MYST #3 Obsessed (2009)

For another one of my MYST projects, I decided to watch the movie Obsessed (2009) directed by Steve Shill. The director Steve Shill I know from the television series ER that was on television form 1994 to 2009. My parents always watched this show and when I was old enough, I started to watch it too. This was my favorite television show and I would watch it religiously. Steve Shill is also a director of the popular television series, Law and Order.

This movie is about a family with a husband, Derek (Idris Elba), and wife, Sharon (Beyoncé Knowles), and their little baby. They just moved into a new house and are very excited to get started with their new lives. When Derek goes to work there is a new temporary worker, Lisa (Ali Larter) who begins to start drama. The plot thickens as Lisa spreads rumors and starts to be “obsessed” with Derek.

While watching Obsessed, I noticed a few things that stuck out to me.  The camera angles were one thing that I noticed repeatedly. There were many different camera angles in this movie. One that I noticed that was used a lot was the camera angles that are straight on and from the shoulders up. This was used a lot when the characters were talking to each other.  Another shot I noticed was the close up angles. These angles were used when the scenes were suspenseful and creepy.

The lighting of this movie was not anything special. Most of the lighting was natural light. A lot of the scenes took place using natural sunlight to light up the rooms. There was one scene that took place at night that I thought was different. Since it was a night scene, most of the screen was dark. But to have light in this scene to see what was happening, a blue tinted light was used. It looked fake to me because it was so blue, but I think they just needed to have some light in the scene so the audience was able to see what was happening.

There was one scene that I saw composition in. When Derek and Sharon were talking in Derek’s office, Lisa walks in on their conversation. Derek is sitting on the left side of the screen and Sharon is sitting on the right side in the foreground. There is an empty space between them in the background until Lisa walks in the door and she stands right between them. I thought that was cool how they planned that out to have it look like Lisa was splitting them down the middle.

Overall, I thought this movie was so creepy. Lisa goes beyond what is normal and it is scary. I really liked Beyoncé in this movie. This was the first movie that I had seen her in. I would give this movie 3 stars out of 5. It was action packed but really creepy the things Lisa did to try and be with Derek.

Film Group Project

Our movie starts out with a murder in an apartment building in London. At this time, the main characters (Bela Lugosi and MaeClarke) who are newlyweds have just moved into their new apartment on floor 13 upon recommendation of a friend (Eric Blore). After Mae Clarke is very suspicious of her husband being the killer, the actual killer, Eric Blore strikes again and kills yet another innocent person.

The director of this film is James Whale. James Whale is an English film director who is best remembered for his horror movies. His most famous movies are Frankenstein (1931) and The Old Dark House (1932). In 1931, James Whale signed a five year contract with Universal Studio.

This film we created is a suspense and horror film. We decided to choose a horror film for this time period because this was around the time of the Great Depression. Many people who went to the movies at this time went because it “provided an effective escape to audiences tiring of their Great Depression” stress (Horror Film History).  The audience wanted to see things that would take their minds off the reality of their lives.

The studio we have picked is Universal Studio. We chose Universal because in 1935 it was known for their work on horror films. Universal “made its name with horror pictures of this time” (Horror Film History).  This studio is not one of the “big guys” rather, it was part of the Little Three including Columbia and United Artists. Therefore, this is a smaller scale movie on a smaller budget.

We picked our cast very carefully. The main actor is Bela Lugosi. Bela Lugosi has had previously smaller roles in films of this time even though he was signed with Universal. We decided to take a chance and give him a big part. The main actress is Mae Clarke. Mae Clarke is a very famous actress of this time. We chose her to be in our film because we want to focus on her discovery of who her husband really is and who he might be. The supporting actor of this movie is Eric Blore.  Eric Blore was a “nobody”. We chose him to be the bad guy in our film because we don’t want the audience to think he is the bad guy. Everything in the film will lead to the audience thinking that Bella Lugosi is the bad guy, but in the end, it’s the guy who no one will suspect who is the actual killer.

The Hayes code played a part in what we could and could not put in our film. The Hayes Code has many specific rules that include no murder or profanity. Since we made a horror film, we had to take into consideration both of these rules. We can and did not show any brutal murders. Most of the “killing” scenes need to be inferred. Since we did not show anything murderous, we did not give anyone any ideas on how to kill. There is no bad profanity in our film either. This makes it more accepted for everyone.

If I had to do this film project on my own, I would change a few things. One thing I would change is the supporting actor. Right now we have Eric Blore as our supporting actor because he was not well known at all and we think the audience will not suspect him as the killer. I think we should cast a female as the supporting actress because I have a feeling that a female would be even less suspicious in this type of film.

MYST #2 Zoolander (2001)

Zoolander (2001) has many popular actors. Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, and Will Ferrell were the few that I knew as soon as I saw them. Ben Stiller not only stars in this movie but he also directed it. For some reason I could not stop thinking about how Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson played together in Night at the Museum (2006) directed by Shawn Levy. This movie was completely different than Night at the Museum, but the two actors together brought back memories of the other film. This movie was a little on the stupid side in my opinion, but it was funny at certain parts. Over all, I would give this movie 2 stars.

Most of this film had the same kind of shots and angles. The most used shot was definitely the medium shot. Most of the movie was shot from the waist up. Of course there were some other shots, but this was the one most used. Other shots and angles I noticed were full body, close ups, shoulder up shots, low angle shots (looking up at character) and shots walking with the characters. Whenever I see the shots walking with the characters, I look for the track in the background that the camera rolls on (like the video we saw in class). I also noticed that the lighting was always very strong. There was not very many times when there were low light scenes. Most scenes looked as if they had natural light and they were filmed outside. Finally, I noticed some composition in this film. In one scene in particular, Owen Wilson is on the right side of the screen in the foreground and Ben Stiller is in the background on the left side. The screen is very balanced, but I thought it was cool how I actually noticed composition in a film.

All in all, I thought Zoolander (2001) was a weird movie. Ben Stiller talked in such a strange way, that I felt like I was becoming less intelligent listening to him talk. Even though there were a few parts where I laughed, it was because there was a stupid joke or someone did something stupid. I think this movie is for people who enjoy dumb comedy films such as Blades of Glory (2007) or Balls of Fury (2007).