"Downfall" Notes/Reaction

NOTES:

How does the film visually help tell the story?

How does it help deliver the message and transfer the viewer into the film?

First Scene Viewed:

Very realistic wardrobes

Language remains what it is, only translated in text at bottom of screen

Character names seem to be real, believeable

Origins real, justifiable

Use of typewriter

Woman obtaining job...not usual?

Based on historical reference, solidity (i.e. Hitler's 56th birthday)

Reality of family members dealing with war-time conflict, have families at home to consider

Mass burning, rebellion by civilians

Use versus no use of politics

Working, middle, lower classes all seen evacuating

Children, women as troops; know no better than to fight, know nothing else

"In times like these, there are no civilians."

Uncontrollable shaking of hand

Next Scene Viewed:

War going on- seems quite realistic; sounds, picture, setting, events

Telephone call? (Monkhe to internist)

Underground/basement area with german script on walls

Officers who disobey are shot immediately

Women (mostly elderly) all contained in one room

Younger women trying to step in, give advice?

Honor, betrayal, loyalty, humanity

Next Scene Viewed:

Leader and his wife kill themselves

Disposal of bodies (salute)

Silent invasion by Russians- surrender?

Female and child- characters continue to get stronger

Suicide

Re-cap of character's individual outcomes

REACTION:

What a moving film, honestly. Downfall did an excellent job of portraying the real-life struggles that the world endured during a time when people had to make quick decisions that would affect the rest of their lives, live or die. Perhaps this is the reason that I watch so much of the history channel; i'm a sucker for accurately depicted documentary-type films. Everything from the costumes that the actors wore to the realistic sense of a young boy standing up for his country in a time of crisis exemplified the severity of such a crucial time in history. The movie did a great job of showing the power that Hitler had, as the people in the film- men, women, children, and elderly- just stopped what they were doing and watched him, listened to him, and responded to what he said. He said go and they jumped. The appearance on each character's face really brought to life exactly how that person was feeling, whether it was sad, freightened, brave, or strong. The viewer always knows what emotions the character is experiencing, down to a T, as if the viewer were walking in the actor's shoes. The film is not so much about aesthetics and appearance, but rather, about the history of a world somewhat known. A lot of times people only know to appreciate the visual appearance of a film rather than what the film is really about, or what it's based on. It's important to obtain an appreciation for and understanding of the validity, depth, and tragedy behind a film like Downfall.

Small details that the director used in the film, such as Hitler's hand that continously, uncontrollably shook throughout his time in the film. I don't know if his hand actually did this but I can imagine that he had some sort of problem relative compulsive shaking. The camera angles that the director used were intense and almost necessary. The scenes that took place in the underground shelter-type area were really shot in a sheltered area which is evident when the camera follows characters through hallways rather than just moving the camera left to right in front of a stage. It's as if the camera is chasing the actors to obtain remarkable, realistic shots. Even when the actual bombs and guns are going off, outside and inside of the shelter, the camera shakes and the sounds intensify and rumble; so lively and imaginable.

I cannot seem to steer away from the young boy in the film who is determined to fight this war for his country; was this a historical character? I can't help but wonder why this character was thought of. In a sense, we see the boy as the first one to step up and fight the battle, willingly, and then we see him experience his first trench-war, and then we see him leading a woman away from danger and into the future- ironic? Aren't children supposed to be the followers? Perhaps he is demonstrating hope for the future, that the war will come to an end and life will go on. Certainly an interesting addition to the underlying message of the film.

Progress Report: October 25

Public Relations Event: Book Fundraiser for library at Providence Christian Academy

Overview:
Sharon and I met on Tuesday, October 23 at 9 a.m. to go over what we want to achieve this week with our public relations event. For the most part, we’ve got some creative thinking to do. Things are moving along progressively, though, and with the tweaking of some scheduling plans and artistic designs, our project will be in full swing by Monday, October 29. Book collection has begun.

Work Completed:
We have each completed sketches for our t-shirt design and we are sharing them with each other today to decide on which one will be the best to submit to the t-shirt company. We wanted to ask our class for suggestions for an event name, but we didn’t get a chance to on Tuesday, so we will do that today in class and see what we get. I thought of “Pals for Providence” and “Providence Reads” for event names, but I think Sharon and I want to come up with something more generic that can be used year after year if this event continues. We are thinking about a seasonal, Thanksgiving/give thanks-type of theme. The flyer is laid out, we just have to insert our event name and picture. An advertisement has been placed in the classified section of The Tiger newspaper. In the advertisement, readers are asked to donate book s for a good cause; our readers include students, faculty, and community members. The advertisement will continue to run throughout the end of the event. We are continuing to work on a Facebook group to solicit our campaign to our friends.

Next Steps:
Once we complete the flyer we will have it approved and begin distribution. We still have to decide on a pizza company to use for the party, but we’re thinking about Colombo’s pizza because they offer a pizza that is 30 inches in diameter for a reasonable price. We have to make sure that the date of our event suits Professor Holmevik since we want to present/have the party during class time. Sharon and I decided in our meeting on Tuesday that instead of doing a portfolio of paperwork to turn in to Professor Holmevik, we want to make a digital portfolio, including the same things in this as we would have in the binder-type proposal. We are going to compose a picture slideshow to convey during our pizza party, so we’ve got to start collecting photos and music for that. We thought it would be neat to interview someone from Providence, such as a librarian, to include in our portfolio to show the real need for books in the school’s library. Sharon had a great idea to have her son and his classmates, who attend Providence, to each write their own story and we will make a compilation of their work bound together in a book to use for display at the pizza party; we will have two copies, one for submission and one to return to the class.

Conclusion:
We have a lot of work ahead of us, but our brainstorming so far has shed fairly sufficient light on our grip on tasks ahead. We try to maintain organization and communication to effectively carry out this collection and party. We hope to receive feedback over the next week. The first week that we tried to run our advertisement in The Tiger the advertisement actually did not run, by fault of no one in particular, so now that it’s being published in the Friday, October 26, the ball for collection will start rolling.

Sorry about the length, it's a little long! :)

Class Notes: October 23

Film

What distinguishes film from other visual media?

- Transports us from our comfortable lives to something greater than life

- Allows us to dream and do things we don't normally do

- There is no such thing as a "motion book"

- Films are artistic expressions in-and-of themselves

- What makes a person really want to go see a movie?
- Desire to understand creator's expression of imagination (ex. The Fifth Element vs.
30 Days and 30 Nights)
- Theater a great place to go to see a recreation of actors portraying characters live on stage

-Search for iconic hero vs. bringing imagination to life (i.e. Die Hard, all four!)

- Film encompasses all forms of art, essentially
- Combines everything into one art form
- Movement
- Creative artistic expression
- Music

Digital Remixes!

In class on Thursday, I joined a new group of classmates to create digital remixes. Our first task was to brainstorm and come up with ideas for the "subjects" of our digital remixes. We immediately started thinking of things that are controversial in the news, such as illegal immigration, George W. Bush's presidency, and Stephen Colbert from The Colbert Report. I liked the subjects we chose because it wasn't just one person coming up with all three ideas; each person in the group contributed to the thought-process and ultimate vote for which ideas would be transformed digitally into new images.

It is neat to see how a serious subject, or even a funny subject, can so quickly be intertwined with a serious issue or a funny issue, completely changing the meaning behind the newly constructed image. I think our digitally remixed images faithfully fulfilled the criteria that Professor H presented to our class on Thursday: the creation of just-for-fun hoaxes that express solidarity, support and in some cases, political views.

That's What I Love About Sunday's...

In the second photograph, I was lucky enough to be hiking around noon this past Sunday, enabling me to get some scenic photographs. I tried to use what we have learned in class- about having anything centered in the picture- and capture the "edges" of the frame of my photo. This picture was taken on Whiteside Mountain, located about an hour and a half from Clemson. At the time that I was taking the picture, I was standing on the edge of a cliff, overlooking another side of the same mountain that I was standing on (right side of the photo). I didn't want to have a very obvious focus. Naturally, the background is coated with mountainous image, but there are several different focuses to my photo. I really wanted the photo to be about the beautiful green side of the mountain that I am overlooking, while still capturing the delicate background. It worked our perfectly that the side of the mountain pictured in the right side of the photo was slopping downward, so it gave the photo that effect that we talked about in class where one object or action in the picture is falling down or climbing up the side of the photo, taking away from anything being centered. Without that mountainside on the right, I think the photo would be centered on the mountain range in the background. This photograph was actually taken first.

The photograph pictured at the top was actually taken several moments after the first one. I quickly hiked down a short trail in the direction of the mountainside pictured in the previous photograph, so I am now standing closer to the background in the first picture. I tried out the same technique from before with capturing a "slope" from one side of the picture. It wasn't until I got back to my computer and looked at the photographs on the computer screen that I realized that I actually captured that top of a tree in the lower left-hand corner of the photograph. I thought that treetop was an interesting addition to photograph not only because it added color, as did the closer side of the mountain (pictured on the right), but also because it obtained that "lower, bottom-half of the picture" frame that we also learned about. The same mountain range background is in this picture, but the entire bottom half of the photo has shape instead of just the right side of the photograph. When I realized that I did this, I thought it would be neat to see the two photographs, one on top of the other. I wish that I could have gotten more sky color at the top of each photograph, but either it was very clear up in the mountains or I just don't have the best of cameras.

I hope that I was able to correctly do what we talked about in class. After seeing Professor H's examples, I tried to mimick what he did with offsetting a center image and focusing on what the frame of the photograph could bring out in the overall picture.