#viewing journal

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Bioshock Infinite (2012)

First person video game

Wonderful beautiful world and setting, floating city. Set in the early 1900s, keeps the grimness of the time but presents the city in a wonderful way.

Very violent, never really into things this violent. The transition into the violence was sudden as before that I had been exploring a fairground and generally having a nice calming time.

I like how the mystery is unfolding at the moment as to who the characters are, and if I am actually playing as the bad guy.

I think the character of Elizabeth is very endearing, you feel for her and when you upset her you can feel the trust breaking since you are playing first person.

It is also quite scary in places, such as the Raven enemy who comes out of nowhere and can teleport at random, the giant animatronic robot man and a part where you come across a cult, they all halt their actions and turn at the same time to attack you.

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Borrowed Time (2016)

I thought this was really cleverly told story. Really liked the contrast between the two settings (modern day is grey and full of sorrow while the past is gold and warm)

We are led to believe that the accident was a crash off a cliff at the start of the short film, but over the course of the animation we realise the main character isn’t so blameless.

The cuts that trigger the flashbacks aren’t obvious, they just quickly cut into them.

I like how the brief moment of hope ends up falling apart to tragedy. Very strong stuff.

Nice use of imagery and devices, such as the pocket watch and the light shining through the clouds.

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Black Mirror

“S1E1: The National Anthem”/”S2E2: White Bear”/”S3E1: Playtest”

I had watched the first episode of Black Mirror back when it first came out, but I think I was too young to full get it/understand and appreciate what was going on

The National Anthem: quite funny, played everything remarkably realistic despite being a deliberately strange premise, ironically life imitated art when similar scandals came to light a few years ago

White Bear: the twists towards the end of the episode made the episode, ends up blurring the lines, you sympathise for the main character but also are made to hate them, and it becomes difficult to take either side of the conflict as being ‘in the right’ - I did feel like the message it was delivering ended up being a bit heavy handed, but I think the delivery needed it to fully exploit the concept

Playtest: much like White Bear, but I feel like this was more appealing. the twists at the end are very haunting, the main setting playing on horror video game tropes, the main character’s backstory was relate able and he remained sympathetic throughout

All together, I think these were well shot and edited, especially Play Test, which plays on both the main character’s and the viewer’s perception of what is real in the story.

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Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

I thought that the scale of this film was very impressive, especially considering it was done before the days of computer generated imagery and other shortcuts and problem-solving in cinema.

The locations and cast are very large and the fact that they would have had to train everyone and everything to work on cue is amazing and that work pays off.

While it was based on real life events, you do feel for the character of Lawrence as he makes choices, some good, some bad. I thought that Peter O’Toole acted the role really well.

I think my biggest problem with the film would be its run time, as it does go on for quite a long time. This is probably down more to me being surrounded by quicker films, but I did find myself having to pause at different points in the movie and wondering how long was left on it.

I respect that they couldn’t have cut much of it down or changed it too greatly because it was based on real life events, but if it was made these days, I imagine a lot more would have been switched around or left out.

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Top Hat (1935)

Black and white romantic musical with Fred Astaire

I found the performances to be quite grand and the acting full of expressiveness. I liked the choreography too.

I thought that elements of this were quite funny, such as Rogers (Astaire) putting down sand and doing a sandman dance to put people to sleep (and it working), or the Valet being rude to a man who he thinks doesn’t speak English but then getting arrested because the man spoke fluent English after all.

I did feel the ending did go on a bit too long, as it feels like it ends twice, once with the two love interests meeting up, and then the marriage being shown to be a fake.

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Timecode (2000)

Experimental film in which four different 93-minutes takes are shown cocurrently in a grid form. Most of it was improvised with a general framework to guide it.

I found this film quite impressive, given that the actors and shots were all done in one take and that the production kept itself together in such a way. I liked it when there was an overlap with the storylines where characters from one side of the grid would join others.

This is used to excruciating effect when Lauren, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn, bumps into Alex Green, played by Stellan Skarsgård, right after he had sex with her girlfriend. These two later come to butt heads, but since the viewer knows who is who through dramatic irony, it provokes a reaction because of how hopeless both character’s situations are and how one’s misfortune is caused by the other.

It involves the audience by leaving the editing to them, it is the viewer who decides which scene is important to focus on or not.

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The Ads That Changed The World (2003)

Series of documentary type series tracing the evolution of TV adverts in the UK

- Talking heads of editors, advertisers and directors given insight into how advertising in the UK changed over time.

- I found it quite interesting learning about the behind the scenes of adverts as well as how the people in the documentary are explaining creative choices.

- Outlines clever tactics in advertising (always try to be the funniest or most iconic advert in an ad break)

- Talks about the clever use of internet with adverts, such as Levi’s Flat Eric advert, where the character was circulated online prior to the advert was broadcast, presenting the potential for viral marketing

- Talks about the cultural impact of adverts, such as how companies jump from America to Britain to appeal to the new demographic, how woman are treated, as well as how Gay Rights groups reacted to Mueller adverts where there was a fairly negatively portrayed gay character in them

- The risks of when an advert campaign goes wrong is discussed, with adverts like Vauxhall’s Griff Rhys Jones campaign, which caused profits to slump, because the audience didn’t connect with the character

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Five Centimeters Per Second (2007)

- Romantic drama anime, something I wouldn’t normally watch

- Story was told in three parts which had a connecting theme and repeating imagery, such as cherry blossoms falling and crossing railway tracks.

- It hurt to watch, and left me more questions than it answered. The two childhood sweethearts kept in contact, but eventually both went their separate ways, with the girl marrying someone else and the boy being alone and stuck in a dull life.

- I wanted to know what happened beyond the end. We see the boy struggle through delayed trains, deep snow and lost letters to meet the girl in the first part, we see them keep in contact despite the distance and then we see it never worked out as we hoped it should. I want to know if these characters ever meet again and talk about how the 

- It’s also very relatable, losing contact with a friend who you’d promised to stay in contact with despite the distance.

- There was also a part in the story where another girl was interested in the main character, but it wasn’t played out in a love triangle way. Much like the boy by the end, she realises she will never be with the person she loves.

-I feel for a movie that was focused on the romantic aspect manages to keep the ending very down to earth. Not ever story has a happy ending, and sometimes the boy doesn’t get the girl.