Marat's Thoughts

  I was very happy with our fascination film project, I want to thank my group members Yelena and Reyna for doing such a great job. I was just an actor on the project, they both contributed to the editing and they were awesome at it. I was interested in the horror genre because I thought it would be the most challenging to be make look serious, and it definitely was. Dr. Kyburz said that she preferred the version that she saw without the color grading, but personally I thought that the darker lighting made it feel more serious and thus scarier. We had considered waiting until it was darker but we weren't sure how long the trains would be running for, and we wanted to capitalize on having the train pass by. I have never stood that close to a moving train before unless I was about to get on it. It was really strange to hide behind the tracks until I was visually separated from my group, and then walk onto the tracks as a train was moving past me. It was kind of a surreal feeling for ...

  I wouldn't say that I disliked this movie, but I probably wouldn't say that I liked it either. Which I think implies that the movie didn't have an impact on me, but I think that it did. I think that this movie has characters that fall into one of two categories for viewers: either they are so relatable that they're cringe, or they're so unrelatable that they're cringe. Either way, I think the majority of the audience is going to react negatively to them, and it can be hard to detach your opinion of the characters from your overall opinion of the film. I remember thinking to myself "I would never say or act like that in this situation" as events unfolded on screen, but later after the viewing session for the day I would still be thinking about that situation. In the moment I seemed so sure of myself but after it sat for a while, that was no longer the case. If I had the same experiences as them, lived in that type of neighborhood growing up, experienc...

  This clip isn't from a film, but from Andor, the most recent Star Wars Disney+ show, and this is just one of a few great monologues in this show. I highly recommend Andor if anyone reading is a Star Wars fan, it doesn't have the flashy lightsabers or the force but it is very well written and provided new dimension to the Star Wars universe. In it, Stellan Skarsgard plays a character who is one of the masterminds of the start of the rebellion. He is constantly playing high stakes chess against the empire, and pulling strings from behind the scenes in order to provide enough spark in the galaxy to hopefully start a fire. In this clip, an informant of his questions his resolve, and he puts any doubts to rest quickly. His emotion in this scene is spot-on for his character, someone who has been fighting this war for many years unnoticed. Someone who knows he will never be recognized as a hero, because of the morally grey things he has to do to create even the possibility of a futu...

  I had never seen Jaws before we viewed it in class, thank you so much for playing it. My god it was so much more suspenseful than I thought it would be. I think I jumped at every single little jumpscare, even when I could tell that one was probably coming. I found myself awaiting jumpscares that never happened, because I cringed at every sight of people in the water. The beach scene on the fourth of July weekend was the most tense thing I have watched in film in a long time.  The suspense in this movie is incredible, and much of it comes from the sound design and cinematography. Having the camera cut to moving underwater shots to simulate the shark, even when the shark isn't actually in the scene, is a technique that Spielberg used that I caught onto during the movie but it still managed to put fear in me. The sound cues of the shark, namely the music, would play and I thought that it was going to be the end for someone on screen, but then my expectations were subverted when...

  The man in the picture is Greig Fraser, who is the only cinematographer I can name, but his work is so exciting to me. He's gained prominence recently from his work in massive shows and movies such as The Mandalorian, Dune, and The Batman. I didn't watch Dune so I can't speak on it, but I would like to compare the differences in cinematography between The Mandalorian and The Batman.  The Mandalorian uses the Volume a lot, which I think is a really cool technology, but unfortunately I feel like it kind of stifles potential in terms of cinematography. I have watched all of the live action Star Wars shows, including the currently releasing Andor, and now I can usually spot Volume shots when I see them. Luckily, Andor doesn't have nearly as many as Obi-Wan and the previous shows did, but the point is that Greig has had a lot of experience shooting with it. Basically, the Volume is a dynamic background that can project environments built in Unreal Engine 5, or other softwa...

  Yeah I have no idea what was going on in this movie, but it was entertaining regardless. Guillermo del Toro managed to engage me into a plot that I couldn't quite wrap my head around. Maybe part of it was the language barrier but I watch anime sometimes so I'm used to reading captions, but the mystical elements were confusing. I loved the ability though, just create a door anywhere you want. It reminded me a little bit of the portal gun in Portal, which is a far superior ability because then I can choose where I go, but it's fine. Her doors are cool too.  Anyway, I want to mostly talk about the monster thing that is in the picture. Also a little bit about Faun, the ram/bushy/masked thing that tells Ofelia what to do. I'll talk about Faun's design first, and based on my description you can probably tell I have no idea what he was even supposed to look like. He was less interesting to me. But this thing in the picture, whatever the hell that is, is awesome. The setu...