Exploring Film Technique

  Bunny is a short film that shows an elderly rabbit battling with a buzzing moth. As Bunny continues to try to kill this moth, Bunny tires and falls asleep and to pass away and in a "dream" she climbs into the oven to follow the moth that has disappeared. The use of light is introduced in the very beginning of the film as the moth is attracted to an intense blue/white light. The rest of the movie is dark and composed of grays, soft whites and dull colors. Bunny also has a grizzled and worn image in the movie and truly appears to be old and ready to die and her see her deceased husband.
       In Harold and Maude, Harold longs for the attention of his mother and goes so far as to be destructive and fake his own suicide on a regular basis. In the shot where Maude looks at Harold, their eyes meet in a pan shot and Harold makes direct eye contact with the camera. Maude's eyes show a look of absolute disapproval and disappointment in her son. He only wants her to care about him but she is caught in her own ways.
       In Northfork, two men, father and son, are trying to get people to move out of their properties in Northfork, due to the construction of a new dam. Some people do not wish to leave their homes but these men are persistent as if they vacated a particular number of houses then the men receive lake front property on the new lake that will be formed. While the film is in color, the only colors utilized are pale grays, blacks, whites and some light blues. This color choice adds a desolate image to the landscape of Northfork. The image of the pastor giving his sermon gives a score to God's creation in its own natural beauty. The shot shows both his creation and his word. Because it features the sermon and the the creation at once. The coffin on top of the car shows how life and death can coexist and the sacredness of death and honoring loved ones who have passed. The split house and the snow show how life can be easily split, divided and blocked by small things that seem insignificant.
       Paris Texas uses a variety of beautiful landscapes and colors to catch the attention of the viewer. The film begins even with a dark screen and immediately almost blinding white light is shown in the display of the American Southwest landscape. Communication is a central theme in the movie as Travis struggles with communicating and he follows the power lines while walking to show this desire for communication. His life is a point of disarray as he is separated from his wife and wants her back and to find her. The mountains behind him are framed in a shot as he talks to his brother and the mountains behind his brother are seen as eroded and smooth while Travis' mountain is jagged and rough. These mountains display the "rocky" life Travis lives and the simple, regular life his brother lives. Transportation also is shown, in many pan shots or focuses Travis is seen traveling. He does his best to console a man on a bridge who screams of an apocalypse that he believes is inevitable. The camera follows him as he travels across this massive bridge. Travis does take a step back to stop and eat lunch under an overpass to talk to his son, and they really do have a heart-to-heart. Seeing his wife at a brothel upsets Travis but he loves her and wishes to talk to her. Her situation of sadness is exemplified by the fantasy room she has set up, even though one wall is unfinished. Travis goes to see her and the lighting allows for him to see her but her not see him through a two way mirror. He is saddened but in one shot the lighting allows for his face to be cast on her body while they are talking. And he truly does see them together, and in both senses of the word by seeing them conjoined in image.
       The Pink Floyd film was incredibly intense. War is depicted in a way that makes it seem as dark and Hell-ish as possible. An image of a death bird is shown and it destroys the barren landscape and death is a central theme throughout. In no education the children are all dressed in sad, formal gray clothing and they are subject to beatings, embarrassment and boredom as they are brainwashed and forced into lines. Then following an uproar they have a complete rampage on the school and destroy everything. The filmmakers shift back and forth from cartoon to live-action and in many of the cartoon shots, the actions of live-action characters are depicted. This wall that all these people are just bricks in destroys society in an animation. Destroying schools, churches, buildings and people. The judgement is shown by the judge who is a human posterior who's final ruling is to free the boy and that the wall will be torn down.