Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang

Tinimbang ka ngunit kulang or Weighed but found wanting is a film made by Lino Brocka which is starred by Christopher De Leon, Hilda Koronel, Lolita Rodriguez and Eddie Garcia.                                                

 

It is about  people in the society and how they are easily judged. Junior (Christopher De Leon) was an only child of a wealthy family and has a very beautiful girlfriend who was a total flirt. She was found pregnant but the child is not Junior’s its from another guy. His father was a womanizer and his mother is materialistic and the people on their church were gossipers. Can you imagine how they treat the leper, Berto and the traumatized lady, Kuala? They never wanted to go near Berto because they are afraid that they might get his illness, they say that he should be alone! They didn’t even let him through a bar because of what he has. On the other hand, Kuala was always made fond of the towns people because of her innocence in everything she does. In a wake she was given an alcoholic drink and was watched by every men peeing in her pants. Not long after that incident, Berto made Kuala his wife and had their own child, but both of them died in the end that’s why Junior was the one who took care of the child since he was a close friend of the couple.

MowelFund Plaza

          MowelFund Plaza was a place where you will learn and enjoy at the same time. I’ve seen so many artists that are still in the industry and some that are already gone. There was also a replica of the old cameras which was used in filming. Props, costumes pictures and so many other things were in there. I was actually surprised when I saw the life sized Jolina Magdangal because were at the same height. Boots Anson-Roa was our speaker and is the President of the said place. I also learned that Don Jose Nepomuceno was the father of Philippine Cinema, I wonder if he knows Willie Nepomuceno? 🙂

             

       

The Edge of Hollywood

This is about how independent directors made their way on how will they create or produce their films. This is also the start of narrative films and the stars were African -American. Most of the people knew that white men are the only one who can star a film because of racial issues, but this time it’s different. The most famous independent director  at that was Spike Lee who created “Malcolm X” and “she’s gotta Have It”. Unlike other directors and producers, his works did not cost millions of money, it only reached thousands of dollars. Perhaps I can call this the rise of the African-American Film, for it has shown us films that don’t have white people on it, but I am not saying that there are no white independent film makers , because there are.

French New Wave

This is also a French film but the cinematography and camera movements has already changed or it has evolved. There are a lot of panning and dolly shots (tracking shots). This is also the era where handheld cameras were created and was the reason for more suitable film production. This type of film ends with a question, I mean it ends with a doubt. It feels like as if there is something missing after the movie.

 

 

French Expressionism and Surrealism

French Impressionism is more on personal emotions and always makes its audience think. Unlike any other films, french impressionism is more on flashbacks that almost everything in the movie is a flash back. It is also unrealistic, always focused on fantasies or dreams.

 

 

 

 

Surrealism is always shocking. A film that is non sense and is very random. You won’t be able to understand what is the movie all about for it has too many elements that will make you think of what is really going on.

 

 

German Expressionism

German Expressionism is more on horror, mystery and suspense films. Usually in black and white but some are colored. When you watch a certain movie made by a German expressionist you will see how much exaggeration is in the film. The background and props are realistic although they are not real. It is very scary actually. The reason behind this type of expressionism is that they wanted to show the people the horror they are into. With the fact that there is a war going on and that they do not have enough food supply and money, they decided to created the “German Expressionism”. No other countries imported films, they are by themselves that’s why they tried cope up with the leading countries by creating great films.

 

             

 

Film Noir

Film noir is a term used to describe Hollywood crime dramas especially those films that motivates sex. Most of these films are in black and white and it has some similarity with German expressionist cinematography. Although film noir is associated with American films, many films that looks like a film noir is created. Many directors patterned its stories or style to film noir.

      

 

Studio System

This is a process of creating films in lots that are owned by the producers. This studios has a lot of people working on it, (lights, wardrobe, make up artists etc.) and these people are signed in a long term contract, meaning they can’t work for another studio. Studio systems was like a leash to those people working on it including the directors. They can’t say no to a film because as I have said before they are signed into a contract that made them “exclusive” for that studio only, they also control the distributors that’s why before film theaters are rich. They always have films to show. Studio system was soon abolished because of anti-trust laws in a 1948 Supreme court ruling that wants to separate distribution from production.

                                               

Star System

Stars or actresses from the past were trained very carefully, they are not allowed to create an ad lib and they are not allowed to choose their characters. There was even a school for artists, but despite the fact that they have been going through a lot of workshops, they still act dumb. Why? because they have contracts with producers and they will never ran out roles. In short there are no competitions, they act, people watch and that’s it. Now how do they differ from stars today? Well, modern artists get to choose some of their roles and they are not on a leash when it comes to acting, plus they act better than those stars from the past because now, they do not sign a contract for an entire year and it’s a competition of who’s the better actor.

                                          

Trainspotting

This is the first film I watched in our Cinema class, its about a group of friends taking drugs and how they tried to rehabilitate themselves. This film has different types of shots but more on dolly shots. There is an extreme long shot when they were in a grassy field, establishing their location. The scene where the main character was dying was an extreme close up and the scene where the baby was shown lying dead was a bird’s eye view shot. There are a lot of interesting shots in this film. I attached a video here so you could try to watch it.