In the Crossing, a male figure walks slowly towards the camera, his body dramatically lit from above so that it appears to glow against the video’s stark-black background, creating a dramatic contrast. The Crossing is a cinematic scale video installation that consists of a large two-sided screen onto which a pair of video sequences is simultaneously projected. They each open in the same fashion: a male figure walks slowly towards the camera, his body contrasting with its halo of strobe light against the black background behind him. After pausing, at this point the two scenes differ. In one, the figure’s feet set alight. It spreads over his body and eventually contains his whole being in flames. Yet, he stands eerily still as his body is submerged, …show more content…
(Bill Viola, The Crossing, n.d.) For each side of the altar, the man repeats the same motions and stance. To create the slowed-down effect of the artwork, Viola uses media production methods such as large-scale projection, slow motion, precise sound editing, or looping. Reminiscent to a two-sided altarpiece, the illuminated and synchronized moving images of a human on each side of the screen are symbolic of parallel worlds in one universe: an endless cycle of death and renewal. And while not overtly specific, the image of man being annihilated by fire and water recalls iconic, symbolic imagery and themes found in sacred and secular narratives throughout time, a subject Viola has long been interested in. (The Crossing, n.d.) The fire on one side of the screen could be reminiscent of ascendance into hell, while the bright blue of the water could be symbolic of being cleansed and rebirthed. Apart from the obvious colour contrast of the blue of the water and the orange of the fire, the upwards licking of the fire and pouring of the water contrast and yet complement each other, causing the eye to follow the motions of the elements in a cycle, reminiscent to the cycle of life and death, redemption and
The crossing of the Rio Grande into Mexico is an important structural device and symbol in the novel. This is when they enter the ?frame? of the novel in which all the conflicts take place. The crossing of the river naked is symbolic for the cleansing of their souls as well as a new beginning. In only a short time after arriving in Mexico, conflicts start.
This fire, though typically used to symbolize the end, represents a cleansing and a chance at a new life. The fire washed away everything that was holding the Grapes in Endora. Gilbert and Arnie were finally able to travel and see the world, while Ellen and Amy travel a few towns over to start a new life where nobody knows them. The fire created an exit from their drab lives to new adventures.
There is a brilliant use of diagonal dimensions in this scene in the railing behind the hearse, again sending a message of disorganization and anxiety. There is also the use of movement here as a gentle breeze ruffles the hair of the character, almost as a caress, and it is a stark contrast to the underlying sense of danger. The brightly colored almost cartoon-like use of the graffiti hearse and the colorful signs as dominate contrasts suggest that there is a bit of hope for the characters in this film. At second 5 the scene changes to a center framed shot with the main character shot at a quarter turn. The subsidiary focus is the characters in the background who also are at a quarter turn. The shot is with a hazy lens to depict their secondary significance to the main character. The lighting used here is both high and low key with the emphasis in high key lighting on the center foreground character to draw the viewer’s eye to him. He also appears taller than the subsidiary characters to reinforce his status as the
effect due to the basis of the film. This is used as an opening sequence
...ve their sinful lives. It is the ground for strange and wicked displays of man, and even stranger displays of torture by demons, or ones own vices. In essence, this is the main theme of the painting; the dualistic battle between mans virtue and vice.
At this time there is a two person medium shot, and Rupert is still right but lower in frame. When the conversation gets intense, there is an extreme close up of Brandon with his hand and gun in his pocket, and Rupert is once again at a close up. The camera moves back to a two person medium shot. Then, the camera pans and follows to an invisible man, explaining how Brandon had killed David. Once again, there is an extreme close up of Brandon’s pocket and then a one person low angle medium shot. As the conversation continues, a three person medium shot is shown but with a diagonal line between them showing the separation there is between the tow and the books in the background form diagonal lines, intensifying the scene. Phillip is cropped out again and Brandon remains on the left of the frame. A one person medium shot is shown as Brandon talks to him and then a zoom in is made showing an extreme close up of the rope and murder weapon. Immediately, there is a close up Phillip in horror, and then a three person long shot with the form of a triangle is made. However, Brandon is now right of Rupert and Phillip meaning that Brandon is not afraid of
How the Director Manipulates the Audience's Reaction to the Opening and Closing Sequences of the Film Bend It Like Beckham
In The Walking Drum by Louis L’Amour the character Mathurin Kerbouchard is in search of his father. In the beginning Mathurin has an abundance of gold coins and tries to figure out where his father is. He goes on a boat and asks if they knew him. He didn’t have luck and is brought onto the boat as a slave. He convinces Walther, the captain, to let him be the pilot. He wants to go to Cadiz and finally persuades Walther to let him drive the boat there. In Cadiz he sells the boat while everyone is gone to a merchant named Ben Salom. He goes to Cordoba and meets Aziza. Aziza is royalty and they run away together. They go to the castle of Othman and guards find them and throw Kerbouchard in prison. He escapes and Eric wants to kill him. He meets a woman named Safia who is going to help him. Safia and Kerbouchard depart a couple times, but she is always there to help him. Kerbouchard finds Suzanne the Hansgraf who leads him on his journey around Europe. Suzanne departs at Constantinople when Kerbouchard has to go to Alamut. He finds his dad there and they stay together until he leaves to find his lover. Some of the most important characters in the book are Safia, Suzanne, and Jean Kerbouchard. The most important one of all is his dad, Jean, because they make enemies along the way and always keep going, Mathurin is searching for his father his whole journey, and his dad is his educator.
The Flea by John Donne “The Flea”, a witty poem of seduction and conceit, taken from John Donne’s “Songs and Songs” is the poem that I have chosen to compare. to “Song”, another poem of John Donne’s where he is passionately. pleading with his wife not to be disheartened about his departure. abroad. Both poems, “Songs and Sonets”, written around the time of the 16th century, show that their title suggests they are both.
Director Max Ophüls is known for his distinctive smooth camera movements (Liang, 2011, p. 2). Frame mobility keeps the audience focused on the subject (Bordwell and Thompson, 2008, p. 203), and this can be seen in this shot. Due to the camera tracking Lisa and Lieutenant Leopold after they enter the frame, the audience’s attention stays focused on Lisa and Lieutenant Leopold, even thoug...
The “Weapon of Choice” video begins with a normal middle-aged man, Walken, sitting in a hotel lobby. Once the music fades in, the scene comes to life with motion. From then on all rules of expectation are broken. As Michael Abernethy notes, “It is a fantasy many of us have had, to dance abandon in an environment that screams for civilized behavior”(1). This scene, although not impossible in our everyday lives, is very rare. Once Walken takes his hoofing steps right on out to the balcony and into mid-air this is when the camera begins to works its magic. The camera enables the character to bound across the screen and back again, which gives Walken an unexpected power. The simple concept of fantastically and unexpectedly losing control in a civilized environment is shown in a complex and artistic manner.
Who is the birthday party a rite of passage for, the birthday boy or his mother?
Twelfth Night revolves heavily around the shipwreck plot device to split apart the siblings Viola and Sebastian, leading to the development of a bizarre love-triangle and a case of mistaken identity. Besides the rather literal importance of the sea as the driving force for the play’s plot, water appears to resonate as a recurring theme throughout many scenes; specifically, it becomes a living representation for the emotional status of various characters, and woven within the ebb and flow of the tides, qualities such as fate, grief, death (imagined or real), and reflection churn amongst the brackish waters of the play’s symbolic ocean. Of course, because Twelfth Night fails to meet definition of a tragedy outright, these elements will not lead
Porter had 2 big movies he worked on does 2 where (life of an American fire man) and (the great train robbery). On The great train robbery Porter used cross-cutting editing method to show simultaneous action in different places. And the great train robbery had a running time of twelve minutes, with twenty separate shots and ten different indoor and outdoor locations. In the movie Life of an American Fireman Porter presents the same narratives where the fireman rescues a woman from a burning building as seen first from inside the building and then from camera setup outside the building. This duplication of event was a deviant use of editing, although other early films feature this kind of overlapping action. Porter also used parallel editing styles in the great train robber.
Moving Images are possibly the greatest representation and exploitation of the human visual system. In order for us to understand how moving images make sense to us we heavily rely on our ability to piece together moments in a sequential frame, often allowing us to create a lifelike representation of an inanimate object. Moving images are something we constantly see throughout our lives; from simple toys we played with as kids, to flip up books and eventually to the creation of film; things that evident in our lives every day. The development of a moving image indicates the incredible ability of the human visual system; the ability to process visual stimuli and give life to a non- moving lifeless object.