MOWELFUND TOUR

We were given the privilege to visit Mowelfund on September 27. Mowelfund stands for Movie Workers Welfare Fund Inc. and it is an organization dedicated to help out movie workers in times of need. According to Mowelfund's website, MOWELFUND stands for MOVIE WORKERS WELFARE FOUNDATION, INC., a non-stock, non-profit social welfare, educational, and industry development foundation organized and established in 1974. It was founded by then San Juan Mayor and President of the Philippine Motion Picture Producers Association (PMPPA) Joseph E. Estrada for the welfare of workers in the Philippine motion picture industry.

We had the chance to listen to the introduction and speech of Mowelfund's current President, Boots Anson-Roa. She talked about the Vision and Mission of the organization, the programs offered by the company and what can be seen at Mowelfund. Mowelfund provides for the welfare of movie makers or the film industry people. Mowelfund also offers summer classes where you get to shoot your own short film by the end of the class.

After the talk we visited the museum of Mowelfund. The two floors of the museum was dedicated to the history of Philippine Cinema. It also featured there the star system in the Philippines and held a lot of pictures of famous actors and actresses. There were also costumes displayed that were worn by the past actors. Equipment in film-making were also displayed at the museum.

There was also a part of the museum where it displayed list of works and awards of famous Philippine directors. The fun part of the tour was the "Avenue of the Stars" where there were standees of Philippine actors and actresses where you can take pictures with and brag it to your friends! It will make you want to go back to Mowelfund and experience another fun and educational tour.

THE EDGE OF HOLLYWOOD CINEMA

We watched a documentary about independent filmmakers in Hollywood last Wednesday. The documentary elaborated on how independent filmmakers chose to be independent and their styles to making their own movies. Even though they were independent filmmakers they still had their names known in Hollywood.

Independent filmmakers chose to make independent films for reasons that it a personal choice. They were independent because they did not like the idea of conforming to the mainstream film industry. They wanted to show their own styles and voice out their own expressions freely through their independent films. Having to submit to mainstream films limits their choices and they would not have the freedom to produce the films they want.

Spike Lee, who is an African-American director, showcased African-American films that were not accepted in mainstream Hollywood. Racism is evident in films to extent that they would not use African-American artists who will be the lead or protagonists in Hollywood films. But Spike Lee made a movie with an all African-American cast.

Every independent filmmaker had their own unique style in their films. They cannot make what they want in the mainstream studio system. They used techniques like not showing a scene makes it more impacting because it makes the audience feel the horror or it makes them think what is the meaning behind. These independent directors just wanted to make films even with a small and limited budget.

NOTES/SUMMARY: ITALIAN NEO-REALISM

There is no definitive source for the term Neorealism, but it first appeared in the early 1940s in the writings of Italian critics. The term presented a younger generation's desire to break free of the conventions of the ordinary or mainstream Italian cinema. Today, most historians believe that Neorealism was not a complete break with Italian cinema under Mussolini. Pseudo-documentaries such as Roberto Rossellini's White Strip, even though propagandist, prepared the way for more forthright handling of contemporary events.

Regional dialect comedy and urban melodrama encouraged directors and scriptwriters to turn towards realism. Foreign influence and indigenous traditions made several filmmakers in the post-war era make films with the goal of revealing contemporary social conditions or even propagandistic styles. This trend became the Neorealistic movement. It was about showing the real world in Italy, it showed the real conditions of the economy, culture and society.

Italian neorealism was known for on location shooting. Neorealist's mise-en-scene relied on actual locales, and its photographic work tended toward the raw roughness of documentaries. They made use of nonactors to show a more realistic look and behavior. Roberto Rossellini is the number 1 Italian neorealism director.

The Italian Neorealism movement came to and end when Italy regained its economic state. The economy became stable again and censorship was brought back, large film companies began to rule in the Italian film industry making small film companies close down. Though the movement ended, many directors were influenced and began using the style in their own films.

NOTES/SUMMARY: SOVIET MONTAGE

Following the Russian revolution in October 1917, the New Soviet government faced the difficult tas of controlling all sectors of life. During the World War I, there were a number of private production companies operating in Moscow and St. Petersburg with most imports cut off, these companies did quite well making films for the domestic market.Most distinctive Russian films made during the mid-1910s were slow paced melodramas.

"Of all the arts, for us the cinema is the most important." -Lenin, 1922

Some of the Russian directors tried to make films that would start a national cinema movement. Some of these directors were Lev Kuleshov and Dziga Vertov. Lev Kuleshov founded the State School of Cinema Art, the first school in the world. Dizga Vertov began working on documentary footage of the war, at age 20, he was place in charge of all news reels.

Lev Kuleshov

In Lev Kuleshov's school, they taught and tried experimenting "by editing footages form different sources into a whole that creates an impression of continuity." This was what they called Montage Editing. Montage editing is from the combination of shots just like in Hollywood that is known as continuity editing. Sergei Eisenstein was the first to make a major film of the montage movement in his 1925 film Strike.

The fall of the Soviet Montage was mainly due to the Soviet government. They did not allow complicated films and Russian directors went out of Russia. Then the government introduced a new type of movement in film called Soviet Realism in 1934.

The Kuleshov effect

NOTES/SUMMARY: THE FRENCH NEW WAVE

The late 1950s and early 1960s saw the rise of a new generation of filmmakers around the world. some trained in film schools, many allied with specialized film magazines, most in revolt against there elders in the industry. The most influential of these groups appeared in France.

In the mid-1950s, a group of young men who wrote for the Paris film journal Cahiers du cinema made a habit of attacking the most artisitically respected French filmmakers of the day. "I consider an adaption of value," wrote Francois Truffaut, "only when written by a man of the cinema. Aurenche and Bost are essentially literary men and i reproach them here for being contemptuous of the cinema by underestimating it."

Jean Luc Godard criticized 21 major directors saying, "your camera movements are ugly because your subject are bad, your casts act badly because your dialogue is worthless; in a word, you don't know how to create cinema because you no longer know what it is." Truffaut, Godard, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette praised other directors.

An auteur usually did not write scripts but managed nonetheless to stamp his or her personality on studio products, transcending the constraints of Hollywood's system. These directors also loved commercial Hollywood. Many of the Hollywood directors these critics and filmmakers championed have become recognized as great artists.

Writing criticisms fueled these men to also make films. They borrowed money from friends and filmed on location, each started to shoot short films. With their patience and persistence these directors led journalists to nickname them la nouvelle vague or the New Wave. The most obviously revolutionary quality of the French New Wave was their casual look. They admired Neorealists, they took their mise-en-scene in actual locales in and around Paris. Shooting on location became the norm, available light and simple supplemental sources were used.

The New Wave camera moves a great deal of panning and tracking to follow character or trace out relations within a locale. Eclair developed a lightweight and flexible camera that could be hand-held. One of the most salient features of the New Wave films is their casual humor. It also pushed further the Neorealist experimentation with plot construction. The films also lacked goal-oriented protagonists. The New wave film typically ends ambiguously, it leads the film to an open and uncertain ending.

In 1957, cinema attendance fell off drastically, mainly because television became more widespread. But the French industry supported the New Wave through distribution, exhibition and eventually production. even though the New Wave had their own production company, they were absorbed by the film industry.

LE MEPRIS

Le Mepris is a film directed by Jean-Luc Godard on 1963. The film was based on an Italian novel Il disprezzo.

The movie is about a couple, Paul Javal and Camille Javal, whose relationship was tested due to misunderstandings and priorities. Camile Javal is a very beautiful woman who is married to Paul Javal a scriptwriter. Paul Javal was assigned to write a script for a movie adaptation of Homer's Odyssey.. Fritz Lang was hired by the American Producer, Jeremy Prokosch, to direct the film. When Jeremy Prokosch met Paul Javal and his wife he had found Paul's wife to be beautiful. When Jeremy Prokosch invites the couple to have drinks, Paul arrives late and Camille started suspecting that Paul might have cheated on her.

The couple were bound in arguments and misunderstandings. Paul Javal became dedicated to his work that he lost time for Camille. The two fell out of love and separated. Camille Javal then goes to France but on their way there, Camille and Jeremy were in a car accident were the two died.

This film was shown to us last Wednesday and I think that there are points in the movie that would be boring and there would be points where your emotions gather up. Some scenes in the film were very long, for example is the conversation of Camille and Paul inside their house. The continuous camera shot was evident and it took really long for the certain conversation to keep on going.

There are scenes that would play with your emotions like their conversation in the apartment when they would be mad at each other and later on be alright. I think the different emotions set the long dragging shot of a scene made it less noticeable to be boring and long.

A WEREWOLF BOY

A Werewolf boy is a 2012 South-Korean produced fantasy romance film. Suni is a teenage girl who moves into a new home in the country with her family due to her health. As they moved in and were hanging the laundry, Suni notices a boy hiding in the outhouse that seemed to be scared to come out. Suni's mother offers the boy some food and as he steps out from the outhouse they noticed that he is a feral boy. He doesn't talk nor act like a human. Suni's mother decided to keep him in until they find his guardian. But they only failed and instead they took him under their guide,bathed and fed him. At first, Suni did not like the idea of having the boy but later on she opened up and started teaching him how to act like human, to read, to write and to speak.

They named him Chul-soo as decided by Suni's mother. Chul-soo then started showing signs that are not normal for a human. Ji-tae, the son of Suni's father's friend, starts to cause trouble because he doesn't like Chul-soo being with Suni as he has feelings for her. Suni and Chul-soo becomes very close but their relationship became difficult as Chul-soo reveals his werewolf instincts and protects Suni but scares the village people. They are met with different paths and chooses to sacrifice in order to live peacefully. Suni leaves Chul-soo and promises him, "Wait for me. I’ll come back for you."

Chul-soo is played by South-Korea's talented flower boy, Song Joong-ki, and Suni is played by actress Park Bo-Young. The whole film is set in a flashback except from the prologue and epilogue. The prologue and epilogue takes place in the present time while the flashback is set in the post war era of South Korea. The protagonists in the film both share a common ground, Suni being an introvert and Chul-soo being feral. Both of them does not like or know how to deal with social circumstances.

Song Joong-ki has played the role of Chul-soo very well as he has learned almost everything about being a werewolf. From his little movements, mannerisms, inhaling food like he was starved in a lifetime, even growling and howling, and how his expressions always come out from his eyes. Song Joong-ki does not speak all through out the film except from the time they were about to separate and at the epilogue. His first lines were almost towards the end of the film and it was really heartbreaking. I really have to give it up for Song Joong-ki for making my heart and eyes hurt from crying for delivering his first and most explosive line really well!

The movie keeps you on your edge. You get to immensely hold your emotions and when things get out it hits you like a train full of feelings. At the epilogue when Suni comes back to the country home after 47 years, Chul-soo was still there waiting for her for 47 years. Chul-soo was loyal to her, learning how to speak, to act human and to control his emotions all through out those years. He obeyed Suni's instructions to wait fo her until she comes back. It is a very tragic ending as we see that Chul-soo was somewhat forgotten and left to wait while Suni lives her life and even gets to go to America and have a family.