Kick Ass: Mise En Scène

Matthew Vaughn's Kick Ass, is a classic take on action and humor with the creative use of comic styling. Kick Ass involves crime fighting "super heroes" who are trying to make a difference in their life. For this analysis, we will be looking at the Mise En Scène for this particular frame:

Mindy, aka Hit Girl, is the center of the frame. We can clearly see that she is what the director wanted eyes to focus on. The effect of the high-key lighting in the background spotlights the character by creating strong contrast of her dark outfit, while the medium shot leaves the additional dark bookshelves on the left and right sides of the frame. The camera proxemic range is social, as it appears to be roughly 10 feet away facing slightly upward from waist height. The color used is primarily black with the vibrance turned down slightly with no appearance of a filter being used with the standard lens. Our subsidiary contrasts in this frame include the 3 dead villains and the one behind the right bookshelf who is half in frame and half out frame. Also noted, the density, as there is high contrast and a lot of texture details, such as the bookshelves. The bookshelves shape the composition of the frame to be segmented into the center, creating a funnel-like directive. This suggests action and movement. The form of the frame is definitely closed, as it is unrealistically balanced for the left and right due to where the objects and figures are placed. We can see that Mindy is mid sprint charging at her enemies, and on the verge of a juke/dodge, suggesting a loose framing because there is room to move. Mindy is almost at the villain behind the bookshelf in this frame, as we can tell he is in the foreground (and closer to the camera) by the angle of his gun barrel. Mindy would technically be in the foreground, as the dead villains lay in the midground and the elevator door is the background. As for placement and positioning, which is side by side with depth, Mindy is our main character so as such she is placed right in the middle so all eyes are on her. Her head is at a slight angle to the right while her body is facing directly at the camera. Our dead villains lay on their backs sprawled out, below the horizon line at the edges of the bookshelves leaving the center clear, almost like a runway. And the one villain left, well he is all by himself at the right edge of the frame, slightly outside of it as well, facing towards Mindy with his back to the camera because he is up to no good. Our foreground characters proxemics are personal, along with our main character's slain enemies. 

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest: Acting Review

"One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" directed by Milos Forman, features a man who fakes being crazy in order to leave prison and transfer to a mental institution where he can escape labor duties. R.P. McMurphy is played by Jack Nicholson, one of the stars in the movie. In addition, Louise Fletcher (playing Nurse Ratched), Danny DeVito (played Martini), and Christopher Lloyd (playing Taber). From a viewers response, it seems that the actors had much influence into the artistic collaboration of the film. The ongoing conflicts between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched is a great example of that. Jack Nicholson brings some of his own style that we have seen in other movies, such as The Shining, into his scenes. It must have been difficult for Louise Fletcher to keep a straight, serious face during those times. The director kept the stars in ensemble for many scenes without solely highlighting only one star, except for Jack Nicholson who was in a majority of the scenes.

Shutter Island: Ideology Critique

For Shutter Island, a mystery thriller directed by Martin Scorsesse, the ideology was not so simply displayed. There is essentially no good guy or bad guy. The protagonist is Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), and his journey is to uncover the disappearance of a missing women. Our missing women could be labeled as the "bad guy (women)" because she is claimed to be a child murderer, except we do not actually witness the conflict. In addition, we do not witness any good vs bad conflict entirely. In fact, the only real conflict seems to be inside of Daniels head, as he struggles with the haunting memories of his past. In terms of morals, the inmates of the asylum are all distinguished by their gloomy-grey outfits. The "doctors" and staff members are outfitted in bright white jackets and pants. The inmates act somewhat emotionless and "zombie-like" which fits the atmosphere of an asylum.

Blade Runner: Ideology Critique

The Sci-Fi movie Blade Runner (1982), directed by Ridley Scott, is a leap into the future if you viewed this movie back in the 80's. Otherwise today it looks like the timeline is somewhat off, as the setting is supposedly in 2019 in the city of Los Angeles. A city jam-packed full of people and large looming structures. Our protagonist, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) who is a Blade Runner, is forced to re-enter the police force to hunt down and terminate four rouge replicants that escaped on earth. The replicants are robots made to look like humans yet without emotion, and they are trying to find their creator so that they could have their lifespan extended as they are only built to last a total of four years. They are presumed as bad because they are not human, even though they are just looking to live a longer life as they are afraid to die, a human trait. The morals of the society has it set upon them that because the replicants are of inhuman nature they don't deserve a sense of equality. We see that Deckard's life is rough, and he is low on the economic scale. He lives in a crowded area of the city that is dark, dingy and not a place I would ever want to raise children. Deckard seems to undergo a change of emotion after first discovering that Rachel (Sean Young), is actually a replicant after attempting the test upon her. He begins to care about her and understand that maybe not all replicants are presumed bad as they have previously been labeled due to the other's past actions. In addition to the economic scale, it seems Ridley Scott was attempting to show the viewers how he envisions the populated city of real-life Los Angeles. As all the crowds are gathered in chaos on ground level, we see that the higher up we go, the less chaos there is, which portrays the higher economic class in addition to the "off-world" society constantly advertised across the city. The costumes for those below are worn-out, dirty and correctly represent what class they are. Then we see the costumes of higher class, such as Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), a clean, well-fitting suit that looks expensive. This is a very similar representation of our current society and how we have spit into these economic classes of poor and rich. And even more-so, equality. As the replicants are disregarded. Yet it is the ending when Deckard sees the underlined emotion of replicants when his life is spared. We are hinted through the actions in the movie to cherish life and not take it for granted, so live it to the fullest just as Roy (Rutger Hauer) said he had before his time came to an end.

Shutter Island: Writing Critique

The original writing for Shutter Island is by Dennis Lehane, who wrote the novel in April 2003, and was then adapted into film by Laeta Kalogridis. Dennis Lehane's novel has been a #1 Bestseller and had been critically acclaimed for how well it has been written. As for the adapted screenplay, it was perfectly in context with the novel.

The writing is not very talky as it mainly illustrates dramatic camera scenes and actions of our characters. For the times when dialogue is present, we can understand it well as the speech is clear, concise and articulated well. There are times when dialogue is not as clear because of the nature of the speech, as in paranoia, mumbling, and sleep deprivation. Yet this helps us to uncover further details of the characters, while the nitty-gritty information comes solely from visual camera scenes, like the scene of Teddy Daniels' dead wife or him clutching to the rocks when attempting to scale a ravenous cliff. Thanks to Daniels, we view the story primarily through his eyes, if you pulled his eyes out and set them in a 360 degree motion around his head. So it is sort of a 3rd person/ alternate viewing style because we see and think what Daniels does, and yet we see, but not think, what others see and think of Daniels.

Shutter Island: Story Critique

The old-world mystery thriller, Shutter Island, written by Laeta Kalogridis and Dennis Lehane, and directed by Martin Scorsese, is a story about uncovering the mystery of madness. This is a screenplay guided by the original novel of Dennis Lehane, who also wrote the screenplay for the film.

Martin Scorsese, who is also known for great works such as Goodfellas and The Departed, digs into his style of dark and gothic to bring us this film that leaves the audience on the edge of their seats. And he did not disappoint! He created the shuddering feelings found in an audience when watching a horror film, except he leaves the shocks and screams out. Its a unique style as there is a scare with no shock.

Shutter Island, takes place in 1954 on a remote and brittle island off the coast of Boston where an old Civil War fort has been converted into a prison for the criminally insane. The setting is first interpreted from the sea as a boat guilds its way through the dense fog of the gloomy sky. This provokes emotion for viewers and sets up the theme of the story.

Our story follows two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), as they make way to investigate the disappearance of a child murderer Rachel Solando. Throughout the story we are given hints of the details of our supposed protaganist Teddy Daniels. In the beginning, we learn that something is not right about him. His seasickness and depressing memories of his lost wife tell us hes broken. Additionally, we are given longer memory flashbacks of his wife and his 2 children which appear at different times during the film when insight is needed. With everyone questioning Daniels and being "strange" around him, as an audience member, you develop intrigue for who this man is. As he obviously suffered from a devestating loss of his wife and children, he was also a WWII veteran, and had to witness many horrors when his unit liberated a Nazi concentration camp, which would play an affect on any man's mind.