Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire(2009) is a motion picture base on the adaption of the book "Q & A" by Indian civil servant Vikas Swarup. The setting of the film takes place in the city of Mumbai, India and is told through a series of flashbacks.


This movie is very fast paced. You really feel like you are in the dense and rapid moving city of Mumbai, with the constant motion of the camera. I believe the use of the low angle shots in the crowed area, for example in the train station and a slums brought forth the claustrophobic feeling of being surrounded by many people adding to the overall feel of the movie framing.

There were also various other shot sizes used in this the motion picture to tell the story, for example, ECU (extreme close up); CU(close up); MCU (medium close up); MS(medium shot); MLS (medium long shot); LS(long shot); ELS (extreme long shot), HA(high angle shot), and SA(standard angle shot or eye-level).
The dominance composition of the colors brown-yellow-red aptly reveals the whole interest of the film (1) and the urban setting of developing India.

What does "Slumdog Millionaire" look like overall?

A montage of the entire film reveals a dark image dominated by unsaturated light tans, greens, and blues, with a few bright oranges and blues at the beginning and end.

What is the "Slumdog Millionaire" dominant color and composition?

Taking the mean of the entire film produces an olive green image with slightly brighter center-shot.

What is the "Slumdog Millionaire" dominant color pallete?

The SI-2K Digital Cinema Camera (2) was used to capture some of the fast paced (tracking) movements of the city of Mumbai, which can be seen in this train station sense of the movie.



There was a continuous amount of dolly and pan shots throughout the film. Especially in the scenes in which, he is the contestant on the game show, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire".
It is obvious that to archive some of the shots in the movie, support systems such as cranes and rails had to be used to capture some of the landscapes of the slums and the city arena. Different lens, such as wide, normal, telephoto and zoom lens, were also used in the making this motion picture, that kept the flow of the narrative.

Overall Slumdog Millionaire is an incredible moving picture, even so that it has been recognize by the Oscars for the technical achievements in cinematography, music (song & score), film editing, sound mixing, writing and not to mention the best picture and directing Oscar. (3)

Sources:

1) http://lab.softwarestudies.com/2009/02/art-of-dominant-color-in-film.html

2) http://www.siliconimaging.com/DigitalCinema/News/PR_01_31_09_Slumdog.html

3) http://www.oscar.com/oscarnight/winners/

Museum of the Moving Image

Going to the Museum of the Moving Images for the first time was quite an experience. I was presented with works of the first motion pictures made to modern day technology used in creating 21st century motion picture. It was a fascinating walk through the time line, of the creation of media as an art form. Things like sound effect, sound editing, and music supervision were some of the elements that has evolved over the decades that breathe life into this medium. A few interesting items that are worth mentioning include the first use of tri-color camera in film, early forms of video games, and sound editing processes used in movies.

The use of the tricolor camera had a major impact on the industry because introduced the audience to another layer of the narrative of movie making, color. The first feature films to utilize this technology are The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, and The Woman (1). As it was also pointed out by my tour guide, making a tricolor was very expensive, however the quality of the film remains intact for an extended period of time.

Video games also played an important role transforming media into the form we know it as today. This 10 billion industry had its major success early with video games like Space Invaders (1978), Asteroids (1979), and Battlezone (1980) (2). It was also exciting to see some of these old school arcade video games, from the era they were built, at the museum intact and playable. On a closing note on the subject, video games has also given us some of our noticeable culture icon to date, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Pac-Man, Mario, etc.

Personally speaking, the highlight of the tour was the sound editing process used in film. I was blown away by the sound editing demo that had been shown to us. It never occurred to me as to how much work goes into the sound with respect to creating a feature film. It was brought to my attention that in a typical action film you have over 100 different layers of sound in one scene. This could range from the sound of a fire truck in the background, to the explosion of atomic bomb in the foreground. I was in awe by the process of putting together different sounds to bring an image to life on screen. I now have new profound respect for a Foley artist.

Sources:



1) http://www.films101.com/earlycy.htm



2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Video_Arcade_Games