Drumroll

Director/ Creator: Steve McQueen

Drumroll is a 22 minute long film by British-born, Amsterdam-based artist Steve McQueen. McQueen is a filmmaker and is seen as one of the leading contemporary video installation artists. He won the Turner Prize in 1999 for his Film ‘Dead pan’. Since, McQueen has been commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to visit Iraq to produce a work in response to the war.
Drumroll is a large room-sized installation consisting of three-projected video screens; each screen shows a different camera angle from within an open-ended barrel, that the artist is pushing along the streets of Manhattan. The three circling views of New York are then displayed on each of the screens.
Drumroll comes from a clear combination of the artist’s interest in performance art, improvisation and sound. The film also shows the artists interest in the tradition of film and Cinema, as the film has a clear sense of experimental work in the mediums of film and video. His minimalist approach seems to Challenge the mainstream, high budget films produced by Hollywood studios. It is as if McQueen is trying to return to an artistic process of movie making; with the control returned to the artistic creator in the same way that we view he fine artist. McQueen described it as a film that in, which “Everything that slipped into frame was permitted,” and that “it was impossible to make a ‘mistake’, everything is allowed."
The Theme of change is apparent throughout with the randomness’s of a day in the heart of New York being the central idea. There is also a strong notion of the real and the premeditated. McQueen uses his cameras to record reality as it comes, un-edited, however at the same time the viewer is experiencing Three viewpoints simultaneously, since this is impossible without mechanical assistance, The camera acts as a strange mix of un-filtered reality and at the same time shows us the impossible. This gives the viewer a strange kind of “third eye”
It is clear that McQueen’s films have more in common with photography than they do with mainstream cinema. Techniques McQueen uses are similar to photographers such as Roy DeCarava or Nan Goldin. However where these Photographers look into psychological issues, McQueen rejects this philosophy. His films contain no details of people. Any human form in the picture is likely to be there due to random chance, and speech is always a part of the soundtrack but normally originated from an external source not meant for the film, such as other people’s conversations. McQueen’s videos are normally described as video installations. They have as much in common with sculpture and performance art as they do to the cinema. Unlike traditional films, McQueen’s narratives show no conflict and therefore no resolution or any other aspect of conventional cinema such as character or passage of time.
In my opinion McQueen’s work is effective due to its elusive nature. It has a strong focus on change but never evolves, acting as a strange state of contained evolution. Beginning and ends converge to the point that the film could continue forever. I think this is one of the strongest aspects of the film, McQueen has found balance between two absolutes, these make it very hard to criticise the peace. Its simplicity is clear while at the same time it is very open to interpretation metaphorically.

Telling lies

Released: 2001
Director: Simon Ellis

Telling Lies is a 4-minute film directed by Simon Ellis. It is about a man waking up and having a series of phone calls. As he talks his words are displayed, centre screen, in a subtitle style. The subtitles narrate what he is thinking and so the discrepancies between what he says and what he’s thinks can be seen on screen. His lies are therefore being displayed for the audience to see.
The film centres on the theme of lies and goes about this through its portrayal of a conversation on the phone with the lies exposed for the audience. The film is mostly humorous and slightly thought provoking because of its rooting in a real everyday event that the audience can associate with.
Background remains blank throughout, however the emotions of the characters are portrayed through voice acting and the constantly changing colour and style of the typography. The black backdrop behind the text serves to keep the audience fixed on the conversation of the characters, it is for this same reason there is also no soundtrack. The pace of the film is set high with one event following directly after the previous. This keeps the attention of the audience on the plot rather then letting it wander.
Telling lies is not the cleverest constructed short film, but nether does it set out to be. Its simplicity means it is appealing to a large audience range. The combination of speech and visual text however leaves little room for interpretation; there are two set threads of narrative, voice, text and no more. The plot despite being simple doesn't really matter. The true value lies between the use of words and speech. The films Fast, quick pace serves to cover over the fact that the film has many weaknesses. The animation is pretty basic and the words move so fast at times that it can be hard to track them. Overall Telling lies is a basic and slightly unoriginal short, at the same time it successfully entertains and that is enough.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Released: 1994
Director: Henry Selick
Writers: Tim Burton/Michael McDowell

The Nightmare before Christmas was an early project of Tim Burtons that was revisited by him after he had found success in Hollywood. It was released in 1994 and was nominated for 4 Oscars.
The Nightmare before Christmas is the story of Jack Skellington ‘ The Pumpkin King’ of Halloween town, he becomes bored of his job and decides its time for a change. with the help of the inhabitants of Halloween town he kidnaps Santa who he refers to as ‘Sandy claws’ and goes about creating the scariest Christmas possible. On realising his mistake jack must rescue Santa from the evil ‘Oogie Boogie ’ and correct his mistakes in order to save Christmas.
The film is composed of a strange mixture of themes and techniques, it is set in a horror themed environment with the characters strongly fitting the horror stereotype. The soundtrack is that of a musical with outbreaks of song being a regular occurrence. The plot although basic makes good use of suspense and to top it all off there is countless aspect of comedy throughout. The combination of horror in what is essentially a children’s production gives the film an edge that does not treat the child audience as being stupid, while at the same time makes the film watchable by an adult audience.
Although Tim Burton doesn’t direct the nightmare before Christmas he was the producer, and his style is clear throughout the movie. The stop motion animation style that the film is done in is typical of Burton, the over exaggerated movements and a strange idea of space that at times mirrors 2d animation. The character design was done in a great amount of detail, all the characters from jack Skellington to the Jazz playing zombies have both a creepy dark side as well as a comic effect, for instance the character of Dr. Finkelstine has many connotations’ of being an evil scientist, such as his arched posture and lab coat, but he will also open his head to literally scratch his brain for comic effect. The same level of detail goes into all the props and sets of the film. The cast consists of mostly unknown voice actors, who do an amazing job and all give their characters life. This strange artistic combination of so many styles and themes can be seen as too weird or stylish, but it has earned the film the following of a cult audience Over the years and is still seen as one of burtons finest creations.
As an animator I have never been a fan of stop frame animation but despite my biest view I have come to respect the nightmare before Christmas. its crazy twist of horror and comedy with a captivating soundtrack makes it appeal to Children and adults alike. Plus the pain staking detail put into every aspect of the film shows through so clearly that you have to marvel at it.

Crash

Released: 2004
Director: Paul Haggis
Writer: Paul Haggis

Crash centres around a number of characters of different races and social classes all living in Los Angeles and how there lives interact with one another over a period of 36 hours, through a series of crashes shootings and car thefts
The film is about some of the more negative aspects of human interaction, Centring mostly on racial stereotype and discrimination, this is shown through the various characters of different backgrounds and there interactions with one another when forced under extreme circumstances. It not only focuses on racial tension but also looks at the way we treat strangers in general.
Crash relies heavily on stereotype and audience expectation, but often contradicts the predicted outcome. With every new character, a new stereotype is introduced and then contradicted, serving not only to challenge the stereotype but also to reprimand the audience for thinking in such a way. The development of the characters is what keeps the films momentum going, each ones personality is designed so that they are alienated in their own way, this provides a far more dramatic conflict when they collide, because they are forced out of their comfort zones. There is a great deal of suspense needed to engross the viewer, Crash makes good use of time manipulation, especially slow motion, often drawing out an intense situation to make the viewer want a resolution all the more.
Crash is a moving and thought provoking movie, it allows grate psychological insight into its characters that engrosses the audience right from the beginning, to have done this effectively the performance of the actors has to be commended, the characters all have their specific roles to play to further the plot but none of them ever come across as one-dimensional. When simplified the plot gives all the characters a opportunity to break away from the cycle of prejudice, (whether they take it or not) which asks the question “are we all so different?” in places the film becomes a bit ‘preachy’ and often undermines the intelligence of the audience through unnecessarily obvious explanatory shots. But on the whole the film makes its point with effective impact.

Princess Mononoke

Released: 1997
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Writer: Hayao Miyazaki

Princess Mononoke is the tenth film by Japanese animation film studio ‘studio Ghibli’, that following its release in 1997 became japans biggest grossing film of all time.
It is set in feudal Japan, during a time of disorder. The main protagonist ‘Ashitaka’ receives a cursed injury while defending his town from a giant boar. He discovers that the curse will spread and eventually kill him. The plot then revolves around his journey into the lands to the west of his village in search of the god of the forest who can heal his affliction. On his quest the attempts to prevent an approaching war between the creatures of the forest and the people of ‘Irontown’ a small, fortified town that has had to cut back the forest for the wood needed to support themselves.
Princess Mononoke is a fantasy adventures the centres around conflict, everything from heated arguments to pitched battles and plenty of competing interests, including cursed monsters, angry gods, ambitious people, and a selfless hero. But remarkably, there is no villain. Even though it comes across as a simple progressive plot the film carries a powerful moral: it states that man’s tampering with nature brings about as much savagery as it does progression. The fact that the film has no single villain adds to the message that this is a real problem and that the blame cannot be placed on a single individual.
The film is in a two dimensional hand drawn style like most other anime (Japanese animation) but the interesting thing about the picture and indeed all of Ghibli’s work is that it is done using traditional cell based animation techniques. This technique is mostly seen as out of date given the increase in computer animations; this is also reflected in the films cost. When released, Mononoke had cost 2.4 billion Japanese yen, making it the most expensive anime ever made. The film was the first that Ghibli had used computer animation in, and features a total of 5 minutes of computer animated footage throughout the film, and a further 10 minutes used digital paint, a technique which is used throughout all subsequent Studio Ghibli films. Despite this Mononoke goes through grate lengths to blend the two in as subtle fashion In fact the CGI serves as support for the majority of the cell based animated film.
Princess Mononoke is in my opinion one of the best animated movies ever made, it harnesses the beauty of traditional animation while at the same time is still able to use computer advancements to further the story without conflicting with the films hand drawn style. I would recommend anyone even if they are not a fan of anime to look past the style of drawing and see the film for all else that it has to offer. All together I conceder it an amazingly well put together film