room, office room, and the room where “Mrs. Bates” lives in. By renaming The Room I’m also referring to the spaces that we see in those places and the way the camera frames the size of different scenes. Some of them are more open spaces and some are more limited spaces. Using Marion’s death as an example, she’s inside a bathroom of a hotel room. Both spaces are open and limited depending on where the part of the room you are. When she walks in to take a shower, then there’s limited space for her, and when she gets stabbed the camera had zoom in a close for the shot and the frame was limited space that we can only see a certain part as well as limited space where she’s standing. As I had mentioned in the stabbing scene, that’s where the knife on the right corner comes from and the blood splashes around the title. I want it to make it as the blood comes from the knife stabbing and it splashes everywhere. The knife had not just used in Marion’s death scene, but also it comes up again in the later scene when Bates tries to kill Lila. Given the clue, I’m also assuming that the knife that “Mrs. Bates,” which is Bates uses, is the tool that represents him. The bottom half of the poster is more picturing the scene of the motel location and the surroundings, as well as the car representing Marion’s death. The car shows a relationship between the money Marion took in the beginning and her death in the motel and where she got put in the back trunk after. If she doesn’t steal the money and run away, maybe she wouldn’t be dead. The trees and the reflections are representing it’s around the lake because Bates had put her in the trunk and drowned the car down the lake. This is also the reason why the car is sided so it looks like it’s going down. The splash of blood on the bottom was to make it represent Marion is dead and is in the back of the trunk. The overall color of the poster is black because the film was in black and white. The tittles and blood are red are referring to the movie’s genre of horror and thriller that makes people think it’s scary. In conclusion, this was the inspiration for me to revise the poster, and I hope the poster catches your attention!

PSYCHO
PSYCHO

Love Letters to the Western: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Posted by Josie DiCapua in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is essentially a love letter to the western genre. It employs several cinematic and narrative choices that symbolically allude to its timely downfall, as well as respecting the genre with a sense of esteemed devotion.

The western film is notorious and unmistakable. They are set in the wild American west sometime between the mid 1800s and early 1900s. They follow a hat-wearing, gun-slinging cowboy who tackles themes of civility, nature, and change. As old as film itself, the western movie captivated America, being heralded as the genre that perfectly encapsulates the American zeitgeist. Freedom, exploration, oftentimes racism, and a cool, quick-witted, tough-as-nails main character. Western’s are America’s myths, the fables and lore that the young country developed to promote its founding values as a nation, something essential to empires. It reached its prime in the 1950s following the cold war and other events that invoked a sense of patriotism and superiority in citizens. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the genre began its decline, a time when Americans lost hope in their government and began to self-reflect on its roots. From then, westerns became relegated to prime time television until eventually fading away, never to make a recovery.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid premiered in 1967. The movie begins with the sound of a film reel against old-timey footage. It explains who Butch and Sundance are, as well as their “Hole in the Wall” gang. It is in full sepia tones, reminiscent of the first waves of westerns from the silent era. This first impression sets the stage for the audience, where we are being transported back in time to the beginning of the frontier flick days. These credits serve to infuse nostalgia into the audience, reminding them of the days past. It effectively begins two stories: the film’s story of its titular characters and the overarching symbolic story of the western genre that the characters parallel. As the film continues, it keeps its sepia tones and we see the main protagonists in modern (to the time) film. This slow transition takes the audience back gently, allowing them to immerse further into the story and period.

The plot revolves around Butch and Sundance, notorious outlaws, as they commit robbery a few too many times and end up being hunted by a hired group of police and master trackers. Fundamentally, it is about two men trying to outrun their fate. The film makes it abundantly clear that their days are numbered when Sheriff Bledsoe warns them that their, “Time is over and [their] gonna die bloody, and all [they] get to choose is where.” The group pursuing them is never shown on screen, all the audience sees of them are distant silhouettes and their hats, giving them an elusive, intangible quality, perfectly representing destiny.

Additionally, Butch and sundance are running from time itself, as the world they are living in advances right in front of them. In an iconic scene, Butch takes Etta, Sundance’s girlfriend, on a bicycle ride, amazed at the new technology. Before leaving for Bolivia, where they attempt to escape, Butch throws out the bicycle, yelling that the “Future’s all yours, you lousy bicycles!” The camera cuts to an exceptionally modern-looking close-up shot of the wheel on the ground. In doing this, it shows the characters’ rejection of modernity, and in turn, their affinity for the past.

This mirrors the arc of the western genre as a whole. By the time the film premiered, the western’s fate was clear. Just as the days of the wild west were over, the film type would fall behind as well. It could not keep up with contemporary audiences, a similar fight against modernity as the leading protagonists. This is among the way’s the film honors its history in a self-aware way, poignantly characterizing this in some of the west’s most famous bandits. The nostalgic beginning also serves to give tribute, eliciting a romantic sentiment of the genre.

In its final act of love, the film’s closing scene evokes the words uttered by Etta earlier in the film, where she states that she will join them in Bolivia on one condition. “I won’t watch you die. I’ll miss that scene if you don’t mind.” Her words ring true, as the audience does not witness their deaths. Butch and Sundance are in a seemingly hopeless situation, with, unbeknownst to them, the entire Bolivian government in a position to kill and capture them. In one last stand out, they are badly wounded and attempt a daring escape. They run out of their shelter in a blaze of glory, and as several gunshots are heard, the camera freezes on them midrun, fading back into sepia tones.

This ending literally does not let them die. It immortalizes them, symbolically turning them into legends, which, of course, never die. Furthermore, the sepia tones and photo-like composition solidifies the idea that this is the past. The fugitive’s days are no more, and what we have left of them is the great epics they’ve left behind. This reflects the concept of westerns as a whole. It serves as a swan song to the genre, its story mirroring the story of the western with a sense of attentive adoration. They may be dwindling, but they are an important part of American society, and they will never die. Their fates as an expired variety are sealed, but as is its fate as folklore, sowing mythology into the fabric of the culture, never to truly be forgotten.

Reel Reading Lit Log #2

Posted by Jada Martinez in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on

Do the Right Thing Director’s Interview

Jada: Good Afternoon Mr.Lee Spike Lee: Good afternoon! Jada: I want to congratulate you on such an outstanding film and how much effort you put into it with all the elements and character development. You shot this film in 40 days and still happened to make it such a well known movie to so many people. The film is very interesting in the color ways and the recognizable soundtrack. Spike Lee: Why thank you a lot! You know I’ve always loved making films about the lives of African Americans without making it such a tragedy. I want to open the eyes to other cultures to show them what is different from what’s on the news and what people make us out to be because in reality, we are like everyone else with normal lives and usual day to day problems. Jada: I genuinely applaud that especially in the times we are living in where the news isn’t always the most reliable way in knowing about one’s culture or what else other than tragedies are happening. I wanted to start off this interview by asking what was your inspiration behind this film and how did you come to put it all together? Spike Lee: Well I feel for the film as a whole, it gives a very good representation of what it is like on a hot summer day in a predominantly African American neighborhood. There was a lot of different things going on at once and I wanted to portray that within the film by making it very fast paced but also something that was easy to follow along with. Jada: I definitely agree with the fact that it was easy to follow along with and I do applaud you for filming it all on one block in the middle of Brooklyn! My next question would have to be why? Why did you decide to film it on one block instead of multiple? Spike Lee: I felt like if it was filmed on one block it would give it a much more homier feeling in regards to the neighborhood. Yeah, a few blocks could be considered a neighborhood but when you have everything focused on one street, you’re able to see different people in the background. While the camera would be focused on one person, you still have an insight into the other characters behind them without it seeming so forced or like they are in the spotlight. I feel as if it was just a small detail that was put in that many people may not even notice but makes a very big difference in the overall outcome. Jada: So if you could go back and change anything in the film, what would it be? Spike Lee: If I could change any part in the film, it would have to be the way some audiences looked at it as controversial. They said that “the film could incite Black audiences to riot” I did say my turn back to the White people who were saying this. I think just because it shows some type of riots or fights within the film, it does not suggest that it would be the best option or even an option at all. In fact, when the character Buggin Out was trying to start a riot with everyone, they all turned it down because of the fact that they grew up on Sal’s pizza and couldn’t see anything wrong with it. Yes, they may have some differences, but in the long run, no one would put up with everything happening in the neighborhood other than them and they always did right by them no matter how many arguments they had. Jada: I can definitely see exactly where you’re coming from because of everything going on and how if just because something happens, it does not mean that you are inciting anything like it. As we come to an end, I want to ask one final question. That being; within the character development throughout the film, there is one character that stood out to me a lot which was Radio Raheem. He was someone in the beginning of the film who seemed to be the person everyone was scared of and no one wanted to be around. He always had a radio in hand and didn’t say much. As the film progresses, he seems a lot more soft and like he is just having a good time or just enjoying himself. At the very end of the film, we come to notice that he was choked to death on the street by the police. Why did you choose to make this character do the things he did? Spike Lee: I feel as a whole character, he shows a lot of different sides to him that I wanted to bring out. He showed his mean mug side, his friendly side, and a very vulnerable side even though it wasn’t very voluntary. He is also holding the radio for almost the entire film which is always playing the song “Fight The Power” which is the opening song and the song you continue to hear throughout the rest of the film that I think sends the biggest message in it all.

Blade Runner Poster

Posted by Nicolas Werner in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on

If I were in charge of coming up with a new title for Blade Runner, I would call it “Tears in the Rain.” This comes from Roy Batty’s final monologue on the roof. He says, “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe… Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion… I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain… Time to die.” At its core, Blade Runner is a movie about what makes us human and, in context, what differentiates us from the movie’s replicants. On the surface, we appear the same, but we are different things with different purposes. Teardrops and raindrops are the same. They are indistinguishable just based on appearances. The title, “Tears in the Rain,” describes the replicants among humanity. In the movie, the replicants are the ones who show the most emotion, tears being a symbol for them makes sense. Also, tears come from the eyes, which is a motif Blade Runner uses often. Going along with this theme, the poster has a large, glowing, red eye in the background. This is because one of the ways to tell if someone is a replicant is by looking at their eyes. The poster also has Deckard, Rachael, and Roy Batty on it. These are who I consider to be the main characters of the film. Roy Batty acts as the antagonist for most of the film, so I have his face looming in the background. While he is the main antagonist, Roy doesn’t really fit the definition of a “bad guy.” Most of the characters in the movie have a nuanced portrayal so I don’t think it’s completely accurate to group them into good and bad categories. To represent this, I chose pictures of Deckard and Rachael where they both have guns drawn and put a dove next to Roy’s face to show the peace he chooses in his final moments. Roy is looking at the eye, while the other two are looking away from it. This represents how Rachael and Deckard were both unaware of being replicants, unlike Roy. Above the title there are silhouettes of running unicorns. This is because of their significance to Deckard’s character. I chose a dark background for the poster because the film has a dark atmosphere. I think that it would be kind of hard to tell exactly what the movie is about just from looking at the poster, but I think that fits because of the film’s ambiguity.

Blade Runner Lit log

Posted by Marcus Diemer in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on

The film Blade Runner utilized a variety of different cinematic elements in its production. Not only did these techniques increase the audience’s understanding of the movie, both consciously and unconsciously, they gave us unique insights into some characters that we may not have had otherwise. Director Ridley Scott had more control of the final cut that we watched, so all of the details were intentionally laid out by him. One of the key aspects of this film was the camerawork that went into establishing the setting of the cramped, polluted city. In practically every scene where Deckard is in the street (though especially during the chase scene with Zhora), Deckard is not the closest thing to the camera. The camera is either looking through windows, crowds of people, or other pieces of the set. It all makes the audience feel more cramped and trapped as we try to figure out what is going on — exactly what Deckard must feel as he is pushing his way through the street. In other similar scenes, such as the investigation of the snake scale or the noodle scene at the beginning, the shots are also similar, with very few direct shots of Deckard, almost as if he is getting lost in the confusion of the city. Scott chose these types of shots to immerse the audience into the setting and almost put ourselves into the life of this dystopian city. The lighting is another important way Scott helps the audience understand the setting. There is very little natural lighting, with most scenes being lit by colorful neon lights or different lamps indoors. It is depressing that whenever these characters walk outside they are met with this smoggy artificial light and absolutely no natural light at all. Pretty much the only time we ever see any natural light is in Dr. Tyrell’s apartement, which is fancy and luxurious. The sun shines through the massive floor to ceiling window and the whole room is lit up. This really highlights the setting, but also gives us a better understanding of the classes and rules of how the world works in a more effective way than simply telling us would. Sunlight seems like a luxury that most people cannot afford to ever see, they just live their lives in artificial light. Tyrell is one of the most wealthy people and he is the only one that can really enjoy the sunlight. This made me less sympathetic with him in a way because he seemed to be very intelligent, but extremely detached from the reality of the world and the consequences of his actions. The apartment of JF Sebastian, specifically his “toys,” the genetically engineered people are definitely a deliberate choice. The toys are all strange, having strange shapes, weird voices, and often not being able to walk correctly. These toys very much contrast with the Replicants that Deckard is hunting, who seem to share a lot more with real humans than they do with these odd little creatures. This highlights one of the main struggles of the movie: if replicants are essentially the same as humans, why are they treated differently. It is easy to think of these toys as just that, toys, which is intentional. But the seemingly human nature of the Replicants, who appear human, as well as seemingly having feelings and emotions is very different. The replicants are vastly more human than the toys which indicates it is the way you think, not whether you are made in a lab or not which makes you a person or not. Blade Runner utilizes a variety of different film and theatrical techniques to immerse the audience and make them feel like they are really in the world of the movie while also giving them a deeper understanding of the issues that are prevalent throughout this world. These make the film come to life and make the audience more emotionally invested in the film.

Blade Runner Poster

Posted by Lucinda Silverman in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on
Retire All Replicants

After watching some film analyses, I was intrigued by the idea that Deckard is a replicant. I wanted my poster to hint at the fact that he is one. When the idea was first floated, I was pretty doubtful but after watching the videos, I began to believe it. I still don’t completely believe that he was written to be a replicant but it’s fun to think about the hints that the people who made the film put in. I wanted people who believe in the theory to see the poster and think that since Deckard is on a poster with so many other replicants, he is one too. The new title could also be ironic; “retire all replicants” could mean that Deckard eventually would have to be retired, too.

I found pictures of Deckard and the replicants he is tasked to retire. I like the shot of Deckard a lot because it shows that this is not a movie about retiring, it’s about murder. There’s stress and suspense, and it’s almost always dark and raining. All this can be inferred from that one shot. It seemed like an obvious choice to make Racheal’s picture bigger since her involvement in the story is bigger. I also like that by looking at her outfit and the way she holds herself, someone could guess that she’s the femme fatale even from just one shot.

The unicorns at the bottom represent the added symbolism of unicorns in the director’s cut. While watching the video about the differences between the cuts, I learned that the original cut focuses more on the whimsical aspect of unicorns whereas the director’s cut focuses more subtly on them. Either way, unicorns represent something special and magical, similar to the replicants. Adding them to the poster makes it fun to look at after watching the movie because viewers aren’t going to know how they connect to the story until after watching.

I added the question to intrigue viewers and give a very basic summary of the plot. I like the question format because it can be answered with “find out this June” which is when the film did come out. People don’t want to read a lot of text, but they want enough to know what the film is about.

In my opinion, this movie is much more about the replicants than the blade runners. By focusing the poster on replicants, one could tell what the film is really about and theorize that Deckard is also a replicant. Both are things I wish I knew before watching.