Nolley, Iqbal, Cascioppo- A Walk in the Park

"A Walk in the Park"

This movie was our take on a thriller/suspense movie with a funny twist at the end. The majority of the film was shot in Audubon Park and Loyola's campus. Azreen does an amazing job is being a total creep in this one minute film. We also wanted to make fun of how Dominic was so freaked out by such a tiny person. In all, the project was enjoyable and we had a lot of fun. It was amazing to us how we were able to successfully shoot this movie in less than forty minutes and edit it in such a short span of time. Hopefully everyone will enjoy it (especially Professor McCay :]]).

Demo blog - Apocalypse Now

In this still, taken from

Francis Ford Coppala's 1979 Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now, the main character Capt. Willard represents the dominant image.The shot focuses on Willard in an effort to contrast him with the dreamlike/halluciantroy scene taking place behind him. The extreme brightness in the background highlights the fog and adds to the hallucinatroy aspect of this image. The characters are arranged proxemically social/public. On one hand the shot is social because there seems to be an inner circle of characters and public as well becuase it is obvious to the viewer that many other people are surrounding the main characters. This still is taken right before the culmination of the film. Here Capt. Willard has finally stumbled out of the ominous jungle and upon the village occupied by Colonel Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando) and his disciples. The village as a whole is seen as a kind of mythological outpost. A place that none of the American soldiers are sure exists and if so, what will be waiting when they arrive there. This still image exemplifies the mysticism surrounding the village. You see Willard, who appears to be the only sane person left. You see his ally (far right) covered in blood, wearing a leaf atop his head, and looking utterly confused. In the background you see forbidding rougue anglo soldiers. Fading into the fog there are countless minions of natives. On the left is Dennis Hopper's character who appears to be saying something which no one is paying attention to. The characters in the film, which become increasingly apart from reality the further they journey into the jungle, are seen here amidst a chaos which is so bizzare that none of them can comprehend it.

The Metamorphosis - becoming a Wolf in 1941 vs. 2010

The Wolfman of 2010 relied heavily on the use of of computer generated images to display the man-into-werewolf transistion of Benicio Del Toro. On the opposite end of the spectrum was the Lon Chaney Jr.'s 1941 transistion from man to monster. In the pre-digital version the camera focuses on the hands and face of Chaney as he becomes a monster. This sequence is done using make-up and lighting effects. The camera stops with the display of the increasingly lupine apperence of the hands and face of Chaney. The complete metamorphosis of the actor is left to the imagination of the audience. In 2010 the metamorphosis is seen by the audience completley. Bencicio Del Toro is at first a man, then he slowly, painfully becomes the beast, with nothing left to the imagination of the audience. Of course, in 2010 the filmmakers are much more capable of caputring the metamorphosis than they were when making the original in 1941. The capability of the digital age allows the filmmakers to display every detail of the transisition, using every range of camera proxemics from intimate onto public. Even so, the CGI adds a quality of silliness to the film. Silliness where in the 1941 the transistion was to be seen as more sinister. The sinister nature of the transistion in the 1941 version stems from the use of very intimate camera proxemics. These close range allow the audience to feel the intense, uneasy, entrapped state that is overcoming Lon Chaney Jr.