Feedback - Miss Spencer

Film Opening feedback:
There is loads of detail and a clear understanding of the influences/conventions of your genre. Your ideas are in keeping with the genre. However there is far too much detail for an opening of a film, look back at the film openings you have studies, and watch some more. How many scenes does there tend to be? how much of the narrative is revealed? how much of the character is built up? How much of the stting is established?
Do you think your ideas fit in with this? THey seem to be whole film ideas rather than just the opening.

Have a look again, you do need whole film ideas, but you also need to be clear about where the opening you are making will end.


Analysis of film openings feedback:
You have made an excellent start Ben - using lots of media language and often discussing the meaning of the elements you have picked out. You have also thought about conventions of the genre and linked them to the elements you have picked out.
I would like ot see a little more detail however (make sure you cover Sound/mise en scene/ editing and camera movement/framing etc)
Your work is currently on a level 3 but in order to improve you should:

Use your Foundation Portfolio Booklet to ensure that all posts have the correct title, and make sure they are in a similar order.

You are marked on grammar and punctuation etc, check through your work for this, including capital letters for "I" proper nouns etc.

Break up your work with JPEG images throughout you analysis (stills from the film) and a video of the opening sequence in order to illustrate your analysis (make then relevent to what you are talking about throughout)

Ensure your work it titled appropriately - put the genres together in separate posts (one post for each genre - two films for each genre!)

Think about the questions below, ensure you are addressing all of them.

  Study the opening sequences of any film from the Thriller, Horror, and Romantic comedy genre. E.g. Seven, The Dark Knight Rises, Halloween, Notting Hill, Love Actually etc. Analyse how the sequence has been constructed through its use of: Camera angles, shots, movement, Editing, Sound, Special effects and Mise-en-scene etc.

· In terms of editing how have the separate images been put together - Think in terms of frequency of cuts, fades in/out, jump cuts, dissolves etc.

• What visual images appear on screen throughout the sequence? And what do they mean?
• · Describe what narrative (story) is being displayed in the sequence from start to finish.
• · Describe what kind of music; diegetic/non-diegetic/incidental/ambient etc. is being played over the sequence.
• · How and what titles are being displayed during the sequence and in what order.
• · What kind of characterisation is evident? - Age, gender, relationships etc. 

Pitch

Horror/Thriller Film Ideas

Nightmare – Horror 

A man with a bloody scar/cut on his face is running away from something by a canal. The man stops running and looks in horror as the camera Is away from him and a black figure with a cloak can be seen on the left side of the frame. The man repeatedly shouts “Stay Away From Me!” 3 times (Last time he shouts it – “STAY AWAY FROM ME!” screen cuts black with bold distorted text ’12 Hours Earlier’. The frame fades in ‘from black’ and a man can be seen riding a bike through his local town until he falls off his bike and a bag containing an item can be seen from a distance, the man stares at the bag and he hear his name being whispered. He walks over to the man (Foot shot of his feet walking over to the bag – link to later in the video) he picks up the bag and unravels a book (has mystical writing on the cover – looks burnt ‘link to hell’) containing what he thought was an old Latin book (Dead Language) he sits down on a curb and opens the book, he looks through the pages then puts the book down he pulls his phone out of his pocket and starts texting someone “Found this Weird book on the streets, what should I do?” he gets a reply from his friend saying “Read It” (the camera focuses on his phone then the camera focuses on the book) the book opens by itself and turns to a page in the book the man starts reading the book and he can understand it. As he’s reading out the words on the page his voice gets quieter and quieter until his voice changes into an evil sound –scary kind of like Gollum from Lord of the Rings (the camera looks at the book ‘close up’ then the camera tilts up to his face and his eyes are turning pail, Extreme Close-up on his mouth saying the enchantment then the frame changes to his right eye which is closed then he quickly opens it and its white ‘no pupil’ the screen turns black with an echo of a screaming girl). ‘Fade-In’ the man wakes up on the street and its dark ‘Night-time’ he’s walking through the streets and you can see frost come out of his mouth ‘cold – frost breath’ he continues walking until he stumbles ‘collapses in pain’ he pulls himself back up and holds his wrist (the man is starting to freak out) he turns his hand over (camera can view palm) and as he opens his hand and bright light ’Red’ bursts out of his hand with a loud scream, he immediately closes his hand then re opens it and its gone. The sound of a creepy music box is heard ‘echo’ the man turns around (over the shoulder shot and an old fashioned push chair wheels into frame and stops - music stops) the sound of heavy breathing can be heard with a faint heart beat in the background. A shot of the man’s feet is in frame and as he starts slowly walking towards the push chair the music starts playing again (heavy breathing and heartbeat can still be heard – heart beat starts to get louder) he is within centimetres away the push chair and he places his hand on the push chair and the music stops ‘echo’ a P-O-V shot is shown as he looks into the push chair (Push Chair is Empty) but as he pulls himself up a dark black figure (ghost/spirit/demon) can be seen then is cuts out (black screen) shot of shoulder is in frame and a grey hand with claw fingernails is placed on the man’s shoulder then he pulls the man to look at his face and its screaming at him – cut to black screen ‘mini montage of what’s to come in the film –evil laughing in the background ‘echoes’ – show title screen’ (end – credits) 

Tick Took - Thriller/Action 

‘Fade in’ Cyclist eating a Subway on a bench (Bike is clearly seen on the floor) gets a text on his phone ‘over the shoulder shot’ as man reads the text “Package to be delivered with extreme caution (carefully) Do not open the Package – Don’t disappoint me – Alan” (Shot of man looking at bag on bench ‘focus from his face to bag’). Man picks up bag and starts cycling to the location. As he is cycling he falls off a curb ‘man falls off bike – bag gets damaged’ he pulls himself up rubs his wounds better and goes to pick up bag until he hears Beeping ‘coming from the bag’ he picks up the bag, pulls out the package (beeping is clearly heard) and opens it up carefully ‘bomb with a timer on the front of it is shown in the frame’ man puts it carefully back into the bag and puts it down, he then pulls out his phone and calls his boss ‘Alan’. The man starts questioning him and Alan threatens him on the phone saying that if he doesn’t do as he says then he will die (Alan has the detonator). The man calms Alan down and tries to think, Alan reminds him to go to the location but the man has other ideas (the man runs away – with the bomb) – Alan can’t detonate the bomb as he needs it. The Boss orders his men to eliminate the man and retrieve the bomb from him (the bike/bomb has a tracker on it too pin point the man’s location). The man finds himself by a river stream he pulls the bomb out of the bag and looks at the timer (as its been activated the time is going down) the man is about to throw the bomb into the stream when 4 of the boss’s men find him holding guns to him, the man runs for cover and shouts “thought you were men? Then fight like one” the men all put their guns in their holsters and charge toward the man and start fighting (action sequence) ‘Defeats first Man and takes his gun (shoots 2 more men) thinks that’s all of them but he turns around and another man has a gun pointed to his head (man #4 asks for the bomb) the man pulls the bomb out of his bag and goes to hand it to him but he strikes his hand (knocks the gun out of his hand – in which the man is able to pull the gun from behind his back and knock him out with it ‘doesn’t shoot him’ the man get the trackers off the bike and throws it into the stream (the man can track him as it disappears – he thinks he’s dead) Alan tries to call his men to ask for  a status update but can’t get hold of him. His phone rings and it’s the man – Alan looks in Anger/Horror, the man says to him “Hello Alan, it’s me. I’d watch your back if I were you. Nice party you sent me it’s a shame they couldn’t stay till the end to find out what happens to you. I’m coming for you” – puts the phone down on him/hangs up ‘Alan is scared’ – Fade to Black (Title Screen – mini Montage of what’s still to come in the film) Credits.

Film Influences – Films that inspired my stories

• The Transporter –Thriller/Action
• Insidious – Horror/Thriller
• The Possession – Horror
• 30 Minutes or less – Thriller/Action/Comedy 
• Paranormal Activity – Horror
• Evil Dead – Horror
• The Expendables – Thriller/Action
• The Pact – Horror
• Non-Stop – Thriller/Action
• Jack Reacher – Thriller/Action
• G.I. Joe Retaliation - Action

Rom-Com Opening Scenes

Romantic Comedies

Love Actually - 2003 opens with a montage of families and friends greeting incoming passengers who have just arrived back in the UK at Heathrow Airport. The People in the framing can clearly be seen hugging and kissing one and other (Boyfriend kissing Girlfriend, Mother kissing Daughter, Sister kissing Sister etc) this was done to embrace the feeling of love into the film even within the first 30 seconds of the introduction. The reason why an Airport was used in the film was because the film is set in December 'Christmas Time' - as families try and rush home to be with their families at Christmas, this helps to show the passion of love at the time. Also an Airport was also used as people from all around the world come to airports in different countries all the time, this tells us that Christmas is a time where everyone no matter what race, religion or country you are from come together at this wonderful time of the year and celebrate Christmas and Love together. When talking about M-E-S Costume is a nice piece to talk about as the people in the scene can clearly be seen wearing reasonably nice colours 'Blue, Green, Red, Brown, Black Etc', also at the very start of the scene (when it fades in from black) you can clearly see a couple wearing a thick jacket - relating to the fact that its cold and snowing outside, they are wearing it to keep themselves warm.

As they are inside an airport the lighting is very Bright but some lens filters may have been used to make the contrast of the scene stand out a little bit more than originally filmed. The Camera angles used are very basic 'Close-Up's, Medium Shot's, Pan's Etc' these shots were used because you can really see the emotion of the characters in the frame when its closer to their face, where as if you used a long shot all you would really see is someone kissing someone or hugging someone without really seeing any emotion. In this scene you can see Female characters crying with joy, smiling, laughing and mainly kiss - to show how love is in the air, Some Editing was used such as some Time Lapse Effects and some added zoom but the zoom would really come from the camera itself. Time Lapse/Slow Motion was used to show the emotion of the character in a bit more detail (as its in slow motion it can bring out the feeling of the character - 'when I saw him it was like time slowed down - linking to the feeling of love and happiness'. The Text edit is very basic with nothing really fancy as the editors want the audience to focus more on what is happening in the scene as its important (towards the end of the film)


Hitch - 2005 

opens with men looking at certain women (someone they potentially like/fancy) in some sense the scene was like the men were dreaming about the girl as the way they gaze towards her is like they are dreaming. Then the main Character Hitch can clearly be seen as he enters the frame after one of the girls collects her mail from her locker and he pretends to get his - but he doesn't actually live there. Hitch then starts explaining how to get the girl your Love Actually because they are both love film meaning you have to capture the emotion/expression of the characters on camera in order to gain success in that particular Genre, meaning a fair few Medium shots/Close-Ups were used but also a few long shots/establishing shots (the Establishing shots were mainly used at the very start of the film to inform the audience where the film is set in this case New York). Long shots were used when developing the characters body language to build up the atmosphere (because Hitch is telling us 'The Audience' the simple steps for finding love - directing us to success).
interested in 'Step by Step' (The girl 'The Target' is holding a dog, Hitch then pulls a Dog 'Different Gender' out of his bag which attracts the girls dog attention making the Dog run out of the lift as the door closes with the girl left inside it trying to get out so she can get her dog, Hitch then collects the girls Dog and hands it to the man in which he lays on the floor in front of a New York Taxi making the girl believe he saved her dog, causing her to become attracted to him asking him out on a date to return the favour). Costume is very clear and basic but in some sense perfect as all the men are dressed up in work clothing making this film a believable story - this can happen to anyone. The music layered over the top of Will Smith's - Hitch Narration is Non-Diagetic as the character can't hear it in the scene its what the audience can hear, an example of Diagetic sounds would be at the start of the open in scene when the alarm clock goes off, This is Diagetic as its what the Character can hear in the scene - its not layered/edited in. The Narration is both Non-Diagetic sound and Diagetic sound because at the start it has already been recorded Via a Microphone and layered into the scene until Hitch enters the scene - that's when it changes. The Lighting is Bright and Sunny to emphasise the fact that its a perfect day - relating to the thought that perfect things will happen today. An Added minor Glow Transition is used to again relate to the feeling of love - like the character is dreaming. Editing wise the Text is quite fluent and traditional when relating to a romantic film as if the text was plain and boring it wouldn't help set the scene really. Added fade in/out transitions were used on the text to make it soft and smoother plus the text animation makes it look better as it makes it stand out more (the text emerges from a line - underlining). The Camera movement is similar to

Textual Analysis of ‘Mission Impossible 2’

Textual Analysis of ‘Mission Impossible 2’

At the start of ‘Mission Impossible 2’ we can see a lot of red Cliff Rock (What looks like the grand canyon) we don’t yet know what is happening until the camera then zooms into the character free climbing up the cliff ‘Establishing shot – with added zoom’ there is then a pan shot of the character climbing up the cliff (this can be an aerial shot or a P.O.V ‘Point Of View Shot) as you can hear the sound of an Eagle once the frame changes which is symbolic for ‘Freedom and the thought of feeling like a bird’ – as he his high up hanging onto a cliff without feeling scared but has a lot of adrenaline. As he is climbing up the cliff side a lot of aerial shots/P.O.V shots can be seen until the camera changes to a Medium Shot of the characters hands which are covered in chalk. The chalk can tell us a bit more about what is happening as if he was hanging onto the cliff accidentally trying to run away from someone or something his hands would be dirty and potentially covered in cuts/ blisters and maybe even blood due to the extreme realism of how high he actually is. But as he has chalk on his hands it shows us that he was meant to climb up the cliff side – link to the feeling of adrenaline. There is a high angle shot of the Character looking down on a certain area of the cliff side, the angle was used to emphasize how he thinks he has power as he’s looking down at the spot (he thinks he can make the jump). The character then jumps, lands on the spot but slips in which the camera then changes to a Low Angle Shot to show how the power he had has now gone and he’s in a very dangerous situation. The character extends his left arm and tries to hold himself onto the edge, by doing so it looks like a religious symbol (looks like Jesus Christ hanging on a cross) the light of the sun is also shining on him which can show us how the light is shining on him 'Hope - Heavenly sign' this can tell us that the character is maybe a hero or a savior 'linking to the thought of Jesus'. The Character then pulls himself up onto the top of the cliff and stands proudly staring into the ibis. as the camera 'Establishing shot/P.O.V' moves towards the character, the sound of the 'Helicopter' Fades into the scene and the Helicopter is in shown in the next frame. The Sound use of the Helicopter and using the P.O.V Shot helps figure out what is happening in the scene. The P.O.V Shot we associated with a Bird such as an Eagle - Links to 'Bird Of Prey/Predator hunting Prey. We didn't know that the camera wasn't a bird so we initially assumed that the camera was the Eagle to blend in with the environment but actually its more than that. Once the helicopter comes into frame we see two men in Black Suits and Black Sunglasses which is related to 'The Men in Black - Secret Organisation' but the fact that one of them is holding a gun gives us a feeling/sense that he is evil and trying to kill the character but really once a close-up of the characters face and the character theme tune is shown we realize that they are on his side when he goes up to the missile and pulls out some sunglasses which is a message (delivering 'Ethan Hunt' a Mission) he then throws his glasses towards the camera lens which blows up, blending into the title sequence. The CGI Title Sequence shows some added mini pieces/images of things relating to the film E.G - The Knight and the Dragon (This can symbolize the fact that Ethan Hunt is the hero trying to defeat a threat/villain) also there are some body elements shown E.G - What look like Blood Cells and like an X-Ray vision of someone’s Chest (This can tell us a bit about the film as Ethan Hunt has to try and destroy a virus/make a cure for the virus to save the world - linking to the Blood Cells). The CGI Title of Mission Impossible II can be seen with like an added flow like mist which builds up the text.

Feedback - Miss Spencer

An interesting film and a thoughtful evaluation. This is at a low level 3, in order to improve why not add images to illustrate your point and look into other examples of the elements like 180 degrees etc.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Preliminary Task Evaluation

1. What is the 180 Degree rule? a match on action? and eye line match? and how did you incorporate them in the planning of your film on your storyboard. 

The 180 Degree rule is a guideline within the onscreen relationship between two Objects or Two Characters in a scene. Imagine a scene where two people are sitting at a table eating dinner while having a conversation, strait in the middle of those two characters is an imaginary line called ‘The Axis’. By keeping the camera on one side of the axis for each shot in the scene, the first character is always right of the second character. If the camera was to go on the other side of the line, both characters would be seen on the right in each frame E.G - if it was a shot reverse shot. 

A Match on Action is an Editing Technique for editing in which one shot cuts to another shot showing the action of the character in the first shot. E.G - if a character in a scene goes to open a door, there could be a medium shot of the character walking up to the door and extending there arm to the handle, then the frame changes to a extreme close-up of the hand on the door handle, then a shot behind the door of the character walking into the room. 

An Eyeline Match is an editing technique which is based on what the audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing. This is also called a Point of View Shot where the camera is placed where the characters eyes would be. E.G - a man is looking off-screen to his left, and then the frame cuts to a television that he is watching.

In my film i incorporated the 180 Degree Rule, Match on Action and Eye-line Match With a conversation. The 180 Degree rule was used to change the viewing of each character, The Match on Action shot was used when one of the Characters passes a booklet to the other character. and an Eye-line Match was used when one of the characters looks at his phone with it counting down from 10. 

2. How did the filming process go in terms of filming shots from the storyboard and filming around college?

The Filming went really well, the shots we filmed were better than i expected. there was some minor errors due to the fact that there were some other people at the side of the shot who didn't react to what the main characters were doing. The Match on Action shot was probably the best shot we used in the film, The Eye-line Match Shot could be more inline with what the character is seeing but apart from that the shots were really good. 

3. What did you learn about video editing on Adobe Premiere? Think in terms of using transitions, adding sound and green screen. 

As i have never used Adobe Premiere before i learned quite a lot about the basics of editing and cutting video clips, sound clips and effects. I didn't really use transitions as i didn't know how to but the green screen effect used was very detailed. For making the green screen effect good i edited the clip in Adobe After Effects (i Have used this software before).