The rough cut was submitted on the 11th March, and shown to peers and teachers to gain vital feedback for our group to improve our film opening sequence.
Tyla, Harry, Francesca; Some excellent work on the blog, well done, please make sure all the posts have images as evidence to make the blog more multimedia, also ensure you comment on each other's blog posts. Go through the list of posts today before I grade the blog this evening.
made killer appear at the window as protagonist walks past
knew that for shot needed to take one long take of the girl walking past the window and the villain appearing in same window, this is so the camera is in exactly the same place
some difficulty as camera appeared to have moved position slightly due to using a very little tripod that we used which tilted slightly
however achieved a smooth transition by zooming in on clip allowing a chance to shift one layer to fit the other
pleased with result, feedback from teachers and peers also positive
Cubase:
making sound motif for villain
using clips from freesound such as child laughter and old musical box sound
used 'Ping Pong Delay' effect on laughter to create echo
also used 'Reverb' effect on musical box
cut parts of laughter and rearranged them and repeated to make prolong laughter as well as cutting the winding up of the musical box and adding it with the rest of the sounds
also panned different elements of sound and laughter to create a wider, more spooky sound
Shot and sound together:
Variations:
for different places in the sequence we have made different variations of the soundmotif to fit the shot
using a sudden 'hit', one variation is sudden to fit when the villain suddenly appears
another useslow rumble which builds up in a crescendo before the rest of the layers of the sound commence
likewise another doesnt use the 'hit' to reduce the sharp rise of intesity
How does mise-en-scene convey meaning in this sequence? How does camera shotsize, movement and angle convey meaning? How does sound anchor the images? What do we learn about the characters through dialogue and non-verbal language? What other visual techniques does the director use and why?
costume is used to highlight the role of the protagonist - a ballet dancer
low key lighting to contrast the 'innocence' of ballet with the plot and genre of the film (psychological thriller)
props - empty, dusty room conveys mystery and a sense of spookiness or ghostliness
locations - bedroom, hall and dining room, all old and also convey secrecy and a sense of the unknown with low key lighting and shadows
establishing shot framed in LS showing Natalie Portman as Nina in the empty room
ECU of ballet point shoes, enhancing the character's complexity
non-diegetic sound - orchestral score to match the ballet dance
diegetic sound - protagonist's speech 'I had the craziest dream last night', ending with 'she kills herself'
montage of people's voices, reflecting the psychological 'insanity' of the genre
Media Audiences - The Hunger Games
Who is the target audience? What are the probable and possible audience readings of the text? How do you, as a British teenager, read and evaluate the text? To what extent is your reading and evaluation influenced by your age, gender and background?
target audience - males and females aged 12-24
both males and females within the target audience are likely to follow the general readings of this film
target audience are most likely to follow a subjective view
older viewers are more likely to follow an objective view
some parts of the demographic of viewers, for example older males might not be interested in watching a film like this, as they may be 'put off' by the female protagonist, but may turn out to be pleasantly surprised at this particular film
viewers need to begin watching this film with an open mind, older males in particular
Institutional Context - Skyfall
Has a star been used in this film? Why is this important? Which studio produced this film? Is it an industrial or independent film? What strategies were used to market the film? Is the institutional context evident in the production values of the opening?
Daniel Craig - has been in previous James Bond films, and films such as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; this brings in audiences of these other films as they may be wanting to just see his work and increases the franchise's fan base
Dame Judi Dench - has also been in previous James Bond films, has worked for the National Theatre Company, and was appointed Dame of the British Empire for her acting skills, bringing in a wider audience
studio production company - Eon Productions
industrial film
marketing:
theme song sung by Adele, also bringing in a larger audience as she is a well-known artist and may entice her fans too
advert for Sony starring Daniel Craig promoting Skyfall
advert for Heineken starring Daniel Craig and Bernice Marlohe (co-star in Skyfall)
symbiotic partnership made between Skyfall and Coka Cola/Coke Zero
short 30 second preview during the 2012 London Olympics
How does mise-en-scene convey meaning in this sequence? How does camera shotsize, movement and angle convey meaning? How does sound anchor the images? What do we learn about the characters through dialogue and non-verbal language? What other visual techniques does the director use and why?
The simple enlosed room represents the prison setting
The jumpsuit costume shows thecharacter to be an inmate or convict
Aswell as his rough unshaven look conveys a bad time in the characters life
The static MS camera represents an interview type set up
It then cuts to a CU of the character to show his reaction to the final interview question
The dialogue of the interviewer is present as ambient sound however the interviewer is never seen which maintains prevalance on the character
Through dialogue we learn that the man is a a convict who is being interviewed for parole
He is shown to be a con-man
His dialogue indicates that he is confident in nature, and is hiding what he plans to do when released from his little smile after the final question
The director uses low key lighting to show the dark mood of the prison
Media Audiences - Back To The Future
Who is the target audience? What are the probable and possible audience readings of the text? How do you, as a British teenager, read and evaluate the text? To what extent is your reading and evaluation influenced by your age, gender and background?
The target audience is most likely to be young teenagers and family audiences
The use of light humor and a young male star means connotes the younger target audience
As a British teenager the text is enjoyable to me as the combination of music and comedy speaks to my interests
This reading is most probably due to my young age and male gender
Institutional Context - Batman Begins
Has a star been used in this film? Why is this important? Which studio produced this film? Is it an industrial or independent film? What strategies were used to market the film? Is the institutional context evident in the production values of the opening?
Bankable star Christian Bale was used in Batman Begins
This was important as it contributed to the success of the film as Christian Bale is a popular and well liked actor so it brought bigger audiences
The film was produced by industrial studio Legendary Pictures
The film mainly used traditional forms of marketing such as posters, TV adverts, cinema trailers etc.
However the studio also utilised social netwroking sites to campaign the trailer and merchandise
The film had a pre-made fanbase from the legacy of the already popular batman comics
The high production values of the industrial studio and large budget are evident in the film opening
The use of multiple high profile studios and the CGI created opening with the bats are evident of the institutional context
Due to Harry and Francesca not being able to make it to the location today, as well as the snow making it impossible for perfect contuinity in the location, we cannot film today
and have planned to film on Thursday (14th March) instead.
On the dvd there were a lot of good sound effects which are reversed sounds which would could use to create tension, or anticipation of something about to happen
In preparation of us filming, a call sheet and risk assessment had to be carried out.
The call sheet includes the date, meeting time, location of each shoot, the props and equipment needed, the crew responsible for the props and equipment, and a shot list of most of the shots we hope to film at each location, including the cast needed for each shot.
The risk assessment states each location and the hazards that the environment, objects and in some cases people i.e. the public, may present to us as a group when in each location. These risks had to be carefully thought about and assessed, and eventually a decision about how to reduce these risks were made to ensure that nothing (cast, crew and equipment) could be harmed or damaged.
Due to complications with our main actress, we have had to find a new female to be in our film opening sequence. Although this has set us back a few days, we feel that with a whole filming day tomorrow (Saturday 9th March) and further filming during the week and next weekend, we should be able to get back on track and be close to finishing filming with our new actress. We have made sure our new actress understands how committed she needs to be over the next few weeks until we finish filming, therefore no complications should arise now.
To decide which titles we wanted to include in our film opening sequence, how to word them and also in which order to put them in, we looked at Zombieland's title sequence. Included in this sequence were the following titles:
Columbia Pictures presents
in association with Relativity Media
4 main actors' names
Zombieland film title
casting by
costume by
music by
edited by
production designer
director of photography
executive producers
produced by
directed by
For our opening sequence, based on this research, we have decided to use the following titles:
Halassie Pictures presents
actors names
SNATCHED
costume by
music by
edited by
director of photography
produced by
directed by
All of these titles will have names with them, but we haven't yet decided whether we are going to use real names or if we are going to create some names ourselves.
We shall be putting some titles over the tree using after effects
We also took some pictures for our killer's picture collection
Problems
the batteries died on the camera and we didnt have time to go and buy some more to carry on filming before the light changed, and we would then have trouble with continuity editing
the sun kept coming out from behind the clouds and so the continuity of the weather was hard to keep constant
We created an animatic from our storyboard, which is a film of each shot in our storyboard but is also timed for how long we think each shot should last. This is to make sure that we have enough footage for our opening sequence. We haven't put sound with this animatic because we are creating our own soundtrack on Cubase, and we wanted the music for this to be realistically possible for us to use, therefore we thought that no music would be more effective than a sountrack that is completely different to our actual production. This animatic reflects how fast we want our cutting rate to be, so gives us an idea of how many shots we are going to need for our opening sequence.
Film noir normally refers to dark Hollywood crime dramas that normally emphasise moral ambiguity and sexual motivation, most of the classic Hollywood noir's occurred around the 1940's - late 1950's. Film noir's are often set in a pessimistic world that is full of corruption, it is generally considered to be linked with the general Hollywood atmosphere at the time when a pre-war America was still full of anxiety and depression.
Visual Techniques
A classic film noir convention is an incredibly low-key lighting scheme, most of the contemporary pictures were already in black and white but they also emphasised the use of dark/light contrasts and shadows cast upon a set which has become iconic of the genre. Characters would normally be partially obscured by darkness and surrounded by shadows. Film noir is also known for its use of Dutch angles, low-angle shots and wide angle lenses when framing shots. Also frequently used were shots seen through distorted objects, curved or frosted glass, and shots reflected in a mirror.
Narrative
Film noir's tended to have non-linear or convoluted story lines that would frequently flashback, or flash-forward, and have a narrative voice-over from the protagonist. Narratives generally focused on crime, heist's, cons, false suspicions, double-crosses and false accusations.
Characters
Noir protagonists were often morally flawed, misunderstood, or full of existential angst. There are also stock characters such as detectives corrupt policemen and jealous husbands.
Included in our film opening, we have decided to have the killer wearing a mask, and carrying a lollipop to fit in with our murder story. His weapon of choice is also a knife, so research had to be carried out to see what type of all of these props would be best suited to our production. We looked at different masks and lollipops on the internet, and some of the best ones we found can be seen below.
On the 6th February, our group visited Wilderness Woods to practice filming in a location, and to think about any issues we would have when filming in our locations, for example risk assessments. We had an hour to find locations we wanted to film in within the woods, and then and extra two hours to film a short sequence with some practice shots we may use in our film opening sequence included. We found that the lighting and setting in the woods was perfect for our storyline and we thought it would be an effective location for our horror/thriller genre, and therefore decided that we would include a wood location for our opening sequence.
