This is my final vlog.

Sources Referenced:

The movie I am writing about is Encino Man, directed by Les Mayfield and starring Pauly Shore.  Before I go into the analysis of some of the scenes it is important to get a brief summary to help put things into context. Encino Man is about high school life in Encino, California. The main characters are two dorky kids. The first is David, who beyond anything wants to become popular and get his crush to like him. The other is Stoney, who is a very chill, down to earth guy that promotes happiness and is content with everything the way it is. The film begins with David and Stoney digging a pool for a potential pool party in David’s backyard. While digging up the pool they find some ancient artifacts including a cave man trapped in ice. This movie is about how David and Stoney turn the cave man into a “normal” high school student, while simultaneously making them the most popular kids in school.

One of the more apparent motifs that occurs throughout the film is the cave drawings. There are multiple instances in which the audience sees the drawings. When David and Stoney uncover the cave man, the cave drawings help them decipher that he is, in fact, a cave man. The next time the drawings are shown is after he is thawed out. After he runs around David’s house and trashes the place, we see that on almost every window throughout the house there is some sort of cave drawing on it. The next time we see his cave drawings is after he has been transformed by Stoney and David from a caveman into Linkavich Chomofsky, the new foreign exchange student. Link draws all sorts of various cave drawings all over the chalk board in school. The boys think his drawings are super weird but the girls find him attractive despite the fact that he can barely talk. I believe Mayfield used cave drawings as a motif to let the audience know that Link is actually smarter than he is presented. When Link is first introduced, he doesn’t talk. This inability to directly communicate is emphasized through the cave drawings in which he expresses his thoughts.

Mayfield did an excellent job with the shots used in this film. One of the scenes that jumped out at me and really caught my attention was the entire sequence right before David and Stoney turn the caveman into Link. This wild caveman thaws, wakes up and has no idea what any of the modern homes and cars are. Some of the techniques used were low angle point of view shots and shaky camera movements. This let the audience see through Link’s point of view and showed how nervous, scared, and out of his element he was. Another point of view shot that really stood out to me was when they first discovered the caveman in David’s backyard. You see David and Stoney’s reaction to finding what appears to be a dead guy in their backyard and there are a couple good techniques used in these scenes. One of them is the filter used on the lens to make it seem like the audience was inside the ice capsule. Mayfield also uses something to muffle the audio a bit so it made it really seem like the audience had taken the place of the caveman.

Speaking of audio, Mayfield did a fantastic job with the sound effects and background music. As I earlier stated, he uses the low angle point of view shot to show the caveman point of view and how out of his element he was. What really completes this shot is the audio that goes along with it. In it, Link finds a giant garbage truck and he notices it is making very loud noises. The camera changes to his point of view and gets shaky and the giant garbage truck starts making mammoth-like sounds. This really sells the shot and makes it so much more realistic to what was going on in the mind of Link at this time. Since Link has never seen a car or giant garbage truck before, he probably thought it was a giant mammoth because that is the only thing he could relate it to. Mayfield used music as a narrative pretty well throughout the film. One example of this is when Link is just recently melted and causing mayhem in the house. The use of rock and roll really helped portray the chaos of the scene.

The mis-en-scene in this movie is well portrayed. There are two significant things that jumped out at me the most. The first thing is the main characters’ costumes, and the other is the fact that there were earthquakes used. The costumes that were used in this film really help the audience to get a sense of the time period in which the movie is set. They make it considerably obvious that this movie is supposed to be taking place in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Secondly, the use of earthquakes in the film was a brilliant tactic to let the audience know that the characters were in sunny California, right along the San Andreas fault line. The San Andreas fault line is well known as an area where earthquakes happen frequently. I took geology last quarter and learned all about earthquakes and how older layers of the earth can break and crack causing much older earth to rise to the surface. Mayfield used this idea when David and Stoney find the interesting cave drawings and then stumble upon Link who is frozen in a bock of ice. The inclusion of earthquakes gave us a more in-depth look at their daily lives and that it was just another normal day in their lives, I personally find it to be an amazing touch on the film’s mis-en-scene.   

Encino Man is definitely one of my favorite films. It has such a goofy humor to it typical of any movie starring Pauly Shore. This type of humor really appeals to me. If you too really enjoy these sort of dumb humor movies then I would highly recommend watching Encino Man. You will not regret it!

References

Encino Man. Dir. Les Mayfield. Prod. George Zaloom. By Shawn Schepps. Perf. Sean Astin and Brendan Fraser. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc., 1992. DVD.

Barsam, Richard, and Dave Monahan. Looking At Movies An Introduction To Film. 5th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2016. 2016. Web. May 2017.

James, Caryn. “A Defrosted Caveman At the Prom.” New York Times 22 May 1992: n. pag. Print.

The movie I am writing about is Encino Man, directed by Les Mayfield and starring Pauly Shore. Before I go into the analysis of some of the scenes it is important to get a brief summary to help put things into context. Encino Man is about high school life in Encino, California. Two dorky kids, David who beyond anything wants to become popular and get his crush to like him. And Stoney who is a very chill, down to earth guy that just promotes happiness and is content with everything the way it is. The film begins with David and Stoney digging a pool for a potential pool party in David’s back yard. While digging up the pool they find some ancient artifacts including a cave man trapped in ice. This movie is about how David and Stoney turn the cave man into a “normal” high school student, while simultaneously making them the most popular kids in school.

One of the more apparent motifs that occurs throughout the film is the cave drawings. There are multiple instances in which the audience sees the drawings. When David and Stoney uncover the cave man, the cave drawings help them decipher that he is, in fact, a cave man. The next time the drawings are shown is after he is thawed out. After he runs around David’s house and trashes the place, we see that on almost every window throughout the house there is some sort of cave drawing on it. The next time we see his cave drawings is after he has been transformed by Stoney and David from a caveman into Linkavich Chomofsky, the new foreign exchange student. Link draws all sorts of various cave drawings all over the chalk board in school. The boys think his drawings are super weird but the girls find him attractive despite the fact that he can barely talk. I believe Les Mayfield used cave drawings as a motif to let the audience know that Link is actually smarter than he is presented. When Link is first introduced, he doesn’t talk. This inability to directly communicate is emphasized through the cave drawings in which he expresses his thoughts.

Les Mayfield did an excellent job with the shots used in this film. One of the scenes that jumped out at me and really caught my attention was the entire sequence right before David and Stoney turn the caveman into Link. This wild caveman thaws, wakes up and has no idea what any of these modern homes and cars are. Some of the techniques used were low angle point of view shots and shaky camera movements. This let the audience see through Link’s point of view and showed how nervous, scared, and out of his element he was. Another point of view shot that really stood out to me was when they first discovered the caveman in David’s back yard. You see David and Stoney’s reaction to finding what appears to be a dead guy in their back yard. There are a couple good techniques used in these scenes. One of them is the filter used on the lens to make it seem like the audience was inside the ice capsule. Les Mayfield also uses something to muffle the audio a bit so it made it really seem like the audience had taken the place of the caveman.

Speaking of audio, Les Mayfield did a fantastic job with the sound effects and background music. As I earlier stated Mayfield uses the low angle point of view shot to show the caveman point of view and how out of his element he was. What really completes this shot is the audio that goes along with it. In the shot he finds a giant garbage truck and he notices it is making very loud noises. The camera changes to his point of view and gets shaky and the giant garbage truck starts making mammoth-like sounds. This really sells the shot and makes it so much more realistic to what was going on in the mind of link at this time. Since Link has never seen a car or giant garbage truck before, he thought it was a giant mammoth because that is the only thing he could relate it to. Mayfield used music as a narrative pretty well throughout the film. One example of this is when Link is just recently melted and causing mayhem in the house. The use of rock and roll really helped portray the chaos of the scene.

The mis-en-scene in this movie is pretty solid. There are two significant things that jumped out at me the most. The first, is the costumes worn by the main characters, and the other is the fact that there were earthquakes used. The costumes that were used in this film really help the audience to get a sense of the time period in which the movie is set. The costumes make it considerably obvious that this movie is supposed to be taking place in the late 1980s to early 1990s time period. Secondly, the use of earthquakes in the film was a brilliant tactic to let the audience know that the characters were in sunny California, right along the San Andreas fault line. The San Andreas fault line is well known as an area where earthquakes happen frequently. I took geology last quarter. I learned all about earthquakes and how older layers of the earth can break and crack causing much older earth to rise to the surface. Mayfield used this idea when David and Stoney find the interesting cave drawings and then stumble upon Link who is frozen in a bock of ice. The inclusion of earthquakes gave us a more in-depth look at their daily lives and that it was just another normal day in their lives, I personally find it to be an amazing touch on the film’s mis-en-scene.

References
Encino Man. Dir. Les Mayfield. Prod. George Zaloom. By Shawn Schepps. Perf. Sean Astin and Brendan Fraser. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc., 1992. DVD.

The movie I am writing about is Encino Man, directed by Les Mayfield and starring Paully Shore.  Before I go into the analysis of some of the scenes it is important to get a brief summary to help put things into context. Encino Man is about high school life in Encino, California and two dorky kids David and Stoney are trying to build a pool to become popular. When digging this pool they find some ancient artifacts and also a caveman trapped in ice. This movie is all about the two dorky high schoolers turning this cave man into a student and making them the most popular kids in school.

One of the most apparent motifs thats comes back throughout the film are the cave drawings. When David and Stoney are digging up the pool in the opening scene and after they find an ancient bowl and the man covered in ice the ancient cave drawings help them figure out that he is in fact a cave man. The next time we see his cave drawings is after he is thawed out. He ran around David’s house and trashed the place and on almost every window throughout the house that they showed in the scene there was some sort of cave drawing on it. The next time we see his cave drawings are after he has been transformed by Stoney and David from a caveman into Link, the new student. Link draws all sorts of simple but complex drawings all over the chalk board and the boys start to think he’s super weird but the girls seemed to be finding him cute and attractive even though he can barely talk.

Les Mayfield did an excellent job with some of the shots used in this film. Some of the shots that jumped out at me and really caught my attention were before David and Stoney turned the caveman into Link. This wild caveman thaws and wakes up and has no idea what any of these modern homes and cars are. Some of the shots used were low angle point of view shots and shaky camera movements. This took you to Link’s point of view and showed you how nervous, scared, and out of his element he was.  Another point of view shot that really stood out to me was when they first discovered the caveman in David’s back yard. You see David and Stoney’s reaction to finding what they believe is a dead guy in their back yard. They put something over the lens though to make it seem like the audience was in side the ice capsule also and Les Mayfield also used something to muffle the audio a bit so it made it really seem like the audience had taken the place of the caveman.

Speaking of audio Les Mayfield did a fantastic job with the sound effects and background music as well. Earlier I stated how Mayfield used the low angle point of view shot to show the caveman point of view and how out of his element he was. What really made this shot was the audio that went along with it. In the shot he has found a giant garbage truck and he notices it is making very loud noises and the camera goes into his point of view and gets shaky and then the giant garbage truck starts making elephant or maybe mammoth sounds. This really sells the shot and makes it so much more realistic to what was going on in the mind of link at this time.

The misc-en-scene in this movie was pretty solid. the biggest two things that jumped out at me about this were one The costumes that were used and two the fact that there were earthquakes used. The costumes that were used during this film really helped us to get a sense that the time frame of this movie was supposed to be in the late 80’s early 90’s area. Secondly the use of earthquakes was brilliant to let us know that we were in sunny California right along the San Andreas fault line. this gave us a more in-depth look at their lives and that this was a normal occurrence, I thought it was an amazing touch.

This is a test post.