Oscar Nominations!

This year’s Oscars is already set to be a departure from the norm, just like last month’s Golden Globes. Having swept the Golden Globes and so critically acclaimed (and timely), Slumdog Millionaire seems to be the preordained winner of the upcoming Oscars. My confidence in the film has been affirmed by the 10 nominations that it received. Prior to these announcements, I wasn’t sure whether it would be as successful at the Oscars because there, those who vote are mostly from Hollywood and the US. The Golden Globes, by contrast, is comprised of foreign delegates from all around the world, thus lending it a more cosmopolitan taste. So I had reason to speculate that maybe Slumdog wouldn’t be as successful here. Thankfully, it was. Onwards to Best Picture!

The nominations seemed different to me for another reason as well. Blockbuster Hollywood films also entered the pool of nominees this yeara, with The Dark Knight claiming 8 nominations (not just in technical categories!) and Tropic Thunder got a nomination too! (for Robert Downey Jr.’s role as a supporting actor) Is this good news? Of course it is! There is no question that these two films are quality films. These nominations, along with those of Slumdog Millionaire, show that the Academy no longer views “Oscar-worthy” films through the same parochial lens, nominating only dramas with Sean Penn crying in them :O

Also, I was most interested by the Best Documentary nominees. Unlike for other categories, these are often lesser known movies. And given the fact that there are so many of them, it is so hard to sort through which ones are good, which ones are not. The Academy has reliably choosen good ones in the past, and so I let their selections in this field turn me towards films more than in any other category. This is a great way to help often obscure documentary filmmakers get international attention. Plus, documentaries are just so much more worth watching!!!

Reflections on the Reverse Engineering Unit

One of the things that I’ve so far learned in this unit is that filming is hard. Technical planning itself took lots of time and effort to plan out a film, especially for a project that required us to work with a previous director’s work. Adapting the screenplay from a movie about gangsters with amnesia into one about our student, Josh, with straight Fs wasn’t easy either. The shotlist and the storyboard were also challenging because of the intricate camera work in our film. We spent a few weeks working on just the technical planning, and in that time, I realized how much strict adherence to method came into filmmaking. Not just an art, it is also a science. I learned that good films aren’t made by just a couple of kids with a camera, an idea and some free time: these all have to be channeled into a project even more meticulously organized than those in other subjects. Though we haven’t begun filming ours yet, I learned through being an extra in the reverse engineering of Mr. Woodcock that one minute of screen time can amount to so much more time in filming. We often found ourselves being set up into elaborate positions only for shots that last a few seconds. If they were bad shots (someone being out of shot, or someone bursting out laughing), then we had to refilm them. And then I came to school with a different colored T-Shirt as last time. So in order to maintain continuity, I had to borrow another shirt from ATAC. And while all this was going on, the “Mr. Woodcock” group was sticking to the procedure and used their technical planning resources: script, storyboard, shotlist, shotlog. We did all this all for the final product, a clip that should be no more than 2 minutes. Still, that should be the longest 2 minutes of my life. Without even beginning our own filming for the reverse engineering of “Lucky Number Slevin”, I’ve already had the idea of planning and procedure chiseled into my head, and now appreciate how much effort comes into creating the final product. I hope it’s going to be worth it! 😀

Awesome Trailers at the Golden Globes

As a film student, I must admit with SHAME that I haven’t seen many movies this year, what more those nominated at the Golden Globes. That made watching the Golden Globes a different experience for me. It was like watching an anthology of the year’s best trailers, each of which, despite their brevity, got the point across that this was (or should be) a great movie! It looks like I’ve got a lot to catch up on.

I liked “Frost/Nixon”, a historical drama, because it was a historical drama. Then there was “The Wrestler”, supposedly this year’s “Raging Bull”. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, supposedly this year’s Forrest Gump. And then, there was “Slumdog Millionaire”, which wasn’t this year’s anything. It could be compared with to nothing else in film history. An Indian/British one, a fourth in Hindi with an Indian cast isn’t the typical Golden Globe award winning film.

I’m definately putting “Slumdog Millionaire” at the top of my post-Golden Globes must-see movie list. To be so great that it not only won four Golden Globes (hard enough), but had to face down several other barriers to get there–that has got to say something on how great it is. Kinda like, you know, Barack Obama becoming President… All the more reason to watch it!!!

My 3 Top Films (that in watched in 2008)

CITIZEN KANE (released May 1, 1941)

Aristotle said that man is a political animal. Orson Welles’s “Citizen Kane” captures that through revolutionary cinematography that effectively presents the film’s plot, following the rise and fall of protagonist, Charles Foster Kane.

 

THE DARK KNIGHT (realeased July 17, 2008)

Though I’ve heard the story many times, Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” engaged my imagination through its mysterious plot, unfolding at the right pace, and its realistic portrayal of characters like The Joker.

 

CHANGELING (released October 31, 2008)

Angelina Jolie’s Oscar-worthy performance and the convincing portrayal of 1920s Los Angeles (through set, costume design, etc.) made “Changeling” seem real. But its timeless corrupt government theme appealed to me the most.