For my film study this quarter, I decided to focus on the last three Oscar winners for visual effects and cinematography. The last 3 Oscar winners were
Hugo (2012),
Life of Pi (2013), and
Gravity (2014). I chose this topic because I thought it would be interesting to see how the special effects have developed throughout the years. Considering these movies were released so close together, there was no drastic change, although, small changes were definitely evident. I enjoyed watching these movies greatly, however, I sometimes questioned the fact of whether or not these movies were made solely to focus on the special effects rather than the story-line because it seemed like that for some, especially
Gravity.
The biggest similarity, of course, is that these three movies have magnificent special effects. However, these effects seem to detract from the importance of having a good plot line. Although these movies were unique, as in their ideas haven't been done in the past, the plot was lacking especially compared to their effects. The cinematography of each was very well crafted. Each of the shots and aspects of the movie made the audience feel as if they were a part of the movie. In
Hugo, the sounds of clocks and the scenes of the screws and dials made us feel as if we were experiencing the works of a clock from the inside alongside Hugo Cabret. The panning in and out and the quick movements between shots made the us feel as if a lot was going on at once and made us overwhelmed. In
Life of Pi, the audience would feel as if they were on the boat to survival alongside Pi Patel. The shaky movements of the camera during storms and the underwater shots looking up into the sky added to the effect of being isolated and the feeling that death could be just around the corner. The death thoughts and views from
Life of Pi by the audience is similar to what they might feel with
Gravity, too. The fast paced shots of satellites exploding and Ryan Stone bumping into everything possible in space brings us to the feeling that Ryan is going to die and so are we because we feel as if we're in the movie in space, too. But as I was saying before, these movies still lacked a story-line. The main example would be Gravity. Going into the movie, I though that the space crash scene would only be part of the movie and they would show Sandra Bullock being back on Earth. However, the entire movie consisted of her struggling in space to return back to Earth. I thought that a movie about such a topic did not deserve to be so long; the visual effects were the only thing that kept me watching.
Other than the fact that there was a lack of a plot, but great visual effects, these movies showed other similarities. In a way, these three movies were about survival.
Hugo was about a little boy who tries to get through life without getting caught with having no parents while also trying to repair something that reminds him about his father.
Life of Pi was about a guy who recalls an experience he had where he was stranded on a lifeboat by himself after the sinking of another boat and tries to get back to land and survive.
Gravity was about an astronaut, who used to be a doctor, trying to survive a debris crash that ruined her last spacecraft and get back to Earth safely while being the only one to survive. In addition, these three movies portrayed the struggles of life that some people don't know about, like an astronaut's life. On a broader spectrum, these movies portray the same message: to never give up no matter how hard and difficult it may be. Because of this, the endings of the movies were quite predictable in that everything worked out and no one died after a long journey.
Now I am going to analyze each movie separately.
Hugo: Hugo Cabret lost his parents at a very young age. His alcoholic uncle ends up taking him in to live with him in a clock tower and taught him how to keep all the clocks running at the train station. While maintaining the clocks, Hugo is trying to fix an automaton that him and his father were working on previously. He says it is the last thing he has of his father. He meets a girl named Isabelle whom he goes on adventures with that usually defy the rules of her Papa Georges. They find out that Papa Georges used to actually be a famous movie producer and try to get him to come back to good terms with that. They also found out that he was the one who created the automaton in the first place. When they eventually do, Hugo gets very excited and tries to show Georges Melies that his stuff was saved when he gets caught by the train inspector and almost gets brought to an orphanage. Papa Georges comes just in time to claim that Hugo is his and takes him under his wing for the rest of his life. This movie was probably one of the most fast paced movies of the three. It consisted of mostly dark colors that reminded me of the insides of a clock (very brown and rusty colored). It also related back to the feelings during the movie, which were at most times sad or adventurous but scary. A couple times during the movie the movie was bright which reflected the fact that everyone was happy. These scenes consisted of when the inspector got together with the girl he's always liked and at the end with the party. This movie was also more relatable in that it wasn't about an astronaut in space or being stranded in the ocean. This is more down to Earth in that some people could say that they were also almost thrown into an orphanage or how some people always go on risky adventures. The shots that this movie consisted were also very cool and different than most. The panning used throughout caught my eye in that it was used to detect a lot of the movement in the movie, whether is is running through the clock tower or during a party. It is also used mostly to show the actions of many characters during that scene, so that it allows the audience to feel like they are in the movie and are able to experience everything, too. Another main cinematic technique that stood out to me was the fading techniques used to transition from one scene to another. One specific time that they used this was when they would fade from a shot of the clockworks to a night shot of the city from a distance. This transitioned very well in that they both had a central circle and lines coming out of it. This allows for a smooth transition from scene to scene so that they movie doesn't seem choppy or abrupt with its story-line.
Jeff Beck from Examiner.com says that "Scorsese is a master storyteller and one of the best directors working today. He doesn't need a gimmick like 3-D to prove this. His films speak more than enough for themselves and 'Hugo' is no exception" (Rotten Tomatoes). I agree with Beck in that Hugo was a great movie with great effects that doesn't necessarily need to be shown in 3-D. Scorsese has made a vast amount of award-winning movies, and Hugo was definitely one of them. Scorsese is able to brings lot of his movie to life, which shows how talented he truly is and that there is no end to what he is capable of.
Life of Pi: A journalist comes to India in hopes to find Pi Patel because someone told him that Pi had a story that would make him believe in God. Pi starts off with a whole back story as to how he got his name and what his family is life. He then delves into his past memory to come up with a story that was a life changer for him. He was on his way to North America (Canada, I think) with his family for a better life when all of a sudden a big storm makes the boat sink. He was one of the only ones awake to be able to escape and leave on a lifeboat. He ends up being in the middle of nowhere for 227 days at sea with a live tiger which he has to befriend. He had to encounter many obstacles, including having to find food and fighting off sea creatures. Pi eventually makes it to a beach in Mexico which he gets found and carried to the hospital. Japanese reporters fly over to hear his story, but they don't believe him. The movie ends with Pi giving the journalist the documents and says he can do whatever he wants with the story. This movie, based of a book, is made up of many bright colors throughout. This reflects the events that occur in that most of the movie is about a life at sea during the day in which it is sunny, and also the tiger has a very vibrant orange-ish color to it. The movie has a very heart pounding feeling to it, since it is about the survival of a teenage boy in the middle of nowhere living with a tiger for 227 days. This movie uses many different effects; One of the effects was something similar to fading in and out in which 1 subject from a previous scene would stay a bit longer and overlap with the next scene so that it looked like there was something just floating there. This is a different transition than what most movies have, but it adds to the effect of the questioning audience as to whether or not Pi will survive. It adds some suspense to the movie and a feeling of being uncomfortable since it's such a weird shot. There were also multiple occasions where they used underwater shots, whether Pi was actually underwater or a view of him treading water at the top from the bottom. These shots are also different, but in a good way. It shows how clear and pure the water can be, but it also adds to the sense of how underwater creatures view him like sharks. It allows us to see Pi in a different perspective, one you wouldn't think would matter that much.
"Everywhere you look there are images of beguiling beauty: a mirror-like sea reflecting golden clouds; a sudden swarm of flying fish; an island bristling with meerkats; and a breaching whale glowing with bioluminescents as it leaps out of the water," (Rotten Tomatoes) said Jason Best from Movie talk. This statement by Best shows just how complicated the story-line of Life of Pi was. There were many layers behind the story that had to be planned out and executed well. The fact that Lee was able to execute so many effects using green screen and other technologies shows how great his ability and knowledge of the movie industry and his audience is. He is able to conjure up a movie that is interesting and different enough for the audience to enjoy AND win an Oscar.
Gravity: Ryan Stone is a doctor who decided to take her time off to become an astronaut. While she is up there, there was a satellite that crashed that started a chain reaction, so debris was flying very fast through the air. It ended up hitting the spaceship which she was in, causing many to die to their mode of transportation back to Earth to be gone. Stone and Matt Kowalski were the only ones to survive, but it ends up only being Stone at the end. The worst that could happen at every scenario when Stone gets to it happens, which constantly delays her travel back to Earth. She encounters many obstacles (shocker) before getting back to Earth and at one point she almost gave up. The movie ends with her getting back to Earth and walking on shore, showing that she is getting used to Earth's gravity once again. This movie was made up of very contrasting colors between the white suits of the astronauts and the dark sky around them and the brightly colored Earth. In my opinion, the movie was too dragged out because it consisted solely of her being trapped in space the entire time. I was hoping for some land back on Earth action, which I got maybe three minutes of at the end. Despite this, the types of shots and sound effects used were off the charts. One of the more specific shots that sticks to my mind was one where the camera could follow her movement through the spacecraft from behind her feet so that it looked like she wasn't moving, just the objects around her were. This shot made the movie seem very trippy and added to the effect of there being no gravity in space. The fact that she is floating from the very start and "isn't moving" throughout the scene seems totally normal in our brains even though it really isn't. Another thing I mentioned as being wonderful were the sound effects. The sounds of spaceships exploding and the gasps for air and the sounds of Ryan running into every object possible gives us the sense that we're right there with her. It makes the audience feel like they are close to her and can hear everything that is going on themselves.
The statement, "This is a story about people floating through space and Alfonso Cuaron's feature brilliantly contrives to make the viewer feel similarly untethered, to often thrilling effect. This is surely the closest cinema comes to the three-dimensional virtual abseiling," (Rotten Tomatoes) by Jonathan Romney from Sight and Sound shows that the visual effects for Gravity are fantastic. However, as Romney kind of hinted at, there is not much to the plot of the movie. The entire movie consists of scenes where Ryan Stone is floating in space and bumping into objects. She struggled the entire movie from start to end. Some people might even say that they would rather have Matt Kowalski, played by George Clooney, to stay alive and play the rest of the movie because he would have known what he was doing and is a better actor.
Although these movies had their own way of being great with the cinematography, they still shared some similarities with their shots. One of these includes the long shot. These shots were used to show the setting of new scenes and the landscape. All three movies were held in completely different locations (Hugo was in Paris, Life of Pi was in India and the ocean, Gravity was in space) but they all shared a kind of beauty especially in the way they were portrayed and shown. Another shot that was used universally was the classic close-up shots. They were used to show emotions, like the tears of Hugo, and detail, like of the tiger in Life of Pi. Another similarity between the movies were that they were made by foreign directors, except for Hugo. This gives the movie a more unique perspective since they are able to come up with different ideas and aren't stuck in a bubble of the same ideas.
Overall, I thought that these movies were very good even beyond the aspect of their special effects. They definitely deservingly won their Oscars. I learned a lot about the ways that movies get created and how important the effects are to becoming a good, award-winning movie.
In my opinion, the actors for each part, for the main characters at least, fit their other roles in this movie very well. Kevin Hart is known to be quite the comedian. He does stand up comedy, but also plays the role of the "love-maker" and comedian in movies, such as in Think Like A Man. He brings the humor out in the audience, which is perfect for Ride Along since it is a comedy movie mixed with action. Ice Cube is another actor that I think fits his role nicely. He usually stars in gangster or crime fighting movies such as Boyz n the Hood. In Ride Along, he plays James who is the tough guy cop who thinks that he is the boss of everyone and is able to protect everyone, especially his sister. He gets involved in situation that end in gun shootings or hand to hand combat which seem to really be his "thing." Finally, another one of the main characters that seem to fit her role by looking at her previous roles is Tika Sumpter. She comes off as the girl who goes for the money and is always in need of help. Another time she played a role like this other than in Ride Along is in the tv show "Gossip Girl." Her name was Raina Thorpe and she had a short affair with Chuck Bass who is very rich and powerful. She was very deceitful in the relationship because she wanted Chuck's money. That is something that is a little different in Ride Along in that she wants her and Ben's relationship to go on to the next level since she loves him.
