Scripted

A Look Through The Lens Pg. 6

Movies Then and Now Pg. 8

America’s Mightiest Franchise Pg. 12

From a Darker Future Pg. 34

Watching The Watchers Pg. 36

The Caped Crusader vs. The Man of Tomorrow Pg. 14

Image courtesy Marvel Studios

May 2014 Issue

Your shows.

Your streaming.

Your time.

Table of Contents Letter from the Editor.............4 Biographies..............................5 A Look Through the Lens........6 Movies Then and Now.............8

Image courtesy of Boris Bilinsky

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America’s Mightiest Franchise...............................................12 The Caped Crusader Vs. The Man of Tomorrow....................14 Filming Fear: The 6 Scarriest Movies of All Time.................20 Image courtesy of Mass Appeal

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Inspiration from Upbringing..................22 Low-Budget Luck.....................................26 Directors: To Create or Destroy a Beautiful Art.............................................................28 From A Darker Future.............................34 Watching the Watchers...........................36 3

Letter From the Editors Dear Readers,

Scripted is as much a film magazine as it is an effort to expand the scope of modern film journalism.

We believe that much of today’s society takes film at its face value, and we understand that film enthusiasts like you deserve analysis and insight that reaches beyond conventional coverage.

We have achieved this with Scripted, a publication which channels our individual passions for cinema into a volume that explores film as a vehicle for education, inspiration and power.

Throughout the pages of our magazine, it is apparent that film appreciation is a uniquely personal endeavor. Each of our editors is driven by individual and extremely personal interests, from superheroes to camera technology to filmmakers themselves. With Scripted, we have developed each of our passions into engaging, original content that will not only redefine your perspective on your favorite films but expand the cinematic tastes of the most seasoned film enthusiasts.

Scripted is a title with a purpose. The name immediately connotes our chosen topic–-the stories, stars and special effects of modern film. But our magazine is unique among film publications in that our intention is to read beyond the lines on the page. We invite you to join with us as we explore the breadth and depth of film as a form of human expression.

Thanks, The Scripted Team

Blake Ayers, Harrison Kuczaj, Kaitlin Polgar, Quinn Simpson, and Humberto Venacio 4

Biographies Despite being an avid film fanatic, he hasn’t been in a film theatre in over two years. He uses the Internet to watch the latest releases, months after they come out. He firmly believes that life is not like a box of chocolates. He is STILL in the process of getting Let it Go out of his head, despite Frozen having been out for over five months now. He even watches reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation whenever they’re one. He puts massive efforts into seeing some movies, then never gets around to actually watching them, exemplifying his inability to meet time constraints. His name... Blake Ayers.

Blake Ayers Harrison Kuczaj spends most of his time browsing the watch instantly section of Netflix, or scouring the shelves of Vulcan Video. He goes out of his way to watch as many films as he can, and is particularly fond of horror films such as The Thing, The Shining and Orphanage, Although he does not view film as a viable career option in his future, he still hopes to maintain his current passion for it throughout his life.

Harrison Kuczaj Kaitlin Polgar is a strange child who is known for her concerning infatuation with film. She spent much of her childhood at school (as do we all) and watching countless hours of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Her life has been heavily influenced by the avalibility of media. What else could account for her large collection of Doctor Who t-shirts? She attended the Kealing Magnet Program, where she socialized with other movie fans, gaining a wide knowledge of the cinematic world.

Kaitlin Polgar Quinn Simpson lives much of his life in the public eye, working every day as the fearless leader of the great and powerful class of 2017. He can be seen around campus sabotaging his political opponents, subverting the will of the administration and working constantly to improve the lives of his classmates, Like many LASA students, Quinn does not believe in free time.

Quinn Simpson Humberto Venancio had many objects of interest growing up including the likes of dinosaurs, okapis, and cheese. Along with his studies, a few franchises slowly consume his life. This includes both Marvel and DC comics, Pokémon, movies, select book series, and television shows such as The Walking Dead, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Arrow. He dreams of obtaining his own Iron Man suit...or becoming Batman. Either will do.

Until then, he prepares himself with video games.

Humberto Venancio

Photo credit: Kaitlin Polgar Photo credit: Harrison Kuczaj

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A Look Through the Lens By: Kaitlin Polgar

Looking behind the scenes of the major motion pictures in theaters today, it seems impossible that only a few decades ago cameras were so unadvanced. Over the years, cameras used to film have broken the boundaries again and again, making it possible to bring cutting-edge projects to the big screen.

Photo Credit of Wikimedia Commons

Super 8 cameras were commonly used before the 1980s, accounting for a variety of home films and prom videos. They were the gateway cameras for hundreds of directors and cinematographers today, which is responsible for proving the camera’s influence on the industry.

Cost: $50-300 Pixel array: 1024x768 (varies) Frames per second: 18 fps

The Super 8 Camera is one of the less complex cameras used for filming.

The ARRIFLEX D-21 was used on the film Killers (2010) because of its image characteristics. Mark Hope-Jones, who worked on the film, explained the camera’s amazing ability to work in sunlight and shoot with a soft light. This camera makes it possible to transition easily through shots.

Photo Credit of Arriflex Arricam ST Studios

(Info from littlefilm.org)

The ARRIFLEX-D21 is one of the more advanced cameras of today.

Cost: $1,000 per day (abt 15,00020,000$ to buy) Pixel array: 2880 x 2160

(Info from arricsc.com)

Photo Curtesy of Pol Turrents

The Genesis Panavision has one of the larger pixel arrays, allowing for a high-quality film.

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Television show The Tudors was shot on the Genesis Panavision, a prestigious camera. The show upgraded to this regal camera in the third season.

Cinematographer Ousama Rawi was recorded to have admitted that he had always wanted to use the Genesis. The Genesis allows for the possibility to shoot the show like a film and not add much to the budget.

Cost: Not avalible to buy to rent- $3,000 per day Pixel array: 5120 x 2700 Frames per second: 1-50 FPS (Info from panavision.com)

environments with little manuverability space avaliable. The camera is one of the most compact in the industry, allowing for more possibilities in film than ever before.

The RED itself is in essence a small box.

With the ability to add on multiple appliences at once, this makes it an ideal camera for films shot in

Cost: $50,000+ Pixel array: 6144 x 3160 Frames per second: 1-120 FPS

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Photo Credit of wordpress

(Info from red.com)

Photo Courtesy of wordpress

The Hobbit films produce some of the highest-quality footage in the history of film. See the latest enstallment of the action-packed trilogy: The Hobbit: There And Back Again in theaters on December 17, 2014, in IMAX and 3D.

to move differently for every type of shot) to be built for different uses. However, even with its small size there are difficulties. In an interview with cnet, Jackson explained that to film in 3D, two cameras had to be placed in a mirrored contraption made by 3ality Technica to ensure they are close

BrailleWorks Blog

The RED EPIC is one of the bright new stars of the digital age, used on films such as Peter Jackson’s trilogy The Hobbit. According to the Forbes magazine interview with Director Peter Jackson, its small size allows for a multitude of rigs (contraptions built to allow for the camera

Photo Courtesy of RED

The RED has been used in many of the upcoming films of the last few years.

Art Credit: google images

On the set of a movie, the new development of technology is what allows the films to come out with new features that have never been seen before.

Movies Then and Now Technological Changes of Film By: Kaitlin Polgar Flashes of light on a screen -- the beginning of a movie at the theater, where people recline in chairs. The smell of popcorn seems to ooze from the walls. The lights dim. And all at once, they dive into a story they had read on paper just yesterday. Only ten years ago, the amazing CGI and inserted lens flares they see before them were nothing more than a

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ridiculous dream. Times are changing, though.

Technology’s influence on the film industry has been colossal.

“For not a lot of money in the long run you can have really good quality equipment and make something that can hold its own,” Lowell Bartholomee, short film editor and director in Austin, said.

“That’s really it- putting focus on your writing and how good your

material is ‘cause with the little works and the right equipment [you] can have something that looks like what a studio could have made that about 15 years ago or so. You need a lot more equipment to get to the Peter Jackson level but you can start from a much higher level now.”

The rise in accessibility to technology has made the film industry increasingly easy to become a part of. With the ability to spend less money on film and casting, more possibilities have been created to invest in new cameras and procedures that increase the quality of film. When director

and editor Bartholomee began working in the industry, his access to digital cameras is what made it possible to work collaboratively without a major production company’s budget behind him.

“The amount of production, postproduction and distribution that you can do yourself today is just really impressive,” Bartholomee said. “That’s the big change is it’s put that more easily into everybody’s hands.”

Movies today come from a lengthy lineage of hard work and patience.

Older movies like Casablanca and Sound of Music were shot entirely

on film, which was an incredibly tedious medium. “[Film] slows the production down because you can only shoot 10 minutes at a time, and then you have to change the roll and that’s a very long process. [It] takes five to 10 minutes to put a new roll of film on a camera,” Travis Aitken, a commercial editor and director, said.

The elimination of film in the movie making world is what ultimately stepped up the competition for the industry. Production companies like DreamWorks and Sony Pictures began during the jump-start of the digital age. Without the countless hours cutting and developing film, directors and editors like Bartholomee have been able to invest in the digitalization and create works with far less time and money.

Without the cost of film, which in the past composed the larger

sum of a movie’s budget, these films are able to spend the money on post-production, special effects, and professional actors. With the lowering of cost in movie production, the evolution of the camera has taken control of the film industry, and broad accessibility of the latest and greatest equipment is readily available.

“I miss the tactile part of film but I also love that I own editing things in my house now because I love editing,” Bartholomee said. “ I love how things have gotten more accessible

This shows modern casting procedures. However one on one casting is less and less prominent with the rise in tapes. raised with the level of the playing field for everybody because for not a lot of money in the long run you can have really good quality equipment and make something just as far as the look and feel of it you can make something that can kind of hold its own.”

The integration of the digital cameras has had a profound effect on every part of the filmmaking process.

Directing has become a more stationary job, as opposed to the dynamic lead taking required when cameras had no monitors.

“I found -- looking at the monitors is a huge difference from being able to review the tapes like work,” Vicky Boone, casting director at Vicky Boone casting, said. “We didn’t really review the tapes as they happened then because the machine will tape and that can create a sort of messy workflow you know cause you would have to rewind to look at the tapes which might be an error, but being

“For not a lot of money in the long run you can have really good quality equipment and make something that can hold its own.” -Bartholomee

This shows the arduous task of developing film.

and easier to have and to do and it’s certainly cleaner than back when you were in a room full of snippets of film and stuff like that. It’s just-certain that level playing field it’s sort of

Art Credit: Station erlation at mpt.org

Art Credit: the Winonian

able to watch it through the monitor meant you didn’t really need to do that and so it was goodbut I did notice -- I felt a little more alienated though , form switching -- just looking directly at the actor to, you know watching them primarily through a frame.”

One of the most intriguing new parts of filmmaking is the large variety of camera types and the ways they affect the audience.

Cameras like the 3-D camera and steadicam (a resource used in mounting cameras) allow for visual impact that wasn’t available only a decade ago. Based on the cameras’ years of use, such technology has been a recent success.

“When a project comes along, you’ve got to think about how you’re going to shoot it.

You gotta think about what the visual impact is and all these overcranky films running at 48 [frames per second] have an emotional, sort of timeless flight it’s used a lot in fashion, it’s used a lot in commercials.

Slowing things down has a real emotional impact.

Certainly hair looks

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Art Credit: Warner Bros.

Peter Jackson’s water filming in The Hobbit:Desolation of Smaug. beautiful. All that is a really neat thing.” Aitken said.

The evolution of the camera has created some of the most intricate designs. The controversial 48 frames per second Peter Jackson used in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug was used to convey the story at a speed that was at a higher than the normal frame rate, 24 frames per

This is an example of steadicam used on the set of a movie.

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second. The steadicam is able to record while moving at a consistent rate, which may allow for a smoother view of the film subject.

“I just shot with steadicam recently because I wanted this flowing long, being able to move around subtext so that you felt like as the viewer you’re there.

You know the steadi can put you there so that

Art Credit: kona-ice.com

everything else just goes away,” Aitken said.

Aside from the shooting of film, other parts of the filmmaking process have also been greatly affected. Casting has exploded across the world, allowing for first

The actors are now faced with a new set of challenges. Boone explained how hundreds of digital submissions now flood the casting agencies, and it makes the chances of getting roles infinitely harder.

“I think it’s been a really great thing for the actors too, it’s really allowed the actors to get good at recording their own auditions,” Boone said.

“The difference is that when they come into a casting directors office and they get two takes and that’s it, if they get good at recording their own auditions, and submitting them that

“When they come into a casting directors office and they get two takes and that’s it.” -Aitken time actors to land a role in a feature film.

“We used to have -we still do this of course -- but we used to have 30 or 40 people come in a day to audition for a film now in addition to that we’ll receive another 250 people to tape and then submit a tape.” Boone said.

way, they have more authority. I mean, they’re their own editor, they can do 7 or 8 takes they can work on it for an hour and then take the film away and look at it, and they get to decide instead of me deciding.”

Through the digitization of film, all aspects of film have been changed. Things that were once tedious and time consuming to editors like Lowell have become simple parts of the filmmaking process, pushed aside in terms of priority in favor of new filming techniques and prosthetics. Major motion pictures like The Hobbit are radically different from Lord of the Rings, shot only a decade earlier. Even

The software available is now at a higher quality, which allows for higher quality film production.

the behind-the-scenes glimpses are enhanced in Peter Jackson’s recentlyreleased prequel.

However, the underlying process has remained the same throughout the years, which has allowed

Bartholomee said. “It’s all electronic, there [are] no strips of film hanging everywhere, but the editing principles I use have been the same since I started editing in college. Stylistically

“Ultimately it is just a shadow on the wall that’s being projected to you at slightly slower than your eye can actually see but fast enough that it looks like it’s all put together” -Bartholomee for the transition from medium to medium in a natural flow of evolution.

“The editing system that I use, is basically the same setup as that old editing room was,”

[there are] some new things you can change, but I don’t think it’s affected me as much, but it sort of happens globally.”

One of the keys to

understanding film is the idea that even through the changes that have made the processes simpler, they remain parallel. The outcome, though improved in nature, is still a potential masterpiece. “[Film] is beautiful,” Bartholomee said. “[So is] the experience -- the psychological elements and it’s presentation and the way it looks and the fact that ultimately it is just a shadow on the wall that’s being projected to you at slightly slower than your eye can actually see but fast enough that it looks like it’s all put together.”

Art Credit: google images

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America’s

MIGHTIEST Franchise

The Marvel Cinematic Universe By: Humberto Venancio

Iron Man May 2, 2008 $318,412,101

Iron Man 2 May 7, 2010 $312,433,331 12

The Avengers

May 4, 2012

$623,357,910

Captain America: The First Avenger July 22, 2011 $176,654,505

Thor May 6, 2011 $181,030,624

The Incredible Hulk June 13, 2008 $134,806,913

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a movie franchise brought up by Marvel Studios using characters from Marvel comic books. It consists of different movies sharing one continuity. The cinematic universe is made up of “phases�. For example, phase one was made up of five movies introducing several characters to the audience. In the final movie of phase one the characters were united

in one, grand movie: The Avengers. Following this movie several of the original standalone films were given sequels in phase two. Recent interviews with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said that the studio has plans for their films through 2028. This is now the most successful movie franchise in U.S. history with an overall gross of $2,599.7 million.

All images courtesy of Marvel Studios

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Iron Man 3 May 3, 2013 $409,013,994

Thor: The Dark World November 8, 2013 206,362,140

May 1, 2015

Guardians of the Galaxy August 1, 2014

Captain America: The Winter Soldier April 4, 2014 $237,666,580* 13

The Caped Crusader

Courtesy of DC Comics

The World’s Finest will face off in the movie that already has people talking two years before it releases in theaters.

By: Humberto Venancio

“You’re beginning to get the idea, Clark... this...is the end... for both...of us... We could have changed the world...now... look at us... I’ve become...a political liability...and you... you’re a joke... I

want you to remember, Clark...in all the years to come...in your most private moments... I want you to remember... my hand...at your throat... I want you to remember...the one man who beat you.” This is from the climax of Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” where Batman and Superman face off against each other.

This comic will slightly influence the plot of the “Man of Steel” movie sequel that will star both Batman and Superman.

Batman and Superman are two of the most iconic superheroes. Terms such as the Batmobile and Kryptonite are widely used in modern day lexicon. Because of television shows and

movies, people can know a lot about comic book superheroes without having to pick up a single issue. The next, most anticipated superhero film, according to Tribe Comics and Games customers, is an untitled movie that will feature both Batman and Superman. It will be released on May 6, 2016 and will act as a sequel to “Man of Steel.” One of the biggest questions from audience members of this genre is how the two most popular superheroes of all time

“Superman is the ubermensch, he is the Man of Steel, he is the fictitious best man of the world.”

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will be portrayed in this film. Looking at how the two have been portrayed in numerous ways over the years, there are many different routes the director could choose. “‘Truth, Justice and the American way’.

That’s from the old TV show. (Superman) is the ubermensch, he is the Man of Steel, he is

the fictitious best man of the world. He would never freak out and decide ‘You know what?

Forget the world. The world ain’t worth saving.

Goodbye,’ or ‘The world ain’t worth saving, I’m taking it over.’ That’s not how he has been done, that’s not how he’s been drawn,” Brian Melcher, a customer of Tribe Comics and Games, said. “He is this, like I said, he’s the perfect son. His superpowers are very physical. They are very obvious; flight, vision, strength, speed.

He can’t read minds, he has no telepathy, he has no telekinesis, no teleportation. Nothing that’s hidden. When he uses them, it’s very in your face.”

One of Superman’s partners and fellow members of the Justice League, Batman, will also be featured in this film.

“I’d love to put (Batman) down with a good psychologist. The Dark Knight, depending on how he’s written, he’s either this literally the dark knight to the spectator in the shadows as you read in several different comics with several different writers, he could have been anything. He could have been a doctor, he could’ve been a scientist, he could’ve been ... he had such skill

and such intelligence,” Melcher said. “As it is, he’s a superhero. He’s a non-superpowered superhero. But he’s able to use that skill and intelligence to be one of the most valuable members of the DC superhero community.”

Although these characters have captured the attention of many, something many people don’t know is how long they have been around.

Superman made his first appearance in “Action Comics” #1, published April 18, 1938. Batman showed up a year later in “Detective Comics” #27 in May 1939.

“When (Batman) first started, they didn’t quite know what to do with him other than they wanted a comic different from Superman,” Eric Burke, co-owner of Tribe Comics and Games, said.

“So he was a normal human, he actually used a gun for his first couple of issues. It was a very dark and moody (comic).

Then a year later, a year and a half later, they bring in Robin to kind of lighten the tone a bit.

Still very dark. Then of course in the ‘50s, superheroes weren’t selling that well. Batman was still selling but they gave him more space adventures and zany adventures. Then in the ‘60s they brought him

The Man of Tomorrow

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Pictures

The official logo for the 2016 Batman/Superman film back to be a detective and that’s kind of where he stayed, you know, up until modern time. It stayed with him being the gritty detective.”

Burke said that the ‘60s Batman did not work well with others while Batman in the ‘80s was the opposite and very much a team player. He said that today’s Batman is a mix between the two. Superman, being only a year older than Batman, grew up with him. However, he has taken a very different route in his 75-year evolution than his dark counterpart and this has cost him some comic book sales.

“The comics and Superman have been all over the place,” Burke said. “It’s actually strange. Superman comics outsold Batman comics for I don’t know,

Courtesy of DC Comics

40 years... People really liked Superman. Now people are much more into Batman. And any Batman series will almost always outsell a Superman series.”

Frank Miller wrote a four-issue comic book miniseries in 1986 titled “The Dark Knight Returns.” Bruce Wayne is now 55-years-old and has been retired from his Batman persona for a decade. Superman is now an agent for the U.S. government and his secret identity as Clark Kent is publicly known.

This eventually pits the two against each other in this classic graphic novel. “‘Dark Knight Returns’ is a very gritty, dark Batman book,” Burke said. “I mean Batman’s an outlaw. Nobody really likes him or trusts him.

He’s kind of old and out of shape and hasn’t been

doing it for a while.”

Zack Snyder, the director for the Batman/ Superman movie, said that the movie will have some slight influence from “The Dark Knight Returns.”

“A lot of the third movie (‘The Dark Knight Rises’) that he did has, at least theoretically,

“Any Batman series will almost always outsell a Superman series.” a lot of similarities, other than the BatmanSuperman fight, has a lot of similarities with ‘Dark Knight Returns’ already. I mean he hasn’t been Batman for a while, he’s out of shape when he tries to start doing it again. He has to

wear the brace to keep going,” Burke said. “You know, there’s already a lot that he’s already done so I think maybe people when they get in and see Batman vs.

Superman, they’re gonna be like ‘Well, we already saw some of that in the third Batman movie.’

Because I think they kind of wanted to show this much older, beaten Batman, Bruce Wayne in that third Batman movie and that’s kind of ‘Dark Knight Returns’ story so it’s a little odd there.”

The two characters have been portrayed in media adaptations for decades ever since their creations. A wide variety of actors have donned the cape and cowl or worn the blue and red suit. Looking at the different interpretations, one can tell that there are many different routes the director could take in creating the movie. This especially applies to Batman.

“The movies of course they always want to focus on the really gritty stuff,” Burke said. “They like doing that. Especially the three newest movies.

In TV, really the only TV stuff that’s been done is Paul Dini Batman adventures from the ‘90s continued on into ‘Justice League’ and those are exceptional. Those are probably the best

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All of the villains and Batman from Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy portrayals of Batman you can find in any media.

They capture all of the aspects of Batman really, really well in that. Which is hard to do when you’re talking about a character that’s been around for 80 years.”

Like Batman, Superman has also been in television shows and movies ever since his creation.

“Superman has consistently been portrayed pretty much the right way,” Burke said. “I mean if you go back into the ‘50s with George Reeve. Although it’s a kind of silly show to watch now. But when you watch it, the feel of it. It does feel like a Superman book.

Paul Dini did a great Superman cartoon...

The Christopher Reeve movies, especially the first two, are spot on.

They really capture the kind of the innocence Superman is supposed to portray.”

Christopher Nolan directed a Batman trilogy from 2005 to 2012. This consisted of “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark

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Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Pictures

Knight Rises.” They have been viewed as some of the best portrayals of Batman in the media by some people and many other factors have caused the trilogy to receive many accolades as a whole.

“I’d like to see some of the dark tone from ‘The Dark Knight,’” Stedman said. “I enjoyed the series more than probably any of the other Batman series because while there were comic elements it seemed more gritty and real.

I really like the world that Christopher Nolan created – the way the city looked and felt. I would hope they keep some of that but (add) their own twist on this new version.”

However, there are a minority of fans that did not appreciate the trilogy for valid reasons.

“He’s supposed to be a really, really smart guy who’s driven and wants to make sure nobody has to go through what he went through,” Burke said. “You know his parents dying. And in the movies you get the fact that he’s really driven

but you don’t ever see him as really smart. You know he should be as smart as Tony Stark if you were making him in a Marvel movie. But you don’t ever see that in a Batman movie. They don’t ever make Batman that smart. People just want to show him as this badass fighter who fights, you know, thugs on the street. And that is Batman but he’s also the smartest detective on the planet so he should be able to figure stuff out.”

“Man of Steel” was also directed by Zack Snyder and is the prequel to the 2016 movie. This

“I liked (‘Man of Steel’) a lot. All of it,” said Timms. “I thought it was what everyone was asking for which was basically just action.

You know, ‘Superman Returns’ was good but he didn’t really hit anybody... So I thought this one was cool. I understand some of the criticism about it like changing the costume.

That’s just going to happen. And some of the key plot stories were, you know. Let his dad die, letting Kevin Costner die.

And you know kill(ing) Zod at the end. But he had no choice and he’s humanizing him.”

On the contrary, some people would say that it is a movie that does not give the character justice.

“So they made Superman kind of isolated, alone. Very alien. And that’s not Superman,” Burke said. “If you read any Superman comics, he does occasionally feel like that and writers will write him kind of moody sometimes but

“I enjoyed the series probably more than any of the other Batman series.”

Superman movie was released on June 14, 2013. This movie had mixed opinions. Some people who watched the movie loved it and regard it as one of the best superhero films ever and an excellent portrayal of the Last Son of Krypton such as Scott Timms, customer of Tribe Comics and Games.

essentially, he’s the allAmerican boy. He’s kind of shown that no matter where you were born, in America, living in America, you’re gonna be just like everybody else. It was-you know it was kind of this whole dream idea in the 30’s.

How America was and people kind of kept with that. He’s supposed to be

people thought that he would ruin the franchise but he ended up being fantastic in the role... So I’ve rethought my initial reaction and will give him a chance. I didn’t see the original ‘Man of Steel’ so I don’t really have any opinions on Henry Cavill, but assume he’ll do a fine job since the original movie was popular and he’s recast in this new

“So they made Superman kind of isolated, alone. Very alien. That’s not Superman.”

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Pictures

A “Man of Steel” movie poster the good American farm boy and not some broody little goth kid.”

There are also traits that both the “Dark Knight” trilogy and “Man of Steel” share.

One example relates to the overall tone of the movies.

“He’s so depressing the whole movie,” Ron Brascia, Tribe Comics and Games Customer, said. “Between Christian Bale Batman and this new Superman. It doesn’t seem very fun. I mean,

it’s kind of supposed to be fun. They can have seriousness... Superman and Batman just seem too depressing.”

In the months since the movie was announced at the 2013 Comic-Con, several roles have been announced including Ben Affleck as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. Henry Cavill will be reprising

his role as Superman.

There seem to be mixed responses from several of the selected actors, especially around Ben Affleck as Batman.

“Initially, I think I felt like a lot of people when I heard that Ben Affleck was cast as Batman,” Stedman said. “It seemed like a strange choice especially after Christian Bale in the Dark Knight series. But then I started thinking about Tobey Maguire getting cast as Spider-man. A lot of

one.”

In the end, the question still arises of how the movie will do in the box office.

“I predict this movie will do well given that the first one did well enough to make a sequel,” Stedman said.

“Also, adding Batman with Superman will probably have a large appeal with superhero fans. Comic book movies in general seem to do fairly well at the box office. I think there will also be an element to wants to come see what Ben Affleck does with Batman; curiosity seekers, people wanting to see him fail, etc.”

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Filming Fear: The Six Scariest Movies of All Time By: Harrison Kuczaj

Art provided by: Calie Bell

Horror is an incredibly versatile genre of film. Each year dozens of new monster movies, psychological thrillers, and straight up slashers are produced and released. Amongst this wide array of releases, some genuine masterpieces are created. The list shown below chronicles the Moving Arts Film Journal’s choices for the seven best horror movies of all time. Regardless of their content, the one unifying factor amongst these movies is that they’ll have their audiences at the edges of their seats.

Created by Alfred Hitchcock

5. Psycho

Created by Dawn Bailey

6. Silence of the Lambs This film is a psychological and suspenseful thriller that follows an FBI agent in her attempts to track down a serial killer known as “Buffalo Bill”, who skins his victims. In her quest to find him, she enlists Hannibal Lecter, a dangerous psychopathic cannibal, so as to gain insight into the killer’s mind. As Bill’s body count rises, Hannibal begins to manipulate and torment her, slowly pushing the film into a climactic ending that questions the nature of evil itself. The film perfectly blends suspense and psychological horror, whether it is through a simple conversation between characters, or a chase through the home of a killer

After it’s release in 1960, Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” shocked audiences with a combination of suspense, blood, and mystery. Following the story of a woman in possession of $40,000 stolen from her employer’s client, she flees to a small motel run by a lonely man and his mysterious and domineering mother. The entire film is beautifully scored by a full orchestra, and has is the of the most iconic music used in film today. The entire film is tense, dark, and beautifully executed.

Right: A depiction of the mysterious villain responsible for the murders that take place in “Psycho”

Right: A loose depiction of the domineering villain archetype that strikes fear due to the human fear of being controlled. Villains that have exemplified this are Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs), Annie Wilkes (Misery), and John Kramer (Saw).

Created by Tobe Hooper

4. Texas Chainsaw Massacre Regarded as one of the ultimate teen slashers, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre� uses gore, power tools, and the guise of truth to create a terrifying experience. When a group of friends become stranded in the back roads of rural Texas, they must escape a family of psychopathic cannibals, lead by the brutal grave robber known as Leatherface. Based off the real crimes of Edward Gein, this classic film instills fear in its audiences to this day.

Created by William Friedkin

3. The Exorcist Chronicling the efforts of a priest to exorcise a demon from a young girl, this film seeks to frighten its audiences through religious themes and excessive use of practical effects. It not only uses vivid, shocking imagery, and toying with the audiences religious ideals. This film includes some of the most iconic uses of practical effects in film history, including the infamous projectile vomiting scene.

Right: An artistic rendition of a form of the alien monster from John Carpenter’s, “The Thing”

2. The Thing

Created by Drew Struzan

John Carpenter’s “The Thing” is the ultimate monster movie. It follows a group of researchers in the Antarctic who unwittingly come into contact with an alien creature that takes on the form of its most recent victims. Despite one of its largest claims to fame being its unprecedented usage of practical effects and its truly horrifying monster, this film thrives on the paranoia created in the scenes where the monster remains disguised. This film does not shy away from gore, but does not lose itself in it either, a combination that is unfortunately rare amongst monster movies. In addition to using the character’s own suspicions of each other to create tension, this film uses all of the tools at its disposal to make its audiences question what their fellow man will do if they believe they are in danger.

1. The Shining

Created by Saul Bass

Stanley Kubrick’s interpretation of the Stephen King novel, “The Shining” is a gripping and suspenseful descent into madness. This beautiful film is designed to make audiences question the strength of their own grips on reality, as the seemingly ordinary family depicted in the film spirals into insanity over the course of a single winter. It uses struggles that face thousands of families every year to create a sense of believability, despite the film’s many supernatural elements. This film’s nearly flawless execution and tone make it stand heads and shoulders above the rest of the genre.

Left: An artistic representation of the iconic twins from Stanley Kubric’s, “The Shining”

A shot from “Dazed and Confused”, a film inspired by Linklater’s time in High School.

Courtesy of Richard Linklater

Inspiration from Upbringing Filmmakers adapt their own experiences to unique and touching films

By Harrison Kuczaj

In 2001, twin sisters Ashley and Lesley Saunders sat in their living room amongst their older brothers for a familial viewing of

The Lord of the Rings.

Enthralled, they later watched the behind-thescenes double feature on the DVD, and came to the realization that not only could they devote

“Lord of the Rings” has inspired many people, such as the Saunders Sisters, to pursue film 22

Taken by Peter Jackson

their life to filmmaking, but that they could do it together. After 13 years, they’ve graduated from the University of Texas film school and are working on a feature-length film together.

“We made our first project in high school, when we were 17. So we’ve been collaborating since then. In college we would always shoot each others stuff, so she would write and direct and then I would shoot her films,” Ashley, an aspiring director and film school graduate, said Being as diverse and versatile as it is for the

purposes of art and expression, film draws many filmmakers of varied backgrounds. The resulting assortment of viewpoints allows many filmmakers to tell unique stories expressing their own life experiences in ways that only they are capable of. Ultimately, these filmmakers can

“I think that somewhere in the midst of all that ordinary, people can find themselves” create stories that are deeply personal to them, but accessible and touching to almost everybody.

“I just completed a film called “Boyhood”, and it tells the story of this kid growing up over 12 years. His parents are

struggling, and its a lot like my own childhood.

They’re low privilege, working class, moving around, there’s divorce, and it’s a lot like my own upbringing to a large degree,” Rick Linklater, a director known for his films such as “Dazed and Confused” and “Bernie”, said.

While many films are meant to express commonplace life in a way that is relatable to a large audience, they are often still inspired by the personal experiences of those behind the camera.

Countless filmmakers have used personal struggles against adversity to inspire their own films, allowing them to touch audiences emotionally, through stories unique to them. ”I lived in a homeless shelter for about six months,” Nicolas Gonda, founder of a company known as Tugg Inc, which allows customers to choose which films their local theatres are showing, said. “There was this living room in the shelter, where people congregated every day, even opposing gang members would have a cease fire. I remember one afternoon, this was before I got involved in film professionally, the administrator put on “Shrek” in the living room, and I remember at the end of the film when “I’m a Believer” came on, all of the people got up and started dancing with each other. Literally

Bloods and Crips, people who would later that night be looking to kill one another, were just swept up in that moment and experience, and they forgot all the problems that they were experiencing. It was that

“My grandmother was in Auschwitz and my grandfather was in various labor camps, and so I grew up hearing stories about survival” moment that opened my eyes to the ability of film to make people escape from their horrible situations, and just make everything feel better in the short term.”

Since its creation, film has been used as a form

A shot from Linklater’s film, “Before Sunset“ of escapism. Early films, such as George Melies’ “A Trip to the Moon”, were commonly whimsical, comedic shorts, designed to delight the viewers.

However, as the medium itself has begun to mature, filmmakers have begun to use film as a form of expression,

Courtesy of Richard Linklater

telling stories that are unique and powerful to them.

“We just finished our screenplay yesterday,” Ashley said. “The film is about, well its a twin sister story, but we wanted to do something in the genre that we really like, like the

From Linklater’s film “Suburbia”

Courtesy of Richard Linklater

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bigger sort of films. So we’re writing a story about a future US that has adopted a one Child Policy, like in China, and a family has twins. So they have to live their whole life as one person, and they trade on who gets to go out and go to school, and who has to stay hidden in the basement,” Most of the experiences filmmakers have as children can be seen echoing throughout their body of work, according to Linklater.

Many filmmakers use both positive and negative memories equally, to create emotionally compelling stories, many others are inspired simply by stories told to them.

“My grandmother was in Auschwitz and my grandfather was in various labor camps, and so I grew up hearing stories about survival,”

Gonda said. “And I know that for me those stories were always very vivid and inspiring and they got me through a lot of the more challenging parts of my life. And so I tend to be drawn towards those types of stories, the ones that are ingrained in my culture and my background,” Some of the greatest films ever made have been inspired by tales of tragedy and hope, according to Gonda.

While many of these stories illustrate extraordinary events and compelling tragedies, many filmmakers have tried their hand at giving creative life to the mundane. This, more often than not, results in widely accessible film, which almost anybody can relate to, thus giving the feeling of personal connection to both the filmmaker and audience.

“There wasn’t really

Many films, such as “Schinlders List”, are inspired by tragedy

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Taken by Stephen Spielberg

From Linklater’s film “After Midnight”

Courtesy of Richard Linklater

“We made our first project in high school, when we were 17. So we’ve been collaborating since then.” anything unique about [my childhood], but what makes them worth it to me, is that they happened to me.

So they’re not better or worse than anyone else’s. They’re not extraordinary, they’re pretty ordinary actually.

This newest movie I told you about, “Boyhood”, is a depiction of fairly normal people. And I think that somewhere in the midst of all that ordinary, people can find themselves,” Linklater said.

Most people do not think of their own lives as interesting, but many filmmakers, such as Linklater, believe that normality only needs to be portrayed properly in order to create compelling stories that

audiences can relate to.

“I would say every film I’ve made is pretty personal, just not autobiographical. Every story in the world is personal to someone.

And if you’re going to make a movie, which takes a long time and is a lot of work, it better be something that’s really personal. So I’d say all my work is on the spectrum of personal to autobiographical.

Dazed and Confused is a pretty good example, it’s my memories of high school. It was everything that happened to me my freshman year that was interesting, rolled into a story. They were all real people, or at least based off of them and myself,” Linklater said.

Filmmakers

everywhere have the urge to tell stories that are personal not only to them, but to the audiences that view it, according to Linklater.

They hope to have their stories resonate with audiences, and allow them to see reflections of themselves in the characters and script.

“We always tend to do stories that are based on brothers and sisters and parents,” Lesley Saunders, Ashley’s partner in writing and directing, said. “We always try to show a strong relationship with parents, because we had such a good childhood.

But also though, being

twin sister, we always wanted to tell a twin sister story. And that’s what were doing now, writing a feature screenplay about twin

“His parents are struggling, and its a lot like my own childhood. They’re low privilege, working class, moving around, there’s divorce, and it’s a lot like my own upbringing” sisters, because we’ve always wanted to tell our own perspective,” Similarly to Linklater in “Boyhood”, the Saunders said they use their films as a canvas

From Linklater’s film “Before Sunrise”

on which to express themselves. Film, like all forms of art, can be used as a form of expression through personal involvement by everyone involved. Ultimately, all film is reflective of life and experiences, used to connect all who see it.

“It’s such a personal

Courtesy of Richard Linklater

medium,” Linklater said. “People are here to express themselves, so part of expressing yourself is acknowledging your own experience. You can’t escape your own life. It’s who we are and it’s our natural way.”

From Linklater’s film “Bernie”

Courtesy of Richard Linklater

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Halloween:

A typical horror film right down to the title of the piece, “Halloween”, according to IMDB.com, only cost the production team $300,000 to make. With a 23333 percent increase from sales, the film managed to make $70,000,000 in the box offices.

The Groove Tube:

With even rate profit to sales, “The Groove Tube” was produced using $200,000 and made nearly $20.5 milliion resulting in an increase of 11,000 percent. Though this film didn’t do as well as others on this list, the simplicity of production helps ease the loss.

Low-Budget Luck By: Blake Ayers

Photo courtesy of CommeauCinema

Insidious:

Coming in at the higher end of lowbudget film, “Insidious” was produced with a budget of $1.5 million. Worldwide, the movie made $97 million in revenue box office sales.

With these production costs and sales, the film made a 6467 percent increase.

Paranormal Activity:

The film sprouting several others, following the same style of low camera quality with cheap effects, making the production cost stay low. “Paranormal Activity” produced using $15,000 to make $193.4 million, resulting in 1,289,038 percent, according to BusinessPundit. com, placing it as the largest increased profit.

Photo courtesy of QuiteRoomEntertain.

The Blair Witch Project:

“The Blair Witch Project was the first of the ‘found footage’ genre, and because of the then originality, it was a huge success. By only using a measly $60,000 to produce, and making just under $250 million in the box offices, the profit was an astounding 414,299 percent increase, making it one of the most successful low-budget film of all time.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre:

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is the horrid story of a serial killer terrorizing a group of innocent people. Despite this, the film was widely popular, using on a budget of $83,000 to make $31 million in the box offices, resulting in a 37,349 percent increase profit-wise.

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Open Water:

The story of being trapped out of a shark cage, “Open Water” made $55 million in the box offices using, according to RottenTomatoes. com, a budget of only $130,000. This great profit had an increase from cost to revenue of an even 11,000 percent.

The biggest advantage to making a film under low-budget is an obvious one: If the movie is well received by the audience, the amount of profit made is much greater than if the movie had cost tens of millions of dollars to

produce. Once the production costs are met, all money made from there on is pure profit. Here are best of the best low-budget films that managed to make the most money, despite their low costs.

Photo courtesy of

Photo courtesy of

Photo courtesy of Ebay

Photo courtesy of Photo courtesy of Impawards.com Photo courtesy of FFFMoviePosters

Photo courtesy of Impawards.com

Friday the 13th:

A good day turned by bad luck, “Friday the 13th” seemed to have anything but bad luck when it came to revenue. With a budget of $550,000, and box office sales of $60 mllion, the film had an increase of 10,909 percent.

Juice:

With a seemingly childish name, “Juice” is the dark drama of teens searching for power.

The least successful of all these films, “Juice” took a flat $5 million to produce, and managed to make $20.1 million in the box offices, having a small increase of just 402 percent.

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Directors: To Create or to Destroy A Beautiful Art The directors of a production have enormous influence over the outcome; a dangerous one.

By: Blake Ayers

When you think of film, what may come to mind is large explosions and important-looking producers. However, all this only becomes reality if the production goes smoothly. If everything

pivots on the decisions of the director, a potential masterpiece could easily come to ruin. This problem occurs all across the movie industry, but there is some variation depending on the budget.

The role of the director is to ensure the creation of a film. The director oversees all the work done before, during, and after the production, making his work extremely important.

A film can be diverted entirely by a single decision, a film that may have had enormous potential, and had been avidly awaited by fans.

The question that needs to be asked is this: maybe directors should have less power? In lowbudget films, where the cost constraints leave no room for mistakes,

this aspect of the filming market outdoes that of the million-dollar productions.

“I think there are upsides and downsides to both; in lower budget films you really get to be up-close-and-personal with your director and you get to know them really well, and with that you get to collaborate and make a really awesome piece of art,” Reece Ryan, a young actor who has appeared in many low-budget films, said.

Ryan has appeared in a variety of films, such as “Martha”, a movie produced by the University of Texas at Austin’s Advance Narrative Film class, and maintains his opinion: the $1,000,000 productions commonly seen are good, but they often suffer from small weaknesses.

Sometimes it’s more beneficial to take a step back from lots of money, and try to produce something beautiful with nothing more than a couple thousand dollars.

Being an actor only appearing in smaller, low-budget films, Ryan really

“You get to know them really well, and with that you get to collaborate and make a really awesome piece of art.”

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only knows one side of the story. He has never appeared in a mainstream movie, so he only has experiences with the lower end of filmmaking. However, he does have his own opinions in the higher end of the economic film industry.

“Then on the bigger films you have the ability to do amazing things,” Ryan said. “Then it’s less personal and you have less freedom to express yourself, because I guess there’s a lot more bureaucracy.”

This bureaucracy interferes with the creative process of the film, a single person having a bad point of view can destroy a work with lots of potential. If a work is more collaborative, a better piece of art is going to arise as the final product. Though Ryan’s perspective on the topic should not be ignored, his thoughts on big-budget films are only theoretical.

Therefore, it

A ‘sound stage’. These are often used to reduce the need of large sets, minimizing the cost.

This image shows a typical movie set, portraying the vast number of people involved in the general production of a film.

Taken from Flickr.com. . Licensed under Creative Commons Attribute 2.0

Pulled from the Wikemedia Commons. Author is Injeongwon, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

was most advantageous to speak to Kay Colvin, who has worked as a utility sound technician on big-budget films such as “The Amazing Spider-man” and “True Grit.” Being at the other end of the spectrum, Colvin has physically experienced what is like to work in big-budget films, and can provide

opinions about the influence a director has in both industries.

“When it comes to say the director or the cast, then the relationships might be a little more personal, or easier,” she said, “when you get to a bigger budget movie and you have big name movie stars, it tends to not.”

Colvin’s words align with Ryan’s. The big-budget movies tend to produce less personal work and more complicated production procedures. At this point, it would appear the base personalities of those in a film would be the decisive factor when it comes to the final piece of production.

“It depends, since everybody’s different,” Colvin said. “There are some really big famous people that don’t really interact with the crew, and there are people that can be really big and famous and they do.”

The feeling of importance can often cloud the actions of an individual. But not every person in a movie gives in to these thoughts, and some still manage to remain clear-headed in the production of their film. While the split is easily viewed amongst the crowd of directors and actors, it may not be so clear amongst other departments.

“In general, a

“When you get to a bigger budget movie and you have big name movie stars, it tends to not.”

The back lot of the Warner Brothers Studio. While this looks very uneventful, within the building lies a bustling group of filmmakers.

Taken from Flickr.com. . Licensed under Creative Commons Attribute 2.0

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This is what was previously used to edit film. Cutting and pasting together physical film lengthened the production greatly, adding to the cost. much smaller, lowerbudget movie, just a smaller production can probably be a little more personal, as far as the big wigs go,” Colvin said. “When it comes to the crew people, even if the movie is huge, the crew people are all pretty close.”

It is really the trend seen in every age and variation of humanity; the odd aspect

Pulled from the Wikemedia Commons. Author is Marcel Oosterwijk, licensed under Creative Commons AttributionShare Alike 3.0 Unported License.

of the lower class that pulls them together in an interesting way. The crew on production is not being equivocated to the peasants of society, but the bureaucracy previously perceived exemplifies itself with a clear example.

Continuing with a class-parallel analogy, the upper class, in this case the actors of a big film, have a tendency

“Something will happen like the actor; the actor they were relying on backs out.”

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to be unreliable.

Unfortunately, the production of an entire project often relies on one person, and the lack of commitment on their part can bring it to ruin.

“By the time I get called, the production has been green-lighted and the money is there,” Colvin said. “There are cases where they can get closed and then something will happen like the actor; the actor they were relying on backs out. Then that may shut the thing down.”

A piece of art with potential can pivot

on such a small stand. It is a great disappointment to anyone making a movie to see usually months of preparation go to waste. This only glorifies yet another example of the failure of one person ruining the production.

Donna Ayers, who worked in the film and television industry with Warner Brothers for 25 years, predominantly worked in editing, and experienced the postproduction side of filmmaking. Examining her opinions sheds new light on the supposed iron fist rule that can ruin a film, and is often seen in directors and well-paid actors.

“Some directors will give, you know, lengthy notes on the film and the editor will start cutting the film together,” Ayers said.

“The director will come in and do more and more notes through the whole process. But it’s a very collaborative effort, an editor is never just left alone with a film.”

Even though Ryan and Colvin agreed that there are varying levels of collaboration on-set, Ayers thinks otherwise. But on-set things move quickly and time must be well managed, because as Ayers states, money can be lost easily.

“If the end of the film and the beginning of the film starts at a castle, and the end of the film is at that same castle, you’re going to shoot all of those scenes at that location before you move location because

its cheaper to be shot,” Ayers said.

The responsibility placed upon just one director is massive in comparison with other jobs, and a single mistake or bad call can result in losses of millions of dollars. However, in postproduction editing, where the crew can afford to take more time and work in whatever order, it would make sense that directors could be more understanding.

At this point, it would seem most likely the situation and circumstances have the most influence on the personality of a filmmaker, something that is absolutely vital in the production of a film,

regardless of the budget.

“I’ve worked on low-budget things and I’ve worked on things with really huge budgets, and its really personality driven,” Ayers said.

When it comes to something so crucial in the production of a movie, precise steps must be made to ensure it is done correctly, but the personalities of an individual can be completely

“I’ve worked on low budget things and I’ve worked on things with really huge budgets, and its really personality driven.”

The Warner Bros. Studios, where Donna Ayers worked for many years.

A behemoth film industry such as this provides the necessary perspective on film.

unpredictable, because in reality, the budget may not have any influence on a person’s base thoughts.

“My experience is not that it has anything to do with the budget,” Ayers said. “But more about the personality and style of the person

A production sound mixer, the line of work that Kay Colvin works in. [director].”

Essentially, the low-budget sides and high-budget sides of filmmaking differs in many aspects, all having great influence on the filmmaking process that happens during production, but ironically, the consistency lies in the variety of directors. If a film is in production, the outcome is heavily influenced by the specific choices and decision made by an individual.

Pulled from the Wikemedia Commons. Author is Lance Lundstrom, released into the Public Domain by the author.

Without foresight and proper planning, a film can come to a crashing halt, lose all its funding, and lose any form of profit that could be made in theatres.

“I mean, when you’re working on films and working on stuff like this, you just have to understand that there’s only so much that can be guaranteed to you,” Ryan said. “There’s no way that someone can accurately predict everything that’s going to happen and make it guaranteed to you and you just have to understand that not everything is going to happen like they said it will, and that’s just part of it.”

Pulled from the Wikemedia Commons. Author is ?LiAnG?, Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

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Capture Life

Who says money can’t buy happiness?

From A Darker Future

Surveillance is constantly toeing the line between security and privacy, and films throughout history have reflected upon this balance in society. With the NSA revelations fresh in society’s mind, there will never be a better time to look back at the films which have imagined countless surveillance states, some of which closely mirror our current reality. By Quinn Simpson

Metropolis (1927)

Type of surveillance: Footwork Social fears tapped: Surveillance, conformism Fritz Lang’s well-known sci-fi epic was exceptionally prescient in terms of design and mood, and depicts a long-standing way of tracking citizens: by following them in person. In this tightly controlled, rigidly hierarchical slave state, a hired thug watches people at the behest of his boss, the Master of Metropolis.

The Anderson Tapes (1971)

Types of surveillance: Bugs, tracking devices Social fears tapped: Incompetent government In this film directed by Sidney Lumet, Sean Connery plays a burglar who, while planning to rob an apartment building, ends up being surveilled by the IRS, FBI, the DEA, and a private eye. Surprisingly, none of these groups has managed to coordinate with the others and the crime itself is found by hamradio operators. At the end of the film, the “Anderson tapes” are erased to protect the government.

The Conversation (1974)

Types of surveillance: Bugsging Social fears tapped: Technology and the existential dilemma of listening in on the lives of others In Francis Ford Coppola’s contribution to the seventies’ paranoia genre, Gene Hackman portrays a surveillance expert who bugs a couple walking around a San Francisco park, using operatives scattered throughout the area. When he begins to suspect his client of murder, somebody starts listening in on him. The film ends as Hackman searches for bugs in his apartment — to no avail.

Type of surveillance: Footwork Social fears tapped: Surveillance, conformism In this adaptation of George Orwell’s novel, society has accepted that Big Brother is watching – through two-way TVs called telescreens that are in every home. Sometimes, however, these watchful pieces of dystopian surveillance have to be hidden: When John Hurt’s Winston Smith engages in a forbidden love affair with a coworker, it turns out a picture in their hotel room hides a telescreen.

Image courtesy of Today Entertainment

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)

Info sourced from The Vulture and Time Magazine..

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Brazil (1985)

Type of surveillance: Footwork, cameras, computers Social fears tapped: Incompetent government This prescient 1984 spoof looks at an Orwellian surveillance state that is mired by bureaucracy and the inescapable pettiness of human beings. The state’s low-tech equipment becomes a metaphor for a broken society as the story pursues an anarchist duct repairman played by Robert De Niro.

Enemy of the State (1998)

Type of surveillance: GPS tracking, hidden cameras, Social fears tapped: Govt. abuse of tech/power After an old friend gives him a video implicating an NSA official of killing a patriotic congressman, lawyer Will Smith finds his house bugged, his bank account frozen, and his life overturned. Meanwhile, he’s covered in bugs and GPS tracking devices (not just his cell phone, but also his watch, his pen, his shoes, and his pants are bugged), which allow the NSA’s top-flight hackers to follow him through satellites, wire frames of the buildings he enters, and cameras hidden everywhere.

Minority Report (2002)

Type of surveillance: Footwork Social fears tapped: Surveillance, conformism In this Steven Spielberg film, the government doesn’t just see what you’re doing, it can see what you’re going to do. Through the use of “pre-cogs”– people who see the future — the cops attain video footage of crimes before they happen, get instantaneous court orders through judicial telepresence, and then speed off to stop the crime before it happens. In order to evade society’s all-seeing eye, Tom Cruise’s Orgie cop has to surgically replace his retinas.

Image courtesy of V5 blog

Big Brother is a facade for the watchful government of Ninteen Eighty-Four.

Image courtesy of movieposters.org

The Dark Knight (2008)

Type of surveillance: Mass cellphone hacking Social fears tapped: Surveillance via possessions In Christopher Nolan’s second Batman film, Bruce Wayne, played by Christian Bale, engages in a lastditch attempt to track down Heath Ledger’s Joker.

He hacks into every cellphone in Gotham to form a city-wide sonar net. Some viewers understood this as Nolan’s conservative defense of Bush-era surveillance, but it’s important to remember that Batman’s abhorrent actions are almost universally considered as stooping to the Joker’s level.

Eagle Eye (2008)

Type of surveillance: Centralized super computer Social fears tapped: Rogue technology Director D.J. Caso and star Shia LaBeouf enforce a healthy dose of paranoia as they are manipulated by Eagle Eye, an artificially intelligent supercomputer that has taken control of the nation’s surveillance networks. By the end of the film, it is discovered that the supercomputer’s hidden goal is much more sinister than anyone could’ve guessed.

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The NSA headquarters oversees worldwide surveillance conducted by the USA.

Image courtesy of NBC News

Watching the Watchers Recent NSA revelations highlight the rise of surveillance in society and film

By Quinn Simpson The government watches you for your entire life. It keeps track of the people you talk to, how long you talk to them, and when. The moment you’ve done something suspicious, your phone history is already on file, waiting to reveal the details of your personal communications.

“In the past, surprise was survivable. Post 9/11, in a terrorist environment, surprise is not acceptable. You cannot afford to be surprised. You always have to be surprising.

You have to be multiple steps ahead of your

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opponent in the political chess game. You see this in all sorts of movies,” Vincent Casaregola, English professor specializing in American literature, film and cultural studies at the Saint Louis University College of Arts and Sciences said.

People around the world were shocked when Edward Snowden, a defense contractor at the National Security Agency, revealed the

massive scope of the spying conducted by the now-notorious American agency. Through powers granted to it after the attack on the twin towers, the NSA can access the phone and internet records of almost anyone that is suspected of conducting suspicious activities.

Throughout history, films about surveillance have not only reflected the societies in which they are made,

“You have to be multiple steps ahead of your opponent in the political chess game.”

but also predicted scenarios not unlike our current reality – government spying on an unprecedented scale. Just decades ago, Americans watched Hollywood films that imagined cutting-edge espionage conducted to liberate a world rife with communism. But in the aftermath of 9/11, film is reflecting an increasingly complex surveillance state that employs illicit means to satisfy questionable goals. Now that the NSA programs are common knowledge, surveillance films will play an increasingly important role in the continuing evolution of the American public psyche.

“As long as culture has existed, human beings have been aware of the fact that they are both prey and predator,” Casaregola said. When you’re going back to the early stages of human development, there’s that sense of wanting to observe while not being observed so that you can hunt. That’s a hunter’s desire. There’s also the prey’s fear – fear that something is out there trying to get you. And that’s deeply hardwired into the brain structure. Those are the fundamental features of our psychology as animal beings on the planet, and film as a medium accentuates that.”

According to Scott Von Doviak, author and pop culture writer for publications such as Rocker Magazine

and Slant, humans have a primordial desire to watch while undetected, and this psychological drive is manifested not only in surveillance but in film itself.

“Voyeurism has always been central to the appeal of film.

The experience of watching a movie taps into the secret thrill of observing the lives of others undetected. Alfred Hitchcock exploited this desire most notably in ‘Rear Window,’ in which Jimmy Stewart essentially conducts surveillance on his

neighbors, stumbling upon a murder in the process,” Von Doviak said.

allowing for psychological fulfillment and excitement without real world consequences.

“The act of filmmaking, even the act of watching a movie, is a weird kind of surveillance. We get to look at the pictures, but they can’t look back.

That’s one of the nice things about movies – you get to see and listen without fear of them turning to us and saying, ‘what are you doing?’” Barnett said.

Film, because it inherently embodies

“The act of filmmaking, even the act of watching a movie, is a weird kind of surveillance. We get to look at the pictures, but they can’t look back.”

According to Kyle Barnett, an English professor at Bellarmine University, film is a vehicle by which humans can surveil without consequence,

In Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,” Jimmy Stewart spies on his neighbors from his home.

Image courtesy of Dr. Macro Film Scans

A scene from the film “The Conversation,” directed by Gene Hackman.

Image courtesy of Cinema Spoutnik

“In a sense, surveillance is governmentsanctioned voyeurism, which makes it an ideal topic for film”

surveillance, is a medium by which one can experience realworld, interpersonal surveillance of the type that is taboo in today’s society.

“There’s a French film [‘Caché’] from 2005 about a couple who received videos of themselves, so someone’s recording them and they don’t know who. That’s a more interpersonal sort of thing,” Barnett said.

The allure of interpersonal surveillance in film is manifested in highprofile films across societal eras. The ability to watch those who watch only intensifies the satisfaction of the human predatory instinct.

“There’s a famous film, it’s over 40-years -old, called ‘The Conversation,’ by Gene Hackman,” Casaregola said. “It’s about a guy who’s doing this kind of listening, and again, he gets involved because he thinks he hears something or sees something other than what he’s supposed to be seeing or hearing.”

While being party to interpersonal surveillance satisfies the predatory desire to watch, government surveillance incorporates the fear of being watched.

When depicted through film, this surveillance simultaneously invokes the feelings of being both predator and prey.

“In a sense, surveillance is government-sanctioned voyeurism, which makes

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it an ideal topic for film,” Von Doviak said. “These movies play off not only our desire to observe the lives of others, but our paranoia that we are the observed.”

According to Barnett, government surveillance became a prevalent topic in film after WWII. Public interest in international espionage, depicting how the US protected the world from the Soviets, was the driving force behind this new theme.

“These kinds of movies really take off after WWII with the rise of the Cold War,” Barnett said.

“There’s this US vs. Soviet Union sort of thing where suddenly we went from saying, ‘Oh, good! The world is safe from Nazism!’ And then we turned around and suddenly it became

about the West vs. the East and the Cold War, so there’s a dramatic rise of film about surveillance after the Second World War.” This new theme was often incorporated into film through the use of hardened intelligence agents that exemplified America’s perceived values abroad.

“Well I think, more than anything else, WWII and the Cold War really accelerated this process,” Casaregola said. “You have films about people going under cover, trying to be something they’re not.

Image courtesy of AP

American distrust in government mounts with Nixon’s resignation. where a person tries to be a German agent, during WWII, or tries to be a communist agent.

That’s who he’s trying to be. One of the things about the observation is that there is direct observation by an agent in the field who is reporting back.”

Public fascination with the nation’s seemingly indomitable secret agents translated

“After the turbulence of the late ‘60s and the advent of the Nixon era and Watergate, American society grew more paranoid and distrustful of government in general.”

Trying to be observed as one thing, but not another. You have spy movies and you have counter-espionage

James Bond exemplifies a new era of American espionage.

Image courtesy of Movie Wallpapers

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directly into films about high-tech spies fighting villains and enforcing American values abroad.

“With the advent of the Cold War, spy movies came into vogue, most prominently with the James Bond movies of the ‘60s and their knockoffs, which occasionally featured surveillance gadgetry,” Von Doviak said. “But after the turbulence of the late ‘60s and the advent of the Nixon era and Watergate, American society grew more paranoid and distrustful of government in general.”

----Mid-century American scandals such as Kennedy’s assassination and Nixon’s resignation imposed a cynical opinion towards government, resulting in a wave of films that envisioned societies with questionable or simply oppressive public institutions.

“Frankly, I think our attitudes about American institutions have changed,” Barnett said. This isn’t just your lifetime I’m talking about, this is my

lifetime. Post-Kennedy, Americans start to lose faith in their leaders and their social institutions.

Before that people feel like, oh, they’re watching out for me.

The government, they’re doing good stuff. There’s a sense that big business and big government is on your side. That seems to break down somewhere in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and so film’s going to reflect that.

Film which previously is looking at our own government, seeing mostly good things, starts to say ‘hmm’ and starts to assign more sinister things to our government.”

As new technologies such as cellphones and the internet proliferated, the complexity and popularity of surveillance films continued to increase.

The tragic events of 9/11 have only accelerated this growth.

“Well, I think it’s intensified them, just as surveillance has been intensified,” Casaregola said. “It’s added new layers because now, the internet as we know it really is about a quarter century old or so. The web is less so. It’s a little over 20 years old. Massive use of this where everybody’s sending emails, and the development of common, texting phones is occurring in and overlaps with the time of 9/11. So the new technologies are coming at a time of new politics.

The same was true of the Cold War.”

While the development of surveillance has grown unchecked in past years, the recent NSA spying revelations have reignited the debate over the legal and moral acceptability of surveillance.

government, abusing its power and so becoming criminal itself. At least in some elements of it. And so it goes back-and-forth that way. And that will be an ongoing struggle, and the potential drama of that appeals to film so much.”

“In movies and TV shows such as the above-mentioned ‘Bourne’ series and ‘Homeland,’ the government is already seen to have nearly unlimited powers of surveillance.”

“Surveillance is something that’s going to happen,” Casaregola said. “Understanding that regulating it in a systematic and institutional and legal way is important, the more technologies exist, the more they will be abused, both by criminal elements– people who hack into your stuff, people who blackmail you– and by the

Although the NSA spying revelations will change the perspective of society, film has already predicted surveillance programs that monitor citizens and collect data to a greater extent than the NSA. “It may not have a noticeable effect since fiction is usually ahead of reality in this area,” Von Doviak said. “In movies and TV shows

such as the abovementioned ‘Bourne’ series and ‘Homeland,’ the government is already seen to have nearly unlimited powers of surveillance. In ‘The Dark Knight,’ Batman is able to turn every cell phone in Gotham City into his own massive surveillance system. Reality is just now catching up to the movies.”

In the coming years, the fears and aspirations of society will continue to foretell the advancing complexity of modern surveillance.

“It’s going to be this race between what we can imagine and what’s real. It’s going to be this weird mix of sci-fi versions of these stories

and true story versions of what we’re talking about,” Barnett said. “It’s a really interesting time in that way. It’ll be interesting to see where people go with it.”

In “The Dark Knight,” Batman creates a massive surveillance network from every cellphone in Gotham.

Image courtesy of Warner Brothers Entertainment

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