[Filmmaking] Prompt 2

剛拿到老師給prompt1的評分，23.5/25，應該是A的樣子，但老師的評語是文法措詞有點怪~ 囧

WEEK2: After watching Raising Victor Vargas, analyze how the film’s acting style impacted our experience of the film.

MOVIE: Raising Victor Vargas, by Peter Sollett 

Raising Victor Vargas, directed by Peter Sollett, portrays 16-year-old Victor, who dwells in Low East Side of NY, managing to grow up, to chase a girl, but the same time, to balance his family life with his sister, a nuisance, his brother who idolizes him and his grandma who is too serious.

It is easy to tell that the acting style in most of the film is improvisational acting, which means that director allowed a great freedom for actors to development their scripts, their acting, and their thought. From the very beginning of the film, we are bombarded by torrent of the “F” words. Of course vicious words can be put down into script on purpose. But I tend to believe Victor and people around him are natural and familiar with those slogans, which is a perfect reflection of teenager’s sub-culture. Moreover, lots of close-up (detailed and close focus on objects), hand-held, long takes (shot without shutting the camera off for a considerable length of time), natural light and sound consume most portion of the film. These skills create the aura of reality and continuity for the actors to finish their acting in one take without interruption. For instance, Mr. Sollett used long takes when Victor discussed with Carlos and teaches Nino how to lick the lips, before cut into close up. Although a lot improv is used, in my opinion, grandma acted in a more exaggerated and extreme way. She is old, having single viewpoints of life and an old-fashioned rigidity. Her acting parallels her thought and life style, which is kind of playing between naturalistic and non-naturalistic style. Bringing Victor to juvenile house is hilariously way too over. But she adds some flavor and humor in the film for sure. Last but not least, I found actors in the film are good at altering emotions and personality with assistance of props. Melonie is totally two persons when she takes off her glasses, put her hair down and hold a cigarette. The contrasting style of acting pushes the plot at the same time.

Overall, all the skills, including camera, acting style, and mise-en-scene, push us to guess how Mr. Sollett communicated with these new-to-movie actors and conveyed his vision about the film when off-screen. And the result is captivating, for it is hard even for experienced filmmaker. Mr. Sollet delivered his love for these actors to the world by his unique cinematic language.