For this extra credit assignment, you will go to the following film event screening this coming Thursday 4/28 at 7:30pm in the Ferg Theater. This is the premiere of my advanced production class' film "Blackface." This is a great opportunity for all of you to see what the upper level production students are doing narratively and technically. This film give a lot to aspire to. It is going to be a great event and shouldn't be missed. These extra credit points should just be added incentive. Also, some of your classmates worked on it, so come out and support them!
https://www.facebook.com/events/862273227210236/
After the screening, write a blog post about the film.
For those who complete this, you will receive up to 2 bonus points to your final grade for the class. You'll have until 4/29 to complete the post.
I hope to see you there!
N
“Blackface” is a film that shows me what can happen when people come together with a singular vision to create something greater than themselves. After recent police killings, director Shanrica Evans wanted to see what would happen if she could recreate events with complete control of the character’s racial identity. Through the use of black-face, she was able to show us the staggering racial persecution of the time through the novice eyes of a (somewhat) innocent performer. What follows is a powerful short film about racial identity, violence, and perception.
ReplyDeleteThe story of Blackface is gripping. Evans, who won a film-pitch award at a New Orleans film festival, carefully raised up two stories that would soon collide. First, we focus on two men. One is a black-face performer who is hesitant to extend his mockery of African Americans past his nightly performances. His violent friend, however, represents the unfortunate racial climate of the South. These two characters catch a young black man and torture him, eventually bringing him to a lynching. Simultaneously, we follow the story two cops who are on night patrol. One younger cop acts as at the “voice-of-reason” who questions the social norms. The other cop, much like the violent friend mentioned earlier, is much more traditionally violent, who finds power in his authority and his gun alone. We find the two ideologies presented by the cops to be in conflict, and thats where Evans makes many parallels to current political situations. As the young performer finally realizes the horror of his actions, he flees to the street with his make-up still on. The trigger-happy cop barely blinks before gunning down the performer, ignoring the younger cop (who ironically was chastised earlier for being anxious). Through this brutal showdown, Evans allows the cop to realize that the artificial stereotypes in his mind were so powerful that he murdered the performer who was actually white. This powerful scene is the crux of the film. While it may be exaggerating to say that the cops of today are acting in a similar way today (who by no means are guiltless in several cases), the screenplay creates a powerful point that was hit home beautifully. Evan’s voice is present throughout as she brings to life this story of racial persecution.
The film was shot in black and white. This led for some stunning, picturesque visuals captured by DP Tanner Robbins. Robbins used light and shadow as his paintbrush as he created scenes with depth and contrast. A striking visual sequence was the torch-lit lynching scene. Crisp torches blazed as an angry crowd gleefully watched a young man being executed. Robbins employed the use of several camera techniques to capture the mood of various scenes. In one moment, he used smooth dolly shots that tracked around the main conflicted character (which were visually stunning on their own). And in the next, we were hand-held at a low angle as we watched a man being beaten. The stark cuts between these static or smooth-motion shots jarred excellently against these agitated, shaky shots. The camera, the A7 (I believe), was able to function incredibly well in low light conditions and captured the actors with a very tactile clarity. However, there were a few shots where two police officers walked down the street. These shots always seemed a little bit off visually. I can’t quite describe what it was. Perhaps the shadows were too bright, but that signature shadow contrast was missing. In a particularly powerful scene, the black-face performers staggers between the reality of his performance and the horror he witnessed earlier. These cuts are incredible and take us right into the mind of the performer. Some of these shots were honed in on the crowd, but there wasn’t a whole lot of visual contrast that separated them (lighting). This may have been an intentional choice, but more visual contrast might have made the jump cuts between situations a bit less clean (unless the director was hoping for a very clear cut). Aside from a handful of nitpicks, the crew did an excellent job capturing this dynamic story on camera.
ReplyDeleteAnother aspect that I really enjoyed was the sound of the film. It all felt so crisp and vibrant. The footsteps, the rustle of clothes. It all felt so sharp and real. I enjoyed the starkness of the sound design, which really filled in the lack of music. The sound always felt full and was particularly affecting, especially during the scene where the young man gets beat up in an alley. There were a few points, perhaps, where the crispness of the foley may have been a tad too loud, but these moments were few and far between. One moment that I thought had too much sound was the performance sequence. There was just way too much laughter. It felt very fake after a while. I think taking some of the laughter away and maybe adding some trailing laughs as the moment grows awkward for the audience may help. A bold choice this film made was the minimalistic music. I can only recall one time that I heard music. This was a very mature choice for this film, and it worked…most of the time. The entirety of the events in the front-end of the film played very well in the quiet stillness. However, I think the performance scene could have been a good time for some corny theater music that would artificially boost the comedy of the performance while brining in the focus the seriousness of the moment for the character. In addition, I think there were a few moments that could have benefited from a quiet, appropriate score. There were moments of internal struggle (the scene on stage) that may have played better with some music that echoes this inner wrestling. Again, nothing too much. Just a hint of musical backing.
My favorite element of the film (by far) was the editing. The editor (I apologize for forgetting her name) did an incredible job capturing the inner turmoil of the protagonist. My favorite sequence was when the main character looked around at the crowd of people who came to watch him and realizing that the more accurate response was the one he saw the earlier that night. The intercutting between these two spaces in time was a masterful device that really brought the audience into the character’s inner world. There was also a beautiful cut as a particularly blood-thirsty man raised up his knife to chop off the hand of the persecuted African American man. As the knife came down we cut to a beautiful shot of the moon, covered by a wisp of clouds, as a bloodcurdling scream echoed horrifically in the background. These stand-out moments, along with the overall pacing of the film, led to the editing being my favorite element.
ReplyDeleteThroughout my review, I have distanced myself from the filmmakers, often referring to them by their last names alone. The truth is that these gifted filmmakers are my peers. They are my future colleagues. And that is incredibly exciting, and it makes me proud to be a TCF major at Alabama. I now have a high standard for my work, and I hope to be able to work on projects that involve several filmmakers to create something meaningful. I am excited for my future in the TCF department and I am excited to pursue projects that I don’t think that I am capable of, setting my sights high or what I can accomplish her in Alabama.
Blackface took me some time to appreciate. When I first watched it, I felt myself tensing up at certain parts. I cringed at the language and some of the scenes. It was uncomfortable for me to watch because of how vulgar, for lack of a better word, it was, but that's exactly how I feel like it should make people feel. It's historically based and this may have very well been a true case that had happened. It was hard to watch for me because of how cruel people were back then, but I think it's important for us to watch and learn from that. It's not a call to action but rather a call to thinking, as Shanrica said in the Q&A. I'm not surprised that her pitch did so well at the festival in New Orleans because it was so intense and had lots of depth to it. For a film made by students who are around the same age as me, I was amazed at the production value. You could tell all the hard work that was put into it and how well it paid off. I'm friends with Lauren Musgrove, the editor, and I really loved the job she did. I find it fascinating how just simple edits can really change the tone and vibe of a film, and how the story could have gone so many ways. Overall, I'm so proud of the work they all did and to be a part of the same college as them, and I hope that I get the chance to be a part of something that great in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe short film "Blackface" blew my mind, it was absolutely amazing. The way the story was told through the composition of the shots was amazing. The shots were done so well, especially when shot that late at night. The part of the film that stuck out to me the most was the way the cameras were angled to make each scene seem so realistic. What I mean by that is when there was the kicking scene, they took that low angle on the other side of the guy getting kicked to have a more realistic feel to it. Another scene that the camera angles really stuck out to me was in the scene when the gun was fired at the end of the film. This scene was shot very well and seemed very realistic. The reason I think this was a big deal for the shooting scene to come across so realist is because a gun scene is a hard scene to make seem realistic. But the way the camera angles were made everything seem realistic. Especially because the camera did not show a full body shot of the guy being killed falling down to the ground, instead they just showed close-up shots of the gun being fired from the officers. The film was so well written that it flowed well together and the editing seemed seamless. I am so glad I got the opportunity to see this film and experience its greatness.
ReplyDeleteThe short film "Black Face" was created by the students of alabama. I had wonderful experience by watching the film "Black face". It has inspired me a lot and I learned so much from it. I saw some of my friends were participated in this film. Although it is a short film, but it is a black and white film. It used black and white and it can also emphasize the time. The story of the film is easy to understand. And the beginning of the movies tells us about the lay out. One interesting I noticed about this film is that those people who watched the black people died has also enjoy to watch the show that act by black people When the leading role killed the black guy and act on the stage. He saw some of the audiece's ugly faces. They seems selfish and cruel. However, the leading role has also got punishment. He got killed by a police officer because the police officer though he is a black man. In that time, he knew the feeling of been discriminated. The whole film seems satirical and over all the film is very good. As a TCF student, I would like to give some advice to the film. Overall the sound of the film was excellent. I Like it all a lot. However, the end of the film is a surprised face of the police officer. I think it will be better if we can see the street scene. That will make audience think more deeply. Maybe we can move the conversation that in the beginning to the end. That may create an different feeling. Because we can rethink about their conversations.overall I like this film a lot.
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