Helen: Believe

 

Storytelling

Helen: Believe (2023) is a wrestling documentary about the rise, fall, and resurgence of World Champion and Olympian Helen Maroulis. She is the first woman from the USA to win gold in wrestling. This film was produced by Chris Pratt as he worked hand in hand with Helen Maroulis herself. The film is sectioned into 6 parts, which follow her journey from being the only girl wrestling on youth teams back in 2004, to her Olympic gold in Rio in 2016. Then how her career-ending injury gave her very real self-doubt, PTSD, and depression. It shows the heartbreaks and struggles that a woman athlete competing in a male-dominated sport as she climbs back out of rock bottom to resurge as a two-time Olympic medalist. It's insane how fast a person can go from the top of the world to the lowest point in their life in the span of a few months.

Cinematography

    This film uses both clips and footage from real matches and interviews, as well as some scenes that were shot during the production of the film (as most documentaries do). What I thought was special about this documentary is that it dives deep into the mental health aspect of high-level athletics in a way that no other documentary has. Helen Maroulis was not afraid to talk about her struggles and having to get help and some of the scenes depict just how bad it got. One scene that really got to me is when she was working out to try to recover from her injury and she just started breaking down completely defeated. It shows just how much pressure athletes put on themselves to perform at 110% all the time. Throughout the film they constantly repeat the fact that no other kind of athlete could even attempt to come back from rock bottom, only a wrestler has the mindset to never quit. 

Cultural Relevance

    This film is extremely relevant to the women's athletics community. Never before has such a raw and emotional documentary been released. Myself and my other teammates felt like this film portrayed exactly how it feels to compete in the sport of wrestling and it was reassuring to know that even the best in the world go through rough experiences. With women's wrestling being the number one fasted growing sport in the U.S., I feel like this film was needed to accelerate that growth and show girls all around the country that they too can compete in a male-dominated sport. I hope that other women are just as inspired by this film as I was.

Mid 90's

    Introducing the film that got me into skateboarding. Mid 90's is a coming-of-age film about a boy (Stevie) with a troubled home life finding a passion for skateboarding through a group of older boys that treat him like family. The film was written and directed by Jonah Hill and although it is not about his own life he took inspiration from where he grew up. The story takes place in Los Angles in the mid-1990s where people of lower incomes reside. The boys' main hangout is Motor Avene Skate Shop where one of the older boys (Ray) works, and they often go to new areas to skate the streets. Most of the older boys have accepted that they don't have anywhere to go in life and they will just live in the slums, but a couple have aspirations of making it out. One of the older boys wants to become a pro skater, and another wants to become a filmmaker. In the end, it is revealed that the whole movie is actually all the film from that boy.

    Storytelling

    Mid 90's starts off with a scene of Stevie looking at his body in the mirror to see all the bruises and injuries that his older brother (Ian) inflicted on him. When Ian leaves, Stevie sneaks into Ian's room to look at all of Ian's things including skateboards, shoes, jerseys, hats, and music CDs. It is clear that Stevie admires his older brother and wishes he could grow up and be "cool" like his brother, even though Ian abuses him. Stevie actually tries to make Ian like him by getting him a CD he didn't have for his 18th birthday, which Ian pretends not to care about to not "show weakness". Later that day Stevie is riding his bike in town and sees a group of skaters. He ends up trading Ian for an old trashy cruiser board and begins practicing skateboarding through the day and night until he can finally push and ride around on it. 

    Stevie goes into the skate shop and meets the skaters, it's clear that Stevie doesn't fit in with them since he's never hung out with people like that. Even though the skaters think Stevie is weird they admire his desire to skate and tell him to come skate with them. Ray talks with Stevie about his past and bonds with him over time, Stevie is like a little brother figure to Ray since Ray lost his little brother. Ray even gives Stevie a new real board to ride. Stevie hangs out with the boys even though they are not a good influence on him, they are like a family to him and teach him important lessons like not caring what other people think, and doing what makes you happy. Stevie and the boys love skateboarding because it takes them out of their troubled home lives and gives them freedom. Even though Stevie's mother originally disapproves of the boys he hangs out with, by the end of the movie, she realizes how much the boys care about each other when they all show up to support Stevie in the hospital after their car accident.

Cultural Relevance

    This movie portrays growing up around street and skate culture extremely well. Everything is perfect from the language the boys use, the humor, and the things they like to do for fun. It was really easy to connect to all the characters in this movie because of how real the characters are on screen. The entire time I was watching I kept thinking, "That's exactly how my friend group was growing up!".

Cinematography

    One element of this film that I think ties the whole thing together is how the entire movie is meant to be clips of one of the boys' (nick-named "Fourth Grade") films that he put together. The movie is shot on Super 16mm film and in 4:3 aspect ratio to replicate the VHS-watching experience of the 90s. You don't find this out till the end because it doesn't have that handheld camera point of view, and Fourth Grade is in the movie himself.

The Last Of Us (Show)

 

    I recently just finished the new show The Last of Us (2023) based on the videogame that came out in 2013, which I have played. Without spoiling too much, the main plot of  Season 1 is that after a deadly mind-controlling zombie fungus breaks out across the world overnight, society is forced to try and rebuild but the government is overcontrolling. A man named Joel, who lost his daughter at the beginning of the outbreak, has to become a smuggler to get the items he needs to escape, find and 'save' his brother Tommy. He is forced to smuggle a girl named Ellie in order to get a vehicle but when things turn bad, he ends up having to become her protector as they try to make their way to the west where doctors are working on a cure.

    What separates this show from other typical Zombie apocalypse films is that it is more about what is happing with the people and less about slashing zombies. The cinematography of the film is focused on keeping everything natural and raw looking. There's no perfect lighting or close-ups of the actors. During filming they opted to use natural ambient lighting or as few sources as possible. This added a much dingier and scarier atmosphere. For example in a scene where Ellie is looking for supplies in an empty gas station, the only light is coming from a small hole in the ceiling of the basement.

    The lighting in this scene exhilarates the intensity of the scene as we feel like something bad is going to happen to Ellie. As an infected is revealed to be trapped under rubble, we expect Ellie to run away but the show plays with our expectations as Ellie approaches the infected with her knife. She cuts the infected revealing the fungus underneath before violently stabbing the infected person to death. What I like about this scene is that it shows that Ellie is not a scared little girl, and wants to be able to defend herself (and others as her past trauma haunts her).

    An element of storytelling that I think is very important is the fact that both main characters Ellie and Joel are both hesitant to trust each other in the beginning, but over time they realize they both need each other. Joel is dealing with the trauma of not being able to protect his daughter 20 years ago when the outbreak began. Ellie is dealing with survivor's guilt and loss after she and her best friend were bitten, but because Ellie is immune she survived. Essentially both characters are dealing with past traumas and they are unknowingly helping each other overcome those feelings of guilt.

In this clip, we can see the trauma of Joel losing his daughter causing him to protect Ellie at all costs.

    Overall I think the directors of this show did an amazing job with both the cinematography and storytelling as it tells the story just as the game did or maybe even better. I have to recommend this show to everyone because it's not some clique zombie show, it portrays themes of overcoming trauma, and father-daughter relationships, and it does it perfectly.

Get Out

 

Storytelling

    Director Jordan Peele did an amazing job making Get Out feel very uncanny and uncomfortable. In the first part of the movie, we feel like we can trust Chris's girlfriend Rose. She admits that her family can say some offputting things sometimes but that they don't mean to come off as racist and they mean well. What makes us trust her is that she is always defending Chris, like when they get pulled over, and she constantly apologizes for what her family says. The plot twist at the end is that Rose is all part of it and her family taking over Black people's bodies is unexpected. The entire time we can tell that something is wrong with the Black people that work for the family because they talk and act like older white people do, but the truth of what is actually happening is way more terrifying than anyone would have guessed. Overall the movie portrays the very real experience that Black people in America experience very well.

Cinematography

    One thing I noticed about the cinematography in Get Out is that in a lot of the very intense scenes where the filmmakers wanted the audience to focus on the emotions and facial expressions of the actors, the camera is shot inches away from the actor's faces. This creates more intensity and horror in the scene than if it were shot at a standard angle. A scene at the beginning of the movie that I think is worth mentioning is the deer collision scene. Chris is talking with Rose in the car as they drive to Rose's parent's house when all of a sudden a deer hits their car and we see the deer roll over the car as the car swerves. There is a connection as Chris is deeply disturbed by hitting the deer because his mother died from a hit-and-run while he was at home.

Cultural Relevance

    This film is extremely relevant to modern culture because it is one of the first real horror movies that focuses on the experience of POC in our society. It highlights the stereotypes that white people use as a tool to discriminate against Black people, whether they do it intensionally or not. I think the scene where the family was literally auctioning off Chris, to win who gets to take over his body. This was a direct correlation to the slave trade that happened all over the world not that long ago. It implies that slavery in one form has never ended in America. I also think the scene where Chris recognizes that Logan (another Black man), is not "acting Black". Black culture is important and special because it connects everyone like a family, brotherhood/sisterhood, and when Logan doesn't respond to Chris in that way it immediately raises red flags.

Marie Antoinette

 

Storytelling

    Marie Antoinette tells a story of sudden fame, lavishness, and obsession. 14-year-old Maria is the daughter of royalty in Austria when she is suddenly pulled out of her home country to marry the prince of France Louis-Auguste. Immediately the overboard fancy lifestyle is too much for Maria and she also struggles to connect with her new husband. After the king dies, Maria and Louis have to take on more responsibility but Maria uses this to overindulge in luxuries like parties, clothes, and a massive garden. The way the story is told makes the audience want to side with Maria because she truly is a kind person, but she has no idea how to hold power or run a country. The audience is happy for Maria because she can finally do whatever she wants but there are constant whispers about how she overspends and isn't focused on the country and people of France.

Cinematography

    Director Sofia Coppola uses mise en scene in a way that shows how the French royalty live life by overindulging. In every scene, people are seen wearing extravagant dresses, uniforms, and costumes. The furniture and decorations are luxurious and everything is meticulously placed. There are several wide camera shots that center Maria and Louis surrounded by over-the-top foods, desserts, and drinks which often go to waste. I also appreciate the focus zoomed-in shots when people are eating or putting on jewelry because it shows how much they can carelessly indulge which contrasts the people of France who can barely afford food. Coppola also uses close-up shots to focus on people's faces to show when they are feeling lustful to create intimate moments and tension between them.

Cultural Relevance

    One part of this film that I found to be culturally relevant was the modern pop music that was used in place of the traditional classical music that is normally used for films that take place in the 18th century. I think this helped the audience feel more connected to Maria and made her seem more like the young teenager that she was. Something else I thought was relevant was how throughout the entire movie people are constantly whispering about other people and trash-talking behind everyone's backs. I thought this was interesting because typically we view people from this time period as very proper, and these people are supposed to be of royalty so we would expect them to be more mannered but they're not. Lastly, I think an element of mise en scene that helps the film is the vibrant colors and pastels used in the costumes, props, and setting make the movie more lively and current instead of the very serious dim tones used in movies from this time frame. 

Chapter 2 How to Watch a Movie

    

MOONLIGHT | BLUE from Russell Leigh Sharman on Vimeo.

    Chapter 2 of the book Moving Pictures talks about cinematic language in films. Often times we don’t notice cinematic language but we always feel them and its effects. We can notice patterns in the sound and music, narrative storytelling, and dialogue, which are all called motifs. What is special about film versus still photography is that film has the added effect of movement. Movement can be the camera movement, objects, props, scenery moving, and especially the actor’s movement. These help make the story more dramatic and help pull the audience into the story.

    One element of cinematic language that I like most is the use of color in Moonlight (2016). The entire film is color graded to have vivid deep colors and in deep important scenes the coloration is very blue, or sometimes pink. This gives the audience a distinction between good moments in the movie and intense serious moments. This use of color is called composition which (Sharman) defines as an “arrangement of people, objects and setting within the frame of an image”. The colorations used in Moonlight also served another purpose. As almost all of the actors in the film are Black, it was important to not wash out their skin tone. The deep blue tint enhances the Black actor's faces making them appear more clearly on screen.

    The most important element of cinematic language is theme. This is the deeper indirect meaning behind any film that shapes all other elements of the cinematic language used in the movie. It changes how the cinematographer uses camera angles, filters, and camera movement. How the sound designers use sound effects, music, and ambient noises. Finally how the actors say their dialogue, body movements, and facial expressions. This is also why good casting is important, because you may have a great actor, but their style may not always fit the theme of the movie you are working on. It is critical when analyzing cinema to find the theme or themes as they appear throughout the movie.

Narratives and Cinematography

     

    One thing that I learned in chapter four of Moving Pictures is that the movie script can differ almost completely from what we see on screen. The script must be written efficiently and there is no room for much additional detail. It isn’t the screenwriter's job to say what camera angles, props, costumes, or exact sounds and music should be used. All of those elements come down to the cinematographer and the editors in post-production. Leaving room for imagination and extra details in the script allows the cinematographer to take their creativity and put it on screen. It also allows changes to be made if the script doesn’t quite make sense when they actually go to film a scene.

    Looking at the script for Animal versus the film clip for it, I noticed a lot of differences that make the filmed scene a lot more dramatic. First, the scene of the boy riding the bike is very dark and dim. The sky is overcast and you can hear thunder rumbling in the distance. Secondly, there is no alarm that goes off like it says in the script. Instead, we get a shot of the woman rustling in bed with little light peaking through and then it immediately cuts to the woman standing in front of a window doing the dishes while it begins to rain. Eerie music plays in the background and gives the audience a feeling of uncertainty, or that something bad is about to happen. What is in the script is the jump scare of the boy standing in the room before the woman embraces him with a hug, and asks what is wrong because he doesn’t seem right and the boy responds “What am I?”. The change in scene isn’t in the script but it pans to the woman standing in the front doorway with people urgently getting out of their cars while she says “My sweet sweet boy.”.

    This scene comes to life because of the cinematography used. The camera angle is low almost as if the audience is always having to look up at the characters. The camera is also a little shaky which gives the impression that the audience is standing there with the characters, instead of just watching a movie. The scene becomes even more complex when you add in the actor's own style, props, set design, sound, and music. This was also just a one-minute clip, there is even more that goes into making an entire movie such as a good narrative. The chapter tells us that the parts to a good story are; “1 protagonist, 1 goal, and a whole bunch of obstacles.” (Sharman). Across almost all genres of film, these are the base elements of good storytelling even before the cinematography comes into play.