Baraka Film Review

Overall, watching Baraka was like no other film I have ever experienced. The non-verbal aspect to it definitely threw me off. I was so taken aback that I did not know what to think. I just watched the monkeys chilling in the hot spring. The whole movie conveyed a sense of peacefulness and inner balance that I think many of us lack in our lives. It gave insights into other cultures and different areas many of us will never get to see in real life. It captured the natural beauty of the world. It captured the natural beauty of people. Watching the movie, I experienced a mixture of boredom at some points, amazement at others, serenity, curiosity, perplexity, amusement, and awe. At no point was I left emotionless. At the time, watching the movie, I didn’t know what to think. But in retrospect, the power of this movie truly is obvious and its message of inner peace is clear.

1
This movie is titled Baraka because it evokes the feeling of taking in a deep breath and exhaling it. This has a calming effect and I think it’s analogous to the meaning the film is trying to convey. “Take a breath, breathe, calm down, and find your inner peace.” The shots transport us to areas of the world far removed from our daily lives and show us ways to live that might not be our first choice. The music adds to the feel that this movie does not only consist of an amazing slideshow, but there are certain emotions we need to be feeling associated with some of these images. Also, if you look at it from the “essence” perspective, you can see how the entire world, broken down to its essence, is one being. Different peoples are the same, different cultures are similar in many ways. All our souls are part of the same essence.

2

There are many shots in this film that show wide, aerial shots of our planet. These shots that showcase the beauty of nature lead us to become analytical in a sense of our own culture. When shots are juxtaposed to show contrast between the pristine beauty of the Wetlands of South America with the slums of Brazil, we begin to think rather critically of our own societies. We no longer have a simplistic, doleful view of our societies and to a degree, we become envious of other cultures that get to experience the beauty of nature up close and personal. This also leads to us criticize our societies socially. We often view ourselves as more developed, and thus possessing a higher standard of living. But seeing these indigenous cultures perform their rituals, we get a sense that they are more alive than we are; that they have found happiness in its essence.

3
The main message, or theme, in this movie is that if we do not change our ways, we will end up living in a dystopia much like the garbage dumps in India where the people had to scavenge for food. Although making reference to a crude movie seems tasteless, this scene reminds us of the huge garbage piles from Idiocracy. We let ourselves fall into ruin and destroyed the beauty of nature we had. This is also a critique of our habits concerning the environment. If we do not change, we will lose the environment that harbors all the locations and all the cultures we see in this film.

4
Without a voice or text, we do not attribute a culture to the story. We understand it to be a global voice, the voice of the essence of the world’s people. So the lack of voice or text, and therefore language and bias, achieves the director’s goal of making this a global film.

5

The city usually has clips that are either sped up drastically, or static. Either everything is changing too fast to appreciate the world around us, or nothing is changing, no problems are being fixed, we are sitting in our own rot. It seems that the only escape, the only way to save ourselves would be to escape back to nature, back to the pure essence of the world, become one culture again and let the freedom of the world transport us to true happiness.

6

This monk could be the lone spiritual lighthouse in a sea of busy, materialistic people. He is there to show them that there is no need for our “modern” ways to be happy. Contentment and indeed happiness for some, comes in the form of divine connections. He could also be there questioning the morality of making those workers work in cigarette factories under the conditions they work in. Those who devote themselves to a religion are often symbols for morality and the simple cutting linking the monk to the cigarette factory might question the morality involved in that situation. But the film’s main blow with this juxtaposition is that it advocates religious endeavors, or spirituality. It is argued that only through the peaceful side of religion can we find our own inner peace.

7

With the refuse heap, Baraka criticizes the viewers on our complacency. It questions how we can sit idly by and watch others scavenge for food in dumpsters alongside livestock and wild dogs. How can we continue to throw out food we do not like when others are forced to get whatever they can just to survive? The film does a great job in throwing these questions of morality into our faces, potentially provoking some to action in the process.

8

The music is very diverse, made up of mostly the indigenous music from each area. The one that stands out to me is the one from the Kecak scene. Not only is the entire audio made up of them screaming, but it also has a certain melody to it that is achieved through their “primitive” musical instruments. The auditory beauty of the scene is also accentuated by the way it ends. It ends on one lone drum beat and cuts immediately to shots of a volcano, highlighting the power of the volcano and drawing a comparison to the power of the tribe’s ritual.

9
I think we watched Baraka because we needed to se that we are not the center of the universe. We are not the pristine example that everyone should follow. Sometimes, we need to take the backseat and follow in others’ wakes if we want to achieve the utopia every society strives for. This view could have arisen if we were presented with similar images not in a movie, but not spontaneously. If we are secluded form the world, and do not contribute to its essence the same way other cultures do, then we cannot hope to be able to come to these conclusions on our own. We need the exposure to be let into the light. And with this exposure comes the desire to travel. The movie shows us all this natural beauty and it would be a shame to waste our lives contenting ourselves with slideshows and audio tracks. We need to experience these instances in nature first hand if we want to be able to “breathe.”

"Hungry Love" Critique

Basically, this film is about a guy who is desperately in need of food and resorts to going through a series of acts to try to impress a girl and win her lunch box from her. I felt that I wasn’t having much success in my other films because the drama was too hard to imbue within those films. So when we started our Amélie Unit, I saw this as an opportunity to take myself in another direction. I based my whole concept on the premise that it had to be an awkward encounter between a man and a woman where there would be romantic tension, yet the whole thing would be very comedic. I think it does stay true to the romantic comedy genre of Amélie and that it did not turn out horrible, like my other films.
Overall:
First, I’ll begin with what I was tasked with. I was pretty much the director of the film and editor in my version. As director, I had to block my actors and pretty much detail all the facial expressions, movements, subtleties, and general actions they needed to be performing. I also had to make sure lighting was correct, sound quality was good, and the shots looked decent. As the editor, I just had to pull everything together. Because this film required a different edit to be handed in for each group member, I also had to work on the score and color correction for the shots that seemed out of place.
The main problem I had was that Devan, my guy actor, would not cooperate with some of the things I wanted to have him do. I think this took away from some of the comedic qualities of the film had I been able to get certain shots. But I gave in to his reservations and just tried to keep the whole production rolling. In editing, my only problem was really the lighting. The camera’s focus was not working properly so some shots looked too washed out and I had to color correct to smooth that out.
This time around, the whole production of the film went relatively smoothly. The only problems we had were scheduling conflicts, availability, and lighting issues. With scheduling, we would have miscommunications and as such, lost valuable shooting time. Also, many of us had very tight schedules. I had practice every day of the week and Katryna was needed for the school play. Tyler had work on one of the shooting days and the whole availability issue was one of the biggest problems we faced. But I think THE biggest problem was that the lighting was off. The first time we went to go shoot, Devan was late and we lost the period of time before the sun would be changing position quickly. So, some of our shots turned out dark. The second time we went to shoot, the light was changing even quicker and we lost an entire weekend because it had begun to rain. In the end, we managed to work out the schedule by prioritizing this project over our other commitments and the lighting could be fixed in the edit.
Critical Evaluation:
Story: The story begins by setting up Devan as a guy who is suddenly really hungry. Ten he goes through a whole bunch of ways to try to impress this girl who has food, and in the end he ends up not only with her food, but with her as well. I wasn’t really trying to highlight any issue or create a theme. I just wanted to make a funny little story about a guy who would do anything for food. I tried to portray Devan as this suave guy who knows how to impress women, and Katryna as a girl who is nice and proper, but not immune to the charm of a guy. I think I kept consistent with their characters and showed a nice evolution for Katryna as someone shut off, to someone who is totally open, but while staying true to both of their characters. I think I pulled off the climax nicely through reverse dramatic irony. Katryna sees what is on the card before we do and so we are itching to find out what it was. When we finally see it, we see that there is a cute message that wins her over because in the next shot, they are walking away hand in hand. So we know that Devan succeeds and we are left with a feeling of closure.

Casting/Acting:
I think we cast the movie really well. Devan, although you would expect him to want to eat all the time because he’s a pretty big guy, also takes you off guard when his cheesy wooing techniques work. Katryna also played her part really well. Her only criterion really was that she had to be a girl, but her acting was really good too. They were both really believable and you could easily distinguish who was who. Their personalities also provided a nice contrast and helped keep the story alive.
When it comes to their acting, as I’ve said before, terrific. You really believe that this is who they are, and we form ties with them as we would with our friends, and not simply as we would with characters. We didn’t really use any makeup or worry about their wardrobe. We only cared that it remained consistent from shooting day to day. There was also no dialogue, so the acting was better because we did not have to worry about making the dialogue believable too. Both actors do maintain a consistency in the way that they stay in character and a consistency in how they characterize their character.

Music and Effects/Lighting:
The music design in this piece was very simple. Aside from a few foley sounds to provide audio cues, there was only one score that was looped to create the romantic, French accordion café music that so effectively helped create the romantic mood in the film.
With lighting, we depended on natural light, shooting just before magic hour to get that nice rich, yellow and warm feel. Unfortunately, the changing light caused several consistency errors from shot to shot, and some shots were to dark, so we had to reshoot some of them. In the end, we still had to redo a couple shots by color correcting them. I needed to spend more time to make the color correction more precise, but I did not have enough time.



Titles and Credits/Camera Operation:
The only titles I used were in the beginning and for the credits. Both times, they were unobtrusive and only communicated information that we could not get visually. This was mainly due to the generic falling leaves of autumn, and the black background in each.
The framing in each shot is also pretty good I think. Many of the shots are static because I still have some uncertainty in my abilities to create dynamic moving shots, although I did try a few times. Whenever there is a zoom though, I felt that it appropriately fits and serves to create intimacy between us and the characters. Some shots that could be improved are the ones that have some awkward framing or that could have been tighter. With the shots, I also think that I could have used more variety in them. Possibly a few reverse shots would have been a nice stylistic characterization for my film. At the point where they are walking, I would have liked a nice aerial shot, but no one would let us use their roof.

Sound/Editing:
We did not record any on location audio because we knew that it was going to be a silent film. We did record a few foley sounds with the camera, but even then it was not on location.
When it comes to editing, I think the cuts came out relatively well and the pacing is appropriate. Each shot as the appropriate duration for a certain effect and they maintain continuity throughout the film. When changing from scene to scene, I thought about ways I could make it so that it isn’t an awkward or abrupt change. This time, I did not resort to fade to blacks or dissolves. I used the score to transition from the house, to the street, to the park, all the while maintaining the walking motion to create a link. Each shot is followed in my opinion by the appropriate reaction shot, POV shot, axis match, etc… a few areas I could have improved were the guitar opening scene. I would have preferred to use a close up of Katryna and show the guitar in the next shot that way, but due to the shot being too washed out, I opted to cut to black very quickly because I had no better method. Yet I think that each scene is appropriately trimmed and that the shot order is logical and fluent. The editing is almost transparent and except for a few moments like the guitar scene, the color correction near the end, and the ending with the heart, the editing is hardly noticeable to the commoner’s eye.



Objective evaluation
Reviewing my film, completely ignoring what went into making it, I would say that the film is pretty good. The key moments designed to make you laugh all accomplish this and the story is not lost in the shots. As a viewer though, I would have preferred that Devan be shown taking out the guitar and that the lighting/color correction be fixed at the end. I was also wondering if there should have been some cue for Devan to walk up to the window. It seemed weird for him to just get up and look outside. But overall, it works and the film itself was rather enjoyable.

Treatment for Amélie genre movie.

log line: awkward young man sits on a bench next to a woman with her lunch next to her. we think that he is attracted to her but in the end he goes for the lunch.

treatment: a man is sitting on a bench (we hear his stomach growl) when an attractive woman sits down next to him, on her lunch break. romantic music is cued in.

he eyes her and she notices him. subtly, she shows him cleavage as she opens her lunch. we see his eyes double take as he tries to look away.

she looks up and catches him staring. he looks away. they awkwardly sit next to each other.

as we are looking at him, we hear her moan. his eyes dart towards her and she is sucking the chocolate off her finger as she holds a pudding cup.

his face shows pain/desire. by now we see him writhing on his bench seat. barely able to contain himself.

she stands up and he freezes. we see her walk away behind a tree slowly, hinting at him to follow her. he just stares at her as we see her leave her lunch behind.

he stands up and the screen fades to black.

fade back in. he is on a rooftop somewhere, happily eating the lady’s lunch. romantic music keep splaying on a more cheerful note.

Amelie: Stylistic Devices

The first stylistic device the Director of Amélie uses is color correction. Many of the scenes, and consequently many of the shots, have a distinct yellow feel to them. Either the room starts out as yellow (yellow walls, yellow curtains) or the characters wear yellow. In many scenes there will be that overwhelming presence of yellow. In outdoor shots such as this one, color correction becomes evident as even the yelowness of the sun is exagerated to give the whole film a unified, magical realistic feel. This feel of surrealness is intended to make us understand that although this is the real world, weird, magical tings are stil going to take place.

Furthering the director's intent on creating a surreal world, there is the blend of reality and CG graphics. The personification and physical manifestation of Amélie's imagination serves as our bridge to magical realism. We undestand that anything can happen in this film and that weirder,, yet comedic things will also take place, furthering our interest in the movie, beconing us to continue to watch.


Another way the director destroys our reality is by breaking the 4th wall. Several times throughout the film, characters will break out of the story and adress the audience directly. Here it is the comatose neighbor who wakes up for a second to confirm Amélie's suspicions on why she is asleep. Also, by waking up, we are pulled into Amélie's psyche as she thinks it is possible for the neighbor to just wake up and fall right back asleep. This possiblity of the impossible happening continues to reinforce the idea that this is a magical realism film. Every stylistic element in this scene is meant to enhance the magical feel to the story. The curtains are even yellow in the background, as is the headrest.

One way the director adds humor to the story is by exploiting Amélie's quirks. First, he gives her some oddness about her like collecting stones, or wondering bizarre things (how many people are having an orgasm at that moment). Then he proceeds to show us couples having orgasms. The uncomfortableness of watching characters have orgasms is enough to draw a chuckle or an embarassed and uneasy smile, but then he takes us back to a close up of Amélie as she tells us the exact number of people having an orgasm at that moment. I feel that the director is intentionally trying to break the conventions of film making by introducing "inappropriate" material and resenting it in a comic light. He uses comedy as a form of filmic satire.

Treatment: Life's Playground

A harmonica plays in the background as we get a view of a neighborhood street with a park a few steps away. A narrator comments that “not all summer afternoons are filled with fun and freedom. Take it from me, I know from experience.” A kid is being picked on by 3 guys. Jared walks along the street and sees them.

Flashback to a scene where a little kid who looks like Jared is also being picked on in the same park. They are taunting him the same way that the older guys are taunting the kid Jared sees.
We return to the present and Jared starts walking over to the scene. The guys look up at him and the one who appears to be in charge comes forward, asking him what he wants.

Before the guy can finish his sentence, Jared takes a swing at him and knocks him to the ground. He looks briefly at him and then walks on to the next guy. He takes him out as well. He walks on to the last guy who’s holding the kid by the collar.

Jared grabs the guy’s wrist and wrenches his grip loose, punching him in the stomach. The guy collapses. He takes up the lead bully again and punches him in the face, sending him flying.

Flashback cuts in as the guy is flying to Jared-kid flying backwards. The bully is picking on a younger Jared. Time mixes and Jared is preying on his younger self. He realizes that something is amiss, but he continues to act out his role and pick on his younger self.

His younger self cries out “why won’t you leave me alone?” time flashes back to the past and a bully is standing where Jared was standing before. The bully advances on Jared-kid.

Time flashes back to the present and Jared crouches over the bully and places one hand on his throat and raises the other hand in a fist. The bully is struggling to breath.

We get an intense look of Jared’s eyes as he struggles with himself and we are taken back into a flashback.

The bullies are pinning Jared down and one of them is about to drool onto his face. He is trying desperately to free himself but he is unsuccessful.

Rapid cuts between past and present: the drool falling onto his face and Jared-older punching in the bullies face.

The screen is black and we hear the narrator’s voice along with the harmonica playing in the background. “Sometimes you have absolutely no control of those summer afternoons.”

The Jared is revealed sweeping the streets with a cop standing by, watching him. Jared is wearing handcuffs. There is a student reporter walking next to him with a pen and open notepad.

The voice comes back: “Actually, you always have control.” It becomes apparent that it is Jared’s voice. He speaks as he is sweeping the street. “Your choices affect what you do tomorrow. You got to think before you act, you know what I mean? The guy didn’t die nor nothing, but like, that didn’t matter to the judge you know? He said this wasn’t a game. Lemme tell you, when you’ve got three years of this ahead of you, you realize how easy it woulda been to not hit that guy.”

The screen fades to black with the sounds of the street still audible. The credits fade in and out. “It woulda been really easy, now that I think about it…”

-Fade-

The Dramatic Moment

I would have to say that in my short film, my character would be a high school guy, possibly a pretty big guy. I want him to be a guy because when i portray his confusion, I want it to almost have the feel of him having an anger management problem, but not quite. And i feel like if it would be a woman playing the part, it would be distasteful to the audience and would be a turn off.

My character is confused and conflicted. He wants an answer or some form of guidance but there is no one to help him, so he has to turn to himself and rely on his own judgment to make the right choice.

Should he choose to punch the bully's face in, he would ultimately corrupt his character and forever taint what he was doing through moral convictions. But on the flip side, if he refrains from giving in to the temptation, he rises above the challenge and crystalizes his morality and yet at the same time, breaks the cycle of violence he became entangled in.

When it comes to the dramatic moment itself, we have our main character, come upon a scene of bullying. He remembers how he was bullied and decides to continue to strive for vengence. But in this scene, he stumbles on another act of bullying, and this time, it's too much for him. He is about to deal a blow that will kill the bully and he is faced with the moral dilemma of either doing it or not. The dramatic moment should focus on his confliction. I think that I might want to introduce a parental figure that could have passed away, appear to him in his mind and discourage him from corrupting himself further.

I am debating whether or not to make this a tragic plot or not. If it ould be, I would like to include some allusion to the bible, how Jesus took upon himself the sins of humanity and was crucified to cleanse humanity. If not, I would like to allude to Lazarus's rise from the dead, as in our character's redemption.

Some things to consider... I'll be sure to post my approved treatment when I get it done.

Plots that Kill

A plot line I would like to take the time to look at is the Moral Plot.

This plot line is used by the movie Chinatown. In Chinatown, there is a morality tale that is being played out concerning corruption and its fluctuating presence in society. This film noir implements this plot line to conform to its genre conventions of social criticism. It also places emphasis on the main character's moral dilemma, not only being a PI, but having a bad reputation as a PI without the power of the police to stop evil.

When it comes to a story of my own, I was thinking about using a story that follows the tale of the cycle of violence and how to break it. A kid is picked on during his childhood and as soon as he becomes stronger during high-school, he decides to turn his new strength on the bullies, helping out other kids who are picked on, yet going overboard and almost killing them. This story will deal with the theme of the cycle of violence and I don't know if it will be a unique take on the plot, but it should be interesting. I'm going to try to focus profoundly on his inner turmoil and I haven’t decided yet whether or not to try to connect it to society as a whole, depending on how much time I have.

I definitely envision a high schooler, probably a big guy acting, with a little skinny kid acting as his younger self. I see the character as male because seeing a woman in this role will probably be a turnoff, seeing as violent women are generally discomforting to watch, especially if it looks like they have an anger problem.

I'd say my character is definitely dealing with trying to find a balance in his life. All in one moment, he is conflicted with taking the path of vengeance or the higher road. I want to try to capitalize on that emotion.

I still haven’t decided yet whether he will come out virtuous or not, but if he does, it will be saying that the cycle of violence can be broken and that people can learn to live with one another.

For now, the details of my plot are a little sketchy, but I do want to make my plot unique in some way that will have a twist at the end, and leave the audience with a feeling of emotional closeness, being saddened by my film's end.