SUNSET BOULEVARD

Today was our second film class. As an introduction to our first unit, Film Noir, we watched the film Sunset Boulevard in class. We watched proactively, Seeing, Thinking, and Wondering all the while.

The film was released during the Golden Age of Hollywood, so the Transatlantic accent was quite heavy, and at times hard to understand. However, it was interesting to witness this behavioural relic of the culture of the time and context, when films and filmmakers were progressive and groundbreaking.

The cinematography was impeccable and dynamic, especially the over the shoulder shots, and the clever use of mirrors to reflect and manipulate the layers of the foreground and background.

Additionally, the lighting was extremely clever, because even though the film was in black and white, the monochromatic colours had depth and were captivating. A particular scene that stood out to me was the one featured below, after Norma whips herself into a frenzy watching her younger glorious self in a silent film- but her spell breaks, and she disenthralls back to reality as her cigarette smoke curls around her and the projector light illuminates her from behind eerily.

Next lesson we'll continue watching the film. I'm looking forward to it!

FIRST CLASS

Today we had our first film class. It was quite thought-provoking. We watched the work of past Year 11 students, and Ms. Wong outlined different aspects of the course. The first unit is Film Noir, the second is Twilight Zone, the third is Montages, and the fourth is Experimental. It surprised me that most of them were all very well-made and well-edited. Ms. Wong reintroduced the method of See, Think, Wonder for us to delve deeper while contemplating films.

Ms. Wong also posed the questions: "Why am I here? What do I want out of this year in film?" to us, and we considered them several times through the lesson as we watched through the various films by past students. Not to mention, I really enjoyed watching their films- especially the clever montage film about Occupy Central, and the psychedelic experimental film REM was also very enjoyable.

I'm looking forward to learning to refine our technique and enhance continuity, from editing to sound, to shot and plot pacing.

Here's to a year in film!