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The film I will be discussing this week is Django Unchained.  I chose this film because it is a Quentin Tarantino film, and because I chose him as my auteur for this week’s discussion, it made since that one of his films would be the focus of my blog post.

Leonardo DiCaprio: I agree with the text that he should be categorized as an interpreter actor. Leo is very charismatic and he can take any role and give the character more personality than what is written in black and white.  In the film Django, he plays a greedy slave master, who can be jovial and funny, as well as cruel and hardened. Leo is able to switch the characters mood effortlessly and make it believable, as though he is not acting as the character, but he is the character. Even his accent sounds authentic and his mannerisms, the way he holds his pipe.

Jamie Foxx: He would classify as a wild card actor. It has taken Jamie Foxx a while to become a well-known actor that he is. He started his career as a stand-up comic and then he crossed over into acting.  In my opinion his break through moment was his Academy Award winning performance in Ray.  That particular film proved that he could handle method acting and be authentic. He is a wild card because his resume is very diverse, as he has acted in films from all different genres, animation, western, comedy, science fiction, thriller, and so on.  In this particular film Django Unchained, he played a character that I had to be heroic, emotional at times, and athletic as well.  Because the film is characterized as a western, Jamie had to ride a horse and be a modern-day John Wayne.  For someone who has a comedic background, one would think that this task would not come easy, but again he is a wild card because he is able to adapt to any role that he is given. Actually in this film, the character Django is somewhat stylized.  He is sarcastic and has a subtle sense of humor. Cowboys are not usually comical, so if this film were a true western through and through Jamie would not fit in this role.

In this scene, Django is in a gunfight with the trackers sent to kill him.  Jamie Foxx has to inhabit the attitude of a ruthless cowboy, who will do anything to survive.  In this scene he fits the mold of any other action hero, Clint Eastwood, or Steven Segal.

Kerry Washington: I would characterize her as a personality actor. Kerry Washington has become a star in her own right by choosing her roles carefully.  She does not seem like the actor that does a film a year.  Because we rarely see her, it makes us want to see her more.  Her personality is intriguing and she has a presence that is restrained. She does not have to over act.  In the film she plays Django’s wife, who was sold to slave owner Candy, played by Leo DiCaprio. The character is a woman who has been abused and broken spiritually.  Kerry is able to appear meek and timid alongside the other characters, who are vibrant.  She is a gorgeous woman, not at all a fighter, like her counterpart Django.  Sounds easy enough, but imagine if they put someone else in that role, for example Halle Berry.  She is another beautiful, well-known actor, but Halle’s personality is very strong, and not introverted like Kerry’s.  It would not be a good fit.

Leonardo DiCaprio has been in so many film, of different genres. His characterization as an interpreter actor fits him completely. This particular category distinguishes actors who are diverse, and are not type cast.  Leo has had roles ranging from a mental patient in Shutter Island, a hopeless romantic in Titanic, and the corrupt stock broker, Jordan Belfort, in The Wolf of Wall Street.  He completely divulges himself into character to where he isn’t recognizeable to us. View this clip from Shutter Island. This category is flexible in that an actor can also inhabit characteristic form the other types of character.  For example, Leonardo also could be categorized as an impersonator character.  His acting in the role of Jordan Belfort, was based on a true story and he did a superb job, hence his Golden Globe nomination.

Dialogue: The dialogue in the film can easily be described as characters talking to one another in a film.  To get more in depth, dialogue is important to a film because the way the characters speak have to coincide with the time period in which the film is set it.  For example if the setting is 1940 in the south, the dialect would be monotone, broken English, and would contain slang, (i.e. ya’ll). The dialogue helps to take the audience to that time period and adds authenticity to the film.  Dialogue can also go along with the character(s) action in that moment, which can make a scene better or more relatable to an audience.

Sound Effects: Sound effects are additional sounds that help to enhance a mood.  Some films are shot on location and others on a sound stage, and with all of the additional background noise, it is impossible to shoot each scene perfectly.  Sound effects are added on during the editing process, after a film has wrapped.  A perfect example would be a horror scene shot in the woods.  In order to enhance the mood, sound effects of crackling twigs, or grasshoppers, puts the audience in that moment and keeps them there until the element of surprise happens.

Music: After films conversion to talkies, music has become an essential part of film making, just as wardrobe and lights.  Music contributes to the mood because the music can keep the audience stuck in that particular emotion. For example a funeral scene may contain an orchestra complete with, piano, violins, and maybe even bagpipes.  A party scene would have a musical arrangement with, loud bass, guitars, and drums.  More specifically, music score is what plays in the background of a scene. This is not to be confused with the soundtrack to a film.  A music score is specifically written for the film.

In the film Schindler’s List, set in World War II, Germany, the characters have German dialect and they speak the English language.  The characters having a German dialect keeps the film authentic.  The sound effects in the film are simply for keeping the mood of the film dark and sad for majority duration of the film.  Because the film is set during the Holocaust, there is a great deal of loud gunfire and explosions. There are also scenes where the background sound is sobbing, crying and running.  The theme of this film is a depiction of biographical events, during a war era. In order to keep the audience in that time period and to evoke emotion; the sound effects must be as authentic as possible, especially during scenes where killing is going on.  The Holocaust can be described as the unjust near extinction of the Jewish race. When I think of a war film, I can imagine loud explosions and background noise, a feeling of utter chaos. The music compilation in the film is mainly violin and orchestra.  I would describe it as classical music. In my opinion classical music has so much range and is diverse; because the tempo can be sped up or slowed down to convey either a sad emotion or a joyous one.

The scene I have chosen is the burning body’s scene.  There is very little dialogue in the scene and that is what makes it a perfect choice in reference to how sound can enhance a scene.  The audience sees the bodies as they are being thrown into a massive fire pit.  The music begins, subtle at first, just violins gentle playing. Then it builds to a point where we hear a choir singing, and we hear the crackling of the fire in the background.  This is a very emotional scene both to watch and to hear. The sounds in this film are very realistic and expected.  For example if a person is shot, we expect to hear the gun and maybe even the splatter of brains.

This is a biographical film, so the events are supposed to be true events, and so the director must have realist sound effects.   If this were an animation of World War II, minus the whole Holocaust, which would be completely ridiculous, but hypothetically speaking, the sounds would be more exaggerated.  Animations are made for entertainment purposes.

The type of light used in the film Juno is high-key lighting.  Because it is a romantic comedy everything is bright, from the actors clothing, to the props. (Refer to youtube clip above).  The film’s theme was conveyed by taking a serious situation and making light of it through comical relief. The film’s theme about making difficult decisions in the name of love, and not just love between a man and a woman, but love in all forms.

The style of light is beneficial because the director is able to keep the movie funny and light, even though some scenes are not meant to be comical. For example the scene where Juno tells her parents that she is pregnant (Refer to youtube clip below).

They are sitting in the living room and it is not dimly lit at all. In a scene like that, where a teen girl is about to break the most heartbreaking news to her parents, you would expect the lighting to be low-key style. Where her parent’s shadows would be present, to showcase their authoritative stance and Juno would be in a bright light, to enhance the look of a timid, scared, girl.  With the theme of this film, the director could have easily turned it into your typical Saturday night Lifetime movie, but the bright colors in the film keep the content light and the comical relief is effortless.  The lighting technique suited the genre because romantic comedies make the audience want to root for the couple.  We want them to be together and the hoping for the happily ever after is present throughout the film duration.  High-key lighting keeps the audience in a good mood, almost as though we are falling in love ourselves.  Romantic comedies are supposed to be fun, cute, make us laugh, make us cry, and whether the audience realizes it or not, these emotions are brought out through colorful scenery that pulls us into the story.

The film that I will be discussing is A Day Late and a Dollar Short released April 2014, a film adaptation of the book written by Terry McMillan and the film written by Shernold Edwards, and directed by Stephen Tolkin.  Major cast members include; Whoopi Goldberg, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Phifer, Kimberly Elise, Anika Noni Rose and Tichina Arnold.

In the film we meet Viola, the matriarch of the Price family. She learns that her years of smoking has put her health in dangerous risk.  The doctor informs her that she does not have long to live and that she should start planning her dream trip to Paris. Viola then begins to reflect on her now failing marriage and her fractured relationships with her four adult children.  She wants to mend fences before her time is up and it is too late.  As the story goes on we meet her children and their family and how years of resentment for each other has affected how they are within their own families.  As the film continues we begin to see that everything is not what it seems.  Dark secrets of infidelity and child abuse are revealed and we realize that the theory of glass houses is very real. Viola does not make it until the end of the film, but with her passing her children and husband are forced to face their shortcomings and forgive to continue on without her.

The film is presented chronologically. There are no flashbacks and we see each character face a conflict and how they deal with it in that moment.  Because the audience is seeing the conflicts of each character in the present, we are able to live in the moment with the character and share the emotions they feel in that particular scene.

A characters development can be shaped based on how an author or in this case a director decides to tell a story.  Using this film for example, Viola and her family appear to be like any other family in the beginning.  They all think that they have it together, but as the film goes along we see that they are all broken in many ways and it has led to them resenting each other. If the director had used a non-linearly form of narrative, filled with flashbacks I do not think the story would have been as good.  Only because it would have been too much to keep up with and the audience would lose interest quickly.  Each character in this film served a purpose and they each needed to learn a lesson and the author’s use of chronological order helped the audience to keep up with each characters story line and how it tied into the overall theme of the film. Overall the director used Whoopi as the central character to branch off onto the other characters and to end the film with Whoopi’s funeral and bring the story full circle.  Her family came together and were able to resolve issues and work through turmoil to continue on.  Then the film closes with Whoopi finally make it to Paris, or what may symbolize her view of heaven.