Element of Design for the Movie "beaches"

"Element of Design for the Movie "Beaches"

Janet L. Kitchens

ENG225: Introductions to Film

Instructor: Xochitl Tirado

October 28, 2012

Element of Design can be so interesting when watching how and when they do things. Watching movies and knowing more about what happens and how much is really put into making a movie be successful is another very interesting thing. For example we will use a clip from the movie "Beaches", the stared Bette Midler, Barbara Hershey and John Heard. It was directed by Garry Marshall, as well as writing by Iris Rainer, who wrote the novel, and Mary Agnes Donoghue, who wrote the screenplay. The Movie clip that was used for this paper would be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiS8YokFzeY . It is the end of the movie were Barbara Hershey was sick and in the hospital, she waited for Bette Midler to arrive at the hospital and to the audience needed to see and feel the whole story at this time. It was so important for the cast and the crew to make this scene so real to the audience that it was one of the main scenes in the story. It also was so important to get the lighting and the music also correct to have that feeling of the friendship that these two have built through the years that they knew each other. Beaches was such a great heart and tear jerking movie that everyone played such an important part to make this movie such a hit and a movie that would live one until today.

This author really did not have to do a lot of research for this paper due to this movie she knows almost everything about. Beaches was Directed by Garry Marshall (to give you a little history on him): he attended Northwestern University, where he was building specializing in radio/television/film production named for him and his wife. Wrote for the Daily Northwestern sports beat while in college, Advocating the NU drop out of the big ten athletic conference. He is also known for the odd Couple.

Co-producer was Nick Abdo, and the producer was Bonnie Bruckheimer (also known as Bonnie Bruchheimer-Martell). Bette Midler and Margaret South were producers in this movie. The executive producer was Teri Schwartz. Teri Schwartz was also known for a famous Whoopi Goldberg movie "Sister Act".

Bette Midler has many things to be proud of she was a multi Grammy Award winning singer/comedienne/author who has also proven herself to be very capable actress in a string of both dramatic and comedic role. She was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 1st, 1945. She studied drama at the University of Hawaii and got her musical career started by performing in gay bathhouses with a piano accompaniment from Barry Manilow. Her first album was "The Divine Miss M: released in November 1972 followed by the self-titled "Bette Midler" released in November 1973, both of which took off up the music charts, and Bette's popularity swiftly escalated from there. As you can see, the movie Beaches has a lot of people involved in it and very well know people also, that both created as well stared in it.

The original Music was by Georges Delerue. The Film Editing was By Richard Halsey. The Casting of people was done by three people who were Mike Fenton, Lynda Gordon, and Judy Taylor. The Production Design was done by Albert Brenner. The Art crew was directed by William Barclay also known as Bill Barclay. Just to remind you that the art crew had many people behind it to make all the scenes in the movie happen this was the person that directed all of the art items in this movie. All the costumes were designed by Robert De Mora. The sound department had a total of 15 people in it. The Camera and electrical department also had 15 people in it for this movie.

The last person that I want to discuss for this movie would be the Cinematography person that was known as Dante Spinottie, also known as the director of photography. Dante Spinotti was born in Tomezzo, Udine, and the northeastern Italian region of Friuli. He began his career at RAI (Italian TV), before that he spent lot of time in Kenia as cinematographer for his uncle. In 1985, producer Dino De Laurentiis offered him a chance to work in the United States for the first time with Michael Mann for the feature "Manhuner". From that experience he became one of the most appreciated cinematographers in Hollywood. Some of his other works are: "The Last of the Mohicans", "Heat", "The Insider" and "Wonder Boys"

In this Scene that was that was chosen, this scene is the most heartfelt scene in the movie. It had to be done just right to get the audience to feel the loss that Bette Midler was going to experience and the friend ship that would not be there any more for her. The lighting in the hospital was bright at times as well as dull. It also showed how sick that Barbara