Acting and Acting Styles

The three actor’s which I will classify are Denzel Washington, Kelly Reilly, and Nadine Velazquez in the thriller/drama Flight (2012). This film stars Denzel, playing the role of commercial air pilot Whip Whitaker who has a drug and alcohol problem. He has managed to complete all of his flights safely with no issues, but his luck runs out when his plane crashes due to a mechanical malfunction. Whitaker manages to pull off a miraculous landing that only results in six lives lost. Whitaker is shaken up by the incident, and vows to get sober, but when the crash is investigated, Whitaker’s addiction is exposed and he finds himself in an even worse situation.

Denzel Washington would be classified as a personality actor. Denzel tends to play similar types of roles in his films. He is one of the most popular actors known, and his personality is very much distinctive. When you hear that Denzel Washington is starring in a movie, you just know that it is going to be a good one. I have never seen a bad movie starring Denzel. I believe that he has become so well-known, that his personality is used as a crutch. I also feel like Denzel is a wild card, because he is so good at playing different roles. For instance, in this film, he portrays the pilot Whip Whitaker. He does a fantastic job of making it so that the audience is able to understand and easily relate to the character.

Kelly Reilly would be classified as a character actor. She is best known for her role in Sherlock Holmes (2009), but she is not very popular. She adapts to the needs of each director she works with as well as the script. Character actors are able to “become” any character they wish. Reilly plays the character Nicole in the film Flight. She plays the role of a woman named Nicole, a heroin addict who meets Whitaker while he is in the hospital being treated after the plane crash. Reilly is recovering from a heroin overdose in the same hospital. Whitaker and Nicole become close and spend time together after being released, but Whitaker’s addiction clashes with her sobriety.

Nadine Velazquez would be classified as a character actor as well. Other movies that she is known for are Snitch (2013) and My Name is Earl (2005). She also adapts to the script of each character that she plays. She is not a very well-known actor. Character actors are often not well recognized by the public. In the film Flight, Velazquez plays the character Katerina Marquez. She was a flight attendant and close friend of Whitaker. The two were romantically involved. She was one of the six who were killed in the crash.

I believe that Denzel Washington is able to play a variety of roles, and he always does a phenomenal job. He has played several roles as the “good” guy, as well as the “bad” guy. For example, in Training Day (2001), he played there role of a “dirty” cop. In American Gangster (2007) he played the role of Frank Lucas, one of Harlem’s leading mobsters. In Remember The Titans (2000), which was based on a true story, he played the role of a high school football coach  He has also has played roles where he portrays the real life character of someone else. Denzel always plays the starring role in each of his films. I believe that Denzel would be classified as a personality actor in the majority of films that he has starred in, because his name is so well-known. No matter what film it is, if Denzel Washington is starring, you know that it is going be a film worth seeing.

References

Flight (2012 film). (2015, April 3). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 09, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flight_(2012_film)&oldid=654801196.

Retrieved from http://decine21.com/img/upload/perfiles/Nadine-Velazquez-28744/Nadine-Velazquez-2-40093-C.jpg.

Retrieved from http://images.nymag.com/movies/reviews/flight121029_560.jpg.

Retrieved from http://www.readthehorn.com/sites/default/files/images/flight2.png.

Categories and Functions of Sound

In this week’s blog I will discuss the ways in which the sounds in the musical film Grease (1978) effects the mise’ en scene. This movie contains diegetic sounds because the characters can hear the sounds from within the world of the film. The film is a musical, so there are several scenes where the dialogue consists of song lyrics, along with the characters having conversation with one another. The entire movie is not in song. The sound effects in the film are consistent with what is going on in that particular scene.

For example, in the scene “Thunder Road,” Danny and Leo race each other. The sound of the vehicles revving makes for an exciting scene. The music has a major effect on the audience as well as the overall mood of the film. The music played during this scene is the song “Grease Lightning”, which is significant to the title of the film itself.  The music played throughout the movie has a rock n’ roll/blues type feel. The sound has a profound impact on establishing the theme, being that the film is a musical, so it is based around the music.

The effects of the sound in the film produce a range of effects, and those effects vary with each scene. For example, with the “Thunder Road” scene, the realistic sound effects of the car engines revving, along with the song “Grease Lightning” playing in the background gives the viewer a feel of excitement and anxiety. The viewer feels anxious to know who will win the race. This scene would play much differently if “Grease Lightning” was not playing in the background. It would take away from the excitement it adds to the scene.

References

http://cdn.playbuzz.com/cdn/c94d64d1-2c64-4131-8867-d0a8ce4b27d5/2cfa33d1-2edd-4c03-8d3c-       c9bd6c5d2297.jpg

Youtube (2011). Grease Thunder Road movie clip. Retrieved on April 2, 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsYC-hVEpQM

Lighting

The film The Notebook consists of all three types of lighting, low-key, high-key, and three-point. The lighting adjusts depending on the scene that is taking place. For example, some parts of the film take place in a nursing home. Nursing homes usually have fairly low lighting. Therefore, low-key lighting was used for the scenes that took place in the nursing home. There was a scene when the two main characters were inside of a cabin, and it was dark outside, and if memory serves me right it was raining as well. The lighting in this scene was low key as well. Other scenes that took place outside had high-key lighting. The movie was filmed in several different locations, therefore the lighting adjusted along with the scene. The type of lighting varied according to the scene taking place. The benefits of using all types of lighting is that it adjusts according to what is going on in that particular scene. Also the lighting plays a big role in setting the tone, and the mood for the film. Just as the mood changed throughout the film, so does the lighting. If different choices had been made with the lighting, for instance if the entire film used high-key lighting I think that the overall film would have a different effect on the audience.

References

The Standard 3-Point Lighting Technique. (n.d.). Three Point Lighting. Retrieved March 27, 2015 from http://www.mediacollege.com/lighting/three-point/

Youtube (2011). The Notebook-Closing Scene. Retrieved on March 27, 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LI0RR9jGq8

Blog 1

Title: The Notebook

Writer: Nicholas Sparks

Director: Jeremy Leven

Major actors: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Marsden

Year released: 2004

Story: In a nursing home, an elderly man reads a romance story to a woman with dementia. The story is about two teenagers named Noah and Allie who fall deeply in love, however her parents do not approve of their relationship. Noah leaves to go serve in World War II, and it seems that the couple’s relationship is going to come to an end. While Noah is gone Allie meets another man and begins a relationship with him. Noah returns home, and it becomes apparent that a strong love connection is still very evident between the two of them. Allie has to choose between the man she is about to marry, and Noah.

Plot: The story is narrated from the present day by an elderly man in a nursing home who reads a romance story to an elderly woman. He reads the same story to her every day. The story is about a boy (Noah) and girl (Allie) who were very much in love, then were separated due to Noah going to off to serve in the war. While he is gone, Allie meets another man, and they fall in love. When Noah returns home from the war, he runs into Allie, and they form a connection once again. Allie has to choose between Noah and her fiancé’. She chooses Noah. In the present, it becomes clear that the elderly woman who is being read the story is in fact Allie, and the elderly man is Noah. She suffers from dementia, and each day Noah reads to her their love story, in hopes that perhaps it will spark her memory. While Noah is reading the story, Allie briefly regains her memory. At the onset of her dementia, Allie wrote the couple’s love story in a notebook and in it wrote “Read this to me, and I’ll come back to you.” But Allie soon relapses, and forgets who the man is that is reading her the story. She panics and has to be sedated. Meanwhile Noah suffers from a heart attack and has to be hospitalized. When Noah is released from the hospital, he visits Allie again. She questions him about what will happen when she loses her memory completely, and he reassures her that he will never leave her. After telling each other that they love one another, they lay down and go to sleep in Allie’s bed. The following day a nurse discovers that the couple died peacefully in bed together.

This film is presented non-linearly because it jumps back and forth from present to past. This aesthetic choice contributes to the general effect of the audience because it adds more meaning to the story and it pulls you in. The development of the characters Allie and Noah are impacted by the way in which the story is told because is adds significance being that the story is being told by Noah, who is a main character in the story. If the film had been presented differently, I feel it would have taken away from the significance of it. Being that he was telling the story first hand, it made it more interesting and gave it more meaning.

Resources

The Notebook (2004 film). (2015, March 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:08, March 19, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Notebook_(2004_film)&oldid=651781815

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3G3fILPQAU

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