To get inspiration for my groups main character Jodie I looked at a couple of posters that focus on women's facial expressions, 'Black Swan' is an example of this as the movie poster focuses on the main actress and her facial expressions as she's giving the audience direct address. The jagged lines in the woman's face connote that she's not as perfect as she seems, she has imperfections that she's not very happy about. She's not smiling which connotes that maybe she has nothing to smile about, she looks serious and flawless which doesn't seem to fit in with the fact that she has a huge crack in her face. I also looked at the movie poster for 'Girl, Interrupted' as this is similar to 'Black Swan' due to the title going across her face. This suggests that she's a secretive kind of character and that the target audience is young females as the posters are female based and direct to them.
Friday, 14 December 2012
Character Inspiration
To get inspiration for my groups main character Jodie I looked at a couple of posters that focus on women's facial expressions, 'Black Swan' is an example of this as the movie poster focuses on the main actress and her facial expressions as she's giving the audience direct address. The jagged lines in the woman's face connote that she's not as perfect as she seems, she has imperfections that she's not very happy about. She's not smiling which connotes that maybe she has nothing to smile about, she looks serious and flawless which doesn't seem to fit in with the fact that she has a huge crack in her face. I also looked at the movie poster for 'Girl, Interrupted' as this is similar to 'Black Swan' due to the title going across her face. This suggests that she's a secretive kind of character and that the target audience is young females as the posters are female based and direct to them.
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
The Main Character
The main character in my opening sequence is kind of vulnerable as she doesn't quite know what's happening to her and why she behaves in the way she does. She doesn't show a lot of emotion and she tends to keep herself to herself as she finds it's a lot easier and safer. She loves music as it helps her to get away from the stresses of her life and her schoolwork, she has a huge heart because she used to care a lot about other people until they all went against her. She wears simple clothes because she doesn't see the point in wearing named brands and making loads of effort in the way she looks just to go to school, she doesn't care if people don't like her. She wears comfortable shoes as she walks everywhere because she finds public transport exceedingly awkward and frustrating.
Props, Clothing and Location
Location:
An art classroom at Jo Richardson Community School- Easily accessible as my group attend this school and have been given permission to film in it.
Gale Street- Easily accessible as it's right near our school.
Props:
Paintbrushes- Easily accessible as we're filming most of the opening sequence at our school, they'll need washing up when we're finished with them.
Paint- Easily accessible as we're filming insdie our opening sequence takes place in an art classroom but will need cleaning up if my group make a mess with it.
Headphones- Easily accessible as I already have a pair.
School bag and folders- Easily accessible as I'm a student myself and I have lots of folders.
Canvas and easel- Easily accessible because we're filming in an art classroom, but we may not be allowed to use an easel as they're expensive and the art students use them. As a group we must take care when using these props to make sure they don't get broken.
Clothing:
Smart casual clothing and any type of shoes- Our main character is also a student which makes the clothing requirements easy to get and use.
Pros of our props, clothing and location:
An art classroom at Jo Richardson Community School- Easily accessible as my group attend this school and have been given permission to film in it.
Gale Street- Easily accessible as it's right near our school.
Props:
Paintbrushes- Easily accessible as we're filming most of the opening sequence at our school, they'll need washing up when we're finished with them.
Paint- Easily accessible as we're filming insdie our opening sequence takes place in an art classroom but will need cleaning up if my group make a mess with it.
Headphones- Easily accessible as I already have a pair.
School bag and folders- Easily accessible as I'm a student myself and I have lots of folders.
Canvas and easel- Easily accessible because we're filming in an art classroom, but we may not be allowed to use an easel as they're expensive and the art students use them. As a group we must take care when using these props to make sure they don't get broken.
Clothing:
Smart casual clothing and any type of shoes- Our main character is also a student which makes the clothing requirements easy to get and use.
Pros of our props, clothing and location:
- No cost
- All are easy to get hold of
- No time is wasted trying to look for/buy any of this
Cons of our props, clothing and location:
- We need to be extra careful with the art equipment as we're borrowing it from the schools art department
- We need to be careful when using our own things to not get paint on them, if we do this may be a problem for a member of our group
'Speed Dating' Pitch
In todays lesson we sat in our production teams and analysed different genre's of film, each person circulated around the room so we could learn about the different codes and conventions from each genre. After this we then presented our teams chosen genre to the class, so others could learn more about the it, Dylan and I analysed the thriller genre.
Tuesday, 4 December 2012
The Mood Board
My Psychological Drama Questionnaire
This is what my psychological drama questionnaire looks like, it is important for me to use a questionnaire in order for me and my group to develop the ideas for our opening sequence depending on the feedback we receive This will make our opening sequence appeal to a wider range of people as we are going to use their feedback from this questionnaire to make our ideas better. Click here to take survey
Monday, 3 December 2012
An Idea For The Rest Of The Story
In order for the audience to understand our opening sequence more, my group decided to go over what would happen in the rest of the movie, if we were to film it.
We came up with certain stages that would take place in the movie:
Following on from the opening scene, Jodie becomes hospitalised.
-After getting well, and returning to school, a new girl transfers to her school.
-Jodie becomes friends with the new girl.
-The new girl finds out about Jodie's mental problem and begins to distance away from her, and eventually, turns against her and joins the bullies.
-Jodie is in a frustrated state and ends up starting a fire, and as a result, the new girl dies.
-Everyone suspects Jodie killed her and calls her a murderer.
-Even Jodie's mum doesn't look at her in the same way.
-Jodie ends up killing herself, by starting a fire in her own home.
We decided that throughout the movie, there would be flashbacks to her past to describe how she got into the state she was in at the beginning.
Jodie's Past:
-Her parents were struggling financially.
-Her father left.
-Her mother and Jodie were homeless.
-Jodie begins to get bullied at school, and her friends leave her (Jodie gets itchy whenever in a frustrated state).
-Eventually, Jodie's mum got back on track with money, but Jodie was left with no friends.
We came up with certain stages that would take place in the movie:
Following on from the opening scene, Jodie becomes hospitalised.
-After getting well, and returning to school, a new girl transfers to her school.
-Jodie becomes friends with the new girl.
-The new girl finds out about Jodie's mental problem and begins to distance away from her, and eventually, turns against her and joins the bullies.
-Jodie is in a frustrated state and ends up starting a fire, and as a result, the new girl dies.
-Everyone suspects Jodie killed her and calls her a murderer.
-Even Jodie's mum doesn't look at her in the same way.
-Jodie ends up killing herself, by starting a fire in her own home.
We decided that throughout the movie, there would be flashbacks to her past to describe how she got into the state she was in at the beginning.
Jodie's Past:
-Her parents were struggling financially.
-Her father left.
-Her mother and Jodie were homeless.
-Jodie begins to get bullied at school, and her friends leave her (Jodie gets itchy whenever in a frustrated state).
-Eventually, Jodie's mum got back on track with money, but Jodie was left with no friends.
My Groups Screenplay
Screenplay:SIXTEEN
Setting: Jo Richardson Community School, Gale Street
Location: Art Classroom
Time: During school time and after school, just as it's getting dark
Character: A young girl (Jodie)
Dialogue: A voiceover spoken by Jodie, there is no proper dialogue
Music: Diegetic rock music
(EXTREME CLOSE UP) (ZOOM OUT) An extreme close up of one particular colour on a painting, the camera then zooms out and focuses on the character; Jodie as she puts her headphones in and starts to paint. (DIEGETIC MUSIC) Rock music can be heard from her headphones as she paints, (LONG SHOT) A long shot is used to show her painting.
(VOICEOVER) "Why me? What makes me different from anyone else? I am normal! Just because of this, everyone treats me like an animal. Don't they understand, it's not my fault!? Ever since that time, even my friends turned against me! Why?! Why me?"
(VARIOUS CAMERA SHOTS) There are different camera shots and angles of Jodie as she paints while her voiceover is being spoken she starts to use darker paints which end up covering all of the bright colours that were originally on her painting. The screen fades to black.
(VOICEOVER) Whispering of people insulting Jodie are heard, other little noises are heard too and certain words are heard more than others. The screen then returns to Jodie painting. (MID SHOT) A mid shot is used to show Jodie ruining her painting, she's covering the bright colours in black and purple, she's getting frustrated and angry now. Paint is going everywhere, she gets some on her arm. (DIEGETIC MUSIC) Her rock music is gradually getting much louder and the pace of it is getting faster, Jodie begins to scratch at her arms. (ZOOM IN) The camera slowly zooms in onto Jodie's arm showing the audience how red it is and her viciously scratching at it.
(VOICEOVER) "Who needs friends anyway?! I'm safer when I'm alone!" (VARIOUS CAMERA SHOTS) She carries on painting aggressively and various camera shots are used to show it. (CLOSE UP) There is then a close up of Jodie's eyes which show the audience how angry and upset she is with herself, she throws the paintbrush and paint to the floor. (POINT OF VIEW SHOT) A point of view shot is used to show the audience the paint and paintbrushes on the floor next to Jodie's feet. (EDIT) A low angle jump cut is used to show Jodie gathering her belongings and seeing her walk out of the classroom.
(EDIT) (ESTABLISHING SHOT) Another jump cut is used to show an establishing shot of the street, Jodie is walking down the street with her headphones in and her music still very loud. (ZOOM IN) It gradually starts to fade and the whispers of people insulting her return, she begins to scratch at the paint on her arm again then drops her belongings and falls to her knees in frustration. (EDIT) The screen fades to black and the whispers carry on.
-End of the opening sequence-
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
SWOT Analysis of Final Treatment
Today everyone in the class had to pitch their ideas as a group to the rest of the class, this is the feedback we received after we'd told everyone our idea:
Strengths: I feel that my groups had clear ideas, a well structured plan and enigma codes for the audience to deconstruct and interpret in their own way. My group are not necessarily focusing on the matter of the girl having an issue, we're focusing more on how people perceive the issue and how they adapt to it.
Weaknesses: The sensitivity of the issue, my group received feedback saying that our idea is good because it doesn't make fun out of mental health issues and we deal with it in quite a sensitive way as we're using art as a release for this character.
Opportunities: A member of our group is an artist so we have the opportunity to get the correct art resources and equipment that we're going to need during filming, we are using the school as it has all the right places for us to film in such as the art classroom when the girl is painting and the media classroom when the girl is being bullied.
Threats: As it's a serious issue my group need to be careful of how we go about showing it in our opening sequence.
Doing this activity has helped my group realise the good and bad things about our idea for our opening sequence, we now understand that we must be extremely sensitive about the issue we are representing as it can be a very touchy subject for some people who suffer with the condition. We have also realised that we are well of in terms of talent as Ralph is an artist, this has made the idea of art being Jodie's release for her emotions a lot easier to communicate. The fact that OCD is a serious issue among people means that we have to be extra careful about how we show the issue in our opening sequence and be very sensitive about it at the same time.
Strengths: I feel that my groups had clear ideas, a well structured plan and enigma codes for the audience to deconstruct and interpret in their own way. My group are not necessarily focusing on the matter of the girl having an issue, we're focusing more on how people perceive the issue and how they adapt to it.
Weaknesses: The sensitivity of the issue, my group received feedback saying that our idea is good because it doesn't make fun out of mental health issues and we deal with it in quite a sensitive way as we're using art as a release for this character.
Opportunities: A member of our group is an artist so we have the opportunity to get the correct art resources and equipment that we're going to need during filming, we are using the school as it has all the right places for us to film in such as the art classroom when the girl is painting and the media classroom when the girl is being bullied.
Threats: As it's a serious issue my group need to be careful of how we go about showing it in our opening sequence.
Doing this activity has helped my group realise the good and bad things about our idea for our opening sequence, we now understand that we must be extremely sensitive about the issue we are representing as it can be a very touchy subject for some people who suffer with the condition. We have also realised that we are well of in terms of talent as Ralph is an artist, this has made the idea of art being Jodie's release for her emotions a lot easier to communicate. The fact that OCD is a serious issue among people means that we have to be extra careful about how we show the issue in our opening sequence and be very sensitive about it at the same time.
Friday, 16 November 2012
Initial Ideas
Today in my Media lesson I had to pitch my idea
for a Psychological Thriller move to the class, this involved me getting up and
telling my class about my ideas. I found that doing this pitch was quite
helpful in getting me to think about all the other possibilities for my movie
idea, and trying to expand and adjust my original idea became easier. I was
being assessed by a fellow pupil called Billy Pidgeon, he filled out a sheet
that we had been given which told me about my strengths and weaknesses in my
pitch to the class. Although I didn't find this very helpful, because he had
mentioned turning it into a crime thriller even though Ms Butler has
specifically said not to, I felt it was a good way for him to get his opinions
on my pitch across to me without criticising everything I had said. I also got
some teacher feedback which I felt was much more helpful than being peer
assessed, my feedback from Ms Butler included that: my ideas were simple and
realistic so she could visualise it in her head, they were strong and focused
on the particular genre I was doing and there wasn't too many characters or
suggestions to the whole storyline. This helped me to finalise my individual
ideas as I got positive feedback from my pitch which then made me feel like it
was a good pitch and I should go on to use it within my group. Once everyone
had pitched their own individual ideas to the class it was time for us to
regroup and decide as a group with idea we were going to use for our very own
opening sequence. My group seemed to struggle with this because we couldn't
really come to a decision and stick to it, this frustrated me as I felt that my
idea may have been a good one to use. In the end we decided to have the idea of
a young disabled girl who was getting bullied at school and not taking her
medication, we wanted to do this idea because it's a real life problem and we
want to be able to get a message across to people that bullying isn't right no
matter what.
This is the feedback I received from Billy Pidgeon:
This is the feedback I received from Billy Pidgeon:
Thursday, 15 November 2012
Treatment for Group 3
Title: SIXTEEN
Group 3 presents a psychological thriller about a teenage girl called Jodie who has an obsessive compulsive disorder, the opening sequence shows how she struggles to deal with the disorder as it gradually takes over her life and makes her usual daily tasks more difficult. The first scene involves Jodie sitting in her bath at home with the bathroom door locked, she's crying and wiping her eyes, then she looks at her hands and realises there is pen on them so she washes her hands more than once. She starts to scrub her hands viciously as the pen doesn't come off, there is a close up of her hands covered in soap and she scrubs them harder with a nail cleaning brush which then leaves a red mark on her hand. Her mum knocks at the door and asks if she's okay, there's a close up of Jodie's face as she turns around to look at the door, she looks scared as if she doesn't know who's knocking at the door. However, she says everything is fine and she'll be out soon, the scene then cuts to Jodie at school putting her pencil case and books very neatly on her desk ready for her lesson. There is a voice over of her talking about her life and 'the incident' that changed her life, and how the people that she called her friends are no longer there for her when she needs them most. During the lesson the person sitting closest to her moves her pencil case so it's not in line with the table, Jodie moves it back and then the person does it again, Jodie then moves it back so it's in line with the table and there's a close up of her face to show the frustration that this is causing her. A piece of paper is then thrown at her with the word 'retard' written on it, she smooths the paper so it's perfectly laid out on the table and when she sees what's written on it she throws it on the floor and looks up to find people her class laughing at her. The class is then dismissed, there is a long shot of Jodie putting all her notes into her folder alphabetically, the scene cuts to Jodie walking down the corridor holding all of her folders. The same person who moved her pencil case in class sees Jodie in the corridor with all of her belongings and barges her so she drops all of her folders and her notes fly everywhere, people laugh at her as she begins to pick up her notes. Once she's picked up all of her notes she storms off and goes home, the scene cuts again to her at home with a voice over reflecting on her disability, she then gets out a photo of her and her friends from a while ago and starts to cross out their faces with a red marker pen.
Group 3 presents a psychological thriller about a teenage girl called Jodie who has an obsessive compulsive disorder, the opening sequence shows how she struggles to deal with the disorder as it gradually takes over her life and makes her usual daily tasks more difficult. The first scene involves Jodie sitting in her bath at home with the bathroom door locked, she's crying and wiping her eyes, then she looks at her hands and realises there is pen on them so she washes her hands more than once. She starts to scrub her hands viciously as the pen doesn't come off, there is a close up of her hands covered in soap and she scrubs them harder with a nail cleaning brush which then leaves a red mark on her hand. Her mum knocks at the door and asks if she's okay, there's a close up of Jodie's face as she turns around to look at the door, she looks scared as if she doesn't know who's knocking at the door. However, she says everything is fine and she'll be out soon, the scene then cuts to Jodie at school putting her pencil case and books very neatly on her desk ready for her lesson. There is a voice over of her talking about her life and 'the incident' that changed her life, and how the people that she called her friends are no longer there for her when she needs them most. During the lesson the person sitting closest to her moves her pencil case so it's not in line with the table, Jodie moves it back and then the person does it again, Jodie then moves it back so it's in line with the table and there's a close up of her face to show the frustration that this is causing her. A piece of paper is then thrown at her with the word 'retard' written on it, she smooths the paper so it's perfectly laid out on the table and when she sees what's written on it she throws it on the floor and looks up to find people her class laughing at her. The class is then dismissed, there is a long shot of Jodie putting all her notes into her folder alphabetically, the scene cuts to Jodie walking down the corridor holding all of her folders. The same person who moved her pencil case in class sees Jodie in the corridor with all of her belongings and barges her so she drops all of her folders and her notes fly everywhere, people laugh at her as she begins to pick up her notes. Once she's picked up all of her notes she storms off and goes home, the scene cuts again to her at home with a voice over reflecting on her disability, she then gets out a photo of her and her friends from a while ago and starts to cross out their faces with a red marker pen.
Improved Treatment
After some constructive criticism from my class friends and Miss Butler my group decided to change our idea for our opening sequence, it's now a psychological drama as we thought that our idea followed more conventions of a psychological drama rather than thriller. We wanted someone from outside of our group to be able to guess the genre and we were worried people wouldn't get it right so we changed it to fit in with the conventions. We decided to be very subtle about her problem by having her painting at the beginning of the opening sequence. This offers an enigma code for the audience to deconstruct as they don't know why she's painting or what she's painting, throughout the opening sequence Jodie paints and soon gets frustrated as her painting isn't looking as nice as she wanted it to be, her music gets louder and faster the more angry she gets. Whispers of people who don't like her start to be heard and this upsets Jodie even more, so she starts painting black all over her painting and ends up ruining it rather quickly, she throws the paint and paintbrushes to the floor in anger and leaves the art classroom. A jump cut into an establishing shot then reveals Jodie walking down the street with her folders and belongings, the whispers reappear and she gets upset, drops her folders and begins to cry. The screen then fades to black and the whispers continue.
After some constructive criticism from my class friends and Miss Butler my group decided to change our idea for our opening sequence, it's now a psychological drama as we thought that our idea followed more conventions of a psychological drama rather than thriller. We wanted someone from outside of our group to be able to guess the genre and we were worried people wouldn't get it right so we changed it to fit in with the conventions. We decided to be very subtle about her problem by having her painting at the beginning of the opening sequence. This offers an enigma code for the audience to deconstruct as they don't know why she's painting or what she's painting, throughout the opening sequence Jodie paints and soon gets frustrated as her painting isn't looking as nice as she wanted it to be, her music gets louder and faster the more angry she gets. Whispers of people who don't like her start to be heard and this upsets Jodie even more, so she starts painting black all over her painting and ends up ruining it rather quickly, she throws the paint and paintbrushes to the floor in anger and leaves the art classroom. A jump cut into an establishing shot then reveals Jodie walking down the street with her folders and belongings, the whispers reappear and she gets upset, drops her folders and begins to cry. The screen then fades to black and the whispers continue.
Saturday, 10 November 2012
My Psychological Thriller Research
PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER RESEARCH
This research has helped to inform my production because I have now changed the genre of film that I want my opening sequence to be, looking at psychological thrillers has helped me understand that my initial idea didn't conform to these sorts of conventions and that it didn't have enough 'thriller' in it. My group then made an informed decision to change our idea so it conformed more to a psychological drama as we feel that this will be a better genre to do an opening sequence for.
This research has helped to inform my production because I have now changed the genre of film that I want my opening sequence to be, looking at psychological thrillers has helped me understand that my initial idea didn't conform to these sorts of conventions and that it didn't have enough 'thriller' in it. My group then made an informed decision to change our idea so it conformed more to a psychological drama as we feel that this will be a better genre to do an opening sequence for.
Half Term Homework
The film genre I have chosen is horror, this is because personally I enjoy horror films as they give me a thrill and a bit of an adrenaline rush when it gets to the scary climaxes. This genre came about in the late 1890's by the film pioneer Georges Méliès, the film was titled as Le Manoir Du Diable (French for: The House of the Devil). It was released in 1896, on Christmas Eve, in Paris. It was a two minute long film and contained many traditional pantomime elements and the film depicts a haunted castle and manor of the devil. Horror films were first made in the 1890's and were said to be reborn in the 1930's by a number of producers such as; Tod Browning who made Dracula in 1930 and Freaks in 1932, James Whale who made Frankenstein in 1930 and The Bride of Frankenstein in 1935.
Key texts in this genre: A family, somesort of disruption to their normal everyday lives, a ghost/demon that ruins/kills everything. Young children that get possessed or taken in by the evil, police that never get to a scene on time so the evil ends up destroying something.
Themes and ideas often explored in this genre: A family that has to cope with the changes around them that is caused by evil, or young people have to overcome the terrors of what's happening to them.
How has the genre been changed/adapted in the past? Used to be silent and in black and white, death scenes never used to look real, but now it's a lot more gory and graphic for the viewer which gives them a real insight to the genre and the effects it can have on people.
Examples of opening sequences from this genre:
Saw movie: A guy is on a table with his arms locked in vices, his legs tied down and a huge saw thing hanging from the ceiling, something happens and the saw starts to swing down from the ceiling and finally ends up cutting him in half.
Orphan: Woman giving birth in hospital, sitting in her own blood, baby dies and she screams and get sectioned.
These films all grip the audience with their shocking opening sequences which keeps the audience engaged with the action making them want to watch the rest of the movie, they all have dialogue that is interesting in the way that it doesn't reveal much about the storyline which will have the audience wanting more. The films all introduce some characters that will either be in the film or get killed at the beginning to shock the viewer and keep them engaged in the action.
Key texts in this genre: A family, somesort of disruption to their normal everyday lives, a ghost/demon that ruins/kills everything. Young children that get possessed or taken in by the evil, police that never get to a scene on time so the evil ends up destroying something.
Themes and ideas often explored in this genre: A family that has to cope with the changes around them that is caused by evil, or young people have to overcome the terrors of what's happening to them.
How has the genre been changed/adapted in the past? Used to be silent and in black and white, death scenes never used to look real, but now it's a lot more gory and graphic for the viewer which gives them a real insight to the genre and the effects it can have on people.
Examples of opening sequences from this genre:
Saw movie: A guy is on a table with his arms locked in vices, his legs tied down and a huge saw thing hanging from the ceiling, something happens and the saw starts to swing down from the ceiling and finally ends up cutting him in half.
Orphan: Woman giving birth in hospital, sitting in her own blood, baby dies and she screams and get sectioned.
These films all grip the audience with their shocking opening sequences which keeps the audience engaged with the action making them want to watch the rest of the movie, they all have dialogue that is interesting in the way that it doesn't reveal much about the storyline which will have the audience wanting more. The films all introduce some characters that will either be in the film or get killed at the beginning to shock the viewer and keep them engaged in the action.
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Initial Idea For Opening Sequence
During todays lesson we all individually wrote up our initial ideas and then peer assessed someone else's, this is mine which got peer assessed by Lauryn:
Romantic drama: Set in a house/flat that the couple seems to share, it’s messy and untidy which annoys the woman who has just come back from a business trip abroad. Man drinks a lot and becomes abusive, use over the shoulder shot to show each of the characters speaking so the audience can see their facial expressions and how angry they are, they’re both shouting. Man is tired of the woman always moaning and the woman is angry at how lazy the man has been while she’s been away working hard. Man hits the woman and she falls to the floor in tears, man leaves the room and takes his bottle of vodka with him.
Romantic drama: Set in a house/flat that the couple seems to share, it’s messy and untidy which annoys the woman who has just come back from a business trip abroad. Man drinks a lot and becomes abusive, use over the shoulder shot to show each of the characters speaking so the audience can see their facial expressions and how angry they are, they’re both shouting. Man is tired of the woman always moaning and the woman is angry at how lazy the man has been while she’s been away working hard. Man hits the woman and she falls to the floor in tears, man leaves the room and takes his bottle of vodka with him.
Five things I will need to do to keep
within this genre would be:
- Have the couple argue a lot and then the man storms out of the house/flat
- Woman calls her best friend and tells her what’s happened
- Have lots of conflict between the alcoholic man and his partner
- Have scenes where the woman is just crying and trying to deal with what’s happening to her
- Have the man realize what he’s been doing to his partner or she kills him
One thing that you
could possibly do is when the couple are having the argument instead of an over
the shoulder shot use a point of view shot to show their prospective a bit
more.
Add more camera angles,
for instance you could also use a few close ups on the woman as she starts to
get angry or cry to show her emotions building up just before she breaks and
they have an argument using a high angle to look over the man to show he’s
still being lazy and not caring even though she is the more dominant partner as
she has more money and does most of the things.
Where is it set?
Tell/show the audience where they are such as a big city or a quieter town.
Peer assessed by Lauryn
Corbett :)<3
Friday, 2 November 2012
Prelim Evaluation
During the procedure of making our prelim task I felt that my group actually worked very well together, this is because we all co-operated with each other and listened to each others different views. This made working together much easier as we didn't have any arguments or conflict during the filming, this also made the production process run more smoothly as we ended up finishing earlier than expected with all the correct material that we needed for the editing process. The camera man for our group was Ralph Akhigbe and the actors were Dylan Streader and I, these were the roles each of us took on and as a group we all contributed to editing the footage. This way we all got to play a part in putting together the prelim task, which then gave me a sense of achievement as I had never edited something before so it was all new to me. As a group I felt that nothing went badly, this is because we all got on well with each other so there were no arguments during the filming process and this helped us to cooperate better with one another. To improve my coursework I will try even harder to get everything right, work to the best of my ability and redo work if I get it wrong the first time. I have discovered that the production process can actually be enjoyable and worth while if the group you're working in all work well together, it makes the job a lot easier as there's no tension between the group members.
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Example of the 180 Degree Rule
This extract from The Time Travellers Wife adheres to the 180 degree rule because it clearly shows both characters when they're speaking, this makes it easier for the audience to understand what's going on in the scene, they can then relate to the characters as it will be clearer for the audience to pick up on what they're talking about. In the example the woman starts off the action and the camera is just focusing on her, this connotes that what she's saying is important and must be heard and seen by the audience. The camera then moves behind her shoulder so it's focusing on the man and his reaction to what she's saying, this use of over the shoulder shot is effective in showing the audience the facial expressions from the character that it's looking at.
My Storyboard for Prelim and Production Team Meeting
This is my group and I discussing the different ideas we have for our prelim task, when we had decided on an idea we each drew a storyboard for our interpretation of how we wanted it to look.
Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Prelim Task Script- "The conversation."
These were my groups initial ideas :') |
Person 1: [walks through the door, walks towards person 2]
Person 2: [stares at person 1]
Person 1: [stares at person 2]
Person 2: Hey...
Person 1: Hi...
Person 2: So... [looks around the room]
Person 1: So... [looks at their nails]
Person 2: Seen the weather lately?
Person 1: Nope.
Person 2: Oh, okay.
Person 1: Umm, yeah.. What you been up to then?
Person 2: Not much. [looks at their phone]
Person 1: Yeah, me neither.
Person 2: [walks out the door on phone]
My group and I spent some time discussing the theme of our script, we wanted to do something that would keep the audience focused on the video throughout it. However, we felt restricted because we were told to avoid a humorous script as it would be difficult to pull off. An initial idea we had was to have it classical using top hats and suits but we soon realised that this idea was unrealistic because we didn't have any access to these sorts of props. So in the end we decided to have a script with an awkward feel to it that was based in school, there are two characters having a chat but one character isn't interested in talking to the other, they're evading an in depth conversation and this is making the atmosphere between the characters awkward. There's a lot of pauses as neither of the characters know what to say next, they're just staring awkwardly at each-other and the surroundings. We have carefully considered the mise-en-scene within our prelim task, the location for our scene is a empty classroom, one character is sitting on their own and the other character walks in and walks towards the character that's sitting on their own. They then start the conversation but person 2 isn't taking a lot of notice, person 2 asks a question to avoid the awkwardness but it doesn't work so they just give up and in the end, they leave the room.
Wednesday, 10 October 2012
Sinister- Movie Poster Analysis
This movie poster conforms to narrative theory of Barthes' codes, the reason for this is the audience can see an image of a young girl dragging her bloody hand against a wall with a face appearing in the bloody wall behind her. There is the Enigma Code which makes the audience question why the girl is there and why she's doing what she's doing, the poster looks very creepy in the way that the bloody face on the wall is looking straight at the audience giving them direct address. This connotes that during the film a scary face may pop up at any unexpected time to scare the audience, which is rather common for the horror genre. The face looks like a male which could fit in with the tagline "Once you see him, nothing can save you." This suggests that a disequilibruim could occur in the movie because before anyone saw "him" everything was normal and dandy in life but after someone had seen "him" everything turned bad and there was nothing that could be done to get back to the equilibrium before he was seen. This means that you could apply Tzvetan Todorov's theory to the movie as this is a sign of a disequilibrium which is a disruption to the storyline, making it more eerie and spine chilling for the audience. The film title "Sinister" suggests that something threatening or portending evil is among the characters of the film and the bloody face on the wall connotes this. The colours on the poster make it look eerie, the use of an off white and cracks on the wall in the background connotes that the room could be used for things it shouldn't be, they've used a desaturated colour to make the title stand out and appear prominent to the audience so it's the first thing they look at when they look at the poster. The poster adheres to the rule of thirds because the title crosses three of the thirds drawing the audiences eyes instantly to the title of the film, and then onto the images of the girl and the bloody face on the wall. The bloody face on the wall. The face on the wall looks like it's been made out of dripping blood that seems to have come from the girls hand as she drags it across the wall, the blood is obviously red and this connotes danger and death. This fits in with the film genre as it's a horror and there is usually blood and gore because they are key genre tropes that you would usually find in a horror movie.
Audience
The BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification) has rated this film as a 15, this instantly tell me that this film is not suitable for young children under the age of 15. The mise-en-scene of the poster connotes that there will be a lot of violence due to the all blood on the wall which reveals a rather scary male face looking straight at the audience. The male face could be the one that causes all the violence in the film but the audience won't know this until they watch it, this may then make them want to watch it even more so they know and are informed, this then leads on to the Blumler and Katz theory that media products are made for four main things and one of these is to find out information. The way the girl is standing with her face towards the wall connotes that she might have done something wrong and she doesn't want the audience to see her face. This will make the audience question what she's done and then they'll want to see the film even more and the fact that she's in her pyjamas connotes that maybe she's done something wrong during the night, this then suggests that most of the violence in the film happens during the night which makes the atmosphere of the film even more scarier. The different ages that are being represented in this poster are young girls and scary middle aged men, this is because there is a young girl on the poster, she looks about 10 and she seems to be represented as a shy but violent young girl as she's got her back to the audience and she's wiping her hand on the wall which is leaving a huge trail of blood behind her revealing a face of what looks like a scary middle aged man.
Genre
From this poster it is quite clear that the genre of the film is horror, the horror genre is usually associated with good and evil as sometimes evil tries to destroy and scare the good. In this poster the evil is seen to be the bloody face in the wall because of the way it's looking at the audience, it's giving the audience direct address which will then make the poster appear more eerie. The good is then seen to be the girl as she is young and looks rather innocent, even though she has a bloody hand, this leads onto the evil destroying the good as on the poster she is walking away from the bloody face with blood clearly on her hand. This connotes that maybe she has overcome the evil and is trying to move on from whatever had happened to her in the film, however the bloody face and the tagline connotes that she'll never get away from it no matter what she does. The face on the wall could then be the antagonist as it looks like it's going to cause disruption and hurt to the protagonists in the film, however an oppositional audience might think that the young girl is also the antagonist as she has a bloody had and is dragging it across the wall then revealing the bloody face. Although the audience would't expect a 10 year old to be causing any kind of trouble, which then connotes that maybe something has happened to her during her childhood to make her behave in this particular way. The name of previous films that have been produced by the same one as this film appear on this poster, this connotes that it will be equally as successful as the previous films that have been produced by this same person, audience members who have enjoyed the films mentioned may then want to watch "Sinister" as they've all been produced by the same person. The font of the title is in capital letters which suggests that it needs to be seen by the audience, it's also got some-sort of shadow that is dripping just beneath it which could connote blood, this would link in with the image of the bloody face as that also seems to be dripping down the wall.
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