A brilliant man orchestrates a series of high-profile murders that grip the city of Philadelphia - all from inside his jail cell. The prosecutor assigned to his case realizes he is the only one who can end the reign of terror. The plot focuses on a man who, ten years after his wife and daughter are brutally murdered, returns to extract justice from the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case against their killers. His vengeance threatens not only the man who allowed mercy to supersede justice, but also the system and the city that made it so.
The movie begins with aerial shots which helps to show the city setting. During high intensity scenes extreme close up shots are used. Several long shots are used which show the busy surroundings and the main character walkin away from it all. A lot of natural light is used. Spot lights are used at various points to highlight key characters or objects. Low shots are used several times through out the movie as if to show the superiority of certain characters.
Taken captive and betrayed by the Romans, who not only take him, but is wife as slave, Spartacus, the main character is craftily moulded and reborn a Gladiator who pledges to kill or die by the sword. Spartacus: Blood and Sand, tells the story of the classical tale, Spartacus through the use of considerable amount of graphics and imagery. Creator, Stephen DeKnight not only devises an astounding plot comprising the genres of drama, action and fantasy, but has imprinted top ratings in the minds of viewers worldwide through the various elements of shot size, shot angle, lighting, colour and other important elements of film making that he has incorporated in Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
DeKnight illustrates Spartacus ‘s rise to victory as well as falls by defeat in the gladiatorial arenas that serve as a means of making money to some and entertainment to others. Blood and sand are the predominantly visualized elements in the series as the cinematographers and directors make phenomenal use of extreme close ups, close ups, medium shot sizes as well as wide shots to highlight the intricate details of the treacherous, valiant and sexual nature of the characters as well as the location on which the movie was shot. With the extensive use of close up shots for example, the director of the television series, commonly known as Spartacus, gave the viewers a tremendous amount of detail of current actions as well as actions to come. Spartacus’, many falls in defeat in and outside of the gladiator pits are captured and given to the viewers through high angles to demonstrate the legend’s fall to inferiority by his competitors and his sometimes powerless state. The angle is surely flipped to low angle when Spartacus assumes his valiant role, and displays his mission to kill or be killed as means of recovering his love and kills anyone in his way. Distant pictures of the spectators in the arena appeared not so distant through the incorporation of slanted angles to create not only a dramatic effect but highlights the enthusiasm of the onlookers in the gladiator games.
The scenes change with dramatic effect as Spartacus journey’s from place to place. The setting as well as the various emotions released in the series is expressed through the director’s use of lighting and colour. Artificial lights are common throughout the series. Though the lights used in the arena are clear, and represent the day, it is of note that the natural light of the sun is not used. Fire, an example of artificial light is seen on numerous occasions throughout the series. This type of light is especially seen in the many sexual scenes of the series, which displays the romanticism of the Roman era, this makes the erotica as real and apparent as it was then in the eyes of the viewers. Darkness is also a colossal feature of the movie, settings of winter and prison cells best illustrate the darkness. This feature perfectly shows the despair of Spartacus and the series of unfortunate events that he has and is to encounter.
“They cheer for blood”. The viewers are left with no choice but to swallow the blood spilling moments of Spartacus. Labelled as the bloodiest series of the year, blood is splattered on the grounds of the arena as well as television screens. This constant display of blood that appears brighter than the characters of Spartacus themselves captures the violent and action packed scenes of the ruthless gladiators at work.
Hell hath no fury like the wrath of Spartacus himself, displays of such wrath is done through the use of the various shot sizes and angles. The constant artificial lighting and darkness take the viewers through the battles of survival, wealth, and vengeance. Spartacus: Blood and Sand, displays the sense of urgency of the characters to reach the end, and has the viewers on their toes, biting their nails, as their eyes are glued on screen to the different themes that are captured by the elements of shot size, lighting, colour and shot angles that make up the acclaimed seires.
KeyCritics is currently pooling our creative minds to bring to you, our latest assessment of movies. Be prepared to glue your eyes to some trailers, and scroll to view what we do best- critique. We wont tell you the movies we have in store, but we'll give you an hint; the movies to be critiqued, come from the genres of action, drama and romance, just to name a few.
Be sure to log on Thursday, April 22 in the pm to access our concise and stimulating assessment of some movies.
KeyCritics looks forward to seeing you, don't forget the popcorns...
The Apple iPad is an amazing new invention that takes "The Year of the Tablets" as they call it to a new dimension.
The device is 9.7 inches across the diagonal, and 0.5 inches thick. iPad runs a modified version of the iPhone Operating System (3.2) that is optimized to take advantage of the larger screen. It is powered by Apple's custom built 1GHz A4 processor. Normally, 1GHz isnt enough to power a to run computer efficiently. However, as iPad runs the much lighter than windows, but almost just as functional iPhone OS, it runs twice as fast as the iPhone 3GS's 600MHz processor. iPad will be used primarily as a media consumption device (music, video, books, magazines, games, web browsing). Like the iPhone and iPod touch, iPad runs all of the 180,000 apps in Apple's mobile App Store, 3500 of which are specifically designed for iPad. With the introduction of iPhone OS 4, much new fuctionality will be coming to iPad this fall. These include running applications in the background without depleting the 10 hour battery (users have reported 12 hours), unified email inbox and Game Center. Game Center is a social network for gamers, similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live. The service will allow iPhone gamers to invite and play against friends, view leaderboards etc. Support for Adobe's popular Flash video player however is absent from iPad. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has said that this is due to the strain that the battery would take from allowing flash to run on iPad. He is instead supporting a new web standard called HTML5. Websites written in HTML5 are able to play internet video without the need to download a third party plugin (Flash/ Silverlight). Many websites including Virgin America, Time Magazine and the New York Times have already completely removed Flash components in favor of HTML5.
Price: starts from US$499 up
Features included: Photo, videos, You Tube, iWork, iTunes, iBooks, iPod, spotlight search, maps, calendar, contacts, notes, mail applications, safari, application store, etc.
Thumps Down:
Does not facilitate multitasking (definitely a down point for such a "high tech" equipment). No Cameras!!!!!!! Ummm, yeah...how could that idea have slipped passed the iPAD's creators?!
The iPad has created such a buzz in the media that it is highly likely for there to be newer more improved versions in the space of a year (if so much).. so enjoy this new fun and high-tech gadget, for soon to come will be yet another groundbreaking buzz!
Hello Viewers, First of all, welcome to our blog page. Our main aim for this page is to critique movies or gadgets in a more technological sense than just our opinions. We hope that our blogs are benefitial to you viewers and that you will start to pay more attention as well as appreciate the art of camera and how it works!
____Stay tuned___: Our next blog will focus on the Apple Mcintosh new 'iPad'... :)
KeyCritics is operated by a perceptive group of cinematographers, renowned for their fair, sound and brutally honest judgments. The blog will focus on various cinematographic, as well as, other technical aspects of films. For example: we will discuss features such as shot sizes, shot angles, lighting, sounds, graphics, etc. KeyCritics guarantees to be both informative and entertaining.
