Script Reflection

Link to Script:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jNIGDbdtDDriWWaDTvDpJSezjEVNxzv6XFKrFv3xazw/edit

I was able to reference the films that I talked about especially in regards to the themes and culture between The City of God and also Boyz n Da Hood. I went through analyzing both films and talked about the historical aspects and society in both as well as the genre topic of the culture portrayed. I talked about the recurring themes within both films and showed how it was significant to the plot.

For my target audience, I wanted to make clear and concise connections between the films. I wanted the audience, probably some who has see both of these films, or someone who is eager to see either or both of the films. Or it can be someone who is interesting in watching these types of films which are action thrillers. A final example is the average movie goer and the general audience is teenagers who would understand this language. I argued my point and in the end the comparisons I made helped to fortify it.  The scope of my script focuses mainly on the cultural influences within the films.

I used a variety of sources for my script. These include many articles that I found online and even entire websites dedicated to the films that I analyzed. I also did happen to find an entire book that included many articles and analysis from different authors. Some of my other sources included articles that were specific to one type of filmic writing. One focuses primarily on the ound in film and a lot of this helped me when I was doing the dialogue portion of the script. The structure was pretty simple because I went in the order of events. However, my sources could have been better and this would help my writing improve.

The video and audio elements are described pretty well in the script. I made sure that I included many visual aspects as well as audio but the audio has way more detail and description in comparison to the other left column of my script.  I could have done a lot better on this and it ended up not being as good as I thought it would be in the end.  Both of my films relate to the topic question which was how the techniques used in the film contributed to creating culture and surroundings through the many aspects. I made some insightful comments although I could have made it a lot better in my opinion. I wanted to focus on dialogue and its use as well as various camera angles and techniques  and the influence on the theme of the film. When I talked about the culture I included the cinematography of the scenes.

End of Year Reflection

To be honest, the independent research script we did this year was one of the hardest assignments I've ever done in our  IB Film class. The assignment required us to have a rationale which provides the intro-like summary of what you aim to accomplish through the script. Next, we did the actual script which shows the relationship between the audio and the visual aspects in a two-column documentary format. Lastly, our annotated list of sources was like our bibliography in which all the articles and sites and sources we use to do the script were kept.  I feel like I had a limited amount of strengths when approaching the research required in the class. I was very organized in planning out my script and the focus areas were very well thought out. However, I spent too much time researching for the script and looking at articles which would help me in my script rather than taking the time needed to thoroughly complete it. I think my strengths were organization of topics, knowledge of both movies especially in the areas of cultural and societal influence, and also analyzing the visual effects within both of the films I analyzed. I feel like I need more support and training with becoming more detailed and specific in my writing. Although my film language has developed largely over the year, I think I can still get more fluent with it over time. I don't have any other suggestions for this because I learned so much from taking this class this year.

The oral presentation was actually one of my favorite assignments this year. I had many strengths in this assignment in particular because I have been developing my talents as a public speaker through previous presentations. I felt comfortable when I was talking into the mic which recorded our analysis of the five minute dissection of the famous thriller film, Psycho, that we were to choose. Also, I was strong in knowing the techniques used in my five minute excerpt of the film. I was able to identify and analyze them and I felt that my viewer, or listener in this case, was easily able to understand what I was saying and I feel like I was able to paint a picture for them inside their heads. I feel like I need to work on not stuttering in the few cases in which I did happen to stutter because it made me sound as if I had less knowledge of the five minute film extraction. I also could have gone a little more in depth when picking out the filmic techniques in the section by explaining why the section was placed there and what influenced its creation. I suggest that we do a couple more of these oral presentations for more practice.

Looking back at it, this was a great year in this film class. I have learned so much and I want to keep learning more. I feel like I accomplished a lot this year. I got to learn about hands on production in our Mustang News which is aired every Friday at school. I especially enjoy manning the camera even though it is not the most difficult task. I also learned a lot about being an actual director, as I was given this role in our short films and really all our group projects that we worked on this year. I got the chance to work on the production of a real life documentary which I enjoyed because I've always wanted to make a really interesting and issue-portraying documentary to share with the public. I also feel accomplished with some work regarding being a cinematographer because I also took on this role. I feel like I need to work more on editing pieces. For our senior sendoff piece, my group was given the arts highlight piece that I edited entirely by myself and  was actually really impressed and proud of my own work. I had little to none experience around editing because I had only done small composite pieces or the documentary I mentioned earlier so this was a milestone for me. I still, however, have some room for improvement and I think becoming better at editing will help me become more well-rounded in my film pursuits.

Cinema and the CIty of God

In this article by Brianair, the author explores and clarifies the stories of individual characters in the film from their beginnings to the present day occurrences of the people. He also talks about the film’s background and its place in the Brazilian cinema. He talks about the importance of the genre conventions, editing, traditions, and political influences as well as the overall impact of society on this film.

The main ideology communicated within the film surrounds the violence that is present everywhere you look in the favelas. It is the life of the characters and all of the hardships they go through to survive and attempt to leave this hostile environment of crime and drug trade and violence. The violence leads to an ongoing clash between two rival gangs who fight over power and money and control of the city that they can not ultimately escape. It is very authentic in its use of social-realist subject matter because it portrays the real life drug lords in Brazil. We see the context of Brazilian life and this is shown very accurately in this film. A centralized issue here is violence and most of the film, aside from the coming of age and innocence and other topics such as romance, revolves around it.

There are many film traditions, genres, historical and political influences are communicated in the film. There were some obvious traditions and genres used. The genres included were violence films, gangster films, and also action filmic techniques. It is an action movie because all of the examples of fast-paced actions and adventures that the characters face. It is a gangster film because there are essentially two different rival gangs fighting to power among the Brazilian favelas which is the setting for the story. It is evidently a violence-themed film because of the illustration of ruthless violence and the taking of innocent lives as well as gang-violence throughout the film. Also non-diegetic sounds are used when the narrator or music is shown to portray events outside the actual film almost as if it serves to give background of the movie as a whole. This allows for a greater understanding of the film. Historical influences can be seen as the portrayal of setting within the era of the 1970’s. Political influences are the actual class-structure and way of living in this society in Brazil. There is a large separation between the poor and filthy favelas and the rest of the society and when the character wish to escape for a better life, they can not ultimately escape ever because they are trapped and this serves as an ongoing motif throughout the story as a symbol of hardship and pain. Flashbacks are used to tell stories of how the characters got to the point where they currently are as well. A final significant technique used was switching between the anecdotes about the characters in a non-orderly fashion to cause drama and suspense while giving us insight about who these people are and their relations to one another.   

Based on the research that I have done so far on the City of God, the focus area that most interest me for my personal research is the growing up essence of the film. IT is a coming of age story for many of the characters and the fact that it is an action film helps because these are usually intertwined. But then again I wanted to focus on the violence within City of God because there is a reason why the director wanted to make this detail such an obvious issue that is shown in a very explicit and large way. It is a very important issue and must be stopped in this society. I wanted to look at how the famous Godfather related to this film in terms of genre as a noir film and gangster film and how they show impacts on society through filmic techniques.  

Portrayal of Violence in City of God

In this article by Jennie Carlston, she talks a lot about the way violence is portrayed and its impact as a whole based off the film City of God. The film is directed by Fernando Meirelles and it offers a eye-opening view on the lives of people that live in the favelas of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. The entire film revolves around the violence in this inner city area and the way in which people want to leave the poor, drug ridden, and crime lord atmosphere. In this article she talks about the nature of the violence portrayed from its roots in the favelas to its relation to gangs. She also talks about alternatives to violence as well as means of controlling it.

“There is no justice system within the favela; the police act apparently on impulse. Shaggy, a member of the Tender Trio, is pursued and killed on only the word of another criminal, who has just been arrested for the murder of his own wife. The systemic violence of the state, and the fatalism with which it is accepted, is most evident in the film's ending.”

Through the main character of Rocket, a young boy who loves photography, we learn about character roles and the motives of these characters. It is interesting to observe how these people strive to get out of the favela and live a life without violence but they end up coming back to it time and time again. This quote shows the norms of society here in the favelas. Since there is no justice system within the favela, there is high crime rates and drug trade going on. The police do not seem to have a crucial role and even they are afraid of the violence here. Also, killing people ruthlessly and without reason is very common as seen in this quote. If you do not like someone or you are annoyed by them or if you see a happy child roaming the streets and talking about rumors they heard, you just kill them. It is completely normal here. We see various shot composers throughout the film due to this fast paced action. Quick cuts are often used as scenes have very short durations and shots are not held very long unless it is a very tense moment in the film such as the part when Rocket is stuck in the middle of the street along with the police on one side and Little Ze’s gang on the other. This shows that the film has a very interesting narrative structure based on the way the story is told through Rockets eyes and also through the many actions of violence which propel the plot because the crime lords hunt each other and when one is killed a new target is approached.  

“While a variety of instrumental motives are offered for the violence done by others, L'il Ze seems unique in his pure enjoyment of violence. A simple reading might suggest that L'il Ze uses violence to attain power and money (he is made rich by his first major act) or out of self preservation (the elimination of his enemies), but Meirelles seems to be suggesting something more excessive. The child L'il Ze (then known as L'il Dice) accompanies the Tender Trio in a robbery, but escalates the violence into a slaughter; he does so not as an act of initiation (at first, the Trio doesn't even know he has done it, nor does the audience) but because he wants to.”

Here we can see that there are many motives that the characters have. The most brutal and violent of the characters is L’il Ze. Due to the ways in which the kids are brought up in the society (we know this through the use of flashback which create backstory and serve as the intro to film) many of them become involved in the violent drug trade and war that is seemingly endless in the favelas. When the child character of L’il Ze is revealed to have been involved in the killings and robbery that the Tender Trio committed, many loose ends are tied up. He was very excited by the thought of killing and there is a scene in which it shows him killing innocent people in the building and then laughing. He became like that when he was a child and he never changed after that. He grew up to be a violent and ruthless murderer. The kids think that they need to do something in order to fit in with the society. Power and money and killing innocent people is what the adults men savor so they want it as well. This further explains the genre of the film which is a gangster crime drama film.  

“The favela is on one level a defined space with specific geography, straight rows of houses and repeated locations. On another level, it is a landscape with violent and incomprehensible qualities. In chase sequences, for example, camera angles are repeatedly reversed...”

In this excerpt we see more about the cinematography of the film. Many of the scenes if not all of them revolve around life in the favelas. The landscape is portrayed as a filthy and poverty stricken area filled with crime and drug trafficking. As we discussed in class, when we watch the film many angles are used and this creates not only suspense but confusion among the audience because of the camera angles and movement within the shots. We do not know the exact direction and spacing of the characters and the objects such as cars in the frame. This disorientation can be seen as a motif because the characters also are lost in confusion among this huge long lasting war between two of the gang strongholds in the favela. I also found it interesting how Rockets point of view is shown and when he is holding the camera and running, for example, we see exactly what his life is like at the moment and even then we are still confused about the direction and spacing. In the article it is also evident that shots from spaces within the buildings of the favela are interesting and create special cinematography. There was a mention of sniper targets and how these are shown by using point of view shots and changing the camera angle fast to find the shooters.

“In fact, bodies, the site of so much violence in City of God, are not dwelt upon. Throughout most of the film, they are treated with alternating casualness and calculation. The audience sees bodies falling, or lying on the ground, but the editing is rapid and generally cuts immediately away. The audience doesn't see the blood or tearing of flesh that we assume must accompany events.”

The edit of City of God is very interesting as well. We are not used to seeing bodies flying everywhere like we do in the film. Nor do we see the ruthless killings in films in our society. I liked how the author of this article talked about the nature of how casual the killings are. Some of the crime lords just kill people without any intention or reason for doing so. The bodies in particular are not shown much attention throughout the story. Once the bullet is fired from the guns of the soulless people, the people that the bullet goes through are not important any longer. The quick transition from the killings to the events that precede these is very noticeable after a while when you are watching the film. The viewer does not notice or sympathize with the victim anymore because we are so used to seeing human beings killed in a really violent manner.

“The camera/gun analogy is most explicit in the final standoff. Surrounded by L'il Ze's heavily armed gang and the police, Rocket stands frozen as the camera circles

around him.

The police leave and the gang clamours for a photo. The sound recedes and the camera continues to circle as Rocket is paralysed by indecision, perhaps

considering the act of violence he is about t o commit”

This quote talks about the last part of the film. It is my favorite shot of the film as well because of the way the camera rotates around Rocket to reveal the the police and the gang are on either side of him. I liked how the author related the camera to a gunshot because of the power behind his camera. In the film, Rocket is used by L’il Ze to get his gang in the newspaper and he enjoys the attention that the media is bringing towards him and his friends in the gang. We see a recurring symbol of a shot. The shot can be a bullet or even just a picture. In the favela, both of these mean the downfall of the person being affected. Rocket is shown as the power of the media and those that glorify its use in the film.