The Lord of the Rings

We watched a documentary over The Lord of the Rings in class last week. Honestly, I am absolutely not a huge fan of the movies, but I think it was pretty interesting to find out how producers have to think about every detail. Some things kept my attention.

For example at the beginning, they take a shot of the location. It is wonderful, too beautiful to be true, makes us think it is going to be a fantasy movie. Then they talk about how much it was difficult to settle a prologue, and especially to pick a point of view. They chose the ring's point of view, and gave her a powerful female voice as storyteller. I thought it was very interesting, and a great idea.

Then I think a very interesting thing is when they talk about the first time we actually realize the size difference between hobbits and humans : when Gandalphe and Freudo meet. They say they used "forced perspective" (?): put a lot of distance between the two actors and use perspective to make them appear as sized differently. They use the same principle when Gandalphe and Bilbao are in the same room, even if it was a very difficult scene to shot, like they said.

Rocky, Paper, Scissor

First, I really have to share with you how much this video made me laugh! I think it is crazy to think about what a good video teenagers can create, even better than some actual movies... It is almost perfect. I say almost, because couple of things could be better.

For example around 55 seconds, one of the two main characters appears from behind a wall, then two shots later, he walks from the same place, which seemed weird since the two guys were having a conversation, he should have stayed at the same place...

I am not going to list all of them because it didn't shock me, I just forced myself to think about that and see negative things because I had to, but it is a great short movie. They totally understood how to play with music, sound effects, and shots..

One of my favorite shot is the over the shoulder shot at 3:36, when the main character is arms up and is like showing the world he is the king of the universe and he is going to beat the other guy!

The other interesting shot is the extreme close-up at 5:23, which is used I think to show how Rocky feels. It is a great way to shoot people's emotions I think, and it works perfectly in this case since we can really feel How much Rocky is decided to win this fight.

About the music, I think the choices are perfect. I am not even going to talk about the Eye of the Tiger song, since it is in the movie Rocky, so.. good choice. But the song right before the fight is a great one. It sounds like an epic movie's song, which is funny and stressing at the same time, because let's not forget it is only rocky paper scissor! So I thought it matched up pretty well with the movie.

Then, watching the video, I can feel that the writers thought and actually took the time to elaborate interesting plot and dialogues. They thought about how they could make it funny, and I think the choice to make the dialogues pretty serious was a very good idea, because it made a contrast even stronger with the silly plot.

Great video!

Carnival of Souls

We watched this movie, Carnival of Souls, in class, and I was really surprised. Indeed I was told it was a very old movie, I was kind of afraid to dislike it because i usually only watch recent ones, but I enjoyed it. Even more I think it was a very important step in scary movie's history.

It came out in 1962, and it was actually the very first zombie movie. The producer just had the idea one day to put dead people in a movie. Nobody had thought about that before, so of course they didn't give any credit to it. But 30 years later, it was much more famous.

The writer went to a creepy place one time, and just decided to write a movie about this place. Then it cost more money when there are dialogues, so it is a half-silent movie, with a lot of music. They were a crew of five to make the movie; it took 14 days of shooting, $ 30,000, but they succeed. Indeed we still watch it in Oskaloosa, Kansas, in 2009.

The thing is you have to have a great story, and it will be a great movie. The best example I could pick is The Others, with Nicole Kidman. A woman lives in a house in the middle of nowhere, with her two children; during the whole movie, she thinks the house is haunted, and other dead people live in the house with them, and they are actually the one who are dead. It keeps the suspense until the very end; it is a great movie, because the basic topic, the story is awesome. That is the first thing you need to have to succeed.

Then, as Carnival of Souls' executive producer said, you have to persevere. If you really want to make your movie one of the best ever, just go for it! Work hard, be self-confident. The ideas will come at the right time.

2nd podcast - "Veronika decide de mourir" (Paulo Coehlo)

Here my second podcast... I would just like to add that I think some people would be interested in knowing that I found out couple of days ago that a movie followed the book, with the famous actress Sarah Michelle Gellar. I didn't see it, if someone does before me, i would like to know if it is a good movie, I am afraid to be disappointed now i loved the book so much!

Playing For Change

Well here is one of my favorite bands... It's named Playing for Change. First, don't you think this name is wonderful? You will appreciate it even more when you know what the band is about. They just took people around the world, in different countries, and made them sing a part of a famous song. Most of the time they are not famous people, but persons in the street.
I think this band is a great way to realize how much music can make people equal; it is an international language.
I picked Stand By My, originally sang by Marvin Gaye. I was so touched the first time I heard it... So I hope you will love it as much as I do.

Let me know what you think =)

1st podcast - Differences between France and the USA

Pulizer Prize

The Boston Fire:
The picture is beautiful. But in fact it makes me feel uncomfortable because I exactly know what happens right after the picture: the mother and her child die. One's death is very personal, I think it is kind of intrusive to watch this sort of picture. It also makes me feel upset that two people are actually dying. That is how people must have felt watching this picture and that is why the photograph is a really good one: he touched people, made them realize fires are atrocities that can kill lots of people, even if firemen do their best to save them. This picture is a real eyeopener.






Welcome home:
This picture is the kind of things I like to see, It is something really happy that remind people how much war was hard for families. When we talk about war, we think about guns, bobs, death... But there was very strong emotional moments, like when soldiers went back to their families.
That is what is happening here; in this picture you can see a woman running to someone with a big smile. It is very representative of how much soldiers could have missed their families, and how much their families could have missed them. I could not imagine to experience such a thing with my brother and my father... This picture really moved me.