{"id":894,"date":"2020-01-19T13:37:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-19T20:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/?p=894"},"modified":"2020-01-24T11:37:51","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T18:37:51","slug":"2020-film-independent-directors-close-up-week-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/2020\/2020-film-independent-directors-close-up-week-one\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 Film Independent Directors Close Up * Week One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

How\ndoes the look of a film get decided? What even encompasses a film\u2019s \u201clook\u201d?\nSuch questions led the discussion in week one of Film Independent\u2019s<\/em> Director\u2019s\nClose Up<\/em> featuring the director of Hustlers,<\/em> Lorene\nScafaria and costume designer of Hustlers,<\/em> Mitchell Travers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nmoderator John August pointed out, cinema is a visual medium. Thus, unlike many\nother art forms, it can take advantage of the visual element to help further\nthe themes of the story. For Hustlers<\/em> the theme focuses on\ncontrol \u2013 whether it is the main characters fighting for control of their lives\nor control against the greed that leads to the story\u2019s conflicts. To create a\nlook that further drives that theme, director Lorene Scafaria collaborated with\ncinematographer Todd Banhazl, production designer Jane Musky, and of course,\ncostumer designer Mitchell Travers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travers\nspoke about his approach in creating the \u201cthousands\u201d of costumes for the film.\nBecause the film takes place in a \u201cmodern period piece\u201d between 2007 and 2015,\nhe looked back to the styles and trends that represent the era, and not\nnecessarily all the good aspects of the era. He wished to show \u201cthe amazing\nmistakes,\u201d that the era created. He drew inspiration from celebrities of the\ntime such as Nicole Richie, Miley Cyrus, Tila Tequila, Beyonc\u00e9 and Jennifer\nLopez who plays Ramona in the film. Travers explains that this helped represent\nthe imperfections of the period. To achieve such visions required work – he\nexplained the tasks required costume assistants and costume supervisors, with a\ncostume department as big as 35 people. The same situation occurs in production\ndesign, art department and makeup. The smallest details viewers scarcely notice\non-screen require months of work by sometimes thousands of people, yet, without\ntheir talents, films would look bare and unrealistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Films\noften use color, or better yet, a lack of color, to develop a theme. Hustlers<\/em> has\na strong focus on the greed of wealth, so Scafaria spoke about the careful\nconsideration of how to treat the color green in the film. Despite having\ndozens of sets, thousands of costumes and many main characters, only in dollar\nbills does green appear throughout the film. This helps further bring the\nviewer\u2019s focus to dollar bills as they drive the characters, the conflict and\nthe story itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gerry O., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Every\nscene has its look to further its purpose in the greater story. Scafaria and\nTravers analyze a specific scene where Ramona and Destiny (Constance Wu) have\nan intense conversation in a diner where Romana attempts to convince Destiny to\ncommit a crime. Scafaria worked closely with cinematographer Todd Banhazl to\ncreate this drama in a visual matter. The shots keep tight on the two actresses\nand viewers can scarcely see the interior of the diner, due to how much the two\nstars take up the frame. This instantly creates a secretive, pressured feeling\nto the scene. The movement of characters also helps further this, while Destiny\nstays still, Ramona moves her head as she talks and the camera moves with her.\nThis creates a distinct energetic separation with Ramona taking a pushing,\ndemanding role and Destiny taking the role of a follower. When the clip gets\nmuted, it maintains that contrast without needing the dialogue to explain the\npurpose of the scene. Such little details ensure the audience feels the correct\nmood – a mixture of nervousness and adrenaline – as Destiny carefully considers\nwhether to participate in the crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfirst panel of Director\u2019s Close Up<\/em> lived up to its name and\ngave the audience a close and intimate look at the creative process for Hustlers<\/em> and\nthe many intimate details that help convert stories from a mere series of\nevents to an emotional and human-like experience on the big screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nmore information on Film Independent go to https:\/\/www.filmindependent.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\nGerry O., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, Age 17<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How does the look of a film get decided? What even encompasses a film\u2019s \u201clook\u201d? Such questions led the discussion in week one of Film Independent\u2019s Director\u2019s Close Up featuring the director of Hustlers, Lorene Scafaria and costume designer of Hustlers, Mitchell Travers.<\/p>\n

As moderator John August pointed out, cinema is a visual medium. Thus, unlike many other art forms, it can take advantage of the visual element to help further the themes of the story. For Hustlers the theme focuses on control \u2013 whether it is the main characters fighting for control of their lives or control against the greed that leads to the story\u2019s conflicts. To create a look that further drives that theme, director Lorene Scafaria collaborated with cinematographer Todd Banhazl, production designer Jane Musky, and of course, costumer designer Mitchell Travers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[171,173,10,80,162,167,172,165,163,169,164,168,170,166],"class_list":["post-894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-critics-blog","tag-beyonce","tag-conbstance-wu","tag-film-independent","tag-gerry-orz","tag-hustlers","tag-jane-musky","tag-jennifer-lopez","tag-john-august","tag-lorene-scafaria","tag-miley-cyrus","tag-mitchell-travers","tag-nicole-richie","tag-tila-tequila","tag-todd-benhazi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":902,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions\/902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}