1) Relate what was discussed in class or the text to the screening.
“Sex, Lies, and Video Tape” is one of the earlier films
written and directed by academy award winner Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh left
his home in 1963 to move to LA to start his career in the film making industry.
He got his start in the industry with a documentary and two short films, which
ultimately led him to write and direct his first feature film, “Sex, Lies and
Videotape”. Since then, he has worked on and directed much more well known
titles such as “Gray’s Anatomy”, “Erin Brockovich” and “Oceans
Eleven”.
2) Find a related article (on the film, director, studio,
actor/actress, artistic content, etc.) and summarize the content. You may use
the library or the internet.
The article from indiewire titled, “How Steven Soderbergh’s
’sex, lies and videotape’ Still Influences Sundance After 25 Years” takes a
look at how Soderbergh’s film heavily influenced the Sundance Film Festival and
independent movies all together. “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” was done on a
relatively small budget of only 1.2 million and was a big help in the beginning
of the independent film movement. Soderbergh shot the film in a very natural way
and even operated the camera for parts of the film. The high approval of his
film at Sundance helped turn Sundance into an “industry event”. Even with
Soderbergh’s big success in Hollywood, he has recently retired from film making
to explore other forms of art while he still has the chance. Soderbergh also
left commenting on how increasingly competitive the film making industry is becoming
since more and more small budget films are being made separate from the big
studios.
3) Apply the article to the film screened in class. How did
the article support or change the way you thought about the film, director,
content, etc.?
Overall this article from indiewire gave me a little more
insight and respect to Steven Soderbergh. I have a very similar opinion on the
movie industry to what he does and I think it is very interesting that the
article explored that. Since Soderbergh showed “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” at
Sundance, the film making industry has definitely changed for the better in my
opinion. Sundance lets filmmakers showcase their films that were most likely
not funded by big movie studios. This gives filmmakers the chance to show their
work to a large audience and even potentially sell their movie to make money
off of it. This is great because now all filmmakers, including writers and
directors now have more freedom to make the movies that they want to make, where
as if they went through the studio system, the movie might not have been made all
together. Sundance has helped give birth to many popular films and cult classics
such as “Reservoir Dogs” and “Memento”and is currently very influential in the film making industry.
4) Write a critical analysis of the film, including your
personal opinion, formed as a result of the screening, class discussions, text
material and the article.
“Sex, Lies, and Videotape” is a great examination of what
individuals think about privately regarding relationships and sex. The story
itself is very intriguing as it examines parts of human psychology that I would
assume is interesting or a curious topic to many people, including myself. The
film is not really graphic in any way but the audience still gets the allusion
of intimacy between a lot of the characters. This is especially prevalent at
the end when we see the final tape of Graham and Ann. I specifically liked how
Soderbergh went about showing the final tape. He went in an almost non- linear
approach, by showing it later on as opposed to when Graham and Ann were actually shooting the tape.
With all that being said the film was intriguing, entertaining and is also a
staple in independent film history.
CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM 1) ( ) I have not handed in this assignment for any
other class. 2) ( ) If I reused any information from other papers I have written for other
classes, I clearly explain that in the paper. 3) ( ) If I used any passages word for word, I
put quotations around those words, or used indentation and citation within the text. 4) (
) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the bibliography in
the text of the paper. 5) ( ) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally
read. 6) ( ) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated in
another way. I cited the source within the paper and in the bibliography. 7) ( ) I did not
so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation or originality. 8) ( ) I
checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully transparent about the research and
ideas used in my paper.
Name: __Joe Katulak_____________________ Date: _3/4/15_________
No comments:
Post a Comment