Bears in 'The Shining'

After watching 'The Shining' you may have noticed a running theme; bears. Several scenes include the use of bears to premeditate situations or directly contrast with earlier scenes. 

In one of the scenes near to the beginning of the film Danny is lying on his bed being talked to by a psychiatrist. She sits down on his bed and puts her arms over his legs, an important detail I will refer to later on is that Danny is covering his crotch area at this specific point. The conversation between them refers to 'Tony'. 'Tony' being the so called imaginary friend of Danny's, although later on in the film it is clear that 'Tony' is a much darker entity. The beginning of this scene is shot using a long shot to show parts of Danny's surrounding room. Colour connotations of red can be seen, presumably to represent blood but can also link to the love Wendy has for her son as she is getting him this help. Wendy stands against the back wall of Danny's room as if in slight fear of him. All these things are a use of mise-en-scene. Shot-reverse-shot is used during the conversation the psychiatrist and Danny have in his bedroom, this takes place through the use of various close ups to show the exact emotion of the characters face. The entire sequence is shot with high key lighting, unusual for a horror film. The generic horror convention of the use of low key lighting allows darkness to fill a room and shadow to form and dance within the shots but within this sequence there is no sight of dark shadows. But although there are no shadows, the bathroom stool Danny first used when communicating with 'Tony' is slightly visible in the left hand corner. This is a clever use of mise-en-scene as the entire conversation is based around this 'Tony' being. Danny seems to become uneasy when 'Tony' is brought up as if he is subconsciously telling him to stop revealing information. The tone of Danny's voice changes from being quite monotone to distrsseed with a hint of anger like the voice is not his own. 

The meaning of the iconic bear suit scene in the ending half of the film is highly debated among fans of 'The Shining'. This is because unless you actually look into it, it seems like a pointless scene. It is definitely one of the weirder scenes within the film as the bear suit is quite surreal. From the long shot from Wendy's point of view  it is clear to see that the being in said suit is commuting some form of sexual act on the Grady as there is a butt-flap on the suit that is open and revealing a not too flattering full moon. The long shot quickly zooms into a close up of the bears face which is accompanied by non-diegetic music that could be said to mimic Wendy's fast paced heartbeat. It fits the horror convention of non-diegetic music because the music used is high pitched and uses the string section of the orchestra most frequently. This type of music made me feel tense as it penetrated my ears and rattled my brain. The fast zoom could signify the confusion and fear of the situation because when scared, minds race, just like how fast the zoom occurred. Equal to the first scene I discussed, high key lighting is used during this shot. You would think that more low key lighting would be used because it's a horror film and more shadows could be created to inject fear into its audience. 

Linking the two scenes together is the tie of bears. Also, if 'The Shining' is played both forwards and backwards at the same time then overlapped both scenes happen to coinside; evidently the director must have somehow planned this. Again, linking the scenes together, I previously mentioned the important detail about Danny covering his crotch area. This is interesting because obviously in the second scene the sexual innuendo of the sequence is the main theme whilst in the first scene obviously the main theme is childlike innocence and protecting the sanctity of bears being a childhood item. Subtly, all of the details of each sequence directly contrast with one in the other. This could suggest that Danny was abused by someone, possibly Jack, as is represented by the bear; the bear meaning to be a symbol of someone Danny thought he could trust to look after him. Even the use of mise-en-scene with the door way or exit is showing before a close up. This signifies that there is time to escape but once a conversation has started or a particular detail has been noticed it will be much more difficult to make it leave your mind. 

I believe that both scenes affect the audience differently as everyone is an individual. It will confuse some but terrify others, it all depends on how you perceive things and how far you look into them once the credit roll. Although the average film goer is most likely not to notice these similarities and differences within two sequences or even how alike some shots are filmed, subconsciously, their brains will be making small links that they will understand once they really think about it. There are so many conspiracy theories out there about 'The Shining' it's hard to know where to start, but the use of bears in my opinion is definitely one of the most obvious ones. 

In conclusion, I personally think that all these links to bears in the film do have deeper meaning. Deeper meanings are what get an audience interested in a movie a lot of the time. People like clever plot twists even if they don't realise they're there. The sheer amount of thought that goes into directing such an intricate film is outstanding. 

Inside Out

My favourite film I saw this summer was Pixar's 'Inside Out'. Although it was marketed as a children's film it was in fact very clever. I have thought of several interesting series about this movie. The movie shows the five main emotions: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust. The character of Joy seems to be in control of Riley's mind but when both Joy and Sadness go missing Riley is left with only Fear, Anger and Disgust to run her. This brings her into conflict with her parents a lot since they moved to a new state. I believe that losing Joy and Sadness was a metaphor for depression as depression is not always just being sad. A lot of the time it is repressing the two extremes and lashing out with anger. Obviously sadness is also a key feature, hence why I'm assuming the Pixar animators made sure Sadness touches Riley's 'core memories' to make them sad; yet another link to depression. Another theory about Riley is that she might be transgender. This is because she is in fact the only character to have both male and female emotions whilst everyone elses emotions are the same as the gender identity.

The emotion running the mother's mind is Sadness whislt the father's is anger. This could also link to mental health issues. The father seems, throughout the film, calm and collected even though Anger is the one controlling his mind. This could suggest bipolar disorder or something as simple as anger issues.

I feel like using the characters in 'Inside Out' in counselling sessions would work incredibly well because then the person could arrange their 'mind' to show what emotion they think controls them. Some people are too shy or simply do not know how to put their feelings in words so being able to simply point out what they're feeling would make the process a lot easier I believe.

I think it is important to show kids and teach them about mental illnesses to avoid prejudices later in life. I enjoyed this movie a lot as it had a clever plotline, beautiful animation and a fair few relatable scenes. Pair that up with a good cast and some funny jokes and you've got yourself a good old-fashioned family friendly movie. You're never too old for Pixar movies! The clever colour scheme also helps children identify which character is which and motion. Red is for anger presumably because of the colour a person's face would usually turn when I angry, yellow is for joy because it is a bright colour to match the sun, green is for disgust which also links to envy, blue is for sadness because for some reason the colour blue has always to my knowledge been a colour connotation of sadness, and finally purple is for fear because maybe when you clench your fists in fear your fingertips turn a bluey purple.

In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this film no matter of your age. It was very interesting and well thought out.

Jurassic World

There is no denying 'Jurassic World' was a box office hit. The 'Jurassic Park ' franchise never seems to fail at exciting the public. Eventually, like all things, people will unfortunately grow tired of dinosaurs but today is not that day. Although some new dinosaurs may have been added on actors changed the plots never disappoint. The first 'Jurassic Park' movie was truly cinematic genius with effects that were far more advanced than its time. A mixture of anamatronics, suits and CGI dinosaurs were used to complete this iconic film. Any close-ups on the velociraptors were mostly actors in hand painted silicone suits for a better effect; the only scene in 'Jurassic World' in which the velociraptors are not actors in full body suits is when they're shown feeding near the beginning of the movie. They are CGI raptors but actors were stood in their places so the animators knew where to put them. The velociraptors in the 'Jurassic Park' franchise or not even velociraptors but in fact are called deinonychus, a lesser known fact.

A film's success is measured and how much it makes at the box office, how many awards it wins and how popular it appears to be online. 'Jurassic World' made $1 billion in only 13 days at the box office, the fastest film to do so ever. It beat 'Furious 7' as it made it $1 billion in 17 days earlier on in the year. So far the film has brought $402.8 millions to the U.S box office alone. 

The 'Indominus Rex', I feel, was the main reason why 'Jurassic World' had so much success. Just like the movie suggests, a new dinosaur always attracts more people. Just like in 'Jurassic Park 3' when the spinosaurus was introduced. 'Jurassic World' claims that the 'Indominus Rex' was the park's first hybrid when technically all the dinosaurs are hybrids. According to the first 'Jurassic Park' instalment the dinosaur DNA code was not complete so the gaps were filled with frog DNA. The 'Indominus Rex' is a T-Rec crossed with a velociraptor but also has chameleon characteristics. This means that it can camouflage itself and regulate body temperature. 

There were a few mistakes in 'Jurassic World' that I am surprised more people have not picked up on. For example, in the 'Indominus Rex's' enclosure there is a large glass window. For a dinosaur that can easily break through huge steel gates, a glass window should not have been able to contain it. Especially when it supposedly has the higher intelligence of the velociraptor. So if a film's success is measured by it mistakes, 'Jurassic World' might not have been so popular. 

In conclusion, although 'Jurassic World' had its fair share of mishaps, it's clever plot lines and talented cast made sure it pulled through. Just like how 'Jurassic Park 1' all began with a T-Rex, 'Jurassic World' ended with one; a clever Easter egg for long-term fans. 

B Movie reflection

Personally I believe more could have been done to ensure the success of our movie. Unfortunately due to lack of teamwork and time we did not have much to go on. I planned out the storyboard, found the locations available for filming, directed and acted within this abomination of a scene. In hindsight, more planning should have gone into this sequence as what we have is just a mash-up of shots with no particular meaning and comprehendible story. The idea was to film a horror movie sequence in which someone was being pursued by a supernatural force but it more looked like just a male in a hoodie nonchalantly watching another person mind their daily life. The concept and storyboard alone were both good ideas and executed to the best of my ability within the given time limit and ongoing pressure to complete said tasks.