¡Asu mare!

    Movie Poster
    Release year
    2013
    Director
    Ricardo Maldonado
    Biography of director(s)
    Ricardo Maldonado is a Peruvian film director and advertising filmmaker. He studied Communications at Ithaca College in New York and returned to Lima in 1994, where he began working as a director of television commercials. He directed advertisements for companies such as Coca-Cola, BBVA, BCP, and Sodimac. He also directed the documentary-style advertising project Perú-Nebraska, which was part of the Marca Perú campaign and received recognition at the Cannes Lions festival. ¡Asu Mare! was Maldonado's first feature film as a director and was adapted from Carlos Alcántara's successful stand-up comedy show.
    Country
    Peru
    Original synopsis of the film

    ¡Asu Mare! follows Carlos “Cachín” Alcántara as he looks back on his life and the experiences that eventually lead him to become a successful comedian and actor. The film moves between his childhood in the Unidad Vecinal Mirones, his teenage years, his early jobs, his relationships, and his attempts to find a career. His mother, Chabela, plays an especially important role because she supports and guides him throughout his life. As Carlos grows older, he discovers his interest in performing and eventually becomes involved in television and comedy. The film combines autobiographical events with comedy while showing how his family, friends, and upbringing influenced his path to success.

    Film Awards
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    Film still
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    Describes the setting of a scene in a play or a film. It refers to everything placed on the stage or in front of the camera—including people. In other words, mise en scène is a catch-all for everything that contributes to the visual presentation and overall “look” of a production. When translated from French, it means “placing on stage.”

    Setting
    Setting
    Explanation
    The setting of ¡Asu Mare! is mostly realistic and contemporary to the different periods of Carlos's life. A major location is the Unidad Vecinal Mirones in Lima, where Carlos grows up. The neighborhood gives the film a strong sense of place because it represents the environment where his childhood and adolescence take place. Much of the film uses ordinary homes, streets, schools, and other recognizable locations instead of highly stylized sets. This makes Carlos's story feel connected to everyday Peruvian life. The use of Mirones is especially important because it was actually associated with Alcántara's childhood and much of the film was shot there.
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    Props
    Prop
    Mic
    Explanation
    Props in ¡Asu Mare! are generally ordinary objects connected to Carlos's everyday experiences, but some become important because they are part of specific comedic situations. One example is the material Carlos uses to help himself during the university entrance exam. The scene turns these small objects into part of the joke because Carlos tries to hide them on his body while taking the exam. The props therefore contribute directly to the comedy while also showing Carlos's desperation to get into university.
    Another important prop is the microphone and stage equipment used during Carlos's performances. These objects distinguish his life as a performer from the earlier parts of the film and visually connect the story to his eventual career in comedy. Since the film is adapted from Carlos's stand-up show, the microphone also connects the fictionalized events of his past with the adult Carlos telling his story. The film is explicitly an adaptation of Alcántara's stand-up performance.
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    Lighting
    Explanation
    The lighting in ¡Asu Mare! is generally realistic and natural-looking. The outdoor scenes in Mirones and other public locations are brightly illuminated, making the environments feel open and active. Interior scenes use softer lighting that fits ordinary homes and indoor locations. The film does not consistently use dramatic high-contrast lighting because the story is presented as a humorous recreation of Carlos's life. This realistic lighting helps the audience focus on the characters and situations rather than making the film's world look artificial. The brighter lighting also supports the comedic tone by keeping many scenes visually energetic and approachable.
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    Costume
    Costume
    Costumes
    Explanation
    The costumes are mostly realistic and change according to Carlos's age and stage of life. As a child, Carlos wears simple everyday and school clothing that establishes him as a young student living in a working-class neighborhood. As he becomes a teenager and young adult, his clothing changes to reflect his changing lifestyle and interests. His clothes also become useful for distinguishing the different periods shown in the film. Other characters' clothing similarly reflects their age and social environment. The realistic costumes help the characters look like ordinary people rather than exaggerated comedic characters.
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    Hair and Makeup
    Explanation
    The hair and makeup are generally naturalistic and are used mainly to make the characters believable at different ages. Carlos's hairstyle changes as he moves from childhood into adolescence and adulthood, helping distinguish the different periods of his life. The younger actors also have hairstyles appropriate to the time and age they represent. Makeup is relatively subtle rather than highly stylized, which supports the film's realistic approach. Hair and makeup are especially important when comparing the younger and older versions of Carlos and Chabela because they help create visual continuity between the actors portraying the same characters at different ages.
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    This is the art of photography and visual storytelling in a motion picture or television show. Cinematography comprises all on-screen visual elements, including lighting, framing, composition, camera motion, camera angles, film selection, lens choices, depth of field, zoom, focus, color, exposure, and filtration. Cinematography sets and supports the overall look and mood of a film’s visual narrative. Each visual element that appears on screen, a.k.a. the mise-en-scène of a film, can serve and enhance the story—so it is the cinematographer’s responsibility to ensure that every element is cohesive and support the story. Filmmakers often choose to spend the majority of their budget on high-quality cinematography to guarantee that the film will look incredible on the big screen.

    Point of View
    Quality
    Framing
    Scale
    Movement

    Editing is the process of putting a film together–the selection and arrangement of shots and scenes. Editing can condense space and time, emphasize separate elements and bring them together, and organize material in such a way that patterns of meaning become apparent. In addition, editing can determine how a film is perceived: for instance, quick, rapid cuts can create a feeling of tension, while a long take can create a more dramatic effect. The first photoplays generally had no cutting, owing to the fact that they were single-reel films; once filming began, you could not stop until the film ran out. (https://filmglossary.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/term/editing/)

    Coherence, Continuity, and Rhythym
    Editing Style
    Transitions
    Match
    Expansion and Compression of Time
    Editing General Comments

    Sound is an integral part in a film. It refers to everything that the audience hears including sound effects, words and music. Sound is used in films for various purposes, including: providing the information to the viewer about the location of the scene, heightening the mood, telling the audience about the characters and advancing the plot. Every person who watches a film realizes that the choice of voices, soundtrack and music present in a film affect the way that the viewer perceives a particular film. As a result, the sound is an important and integral element of the film, one that determines the way that the viewer experiences and understands a film as a visual experience.

    Sound Type

    Narrative analysis is an examination of the story elements, including narrative structure, character, and plot. A narrative can be considered to be the chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space. In order to analyze the narrative of a film, we need to first make the distinction between the plot of the film and the story of the film. This is sometimes referred to as the discourse and story of a film. Narrative may also be called the story thought story mainly refers to the events that describe the narrative.

    Plot Comments
    Story Comments
    Narrator Type
    Narrative Structure

    Film genres are various forms or identifiable types, categories, classifications or groups of films. (Genre comes from the French word meaning "kind," "category," or "type"). These provide a convenient way for scriptwriters and film-makers to produce, cast and structure their narratives within a manageable, well-defined framework. Genres also offer the studios an easily 'marketable' product, and give audiences satisfying, expected and predictable choices. Genres refers to recurring, repeating and similar, familiar or instantly-recognizable patterns, styles, themes, syntax, templates, paradigms, motifs, rules or generic conventions.

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