Thursday, December 18, 2008

The Sweetest Sound

I enjoyed this piece a great deal. I liked how creative he was in making his point about a name. He used all sorts of visuals and audio cues to play with his audience. I liked his narrations as well. They were relaxed and fun to listen too. I think I got a little lost with the whole idea of the film, was it that he liked his name or that he thought it funny that a name is how we represent everything about us. I don’t know I think I would have to watch it again.

I don’t know that a film like this serves much of a purpose rather than to just entertain. That’s okay. I think I would really like to see a film that he makes perhaps about a serious issue in the world. I think that that film would be incredible but this works for me.

I liked how he used random bits of archival footage he had and even explains he doesn’t know what the story for most of the footage is. I guess I just liked his unconventional methods of storytelling. Just how he uses his visuals to capture our attention and make us think. I think is Dad is great too.

Man with a Movie Camera

This was one of the most amazing films I have ever seen. Brilliant shots of just ordinary things and people doing their ordinary activities. I love how random all the shots sort of feel yet they are all connected together to show the people and the city. The Kino eye idea really worked for me. Vertov deserves his title as a father of documentary
I will have to admit I got a little lost in the middle of the film; I wasn’t exactly sure what the film was about. I really enjoyed the stop animation and the various different techniques used to tell a story. Also I really liked the scene of the man with a movie camera recoding a couple in a car. The cameraman is captured in the reality of the story. I really just like documenting random thins so this film spoke to me a great deal. I wonder what it would have been like had Vertov been able to record it with sound. It would be interesting.

An Inconvenient Truth

I was actually pretty disappointed with this film. I don’t even know if you can really call it a film more like a glorified PowerPoint presentation. I love the environment and was really excited to see this film, especially with the hype it had received when it was first released. I felt it was very manipulative, almost propaganda like. There are other sides and ideas about global warming that Al Gore simply ignores. Ultimately I felt this piece was made to glorify Al gore and his position as an environmentalist.
I felt the shots of Al in the car, on his laptop, waiting for a plane were not needed and made me like him less. I actually had a hard time staying awake watching this film. I did like in his presentation when he used the lift to demonstrate his point about global warming. I thought that was an engaging fun way to get the audience paying attention. I guess I just feel the environment is really important and I did not feel this movie inspired me to help save the earth rather it made me realize that Al Gore is involved in giving presentations about global warming. Some of the facts he used I would really like to see the Parameters to as well. I think if I were to make a similar film I would include more visuals of the problem and less of me presenting. Also I did not feel like the film gave enough information on what I can do to heal the world.

Supersize me

I enjoyed a great deal all of the visuals of this film. I love the quick paced nature of this film and how early on it sets out on a journey so you know exactly what the goal of the film is. I think this guy is pretty crazy for all that he did. It brings up an interesting ethical issue of how far should you go to get footage. The main guy basically put his life on the line to tell this story and kind of in a needless fashion. I will admit however, the film would not have received as much publicity and attention if he had not risked so much. I guess it is true that film is more compelling to watch when the stakes are higher.
There were a few moments in the film were I thought it was repeating itself. I guess you can only say that fast food is bad in so many different ways before the message is over the top. I feel this film was fairly manipulative. It did not give much room for fast food chains that have healthier products, and really was aimed at showing how terrible fast food on a normal basis can be.
This film got my wife thinking too. I think she was pretty disgusted, not with what the food can do to your body but what it has done for our society in general. She is enacting stronger eating out rules as a result. I found this film to be useful in its activism. It might have been nice to have included a little more about inactivity being a problem along with the fast food. Fun stuff.

Okay it's just about the end of the Semester and I have procrastinated just about as long as I possibly could have. I have four posts of reviews of films I have seen this semester to put up. I had a hard time choosing which films to write about because i just love documentaries a big bunch. Enjoy and let me know what yo think of the films I reviewed and if you agree or disagree. Thanks!

Monday, September 8, 2008

First post to this blog created for my TMA 273 class. it should be a whole lot of fun. I look forward to watching and writing about my reactions to some great looking documentaries. Oh Happy Happy Day!!