Special Effects

An interesting special effect that i have seen in a movie is in the movie Avatar. In this movie they use special effects to make the people seem like they are the blue Avatar's. This is interesting to me because they did not actually put the actors in a bunch of make up or put them in big blue body suites to make them look that way. Instead they made the Avatar characters look so real by placing them in body suites that tracked they're movement and used computer imagery to bring it to life.

Sound and Music in Totsi

The music in the movie Totsi, usually foreshadows what is going to happen next.  The music will change from something up beat, to something more serious such as rap when something is going to happen that is not good. An example of this was when Totsi was asked what he was going to do that night and the music changed from upbeat to rap music that depicted that something bad was going to happen. The music did not always follow this theme though. I felt as though the music was inappropriate for a scene when they were in the bar and Totsi started beating the one guy up. The music never changed from up beat to something more mysterious the music stayed the same during the whole scene.

Cutaway

A transition that I think is interesting is the cutaway. A cutaway is when filmmaker is cutting away from the action to something else, and then coming back to the action. I think this is interesting because in this transition it is them talking about what is going to happen and in normal scene transition they will explain where they are going to be next but don't cut to it and then cut back to whats really going on.

The Whale Rider Historical Framework

From a historical frame work the movie the Whale Rider has an important dichotomy between individual and community. The traditional aspect of the tribe is that the community is led by a leader, and the leader is a chosen one who is usually the first born male. Pai is the true chosen one at this time but her grandfather does all that he can do to prove that she is not the one. Pai tries to reason with the tribe suggesting that they don’t need a leader, but they can all be leaders. This does not prove to be true. The community worked together to try and un-beach the whales but were unsuccessful. When Pai tried to un-beach the whale the wale broke free and was back in the water. Much like her being an individual leader the whales also had a leader. It was said that if they get the big one to move, then all of the other whales will follow. This was true. This shows that an individual is more important in the community as opposed to the community itself, proving that there needs to be a leader and that an individual is given privilege over community.