Italian Neorealism

Ideological and thematic goals

They wanted to focus on the society as a whole, not the individual. Their emphasis was on solidarity and companionship and fraternity. These films were heavily anti-fascist and focused on the hardships of a post war Italy. They did not depict the high life or create glamorous stories. These we stories about the run of the mill Italian who was struggling to survive in increased poverty and unemployment. They tried to depict the harsh reality of life after WWII that many Italians were living. They all tried to show a criticism of the status quo and make people aware of what needs changing.

Unquestionably, their greatest single influence was the anti-Fascism that marked World War II's immediate postwar period

a focus on collectivity rather than the individual. Solidarity is important, along with an implicit criticism of the status quo

Historical context

It is post world war two and Italy is ravaged and destruction is everywhere. Allying themselves with the Nazis proved to their detriment and as such, they suffered penalties. Joblessness was everywhere. People who had jobs making weapons found themselves out of a job. The shift from agriculture to industry in order to support the war caused great scarcity in food and led to the starving of many Italians. Those who were not going hungry were poor. As for the industry, as soon as Mussolini fell, a great number of films came out, speaking out against fascism and criticizing the status quo. So in a way, world war two helped spark the neo-realist movement in Italy.

Cinematic techniques

The Italian neo-realism movement was also characterized by its cinematic techniques. The films from this era are usually made with a freehand, semi-documentary style. These films were only semi-documentary style because although they would do one continuous take, they would stage their actors, tweak the lighting, do takes over if there was a mistake. The directors would go outside on the streets and film the regular lives of the people. They would have largely unprofessional actors. These actors were not the typical Hollywood stars, but people from the street. Also, because they would try to film the lives of people, yet be as real as possible, most of the filming was done in well lit locations because the cameras of the day could not work well in low light, and they tried to stay away as much as possible from artificially lighting the scene.

Key contributors

One of the key contributors was Luchino Visconti. His La Terra Trema was a lot more documentary style than most of the other neorealist films of the time. He also directed Bellissima, a film about the struggle of a modest Roman Family. Roberto Rossellini also contributed several films such as Roma: Citta aperta, Paisa, and Germania anno zero. Victorio De Sica brought to the collection films such as Sciuscia, and Ladri de Biciclette. His masterpiece, Umberto D., is heralded as the best film that came out of this movement. But more on that later.

Key films

La Terra Trema: This film, set in Sicily, is about a family that uses its entire life savings to buy a fishing boat so that they can survive on that fishing. This movie uses very little audio and focuses on the stark and depressing reality of this family losing its only means of survival.

Ladri de Biciclette: This film focuses on the struggle of a father trying to provide for his family. His bicycle, his source of income, is stolen and in desperation he is forced to steal a bike of his own. This film tries less to focus on the documentary style of the movement, and uses a more staged approach to portray how one moral conflict leads to another as soon as its resolved. This is characterized by some as the one true communist film of the era for its emphasis on solidarity on the community rather than the individual.

Umberto D.: This film was shot entirely in the studio. There is no real plot in this movie. It simply describes the toil of late-life poverty. The main character is a pensioner and is played by a professor. The cast is almost entirely nonprofessional, especially the main character. This story diverges slightly from the neo-realist emphasis on solidarity by focus partially on Umberto’s personal struggle to maintain his independence and identity. But it also stays true to the principles by showing that he is not alone in this struggle. The film also shows many other pensioners in the same struggle. It is ultimately the most depictive out of all the Italian neo-realist films of the simply complex lives of the masses because not only does it focus on the struggles of the community, but also provides a concrete example in the form of Umberto, and in turn uses Umberto reciprocally as a smaller version of the greater struggle.

The Cabbie: Analysis

So from this film festival that vimeo is hosting, Beyond the Still, I found another one of Laforet's movies. The Cabbie. Decidedly better produced than its sequel, Wrong Place, Wrong Time, I took some time here to analyze three shots in the movie to discuss characterization, conflict, and resolution.

Characterization: in this shot, several things can be said about this man. He is a cab driver, his clothes and the time of day he is stuck working suggest he is poor. Him cleaning off the bear shows his intention to take it somewhere, home possibly. And if we assume he's taking it home, we assume he has a young daughter. So pretty much, with this one shot, we learn about his socio-economic and familial background. And again, I imagine there isn't too much light so the camera's lowlight capabilities come in handy here.

Climax: The key in the foreground here is classic. And the rack focus brings importance to it and lets us know that this is the climax. In this shot, we're thinking about how the girl is in awe at finding this cool treasure in her teddt bear. We're wondering what the key could be for? Why was it in a stuffed bear? Our immediate suspicions bring us to the conclusion that its for something important, something way bigger than a cabbie and his daughter. Then we flash back to the initial shot. It was dropped at the airport, a place big business leaders and spies and mafia members use a lot. Our suspicions are confirmed immediately with the next shot, but this still serves as the climax to the story.

Resolution: The last shot in the scene is the resolution. Here we are revealed a chest and are led to assume that the key the girl just found opens this chest. Something is moving inside it and we can hear grunts, human grunts. The camera slowly dollies away and we are revealed the location on the chest, an abandoned warehouse somewhere. Our minds go crazy with thoughts, all characteristic of this type of cliffhanger. Who, or what, is in there? Will the key find its way there to save whatevers in the chest? If so, how? Is the cabbie going to have a role in all of this? What organization or criminal did this? Is this even a crime? Who are we dealing with here?

And there you have it, just a quick look at Laforet's film, The Cabbie.

Reverie and DSLR cameras

Hey guys, this time around I'll be looking at a short film by Vincent Laforet, Reverie.
He made this film using an attachment to his hi-def, 1080p Cannon still camera.
This new technique uses the camera's ability to shoot in low light and to create selective focus, combined with the HD capabilities of the camera. But to shoot video, he used an attachment to convert all the stills to video. Here's some of his shots:

This shot is interesting. It outlines very clearly the selective focus being used in the shot. The focus here is on the reflection of the flowers in the galss. This shot is very diffcult to capture, made possible by the camera's low f-stop. To obtain a relfection, the flowers had to be lighted, but couldn't be lighted from inside the car because then the photographer would show up in the shot. So he used the faint light that was coming from outside to light the flowers and he probably wore a black shirt. But the thing is, the camera was able to pick up on this low light and give a nice clean cut picture.

Again, great use of low light in this one. A bridge is a place where you ar enot likely to find a lot of light. And because of the position of the camera, the headlights of other cars should be creating silhouettes of everything, yet the camera still captures everything in crisp detail. I also think the fisheye lens serves to accentuate the lighting done. The lighting, minimal, is brought together from different parts of the screen with the fisheye lens and we get a feel for the overall lighting used, and the ability of this camera to pick up on it. Very good.

Laforet stays true to what he is know for here, his picturesque aerial landscapes. But he also implements the use of the cameras ability to shoot in low light. Up in a helicopter, away from the city, your not going to get a lot of light, so the use of this camera's supe rlow f-stop is a good choice. But also, if you notice the city in the background, you can see that it's blurry, drawing our attention to the man's face. Just another way Laforet uses selective focus in his shots to make the image a stunning one.

Well thats all for now. Maybe another post about how photographers are turning to video, but still using their same camera lenses, in the near future. Depending on my teacher's mood.

Editing Concept Demos, review

Match Action Cutting:

1) I would have to say that we almost don’t have anything besides match action cutting in this one. I made the moves nice and flowing. The development of the story, I didn’t worry about too much since it’s only a demo. But I think my production value went down because of that and I made careless mistakes in continuity and coverage. I would definitely have made sure Devan’s sister was not in the shot or that you couldn’t see my reflection in the mirror.

2) My camera work was abysmal. Every shot was shaky. Nothing was planned out. I just winged the whole thing. I really had a problem with continuity, mostly because Devan would always move every time I would stop recording. With one camera, it’s hard to achieve the same blocking. My most creative shot though was when the camera was on the table while Devan was pouring the coffee. I liked that one.

3) My concept is entirely edit based. So naturally I had to cut the shots in a way that showed seamless flow from one shot to the next. Like in every film I make, I have trouble finding appropriate audio. I have trouble recording my voice, and I have trouble finding a score. But I guess it worked out okay-ish.

Parallel action:

1) The story of this demo is terrible. It was put together piecemeal and hurriedly. We were originally planning to have a scavenger hunt competition in a supermarket where they come together and fight over the last item on the list. The on-site manager said it was okay, but his boss said it wasn’t. so we ended up having to put something together rlike this.

2) I feel like the camera work was a little better in this one. Not so much shaking. The shots weren’t super creative or anything. But my favorite shot was the ELS of Devan walking down the hallway. I also liked how I went along the z-axis when he was peeing.

3) The edit was terrible. I did not have enough coverage for the initial scene where I’m browsing through his facebook account. My acting was terrible and had to find a way to clear up the audio of when I’m speaking. I have yet to master the way to record voices separately and string them together to make it sound like a conversation. But again, parallel action is a concept all done in the edit. I had to intercut the two storylines to make it seem like it was happening at the same time. I hope I successfully achieved that effect.

Blog review: Solitude Trailer

The assignment here was to take 3 screenshots from the trailer and discuss the production value of the piece.

1) Intro

I chose this picture because it was the first concrete indicative that something is wrong. aside form the skid marks in the first scene, this passing shot of the deserted car shows that something is not right. the doors are left open, meaning the occupants of the vehicle probably left in a hurry. placing it along the road, next to a plane of what looks like wheat, with the wire fence and wooden door, we immediately begin to undertsand that this is going to be a horror movie. although it is blurry from the movement of the car, we clearly notice that it is deserted. If anyone noticed, there is a slight continuity error. in the previous shot, the car has already passed and the girl is looking behind, not sideways. So it's as if the car passes by, and then rewinds and passes by again. But mainly this shot is meant to setup the rest of the trailer, piquing our curiosity and laying the groudnworks for the fear that is to come. Since this is a horror movie trailer, we are expecting fearful things to happen. This slight view of something being amiss and our minds begin to wander and we think ourselves into fear and the paranoia, making the following shots all the more effective in getting our adrenaline to rush.

2) Climax

This is the part in the trailer where we know for sure that there is no one in town, they are completely deserted, and are being preyed on by something, or someone. Here, the girl is being chased by some unknown and terryifying thing. By staging this shot so that she is running away from the camera from something that is outside of the shot, we are not revealed the identity of the assailant. This is reinforced by maintaining a constantly tight shot of the woman, making her fear personal as well as further conceiling the attacker. But also, as she is running, the camera gets closer to her and comes in tighter, giving the impression that the camera has to move in quicker than she can run just to keep up with conceiling the assailant, giving us the impression that he is getting closer. The handheld camera work also helps to highten the terror of the shot, transfering the feelings of running away (or towards) someone. Because the shot is not steady, but rough, this creates a feeling of unease in the viewers and stresses them out. This stress, mixed with the sounds of fear from the woman, the heavy breething that can be hear, and the loud footsteps, is confused in the brain for fear, letting the adrenaline rush and the trailer achieve its desired effect.

3) Final Shot

This is the last shot seen in the trailer. It is a very powerful shot because at first we only seen the woman crying. We automatically think that it's only because she is losing her friends and is scared and overwhelmed. Then the shot reveals to us her friend taped to the wall, mouth covered, and before we have the time to full formulate the thought of wanting to warn her that she's next, the screen goes black and she screams. They got to her. The lighting in this shot is done in a way that isnt to overpowering. Contrary to what other directors might have done, the director of this trailer chose to not use harsh lights on the guy in the background that would turn on as the shot revealed him. The lighting was kept dim, not overbearing and it did not turn on brighter as the shot revealed the guy. All our attention is focused on trying to make out the guy and we hardly have time for our eyes to go back to the woman as she screams. The screen goes black and we are left with nothing. Just the looming sense that we get after and adrenaline rush. This feeling of curiosity mixed with relief is what makes this trailer so effective. It will appeal to the need for this rush and relief that viewers are looking for. Veteran horror moviegoers are likely to be drawn in by this promise of fear and newbies to the curiosity of what happens to the woman.

But overall, a solid production value, very enticing, and extremely well made. Makes me want to see it, although it was never made into a full length movie.