Unit 26:Task 1 - Silver Linings (barington)

I have recently watched a film by the name of ‘Silver linings playbook’ that was directed by David O.Russel who is well known for directing 'The fighter'. Silver Linings was released in the UK in December it has received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, and also achieved being nominated in all four acting categories, for the first time since Reds in 1981. The genre of the film is a rom-com and drama and explores Mental illness, friendship and depression and is based on the novel written by Matthew Quick.

Staring in this film was Bradley cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Chris Tucker and Jacki Weaver. On an estimate of £13,020,000 budget for the film it was shot on a 33-day schedule. 

Bradley cooper who plays the role of Pat has spent the last 8 months in a mental hospital after a viscous attack involving his wife and another man. After being discharged from hospital pat has now moved in with his parents.Pat is desperate to get back with his wife and wants her to see how much of a changed man he is, because of the restraining order that is keeping them apart this turns out more then difficult. He soon befriends a young depressed woman who is grieving over the death of her husband. Tiffany offers to help but only on the condition that pat helps her do something very important to her. As time goes on they both develop a special bond between them.          

Silver linings playbook is rated a 15 this is because of the scenes with sex and nudity, violence, achohol, drugs and smoking and also the use of swear words, which was rated 9/10.

David O. Russels direction perfectly reflects the film’s themes. Throughout the film many in many shots the camera comes rushing up to actors. This creates a certain atmosphere for the movie and makes the audience feel as though they are watching the story through the eyes of the characters. As Russel has in previous films like The Fighter and Three Kings he is able to show different emotions with soft and rough camera movements this can also have connection to show the audience the intensity of pats bipolar disorder.

After watching this film it makes me reflect on my own traits that people may say are mad, it also helped me realize im not alone and everyone has something crazy about them.

Alynda Wheat of People Magazine said "Here's what David O. Russell's fiendishly witty, brash film isn't: boring, safe or willing to let any of us forget a deceptively simple truth: 'When life reaches out... it's a sin if you don't reach back,” In my opinion Silver Linings exceeded my expectations and is a must see film.

Unit 26: Task 4 - Short Film Review (barrington)

Short Film Review

Simon Ellis is a British film director. He has won a number of international film festivals and has also directed some music videos, Commercials and television shows.  Ellis’s first film was shot in black and white when he was 16 years old. Ellis does not stick to one type of genre or is known for similarities between each of his films so every film he makes is unexpected and different from the previous.  

Telling lies

Ellis directed and edited the film “Telling lies” in the year 2000. This film comes under the genres of comedy, animation and drama. Throughout the film animated captions is used on a black background to tell a story. The main character Phil receives a series of phone calls. The first call from his mother and then his girlfriend awakens him. The captions shown on the screen are not always what the character says on the phone. The unspoken words that are not shown on the screen are a simple way to allow the audience to get into the characters head. In this film Ellis shows a different and constructive way of not actually showing the characters but letting the audience get to know a lot about them.

To show progression the captions change colour and enlarge this emphasizes the lies and how the character is speaking eg large text when shouting and small when speaking in a quite tone. This was an interesting way to get across how the character was felling without actually showing their facial expressions.

When a protagonist is lying the words comes up in white. This symbolizes the fact they are white lies.

One critic said, “I like this short film even though there is no camera footage. The whole visual of the film is the text and the text shows the audience the truth whereas the dialogue that you can hear is full of lies” I agree as although the idea is simple and somewhat boring because there is no imagery it is fresh and allowed me to forget I was just listening to a series of phone calls but instead I felt inspired by this creative piece of work. Telling lies is an effective way of contrasting what people say to what they are actually thinking.

Soft

Soft is directed and written by Simon Ellis and was made in 2007. The story explores many themes some being a father and son relationship, bullying, youth crime, violence and revenge. The genre of the film is social drama.

The film begins with a boy who we later discover is the son he is being attacked by a group of teens. This scene is filmed on a mobile phone as a member of the group is filming what is going on. This is a powerful opening scene, which will instantly get the audience interested The establishing shot shown after of the area allows us to have a sense of the characters social status. Further on in the film the father of the young boy is out buying a pint of milk and is attacked by the same group of hoodlums that had recently assaulted his son. As we move on the audience becomes aware that the father and son have a difficult relationship. After showing his dad his bruised face we find out the he is not all he makes out to be as he tells is son that he should of fought back which is something he did not do when he was assaulted himself.

The group of teens who had followed the father home are now outside the house calling him out so they can ‘finish the job’. After a lot of disagreeing between the father and son the father decides to go out with the intention of moving them away from the house himself. Realising his father is helpless the son goes out to help. A critic said “Soft is relevant in a society when we hear about teenage violence and stabbings all the time. And it is brilliant because as grownups we forget how scared we often were as children - of bullies or anything else.” In my opinion ‘soft’ explores the themes that relate strongly to its target audience. I felt engaged in the film because of the way the story was put together and the shots that was used although the themes have been used many times before Simon Ellis put the film together so it felt different and inspiring.

‘Soft and ‘Telling Lies’ are to completely different films n terms of genre, visuals and narrative. Both films are made for same target audience of 15. ‘Soft’ told a much clearer story and will keep a wider audience interested because of the imagery. You was able to see the characters, how they dressed, walked and this alone will give the audience a chance to piece together the characters in terms of their background, age and social status. However ‘Telling Lies’ may have a bigger impact on the target audience, as it’s a very simple idea but a very different and creative way of showing it.

In my opinion both films was inspiring but I prefer ‘Telling lies’ as it’s fresh and has never been done before. It also gave me the opportunity to think about the characters and where they might lived their social status and why they was in the situation they were in.