Bruce Block: The Visual Story: Chapters 1 - 2

So I've just started to skim the surface of Bruce Blocks: The Visual Story, my reading pace seems quite staggered, but I believe that's due to the long recap period required after each chapter. Every page is riddled with diagrams and examples of films to check out, a lot of information in a small amount of space, it can take a while to grasp and fully understand a single point made.
 The main outstanding notes I have made for Chapter 1 & 2 are as followed;

There are three main elements to any film production, these are categorised as
- Story: Building blocks of plot, character and dialogue
- Sound: Building blocks of dialogue, sound effects and music
- Visuals: Which is built upon; The Basic Visual Components;

   - Space: the physical space in front of camera, the space on screen, the size of the screen itself.
   - Line and Shape: lines make up and appear to create all shapes
   - Tone: the brightness of an object relative to the grey scale
   - Colour: the most powerful visual component

   - Movement: to attract the eye via objects  on camera

An actor is part of these visual components, no difference between them and other objects, still use space, lines, shapes, tones, colours and movement.

Visual component can portray emotion and messages to the audience, perfect example for sound is the music in Jaws and Psycho which communicates terror.



A perfect example for colour would be that red indicates danger, its a stereotypical and well known colour for it, but you don't have to stick to conventions, blue could show danger if portrayed to the audience enough.

The next major point made is that of Film progression, diagrammed simply as a point transforming into a line, transforming into a cube, something starting off as simple and evolving into something complex. Examples in films include;

Raging Bull; Fight scenes start of as very simple and end very complex
The Birds; The birds are constantly gathering more and more to attack
The North by Northwest cornfield scene, the scene progresses from very dull to high intensity.




We are introduced to contrast and affinity, a perfect example of tonal contrast would be a black silhouette on a white background or Visa Vera, a perfect example of tonal affinity would be two colour next to each other on the grey scale overlapping.

The more contrast in any visual element the greater visual intensity, the more affinity the less visual intensity. The whole point made was that you need a good mix of contrast and affinity if you are to hold the audiences attention, if there is no contrast to the story, dialogue, visuals etc the audience becomes bored, if there is too much with no affinity it becomes too intense, basically you need good pace to a film.

Bruce Block: The Visual Story: The Beginning

I've decided that its about time to increase my visual knowledge of film overall, If I ever hope to achieve a credible career in film I need to know the finer details of cinematography. Although I have had numerous practical experience in the field I still feel amateur in the visual language of film, I want to learn existing film theory to apply in my practical work rather than just relying on instincts all the time. That's where my new book I got for Christmas (Bruce Blocks: The Visual Story) comes in. I had heard various recommendation from students and lectures, stating that it's a vital piece of learning material for film students, it claims to offer a clear view of the relationship between the story/script structure and the visual structure of a film, teaching you how to structure your visuals as carefully as say a writer structure a story... Ultimately understand how to communicate moods and emotions through film.


"You hold in your hand the key to understanding the complex and ever changing world of modern cinema" Jay Roach, director of Austin Powers, Meet the parents and Meet the Fockers

"Bruce Block masterfully deconstructs visual storytelling. Exposure to this material is essential for all students of cinema. This book will make you a better film-maker!" - American Film Institute

"Inspirational to those working in visuals. This reference is invaluable and essential for any artist" - Walt Disney Televison Animation

It all sounds very promising, lets hope it's not a load of commercial hype. Over the next week I will be dissecting and analysing all the material found in this piece, proberly about two to three chapters at a time and recapping on this blog. I will cite examples and my own personal thoughts on the theories found throughout this book, mainly so I can future reference and understand better what I am reading. Hopefully after I will become a better film-maker and apply this newly found knowledge to work next term

Review: Mac and Me (1988)

I had absolutely no expectations going into this movie, I was merely inspired to watch it by overseeing a fellow student viewing a trailer in class. Firstly I'd like to say I was completely unaware of the stigma attached to this piece and atop of that (in which I'm ashamed to admit) was viewed before Steven Spielberg's E.T., with all this in mind I believe my viewing experience was possible improved tenfold, as I had no prior bias or bandwagon opinion to jump upon.
Mac and Me begins on what I can only assume is Mars, following a family of four (obviously puppet) aliens as they investigate a strange space probe landing on their planet, sequentially being sucked up by the machine and transported to the planet Earth. The first thing to note is that If you over analyse the special effects in this movie and compare them to the standards of today, off course you're going to come up disappointed, however take them as comedy and treat this piece as a B-movie and you'll reap some pretty funny rewards. 
As the film continues we watch as the alien family, now dazed and confused from their journey get separated, leaving Mac, the youngest of the family to survive on his own. After causing a traffic accident by colliding his obviously rubber body into a nearby car's windshield (hilarious), he takes it upon himself to hitch a ride on the backseat of a family's car. The human family whom are unaware of Macs existence arrive at their newly purchased property in Americaville and begin to settle in, Eric, the disabled lonely child of the family begins to suspect somethings a miss when he experiences electrical disturbances throughout his house, along with waking up to a full redecoration of his living room to imitate Mac's home planet. This is when Eric finally discovers Mac and we have to endure the loving, heart-felt relationship only a disabled boy and his alien could experience. That's pretty much the plot along with some cliché government guys trying to recapture Mac for evil experiments and Eric taking it upon himself to reunite Mac with his freaky anorexic family lost in the desert.

The scenes that will provide most enjoyment for those who allow themselves to derive guilty laughs from bad movies are when; Eric loses control of his chair, leaving him falling down a steep ravine to his imminent doom, the spontaneous random dance off at MacDonald's, the countless-shameless product placements throughout and finally the penultimate petrol station explosion scene which see's the formerly P.C alien family obliviously popping caps at local police authorities and gas pumps.



In conclusion I can completely understand why this movie is the target of so much abuse, everything Is incredibly amateur, plagiarised and predictable, however by no means am I suggesting that it's not enjoyable to watch, it's packed with charm, love and silly fun, in the end this is a children's movie and the magic it provided to kids is what counts, do you think it would have been an issue to young Timmy in the 80's if there was product placement and it was similar to E.T? No, get off your high horse and respect the fact that people can and did enjoy this film.

Review: Scarface (1983)

Usually I'm not a gigantic fan of character studies, although analysing a personality type can be interesting viewing for a period of time, I tend to bore somewhere around the mid-point of the film, I'm left thinking, "OK I understand that this guy is sensitive... popular or aggressive... but now what? What else can you offer me. Well that's where Scarface takes the cherry, It not only delivers a deep, intellectual character study on an internal level but also presents us with an exciting external narrative, a perfect mix between the two, complimenting each other to ensure boredom is never an issue.
The film revolves around a Cuban refugee, who after escaping the holding camps in Miami, seeks to rise to the top of the international drug empire.

Tony's characteristics and actions take the centre stage throughout, they are some of the most intriguing I've ever seen, more so then any other recent character I can remember. From act one we are presented with this reckless, dominant and highly ambitious man who doesn't seem to feel fear, he has a certain unstoppable momentum about him, incredible stage presence for a character that in reality is just a mere man. Excellent facial expressions throughout adds to Tony's larger than life persona, he looks so calm, almost bored in the mist of drug deals and shootouts, as if reality isn't worthy of his attention.

He is one of those people who is never satisfied, they want it all and will do whatever it takes to get it, possessing a certain warped ego that says the world owes it them. Off course as Tony dreams of grandeur are met, his descent into madness truly begins, he slowly becomes more and more detached from himself and any common values, destroying everything he holds dear. I loved this sense of impending doom, every time a major event occurred I felt this incredible pressure building, one more string snapping in his head. The actions external from Tony's mind were also compelling, an interesting look at the drug running operations and gang culture of the time.

All in all I highly enjoyed Scarface, it had enough action sequences to satisfy my bloodlust along with an array of interesting characters to bring meaning and substance to the film. The message portrayed is one to remember, don't obsess over wealth and power, nothing good ever comes out off being overly materialistic, value what's real.. and cocaine is a hell of a drug.