Sherlock Holmes (2009)

The Chicago Sun-Times has given it a 3 out of 4 stars rating and has described it as being a film with strong characters and strong visuals. Similarly, other critics have praised the film for its diversity and its refreshing adaptation and portrayal of one of the world's greatest literature icons.

Synopsis:

Sherlock Holmes recounts the newest expedition of the famous Detective Holmes (played by Robert Downey Jr.) in his quest to bring down Lord Blackwood—a man sentenced to death for the murder of five women, as well as, his practice of black magic. A few months after Blackwood is hanged, the public goes into a state of panic believing that he has been resurrected. Sherlock is called upon once again to find Lord Blackwood and stop him before any other murders occur.

Let’s talk cinematography:

Judging by the costume and buildings, the movie is set in the early-mid 19^th century London. The film makes use of both interior and exterior shots, (note though, that there are more interior ones).

Sample 1: Exterior shot (Medium shot size; cross between eye-level and low shot angle; utilizes ambient lighting, that is: the sunlight which is directly over head. Hence time of day can be deduced to be late morning or afternoon).

Sample 2: Interior shot (medium wide shot size; eye level angle; warm temperature)

The movie predominantly uses close-up and medium shot sizes. This may have been so given mystery/detective genre of the film. These shot sizes often help to emphasize Holmes’ ability to extract information from things seemingly insignificant. So most of the times we see these shots being manipulated to highlight something noteworthy or to give attention to “small” details. For example, there is a scene that utilizes close-up shot size to zoom in on a smear of chalk found on a character's jacket. At first one might be puzzled at the reason for the close-up, but Holmes detective skills is subsequently shown when he identifies the character as being a professor.

The shot angles used in the film vary, but what is of key note is the cinematographer’s predominant use of eye level shot angle. As can be seen, this angle has certainly added to the “creepy” nature of the villain’s (Blackwood’s) character in many scenes.

Sample 3: Sherlock visits villain Blackwood in jail (medium shot size; interior shot; warm temperature)

Now the choice of lightening used for the movie was quite interesting. Most of the scenes utilized low key lights. As a matter of fact, the entire movie itself contained scenes looking more on the “dark” side. You'll find that both interior, as well as, exterior shots utilize low lighting system. This may have been used to enhance the gloomy, black magic motif surrounding the entire film.

Sample 4: Black magic practice/death ritual

A special feature that we must talk about is the use of slow-motion for certain scenes. In various parts of the movies, slow-motion used to give detailed depictions of Holmes’ thoughts before he acts on them.

For example, we see slow-motion being used in the fight scenes, where Holmes thinks about his combat approach before actually engaging his opponents.

Sample 5: Fight scene (medium shot size; high key light; warm temperature)

All in all, Sherlock Holmes is an interesting and energetic film that really engages both the sight and the mind. Additionally, credit must be given to French cinematographer Philippe Rousselot, who was the director of cinematography for this master piece.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)

“The Twilight Saga: New Moon”

Janae & Anna-Kaye:

I really wanted to like ‘New Moon’. This is the second film in the Twilight series, based on an enormously best selling book.
I liked the concept of the first film; the high school vampire version of Romeo and Juliet, I must admit, kinda excited me. I had my hang-ups about the whole Twilight thing though, but my ‘Team Edward’ crazy friends wouldn’t have let me live a peaceful life if I didn’t see the movie at least once. So I put my ‘game face’ on, and viewed it.
Truth is, I was so horrified by the lack-luster quality of the first one. Did I mention the acting? ... No Comment! I didn’t even want to entertain the thought of going to see ‘New Moon’, but I’m a firm advocate of second chances – so that I did!

After Bella recovers from the vampire attack that almost claimed her life, she looks to celebrate her birthday with Edward and his family. However, a minor accident during the festivities results in Bella's blood being shed, a sight that proves too intense for the Cullens, who decide to leave the town of Forks, Washington for Bella and Edward's sake. Initially heartbroken, Bella finds a form of comfort in reckless living, as well as an even-closer friendship with Jacob Black. Danger in different forms awaits.

The first thing I noticed about ‘New Moon’ was the obvious step-up in overall ‘quality’. The editing, definition, animation and even the acting was better! The visual effects this time around were MUCH better than in the first Twilight. The numerous chasing, fighting, and cliff diving, and ‘humans transforming into werewolves’ scenes which seemed to be their specialty, were commendable, but could have done with a bit more mastering.
The lighting in ‘New Moon’ made it that much more bearable for me. The dark, Sci-FI effect that they had going in the first Twilight just was not doing it for me, as it sucked out ALL the energy from the film. This time, they used a lot of incandescent lighting, which made the shots yellow and ‘cheery’. It lifted the energy of the movie, which was much needed to distract us from the fact that the two main characters [Bella and Edward] were apart for most of the movie.

As is seemingly customary in the series, the close-up and medium shots prevailed! Only this time around, they made the effort to give us a few decent scenic shots, and they really put their wide-angled lenses to use. It gave their cliffs, rivers, and forests overwhelming scope and vastness. I especially loved the canted angles they gave us; frequent in Bella’s dreams and in Italy where they made the beautiful buildings come alive. All in all, making the movie seem more mature and well put together.

Overall, it was a good movie and I really hope it gets better as the series continue.
It didn’t kill me, and my friends were happy, so….
I give it 3 ‘fist pumps’!

Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

The plot focuses on a man who, ten years after his wife and daughter are brutally murdered, returns to extract justice from the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case against their killers. His vengeance threatens not only the man who allowed mercy to supersede justice, but also the system and the city that made it so.

The movies begins with aerial shots which helps to show the city setting. During high intensity scenes extreme close up shots are used. Several long shots are used which show the busy surroundings and the main character walkin away from it all. A lot of naatural light is used. Spot lights are used at various points to highlight key characters or objects. Low shots are used several times thru out the movie as if to show the superiority of certain characters.

Spartacus: Blood & Sand

Spartacus: Blood and Sand

Taken captive and betrayed by the Romans, who not only take him, but is wife as slave, Spartacus, the main character is craftily moulded and reborn a Gladiator who pledges to kill or die by the sword. Spartacus: Blood and Sand, tells the story of the classical tale, Spartacus through the use of considerable amount of graphics and imagery. Creator Stephen DeKnight not only devises an astounding plot comprising the genres of drama, action and fantasy, but has imprinted top ratings in the minds of viewers worldwide through the various elements of shot size, shot angle, lighting, colour and other important elements of film making that he has incorporated in Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
DeKnight illustrates Spartacus ‘s rise to victory as well as falls by defeat in the gladiatorial arenas that serve as a means of making money to some and entertainment to others. Blood and sand are the predominantly visualized in the series as the cinematographers and directors makes phenomenal use of extreme close ups, close ups, medium shot sizes as well as wide shots to highlight the intricate details of the treacherous, valiant and sexual nature of the characters as well as the location on which the movie was shot. With the extensive use of close up shots for example, the director of the television series, commonly known as Spartacus, gave the viewers a tremendous amount of detail of current actions as well as actions to come.
Spartacus’s, many falls in defeat in and outside of the gladiator pits are captures and given to the viewers through high angles to demonstrate the legend’s fall to inferiority by his competitors and his sometimes powerless state. The angle is surely flipped to low angle when Spartacus assumes his valiant role, and displays his mission to kill or be killed as means of recovering his love and kills anyone in his way. Distant pictures of the spectators in the arena appeared not so distant through the incorporation of slanted angles to create not only a dramatic effect but highlights the enthusiasm of the onlookers in the gladiator games.
So Spartacus journey’s from place to place in the movie, so do the different settings in which the movie takes place. The setting as well as the various emotions released in the series is expressed through the director’s use of lighting and colour. Artificial lights are common throughout the movie. Though the lights used in the arena are clear, and represent the day, it is of note that the natural light of the sun is not used. Fire, an example of artificial light is seen on numerous occasions throughout the movie. This type light is especially seen in the many sexual scenes of the movie, which displays the romanticism of the Roman era, this makes the erotica as real and apparent as it was then in the eyes of the viewers. Darkness is also a colossal feature of the movie, settings of winter and prison cells best illustrate the darkness. This feature perfectly shows the despair of Spartacus and the series of unfortunate events that he has and is to encounter.
“They cheer for blood”. The viewers are left with no choice but to swallow the blood spilling moments of Spartacus. Labelled as the bloodiest movie for the year, blood is splattered on the grounds of the gladiator as well as television screens. This constant display of blood that appears brighter than the characters of Spartacus themselves captures the violent and action packed scenes of the ruthless gladiators at work.
Health hath no fury than the wrath of Spartacus himself, who displays such wrath through the use of the various shot sizes and angles. The constant artificial lighting and darkness takes the viewers through the battles of survival, wealth, and vengeance. Spartacus: Blood and Sand, displays the sense of urgency of the characters to reach the end, and has the viewers on their toes, biting their nails, as their eyes are glued on screen to the different themes that are captured by the elements of shot size, lighting, colour and shot angles that make up the movie.

KeyCritics

"Introducing the Apple iPad"

The Apple iPad is an amazing new invention that takes "The Year of the Tablets" as they call it to a new dimension.

iPad is a new touchscreen tablet computer from Apple. The device is 9.7 inches across the diagonal, and 0.5 inches thick. iPad runs a modified version of the iPhone Operating System (3.2) that is optimized to take advantage of the larger screen. It is powered by Apple's custom built 1GHz A4 processor. Normally, 1GHz isnt enough to power a to run computer efficiently. However, as iPad runs the much lighter than windows, but almost just as functional iPhone OS, it runs twice as fast as the iPhone 3GS's 600MHz processor. iPad will be used primarily as a media consumption device (music, video, books, magazines, games, web browsing). Like the iPhone and iPod touch, iPad runs all of the 180,000 apps in Apple's mobile App Store, 3500 of which are specifically designed for iPad. With the introduction of iPhone OS 4, much new fuctionality will be coming to iPad this fall. These include running applications in the background without depleting the 10 hour battery (users have reported 12 hours), unified email inbox and Game Center. Game Center is a social network for gamers, similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live. The service will allow iPhone gamers to invite and play against friends, view leaderboards etc. Support for Adobe's popular Flash video player however is absent from iPad. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has said that this is due to the strain that the battery would take from allowing flash to run on iPad. He is instead supporting a new web standard called HTML5. Websites written in HTML5 are able to play internet video without the need to download a third party plugin (Flash/ Silverlight). Many websites including Virgin America, Time Magazine and the New York Times have already completely removed Flash components in favor of HTML5.

Thumbs down:

Does not facilitate multitasking (definitely a down point for such a "high tech" equipment).

No Cameras!!!!!!! Ummm, yeah...how could that idea have slipped passed the iPAD's creators?!

No Flash

With this new invention, it is only expected that there will soon be a newer more improved version of the iPad... we will just have to wait and see. :)

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I hope u, the viewers, will be just as excited as we are... & do not be shy to comment and make yourself known to our page.. our family!

____stay tuned____ our next blog will be based on the Apple Mcintosh's "iPad"... :)