"Run Lola Run" Scene Analysis

Here is an analysis of "die tasche" scene from Run Lola Run 

Foley Sound Project

This is a very poorly made foley sound project I'm not gonna lie. We recorded the sounds with our phones and embedded them to the ambiance to make it sound realistic. We also added asynchronous sound to give anxiety and fear.

The piano track was composed by Eliz Erdal

Citizen Kane - the snow scene analysis

When I watched Citizen Kane, the American classic, one of my favorite scenes was the first flashback. Not only it was the first real part of Citizen Kane’s life we see in the movie, also because it tells so many things about Charles Kane’s life.

Looking at the technical aspects of the scene, it starts with Thompson reading Thatcher’s notes about Kane. The letter is shot in an extreme close-up and the camera pans as Thompson reads. Then a fade in happens and we see the flashback. The scene opens with a long shot showing Kane playing in the snow. As he throws a snowball camera cuts to the Mrs. Kane’s Boarding House sign. Later we see another long shot of Kane and camera cuts to Kane’s mother in a medium shot. The camera pulls back through the interior of the house and Kane is seen from the window, he is still playing in the snow. While he is playing, there are two serious man and his mom in the house, having a business like meeting going on creates a great contrast in the scene. When Mrs Kane, Mr Kane and Thatcher are talking, Mrs Kane is the the main person in the shot while Mr Kane remains on the side, showing her dislike towards her husband. Later on in another long shot we see Mrs Kane walking to the outside of the house and calling up to her son. They talk about their plans and on that scene, Thatcher and Mr Kane are on one side and Mrs Kane is on another, leaving Charles in the middle of the two parties. It is very clear to see the distraught on Mrs Kane’s face. After the discussion is over, Charles is taken away from his childhood home, where he was extremely joyous and leaves his sled behind. After a while, the sled is buried under snow, metaphor for the childhood he left behind.

This scene actually foreshadows the main question of the movie; “What is rosebud?” this scene is relatively in the beginning of the whole movie but the answer is given to the audience right away; it is the sled. As I’ve said before, the sled is the metaphor for the childhood he left behind. On his last few moments, he remembers his sweet childhood he was torn apart from.

Because this is an example of film noir, there is no need for analyzing the color.

The lighting of this scene is high key lighting, in fact Citizen Kane is the first film noir movie that used the classical Hollywood style three point lighting. Before Citizen Kane, the lights were put on the ceiling and the ceiling was never shown, not allowing the set to be fully used.

Citizen Kane is also counted as revolutionary because it used many camera movements for the first time. Pan, tilt and small zooms/dolly shots were present but in Citizen Kane, a very long dolly out is used espicially in this scene. In this movie, it is said that the low angle shot was used correctly for the first time. Examples of low angle can be seen between 0:18 - 0:21 and 2:07 - 2:27

In the later example, the use of low angle is combined with a close up shot, giving the audience Mrs Kane's feelings openly. She is not happy with this decision.

To sum up, this scene that was placed in the very beginning of the movie actually tells the end of the story and also gives out a lot about Charles Kane's characteristics.

Requiem for a Dream - Ending Scene (Tyrone in jail) Analysis

In this scene, we see the drug dealer friend of Harry, Tyrone, lying in pain in his prison bed, thinking about his mom, we understand this from the superimposition done by Jay Rabinowitz, the editor of the film. Tyrone takes Harry to the hospital when the wound in his arm gets worse, after seeing the wound the doctor calls the police, understanding that they use drugs. The police takes both of the guys and sends them to prison. Because he has no access to drugs in prison, Tyrone goes through a withdrawal phase that does not allow him to sleep, leaving him in misery.

Soviet Montage - "Locked in Freedom"

My classmate and I worked on this together. We both took place as the director and the editor.

This was after we studied Soviet Montage (Eisenstein, Kuleshov etc) and we were asked to create a small montage.

This was inspired by "Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky)" 

All of the footage belongs to us, shot with iPhone 6 
Edited on Final Cut Pro X

Score: TTL - Deep Shadows (from The Hunger Games soundtrack)

Looking for Koira

Here is my first short movie!!!
Okay maybe not the first ever but it is the first one for my film class.

So Looking for Koira is a collab with Deniz Hakgüden and Murilo Franco -two of my amazing classmates who actually don't hate me after this experience- and I took part mainly as the director and the cameraperson as well as the editor. I had few contributions to the story too.

This was shot using an iPhone 6 and a Nexus 5 because school's IT couldn't find the Film class' camera. Also without a tripod. I did my best to hold the camera straight and of course added some stabilizer.

For editing, I chose to use Final Cut Pro X because a) it's my favorite editing program b) I didn't have time to figure out Adobe Premiere Pro.

Without further ado, here is "Looking for Koira"

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/aVfhHoRZqhg

PS: Koira means 'dog' in Finnish ;)

German Expressionist Photos

Enough of German Expressionism? Never!

So we created these German Expressionism influenced photographs.

This is my friend İnci. This photo was taken last year when we were doing a horror experiment project.

 These two below are taken in our short movie set where we used chicken blood to make it look like a butchering event had happened. 

My school's building. Heavily edited.

 These two below is me. I had so much fun creating these (also scaring other dorm people)

 Also me. Mask from my short movie from last year.

İstanbul, my hometown. Taken last year. I know the teddy bear is not German Expressionism like but I think the edit fits the theme.

And thats me also. I showered with my eyeliner on and after that I thought well that makes an emo photo and took it. Years later now I'm putting it on my blog.

There you go. All of these are taken and edited by me. Used photoscape to edit (I'm a newbie) and various devices. Mostly my Nexus 5

Nosferatu vs Dracula: The German Expressionism Analysis

Vampires. It was everything back in 2009. The internet was overloading with Edward Cullen and many variations of vampire movies have been made. In everybook written in late 2000's, there are vampires.

But what started it all? Dracula, you are thinking right now.

You are right.
But also wrong.

It was Nosferatu.

Many great articles have been written about Nosferatu and Dracula; some included newer version of, Dracula too, some only talked about the copyright issue of the Nosferatu, some talked about the differences and similarities between them.

This article below talks deeply about the two movies, explaining the copyright issue and the details of the both films.

the-artifice.com/nosferatu-and-dracula/

When Murnau wanted to make a movie out of the Dracula book, he couldn't afford it so he simply changed the characters' names and a few scenes and voila! Nosferatu was born. And it changed history.

Without Nosferatu, Dracula would probably be buried under unsuccesful books written in old times. Nosferatu visualized it and gave Dracula a body, and in general made vampires make sense.

Blame or praise Nosferatu for the vampire madness.

the-artifice.com/nosferatu-and-dracula/

This article is written by a blogger named Katrina Swenson. She goes into details of the plot, the techniques, and the social context. She also slightly talks about the German Expressionism and its affects on both movies.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the similarities between Nosferatu and Dracula movie, also remind the differences too such a social background and the technology used.


"The style of this technique helped to define and place Nosferatu within the German expressionist and Weimar cinema movements."

This is a quote from the article mentioning the affect of German Expressionism in Nosferatu. Nosferatu is a Weimar cinema movie meaning that it contains all of the element of German Expressionism.

The later vampire movie Dracula also still carries out the legend of German Expresisonism and uses similar shadow things!

In Nosferatu's famous stair scene, it is clear to see the dark shadow of the vampire rather than the man himself. We also see the heavy use of shadows repeated in the 1992 movie Bram Stoker's Dracula

And also the author mentions the technical similarities;

"The majority of the shots within Murnau’s Nosferatu are quick and the jumps between scenes or even person to person are swift. The camera itself does not move so movement is shown with the actors, scenes of travel, and of course Orlok’s looming shadow."

"Coppola uses similar quick cuts between scenes but also uses fading images and overlays."

Although there is a huge year difference between two movies, Coppola used similar methods in order to give the vibe Murnau gave with the German Expressionist style he had.

In my opinion, this article was a good one, very detailed and thoroughly explained. I believe even a person who hadn't seen neither of the movies can understand the comparison. I found this article very useful and information loaded.

Analysis of City Lights (1931) by Charlie Chaplin

City Lights (1931). Directed by Charles Chaplin; written by Charles Chaplin; produced by Charles Chaplin Productions; Genre: Comedy/Drama; silent.

The movie City Lights by Charlie Chaplin is about a tramp falling in love with a blind girl. The Tramp, as understood from his name, is a poor man. He befriends a very drunk rich man as the man tries to kill himself and they become close friends, as long as the rich man is drunk. The blind girl, who makes a living by selling flowers on the streets gets sick and soon she and her grandmother receives a notice reminding them to pay the rent, or else they will be evicted. The Tramp works in various jobs to make money for the rent and for the girl’s eye surgery. He then is put into jail from a misunderstanding. Months later he stumbles upon the now seeing girl and the movie ends.

Donkey (Short Film) Analysis

Analysis of shots and angles from the short film "Donkey" dir. Keir Burrows

Photo Story Assignment

First assignment of the year: tell a story with only using photographs