In Bruges (Martin McDonagh, 2008)

The best thing about this film I thought was the narration in a retrospective view-point from Ray after all the events shown in the movie were over. I think that the comedy juxtaposed with the seriousness of the situations worked well making the hit-men seem almost unprofessional because they made mistakes. They also tried to act superior such as when Harry their boss had his gun to Ken’s head. Ken then made a speech about how he wasn’t going to fight Harry and he then couldn’t shoot him and just shot him in the foot to prove a point. Such as this example, it made the movie more light-hearted and comic.

The setting of Bruges is beautiful and the fact that Ray hated it so much was humurous because they were there hiding due to the fact Ray had accidentally murdered a child and was living with the guilt. Ken suggested they go site-seeing and throw themselves into the culture of Belgium. Even though they were there ultimatley hiding in order to save their lives.

Moreover, I thought it was clever the way Harry states at one point that he couldn’t live with himself if he killed a child and that he would kill himself, unlike Ray did. Hence why Harry is out to kill Ray. Ultimatley this foreshadows the ending of the film when Harry has shot Ray and killed the dwarf that Ray and Ken had befriended and then kills himsel; sticking to his word. It became clear that therefore the movie started at the end. The fact that as a viewer, I linked the narration and the start of the film to the end shows that Ray survived the attack with Harry, unfortunately without his partner Ken who committed suicide in the end.

The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller,2013)

I went to see The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty at the cinema. It certainly did not disappoint. This is a film based on the short story by James Thurber of a man who never experienced anything particularly interesting nor worth discussing. He got up, went to work and achieved simply mundane tasks. However, after losing a 25th photo from a photographer which would save his job. He was left to travel to Greenland, Iceland, The Himalayas to track down the photographer who ends up teaching Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) much about life and living.

It was a truly inspiring tale which I enjoyed watching. Although at the start it was difficult to understand where the story was going due to the fractured order of things happening. Because Walter Mitty tends to have a wild imagination and is easily distracted when someone is talking to him. And so parts of the story are when he is imagining what he would do in a situation. Such as wrestling his boss out of a glass elevator onto the street, which was all in his mind and never actually happened. Personally it wasn’t until he went to Greenland to find the photographer that the story began to unravel as he followed the clues as to where he might be from the other 24 photographs. It was a very well thought and put together film which didn’t give anything away until the last 20 or so minutes of the film making it rather a magical and intriguing experience. I will definitely be getting this on DVD!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1Xk-yTuFEU

Tech-Talk: Camera Movement

Aerial shot: A shot taken from a moving helicopter or plane.

Tilt: Moving the camera lens up or down while keeping a horizontal axis constant.

Pan: Moving camera lens to one side or another.

Tracking shots: refers to a shot where the camera is mounted.

Dolly: Motion towards or motion from the subject. Camera is on tracks to get a smooth camera movement.

Steady-Cam: Camera strapped to someone with a counteracting weight, very heavy but gives you a steady shot.

Handheld: This is where the camera is literally handheld by someone, sometimes resulting in a shaky shot, this can be used for effect.

Crane-shot: A crane shot which lifts a camera from low or high shooting positions.

Crash zoom: Very fast zoom, usually with a manual zoom.

Dutch tilt: A movement where the camera is tilted off to one-side.