James Cameron (Director and Writer) Blog #3

Choose a particular international film artist, director or producer.  Write an analysis of his or her contributions to cinema, including a consideration of later films or artists who have been influenced by your subject.

The creator of Avatar, was the Director that I have chosen. James Cameron was born in Canada on August 16, 1954. He changed films in many ways, making some of the most famous movies still today, including the Terminator movies and the Titanic. As a major genius, movies even coming out proceeding avatar would not be the same if it were not for James Cameron.

3D movies were not yet popular before the release of Avatar. Every movie that was in 3D was either a short film, or something that was made a joke out of. One example is my bloody valentine. This movie was a joke as many theaters didn’t even show it in 3d. It was obvious that the directors did not know what they were doing, as rotten tomatoes even gave it a 56%. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_bloody_valentine_3_d/  Every scene that was supposedly scary had to have someone coming out at the crowd with a chainsaw or something flying out to the crowd to scare them.

After the release of Avatar, many movies have been in 3D and they are supposed to be serious, even though they still never compare. Resident evil was an example. In this movie, there are many scenes where something is trying to come out at you just like in my bloody valentine, but in this movie, it was only for the special effects, not to scare anyone. Unfortunately, this director has not yet realized that an audience is not always completely stupid, as it takes away the sense of realism when someone is shooting at the screen just to make it look cool. This would explain the 25% that critics gave it http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/resident_evil_afterlife/.

Avatar had the budget that it needed, showing that it’s not the technology that isn’t there, it’s that the technology is expensive, and if they are not willing to spend the 280 million that was spent on Avatar,( http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/12/how-much-did-avatar-really-cost.html) in this day in age, the critics will look down upon it.

Even random movies are now being made in 3D. Jackass was an example. I did enjoy this movie, but I was wishing that they did not do the 3d effects. Instead of doing their normal acts that are usually really funny, they did more things like slingshotting themselves at the camera. This just looks dumb and really wasn’t as funny. In Step up, they did a lot of dance moves that were also kind of stupid, as you could tell that they were only doing it toward the screen to make it pop out at you.

Obviously films are being influenced as a result of this movie, seeing that people noticed the profit that was made from this movie. Almost every movie tries to imitate the 3D aspect. Which many fail but I am sure many movies will be made in the near future that will show a whole new potential to films. Just like we are now analyzing how color made a huge difference back when it was new technology, 3d might one day make a difference. 

Blog #2

There have been many changes in film since the 1930’s. After three decades and by the time it reached the 1960’s movies had improved in many ways by changing or adding techniques, conventions, technologies and other elements of film.

According to one website, http://www.chacha.com/question/when-did-the-first-movie-with-talking-sound-come-out, The first production that had sound was released on October 6^th 1927. Since this time, sound has obviously changed in movies. In the early 1930’s sound was not that clear, or easy to listen to for the most part. The sound was usually very full of treble, and low on the bass aspect, as this makes the sound kind of ear piercing and because of this the dialogue was often kept to a minimum. The music was often orchestral. As time progressed, movies started to be released that had a smoother sound quality, less treble, and more bass.

Color television was another huge accomplishment when it came to the technological side of things. It was invented in the mid 1950’s according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_television. It was not popular until the 1960’s, because of the expensive price, lack of materials, and broadcasting issues, such as broadcasting companies having to figure out a way to change their bandwidth, as the color TV’s used a lot more data. (About 3 times as much)

Also, in the early films, it is easy to notice some difference when it comes to film techniques. In the early 1930’s they were just realizing that you could change the camera view in from one image to the same image from a different angle. Films that were made later, closer to the 1960’s had many different techniques. It became standard to show many scenes from one angle and show the same scene from a different angle, but even more things were brought in. For instance, one thing that you see in television now days is the camera behind someone’s face when they are talking to another person. The person closest to the camera is not the point of interest, but the one looking at the camera is. This gives the viewer a better sense of the film being more realistic.

After realizing certain issues that needed to be improved, one of the conventions of film that stands out is the ability to act. As time progressed acting became a whole different job. It started very similar to plays and dramas, but later became more realistic. For instance, Citizen Kane was one of the most popular movies of all time. One of the reasons was because Orson Welles was able to have a more realistic narrative structure, as Orson Welles was able to use a style of acting that was not as common. For example, in that movie, there is a scene in the beginning where someone dies. Throughout the movie they are trying to figure out what the term “rosebud” that he said as he was dying meant. This was much more realistic than the idea of someone dying and no one really caring like in the train movie where someone dies and spins around in a circle, then it moves on to the next scene.

Even though many of the changes of film were during the mid 1900’s, there is still a lot changing today, as we are still adding ding techniques, conventions, technologies.