La J'etee was a compelling, post-apocalyptic, sci-fi story told entirely through still images and audio. In order to keep the audience's attention for half an hour using only stills, Marker uses what is probably one of the earliest examples of the rule of thirds, which creates engaging image composition. Whether this was intentional or not, the effect that it has had on the film industry is prevalent even in modern composition of video shots.
Katherine Read: La J'etee is a different kind of visually appealing movie. To keep the audience engaged throughout the entire movie made completely of stills, Marker used a variety of different shot types, camera angles, and different lighting to tell his three act narrative. The transitions between stills, like quick succession, fading to black in between each frame, and having the images fade into each other, help set the tone for what is happening at that exact moment. Each shot was different from the rest in terms of placement of the object within the frame which followed the rules of thirds which helped create a more visually dynamic composition.
Reagan Wells: Chris Marker's La Jetée (1962) is an intriguing Sci-Fi film with a fantastic twist. In La Jetée, Marker creates a world where memories and time are reduced to picturesque images: moments embedded in the mind. To convey this idea, he used striking still images (many featuring chiaroscuro), coupled with ambient noise, to create a palpable environment for the viewer. By using images, Marker has precise control over each image and the audience gets to spend more time with every "moment" of the film. Even though the film lacks moving pictures, Marker creates a sense of kinetics by establishing the geography of the scene and cross cutting with other images to show the movement of a character. Marker's story is a unique twist on time travel. While the apocalyptic setting and the "save the world" quest our hero embarks on may not be new to us, his ideas about time and our relationship with it teem with originality. His spell binding narrative drew me in...and trapped me as the story finally came full circle.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Chris Marker uses still black and white photograph, transitions, and audio to compose a gripping sci-fi tale. At this point in history, color photos were available to the general public, but Marker makes the stylistic choice to use stark contrast in black and white, perhaps to show the bleakness of the situation or the fear of the future (or past). The transitions between stills vary throughout, ranging from abrupt to blurry to almost video like during the woman’s sleep scene; these transitions follow the man on his journey. While in the “present”, the edits tend to be unembellished and very abrupt, but during his reminiscent moments in the “past”, they flow between frames, allowing the viewer some stress-relief. Most of the audio is composed of the narrator telling the man’s story. Although as the man spends more time in the “past” or “future”, there are inaudible mumbles that fade in and out sporadically; these could be construed as the man’s internal dialogues or perhaps the voices of the other “time-travelers” from the future. Birds also play a significant role in the short film. Besides voices, birds are the only other sound returned to several times. Camera angles tend to draw attention to any birds in the frame through the use of the rule of thirds and using high, “dirty” shots (especially in the museum). The birds probably indicate freedom or a desire for it in the man who is trapped in the past, present, and future.
Jacob Peterson: "La J'etee by Chris Marker is a dark sci-fi drama set in a post apocalyptic world after a great war. In the film Marker uses still images and a wide variety of shots to tell a story of a test subject going back and forth in his dreams from past and future. The shots Marker uses pulls the viewer in making them feel like they are the man himself. Something I thought of as I was watching this film I think influenced different movies and even video games. The dream sequences reminded me of "Inception" directed by Chris Nolan whereas that was the only place the man could be "happy" the dream was his escape from the horrors of his life. Also the setting reminded me of the popular "Fallout" game series. Overall O think the movie shows off a lot of interesting things you can do with still images and still tell a gripping/compelling story.
Josh Cohen: The film La J'etee by Chris Marker catches the audience off guard. Even though the whole film is told only in images, it provides a pure experience with no distractions. The reason I say so is that the still images and the wide variety of camera angles, extreme wide shot, medium shot, close up, etc., invited the audience into the story. With no moving images the audience was really able to focus in on what exactly was going on in the story, and the audience is able to process everything. The audience is able to feel the emotion that the main character feels throughout the story and can soak in every single detail going on in the story by analyzing each image as they appear. In addition to the brilliance of the camera angles, the establishing shots of each scene really set the tone. The shots were taken in a way to show the scenery and how the sets were created to look like the area was empty except for a small group of people along with their captors. The lighting in the film was genius, and the shadows that were caste during the experiments were amazing in the since of giving a person the sense of uneasiness. Though, when shown stills of when the man is dreaming, everything is bright, with little shadows, allowing the audience to escape what really is happening in reality. The shots are organized in a way to tell the story and still keep the audience captivated, the director made sure to show the most important parts of the story so that you only focused on those during the narration.
Sam Ritenour: The film La J'etee by Chris Marker was a very interesting film which was completely made from stills. Just when I thought that I had the film figured out, there was another plot twist and I was immediately caught off guard. In my opinion, what made these twists so powerful was the angles and the music. I found myself a little confused at some points but thanks to the wide variety of shots and the powerful music, I was able to feel the emotions that the film was portraying. The emotional close up shots were key to this film because that in my opinion is what told the story. Each shot was different which ultimately added to the uniqueness of the whole film. What I really liked was how the movie ended where it started. I thought it was cool because it showed the future and then rewound and told the story. Overall, the film was very interesting and had great shots and edits. I enjoyed it.
Will Baggett: "La J'etee" by Chris Marker (1962) was a film before its time. There are countless devices in this film that can be found in films today, such as "Live, Die, Repeat", where a man is stuck in an endless cycle of time traveling, haunted by a woman he loves. Despite not having moving pictures, Marker resonated the emotions of the main character with the appropriate close up shots, medium shots, and especially the close-up shots of the woman the man has fallen in love with. Towards the end, Marker uses shorter bursts of pictures to show the main character running now the "jetty" to find the woman he loves, and essentially creates a stop motion sensation of the man running desperately. The rapid-fire shots invokes the sense of desperation the man has, and then it stopped in its tracks (as the man does) when it is revealed that the man is now dead and we are left, abruptly, with a picture of the man laying motionless on the ground. The style that Marker utilizes these pictures is well laid out, because the motion picture is not even needed. The types of shots and the tempo at which they are shown create the motion in the viewers' heads and forces the viewer to imagine the action. In the end, "La J'etee" was a thrilling film that proves the idea that the different kinds of shots and the tempo of a film are more crucial to the emotional impact than even the motion of the pictures themselves.
Jeb Brackner: La J’etee is a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic film told solely through the medium of still images. The film itself dealt with the consequences of human's warfare and explored these real world issues along with the sci-fi themes of continuity and time travel. I found the whole narrative extremely compelling in that even though the work was just a series of images placed one after another linked together through a simple soundstage and narration, it did exactly what it was supposed to: emphasize exactly what the director wanted you to see. The ambience did not have to be elaborate nor the production value excessive. The simple aspects of the scenes worked to the story’s advantage. The story itself explored the idea of bending time by coming full circle, adding a meaningful twist for an ending. I loved the entirety of the movie and would recommend it to anyone.
La J'etee has showed an great story of time traveling. By watching the detail of this movie. The director has used different perspectives to show the emotions change of the leading roles. The movie tweleve monkeys has used the same story telling like this film. Some things that director wants to tells as are more meaningful than the film itself. It is hard to change the past but we can do is to appreciate what we have today. This film attracts me a lot because the beginning part of film is also the ending part of the film. It is like cycle .This film has also influenced many movies in film industry.----- Kuroky pei
Alexa Armstrong:The film "La J'etee" the director uses the same concept as putting "based on a true story" at the beginning or end of a film to create an eerie and dark mood for the film. By using words to tell the story very clearly and images to assist there isn't much left to the imagination. Everything is right in front of you and that blunt truth can be frightening. Having this simplicity forces the audience to focus and be completely divulged into the story being told. To add to the drama the images have amazing shadows and darkness to them on their own, which adds to the overall tone of the film as dark and dreary.
La J'etee was a compelling, post-apocalyptic, sci-fi story told entirely through still images and audio. In order to keep the audience's attention for half an hour using only stills, Marker uses what is probably one of the earliest examples of the rule of thirds, which creates engaging image composition. Whether this was intentional or not, the effect that it has had on the film industry is prevalent even in modern composition of video shots.
ReplyDelete--Xander Pippin
Katherine Read: La J'etee is a different kind of visually appealing movie. To keep the audience engaged throughout the entire movie made completely of stills, Marker used a variety of different shot types, camera angles, and different lighting to tell his three act narrative. The transitions between stills, like quick succession, fading to black in between each frame, and having the images fade into each other, help set the tone for what is happening at that exact moment. Each shot was different from the rest in terms of placement of the object within the frame which followed the rules of thirds which helped create a more visually dynamic composition.
ReplyDeleteReagan Wells: Chris Marker's La Jetée (1962) is an intriguing Sci-Fi film with a fantastic twist. In La Jetée, Marker creates a world where memories and time are reduced to picturesque images: moments embedded in the mind. To convey this idea, he used striking still images (many featuring chiaroscuro), coupled with ambient noise, to create a palpable environment for the viewer. By using images, Marker has precise control over each image and the audience gets to spend more time with every "moment" of the film. Even though the film lacks moving pictures, Marker creates a sense of kinetics by establishing the geography of the scene and cross cutting with other images to show the movement of a character. Marker's story is a unique twist on time travel. While the apocalyptic setting and the "save the world" quest our hero embarks on may not be new to us, his ideas about time and our relationship with it teem with originality. His spell binding narrative drew me in...and trapped me as the story finally came full circle.
ReplyDeleteSet in a post-apocalyptic world, Chris Marker uses still black and white photograph, transitions, and audio to compose a gripping sci-fi tale. At this point in history, color photos were available to the general public, but Marker makes the stylistic choice to use stark contrast in black and white, perhaps to show the bleakness of the situation or the fear of the future (or past). The transitions between stills vary throughout, ranging from abrupt to blurry to almost video like during the woman’s sleep scene; these transitions follow the man on his journey. While in the “present”, the edits tend to be unembellished and very abrupt, but during his reminiscent moments in the “past”, they flow between frames, allowing the viewer some stress-relief. Most of the audio is composed of the narrator telling the man’s story. Although as the man spends more time in the “past” or “future”, there are inaudible mumbles that fade in and out sporadically; these could be construed as the man’s internal dialogues or perhaps the voices of the other “time-travelers” from the future.
ReplyDeleteBirds also play a significant role in the short film. Besides voices, birds are the only other sound returned to several times. Camera angles tend to draw attention to any birds in the frame through the use of the rule of thirds and using high, “dirty” shots (especially in the museum). The birds probably indicate freedom or a desire for it in the man who is trapped in the past, present, and future.
-- Shelby Morgan
Jacob Peterson: "La J'etee by Chris Marker is a dark sci-fi drama set in a post apocalyptic world after a great war. In the film Marker uses still images and a wide variety of shots to tell a story of a test subject going back and forth in his dreams from past and future. The shots Marker uses pulls the viewer in making them feel like they are the man himself. Something I thought of as I was watching this film I think influenced different movies and even video games. The dream sequences reminded me of "Inception" directed by Chris Nolan whereas that was the only place the man could be "happy" the dream was his escape from the horrors of his life. Also the setting reminded me of the popular "Fallout" game series. Overall O think the movie shows off a lot of interesting things you can do with still images and still tell a gripping/compelling story.
ReplyDeleteJosh Cohen: The film La J'etee by Chris Marker catches the audience off guard. Even though the whole film is told only in images, it provides a pure experience with no distractions. The reason I say so is that the still images and the wide variety of camera angles, extreme wide shot, medium shot, close up, etc., invited the audience into the story. With no moving images the audience was really able to focus in on what exactly was going on in the story, and the audience is able to process everything. The audience is able to feel the emotion that the main character feels throughout the story and can soak in every single detail going on in the story by analyzing each image as they appear. In addition to the brilliance of the camera angles, the establishing shots of each scene really set the tone. The shots were taken in a way to show the scenery and how the sets were created to look like the area was empty except for a small group of people along with their captors. The lighting in the film was genius, and the shadows that were caste during the experiments were amazing in the since of giving a person the sense of uneasiness. Though, when shown stills of when the man is dreaming, everything is bright, with little shadows, allowing the audience to escape what really is happening in reality. The shots are organized in a way to tell the story and still keep the audience captivated, the director made sure to show the most important parts of the story so that you only focused on those during the narration.
ReplyDeleteSam Ritenour: The film La J'etee by Chris Marker was a very interesting film which was completely made from stills. Just when I thought that I had the film figured out, there was another plot twist and I was immediately caught off guard. In my opinion, what made these twists so powerful was the angles and the music. I found myself a little confused at some points but thanks to the wide variety of shots and the powerful music, I was able to feel the emotions that the film was portraying. The emotional close up shots were key to this film because that in my opinion is what told the story. Each shot was different which ultimately added to the uniqueness of the whole film. What I really liked was how the movie ended where it started. I thought it was cool because it showed the future and then rewound and told the story. Overall, the film was very interesting and had great shots and edits. I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteWill Baggett: "La J'etee" by Chris Marker (1962) was a film before its time. There are countless devices in this film that can be found in films today, such as "Live, Die, Repeat", where a man is stuck in an endless cycle of time traveling, haunted by a woman he loves. Despite not having moving pictures, Marker resonated the emotions of the main character with the appropriate close up shots, medium shots, and especially the close-up shots of the woman the man has fallen in love with. Towards the end, Marker uses shorter bursts of pictures to show the main character running now the "jetty" to find the woman he loves, and essentially creates a stop motion sensation of the man running desperately. The rapid-fire shots invokes the sense of desperation the man has, and then it stopped in its tracks (as the man does) when it is revealed that the man is now dead and we are left, abruptly, with a picture of the man laying motionless on the ground. The style that Marker utilizes these pictures is well laid out, because the motion picture is not even needed. The types of shots and the tempo at which they are shown create the motion in the viewers' heads and forces the viewer to imagine the action. In the end, "La J'etee" was a thrilling film that proves the idea that the different kinds of shots and the tempo of a film are more crucial to the emotional impact than even the motion of the pictures themselves.
ReplyDeleteJeb Brackner: La J’etee is a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic film told solely through the medium of still images. The film itself dealt with the consequences of human's warfare and explored these real world issues along with the sci-fi themes of continuity and time travel. I found the whole narrative extremely compelling in that even though the work was just a series of images placed one after another linked together through a simple soundstage and narration, it did exactly what it was supposed to: emphasize exactly what the director wanted you to see. The ambience did not have to be elaborate nor the production value excessive. The simple aspects of the scenes worked to the story’s advantage. The story itself explored the idea of bending time by coming full circle, adding a meaningful twist for an ending. I loved the entirety of the movie and would recommend it to anyone.
ReplyDeleteLa J'etee has showed an great story of time traveling. By watching the detail of this movie. The director has used different perspectives to show the emotions change of the leading roles. The movie tweleve monkeys has used the same story telling like this film. Some things that director wants to tells as are more meaningful than the film itself. It is hard to change the past but we can do is to appreciate what we have today. This film attracts me a lot because the beginning part of film is also the ending part of the film. It is like cycle .This film has also influenced many movies in film industry.----- Kuroky pei
ReplyDeleteAlexa Armstrong:The film "La J'etee" the director uses the same concept as putting "based on a true story" at the beginning or end of a film to create an eerie and dark mood for the film. By using words to tell the story very clearly and images to assist there isn't much left to the imagination. Everything is right in front of you and that blunt truth can be frightening. Having this simplicity forces the audience to focus and be completely divulged into the story being told. To add to the drama the images have amazing shadows and darkness to them on their own, which adds to the overall tone of the film as dark and dreary.
ReplyDelete