Movie-extravaganza

So, interspersed with the immense amount of shooting we have this week, we also had to check out some films.  I chose to see Oh Brother Where Art Thou, One Hour Photo, and Manufactured Landscapes.

Starting with Oh Brother Where Art Thou, I've seen this movie several times before, but have never truly looked at it in a photographic sense.  I found it incredibly interesting that this was the first film to be scanned and color-corrected completely digitally.  Through watching the movie with this in mind I couldn't help but notice how well it was done considering it was essentially the first movie of it's kind.  There was a very strong consistent look throughout the film that really added to the mood of each scene.  The muted colors really lent to the setting of the film, without this processing I don't believe the movie would have the same feel as it does now.  All in all I enjoyed seeing this again, especially looking at it in a new sense.

One Hour Photo was second on my agenda.  A thoroughly disturbing film in my opinion, leaving me with the urge to never have my photos processed by anyone but myself from here on in.  In spite of the mildly creepy nature of this film, it was an interesting film visually.  I really found that control over white balance really set the mood for the 3 different 'worlds' that are presented in the film.  The use of a warm yellow tint to all of the Yorkin family scenes really emphasized that the viewer was supposed to believe that this was a very warm inviting family.  While the crisp clean whites of the SavMart 'world' makes it seem as though this is where Sy belongs, a place where everything is clean, a place where Sy can almost feel happy, if nothing else but through the pictures he develops.  While Sy's personal life, the world outside of work has been tinted green.  This truly adds to the creepy vibe that his extra-curricular activities already give off.  As disturbed as I may have been by the story line, visually I found this film very interesting.

Finally, I saw Manufactured Landscapes.  This film created the sudden urge in me to become a documentary photographer.  I found it extremely interesting to see the impact of urbanization on our planet, not to mention the detrimental effects we're having on the planet.  I feel that Edward Burtynsky's work is truly amazing, his highly saturated high contrast images are stunning, regardless of the fact that the content of the shots is rather unsettling.  I was lucky enough to see some of Burtynsky's work in the Winnipeg Art Gallery and I was truly blown away by the amount of detail in each of his images.  This film has left me hoping that at some point in my career I do get the chance to do some documentary work.