RESEARCH- Analysing previous students film opening

CATECHIZE
SOUND- The music used sets a very daunting atmosphere. The heartbeat builds up tension and a uneasy feeling, and almost makes the audience feel like its their heartbeat, building an almost physical connection. The scribling of the pen and the water dripping are the only thing you can hear at one point which makes it effective as this is uneasy feeling to the human ear. And things like this (clock ticking) are things you only realise when it is silent which makes them more effective and emphasies the silence.
EDITING- Flashes, quick cuts from one shot to another, fast transitions, blurs this again similar to the heartbeat creates an connection with audiences as its like they cannot see. Makes the whole experiance more real for the audience. Makes the whole opening triggering, and gives the audience so much to focus on at once.
MISE EN SCENE- Additon of props such as knifes, tools and blood are key elements of a thriller/horror so audience are aware that some sort of violence might occur. Also they've used passports and newpaper which kind of give clues as to what the story line might be, but at the same time doesn't give away much and keeps it discrete/ mysterious which is also key for a thriller. Scribling of pen circling a paricular name hints crazy person out to get someone. Photgraphs of various girl like they are victems or potential targets ( relates with prison mugshots)
CAMERA- Use of close up shots means that it doesn't give you a full view of the shot and whats going on so therefore keeps audiences in suspence. Makes audienes eager to watch it. The focus on certain props emphasises the importance of them.

RESEARCH- Structure of film opening

DIFFERENT TYPES OF STURCTURE OF A FILM OPENING

• The most common is a narrative opening where characters are shown, maybe talking and gives a idea of the story line- the titles run throughout the opening either ontop of or cut into

• A discrete title sequence where there are many  shots and close up images used mainly of props or character and therefore gives very little away. However is not part of the narrative.

• Some may start with titles over a black screen, at the centre, that lead into the opening of the film

RESEARCH- Intertextuality

INTERTEXTUALITY

One of the pleasures that audiences experience in the consumption of media texts is the joy of recognition. One form of this pleasure comes in recognising the reference in one media text to other media texts. This process of referencing is called intertextuality.

INTERTEXTUALITY The way in which texts refer to other media texts that  producers assume audiences will recognise.
 

RESEARCH - Film Audiences

The film industry has power yet it needs to listen and to respond to audiences. In Film and Media Studies the view of the audience has undergone a great deal of change. In the olden days the main task of promoting a film was a little easier as there was not so much competition for audiences from other media - television, video, cable and satellite din not exist. Nevertheless, there was competition amongst film studios, for audiences and there were various attempts to package films according to particular selling points, for example stars, genres, directors and special effects. These same selling devices are evident in trailers and posters for films today.

Media production has increased throughout the twentieth century to give audiences the opportunity to experience stories told in a range of media: cinema, television, magazines and on the internet and the task of attracting audiences to see films at the cinema has not become easier, but arguably, more difficult with so much competition. With these media developments the cinema-going audience has a more challenging point of view. The audience is no longer viewed by producers or theorists as easily influenced into ‘buying’ their product. Instead, knowing the audience and how to appeal to them has become a source of considerable research and debate.

Comedy/ romance- Women/young girls aged 12 and over as it is more funny and it can be situations they can relates to and there nearly always a happy ending

Action packed- Teenage boys and over as it has more violence, gun fights which boys tend to me associated.

Animated – kids and young children

Target audiences for thriller films would be around 16-25 years as most are rated 15 and over. For our film, this can be related to by the audience, as our main characters are teenagers/young adults, and therefore audiences can relate.
The gender of the target audience isn't as specific as age ranges however it can be mainly boys as it contains more gruesome parts or jumpy parts which women may not be fond of.

 

Research - Title order

Memento

0:04 - Production company
0:08 - New Market Presents
0:13 - association with summit
0:17 - team todd production
0:22 - Christopher Nolan film
0:26 - Guy Pearce
0:30 - Carrie Morris
0:35 - Joe P
0:40 - Momento
0:46 - Mark Bone
0:50 - Stephen Harriet
0:55 - Callum Larry
1:01 - Casting by John
1:04 - Music by David Julyan
1:08 - Costume and design by Cindy Evans
1:13 - Editor - Dody Dorn
1:18 - Production designer - Patti Podesta
1:22 - Director of Photography - Wally Pfeister
1:26 - Co-Producer - Elaine Dysinger
1:28 - Co-Executive Producers - William and Chris
1:33 -  Executive producer - Aaron Ryder
1:37 - Produced by Suzanne and Jennifer Todd
1:44 - Screenplay by Christopher Nolan
1:44 - Based on short story by Jonathan Nolan
1:49 - Directed by Christopher Nolan

From doing this excersise, I have learnt why a title order is important as there may be a reason for the certain order of names and i have learnt that the most important names either go first or the very last.

RESEARCH - Genre & Subgenre

A genre is a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. There are many examples of genres such as comedy, country western, romance, thriller etc.

A subgenre is a subdivision of the main genre. For example, a romance film which has comedy in it is now known as a 'rom-com' which is a subgenre. Also, a subgenre of thriller could be a horror which would be listed as a subgenre.

'Seven' is a horror that I am really inspired to use for our own thriller as I really like the credits and I think they're very interesting to look at. The still shots, like the one above, are quite random bit still give you a bit of a clue as to the kind of film you'll be watching. I'd definitely like to use some intertexuality in our opening using seven.

RESEARCH - Film Audiences

A film audience is an audience that's interested in a certain type of film. They are mostly sorted in gender and age. Younger children are most likely to be interested in animated films, while teenage boys and older men are most likely to be interested in action packed films and teenage girls and older women are most likely to be interested in romantic comedies. 

I think a thriller would attract mostly teenage boys and older guys within the age range of around 15-30, since thrillers mostly involve gore, blood, murders and quite disturbing scenes. Thrillers are mostly rated either for 15 or 18 year olds as they think this is an appropriate aged audience to watch them.

'The Stepfather' is a good example of a thriller with killing and blood in it and I definitely think that a 15-30 age range would enjoy it more and it would be more appropriate for them.

VLOG - Interview About Blogging

This is Olamide, Mariam and Masuma talking about their experience about blogging so far.

Behind the scenes of group 11

Here is Einas Drawing out a plan for our preliminary

Here is Jaleesa editing her version of Arlington road

Here is Masuma looking over her work

Here is mariam looking at some youtube videos for inspiration

Here is Olamide blogging 

Some of the work on our blogs

Converting our videos to MP4s

Jaleesa looking over her blogging

Here are some photos of us hard at work while editing our films and having fun!

Prelim - Filming (behind the scenes)

Preliminary Match Cut Excersise

here are the shots we did for our preliminary exercise. as you can see we have used different shots to practice match cutting.

the storyline was a person opens the door and has a conversation with her friend.

here's a vlog of our group talking about what we did in our preliminary excersise.

Research - demonstrate your knowledge of different types of structure of a film opening.

A narrative opening is when the titles run throughout the opening and they are either super imposed or intercut.

A discrete title sequence is shots/images/scenes that stand apart from titles that may contain elements from the film which act as indicators to plot, not part of the narrative.

Titles over a black screen are stand alone titles that lead into the opening of the film; usually on a black screen.

Animated interview about blog

Animated interview about blog starring Jaleesa:

Short Interview Starring Jaleesa
by: jaleesab

Research - Genre and Sub Genre

What is Genre?A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. Some examples of genre in terms of film would be comedy, horror, thriller, romantic etc.

What is Sub Genre?
A sub genre is like subdivisions of an encompassing term. Like if you say you saw a movie labeled -drama- could you watch it and see if it was a romantic drama? Its taking groups like comedies, mysteries, poems, and making the thinking narrower.

Sub Genre film that I enjoyed:A Thriller Sub Genre film that I really like is The Bourne Legacy. In The Bourne Legacy, Aaron Cross, a member of a black ops program whose agents are genetically enhanced, goes on the run once Bourne's actions lead to the public exposure of Operations Treadstone and Blackbriar. This Sub Genre film inspires me because the film is very action packed and exciting, it will have you on your seat waiting for something to happen next. This film could influence our film opening and we could include some of the fast pace edits and ideas of mise-en-scene and include it in our own opening.

An animated interview with Einas

Here is a video containing an interview with Einas Mohamed from group 11 about what she has been doing so far in media and what is to come!


An interview with media student Einas
by: senari007

Research - Analyse a previous student film openining

Violet.
 
Sound

• They use a eerie bell ringing sound which bodes well with the scenery.
• Later on you hear a sort of crackling noise over the bell ringing.

Editing

• The titles look sketchy which could relate to the film.
• Black and white in some scenes which could indicate it's a dream
• One clip is put over another, could signal a memory?

Mise en Scene

• Setting in the woods adds to the suspense of what has happened
• The white clothing the girl wears could signify purity and innocence

Camera Work

• Birds eye view of man dragging the woman's body. 
• Tracking is used to make the camera seem as if it is a point of view of someone walking up the stairs.
• Close ups of different body parts in the beginning
• At the beginning there is a close up of a violet flower, which is the film openings name. 

Research - Genre and Subgenre

A genre is a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. Examples of genre's could be, horror, thriller, crime, romance, comedy, etc. 

Subgenre is a subdivision of the main genre. An example of this is a film being a thriller but may contain elements of a horror so horror would be listed as a subgenre, or a romance film which has comedy in it so comedy would be listed as a sub genre.

A thriller subgenre that inspires me is Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This inspires me because the whole film keeps you on the edge of your seat constantly and it has one of the most iconic scenes in film history which is the famous shower scene. This could influence our own opening as we could use intertextuality to help make our opening by using the shower scene to bring in elements of thriller.

RESEARCH- Arlington Road

We had to put together and edit the opening sequence of Arlington Road using Final Cut Pro. This required us to put the clips in order and the add in title names. We then had to include sounds/ foley sounds using Sound Pro.

Edited video Clip- Arlington Road

In class we had to edit clips for the opening of Arlington Road. We had to put the clips in order and edit them and also add title names.

Screen Shots:

Edited video clip by me:

RESEARCH & PRACTICE

We had already learned how to edit in final cut pro but in this lesson we had to learn how to put titles on our work and save them. We also saw the order that the titles were supposed to go in and applied this to our film.

Research & Practice - explain the process of re-editing a film opening

I had to edit clips of  the opening to arlington road, it was fairly easy as we knew how to use final cut pro but we also learnt how to add text. We learnt the order of what names go first and where the idents go, we then added our own text to the opening. 

Adding text to the opening

example of the text i did

putting arlington road at the appropriate place

ident

My near final edit of Arlington Road, i just need to add sound.

RESEARCH - Film Analysis 1

CORALINE

I've chosen to analyse the film Coraline. I think this movie opening is quite confusing because there's more than one structure of opening. In this opening there are examples of a discrete title sequence, stand alone title and a narrative opening.

These two screen shots show a stand alone title sequence but there is a difference as the background isn't over a plain black/white background

Research -Intertextuality

What is Intertexuality?

Intertexuality is the relationship between texts. Its is used in film making as people use scenes from past films and put it in their own films, they usually do it as an inspired piece and not a directly copied version.
Examples of Intertexuality would be found in the bathroom scene from the film Psycho.

Pyscho:

Many films have the same version of the bathroom scene in the original Psycho such as, Fatal Attractions, What lies beneath, ect.

Fatal Attraction Bathroom Scene:

I noticed that the music for Fatal attraction and Psycho are exactly the same in the shower scene. also the way the shower curtains are pulled down as someone is dying.

 Using Intertexuality for my group can help influence us to interpret something from another film and use it in our own. This could be included in mise en scene, camera work, sound and editing.

RESEARCH - Intertextuality

Intertexuality is when another persons work is used to make someone elses. In films, intertextuality is used as people use certain parts of one film to help their own and they have taken ideas from that movie and used it in their own. 

A very famous example of this is the shower scene in the film Psycho. Some scenes in films such as 'The Stepfather' and 'Fatal Attraction' have been inspired by the following scene.

'Fatal Attraction' scene inspired by Psycho.

I think my film will definitely be using intertextuality for mise en scene, camera work, sound and editing for own work because it will be a great help to us all and it should make things a bit easier, but we'll still make sure that our work is an original thriller.

Research - Analyse a film opening Captain America

I analysed the film opening to Captain America.

The opening had a discrete title sequence as it had images of old America in the 1950's with titles next to them. The images had aspects of a wartime propaganda, feminism and women being home makers. This links to the film as it could be set in the 50's and the main protagonist is called Captain America.

Here there is an image of an Uncle Sam war propaganda poster with titles next to it.

 Men at war with titles.

Feminist poster with titles









The music in this opening is a heavy upbeat orchestra much like the star wars theme tune. It blends well with the images as it has a superhero sound to it, so it could show that the images of people are portrayed as superheros. The images changing is quite stylized as it moves from one to another as if it is a slideshow of each title and image.
The end image is of the title film.

Research - Film Audience

A film audience is a certain audience who are attracted to certain films, this can be sorted into the categories of age, ethnicity or gender. Each genre has a specific film audience, such as children films attract a younger audience from the ages of around 3-10.

A thriller usually contains elements of murder, abuse, mental illness, disturbing scenes, etc. Due to this I would say the film audience would be a mix of teenagers and young adults ranging from the ages of 16 to 25.  This is due mainly to age restrictions on films as thrillers have which are either 15 or 18. I think there is a mix of genders in the film audience but I feel that it would fall more to males watching thrillers rather than films due to the gore details and action.

For example, The Stepfather would attract an 16-25 age range because of the complexity found in the film, as there are many red herrings and the film keeps the audience at the edges of their seats with the plot.

Research - Analyse a film opening Coraline

I analysed the film opening to Coraline.











I found that the opening has both stand alone titles and a narrative opening. The opening starts with stand alone titles which are made to look like stitching on a cloth which links with the theme of the film. The opening isn't like a regular black screen opening as the background is made to look like a piece of cloth, so the opening is stylized compared to a usual black screen with white titles opening.

Here the opening is made to look like stand alone titles.

Here the opening is made to look like a narrative opening.







The film is animated and 3D, this makes it look more like a children's film rather than a thriller or a horror. The music in the film is a piano playing and singing to go with it to make it sound like a lullaby which could bring a child aspect to the film. The mise en scene of the opening looks quite dark which could show that there may be something bad to do with the doll being made.

Research - Intertextuality

Intertextuality is using another using another person's work to shape your own work form. Intertexuality is used in film making as people use scenes from past films and put it in their own ones, they usually do it as an inspired piece and not a directly copied version.
Examples of this is the film Pyscho, the famous Psycho shower scene has been used in countless films, such as the stepfather, what lies beneath, fatal attraction, etc.

 Fatal attraction bathroom scene

My group using intertextuality can help us influence our own film opening as it can help us build a storyline and help inspire our mise en scene, camera work, sound and editing. I think that using intertextuality for our own film opening can help us because it could be paying an homage to another film, it can help make our film a true thriller opening, it can help us putting in the conventions of a thriller. 

Research - Watch a Thriller film and list all the conventions

The thiller that I had watched over the holidays was Orphan. It is about a family who decide to adopt a girl called Esther after their baby had died. Esther is actually an older woman who appears to be a child and has escaped a mental asylum. It appears that she kills anybody who gets in her way or tried to reveal her secret, she jumps from family to family trying to seduce the husband and when that doesn't work she kills the whole family and makes it look like it was an accidental fire. She does this with her new family and ends up killing the father but the mother, daughter and son make it out alive. The mother breaks her neck and she dies.

The thriller conventions I found in this film were:

• Warner Brothers logo at the start of film. 
• A discrete title sequence
• There is stylized editing, white around the frame to make it look like a dream/nightmare.
• There is usually somebody introduced to a family and joins the family, similar to the stepfather
• Children are suspicious of the new family member and know there is something wrong with her.
• Person looks at a mirror and see's somebody directly behind them but it's usually a red herring.
• Something is mentally wrong with the antagonist.
• Music is always eerie, includes violins, builds the tension. 
• Motif for when character arrives 
• Antagonist continuously lies
• Somebody always knows there is something wrong with the antagonist but nobody believes their suspicions until the end.
• Antagonist always kills someone who is close to revealing their secret.