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There is a lot of symbolism in film that people tend to overlook, the most obvious example being rain. Rain scenes are a pain in the ass to film; it doesn’t show up unless properly colored or backlit, it can be costly depending on the severity, it requires extra resources, can be noisy, and, obviously, makes the actors wet. Yet, several famous and beloved films go through the hassle of creating rain scenes. Spiderman, Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Seven Samurai, Minority Report, Blade Runner, The Matrix, Raising Arizona, Millers Crossing, Platoon, Inception, and, most famously, Singing in the Rain, all have well known rain scenes in them. Hell, David Fincher even uses rain as a supporting character in most of his films. So, what’s the point, you might ask, if it is such a problem creating rain sequences? Why should directors bother? Well, different films use weather differently, so here are a few examples and how the effect works in each. So far in this blog I have been over...

        Being in England during the NBA playoffs is hard for me. I was okay with not being able to watch the regular season, but as the Lakers and the Celtics are both being driven out I find myself desperate to watch these games. I’ve been a big basketball fan for a couple of years now, so to hold me over in these difficult times I watched two films about the sport. The first was Spike Lee’s He Got Game , starring Denzel Washington and, one of my favourite players, Ray Allen. The film is centers around a father son relationship between the two; Denzel’s character is imprisoned and is allowed out for a week to convince his estranged son to play for Big State University. Although the plot sounds a little iffy, the film is in regular Spike Lee top form. However, it was the second film I watched that I want to talk about now.         In 1988 PBS sponsored a couple of filmmakers to make a half hour television special about two kids from Chicag...