International Film Sets

One of the most famous film sets is in Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA. I am focusing on films that have been filmed on sets around the world! New Zealand has been made very famous for the beautiful scenery that was emphasized in The Lord of the Rings films. There were scenes filmed all the way through New Zealand, from Matamata in the North Island, to Wellington, to Nelson in the South Island. It was also filmed in Canterbury, Mackenzie County and Fiordland. There were also some scenes filmed in parts of Ireland! For the Star Wars films, they were filmed in many different countries. Episode I (1999)was mainly filmed in Leavesden Film Studio in England and Cassiobury in Watford. Some of the scenes were filmed in the Tunisian desert. It was also filmed a bit in Caserta in Italy. Some of Episode II (2001)was filmed in 20th Century Fox Studios in Australia, Tunisia again, Seville in Spain and Italy. Episode III (2005) was different. It was filmed completely in a big studio in Sydney, except for a few scenes. Episode IV (1977) was filmed mainly in Van Nuys, California, and again, the Tunisian desert. Episode V (1980) was mostly built in sets, containing bluescreens with models, and sets made on the stage floor. Episode VI (1983) was filmed partly in Yuma Desert in Arizona and Tunisia.

 Filming of Star Wars

Movie Soundtracks

Some films are most popular, not due to the story, the celebrities or the director, but the movie soundtrack! Some famous film soundtracks include; Dirty Dancing, Inception, The Dark Knight and Gladiator. Many popular soundtracks have musical composers from around the world. For example, Hans Zimmer, a german composer, a prostigious movie soundtrack composers. He has also done the music to a few video games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. He has done the music for Inception, The Last Samurai, The Dark Knight, The Lion King, Galdiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Black Hawk Down and The Da Vinci Code. John Williams, an American composer, is also very famous. He did the musical score of all six of the Star Wars films and the four Indiana Jones movies. Another famous composer is Howard Shore, a Canadian composer, who has done the score for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

In the Begining...

Thomas Edison was made famous for inventing the lightbulb in 1879. He also invented the kinetoscope in 1888. The kinetoscope is documented as an early movie projector. It took a series of photographs and played them in series by cranking a handle. It was called animation. The idea was then modified by Lumiére brothers in France. They heard of Edison's kinetoscope. They wanted to buy the invention from him but Edison declined. They tried to build their own kinetoscope and succeeded. They called it the cinématographe. The first public screening was held in 1895. The cinématographe drew the attention of a Georges Méliés, a French magician. He saw huge potential in the cinématographe and further advanced motion picture. He designed sets and created illusions in films. His films were very popular until the First Wold War. When the soldiers came back no-one wanted to see animations about aliens and illusions but wanted to see real war films. There was a film made about it in 2007 called "Hugo".

 Kinetoscope, by Thomas Edison

Picture from www.britishmovieclassics.com

My Introduction to Films

Hello, my name is Stephen. This is my casual blog about films and cinematography. I will also be talking about the Geography of films and how the movie industry differs from country to country. I am doing this blog because I have recently over the summer seen a lot of movies and movies that I would not usually consider watching. My aim was to expand my interest in different films as I have said too much recently, "Oh, that film looks terrible..." and, "I never saw it, but it didn't look that good." My friend also has a massive interest in movies and has printed out a 10 page list of movies for me the see. I have been working my way through that list mostly with laughter, tears of sadness and adoration of some musical soundtracks. I was sceptical at first of some of the movies but I watched them and found a few new favourite films in the process! In this blog I am also going to do some movie reviews. I am not a great critic so I won't talk too much about the acting or other details like that. This is for the "everyday" movie watcher like me! Thanks for reading and have a great day! :)