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[imogenmeehan]

‘Joker’ Review

For our last blog we’ve been given the choice to review a film or television show of our choice. I’ve chosen to review Joker (2019) directed by Todd Phillips, which I assume many others have chosen… but there is no other film I’d rather talk about! This film absolutely blew me away and affected me in a way very few other films have done in the past.

Right off the bat, I anticipated that the film would be great simply because Joaquin Phoenix had the lead role. Joaquin Phoenix is an incredible actor and I’ve always admired his work and his dedication to the craft of acting. I was unsure how he would make such an iconic character his own, but God almighty did he succeed! It was almost as if he originated this character himself, I often forgot that I was watching a film about an iconic villain from the DC universe. As we mention all the time in class, the best performances come from those who internalize their emotions and Joaquin is a perfect example of this. You can literally see and hear the thoughts running through his mind and the emotions radiating from within. He just has to give a simple look and we know what he wants to say and what he’s feeling.

I’ve researched this film quite a bit and have watched many of Joaquin’s interviews in which he explains how he prepared for the role and how he approached the character. Joaquin lost around 24kg for the role and had a very restricted diet which he claims added to his performance as he was literally and figuratively starving. Apart from that, he did an immense amount of research leading up to production and refined his skills in terms of voice and physicality. He watched old films, worked with a choreographer, kept a journal and studied the character inside and out. This was very inspiring to hear, and it’s help light the fire more for myself as an aspiring actress. I admire his passion and dedication and truly believe that he is a fantastic example of an actor who lives and breathes for their work.

Aside from Joaquin’s amazing performance, I believe that the direction of the themes is what made this film so great. There is still unfortunately a large stigma attached to mental illness and we as a society are often afraid to confront it or discuss it. We forget that how we treat one another affects people, especially those who are battling with inner demons. The film was uncensored and unfiltered in terms of showing just how selfish and unforgiving society can be and the character of Arthur absolutely broke my heart. He was just so real that it was difficult to remind myself that he was becoming a villain. The whole story begged the question of whether or not people are born evil and after watching this film, I don’t think anyone is. This film made me realize that everyone is born innocent and pure, it is only when they become poisoned by society that they find outlets such as drinking, drugs and murder. Mental illness is something that needs society’s full attention as it can become dangerous and unsteady when it is ignored or shamed. 

A favourite line of mine was: “What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash? You get what you f***ing deserve.” The entire film is full of brilliant quotes which is evidently a huge nod to the writers and their genius ability to tell a story. The quote that had the biggest impact on me was: “I just hope my death makes more cents than my life.” At first I (and I assume most people) took it as Arthur misspelling the word “sense” due to his lack of education however, I now truly understand it. Arthur didn’t misspell the word but rather was talking about the connection of money with death. He talks about a corrupt society that is selfish and full of greed and so all that he hopes for is that his death will result in financial support for his mother that he couldn’t give her while he was alive. 

The scene with Murray in which Arthur appears as a guest made an imprint in my mind that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. It was one of the most shocking and confronting scenes I’d ever seen and although many have disagreed with Todd Phillip’s choice of explicit visuals and themes, especially within this scene, I believe it was a remarkable moment. The entire audience gasped, including myself, during the pivotal ending to the scene and I was completely in awe. Another scene which impacted me was the scene on the bus where Arthur playfully makes faces at a young boy in front of him. When he started laughing, I was initially confused however, when he gave the lady a card which explained his medical condition, I became very emotional. There was absolutely nothing funny about the scene anymore and you could feel his pain and embarrassment. There were moments where I felt like reaching through the screen and hugging him because I felt so incredibly awful for him – but then I found myself feeling conflicted because he’s a villain… right? We’re suppose to hate villains. We’re suppose to think they’re evil and deserve nothing. This was a strange realization for me, but it all came back to the incredible message of the film.

The entire film was shot beautifully and looked visually stunning. The use of colour was brilliant and I found an article which summed its use up very well. Cathy Whitlock of The Hollywood Reporter commented on the building of the character of Arthur through the use of various colour palettes. In the beginning of the film, we see him dressed in worn-out, dull and inexpensive clothing that reflects his lifestyle, financial status and the culture he has grown up in. The transformation into the Joker then showed him wearing brighter colours such as reds, blues, greens and so on which juxtaposed Arthur’s previous appearance. The costuming and sets were also true to the time period of the early 80s and I genuinely believed that the whole film was taking place within this era. Not a detail was out of place. 

The entire cast were remarkable with their performances and Todd Phillip’s genius direction gave the film a significant purpose. I would highly recommend this film to everyone… over the age of 18 (sorry kids, your parents will thank me later).

REFERENCES

Whitlock, C. (2019). The Style Transformation of Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker. Retrieved from The Hollywood Reporter website: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/joker-style-transformation-joaquin-phoenix-1243670

[imogenmeehan]

Filming Duologues on Location

This week we shot our duologue scenes on location which was a somewhat stressful but very exciting experience. Our initial shoot day at TAFE Southbank was very difficult as it began to storm whilst filming Jay and Josh’s scene. We had a lot of noise interference including a lovely stormwater pipe that even two jumpers stuffed on it couldn’t silence. We only ended up shooting Jay and Josh’s scene that day as Jack and I and Jedd and Lachlan’s scenes required shooting outside which we evidently couldn’t do unless we aimed for a dramatic rain scene like Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in The Notebook.

We decided to have Jack and I shoot the next day with Oh Dear productions at Bec’s house. We had to tweak our scene slightly by changing the setting to a bedroom instead of outside on a picnic blanket. Evidently we also had to change our costumes, so we picked simple pajamas with myself in a blue long-sleeved shirt, grey bottoms and socks and Jack in a blue singlet and long bottoms. Shooting at Bec’s house was a really fun experience and we had a great time being on set and learning how to shoot a scene from multiple angles within a specific location. I knew how difficult shooting was, but this experience definitely reminded me why it’s so difficult. There are so many factors that go into shooting a scene: lighting, sound, angles, shots, background noise, unwanted people and objects in frame… the list goes on. It’s a process that requires a LOT of patience and focus. Everyone has to be on the ball even if you have a small role such as marker.

Shooting Jack and I’s scene was way easier than I had anticipated, and it was a quick and smooth process. We shot a few angles from my face and then Jack’s face and then a wide shot of both of us on the bed. I have to say, I was very nervous as it’s slightly overwhelming trying to play an intimate scene when there’s six other people squished in the corner of the room – which was already the size of a shoebox. It reminded me of why I appreciate screen acting so much and craft that goes behind it. It takes a lot of skill to be able to block out external factors and distractions when acting on screen and I’m eager to improve and hopefully nail that technique.

Overall, the process of shooting our duologues on location was a great experience for me and I found it incredibly interesting and exciting! I absolutely love the art of filmmaking and so being apart of this experience was eye-opening, insightful and joyful. There are moments within one’s life where they are reminded of why they do what they do and I definitely had many during this experience…

[imogenmeehan]

The Use of Costume

For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on a duologue assessment with my classmate Jack Kettles. We chose the breakup scene from Good Will Hunting (1997) in which Skylar asks Will to come to California with her but he rejects instantly, and the scene ultimately ends in a nasty conflict leaving both of them very hurt and heartbroken.

For this week’s blog topic, we’ve been asked to take a look at how costumes reflects an actor’s character and the overall performance. To me, costumes are a vital element in the process of creating a fully fleshed-out and genuine character. Clothing has its own language and it’s a non-verbal form of communication between both the other characters in the scene and the audience. A costume represents a time period, a culture, an age, a gender, a status, a history, a personality, a mood. Costume designers along with actors are able to make very specific choices about what they want a character to wear and the intentions behind the costume can range from extremely subtle to overt and theatrical. A costume should reflect a character in a way that is genuine, logical and true to who they are or who they are trying to be.

A great example I’ve seen very recently was the use of costuming in Joker (2019). The character of Arthur Fleck dresses rugged, dull and unkept and his clothes reflect the society he lives in, his mental state, his financial situation and his personality in general. As we see his transformation into the Joker, his clothes become brighter and much more colourful, sickly theatrical and over-the-top which ultimately represents his transition of becoming an alter ego. His costumes throughout the film are extremely contrasting, showing the distinct difference between Arthur, a mentally ill, middle-aged American man who lives in the slums and the Joker, a murderous clown. The entire movie relates back to my previous statement about costumes having a language of their own. A poor choice in costuming can ruin a scene and can affect what an actor is trying to portray to an audience.

In terms of costuming for my character in my duologue, I’ve come up with an idea that I think could work well. Ultimately, both the characters need to be dressed very casually in order to create the sense of intimacy between them. They’ve just woken up and are sitting in bed together, so pajamas are an obvious choice. Pajamas, to me, are an interesting concept to think about because it’s the outfit we find most comfortable. For the most part, we don’t dress for anyone else when we’re going to sleep. We’re not trying to impress anyone or keep up with the standards and trends of society when we’re in bed and it’s a very vulnerable and personal thing to share a bed with someone. We let down our hair, wipe off our makeup, take off our shoes and we are raw and natural. It’s a very simple idea but when choosing a specific costume for my character, I think the clothes speak for themselves. I feel like Skylar with her particular age, gender and culture, would wear something like a loose-fitting, baggy t-shirt and flannel shorts. She’s not an overly fashionable person so I can’t see her wearing a silk nightdress and eye mask. Her fashion style is much more simple, down-to-earth and casual with colours that aren’t too vibrant or loud. Overall, I’m very excited to start playing around with this particular element and I feel like it’ll add a greater sense of depth and authenticity to both Jack and I’s performance.

[imogenmeehan]

'The Player’ Review

This week I watched the film The Player (1992) directed by Robert Altman.

Right off the bat, the almost eight minute long crane shot in the beginning of the film blew me away. I was perplexed as to how they managed such a long shot without any cuts or breaks and I’d love to know how many times an actor messed up their lines or a piece of equipment got into shot before they were able to get the perfect scene we see in the final product. I’m always fascinated by long scenes shot in one takes as I admire the difficulty that goes along with it. Another great example of this is in Jim Carey’s recent show Kidding where there’s an almost two minute long scene which shows the progression of a woman’s life in one apartment. As the camera pans around in a 360 degree turn, the apartment’s lighting and furniture changes along with the woman’s outfit… all in one shot! In The Player, the shifts from one character to another is seamless and as an establishing shot, I believe every character is introduced well and we get an overall sense of the environment.

Plot-wise, I was sure I had this one in the bag once I started to understand the circumstances. An angry writer (David Kahane) is sending threatening postcards to a producer (Griffin Mill) who blew off his idea six months ago. The producer then meets up with the writer and offers him a deal in an attempt to resolve the conflict. The writer says he’s full of shit, they get into an argument and then the producer accidentally kills him in the heat of the moment. At this point, I felt I was in for another cliché story where the killer tries to hide his crime, becomes overwhelmed with guilt and eventually the truth comes out and he’s sent to prison, creating a horrendous reputation for his name in the process. We’ve all seen this sort of storyline in one way or another, right? Sounds like an episode of Law and Order or NCIS. Well, I was wrong. I was very wrong. Instead of paying for his crime, Griffin courts the dead writer’s girlfriend, manages to keep his job and lives happily ever after. The film was magnificent in its manipulation of the audience. We were watching Griffin slowly descend into madness after killing David and this was especially heightened with scenes such as in the police department with the detectives. Griffin is evidently on edge, jumping at the slightest of sounds and becoming paranoid with the questions he is asked. The camera then shows an extreme close up shot of his face, eyes darting as the entire room starts cackling at him. It’s an intense scene which sets us up to believe that Griffin is at his breaking point and the truth is about to be exposed. Spoiler alert – it doesn’t.

Personally, I see this film as a critical commentary on Hollywood’s dark and greedy personality that is often glamourized and portrayed as a place where dreams come true. I believe Altman provided us with a brilliantly twisted insight into Hollywood that shows us that justice is rarely served when money, fame and status are involved. It’s a sad fact that many of us choose to ignore but unfortunately it’s very much a harsh reality, even today. Celebrities and big-time executives, producers, directors, etc. are able to get away with murder (literally) simply because they have a particular social status or large number in their bank account. Did you know Matthew Broderick, famously known for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), The Lion King (1994) and Godzilla (1998), killed a mother and daughter in a car crash in 1987? He wasn’t sent to jail. Nor did he meet with the family of the victims. He was just slapped with a whopping $175 fine and went on to star in many, many more films and television shows (Moore, 2019). This is Hollywood, people.

REFERENCES

Moore, A. (2019). “At the height of their fame, Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey were in a fatal car crash.”. Retrieved from https://www.msn.com/en-nz/entertainment/celebrity/at-the-height-of-their-fame-matthew-broderick-and-jennifer-grey-were-in-a-fatal-car-crash/ar-BBVHZqn

[imogenmeehan]

Monologue Review & Feedback

This week we watched back our monologues as a class and received feedback from both Mairi and Stephen. While it is always quite torturous watching yourself back in front of an entire group of people – I’ve found that I’m surprisingly getting better at holding in and controlling my constant wails of embarrassment. I’ve never been a fan of watching myself simply because I’m a perfectionist by nature and any hint of a mistake drives me literally insane. I much prefer just performing to the best of my abilities and then leaving it in the hands of somebody else to judge… without me in the room of course. HOWEVER, I’ve realized that constant self-criticism won’t get me anywhere and I need to learn to not be so hard on myself. Acting is a constant learning process.

Anyway, Oprah moment aside, the overall experience was much like riding a rollercoaster for me. It was terrifying to begin with, confronting and then relieving when it was over. After the relief, I then realized that it was actually quite fun and now I’m itching to do it again. I’ve never performed a monologue on camera before, so I was very nervous and didn’t know what to expect. For the past year and a half, we’ve been berated into projecting our voices and exaggerating our movements and then all of a sudden we had to set that all aside and just be natural. Easy right? Wrong. The biggest tip not only myself but everyone received was that we were initially showing too much. We needed to ask ourselves what our characters were hiding, and we needed to suppress that. The camera picks up everything and this is when subtlety becomes a magnificent tool as even the slightest of a movement, a shift in the eyes, a quiet smirk, is all picked up. It is quite difficult acting natural when you have a camera and light shining in your face and people watching you but that is the whole point of training to be an actor. An actor needs to learn how to block out all those factors and focus on what they’re saying and what they’re trying to convey.

Overall, the feedback I received from Mairi and Stephen was related to identifying the subtext and allowing myself to bring more truth and honesty to the performance. My use of beats and shifts was good, and I was on the right track in terms of connecting to the emotion however, I need to work on hiding it and suppressing the anger my character was feeling. The use of substitutions was also mentioned to myself and a lot of others, the idea of creating a personal connection to the text and putting someone or something in place in order to create genuine reactions, feelings and emotions. After watching myself back a few times, I think I’ve gathered together a fair amount of notes and feedback that I can take with me into my next performance assessment… duologues!

For anyone interested, here’s the link to watch: https://youtu.be/m1kJbjKc9Cc

[imogenmeehan]

Character Analysis - Monologue

This week our class had our monologue assessment which comprised of learning a monologue from a film or television show and then performing it in front of a camera. The monologue I chose was from the film ‘Anesthesia’ directed by Tim Blake Nelson in 2015. The whole movie centres around a college professor’s life before he was murdered and the people he influenced: a student, an alcoholic housewife, a failed writer struggling with addiction, two parents confronting terminal illness and a teenager who is desperate to lose his virginity. I play Sophie, an intelligent and bright college student who is battling with a self-harming addiction. When her professor calls her up one day, she confesses that she’s been burning herself as a form of feeling alive.

The scene I specifically chose takes place in a therapist’s office where Sophie has asked her professor to come along with her for support. She is asked by the therapist what is causing the situation and Sophie speaks her mind openly and honestly. She describes the world as being inhuman and talks about the lack of interaction people have with one another. Technology is a prominent issue that she often mentions, and she reveals that she feels like a complete outcast to the world itself by saying “I am not for this world.” In this scene, she is not only revealing, but she is also trying to open the eyes of those she is talking to. She is pleading for help and she wants someone else to see her perspective and reassure her that she’s not totally insane or unreasonable.

Truthfully, I completely identify with Sophie. Every word she says feels like I’ve said it a hundred times before. I love this character and this scene because it is not a glamourized or cliché depiction of what mental illness is. The character of Sophie is raw, and she is not unaware of the problem she has. Her past seems littered with experiences of trauma, disappointment and sadness and she has become quite literally numb which is why she craves the feeling of adrenaline and pain. Though her past is never revealed in the movie, it is evident that she has experienced something in her life that has led her to this moment and although there are hundreds of things we could think of that happened, the truth is that we don’t know and will never know unless the director decides to share it. Sophie’s flaw is that she isn’t able to balance her mental wellbeing alongside her schoolwork. The two are utterly on opposite ends of the spectrum and she feels like a failure for not being able to control both at the same time. She is a brilliant and smart student who performs highly however, her mental state is nowhere near positive or strong. Ultimately, she fears her own mind and knows that if she doesn’t get better that she might do something detrimental to either herself or others around her.

Performing this monologue was a fun and interesting experience for me as I hadn’t performed something so close to my heart before. I completely identified with my character in the sense that I felt like I was stripped bare in front of a magnifying glass... It was definitely nerve-wracking having a camera and lights in front of me but funnily enough, I was able to use that anxiousness and feeling of exposure and put it into my character. I really enjoyed the sense of intimacy and actually can’t wait to get in front of the camera again!

[imogenmeehan]

‘Mulholland Drive’ Review

This week we will be analyzing the film ‘Mulholland Drive (2001)’ directed by David Lynch and taking a look at the form elements that make up its cinematic text. To start off short and simple: this was a strange one. I have definitely never watched a film that made me simultaneously confused, angry, amused, uncomfortable, bored, engaged AND frightened from start to finish. Needless to say, it was a very interesting experience that left me feeling quite lost at the end… and then mind blown, but we’ll get to that a little later!

Lynch cleverly presents the first two hours of the film with a sort of “flatness”. The story we are watching progress is two-dimensional and we aren’t provided with much depth or complexity until the very end. We see these two women: Betty, a hopeful and starry-eyed young actress who has just moved to Hollywood and Rita, an amnesiac and lost woman whom Betty discovers in her shower. The plot seems pretty straight forward, right? We are presented with important moments within the plot however, it is still quite vague as to why and how these things are happening... until the last twenty minutes. The cinematography as a whole was pretty standard with a good variety of different shots, angles, depths of field and so forth, nothing too extreme apart from a few experimental transitions. There were moments that I felt like I was watching a horror film… then a drama… then a romance… then an action. I think it would be impossible to try and categorize this film into one particular genre and even if you could – it wouldn’t do it justice. ‘Mulholland Drive’ exists as a genre itself. The editing was quite unique in its style and there were some brilliant scenes that were shot and cut in a way to absolutely engage the audience. For example, the scene in the diner with the two men discussing a nightmare in which a strange man hides behind the building. The tension built within this scene was extraordinary and the sudden cut to the horrifying face of the homeless man is enough to make anyone’s heart jump out of there chest. I found it astonishing that Lynch was able to create such a terrifying scene in broad daylight as that is such a difficult thing to accomplish. The sound worked well as it helped evoke different emotions and provide moods to various scenes. The most effective use of sound I felt was used in yet again, the diner scene. After the man faints out of sheer terror, the sound becomes muffled and has a drowning-like quality to it which manipulates the audience’s mind to feel the exact same way the man is. It’s like we tap into his consciousness for a split second.

After finishing this film, I was honestly left utterly clueless, so I had to research the meaning further and boy was it a shocking discovery. I won’t reveal its hidden meaning simply because I feel it’s a moment best kept to yourself otherwise the experience is tainted. That being said, my whole view of the film has now shifted completely and that was of course Lynch’s intention the entire time – what a genius!

[imogenmeehan]

Introduction & ‘Living in Oblivion’ Review

This week was the introduction to 'Screen & TV Studies' and I'm more than thrilled as I've been excited to do this class since I began this course. I'm a massive film and television nerd and I've always been fascinated with the creation of it both on screen and off. I distinctly remember watching ‘Labyrinth’ almost everyday when I was little and falling in love with its characters, its story line, the score, the aesthetic, the cinematography, everything. Ever since I discovered my parents' Canon DC210, I would always be shooting videos and coming up with short movies to show my family. My personal favourite was "Spiderman Saves Cat From Evil Witch" circa 2006, which received some great reviews.

My aspirations for this unit relate to the positive progression of my studies as both a performer and creator. I'd love to build a steady and solid foundation for myself that includes knowledge of the screen and television industry and how it works on and off camera. I'm a big fan of writing and filming and am passionate about getting into the technicalities of how a scene works and what elements and ideas are involved. I love creating projects and would love to make some of my own works in the future so I believe this unit will be greatly beneficial and exciting for me.

The movie we were assigned to watch this week was 'Living in Oblivion (1995)' directed by Tom DiCillo. Film critic, Todd McCarthy, describes it as: "An amusing, cunningly structured look at the perils of film production" (Variety, 1995). I very much enjoyed this movie and thought it was a great depiction of what life is like on a low-budget set. Each character was hilariously fabulous but I have to say my favourite was Chad Palomino. He instantly reminded me of actors I've worked with or seen and I found myself constantly thinking "that's so painfully accurate" or "that sounds exactly like so-and-so..."  The entire movie succeeded in showing just how chaotic a creative environment can be and how difficult it is working within it - setting up lighting, monitoring sound, hitting marks, figuring out angles and shots, keeping up emotion through repetition and so much more. The relationship a crew and cast has with one another is crucial and without clear communication and a mutual understanding, everything will fall apart. The character of Nick Reve, the director, was interesting to see unfold as he desperately tries to pull things together. At the heart of it, he's a passionate and artistic individual and all he wants to do is create a great film that people will enjoy and I believe he represents a lot of people within this industry. In fact, almost every character within this movie is symbolic of certain types of people who are in this business: the hopeless actress, the obnoxious Hollywood star, the cliche, the pretentious cameraman, the passionate director. In terms of the cinematography itself, I found its unique aesthetic to be surprisingly pleasant. I loved the use of the black and white and coloured shots switching back and forth. The plot was a little strange to adjust to however, I grew to like it and felt it was representative of the confusion the characters were feeling. Overall, it was a brilliant movie both visually and story-wise.

REFERENCES

McCarthy, T. (1995). Living In Oblivion. Retrieved from Variety https://variety.com/1995/film/reviews/living-in-oblivion-1200439916/