Category Archives: Friday Fundas

Friday Fundas

Friday Fundas: High Concept

High Concept – refers to an artistic work that can be pitched very easily. For example movies that could be promoted easily with a one line premise generating enough interest in people wanting to watch it. One of the most popular movies with a High Concept narrative is Jurassic Park. The movie had a high concept narrative based on what if dinosaurs could be re-created. Mostly high concept narratives fall into the pattern of “what-ifs”. Movies like King Kong, The Matrix, Inception, E.T are all movies with high concept narration. High Concept movies are not just limited to western movies it has been very popular in the Indian Cinema as well. Some of the popular High Concept movies are 12B which dealt with what if you were to see alternate lives of a person by getting onto a bus or missing a bus. Ghajini is another popular high concept movie where in the audience where intrigued by the fact that a person with short term memory loss is trying to seek revenge. Most of Shankar’s movies are high concept movies Nayak (Mudhalvan) is a good example of this which dealt with what if a common man is made the Chief Minister for a day. His recent block buster Endhiran is another high concept movie which dealt with the concept of what if Robots have emotions.

Mostly you would see that the promotion of High Concept movies is very simple as the concept itself is sufficient enough to draw people. Jurassic Park just had a dinosaur logo in its poster. Ghajini had the protagonist picture sitting with tattooed bare body. The marketing of the high concept movies follow the guidelines of “the look, the hook, the book”.

The look: how it is visually appealing to the public. Aamir Khan / Suriya’s look for Ghajini eight pack / six pack abs, tonsured head, and tattooed body.

The hook:  the attracting force for the public. How a person with short term memory loss can seek revenge?

The book:  how the movie is promoted. Before the release of Ghajini many of the multiplexes had their ticket counter personnel sporting Ghajini hair style.

Source Wikipedia

Friday Fundas

Over the shoulder shot

Over the shoulder shot is a filming technique in which a shot is taken in an angle that is gazing onto the character from over a shoulder of a different person with whom the subject is talking to. The back of the person, shoulder and the head is used as a frame the image of the scene. Although this sounds simple a lot of planning needs to go before this shot is taken like which side of the frame should the shoulder occupy and how much it should occupy so that the relevant emotions of the character in focus is shown.

This shot is very useful when you need to have the character not focusing into the camera and delivering a dialogue. Having the shoulder of the other person in the frame also intensifies the interaction between the two characters. Maniratnam had used this technique to a great extent in the movie Thalapathy for the interactions between Mamooty and Rajnikanth. It places equal importance between the two characters and also exemplifies a high degree of emotion.

Thalapathy
The scenes of interaction between Mamooty and Rajinikanth were mostly taken as over the shoulder shot

Maniratnam had also used this in Nayagan to show Kamal Hassan’s reaction for his grandson’s question “Neenga Nallavara Kettavara” (Are you a good person or a bad person) over the shoulder of the kid. K Balachandar had used this in many of his movies to highlight the emotions in the face of the main character and also to intensify the scene. The following still from Ninaithale Innikum is an example of it.

Jayaprada
Over the shoulder shot to intensify the interaction between two people.

It could simply be used to change the point of perception or to focus the attention on the main character in the scene. The following scene in the movie God Father is an example of this where over the shoulder shot is used to reinforce the presence of other people in the room and also focus is given more on Don who watches out of the window. The object of focus is in the center of the frame avoiding distractions from the right half enhances the focus on the action of the character.

God Father
Over the shoulder shot used in God Father to change the point of perception and avoid distractions

This can also be used for hiding the identity of the character like an unknown person not relevant to the plot talking to the main character or a mysterious person talking whose identity may be revealed later.

A simple and ordinary scene can be made interesting through the angle of the shot. The skill of the director and the cinematographer is involved in choosing one from a varied set of options for the camera angle. Over the shoulder shot is definitely a powerful one which has been used very aptly by many great film makers. Next time you watch a movie watch out for the camera angle in which a shot is taken.

Friday Fundas

Inspiration of Rajni’s Famous Cigarette Scene from Ninaithale Innikum

In Ninaithale Innikum there is a comedy sequence of Rajni getting into a bet with a rich man.

Rajini Throwing Cigarette
Rajini Throwing Cigarette

The bet is as follows he has to throw the cigarette into the air and hold it by his mouth 10 consecutive times. If he does that he would win the Toyota car of the rich man, if not he would have to part away with his little finger. The scene is so gripping at the same time so hilarious, backed by some brilliant performances. Factually the scene is inspired from the short story Man from the South written by Roald Dahl. The only difference being in the short story the bet is about lighting a cigarette lighter continuously for 10 times with just one click. Alfred Hitchcock included this as an episode in his TV Series “Alfred Hitchcock presents“. Later this was re-made into the opening episode of Dahl’s show “Tales of the Unexpected” in 1979 and again re-made in 1985 for “Alfred Hitchcock presents” series in color.

So many people had shot this sequence with different actors, the value of suspense and holding the audience or reader to the seat with a very simple plot is a brilliant piece of work by Roald Dahl.

Friday Fundas

Epistolary Movies

4 Comments

Epistolary Movies – The term is based epistolary novels. This refers to a particular style of writing the screenplay. In this style the story is narrated as a series of letters or diary entries. In the modern day this could be a series of text, audio or video blogs.

Writers used this technique mainly to avoid a third person narrative in their scripts. This gives the opportunity for the writer to narrate the story in first person. Many popular movies have employed this technique either completely or in parts to make an effective screenplay. The recent movie The Lunchbox is an epistolary movie script where the main plot moves through the exchange of letters between the lead characters. James Cameron had used this in Avatar for narrating the incidents on the Pandora Island through the protagonist’s video blog. Ghajini is an example of epistolary script which is through a list of diary entries. In comparison to a character narrating it to the audience or another character this gives a more realistic and effective timeline jumps as it covers only highlights which are inherent nature of letters or diary entries.

Friday Fundas

Dark Comedy or Black Comedy

2 Comments

Dark Comedy – Also referred to as Black comedy is a genre of movies which deals with very serious subject in a lighthearted manner. Usually the serious subject involves difficult and hopeless situations in life like death, crime, natural disaster, war and so on.  It is also used to deal with subjects that are usually considered as taboo and causes discomfort among the audience if told normally. The use of comedy lightens the mood and it becomes a powerful medium to convey the most difficult things across and is thought provoking.  Some of the popular movies in the recent times that employed dark comedy and has been successful at the box office are Delhi Belly, Inglourious Basterds, Avan Ivan.

Friday Fundas

Friday Fundas: Inspiration for Avatar

In the 2009 hollywood blockbuster Avatar the Na’vi’s the inhabitants of Pandora had a blue body, tall, with four fingers in each of their hand. In a 2007 interview with Time magazine, James Cameron  said “The name Avatar is an incarnation of one of the Hindu gods taking a flesh form. In this film what that means is that the human technology in the future is capable of injecting a human’s intelligence into a remotely located body, a biological body.” His inspiration for this appearance of the Na’vi was from a dream his mother had. She had seen a blue skinned woman who was 12 feet tall which he considered to be apt for Na’vis.  He said ” I just like blue. It’s a good color … plus, there’s a connection to the Hindu deities, which I like conceptually.”

The floating “Hallelujah Mountains”, was an inspiration from the karst limestone formations in China. According to production designer Dylan Cole, the fictional floating rocks were inspired by Mount Huang (also known as Huangshan), Guilin, Zhangjiajie. James Cameron had noted the influence of the Chinese peaks on the design of the floating mountains.

Cameron said  “the Na’vi represent something that is our higher selves, or our aspirational selves, what we would like to think we are” and that even though there are good humans within the film, the humans “represent what we know to be the parts of ourselves that are trashing our world and maybe condemning ourselves to a grim future”

Source: Wikipedia

The movie was a treat to watch and the one that had re-defined the movie experience for the audience…!

Friday Fundas

Friday Fundas: Bullet Time

1 Comment

Bullet Time: It is a special and visual effect technique in which a row of still cameras are used to capture the scene. They are activated either simultaneously or with a phase lag. Later these frames are digitally assembled together to produce an effect of changing the view point of the audience in an orbit going around the scene. Bullet time is a trademark of Warner Bros. This technique although had been in existence for a long time, it was popularized by the film The Matrix released in 1999. One of the unique points of the film was to show bullet time visuals of the actions happening inside the Matrix. In particular the scene in which Neo escapes the stream of bullets fired towards him had been very popular.

The technique although dates back to the 19th century even before cinema. The Californian governor had engaged in a debate on if all the legs of the horse is in the air when it gallops. To settle this Eadweard Muybridge had done some experiment with still cameras taking the picture of galloping horse by arranging the cameras along the race track  and each camera was actuated by a taut string stretched across the track; as the horse galloped past, the camera shutters snapped, taking one frame at a time. He then arranged the photographs in on a glass disk and spun it in front of a light source. Could this have been the inspiration for Thomal Alva Edison to invent motion pictures?

Now this technique is being used in Free viewpoint Television (FTV)  in filming live shows.  At the time of The Matrix FTV was not mature… the filmmakers still did an wonderful job of creating a whole new experience.

Source: Wikipedia

 

Friday Fundas

Friday Fundas: Dolby Atmos

Dolby Atmos – Dolby Atmos is the latest surround sound technology from Dolby Laboratories. Unlike its predecessor Dolby 7.1 it takes away the burden of mixing overheads from the movie makers. They need not now mix for specific set of speakers in a particular location in a theater. This can support up to 128 discrete audio tracks and 64 speakers. The power of the technology is that it can produce life like sound for movies. There are overhead speakers mounted on the ceiling which creates more immerse sound effects. This gives the option to pan the sound effects of helicopters and rain which would create much more realistic effect than before.

This technology was introduced in April 2012 and is fast picking. It is much better than the Aura sound technology. This was first employed in the movie Brave. Later many of the movie production houses are using it. This was first installed in the Dolby theater in California and is now becoming popular in many theaters world wide. In India SPI cinemas  is one of the cinema chains who are upgrading some of their cinemas with Dolby Atmos technology. This was employed in Indian movies Shivaji 3D, ABCD: Anybody can dance, Nautanki Saala and you will see this being used in the upcoming Tamil movies Thalaiva and Pizza II Villa as well. This technology is currently targeted for commercial cinema houses and later it might be made available for home cinemas.

Get ready to get immersed in a real life like sound.

Friday Fundas

Friday Fundas: Establishing Shot

3 Comments

Establishing Shot

This is a term used in Film Editing. An establishing shot is a shot that sets the context in the movie. This is used very effectively during the editing process. For example if the story or plot involves the characters in Malaysia then a view of the Petronas tower would be a establishing shot. Post this the scene of two people discussing in a coffee shop would set the context for the audience that the scene is happening in Malaysia. In reality the shot might have been actually taken elsewhere but through the establishing shot the appropriate illusion is created.

In the movie Chandramukhi some of the shots in were caned in Mysore Palace but through establishing shot of the house the audience believed the set up was actually inside the house. In many movies you might have seen the shot of a flight landing or flight take off as an establishing shot to show the scene has transferred between locations. This technique was particularly used in old movies extensively. However in the new movies this is used to a lesser extent. A simple technique if not used correctly audience loose the context of the screenplay.

Friday Fundas

Friday Fundas: Cult Movie

3 Comments

Cult Movie

Often you hear people referring to certain movies as cult movies or cult classic. What does it signify, what are cult movies? Well there is no definite answer to this as this is largely debated for its classification. However there is a widely accepted definition for a cult movie which we can look at…

A cult movie is normally identified by the audience take on the movie. You would see there is a sub community of people who follow appreciate the movie, recite dialogues from it and watch the movie several times. Such a movie would be classified as a cult movie. Usually the cult movie may not do well at the box office but later through TV viewings it might become popular with a sect of people. However this is not a generalization. There are very popular cult movies in the mainstream cinema as well.

Another stark characteristic of a cult movie is its transgression. The movie does not follow the normal path between the good and the bad, but presents a entirely radical scenario in front of the audience that is beyond their imagination. Sometime the different scenario creates a very disturbing effect that it is difficult to accept for many people and appeals only to sect of people thus eventually becoming a cult classic. Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Shawsank Redemption,  Gods Must be Crazy are few examples of cult classics which made well in the mainstream cinema as well and appealed to a wider audience.

The 1990 Amitabh Bachchan’s  Agneepath is a cult classic. The Tamil movie Aranya Kaandam released in 2011 can also be classified as a cult classic. The movie was a flop at the box office but gained popularity among a set of people through TV and DVD viewing.

Friday Fundas

Friday Fundas: McGuffin

2 Comments

McGuffin – Also referred as MacGuffin is a plot device which is used in many of the suspense, thrillers or adventure movies. McGuffin is a plot device which might be any object, place,  person or a goal for which the protagonist is ready to give up anything including life. However in the end it turns out to be unimportant to the over all plot. This has been a very old technique described in literature. The director who made this very popular was Sir Alfred Hitchcock and he used it very successful in many of his movies. If you have seen Hitchcock movies you would understand this very well as he was master of this technique and many new directors are still following this.

Some of the recent movies where this technique has been used very well. In Avatar the unobtanium is the McGuffin. The briefcase in Pulp Fiction, the Crystal Skull in Indiana Jones – The Kingdom of Crystal Skull are other examples of McGuffin. Some of the Indian movies recently used this technique very well. In the blockbuster Kahaani, Arnab Bagchi is the McGuffin, in the recent Tamil movie Pizza the mystery house where the hero delivers Pizza is a McGuffin. Its is a very hard technique and needs to be handled well. The success of the script is all about how the audience like the McGuffin in the plot. If they like it the movie becomes a successful one. You might be able to find many movies where you did not like the McGuffin and hence disliked the movie.

Friday Fundas

Friday Fundas: Three Act Play

7 Comments

3 Act Play – Popularly known as 3 Act Structure is a technique used in writing and story telling. The entire story or the screenplay is divided into 3 parts, the first part involves introducing the main characters of the movie and their situation. Usually in this portion a unusual situation or challenge occurs in the life of the  protagonist and his/her life will not be same for ever. This marks the end of the first act. In films usually this ranges between the first 20 min to 40 min (in case of Indian movies which are long) of the movie. The second act is the build up phase during which the protagonist is on the quest to solve the problem and the situation gets only worsen with no hopes for a solution. This is the lengthier portion of the movie which lasts about 45 min – 60 min at the end of this act usually the protagonist takes a significant step that no one would easily imagine. The last portion is the climax (usually very slick 10 – 15 min) which leads to the final solution to the original problem and ends with the protagonist solving the problem. An anti-climax happens if the problem is not solved in the expected way…

One of the popular Indian movie Don (1978 Hindi film) and Billa (1980 Tamil film) this structure is followed very clearly. The first act ends when the original Don is killed and the street side singer takes up the challenge of posing as Don. The second acts is all about how he infiltrates into the enemy camp and establishes himself and overcomes challenges one after another. The problem gets worsen when the only police officer who knew his original identity is killed and the protagonist takes a extreme step to bring out the truth. The climax  is how he solves it and emerges victorious. It keeps the audience guessing till the end. In the 2006 remake of Hindi Don, Farhan Akthar made changes to the climax portion converting it to an anticlimax which worked brilliantly as the audience were taken by surprise. The success of the screen play involves how well the writer engages the audience in all the 3 phases. If it is not written well or if you see random situations  just thrown in you do not get connected and end up disliking it. Three act play is not the only structure for writing scripts… there are other formats as well and many of the modern film makers like Tarantino, Guy Ritchie use various improvisations over this to treat the audience differently. In the coming week I will write review on a movie which follows 3 Act structure to the book.