IAN ANGLUM
BBA '19
MASKED LIZ:
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For this week, I used the opportunity of a one week deadline to film something a little more experimental. I have always wanted to just go out and film the landscape of the Southern Vermont Art Center that we have here in Manchester, Vermont, and I thought this was a good time to go out and take a couple of shots so I can get comfortable with the environment for possible films I can create later that have a higher quality. Most of the short film was just made up in my mind of what I thought would be cool in this landscape, such as the choppy and sporadic movements. I wish I had more time to film in this location, but there had been rain for the days prior to shooting and the film was due the next day. I used the song "Goodie Bag" by Still Woozy because I believed it fit well with my choppy edits of Liz moving around the sculptures with its bass and guitar riffs. This project was just something I made so I can get better at my camera skills and find new ways to frame shots in a location such as this one. I wish it was sunny like it said it would be in the forecast because I believe it would have been a definite mood changer for the whole video. Some of the shots are blurry and I am beating myself up looking at them. After seeing this, I have now learned to always shoot a shot twice and to double check my camera settings.
Isle of Dogs Movie Scene Critique
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In the Wes Anderson movie, Isle of Dogs, the “OK, it’s worth it” scene in the beginning of the film helps establish the circumstances for these dogs that have been ostracized to Trash Island due to a “dog flu” that has been spreading in Japan. The scene opens up from a fade to a trash bag being dropped onto the ground by a cart that takes trash from Japan to Trash Island (a foreshadow to later scenes). After the trash bag drops, five dogs appear behind it, all eager to get their paws on the contents inside. The playing of the flute during this part of the scene represents the curiosity they have for the bag. Suddenly, the soundtrack changes to a heavy drum, the dogs all look up to see five figures in the distance, which we can predict are other dogs. The camera focuses on the figures to reveal that they indeed are dogs. A tumbleweed of trash rolls through the frame to represent a standoff between the two packs.
The camera then moves to a close up of each dog that has appeared, with the background matching their glowing eyes. This is also how we get to learn their names by reading their dog tags. We also get to slightly know the personality of the dogs through these close up shots. Rex, the first dog we see, looks ravenous and wishing to eat whatever is in that trash. Duke seems calm and collected with the help of his bright blue eyes and blue background, a color we associate with calm and cool. Boss, the dog with the Dragons baseball jersey, seems very scared of the opposing dogs, with his pupils severely enlarged and his jaw dropped slightly. The final dog does not have a dog tag, so we do not yet know his name, but we can tell he is the unofficial leader due to Anderson revealing him last.
The camera goes back out to a wide shot with a sideline perspective of the standoff. As both packs of dogs move statically closer to the trash, the camera zooms in with them as well. We then get a low to the ground shot of each pack growling furiously at each other. This goes on until Rex cuts in to negotiate with both sides that they should look into the bag to see if anything is of worth to them before they “tear themselves to shreds”. Both packs investigate. We first get an evaluation from Rex of the contents with a shot looking up at the dogs from the perspective of the trash. Our unofficial leader cuts into the eloquent evaluation to state that it’s worth it, to then we are immediately met with a fight scene between the two packs. The camera goes back to the sideline view we had before to a dust cloud with limbs flying within it. Anderson actually used stop-motion cotton for the dust instead of CGI for this fight. We get a close up shot of the fight to show the leader of the pack biting off one of the opposing dog’s ear, ending the skirmish. The scene ends with losers of the fight walking away in defeat, with a medium shot to let dialogue unfold.
In total, there were 25 shots that were used for only 1 minute and 40 seconds of the whole film. Each shot was specifically planned to show and establish the setting of the movie, as well as what is to come later as this scene is so early on in the film.