The Coen Brothers’ Masterful Use of Shot/Reverse Shot

It’s probably the most used sequence of shot types in film: shot, then the reverse. A shot showing a character looking at something, then the reverse to show what they’re looking at. A shot to show a character speaking to someone, then a reverse to show how the other person responds. It’s a sequence practically invisible to audiences due it’s ubiquity and familiarity.

But the nuances of it’s use will make or break a film, defining it’s pacing and tone. In his most recent Every Frame a Painting, Tony Zhou analyzes the masterful use of shot/reverse shot in Coen Brothers films. He examines their framing and timing of cuts among other things that differentiate their use from more amateurish examples, including from a film they wrote but didn’t direct. As always, Zhou’s insight and affability make his video essays edifying and entertaining. Check it out.

The Prestige as MetaCinema

I have mixed feelings about Christopher Nolan, who lost me after The Dark Knight Rises. But his earlier work still wows me. Recently I got to thinking about The Prestige for use in my film class, and then, like magic, Evan Puschak (Nerdwriter) made an insightful video about.

In the video Puschak explores the way that the film hides its big secret in plain sight, using our desire to be tricked against us until Nolan wants us to see the truth. It’s a clever film, well-acted, and fully engaging. Puschak examines the imagery, narrative order, and editing to create an analogy to the power of cinema. This isn’t a new breakthrough exactly, Nolan has often dealt with cinema as his metaphorical subject in other films, like Inception.  Here, though, it holds extra charm, since the film works as a magic trick too, following the same design that Michael Caine’s character lays out in the opening, the three parts of the magic trick.

If you’re a fan of The Prestige or of Nolan in general, I highly recommend taking in the 7 minutes of Puschak’s analysis.

‘Jem and the Holograms’ #12 is Required Reading on How to Be a Better Human

Jem and the Holograms #12

Written by Kelly Thompson

Art by Sophie Campbell

Story by Thompson and Campbell

Colors by M. Victoria Robado

Letters by Shawn Lee

Edits by John Barber

 

Jem and the Holograms #12 continues the “Dark Jem” arc wherein Synergy gets infected by a virus spreadable by music and passes it onto Jerrica and her sisters. Meanwhile, Pizzazz is still recovering from her car accident, and management has decided to replace her for the first part of the tour until she recovers. But the reason this issue will be cherished is the positive portrayal of Blaze’s coming out as a trans woman, the support Clash offers her, and the delightful response from the Misfits.

The “Dark Jem” arc appears to be offering more that the obvious style reversal for the Holograms. Although the first show of the band’s new look is jaw-droppingly delicious. The Starlight Girls are bickering before their lesson with the Holograms in that annoying Starlight Girls way. In walk the newly refashioned Holograms who simply take the stage, teach them a lesson, and exit. It’s left unclear whether the Starlight orphans have simply been “mean girled” or have been infected with the dark virus through the music. Sophie Campbell’s designs for the Dark Jem look are brutally gorgeous. I’m hoping the Starlight girls are infected just so I can see Campbell’s gothic designs for them.

To read the rest of my review, click through to PopOptiq.com.

Trade Paperback Review: Young Avengers, Vol. 1

Young Avengers: Style>Substance

Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Jamie McKelvie
Colorist: Matt Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

Legacy isn’t a dirty word…but it’s an irrelevant one. It’s not important what our parents did. It matters what WE do. Someone has to save the world. You’re someone. Do the math. The critically acclaimed team of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie reinvent the teen super hero comic for the 21st century, uniting Wiccan, Hulkling and Kate “Hawkeye” Bishop with Kid Loki, Marvel Boy and Ms. America. No pressure, right? As a figure from Loki’s past emerges, Wiccan makes a horrible mistake that comes back to bite everyone on their communal posteriors. Fight scenes! Fake IDs! And plentiful feels! (aka “meaningful emotional character beats” for people who aren’t on tumblr.) Young Avengers is as NOW! as the air in your lungs, and twice as vital. Hyperbole is the BEST! THING! EVER!

I’d heard good things about this series and after being smitten by The Wicked + The Divine, by the very same creative team, I made the time to check it out. Part of the Marvel Now! rebranding initiative, the title was meant to entice new readers. So it’s something of a relaunch using existing characters but introducing a new group and storyline. I was familiar with one or two of the characters and wondered if I’d get lost, but after only a few pages I was rocking right along.

Young Avengers is a fun book, which is not to say it’s light. The teen years can be dark, full of emotion and angst and struggle. The trick is translating that to the comics page and turning it into something interesting, something with stakes.

This is something Gillen’s done quite brilliantly. Introducing the team via relationship dynamics, creating the conflict out of love and longing, and casting the villain as an invading alien parent all contribute to the intimate yet universal character of the story. Teens it turns out, are the perfect people for us against the world superheroics.

The characters, action, and setting evolve like a mixtape. Dense, complex verses with catchy hooks and languid bridges combining toward a mood that intensifies chapter to chapter. Longtime Marvel fans will recognize familiar plot points and tertiary characters and honestly the more you know, the more clever it will all seem. But there’s no barrier to entry here. All you need is open eyes.

Use them to appreciate Jamie McKelvie’s frankly brilliant design. Propulsive eight panel grids give way to inventive two page splashes that demonstrate both what the medium can accomplish on its best days and how to keep experimental structures solidly on task. Of course this is aided by Matt Wilson’s colors. They make the right parts of every panel pop and subtly set the mood.

If you’re a Gillen fan, or a Marvel fan, or a fan of being awesome, you’ll probably like this book.

Cell by Cell: ‘Bitch Planet’ #6 part 4

In Cell by Cell, I look deeply into the panels of an issue, appreciating and analyzing the story and artistic composition.

Bitch Planet #6

Written by Kelly Sue DeConnick

Art by Taki Soma

Cover by Valentine De Landro

Colors by Kelly Fitzpatrick

Letters by Clayton Cowles

Published by Image Comics on January 6, 2016

See Cell by Cell: Bitch Planet #6 part 1 here.

Click here if you’d prefer to see my review of the issue.

Page 7

These two pages develop the relationship between Mack and Meiko as he shows her the final blueprints of the spaceship they’ve designed together for the Protectorate. Cell 1 focuses tightly on them looking at the blueprints on the table. Makoto seeks Meiko’s input: “What do you think ?” She thinks it’s amazing. The tight framing surrounds them with only calm, natural colors of brown, blue, and green. It is a moment of great comfort and happiness for them.

We don’t get to see their working relationship–the plans are already complete–but this gives a strong indication. Unlike the Protectorate’s devaluing of girls and women, Mack actively seeks his daughter’s input on important things. He’s got a little girl consulting on the engineering of a space-worthy luxury getaway. Clearly he trusts her intellect, creativity, and reasoning to have her working alongside him in this way. This is a major step up from co-building a birdhouse. As I mentioned in the last Cell by Cell, this is also the bedrock of trust by which her later actions stem. His trust for her to handle adult work allows her to trust herself to handle adult situations.

For the rest of my analysis, click through to PopOptiq.

Buster Keaton – The Art of the Gag

Tony Zhou, creator behind the series Every Frame a Painting, is one of my very favorite video essayists. A few months back, he made a video exploring Buster Keaton, one of the great silent comedians along with Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin. I frequently use Keaton’s One Week or The General in my film class, because, despite being a century old, the humor holds up. Keaton’s charm continues to engage and his stunts are still smile-inducing. This semester, I’ll get to deepen the students’ understanding with Tony’s insightful examination.

Zhou starts by establishing how the elements of Keaton’s comedy continue to inspire and influence comedians today, from Chuck Jones to Jackie Chan to Wes Anderson to Bill Murray. Then he breaks down the importance of camera placement for the gag to work. This is largely because Keaton’s gag world is flat, and the rules are of a flat world. Additionally, what’s outside of the frame is not only not visible to the audience, they’re also not visible to the characters in the film. Lastly, Keaton did his own stunts and was devoted to doing it once without cutting to create a vitality to the gag. If it felt too practiced, the stunt wouldn’t charm the audience. All his stunts were real, and they’re just as impressive now as they were then.

Open Your Eyes to Use of Color in Film-making

For a few years now I’ve been talking about color use in film-making to my students using Ocean’s Eleven and The Social Network. The former contrasts Danny Ocean’s bland, restrictive, routine time in jail, colored with beige and winter cool blues, with his impassioned, adrenaline-boosting adventure executing a heist and winning back his wife, coded with red, gold, and green. The Social Network, alternatively, uses red and gold for the Harvard scenes, and introduces the coolness of blue and white with fictional Zuckerberg’s computer programming and development of Facebook. The meaning is obvious: Harvard’s school colors are maroon and gold while Facebook has a blue and white design.

But recently I discovered a video essay by Lewis Bond that takes a much broader view of color use, exploring history of color in film, the psychological reactions people have to particular colors, and the coding of characters using color. Bond discusses saturation, hue, balance, plus common combinations. He also discusses transition of color use to show a character’s development.

At only 16 min, the video accomplishes quite a lot, and I found it broadened our discussion and even clued me in to color coding in Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Yellows for Scott’s mundane life, red and blue to represent his relationship with Ramona, coded to match the colors in the DDR-Mortal Kombat game Scott plays on the date with Knives and figures as a motif in the final fight against Gideon.

Every Body Serves the Fathers in ‘Bitch Planet’ #7

Bitch Planet #7

Written by Kelly Sue DeConnick

Art by Valentine De Landro

Colors by Kelly Fitzpatrick

Letters by Clayton Cowles

Published February 17, 2016 by Image Comics

 

DeConnick and De Landro blow the doors off the second arc with stark ironies, nauseating apathies, and contrasting raw emotions. Stakes get higher and allegiances get muddied as the lesson once again rears its ugly head: all bodies serve the Father–male and female, guard and prisoner, black and white. And bodies are disposable.

For all of the language of the Protectorate as a father, Father Josephson is cold to the plight of fathers in the issue. The opening page depicts institutionalized murder of three black children taking a shortcut across Megaton Corporation’s lawn and thus setting off a trespassing alarm. The guard on duty casually orders their “neutralization” in a barely exaggerated fictionalization of the Tamir Rice and Michael Brown killings. Megaton Corp, despite its “personhood” under the law, has no concern for these children or their families. Their fathers will not get answers nor justice. And Father Josephson, the government-labelled father of the people, has no nurture in his nature. Entirely unaware of the cause of the incoming ambulances outside his window, he stresses to Solanza that he needs Maki to finish the arena in six weeks. Maki’s feelings regarding his daughter’s death are an inconvenience to be dealt with after that. Even Roberto Solanza, manager of Bitch Planet itself, has qualms about keeping the news from Makoto. But Father Josephson throws around the name of the Dollar Almighty and silences Solanza.

Read the rest of my review at PopOptiq.com.

Audio Book Review – 1924: The Year That Made Hitler

1924: The Year That Made Hitler
by Peter Ross Range narrated by Paul Hodgson

The dark story of Adolf Hitler’s life in 1924 – the year that made a monster

Before Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, there was 1924. This was the year of Hitler’s final transformation into the self-proclaimed savior and infallible leader who would interpret and distort Germany’s historical traditions to support his vision for the Third Reich.

Everything that would come – the rallies and riots, the single-minded deployment of a catastrophically evil idea – all of it crystallized in one defining year. Nineteen twenty-four was the year that Hitler spent locked away from society, in prison and surrounded by coconspirators of the failed Beer Hall Putsch. It was a year of deep reading and intensive writing, a year of courtroom speeches and a treason trial, a year of slowly walking gravel paths and spouting ideology while working feverishly on the book that became his manifesto: Mein Kampf.

Until now, no one has fully examined this single and pivotal period of Hitler’s life. In 1924, Peter Ross Range richly depicts the stories and scenes of a year vital to understanding the man and the brutality he wrought in a war that changed the world forever.

Real talk. I’m not sure I want this guy on our blog. I wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with him at all. But understanding post-war Europe isn’t really feasible with a big hole in the middle. So here I am. Here we are.

Smack in the middle of the decade that saw American fortunes rise, Germany existed perpetually on the cusp of revolution. Left and right wing paramilitary extremists plotted and prepared for coup attempts. Late in 1923, the Nazi party made their move.

1924 offers a condensed biography of the party’s leader and his rise to prominence in the early years of the decade. Compared to the relatively long works I’ve been listening to, this nine hour audiobook felt almost like a snapshot. Names and dates seemed to jostle for space with motivations and contexts. Overlapping timelines tended to be more confusing than illuminating.

Nevertheless, the speed and density of the narrative managed to sweep me along. Range knows his subject and has chosen to focus on a period that’s routinely been glossed over. So even for World War II enthusiasts, this will cover some new ground.

While the book seems to rush toward the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler’s subsequent imprisonment, treason trial, and sentencing are explored in some detail. Whereas most treason trials, particularly those ending in conviction, would mark the end of a political career, this one had the opposite effect. Providing a platform for a relatively unknown figure, it catapulted him and his ideology to international notoriety.

A light sentence in posh accommodations actually provided the opportunity to write that ideology down. Apparently Mein Kampf was facilitated primarily by this enforced period of downtime for the political agitator. Its release coincided with his and eventually made him rich.

Digging into the early twentieth century has been full of surprises, for sure. And just as full of disappointing parallels with the present. In a vacuum, this would be one of the strangest stories of the period. In context it’s the record of a tragic mistake and the making of a monster.

Paul Hodgson is an able reader with a subtle range of voices and accents. The audio is well mixed and clear.

Recommended for Jack Gladney, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Prince.

Cell by Cell: ‘Bitch Planet’ #6 Part 3

In Cell by Cell, I look deeply into the panels of an issue, appreciating and analyzing the story and artistic composition.

Bitch Planet #6

Written by Kelly Sue DeConnick

Art by Taki Soma

Cover by Valentine De Landro

Colors by Kelly Fitzpatrick

Letters by Clayton Cowles

Published by Image Comics on January 6, 2016

See Cell by Cell: Bitch Planet #6 part 1 here.

Click here if you’d prefer to see my review of the issue.

Page 5

The page break takes us from the morning’s lessons to the evening’s dinner. The layout patterns the panels on top of each other like a scrapbook, creating a feeling of nostalgic memory. To be certain, these two pages are probably golden moments tinged with regret for their briefness to all four Maki family members.

Cell 1 is an establishing frame of outside the house. The dark blues in the coloring establish evening. The point-of-view is average enough to be objective but angled and distanced just enough to suggest a possible watching eye at night, perhaps a drone camera. This possibility is cemented by Makoto in the final panel.

Read the rest of my analysis over at PopOptiq.com.