Media Location

Reece went and scouted for a location he had thought of before we had finished our anyalsis of thriller openings, which is a great point for us to start developing our ideas further from that and into planning.

This is a great location for our murder scene - espcially in the dark and the poor side lighting, and creates the regional representation (which will be aided by mise en scene) of the two victums and the gender reprsentation, particuarly for the murder.
However, because this area may have poor lighting, I am already thinking of problems with the camera as it is poor in dark light - I am now thinking of ways we could combate that if the problem was to occure.

Another possible problem of this area is that it is public, we may have to get premistion to shoot here but we will also have to take into consideration predistrions and people within shots - we would have to be prepared to take multiple shots of particular scenes if they were to be continously interupted.

Rounding Up Openings

From my analysis of the opening squences, I have learned several things from the openings.
Firstly I have noticed that most of the title squences of the actual film name are in black and white, Inception, for example is possibly the best to remember. The actual title squence itself which I will upload at a later date examples this. If not all, then they all certaintly do have connotations within the opening - The Dark Knight for example; all of them use colour for connotation within the films. This has made me think immediately about how the protangoist and the antogonists should dress in comparsion, or really, what makes them different (The Dark Knight for example, has most of its antonigsts in black or blue suits to connotate authority, power and itllegence, but uses light casted onto the characters to depict the difference) - this has made me think in comparsion between the films which will be the best, how to interest the audience, and confuse them.

Another important part I took from my reasearch was, from the words of John's speech in SWORDFISH:

''Blam, and the blonde girl gets it'' - I quote loosely.

The victum appears for murder, or hostages really, to be women; represented as weak, helpless, inferior and more so the pretty blonde one the attention of society, idealogy and of course the victum. However, as I have learned from The Dark Knight and Inception particularly, those that are the victums of these thrillers are male, typically white and in some how lost something valuable; money (or trinquent in Inception I suppose). This does not exactly respond with the idealogy of victums being robbed of their goods; viewers will expect drugs and murder which I suppose we are then steryotyping, but it would be interesting to go down that route. After all, in America, the largest victum group to crime is the white male to fraud. I've learnt that mise en scene is particularly important and further drawn attention to in these thrillers as compared to other films I have seen.

Sound is another important feature: diologue. It's rare in these clips that diologue hasn't occured, SWORDFISH and The Departed are the greater examples, but all use some incidental music of sorts to set the mood and atmopshere of the clip - which is direly needed in a thriller to establish foreshadowing particularly.

Shots was something interesting as I found for a shot that drew a source of power or authority, it was either close ups or low angle shots - vise verse for weak shots, high shots and long shots. I have not seen a great combination of either, one one with few of the other in each clip, which is interesting - I am curious as to whether it will work togher in a film, or whether it establishes a style in shot that is needed - for example ducth shots; I'm quite excited to look into them.

I've got a lot to think about, but those are the key points I have taken from these films, along with, the characters shown in all are male - thus this is creating a representation of the male gender contionously throughout, we will have to think what aspects of roles we will want to address. 

Representation

Firstly, we look at our main characters, the detective, the murderer and the victium.
We want our detective to be 'dashing' as in most genre's the detective and the antoningsts are generally good looking and presented well in mise en scene; this representation of course will span to appear strong and in control, but it is important to note because the murderer is male, there will be a control for domiance (however our detecitve will have more power, authority, low angle shots).

We want our murderer to be dressed in white (because he isn't actually the murderer) to connotate that he is not the murderer.

Now, our victium is a women (representing that women are weak), she will be blonde (from John's great speech: 'Bam, the blonde girl gets it'. Showing how the pretty ones are cluesless as well as the weakest). The women will be wearing a dress (red to connotate romance, love, lust which will target towards the male characters) which reflects traditional female roles.
The reason we are creating these representations is that the clip appears more true to life, being based from idealogy and typical steryotypes which people believe.

SWORDFISH Opening

The SWORDFISH firstly begins with the title screen, made to represent a computer screen, displaying ‘SWORDFISH’ – the viewer is aware of this due to the type transition that it occurs through. The opening also displays incidental sound, a very dramatic, tense and almost chilling piece of music that reacts with the audience due to its high pitch – this is strange when compared against the rest of the clip as it appears to only be a meeting and there is nothing of the sort, if anything, it is the dialogue that would cause for concern to brew the dramatic opening.

This clip is extremely unusual, but not as much as Ocean’s Eleven where it remained for one entire shot for a whole minute, SWORDFISH does quite the opposite, but holds the same capitation idea of Ocean’s Eleven to present the main character and of cause create a representation.

The clip ranges between close ups, side close ups from the right hand view, extreme close ups and mid shot views of the main character as he explains about the morality and realism of ‘TV’, film and media.

00:06

After the title, this clip begins immediately with a close up of the main character (John), saying ‘you know what the problem is,’ – giving an immediate addressing to also the audience as well as shot in introduction. The quality of the clip as well is not as expected from an opening film; instead it continuous on upon the representation that the SWORDFISH title had been upon a computer screen and this is following on; the audience can tell by the streak line quality in the shot (furthermore, the ‘glitch’ experience that would have been interested via effects as the line streak on the shot).

The dialogue also gives the slight representation of this character, which he formally addresses, by tone and context of speech, which he is educated yet negatively intensive upon the subject he is talking about. The use of mise en scene, having him have facial hair, appear well kept, appropriate with appearance and with suit, suggests that he is more of a modern man, one which steps away from stereotypical ideology in representation, to instead reveal a man who is more aware of his appearance; however there are no representations of the character being caring (e.g. ‘the blonde girl gets it – it suggest the total opposite and instead creates the stereotypical representation of men being stronger than women). This shot, dialogue and mise en scene combine to also create the representation of a higher class, particularly at, 01:04 when he is lighting a cigar, 00:45 when the blur focuses upon the coffee table and the mug and 03:26 when he draws his attention to his watch – all of which combines through mise en scene to represent this character as being a part of the higher class, thus appearing to be so articulate, well taken care for, focused upon money and not able to care for those he tramples in his way to get what he wants, albeit the stereotypical representation.

Being able to note the under lying music also is important as it sets the scene for which this character explains his plot through dialogue, which is intense, directive, due to shots and physical expression of the character. The incidental music is rather quiet, but is loud enough to effectively ‘set the scene’ as it were as it is tense, creating anticipation; the audience again experience that high pitched tone.

Examples of clos ups occur at: 00:16 – 00:54 – 01:23 and continuously as the clip reverts back to close up every other shot in the clip. Doing so draws emphasis, attention to John, and therefore the audience is drawn to his words as the weird, almost disorientating use of jumping between different angle shots works effectively. Close ups particularly, are used from different angles, as though to create a swaying motion –

Though this clip is extremely effective, it is in many ways simple. One of ways which it does this is the tracking and motion of the shot as John moves about – he’s lively (doing this so that the clip does not become boring, aids towards jumps in editing and the motion; also helping to increase disorientation). In many ways, this clip is attempting to be as true to life as possible as well, because the motion moves so fluently with the motion of John’s body, it reflects what the human eye would do. A particular example is the image bellow, where it is focused on the upper part of his body rather than his head whilst he’s talking.

Though this clip was given the impression to be a video computer screen of some sorts, it comes very reflective on the effects of what the human eye would do; particularly blur than anything else. The image bellow is an example, but there is also another instance such as 02:20 and 02:21 – the image was taken at 00:41 – 00:45. It reflects exactly what the human eye would do in focus of either John, or the coffee table, blurring either depending on point of focus. Whilst the shot sets out to do this, it also reflects the mise en scene of the setting as very slight points are made. The representation of upper class had already been made (a majority portrayed by the mise en scene of John and the reflection of money) the concept of him being in a coffee shop aids to this representation – the upper class have money to go shops, stay, and by the luxurious tone of the glass table and what appears black leather seats behind that it is ‘posh’ (even the cigar adds to representation as upper class people or those with money are able to afford them).

02:00

At this point it becomes the first example that John is literally speak to someone – however due to eye line direction and physical language expression, it was suggested. How it is done is interesting however, as it is around a mid-shot, zooming out onto the right hand shoulder of the back of another character (the face or any other part of which the audience do not see in this clip), creating a shoulder / reverse shot. This is possibly better and more unique rather than producing a reverse shot onto the second character, it creates the further effect that the audience has to be focused on John and nobody else – they are drawn to his words and thus the narrative (and important feature as it establishes the character, narrative and introduction / explanation).

02:59

There is again another shoulder shot, unlike the first, it is again another mid-shot which pans right onto the side face and shoulder of another character (establishing that John is directing his attention towards a company, thus reflecting the ideal that he is ‘pitching’ an idea as addressed earlier). From this shot, he is slightly out of focus during pan; John’s shoulder is still in focus, until about 03:04 – it becomes clear to the viewer that this character is also wearing a suit, that his fair is neat; creating the representation that he takes care of his appearance. It also creates the representation that this character is also alike John, which he is from the same upper class also. However it is important to address the nature of the reverse shot, as John is shown in the first and not in this one, it makes the audience wonder if they are enemies towards one another (much like The Departed at the bar scene).

From SWORDFISH, I’ve been interested to look into editing effects (the computer screen effect and glitch) as well as the jump between numerous close ups, mid shots, and how and what the camera focuses on during John’s speech – how the reality of the clip is created.

The Departed Opening

The Departed as previous opening examples is again by the institute, Warner Bros. Unlike many other examples, The Departed immediately begins with opening titles with only what appears the faint diagetic sound of docks, (referring back to The Dark Knight particularly) and is a black and white title sequence (somewhat the same concept as the actual Inception title sequence opening I have yet to upload).

00:35

The opening clip immediately dives into a two shot of two men fighting – clearly from the quality and control of the clip it is made so to represent past images or a TV / amateur showing, rather than the actual clip itself. It is interesting that the clip begins immediately with violence as none of the others have so far – though it does enlighten literally the idea of the crime thriller. By 00:36, the clip has developed to a long shot to reveal more men joining in, to beat up one of the original men shown. Mise en scene examples also that it is a public, city area as the building behind is made of what appears solid stone and large buildings – appearing from first impression to be of some city street. This relates to the action of the shot, as it reflects upon the class of the men beating the other up as a regional representation as the lower city populace, being violent – being the antagonists.

00:35 – 00:42

There is no diagetic sound from these clips, or any other than the over layered dialogue of what is styled as memento clips or memory clips, to explain the narrative: ‘’I don’t want to be a product of my environment,’’ – this relates directly to the representation of the city lower class being the antagonists and as the clip changes at 00:42 to a ‘cop’ mid shot, it further examples the ideal of what is happening and the point within the voice over lay.

00:42

One of the first things I noticed immediately of this opening sequence was the mid shots of characters. Here, in the frame focus is a black policemen at a mid shot – the camera is drawn to him to create the representation of authority and power because of his race; however it is the camera hold which installs this example. As the shot goes to a point of view shot, to reveal the rest of the street, as soon as it moves from the first police officer, it reveals a second, at again another mid shot at 00:45.  This shot creates again the representation of authority as the focus of the shot is drawn to the police character, though he does not seem as powerful because firstly he is white and is behind the black police man, which could be considered as a large role reversal to the stereotype that is of the white man being more dominant.

Because these characters are policemen (mise en scene) the viewer is lead to believe that they are the protagonists, thus the immediate mid shot draws power and focus to them – this is something I will have to bear in mind, as well as ethincity representation groups, as this is example of how the protagonists are portrayed with more than one race.

The reprsentation of power is much as the shot/reverse low / high angle shots in Inception.

(All the whilst the narrative is over layered.)

‘That is only a way of saying, that we had each other’ is said in the over lay briefly before 00:58-01:01 are good examples of the shot I will show bellow.

01:01

The ‘that we had each other’ literally portrays a sense of community, which is the representation of the black ethinicty and the idealology that black communities within one area is a strong community; that they rely on each other. 00:58 particularly when the mob is running, shows an antagonist snippet of the concept. Again these two shots go back to the immediate regional representation of where these people live; the mise en scene of the city creates an environment that is stereotypically expected to create and show antagonists. However, as the clip develops, it also involves the race representation also.

Around 01:00 is where the incidental music begins also, creating a very 'city landscape' atmopshere which fits in a blues format, to embed itself with the troubles of this particular time and of course the general atmopshere of the city.

01:03

The shot is a crane, establishment shot of the city ‘Boston’ (explained by previous titles in the opening sequence). The nature in the focus of this shot creates the impression similar to a high angle, which embeds a representation of weakness, futility, but on a grander skill – possibly implying that those within the city are nothing in comparison to the city itself. However, this shot also establishes the mise en scene, or the ‘environment’ in which this clip is set and also helps aid the representation of regional class (particularly as factories can be seen; aiding lower classes) and also ethnicity as it has already been explored, the viewer is lead to expect it.

01:13 – 01:34

This shot is a left track shot that follows the shadowed figure crossing through what appears a garage. Because the character is the first to be this close, that appears of the actual clip rather than memento shots, it gives the foreshadowing and suspicion as to who this character is – and also hints towards this character as being the over laying voice as he is the first to be actually shown. Mise en scene, camera work and sound work effectively here to not only create a sense of foreshadowing, but to also create the representation as previously set by the establishment shot, that the character is in some way an antagonist because there is no primary nor side lighting projected upon the character as it tracks (this is interesting as one of our ideas was to have one character in the room in light and the other shadowed such as this). Again the shot opens the representation of the city as it is seen from a lower angle of the track shot; there is also interestingly a black car outside. Immediately the black car projects the sensation of power and authority and key links to the character in motion as they track past; thus reflecting that he has power and authority.

As this shot is shown, the voice over track is still playing and there are a few important parts, three examples, two of which are racist. By highlighting that the voice over is racist (if it is this character) it gives incentive motive for the character to be an antagonist as generally a protagonist does not example slang as this; most importantly it creates the representation of conflicting ethnicity within an city area – again relating back to the establishing shot.

However, as the shot gets lighter as it tracks further to the left and light is projected, it does not make the character appears as bad as an antagonist, but instead has some clear motives, more so when ‘you have to take it’ is expressed.

From here the shot changes through jump editing.

The clip also opens up orginality, as from 01:39 - 01:50 the shot is a point of view shot which tracks the man shown above, until finally falling upon a character at the bar (catching a reverse shot). This shot is good as it examples varity within the clip, and how to create a simple match of introducing the character the camera is closest to.

Most importantly, this shot establishes also the relationship between these two characters through both shot and mise en scene. Firstly the shot shows a great distance between the two characters, and the bar man's head is turned away - yet most importantly it is that they are both wearing blue, but different shades of blue. This suggests that the two are allies in some way, that both are also inteligent, however, because the darkest blue is of the character closest to the camera, it creates the connotation that this said character has more authority over the bar character; the darkeness in shade and tone aids to connotation. Thus creating a great example of mise en scene to show the two characters relation.

01:57 this shot examples why there is such distance between the two, as the shot shows a close up of money - money is an insentive of crime also.

02:00 the character closest to the camera appears from physicall shape to be the character from the left track shot because he is again shadowy, and generally dark, reflecting the antognoist motives.

02:05
Although the narrative would have suggest this shot is focused upon the women behind the bar, the shot is actually focused on the boy wearing a green shot as the rest behind is blurred; creating visual reality, but drawing attention to this character, although he is not being addressed.
Firstly, the women behind the bar is blonde, this relates to what I had briefly watched of SWORDFISH, as he mentions 'bang, the blonde girl gets it in the head' - it always appears that blonde haired women are used in crime or thriller films for either victums or lust; the narrative of The Departed would suggest lust however. Mise en scene is used again as the female character is wearing the same blue coloured shirt as the bar man, suggesting an allience / partnership / work partner as him, as well as some connection with the shadow character exampled.
However, the shot is primarly drawn to the young boy. Because of the nature of the reverse shot, it shows that the man is interested in the boy, thus showing him in the shot. Intersting, though that green connotates ambition and greed (dark green) which foreshadows the events to come within the film to the audience, as well as creating the idea that the young boy has ambition; thus focusing on him.

From this opening squence I have gained again ideas of how to use connotation through mise en scne, and mise en scene generally, as establishement shots present the back drop, it aids to representation of the characters shown - mid shots particularly are used to create the sense of authority rather than just low angle shots.
Two shots seem also important, to show the character relationships and what the audience can expect. Lighting as well is important as it creates a sense of foreshadowing also.

Inception Opening

00:11
Incidental music is introduced immediately whilst screening producers and institutes, giving an atmosphere of a dark, battle like tone from the horns – this sets the mood before the clip. It is interesting to not 00:11 particularly when SYNCOPY is screened. That the titles are black and white represents the antagonist and protagonist theme that is within thrillers and crimes, showing areas of grey can represent the phrase ‘there’s only black and white, and no shade of greys’ reflecting what people do; which is interesting when considered what inception is about.

The incidental music quickly subsides as it jumps into a shot of water, introducing powerful diagetic sound; which follows three separate shots until coming to a close up the main character face down in the water.

00:30

This shot is interesting as the previous ones have set out to create an establishment, it is clear that the character is lying down, that he is face down, suggests that he has been defeated in some way, or that things have been somehow bad. However, the connotations of water suggest powerful life which alone creates foreshadowing for thoughtout the rest of the film, but also to show that the character is still alive as the motion of the water is hitting him.

00:35 – 00:51

Between this time frame, the shot changes six times to jump shots, reverse shots between the first characters shown, the back of a young boy, the character and then the long shot of two young children with their back to the cameras. The reverse shots between the main character and the two young children suggest that there is some sort of link, however because the shot is slightly different and looks more enlightened, positive and appears slightly slow, the shot suggests that is not actually existent.

00:54

This is the first of a serious of angle shots in this opening sequence. Angled shots from low to high are used mainly to create the representation to reflect a particular characters power or motives even. This high angle shot represents the main character of course as being week, mostly venerable in this situation as there is a gun to his back, that the person welding the weapon is unknown to this point, it creates an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. The mise en scene however, clearly shows that he is wearing some sort of black jacket; black of course connotating authority and power, yet being covered in sand and looking gritty, now suggests he was once in power but has lost it – thus aiding the high angle shot.

00:56

The high angle shot quickly changes to a low angle one, which is captured by artificial lighting. This is important to note as it is clearly blocked by the head of what appears the antagonist wielding the power, and of course the shot creates the representation that he is currently the one with the power. Mise en scene again combines with the shot type, as the antagonist is wearing a mostly black uniform, the uniform itself instates the authoritive figure and the connotation of black further reinforces the power the character has – though it does not immediately suggest that main character is in any true danger, yet the anticipation, mystery and atmosphere is set to keep the audience immediately.

01:06

This shot is a suggestive establishing shot which pans to the right upper corner of the screen, showing a Chinese or Japanese origin building. It creates mystery as to where these characters are exactly as it is clearly a lone building. The blue sky behind also, suggests a calm and peacefulness of the situation still within this point, suggesting that the main character is not yet in life threatening danger. However, the shot is suggestive and it quickly jumps at 01:08 to come into a room.

01:08

The jump shot leading from the beach leads to a light room, the shot is not exactly positioned in a particular angle as it appears in eye line with the big chair directly in frame with centre shot focus, however, with the lights over head, it gives the illusion that the shot is slightly low angled; it still creates an establishment of the room. Immediately the audience can see two characters, both nearly engulfed in darkness; this connotates the authority of the two as they appear as something like guards near from the point of view shot doorway. The lights overhead, however, despite the room being quite dark in nature, suggests that the views of the antagonists may not be entirely bad, but yet have so protagonist ideals within them.

The rest of the clips jump much, and change, mise en scene particularly to confuse the audience, but also foreshadow away from this scene. It’s a huge controversial risk, even though it is intentional, it is of course breaking continuity; thus confusing the audience (meaning some will lose plot and interest whist others will be extremely intrigued).

03:21

This show now resembles the main character found on the beach as the strong and dominant one of the man in the chair. Again, the clip works with shots and mise en scene to create the combination that, this time, the main character is the one with authority and power. This is an interesting over shoulder shot as it is as well a low angle, thus representing the main character from the seated characters perspective the power – representing male authority also. His black tie suit is also black, thus presenting authority and power, yet a lot of white is dominant as well. The lights are used in the low angle again to represent the main character as not a dangerous authority figure but a protagonist one.

The lights is used again, much as in this scene at 03:53:

Inception examples mostly the use of shots, jump shots and mise en scene to establish the representation between the characters; though the lines also blur at times. It's ways are itneresting but difficult to ensure a similar response as it is risky.

Questionnaire for Research

Me and barry have created a questionnaire to give to people of slightly older of our age group (for example those who are in upper sixthform), elder relitives and young adults.
All of the queions we have created are tagereted at understanding from these age groups the most prefered genre to date and what they would prefer to see; hopefully a crime or thriller.
In particular, we had also asked whothey go to the cinema with to view a film as we feel it is important to learn if people go in clusters, pairs, trio's or family groups to view a film.
Finally, we briefly described our plot idea and asked for improvements or comments.

We will print several copies and issue them shortly to total our research.

Ocean's Eleven (Remake) Opening Scene

Ocean's eleven remake analysis

Immediately, the audience is introduced to diagetic sound (dialogue), even before the film has started. The clip of course starts with produces and production studios / logo / opening, but the sound is played as a quick fading in background against the titles. This is extremely useful as the audience can learn immediately that the upcoming scene will be insinuated in some sort of prison area as slamming and bar sounds are made over the top of shouts such as: ‘let’s go, face the wall!’

This clip is controversial, in the fact that it only has two shots within the first scene.

These two shots change from a medium shot, to a close up, appearing as point of view of the people asking questions to the man in the camera, the use of sound is important through this clip to create a sense of narrative and generally keep audience attention as the clip runs from 00:28 – 01:28, running a whole minute long without changing. This is a strange, though, unique device as clips generally run now longer than a few seconds without changing, tracking, panning etc, in some sort of way. However, it draws attention upon the character in question: Daniel Ocean.

Away from speech for a moment, the lighting in the room is also strange as it appears from behind; creating side light on either side of the face of the character shown in shot. The room is a dark blue in origin, and much like The Dark Knight, carries on these connotations of intelligence, the atmosphere of tranquillity (an unusual anticipation for an audience to expressions in what appears a prison), power and seriousness – the sensation of power combines effectively with the focus of shots being of Daniel, indicating he has influence and authority; the audience is drawn to him, which is another reason the 1 minute clip doesn’t bore the audience. The lack of light upon Daniel suggests that he is also a dark character in some way; explaining of what appears his current environment, a prison.

Mise en scene is used effectively, but not over done, to example a setting which looks like some sort of complex, yet it is the chair and dressing of Daniel that really establishes it. The chair itself, combined with the room, gives this memory of ‘Shanksaw Redemption’; a film possibly most viewers of this film will be able to associate in some way, but most of all it is clear that Daniel is wearing some sort of prison uniform. If one was to look into the connotation of the beige colour, also, it is a warm colour, that is usual identified as a secondary colour. Because it has been used as the frontal – the one which the audience focuses on because of Daniel – it creates the reverse effect, and further enhances the ideal that this character is in some way, good.

Representation is firstly created by the mise en scene of setting and light within the two shots. The setting used creates the representation of a bleak, dark environment within prison walls which is expected by the audience, yet does not appear to the typical stereo or idelology for the expectation of bars and small cell rooms. The inside of the room being dark, suggests the antagonists within and the light coming through the window and fan is the ideal of freedom; helping aid the hearing of what appears release.

Sound is important in this opening scene as it helps create narrative as well as representation. Most of it is dialogue, diagetic sound, particularly when ‘frauds’ is mentioned, it aids the mise en scene of the character: Daniel appears a calm, collective, sensible character – although his physicality adds age to him (01:29 particularly the audience can focus upon the man’s appearance further as a middle aged man) that he may be of a high regional class, as compared to the expectation from the audience of antagonists being of a low working class and ‘gritty’ regional one. Though the audience gather, from the use of mise en scene mostly at first, that Daniel is in ways, not as innocent as his appealing character is. More so, at 01:35 incidental music is used to follow the question ‘what do you think you would do, if released?’ a jazz, up-beat theme comes in and the clip gradually fades to black (none of the camera work or the mise en scene change at this point). Instead, it creates a cliff hanger at the end of the scene and creates foreshadowing due to the type of incidental music that the expectations created by mise en scene lighting, Daniel Eleven might not be an entirely innocent character and have antagonist motives.

Further Analysis of The Dark Knight Opening

02:00

‘I know why they call him the joker’ introduces a transition through dialogue into the jump shot of the ‘two guys on the roof’, who say in the jump cut ‘so why do they call him the Joker?’

The shots quickly jump again to the ground level as the antagonists are going into a building (the use of short shots and jump cuts are used again to create an atmosphere of action). The shot taken at 02:11 is a low angle shot. This time the shot works with the connotation of what the antagonists are wearing – black – creating a situation suddenly of them to have some sort of power.

02:08

The right pan shot from the car to the building slowly transcends from eye level to low angle. During this course at 02:08, one of the characters is faced away from the camera and appears to be looking onto a tall building in the fore ground. Because this shot transcends into a low angle shot, gives the characters a majority of the power, but creates a greater sense that the public area is even greater than them as the buildings are taller. This represents the local authority control, money control or even government control and how in comparison they are as antagonists are weak.

02:08 and 02:13

Both of these shots are considerably longer than the previous shots, however because they are tracking the characters, it still creates this sensation of movement and motion, without the jump cuts or the switch to other shots; it still shows this atmosphere of action and pace.

Towards the end of this clip, at around 02:15, a fire shot is dispersed by the antagonists for around a second, and the shots quickly jump to the desks shots for reaction. For the audience to be able to see the reaction creates emphasis on what the antagonists are doing, as well as the atmosphere and tension that is created in the clip, also making it more realistic. The shot jumps again to dolly –follow- the previous shot of the antagonists running through, holding back to reveal a long shot. Because the antagonists how now burst into action, running, this creates the representation of time within the clip suddenly, through physical embodiment rather than shots. This also represents the connotations of the antagonists, as they are violent: as expected due to ideaology of ‘masked men’.

Between this shot and the next (a point of view, dolly back shot of a very long shot of the frontal antagonist character) the establishment of side light is asserted, as it appears naturally coming in through the building. Because the room is dark and poorly lit, the mise en scene of what appears a bank robbery, inclines that the antagonists, because they are wearing black, control a majority of the power within this building and foreshadows that their crime will go successfully.

02:28

An important representation of mise en scene is created as a blond haired women is targeted by the antagonists. Firstly, because she is female, and the antagonists from the sound of their voices and physical physic are male, it creates the representation that females a weak against males, and are therefore helpless. The fact that the women is blonde, suggests the stereotypical connotation of horror films particularly, that the blonde girl is always the first to die from the women side of the group – this obviously transfers into other genre’s however, as she is targeted here.

02:30

Another important presentation is made from mise en scene, but this step away from the stereotypes of antagonists. The antagonists on the roof are seen with an over shoulder shot of a device, appearing to hack through the alarms. The fact that they are taking precautions  to stop the alarms with smart technology, steps away from the stereotype that criminals are seen as stupid, idiotic are undereducated. Instead, it helps aid the modern representation of organized crime, which antagonists are able to specialise in something that will aid a certain crime.

02:31 and 02:45

Though the clip experiments with new representations that is of modernized crime, these two different shots, transitioning between cut shots returning into the building, are both two shots. The antagonist who was the ‘hacker’ is in focus view of the viewer, whilst his partner on the roof is out of focus and appears slightly shifty, seeming to rummage through something. At the second time, he draws out a gun and shoots his partner in the back. By doing this, it creates the representation through the two shot that these two characters had not been close to begin with, that one had been placed behind the other, shows only a business link between them due to the current narrative and mise en scene of the makes. This representation also relates back to the typical gender stereotype that men betray each other, particularly in crime.

Notice of 180 degree rule between two jump shots at 03:14 and 03:16 – although the two shots are in different areas, they are responsive / reverse shots and therefore are placed on the same line of the 180 degree rule, as was the roof shots; although location may change during jump shots, they still respond across the same line.

03:21

Here there is a mid shot of a slightly greying man in a suit – as he’s at a desk he appears as a banker during the raid of the antagonists. ‘Get down on the ground’ is being shouted through dialogue in the background as diagetic sound whilst the mid shot focuses on his facial expression: making it clear he is un-amused and does not appear frightened: as said in dialogue arond 03:46, ‘do you know who you’re stealing from? You and your friends are dead’. The mise en scene shows that his suit placed him within a work station of this bank and even a high class. The combination of the mid shot and mise en scene represents that people within higher classes will refuse to allow money to be taken so easily, creating this ‘stubborn’ stereotype or ‘tight pockets’.

03:33

A low angle shot is taken of this banker with a shotgun. That it is slightly low angled represents that he has taken some majority of the power suddenly, from previously shooting one of the antagonists.

03:40 – 05:10

Quick jump shots is used again in editing with short shots to show fast pace in time. Most of the shots used are mid shots, close ups or two shots taken from a distance – however the two shots are never shown as together, but slightly separated; this adds emphasis on the betrayal taking place thus adding the presentation that criminals, or men in general, betray one another.

05:24

Slight high angle shot on the banker who was shot down, now representing the power struggle between men as there is only one antagonist left. The fact that the antagonists betrayed one another, suggests this ideaology that men struggle for power between each other. The man now on the floor appears in a dark suit (connotating power which is contradicted and removed from the shot angle) and the side light that is coming from the windows, because he has fallen in the light suggests that he is a good character.

05:52

The final antagonist is dressed in a dark / light blue unlike the other dead antagonists whom were shown more so in black. This connotation suggests that he is intellectual, and must be, because he’s the last one left alive.

05:44

This is when the Joker is unmasked. The shot is a close up, low angle shot. Immediately it creates the representation of power, and that the light is projected from behind - his face in darkness – suggests how dark this antagonist character is; the close up also brings attention to the emphasis of the Joker’s appearance as a criminal, looking slightly terrifying through mise en scene. This representation suggests that those men with more power over others are ‘scary’ or have the power to make other men / women, scared.

The Dark Knight Opening

The Dark Knight, does not feature any titles in the opening sequence apart from production / producer logos (Warner Bro’s, Legendary Pictures and DC Comics) the film instead dives into a smoke or cloud even, of dark blue and black, vaguely shaping the batman symbol, connotation the film; as it will be recognisable due to Batman being renown. The blue at first connotates both of these quotations:

‘’ Blue is a masculine color; according to studies, it is highly accepted among males. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred color for corporate America.’’

And

‘’ Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.’’

(taken from: http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html)

Clearly, the opening title, simple and sweet, sets out to capture the intention of exhibiting ‘knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness’; all the elements of this film genre, before divulging into the actual film. 00:48 secs.

Sound gradually fades in from 00:48 – 00:55, when a ‘boom’ like sound allows the first clip of the film to burst in, creating the seriousness transition. The sound used will be incidental / theme and the ticking in the background suggests the urgency of time (the added atmosphere genres a tense tone) – highlighting the seriousness of the clip straight away.

00:55

The first shot taken is an establishment shot which is slightly a high angle shot; though it is on level with the dark, short building above the cream coloured buildings. The eye is drawn to this building and as the shot zooms in, it also creates an establishment of the location: the audience learns the location, time of day (sunlight).

01:12-01:13

An action match is used as the window is shot out with a gun. Straight away the genre is addressed as the reader can learn this is a crime / thriller based film as it comes the expectancy, due to the established surroundings, that men in masks are ‘dangerous antagonists’.

01:20

The shots change quickly. When combined with the incidental music, it further creates the addressed urgency of time, but also the action within the opening sequence as multiple shots are needed to establish what the two men (shown by a two shot high angle) are doing. The use of a high angle suggests that they are in some way powerless; already being presumed to be antagonists by the use of weaponry, masks and dark clothing – these men are established into a crime social group immediately – though the shot imposes that neither of them have a great deal of power. This reflects the ideaology that criminals are ‘low lives’ that are worth nothing, hence why they commit crimes.

01:24

Again the shot type changes quickly as to keep with the time frame of the opening and the serious situation. In this shot, it is a level, slightly long shot which zooms in closer onto the back of the man and the mask; this shot also establishes the street which he is looking onto. That he wears black clothing suggests depth and generally conotates something as being bad. The viewer is quick to notice the white mask which stands out against the black clothing; the viewer is immediately formalized with the situation that this character too is an antagonist (again being unable to see the face). Quickly, a car drives up once zoomed into onto the mask and the man bursts into this action as the car breaks fast. At 01:34 the shot changes again to create an action match (slightly pulled from time frame) of the antagonists at the window. The audience is unable to see details of these characters, and from lighting, can only see the character as a dark figure; again conotating dark. The shot quickly changes at 01:36 and again at 01:37 to show the action match of the two zip lining to another building.

The shot follows from a low angle shot, though on the eye level of the characters, it is still considerably a high angle shot. The camera quickly dollys over the edge of the window, revealing a high shot of the street, representing the danger of the situation and the intensity of the city. The shot after is a very long high angle shot, still representing the two antagonists as ‘low life’ because they are criminals – they do not contain any power, yet (the shot also pans right, tracking the two to show fluent motion). Another action match shot is taken again, but from a slight low angle of when the two land on the roof. The sound from when the zip line shot grows tense and increases, becoming louder and hosting more dramatic drum beats, following the suspense of these characters.

From here up until 2 minutes, the scene follows in the car. From the back shot from inside the car, it establishes the three characters, making them look dark and mysterious; because the shot is taken from an eye level angel, the darkness in this shot as previously demonstrates their antagonist motives, but now establishes some power also. It is not until this point that dialogue is used, even so, it is short, intense, snappy and only gives half information, apart from ‘three of a kind, let’s do this’. From The angle of the camera, it’s focal point is of the antagonist in the back seat, loading a gun, this shot is to establish that these characters are again dangerous. ‘Every guy gets a share –‘ leads onto the two mid shot (minese the back seat character who is now out of focus point) to show the individuality in each of these characters due to decoration of mask. The character in focus is again dressed in dark, whilst the one driving is dressed in dark blue, as he is the one explaining the situation, this exhibits intelligence (connotation). From this shot also, for a brief moment the character in focus brings up his gun, because the weapons are only shown for brief periods of time, it allows the audience to crave more and creates suspense and tension.

Until this point, shots change quickly, mostly using jump shots.

-          Sound is used to create suspense

-          High angle shots are used to demonstrate antagonists as weak characters (despite connotations of colour e.g. black can represent power)

-          Colour connotation is important to represent characters when the audience cannot see entire body, mise en scene.



Audience

Our film is focused upon the genre of crime / thriller. We found that within the past year of 2011, there has only been one crime / thriller film that has made it within the top 25 box office, yet the year before, we found more and the previous years also. We have already established that there is a market for it.

We believe that our film sets out to capture the target age of 18-64 year olds roughly as it will contain a mature tone, we believe that people under the age of 18 will not view this film as it will have content which is not valid for this licence. Because our genre is based on building suspense through multiple scenes and cases, we think patience within these groups will be seen. Our film will target to capture a majority of male attention as opposed to female. We have based this from the older crime films from after the 1960, when males were the ones typically featured and watched crime films. Our explicit example is Scarface, which shows an example of crime in a realistic view, reflecting our audience target.

Our audience are also targeting lower middle class / middle class as within the film genre; it reflects the target audience’s life style as being the ‘gritty’ reality of another world they do not seem around the representing of their own jobs; similar personas, similar situations, similar jobs, sophisticated.

Looking At Producing Studios

So, as part of our research - for how our genre works, popluarlity and marketing by other producers - we firsted looked at lionsgate and decided against it. Quickly, from looking on the wiki page of The Dark Knight (one of the openings we are going to look at), the producer was WarnerBros.
Immediately we went onto the WB website and began looking at recent films of this year. Straight away, we found 3 that were a crime or thriller; either way relating to our genre. Tomorrow we'll look more in depth to the producer then begin researching Warner Bro's and some other crime/thriller openings.

As part of our research, also, we are arranging within the next few weeks to either the metro centre or Durham city to go and do a survery with people. What would be ideal is to film people's responses, but of course people may act badily to this or we may get in trouble, so instead we may create a questionier to find the genre's which people prefer most and what they would watch.

Planning

Me and the boys devised a plan of what we're going to do over the next two weeks with what time we have in class (and what we don't sort out we'll get together on facebook and plan) so here's what we have so far:

"monday 5th - descussion of concept, synopsis and audience
tuesday 6th - discussion of representation and different ways representation can be shown
friday 9th - institutions
tuesday 13th - drafted script and discussion of location
friday 16th - final script and locations mostly decided"
We don't have one of the monday's however.
Though, we have decided we are defiantly doing a crime genre, though this may also cross into aspects of horror as well depending on your final plan.

Planning Final Piece

So today, I decided to work with Reece and Barry and we're already having thoughts on what genre we are doing. I think first we would like to conclude good ideas which we can use, so that we don't rush in head first and wind up with none.
Already however, we've been looking at camerawork, sound and opening squences such as the remake of a nightmare of elm street and several crime clips - just in case we choose to do action within a crime drama, I even pulled up a section of Hot Fuzz with awesome action matches which I will upload in a later date if we find it appropriate towards our research.

We're looking between two genres:
Crime
Horror.
We doubt we will change from these any time soon as we have also beeing looking at atmopsheric openings for these sort of tense pieces. We have ideas, but we just need to conclude what exactly we are going to do as a group.

Adobe After Effects CS4

I got Adobe After Effects CS4 : D
I used to have the older version CS3, and know similar functions from Adobe elements as the older versions were pratically the same thing. I'll be using online guides and tutorials from the itnernet to create specifically what we will need - yet first of all we have to decide what we are defiantly going to do. At least I'm prepared for when we do.

Thinking about title squences

I've been thinking about this for a few days, at least since last friday.
Not only have I been looking at video squences (I have now collected a few videos) but the art of the titles - even having found a title site (:http://www.artofthetitle.com/)

This website studies into the 'mood' I suppose of how a title squence, its font, colour, shape and media it is surronded by is dependent on the piece - of course hardly any of this applies direactly to when it comes to presenting titles in my final piece- thought it does open more doors of creativity. For example, if we choose to do something as an indie film for example, colourful and bold title squences would be intense.

I'm currently in the stages of obtaining Adobe After Effects CS4 from a friend who owns a multi lisence disc, which will allow me to create higher standard titles than that of Adobe Premier Pro or Adobe Elements 4. I have even being looking at examples from youtube with Reece, which I will link to later in the week or upload the video, and pick out our best examples of what we could recreate for a serous piece.

More so, because we have obtained sound now as well due to the studio's we're affliated with now (acedemic copyright use), we will even be able to test different types of music to tiles as we will do clips.

Music For Final Piece

Last night I'd already hopped on looking at what we could do for our final piece in media. Whilst I was exploring titles in both crime and horror scenes, me and Reece were talking over Facebook of what we were going to do. We decided anyway, we'd most likely do a crime / horror or 'serious' video as compared to our last which is a comedic out turn.
Whilst we'll have to do this, we'll have to also research into the genre and production companies and what's popluar too. For that I was thinking of going to a city or even the metro centre one day of the weekend and asking people via video on my blackberry playbook what they would watch genre wise and produce a video of it (with we choose horror particularly I'd look into lionsgate).
Reece started to look at sound and found this pretty quickly which I was seriously impressed with:



taken from - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeEDQMLtyGY

                   http://www.thesecessionstudios.com/

 

We're also aware of copyright issues in this final project so Reece emailed ''info@thesecessionstudios.com'' and got this reply:

"Hi Reece, Feel free to use my music in your academic projects. I don't charge students a fee to use my music I just ask that it be attributed to http://thesecessionstudios.com if possible. If you decide to use my music for personal, non academic projects, I usually negotiate a very small license fee depending on your budget. About 5% of what I charge for mainstream production use.

Take care,

Greg"

Regards to Last Video Project

I haven't yet had a chance to explain our last project: the contiunity project.

First of all, we focused in a lot on sound and mise en scene. As recently posted, we wrote a script that looked at a comedic interview, as comedy is good for revese shots which are used for dialouge. With that, we attempted to find a place that would best suit our theme in the project.
Reece found a office within school; but there was immediate problems.
The space was too small for an over shoulder shot / reverse shot and we couldn't move anything because it was just as awkward. Since I was manning the camera I told the lads, who said just as long as we worked within the 180 line it should be fine. So I went along.

We hit another major problem with it came to editing though; most of the parts hadn't been done.
At the time of shooting, I hadn't been given a script and we didn't have any spairs so I didn't know what was meant to be said direactly following each other, meaning it was left to Barry and Reece to tell me what shot we were doing and what came after.
When we came to editing however, several of the clips weren't there and in the end we had to sort of 'bung' up what we had because it didn't follow the script anymore.

Though, apart from this a great deal of the project went well.
Because our mini theme within the theme was centrelled around star wars, we added a sting towards the very end of the clip when we edited, it 'noo' from darth vader in star wars. We thought this was good and rather comedic as it fades to black and their is a constant gain on the end also.

Before this, we had a fade in fade out, where Barry comes out of the interview.
Although before the very last clip, the interview appeared over, Reece was insistant that we fade in fade out to show that time changed; though I didn't see why exactly.

Finished Continuity Project

Here we have finished a render of our final continuity project video. I will later update in a new post feedback and analysis of this clip.

Sound Finished!

Today we finished the sound completely. We added the darth vader sound 'NO!' from youtube - previous post - and placed it at the end of the clip, with a constant gain at the end so that it fades out when the titles begin. We checked all the sound before this aswell, there are a few pieces that we wish we could take out, but is too close to dialoguge that it would be noticable. Since we finished titles the other day, we added 'don't you forget about me' on the titles at the end. Whilst it was the only full song we had to our creativity, we decided that it would be a good sting or incidental sound, but we're not exactly sure as it is only there to add to the comedic value of our piece. At the end of this also, we added a constant gain so that it faded out just after the titles.
We also thought it was rather comedic as it is meant to be a 'sting' I suppose it is mocking Darth Vader; as we used the sound source.

I will soon upload the final video of our contunity project.

Darth Vader

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s

Seeing as our newest project was a conuinity project, we decided to create a 'spoof' interview which was inspired by star wars to work in the camera shots / reverse shots. Having several references to star wars, we decided to hopefully hit a string of comedic laughter if we added the Darth Vader 'No!' from star wars at the end. I've finally obtained it through youtube.

We're nearly done, all that remains is making sure the sound is okay, despite the few issues we have from the project, but we need to be sure that it is working probably when we render this time also, as last time we had some issues.
We'll add in sound tomorrow and produce the final project tomorrow.

Steadicam

I made the steadicam by creating a gimble which pivotes the stem for the camera. The bottom has 2 nuts which will tighten on weights that equalize and balance the camera when it is sat on the thread, meaning when I walk about it should balance out the weight and be more smooth in shots.
These types of shots would be brilliant for follow, point of view, travels, pans even but it all depends on how smooth the shot is however.
I did test it, and found that it still wobbled slightly, meaning it possibly needs more weight from the pendlum action on it; that probably needs tigthened up.
But in my next project, however, I will try to use my little piece of steadicam for the project shots and even create 2 shots which I will create for comparsion in quality of shots.

Nearly completed Editing

After shooting on the 7th of November some time ago, we have been on way with editing. In fact all of the clips are alinged in order and now just needs our last final touch of sound effect.
I also need to make an opening which I will produce in adobe after effects some point before next friday.

I'm not enteriely happy with what we have produced as to me it doesn't resmeble conunituy very well. Reece scouted the location and found a small office which was extreamly hard to shoot within and we found it was hard to manouver and get the shots we had planned. The boys weren't careful with being aware how they were doing their shots, either, but it will have to do.

Script Update

We decided on friday that we would edit the script and make it more as though it was an interview. Whilst Barry and Reece were working on this as well as my input, I was drawing the storyboard which will be scanned and uploaded today.
It took a while to figure out what we were going to do - we wanted to do something more commical as we could see already that we were getting into a comfort zone of doing violent and dramatic things. Whilst their all good, we need to widen our porfoilo, and what better than comedy for a shot/reverse shot?
I'm not sure how the star wars thing began, though, it is intresting and it certaintly seems like its going to roll out like paridoy. Hopefully we will start shooting today, if not tomorrow or some time this week so we can start editing next week.
We haven't quite yet found a location, so we're working on that. We need somewhere were we can be quite vocal and loud, and yet have a respective sense of mise en scene as its supposedly an interview.