Pidgy Productions
Sea Bright Rising
The film tells the story of a hurricane hitting the small town of Sea Bright in New Jersey and causing massive destruction through a series of interviews. The documentary revolves around the mayor of the city and her efforts to rebuild after the destruction, and was filmed with the help of Burr and Burton students. The film goes in and gets on a personal level with many of the Sea Bright residents, getting their opinions and sharing their stories of loss in the town. It also interviews the people who come in to help, such as the U--Hungry U-Haul truck and BBA's own BBA News students. There are numerous interviews with the residents of Sea Bright, and there is also stories from people in Vermont, who went through similar things. Manchester residents also help to pack and send disaster relief boxes for Sea Bright.
I really enjoyed the documentary and learned a lot. There was a large variety of people interviewed, which lead to an unbiased story, which didn't matter as much in this movie as it might in others. However, Sea Bright Rising was not without it's flaws. I am being very critical of it because this is a review and I was looking for issues while watching it (read: biased). The thing that stood out the most to be was the transitions. They had sound effects that were too loud, fake-sounding and intrusive. This is personal preference, but I would have liked something more like ocean/seagull noises and maybe a background of a shore. That stood out to me the most while watching, but there was something else I noticed while writing this review: There are numerous things that are assumed that I know, like which hurricane was it? It may have said it somewhere, but I don't remember what it said those 1 or 2 times at the beginning of the film. So there were two things I didn't really catch: Where is Sea Bright, and what hurricane was hitting them? I noticed that the VT hurricane was Irene (I think) but I don't know about the Sea Bright hurricane, and although they mentioned Sandy a lot, I don't know whether that was the right one. I really, really liked the personal level of the stories, such as the U-Hungry truck and the kids who stayed behind in their apartments. I felt like I knew them more, and good B-Roll did a lot of the work there. Seeing one of the U-Hungry guys talking for five minutes would not have been fun or informative, but add images and video to demonstrate what they are saying and it is 100% better.
I would completely, one-hundred percent recommend this film. It may have missed a few points, but compared to the points it hit right on the head, they are inconsequential. It is a very informative and personal film which goes to the big picture and then personal, big picture and then personal. It helps connect the people together. However, as I mentioned, it would be nice to see a bit bigger picture sometimes. Great film, if you have an hour and WiFi go and watch it. Also, watch it twice to get the most out of it.
8/10 first time, 9/10 the next time.
The Grand Budapest Hotel:
Inspector Scene
The train slows and stops. Gustave looks out the window, questioning why they are stopping in a barley field.
Then some army or police trucks come into frame outside the window and the music reflects the “uh oh” tone of this scene.
Jump cut to the door, the door flies open, and a sour faced man enters with guards. They ask to see documents and Gustave and Zero exchange glances.
Gustave hands over his documents, while Zero fingers his worn document papers. Gustave glances at the commander’s name tag and says, “what does the F stand for? Fritz? Franz?” The commander replies “Franz” and Gustave exclaims “I knew it!”
Then the commander asks Zero for his papers, puts on a questioning expression, and then he grabs Zero. Gustave steps in and goes on a rant that gets louder until he nearly yells, “he hasn’t done anything wrong!”
There are jump cuts from Gustave, then Zero, then the commander in which they shift their eyes back and forth. The camera cuts to a closeup of the commander grabbing Zero that quickly cuts to a further out shot of Gustave trying to stop them.
Then the shot cuts to Gustave being slammed to the wall, then cuts to Zero being slammed into the opposing wall. Gustave tries to turn his head and yells, "Let go of my lobby boy!" Zero looks frightened and looks back at Gustave for help. All these shots are presumably taken from the center of the room, but closer to the window.
The first shot to not be from this position is a cut to a view from the cabin door, and you hear a train whistle and a door being slid open. The policemen freeze and look worried. Then we cut to a shot out in the hallway, where the police Inspector leans around the corner.
There is a shot from the center of the room at the door, and the Inspector appears. He looks from one side of the room to the other, and then asks “what is going on here?” Gustave explains that they are taking his lobby boy, and the Inspector recognizes him and explains how he knows him. Gustave recognizes him, and the Inspector says he is terribly embarrassed and asks the guards to release them. He then repeats this, and Zero and Gustave are released.
There is a shot from behind the table while the Inspector examines Zero’s documentation. The camera cuts to a zoomed in shot while the Inspector explains that Zero is stateless and will need to apply for a “revised special transit permit” which is hard to come by nowadays.
A shot from over Zeros shoulder shows Gustave taking a card from the Inspector. Then we are shown a close up of the card, which is a type of pass, while we hear the Inspector explaining that is is temporary but should it is the best he can do.
The shot cuts to a shot from the table, where Gustave asks about the Inspectors “wonderful mother.” The Inspector hesitates briefly and says she is very well, thanks. Gustave replies, “ I adore her, send my love” and the Inspector replies that he will.
The Inspector looks over to Zero and explains that Gustave was very kind to him when he was a boy and that his men apologize for disturbing them. The shots cut from the Inspector to Gustave and back to the Inspector as they exchange nods. The policemen leave through the door and the scene ends.
JAWS
Brief Synopsis:
JAWS is about a police chief on a small island who is investigating a recent shark attack. They discover that it is a large shark, but the town does not want to close the beach as that is their income in the summer. After the second shark attack, they close the beach and pay a shark fisherman to go hunt the shark. A marine biologist and the police chief both go along to hunt the shark.
What I really liked about the movie:
1). One of the first things I noticed was that the entire shark wasn't shown until the end, which reflected how in the end, on the boat, the characters finally got to see that the shark was real and less of a mystery, but also is a more direct and although visible, threat. When Hooper goes under in the cage, there are multiple shots of the entire shark, so it is a different kind of fear.
In Jaws 2, which I watched for comparison, they immediately showed the whole shark chasing a water-skier, above the waves, with its mouth chomping. It immediately ruined the movie because there was no tension, only the knowledge that someone was going to get killed. It is as if their only goal was to fit as many deaths as they could, which made anyone who died non-memorable.
The most interesting technique I noticed was that they set up what they wanted "tension" to feel and look like by making any underwater shot that is looking at swimmers from the shark's point of view usually end in disaster. Then whenever they needed some tension, they occasionally used the same types of shots, but they didn't end with someone being killed, instead the shark just swam under them. This added to the tension, fear and the feeling that the shark had the control over the situation because it was deciding not to eat anyone, yet the humans were not aware of its even being there. This added a really cool layer to the angst that they could easily have ruined (like they did in Jaws 2).
Overall rating ★★★★★
Cinematography ★★★★
Story ★★★★★
Characters ★★★★★
I would totally recommend this movie. The cinematography is amazing, as is the story. I expected the entire movie to be extremely tense and have sharks eating people all the time, but the fact that it wasn't that makes it so much better. JAWS 2 was what I thought this would be, and it's a good thing that this movie was so much more than a horror everyone-dies type of movie. The main reason this movie was so good is that it shows the real-life struggles with dealing with a large shark when an entire island is against you. I really like how the main character, Martin Brody, grows over the course of the movie. In the beginning he is scared of the ocean, and in the end he is fighting a shark on a boat. It is a such a cool thing to watch all the characters advance as the movie goes on.