Category

Video Essays

movie educationVideo Essays

Character Positioning in Movies, Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8janO4DUe0&feature=youtu.be In this video, I'll show you how massively significant it is how characters are turned toward you or away from you. These character turns create emotions, in you and on behalf of the characters. Essentially, how you position a character on the screen--turned toward…
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January 16, 2020
Video Essays

What Makes This Movie Great? — Decalogue 10

The final film of Kieslowski's Decalogue series, Decalogue 10 is the funniest entry. It's about two Polish brothers who get inadvertently involved in the world of stamp collecting. The movie showcases various problems centered on the tenth commandment, "thou shalt not covet thy neighbors' goods."…
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January 14, 2020
Video Essays

Groundhog Day and Algorithms

A lot of people have claimed that "Groundhog Day" is one of the greatest movies ever, including philosophers and theologians. But is it? In this video, I'll give interpretations of the movie. I'll argue that the movie couldn't exist without the premise and medium of…
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January 9, 2020
movie educationVideo Essays

What Camera Zooms Mean

Why do movies use zoom-ins and zoom-outs? Did you know that they usually mean something very important? They manipulate you. How do they do that? This video shows you a couple of common meanings for both zoom-ins and zoom-outs. I'll show you examples from Stagecoach,…
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December 26, 2019
movie educationVideo Essays

Focal Points in Movies

This video presents a basic idea for any "introduction to film" student. All movies images (or shots) have focal points. Noticing these focal points is helpful, even crucial, in beginning to view and interpret movies. I also call focal points "dominants," which are the areas…
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December 7, 2019