Film Journal by Spencer, Isaac (Student)

Production Roles

s12332078 — 2025-08-19 18:11:53 UTC

Directors:
Coen Brothers
Park-Chan Wook
Orson Welles-
Citizen Kane, Journey into Fear, F is for Fake.
Citizen Kane was made in 1941 but still holds up to modern film-making standards, his use of mise-en-scene is great, especially in the context of the movie and Kane.

https://youtu.be/fr93wwtiKQM?si=rpOuaP6T0gf1bTYc

Cinematographers:
Jessica Lee Gagne
Roger Deakins- One of the most prolific cinematographers of all time, Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, all were shot by him. In Fargo, his use of extreme long shots emphasize the humanity and reality of the movie. The shots are all very static and deemphasized, allowing the actors performances to speak for themselves.
Peter Deming

https://youtu.be/_jlYY1Ik9wQ?si=dlUqN1qEkFaWJQxi

Screenwriters:
Quentin Tarantino
Coen Brothers- The Coen Brothers are famous for their natural dialogue and character driven stories.
Park Chan-Wook- Oldboy is an extremely well-written movie and is infamous for its plot twist and genre shifting.

Editors:
George Tomasini- Edited the dream sequence in Vertigo, which was extremely visually impressive for the time
Terry Rawlings
Yang Jin-Mo

https://youtu.be/4WAxDlUOw-w?si=v2PFqu_DBvYwnFW1

Sound:
Hans Zimmer
Ben Burtt- He did the major sound design for Star Wars, creating many of the now famous sci-fi sounds of the universe. He also popularized the famous Wilhelm scream.
Mark Mangini

https://youtu.be/fl0wIdGxfbQ?si=G30ckd4POLUPndZq

Essential Question 8/25/25

s12332078 — 2025-08-25 17:25:11 UTC

How do the distinct roles within film production shape the artistic vision and audience experience of a movie?

The distinct roles within film production allow a wide variety of different creative minds to work together in order to create one great product. If their various styles and creative decisions mesh together well, you get a high quality finished product. Many directors have preferred people in each of the film roles that they work together well with.

Proxemics

s12332078 — 2025-08-27 18:05:48 UTC

Proxemics- Use of space in filmmaking to develop various themes and relationships within the film.
Intimacy- shooting with a close camera proximity to make the audience feel close to the subject and show off the acting.
Sense of Space- wide shots from a more distant proximity to show the relationship of subjects to their surroundings, also to show off set design.
Emotional Impact- tighter shots are often used for more emotional or dramatic moments to amplify facial expressions.
Point of View- placing audience in a characters shoes.

Cowboy shot- behind the character, cutting off at the midthigh, used for quickdraw scenes and generally showing tension.

Storyboard examples (Taxi Driver)

s12332078 — 2025-09-09 17:28:21 UTC

I believe Scorcese used shot types, camera movement, and lighting to create a violent scene that did not feel overly choreographed. They fight awkwardly, Travis blows one of the pimps hands off and there is both a reaction shot of the pimp indicating the pain he’s in, as well as a shot of Travis recoiling in disgust as the blood splatters back onto him. Scorcese also shows the shots echoing up the building to Iris and the man in her room, which both indicates to the audience that the man will be prepared to fight off Travis, and that the action of the scene extends and has repercussions outside of the frame of the camera. Then, when the camera cuts back to Travis, he gets shot in the neck suddenly, but the camera doesn’t emphasize his pain, it just pulls back further to show him shooting the other pimp who shot him. Rather than taking the more common route of the vigilante hero being an extremely competent fighter who is almost superhuman, the action is slow and awkward, with Travis getting caught off guard frequently and reacting with disgust to the blood and gore that splashes back onto his face. The scene is also blanketed in shadow, and the building is dark, gray, and grimy. I believe this was intentionally done by Scorcese to show that Travis is not an admirable white knight saving a damsel in distress, but a disturbed man killing other people in a dank and disgusting place more out of a vague inclination and familiarity than a desire to do good.

Shot type examples.

s12332078 — 2025-09-09 17:29:07 UTC

Close reading an image

s12332078 — 2025-09-09 17:29:45 UTC

Life of Pi subject Analysis

s12332078 — 2025-09-19 17:27:06 UTC

Mystery Shots + Analysis

s12332078 — 2025-09-19 17:28:50 UTC

One Shot Project

s12332078 — 2025-09-25 03:43:53 UTC

For this project, I had my actor pretend to set up the camera at the beginning to make the project appear to be found footage. At the end, I cut together another shot from the same angle so it appeared to still only be a one shot project, but this shot had the camera collapse as though the killer destroyed it. I used a mix of actual recorded sounds slamming into various things in my shed, as well as some stock destruction sound effects to add some variety.

Object Lesson

s12332078 — 2025-10-21 23:57:46 UTC

Match Cut edit

s12332078 — 2025-10-27 17:25:02 UTC

Edited by Nam.

Group: Prince Alcindor, Nameerah Ayesha, Isaac Spencer.

Reflection: We chose to do a match on action, cutting from Prince getting kicked to bubblegum popping. In a larger video/film, this would allow us to demonstrate the painful consequences of this for Prince without actually capturing his reaction. This would keep the video moving smoothly and quickly between scenes.

Scene Diagram Scott Pilgrim

s12332078 — 2025-11-04 13:43:49 UTC

Wright Way Project

s12332078 — 2025-11-14 13:13:29 UTC

Wright Way project reflection

s12332078 — 2025-11-14 13:29:17 UTC

Postmodern Party Script

s12332078 — 2026-02-17 18:37:18 UTC

I wrote the script for this project, but I tried to make it as high-quality as possible as I am trying to work on my script-writing.

Postmodern Project Script

s12332078 — 2026-03-03 16:08:03 UTC

I wrote the script for this video and tried to make the dialogue feel as natural as possible.