This term I am taking a class called Ollywood. In this class we are learning about what goes on behind the scenes of movies and how much work it really takes to really make a movie function. We have discussed screenplay, location scouts, and storyboards. To really understand those topics we have make our own storyboards and we even had to choose our own locations based on certain criteria and my location was actually chosen for our trip since it really fit the criteria assigned. This class really gave me an appreciation for older films as well as some newer ones because older films really seem to be better thought through since they had less in work with in a way. Newer movies can be corrected with special effects which makes it easier.
For this action project we had to analyse a movie. I chose the movie Life of Pi. I chose Life of Pi because I think that it has a very dynamic plot and the characters are very unique and that isn't something very often seen among newer movies. I think that newer movies tend to follow similar plots and have relatively generic characters. I think that Life of Pi breaks that trend and I will explain that below.
I think Life of Pi had a strong plot because there was a lot of content to explore. The journey always had somewhere to go and something to do but along with that it kept you wondering because you couldn't know what was coming up. For example nobody could have predicted that Piscine would end up on the island of death while he is in the middle of the ocean nor would we have ever guessed how he tames Richard Parker. The crisis is when the ship taking Pis family to America sinks and Piscine ends up on a life raft with a tiger. I would consider the climax of the movie when Piscine finds the island because while it isn't the most action packed it sort of peaks in what is happening since the island scene is surrounded by scenes of ocean. The resolution is when Piscine lands in Mexico and Richard runs away into the woods. Many parts of the film were surprising and different than situations that would normally pop up in movies. I think that's what made this film something special.
The protagonist of this film is Piscine Patel who is a very religious young man from India. In the film he seems like a good person who was easy to connect with and sympathize with. "Religion will save us," I said. Since when I could remember, religions had always been close to my heart.” I think this is a quote that really shows who he is because he was very religious and that's what he lives by. Pi is also shown throughout the movie to courageous and brave because “the island of death” is a test to his will since he could have easily lived there and quit but he knew what his journey was and stuck to it.
The antagonist of this film is Richard Parker (the tiger) who was from Piscines families zoo. This movie had an interesting situation between the protagonist and antagonist because they eventually started to respect each other. I would describe Richard as any other tiger, hungry, a predator, and territorial. “The first time I tried, Richard Parker bared his teeth, rotated his ears full round, vomited a short guttural roar and charged… I was beside myself with terror - of Richard Parker” this quote simply adds to what I said about the tiger simply being a tiger. Richard Parker eventually adapted to accept Pi because they started to look at each other as equals which I think adds a dimension to Richard because I think we assume most other tigers wouldn't accept people so quickly.
The film was based off of the book but the book was based off of the Trivandrum Zoo which is the same zoo that was shown in the movie. The author of the book even did research on actual animal behaviors for his book and that is partly reflected in them movie.
I think the set design was incredible at many different parts of the movie, especially the opening scene at the zoo where there were hundreds of plants not to mention the small things like water fountains, statues, and colors. As for the the ocean scenes when most would think there isn't a lot going on you can notice the details of the boat and the sort of things that were taken into account such as the oars, the bags, water, wood, fish, and even the tarp covering part of the boat. As for the locations I think it was absolutely fantastic. I love the zoo and the pool and even the “ocean” was very impressive. The “ocean” in the movie was actually a wave pool built in an abandoned airplane hangar. I think that the locations chosen were perfect since it really portrayed what was trying to be described such as the exotic zoo, the fancy pool, and the unpredictable, sometimes violent ocean.
The costume design was very impressive but at the same time there was not as much time to judge it as most movies because for massive chunks of the movie there is only one person floating through the ocean. But for that person they did a great job at giving him a costume that mimicked what we all think would happen if you were stuck at see for long periods of time. As for all the other parts involving costumes I think there was an incredible amount of attention to detail. In the beginning when the whole family was alive at the zoo they had clothes that matched what you would think they should be wearing such as the Indian style dresses and colors which really portrayed the environment perfectly.
