Ch.2: How to watch a movie

          

         To begin, the main idea of this chapter, like the title states, is to teach us on how to watch a movie, what aspects to focus on, and what to consider in the future while watching a movie with your new-found knowledge. For all my life I would just watch a movie and enjoy it as it is, I would see cool sets, camera movements, and special effects, and I would enjoy them but it is not something I looked for or gave a whole lot of acknowledgement towards. This chapter was heavily filled with vocabulary, most of which I have never heard before, so it was really interesting and informative to learn these new words/phrases. For example non-diegetic music is music the audience hears but the characters don't, that is something I knew was a thing but never knew the word that represents it. The chapter taught us how low angle shots makes us look up to the character, which makes the character seem more dominant and respectable. Also how high angle shots  makes us feel like gods compared to the characters. Lastly, this chapter gives us insights and other aspects of film, such as bad acting in movies is usually a result of the performance not being connected to the thematic intent of the story.

         Next, the clip that I'd like to talk about is Stanley Kubrick one-point perspective, it was really interesting to see how many very popular films Kubrick was able to incorporate this technique into. These camera shots are cool in the way that a scene can be filled with with characters and objects all around the sides of the frame, but by having a character, object, doorway, etc. directly in the middle of the shot our eyes immediately get attracted to the center  of the screen and in a way ignores everything that goes on around it. The one point perspective gives me a feeling that I am in that room as well, that I am actually walking down the hallway, it doesn't feel like I am just in the corner of the room. It feels like I am being watched, surrounded, etc. it is quite hard to explain. The camera shot forces us to look directly at one point whether we want to or not. I constantly see horror movies use this technique because it forces the audience to look in a specific spot of the screen which then leads to a jump scare or a serial killer for example sneaking up behind the protagonist. This is a really simple, yet effective technique that I've never realized have been used in so many films.