14/10/22 - The Tea Piece Pt.3

In today's lesson, we watched a film called Gattaca, and also continued creating our Tea making videos.

When we were watching the film, we were looking out for the different camera shots, transitions, and symbolic items and gestures, that were used within the different scenes. We saw that the camera angle would change depending on who was the main focus, as when most people were walking around, the camera would be at eye level with them, however, when the character who was confined to a wheelchair was the main focus of the scene, the camera would be at his eye level. This was interesting to see the different use of perspective, as we as the viewers, could see what the characters were supposedly seeing.  I also found the shots where the camera was in line with the characters as they were swimming, because it looked like the waves were crashing against the lens, especially when the waves were really rough. This scene with the waves, was also good symbolism, as the characters playing brothers were competing for who was the "better" brother, the genetically flawed one, who was achieving his dreams and going far in his career, or the genetically superior one, who had not actually achieved as much in his lifetime. I felt that the crashing waves symbolized the anger that both were feeling towards each other in this scene quite well.

Another interesting use of symbolism within the film, was the use of a spiral staircase in the house. This spiral pattern, was a symbol representative of DNA strands, and as one of the main focuses of the film was DNA and genetic modification to create "perfect" people, this imagery really fits in and ties the scenes and the themes of the film together. In one scene of the film, the wheelchair using character has to make his way up the staircase alone by dragging himself upstairs. This scene well represents how even though he was a genetically "perfect" person, he could never do good enough for his liking, in what he was doing, whether that was in his swimming career, and only achieving second place, or when he tried to commit suicide and survived however disabled.

Later in the afternoon, we had to finish our tea videos. I had to download my newer set of images onto the computer, and change the formats of all of them, the same way that I did in yesterday's lesson, and then I had to create a new sequence for these new videos, to create a new final video that was filmed better, using more angles than yesterday's attempt at it. This final video then got exported onto a hard drive with everyone else's final movies, and as a class we went through and watched all of these, getting some feedback and constructive criticism, on what would help to improve them.

https://youtu.be/3I2xoKIWquI