After looking for similar footage from movies which we are filming I found this teaser from a music video which captures some of the different shots that we are looking to recreate. the 2nd shot when JME is trying to run away from a per-suer he runs into another which was the initial idea in the scene we are attempting to create, the shot shows the man running towards the camera which we are looking to do to create a sence of panic and tension.Shot 6 when the man is holding a photo and shouting in an angry manner, we plan to have a photo of the wanted man on the kingpin's desk while he shouts orders seeming angry, the shot however is a close up and we're looking to shoot an extreme close up of the kingpin's face when filming.Shot 12 when the man is holding his walkie talkie is exactly what the idea in our opening will contain and is great image to copy as the shot is a medium shot so we can almost completely see the what the man is doing.
The mise-en-scene of this clip shows men trying to avoid capture and get away with illegal acts. the men are all wearing fully black costumes similar to that of what our characters will be wearing and the location is a busy highstreet which we shall also be using and the other location is a warehouse, we will be using a slightly different set to film are second scene. however this clip was very helpful in displaying the way we may use to convey the different shots.
a man stands in a telephone box and makes a phone call to the 'king pin'. The king pin picks up the phone and expects to hear that the 'wanted man'. he hears from his henchman that and finds out this isn't the case and becomes displeased.they have a conversation about how the wanted man must be caught. The 'henchman' catches sight of the 'wanted man' and hangs up the phone and begins his pursuit. The 'wanted man' realises he is being followed and tries to shake off his follower and almost runs into the other 'henchmen'. The other 'henchmen' catch sight of the 'wanted man' and join in the pursuit. The 'wanted man' manages to put enough distance between his would capters and turns down an alley which turns out to be a dead end. The 'henchmen' follow him down the dead end alley and pull out their weapons expectedly and find out that the 'wanted man' has vanished.
Sound: The non-diagetic sound is slow background music which helps build tension. The diagetic sound includes the woman's footsteps as she runs, the diagetic sound continues as she walks throught the building
Mise-en-scene: The woman is wearing a casual/sport sweatshirt which shows that the situation is nothing special at first sight. The setting is a dull, forrest filled with obstacles. There are men in suits which suggests that she is in some sort of institute as the building seems very formal
Narrative: A woman is running through a forrest in a fast tempo fashion and an FBI officer is there and provides her with some information. The enhances the viewers expectation that this will be some sort of undercover mission or a personal quest for someone.
Camera shots: A longshot is used with a tracker so that we can follow her movements. A low angled shot is used as the woman moves towards the shot and it swivles round as she then begins to run away from the camera into the distant. A tracking shot is then used as the woman continues to run. As she goes through obstacles the camera pans around her. When she meets the FBI officer a close up is used to show his facial expression for more dramatic effect.
Aim: The aim of the sequence is to produce some enigma as the viewer does not initially know why the woman is running which poses the question has she done something wrong? This enhances the mystique of the characters
Adulthood
Camera shots: There is a use of blurred shots to outline the flashbacks from the previous movie this establishses the mood of the film. there are establishing shots of the club of people dancing and there are uses of close ups of different characters showing the different moods and use of spliced shots shows different stages of what the clubbers are doing.
Narative: this follows the story of life in West london for troubled youths. Opening sequence shows 3 young "ghetto youths" as they rob and fight to establish themselves on the street they show a lot of violent behaviour which sets the narrative expectation that this film will have a lot of violence and conflict.
Sound: the sound has a transition as the soundtrack starts off non-diagetic as a song is getting played during the establishing shot of the cars driving past, but as the the camera focuses on chrarcters the music becomes diageticas it can be heard in the club as when the characters begin to talk the music can still be heard.
Mise-en-scene: the Characters are wearing stereo typical clothing which is hoodies and "low batty" jeans as they are at a rave and the setting is of that of club as the storyline revolves around the typical life of teenagers living in the rough parts of london.
Aim: the aim of this opening sequence is to introduce the new characters as this is a sequal so the old characters are not present so the opening scene poses the enigma of who the new characters are and why they are doing the things they are. This opening scene also shows the return of Sam from the previous movie and shows his prison sentence being finished which shows his new attitude this aims to show his new atitutde and the person he now is.
Comparison: These movie have similar motives that they try to show perspective of life and have dramatic openings to pose the enigma of why are the characters behaving in a certain manor. But they contrast as they may both show hard hitting stories they take completely seperate routes.
Content- credits fit the theme of police badges CIA badges with actors. Starts off with opening credits. Plain darkness, then a phone rings and the voice of a dark sinister man as he describes how he will never be caught and describes his latest murder the sound of the phone being hung up leads to the start of the soundtrack. Main credits roll from main actors, titles and director. The scene is two detectives in their office debating what they should do next. The phone rings again and the detectives hear of the discovery of another dead body and they rush out to destination.
Opening shots could be shot with an extreme close up of just the mouth of a man whose face cannot be seen and then a jump cut to a body lying motionless. This opening sequence would be simple yet effective as the narrative expectation would be of psychological thriller which proves to have the biggest following in terms of thrillers and can be played in many ways. As mine is about a multiple murderer I have chosen to try and display it from the detectives view to make it seem more mysterious and interesting.
The movie is set in a city were crime has zero tolerance apart from mysterious character who intends to disrupt the city by performing murders and the police have no idea how to catch him. I think that a dark room and an office would be two great locations to shoot my opening sequence as the dark room would be perfect for shooting the shots were the man is on the phone opening mocking the police as it would be easy to distort the visability, the office would be good for shooting the exchanges between the detectives as it would look realistic and be a great way to portray the scene.
Thriller is a genre of film and television that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. The primary subgenres of thrillers are: mystery, crime and psychological thrillers.Thrillers are mostly characterised by an atmosphere of menace, violence, crime and murder by showing society as dark, corrupt and dangerous, though they often feature a happy ending in which the villains are killed or arrested. Thrillers heavily promote on literary devices such as plot twists, red herrings and cliffhangers. They also promote on moods, such as a high level of anticipation, adrenaline rush, arousal, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety and sometimes even terror. some examples of sub-genres in thrillers are:
psychological thrillerse.g. strangers on a train movies- which have complex and and often dark storylines
man on the run- e.g. the bourne identity- movies which follow one character trying to evade capture for a crime
action thriller e.g. Die hard- movies which often involve the police getting involved with a violent gangs and often has explosions and gunfire
slasher thriller e.g. the hills have eyes - often include multiple murders with simple storylines
spoof thriller e.g. shawn of the dead- mock the convections of thrillers and often reflect scenes from other movies.
horror thriller e.g. House of wax- movies which show dark scenes and often to scare the viewer
This is the opening scene from the movie "gangs of new york" the opening scenes suggest that there is a lot of conflict is war music playing in the background as the priest this make the narative expectations very steroetypical in the idea that there will be a lot of fighting in this movie as right at the begining the priest is marching the "dead rabbits" into battle. after the leader of the natives however kills the preist this may con the vieweres into thinking this is the last of the conflict as the war music dies out and the the priest's killer makes a speech about how this is the end. When the child of the preist however tries to kills the butcher ( his father's killer) he is captured and he has revenge in his eyes which show that this isn't the end of the feud setting up the narrative for a story of revenge. The compilation in this clip a very well orcustarted as the shot selection is very simple, compliments the atmosphere and the continuity is floorless. from 3:39 its starts of showing the priest and his immediate men and the camera angle slowly changes to a long shot to show more the people inside his burrow preparing themselves and the chages again to a great establishing shot of the entire burrow showing the scale of which the war they are about to begin will be clash literally of waves of people.
This clip also introduces the two the main characters of this film the butcher (bill cuttings) and amsterdam the priest's son and their opening exchanges tell you all of what you need to know about their characters. Amsterdam is young boy who have self inflicted himself the burden of avenging his fathers death and from the look in his eyes as the little boy shows the hatred that has for the butcher
This clip from 'The usual supsects' shows all the classic conventions of a thriller. You learn a lot about the narrative from this opening scene as you see a dead body on a floor, a man get killed and a boat go up in flames. simply from theese shots you can tell this movie may contain gangsters and the clip suggests that this scene could be the end of the story but the beginig of the movie.
We only see two characters in this clip but interaction they have shows that they know each other. the fact that one kills the other could show one of two things, that they have had some of conflict or that the man kills his friend out of pitty as he can no longer feel his legs. Both theese characters reflect characteristics of gangsters showing the viewer that this is based on some sort of gangster activity.
This dvd cover has all the conventions of a successful dvd cover. It has the main actor's name in bold print as a point of sale as it shows the film has a sucessful actor. The tagline has an element of humour as it ties in with the image in the foreground of a man in a housedress holding a special agent badge. This cover has great apeal as each element ties is well with each other the cover is meant to portray an action comedy about an agent goin undercover as a scary woman.
Steven speilber has directed a vast number of films from many genres as he is very widely known for his unique style.Many of his movies have a number of awards including schindler's list, A.I- artificial inteligence, catch me if you can and ET- the extra terrestrial. There are many conventions from films which he has directed which include:
focusing on the main character and uses supporting characters to feed off
exposeses the true emotion of the main character
uses the soundtrack/score to shaddow the movie and tell a story of it's own
creates many anticlimaxes throughout
In this clip from ET although e.t is not the centre of attention from the camera speilberg uses the characters around the alien to keep him involved for example the little girl and boy talkabout e.t when he is not on camera or talk about him emphasises his importance, this is clever technique as by allowing other characters to be more heavily involved the can be used to enhance the status of the main character even though they may not be on screen
In this clip from artificial inteligene the use of music in this scene is used to great effect as between 0-2:10 there are a collection of high notes which suggest something is about happen and moments later David is lft abandoned. the music reflects the mother's distress and david's sadness as she tries to drive off but david refuses to be left alone.
This clip shows the expossure of frank in Catch me if you can as when he finds out his father has died the audience begins to realise he isn't the excellent inteligent con-man he portrays but is a scared boy who has been running from the truth since he was 16 hiding unde different personas.
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
1. What did you think was the point to the activity?
I think that it was to help develop the knowledge of making sure that when shooting a movie from different angles that you make u leave hang time so when camera shot is switched there isn't an obvious jump cut and the video flows well.
2. In regard to your finished sequence, what worked well?
I think that the continuity in this clip is very well edited for example when the camera angle switches from the overview to the extreme close up of the hand there is no obvious jump cut and the clip then flows well.
3. What would you aim to improve about your sequence? What continuity mistakes can you see?
there is a error when the camera starts with a POV of actor 2 and he is holding a sheet but when the camera angle changes to a medium shot the actor is no longer holding the sheet and there is no evidence to suggest he has put it down.
4. What did you learn from doing this activity?
I learnt how to correctly show continuity and remove any accident jump cuts while edtiting so that post production there is a more asthetically pleasing final product
Thursday, 7 October 2010
1st shot - Establishing shot
2nd shot - Mid Shot
3rd shot - Medium Long Shot (tracking)
4th shot - Low angle Mid Shot with slow rotation
5th, 6th shot - Mid Shot
7th shot - Medium Close-Up
8th shot - long shot
9th shot - Medium Close-Up
10th shot - Medium Close-Up
11th shot - Medium Close-Up
12th shot - High Angle, Wide Shot
13th shot - Medium Shot
14th shot - Close-Up
15th shot - Long shot continuity Medium Long Shot
16th shot - Long shot
17th shot - low Angle, Close-up
1. What principles of continuity are used here? How successfully? Refer to specific shots / screengrabs.
the principles are sucessful to a certain extent as the picture flows but there are certain frame transitions were you can see the director has chosen to cut to a new camera angle which is conspicous such as shot 1-2 there is clear jump cut which doesn't look very neat and there is a clear switch in position by the protagonist otherwise the continuity is very successful as shot 3-4 is very well cut as the movie flows perfectly during theese shots.
2. What is the effect of the editing on the viewer? What are we meant to feel at different stages? (ie before she enters the house, in the kitchen, in the corridor, in the bedroom, running away)?
the editing is very successful as as there are three main stages through this clip the protagonist's entrance to the house , the finding of the body and the reaction and the emotions felt by the audience as there is a great element of shock as the body without the eyes is found.
3. What is the 'best bit' for you in this sequence in terms of learning new techniques and why?
sequence that i felt was most effect was shots 15 throuh to 17 was most sucessful as there is a great flow in terms of continuity and the shot compisition is very clever in terms of it the relfects how the clip is going
