Kehoe, Coulter, Slan: Johnny & The Priest

This is our one minute film project. I had a ton of fun working with these fellows. We all put in the little time we had and made a funny joke come to life. If I could have done anything different I would have added voices to the ants he was killing and made some crazy sound effects with each splatted ant. I would have made the closing credit a lot more slower so people can get the joke. Over all both the Chris made this film hiliarious. They were gun-ho and we made it a success. I can't say I'm the best cinematographer but I think I did a great job shooting the film on my camera phone and editing it. Hope you enjoy class and Professor McCay. This film has been Rated R due to Violence and Language!

Kehoe: Freedom and Minority Report

In Minority Report all murder has stopped because of the Pre Cog’s ability to predict a murder before it happens. A major underlying theme in the film is the idea of freedom. If someone can be arrested for a crime they have not yet committed then the idea of free choice is an illusion because no matter what a person’s current intentions are, if the Pre Cogs determine that that person will commit a murder in the future, they are labeled as a criminal by society.
Terri Murray’s “Our Post-Moral Future” tackles the same issues as Minority Report but in a real world setting. Murray’s article talks about how new brain scanning technologies are able to predict a person’s intentions. The implication of this new technology is that society will soon be able to predict if a person will be a criminal. It also implies that there is a genetic predisposition to criminal behavior in some people.
The technology in Minority Report is strikingly similar to the technology described in Murray’s article. However, the difference between Minority Report and reality is how the “criminals” are treated. In Minority Report the people who are arrested are treated as if they did commit a murder, they are labeled as a criminal and punished. Murray suggests that the technology described in her article will do the same thing; if someone has a genetic predisposition to crime then that person will be labeled as a criminal thereby taking choice away from that person. Here is where I disagree with Murray, if society were able to predict if a person was going to be a criminal, I feel that the society would treat them as a person with a disease or disorder. To suggest that that would be taking away a choice would be like saying that diagnosing someone with depression is taking away his or her choice to be happy. But of course it does not, it just means that the person with depression has to be counseled or medicated to live a happy life. It is the same with crime, if it can be scientifically determined that a person has a predisposition towards criminal behavior then they should be treated like anyone else who has a genetic or psychological problem.

Kehoe-Casablanca

This is a still from the final scene of Casablanca in which the audience sees Rick and Captain Renault walk of into the fog after shooting Major Strasser. I feel that the political expediency theory is used most heavily and most obviously in this last scene. I feel that when Captain Renault saves Rick from being arrested for the shooting of Strasser. I feel that this action is so out of Renault's character that it makes it a little hard to believe. Though Renaults disposition and nature was friendly and like-able, Renault is the man who calls Strasser with the intent to turn Rick in, Renault is also the one who arrests Ugarte with such glee. It is obvious that the writers had the intent to make Renault into a positive character that American audiences would sympathize with, but his actions are too little too late, and I do not buy him as a one of the protagonists.

Kehoe: Editing in "Let Me In"

I recently viewed the film Let Me In, which is about a young boy who is ignored at home and bullied at school but befriends a mysterious girl who turns out to be a vampire. The film’s use of editing is excellent and apparent from the first scene, which opens upon a man jumping to his death out of his hospital window in the dead of night, nurses and police rush into the room only to find a broken window and the mysterious message “I’m sorry Abbey” written on a pad of paper. The next scene is in bright daylight with the subtitle “one week earlier.” The film’s editors had good reason to begin the film with the hospital scene and then flashback a week in the next scene. This flashback technique acts as a hook to grab the audience’s interest. In the first scene, the audience does not know who Abbey is, or why the man jumps to his death; all the audience is given is the assurance that these questions will be answered by viewing the events of the previous seven days.
Another notable editing technique is the angle and proximity of the camera in the scenes with Owen and his mother. Owen is the film’s protagonist, and is the constant target of bullying at school. In the scenes where Owen is talking to his mother, the camera is placed in such a way to make Owen’s mother blurry and out of focus. This is to represent how his mother is neglectful of Owen and his problems.

Kehoe-Social Network

The Social Network is a docudrama about Internet entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of his website, facebook. Although the film’s focus is the creation of the facebook website, the film is also a critique of the Internet as a whole, especially in terms of anonymity and privacy on the web. The film comments on this theme in many ways though most directly and effectively through its story structure. There are many points in the film where accusations are made against a character, such as when Zuckerberg’s lawyer brings up the charges of animal cruelty that Saverin was accused of while still at Harvard. Saverin’s lawyers immediately begin to question Saverin about the incident, and if he thinks that Zuckerberg planted the story in the Harvard newspaper in order to push Saverin out of the business more easily.
The next scene flashes back to the time of the incident, when the newspaper article was released. Here, Saverin immediately begins accusing the Winklevoss twins of planting the story in an attempt to damage the websites reputation. These scenes highlight the fact that on the Internet, anyone can write anything about anyone and be totally anonymous. No one ever finds out the source of the article or how much of the article is factually accurate, but it does not matter, Severin was accused of animal cruelty and, whether true or false, damaged his reputation. By switching back and forth between present and past the audience can contrast the two scenes and how this anonymity creates paranoia. Sean Parker, the creator of napster, personifies this paranoia; Parker is so paranoid that he warns Zuckerberg that his competition will start bugging his phone and spying on his everyday activities.
The use of lighting in the film is effective in communicating mood. Through out the film, the lighting is often dim and gloomy. This technique communicates the mood and environment of someone sitting alone in a dark room lit only by the glow of a computer screen.

Kehoe- George of the Jungle

The movement in George of the Jungle, for the most part, is sped up and exaggerated to look cartoonish both for comic effect and to pay tribute to the movies source material. There are few scenes that break away from this style but one of the most notable is the scene in which George is calming the horse while the women admire him. This is one of the few scenes that does not have the cartoonish style of movement, and, except for the two men asking, "what's with chicks and horses" the scene is devoid of comedy. The scene cuts between George, running with the horse, and the women drooling over him from behind the fence. When George and the horse are being shown, he is moving in slow motion, but when it cuts back to the women they are moving at normal speed. George's slowed movements symbolize how the women are idolize as a hunky wild man who is far different from the men they are used to meeting. The slowed motion also represents the peace that George brings to the horse by calming him down.

The scene is about 20 seconds into the video:

Kehoe-My avatar

I chose this avatar because it reminds me that I must always be challenging myself in order to improve. In any aspect in life it is important to always be pushing the limits of what you think yourself capable. I feel that this is very important in life, a person should always be challenging themselves in some aspect of their life. Whether mentally or physically, I feel that the only way that people grow is by making themselves go outside of their comfort zones. This is also a reminder that I am my own worst enemy, and that when something is going wrong in my life i should look to see what I am doing wrong. It is easy for me to blame other people when things are not going my way, but ultimately I know that I must look to my self to improve my situation.

Kehoe: Larry is the Strongest

The film Closer showcases the talents of all of its stars very effectively, but Clive Owen, in the role of Larry, emerges as the strongest of the characters. In the beginning of the film Larry is nebbish and jovial, but as the film progresses he emerges as a man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. In the above scene Anna, played by Julia Roberts, is meeting with Larry in order to have him sign their divorce papers. It is in this scene that Larry convinces Anna to sleep with him a final time, which eventually leads to the destruction of her relationship with Jude Law.
This scene is the first step in Larry’s underhanded plan to win Anna back. The most notable aspect of the frame is the color values. Not only in the contrast of the characters, but also in the scene as a whole. The table and chairs are fairly devoid of color, as is the scenery in the window behind them, even the rose at the center of the table appears to be black. All of these elements give the scene a dark and cheerless tone. Larry’s dark clothing contrasting with Anna’s bright white symbolizes his transformation from a character that is jocular and slightly geeky, to a man that is cold and calculating.
A notable subsidiary object in the scene is the vertical line that is formed by the window divider and the leg of the table. It runs from top to bottom to represent the void that has grown between Larry and Anna. This rift is becomes even more defined in the character proxemics. Even though the shot is tightly framed, both Anna and Larry sit at the very edges of the frame, as if to be as far as possible from one another.
Larry, played by Clive Owen, comes across as the strongest character in the film. Not only does he win Anna back but also gets his revenge by destroying Dan and Alice’s relationship. What makes Larry the strongest out of all the characters is that he never changes what he wants through out the movie. In the beginning all he wants is to be with Anna and when she leaves him all he wants is to get her back.

Wolfman, Then and Now

The difference that digital media makes in the way these two characters look is glaringly apparent. The modern, Benecio Del Toro, version use of computer graphics and CGI makes for a much realer looking werewolf. When the original was made in 1941 they were limited to makeup and costumes to create a convincing wolf man. The technology gap is also very apparent when comparing the moment when the actors are shifting from man to beast. In the modern version, the viewer sees Lawrence Talbot change into a wolf with terrifying detail. We see his face elongate, his teeth grow, and every other change as he grows into a wolf. The 1941 version just uses camera tricks so that the hair and teeth gradually appear onto the actors face. The most significant effect that digital media has had on the newer version is in how the monster moves. In the newer version the filmmakers used CGI to make the wolf man move inhumanely fast, as opposed to the original in which the monster moves at a normal speed.

Mise en scene: Piranhas 3-D

This shot is from the recent horror movie, "Piranhas 3-D." The two dominants in the shot are the frightened girl and the piranhas that are about to devour her. The lighting is made to look like natural sunlight coming down through the water to give the shot the natural appearance of the lake in which the scene takes place. The camera and character proxemics are certainly intimate, the camera is pulled in for a very tight shot, and the characters are literally face to face. The closeness of the shot highlights the fear and tension of being so close to raging piranhas. This frame is from a scene in which a random, unsuspecting, attractive girl comes face to face with the piranhas. The frame shows the few tense seconds between her and the piranhas right before they devour her.