This has been my experience with a few of the experimental films I studied. In particular, a film that I struggled to watch was Food by Jan Svankmayer. I found that this experimental film made me uncomfortable as I didn't like the noises that the characters made. Because it made me feel uneasy, I found it hard to appreciate Svankmayers work. In Svankmayers film Food, the dinner time scene where the two gentlemen appear to be at war with each other and they get impatient and due to their hunger and lack of ability to wait, they start eating their shoes and eventually their clothes. The two men are sat opposite each other and are dressed in considerably different clothes. It is a clear representation of class, as one man is dressed very well, clearly upper class, and the other man is dressed in rags, clearly lower class. I felt that Food was not as good as some of the other experimental films I watched, and that it was overrated and it is ostentatious.
A film that I liked was Body Song by Godfrey Reggio. I found this to be a very well made piece of work and thought that it carried a very strong message. Although some people find it difficult to watch, I appreciated that it was a long film, made from found footage, that span over 100 years.
Friday, 10 May 2013
Monday, 11 February 2013
Ideas - Autism
Four photos about a child with a form of autism called Echolilia - this means that they have a compulsion to repeat things. I will start the pictures in order, top left first, then top right, then bottom left, then bottom right. The same sequence will be repeated one after the other in each box.
I will mix still images and moving images.
My work will be set out so it looks like this:
Star Guitar - Chemical Brothers, directed by Michele Gondry
Mad World - Gary Jules, directed by Michele Gondry
Everlong - Foo Fighters, directed byMichele Gondry
Around The World - Daft Punk, directed by Michele Gondry
Lucas With The Lid Off, directed by Michele Gondry
I will mix still images and moving images.
My work will be set out so it looks like this:
Star Guitar - Chemical Brothers, directed by Michele Gondry
Friday, 8 February 2013
Aims and Context
Type of film/text:
- Experimental film
Target Audience:
- Arty people, cultured people who appreciate art
Technical Aspects Used:
- Still images
Genre/Narrative Codes Applied:
- Travelling, means of travel
Influences:
- Michel Gondry, Candace Plummer Gaudiani
Individual or Group Project:
- Individual
Issues/Theories Explored:
- Modes of travel
Monday, 3 December 2012
How useful has a particular critical approach been in gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of your chosen film? (30)
I think post modernism is useful in understanding Fight Club because it offers depth and meaning to the film. There are other critical approaches and topics such as the argument of crisis of masculinity or Freud's idea of the Id and the ego. Post modernism is the topic that i think is most applicable to this film.
The house on Paper Street is an example of intertextuality, which is post modern, because it has been copied from Psycho which copied the house from a painting by Edward Hopper. The inside of the house is copied from Hitchcock's Psycho, it is laid out similarly to the house in Psycho. This is a copy of a copy of a copy, which means that the same idea has been used and used multiple times. The house is meant to represent how society doesn't last, the house in the painting is painted nicely, and then when it is used in Psycho, the house becomes dirty and used and abused and then in Fight Club, the house is entirely ruined, an eye sore.
Fight Club is post modern because the characters make it known that it is a film. This is called surfacing, when Edward Norton faces the camera and talks to the audience while Brad Pitt edits a film reel at a cinema. The editing is done so that it looks as though it's been filmed on an old film reel, with shaky camera techniques and spots of light. Pitt and Norton both talk to the camera as if talking to audience when they're explaining what Pitt does at the cinema to make a living.
An example of irony is when the characters refer to Jesus and God. When Norton asks Marla to get on the coach and get away from the city, he stops the coach by stepping out in front of it and putting his arms out, standing like a crucifix. This is ironic because Norton's character is not God and he is not Jesus. This is an example of irony because within his community in Fight Club, Norton/Pitt is perceived as a Godlike figure, as the leader of the group.
Fight Club pays homage to Forest Gump, A Clockwork Orange and Psycho. Tyler shouts at some 'run, Forest, run!' and there are many references to A Clockwork Orange, for example, when Tyler goes to Marla's flat and stands next to a set of draws and knocks the phallus so that it wobbles. This is paying homage to films that have offered influence to Fight Club.
Fight Club is a hybrid film that mixes drama and action. This is an example of post modernism because hybrids are a relatively new genre of film.
The house on Paper Street is an example of intertextuality, which is post modern, because it has been copied from Psycho which copied the house from a painting by Edward Hopper. The inside of the house is copied from Hitchcock's Psycho, it is laid out similarly to the house in Psycho. This is a copy of a copy of a copy, which means that the same idea has been used and used multiple times. The house is meant to represent how society doesn't last, the house in the painting is painted nicely, and then when it is used in Psycho, the house becomes dirty and used and abused and then in Fight Club, the house is entirely ruined, an eye sore.
Fight Club is post modern because the characters make it known that it is a film. This is called surfacing, when Edward Norton faces the camera and talks to the audience while Brad Pitt edits a film reel at a cinema. The editing is done so that it looks as though it's been filmed on an old film reel, with shaky camera techniques and spots of light. Pitt and Norton both talk to the camera as if talking to audience when they're explaining what Pitt does at the cinema to make a living.
An example of irony is when the characters refer to Jesus and God. When Norton asks Marla to get on the coach and get away from the city, he stops the coach by stepping out in front of it and putting his arms out, standing like a crucifix. This is ironic because Norton's character is not God and he is not Jesus. This is an example of irony because within his community in Fight Club, Norton/Pitt is perceived as a Godlike figure, as the leader of the group.
Fight Club pays homage to Forest Gump, A Clockwork Orange and Psycho. Tyler shouts at some 'run, Forest, run!' and there are many references to A Clockwork Orange, for example, when Tyler goes to Marla's flat and stands next to a set of draws and knocks the phallus so that it wobbles. This is paying homage to films that have offered influence to Fight Club.
Fight Club is a hybrid film that mixes drama and action. This is an example of post modernism because hybrids are a relatively new genre of film.
Friday, 16 November 2012
Annotated Catalogue
How does Christopher Nolans Batman differ from
other interpretations of the character/film?
Annotated Catalogue
FilmsItem 1: The Dark Knight (2008) (Christopher Nolan, focus film 1)
'The Dark Knight' is the second film in Nolans' Batman trilogy. This film is my first focus film because it offers a more up to date interpretation of the Batman franchise. This trilogy is the latest instalment of the Batman franchise and 'The Dark Knight' was the most anticipated movie of the year. I have chosen to use 'The Dark Knight' as my focus film to answer my question because this is the middle film of Nolan’s trilogy and strings together a lot of the story. The cast and characters of this film are easily compared to the characters of other Batman films because they are all in other films. This film offers a more realistic interpretation of the source comic book material. This film is substantially more modern and almost hyper-real in the way that it brings to light real issues in the real world. For example there are aspects of terrorism and political issues which makes this film more relatable and closely linked with the times in which it was made. In some respects, this film is philosophical. It has deep meaning in the way that it focuses on the actions of people and the affect it has on the world - it is like Nolan is giving out a message that the real world needs a hero like Batman.
Item 2: Batman (1989) (Tim Burton, focus film 2)
Tim Burton’s 'Batman' is my second focus film because it is a good comparison to Nolans 'Dark Knight'. Burton’s Batman was the darkest of the 'Batman' franchise and Nolan has notably been influenced by it. This is my second focus film because it is very easily compared to Nolans 'Batman' as they are similar in the way each director approached to films. This was the first 'Batman' film to offer a darker, more gothic feel, probably due to the auteur technique of Tim Burton. Another notable comparison between the films is Burtons Joker compared to Nolans Joker. The scars on Burtons Jokers face are very unrealistic, very surreal and clearly fake, they are not very believable and they leave a lot to be desired. However, the scars on Nolans Jokers face are more realistic in the way that they are not as heavily made up and they don't look fake and unbelievable. Nolans Joker is very much a realistic and is notably more humanised than Burtons Joker.
Item 3: Batman and Robin (1997) (Joel Schumacher, focus film 3)
Joel Schumachers 'Batman and Robin' is my third focus film because it is very different to the other two films. This is not a dark and gothic take on the franchise, it is "purely entertainment" [Source ]. This is easily compared to my other two films because of the different interpretation of the film making the characters and situations into a very camp style. Schumacher even took the originally smart, formidable character of Bane and turned him into a cave-man-esque caricature which is a far cry from Tom Hardy's performance in Nolans 'Dark Knight Rises'. I will use this to compare with because it offers a different style of film making. It uses bright colours as opposed to the dark tones that Nolan and Burton used. This gives the film are more comic book feel to it and also gives it a camp, cheesy feel to it in the way that it is entertaining. This focus film was regarded as an insult to the 'Batman' franchise, whereas the others were this. This will make a good focus point in my discussion.
Magazines
Item 4: Total Film Magazine issue 198 October 2012 (interview with Tim Burton)
In this interview, Burton says that when he made his Batman, the dark gothic style of it was almost too much but when he looks at Nolans Batman now, he thinks how tame his work is and how much more boundary pushing it could have been. He realised how, at the time, his work was very 'out there' and controversial but now it is not as the audience has been desensitised. and refers to it as 'Batman on ice' because it is constantly changing and constantly out doing the previous one. This is good because it shows that Batman is forever changing and developing. This interview is useful as it offers Burtons opinion about his movie and the other directors movies. This shows Burtons perspective and offers an insight into his thoughts.
Item 5: Total Film Magazine issue 194 July 2012
This discusses a comparison of sorts between every Batman film that's been made. It offers reviews about each film, and says that The Dark Knight had large boots to fill, but managed it with ease. I will be using this because it offers different arguments for each film, for example, there is a table on page 78 that shows how much each 'Batman' film made; 'The Dark Knight': $1,001,921,825, 'Batman': $411,348,924, 'Batman returns': $266,822,354, 'Batman Forever': $336,529, 144, 'Batman and Robin': $238,207,122 and 'Batman Begins': $372,710,015. It also gives another Tim Burton article in which, again, Burton says that Batman broke new boundaries and that Nolans Dark Knight was ground breaking in the way that The Dark Knight is a graphic novel film as opposed to a comicbook movie. The Dark Knight features themes such as terrorism and morals, and is very dark and features a character that is associated with being 'an outlaw'.
Interviews
Item 6: Christopher Nolan Interview (http://movies.about.com/od/thedarkknight/a/darkknight70408.htm)
In this interview, Nolan tells how he admires Burtons 'Batman' and appreciates that at the time it was made, Burtons 'Batman' was ground breaking and an entirely new level of the dark and mysterious 'Batman'. This is useful because Nolan goes on to say how Burton was an influence and inspiration on him in the way that he wanted his Batman to be dark too. It is also useful because it offers comparison as both directors' Batman characters are similar but have their respective differences. Nolan says how he wanted to make his Batman dark and intriguing and mysterious as Burtons Batman, if not more so. Nolan also says that he thinks his Batman is a slightly more surreal interpretation. This interview shows Nolan appreciates Burtons Batman as much as Burton does Nolans Batman and also shows why his Dark Knight was developed to keep up with the dark mood for contempory audiences.
Item 7: Interview with Michael Keaton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruJ3mq6CrLc
This is a YouTube clip of an interview with Michael Keaton. This is useful because it gives an insider’s opinion on his Batman film, for example, Michael Keaton says in response to the statement that Batman was the biggest thing either of them had done in their several years in the show business, Keaton says 'nothing is bigger than this one' and Burton says: 'i've been in the show business 35-40 years and this is the biggest thing i've ever gone'. They both offer reasons why they enjoyed being part of Batman, they mention that being in England was one of the best parts of being in the film, and Keaton says he was 'pretty knocked out by the enormity of it' which supports my question because it gives insight into Burtons Batman in the way that Burtons Batman was 'groundbreaking'.
Item 8: This is an interview with Tim Burton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q87kv6CpyOM
Interview with Tim Burton about his Batman film. This clip shows Burton talking about why he made the film the way he did, dark, gothic and considerably different to how the franchise was presented in the comics, TV shows and previous older films, and what influenced him. This shows Burtons creative thinking behind his Batman film and what thought processes went into making it. Burton says that 'it needed a different energy' and 'doing it in a different place and with different people helped to create a different feel' and 'there's something about these characters that's very compelling in the world of night and the coolness of it'. Burton makes clear that he wanted to give the Batman franchise a 'different energy', and did so in his trademark way.
Reviews
Item 9: Review of Burtons Batman and Schumachers Batman
http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/how-tim-burton-and-joel-schumacher-took-a-visionary-approach-to-batman-lpalm.php
This website offers a comparison between Burtons Batman and Schumachers Batman and Robin. It goes into detail about how successful each film was and the difference between both. Schumachers Batman and Robin had a very camp feel to, it was very comicbook and colourful and cheesy, it was very much entertainment whereas Burtons Batman was very dark and gothic and very surreal, Burton is very much an Auteur and this is made evident in his Batman as majority of his other films are also dark and surreal. It also offers comparison between Burtons other films as well as Batman. It also says how Schumacher didn't carry on from Burtons gothic Batman and instead went in an entirely different direction with it. This is good because it offers another different opinion about the Batman films and compares Burton and Schumacher.
Item 10: Video comparing Batman Begins to The Dark Knight
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x-jZwnczTmI
(Fan video comparing Nolans Batman Begins and The Dark Knight - excuse the bad language)
This YouTube video shows a man, that is a big Batman fan and movie buff, giving his opinion on Nolans first two Batman Films. He compares the story, villains and action in both the films and gives his opinion on which he prefers. I can use this because it is another person’s opinion on The Dark Knight and it offers different arguments for different elements of the film. This is useful as it offers a different insight into the the films from a modern, contempory fan that appreciated Nolans approach to the character and praises him.
Item 11: Review of Joel Schumachers Batman and Robin
http://viewerscommentary.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/special-review-batman-robin-joel-schumacher-and-the-inevitable-taco-bell-analogy/
This review supports Schumachers Batman and Robin by offering arguments in Schumachers favour, these arguments defend Schumachers choice to return the franchise to it's original cheesy, colourful, comicbook feel. This offers explanation for what Schumacher did and his reasoning. His reasoning was that he wanted to put 'style over substance' and quoting the review: 'There was no way that Joel Schumacher was aiming to be anywhere near a serious tone for Batman & Robin.' becuase he wanted to film to be more like the comicbook it originated from. It also shows that not everyone had an opposed view of the film and that some people liked Schumachers entertainment value.
Item 12: Film review of Schumachers Batman and Robin
http://www.cornponeflicks.org/batrobin.html
This is a review that doesn’t support Schumachers Batman and Robin. This talks about how Schumacher didn’t take the Batman franchise seriously enough and that he should never have made the film. It talks about how it wasn’t just Schumachers fault that 'Batman and Robin' was so bad but that he should have known better. Among this, there were multiple reasons the film was a failure, for example, viewers opposed the costuming - the rubber nipples for example and they also opposed the way that Schumacher took away Banes villainous masculinity and made him weak and stupid - he posed no threat to Batman during the film. This displeased Batman fans because Bane was the complete opposite in the comicbooks and Schumacher ridiculed him.
Pictures
Item 13:
Image of Nolans Batman taken from Google Images
Image of Nolans Batman web-address
This poster shows all the villains in Nolans Batman. This helps to answer my question because Nolans Batman had the most villains in his films than the other Batman films did. This supports the views on Nolans Batman Trilogy as Nolans three films are the films with the most real threat and suspense and the characters are the most realistic and offer more from the films.
Item 14: Item 13:
Image of Nolans Batman taken from Google Images
Image of Nolans Batman web-address
This poster shows all the villains in Nolans Batman. This helps to answer my question because Nolans Batman had the most villains in his films than the other Batman films did. This supports the views on Nolans Batman Trilogy as Nolans three films are the films with the most real threat and suspense and the characters are the most realistic and offer more from the films.
Image of Schumachers Batman taken from Google Images
Image of Schumachers Batman and Robin web-address
This shows Jim Carey as The Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face. This is Schumachers interpretation of two Batman villains. This is comparable to Nolans Batman because Two Face is also in Nolans Dark Knight. This explores the portrayal of the character as it is comparable to Nolans Batman picture and Burtons Batman picture. These images offer a chance to reflect on the mood of each film by looking at an image of the films and it also shows how Schumachers is so marginally different to the others.
Item 15:
Picture of Nolan taken from Google Images
Image of Nolan web-address
Item 16:
Image of Burtons Batman taken from Google Images
Image of Burtons Batman web-address
This is an image of Burtons Batman and The Joker. This is comparable to Nolans Batman because The Joker is one of the most important villains in The Dark Knight. I am able to compare not only the performances of the actors, Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson but also the interpretation. The interpretation of both films are very dangerous and murderous. Burtons Joker is closer to the comics in the way he heavily relies on pranks and jokes and his make up is more comicbook-esque. Nolans Joker is a sociopath who simply enjoys killing. Both directors Jokers have different relationships with Batman - Burtons Joker wants Batman dead at any cost, whereas Nolans Joker is more psychological and recognises that he needs Batman as a protagonist to get what he wants.
Youtube clips
Item 17: YouTube clip of Schumacherhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy4Pg1GRT2c
Schumacher apologises for his ‘disappointing’ Batman and Robin film. This is a YouTube clip that shows Schumachers remorse for his film and shows that he isn’t happy that it didn’t get the response he was hoping for. This shows the real extent of the fans disappointment in the film compared to the love the fans have for the other films. This is made clear by the fact that Nolan is winning oscars and other awards while Schumacher got nothing of the sort.
Item 18: Interview with Heath Ledger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acf_zzzIZQw
Ledger talks about his performance as the Joker, he mentions Burtons film and Nolans film, he mentions that if it’d have been Burton to ask him to play the Joker, he’d have said no, because he didn’t feel capable of reaching the standard that Jack Nicholson set. He says that when Nolan asked him to play the Joker, he jumped at the chance to put his interpretation of the Joker out into the world. He also says that he was not a comic book fan until this film. This also shows how the feel of the film and the character are very far from the comicbook origins.
Item 19: Clip of Heath Ledger as the Joker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8PxG5zvgOM
This shows Ledgers award winning performance as the Joker in Nolans Dark Knight. This is relevant because it shows how Ledger and Nolan worked together to create an entirely new interpretation of the Joker. This is to show that, like Jack Nicholson and Tim Burton, Nolan and Ledger worked together to create a ground breaking performance.
Item 20: Clip of Batman and Two Face in The Dark Knight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJma8pVAvH4
This shows Christian Bales performance as Batman when he comes up against one of the villains; Two Face. This is relevant because it shows Nolans interpretation of Batman and shows how he and Bale worked together, like Nolan and Ledger did, to recreate Batman.
Books
Item 21: Burton On Burton (Book)
This is useful because it offers insight into
Burton, it shows his thoughts behind his films and his inspiration, it offers a chance to understand Burtons style and artistic process and also it shows that there is a method to his film-making in the way that Burton could be described as an auteur, because majority of his films are stylistically similar to each other. He talks about all the films he has made and he mentions Batman. This
explains why he made Batman and how he wanted it to look and that he wanted to
make a new interpretation of Batman. It also allows an insight into the way he makes his film and also he talks about his motives and thoughts.
DISCARDED ITEMS.
- Leslie H. Martinson’s 1966 Batman film starring Adam
West as Batman, based on the TV Program about Batman. Clip of 1960's Batman. I
didn't use this film because it wasn't very modern and my other films are quite
similar in the time they were made and their style.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp94gmtVTfs Christopher Nolan interview this is not useful because I already have interviews with Christopher Nolan that have the same content as this interview. This talks about Batman and his personality and reasoning for becoming the Dark Knight. This was similar to Item 6 and therefore didn't feel the need to use it as Item 6 was more useful and informative.
- http://www.dccomics.com/batman This is the DC Comics
website, it shows Batman through the years. I didn't use this because it
doesn't refer to any of the directors I am writing about.
- The Complete Frank Miller Batman. This book didn't
really offer anything of use to me because my work is nothing to do with Frank
Miller, although he did write Batman comics. I felt that I could use other
items better than this one.
- Website comparing statistics between Nolans Batman and Burtons Batman although this website compares Nolans Batman and Burtons Batman, the films are compared by how many tickets they sold when they came out. This is useful but it doesn't really relate to my work, so I didn't use it. I felt that the other book, Item 21, was more informative and actually relevant to my work as Item 21 is about Burton - one of the directors of one of my focus films.
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Presentation Script
Speaker:
How does Christopher Nolans Batman differ from other interpretations of the
character/film?
Speaker: Nolans Batman: ‘The Dark Knight’ (Item 1) is notably the best of them all; it was the most anticipated movie of the year and of the entire Batman franchise: “Anticipation and escalation were the key words in the build up to, post-Indy, 2008’s most hyped and combustible blockbuster”. Cinematically, the film was stunning; it was beautifully crafted. And the performances were outstanding. It is said that The Dark Knight is not perfect, which is, of course, true, but as Empire says: “It isn’t perfect but then, like its hero, like his late co-star, and as Nolan’s fitting tribute so ably observes, nobody is.” This supports my question because it shows that Nolans Batman is slightly more realistic than the others. Burtons Batman is more comical to an extent and Nolans Batman is more real, comes across as more likely to happen in real life (Item 13). Nolan's Dark Knight comes across as more realistic and threatening because the issues he raises are very close to real life - there are aspects of terrorism in the way that The Joker acts and does things and there is political warfare in the way that Batman and The Joker fight it out for the good of Gotham.
Speaker: As said by Christopher Nolan himself, Tim Burton’s Batman (Item 2) had an influence on Nolans Batman. Nolan has said that he tried to put a twist on Batman and make it a dark, solemn film, similar to Tim Burton’s gothic twist on Batman. That being said, Nolan also claimed that he wanted to do something different with his Batman, raise the standards, he said that where Burton’s Batman was surreal, he wanted to make it more realistic; “certainly if you look at Batman Returns with Danny DeVito as The Penguin, eating the fish and everything, there are some extraordinarily disturbing images in that movie. But they're coming at it from a surreal point of view."(Item 6). He didn't want to copy another person’s film; he wanted to make his own.
Speaker: Tim Burton’s Batman was the first Batman that was dark and moody, having said that, Burton said that his Batman was ‘almost too much, too dark” and referred to it as “Batman on ice”. Burton went on to say that although his Batman was pushing the boundaries and too much for when it was made, that Batman is constantly regenerating and that now it’s very safe and not as shocking (Item 5). Burtons Batman set the bar high for the next Batman films. Burton has a unique film making style, he is very much an auteur, as does Nolan. That is how similar Burton and Nolan are; they both put a dark twist on the Batman franchise. Having said that, Nolan put a slightly different twist on the Batman franchise in the way of splitting the Batman story into three. Nolan incorporated six different villains in the Batman films: R’as Al Ghul, Scarecrow, The Joker, Two Face, Bane and Catwoman; this means that there is more content in his films.
Projector: Picture of Schumachers Batman. (Item 14)
Speaker: Schumachers Batman and Robin (Item 3) was received very differently across different audiences. Schumachers Batman and Robin got a variety of different reviews, some good and some bad. Some claim that Schumacher intended the film to be ‘bad’ and not serious: “Let’s get one thing out of the way: There was no way that Joel Schumacher was aiming to be anywhere near a serious tone for Batman & Robin’; taken from Item 11. But others claimed that it was a ‘waste of money’. And other reviews, for example Item 12, say that the film was bad, as a whole: ‘"What have we done to deserve this?" you might ask. Oh, probably something, but that doesn't excuse this catastrophe.’ This is a very negative review of Schumachers Batman. But having said that, Schumacher has made a recorded apology for ‘disappointing’ any Batman fans, saying it “wasn’t his intention to upset the fans, he just wanted to provide entertainment” (Item 17). None of the other directors have apologised for their Batman films, this shows that none of the others feel their films are particularly bad. In comparison to Nolan's Batman, the villain Bane was portrayed very differently. In Nolan's Dark Knight, Bane was very much interpreted the way he was in the comic book, very big muscles, very much the masculine, smart villain he was meant to be. But in Schumacher's Batman, Bane was depicted as very stupid and small, his masculinity was lost and he was very camp and not a threat. This shows how Schumacher's Batman was very much a comic book, cheesy, camp film whereas Nolan took his Dark Knight very seriously and made Bane very much the main villain in his third and final film. This doesn't directly link in with my question because Bane isn't in my focus film but he is a feature in the trilogy and he is a big topic of conversation in the way that both Schumacher and Nolan used Bane in one of their films and used him in very different ways.
Projector: Clip of Schumacher apologising. (Item 17)
Speaker: With Schumacher apologising for his Batman and Robin film, Tim Burton talks in an interview about how and why he made his Batman film the way he did. “There’s a whole process that goes on that is magical, to see him bring his character to life in make-up and costume” (Item 8). Burton is referring to Danny DeVito and what DeVito had said to him as he was making his film.
Projector: Shows YouTube clip of Tim Burton being interviewed. (Item 8)
Speaker: Heath Ledgers performance in The Dark Knight was the best performance of the trilogy; Empire Film review quotes “The Dark Knight is Ledger’s movie, it is a towering performance” (item 13). Ledger says that he was more than happy to play the Joker for Nolan because Nolan had introduced him to his world and said that he had ideas about how he would present the Joker. This shows that Nolan took a similar approach to Burton by created a world and bringing people into who he knew would be able to bring their own touch to the film. Ledger has stated that he wouldn’t have taken a job as the Joker if Burton had asked him because “to try and touch what Jack Nicholson did in Burton’s world would be a crime” (Item 18). Similarly, Schumacher did something like this too, he had his own idea about his Batman film and he wanted it to be a certain way. By looking at it this way, the films are very similar because the directors had their ideas about the film and knew what they wanted and how they wanted it done. Nolan's Joker was different to Burtons Joker in the way that Nolan's Joker was very much a scheming, smart, sociopathic character who knew that he needed Batman to be alive to get what he wanted. His make-up was not as comic book-esque as Burtons Batman and the performance was very much one of the best of Ledgers career and won him awards. Burtons Joker was very much more erratic and playful, very much a comic book villain, he wanted Batman dead at any cost. Burtons Joker was murderous and had no other aim than to kill Batman. The difference between the Jokers is very clear but both the Jokers fit with their films and their style.
Speaker: In an interview, Nolan talks about how Burtons Batman influenced his own in the way that Burtons Batman was the first of its kind: it was dark and gloomy and had a gothic feel to it. Nolan also says that he didn’t want to do his films the same as Burton did; he wanted to make the film feel darker and deeper, as though there was more to it: “Tim Burton's Batman Returns was typical of Burton's quirky, dark style of filmmaking but with The Dark Knight Nolan outdoes Burton” (Item 6). Nolan offered a back story to the main characters and all of his films linked –with The Dark Knight being where the story develops. “I think the big challenge really in doing a sequel is to build on what you've done in the first film, but not abandon the characters…” (Item 6).
Speaker: Christian Bale and Christopher Nolans interpretation was compiled by both Bale and Nolan, like Ledger and Nolan worked together and like Burton and Nicholson worked together, to create a new version of Batman that would be just as influential as Burtons Batman was and as Schumachers Batman could have been. Nolan has said that Burtons Batman was a big influence on his ideas of what Batman should be like, but Nolan also said that he wanted to put his own stamp on the comic book hero and would try to reach Burtons standards, if not beat them. Nolan wanted his Batman to be more philosophical and have more morals and be more humanised, in the respect that he would have a conscience and also would not want to do anything but save Gotham from the dangers of villainous people.
Speaker: The Dark Knight is not as much a graphic novel as Burtons Batman is. Schumachers Batman is not at all a graphic novel film. Compared to Burtons and Nolans Batman films, Schumachers is light and bright whereas Burtons in particular is a dark and gothic. Nolans Batman is dark and mysterious to an extent too but it is said by Nolan himself that his film and Burtons film are two different kinds of dark. An interview with Michael Keaton (Item 7) explains that Burton had a particular idea of how his Batman was going to be and how he wanted it. This is similar to Nolan because Nolan was very particular too.
Projector:
Shows pictures of Tim Burton’s Batman. (Item 16)
Projector:
Shows picture of Joel Schumachers Batman and Robin. (Item 14)
Projector:
Shows picture of Christopher Nolans Batman. (Item 13)
Speaker: Nolans Batman: ‘The Dark Knight’ (Item 1) is notably the best of them all; it was the most anticipated movie of the year and of the entire Batman franchise: “Anticipation and escalation were the key words in the build up to, post-Indy, 2008’s most hyped and combustible blockbuster”. Cinematically, the film was stunning; it was beautifully crafted. And the performances were outstanding. It is said that The Dark Knight is not perfect, which is, of course, true, but as Empire says: “It isn’t perfect but then, like its hero, like his late co-star, and as Nolan’s fitting tribute so ably observes, nobody is.” This supports my question because it shows that Nolans Batman is slightly more realistic than the others. Burtons Batman is more comical to an extent and Nolans Batman is more real, comes across as more likely to happen in real life (Item 13). Nolan's Dark Knight comes across as more realistic and threatening because the issues he raises are very close to real life - there are aspects of terrorism in the way that The Joker acts and does things and there is political warfare in the way that Batman and The Joker fight it out for the good of Gotham.
Projector:
Clip of Christopher Bales performance as Batman. (Item 20) -When Two Face has
kidnapped Commissioner Gordon’s kid and Batman throws himself and Two Face off
the roof to save the child-
Speaker: As said by Christopher Nolan himself, Tim Burton’s Batman (Item 2) had an influence on Nolans Batman. Nolan has said that he tried to put a twist on Batman and make it a dark, solemn film, similar to Tim Burton’s gothic twist on Batman. That being said, Nolan also claimed that he wanted to do something different with his Batman, raise the standards, he said that where Burton’s Batman was surreal, he wanted to make it more realistic; “certainly if you look at Batman Returns with Danny DeVito as The Penguin, eating the fish and everything, there are some extraordinarily disturbing images in that movie. But they're coming at it from a surreal point of view."(Item 6). He didn't want to copy another person’s film; he wanted to make his own.
Projector:
Picture of Burton’s Batman. (Item 16)
Projector:
Picture of Nolan’s Batman. (Item 13)Speaker: Tim Burton’s Batman was the first Batman that was dark and moody, having said that, Burton said that his Batman was ‘almost too much, too dark” and referred to it as “Batman on ice”. Burton went on to say that although his Batman was pushing the boundaries and too much for when it was made, that Batman is constantly regenerating and that now it’s very safe and not as shocking (Item 5). Burtons Batman set the bar high for the next Batman films. Burton has a unique film making style, he is very much an auteur, as does Nolan. That is how similar Burton and Nolan are; they both put a dark twist on the Batman franchise. Having said that, Nolan put a slightly different twist on the Batman franchise in the way of splitting the Batman story into three. Nolan incorporated six different villains in the Batman films: R’as Al Ghul, Scarecrow, The Joker, Two Face, Bane and Catwoman; this means that there is more content in his films.
Projector: Picture of Schumachers Batman. (Item 14)
Speaker: Schumachers Batman and Robin (Item 3) was received very differently across different audiences. Schumachers Batman and Robin got a variety of different reviews, some good and some bad. Some claim that Schumacher intended the film to be ‘bad’ and not serious: “Let’s get one thing out of the way: There was no way that Joel Schumacher was aiming to be anywhere near a serious tone for Batman & Robin’; taken from Item 11. But others claimed that it was a ‘waste of money’. And other reviews, for example Item 12, say that the film was bad, as a whole: ‘"What have we done to deserve this?" you might ask. Oh, probably something, but that doesn't excuse this catastrophe.’ This is a very negative review of Schumachers Batman. But having said that, Schumacher has made a recorded apology for ‘disappointing’ any Batman fans, saying it “wasn’t his intention to upset the fans, he just wanted to provide entertainment” (Item 17). None of the other directors have apologised for their Batman films, this shows that none of the others feel their films are particularly bad. In comparison to Nolan's Batman, the villain Bane was portrayed very differently. In Nolan's Dark Knight, Bane was very much interpreted the way he was in the comic book, very big muscles, very much the masculine, smart villain he was meant to be. But in Schumacher's Batman, Bane was depicted as very stupid and small, his masculinity was lost and he was very camp and not a threat. This shows how Schumacher's Batman was very much a comic book, cheesy, camp film whereas Nolan took his Dark Knight very seriously and made Bane very much the main villain in his third and final film. This doesn't directly link in with my question because Bane isn't in my focus film but he is a feature in the trilogy and he is a big topic of conversation in the way that both Schumacher and Nolan used Bane in one of their films and used him in very different ways.
Projector: Clip of Schumacher apologising. (Item 17)
Speaker: With Schumacher apologising for his Batman and Robin film, Tim Burton talks in an interview about how and why he made his Batman film the way he did. “There’s a whole process that goes on that is magical, to see him bring his character to life in make-up and costume” (Item 8). Burton is referring to Danny DeVito and what DeVito had said to him as he was making his film.
Projector: Shows YouTube clip of Tim Burton being interviewed. (Item 8)
Speaker:
Tim Burton talks about his stylistic ideas about his film, and mentions that he
wanted the film to look a certain way. He was very precise about how he wanted
the film to look. This is very similar to Nolans Batman, because Nolan was also
incredibly clear about how he wanted his film to look, and he was also very
precise about how it was to be made and what was to go into it. Burton says 'it needed a different energy' and says that 'doing it in a different place and with different people helped to create a different feel', he says that he wanted to use the characters in a different way, saying: 'there's something about these characters that's very compelling in the world of night and the coolness of it'. He says that he wanted his film to but shot at mostly at night because he there was something 'compelling' about it, he says that he thought that giving the film a 'different feel, a different energy' would help the film to be as much as success as he wanted it to be.
Projector:
Shows YouTube clip of Ledgers interview. (Item 18)
Projector:
Clip of Heath Ledger as the Joker. (Item 19) -The Joker is in a prison cell and
Batman is interrogating him-
Speaker: Heath Ledgers performance in The Dark Knight was the best performance of the trilogy; Empire Film review quotes “The Dark Knight is Ledger’s movie, it is a towering performance” (item 13). Ledger says that he was more than happy to play the Joker for Nolan because Nolan had introduced him to his world and said that he had ideas about how he would present the Joker. This shows that Nolan took a similar approach to Burton by created a world and bringing people into who he knew would be able to bring their own touch to the film. Ledger has stated that he wouldn’t have taken a job as the Joker if Burton had asked him because “to try and touch what Jack Nicholson did in Burton’s world would be a crime” (Item 18). Similarly, Schumacher did something like this too, he had his own idea about his Batman film and he wanted it to be a certain way. By looking at it this way, the films are very similar because the directors had their ideas about the film and knew what they wanted and how they wanted it done. Nolan's Joker was different to Burtons Joker in the way that Nolan's Joker was very much a scheming, smart, sociopathic character who knew that he needed Batman to be alive to get what he wanted. His make-up was not as comic book-esque as Burtons Batman and the performance was very much one of the best of Ledgers career and won him awards. Burtons Joker was very much more erratic and playful, very much a comic book villain, he wanted Batman dead at any cost. Burtons Joker was murderous and had no other aim than to kill Batman. The difference between the Jokers is very clear but both the Jokers fit with their films and their style.
Projector:
Shows image of Nolan. (Item 15)
Speaker: In an interview, Nolan talks about how Burtons Batman influenced his own in the way that Burtons Batman was the first of its kind: it was dark and gloomy and had a gothic feel to it. Nolan also says that he didn’t want to do his films the same as Burton did; he wanted to make the film feel darker and deeper, as though there was more to it: “Tim Burton's Batman Returns was typical of Burton's quirky, dark style of filmmaking but with The Dark Knight Nolan outdoes Burton” (Item 6). Nolan offered a back story to the main characters and all of his films linked –with The Dark Knight being where the story develops. “I think the big challenge really in doing a sequel is to build on what you've done in the first film, but not abandon the characters…” (Item 6).
Projector:
Clip of Bales Batman again. (Item 20)
Speaker: Christian Bale and Christopher Nolans interpretation was compiled by both Bale and Nolan, like Ledger and Nolan worked together and like Burton and Nicholson worked together, to create a new version of Batman that would be just as influential as Burtons Batman was and as Schumachers Batman could have been. Nolan has said that Burtons Batman was a big influence on his ideas of what Batman should be like, but Nolan also said that he wanted to put his own stamp on the comic book hero and would try to reach Burtons standards, if not beat them. Nolan wanted his Batman to be more philosophical and have more morals and be more humanised, in the respect that he would have a conscience and also would not want to do anything but save Gotham from the dangers of villainous people.
Projector: Clip of an interview with Christopher Nolan (Item 6).
Projector: Clip of a fan comparing Nolans Batman Begins and The Dark
Knight (Item 10).Speaker: The Dark Knight is not as much a graphic novel as Burtons Batman is. Schumachers Batman is not at all a graphic novel film. Compared to Burtons and Nolans Batman films, Schumachers is light and bright whereas Burtons in particular is a dark and gothic. Nolans Batman is dark and mysterious to an extent too but it is said by Nolan himself that his film and Burtons film are two different kinds of dark. An interview with Michael Keaton (Item 7) explains that Burton had a particular idea of how his Batman was going to be and how he wanted it. This is similar to Nolan because Nolan was very particular too.
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