Making of Collateral - Essay Example

 Film is relatively young medium as compared to other common Medias available that have existed for eons like painting, dance and even theater. Yet in a short period of time, film has made a name for itself as an energetic and powerful art form. It’s in this perspective that I will critically analyse how creative people have used films to give experience that people will always value. I will look at how the producers and director have put out a finished work that shows creativity and also the practical decisions they have made during the film making process. According to Irving and Rea (2006) filmmaking steps include the preproduction, production, postproduction, and distribution. Filmmaking has two-fold approach in which it is mainly centered on the perspectives of the producer and the director. Their (producer and director) different energies must always merge to create a winning short film or video from script to the final product. On the director’s perspective; Rabiger (2008) explains that directing covers the methods, technologies, thought processes, and judgments that a director must use throughout the fascinating process of making a film. Directing also should help you master technical and conceptual skills in the filmmaking process. “The first time we watch a film; we usually don’t know or think about the artistic decisions that were made during its production.” (Brown, 2002) In my case study, I examine how choices made by filmmakers, lead to artistic results by looking at the production of a single movie. My case study is based on the movie “Collateral” by Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx directed by Michael Mann. Boucher Geoff (2008) said "The movie had to communicate some inherent truth about the L.A. experience, and only one film per director was allowed on the list" in relation to the movie. Michael Mann’s ‘Collateral” was released in 2004. A psychological crime thriller set in Los Angeles. Vincent (Tom Cruise), a mystifying man hires Max (Jamie Foxx), a cab driver, to drive him to a string of appointments in one night. Max before long learns that those appointments are a chain of killings, he struggles to escape but Vincent forces him to carry on as a reluctant getaway driver. During that period the two men wrangle verbally and in the end they confront one another. Mann and his crew made numerous decisions during the making of Collateral. Some of the choices made include: one that impacted the film’s form and one apiece for four categories of mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, and sound. Scriptwriter Stuart Beattie originally set Collateral in New York City. Max was to be portrayed as a loser, hiding from the world in his cab and getting little out of life. Once Mann took charge as a director, he made numerous changes. The setting was changed to Los Angeles. Max became less a loser and more a laid-back, intelligent man content to observe the world from behind a steering wheel and to interact with his passengers, endlessly delaying his plans to start his own limousine service. The story largely consists of this pair interacting, so Mann’s decision to change Max’s traits altered the nature of the conflict between them. Max becomes our point-of-view figure for most of the film. Unusually for a film about a professional killer, we don’t see the first murder but stay with Max in the cab until the shocking moment when the body falls onto his cab roof. The switch to Los Angeles affected many aspects of the film’s style. One of the attractions was that this tale of a random crossing of destinies took place almost entirely at night, from 6:04 p.m. to 4:20 a.m. Mann wanted to portray the atmospheric Los Angeles night, this was to make use of L.A night as much of a character in the story as Vincent and Max were. This major decision created much of the film’s look. Mann was determined not to use any more artificial light than was absolutely necessary. He relies to a considerable degree on the existing environment like the street lights, neon signs, vehicle headlights, and other sources in the locations where filming takes place. To achieve an eerie glow, Mann’s team came up with a cutting-edge combination of technologies. High-Definition Cinematography: Certain choices about photographing Collateral were absolutely central to its final look and also dictated many other decisions. Hollywood productions used to employ cameras loaded with rolls of photographic film for many years. Mann and his cinematographers decided to shoot extensive portions of Collateral on recently developed high-definition digital cameras. Those cameras could shoot on location with little or no light added to the scene. As Mann put it, “Film doesn’t record what our eyes can see at night. That’s why I moved into shooting digital video in high definition—to see into the night, to see everything the naked eye can see and more…” The format’s strong point is its incredible sensitivity to light. The filmmaking team pushed the digital cameras’ capabilities in one particularly dark scene, when Vincent stalks one of his victims in a law library with huge windows overlooking the cityscape. In several shots, the characters become visible only as black shapes outlined by the myriad lights behind them. As we strain to see who is where in each shot, the suspense is heightened. Custom-made Lights: Though digital cameras can pick up a great deal in dark situations, the audience needed to see the faces of the actors clearly. Much of the action takes place inside the cab as Max and Vincent drive around and talk. The filmmakers had to light the actors’ faces, but they wanted the added illumination to be so low and diffuse that there would not seem to be any artificial light within the cab. To create that effect, the filmmakers tried an innovative approach: electroluminescent display (ELD) panels. It’s the same technology used to make the light-up backings of digital watches and cell phones, but it had never been employed in lighting units for filming. Flexible plastic panels of various sizes and shapes were custom-made for the production, all with Velcro backings that would attach to the seats and ceiling of the cab. These ELD panels could then be turned on in various combinations. Here’s a case where an artistic decision led to new technology. Seamless Editing: As a thriller, Collateral contains several dynamic action scenes, including a spectacular car crash. The plan was for a cab going nearly 60 miles per hour to flip and then bounce and roll several times before coming to rest on its top. At that speed, the vehicle would have traveled hundreds of feet. The filmmakers had options about how to portray the crash onscreen. They could have put the camera in a single spot and had it swivel as the car rolled past, keeping it in the frame from the beginning of the accident to the end. That would have been a good idea if the scene showed us the crash through the eyes of an onlooker whose head turns to watch it. But there is no character looking on. The filmmakers wanted to generate excitement by showing several shots of the car rolling, each taken from a different point along the trajectory of the crash. One possible approach would have been to have multiple cabs and execute numerous similar crashes, each time filmed by a single camera that would be moved between crashes from place to place to record the action from a new vantage. Such a procedure would have been very expensive, however, and no two crashes would have taken place in exactly the same way. Splicing together shots from each crash might have created discrepancies on the car’s position, instead, the team settled on a technique used for big action scenes. Multiple cameras were placed along the route of the crash, all filming at once. The economic benefit of this is that only one car has to be crashed. Resulting shots allowed the editing team considerable flexibility choosing portions of any of the shots and splice them together to match the action of the car precisely. Music in Movement: Composers are fond of saying that their music for a film should serve the story so well that the audience doesn’t notice it. For Collateral, Mann needed help from James Newton Howard to score the climax so as not build too quickly to a high pitch of excitement. According to Howard, “Michael was very clear about the climax taking place in three movements.” “Movements” as an artistic term is usually applied to the parts of a symphony, a concerto, or a sonata. Thus the idea is that the score for this last part of the film should play a major role in shaping the progression and rhythm of the action. The climax involves Vincent trying to kill a character who is important to Max and Max trying frantically to save both himself and this other character. Howard and Mann call the first movement “The Race to Warn,” since both characters are running to the building where the prosecutor lives with Vincent being ahead. Despite the fact the situation is suspenseful, Howard avoids very fast rhythms. The second movement, “The Cat and Mouse,” involves Vincent getting into the building, turning off the electricity, and stalking his victim in near darkness. During the most suspenseful moments in the scene, when Vincent and his prey are in the darkened room, strings and soft, clicking percussion accompany their cautious, hesitant movements. Finally, there is a rapid chase sequence, and here Howard finally makes the music louder and faster. Conclusion The art of film making that includes directing and producing is an art that has unusual features that have to be taken into consideration for the perfect execution. Furthermore the film art always require the collaboration of many participants and not the directors and producers alone. In the end, films are not only created for the masses but are also produced. Just as it is important for the creation and the production, they both are tied to their social and economic context according to Hurbis (2012). As the making of Collateral demonstrates, the technological basis of filmmaking is crucial in bringing the artistic plans of its makers into reality. With the advancement of digital tools for production, filming teams have more choices than ever to make. These decisions and many others that Mann and his team made during their work on Collateral affect our experience of the film. The unfamiliar look that the digital cameras and innovative lighting give Los Angeles may draw our attention to the settings and give us a more vivid sense of the world through which the characters move. The music accompanying progression of scenes; from the fast-chase to slow-talking and back help increase the suspense and excitement. References  Boucher, Geoff (August 31, 2008). "The 25 best L.A. films of the last 25 years". Los Angeles Times. Brown, B. (2002). Cinematography: theory and practice ; imagemaking for cinematographers, directors & videographers. Amsterdam [u.a.], Focal Press. City if Night: The Making if Collateral 2004 [DVD Set] DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures, USA, Distributed by Dream Works Home Entertainment Collateral 2004 [DVD], DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures,USA. Distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment. Hurbis-Cherrier, M. (2012). Voice & vision a creative approach to narrative film and DV production. Amsterdam, Focal Press. http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=741335. Irving, D. K., & Rea, P. W. (2006). Producing and directing the short film and video. Burlington, Mass, Focal Press Rabiger, M. (2008). Directing: film techniques and aesthetics. Amsterdam, Elsevier/Focal Press. Read More