R-04 FILM EXTRACT: Intresting Directional use in Films
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Intresting Directional use in Films
As i have taken the role of director i have viwed some films to get an idea of the purpose of director and what other directors have done in different films . Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly 2001), Romeoa nd Juliet ( Baz Luhrmann 1996) and Fight Club (David Fincher 1999) are the 3 clips i have chosen to analyse.
Romeo and Juliet
This clip is when the the montigue's gatecrash there rivals the Capulets party, in this scene Romeo and his friends have taken drugs and enter the party spaced out and dilusional. the way Luhrmann has directed this is in your typical hand held dazed drug sdcene where the room spins and the figures are distorted. The dancing section where Mercutio is singing young hearts, as a whole it has been choreographed from every inch of the shot, from mercutio himself, to the back up dancers and the crowd al jumping and moving in sync. The crowd part is very intresting as at partoies you never have the whole crowd in sync dancing together. Luhrmann's direction on this shows that he paid real dtail to the fact that the drugs romeo has taken has made everything in the scene out of wack.
Another interesting point he has taken into account, is that in the original play alot of mercutio's lines suggest that he was inlove with romeo. By putting dressing mercutio up as a girl in this scene again suggets this accusation, even the song chosen repeats the line " my man and me". At the edn of the clip we see Romeo with his head in a basin, this goes back to the earlyer part in the movie where Juliet isin the bath with her head in the movie. Then finally they both meet by looking in a fish tank. This works well as it suggests what's going to happen before the character themselves know. This small clip has worked very well as it Luhrman as he has in the film has paid great detail to the small parts of the play and successfully adapted it into a modern style without loosing its originality.
Donnie Darko
Donnie darko is based on a story that leaves the viewer questioning weather the conclution of the film was based on phycological and mental actions of the main character or weather what we saw on screen actually happens. In this clip we see the famous bunny that made this film so popular and remeberable. Again earlyer we see donnie taking mental illness pills, and we wonder if this is a dilusion or reality. but we find our that the butterfly effect of his action could lead into the idea that it isnt a dilusion it could actually be real. The opening to this clip we see donnie's father go downstairs int he middle of the night to watch some TV, on the screen is a canditate running for presidentcy. Kelly's chioce to show this is interesting as the canditate talks about " sorting out drug dealing" and repeats " there was no evidence" alot. This is significant as it begins the preface of what is going to happen.
The whole film is very backwards and hard to undertand but with the small inputs that you don't notice the first timne round it makes it easyer to understand. There is a shot where they pan up missing out donnie wlakingf out of the house. again relating back to the idea that we did not see him leave the house so thewre is no evidnece weather ofr not he actually did or if he was dreaming. The qick shot of donnie grabbing the pen off the fridge in his dilutional state again suggests something is going to happen that us as the viewer do not know. The film like ours is a physcological genre, and in this clip after the bunny has told him when the world is going to end Donnie smiles a sick smile and asks why, this shows he takes pleaure out of either the world ending or the insane bunny standing infront of him. either one suggests that the guy is ill.
Fight Club
Again another physcological genre, where the main character may or may not be crazy. Unlike donnie darko at the end of the film we find out that the narrator is actually crazy. Donnie darko leaves you questioning it untill the last end credit, this is really directed well by Richard kelly. This clip of Fightclub is the climax where the truth is spilled to the audience. FOR ANYONE WHO DOES NOT WANT TO HEAR THE ENDING OF FIGHT CLUB STOP READING NOW! this is the part of the film where youa nd the character finds out that the narrators friend is actualluy his alter ego. This is done well as it shows you clips of the film we have already seen but swaps Tyler ( the alter ego) to The narrator. it shows these clips in a fuzzy style as if the type is skipping, to represent what it is like to be in The narrator/tylers mental mind.
Fincher takes bits that havnt been altered and plays them again so you can see the crakcs in the story were Tyler and The narrator join. He even shows the narrator talking to himself to completly justify the factt hat Tyler isnt real and that the main character is crazy. When tyler says " you still wrestle with it" meaningt hat the narrator is wrestling with his mind and life, sontrasts to the fatc that the whole film is based on the idea of Fight club. The use of humour is used extremely well in tjhis clib by Fincher, its sarcasim over rules its natural idea that the film is based of a physcilogicaly mental person.
