For my take on the Return to the Silent Era assignment, I used a trailer for the movie Blue Jasmine. This Woody Allen film made me think the first time I saw it and had an interesting way of getting the audience to dream alongside Jasmine through her memories and current struggles. The back and forth between her memories and current life reminded me of a silent film going back and forth from the action of the film (current life) to the cue cards that provide context as to what is happening (her memories/flashbacks). I think the assignment was appropriate for this movie and the black and white effects and silent movie era music bode well for such a dark movie.
I downloaded the trailer for the movie from Youtube using savefrom.net and edited in Movie Maker. The first thing I did was add the black and white effect to the video. I do not think Movie Maker has an “antique” effect, but perhaps that is made available as an add-on? I stuck with the pain black and white for purposes of this assignment. I then split the clip where I thought the cue cards would be a logical fit. Once I found an image online, I uploaded it to PowePoint and added text. I then saved each of the slides as an image and inserted where I had split the clips. I deleted some of the credits at the end for a more dramatic effect with the last cue card. I then added a fast paced song I thought mirrored the confusion of the movie, and published as an MP4.
Here is what my video editing looked like.
This assignment reminded me of a movie that recently came out that is entirely in black and white. It will be interesting to see if directors revisit this black and white effect. In this instance, I think it was effective in demonstrating that bizarre nature and internal struggle Jasmine deals with.
aprilshowersmayflower 
I enjoyed this post and the black and white silent film approach. It was interesting seeing such crisp resolution on a black & white film since I had grown to associate grainy, low quality footage with the black and white footage.
What effect do you think the absence of color has on HD television? I recall hearing criticisms about HD TV providing too much detail in cases where you could see the makeup on a newscaster or actor. I’ve actually never seen Black and White HD, have you? An interesting concept worth exploring…
I saw this movie on a small screen on a plane and it was just as affecting as it would’ve been if I’d seen it on a big screen.Cate Blanchett deserved Oscar. It was interesting to see the trailer in B&W. I think it would also have been interesting if only the New York scenes were in B&W; as a nod to the character’s previous life that she can’t go back to. Certainly, her new life in San Francisco is more colorful.
Great point! In watching the movie it was a bit confusing as the film went back and forth. Having some scenes in black and white would have definitely helped clarify and signify the loss she felt.
I’ve not seen the movie, but can imagine the music replacing the dialogue and the black and white change a lot of it– it feels frenetic. I cannoot recall either if Movie Maker has an antique effect (sometimes they are called “Film Scratch” Something that also helps give it that feel is dividing the segment into smaller clips (there should be a split tool) and try to apply differential amounts of speedups (changing the pace).
But those are minor- you definitely achieved the assignments goals and explored what the story means in this different form
Great tip with the speedups! That definitely would have added to the freneticness feeling of the clip.