Tsotsi Music... Stay Tuned for the Question at the End

The film Tsotsi has a lot of music that is difficult to overlook and ignore. In movies and TV shows, I find it interesting to hear the music that is not part of the soundtrack. This is the music that is played on the radio, or you can hear it through someone's headphones. This was seen in Tsotsi. When Tsotsi was stealing the car, you could hear the music on the radio. When Tsotsi tries to cover up the sound of the crying baby, we heard the music from his radio. I like seeing this in movies and TV shows because it makes the scene more realistic. It also makes me feel as if I'm in the scene with the characters. It also creates a unique feeling of being connected to the characters and the events in the scene.
On that note, here's a question: Why do you think Tsotsi was silent for the majority of the beginning of the movie?
I've been thinking of an answer, but I haven't come up with anything really profound. I'm interested in hearing what you all think!

Special Effect- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The above photos are from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The images are of the tour of the factory that Willy Wonka takes the children on (with help from his trusty Oompa Loompas, of course). Part of the tour takes place in this super cool, hot pink dragon boat that sails through the chocolate river. Of course, there was no real chocolate river with hills of edible grass, so a green screen was used to create this effect.  

Transition Shot--Elf

The movie Elf has a transition shot that I think is very interesting. The camera fades in and out of different landscapes as Buddy leaves the North Pole and heads to New York City. I think that this fade of shots to different locations is interesting because it really highlights the journey that Buddy is on. As the shots transition, so does Buddy. He transitions to a new world he never knew.

The Whale Rider: Historical Response

In watching The Whale Rider, I had to keep the historical context of the film in mind. The film is centered around the life of the Maori people in New Zealand. Although the movie is contemporary, the film focuses a lot on the ancient ways of the Maori people. Koro heavily focuses on the idea of creating a chief out of one of the first born sons. He could not do so with his own child, or his grandchild. Since he could not find a chief out of the boys in the neighborhood, he thought he had failed. This exhibits how much the ancient teachings and his ancestors meant to him. In the film, the viewers are also told the story of Paikea, the chief  of the Maori tribe that rode a whale to where his people were to settle. Koro believes that Pai cannot be the chief because she is a girl. Again, this relates to the ancient belief. Overall, this film just shows how important the Maori history is to the tribes of people, even to this day.

Camera Movement

Above is a video from my favorite show, Degrassi: The Next Generation. This scene focuses on camera movement. In this scene, the camera is moving closer to the character Craig (Jake Epstein) to make the illusion that the train is getting closer to Craig, in his attempt to commit suicide. This scene was actually created with the camera being on a wheeled cart, moving closer to Epstein. This camera movement is interesting because it builds a lot of suspense in this episode. If you were to watch this episode for the first time, you would probably think that Craig is actually going to die. It creates so much more drama and adds to Craig's overall development and story line (which is VERY interesting, by the way).

Symbolism in "The Road Home"

One of the most prominent symbols in The Road Home is the loom. Zhao Di (the mom) is seen looming in the flashbacks to make a banner for the schoolhouse, and in present-day as she makes a cloth for her husband's funeral. Because the loom is old and broken in the present-day scenes, I think it symbolizes a desire to hold on to the past, and to old customs of Chinese tradition. Zhao Di used the loom in the past when she first got to meet her husband. She uses again to mourn the loss of her husband. It is something that meant a lot to her in the past, and she still wants to use it as a way to hold on to the past.

Visual Style in "The 400 Blows"

One of the scenes in The 400 Blows that had interesting visual style was the scene in which Antoine was alone in the small jail cell, and the viewers could see the rest of the jail from Antoine's point of view. This showed interesting visual style because we could see things as Antoine saw them. That gives us a way to identify with Antoine a little bit. A similar shot to this was when Antoine was in the back of the police truck. We got a view of the Parisian night life, again, from Antoine's point of view. This shows that solitary aspect of Antoine's life. He was constantly alone, and for a moment, we as viewers, get to share that solitude with Antoine.