Moving Narratives 2 BAFI202 - 1st November

Tuesday 1st November 2016                     Moving Narratives              Kaz Rahman

Film that we watched - Sunrise - 1927 - Big Budget film

The film that we watched definitely contained elements to that of German Expressionism, (around the 1920's) was really moved by the way that the film had a happy ending by finding the mans wife and rescuing her from the water before she drowned. 

I almost felt as if I wanted the film to end with the mistress (city girl) being killed as she was the one who had caused all of the upset.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film itself, there were many different key elements which helped to keep the piece moving, the use of dissolves through editing, the use of multiple pictures being overplayed, there was always something new going on. 

I liked the way that the man went into the church to hear the vows of a wedding being said, made him realise how much he loved his wife, even though he had been having an affair behind her back.

The film itself showed low key lighting, really high in contrast but at the same time it was really dark for some bits, especially towards the water scenes where they would venture out together on a small boat, the misty atmosphere helped to build up tension and make us on edge as the audience. 

I don't think that this film needed any dialogue, I feel like the way we get opened up to the characters through footage, we are given clear details about each cast member which helps to generate the character profiles. 

This film used a variety of different prime camera lenses, this was made apparent through the use of camera angles, I feel like in many cases the lenses helped to show off the defined space that the characters had been put in 

This particular film had a few moments of dry humour which made it easier to watch, everything serious and the music rhythm on its own I feel would have been a lot less interesting to watch, so for me I feel like thee sound design was key to helping this film generate an atmosphere.

The scale of the sets were huge, due to the budget, I particularly liked the set design for the carnival and the city, it really made the film feel as if they had travelled from peasant farm house into a much more upper class place, this was of course re-enforced by the reactions that they got as they were at the carnival, one of the musicians played Midsommer - Peasant song - which we can see the two main characters dancing too towards the end of the film. 

Comparing this film to the other film scenes that we watched, I feel like the set design was a lot different, advanced and a lot more detailed too films like the "Cabinet of Dr Caligari". I feel like the set design was a lot more stark, however the colours of lighting were the same through every film we watched, there was a heavy use of low key lighting which was very dark and high in contrast which really helped to give an eerie feeling to the piece, as well as the production side through shadows, making certain scenes in sunrise stand out and cast lots of shadows.