Darius Khondji- The Beach

The Beach is a visually stunning film due in large part to the fantastic location shooting in Thailand, but also because of the work of Darius Khondji, the cinematographer.

The film follows three travelers journey to a hidden almost mythical beach near Koh Samui in Thailand. The film is shot in ways that portray the beaches and water landscapes as heavenly. The water sparkles in every shot with a light clear blue color that almost seems impossible. The beaches go on for miles with endless sand, palm trees, and sun. Throughout the entire film, I wanted to be on those beaches,laying in the sand, bathing in the sun. It completely makes the viewer fall in love with the scenery, which works well with the storyline because even on a hidden beach in what seems like paradise, the minds of humans can ruin it all. A few notable scenes that Khondji shot that are absolutely beautiful both take place at the same location, but one is during the daytime, and one is at night.



This is the beach that is featured in the film. The scene that shows the viewer the first view of the beach is a wide angled point of view shot with Leonardo DiCaprio's character 'Richard'. As Moby's "Porcelain" plays, the audience watches 'Richard' gape in awe at the stunning beauty of the beach. The next shot which shows the viewer the full landscape of the beach, the water, and the beautiful massive rocks in the background that enclose the entire piece of land. The cinematography in the scene is incredible. The viewer actually believes that what is being shown is the most beautiful place on Earth.
The night scene at the same location is even better than the daytime scene. Richard and Francoise sneak away from the village and into the moonlit calm water at the main beach and make love. The moonlight cascades across the water and illuminates the two characters as they embrace. The way the scene is shot promotes the seclusion that the beach has from the rest of the world, and in Richard's case, the rest of the beach community because Francoise already has a boyfriend, Etienne.

The two scenes are incredibly beautiful as is the entire film and Darius Khondji's work as the cinematographer is majorly responsible.

Media150-Memories of the semester

Looking back at this semester, I can definitely say that this class improved my technical skills with Media. I found that many of the areas we covered (i.e- Photoshop, photography, blogging, video shots) were fun to work on in the lab with Cristina, our helpful and freindly lab instructor. The class gave me a good foundation for working with these important film and media skills. I initially found many of the lectures redundant but understood that a foundation had to be laid in understanding various aspects of Media to be able to move forward and focus on specific elements more intensely.

Since I originally declared my major in film, it was interesting to see how my decision to switch into Media was vindicated in my eyes throughout the course. I liked the idea of directing and producing my own films but became disinterested with the Hollywood style development of feature films while taking other classes. It became clear to me that I want to learn the various skills in Media Arts and hope that helps funnel me into a more specific direction. With the camcorder and Photoshop assignments in the course, I really now feel like this is something I could get into in the future. Documentary style film making appeals to me much more so than Hollywood style, and the skills that this Media class taught me reaffirm these beliefs.

Many of the media related subjects we learned about this semester have become areas that I plan on focusing on with the rest of my Media Studies degree. I am enrolled in Web production I, as well as Portable Video production. These two classes are building on the basic knowledge that Media150 has taught me in HTML, Photoshop, and Video production. I know the class is only halfway done, but I am already enjoying the technical skills that it teaches, and hopefully I will learn even more in Media160 next semester.

FFF-Aspects of the logo

The design above is the logo for the French Football Federation, the organization that organizes professional football (soccer) in France. The logo is one of my favorites because the color scheme, balance, and beauty that the design exudes is very cool. The logo has a golden hexagon border which encases the blue/red background of the image. At the top of the logo is a golden star which closes the hexagon together. The main part of the logo besides the FFF text is the rooster or 'le coq' which is the national animal of France, similar to the bald eagle in America. The rooster is intended to embody the fighting spirit of the French team. The eagle is colored silver with red hair. The FFF letters also use the same color scheme. Besides the colors and balance of the image, I think that overall the logo is very visually pleasing. The shade of the colors blend together well, and when put on the backdrop of the French national jersey, the logo looks great.

Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975)

This past week I was able to watch Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger starring Jack Nicholson, who at the time was the leading star in Hollywood. The film itself is noteworthy simply because of its director, Antonioni, whose authorial style has to be taken into consideration to understand and appreciate what the film tries to do. Antonioni for the most part is considered an Italian Neorealist art film director, which means that his films differ greatly from other styles. Most importantly, the viewer must go into the viewing of the film with an open mind, free of the expectations that the average Hollywood film has, featuring logic, drama and romance. Antonioni’s work is a mixture between the authentic realities he is trying to visualize along with his own artistic style of filmmaking that can only be understood as an overall piece of art on screen.
In The Passenger, Jack Nicholson’s character David Locke is discontent with his life as a war journalist and decides to assume the identity of a dead tenant in the hotel he is staying in, and consequently cannot escape the ghosts of his past as well as the unhappiness he previously felt. The film is shot on 35mm at 1.85:1, but is almost completely lit with natural light that comes from the African daylight sun. This constant brightness allows the viewer to almost feel the never-ending heat that Locke experiences. When filming, the director used all sorts of shots but for the most part, does not feature any point-of-view shots, as a way of expressing Locke’s emotion, instead, mostly everything is kept at medium close up and further, and even with this style, the film still features lengthy portions that contain very little dialogue, and subsequently do not need any. The director is able to tell all that needs to be told with visuals. One of the most intriguing components of film is the way the camera moves away from the action on screen during certain shots. It becomes a recurring theme of the film. A shot may begin with Locke in his hotel room sitting at a table with no shirt on, and the camera will pan to the left to look at what seems to be a pointless spot on the wall, or an open window. The camera then pans backs to the right and Locke is standing up now, reading a piece of paper, and wearing a shirt. The camera pans and in the process, the viewer misses the action of Locke doing something. At first these types of movements are not that noticeable, but they grow as the film moves on, and the second to last scene, one of the most famous in movie history, exemplifies this artistic technique with a moving camera shot that takes the viewer away from Locke in the final moments of his life, and returns a minute later to find him dead. The style of shooting makes the film much more interesting than just the plot and this is the point; the film is art and needs to be viewed as a piece of art to be appreciated, thus the plot takes a backseat to the film techniques and acting. Antonioni has long been lauded for his talent and innovative style, and The Passenger is sound example of his many skills.

The Museum of Moving Images Astoria,NY Sept 23rd 2009

On Wednesday the 23^rd of September, I took the N train from 59^th street station to Astoria, Queens to visit the Museum of Moving Images. I had honestly never heard of the Museum but it was an interesting experience. After meeting up with the rest of the class, we were taken for an hour and a half tour that was like a walk-through timeline of the history of media and filmmaking. One of the most memorable parts of the tour was the sports broadcast station, which replicated the production screen that the director of a broadcast analyzes. The director has a headset that connects with every cameraman and he will call out the numbered cameras which each show a different angle of the game, which most viewers rarely notice, and just take as a normal part of the broadcast. This guy literally sits in the production room for 3 hours at a time coordinating every single different camera shot that the baseball game will show. I found that really interesting, and it definitely gave me a newfound appreciation for the work that goes into producing a sports broadcast. Another memorable part of the Museum was the video game arcade, which featured about 10 or 12 very old arcade games that many people in the class had grown up playing. It was a very nostalgic experience and it was very cool that they had accumulated and restored these old school video games. Besides that, the Museum featured many interesting exhibits and had a knowledgeable tour guides. All in all, a good experience.

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