Discussion of articles and Machinima Proposal

I watched the machinima called “Desolate” by Blood Signature Films. I was really inspired by the way they use the camera. They had a lot of great panning shots of scenery and scanning shots of the character from different angles that added to the suspense of the scene. I also watched “Red vs. Blue Season 4 ‘Episode 58.’” There were a lot of interesting and diverse camera angles when each character was talking. It made the scenes more dynamic and interesting. I also watched Pierece Portacarrero’s “Game Over.” The use of close-ups and extreme close-ups in that film was very effective. I also really enjoyed the machinama called “Slightly Later Man.” The idea and script were clever and funny. I also really liked how it was all in black and white and how everything stayed with the theme. All the background and costumes were well done along with the voices and the characters themselves. The machinima “Male Restroon Etiquette” was really entertaining. The different angles and panning of the camera was interesting and entertaining. All of the different angles kept me intrigued and kept the story moving. Most of all the script and theme were funny and engaging. Eric Call’s “Silver Bells and Golden Spurs” had a shot that started outside and zoomed into the saloon that I thought was cool. Also, I liked the shot of the man with the golden spurs’ legs when he gets shot and all you see is the drops of blood. The dialogue informs the viewer of what has happened and you do not need to see exactly what happened to understand the scene. In fact it is more meaningful simply because you do not see his wound. I also like that everything about the film keeps with the theme: the text, all the props and scenes, even the voice of the narrator seems to fit the western style of the movie.

I read part of the script of both “Star Wars” and “On the Waterfront” because I like both of those films. Before reading those scripts I never realized how much of the script, at least initially, is about setting up the scene and introducing the characters. At that point in the film dialogue is almost secondary. I think that this will be important for us to remember because it is much easier to just write out a whole script and forget about setting up everything else. I also agreed with the article about the seven best scripts for beginning screenwriters. I liked what was said about “Back to the Future” because it is important that all the parts of the film go somewhere and that there are not random bits of story that are pointless or leave the viewer without answers or explanations.

For the Little Brother machinima I think that doing something on the theme of the modern teen romance could be interesting. Also a machinima about an survivor’s perspective about their experience being wrongly imprisoned and tortured might be adapted nicely into a visual form.