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Titanic (1997)

Director: James Cameron

Starring: Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet

Dialogue-Dialogue is the conversation between characters in a film.

Sound Effects-Sound effects are the sounds used in a movie to enhance or help set a tone for what is happening throughout the particular scenes of a film.

Music-Music is used in a film to emphasize or create a mood through a song or instrumental being played while a scene or sequence unfolds.

Sound has a great impact in establishing the overall theme of a movie or a particular scene as well as creating the intended mood.  When creating a mood for a chaotic scene or fight scene often times loud and fast paced music is used, whereas in a romantic scene, love music or music that is soft and typically slower is used. In the film Titanic there are all forms of sound used throughout the movie, to create the mood, as well as to intensify certain key moments in the story. Music is largely used, with portions of the music from Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” being played in several scenes. The music is used in both romantic scenes as well as scenes that are meant to evoke emotions. The song is also played during the ending credits of the film. The music played at the balls and parties taking place on the Titanic speaks to the time and era the film takes place, with different classical orchestrations and Waltz that were popular in the year 1912. Dialogue is another form of sound that is almost constant throughout the film, with most of the dialogue being mainly between the two lead characters, Jack (DiCaprio) and Rose (Winslet). The sound effects are also used throughout, mostly at the films climax when the ship hits and ice burg and is damaged and also when it is beginning to sink and there is mass panic. The sound of people running and moving through the water that is flooding the ship is very realistic and the gives the viewer the effect of being actually on the ship as the ordeal unfolds. The sound effects are also used to magnify the impact of the ice burg damaging the ship and the rushing water flooding in once the ice burg has ripped through the bottom side of the ship. In the last scenes of the film before Rose is rescued, she is laying on a door from the ship in the icy water barely clinging to life and you can hear as the unanimous objects around bob in and out of the water, creating a really realistic experience of what was happening to her character. If the music from the film were removed it would take away from the large theme of romance in the film, and it would also detract from recreating the classic era of 1912 with all of the symphonic music.  The use of music throughout this film was truly enhanced and elevated both the theme and the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYu5I8_-1-Y

References:

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. This text is a Constellation™ course digital materials (CDM) title

Titanic (1997)-IMDb “The Internet Movie Database” Retrieved March 12, 2015. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338/

Woo, J. (August 14, 2013). Titanic My Heart Will Go On (1997). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYu5I8_-1-Y March 12, 2015

Film: John Wick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjCh8rGFdsM

The lighting used in this film is low key lighting. Low-key lighting is oftenused for intense dramatic scenes, horror films, mystery thrillers, and the like (Goodykoontz, 2014). The benefits of using low key lighting are the dramatic and intense feeling darker lighting brings to a film. The choice of low key lighting was a perfect fit for the film John Wick and was an appropriate choice for the Action Thriller genre. The dark lighting also adds to the gritty themes of violence and vengeance. If high-key lighting would have been used in the film instead of the low-key lighting, it would have detracted from the dark theme of the film.

References:

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. This text is a Constellation™ course digital materials (CDM) title.

Movieclips, (2014) John Wick.Intruders, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjCh8rGFdsM

John Wick.(2014). retrieved March 4,2015. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/john-wick/review/742842

Film: John Wick

Written by: Derek Kolstad

Directed by: Chad Stahelski, David Leitch

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Willem Dafoe, John Leguizamo

Released: 2014

Story: John Wick is an ex-assassin who has just lost his wife. A puppy is delivered to his home as a last gift from his wife, before she passed. While at a gas station, a young Russian man admires his car a classic 69′ Mustang and inquires about buying it. When Wick tells him the car is not for sale, he curses at him and makes a remark in Russian before leaving with his entourage. Later that night, the Russian and his crew break into John Wick’s home and beats him almost to death, shooting the dog and stealing the 69′ Mustang. Wick awakes to find his dog dead, and his valuable car stolen.

Plot: The movie begins with John Wick in a dark room watching a short video clip on his phone of his late wife. The movie progresses to show him at his wife’s funeral where he is visited by a former associate (Willem Dafoe), who has co come to offer his condolences. The day after the funeral, a puppy named Daisy is delivered to his home from his wife. His wife gives him the puppy in hopes that he would have something else to love besides his car, a classic 69′ Mustang. He is overtaken by emotion and immediately begins to bond with the dog and take care of it. When the son of a Russian gang and his crew break into Wick’s home, shooting Daisy, stealing the car and leaving him for dead, he returns to his past as an assassin to seek vengeance on the men who have disrupted his life.

The film begins non-linearly, with the opening scene showing John Wick watching a video on his phone of his wife. This is later shown to be a scene from the end of the movie. The rest of the film is presented chronologically.

Opening the film with such a dramatic scene sets the tone for the rest of the film. It creates a somber mood throughout the film. The character development of the film is largely impacted by the chronological presentation of the film, as the character of John Wick is revealed as a very dangerous assassin.

If the film would have been presented differently it would have taken away from the climactic character building for the audience.

References:

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education,Inc. This text is a Constellation™ course digital materials (CDM) title.

John Wick TeaserPoster.Wikipedia.org.retrieved February 26,2015.