Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography

Click below to watch the opening to another documentary about filmmaking, particularly cinematography. I recommend finding and watching the whole thing if you get the chance, it's very inspiring.

Lemonade

My best friend, Tesily, showed me this great music video, love the art direction.

Halloween Movie Countdown: "The Others"

If you're looking for a thriller that is suspenseful, beautiful, eerie, and has a shocking surprise ending, The Others is just the right flick.

Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan and both children in the film (Alakina Mann and James Bently) give some truly great performances in a story that is intriguing the entire time.

Something I really enjoy about this movie is that it is made so well. The story itself is brilliant, but the technical aspects of the film are stunning. The lighting is spooky and beautiful and director Alejandro Amenadar makes some smart choices with the camera.

The art direction is also perfect for such a creepy film. Just seeing an old spooky house (that does not use electricity), a hidden graveyard, and rooms that are rich in elegance, but also rich in 'the unknown' makes this an ultimate classic for Halloween.

The Others is a classic haunting/ghost story with quite the twist, great atmosphere, and some very good acting as well. We ended up watching this on Halloween two years ago, many of my party guests had not seen it before... they were in for quite a surprise...

Here's the trailer:

Halloween Movie Countdown: "Beetlejuice"

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!

Any Tim Burton movie is basically a classic, especially Beetlejuice.

When I was little, I used to rent this movie every time we would go to the video store and can remember watching the movie in my living room; scared, yet interested, and of course, laughing at all the funny moments.

With Tim Burton's great style, Danny Elfman's music, and Michael Keaton's great performance it has truly become a Halloween classic and a personal all-time favorite.

Here is the first part of the movie:

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

I have been wanting to do a blog post about this film for a quite some time, but wanted to make sure I said all the right things. At the same time, I feel I could go on and on forever about how much I enjoy this film, so I have chosen to briefly explain a few things I admire about this film and sum up the post with some film stills and clips.

When I first saw The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, I had watched it after doing a report on Jesse James for school and was curious to see how this film portrayed his last days. After seeing it, it became an all-time favorite. Every time I watch this film, I find new unique aspects to it and discover how brilliant the entire production truly is every time.

Like I said, I could go on forever about this movie, but one of the things I admire that I must mention is how the film is technically a western as it involves Jesse and members of the James gang, but instead of focusing on adventurous escapades, it focuses on the painful ways of life that came from living as an outlaw, so in actuality the film is really a drama.

Partial to that, most people found the film to be extremely long and slow, and at two hours and forty minutes, it is. However, what I really like about the length and even the slow pace is that with each scene, more and more tension builds up with each character and as well as within their relationships with one another, particularly the relationship between Jesse and the Ford Brothers. The performances by Brad Pitt (Jesse James), Sam Rockwell (Charlie Ford), and Casey Affleck (Bob Ford) fully allow the audience to feel the anxiety that would normally consume anyone in Jesse James' presence. It's no wonder after watching the film, the audience feels a bit drained and exhausted.

Besides the great writing, acting, and amazing direction, the film has stunning cinematography and art direction, one of the reasons why I decided to mention it on the blog. To me, this film is so good and is full of so many strong acting moments, interesting plots, amazing music, and extremely beautiful cinematography. Definitely worth seeing, if you haven't already.

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Here is one of my favorite scenes:

Here is the trailer:

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Saw this film last night and was pretty glad I did. At first I wasn't quite understanding the story but I think it's because I never saw a trailer for the film. The film had a very interesting plot, great acting, and pretty amazing scenery.

It is clear that the film's art direction is full of wonder (seeing as how it involves several character's imaginations) and I found myself pretty inspired by its beauty. If there is only one thing I wasn't as in love with, it would be the amount of CGI use, however we're taking a peek into people's imaginations- it's supposed to be wild. Speaking of wild, I loved how they captured that creepy traveling-circus style. The look of the film and the imaginative ideas within the script made this film totally worth seeing.

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