The Martian - trailer

As the previous blog I was talking about the trailer of 2001: A Space Odyssey, I thought it would only be fair to talk about the trailer for The Martian.

This trailer is 3 minutes and 8 seconds which is longer than 2001's trailer. 

The trailer starts off with a voice-over, and then the edge of Mars appears.  You then get to see a group of astronauts about to leave a space-ship.  The next scene is them in a storm on Mars and Damon being hit by a satellite so his crew thinking he is dead, leaves Mars because it is too dangerous to stay.

Through out the trailer there are a few fade to black transitions but then there are very quick cuts, which I like a lot because it makes the trailer sort of an action based movie as well as being a sci-fi. The difference between cuts is really interesting because it gives the viewers different emotions through out watching this trailer.

Matt Damon does a voice-over during most of the trailer which allows me, as a viewer, to know that Damon is the main character in this film. It mainly just shows Matt Damon's character in the trailer with a few other characters here and there, this is because he is the main character and also it is showing his journey of survival/hunt to try and get help from his crew which are on earth.

You also get to see many different locations in this trailer - you can see that most of the movie is set in space (Mars especially), Earth and also in a spaceship but in different parts of the ship.  

This source allows me to look at the trailers for each of the two films and allow me to compare/contrast to talk about the different features of them.  I will use this information for L06.

Trailer - 2001: A Space Odyssey

Hey guys :)
I'm back!! And today I am going to talk about the trailer for 2001 A Space Odyssey.

2001: A Space Odyssey

I feel that this trailer allows you to see what type of film it is.  The genre is defiantly science fiction and you can tell it is set in space, so this allows the viewers to see if will be interested in watching it or not.  The trailer is 2 minuets 30 seconds long and in that time you see different parts of the film which I feel it a spoiler to the film because it shows you a lot of different scenes.  The background music changes a lot during the short trailer, from very up-beat and loud music to slow and ballet style music.

In the trailer, you get to meet a lot of characters in a short space of time.  I noticed while watching the trailer that there are only a few female characters, there are a lot of male ones.  From what I can see, there are only 6 females in the trailer, there might be more in the actual film itself though.

There are also a lot of locations shown in the trailer which allows the viewers to know where it is set - most of the film is set on a spaceship. By showing a lot of locations in a trailer allows it to be clear that it is a sci-fi based film.

At the start of the trailer, there are very quick fade to black transitions which is really interesting and I feel it adds more tension to the movie.  There is also a voice-over explaining a set of instructions which at first you don't know who is speaking and then it is revealed as someone on a screen explaining things while two men watch.

Editor Pietro Scalia on Cutting The Martian

Hey guys

I am back today with another blog post and today I will be talking about a source I found on the internet.  I simply typed into Google 'The Martian editing' and I saw this link which looked quite interesting...I was right!!

Harvard Reference:

• Beth Marchant, 2015. Editor Pietro Scalia on Cutting The Martian. Available via: http://www.studiodaily.com/2015/10/editor-pietro-scalia-cutting-martian/ (Accessed 25^th April 2017)

I found this source really useful because it explained how the film was made in post-production by the editor himself.and also I got some amazing quotes I can use for my essay. This website explained the process of making the film, how they edited the movie itself.


I am defiantly going to be using this source for LO2 (key technological developments).

Love, Christie xoxo

Technical specifications

Hiya guys :)
I'm back and again with another blog post.  This time I will be talking about the technical specs.


2001: A Space Odyssey

Okay, so below this paragraph is a screenshot from IMDb page.  The screenshot allows me to look at the cameras used, the aspect ratio for 2001 and a lot more information I didn't know about the film itself.  As you can see the cameras used in 2001 are all celluloid which means that that the film was recorded using film.  I find it interesting that the original length of the film was going to be 161 minutes but they decided to cut it down by 19 minutes for the cinemas.  In the screenshot, you can see the aspect ratio of the film (2.30 :1) which means how tall and wide the cinema screen was when it was being shown to the members of the public.

There was only two different types of cameras used in this film which is very low compared to The Martian as they used five. 

2001: A Space Odyssey was recorded in the late 1960's so this means that they didn't have the camera technology we have today, but as a film student I feel that this film despite being recorded on film is really good.  This is because they used a lot of camera angles despite only having two different types of cameras and also the special effects are really good (they created one scene with effects with no technology just over laying clips together)

The Martian

The cameras used for this film are very different compared to 2001: A Space Odyssey due to this film being recorded using digital cameras whereas 2001 used film.  By using the GoPro Hero4 allows to have very different camera angles and also I feel that this allowed the film to be more realistic/modern by using updated technology.  I really liked when they attached the GoPro onto Damon's helmet in one of the scenes used in The Martian - it allowed the viewers to have a sort of POV (Point of View) angle of what Damon's character is currently seeing, instead of having either a mid angle/close-up.

The cinematographer of the film, Dariusz Wolski used a lot of other cameras other than just GoPro which allowed a lot more camera angles and shots, He also used an Optimo DP Lenses twice for two different cameras which is very interesting.  

The aspect ratio as you can see for The Martian it was 2.32 :1, which surprisingly very close to 2001 - this makes it interesting to compare both films because of both aspect ratios being so close together yet there is 40 years between them.

This source allows me to look at the technical specs for each of the two films and allow me to compare/contrast the cameras they used (an example).  I will use this information for quite a few of the LOs as it mentions the aspect ratio - I can use this when talking about it being shown at cinemas.

Love,
Christie xox

Differences between 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Martian *still updating*

Hey :)
So following up from the previous blog which talked about all the similarities that 2001 and The Martian had, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about the differences.

Differences 

• 2001 is 47 years older than The Martian.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey was nominated 4 Academy Awards while The Martian was nominated 7.
• Even though the running times for each film are very close (only 1 minute), 2001 is 142 minutes while The Martian is 141 minutes.
• The Martian was filmed in roughly 70 days.
• While 2001 took 
• Each film was distributed by American film companies but different ones - 2001 was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and The Martian by 20th Century 
• 2001 is a British film while The Martian is an American.

The sources I used to help me gather this information are the following:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_(film)

SImualarities of the each film *still updating*

Hey guys.  Welcome back :)

Today this blog post will be talking about similarities of each of the two films.

Similarities

• The most obvious one is that both films are mainly set in space.
• They are also both sci-fi based films.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey was based on a book 
• The Martian was also based on a novel by Andy Weir.
• Both films had music during the film.
• Green screen was used for special effects

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_(film)

Cameras used in 2001: A Space Odyssey

Following from the previous blog, here is a post about the cameras used in 2001: A Space Odyssey.  I hope you enjoy :)

2001: A Space Odyssey

This film used Mitchell Camera (Centrifudge Sequence) and Panavision Cameras. Both of these cameras are recorded using film which makes 2001 a celluloid film. On the second website I used, it explained when a specific lens was used during filming.  For example, when filming all the wide angle scenes, the lens used was the Fairchild-Curtis custom fisheye. 

Panavision Cameras

The information on this blog post will help me with LO1 (Compare the scientific principles of the chemical reaction of light on a film camera to the impact of light on a digital sensor).


Harvard Reference:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/technical?ref_=tt_dt_spec

Mike Iglass, 2015. What lenses were used on 2001: A Space Odyssey? (Online) Available at: https://www.quora.com/What-lenses-were-used-on-2001-A-Space-Odyssey (Accessed 8th December 2016)

Hope you enjoyed this blog all about the cameras and lenses used on both of the films.  See you soon with another blog post.

~ Christie ❤