For bonus points, listen to the following interview from Fresh Air on NPR. The interview is with Spike Jonze, the director of Where the Wild Things Are. The clip is 20 minutes long and very interesting.
To earn bonus points, listen to the entire clip and post a 3 paragraph response to the interview on this post.
You have until Wednesday, October 21st to complete this. This will be the only opportunity for bonus.
15 comments:
I thought the interview from Fresh Air on NPR was very interesting. It talked about how before it was a movie, it was a book. It seems like it's going to pretty different movie than most others, because it actualy tells about a real kid's story, with all the problems. It also has a lot of imagination in it, and the interviews in the video talked about different perspectives.
Spike Jonze probably did a pretty good job at directing Where the Wild Things Are, and hearing his interview made it sound like he knew exactley what he was talking about. He said that he didn't really analyze it, but it just felt right, and i think that should make the movie better. He also said that when he read the book, he didn't imagine how the movie should be, but instead he put it in the real book and didn't "hollywood" it. It sounds very surreal, but also very real with the child life the actor max had.
I like how when they searched for the main character Max, they didn't go and try to find some young boy actor with good looks, but instead they wanted someone who knew what he was talking about. The boy they did pick had never actualy even acted before, and i thought that was pretty cool that they chose him anyway. The only change they did from the book to the movie, was that the book has more pastel colors, and the movie is more dim and dark. The movie seems like it's for everyone, and making it that way is pretty smart. I'll probably see it soo
I think the whole thing with the balloon and the missing boy was a publicity stunt. To say that your son went up in the balloon and then you found him in the attic shows how bad you are at trying to attract attention to yourself. Especially when the kid was asked why he didnt come down from the attic and he said cause you guys said "we are doing this for the show". Six year olds dont come up with that on their own.
If the parents could only think of coming up with a story about their 6 year old son being in a balloon to try to attract attention to their family then there is deffinatley something wrong the parents. They will be lucky if this wont destroy the rest of their sons life.
When listening to this radio broadcasting I noticed that the director was trying to make the movie like the book. He did this in many different ways one way, was using real actors instead of making the movie animated. I agree with Jonze that the movie shouldn’t have been animated. This makes the movie and the book seem more real and makes the story come to life.
Another detail the director focused on was the settings and backgrounds. Jonze and the art director went to different jungles to see what would work for the background. They could not find anything that fit their standards of a graphic background. They called the jungles were “mush” and visually boring. The art director found a burnt-out forest to use. They graphically put in leaves and plants to get the background they wanted.
Finally the director focused on the wild things. He said that the movie was basically made three times just for the wild things. One was on just the “voice actors”, which focuses on the voices of the characters. Second was the “suit actors”, which focuses on the motions of the wild things. Finally the faces and post production which was editing the faces frame by frame. It took them a year and a half just to edit the movie.
I think that this movie will be very good because of all the work that the directors had put in. They tried to make the movie like the book as best as possible by focusing on these elements and more.
Mr. Faulk-
You responded to the wrong post. Please be more cautious next time!
Do we just have to LISTEN to the streaming radio thing or do we have to like post on it or something?
Mr. Gabler-
You need to listen to it, then post a three paragraph response. While a few people have already posted, I am not publishing them until the deadline.
What is your email address?????
Mr. Gabler--
My email address is at the top of the webpage.
cullenc@hempfieldarea.k12.pa.us
If you have a question about the test, feel free to post it on the blog and I will try to get to it.
I think the movie "Where the Wild Things Are" sounds like a great movie. I like the idea that Spike Jones sort of has that idea of having a children's movie mixed with an adult movie. It shows that he likes to entertain both types of people. I also like how wrote a movie about the book and then added more stuff into the movie that wasnt in the book. Like the characters voices and how they looked.
I like how he said he wanted the wild things to have regular voices so it wouldnt be as scary to the little kids, that shows that he has some respect towards them and wants it to be a kids movie and also an adult movie. I like his response to the question about making it a cartoon or live action, he said that he wanted to make it live action because people would take the characters more serious, which I agree with cause its true. Most people dont go see a cartoon movie unless they are taking thier little kids. His answer to this question also goes along with how he wanted to make it a kids movie and an adult movie cause more adults would want to go see a live action movie rather than a cartoon.
I like how they picked Max. I think he must have a real talent to be the only one to be picked out of all the kids that tried out from all the different cities throughout the United States. Max sounds like he is a really young talented boy who works very hard throughout this movie. He sounds like he act whenever you tell him to no matter what the situation is like he did in the film that was sent to Spike Jonze.
I saw “Where The Wild Things Are” this past weekend, and I thought it was terrific. The elements I feel made the movie great are the creation of the wild things and Max’s performance, both described by Spike Jonze in the interview. Only getting to see the final product in theaters, it’s difficult to imagine the intricate attention required to create the movie. Choosing to bring the creatures to life without animation was described as time and labor intensive, but the result is spectacular.
The wild things conveyed emotions through facial expressions and humanlike mannerisms. It is interesting to hear of Jonze’s delicate attention to filming the monsters, not over exaggerating their movements and instead, focusing on subtle gestures that let the viewer tap into the characters emotions. In close running with the realism of the characters, I most enjoyed the performance of Max Records. The fact that this was his first role is nearly as striking as the crew discovering him.
He was well cast and, I think, able to meet all of the expectations of Jonze. Some of the warmest moments of the movie did, in fact, end up being face shots of Max. Unfortunately, I never read the book. However, previously seeing one movie directed by Spike Jonze, listening to some music from the artist in the soundtrack, and reading a Dave Egger book, I knew the movie would be original and inventive.
Bonus Opportunity: NPR
To begin with, i think that this whole radio stuff is begging to get on my nerves. Ha but on a better note. This radio broadcast has a lot of informative points. When you see a movie almost always you begin to think what the creator was thinking. and this really helps you begin to understand.
This broadcast goes into extreme detail. And the director is extremely open to answering all of the questions. Although I have not seen this movie yet, I have read the book. And the movie sounds extremely close to the book. This helps me paint a more vivid picture.
The explanation that this creator of the movie goes into is insane. It helps you understand the plots, sets and begins to inform you about the characters. It also goes into the process of finding everything and everyone and all of the steps it takes to create a extremely vivid movie like this
Nicole Elliott
Mr. Cullen/ Period 6
Mass Media
Bonus- Spike Jonze Interview
I have never read Where the Wild Things Are and haven’t been interested in it by just watching the commercials either. After listening to the interview, I cannot wait to see it. Spike Jonze is taking a chance and can alter any emotions anybody can or could have felt about the book. I believe that he has the ability and the intelligence to do it wisely and touchingly and can really make it a great movie for children and adults alike. Two things I found interesting about the article were how they found the boy and that they chose not to use animated creatures.
The boy very interestingly wasn’t an actor. Because they wanted to have that innocence or just realistic feel that a kid in that age group has. I think that his choice to find a ‘random’ person to play the part was probably a good thing to add more reality to the movie. The boy will be a great actor in the movie because he won’t really be acting. He will defiantly make kids all over the world able to imagine they are in that fantasy world.
Because they chose to use costumed characters, it will be a lot easier to believe that the world he is in is possible and make it easier to get the feeling you are in the movie. Animated movies like Shrek don’t really do it for me. I don’t like the factor that it could never be real. I think having the movie done by real actors it will show kids and adults that it is possible to have your own little world and it will make this movie really great.
This movie will hopefully be a success. It will bring a childhood book to life and will let the story travel for many generations. Without the right person, this movie could be really bad, but I think that Spike Jonze has the talent to make this great. The choices he made like having the boy acting a ‘real’ kid, and using costumed characters instead of using animated characters were wise. Hopefully this will be a great movie and will let kids and adults get out of reality and into the movies fairytale.
I think Spike Jones and Dave Ecars will do a very good job with "Were the wild things are." It sounds like Spike put alot of time into this movie. I Think the funny thing about this is it seems as if he was pressured into doing this movie by the Maurice Sendak, the writer of the book. He rejected her twice before saying yes. I think thats funny.
I think it had to have been very difficult for Spike to make this movie just because it was such a small book. It's got to be hard to create a 1.5 to 2 hour movie out of a very small book. There has to be a lot of parts that Spike just made up, because you definately can't get 90 minutes out of a book that is 9 sentances long.
I think Spike Jones will get a lot of slack for the movie. So many people loved this book and they might not like the movie. Just like most other books turned into movies, it's very possible that "Where the Wild Things Are" the movie will not be very popular among those who love the book.
All in all, the Interview was pretty interesting. I liked how they "showed" scenes in the movie, and talked to Spike.
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