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.

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

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.

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... 

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.

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


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

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