Acting Types: The Bucket List

Title: The Bucket List

Release Date: 2007

Director: Rob Reiner

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, and Sean Hayes

Mise en scene is what is placed in a scene. While props and settings are vital parts of what the audience is seeing on the screen. It is the actors and acting that is the most memorable part of mise en scene. The Bucket List (2007) has some of the most memorable actors that brings their own personal style and vision to the characters they are playing. First you have Jack Nicholson that is bringing his personality acting style to the part of Edward Cole. Jack Nicholson has distinctive personality and just the mention of his name lets the viewing audience know that whatever the part he is playing he will be remembered. Morgan Freeman in the part of Carter Chambers, shows the viewer that he can adapt to various roles and scripts without being typecast making him a wild card actor. Sean Hayes brings his character acting style to his role of Thomas, the quirky quick witted personal assistant. Sean Hayes is not immediately a recognizable name but has hit start status through other types of movies he has made.

Nicholson is known for his over the top over exaggerated stylized acting and the part of Edward Cole in The Bucket List is no different. When we first meet Edward Cole he is in a board of director’s meeting where he is reprimanding the board for their financial failures. In classic Jack Nicholson style he over acted. He continued through the whole movie over acting and over reacting to the news of fatal diagnosis of incurable cancer. It works well with the realistic acting style of Morgan Freeman. Freeman played the part of Carter Chambers a blue collar mechanic that seems to meekly accept his fate.

Jack Nicholson has a reputation for over the top performances that brings his strong presence into any film he is cast.  The viewer knows what he is trying to portray simply by watching the mannerisms he uses for each character. Even though he is not the main character in Terms of Endearment (1983) his character, Garrett Breedlove is the love interest of Aurora Green (Shirley McClain).  One example of how he takes over a scene is the ride on the beach that he takes with Aurora (McClain).

In The Shining (1980) Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) become a caretaker of a hotel. Jack takes his family to the secluded hotel and clearly shows the audience there is evil spirits taking over and influencing him in the famous clip “here’s Johnny” where he chops through the door intent on doing harm to his family. While there can be negative connotations to being typecast a personality actor, Jack Nicholson has used it to his advantage in every film he has done. When Jack Nicholson is cast in a film the audience knows what style of performance they will be viewing.

References:

Goodyknootz, B. & Jacobs, C.P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

IMDb (2007). The bucket list poster. Retrieved from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0825232/?ref_=ttmd_md_nm

Movie Clips (2011, October 8). Movie clips: Beach ride. Terms of Endearment. [Video File]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIrF-rsXWJM

Movie Clips (2011, May 26). Here’s johnny! – The shining movie clip. [Video File]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDpipB4yehk

American Sniper: The Sound of War

Movie: American Sniper

Release Date: 2014

Director: Clint Eastwood

Music / Audio Director: Peter Rotter

Music Score: Tom Hardisty

Composer: Dean Valentine

From the opening sequence to the closing credits musical score, dialogue, and sound effects directs the mood of a film. The score to a film is the background music that accompanies what is taking place on the screen. The mood of the music lets the audience know what to expect. Dialogue are the words taking place between two or more characters that gives meaning to story. Many times the mundane sounds heard in a film, a fire, a door creaking, rain or wind, is created and added during post-production.

The movie American Sniper, is a movie that follows the life of navy seal sniper Chris Kyle, played by Bradley Cooper, through four tours to Iraq. The lack of background music in the war scenes gives an unnerving and realistic ambiance. The sound effects of the wind, the bullet speeding through the air, and the impact of the bullet on the intended target is contrasted with the starkness of the silence of the surrounding scene. The silence in the scene is gripping and it is as if you are holding your breath while you are waiting for the impact of the bullet with the target.

The dialogue or conversations that takes place between the characters is intense and moves the plot of the movie forward as it gives insight into the conflicts that are surrounding Kyle. One such dialogue that takes place between Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) and Taya (Sienna Miller) are having when he is considering going back to Iraq for another tour. The pure dialogue, no background noise, gives the audience the a sense of how desperate Taya is to keep her husband by her side, as well as the desperation Chris feels.

The last scene of the movie deals with the aftermath of Kyle’s murder and the funeral procession. The music played during this scene is traditional music played in the flag folding of a military funerals. The music did not bring sadness as it has in a funeral to me but one of American pride and love for my country.

Music intensifies the importance of what is taking place in each scene. The background music sets the mood of the movie and portrays what the director is feeling. In American Sniper the lack of music during the war scenes and the shooting scenes helped intensify the feel of what Kyle was thinking when he pulled the trigger. If there had been different music picked or if it had background music during the shooting scenes the audience would have not felt the powerful message this film was trying to depict.

References:

American Sniper (2014). Imbd.com. [Photo image]. Retrieved from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2179136/

Fresh Movie Trailers (2014, December 16). American sniper “Do you wanna die?” movie clips # 2. [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/vqUsxCFaSGU

Goodykoontz, B. & Jacobs, C.P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Jean Pulica (2015, January 10). American sniper 2014 scene sniper vs sniper. [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF40oKgQ9Jg

Ondra Dostal. (2015, February 18). American sniper – ending. [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/U-nbnCFeq3A

Denise’s The Woman in Black – Lighting Blog

Film Title: The Woman in Black

Director: James Watkins

Writer: Jane Goldman, Susan Hill

Genre: Drama / Horror

Actors: Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds, Janet McTeer, Sophie Stuckey & Liz White

Year Released: 2012

Story: Grieving over the death of his wife during child-birth four years previously. Young lawyer Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is sent to Cryphin Gifford to prepare a large house for sale. When Kipps arrives at the remote village most of the townspeople will not have anything to do with him. He visits Eel Marsh, the estate of the deceased Alice Drabow and finds the house is haunted by the ghost of a woman. Some of the villagers tell him the black clad ghost is seeking revenge against their children because her child was taken away. Kipps becomes friends with Sam (Ciaran Hinds) and his wife Elizabeth (Janet McTeer), who has also lost a son. They help Kipps investigate the secrets of the estate.

The Woman in Black is a horror film and in keeping with the penetrating suspense and the gripping eerie feeling director James Watkins and cinematographer Tim Maurice-Jones used low-key lighting to saturate the scenes with “high-contrast lighting dominated by deep shadows”. The benefit of using low-key lighting in this film is it gives the whole movie a feel that something ominous is lurking within the shadows the lighting creates. This contributes to the suspenseful theme of the movie by never really knowing what is hidden in the dark. In the following scene we see an example of how the technique of low-key lighting causes it to look very dark overall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od_XDxlOlUw . If another lighting technique had been used on this film it would have taken away the spooky effect you expect from a horror genre film.

Reference:

coocaa.com (2013, May 09). Movie images. Retrieved from: http://www.coocaa.com/

Goodykoontz, B. & Jacobs, C.P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Junior Chaz (2012, February 25). The Woman in Black – Scary Scene. [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od_XDxlOlUw

Denise’s Reign of Fire Blog

Film Title: Reign of Fire

Writer: Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka, Matt Greenberg

Director: Rob Bowman

Actors: Matthew McConaughey, Christian Bale, Izabella Scorupco, Gerard Butler

Genre: Action / Fantasy / Science Fiction / Thriller

Year: 2002

Story:  The year is 2020 and the Planet has been practically destroyed by fierce fire-breathing dragons. The last evidence of humanity left on the planet are struggling to survive in outlaying areas. Quinn (Played by Christian Bale) and his friend Creedy (played by Gerard Butler) in a remote part of England trying to help a group of discouraged people survive, long enough for the dragons to run out of food and go back into extinction and hibernation.

Plot: In the current day Quinn was visiting his mother at her job where she was working on a construction team unground in London. Construction workers penetrate an underground cave, disturbing a huge fire-breathing dragon in hibernation. The dragon incinerates all the workers. Quinn’s mother was crushed to death as her and Quinn were trying to escape the underground tunnels, leaving him the lone survivor of the dragon’s rampage. The dragon emerges from the tunnel and takes flight. Other dragons appear and they multiply rapidly. Scientists discover the dragons are a lost species responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs by incinerating them and eating their ash. It is believed the dragons hibernate after they destroy the majority of earth’s creatures until it repopulates. The dragons seem to be resistant to modern day weapons. The use of modern weapons (even nuclear) hastens the destruction and causes humanity to become almost extinct. Fast forward to 2020, where Quinn is leading a group of survivors in Northumberland castle who are on the verge of starving while they wait for their crops to ripen. Some of the survivors get restless and defiant and they go out to the crops to harvest the crops. While doing so they draw attention the attention of a dragon and it destroys the remaining crop and kills one of the defiant survivors. Enter, Denton Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey) in a tank and Alex Jensen (Izabella Scorupco) in a helicopter, along with his army. Van Zan is an American and has a secret to killing the dragons. Quinn is skeptical about Van Zan’s ability to kill dragons until the group of soldiers prove their methods by killing the dragon that destroyed the crops. Van Zan tells Quinn all the dragons they have found are female. The idea was if they could kill the male dragon it would stop the reproduction process. They set out for London to locate the male dragon. In hopes of saving mankind.

This film was presented in Chronological order meaning the events of the plot flows in the same order. The Aesthetic choice of low-key lighting created a dramatic dismal effect that was needed to give the viewer and sense of the turmoil the character’s were feeling. The use of conflict between Quinn and Van Zan helps drive the plot forward and as well as brings to the forefront Quinn’s personal conflict of his past. The Cinematography, editing, special effects and music all work well together to enhance the storyline and plot.

If the film had been presented in any other style or format it would have lost the fantasy adventure feel and the audience would not gotten felt action and adventure this film was trying to portray.

References:

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C.P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Jpeg.moviestillsdb.com. Retrieved from: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=photo+stills+of+reign+of+fire&qpvt=photo+stills+of+reign+of+fire&qpvt=photo+stills+of+reign+of+fire&FORM=IQFRML

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