Thursday 4 February 2016

A Complete History of My Sexual Failures / Undefeated

A Complete History of My Sexual Failures

Director: Chris Waitt

Writer: Chris Waitt

Year it was produced: 2008

Cast: (all as themselves) Danielle McLeod, Olivia Trench, Chris Waitt and Hilary Waitt

Cinematography: Steven Mochrie

Editing: Mark Atkins, Chris Dickens

It was funded by Film4 and the UK Film Council


A Complete History of My Sexual Failures revolves around filmmaker, Chris Waitt and his attempt to interview most of his ex-girlfriends to find out why they dumped him and then from that information, try and make himself a better person. I personally believe it comes under the category of mockumentary, which is “a fiction film that uses documentary form to suggest it is actually a documentary”. Parts of  the film that suggest this are the fast changing camera angles such as when Chris is having a conversation with one of his ex-girlfriends at a dinner table and the camera constantly switches between each person. Also, when Chris decides to take many Viagra pills but there is a cut between when he puts the tablet in his mouth and when he swallows it, suggesting that he never took them. However, it is made in such a clever way that the audience are truly torn between whether it is real or not. Chris uses poor camera quality to create a documentary feel and props such as love letters, photographs and evidence of all his ‘girlfriends’ to make the audience believe that this is completely real. Another huge factor which contributes to the audience believing what they are watching is the fact that we end up emphasising with Chris. We begin to warm to him as a person through the use of comedy which makes us feel involved and also through feeling sorry for him, such as when he is talking to Vicky and they both get very emotional and when he opens up to us, we begin to like his character and therefore are more likely to believe the documentary because he is demonstrating real human emotions.

This is what critic, Jonathan Romney from Independent said: “A Complete History ... is quite a performance – and I do mean performance. Waitt maintains the pretence throughout that his film is a documentary, and as far as one can see, many if not all of the exes he interviews (or who angrily refuse to be interviewed) are women Waitt really has dated. His likeable mother – who has little truck with his brattish self-pity – also appears really to be his mother. Mind you, the end titles admit that some of the film's encounters had to be "reconstituted"; make of that what you will.”


From this information, I believe that this documentary is based partly on the truth. Chris may have used his real girlfriends and parts of the film may have been genuine but a lot of it is still scripted in order to create humour and enhance the film experience for the audience. Members of the audience, who claim to know Chris, state that his true personality is reflected in the documentary but again, he may be using this to make it even more believable. It was funded by Film4 and the UK Film Council. They are not going to waste money on making something that was completely spontaneous, they are serious companies and a whole team was put together for this. So to conclude, I believe it is completely scripted in most parts however is based on Chris’ life and his real ex-girlfriends and is an honest reflection on his ‘sexual failures’ but told in a slightly exaggerated manner.

A Complete History of My Sexual Failures is also an investigative documentary. This is because it introduces a problem/question which it then goes on to solve. The problem is obviously the fact that Chris struggles to maintain a stable relationship and cannot understand why he consistently gets dumped. He solves it when he realises he still has feelings for Vicky and then works things out with her and moves on so they are both happy and he then finds a new girlfriend in which their relationship seems to be running smoothly. It comes under the interactive mode because Chris makes use of direct mode of address when he looks into the camera and interacts directly to the audience. This creates a much greater sense of involvement and the audience feel included because they are being spoken to, rather than having to ‘listen in’ on a conversation. Furthermore, it is a personal documentary because Chris is providing the audience with his personal views and experiences regarding the subject matter and it could be described as very intimate.

My personal opinion on the documentary: I found it very humorous; there were many ‘laugh out loud’ moments so it was an entertaining viewing experience. Towards the end, I eventually managed to emphasis with Chris but this was only in the parts with Vicky because they were crying and seeing those emotions made me instantly warm to them both. The whole time I was watching it, all I could think was ‘is this real or fake?’ and at times, that definitely distracted my attention from the documentary because I was trying to make a sense of it.



Undefeated

Director: Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin

-Notice how there is no ‘writer’ for this documentary-

Cast (all as themselves): Montrail ‘money’ Brown, O.C. Brown, Bill Courtney, Chavis Daniels and Jeff Germany.

Year it was produced: 2011

Production companies: Zipper Bros Films, Five Smooth Stones Productions, Level 22 Productions and Spitfire Pictures.

Cinematography and editing: Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin


Undefeated is “a documentary on an underdog football team who look to reverse their fortunes with Coach Bill Courtney.” It furthermore covers the genres of coming of age (because we see the development and mental growth of the football players) and sport. It is set in Manassas and their team is called the Manassas Tigers. Undefeated is completely different to A Complete History of My Sexual Failures because it is not scripted and it displays real-life events as they are happening. It can therefore be classified under the observational mode because the camera records everything that is going on, allowing the audience to ‘listen in’ and through techniques such as: long takes, sync-sound and no ‘voice of god’ narrator, the audience are not taken away from the reality. This contrasts greatly to Sexual Failures because in that documentary, we as an audience feel as if we are there with Chris the whole time due to his strong use of the interactive mode which means we have gone beyond the point of observation. Furthermore, Undefeated is an ethnological documentary because it explores the lives and culture of a particular ethnic group.

Undefeated explores themes which are meaningful and therefore have an emotional impact on the audience. For example, it looks at unity and fatherhood. All the team members come together and work as hard as they can to achieve their goals. As the narrative develops, this becomes especially evident because we can see them become closer and special bonds start to form. Their Coach is hugely important and we can clearly see how much his team means to him, for example this is evident towards the end when he is saying goodbye to them. He acts as a father figure to them, guiding them through, offering advice and being there for them when times are hard. He is able to motivate them and encourage them to follow their dreams, the main piece of advice he gives them is: “the character of a man is not measured in how he handles his wins, but what he does with his failures”. This furthermore brings up the theme of masculinity because he is stating that in order to be a ‘real man’ you have to be strong and constantly stand up for yourself, even if things are not going in your way.


Another huge theme is class and this is also evident in Sexual Failures. There is a juxtaposition in class between the football players and their coach. When we are introduced to the football players’ neighbourhood, we can see that it is of a working class status whereas the Coach’s living conditions are more of a middle class status, with big houses and generally an area of more wealth. However when they all come together, class does not seem to have a huge impact on their relationship and I feel this documentary wants us to focus on their personalities and connections with each other rather than their class. In Sexual Failures, Chris is demonstrating a working class lifestyle because we can see that he lives in a very small, cramped flat. He does not show any pride for himself, his flat is a mess and un-hygienic and he can barely make himself look presentable.

My personal opinion on the documentary: I thought this was a great documentary, in many parts I was truly touched by it and I was easily able to emphasis with the football players and the Coach. I thought it explored strong themes and it is a documentary that matters because it is so impactful. I cannot say if I preferred this or A Complete History of My Sexual Failures because they were so different and I liked them for different reasons. Obviously, the comedy element to Sexual Failures was a huge positive but the strong sense of realism in Undefeated seemed to draw me in more.


Monday 4 January 2016

Film of the week: Listen To Your Heart









COULSDON COLLEGE: MEDIA TEXT INFORMATION SHEET
TITLE:
Listen to Your Heart
YEAR OF PROD:
2010
TYPE:
FILM
TELEVISION
DOC.

MUSIC


ADVERT


MUSIC VID.
OTHER:

DIRECTOR
Matt Thompson

PRODUCER
Kent Moran, Luke Moran
WRITER
Kent Moran
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Wishing Well Pictures, Rebel One Pictures
KEY CAST
/ARTIST
Alexia Rasmussen (Ariana), Kent Moran (Danny), Cybill Shepherd (Victoria).
KEY CREW
Music: Kent Moran, DP: Harvey Rosenstock, Casting: Michael Hothorn

GENRE
Drama, Music, Romance
BUDGET
N/A
BOX OFFICE
N/A
THEMES
Love, conflict, betrayal, defeat, jealously, death, connection, communication, ‘living in the moment’.

AWARDS
6 wins e.g. Action on Film Award (Film International Film Festival USA).

NARRATIVE:

The IMDb description:

“Danny (Kent Moran) has an apartment as small as his paychecks, no family, and a struggling music career. But with unwaivering optimism, for Danny, "every day is a great day to be alive." It's love at first sight when Danny meets Ariana (Alexia Rasmussen), a wealthy hearing-impaired girl from Greenwich, CT who tragically cannot hear the music she inspires him to write. Ariana is torn between hanging onto the shelter her controlling mother (Cybill Shepherd) provides and fighting for a love that, if just given the chance, might just change her life. When tragedy strikes, determined that nothing can keep them apart, they must trust in the power of their love, and together discover just how important it is to "listen to your heart."”

My opinion on the film:

This film shocked me because I honestly did not expect it to be so sad. I watched it on Christmas Eve thinking it was going to be a more light-hearted musical but it was not that and the last 30 minutes of it was truly heart breaking which was not good and I probably should have watched a Christmas film instead. Although it was mostly very predictable and filled with clichés, it was still great story-telling and I did not expect the tragedy towards the end. The characters were well developed and of course, the relationship between Danny and Ariana was key and wonderfully performed, it felt real and true. The character of the mother really annoyed me, (which I guess was her role as she is causing a great deal of the conflict in the film) but to an extent where I was not enjoying the film as much and I understand films have antagonists but I feel they are not effective when the viewer is put off the film because of them. However, overall it was good, it is likely to make you cry quite a lot but if you are not into cliché romance films, you probably won’t like it.

7/10.
KEY SCENES:

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT

·         Danny first sees Ariana in the café
·         Their first date and playing the piano together
·         Ariana talks in front of her Mother
·         Ariana slaps her Mother
·         Ariana’s Mother kicks Danny out of her party
·         Danny gets terminal cancer
·         Danny’s death
·         Ariana listens to Danny’s CD of music he composed for her.

COMPARABLES: Short film: The Most Beautiful Thing. In Your Eyes


PROGRESSION OF KEY CONTRIBUTORS:

Matt Thompson went on to direct Bloodline (2013) and has recently completed a short film called Zombie Talk.

Kent Moran has gone on to act in: Down on the Ground (short-2010), Inspiration of the Past (short-2012), Contest (2013), The Challenger (2015) and Regret (2015).

ANY OTHER BUSINESS?

“The idea of the movie came to Kent Moran in a dream. He dreamed about the story for two weeks, writing notes each morning, and wrote the first draft of the screenplay in just two days. The final draft is very close to the first.”

“Lisa Benner, who plays Marianne, was the only actor that knew sign language before the movie. Alexia Rasmussen and Kent Moran both had to learn quickly for their roles. They did so with the help of Lisa and a sign language interpreter.”

Film of the week: Star Wars: The Force Awakens










COULSDON COLLEGE: MEDIA TEXT INFORMATION SHEET
TITLE:
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
YEAR OF PROD:
2015
TYPE:
FILM
TELEVISION
DOC.

MUSIC


ADVERT


MUSIC VID.
OTHER:

DIRECTOR
J.J. Abrams

PRODUCER
J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Kathleen Kennedy
WRITER
J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan, Michael Arndt. Based on characters created by George Lucas.
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Lucas Film Ltd.
Bad Robot Productions.
KEY CAST
/ARTIST
Harrison Ford (Hans Solo), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO).
KEY CREW
Music: John Williams, DP: Daniel Mindel, Editors: Maryann Brandon, Mary Jo Markey and Production Design: Rick Carter, Darren Gilford.
GENRE
Action, Adventure, Fantasy
BUDGET
$200 million
BOX OFFICE
$1.161 billion
THEMES
Friendship, betrayal, love, revenge, teamwork, good vs evil, destruction, rage, death, torture, redemption.
AWARDS


NARRATIVE:

The IMDb description:

“30 years after the defeat of Darth Vader and the Empire, Rey, a scavenger from the planet Jakku, finds a BB-8 droid that knows the whereabouts of the long lost Luke Skywalker. Rey, as well as a rogue stormtrooper and two smugglers, are thrown into the middle of a battle between the resistance and the daunting legions of the First Order.”

My opinion on the film:

I had previously only seen two Star Wars films and they never really appealed to me so when Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released, I did not really intend on watching it. However, I did end up watching it and it exceeded my expectations. Before watching it, I had seen so many positive comments on social media regarding the film so I did go in with high hopes. I thought the storytelling was brilliant and I understood it the whole way through which was good as I did not know much about Star Wars and it was great to see some familiar characters such as C-3PO. Personally for me, the cinematography is what made the film outstanding, it was beautifully shot and I was completely transported into their world. There were too many stunning shots and compositions for me to pick out just one favourite but an example is the wide shot of the bridge which Hans Solo and Kylo Ren are standing on- this was shown near the end. So the camera and special effects apartment have done an incredible job. I watched it in 3D which was good to start with but then I got a bit of a headache and it probably would have looked better in 2D but I’m not complaining because it was still great. I would recommend you to watch it whether you are a fan of Star Wars or not.

8/10.


COMPARABLES: All the Star Wars films.

PROGRESSION OF KEY CONTRIBUTORS:

Since Star Wars: The Force Awakens, J.J. Abrams is working on a lot of projects:

Portal (Producer-announced)
Half Life (Producer-announced)
Westworld (Executive Producer- filming)
11.22.63 (Producer- filming)
Valencia (Producer- post production)
Star Trek Beyond (Producer-post production)
Roadies (Executive Producer- pre production)
M:I 6- Mission Impossible (Executive Producer- filming)
Untitled Cloverfield Sequel (Producer-announced)



ANY OTHER BUSINESS?

“The production had a preference for using real locations and miniature models over green-screens and computer-generated imagery whenever possible in order to make the film aesthetically similar to the original Star Wars trilogies.”

“Mark Hamill claimed George Lucas nonchalantly told him over lunch a new Star Wars trilogy was going to be made by Disney, and if he did not want to be involved, Luke Skywalker would simply be written out of the script. However, Hamill immediately agreed to reprise the role. Hamill admitted, however, that he pretended to also be nonchalant about it so it didn't seem like he was excited for the role.”