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Friday, March 12, 2021
'La Llorona' Crew Talk the Design of Jayro Bustamante's Horror Film
Variety: Horror was the perfect genre for filmmaker Jayro Bustamante and his crew to tell the story of Guatemala’s history of genocide and violence against women in “La Llorona,” shortlisted for an Oscar in the international film category.
Although this article was not that long or had a lot of contents, it threw some good points for me to expand my thoughts on. I personally hate to watch the horror movies (and I actually have not watched any in a full version) because I just cannot stand the jump scares. But as much as I try to avoid them, I admire the efforts beyond the movie trying to formulate that certain mood of horror films. I liked how this team focused on visualizing the abstract concepts such as harassments, which can be even more terrifying than the random mysterious ghosts. I was surprised and disappointed by how they did not include any imageries except for the rough sketches at the very beginning (I am not even sure if that’s related to the film that the article discussed), as it would have been so much easier to grasp what they meant by each concepts if there were visual supplements.
This article touches on why I admire theatrical design so much. Often, one needs to really research the themes and history of the play they are working with to make an effective design that connects to one of these topics. In particular, techniques La Llorona adopts, like using different cameras to shoot the different characters, are methods unique to film that are also interesting ways to convey a message. This also leads me to lament on an appreciation for unappreciated design elements. When one sees a show or a play, every single thing has been intentionally and meticulously designed. Before I came to CMU, I did not have as deep as an appreciation for sound or lighting design, for example, as I do now. Studying theater has led me to an even deeper understanding of plays, as I now consider every element that is used with equal weight. Overall, I appreciated the way this article briefly dissected multiple design elements that all fit together to create this work.
2 comments:
Although this article was not that long or had a lot of contents, it threw some good points for me to expand my thoughts on. I personally hate to watch the horror movies (and I actually have not watched any in a full version) because I just cannot stand the jump scares. But as much as I try to avoid them, I admire the efforts beyond the movie trying to formulate that certain mood of horror films. I liked how this team focused on visualizing the abstract concepts such as harassments, which can be even more terrifying than the random mysterious ghosts. I was surprised and disappointed by how they did not include any imageries except for the rough sketches at the very beginning (I am not even sure if that’s related to the film that the article discussed), as it would have been so much easier to grasp what they meant by each concepts if there were visual supplements.
This article touches on why I admire theatrical design so much. Often, one needs to really research the themes and history of the play they are working with to make an effective design that connects to one of these topics. In particular, techniques La Llorona adopts, like using different cameras to shoot the different characters, are methods unique to film that are also interesting ways to convey a message. This also leads me to lament on an appreciation for unappreciated design elements. When one sees a show or a play, every single thing has been intentionally and meticulously designed. Before I came to CMU, I did not have as deep as an appreciation for sound or lighting design, for example, as I do now. Studying theater has led me to an even deeper understanding of plays, as I now consider every element that is used with equal weight. Overall, I appreciated the way this article briefly dissected multiple design elements that all fit together to create this work.
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