Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

Nothing beats a good 70's/80's Spielberg film, particularly ones about alien invasions! and 'Close Encounters of The Third Kind' (1977, Spielberg) didn't disappoint. With a budget of $18 million, it grossed over $300,000,000 !

The first signs to suggest alien life forms occur with an arrival of pilotless planes that went missing thirty years previously appear and a lost cargo ship materialises in the Gobi desert. This is followed with a series of blackouts in Muncie, Indiana.

The aliens are first seen by 3 year old Barry Guiler, who is woken by his toys moving in the night. They are then encountered by electrician Roy Neary who becomes obsessed with investigating these UFO's. The story follows the abduction of Barry, and the obsession of Roy's plan to discover the aliens, eventually ending in a musical conversation that results in a meeting between the humans and aliens.

As with 'ET' ( 1982, Spielberg), Spielberg sets much of the film at night. The unknown of the darkness implying a sense of mystery surrounding the aliens. The bright lights of the UFOs being out of place in the previously peaceful darkness of the night. Further to this, the audience never sees the aliens until the big reveal! (Sorry for any spoilers!) and it is implied that only Barry has seen them, the night he was woken up by his toys playing on their own.

During the communication scene, Spielberg creates energy in a variety of ways. Firstly, the music played by the humans gradually gets faster and faster. This increased pace helps to build energy and excitement, a sense of anticipation as to how the aliens will react. The use of lighting and colour also helps to create energy. The flashing lights of the spaceship are warm colours, implying that these aliens are friend not foe. The use of music as communication also creates a happy atmosphere, the music is oddly uplifting, creating a sense of excitement as it seems the human race are about to take a step forward, they have made an incredible discovery, giving the feel of a typical entertaining family Spielberg film.

Although the aliens themselves perhaps could have been a little more creative and perhaps a little more believable! the warming meeting of the two races creates a feeling of peace, perhaps a theme Spielberg likes to explore as there are similar feelings towards extra terrestrials displayed in 'ET' which was released 5 years later.

My favourite movies are late 70's/80's family productions. They are imaginative and easy to watch as well as generally being upbeat and enjoyable and Close encounters fits this category perfectly!



McCullin

'McCullin' (2012, David Morris, Jacqui Morris) is one of the most interesting films I have seen in a long time but at the same time one of the most moving and difficult to watch. It documents the work of war photographer/ photojournalist Don McCullin. The film follows the development of his career over three decades. What started out as a passion (photography) became a full time job, but one full of risk and danger.

The most impacting line of the film for me comes when Don recalls the time he was not invited to photograph one of the wars later in his career, but then suggests that this was not a problem as there would be another war for him to go to. His drive to capture the truth of war in photographs was incredible. Where there was a war, he was there. As noted by a few of the interviewees, unlike other photojournalists, Don would stay for the duration of military operations, living in the warzone alongside soldiers for up to two weeks, regardless of the danger it put him in (He was once shot, but this never discouraged his enthusiasm).

The photographs shown in the film are horrific and it is difficult to imagine being in such a situation, they only reveal a tiny fragment of what living in a warzone would be like. All the photos capture perfectly the truth, McCullin only once set up a photo, laying a fallen soldiers possessions around his body, however he claims that was a one off, only done to convey a deeper human meaning, this was a man with family, with people worth fighting for.

McCullin dislikes the term 'war photographer'. He took the photos to convey a truth, capturing war as it really was. However this lead to several difficult situations for him. He would often be taken to  places by local people to see people in unbelievable situations, but sometimes he struggled to find the reason for his visit as some were too difficult to photograph. McCullin took care in what he photographed and was respectful in his approach. He tells stories of murders happening in front of him, but of which he would not shoot.

Morris uses a mixture of archival footage and talking heads with McCullin narrating much of the film. A great contrast is created between McCullin now- shot in his home, and the black and white war photos. It creates an almost unreal feeling, that such horrors could occur, creating a greater impact on the audience, making the film more moving.

The black and white photographs suggest a reality, the gritty truth of war providing an insight to the viewer of life in a warzone, which was exactly what McCullin was trying to do. Revealing the horrors of war in the aim of discouraging it.

The voiceover of McCullin himself draws the audience to feel part of his story. The talking heads provide a personal feel that makes the audience feel as if they know Don, immersing them in the film. It feels like a conversation with him.

McCullin now photographs landscapes, as highlighted by the long shots of him walking through the British countryside. It suggests a  peaceful end to his career, his escape from the tragedies he has witnessed. Although it isn't an easy watch, this film is well structured to create an insightful documentary. It reveals McCullin not just as a photographer but as a genius. He knew the exact moments to take a photo, one frame to reveal an entire story, making him the greatest war photographer of all time.

The Abyss

I was on the phone to my uncle the other day discussing underwater camera work, he mentioned that I should watch 'The Abyss' (1989, James Cameron), by coincidence when I switched the TV on that evening, 'The Abyss: Special Edition' was showing! So I decided to sit down and watch all 3 hours of it!

I was expecting this film to be a little bit darker than what it was, saying that, there were some scenes containing floating dead body's and exploding equipment due to the huge pressure (sorry for any spoilers!), but it was actually a much 'happier' story than I was expecting.

After a US submarine sinks a team on an oil rig are recruited to search the wreckage. Whilst exploring the darkest depths of the ocean, they come across an exotic species living at the bottom of the ocean. Unlike the usual aliens terrorising the planet, these aliens are peacemakers attempting to stop war occurring amongst the human race.

This film has a claustrophobic feel about it, I found myself holding my breath along with the characters as disaster follows disaster! A hurricane, a betrayal and several deaths! One of the most heart wrenching scenes is when the only way of escape for husband and wife Lindsey and Virgil Brigman is for Lindsey to drown herself with the hope of being revived the other end.

Almost the whole film is located beneath the waves, giving this film a unique and distinctive feel. It was filmed in one of NASA's pools with the surface being covered in black ping pong balls to create the eerie darkness of the ocean floor! The use of close ups also helps to build the feel of being trapped beneath the waves in the darkest depths of the ocean.

The special effects throughout are convincing, particularly the scene where the alien life form mimics the humans on board the submarine, moulding its water like material to match the faces of the crew on board. 

The only criticism I would have about this film would be the reveal of the alien spaceship during the final sequence. Personally I would have preferred the mystery of the alien life form to be left to the imagination, saying that however this is a fantastic film that I would definitely recommend watching.

Canon DSLR

After working with DSLR cameras at college, I decided I would buy one myself to improve the quality of my films. I purchased a canon 650D with a 18-55mm lens and a fixed 50mm lens.


I knew the basics from college but had never been brave enough to fully explore the cameras features for fear of breaking it! but now I had my own, I had the opportunity to do so!


There are hundreds of different settings and I could ramble on for ages! Instead I will mention a few of my favourites.


Probably the most helpful id the moveable display screen. It flips away from the camera and rotates making particularly low and high angle shots much easier to get right. There is also the option to switch between the display screen and the viewfinder when taking photographs.

Aside from the physical features, there are also several in-camera features to enhance the footage. I recently filmed a music video in monochrome, without having to add effects during editing. My favourite photos are those that are in black and white so instantly adding the effect gives me the finished product straight off!


The ability to alter ISO and aperture can help to create a variety of moods within shots - bright and happy, dark and tense before editing has even begun.


I recently purchased a shotgun mic to accompany my camera. So far its working great! It attaches easily to the camera and provides clear sound much louder than that recorded by the cameras internal microphone.


This is my favourite piece of equipment and to  anyone looking to get into photography or film I would definitely recommend this product. For me the additional recording switch to the on/off button makes putting the camera into film mode a lot quicker which is why I chose the 650D as opposed to the 600D. I hope to invest in more lenses in the near future, the first on my list being the micro lens for extreme close up photography!

Go Pro

I purcahsed a Go Pro a couple of years ago and its one of my favourite pieces of equipment. So far I have used it on a bodyboard in the sea and on a bike helmet, filming a bike ride around bike tracks but I can't wait to use it for more!  I have the HD Hero 2, so since then more advanced models have been released!

I have been able to use the HD Hero 3, which is slightly smaller than the HD Hero 2 and also has the feature of remote control use. Of the two, I prefer the Hero 3, but the Hero 2 is just as good in quality terms (1080p) .

I bought the motorsports edition, which comes with 3 or 4 changable mounts, and suction cup mount for use on car windows etc. My uncle actually built me a camera boom which works by attatching the suction cup mount and camera to a ping pong paddle shaped panel at one end! This helps with pans and high angle shots. I would also like to get the chest harness mount for use when cycling. These cameras do not have a display screen, but they shoot with a fish eye effect, meaning they will pick everything up when pointed in the right direction. I don't find having no display screen an issue, but there is a detachable display screen that you can buy separately if it is something that you need.

There is also a case designed for filming in 3D. The case consists of holding two go pro cameras, one upside down the other the right way up. I think this is a really cool idea and one day in the future would love to give this a try!

I am signed up to the Go Pro website, so am often emailed with amazing videos taken from other people around the world. My favourite videos  are  of people skydiving in squirrel suits and surfers from within the wave, the quality these cameras produce is just amazing! They work really well both above and below water! If possible, I would definitely recommend buying one or even two of these cameras!. They are small enough to take anywhere and everywhere and I always have mine on hand. They are constantly developing new models and equipment which is definitely worth looking into!

The latest release is the HD Hero 4 Session which is half the size of previous models. It comes with the same range of mounts but only has one button, unlike other models, making action shooting much easier. At the moment, I wouldn't have any use for this particular model, however I hope to become more involved with water sports in the future, and so may consider investing in one of these soon!

Highest Grossing Films of All Time

Obviously, the main aim of making a film is to make money, aand I wondered, is there a link between the top ten highest grossing films of all time?

Top Ten Highest Grossing Films Of all Time: (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/)

Rank	Title	Studio	Worldwide	Domestic / %		Overseas / %		Year^
1	Avatar	Fox	$2,788.0	$760.5	27.3%	$2,027.5	72.7%	2009^
2	Titanic	Par.	$2,186.8	$658.7	30.1%	$1,528.1	69.9%	1997^
3	Marvel's The Avengers	BV	$1,518.6	$623.4	41.0%	$895.2	59.0%	2012
4	Furious 7	Uni.	$1,511.6	$351.0	23.2%	$1,160.6	76.8%	2015
5	Jurassic World	Uni.	$1,416.4	$572.5	40.4%	$843.9	59.6%	2015
6	Avengers: Age of Ultron	BV	$1,384.1	$454.8	32.9%	$929.3	67.1%	2015
7	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2	WB	$1,341.5	$381.0	28.4%	$960.5	71.6%	2011
8	Frozen	BV	$1,274.2	$400.7	31.4%	$873.5	68.6%	2013
9	Iron Man 3	BV	$1,215.4	$409.0	33.7%	$806.4	66.3%	2013
10	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	P/DW	$1,123.8	$352.4	31.4%	$771.4	68.6%	2011

Now, the first thing I know I look for in a film is the genre. Everyone has a preference so does this have an effect on the gross of the film?
In the number one spot is 'Avatar' (2009, Cameron), this is classified as a Sci-Fi adventure film. There seems to be a trend for action/adventure films in the top ten;  'Marvel's The Avengers' (2012, Whedon), 'Furious 7' (2015, Wan), 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' (2015, Whedon), 'Iron Man 3' (2013, Black) and 'Transformers: Dark Of The Moon' (2011, Bay). This seems to be the preferable genre, maybe this is because it offers an escape from the real world. They represent locations and situations that will not happn in our own lives, we become immersed in another place, perhaps making these films more popular.

Stars are also a huge part of films. Often, the films starring the most famous actors are more popular than those who cast relatively unknown actors. 'Titanic' (1997, Cameron) stars Leonrado DiCaprio, who previous to this film was famous for playing Romeo in 'Romeo and Juliet' (1996, Luhrmann) and Kate Winslet whi had starred in both Television and Films previous to 'Titanic'. This may have been a large factor in driving this film to the highest grossing film of all time before 'Avatar'. Other films may have also benefitted from star power: 'Furious 7' -Vin Diesel and 'Jurassic World' (2015, Trevorrow)- Chris Pratt.

It is not just the cast that can draw an audience to a film,  directors could also be considered the driving star power behind the film. 'Avatar' and 'Titanic' were both directed by James Cameron. Before 'Titanic', Cameron was known for directing several films such as 'Aliens'(1986) the sequel to Ridley Scott's 'Alien' (1979) . He was well known, and by the time of 'Avatar' was already a huge success. Fans of Cameron are likely to want to watch his films, this may drraw in a larger audience, along with fans of the cast e.g. Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. Joss Whedon, Director of the Avengers films, was not only a writer (with credits including Toy Story) but was also a director of TV ( 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' (1996-2003), 'Firefly' (2002)). He was already well known in the film industry, so was likely to have already had a large following, making his films more popular than others.

Saying this however, 'Avengers' is part of the Marvel franchise, meaning it may have attained the same amount of popularity regardless of the director. The Marvel films are hugely popular worldwide with all ages, starring big names such as Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson. The same can be said fo 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2' (2011, Yates). This is the final installement to the Harry Potter franchise, which was already a global phenomenon in both books and film. It is now the 7th highest grossing film of all time, and in my opinion this is due to the gradually building of success of the other Harry Potter films.

There is one film however that seems to subvert all the trends noted above. This is 'Frozen' (2013, Buck and Lee). This is another of Disney's more modern princess animations, personally I preferred 'Tangled' (2010, Greno and Howard) but 'Frozen' seems to have taken the world by storm, with 'Frozen 2' in the line up for production. Maybe it was due to its slightly different storyline, set in the icey cold rather than the usual disney forests, or the humourous characters of Olaf, Christoph and Sven but this film surprised everyone with its huge success. It was not just the film, but the soundtrack that was massively successful. After it was released it was difficult to to avoid hearing 'Let it Go' on an almost daily basis!



So, I think genre and stars are the main drivers behind a films success, however sometimes films such as 'Frozen' defy the rules and result in a hugely unpredictable success!

Information Sources

I write a lot of stuff on personal opinion after watching a film, however a lot of the ideas behind the blog posts come from places such as Empire Magazine.

I have been subscribed to Empire magazine for over a year and a half and have built up quite the collection! The articles I most look forward to are the 'On Location' and the 'How much is a pint of milk?', but they are always full of interesting topics, for example the latest issue named Indiana Jones the top movie charater of all time, with a whole section dedicated to the top 100 voted characters of all time. I love recieving and opening the magazine in the post, waiting to see what the next cover will look like! It keeps me up to date with the upcoming films and allows me to develop my

knowledge of the film industry.
- http://www.empireonline.com/

Figures regarding years and directors come from one of my most visitied websites IMDb! You can type in any film, even those in production and can find out the year of release and the director. Further to this you get a short or long summary of the film, plus a full list of all cast and crew. This is particularly helpful when writing about the films I have seen!
- http://www.imdb.com/

Finally, I also use Box Office Mojo for figures regarding the amount films have grossed, it ison this website that the highest grossing films of all times exists! and is good to read through even when I'm not trying to find figures for my blog! There is also the option to find out what the highest grossing film over the weekend was, or the highest grossing film domestically making this another of my favourite websites!.
- http://www.boxofficemojo.com/