Monday, September 12, 2016

Preparation for Independent Study

Choose any two minutes in the following video and create a 2 column script for those two minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0DotIqOD-E

10 comments:

  1. 12:09 - 14:15

    Visual

    Close-up of Robert Graysmith from Zodiac
    Graysmith’s POV of investigation room
    Medium shot of Graysmith pinning up paper
    Close up shot of the paper
    Shot of Graysmith appearing on TV
    Medium dolly-in shot of Paul Avery
    Close up shot of detective from Memories
    Shot from his perspective of a building

    Medium shot from other detectives POV of workers shoveling
    Close-up of other detective watching them
    Long shot of both detectives standing in hallway
    Close-up of both detectives, one smoking



    Close-up of a frantic Robert Graysmith
    Close-up of Mark Ruffalo
    Medium shot of two men at a desk, looking at pictures of suspects
    Close-up of suspect photos

    Close-up of detective looking through hole
    Medium shot of the bandit from Rashomon
    Medium shot of the woman from Rashomon
    Another one of the woman
    Medium shot of storyteller
    Shot of woman between two swords
    Long shot of the two men in the rain


    Medium shot of meeting desk in Zodiac
    Close shot of woman running in Memories
    Medium shot of men eating at table

    Long shot of police station in Zodiac
    Medium shot of Graysmith



    Close-up of Graysmith - light turns on behind him and he speaks


    Close-up of detective with his face on a table from Memories
    Close-up of other detective

    Back to first detective, speaking



    Back to other detective, he speaks

    Close-up of first detective again
    Long shot of men in the rain from Memories
    Deep medium shot of Graysmith, Zodiac
    Birds’ eye shot of car driving
    Medium shot of people in field in Memories
    Shot of Ruffalo eating from Zodiac
    Shot of Graysmith watching Ruffalo eating
    Deep close-up of Graysmith on the phone

    Medium shot of Graysmith looking pensive
    Close-up of detective from Memories
    Close-up of other detective


    Fade to black
    Audio

    V/O Narrator: For instance, only Graysmith sees his obsession through his eyes in this scene, but by seeing his POV, we gain insight to someone else’s perception. By gaining all of these different characters’ perceptions, we have what’s closest to the truth - it just comes down to whether or not we believe it.

    Perspective and perception, in my eyes, all comes down to things that are exclusive to one character; who even though in the world, one character may have a moment that’s unique to them, by having that information also served to the audience, a deeper understanding of the situation is formed.

    Perspective is an overlooked idea when it comes to filmmaking, and in the mystery genre, audience perception is vital, especially in stories that deal with ambiguity.


    Perspectivism can best be seen in Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon. We watch a single story from the points of view of different people, and what it boils down to is that the audience perspective is created from knowing each of the individual perspectives. By the end, the only thing that truly matters is what we think.

    Zodiac and Memories take the audience into account, and by treating their perspectives as one that’s relevant in this world, the storytelling and techniques can become immensely powerful. You can intertwine audience perspective with a character, revealing information to both, and making the reaction of your character simultaneous with your audience.

    From Zodiac: Not many people have basements in California.

    V/O Narrator: Or you can discover a fact about your main character that the audience didn’t know.

    From Memories of Murder: (translated from Korean) Did you really not rehearse that dialogue with him?

    I told you I didn’t.

    V/O Narrator: Story is all about perspective, so perhaps if your story needs focus, just imagine that you need to tell it to one person, an all-seeing eye that’s part of the world. Both films do this, and even though we identify with the detectives, we simultaneously develop our own perception thanks to the filmmaking.

    And if you wanted to know, out of Memories of Murder and Zodiac, which story I think is better, well that all depends: whose story are you talking about?

    Chord on piano

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    Replies
    1. For proper formatting see this link:

      https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rLsyRRK-W3Nl7-USROEmR-YZczYNX5-JhJaL-KRVNmU/edit?usp=sharing

      Delete
  2. Audio

    Zodiac and Memories are no different to this trope. In memories, we know that the killer will strike again. Through the information gathered throughout the film, the timeframe for our characters is set. When it next rains, someone will die.

    Rain sounds from Memories

    This may not be a finite point in time, but it is an inevitability. We know its going to rain again, and so now we have suspense. Zodiac on the other hand, utilizes the ticking clock very differently. Unlike Memories, after the first twenty six minutes of the film, the killings end.

    Muffled dialogue from Zodiac of a 911 call

    And there’s really no particular threat that the Zodiac will kill again. Here, the progression of time is used to show that people are going to eventually stop looking for the killer, leaving the crime unresolved. Difference between suspense and mystery. The focus of one is that there is still a threat that could strike at any point. The characters need to act quickly before he does. The other film’s focus is the unanswered question: “Who was responsible for this?” The characters need to find an answer before too much time passes.

    Zodiac “Too much time has gone by okay? T-t-too much of the evidence is lost. People get old Robert, they forget.”

    Although both films treat time differently, a commonality of both is the effect of time on their environments. Don’t worry, I’m getting around to the perspectives. Effects of the passage of time are most evident in both worlds as we see gradual change in them as time passes. Memories of Murder opens with warm imagery and a sense of simplicity. However once the killings start, they bring with it a gray cloud that constantly looms over the town for a majority of the film. Time moves on, yet the cloud lingers and removes any tenderness the image possessed. Only at the end of the film do we return to the same location. But the subtle difference between the past and the present shows that the damage has already been done. Time has destroyed the town.










    Visual


    MoM medium shot of cops in an office
    MoM medium shot of cop crouching into alley
    MoM long shot of cops walking in field
    MoM c/u of footprint
    MoM reverse shot of four cops pointing at camera
    MoM c/u of cop turned into pan of another running towards a window
    MoM c/u of man opening window from previous shot
    MoM long shot in cabbage field of cop standing
    MoM medium c/u of someone reaching hand towards falling rain
    MoM C/u of held out picture
    Zodiac tracking medium shot of cops in a hall
    Zodiac long shot of birds flying
    Zodiac c/u of two cops in a squad car
    Zodiac long shot of cab parked at a street corner
    Zodiac tracking shot of man walking at night
    Zodiac c/u of man sitting
    Zodiac c/u of man examining something
    Zodiac c/u of text
    Zodiac c/u of man in phnone both
    MoM medium shot reverse shot
    MoM medium shot of fighting
    Zodiac c/u of hand going across paper
    Zodiac long angle medium shot of men looking around an apartment
    Zodiac medium shot of two men outside courthouse
    MoM high angle of people scared on an elevator
    Zodiac tracking downward shot of Golden Gate brideg
    Zodiac med long shot of poeple on bench
    Zodiac tracking shot out car window
    Zodiac pan of man walking into a storw
    MoM med long of children running
    MoM c/u of man with cigarette waving
    MoM med shot of man beating snother
    MoM med shot of same man walking in the rain
    MoM long shot in field
    MoM med shot of couple sitting
    MoM medium shot of man walking towards the canera
    MoM est shot of field w/ credits
    MoM over shoulder high angle shot of man looking out of window

    ReplyDelete
  3. 0:00-2:00

    AUDIO

    The sounds of an agricultural field, with a building music beginning.

    (Translated from Korean):
    MAN: Did you see his face?

    MARK RUFFALO: Did you check to see his face?
    GIRL: I did.

    (Translated from Korean)
    MAN: What did he look like?

    MARK RUFFALO: D-do you remember what he looked like?
    GIRL: Normal. Yeah.
    MARK RUFFALO: Normal?

    (Translated from Korean)
    GIRL: Well… Ordinary.

    Same music begins to swell.

    NARRATOR: It’s not a rare thing for two films to be compared within the same genre, especially if those films are the two standouts in that category. The mystery genre certainly had it’s hay day during film noir, but never really returned as the mainstream juggernaut it once was. Mystery as a whole seems to be mostly confined to tales associated with murder, with just a few directors breaking that trend. But there’s always been enough interest in the genre to keep it alive, however it was in the 2000s that two murder mystery films were released, that became a separable comparisons to one another by critics, audience members, and even their respective directors. These films were Bong Joon-Ho’s Memories of Murder and David Finch's Zodiac. The similarities were obvious, a serial killer story based on true events, an investigation thwarted by dead ends, and a lack of complete closure by the end of both films. It never came as a surprise that both of these films were weighed up against one another, but to me it seemed as though it was just because they were both murder mysteries, whose release dates were relatively close to one another. Not many people spoke about the form of these films to examine the lifelessness and deviations of one another, the biggest thing that gives these films their own distinguishable identities, are the perspective that their stories are told from, but more importantly, how audiences perspectives are woven into the films.

    MARK RUFFALO: Hey. How do we know that this lead is real?
    OTHER GUY: It’s very real. You know how I know? Cuz I saw it on T.V.

    VISUAL

    Landscape shot of field with two figures.
    Close up on mans face.
    Medium shot of Mark Ruffalo in a chair.
    Close up on mans face.
    Medium shot of Mark Ruffalo in a chair.
    Close up on girls face, bust up.
    Close up on mans face.
    Fade to black.
    Landscape shot of a city at night with fireworks.
    Landscape shot of a field with a road in the center, a figure walks down the road, framed by a scarecrow on the right.
    Close up on mans face with a recording device.
    Medium shot of Humphrey Bogart from Maltese Falcon, smoking.
    Another medium shot, framed this time by other people, Bogart in center still.
    Medium shot of Chiwetel Ejiofor from The Secrets in Their Eyes, in the left third, getting slammed into a wall and falling over.
    Medium shot of a woman from A Separation, getting pushed out of a door.
    Medium shot of people from Gone Girl, negotiating over a table.
    Man looking into film, medium shot.
    Medium shot of car from Zodiac.
    Equal medium shot of man and wife in bed.
    Medium shot from man from Zodiac walking through hall.
    RDJ medium shot.
    Opening shot from Memories of Murder, open sky with Korean writing.
    Opening scene from Zodiac, closed shot of boy being shaken.
    Open medium shot of paper with random symbols.
    Medium landscape shot of man walking in jacket toward tractor.
    Closed far shot of figures in a train tunnel, light from semicircle entrance.
    Medium airport shot.
    Closed shot of magnifying glass with paper.
    Running, far, landscape murder shots.
    RDJ with a cigarette, open profile shot on a typewriter.
    Close up of typewriter.
    Even closed shot over a table.
    Medium shot conference table.
    Close up mans face closed shot.
    Medium shot of Mark Ruffalo, coworkers head being cut off by frame, unequal.

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  4. Video:
    Medium close-up shot of a man in formal clothes sitting at a typewriter, in the rightmost third of the screen. To the left of him in the background, another man walks toward him. Cut briefly to an outside shot of a door opening, and then again to a man standing in the foreground in his underwear beside a car, facing away from the camera. In the middleground on either side of him are three other men, emerging from doors in the side of a concrete building. Fade to black. Bird’s-eye view of a taxi surrounded by darkness in a parking lot. Fade to black. A shot of a woman huddled next to an open car. Fade to black. Fade in to a shot of a man in an office walking from the middleground to the foreground. Fade to black. A shot of two cars in a vacant lot at night. Fade to black. A low-angle shot of a man standing in an office setting, and then to a shot of him sitting. An extreme long shot of a time lapse of a building being constructed. A bird’s-eye view of a taxi driving through a city street at night. A book containing newspaper clippings and handwritten notes. The pages turn. A shot of two men in a crowded room. One man walks away from the other into the crowded middleground. Fade to black. The text “Four years later” appears on screen. A shot of a city at night. Multiple close-up shots of characters in cars, sitting in chairs, etc. A shot of a man walking out of a store, away from the camera. Fade to black. A shot of a man shoving another man in a parking lot. A close up shot of two older people sitting on a couch, then to two men in suits sitting in a conference room. A dark shot of a bus parked with its high-beams on. Fade to black. A series of rapid medium-close-up shots of different characters in unrelated settings.

    Audio:
    “Zodiac’s passage of time is different, and exemplified with one simple technique: a fade to black.”
    A car door slams.
    Slow piano music can be heard throughout.
    “The fade to black is very distinct in the movie, as the rest of the editing has a uniformity to it that makes the fade stand out. When they appear, they create what can only be described as a disconnect between the audience and the movie, as if they don’t belong there. But they’re salient because at every instance of time passing, the world within Zodiac changes. The interior of the San Francisco Chronicle changes over time, we see a time lapse of the construction of the Trans-American Pyramid. What this shows is that distancing us from the world through the editing, the characters within the world surely must do the same. This is best displayed two thirds through the movie. Four years pass through another fade to black. We stare at a blank screen for what seems to be an eternity. But the length of this moment is indicating how far behind us the previous world was, and once it reappears, it’s completely different. This is not the same world as the one we’ve been watching. The world continues to grow and change, ultimately forgetting about Zodiac, while the main characters and the audience can’t. And it’s in this intertwining of character and audience that perspective comes into play. Because of the lack of continuity editing between large passages of time, it doesn’t feel as though there’s any connection between what we’re watching and what we’ve seen. The people that inhabit the world we watch have no relation in the world we’ve been watching; with one technique, the killer is rendered completely irrelevant to the world; it’s moved on. This perspective is completely unique to the audience, because in the universe of the characters, everything is connected. However, as voyeurs, the audience is given the advantage of an outsider looking in on these people that your protagonists don’t possess. So even though both films seem to tell their story from the point of view of the main characters, they still utilize multiple perspectives, and use techniques that include the audience perspective as something unique.”
    A garbled television can be heard.
    MAN: Oh, okay, okay.

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  5. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o5q4WyNFIGZFMXnxFgo9qiAnRjsQ97TasLQ2XcK3FGw/edit?usp=sharing

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  6. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_8dH1PqIzLkVEl4OXFUVk5sX0U/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msword

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  7. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KEfQlSlAM2baUDvoYqOwAdxPi3rcQKoSqedZXR0mm30/edit?usp=sharing

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  8. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HHvEjprtlaE0v3HiWLu0IgvMQzdYrxYyCzrFMWxT7LI/edit?usp=sharing

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  9. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QnDEcWydpBddg17sL--28Lyo9B8Qthd65tygdxpGjh0/edit?usp=sharing

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