Short Term 12

Short Term 12

1. A young girl named Jayden is welcomed to the Short Term 12 facility about 15 minutes into the film. She is clearly unhappy that she is there and isn't comfortable around any of the other kids yet. Grace tries to make her feel less alone by drawing with her in her new room. A long shot shows the two girls, facing each other on opposite sides of a bed. The girls are juxtaposed, emphasizing their different states of mind. Grace is supposed to be in control and the "rock" to the children, while Jayden is thought to be very at-risk and internally suffering. However, they are participating in one common activity: drawing. This could be foreshadowing the similarity of their situations at home. This is also only scene of its kind, showing that Grace really connects to Jayden on a different level than the other kids. 

Another great use of the camera was in the scene when Grace had to get Luis out of bed. Since Luis was refusing to wake up, Grace playfully uses a water gun to motivate the boy. In the scene, Grace is clearly the dominant character, as the directer uses a high angle, showing her looking down on Luis. This is not meant to make Grace look menacing, or too powerful, but rather enforce her dominant motherly role. Luis responds by looking up at Grace from his bed, showing that he is not the character in charge, much like a child is not in charge of his parent. 

2. A scene that I thought could have benefited from better camera work was Marcus' rap scene. The lyrics of the rap are very powerful, but I thought the camera work was lacking. Unlike when Jayden read her octopus story to Grace, the camera only focuses on Marcus and not Mason's reaction, like it did with Grace. The whole rap is filmed with one shot, focusing on Marcus' profile and a blurry Mason in the background. I think that Mason's reaction should have been filmed since he was there in the room experiencing the same moment the audience was. Had we seen Mason, viewers might have a better sense of how to feel about the rap. Even just a quick shot of Mason's sad face would have been beneficial to this scene.

3. Throughout this film, the director uses handheld camera techniques, giving the movie a shaky feel. While some movies, like The Hunger Games, really overdo the shaky effect, making them almost difficult to watch, I think that Short Term 12 used it perfectly. The overall tone of this movie is dark. It's a drama about underprivileged and at-risk children. Because of this, the hand-held camera made the film feel authentic and real. I think that a film regarding such a serious topic should be less "Hollywood" and polished, as we discussed in class. This camera technique made me feel as if I was standing right there in the room with these kids as they were going through their hard times. It made the emotional scenes all the more captivating.

4. While the plot of the movie The Hurt Locker is completely different from that of Short Term 12, both films use the steady-cam/handheld camera technique very nicely. Both movies have to do with very serious and dramatic topics. By using this camera technique, viewers are really put into the characters' shoes and feel as if they are in the movie. This helps to build suspense or even emotional connection to the characters, both of which are important to the overall experience of viewing those two films.

MYST: Black Swan

Black Swan

A friend recommended this film long ago, near it's release date, but I never really got around to watching the whole movie until now. After finishing Black Swan, I can confidently say that I loved it and award the movie with 5/5 DiDomenico's.

The Camera Work
The camera work is brilliant throughout this film. With a mix of carefully thought out shots, angles, and movements, the director was really able to grab the audience's attention time and time again. On many instances, the camera movement reflects how the character is feeling during the scene. For example, in the very opening scene, The camera is very steady as it follows the legs and feet of a ballerina at work. As she continues to gracefully dance, the camera steadily pans out, successfully capturing the elegant dancing. However, as the music of the scene shifts from light ballet music to a more menacing tune, the camera movement shifts from steady to hand-held. This gives the audience an uneasy feeling, as if something if off. As the suspenseful sound and camera movement build up, a dark figure suddenly emerges, walking towards the ballerina as she continues her routine. It then becomes clear that the ballerina is practicing for her audition as the swan in an upcoming show. The dark figure is the darker side of the well-known ballet. It was very simple to piece that together because of the contrasting camera movements that reflected the contrasting personalities of the lead role in the black swan ballet.
In another scene, camera angles are used to highlight the dominance of the ballets director. He is notorious for sleeping with the ballerinas he casts as the lead, so many of the girls feel they must impress or seduce him. Because of this, he has much power over them, since many of them are so desperate to be the lead. When he first enters the scene, the camera shows him higher up than all of the ballerinas, who are warming up. He looks down on them, watching their ballet skills. As the ballerinas begin to notice him, they are filmed from a high angle, looking up at him, to show they are inferior.

Key Scene
I chose to analyze the last scene of this film because of it's brilliance. This scene is what brings the whole movie together and beautifully concludes Black Swan. Minutes prior to this scene, Nina, the main character/ballerina, comes to terms with her madness. After arguing with a rival ballerina, Nina stabs her to death and hides her body in the bathroom of her changing room. Nina later comes back to the changing room only to be greeted by the supposedly dead ballerina. Upon finding an empty bathroom, Nina has the realization that she actually stabbed herself  and that the argument never even happened. She quickly wipes away her tears and decides that the show must go on.
During this final scene, Nina is shown as the innocent, white swan running up stairs, being following by spotlight. This could be foreshadowing her death as the lights looked as if she was running up towards heaven. As the camera zooms in on Nina, it shows more and more of her wound. The once small blood stain is suddenly growing rapidly in size, showing the severity of the situation. Nina then leaps to the white swan's death, which was also the death of her innocence as seen in an earlier scene when she passionately kisses the menacing director of the play. After she lands on the safety mat, concluding the ballet, all of the other ballerinas and the director come over to congratulate her on her near perfect performance. The director leans over her, covering up her now large bloodstain. He is dressed in a black tuxedo in contrast to her white swan costume. This suggests that the director was the reason for Nina's emotional/mental breakdown. He put too much pressure on the innocent girl and made her unravel by the end of the movie. Nina knows that she is dying but she doesn't care. Her whole life became that ballet, and when it ended, so did her life. Her final dying words are "It was perfect," which are very powerful as she looks up towards the bright lights. In the beginning of the movie, Nina was shown as a very nervous and innocent girl. She even expressed her worries about her dancing ability when she nervously says "I want to be perfect," with her head looking down. By the end, she achieved her goal and really killed off the innocent, shy girl she used to be.

 Similarities/Differences
I thought that the whole premise of this movie was very similar to that of Birdman. Throughout both movies, the audience must interpret scenes for themselves, deciding whether the main character is losing his/her mind or if the event is actually happening (like when Birdman flies or when Nina grows feathers). By the end, most can conclude that both characters are crazy and the events are mere figments of imagination.
Mila Kunis (the thought-to-be-dead ballerina) really stepped outside of her comfort zone while making this movie. She was mostly known for comedies, including That 70s Show, Family Guy, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall before this film. Kunis did a great job in this drama, something I wasn't expecting from her.