Prelim Part 2

This is our preliminary  task video. We filmed this video ourselves allocating a director, camera operator and two actors. We followed the story board given to us that is in my last post and the two actors were told by me, the director what sort of plot we were going for. I decided that we should just have Amr, one of our actors to come in through the door and be asking Mia to send a important message before he goes to war. Evidently I instructed Mia following the outline of the storyboard to refuse which created the amount of tension necessary for the scene plot we went with. I am over all happy with how it turned out as it was the first time I have worked with a camera and been a director and feel like i have learnt a lot.

Sound in a Thriller Analysis: The Departed Elevator Scene

The thriller scene I have chosen to analyse is from the film ‘The Departed’. I’ve chosen the elevator scene because this is one of my favourite scenes in any thriller, it’s very action packed and the sound used in it really adds to the atmosphere and brings the whole piece together. 

The scene begins with non-diegetic music featuring flowing orchestral sounds, which compliments the slow panoramic pan shots of the city. This music is used by the director in order to give a feeling

 of tension as well as a feeling of relaxation. These feelings do contrast each other and I think this is why the director chose this specific music. It’s a confu

sing time in the film with 4 characters coming together and clashing in blood and violence. The non-diegetic orchestral music is abruptly stopped when Leonardo Di Caprio , who plays Billy Costigan, slams the door to the roof of the building, possibly meant to shock the audience, as this is a direct contrast to the flowing music that was playing before, it is unexpected by the audience and the loud noise is mean to keep the audience on the edge of their seat. This diegetic slam brings a sense of urgency to the scene. The sound also lets the audience know that Matt Damon, who plays Colin Sullivan, is trapped on the roof of the building with nowhere else to go. This causes the audience to start panicking for the characters, a sign of a good thriller movie. The orchestral music from the start is then replaced with loud and frantic diegetic sounds of shouting from Damon and Di Caprio. The use of vulgar dialogue goes towards creating a hostile and tense environment in which the characters are situated. The shouting contrasts the music from the beginning. The diegetic sounds of birds (possibly seagulls) suggests that the actors are high up, this gives the audience a sense of isolation and therefore more tension for the audience. We also hear diegetic sounds of punching connoting a fight happening and also adding a sense of violence, these sounds were purposely put in by the director to make the audience flinch and worry for the character of Matt Damon, as well as keeping them interested in the scene. The diegetic sound of the cocking of the gun adds yet more tension to the scene as it means the audience is expecting a gun shot. The shouting dialogue between the actors connotes panic and anger in the scene. On the roof there are a few times in which silence is used by the director tactically in order to create a hostile and tense atmosphere. This is difficult to do correctly as sometimes it can just seem wrong, but in this it does work.

Once inside the building, the director uses echoes of the footsteps and doors slamming connote a large empty space in this case a building, again emphasising the isolation of the characters. Long periods of silence are used once again to build tension foreshadowing that something is going to happen in the plot. The long silence in the elevator almost brings a sense of awkwardness to the scene. The long silences toward the end of the scene lead up to the loud diegetic sound of the gun shot. This loud noise echoes around the building which again shows the emptiness of the building, also suggesting that the men are not meant to be there in the first place, reinforcing their ‘bad’ characters. This gun shot contrasts the silence in the building and cuts it sharply. The echoes resonate for quite a long time before the second and third gun shots. I think the silence is used by the director in order to emphasise the importance of the gunshots and to make them stand out more and therefore resonate with the audience for longer, this scene is meant to shock and upset the audience, and I think the sound really goes a long way towards achieving this. The diegetic sounds of panting from Matt Damon’s character suggests relief that the ordeal is over and also shock, as this is a common reaction to someone in shock (hyperventilating) however, this may also connote physical exertion as he has just been in a long struggle with Di Caprio’s character. The long silence at the end most likely signifies that what has happened is significant and shocking as well as brutal, leaving the audience almost speechless. The diegetic sounds of Damon’s character cleaning his fingerprints off the gun and leaving it on the ground break the painful silence. 

All in all the director uses a lot of silence, shouting and very little music in this scene in order to show anger, violence, tension and hostility. It is a very well directed film and I like the unconventional way that sound is used as it makes it far more interesting to the viewer.

Prelim task part 1

Last week my group took part in our preliminary task for media studies. To do this we were first given a pre-written storyboard with pre-set camera angles which we would have to shoot by Matt. We decided to come up with some ideas which we would adapt the script to follow. 

Some of the ideas included a fight between a husband and a wife, a mother and a son or what we decided on to be our idea, a fight between two friends.In the end we decided to go for the two friends idea as we thought it would be relatively easy to shoot still whilst still being effective.We didn't use any props as we thought we would concentrate on the message of just two friends being caught up in the moment a bit more.We used two people from the group as actors Amr an

d Mia.

It was really interesting to do this task as it was the first time we properly were allowed to use the cameras and do some directing as I was the director. I hope this new experience will help me when putting together the upcoming thriller shoot as we know to give the actors the script beforehand and also to consider locations and plan shoots before hand with a storyboard. I am looking forward to starting my thriller shooting very much.

Editing Lesson 1

Last Friday my media class had our first editing lesson in the editing suite with Matt. It was really educating for myself because I have only ever used iMovie the software for film editing that comes on a mac laptop, so to be introduced to Adobe premier it was incredibly interesting.Matt taught us that we could actually put all our shots into a single 'bin' named 'rus

hes'. We learnt that we should do this to keep all our original shots in the same place. This was so that we could keep up good organization in our sequence editing and wouldn't lose any files because we always have a backup.

We then created a second folder named 'Log Bin' in this we put all the shots we were definitely not going to use but we could always come back to just in case - the ones that we will be using to make the finished sequence. After naming the bins we started to learn how to do the actual editing. We learned about the 'i' and 'o' keys on the keyboard that are used for 'in' and 'out' which determines how much of the shot goes into the drag window. After doing that you can drag the clip into the window at the bottom and you can cut it more or lengthen it. We then continued to do that for every other clip and edited at one to fit in with the last.

I feel I learnt a lot from my first editing lesson with Matt and I learnt that there is a great deal of skill that goes into working software like Adobe Premiere. Also we were taught to make a smooth looking, clean and crisp sequence we should avoid jump cuts and we should always cut when a shot changes from one to another, one must cut to the next when there is movement in the first scene.This movement provides a distraction to the audience and makes the whole cut a lot more efficient and clean looking. 

Film Poster Analysis - The Final Destination

This is an interesting film poster to analyse. It conforms mostly to the regular motives of a horror film movie poster, cliches and all. The lighting, first of all, is very dark and focusses mainly on dark hues of black and grey. These dark colours connote that the film will be dark in nature and therefore will have elements of horror in it, due to the connotations of the colours black and grey - the background of this film poster looks a lot like a cloudy night's sky - a typical horror film scenario. The lighting also allows for the girl's eyes to become blacked out, not showing any detail, this makes her face look more like a skull, like the bottom half of her face. This is done purposely to convey a dark and horror like atmosphere. The contrast has been turned up on the photography to show more piercing details as this is a more unsettling and graphic image for the viewer, meaning that it is more likely to put across a scary and creepy vibe. 

The facial expression used on this film poster is one of sheer horror and pain, therefore showing that the film will not be happy and upbeat but rather one of a more sinister nature, the lower half of the featured person's jaw has been replaced by a skull, therefore suggesting that death will be a prominent theme throughout the film.

This is a rather minimalist poster; however, I think this works to it's advantage as it is extremely hard hitting and stands out from other posters. There aren't any props used in the photo as it is a very simple photo that has been graphically engineered to make the woman's bottom half of her face look like it is a skull. The simplistic design allows for all the information to be taken in quickly, and the colour scheme and the presence of a skull allows the audience to know undoubtedly what kind of genre this film will be. 

The hair and makeup used in this poster is very little. The hair is almost unseen but looks very natural and regular for a woman. The makeup used is also difficult to see as the harsh lighting is not easy to view behind. However, the bright lighting is used to make her face look very pale and symbolic of a skull or a corpse, so her makeup would have to be quite pale and light. 

The setting for the poster is unspecified and is not possible to find out. It is obviously shot in a studio with harsh lighting from above, almost mimicking an interrogation scene - a harrowing and unnerving prospect, making the viewer of the poster feel unsettled and disturbed. The picture is placed behind some broken and smashed glass, this shows that there will be chaos and panic in the film as broken glass is a symbol of struggle and also of smashed windows - which is a sign of someone being somewhere they shouldn't be, this is a feature of the film, and so fits with the theme. This broken glass imagery also fits with the tagline of the film 'Rest In Pieces' which is obviously a play on the phrase 'Rest In Piece', this suggests that dismemberment will be a part of the film, suggesting that the film will be gruesome and disturbing to watch. 

The text used in the poster is white, this contrasts heavily to the dark background making it very easy to read. The glowing effect used on the white text suggests afterlife and something other worldly, and adds a kind of 'X-Files'-esque feeling to the poster. The name of the film suggests death, and so the glowing text seems like a version of heaven, this conforming to the genre of the film as it suggests death. A serif font has been chosen to do the titles, this is most likely because it conveys a more serious message, rather than a playful one, and it looks hard hitting. there is one piece of colour used in the whole poster, and that's the date, which is in a blood red colour. This stands out hugely from the rest of the poster, letting it be known to the audience that it is important and also makes it truly memorable. The blood red is obviously symbolic of bloodshed, which will therefore make the audience think that gore will be another prominent feature of the film.

Camera Lesson 2

In our second Camera lesson we first of all learnt about the 180 degree rule. This is when one can film anywhere along a straight line, to make sure the shot makes ‘sense’. For example, filming a conversation between two people from left to right will look totally different if you film pass the 180 degree line, as it will look like its going from right to left when editing. We were also told to never watch a clip of recorded footage back in the studio as it is a waste of money as studios and actors etc are very expensive to hire and it wastes time also.

Our media studies class then proceeded to start to create a sequence. We learnt from Matt that to create a worthy sequence, it takes many takes performing the same action for example our group decided to repeat the action of Nancy walking into shot taking out her phone, looking at it and then putting it away and walking off shot again.We also took on three different roles, The actor, Director and Camera woman. Our group used a wide variety of camera angles for this to add variety when we get to edit our sequences next week. We used a standard Wideshot, then a mid-shot, a close-up and an extreme close-up. We are hoping this will create a slick sequence and with many different angles and points of view.It was great to be able to use the FX100 as we hadn't used it before.

Opening Sequence Analysis.

A Nightmare On Elm Street Title Analysis. This is one of my favourite openings of any horror movie to date. I think the whole sequence is extremely harrowing and the mise en scene is dark and disturbing. In the sequence we see a character introduced; however, he is not named and his face is not shown, just his hands. He is shown to be making his signature claw like weapon. This would make the audience immediately feel uncomfortable as they know, due to the nature of the film they’re about to watch, that this is most likely going to be used to kill people. A mixture of fast and slow editing is used throughout the sequence, I believe that this is done purposely to show the erratic behaviour of the person making the weapon, showing the audience that his mood could change at any second. This makes the audience feel even more on edge as the long camera shots are usually held on the weapon that this person is making. A lot of the camera work is done in a POV style, this is quite strange for a horror film and has been done before in another earlier horror film titled ‘Halloween’ which was directed by John Carpenter. It is strange as the audience get to see the world through they eyes of a killer, which is almost sympathising with them; however, this is done to make the audience feel disturbed and unsettled as it’s not a normal viewing point for a film, it also means that the director doesn’t give away the full identity of the creature at hand, leaving some mystery to unfold in the actual movie. The sound in the movie is reasonably quiet, with only the sound of breathing to be heard. This is creepy and disconcerting for the audience as it feels like the killer is close to them. Mostly close up shots are used in this sequence in order to allow for the identity of the person making the weapon to be kept secret. 

Halloween POV Shot

Erratic Titling = Suspense

The best other title sequence from the horror genre to compare this one to would be Se7en. This is another one of my favourite title sequences and was directed by Kyle Cooper, a legend in the opening title sequence world. This sequence also features the character who plays the killer and is designed to be unsettling for the audience to watch. Mostly extreme close ups and close up shots are used in the sequence, again, I believe, to keep the identity of the killer a secret yet also to introduce the audience to the film, and give them an idea of what they are going to spend the next 90 minutes watching. Se7en’s title sequence uses extremely fast editing to create a sense of madness and chaos with flashing images which are almost too quick to properly view. I think this is done to try and portray the mindset of a psychopathic killer and what’s going on inside their heads. The person introduced in this sequence is not making a weapon, like in Nightmare on Elm Street, but rather a sort of book. This may not sound too disturbing; however, the writing is all in different languages and the pictures are graphic and disconcerting, showing that the man writing the book is somehow not completely sane, which makes the audience tense. As the sequence goes on, the editing becomes more and more erratic and quicker, creating more tension for the audience before the film actually starts. With this faster editing comes faster and faster music, this creates a sense of urgency and manic about the sequence. The mise en scene of the sequence is similar to that of A Nightmare on Elmstreet, in the sense that it is very dark, disturbing and unsettling for the audience to view, making it a fantastic opening title sequence for this type of film.

Double vision FX and different language

Book of illegible writing - Not sane

Interesting Extreme Close Up

To contrast these films, I’ve decided to use Little Miss Sunshine. This film is of the ‘drama/dark comedy’ genre, and the opening title scene is the complete opposite of the horror scenes. In this opening, the director is trying to give the audience as much information as possible about all the characters in the film, rather than withholding it to create mystery and suspense. This allows the audience to connect immediately to the characters, thus making the film more open to reliability and laughs as people feel more comfortable when they know more about the characters. The editing is much slower, done purposely to accompany the mellow soundtrack which suggests a boring and monotonous life for the family shown in the sequence. This sequence is strange as the music very much contrasts what is going on in the shots, the music is a happy and bouncy track whilst the scenes show the family all struggling through their lives. Camera techniques such as pans and tilts are used throughout the sequence in order to allow for more information to be taken in by the audience to get to know how this family lives. A mixture of extreme close ups, close ups and mid shots are used in this sequence, I believe that, again, this is done to allow the audience to feel closer to this family, a sort of ‘fly on the wall’ vibe.

Mid shots - Little girl watching beauty pageant. 

Over The Shoulder Shot - shows almost empty classroom. 

Depth of Field and focus pulls used to create an interesting shot.