Comm Media

Film Critical Viewing Guide: A Persistant Vision

http://www.territimely.com/


1. Subject: The subject is difficult decide. I believe that the subject was the background to the animation; the blue tiles are the primary subject. It is the only thing/person that appears throughout the whole film. It is a bit confusing to spot the subject; some may think its the children, while others may think that it is the horse that starts the animation. Even so, the blue tile background created by the children appears on every scene, with different other props around it. It's importance is that it connects the animation to the people in the short film; the background connects everything as a convention.

2. Theme: The theme of the film is creativity. It shows the kids working hard and the steps it takes to create a film. It shows simple things that look so interesting when put in the film. It also shows the ending result of completing a creative work or moving art.

3. Acting: The acting was simple. It did not need to be anything special. It was simply the two boys working on the animation. It was believable and far from over the top. It was simple yet perfect.

4. Dialogue: There was no talking.

5. Settings: The setting changes throughout the film. First it is a room where the boys actually create the animation. It then switches to the blue tile background. It finally shows the animation being showed at a film festival. Each setting shows a different aspect/view on the animation. It helps the viewer distinguish what is going on and who is watching it.

6. Lighting: It was first practical lighting. However, during the animation it turned to a brighter light, a cheaper light. In the end, it was obviously dark outside with just the reel and the film being the only source of light. Just like the setting, the light distinguishes the different views of the animation.

7. Sound: The first sound is not during the actual film, but in the title page of the film. It is the sound of a reel as it rolls and the movie plays. This is to help serve as an intro to the short film. The only noticable sound, other than the music, was the water droplet sound as the clay-ish drops splattered around. It was useful because it told the audience what the blue blobs were, as opposed to just random blue clay pieces.

8. Music: The music is simple. It is very childlike, with higher notes and a frolicky feeling to it. This is to help with the whole theme of creativity, and it goes great with every scene. It fits well with the animation.

9. Cinematography: The camera, rather than cutting the film over and over again to show the passage of time, goes up. It is as if you cut off a wall of an apartment building, and film the bottom apartment and move the camera up until you film the top apartment. This happens slowly until the editing eventually cuts to inside the box/cage that the children were working on when you get to the last room. The editing is then obvious, as they cut from picture to picture. It In the end, the camera zooms out of the box, turns black, and eventually cuts to a scene where kids are watching what the audience was watching a second ago.

10. Special Effects: The toys moving in the animation was the only special effect. however, the viewer sort of gets to see how this is done during the beginning scenes. Even so, the effect is a simple animation created by two boys.

11. Editing: The cuts were seperated by a black rectangle, which gave the illusion that the camera was simply filming up a building, representing time passing. The editing also zooms in and out to switch scenes. It will zoom into something smaller in the picture, and then zoom out, having that picture become something from another scene. An example of this is when the camera zoomed in, and then zoomed out and shows the reel, zoomed in again, and zoomed out to the reel playing in the park.

12. Overall direction: Everything was well put together. It is a simple, yet wonderful film. The music went well with the actions, and nothing was overdone to keep the simplicity and childlikeness of it all.

posted by maggie @ 9:01 AM