Wednesday 27 March 2013

Opening sequence 3

I have analysed the opening sequence of the film 'Dark Knight Rises' as it is also an action film.

Lighting:
The lighting is mostly naturalistic, even in the scene with the aeroplane. The lighting motly comes from the sun and only very small percentage is generated from light bulbs. This gives the impression of very naturalistic opening sequence even though it is about a superhero.

Setting:
There were 3 settings in the sequence. The first was a memorial in a mansion. The setting was rather naturalistic with a lot of pictures of the dead person and flowers. The second setting was an airport which only appeared for a very short amount of time but was also very naturalistic. The airport was presumably private as there was only one plane and only one lane for landing and taking off. The last and the major setting was inside the aeroplane. The setting was also naturalistic, looking exactly as a real plane. There were many seats and small windows as well as a door opend using a big handle. This setting was the most expensive out of the three as it required a lot of money to hire and fly the plane enough times to film a perfect sequence.

Props:
The props used int the opening sequence were: briefcase, handgun and a big assault rifle. The props suggested many thing to the audience. The briefcase suggested the audience that either money was involved or some bacterium, stating that if it was money, the assasins were very materialistic. The assault rifle suggested to the audience that the killers were very agressive and dangerous, creating tension in the audience wether ther is going to be blood from the beginning. The hand gun suggested to the audience that even the main man had a weapon to protect himself or attack but not as heavy as the lower ranked killers, therefore it stated that he is the main organiser of crime.

Make-up:
The make-up was very light and limited as no female characters appeared in the sequence. This meant that the characters appearing on screen needed to look as realistic as possible limiting the amount of make-up used in order for them to look manly.

Costume:
The costume differed for most of the characters. The main man was dressed formally but not too formal so he was wearing shirt and trousers and a jacket and this made him standout from the lower rank killers as they were dressed in army costume. The man that was performing his speach at the memorial was dressed very formally in suit and tie, to keep the memorial as realistic as possible. Then the captured prisoner had a mask on which gave him the image of evil person and also was wearing a long sleeved, black shirt as black is also associated with evil.

Music:
The music was very limited in the opening sequence but sound effects of the man talking gave the impression of the man even more evil than he was. It made the man look stronger and more powerful than he was, as well as gave him enigma and some kind of mystery that is then solved as the film progresses.

Opening sequence 2

I have analysed the opening sequence of the film 'The bourne legacy'.

Lighting:
Most of the lighting in the first 2 mintes is naturalistic, as the settings are mountains, however the sequence filmed underwater was filmed using artificial lighting. The use of both lightings (naturalistic and artificial) gave the impression of real mountains but also that the man uses rather newer technology in the film.

Costume:
The character in the opening sequence at first only wore thermal leggins which were ideal for the setting and activities he was doing. As the man got out of the water he put on a piece of thermal material whcih kept heat inside it allowing the man to warm up after diving in the cold water. This suggested to the audience that the man was techniclly advanced and also that he was a trained perhaps marine training in the mountains. The costume perhaps suggested that the man is very disciplined and that he can survive even with just a pair of leggins in ice cold water.

Props:
There was only one prop used in the whole sequence which was a thin and long plastic/metal container which the man ised for training purposes. This told us that he had professional equipment for the training and that he is a professional marine or trained agent. The prop was shown as a target which the man has to reach, this suggest that he is very disiplined due to the fact he could just leave the container in the water rather than diving afte it, but yet he does it.

Make-up
There was very little make up used in the sequence as big part of it was filmed underwater, where the mans face was not shown. The make-up used in the scenes on land was just to matte his skin to prevent it from reflecting light, especially when wet.

Music:
The music built tension through out the whole sequence, sound effects were loud to break the sound of calm music and build even more excitment and tension in the audience. The naturalistic sounds of waterfall and fire burning gave the impression of this being a real event rather than a hollywood film.


Monday 25 March 2013

Editing

--> The editing and film recording are the two most important things in film. Without editing films would not make any sense to the audience Editing is also known as the 'invisible art' as it is a process of putting together shots in film/ TV making in such a way, that it is invisible for the audience. It is a combination of film sequences, which are being modelled in order to create a story, which makes sense and has some meaning.

 Sometimes the invisibility of this art is deliberately distorted to convey a meaning to the audience for example when the cut is not on time to suggest perhaps there is a film in a film, when there is a fancy edit (not naturalistic), when the editing does not make sense perhaps to show that the situation the main character is in is very confusing or even when everything is taken away like on the set of ‘Dogville’ and the actors perform on a big green screen.

There are some conventions of editing like for example master shots. In most films there is a master shot to establish the location as this helps the audience to understand the enigma. The editing must also stick to a narrative in order for it to make sense and tick to the plot written or invented by the director, as well as tell the story by keeping the outline of chronological events.

In a trailer it is perticularly hard to close the narrative of the story in such a short extract but at the same time, keep the enigma. Here are some examples of editing in trailers:



Audience

--> The target audience for mainstream films are 15-24 as these age groups are most likely to appear in the cinemas. The difference between the minimum age and maximum age is 9 years therefore the film makers have a really challenging job to do, in order for the same film to appeal equally to the youngers as well as to those with bigger life experience.

In order to reach the target audience, distributors need manage the whole of advertisement in such a way, that everyone will see some sort of advert and will be interested in seeing the film.

To reach the target audience film distributors use 3 main advertisment ways;

1. posters
http://www.w7swall.com/wp-content/wallpapers/20120410/official_avatar_movie_poster-normal649.jpg
2. Merchandise
http://www.cottonable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/avatar-ship-jake-sully-tee-shirt-official-movie-apparel-merchandise-stylinonline.jpg
3.Trailers

Soundtrack for film

I have researched soundtrack for a action/thriller film genre in order for it to be used in our film. I have researched many sites across the web to find the best soundtrack. I have found a sountrack which is very conventional for a thriller and action film. It has a fast tempo, a lot of low drums and a bass drum as well as bells. As well as that, it has a breakdown at points to give the film more tension.

Saturday 23 March 2013

Update

Today we have finally finished our film and are now preparing for the evaluation !

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Plan of action due to stolen Mac's



 This is the plan of action for the rest of the term until the easter holiday. Due to the stolen mac's issue we had to re-schedule the whole project and this is the new schedule.
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Thursday 14 February 2013

Music research

I have researched music for films for our final product. I analysed some mainstream hollywood films which are the same genre (action/thriller)

In the film 'Blitz' the music in the opening sequence is very rock like and heavy, with a fast beat and tempo. The music seems aggressive and shows the main character as a mad person, not appealing to the audience as a serious character. This type of instrumental doesn't suit our film as it would not present the characters and the seriousness of the situation (the bacteria being made) in the correct light.

The music in the opening scene of 'Bourne Legacy' is very mysterious and tension building. The soundtrack consists of a low dr, presumably bass and trumpet. This combination builds tension as well as enigma in the film from the very beginning. The music gets louder and clearer as well as violins being added to build up the tension for the titles. After that the music is just left with a long note created on a synthesizer building more intrest in the audiece.


Wednesday 13 February 2013

Music research

I have researched music for our opening sequence. I have analysed some opening sequences of hollywood films and the music in the first 2 minutes.

In the film opening 'Mechanic' the opening music is very latin which straight away reveals a code to the audience for the enigma  in the film. The music at first was made from piano and drums but then moved on to low drums, guitar and rattling noises. Although this type of music doesn't suit our opening sequence, i think it is a very good way of establish the place where our film is set. The music stays the same for a while without any perticular volume raising for the title etc.


In the opening sequence of the film 'Maxiumum Conviction' the main instruments used at the start are a trumpet and drums (bass). This is conventional for this type of film genre. The trumpet consists of long notes and the drum doesn't appear frequently. This changes as the soundtrack progresses, the trumpet is played in short notes and a violin is mainly being played. The beat of the drum appears every 3 seconds, adding tension with every beat. I think the use of just the violin at the beggining and then adding the drum and trumpet for a short time is very effective, as it builds tension, breaking the long notes of violin.

Tuesday 12 February 2013

Response to feedback

-->
Many groups gave us the feedback that our opening sequences did not make sense or were nit clear enough. We have investigated this and we understood the confusion of our critics. This helped us to improve the film by adding codes, which helped to solve the enigma in the film.

Also we have been given feedback that some shots are not needed at all like for example the part with Kingston. We have taken this into account and taken the whole part out. We have filmed shots, which enabled the audience to understand the sequence without the shots in Kingston.

The last feedback we have been given was Theo’s extended walk towards me. We have also taken this into account and simply just shortened the clip. This allowed us to save time on re-filming the shot as we just simply edited it.

Monday 11 February 2013

Stolen Mac's

Today we have been infored that most of the media equipment like cameras and Mac's have been stolen. This means our edited sequences have disappeared as well and even if we want to start it now, we cannot film due to the missing cameras. This is a big problem as it is slowing down the whole process of finishing the project but we will have to work around it. We will create a plan of action in order to miss out minimum amount of time, which in this case is precious.

Sunday 27 January 2013

Opening Sequence

I have researched the opening sequence of action/thriller film in order to learn and understand what is used to create tension and convey meanings in a short ssequence.

I have decided to analyse the film 'The Amazing Spider-man' as it is a film from the action section in terms of genre.

Lighting:
The lighting used in the sequence is mostly artificial, as most of the opening sequence is set inside a house.The lighting is not used for special effects such as creating shadows so in terms of lighting, not many interesting points can be made.

Setting:
The setting is a big old house. This suggests to the audience that this part of the film is set in the past and is only a flashback of the main character. The size of the house also tells the audience how lonely the little boy is in the first two minutes of the sequence, as he is looking for his dad but cannot find him. The setting is realistic and details on set such as pictures and paintings on walls or even glasses perhaps makes the audience forget it is a fictional film.

Make-up:
The opening sequence of the film is not perticularly rich in make-up as the only character on screen is a little boy. In order to make the boy look as natural as possible the use of make-up had to be minimal therefore there are not many point that i could analyse in this section.

Costume:
The costume in the sequence tells the audience many facts about the character on screen. The costume that the little boy is wearing: Long sleeved vest with sleeves rolled up which says that the parents care about the little boy dressing him up nicely but the kid doesn't really care and just wants to perhaps play around. The boy is not wearing any socks or shoes which suggests to the audience that the boy perhaps has a day off school and wants to play with his parents and is so excited there is no time to put socks on. The boy is also wearing trousers clean and ironed, which suggests to the audience that the parents of the boy want him to look smart and formal as well as clean.

Props:
Although there is only one prop in the sequence, it tells the audience a lot. The glasses which the boy picks up are the same as his fathers on a family photo suggesting that they belong to him. The boy puts the glasses on which suggest he wants to be like his dad in the future, looking up to his dad. The glasses also help the boy perhaps see better which links to the game of hide and seek he is currently playing. He treats the glasses with extra respect which suggests that he really values his dad not only as a parent but also as an idol.

Music:
The music is very slow and mysterious, building the feeling in the audience as if something bad is about to take place. The music is rather sad, perhaps making the audience sympathyse with the little child who cannot find his parents. The music is the theme soundtrack of the whole film which suggest that it the whole story of 'spider-man' started back then.

Friday 25 January 2013

Today we have been filming the scene with the virus creation and overall it went very well giving us a lot to edit.

Thursday 24 January 2013

Experience

Today i have planned to film couple of shots from the storyboard starting with the 'Sciencetist'. Due to impunctuality of some group members we had to waste time waiting, then the organization of the scene and props for the scene also unabled us to work to the plan. This tought me that not everything will go as planned and that we will have to work around some problems.

Friday 11 January 2013

Preliminary Sequence Evaluation


My preliminary sequence "Feed the fish" altogether went unwell, there was a lot of room for improvement but also some few points were achieved. The bad points were taken into consideration and excluded from our final production as we will be aware more of what to do and what not to do. We will plan in our pre-production how to get around these problems as if they were potential problems we could face.

Starting with what went bad from the feedback we received was firstly the framing. We have filmed with rather bad camera with wrong lens and what we received was a very out of shape framing which straight away brought our marks down. This was very disappointing, as the quality of the filming was great itself but it all went down with the framing. Next of all the amount of footage filmed was too low which then in consequences led to a low frequency of cuts. This taken all the tension and rather all emotions, creating a dull and grey image of the film. Leading on from that, in two shots the background noise was to loud and perhaps not in place, for example in one scene there is a washing machine in the background making a lot of noise which was very unprofessional.  returning to camera the camera was shaky as no tripod was used which also made the film look unprofessional along with the braking of 180 degree rule and use of jump cuts.

Leading onto the good points,we had a very good use of costumes which straight away suggested the character of the person. A man wearing a suit and a 60's hat, would fit to the convention of a gangster or mafia boss.This made our film well thought about and limit the unprofessionalism. The mise-en-scene also helped us to save the film at least a bit. Other then that the film had bad points, which could be a positive thing, as we experienced what should not be done in a film.

If i had the chance to re-do the film i would definitely plan it out carefully and think about every detail. I would check the setting before using it and obey the 180 degree rule along with eliminate jump cuts. I would film more shots and other i would film again to get a better framing. I am happy that i could experience this now and not during my final project. Even though the preliminary sequence was rather bad, it taught me a good lesson and many lessons were taught through this practise.


Codes and Conventions of Action Films research

 All film genres have their own codes and conventios. Action thrillers as a genre aslo have them here are the following
  • The certificate for the films are mostly 12 or 15 in order to maximise the number of potential viewers as the biggest target audience is  12 to 24 ass these are the ages when we go to cinema.
  • Often hybridised with other genres like Sci Fi/Adventure/Romance to achieve wider audience
  • Major Hollywood studio produced and distributed like for example Warner Bros
  • High production values including Computer Geerated Inteligence (CGI) FX. 
  • Fast paced editing mostly to create tension
  • Classic Hollywood 3 act narrative structure (Equilibrium, Conflict, New equilibrium)
  • Predictable chain of events – cause and effect
  • Single stranded, linear, closed narrative
  • Dramatic non-diegetic sound
  • More narrative action codes than enigma codes, meaning there is no clue to slove but the case is obvious
  • Clear binary oppositions
  • Star Marketing: Audience expectations for a certain actor. Identificating with the popular actors. (Cruise/Pitt/Willis/Thurman/Jolie/Stallone/Craig/Schwarzenegger/Di Caprio…). Generic Typecasting and Secondary Persona apply
  • Romantic sub-plot, Humorous dialogue
  • Relationships with new technology (youth audiences)
  • Use of close up/Insert shots/High Key Lighting
  • Dominant representation of gender: male/female action hero. Mulvey’s male gaze and contemporary female gaze can apply... 

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Film Distribution

 
I have researched for distributors, which could potentially distribute my film. Out of many I have found, I decided the “Lionsgate” company would be the best to distribute my film for many reasons;

The Lionsgate have a lot of experience in action/thriller films distribution therefore they would know best how and when to distribute my film in order for it to have the best box office. The company can be proud of distributing films such as: “Expendables 1&2”, “Hunger Games” or even “Transporter 3”

The “Lionsgate” is a huge brand itself in the film industry therefore it will advertise the film to the fans of the company and people who check their site regularly, as the film will be displayed on the main page as just released film

The “Lionsgate” company is a rich company, which will be able to invest a big amount of money into marketing and distribution whereas smaller companies would not be able to invest as much into my film distribution as the “Lionsgate” company.

today we have discussed the dates of when we are going to create the shooting schedules for our production sequence and the costume list long with planning the cast.

Oceans 12 editing

For this task i had to use my knowledge about continuity editing in order to create a better effect using editing techniques then the original staging of the sequence. In order to achieve that, first i decided to show a long shot to establish setting and the characters in scene. Next i moved into a mid shot of Rusty talking, a reverse shot to daisy then a two shot of them both talking. This created the sens of tension in their dialogue. Then i have decided to set the camera to a over the male characters shoulder and the same shot but over the female character . Then i cut to a two shot again,  next to a mid shot of Daisy walking away, then to Rusty with hands in his pocket looking at the woman. Then a close up of Rusty talking and a mid shot of him walking away as well. This was much more effective as it created action like in a ring, where aline of dialogue was like a punch, then reverse etc.

Wednesday 2 January 2013

Narrative

Every film or story has its own plot or narrative.
A narrative a structure built of events which is presented in a perticular way to the audicence.
Tzveten Todorov is known for "linear narrative" meaning that all events in the film happen in chrinological order.

All narratives have a specific structure which is followed by almost all stories.
Equilibrium- the ordinary life, everything  as normal 
Disruption- The normality is being distorted by an outside force
Recognition- There is recignition that a disruption has aken place
Repair- attempt to repair the consequences of disruption
New Equilibrium- The problem is repaired and everything is normal again but not the same as before

Examples of narrative:

Example 1
Arctic Monkeys - Leave before the lights come on

Equilibrium: The man finds the women on the roof, trying to help
Disruption: The woman is trying to kiss the man
Recognition: The man rejects the women telling her to leave
Repair: The man walks away from the woman
New Equilibrium: The woman returns to the roof finding another man.

Example 2
The Dark Knight Rises

http://designyoutrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Dark-Knight-Rises-2012-3.jpg
Equilibrium: The city is safe and everyone lives their own lives
Disruption: The evil is attacking the city and batman is being jailed and harmed by the evil
Recognition: Batman healed his wounds and got out of jail
Repair: The city fights againts the evil and batman leads the fight
New Equilibrium: Batman banish the suit and live his own life, city is destroyed but people are safe

Example 3
The Amazing Spider-man
http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjMyOTM4MDMxNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjIyNzExOA@@._V1_SX214_.jpg
Equilibrium: The boy lives his life
Disruption: The boy is bitten by a super-spider, his unle is killedalso helps to create a monster
Recognition: The boy finds out his super-powers, finds the killer of his uncle and the monster
Repair: The superhero finds the monster and kills it using his superpowers
New Equilibrium: The superhero decides to fight evil using superpowers