If some of you guys haven’t already noticed, I LOVE The Lion King. I think it is an amazing movie! Animation, soundtrack, storyline, the morals and lessons being portrayed and taught, and its appeal to all ages. I think it is truly a work of art.

The first scene I picked was the one where Scar is first introduced, and he has a chit chat with his older brother Mufasa.

The scene opens up immediately showing Mufasa on higher ground, head up, and in light. While scar is hunched over, and in the dark shadows of his cave dwelling.

As the scene continues and Mufasa’s dominance and goodness is shown over Scar, The scene concludes with him getting a bit angry at Scar and asking if he was challenging him. Mufasa races in front of scar growling “is that a challenge?!”… Mufasa is on the right, in light, and the POV is at his eye level showing how much more powerful and dominant he is to Scar. Even Scar verbalizes this, all while cowering back and below Mufasa’s eye-level. Even throughout the scene Zazu takes refuge beneath, between, and behind Mufasa’s paws. This shows his position as a protector and unshakable figure in the movie in a sense.

The second clip I picked is that of Mufasa being murdered while struggling to get out of the stampede in the gorge. Mufasa is on the left in this scene, and below scar – helpless. Scar is dominant over him in this situation, and in a portion of the clip just as Scar claws over Mufasa’s paws they are diagonal from each other. This tilt (w/ Mufasa on the lower end) shows opposing forces and a shifting of direction. And finally as Scar lets go of Mufasa, music climaxes, and it screen blackens out. Indicating the defeat/death/demise/defeat of Mufasa. Everything just fades into nothing. This scene in its culmination I feel is more moving and powerful than most live-action scenes.

SN: I used Windows Movie Maker to edit and clip these scenes to keep em short and sweet.

We had an assignment to pick a movie that represents the best qualities of a compelling film, I choose “Schindler’s List.” It was listed on AFI’s list of 100 best films, and I remember seeing it in high school and how, well heart wrenching it was. If I had to classify it into a genre I would say documentary. I mean the movie is called SCHINDLER’S List, it is mostly about the actions of Oskar Schindler during World War II. Based off of the TV Trope Site, it could also be specifically classified as a Military and Warfare Troupe, a WWII troupe. The story itself is what initially makes this movie stand out amongst others, but after doing some reading from Roger Ebert, I realized that there was much more to it.

The above video is of some different clips I put together from Schindler’s List. In the first few scenes you see Schindler, played by Liam Neeson who I am a big fan of, being shot at an angle that is above us, the audience, and he is to the right. This  could symbolize his superiority over what he is looking down upon, which is the chaos from the Nazis attacking the Jews. Since he is positioned to the right of the screen I think it is symbolizing that he is above his fellow Nazi Germans. He is different, good. Following this we see a little girl in red, she is the only color in the scenes. The fact that she stands out from the chaos and oblivious represents her innocence, and at this point in the movie, Schindler’s view on the treatment of the Jews is changed.

The next segment we have a man offering a ring to Schindler and the man says “whoever saves one life saves the world entire.” He and everyone else is thanking Schindler for saving over a thousand Jewish lives. The fact that Schindler is to the left in the scene probably represents the guilt he feels for not saving more lives or changing his attitude about the Jews sooner.

For the Week 7 “Reading Movies” assignment, I chose The Sound of Music from AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies, a list of the 100 best American movies determined by The American Film Institute (Where is Mean Girls on the list? Kidding…). The Sound of Music was one of my favorite movies as a child, and continues to be. The movie contains wonderful music, great actors, and a rich history. There is so much more than what is shown on the screen. When I was younger, my dad and my grandmother insisted that I watch The Sound of Music. I was furious with this, as I thought it was “an old timey movie.” I wanted nothing to do with it. I would have much rather watched a cheesy pre-teen romance with Mary-Kate and Ashley, or so I thought! Needless to say, I did not get my way and was stuck watching The Sound of Music. I fell in love with the timeless storyline and the catchy tunes. When familiarizing myself with the film, after not having seen it for a few years, to this day it still encapsulates me. Time has told, Mary-Kate and Ashley movies were just a fad. The Sound of Music has proven to be a movie that stayed close to my heart. I guess my dad was right, yet again. Often times, I find myself singing to my parakeet, “The hills are alive…” You could call me Cinderella. Or how about Maria?

Though IMBD lists the genres of The Sound of Music as Biography, Drama, Family, Musical, and Romance, I have identified the film genre as Family/Musical. Not only is it a film that can be appreciated by all ages, hence the family, it’s storyline is about a rather large family! I also included Musical as a genre, because the actors often participate in the production of the music (singing, etc.). There is a lot of it, and it is not simply background music.

As far as the TV Tropes genre, I chose a few. I actually researched The Sound of Music on the TV Tropes website and they already had genres listed. I read through them and narrowed them down to the following group of four. I felt as if some were too specific.

World War II: Time period

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Captain Von Trapp

Magical Nanny: Maria (Julie Andrews, who also assumes the same role in Mary Poppins)

Happy Ending for everyone

“One of the reasons I started teaching was to teach myself.”

In Roger Ebert‘s essay, “How to Read a Movie,” there were some points that definitely stood out to me as a future teacher, in addition to my role as a DS106 student. When Ebert talks about the class he taught in 1969, after being inspired by movie critic, John West, I noticed that he had a very democratic attitude toward education, if you will. This is something that most influenced me in the essay. No matter what age, race, gender, etc. someone is, they can be influential to you and challenge you to think. As John West recommended, I treated the clips I found from The Sound of Musicas a football coach may as he examines footage from the game. I paused the scene multiple times in order to analyze the set and positioning of the actors. I think the football analogy is a really good way to explain how people like Ebert and West analyze movies. I never knew that the way actors are positioned in scenes had so much meaning! But after this assignment, I noticed some of the points were proven true. I’ve included a few shots whose “visual compositions have intrinsic weighting,” something Ebert discusses in his essay.

“A person located somewhat to the right of center will seem ideally placed. A person to the right of that position will seem more positive; to the left, more negative…..in general terms, in a two-shot, the person on the right will ‘seem’ dominant over the person on the left.” -Roger Ebert

Captain Von Trapp is positioned to the right of his children, showing dominance.

Maria is to the left of Captain Von Trapp and the Baroness is to the right, making the Baroness seem more favorable. The Baroness on the right “seems” more dominant over the person on the left, Maria.

Ebert writes about his experience doing this exercise with his class. He says, “I wasn’t the teacher and my students weren’t the audience, we were all in this together.” Beyond the analysis of movies, this attitude towards education is very inspiring to me. Bringing people together creates a collaboration of knowledge and ideas, enabling them to learn many more things. Everyone has a different bank of knowledge, it’s important to have a variety of contributors. Like Ebert said, when pausing the movies, his students would notice a multitude of things. Anyone can state an opinion about a movie and give even critics a different perspective, something they may have not before considered. Ebert writes, ”Everything worth noticing on the screen will eventually be seen by somebody.” This applies to digital storytelling and the internet. I appreciated the humility Ebert showed when referencing Giannetti and David Bordwell. Though they may not use the same terms or have the same beliefs, he stills respects their opinions and writings; the three of them possess “the same intense curiosity,” for films, which is what really matters. In the readings we have had for DS106, I have noticed a common theme of encouraging collaboration.