Analysis of 9 Shots from Art of The Title Sequence.

The Title Sequence i have chosen to Analyse is Forrest Gump (click for movie trailer). The Forrest Gump Title Sequence fits into Category One, a narrative opening with titles throughout. The titles themselves are in a font called ITC Fenice Light and the sequence font type is a Serif, an intelligent, traditional, historic, masculine and serious typeface. This works effectively as the film is set in America when the Vietnamise war was happening so is, in a way, historic. But at the same time, deliberately contrasts our Hero who is very unintelligent and unserious. However, one could argue, the seriousness of the Serif font is taken away slightly as it is slim, lowercase and light, and therefore, represents femininity (despite storyline) as a result. However it could be argued shows Forrest is a 'mamas boy'

The titles themselves, tell us the movie is a Paramount production and is produced by Steve Tisch/ Wendy Finerman, they also tell us its a Robert Zerneckis movie, then we are told the lead actor is Tom Hanks and then the movie name Forrest Gump, this is followed by the names of the 'also starring', casting manager, co-producer, excecutive music producerm visual effects supervisor, costume designer, musician, editor, production designer etc.

The titles are placed over the image of a floating feather and continue to fade in and out as we follow the journey the feather takes with a continuous close up (CU) of the feather however in the background establishing shot of streets and settings the audience will later recognise during the movie. We follow the feather until it lands at the hero's shoes with a CU of the completely dirty trainers with pristine laces, suggestive of the characters 'difference'' or 'strangeness', and then the dialogue begins.

This title sequence appeals to me because of the floating white feather against a perfect blue sky connotes freedom, the musical stimulus is light, sweet and pleasing to the ear. Also, Forrest Gump is an alltime family favourite of mine, and is a classic. It has been a favourite of mine for years, and i believe it will continue to be so.

Skills Audit Editing (Final Cut Pro)

During Friday mornings lesson, we learnt the basics of editing a small section of film in the media Mac Suite. Below is a screen shot showing Final Cut Pro.

The top left box on the screen shows the browser window where all of the unedited clips are stored until we need to use them. Once we have used them, they stay there unedited so we can use them again for split edits. The clips from the browser window can be played in the middle box and the right hand box shows the final piece, from the timeline which is underneath.

The lesson started by us going to the special media suite in our college to use the new, big screen apple macs. We sat down and listened to what we would be learning about today; sounded exciting.

We opened up Final Cut Pro and learnt the basics of editing. Firstly we learnt how to put 'inpoints' and 'outpoints'. After perfecting this, we did the Bait Tutorial and after opening a clip from the browser window, we put in and out points on the clips.
We spent a while getting used to this and after doing this, we then dragged the edited clip with the in and out points on the timeline to be played. We then played it and checked that it was working well.

After making sure it was excatly how we wanted it, we learnt how to add transition effects. We used the effects that were built into the Mac, and added them to our piece. We decided that in our Media group (Me, Alison Johns, Jack Callow, Glenn Boateng) that we wanted to show each other our work before we blogged this. We enjoyed using our skills that we have learnt in the lesson on the clip and feel more ready to make our Thriller film!

Skills Audit Editing (Final Cut Pro)

Today we had a very helpful session in the Mac Suite with Marisa. We were learning how to use a programme called Final Cut Pro, the reason being as this will be the program we will be using on our Thriller Project. As You Can See in the Screen Shot above, is the programme itself. There are three separate windows at the top of the screen, All three of these windows are there for different reasons.(Left to right) the first is the Browser window, this is to browse through the recorded and separate clips you wish to put into a sequence. The next window is a player for each individual clip from the browser, with this window you may perform cuts to a clip by using 'in-points' and 'out-points'. And the final Window is for playing the edited and final sequence found on the timeline below.

After you put in-points and out-points on a clip, (editing out 'Action' and 'Cut' for example) you must then place it on the timeline. It sounds really difficult and technical but is actually really simple! all you have to do is click on the edited clip in your middle screen and pull it down onto the timeline, you can also drag it across into window on the right and this will also make it appear on the timeline. You can also add audio as we did to the Bait sequences in class, this is done in the same way as adding a clip to the timeline except you drag the audio below

Today we were concentrating on match cuts and learning basic use of the programme. We learned how to use tools such as the eraser tool and the zoom tool and we also learned how to add Special Effects (SPFX) Such as fades and transitions. Effectively, if we put the time in, we were told we could actually make our Thriller sequences look as slick and professional as blockbusters!

Skills Audit Editing.

Today I learnt some skills for Final Cut Pro which is what will be used to edit the end project including selecting clips from the browser and setting in and out points to then move the clips onto the timeline, and make a sequence, adding a soundtrack, piecing different shots together, adding background music audio tracks, adding transitions to my clips as well as match cuts which use two different shots of the same scene for added effect and using the razor tool.

'Match Cut'

A mid shot of the tramp.

As he reaches down to take the food the shot cuts to a close up of his hand.

The Final Cut Window; with The Browser, The Viewer, The Canvas and Timeline

The Timeline, showing the clips, transitions, soundtracks and cuts.

News Events.

Keep A diary of current and world event on your blog. Write about things that you see on the news or read in the papers - the most ordinary stories could form the basis for a good Thriller!

Thursday January 28th 2010 - Novelist JD Salinger death

Author JD Salinger, writer of such books as The Catcher in the Rye has sadly passed away at the old age of 91. Doctors have said that his death came from natural causes, generally of old age. He died peacefully in his home in the New Hampshire state, America.

He is mainly known for his multimillion selling novel which was published first, 59 years ago. The Catcher in the Rye tells the story of a teenage angst and has lead on to become one of America's most influential novels ever. As soon as the

novel hit the shelves in America, he lived the most luxurious lifestyle which his family. His death has hit his state hard, with lots of people sad to see him gone.

Thursday January 28th 2010 - Fined for blowing his nose

There is a time when political correctness goes out of control, and this may be one sure case of this. Michael Mancini who runs a small furniture restoration business in Ayrshire has been fined £60 by police officers for blowing his nose while behind the wheel of his car; fair enough if the car was moving.

As a matter of fact, Mr Mancini was sitting in deadlock traffic through the city centre and was stopped with his handbrake on when he took out a tissue. He noticed a few police officers around but thought nothing of blowing his nose. He was shocked when the police then waved him over to the side of the road and explained to him that "he wasn't in control of the vehicle."

Mr Mancini was said to have been "absolutely stunned" by this and added "i said to the officer, you must be joking, you're having a laugh!" He is awaiting a court date for not paying the fine and is said to be pleading not guilty.

Thursday January 28th 2010 - No Pyjamas Allowed!

Customers at the St Mellons, Cardiff branch of Tesco's have been told they will be thrown out of the store if they arrive in their pj's.

We have also learnt that notices in uppercase text, have been put up in the shop stating "To avoid causing offence or embarrassment to others we ask that our customers are appropriately dressed when visiting our store (footwear must be worn at all times and no nightwear is permitted."

On contacting Tesco, they released a statement saying that they are not a nightclub, but they don't have a strict dress code; Jeans and trainers are acceptable. They said that some customers have complained at the fact people had been walking around in bed clothes, or even bare feet.

24 year old Elaine Carmody described the ban as ridiculous and pathetic. She goes on to say that she only popped into the store to pick up some cigarettes but as she was dressed in her pj's and slippers, she was turned away. She believes that Tesco will loose custom as people will choose to shop elsewhere.

Photography Task.

For our lesson today, we was given an hour to go out with a camera to take photo's that fitted a word from list. The list included words such as mysterious, contentment and confusion.

The brief was "Film openings are often evocative and some very simple images can evoke a variety of different moods and feelings. Your task is to take photos of 6 of the following words. Be as creative and imaginative as you can!"

After discussion with my group, we chose claustrophobic, happiness, depression, future, calm and through. We chose these words because we felt that we had the right ideas in our heads to complete the task and take the images.

"Calm"

We chose this picture to represent the word "calm" and i believe that this shows a calm atmosphere. We chose a spot away from the busy London road that runs past our college and into a small park. We managed to show how two people are calm even though there are lots of people running round and going about their daily lives just a stones throw away.

"Future"

We chose this picture to represent the word "future." We discussed how the technology is developing and if anything that is around today that will definitely be around in the future, is computers. We decided to photo Apple Mac's that are in a media classroom on our corridor and enhanced it using Adobe Photoshop. We liked the fact that it looked different to the original photo and the fact that it symbolises future.

"Happiness"

We took this photo to represent "happiness" as we felt that this was the best composition out of the rest we took. We wanted to also include some elements of calmness, and both of the people in this picture look relaxed and having a laugh with each other. We chose the location as we felt that it was away from lots of people, and very tranquil.

"Depression"

We chose this final image to be a direct contrast to happiness, fitting under the word "depression." We decided to find an empty part of our college building to take this picture, and as it was during a lesson, we found the college hall to be empty. We moved the camera back so that the colours would be darker in the picture.

Overall, we were happy with the way our pictures turned out. We believe that maybe we could have edited the pictures more (apart from 'future') to make them more mysterious and fit the word better, but we were content with how they turned out.

News Headlines #1

Holocaust Day Marked at Nazi Extermination Camp, Auschwitz

Events are taking place to commemorate the 65th Aniversary of the liberation of this 'death camp' on Holocaust Memorial Day. Israli Presedent Shimon Peres urged Germany amongst other countries to pursue Holocaust perpetrators saying that some of these "still live on German and European soil, and in other parts of the world" and "My request of you is: Please do everything to bring them to justice." Over a million people were murdered by the Nazi's in Auschwitz, a Majority of these individuals were of Jewish heratige but consisted of non-jew Poles, Roma Gypsies and Soviet prisoners of War. At least six million Jews died as a result of the Holocaust. Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on the 27th January 1945.

Man Rescued From Hati Quake 12 days later

He was rescued from ruins in the city centre and quickly taken to hospital US troops. He was originally discovered by Hatians under the rubble of a shop that was 'repeatedly looted'. "He was buried in the rubble for 12 days. The man had a broken leg and severe dehydration," a statement from the US military. The man, in his early 30's was named as Rico Dibrivell by Associated press. Although he had been trapped by an aftershock as opposed to the original quake, he is the longest survivor under the rubble thus far. On saturday Hati's government declared the search and rescue phase as over with an estimated 130 survivors rescued but more have been rescued by Hatians 'often with their hands'.

Murder Victim's throat was Slit

A man, found dead in his home in Linconshire was 'tortured' before having been stabbed and his throat slit. the victim, Alan wood, 50 is believed by Police to have been forced to hand over his cards and pin numbers before his brutal murder. Det Chief Inspector Phil Denilson said: "It was a savage murder completely disproportionate with the small amount of money gained." He failed to turn up to work at Sainsbury's the following day and his body was discovered by a worried colleague two days later. His bank cards were used, possibly by the murderer, in the nearby towns of Bourne and Stamford several times between 22 and 25 October. Officers said Mr Wood, who lived alone in a small bungalow in a remote area, had no known enemies and had been described as a "gentle, kind and well-liked" man who "avoided confrontation". Mr Wood's wife, Joanne, from whom he was separated, said: "To know how Alan suffered at the hands of those people is never going to go away and when you close your eyes at night that's all you can think about and it takes away all the happy memories. I just howled. I just couldn't believe that there would be anybody in the world that would want to murder Alan."

Photography Activity.

As a Group, We Chose 6 Words off a List in which we had to take photos conveying the meaning of them or giving a clear view of the expression of the words. We Chose the words Claustrophobic, Happiness Depression, Future, Calm and Through. However, this being a blog and not an essay, we could only write about four per person. The four i chose to write about were Claustrophobic, Happiness, Depression and Through.

Claustrophobic

The Composition of this Photograph, The high angle shot and Jack being sat scrunched up in the corner, creates the impression of the smallness of the space and how uncomfortable Jack felt in it.

Happiness

The Composition of this Photograph, with Harry and I sitting on opposite sides of the bench leaving a gap in the middle was deliberate in order to let the viewer feel there was space left for them in the photo. Also the smiles and eyecontact allow spectators to see that we are sharing a joke or happy thought; Smile quite clearly conveying happiness.

Depression

The Composition of this Photograph, the big wide emptyness, the flat and smallness of Harry and the fact he has his head clamped to the table, all suggest his iscolation and lonliness we thought that this was a more contempary way of expressing depression as the most cliche and obvious way would be crying, we decided that to take the shot meerly suggesting the feelings involved with depression would allow viewers to think.

Through
The Composition of this Photograph, with the obvious walking through a door was the easiest way of doing through. It was only after choosing this word we realised there was not many alternative ways of depicting or suggesting its meaning.

Pictures With Meanings.

Our group was set on a task to take pictures to connote the meanings of certain words.

'Through'

This picture quite litearatley represents walking through a door.

'Depression'

The empty space around the character represents their feelings of emptiness and that they have nobody there for them, his head and hands are down on the desk as a sign of defeat ad the background is grey and upset.

'Futuristic'

This picture shows multiple computer screens with a sort of industrial background (metal blinds) the picture has been stylized to increase the representation of the future.

'Claustrophobia'

In this picture is stuck in a enclosed corner, a high angle shot is used to represent how he feels locked in and stuck.

The use of suspense in "No Country for Old Men"

The Coen brothers 2007 film titled, "No Country for Old Men" was a smash hit when we watched it in our media class last week. The violence and destruction caused when a hunter comes across dead bodies, money and herion in Rio Grande kept our class on the edge of our seats, some people refusing to watch anymore.

The amount of nail biting moments was unreal, with every single member of the class dying to find out more of what happened to each of the characters. It effected us all in seperate ways; some screaming at the gore and some laughing but all of us felt a bit disturbed when we left.

When i was watching the movie, i noted down some key events that i felt added extreme amounts of suspence to the movie.

At the beginning of the film we see a police officer arrest a man, who is then, rightly handcuffed. As the police officer turns his back on the man and sits down at the phone, the man starts to move. For a moment we are unsure of what he is doing, but we then see him move the handcuffs around his legs and over his body to allow the hands to be at his front. He then gets up, and quietly stands behind the officer of the phone. At this moment, we are already hooked on the film and we sense emotion for what is about to happen. The guy then places the handcuffs around the officers neck and pulls him to the fool while chocking him to death. We feel a sense of suspence at this time because even though we only see him get up for a split second, we already feel that something bad is going to happen.

A bit further on in the film, we see the guy with the cowboy hat, who we later find out to be a hunter pulls up to the vans with all the dead people inside. He then comes across a man who is still barely alive with lots of herion in the back of his truck. Suprisingly this appears to be untouched and the man leaves. He starts to walk around the area and we find ourselves on the edge of our seats. He then finds a man under a tree with an eary silence. The suspence builds up here because we feel that something is going to happen, its like a sixth sense to us.

When the police finally find the pile of dead people, they have arrived on horses. As they enter the screen we see a car, still on fire but burning in a way which doesn't look normal. They ride on their horses to the scene where everything happened at the night when the man was chased by the dog in the river. This creates suspense in our watching as we feel that something will happen since the police have been targeted before, we expect them to get hurt again.

We can see that from everything that has happened in the film, in my opinion it is one of the best suspenseful films i have ever watched. The use of darkness and sound effects plus all other elements put together make one heck of a suspenseful, 'sitting on the edge of your seat', film.

No Country For Old Men and Use of Suspense.

The Coen Brothers' Oscar winning film No Country For Old Men was, when watched with my class, a hit with my peers and myself. The Content was both Gruesome and Gorey but was highly suspenseful the entire way through. Our teacher Annabel asked us to think about suspense as we watched, I felt that it was perfectly executed throughout.

My first example of a suspenseful moment in the movie was when Llewelyn Moss was alone in the big empty nothingness, accompanied by silence, after having found the dead bodies of dogs, Mexican drug dealers and $20,000,000 in a suitcase. It was suspenseful as we as an audience did not know what he was going to do next.

My Seccond example of a suspenseful moment in the movie was when Llewelyn went back to the scene in the middle of the night to give the barely surviving Mexican water we can see that he is clearly worried of being seen and followed so is constantly looking back and over his shoulder in order to see if anyone is approaching. Just this simple move alone creates suspense for the viewer as we begin to become paranoid with him and feel anxious for his safety.

My Third and final example of a suspenseful moment in the movie was when Llewelyn was trying to reload his gun to kill the agressive dog chasing him. This is suspenseful as the dog is approaching fast and for a seccond we think it may get him but he manages to cock the pistol just in time to shoot the dog before he is shredded to bits by the wrath of its teeth.

A Definition of Suspense.

Suspense Is a technique often used in Books, TV Drama, Soaps and especially Films. It is a device specifically used build tension in order to keep the audience engaged, in a state of anxiety, excited and desperate to watch on and see what happens next.

The use of Suspense in a Film, is a key ingredient necessary for allowing the audience a sense of involvement and keeping them gripped to their seats. Particularly in the Thriller and Horror genres, this is a tool that allows us as a viewer to feel uneasy and gives us a big hint that something is going to happen.

An example of a movie that uses suspense is Jaws, they build tension and suspense with the music allowing the audience to know that the shark is coming. Also Psycho uses suspense memorably in Bates' office when the tension music is built, the stuffed animals are all around looking menacing and she is made to look small. The audience knows something is going to happen to Lila.

A Definition of Suspense.

Suspense is a build of of tension creating uncertainty and anxiety in the viewer of what is happening or what is going to happen next.

Suspense makes the viewer / audience feel anxious and perhaps on edge in regards to what they are watching.

Films containing suspense are appealing to viewers because they make / encourage the viewer to continue watching in order to overcome the tension / suspense and find out what happens and reach the conclusion.

Elements in a film which could create suspense include; eerie music, shots of somebody where you cannot see their face, a silent scene and face paced action which builds up tension with the aid of music and pace increasing camera shots / editing.

A definition of Suspense

Suspense in media is something that if used correctly keeps us on the edge of our seats. It is a state of uncertainty and anxiety while creating tension in the viewer. It engages the audience and builds up their feelings towards certain actors. It also creates some sort of anticipation and keeps us locked into the action while we feel unable to help the actors with regard to what we see.

Suspense makes me feel conscious to what is around me while thinking what will happen in what i am watching/doing.

It is attractive to an audience because it will mean that they are hooked in what the are watching. You would more likely to see a film containing suspense because it would be more interesting and keep you satisfied for longer. Music and dark settings are the most common use of suspense