Show Me How You Burlesque

Talking about movies with my sisters goes something like this...

Me: I saw Burlesque yesterday..

Claire: Oh really? Was it good?

Me: It's probably the worst thing I've ever seen.

Claire: Oh really? Like ten of my friends said it's really good.

Me: That doesn't surprise me.

Claire. Well, whatever, you like different movies to normal people.

Harriet (from her bedroom): Yea Emily, you're so judgemental!

Me: Ok, do you wanna hear some of the lines from it?

Claire & Harriet: NO!

Me: "I've held back your hair while you've vomited out everything but your memories". Cher said that.

Claire: Whatever Emily why don't you just go and watch your weird emo Black Swan movie?

The Cafe Shorts

Here at Mountjoy we're busily working on scripts to be shot next month, a series of 5 short films all set in the one place - a local cafe. The general focus is on communication.

The first story is about prejudice, about a group of guys who fail to see beyond their foreign friend's heritage.

The second is about sex, a couple explicitly discussing what they're attracted to.

Three and four will be about a lone man and a business meeting respectively.

Five is about a girl in love with the barista.

This process will see all of us shifting roles and having the chance to direct our own scripts, in a low cost, low pressure environment. We're hoping to shoot at Brother Espresso in Margaret St. If you haven't been there, it's well worth the stroll.

A&P - John Updike

Coming to the realisation that most films we worship come from books, we decided to read more short stories. I would love to make this story into a film, but feel like I've already spent enough time shooting in supermarkets for one life. I love the economy of dialogue in this one and the end.

A&P - John Updike

Colour discussion with Milena: YELLOW

Yellow is a very misleading colour. It can be assumed that most people would associate yellow with feelings of joy, but what a lot of people don’t realise is that it is also very aggressive and portrays obsessive behaviour. Like all colours it relies on the right tone and saturation to convey what is intended. There is a reason why highly saturated yellows are used for caution signs, it is visually hostile and appears to come towards you. However, the more a yellow is lightened the more elegant it becomes. Pastel yellows are used to convey innocence; and golden and late afternoon yellows are when memories and dreams are visually born.

In Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, Mia Farrow transforms their apartment from dark and gloomy to open, happy and innocent. In the scene where she wakes up covered in scratches the red appears more gruesome because it is contrasted with the naive yellow room. If you then examine The Caveman’s Valentine (not a great film but is a perfect example of effective colour use) you will see the use of a saturated neurotic yellow. When we are inside Romulus’s head the colours create a sense of visual schizophrenia, you see bright yellow, which is obsessive and warm orange-amber, which is comforting. The brilliant use of these two colours together portrays an obsessive mind that has the emotional protection of feeling safe.

I found this week's research particularly interesting because I never perceived it as a colour that can represent dark emotions. However, when I looked into it further it made perfect sense! Have a look at films like The Talented Mr. Ripley and pay close attention to the use of yellow.

BLACK SWAN

E: In my neck of the woods, everyone is talking about one thing. Black Swan. It has been a very long time since I have seen a film that got inside me and made me feel a little insane. People will say Inception did it but that movie is confusing trite next to Aronofsky’s incredible thriller about a ballerina obsessed with the perfect performance.

A fellow filmmaker likened it to The Shining, and really there’s no better way to compare the way you’re aligned with Natalie Portman as she begins to lose her mind. No character can be trusted and all elements are an achingly beautiful orchestration of master cinema. The heaving breath of the dancers as they painfully twist, the claustrophobic apartments and rehearsal rooms and the best use of special effects I have ever seen. Five stars. Milena?

M: After leaving this film it was all that I could think about, the past 72 hours have been filled with constant discussion about the beauty of this film. It is sexy in the grimmest of ways and disgusting in the most beautiful way. You leave feeling uncomfortably self aware and that is when you know that a film has reached inside you, when it follows you home from the cinema. Every glance in a mirror took me back inside Nina Sayer's head. Five from me.

Beware! This clip's a spoiler

The Fighter

Maybe it was walking out of Morning Glory and sneaking into The Fighter which made it seem so bold a film. To transition from Rachel McAdam's super perky, kinda creepy rom com to Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg as boxing brothers battling their own blood reminded us that for every horrible Hollywood fairytale, a dirty little diamond is waiting nearby.

The idea is not a new one. The volatile boxer with plot crescendos in the ring was done expertly in Raging Bull andThe Fighter certainly echoes Scorsese's film. But the story of family and of brotherhood is what lifts this film out of the streets and fills the air with tension. The scenes with Micky and Dicky's sisters are particularly good as love and dysfunction compete to be the dominant family dynamic.

It is a great film with compelling performances, especially from Bale and Amy Adams. Way better than Morning Glory. Sneak in and see for yourself.

Michael Nye

Over coffee this morning a friend of mine was telling me about his uncle and his work as a photographer. He creates exhibitions that deal with issues like mental illness, hunger and teenage pregnancy. He takes portraits of people with a camera that he built himself and accompanies them with audio stories of the individuals. I looked it up as soon as I got home and his work is truly beautiful. I urge you to check it out. The audio provided on the website are only snippets but it's enough to be completely moved. As a filmmaker I love being confronted with various characters and I feel that his work gives you a taste of the sorts of ideas that brew in the minds of others.

Michael Nye

The Lunch Date

A short film nearly as old as we are. Director Adam Davidson shows us just enough about the characters for the story to hit. But I'll let you watch and see

The Pecknolds

I've long admired the wonderful Robin Pecknold, of Fleet Foxes fame. Finding out his brother Sean is a great filmmaker in his own right gave me sibling envy. This little video made me think of Pet Sounds:

Fleet Foxes - He Doesn't Know Why from Sean Pecknold on Vimeo.

Colour discussion with Milena: RED

I have been reading a book called If It’s Purple Someone’s Gonna Die and have been very inspired by my findings. Each week I will focus on one colour and discuss how it is implemented by filmmakers to convey and provoke different emotions.

This week’s colour is red, according to my book red is the caffeinated colour. It gives the illusion of coming forward and can manipulate our sense of space; it is fast, exciting and provides energy. When using red you need to be very aware of how you want the production design to assist the story. It is the most powerful colour in the spectrum and therefore extra care needs to be taken when using it. Bright red can raise anxiety and heart rate; warmer reds are sensual and lusty and burgundy reds are mature, regal and elegant.

In The Wizard of Oz Dorothy wears a disempowering pale blue dress, without her ruby slippers Dorothy wouldn’t have the visual strength to move forward in her journey. This can be compared to the use of red in The Schindler’s List. The colour of the little girl’s coat isn’t pink but a transparent red, a red that was robbed of its colour. The colour symbolises both life and death and sets us up for the dramatic ending. You can also examine how reds are used in films like Shakespeare in Love. The architecture is filled with greys and browns so that when red is present our senses respond accordingly; a darkened room with a hot red bed cover appears more intense and sensual.

This is only a brief insight into how red can be used in film. Each film that I looked into has used it to convey something different, which just shows that if enough thought is put into it you can manipulate the colour to convey a great number of powerful emotions.

We Are Mountjoy

We are a collective of Australian filmmakers, writers, designers, photographers and artists. This blog will document our current projects, reviews of what we're watching, experiments and ideas. As we grow as independent creators, we want to share our learnings.
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