Practice Prelim

For the editing we took a long time to do it. We thought it over how we would edit it. For the 1st scene we cut certain parts for the beggining to not be long. We then added the close up of me opening the door, we had to keep on changing the edit to get it right. For most of the beggining we added an slow motion affect as we thought it would look well in our prelim. For the walk through the door we also had too film it a couple of times to get the edit right. we cut many times to get the right match cut in. For the walking we also to add slow motion but we didn't make it as slow as the opening of the door as we thought it would be too long.
The match cut of me coming around the corner wasn't too hard to eadit as we already knew what to do and we didn't have to do many cuts as we nearly got it right the first time.  We thought that adding many cuts inbetween the over the shoulder shots would make the film more fast paced making it look better for the audience to view. We match the cuts so it didn't look like they were two totally different shots. After this we decided to introduce the handheld shot to finish with as it ends in with an unsteady shot, a rotating shot. We also added an fade at the end so the clip would look like we were planning to continue, the next part of the film.

Filming the Prelim wasn't as hard as we thought it would as we already had a plan on what to do. TO film the beggining part we placed the camera in two different places to allow us to make match cuts of me opening the door. For the panning shot we also placed the camera in a certain plane and angle to allow us to move the camaera (pan) smoothly. This could allow us to have a good shot of some one walking. For the match cut of that we then filmed me walking around the corner at the same speed to allow us to edit it well and get a healthy match cut. We then filmed our conversation from various angles we done a medium shot with both of us in the frame, in addition to this we added two over the shoulder shots. We had 1 over Patrick's should and one over my shoulder. One very good shot we used was a hand held shot, we decided to do this because it would look very good in our prelim. We knew it was okay to do so even thought it would break the 180 degree rule. It was okay as it was the movement of the camera and not different shots.

For the practice prelim we planned carefully where we were going to shoot the video and what kind of shots we were going to have. We decided we were going to film it in the hall as we could do what was requiered there. We planned carefully to walk out of there with many shots, close ups, panning, and medium shots.

We then planned where I would come to talk to some one. We thought that we would to a match cut for the walking part of the film. We didn't do a story board but we filmed our animatic to get our ideas from there and so we had a plan to follow.

Foley sounds

The sounds needed for our edit of the film were not included so we had to record the sounds ourselves. We decided to get the camera ourselves and record the sounds we needed.  We took out a camera and recorded the sounds on it. We needed the sound of cars driving past so we recorded vans and cars driving past on the road for this. For the sloppy walking we got some one to do walk for us on stones so it really emphasizes the sloppyness of the walking and the feet dragging on the floor. We also needed sound of very heavy breathing. For this sound we needed to get the camera very close to the person breathing heavily so the sound could be recorded very well  and to a good a quality.

After we had recorded all the sounds we put them on the mac's and saved them. Along with this we put the film into soundtack pro. We then added the sounds where necessary. We had to cut some bits of the sound clip so it would fit into the section of the clip we needed.

Research into openings

As i have decided our film subgenre should be a 'Psychological Thriller' i have thought about a few different ideas that could be used for our film.

1. Start the film with the ending and reverse the film backwards... so the opening will end with a reverse.

2. A 'Film Noir' styled opening.

3. Have a killing at the beginning with a voice over from the killer -which will be the psychotic woman.

One film inspiration i've looked at is the opening to the Crime Thriller 'Goodfellas'

The opening 2 mins of this clip have inspired my film opening as it's very fast pace - where the killing happens at the beginning of the film - this is what i want to do in my thriller - whereby the man being stalked will be killed in the bathroom. Another factor that has inspired me from this film is the fact there is voice over from the main character. During my opening i want there to be a voice over from the woman something along the lines of "It doesn't always go the way it should and i guess that's how i ended up here" - to show she regrets killing the man and her sanity has returned. 

Pulp fiction also inspired my choice of film opening it is a conversational style opening which could be used throughout a section of my opening - or the setting whereby i can have the woman following the man in a restaurant styled atmosphere. There are particular shots that attracted me...

This close up could be used in mine - i want a lot of close ups of the woman's face during my opening and correspondingly show close ups of the man whilst showing their connection. 

This wide shot allows us to see the whole scenario - i want to use these in the bathroom scene whereby i'll be able to show the whole bathroom.

This close up interested me as it's the main tool of the scene - this has inspired me to use  CU shots like this on the weapon in my thriller.

Evaluation for Prelim

After producing the final edit of our Prelim we found good and bad aspects of it. One good point about our production is the fact we used different types of shots - for example a match cut when Diego walked from the door into the scene with Patrick -  we can recognise the match cut through the background setting (the pillar the table). An over the shoulder shot was used during the conversation between the two characters. A bad factor we picked up on was the fact we needed to put in more Titles during the Title Sequence - we didn't use "Directed by...". We also analysed the use of slow motion - and decided when the prelim first begins the slow motion effect could have been used later - as the CU shot of the hand is about to start.

Potential Location For Our Final Title Sequence Part 3

In our final clip we have the last possible locations that the media department have allowed us to see. we have  band stands, churches,churchyards and the Barbican centre. In our film we could use s church. we could use this location to show fore shadowing of death. With the band stands, we could use this to get really good shots of the man walking his dog in the park. In all honestly I do not think the barbican centre will be used as it does not really match the locations we are looking for.

Potential Location For Our Final Title Sequence Part 2

In this second clip we see many other locations that have potential to be used in our film. We have locations which are full of wall art and very typical london streets. Wall art will not really be necessary so we will not really include it. With the london streets, we can really use them for our scenes which include a   deluded woman following a man through london. for this reason we could include this. Another possibility of why we could include the streets is that film noir looks very good in a typical black an white london movie.

Potential Location For Our Final Title Sequence

We used a flip video to record the potential areas we may use for our opening to our thriller film, in this blog it shows the lock ups, alley ways and garages that we will possibly use in our film. The locations include a lot of green areas, parks old abandon places which could really contribute to the locations of our psychological thriller                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

In our film we could use some of these locations for example a park,  as we possibly want a man walking with his dog at night in the open grass. 

Prelim Production

This is our final production where we have added sound and titles, plus effects to make this video more appealing to watch. We have used drone sounds as the character slowly opens the door and walks towards the table. We've also added slow motion on two occasions where it shows the close up of the handle. We used slow motion as we wanted to create an intensity for the audience as the character enters a new room - the slow motion and low drone sound were used to show something will happen in the other room. When the character is then introduced to the man sitting on the chair (Patrick) slow motion was then used again on the phone by Patrick - 'slo mo' was used to show the phone call was an important part of the scenario.  A fade was then used to finish the Prelim as we wanted to end it on a 'To Be Continued...' style.

Preliminary Match Cut Exercise

 We was given a brief to follow a sequence about "a character that opens a door, walks into a room, sits down opposite another character and they share a few lines a dialogue" we had to make sure that we included match cut's, reverse shot etc. We had to do this without breaking the 180 degree rule.  The 180 degree rule is the rule that allows a film to flow steadily as the point of view of the viewer stays the sam, so the object or person in the frame stays on the same side of the frame instead of being on the left and right which doesn't make sense.

Thriller Genre and The Target Audience

Teenagers from the ages of 12 to 18 watch cross genres like Horror, Thriller and Action Thriller. some films are not suitable for younger viewers like 12 years to 14 to watch as the film may have scenes that may be disturbing to them so they introduce different age group certificates.

12A films means film that are suitable for children to watch at the age of 12  as long as they are accompanied by an adult as some films may be 'too much' for this certain age group.
Films such as Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean can be passed as 12A and may be family films with supernatural horror elements involved whereas films such as Twilight and The Cave, are examples of horror films which pass for 12, 12A.

The 12A category is only for cinema films and a child under the age of 12 will not allowed to buy any 12A films as they are too young to buy the chosen film.




Psychological thrillers like Memento are more intellectually demanding - therefore target audience of 25-45.
Thriller Genre slighty male skewed in general but cross Genre Thrillers like 'He Loves Me He, Loves Me Not' (Romance Thriller) - attract female audiences more. Supernatural Thrillers also attracts female audience simply because most films that are based on supernatural elements also involves children which connects female audience more as women are stereotyped in three ways in Media Industry in terms of this it brings the 'Mother Figure' more than Sex Objects and Housewife.
However, most thrillers/Horror films, women are used as Sex Objects or they show a vunerable side to the audience as they are stereotyped also to be weak, helpless and scared. This can also be contradicted as the women can be strong and independent and may bring a different side to the typical view on women. Enemy of the State however is more skewed to male audience as the genre is Political Thriller.

When films with the 18 certificate logo, it means that the films are suitable for viewers over the age of 18. Most thrillers and horror films are mainly 18 rated as the features included in the film could be disturbing for younger viewers.

Health and Safety

In the lesson about help and safety we learnt many new things about the equipment we use to do our practical coursework.

Tripod.
With the tripod we learnt how to insert the camera in to the slot correctly. We then got taught how to put on the secure lock so the camera doesn't slip off.  With the tripod we also  got told a common mistakes which occurs when filming. We got told to always extend the same clip from the tripod so that the tripod is not bent.

Camera
With the camera we got taught a lot of things for our film. We got taught techniques which will be very useful during the filming.
One thing we learnt is that the camera can be put in 'AF' (auto focus) or 'MF' (Manual focus).
Between the two there's a large difference as an auto focus will not allow you to get the depth field requiered, weather it's shallow depth of field or deep depth of field.
One more thing we learnt was the zooming, we got taught how to zoom incase we need to focus on something at a greater distance.
The last thing we got taught is how to use the playback setting so we could view what we just recorded, to check if it is the filming we require.

Memory card

One thing we learnt about the SD memory card is that the card size allows us upto 2 hours filming time at top quality image. This is vital for us as we need to know what we have to film so we do not go over.
The second most important thing we learnt is that the little switch on the right needs to be up so we can record and have no issues after playing back and possibly deleting  the material we don't intend to use.




Battery

With the battery we learnt that we can use the battery for upto 2 hours. We also got taught how to insert the battery into the camera properly. And vse versa, we learnt how to remove the battery also.

Title sequence analysis

1. State the production and distribution companies. How are they introduced? What purpose do they serve at the start of the movie?

NEW MARKET..
association with SUMMIT ENT.

TEAM TODD PRODUCTION

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN.. DIRECTOR.

STARS

FILM TITLE

2. Film title - where exactly is this placed? Start, middle, end?

Memento is at the start of the films after all the credits have been shown. (ones above)

3. Timeline

Start
New market
Team todd production
Christopher Nolan~
Name of film
Stars/actors
Music by..
Costume by..
Editor..
Production design..
Producers..
Director

End
4 Where does the film title nearly always appear?

Just after the opening credits, e.g directed by.. etc and before or during the opening scene

What type of fonts tend to be used in title sequences?

Capitals, sharp, bold, formal and very clear text.

Is your timeline below conventional? If not, how does it differ from the 'norm'?

It doesn't really differ as many films use roughly the same order.

How many times does the institutional information such as production company and distributoprs appear?

They all got shown at least twice, this was to make it clear to the audience who they are and to let them know they are a big company.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DxPH8vG-Jo the clip shows us the opening credits.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is a term used for films which are inspired by other films, this could also be seen as copying things from other directors. One of the main director's that has inspired other directors is Alfred Hitchock. ~
In pshyco his prestigious knife, shower cap shot, white towelts and the white shower curtain are used in other many films, from student films to proffesional hollywood movies.
In the image above we see his mis-en-scene, the white tiles have now been used in many films as phsyco was a big success, other directors want to imitate his success.

Film genere and cinema in 2010

In the last media lesson we researched movies success in 2010, we researched things like, the most common genre, the most succesful & the least succesful. In the lesson I answered these questions. 1.

Looking at the FDA for 2011 I found out that the Genre suspense released 38 movies in 2010. The genre grossed in about 42 million pounds to the nearest pound. The genre with the highest gross and it's right was adventure/action.

Action & adventure films requiere a larger amount of money to produce the film to high standards. They need to hire out the correct stars, director's mis-en-scene, special effects etc.
 In the picture below you will see the stats.

Genre and Sub Genre

A film is nearly always based on a certain genre. Genre is an overview of the styl of film it is. A style of film (genre) is a quick brief overview of what the film is or is about.
The most common genre's for a film are:
Romance, Comedy, Action, Thriler, Tragedy, Science fiction, Drama, Horror & Fantasy.
A film can also have an sub genre. A sub genre is when there's anothe genre intergrated with in the main one. For example romantic comedy's, ( rom-com). A rom com is usually an all romantic movie with some comedy with in the film.           

The stepfather (2009)
The stepfather is a film about  an evil man who tricks family's into thinking he's the loving special stepfather but decides to decieve them by killing them. The film's main genre is a thriller. The film is also an thriller - horror as it is a movie that causes you too jump and sometime's fear for the worst. The way the film is recorded sometime's leaves us not knowing what is going to happen next.
One thing that inspires me about the film is that it has a lot of intertextuality with other films, for example (Phsyco). One way we see the intertextuality in the film is the knife being used by the killer to attack his victims ( the family)
The picture on the left shows us the knife he uses to try murder the family, the same shaped knife used in Pshyco (bottom picture).
The director of Phsyco has influenced many  other directors with the mis-en-scene he has used, from the shower cap shots, to the white curtains, to the shape of the knife and the white towels used in his stabbing scene.

Kid That Bleeds - no sound.

Flop 1.

So we have come across a hitch - some of our titles on the edges do not show - we had to go back to Final Cut and place the titles in new positions.

Production of 'Kid That Bleeds'

We put the individual clips from the sequence in order - starting from the Production

Research on Target audience for Thrillers

This picture is the cover of the film salt, a thirller from 2010. The film cover shows us a young very attractive woman which is looking straight at us, the audience, the viewer. By having her as the front of the poster, they are automatically ming the film very appealing to men. Another audience this film is targeted at are young people, roughly 18-35 as the film doesn't seem to have a large amount of political issues, it seems more entertaining. Even though the cover of the film is appealing to men as she is very attractive this could also to be very appealing to women as they find films with female pretagonists are more related to them and they can relate more with the character.

A lot of the times, infact most thirllers are usually 18+ rated. The reason that thrillers are one of the most common 19+ rated movies is that the film will usually touch a very strong subject that could be too much for an underage person. In a thriller we usually see a lot of killings, this could be very harsh for a young person to see.

One more reason this genre tends to be 18+ is there usually a couple involved and many sexual scenes. Sex is a very strong subject for an underage person like me to view, as there could be a lack of maturity or understanding of the film.


Apart from sex a lot of the time we see very pshycological films. A film like this tends to make the audience think a lot and could have a very strong message to the film. So with this being the case, producers tend to target these films at over 18's as they are more likely to concentrate and interact more with the film.

Research on Target audience for Thrillers

 The target audience of many psychological thrillers are 18+ This is because they include a lot of violence and some psychological issues which can be disturbing for many younger viewers There are usually warnings on the back of the DVD cover which states why it is rated as it is e.g. contains extreme violence or sexual scenes.

Some people may say- 'It really depends on the kind of thriller film. Like all genres, there are sub-genres and to really give an accurate answer to your question you would have to specify what kind of thriller film.

Silence of the Lambs and No Country for Old Men are considered the two best thrillers in recent memory... and they're rated R. Their target audience was probably for the young male adults.

Meanwhile, there are those thrillers that are borderline horror films, such as M. Night Shyamalan films The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village. Since they're close to horror (and horror films target teenage girls), the demographic would be slightly different... probably younger and more female based.

And then there are legal thrillers (Fracture, Runaway Jury) and crime thrillers (Memento, Se7en) that target a more mature audience... and classic thrillers (any Alfred Hitchcock film) that are rated PG, but are intended for adults.


But if you just need a target audience for a generic thriller film... I'd have to say the young adult demographic from 18-25. That's my opinion.'

But some people may also say that they are targeted for teenagers, 'from 14-18'. This is because it exites them the most meaning the film is more successful towards that audience.

 

Film Genre and the Cinema in 2010

I looked at the FDA year book for 2011 and answered the following questions;

1. How  many suspense films were released in 2010?
  - 38

2. In total, how much did these suspense films take, gross, to the nearest million?
  - 42 million

3. Which genre of film had the highest gross in 2010?
  - Action/Adventure

4. What was the most popular family genre in 2010?
  - Animation

Film Genre and the Cinema in 2010

After looking at the FDA yearbooks for 2011 I found out that 38 Suspense films were released in 2010, from the nearest million these suspense films take gross of £42,000,000 in total. However, out of all genre films, Action/Adventure has the highest gross in 2010. from the family genre, Animation was the most popular to appeal to younger viewers. 


The figures for suspense genre films compared to other film genres like action adventure has a lower outcome, reasons this may be is that more production work is used and more money is put towards action adventure films than suspense films simply because bigger production line, more technology used especially the Mise-en-Scene area as props and equipment is needed.


Here are pictures from the FDA yearbook of other films and the amount of films made in 2010,2009 and 2008. you will see in some years it was a good year as allot of films were released whereas some genres were high in later years and in 2010 a massive drop occurred.

Intertextuality (continued)

Here are the 3 films that have used certain elements from the clip Psycho.

Fatal Attraction.
What happens in this film?
Two woman are fighting the Bathroom and one of the woman is trying to kill the other and the husband hears from downstairs and runs up to where the bathroom and drowns the killer as she is trying to stab his wife.
The aspects borrowed from the film Psycho?
The props used from the clip in Psycho appears in this film also, for example, the knife, the white tiles, the shower rail. When the woman dies, she slides down the tiles into the bath which also appears in the film Psycho so this is another aspects from the famous clip.

What Lies Beneath.

What happens in this film?
Starts on the staircase where a man is carrying his wife up the stairs into the bathroom to drown her, the woman is paralysed so she can not run away.
The aspects borrowed from the film Psycho?
The bath scene, showerhead. They didnt have to have the sound of the shower but wanted to have more effect on the scene which makes the audience feel scared and have a slight adrenaline.
The tiles, curtains and bath are all white. This connotes purity or a sense of innocences as the killers are being killed for no reason, it also makes the lighting lighter and gives more detail in the surroundings and makes it seem isloated.

The Stepfather
What happens in the film?
In the Stepfather, the man is chasing the woman up the stars into the bathroom, and a mirror breaks and smashes on the floor, which then the woman picks up and stabs him in the neck. He then falls into the bathtub but gets up after a while and gets a knife and goes to kill her.
The aspects borrowed from the film Psycho?
The same isolated bathroom with the white tiles and curtains. The man also uses the same knife used from the famous bathroom clip from Psycho.
The stepfather is a good example of intertextuality as even though they use aspects from the film Psycho it also borrows from one of the other film was evaulated above (What Lies Beneath).

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is a term to describe the visual referencing between films. In other words, films borrowing certain clips and adapting to it or developing it. As audience we may recognise certain camera angles, mise en scene, snippets of sound or methods of editing in some films that we have seen before.


I watched the famous clip from the film 'Psycho' the bathroom scene when a woman is murdered with a knife in the bath as the clip below shows. This film is a great example of Intertextuality as other films have seen and borrowed different aspects from this film and developed it or kept it original. After this, I watched 3 other clips and wrote down the different aspects which was borrowed from the film.

The seven opening (discrete) is a very good opening as it is very appealing to the audience. The video doesn't really relate to the video but the clip gives the viewer a sense of what the film is about. The opening clip has also been edited with a filter which gives us the low quality effect, allowing it to have a greater spooky effect. Apart from this, the opening is very well edited. There're many cuts, a lot of quick cuts which again intensify the tension trying to be created by the producers.
Another aspect of this film is there's mainly close ups, close ups allow the viewer to feel closer to the action, so the audience feel more intimate with the film, creating even more tension.

Intertextuality

INTERTEXTUALITY

"Intertextuality is a term to describe the visual referencing between films. Quite literally, films 'borrow' from each other, and you, the audience, may recognise certain camera angles, aspects of mise en scene, snippets of sound or methods of editing in some films that you have seen in others."

In class we looked at a significant clip from the film 'Psycho' and then other clips from What Lies Beneath, Fatal Attraction and The Stepfather - all films have 'borrowed' elements from the film Psycho and this is what is known as Intertextuality.

WHAT LIES BENEATH:

Borrowed from Psycho:
- Same clinical looking bathroom.
- Same white bath, white tiles, white shower curtain.
- Same ariel shot of the shower head.
- Same sounds of the shower being turned on and off  and the same mood is created.

FATAL ATTRACTION:


Borrowed from Psycho:
- Same shower scene.
- Same white tiles, white bathrobe, white curtain and white bath.
- Same knife.
- Same slow motion of woman sliding down the wall.
- Same aerial shot of shower head.

















THE STEPFATHER:


Borrowed from Psycho:
- Same white bath.
- Same white curtain/pulling off of the curtain.
- Same knife.
- Same position in bath.
- Same sliding down wall shot.


- Same staircase as What Lies Beneath.
- Same glass shattering shot as Fatal Attraction.

Genre, Sub Genre and Audience (continued)

Tower Heist (2011) is a Crime Comedy which crosses two genres; Crime and Comedy, the target audience that may appeal to this film is unisex meaning male and female audiences may be attracted to this movie, also mainly young adults, early teens from the ages of 13-14 and over.

We can tell that the film is a crime comedy by the actors being on top of the building which connotes a urban/gangster vibe. Also being a comedy film the actors portray this as they do not look serious and in the poster there is a maid which looks out of place to be fighting crime and also the cartoon dog at the bottom. By being a comedy crime genre this will appeal to the target audience mentioned before as younger viewers tend to like to 'have a laugh' and also like the adrenaline and action of crime happening. We can also tell this is a comedy film by the main actors, Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller who are both comedian actors therefore by seeing these two the audience automatically think that the film is going to be funny.

Friends With Benefits (2011) is a Comedy Romance which also cross genres, the target audience for this film is 15 and over, we can tell by having young actors on the poster to portray the age group for this film also by the title is gives off the idea of what the film is about and by the age group mentioned it fits the stereotype of teenagers as people 'only' see teenagers to be interested in sex drugs and party and this film comes under the sexual side. The romantic side to the film is shown by the body language the actors give as the woman (Mila Kunis) is giving a flirtatious look.




These two posters represents the crossing of two genres, the effective thing about cross genres is that they benefit two genres and by having sub-genres in film industry it gives more films to choose from as viewers.

Opening of a Sequence

12. Erika, Nathan, Poppy, Charlene from 283goswell on Vimeo.


This opening is very good, very creative, and gives us an emotion that was sent off (successful).

Mise en scene 


- They used a different variety of mise en scene, for example;

. They used costume, (the girl was in white with blood stains on her top)
. They found a very good location (forest, old looking house)
. They had good props (books, photos, knifes, etc)

Editing

- The editing was used successfuly, for example;

. There was fast cuts to build tension, to make us affraid.
. They used dissolves and many different effects to make the clip look spooky, mysterious.
. They used fast and slow motion to build tension and also make us more affraid/jumpy.
. They put an effect on the visual (sumtimes made it black/white or very bright), to give us an emotion that something dodgy is going on/ spooky.

Camera Work

- There where many camera shots that worked well with the story line, for example;

. There were many close ups/extreme close ups (to build the tension while there are fast cuts, also describes the things and informs the viewer what message they are giving out).
. They used over the shoulder shot (to show what the man was looking at).
. Rocky shots ( camera was shooken around at times), to make the viewer scared and shocked.

Sound

- Sound was used to build tension and gives us the effect that creates our emotion (scared, shocked, mysterious)

. There was music playing that sounded kid like, and like the ones from the playing boxes that kids use ( this was to show us something spooky is going on/mysterious, also shows us the dead girl is still a kid..)
. The music was high pitched to give us a sense that the place is haunted and spooky. This creates an emotion to the audience ( gets them scared )
. There was echo noises to enhance on the sense of spookyness and mysteriousness.

Genre, Sub-Genre and Audience.

Genre: A group or classification used for artistic or creative works of various kinds, other words that may be associated with the word Genre could be; Type, Category and/or Style. In terms of The Media Industry, Genre is categorised in many ways; Hip-Hop, R&B, Reggae, House are all different Genres that linked towards Music. Action, Romance, Thriller, Comedy, Sci-Fi etc.. Are all different Genres that linked to Film.

Sub-Genre is a sub category within a particular Genre. Similar to Genre there are different types of categories within the group, an example of Sub-Genres in the film category; Romantic Comedy (Rom-Com), Action Thriller, Action Adventure, Musical Horror etc.

Sub-Genres are effective as it could make films more effective as they cross Genres together and to also extend the ending of the film as they 'entertain' two different Genres.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality:

-Similarities between films
-Visual/Audio referencing that reminds the audience of films they have seen in that genre.
-Quite literally, films 'borrow' from eachother, and you, the audience, may recognise certain camera angles, aspects of mise en scene, snippets of sound or methods of editing in some films that you have seen in others.

There are many films that have borrowed aspects from the film 'Psycho'. For example;

What lies Beneath:


What happens?- Man brings a women that is paralysed in the bath tub to drown.
Aspects borrowed from 'Psyco'- Same shower head, same white bath, sound of the shower, same shots used.

Fatal Attraction:

What happens?- Man drowns women and saves the girl that was stabbed, then the women rises from the bath tub and attempts to stab the man but the girl had time to get a gun and shoots the women.
Aspects borrowed from 'Psyco'- Same white bath, same slow motion slide on the wall when dieng, same knife.

The Stepfather:

What happens?- Man chases women then swings knife at women but women stabs first in the neck with the glass that broke off.
Aspects borrowed from 'Psycho'- Same curtain rip, same knife, same position in the bath, same camera shots.

Title Sequence Analysis

The Taking Of Pelham 123 has stated the production and distribution in a way which helps introduce the production company to show audience what company is responsible and appears to be at the beginning of the movie, an example of this, Colombia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures are the two main companies that represent this film. After the major companies are mentioned the director of the film appears then the main actors. The actors appear along the sequence afterwards then the film title comes into the sequence which directly shows what the name of the movie is called. the name of the title shows then more actors are mentioned in this sequence is has changed in terms of the order as most title sequences the director and actors come after the name of the title. The way title sequence occur, it seems to have a hierarchy effect in terms of "how important are you".

Genre & Subgenre

Common genre's for film are: Thriller, Horror, Drama, Romance, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci Fi, Tragedy, Action and Comedy.

Genre is a term used to describe the theme/style or type of a film. Genre's are commonly formed by 'typical' conventions that are developed from one movie. An example of this is in the film 'Psycho' - where the famous shower scene has then influenced many films from then on after such as What Lies Beneath and Fatal Attraction.

Psycho (1960)

Sub-genres are smaller categories within the main category 'Genre'. Similarly to Genre there are smaller categories within the larger ones.

Common subgenre's for film are: Action-Thrill, Romantic Comedy (Rom-Com), Action Romance, Romantic Comedy, Musical Horror, Chick Flicks,

Title Sequence Analysis

Genre: Horror
Target audience: Adults
What were the key signifiers?: The key signifiers for this horror film poster is the sharp lettering of the name of the film, sharp lettering is usually used for horrors as they represent the film, sharp. Another key factor for this poster is that the poster is very dark and gloomy which means that the film is likely to be represent by the poster. Another major factor is the actor. The actor's facial expression shows us that she is scared or she is panicking, once again that the film is scary.


Genre: Action, Romance and Sci Fi
Target audience: young people and couples
What were the key signifiers?: One of the key signifiers of this poster to show us the film is about romance is the position and the way the actors are interacting with eachother. They are very intimate, touching eachother and are staring at eachother meaning that they are possibly in love or they mean a lot to eachother. Another mayor feature in this poster is the gun. The gun shows the audience that there is some sort of action included whether it's shooting or killings, there is some sort of action.
Another theme shown through the poster is science fiction, The way science fiction is shown is through the is there is a timer on his arm, which highly relates to the title ' In time'. The title and  and the timer both have flourescent green in them making them more strongly linked.

Genre: Horror
Target audience: Adults
What were the key signifiers?: The key signifiers for this horror film poster is the sharp lettering of the name of the film, sharp lettering is usually used for horrors. Another key factor for this poster is that the poster is very dark and gloomy making it spooky (horror) already.




Genre: Action and Romance
Target audience: young people and couples
What were the key signifiers?: The key signifiers of hits poster to show the audience that the film is about action and romance are the way the couple are looking at each other.  Another mayor feature in this poster is the gun. The gun shows the audience that there is some sort of action included whether it's shooting or killings, there is some sort of action. 

Genre, Sub genre and Audience

Genre- Horror
Target Audience- Adults
What where the key signifiers?- Title is scary, Face Expression of the Girl, Layout of the poster.



Genre- Action
Target Audience- Teenagers
What were the key signifiers?- The word 'game' is in red (showing us something bad is going to happen because red signifies danger, blood), the costume of the man/women is stereotyped in all action films (smart,formal,mysterious).



Genre- Action/Romance
Target Audience- Young people/Couples
What were the key signifiers?- The action of the characters (about to kiss/holding eachother), the prop(gun- shows us action/violence).

Scarface

Shot types used. 

In Scarface there are many different camera shots. The camera shots are used for many different reasons.

During the film we see many close up's of Tony Montana's face to see many emotions. The close up's are done delibaretly to allow the viewer to get a closer look at him.. Another reason the close up could be used in this film is to allow us to get closer to the character, not just physically but emotionally too.

Another type of shot used a lot in scarface is the medium shot. This type of shot could be used for various reason's. In this image we see that the medium shot is used to not only show Tony Montana but to show what is around him. In this frame we can see he has a glass of some sort of whisky or brandy & he has cocaine around him, this show us what his lifestyle's about.



Narrative

The scarface story line has ambigious meaning, personally I think that the story's message is your opinion, the way you (the viewer) understands the film. The film is about a Cuban refugee in the USA. He's overly motivated by money and decides he's going to be very rich. Through out the story we see Tony Montana (Al Pacino) happy, said, drunk, high and more.

One of the message's the storyline represents is that all Cuban's are drug dealers. This could be interpreted in that way as the film was set in 1980, roughly during the time a lot of Cubam's are moving to America. Another reason is that many of the people that Tony Montana is affiliated with are Cuban's, for example his best friend Manolo (Manny).

Another interpretation of the film could be that crime pays. There's a lot of evidence for this to be the main message of the story as we see Tony Monana go from being from a poor humble family to a very wealthy and powerful man, in the United States. From the beggining we're shown that crime pays as he is rewarded with a green card in exchange for killing an former Cuban government official.


Another possible represntation of the film could most certainly be that crime (drugs) doesn't take you anywhere and it certainly can not buy happyness. Once again there're many reasons for why this could be true as we see his down fall during the film. During the movie we see him loosing his mum as she is not content of his dirty businesses, we see his sister being addicted to cocaine and at the end, the most important one, we see him being killed by Sosa 'The Skull'. All of this means that having a lot of money doesn't assure you happyness.

Research on Camera Angles

Camera Angles

Camera angles and movements combine to create a sequence of images, just as words, word order and punctuation combine to make the meaning of a sentence. You need a straightforward set of key terms to describe them.

Describing Shots

When describing camera angles, or creating them yourself, you have to think about three important factors

— The FRAMING or the LENGTH of shot

— The ANGLE of the shot

— If there is any MOVEMENT involved

When describing different cinematic shots, different terms are used to indicate the amount of subject matter contained within a frame, how far away the camera is from the subject, and the perspective of the viewer. Each different shot has a different purpose and effect. A change between two different shots is called a CUT.

Framing or Shot Length

1 . Extreme long shot

Extreme Long Shot

This can be taken from as much as a quarter of a mile away, and is generally used as a scene-setting, establishing shot. It normally shows an EXTERIOR, eg the outside of a building, or a landscape, and is often used to show scenes of thrilling action eg in a war film or disaster movie. There will be very little detail visible in the shot, it's meant to give a general impression rather than specific information.

 

2. Long Shot

This is the most difficult to categorise precisely, but is generally one which shows the image as approximately "life" size ie corresponding to the real distance between the audience and the screen in a cinema (the figure of a man would appear as six feet tall). This category includes the FULL SHOT showing the entire human body, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom. While the focus is on characters, plenty of background detail still emerges: we can tell the coffins on the right are in a Western-style setting, for instance.

 

 

3. Medium Shot

Contains a figure from the knees/waist up and is normally used for dialogue scenes, or to show some detail of action. Variations on this include the TWO SHOT (containing two figures from the waist up) and the THREE SHOT (contains 3 figures...). NB. Any more than three figures and the shot tends to become a long shot. Background detail is minimal, probably because location has been established earlier in the scene - the audience already know where they are and now want to focus on dialogue and character interation. Another variation in this category is the OVER-THE-SHOULDER-SHOT, which positions the camera behind one figure, revealing the other figure, and part of the first figure's back, head and shoulder.

 

4. Close-Up

This shows very little background, and concentrates on either a face, or a specific detail of mise en scène. Everything else is just a blur in the background. This shot magnifies the object (think of how big it looks on a cinema screen) and shows the importance of things, be it words written on paper, or the expression on someone's face. The close-up takes us into the mind of a character. In reality, we only let people that we really trust get THAT close to our face - mothers, children and lovers, usually - so a close up of a face is a very intimate shot. A film-maker may use this to make us feel extra comfortable or extremely uncomfortable about a character, and usually uses a zoom lens in order to get the required framing.

 

5. Extreme Close-Up

As its name suggests, an extreme version of the close up, generally magnifying beyond what the human eye would experience in reality. An extreme close-up of a face, for instance, would show only the mouth or eyes, with no background detail whatsoever. This is a very artificial shot, and can be used for dramatic effect. The tight focus required means that extra care must be taken when setting up and lighting the shot - the slightest camera shake or error in focal length is very noticeable.