Category: Christmas

Biography Henry Selick the director of ‘Nightmare before Christmas’

Henry Selick is the director of the movie, ‘Nightmare before Christmas.’ Selick was born in November, 1952 at Glen Ridge, New Jersey. His educational background includes a degree in science and arts at Rutgers and Syracuse University. Notably, his early childhood life was influenced by passion for animated movies and storytelling. He later enrolled to study animation at Cal Arts College which later shaped his carrier in film production as an artist and character designer. Immediately he cleared his studies, Seleck took a step of faith to pursue his carrier; he first joined Walt Disney Studios. It is upon this time that he met Tim Burton and others. As a student at Cal Arts College, he produced films such as: ‘Phases and Tube Tales’, ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ as well ‘James and the Giant’, the ‘Seepage’, and ‘Twice upon a Time’.

Review of Tim Burton masterpiece, ‘The Nightmare before Christmas’ by Levi Leland Jan, 13th 2009

“The Nightmare before Christmas” is produced by Tim Burton. It is a story about a Halloween King named Jack Skellington (Thompson 8). Jack became tired of the same old routine for Halloween. One night, Jack Skellington found himself at a door in a Christmas town. After this visit, his desire was to turn the town into a center for Christmas wonderland. The thought of bringing Christmas to the world quickly overshadowed him. After Sandy Clause’s kidnap, he believed it could be possible to bring Christmas to the world alone. However, despite trying to look relevant, he turned the Christmas Holiday into despite his dreams. Christmas party quickly turned into a Halloween Nightmare.

This is one of my classical Claymation films. However, the film lacks well thought-out stop motion animation. This leaves the audience whose initial interest in animation perplexed due to the director mixes of styles (Steiff 28). Tim Burton is well renowned for such Claymation movies such as ’Corpse Bride’, ‘Vincent’ and ‘Giant Peach’. Similar characters are the key players in this movie ‘The Nightmare before Christmas’. The use of Claymation is a kind of animation that employs the use of stop motion photography. Animation is common in stop motion and taking pictorial scenes in motion while camera is standstill.

Claymation is a form of animation that uses stop-motion photography to bring to life clay figures sculpted by artists. Animation also requires the use of movie software that assists to edit and download the digital pictures to a computer. In the process, Burton is capable of producing the best animation characters. These techniques are time consuming and sometimes frustrating because of the complexity that comes with them. Characters are built, exactly molded by hand, out from such animations if impossible human movements can be gathered and displayed on the screen (Weis and Belton 361). The film by Tim Burton is entertaining and contains well-crafted ideas that leave the audience guessing every moment of what is to be next in the play. It is also an inspiration movie with Soft music and well designed voice-over’s.

The movie, ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ by Tim Burton begins with a soft classical music. Drum bits, piano and orchestra sounds. This starts from the opening scenes. Burton uses sounds to capture the audience attention. Immediately, the audience sees the narrator is brought to the fore telling his story but the movements and rhythm are aligned to music. Tim Burton is unique in his presentation, he uses animation to shift and create tension and makes the audience wonder to what extend the actors are real and full with mystery. Music as well has been used to create tension and to alert the audience on what they expect next. Throughout the cast period, different music sounds have been artistically chosen during the play creating different moods and making the audience glued in waiting to what may happen next.

Tim Burton ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ has used a lot of shadows. The film producer is creating different mood with these shadows. The shadows reflect the dull moments; the celebration times are given bright lights. He has also used the moonlights.

This being the main source of light for giving the audience another kind of theme in the movie ‘a creepy mood’ these are for graveyard scenes. The camerawork used gives a clear scene in Halloween town. Tim Burton’s characters are often connected to a song when they introduce themselves in the story line. In the use of mise en scene, Tim has not used real characters; he has adopted the style of animation skinny dull looking graveyard is exposed to the audience. In the scene, there are very fat or thin characters that appear like monsters. However, the choice of black cats in animation is a common experience with Tim in his shows and ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ is no exception. The black cats are used as pets and at the same time they represent the dark sad of the environment Tim is exposing to the audience.

Works Cited

Steiff, Josef. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Independent Filmmaking. New York: Alpha Books, 2005. Print.

Thompson, Frank T. “Tim Burton’s, ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’: The Film; the Art.” The Vision, 1993. Print.

Weis, Elisabeth, and John Belton. Film Sound: Theory and Practice. Columbia: Columbia University Press, 1985. Print.

The movie by Tim Burton is a stop-motion film. It has common film features and a three-act structure characteristic of the majority of Hollywood movies and cartoons. The movie’s first plot point is rather clear. The main character (Jack) is the leader of the place where he lives, and he is bored with the regular way of celebrating Halloween. While walking around the neighborhood, he comes across Christmastown in which everything is drastically different from his city.

He is carried away by the way the magical holiday is celebrated in this small town, and he decides to come back to his place and adopt the same holiday there. Approximately 20 minutes after the beginning, the first plot point becomes intense since the main hero conducts a meeting to inform everyone about the holiday in Christmastown and his desire to carry out the same celebration in Halloweentown. After this event, a complication occurs, and the plot evolves to the climax.

The film’s dramatic premise centers on the idea that somewhere in the forest exist lands in which different holidays are celebrated. In particular, these lands create different festivities, and each land is dedicated to a specific holiday. In Halloweentown, the main character is the leader of creatures celebrating Halloween. They make fun of each other and play various jokes during this dark holiday. However, Jack discovers that others have different holidays and they celebrate them in a joyful and gentle manner.

It can be assumed that the dramatic need of the main hero lies in his desire to understand himself. In addition, he wants to comprehend his place in the world. Being tired of the usual way of living and celebrating Halloween, he strives for finding the way to bring new life and mood to the town. Simultaneously with these actions, Jack tries to cognize himself and achieve self-acceptance.

The movie Christmas in August is an award-winning film by HurJin-Ho, which revolutionized the concept of melodrama. It redefined the genre despite being simple and exploring concepts that were far from new in narrative storytelling. Nevertheless, it became a canon for South Korean cinema, emphasizing the kindness of human nature. It showed a humble person achieving happiness without wealth. This idea was especially relevant to the South Korean people struggling during a financial crisis with many losing hope.

The film is unique in its category as a melodrama as it manages to meet and defy many criteria for the genre simultaneously. Melodramas are associated with reality, which does not necessarily constitute a good narrative. “In the melodrama, exaggerated feelings and circumstances work to arouse empathy in the viewer, whereas, in most Korean art films, directors have filled their works with the mundane” (Paquet, 2000a, par. 2).

However, the heavy-handed emotional and dramatic elements in the genre create a sort of stereotype around the films and the expectations that the audiences have. Melodramas are purposefully directed to initiate an emotional reaction through contrived manipulation of the audience’s feelings. Ironically, despite the genre, there is no evident drama in the film. Even individual elements such as the protagonist’s diagnosis or the encounter with Da-rim are not inconceivable acts of fate but are shown to be grounded in the realities of life.

While Christmas in August is technically a melodramatic film and does not seem unconventional, it has a unique style. It relates closely to the Asian concept of melodramatic films. “Asian films and other artworks portray suffering as being integral to life, a necessary condition to individual enlightenment” (Paquet, 2000b, p.43). The emotional resonance is based on sincere human feelings that can be seen in the life of a rational human being.

The film’s spark is based on the dramatic irony around the protagonist’s diagnosis, which inherently defines his behavior despite other characters not being aware of the fact.HurJin-Ho in Christmas in August takes a much different and subtle approach to the plot.

The film finds its emotional substance in moments of beauty and lightheartedness that the character experiences. Complex emotion such as familial or romantic love is perceived by viewers without any traditional cinematic symbols of affection ever being shown. The inconceivably minor moments such as a gesture or a longing gaze turn out to be central to the theme (Jin-Ho, 1998). The protagonist attempts to adopt a principle of living your life to the fullest doing what you love and being with those dear to you.

The cliché of terminal illness is an overused plot device that becomes the central theme of many films. Such movies are inherently predictable to the audience due to the apparent outcome. Christmas in August uses terminal illness as a tool to begin the narrative, but the emotional focus of the film tries to keep that revelation in the background, only coming up in the most intimate moments. This gives the narrative a sincere emotional gravitas, which is critical in a deeply personal exploration of life.

References

Jin-Ho, H. (Director). (1998). Christmas in August. Web.

Paquet, D. (2000a). Genrebending in contemporary Korean cinema. Web.

Paquet, D. (2000b). Christmas in August and Korean melodrama. In F. Gateward (Ed.), Seoul searching: Culture and identity in contemporary Korean cinema (pp. 37-54). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

A Christmas Carol: Movie Analysis

The examples of social studies economic topic

The movie ‘A Christmas Carol’ addresses elements of social studies associated with economics. From the movie, understanding basic human needs has been emphasized using an impoverished character. The movie is based on a character that cannot spend money on luxuries during the Christmas Eve. In fact, this is a factual depiction of most societies around the world. However, with a vision and innovation, accessing basic human needs is addressed through natural resources and skills.

The movie addresses capitalism from a historical perspective. Capitalism is addressed as a historical injustice. Eventually, capitalism is addressed as a necessary economic concept in developing and empowering citizens. The movie depicts capitalistic businessmen and individuals as selfish, and only interested in making profits at the expense of others. However, this is a contradiction to a depiction of how capitalism is credited with human development.

Understanding the value of work is an essential aspect in addressing socioeconomic issues in the society. The movie ‘A Christmas Carol’ depicts how it is critical for one to play a part in the production of goods and services. Not appreciating various jobs is associated with increased inflation and unemployment rate.

The movie ‘A Christmas Carol’ revisits the significance of free enterprise system in the economy. From the movie, a student understands scarcity and its impact in production of products and services. The concept of free enterprise system is critical for students to understand how prices of essential products are determined in the market.

Illustration of the importance of critical thinking in terms of economics

The movie depicts how students get involved in multiple levels of critical thinking. For example, the movie is based on different plots, characters and themes. All these elements are essential in understanding human thoughts especially in economic concepts analysis. Movies allow students to analyze every allegation and determine facts from fallacies. Using rhetorical appeals such as logos, pathos and ethos, students identify consistencies depicted as major themes of economics. From such analysis, students develop critical skills essential in a classroom set-up.

Illustration of the concept of economy

The movie ‘A Christmas Carol’ illustrates the history of capitalism based on a Victorian English society. The Victorian English society is depicted as the background for the learning material. The movie describes capitalism using a story line and characters that link material with learning objectives. Engaging students in movie analysis activities such as group discussion and homework assignments can be integral in illustrating economic concepts. Sharing the movie via the internet is a simple way of making the learning materials accessible to students. In addition, this can be supplemented by downloading and embedding the movie into a PowerPoint presentation. The presentation of the movie can be linked with economic concepts for think-pair-share exercise and class discussions.

Age appropriateness of the movie

The movie ‘A Christmas Carol’ is not suitable for children aged below 5 years. To be precise, this is because the movie has flawed scenes with scary pictures. In fact, the movie is not suitable for preschoolers. Although, children aged five years can watch the movie, it is advisable that children with a high level of tolerance be allowed to access the same. However, parental guidance while watching a movie is recommended. The moral lesson from the movie is relevant for children aged eight years and above considering its genre is family or fantasy-based. Editing the scary scenes or using another movie to illustrate economic concept is highly recommendable.

Economics Activity

Lesson plan

Objective

From the lesson, students will learn to review a movie based on the economic concepts. Students are to identify economic concepts as depicted in the movie’s themes and use them as a basis for review. Students are to develop critical thinking skills by synthesizing audiovisual concepts and literary style used in the movie. Finally, students are to acquire competency in knowledge and skills associated with economic concepts.

Introductory activity

The lesson commences by asking students if they would like to watch a movie. Most of the students will agree to watch a movie together. While watching the movie, introduce some questions to the students. The questions are to be based on the movie’s theme, characters and relation to economic concepts. Depending on the movie’s length, the students are to engage in a class discussion, in relation to the movie. In addition, this requires providing the students with necessary learning materials. The materials include the movie ‘A Christmas Carol’ in the form of DVD or VHS. Other materials include a notebook and writing apparatus. Install the classroom with the television set connected to a media player. Other materials to be installed for movie viewing may include overhead projector, transparencies and instruction copies.

Main lesson

The movie lesson addresses capitalism as a market-based economic system. The idea is to understand the historical aspect of capitalism and how it affects society from a socioeconomic perspective. Major lessons to be addressed concern the value of work, basic human needs and free enterprise system. To be precise, understanding the above economic concepts and how they affect individuals and society are given priority in the lesson plan.

Evaluation

Lesson evaluation will be conducted using a rubric and movie review form. Using a rubric with grading requirements is necessary for the instructors. Evaluation on whether the students understand the movie’s concept can be done using homework assignments. Using class-based and group discussions during and after watching the movie can determine student’s skills and ability review a movie. Finally, students are to write a general movie review.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) addressed by the lesson.

Understanding the concept of basic human needs has been addressed as a critical lesson. Students are expected to learn and illustrate how families address the issue of basic human needs. In addition, students are to compare ways through which families access human needs. In this regard, students are to determine how production, purchasing and other trading activities affect availability of basic human needs. Students will develop knowledge and skills to differentiate between needs and wants.

Understanding capitalism from a historical perspective is a core lesson. However, capitalism is perceived as a free enterprise system in Texas. In this regards, students are to describe the historical development of the free enterprise system in Texas. In addition, students are to exhibit knowledge in free enterprise system and its mechanization especially in supply and demand. Therefore, illustrating how free enterprise is beneficial to the society is necessary.

The lesson also addresses the value of work. In this regard, students are to explain how work is integral in achieving revenue or income. More importantly, students must demonstrate how people choices especially in spending and saving money are related with the value of work. Therefore, the lesson is concerned with economics aspects of capitalism as a free enterprise system, value of work and basic human needs.