Analyzing movies to death

It’s interesting to me to watch a movie that I’ve already seen before because I get the opportunity to analyze it without being involved in the storyline. When I see a movie for the very first time, I like to get wrapped up in the story and feel all the emotions the characters are feeling (why else would I watch it?). The thing is - watching it a second time - brings in all sorts of fascinating ways to enjoy behind-the-scenes magic.

Maybe it’s best if I share with you what movies I’m talking about. The last few days, Maurice and I watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I love. I had seen them before, but Maurice hadn’t. It was nearly impossible for me to get into the story like he could because I already knew the outcome of each scene. And because he can be such a pussy sometimes when watching blood onscreen, he freaks out when a finger gets chopped off - which of course, just makes me laugh. I laugh partly because he’s scared, which perhaps I should self-reflect on because maybe that’s my own insecurity and laughing is my defense mechanism. The thing is, I also laugh because I realize that the movie is just a movie and no one’s finger was really chopped off. It becomes a joke to me. Even Hostel and Hostel 2 were relatively funny to me because I see the director’s humor of finding such realistic looking body parts to insert into a scene. Am I over-analytical or just too afraid to become part of the story? Maybe both. Maybe I understand the desire to become a part of the story but I live vicariously through the heroes of movies in hopes they get to survive or save the day.

I’ve gotten off-topic. But that’s what happens when I’m a water-sign, I suppose. I flow from one topic to the next and sometimes forget what wave I’m riding.

Back to my point. Analyzing movies. Right. So there was this scene where the “big eye” was following Frodo and Sam towards the end of the last movie and all I could think about was what software programs the designers were using to animate the eyeball and how many photoshop brushstrokes it took to make it look realistic. I imagined what the graphic designers were drinking when they worked such late nights on the project and if they ordered pizza for all-nighters. Then I got to thinking about the movies’ project supervisors and how much collaboration and communication it must take for a director to have a vision and be able to effectively tell the supervisor of this and the supervisor of that to follow that vision and be on point. It’s a constant game of telephone, except it seemed to work. The eyeball looked perfect till it finally went away. But it makes me think. Was it only perfect because workers were well-paid or was it because the designers actually wanted to spend their extra talent on graphic services to show a job well done? Obviously money isn’t the only incentive for doing a job right. Case in point: the video game called Oblivion. No amount of money could possibly adequately pay for all the features that video game has to offer, yet the designers worked lots of overtime to get it done.

The scene in Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix where Dumbledore fought against Voldermort (or whatever the bad dude’s name was) and Dumble fights off the falling glass shards by casting a spell which turns each sharp piece of glass into tiny miniscule waterdroplets. It was one of the most fascinating scenes, in my opinion, in movie history. The time. The detail. The WORK that went into designing each speck of water. Each glass shard. Wow. It gains my respect.

Love
Isabella
xoxoxoox

P.S. The “About Isabella” page on IsabellaValentine.com has been updated with new content which I hope will give new viewers a better all-around glimpse into my life.