From John Smith to "the Jocker",everything is possible!

"It all depends on who you were looking for. Hi, I'm Mitchie."

                                                                                               (Camp rock, 2008)

I can't believe that I'm posting on tuesday but things are like this: exams, studying... and it wasn't easy to find a person to do an interview to. finally, I decided to interview someone who does have a nice interest for cinema:

Anna Civera, student of Enviromental Sciences at the Universitat de Valencia, member of youtube, video editor, member of  a Spanish group of video editors called "Once Upon a Time Studios" (just like me) and my best friend.

What, do you think, are the principal emotions that can be expressed in  cinema and why?

Well, joy, terror, love, sadness... These are emotions that, along with the suitable gesture, even without words, can transmit an almost total empathy to the expectators. I think this way, and also that a good music and effects can make the poorest interpretation to trasmit what it was suposed to transmit. I don't  particularily think they are the main ones, but that they are what people mostly and  more easily notice when they watch a movie. When I'm watching a film and I see this type of emotions I kind of think "Man, that guy would have frightened me too!", "I would have also fall in love with him...", "what a happy moment, I wish it'd happen to me too" and things like that... They are really intense and, therefore, those that can be better expressed.

Is there any emotion or feeling that you think cinema is not possible to express?

Maybe, hope, or I even say faith... But, sometimes, these can be expressed by actions with double meaning.

As an editor, how do you imagine a, for example, sad scene in your mind?

Firstly, close shot to the character's expression with no music, even with a sudden cut of music, silence, so, that way, the expectator can be imbued of his expression. And then, the camera would move slowly backwards and the silence would get broken with a sad soundtrack.

As an editor, what’s the hardest thing to you to express with the videos you use?

Well, as you know because you’re also a memeber, I work with Disney videos. What’s most hard to me is to express the emotional charge of a scene because of the little expression that some characters have sometimes. For example, John Smith is a complete “poker face”. The only moment when he looks kind of different is when he saw Grandma Willow. This doesn’t mean that all of them are like this, but sometimes it’s difficult to express that sensitivity as hardly as you want. On the other hand, matching the images with the sound or music it's something easy to do, bcause rhythm is something that is inside us and is something that the editor choses. The editor can't chose the expresions and this makes the work much more harder.

Which is the hardest expression to express as an editor? And the easiest?

The hardest one is envy, jealousy, inner rage... And the easiest one, sadness. The first ones, because they are complicated and drag a very sentimental and emotional charge, which is hard to express with images, music and, sometimes, even words. There are expression that, if you haven’t feel them, are very difficult to capture or understand. On the second hand, sadness is a feeling which, unluckily, everybody has to deal with almost dialy and is hard to hide. Therefore, it’s easy to identify and show to others.

Finally, is there any movie, interpretation or director that you would like to mention, for good or bad?

Yes! The Dark Knight! I think the director knew, somehow, how to underline all the emotions and the awful feelings of the chacaters, all their personal dramas, incredibly well. And the role of The Jocker was represented so well, you could just feel... like... I don’t know how to express it... like if you could somehow understand how he was feeling but you didn’t feel the same, and it makes you fear him. You could see Batman as a common man, like the others, not as someone unachievable. And the rhythm of the movie was the suitable one, accompanied by a soundtrack that intesifies the drama and the action.

Thanks a lot, Anna

See you later in tuenti!

Nora, over&out

Nora Huarte

35 ways of silent scream

aka: how to express oneself through...

cinema