Reflection on group work

This post is a reflective piece on the way I collaborated with the other members of my group, namely Fatima, Josh and Liam, in order to produce four infographics.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the first two meetings and thus to contribute in the production of two out of four infographics. This was due to unpredictable problems, such as an illness and a cellphone dysfunction which unfortunately affected our communication. To be honest, however, had I been more eager to find out about the second meeting, I could have tried harder contacting the others instead of relying on the assumption that they will get in touch with me.

Of course, I was not feeling comfortable with having missed half of the group meetings and I knew I would have to make up for it. I met Fatima at that week’s seminar and we agreed one of the remaining infographics would be made just by me and Liam, who had also missed the last meeting. However, although I was glad we had both agreed to this as a way to make amends, it was at this point when the communication within the group was at its weakest. Having missed both of the meetings that far, I was not yet feeling comfortable enough to undertake this task on my own with Liam. I needed to attend a meeting with the entire group first, in order to get a grip on the process of producing an infographic. I tried to explain this to Fatima, but either I did not do it very successfully or she did not really agree with it. In any case, I ended up expecting we would have a group meeting whereas Fatima and Josh were expecting me and Liam to do the infographic by ourselves.

This problem was solved at the following week’s seminar, when my group and I had the chance to discuss about this in person. Then, we arranged we would meet the following Thursday and do both the group piece and the separate one. After all, this misunderstanding might have served as a short delay to the creation of the third chart, but it did not by any means disrupt the collaboration of the group.

During our last meeting, my group and I tried to focus on a subject relevant to the latest film we had watched at AMC, Unfriended. We thus decided to produce a piece about the found-footage genre. I had a suggestion of my own to which the group did not stick, but our final idea worked out fine, so we were all happy with the result.

What I found interesting about working with Liam on our own infographic is how useful cooperation can be to the conception of an idea. Whilst the main suggestion of doing a chart about super-heroes was mine, we both contributed equally to the final decision of the subject. We both helped to develop each other's thoughts and highlighted their flaws, jointly arriving to the final concept.

After that, all the infographics were complete. Nevertheless, I still felt the need to make amends for the meetings I missed, as I had only been in half of them. I therefore did one more chart on my own, as part of my final article on Matthew Vaughn’s filmography.

I finally feel quite satisfied with my contribution to producing the infographics, although some mild problems could have been avoided had I been more careful. 

Unfriended (2014) review

During a group Skype video call, six friends start receiving messages from a stranger, who seems to be using the profile of an old friend of them. The girl to whom the profile belongs had committed suicide exactly one year before, because of cyber bullying. It all looks like a prank at first, until one of the teenage friends is found dead in her room…

What’s strange about Unfriended is that it seems to be not only more effective, but also more interesting as an overall experience if watched on a computer! This is because the only thing we see in Unfriended is but a computer screen. The entire film consists of a Skype group call which takes place in real time -it is filmed all in one take, with the actors being in different rooms of the same house. We have seen this before in VHS, yet this is the first time a whole film is made using such a modern type of media. If anything, this method of filmmaking and storytelling (along with the young age of the actors) makes absolutely clear that the film’s target-group consists of a very specific generation of viewers. It also introduces a new form of found-footage horror and indeed manages to refresh this worn-out sub-genre. Given that, the film itself seems to acknowledge this as one of its pursuits, through the main character’s name, Blaire, which possibly serves as a reference to the legendary Blair Witch Project.

Truth be told, Unfriended does not truly differentiate itself from most cheap found-footage films. The script is based on the overused plot of a supernatural entity terrifying a bunch of teenagers and the cheap method of jump-scares is used a lot, although not always clumsily. The film wouldn’t stand out in any way, if it wasn’t for the concept of the computer screen and the Skype call. This is what makes the film feel quite original and unexpectedly interesting, allowing the lack of surprises to go unnoticed. Thanks to this intriguing concept, the overall illusion of realism is enhanced and the actors have the freedom to improvise, which makes their performances look impressively natural. Also, the Skype call provides some deeply creepy scary scenes…

Unfortunately, the film’s most apparent weakness is technical. A viewer who is familiar with computers easily notices the technical mistakes which give away the film’s artificiality and reduce its realistic feel. For instance, the sound of the video call is conveniently muted whenever the director needs it to. Without this sort of technical details (which are the film’s greatest flaw), Unfriended could have been a truly suspenseful, if not scary, film. Still, the praiseworthy performances and the compelling concept are responsible for a rather unsettling and certainly very interesting experience.

(2½ out of 5 spinning tops)

Inforgraphic #4: SUPERHERO DEPICTIONS ON SCREEN

A comparison between different cinematic takes on the same superheroes, in terms of budget, box-office gross, their IMDb rating and their Rotten Tomatoes critics score.

Infographic #3: FOUND FOOTAGE MONTAGE

This infographic notes the films that made the found-footage sub-genre popular in the first place, the five most popular found-footage films of all time time in terms of Google searches and the genres besides horror that have used the found-footage concept.

Snow-White in modern cinema

Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella is the latest of a series of live-action adaptations of classic fairy-tales Hollywood has been constantly attempting the past few years, mainly after Tim Butron’s take on Alice in Wonderland. The peak of this cinematic trend was the year 2012 and the fairy-tale of Snow-White. During that year, not only did two Hollywood studios make two different blockbusters based on the same popular story, but also a Spanish silent adaptation was released, called Blancanieves (Spanish for Snow-White)!

Snow-White is arguably the most interesting of all fairy-tales in terms of film adaptations. First of all, Walt Disney’s Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) is the first sound and colour animated feature film ever made. It is therefore a film of great historical significance, as well as one of the best films in Disney studios’ filmography. But the tale’s modern cinematic adaptations are of great interest too, as the story has been seen on screen on significant variations.

Before 2012, an alternative take on the famous story was created in 1997 by director Michael Cohn, who envisioned the tale of Snow-White as a gothic horror film. Snow White: A Tale of Terror, starring Sigourney Weaver as the evil queen, heavily relies on its dark atmosphere, without however providing anything truly memorable as an adaptation, except for some gruesome alterations of some parts of the story.

In 2012, both Relativity Media and Universal Studios released their own takes on Snow-White, with none of the films being very faithful to the source material. However, Relativity’s Mirror Mirror is the only one of all these modern adaptations that actually tries to include little children into its target group. It is also probably the weakest of all. Indian director Tarsem Singh’s film was an effort to blend comedy, fairy-tale, action and fantasy elements at the same time, perhaps so that the result would be suitable for all kinds of audiences, but it failed to maintain a balance between all these genres.

Universal Studios’ response to Mirror Mirror was Snow-White and the Huntsman, starring Kristen Stewart as Snow-White. This film is very loosely based on the original tale and it rarely tries to even feel like a fairy-tale. Instead, it makes it absolutely clear (in contrast to disoriented Mirror Mirror) that it is but a dark, epic-fantasy blockbuster, which draws inspiration from the Lord of the Rings mythology. It might feel slightly disappointing as a fairy-tale adaptation, hence the mixed reviews, but it turned out to be an unexpectedly solid and visually compelling epic adventure, with amazing direction by Rupert Sanders.

Lastly, the Spanish film Blancanieves is arguably the most special of all the above, as it is basically a modern silent film about Spanish tradition and the cruelty of the entertainment industry! Still, it is probably the most fairy-tale-like of all three 2012 adaptations, thanks to its traditional style of storytelling. Also, comparing to all the above Snow-Whites, Macarena Garcia in the role (and even with a short haircut) truly is the fairest of them all! Blancanieves is a masterful, moving fairy-tale set in the real world, which uses dark humour to brilliantly highlight that, in real-life, there is no such thing as happy-endings…

With four modern film adaptations, three of which came out in the same year, Snow-White has therefore had a truly interesting cinematic history…

Infographic #2: HOW TV SHOWS PLAY OUT

Key elements of TV shows according to genre.

Cinderella (1950) review

Since Kenneth Branagh’s live-action Cinderella is out and pays homage to the classic cartoon of the same name, it is a great opportunity to remind ourselves of the beautiful Disney film we all grew up with. Disney studios decided to adapt the classic fairy-tale of Cinderella for the screen after the financially unfortunate decade of 1940, which had left the company indebted and nearly bankrupt. Luckily, the 1950 animated film Cinderella turned out to be the studios’ greatest commercial success since pioneering Snow White (1937) and Walt Disney’s company managed to recover decidedly.

It’s not hard to realise that, in a sense, Cinderella tries to imitate Snow White in terms of both characters and structure. Almost every character of the former has his or her match in the latter, from the “fallen princess” to the evil stepmother and from the handsome prince to the amusing friends of the heroine (mice in Cinderella, dwarves in Snow White). However, thirteen years have passed and more than ten films have intervened between Snow White and Cinderella and the improvement in both animation and narrative is more apparent than ever before. And the fact that Cinderella brings in mind Walt Disney’s cinematic debut cannot but emphasize this development. Some strong signs of improvement are the way the characters move, which feels more natural than before, and the characters’ faces, which look more carefully designed, especially the stepmother's. That way, their amusing expressions can make the characters interesting even if they lack any actual depth. It therefore feels like Walt Disney studios, after years of experience and quite a few commercial disappointments, return nostalgically to their first steps, while at the same time making one more forward. Cinderella seems more self-assured than its predecessors and bridges the small gap between the pure innocence of the studios’ “Golden Age” (30s - 40s) with the more commercially oriented, as well as mature “Silver” one (50s), while shaping the style of the studios’ upcoming triumphs.

In a way, the plot might seem simply like the realisation of a girl’s wet dream (the handsome prince falls madly in love with the humble heroine, asks her to marry him and takes her away in his princely carriage), yet it feels like this archetypal story is seen here in its purest form. Cinderella might be one of the most girly Disney films, establishing on screen the children’s love for princesses, however it does not exclude the rest of the viewers from its target group -note that there are no longer elements that feel too childish for an adult.

After all, what the Disney studios achieved in Cinderella is to create arguably their most amusing film until then. Also, to make the audience (regardless of age) wish with all their heart for the prince to save Cinderella from her suffering, as well as that a fairy godmother would someday appear in front of them too, singing “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”…

 
(3½ out of 5 spinning tops)