Author Archives: anthonybeilman

1 minute film idea

kid brother runs back in the house with newspaper throws newspaper on the table  The table is a mess looks for his keys while other brother is at table pouring himself milk in his cereal at the same time on iPhone with red case while brother  can’t find his keys asks brother if he has seen them the table is a mess the brother who is looking for his keys is dressed up for a job interview is going to be late other brother seems to not care still on his iPhone eating his cereal  Brother storms out decides to take a cab other brother eating cereal picks up a newspaper and begins to read realizes keys are under the newspaper

Blair Witch Film Glossary Synopsis

Anthony Beilman

Basic Media Production

9/30
In the film “The Blair Witch Project”, we see a lot of key cinema concepts being used in one of the first films to be recorded completely by a hand held camera.  The use of this type of camera gave the director free and complete control to take advantage of certain techniques such as cuts, frame, medium closeups, closeups, pan, and swish pan.  In the beginning of the film, the director uses cuts between the people being asked about their knowledge of the Blair Witch.  These cuts were successfully used to show the similarities in conceptions of the Blair Witch between completely different people.  What I found very interesting was when a cut was made from one image in color to the same/similar image in black and white.  It produced more of a eerie type feeling.  (I am not sure if this was a continuity cut or maybe not a cut at all).  Pan was also used alongside many cuts in this film very effectively.  Pan was used between characters during dialogue, from left to right in the darkness between trees, and between the voodoo symbols they find hanging in the woods.  In addition, medium closeups and closeups were used alot in this film.  When Heather was interviewing the two men fishing about the Blair Witch, the camera doesn’t show their faces, you only see from their chin down along with the river flowing behind them.  Not showing their eyes in this scene produced an unsettling feeling.  The medium closeup is also used when Heather is talking about coffin rock.  Closeups were used when Heather, Mike, and Josh realized that after hours of walking they ended up at the same spot.  These closeups of their faces help capture hopelessness and frustration.  Finally, I noticed the use of swish pan many times in this film.  The one scene that stood out to me was when Heather finds a pile of rocks in the woods, after talking to Mary Brown who told them about a story from the bible about a pile of rocks.  Swish pan was used in this scene when Heather was counting the number of rocks in the pile, the camera would swiftly move from one rock to the next, approximating the action of the human eye as S. Hayward and J. Monaco tell us in their film glossary.