Restrepo

The film is about American trrops spending a 15 month depliment of one of the most dangours places in the world, Korangal Valley. It follows the story of the troop, and what they were doing out there. There were interviews of them now and talking about what happend to them and how they are effected, also linking it with the footage from the time in the Korangal Valley made the film more real and you could be there with them.

As a spectator I thought the film was really good and it was completly real. I thought it gave us the spectatour an inside look to what it is like to fight out there that we shall never experince in our lives. I thought it was a way of showing us what it must be like to be out there in that kid of enviroment.

8 Boys and Wanting a Girl - Channel 4 Documentary

When deciding what documentary I should write about I went onto channel 4 documentaries on 4OD and had a look through. After reading a few of them I found one that sounded very interesting, it was called 8 Boys and Wanting a Girl. It looked really interesting and coming from a big family I thought I might be able to relate to it. The documentary looked at women who have a psychological condition called "Gender Disappointment" were woman desire a particulate gender and don't feel complete without having a child with the desired sex.

The documentary followed 4 woman, 1 from America and 3 from England. Each all had boys. 3 Woman having 4 boys and the other woman having 8. All the woman were tiring to have a girl, and tried through different methods. Mainly using a method call GD were woman can choose what sex they want their baby to have in a method similar to IVF. 2 woman in the programe tried to have a daughter this way with one of the woman having tried for the 3rd time each costing over $10,00 the other tiring for the 2nd time. Another woman tried to have a 5th child hoping for a daughter naturally and the last woman hoped she hadn't hit menopause before she thought it was to late.

It was an eye opener to see woman try to have a preferred baby, I always thought woman were happy with what they had and if they didn't get it they would just be thankful. But the documentary amazing to watch to see how desperate woman were to have the daughter. Having 2 brothers and 2 sister I don't have the feeling that if I had children did I want a girl or a boy and watching the documentary made me realize that I don't really care what child gender I have.

I also think the documentary was very bias. It only showed these 4 woman and how desperate they were to want a girl. I think that it would make any spectator watching it believe that all woman hold this view about girl. What backed up this argument was seeing the husband to a woman about he didn't understand what it was about his wife the made her want to have a daughter so badly. I think what would've made the documentary more dramatic would've been a woman who had 4 daughter but wanted a son. This would've had a really good back up on the view the documentary was trying to get across.

Man On Wire (2008)

This docemntry film was very good. I really enjoyed the story behind Phillppe Pettie and why he did it. I think it was really good for it showed a mans story on how he wanted to achive his dream. I think the film could've been better and had more mention about 9/11. But I think over all it showed how brave he was and how nothing was going to stop him from doing it.

My Idea for the Creative Project

My creative project is a story about a girl who is sick and tired of being told what to do. It is a mini film instead of an intro to a film. It stars off with her waking by her mum and being told what to do, then showing her in her normal day routines. It then shows them in a really quickly and how she does the same thing every day. Then she has an epiphany and than realises there is more to life than following a routine. I know the idea sounds cheesy and like every chick flick there is, but I think the idea I have to make it different shall make it seem less cheesy and more drama. I want to film it and if I have the time I will, but I shall definitely make a screen play. I think there are quite a lot of films that have influenced; the one thing I am thinking for shot of the main character is from the film “Elephant”. The film is mainly just having a tracking shot of a close up of the characters were you can see all the emotions of the charters. This was the idea I had when showing the everyday routines she goes through. Another film which has also given me some inspiration is “Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging.” I saw this film when I was 13 but it was on the television the other day. There is this scene in the film where the main character Georgia, and she wants to change parts of her life after she gets let down by some. Ever since then the idea has been stuck in my head to a short film about someone changing their life.

Persepolis 2007

Persepolis follows the story of a young girl living in Iran right in the middle of the Iranian Revoloution. The film is based on the Graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi. The film is also in the same style as the book, almost like a cartoon which anyone could easily follow. The film's cinematogrpahy is amazing and very clear cut. It has some really good camera angles you couldn't get if it was a live action film. Also, the film is very close in animation to that of the book. The music in the film is very good. It ties in perfectly with the scenes and also there is a hint of punk every now and then to show Marjane love for the western style of music. The Charters in the film are very closley looked at. The main charcters being Marjane her mother and father, the Grandmother and her uncle. She is the centere of the film and these charcters revole around her and keep coming into parts of her life.

I really liked the film and thought what made the film good was being a cartoon. I think if it was istead a lilve actino film they couldn't do nearly as many amazing cinematography shots.

Gomorrah 2008

Gomorrah is set in Italy and looks at the modern day mafia in a Napels sub urb where the drug crime is high along with robbery. There is a common theme in this town, there is a dommio effect of people killing, such as you kill my brother I shall kill you and than if you have killed my son I'm going to get you, than you if kil my friend I'm going to get you and than if you kill my sister I'm going to get you. A never ending line of deaths from people that see's no end. If your part of the people who are the boss of the town then your kind of safe. But I think the main rule of the place is Don't Trust Anyone. Over and over again you see bad things happen to people and getting killed for they have truseted someone. The little boy was friends with a woman who has "dubbed" someone in, so with his connection with her they were able to get her for she put her trust in him to come out of his house. Another example of trust is the town is the two guys who try and make a break into the top dogs of crime. They try and pull a couple of jobs and take the guns from the top dogs in the town in Napels. In the end they get asked to kill this man but end up getting themselves killed instead.

The films cinematogrpahy was amazing. I really liked the camera angles there was and thought that some scenes where really played out well. An example of the scene when the charter is seeing if he can get the money for protection. And when everyone is shot he comes out and walks past all the people who had died. For me this secne was very moving for it really highlitghted how many deaths there really were.

Overall I didn't really like the film but the cinematography was good.

:)

Has Frank Darabont lost his technique in making Stephen King Films over time?

From the reserach I have done about Stephen King books and Frank Darabont, I have started to come to an answer about my question. At first I satered off with "How has his technique changed" But after researching more about "The Mist" (His latest Stephen King film) I soon start to learn that he wasn't losing his techinquie in making films but instead that it was more the produection companies behind the films who were forcing him to change.

When "The Shawshank Redemption" came out, it had a lot of reviews about the brilliance of the film, but wasn't going down to well in box office sales. Only over time has the film really become a favoirte amoung alot of people. Rated number one on alot of film webistes, "The Shawshank Remption" has come along way. But when you come back to the present time and find out that Darabont has made a new hit "The Mist" Immedialty film fans are excited, a new fresh idea of Darabont and King together agine, the perfect combination. And with every film reveiw from film blogs and review in newspapers it sounded like he had hit the jackpot again. But when you move away from the branded hype of "The Times" Or "Imdb" and move onto the fans, you find out that the film wasn't such a great success.

It usess modern technquies and speacial effects. With monster tenticals coming out and grabbing at anyone, and huge bugs flying around, the effects have grown up quite alot from "Shawnshank". The biggest hype of the film was "The Twist at the end" and everyone raved about how good it was...apart from the fan blogs. I have seen the film, and I have got to say I was diappointed in the ending and the rest of the film. The film has a good idea, that it fouces on putting people in a situation and are all boiled up together and see what happens next, but to me the film didn't have much of a story line but more who can shout the loudst and have the most serious face wide angled shots.