Exploring Film Techniques

Exploring Film Techniques

Bunny

Chris Wedge's animated short film, Bunny, tells the story of an elderly widowed rabbit who lives alone in a small house. One night as Bunny is baking, she is continuously bothered by a moth and no matter what she tries she simply cannot get rid of it. At one point of the film, the moth ends up in the cake batter and she throws it into a pan and then into the oven and the proceeds to fall asleep. Bunny is awoken by a bright light coming from the oven and when she opens it, the moth guides her through a gateway into the afterlife where she is reunited with her husband. In this film, light (especially a high exposure of light) is used to portray a heavenly afterlife. Exposure of light is defined as the " amount of light coming into the lens which in turn alters the image and manipulates the audience responses." The high exposure of light signified to the audience that Bunny was going to a Heaven of sorts and as an audience member, I was happy for her. 

Harold and Maude is a romantic black comedy drama which tells the story of Harold, a young man who is obsessed with death, and Maude, a 79 year old woman with whom Harold falls in love. During one scene in the film, towards the beginning, Harold had just faked a suicide to frighten a suitor and was looking directly at the camera - the audience - mischievous grinning. Behing Harold, we see his mother look him up and down as if she were about to pounce. However, instead if physically doing or saying anything to him, when Harold's gaze meets his mother's he instantly snaps out of it, and it almost looks like he deflates in a way. The way that the camera pans up really helps to place an emphasis on the look shared between Harold and his mother. Another scene in the movie with interesting videography, is the scene where Harold and Maude are in the field of flowers. When they first get to the field of flowers, the camera seems to be zoomed really far out, making it look like there a millions of flowers. However, the camera eventually zooms in and we can make out individual flowers and tell differences between them. When they get up to leave the flower field, the flowers suddenly become gravestones, and as the camera zooms way way out we see that there are hundreds and hundreds of gravestones that look just alike - exactly as the flowers did. 

In Northfork, there is a town that is in the midst of an evacuation as a new dam that is being build will flood the town. I wasn't really sure what specific cinematographic element I was supposed to draw out of this film, but I was struck by the contrast between the transient nature of the things of the town, and the eternal nature of things such as the mountains which overlooked the town. 

Throughout the film Paris, Texas, Wim Wenders, the film's director, places a huge emphasis on nature and the surrounding Texan wilderness. This is especially apparent in the beginning scene as Travis is meandering around the desert. One of the most interesting scenes of this movie takes place as he is talking to his wife through a one way glass window. He can see her but she cannot see him. The glass window represents the distance between them and perhaps a loss of trust? Either way, the cameras do a really good job of capturing the distance between the two of them in these scenes. 

Pink Floyd's The Wall provided some unsettling and somewhat intense imagery! The film's animations were graphic and vivid and captured the nature of war in interesting ways! He also used different images, such as the wall, to speak to his disconnection from society and the "walls" that he had placed up around himself to protect him from society. The images also complimented the music that was played during the film.