Life of pi review

Although I don't agree with the core concept that the author Yan Maetel set out  in the book 'this is a story make you believe in God', it's still undeniable that it is a film with pure soul and incredibly beautiful scene. 

The story itself is simple, an Indian teenage boy Pi (short for Piscine) was on a shop from India to North America with his entire family and animals from their private zoo but the the shop capsized and sank after met a terrible storm, all his family's lives were claimed but Pi survived and drifted on the ocean with a  dying zebra, a hungry hyena, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger that goes by the name of Richard Parker. During the 229 days Pi not only keeps his life from being devoured by the savage wild animals but also builds up a subtle relationship with the tiger. " All my life is an act of letting go but what hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye." No matter which story Pi tells is true, things come and go, it's necessary to set the tiger in our heart free. 



The 3D and CGI is no doubt the delicate touch of this film. Below is some information about this special effects online:

" Putting a teenage boy and an adult Bengal tiger together in an enclosed space, such as the 20-foot lifeboat that is one of the few settings of Life of Pi, is a dangerous proposition. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that 17-year-old star Suraj Sharma, who played Pi, was never actually in the boat with a live tiger.

"No, that never happened," Sharma told NextMovie of sharing the boat. Instead, he studied his massive, furry co-stars in their cages, and watched videos of their movement online. "I would watch them be trained and stuff like that."

"We didn't want our actor to get eaten," visual effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer told the New York Times." 

Four real tigers were used in the production, for reference and motion capture, as well as for actual pivotal scenes. Including footage of actual tigers forced the effects team to make their digital tigers look realistic enough so as to be indistinguishable from the actual tigers.

"It set our bar high for CGI," Westenhofer said. "We couldn't cheat at all. It pushed the artists to go and deliver something that's never been done before, something as photo-real as anyone has ever done with an animal."

For example, for a scene in which the tiger, Richard Parker, swims in the water and can't get back onto the boat without Pi's help, a real tiger was used. In a scene where Richard Parker swipes at Pi from under a tarp, digital effects were used." 

(http://www.starpulse.com/news/NextMovie/2012/11/21/life_of_pi_tiger_whats_real_and_whats_) 

Academic skills-- How to manage your time

Resource from dartmouth.edu

Many students discover the need to develop or hone their time management skills when they arrive at college. Unlike high school where teachers frequently structured your assignments and classes filled your day, in college, you will have less in-class time, more outside of class work, and a great deal of freedom and flexibility. These pages provide you with tips for managing your time well so you can get the most out of your Dartmouth experience. Keys to successful time management include:

• Self knowledge and goals
• Developing and maintaining a personal, flexible schedule

tips

1.Count all your time as time to be used and make every attempt to get satisfaction out of every moment.

2.Find something to enjoy in whatever you do.

3.Try to be an optimist and seek out the good in your life.

4.Find ways to build on your successes.

5.Stop regretting your failures and start learning from your mistakes.

6.Remind yourself, "There is always enough time for the important things." If it is important, you should be able to make

   time to do it.

7.Continually look at ways of freeing up your time.

8.Examine your old habits and search for ways to change or eliminate them.

9.Try to use waiting time­­-review notes or do practice problems.

10.Keep paper or a calendar with you to jot down the things you have to do or notes to yourself.

11.Examine and revise your lifetime goals on a monthly basis and be sure to include progress towards those goals on a

   daily basis.

12.Put up reminders in your home or office about your goals.

13.Always keep those long term goals in mind.

14.Plan your day each morning or the night before and set priorities for yourself.

15.Maintain and develop a list of specific things to be done each day, set your priorities and the get the most important

   ones done as soon in the day as you can. Evaluate your progress at the end of the day briefly.

16.Look ahead in your month and try and anticipate what is going to happen so you can better schedule your time.

17.Try rewarding yourself when you get things done as you had planned, especially the important ones.

18.Do first things first.

19.Have confidence in yourself and in your judgement of priorities and stick to them no matter what.

20.When you catch yourself procrastinating-ask yourself, "What am I avoiding?"

21.Start with the most difficult parts of projects, then either the worst is done or you may find you don't have to do all the

   other small tasks.

22.Catch yourself when you are involved in unproductive projects and stop as soon as you can.

23.Find time to concentrate on high priority items or activities.

24.Concentrate on one thing at a time.

25.Put your efforts in areas that provide long term benefits.

26.Push yourself and be persistent, especially when you know you are doing well.

27.Think on paper when possible-it makes it easier to review and revise.

28.Be sure and set deadlines for yourself whenever possible.

29.Delegate responsibilities whenever possible.

30.Ask for advice when needed.

Study Proposal Version 2

What is your subject of study?

Film, culture diffusion and globalisation

What is your research question?

The opportunities and challenges of globalisation for contemporary Chinese films

Research aim(s):

What are the overall aims of the project?

The aim of this research is to study the proceeding of the globalisation of Chinese films and how to improve the acceptability to viewers from different cultural background. During this experimental films will be produced as a main method of research.

Research objectives(s):

What are the specific tangible project objectives?

Note: these are separate to what you personally need to learn in terms of skills and knowledge, see learning objectives below.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.    <!--[endif]-->Research films in different cultural environments, analyse the features of the films.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.    <!--[endif]-->Review existing researches, books, articles, film appreciation and reflect journal writing.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.    <!--[endif]-->Work on 2-3 experimental works during the study.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.    <!--[endif]-->Produce a final piece of work which is about 10 minutes in length.

Rationale

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->What is the wider context of your project?

‘Now that we can photograph our loved ones, not only in stillness, but as they                move, as they act, as they making familiar gestures, as they speak… Death ceases to be absolute.’ -- Georges Méliès (1902)

As the French movie pioneer stated, movies are a revolutionary form of art which affects the entire human history since the year 1889. It brings us fun, excitement, knowledge and more importantly, it works as eyes of our minds to explore a brand new world. Nowadays, as the pace of cultural collision and fusion is getting faster and faster, we are being able to getting more and more exposed to films from countries with a variety of different cultural backgrounds. However, it comes to our attention that the development of film industry is lopsided, English films have long been the dominant in this industry in a worldwide range. According to the theoretical market statistics, although global box office for all films released in each country around the world reached $32.6 billion in 2011, all the top 25 films of the US/Canadian box office earned are produced by the Hollywood, specifically the reconfigured Big six of Warner Bros, Paramount, Twentieth Centries-Fox, Universal, Columbia and Disney.1

As an international student from the mainland China, I am very much aware of that with a 5000 years history and splendid culture this nation contains, we have the ability to produce outstanding films. I hope to form an exhaustive study about the deeper reasons of this phenomenon and provide some helps. 

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->How does the project relate to your previous experience/practice?

The major on my previous degree study stage was broadcast and media production which helped me laid a solid foundation on both sound and vision producing. In this case I would like to change my research direction on this advance stage to narrative field. With a wider range of knowledge on all aspects of film research I will be more confident in the future.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->How does it relate to relevant current practices, debates and theory?

Although by the year 2009, China would replace the United States as the world’s largest economic power, the gap between the film industries of these two countries is more than evident. “As the movie industry entered its third century, movements between old and new realities and between consistency and change informed especially the institutional force behind the movies as they adjusted to increasingly expanding markets and more activity discriminating viewers. … but there work began to focus increasingly on development, financing, marketing, and merchandising.” <!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]-->there is beyond all doubt that a complete industry chain has been formed in America which is supported by strong technique force, talent and sufficient fund. According to the research of Hunqun Li from the Beijing Communication University, the reasons were summarized as lack of innovation, outdated technology and the film administrative system. Meanwhile, advises were given as: “ In order to compete in this highly competitive field, Chinese film producers should first try to integrate the film industries in Greater China, that is the mainland, Taiwan, Macao and Hong Kong – taking cultural origins into consideration – to build a solid foundation for cooperation and communication.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[i]<!--[endif]-->

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->Why is the intended research significant? (So what?)

 

                                                                                             

Human beings require a culture to which they belong.  As Béla Balázs reviewed “The art of film had a profound impact on and changed the lifestyle, the aesthetic way and the way of thinking of people around the world, which allowed human beings on earth to be able to walk towards the direction of integration and universal brotherhood for the first time.” There is no doubt that films nowadays serve important functions on cultural diffusion, they are windows which acquaint us with the world we are not familiar with. Rely on the medium of film we are able to create more communication and facilitate further cultural exchanges and cooperation. On the other hand, Chinese filmmakers are seeking for the affirmation from international market for decades but the truth is they are neither accepted by audiences from other cultural backgrounds nor film award communities abroad.

This research will intensively study the reason in all directions and provide a out-o-box solution.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->How does this project relate to your plans for the future?

This project provides a good opportunity to penetrate into the film industry in the UK, get acquainted with local film makers and to gain experience during working with them. With the better understanding it helps me lay a solid foundation for my future career to become an independent filmmaker back to China, as well as establish my own film production company in ten years’ time.

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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[i]<!--[endif]--> http://gmc.sagepub.com/site/subscriptions/

Broadway individual session log

Today I had a one-to-one session with Owen and Ella in Broadway cinema.  The main purpose of this 1 hour session was to initiate me into the study and work in Broadway cinema as well as start to know the requests and needs within this MA study phase. Also, some advices were given to me  regarding to the problems I met such as time management, how to fully utilise the study resource Broadway has and the access to them. Unlike the local students, we may not know much people here especially when we need volunteer actors and actress for the works so Owen is been able to help me solving this problem by introducing me some local media workers and  Performance enthusiasts. This is also important for us to get involved in the social life with them to get more information and help both on study and life in the UK.
I think this kind of chatting is very helpful for us and I hope it can be taken regularly. 

Interview shooting skill session in Broadway cinema log

Today the session was about the rechnique and skills to film an interview in and outside door. Interview is a basic element in documentaries and TV programmes. Some DSLR can produce good quality of video but there is no way to get rid of the noise when record with the internal microphone. That means external recorders are needed in order to add a clear sound track at the editing stage. The basic types of microphone are: omnidirectional, cardioid and shotgun.  Meanwhile, the composition of the picture is also a key component.  We were required to find a ideal filming location and produce a short interview by the equipments borrowed from Waveley shop. 

Storyboard workshop log

Sequence from film  "Rain man"

Supervisor meeting log--verbal feedback

Agenda: a verbal feedback of proposal
Tutor: Phil Nodding, David Downes
Summary of discussion:


In regarding to my subject of study "A study of micro-film language, dialogue and cultural environment" and reseach question "The feasibility of non-dialogue film in the micro-film format" , David gave me his opinions and suggestions. First of all, the topic is too wide for reseaching, and the subject contradicts to the reseach question itself. He was confused about how it works when I mentioned language, dialogue and cultural environment at the same time and then but my emphases on ' non-dialogue' elements in films later. Phil concerned that when I brought out this research question it was already been proved when the film was invented at the first time, it kept for almost 30 years before the sound track was put on. In recent years many smart ideas were shown in silent films in a variety of countries. In this case it is unnecessary to prove this point of view again. Secondly, micro-film is a fangle in this industry, lack of exsting documents and materials for reseaching would be a insurmountable problem. In a ward, both of the subject and the reseach question  need to be changed.
The new topic could be:How to expand the acceptance of films to viewers who have different cultrual backgrounds regarding to the approaches of a variety of elements.  Not only talk about conversations, but also discuss the technique area and script and so on.

The proposal will be rewrite in this week.

 

Workshop coursework-- create characters

Tutor: Jools Ayodeji

Task: Observe two people and create two characters

Time: 02:15 am 16/11/2012 Fri

location: outside the pub ‘Black cherry’ in town

 

A young girl (around 20 years old ) was standing outside the pub, smoking while chatting with her friends. She was a white girl with long curl ginger hair, cute freckles on her face, red lips and a small tattoo of the peace logo on her ankle. There were a lot of sprinkles on her black dress. She might be a first year university student who was just moved out from her parents house, free in a new city, having a night out with her course mates. It was easy to tell that she had some alcohol already in her stomach because she started to wobble around on her high heels when I met her. She looked happy and enjoyed herself that night.

 

Time : 05:40 pm 22/11/2012

Location: in front of the NatWest ATM machine outside the Victoria center

 

He was a white man around 25-30 years old with a black suit and white shirt inside. His tie was pulled loose and his collar hung open. He looks exhausted and waiting in the cue to get some cash. He might be a freshman in a office, had a tough day and be told off by his boss. It started the drizzle rain, he put his brief case on his head to protect his suit and new leather shoes. At that moment what in his mind was to get some cash in order to buy himself a cheese burger and going back home having some rest.

Workshop log- important slices

Life of Pi

'Life of Pi' is one of the films I am looking forward to the most next year. Director Ang Li brings a fushion of fantastic story and incrediblely beautiful picture in this latest work. At the same time, he adept the elements from different cultrual environment, break the traditional pattern of commecial films, that is, in my opinion, very brave action in this industry.

Suppervisor meeting log

Agenda: proposal and respective journal

Today Phil talked about our proposal. Regarding to my research topic "A study of microfilm language,dialogue and cultural environment" he thought it may comes to a very wild range and it is a better way for reaserching to focus on a more particular direction in it. He suggested that when doing the experimental works I can create 2 different versions of microfilms with the same storyline, thus a comparison could be made in order to  research the reaction from my viewers. Quastionaire can be a good helper for collecting feedbacks in terms of the use in each element(such as music, acting, film tech, location, light and so on).




Good film recommendation: Argo(2012)

Cold or warm? Zombie films on their way!

Zombie is one of the hottest subjects in western film industry for centruries. Dating back to the year 1932, since the first zombie film 'White Zombie' was filmed and produced in Haiti, this ugly, undead and creepy creature  soon became the best spokesman for horror films and be accepted by more and more people in the worldwide range. In recent years there's no lack of classics with big budget and ingenious storyline. In the coming year 2013, There are two new zombie films on the way. ' World war Z' and ' Warm bodies'.

Non-dialogue short film study

Here are some good examples of non-dialogue microfilms.

Portal: No Escape (Live Action Short Film by Dan Trachtenberg) 

When a film was produced without conversations, other elements play more important role in building up the storyline and explaining everything to the viewers. In 'Portal', the filming location is a cell, nothing in it but a bed and a mirror on the wall. From the marks on the wall we know that she is being locked here for a long time. She is taking excersice everyday because she never give up the hope to escape. The music is powerful, everything contributes to transfer the ideas and keep the suspence.

Merry Christmas NTU!

This week Shenlin, Sadaat,Sherry and me were working on a project about interactive media. The main idea is about producing 12 different short clips, with the connection of a telephone and touch screen computers, people are able to press buttons on the telephone to watch the clips. We filmed different people around the Boningtons building such as  lecturers, students ( international students speaking different languages)，cashiers of a shop, reception lady, the fruit pedler and so on. Next week we are going to edit the clips, decorate the display area and get the work done. 

This project is a good opportunity for us to gain experience before our research work, we discussed and exchanged ideas, made a plan, borrowed equipment from the Waveley shop for the first time and had a great time worked in a team.
Film production is relied on team works and collaboration.It is important for us  learn how to show respects to the other team members and keep our words. Only when we have a good relationship with other team members can we work in a good mood. 

Proposal modification

Date: 16-11-2012
Tutor: Carla Grimley
Content: one to one discussion with proposal writing

Today Carla and I discussed my research topic and checked the grammar of proposal writing. She also gave me some adivises about writing words and quatation. Hereby is the proposal modification with tips from Carla.

Name: Xiaoyu Liu (N0463029)

 

Course: MA Film Practice

 

Date:10-11-2012

 

What is your subject of study?

 

A study of micro-film language, dialogue and cultural environment

 

What is your research question?

 

The feasibility of non-dialogue film in the micro-film format

 

Research aim(s):

What are the overall aims of the project?

 

The aim of this research is to study the impact of dialogue and other non-linguistic components in micro-films delivered via different new media platforms. During this research experimental micro-films will be produced.

 

Research objectives(s):

What are the specific tangible project objectives?

Note: these are separate to what you personally need to learn in terms of skills and knowledge, see learning objectives below.

 

1.    Research films in different languages and cultural environments, analyse the features of the films.

2.    Review existing researches, books, articles, film appreciation and reflect journal writing.

3.    Work on 2-3 experimental works during the study.

4.    Produce non-dialogue micro-films with a final piece of about 10 minutes in length.

 

Rationale

·         What is the wider context of your project?

 

‘Now that we can photograph our loved ones, not only in stillness, but as they move, as they act, as they making familiar gestures, as they speak… Death cease to be absolute.’ --- La Poste de Paris[1]

As the French movie pioneer stated, movies are a revolutionary form of art which affect everyone’s life since 1889. In the year 1910, Thomas Alva Edison put a sound track on the right side of the traditional 16mm film, which was the end of a silent world in this industry. Nowadays, as the pace of cultural collision and fusion is getting faster and faster, we are being getting more exposed to films from other countries in a variety of different languages and cultural environment. The role dialogues play in films has come to our attention, is it possible to let our audiences be saturated in a complete story without dialogues? This is the question I need to work on during this research stage.

 

·         How does the project relate to your previous experience/practice?

 

My major on previous degree study stage was broadcast and media production, that helped me lay a solid foundation on both sound and vision producing. In this case I would like to change my research direction on the MA stage to the narrative field. With a wider range of knowledge on all aspects of film research I will be more confident in the future.

 

·         How does it relate to relevant current practices, debates and theory?

 

     At present, many scholars have done researches work in terms of the relation between film and dialogue. Sarah Kozloff devoted her opinions on the function of dialogues in the book ‘Overhearing Film Dialogue’ (2000) as: anchorage of the diegesis and characters; communication of narrative causality; enactment of narrative events; character revelation; adherence to the code of realism and control of viewer evaluation and emotions. Based on the previous research, my research lays particular emphasis on non-linguistic components in micro-films which relatively rare in this area.

 

 

·         Why is the intended research significant? (So what?)

 

There is no doubt that dialogue, as one of the crucial components, serves important functions within a film's story. However, it also becomes a main reason for a restriction in understanding. Non-dialogue films provide an alternative way for audiences, especially those who use different languages, to understand and be infected with film’s the unique atmosphere.  By way of illustration ‘Mr. Bean’ is one of the most famous English comedy brands not only within the UK, but also worldwide.  With exaggerated body language this character grew to be the iconic character in the media history of this country. Faced with this realm of possibility that filmmakers are able to transfer their ideas towards a wider range of viewers with different cultural backgrounds, I think this research topic worth its own value. Meanwhile, dialogues sometimes dragged too much attention from viewers than the other elements such as the subtext of the story, the tactile appeal of pictures, music, special effects and so on. A non-dialogue film is more engaged on the essence of film itself.

 

·         How does this project relate to your plans for the future?

 

Microfilm, as a newborn medium of art, has a prodigious potential. 

This research provides me with a superior opportunity to get involved in this industry, as well as to accumulate experience and to become ready to work as a producer in a film company.

 

Reference

 

David Cheshire (2005) ‘The Book of Movie Photography—the complete guide to better moviemaking’

 

Sarah Kozloff (2000) ‘Overhearing Film Dialogue’

 

Bibliography

 

Cite essential background or contextual material using the Harvard System of referencing

 

Peter Greasley (2011) ‘ Doing Essays & Assignments—Essential Tips for students’

 

Paul Wheeler (2007) ‘High definition cinematography’ Second Edition

 

Professor Bert Cardullo (2011) ‘World Directors in Dialogue: Conversations on Cinema’

 

 

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