Film Inspirations

I will be looking at two other films for inspiration:
1. The artist (Silent film)
2. Amelie (French film)

I will be looking at The artist because it is a silent movie and I am deciding whether or not I want to include verbal interaction between my characters. I will be looking at how the director has played on the use of music with no verbal interaction between the characters but with their expressions. Music can be a very powerful source in a film as it can be used to tell a story and I really want to explore this to see whether I can incorporate this into my own production.

I will be looking at the unique visual style of Amelie to give me inspiration of how I can make my piece visually appealing and help strengthen my cinematography.


Stephanie Ndubuokwu x

Film example.... Alfred Hitchcock Vertigo 1958 (Scene)

This film is called Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock. What I love about this scene is that Hitchcock changed the music a lot to fit the mood of the scene and the characters. At the beginning it’s very orchestral and soothing to show their emotion and the love they have for each other, then the music builds and the violins get stronger and sharper. This was to show that something bad was about to happen. The music builds to create an atmosphere for the audience to keep them engaged in what is going on in the scene. Basically in this film the male character that you see (Detective Scottie) has vertigo which is the fear of heights. As he is climbing up the stairs running after the female character Judy he looks down and as he does this the camera pulls up away from the floor giving it more of an elongated look, making him seem higher from the floor than he actually is. This was a very good camera trick Hitchcock used to create more of the feel of vertigo and perspective distortion. Hitchcock was known as the master of suspense and with this he chose the right music to put into this particular shot as he used very fast paced sharp orchestral music to give of this effect.

This is the perfect example of the direction I would like my film to go towards. I would like to be able to use music and camera angles to create a certain effect and create an atmosphere for my audience. I love things that have meaning. I love it when in movies characters do not have to speak but the music, their expressions and the camera angles tell the story for them.

Stephanie Ndubuokwu x