The Book Of Eli

The Book of Eli is a film about; In a violent post-apocalyptic society, a drifter, Eli, has been wandering westward across North America for the last thirty years. He finds solace in a unique book which he carries on his person and guards closely, whilst surviving by hunting small animals and seeking goods in destroyed houses and vehicles to trade in villages for water and supplies. When he reaches a village ruled by the powerful mobster, Carnegie, the man views Eli's impressive fighting skills and offers Eli a place within his gang. Carnegie presses his blind lover Claudia to send her daughter, Solara, to at least convince Eli to spend the night by sleeping with him. However, Eli proves to be the better man when he gently declines her advances. The girl sees Eli's book, and when Carnegie finds out he beats her mother until she reveals what she saw. Carnegie sends his gang into the wasteland to take the book from Eli, but the man proves to be a formidable foe as he makes it more than clear that if they want the book...

This video above is a video form behind the scenes at the creation of the Book of Eli. This shows the cameras they are using, and how these scenes are built up. 

Production

Here are some shots of us in production:

 These are our two main characters.

Enduring Love

Our open sequence was very similar to a film called enduring love. Enduring love is all about: A beautiful cloudless day a young couple celebrate their reunion with a picnic. Joe has planned a postcard-perfect afternoon in the English countryside with his partner, Claire. But as Joe and Claire prepare to open a bottle of champagne, their idyll comes to an abrupt end. A hot air balloon drifts into the field, obviously in trouble. The pilot catches his leg in the anchor rope, while the only passenger, a boy, is too scared to jump down. Joe and three other men rush to secure the basket. Just as they secure the balloon, the wind rushes into the field, and at once the rescuers are airborne. Joe manages to drop to the ground, as do most of his companions, but one man is lifted skywards. As Joe, Claire and the other rescuers watch this strangely beautiful sight, they see the man fall to his death. Recalling the day's events at dinner with his friends Robin and Rachel, Joe reveals the impact the accident has had on his battered psyche.

The way in which we tried to relate ours to this was, in the opening sequences of Enduring Love there is a young couple sat in a very open field with lots of space around them, this is to make the audience slightly wary of what is about to happen. However, this is when our open sequence starts to change; we go down the line of a slightly weird lover who, is thought to be still in love with his ex-girl friend, and this become more obvious when you watch our opening sequence. 

Production

We have now finished film, our last session was on Friday when we managed to complete all the final scenes, and get some really good shots.

 

This is a quick snapshot, of a key shot within our opening sequences, this shot is taken on the bridge in Blenheim, and it represents the relationship between our to characters, and how close our two characters are, because of how much space they have around them, this was done to make the audience feel edgy.

Production

Today, we are doing are last bit of film, other film production days have not worked out how we wanted them too, due to the weather and other things. However, today should be our final day, in which we need to take several long shots of our characters, and then get some good shots of the characters in conntact with the car, in which we will get a few good shots of the body.

The American

The American is a film about Jack (George Clooney) who is an assassin. When a job in Sweden ends more harshly than expected for this American abroad, he vows to his contact Pavel that his next assignment will be his last. Jack reports to the Italian countryside, where he holes up in a small town and relishes being away from death for a spell. The assignment, as specified by a Belgian woman, Mathilde, is in the offing as a weapon is constructed. Surprising himself, Jack seeks out the friendship of local priest Father Benedetto and pursues romance with local woman Clara. But by stepping out of the shadows, Jack may be tempting fate.

My opinion of this film is that it was a very poor film, and not only does it take ages to get in to the film, when its starts getting to the main story line, even then its not a brilliant film. I think the reason for me not liking this film was because there was not much talking between characters, and there was only one main character, this means they were always focusing on him, and because he was very alone in the beginning, they continuously showed close ups to try and convey the story using Jacks emotions. I think what the director (Anton Corbijn) of the film was trying to do is make the audience feel on edge all the time, however it didn't really work, it just made it seem a very dry film. The editing from scene to scene was also very slow which didn't help build up any tension, and there was not enough action.


When I went to have a look what others thought of this film, most of the responces were "Mind numbingly dull film with a cliched ending".  


If you wish to watch the trailer of the film, you can watch it on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ywmoXZwkA0

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

I have recently watched a film call Wall Street: Money Never Sleep. This is all about as the global economy teeters on the brink of disaster, a young Wall Street trader partners with disgraced former Wall Street corporate raider Gordon Gekko on a two-tiered mission: To alert the financial community to the coming doom, and to find out who was responsible for the death of the young trader's mentor. This film stars actors such as Micheal Douglas and Shia LaBeouf, two very well known actors across the filming industry.

I really enjoyed the film, however i didnt really feel that there was enough up and downs in the film, and they could have made it so much more dramatic. The main thing that really annoyed me is that you could understand the story line, and what was about to happen by them soundtracks that was being played. I also didn't feel that their use of camera shots could have been better, and they didnt use many close shots on the actors to show how they were feeling. The film was also a very dark film, what I mean by this is that most of the scenes were located in a dark environment, I think this was to make the audience worry more, and put them on edge.