Butler - Reflective Blog

I did not really know what to expect when I signed up for this class, but I am very glad that the class turned out the way it did. It was a great and fun class that I got to go to after my other two classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and just relax and enjoy some movies. This class has really helped me to look at movies in a different way, and I really like that. I enjoy understanding why a director sets up a scene and the framing of a shot in a certain way and how it can give a scene a deeper meaning. It is very rewarding to use mise en scene analysis to understand films better.

            Back home, I have a good friend who is really into film and acting and was apart of my high school’s television and film crew. Because of this, he would always be directing his own short films, and I never really understood why he chose to frame and direct his films in the manner he did. When I went back home for Thanksgiving, I saw him, and we started talking about film. Because of this class, it was much easier for me to talk to him and understand him and his filmmaking process, and I thought that was pretty cool.

            I was really surprised by how much I liked many of Burton’s films that I had not seen before. Prior to this class, out of the films we watched in class I had only seen parts of Beetlejuice, Sweeney Todd, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. However, I ended up liking almost all of the films we watched with the exception of Planet of the Apes. That movie was too strange for me. I especially liked Big Fish, Mars Attack, Ed Wood and both Batman films. I was really surprised by how much I liked Michael Keaton’s Batman, as I am so used to Christian Bale’s interpretation of the character. However, Bale’s Batman is so full of angst that Keaton’s Batman ended up being a nice breath of fresh air to the Batman series.

            I had always wanted to see Big Fish, as one of my friends from back home has recommended it to me multiple times. However, I never really got around to it. I am so glad we watched the film in this class, as I think it is up there as one of my top five favorite movies. I had no idea that I would end up loving and connecting with the movie as much as I did, but I am completely okay with it. The movie was absolutely wonderful, and all of the actors had great performances in the film.

            Overall, I am so happy I took this course. This course really helped me to understand films better, and now I have a new favorite movie. So thanks Dr. McCay for teaching such a great class, and I am pretty bummed that I won’t have this class next semester.