Sunday 12th November 2017 Research and Experimentation Lecturers: Kaz, Dan, Andy
The Glenn Miller Story - 1954
For my graduation film, I am going to have a section which illustrates a few famous stars who visited Harrowbeer Airfield during its time of use. Glenn Miller was one of the famous people to visit the station, after years of hard work and determination, he formed his own band and his own arrangements. I wanted to look into this further and stumbled upon the 1954 American film "Glenn Miller Story" (The Glenn Miller Story, 1954) which was directed by Anthony Mann. The film stars James Stewart as Glenn Miller and June Allyson who plays his wife called Helen Miller, but before she was called Helen Burger.
The film details the life of Glenn and how he went from an audition, writing his own arrangements for which lead to himself finding the right sound and forming his own band, who over time became one of the most successful groups of the band era. They became famous for one of their biggest songs in America, titled "Moonlight Serenade" He has it all, a beautiful wife, his own band, money, a family but he enlists and gives up his fame and success in order to entertain the troops, there was a great scene where they were onset during World War II.
I paid close attention to the way that video clips and stills of newspapers were being overlayed, it helped to illustrate the story of how Glenn Miller's band became such a hit, thinking of this film as a historical piece which consists of the rise and fall of Glenn Miller and his band. I particularly liked the section of the film where we see Glenn playing alongside Louis Armstrong and the color rapidly changes in a consistent cycle across the screen. I felt like this looked considerably vibrant, not only that but it was a very effective way of making the band who were positioned in the foreground, stand out from the background.
References
The Glenn Miller Story. (1954). [film] United States: Universal-International.
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