The Shining Opening Sequence
Remembering that this thriller is an old classic (which you can tell from the tacky title sequence) this opening is very simple. It follows the journey of a car from an ariel view as it travels on a winding road which seemingly leads nowhere. The car is made to look small and meek in it's iscolated and big empty surrounding forrest and empty road. Despite it being sunny and calm, the audience automatically know this is creepy and are alerted to the being of something not quite right, i believe this is mostly prompted by the soundtrack. We follow the driver as they travel up a mountain to the creepiest hotel i have seen since Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Thriller Sub-genre Inspration
Supernatural Thriller
Such as Paranormal Activity: Ghosts, Demons, Vampires - all the range of mysterious and mythical beings.
Political Thriller
Such as Eastern Promises: The point making, political expressive style - usually showing certain governments better than others (USA)
Action Thriller
Such as Deja-vu: Explosive, Speedy, Gun-shot, Loud - Usually a man as the hero (in this case Denziel Washington)
Psychological Thriller
Such as Sixth Sense: Head Messing, confusing, unexpected - usually accompanied by some pretty headache prompting soundtrack.
Friday, 12 February 2010
Match Cut Prelim Analysis.
On Wednesday we were supposed to film, as part of the coursework module, a piece where a character walks through a door, sits at a table and has a conversation with another character. In this film we were briefed to film this piece within specified boundaries, these were: Include a match-cut, show an understanding of the 180 degree rule, use an over the shoulder shot and example of shot reverse shot. However, due to the complete lack of all my other group members, we filmed and edited it all today.
We decided that our match cut would best be placed when Glenn opened the door to the room in order to enter, closing it behind him. A match-cut is a transition in which something in the scene that follows, in some way matches a character or object in the previous scene.We incorperated into this matchcut a total of three different camera shots/angles. We used an over the shoulder shot, high angle shot and two close-ups. We decided to film it this way in order to keep the scene visually interesting for our audience, as opening a door, is a very boring action.
The 180 Degree rule is a very simple and effective rule in order to make what is happening onscreen keep some element of realism. We were told to envision a brick wall inbetween the table in our piece, and the camera could travel in an arc around one side (as in the diagram above) however never in the arc on the other side, otherwise the characters on screen would switch sides and this would look unprofessional, tacky and fake.We felt that the table scene was the only way to represent the 180 degree rule, and I feel we demonstrated it however i feel if we had incorperated more shots during the table scene, we could have shown understanding of the rule better.
The Classic over the shoulder shot, is still a popular shot today in many movies and telivision programmes, the first programme I think of when I think about the over the shoulder shot would be BBC 1 soap opera Eastenders. A definition of an over the shoulder shot would be a view of the primary subject with the back of another person's shoulder and head in the foreground and is often used in interview situations. Harry and I worked quite hard to grab an over the shoulder shot of Glenn as he is about 6 ft tall and we are both short! If it wasnt for the tripod, we would have had to stand on chairs! But after about 3 failed shots and one which was ruined by an 'extra' (or rather a member of staff) we managed to get a really good shot.
In evaluation, i felt we executed our match-cut brilliantly.It was simple but visually entertaining and kept our audience watching the most boring of clips. However, if we were very picky and extremely critical of our own work, it could be argued that in the match-cut, the door wasn't equally open when we cut from a high angle mid shot to a close up of the handle, and we could then argue this would not have been a continuous move. Also, by filming Glenn open and close that door at least 5 or 6 times, we were not only fed up with doors, but we had plenty of door opening footage, this made selecting our in and out points for our edit very easy. However when filming our over the shoulder shot of Glenn to incorperate into our match-cut, we found shooting it effectively was difficult due to the huge height difference between us! We also found we had a problem with our camera, incase you were wondering as you watched our clip why there were subtitles and no sound, we accidently switched off the camera microphone and as a result, had no sound on our footage. However i felt we resolved our sound problem quickly and efficently and also learned a valuable lesson for our thriller CHECK THE SOUND IS ON! I felt we could have done so much more with our 180 degree rule understanding, and incorperated an array of different shots and camera angles to show what we could do, but seeing as we filmed in 45 minutes and edited it in about an hour I think our short clip is brilliant! We would have had more time on both had the rest of the group been in on our wednesday lesson, but instead i drew up the plan for friday. I enjoyed filming and editing this clip and I am eager to start my thriller soon.
We decided that our match cut would best be placed when Glenn opened the door to the room in order to enter, closing it behind him. A match-cut is a transition in which something in the scene that follows, in some way matches a character or object in the previous scene.We incorperated into this matchcut a total of three different camera shots/angles. We used an over the shoulder shot, high angle shot and two close-ups. We decided to film it this way in order to keep the scene visually interesting for our audience, as opening a door, is a very boring action.
The 180 Degree rule is a very simple and effective rule in order to make what is happening onscreen keep some element of realism. We were told to envision a brick wall inbetween the table in our piece, and the camera could travel in an arc around one side (as in the diagram above) however never in the arc on the other side, otherwise the characters on screen would switch sides and this would look unprofessional, tacky and fake.We felt that the table scene was the only way to represent the 180 degree rule, and I feel we demonstrated it however i feel if we had incorperated more shots during the table scene, we could have shown understanding of the rule better.
The Classic over the shoulder shot, is still a popular shot today in many movies and telivision programmes, the first programme I think of when I think about the over the shoulder shot would be BBC 1 soap opera Eastenders. A definition of an over the shoulder shot would be a view of the primary subject with the back of another person's shoulder and head in the foreground and is often used in interview situations. Harry and I worked quite hard to grab an over the shoulder shot of Glenn as he is about 6 ft tall and we are both short! If it wasnt for the tripod, we would have had to stand on chairs! But after about 3 failed shots and one which was ruined by an 'extra' (or rather a member of staff) we managed to get a really good shot.
The Shot-reverse-shot is a series of shots edited together that alternate characters usually during a conversation scene. We, used shot reverse shot conventionally in a conversation whilst the characters onscreen (Glenn and I) were discussing 'the plan'. As a group, we felt the best way to incorperate the shot-reverse-shot was to cut between Glenn and I during our short conversation.
In evaluation, i felt we executed our match-cut brilliantly.It was simple but visually entertaining and kept our audience watching the most boring of clips. However, if we were very picky and extremely critical of our own work, it could be argued that in the match-cut, the door wasn't equally open when we cut from a high angle mid shot to a close up of the handle, and we could then argue this would not have been a continuous move. Also, by filming Glenn open and close that door at least 5 or 6 times, we were not only fed up with doors, but we had plenty of door opening footage, this made selecting our in and out points for our edit very easy. However when filming our over the shoulder shot of Glenn to incorperate into our match-cut, we found shooting it effectively was difficult due to the huge height difference between us! We also found we had a problem with our camera, incase you were wondering as you watched our clip why there were subtitles and no sound, we accidently switched off the camera microphone and as a result, had no sound on our footage. However i felt we resolved our sound problem quickly and efficently and also learned a valuable lesson for our thriller CHECK THE SOUND IS ON! I felt we could have done so much more with our 180 degree rule understanding, and incorperated an array of different shots and camera angles to show what we could do, but seeing as we filmed in 45 minutes and edited it in about an hour I think our short clip is brilliant! We would have had more time on both had the rest of the group been in on our wednesday lesson, but instead i drew up the plan for friday. I enjoyed filming and editing this clip and I am eager to start my thriller soon.Suspense!
Suspense is a term most often used in dramatic work. The technique is specifically used in order to give an audience a feeling of anxiety towards the outcome of certain events. It usually occurs in situations leading up to a big event or moment. Tension is often associated with suspense as one of the primary emotions felt by the audience. Suspense can also be described as a combination of anticipation and uncertainty, often used when referring to future events.
Suspense makes you feel slightly edgy, as you wonder what will happen in the next scene and/or episode.
Audiences find suspense attractive as it leaves them something to think about as they look forward to watching the rest of the story as it progresses. I would go to see a film with suspense in it as it adds depth to the film because the story is not obvious and requires you to think.
Suspense is created when the audience expect a bad even to happen within a film, and although they believe to have a superior knowledge of it, they are powerless to prevent it.
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Skills Audit: Livetype and Sound.
Our tutorial with Marisa in the beautiful Mac Suite last week was all about creating title sequences and developing soundtrack.We kicked off the session by watching a Livetype demonstration by Marisa. She explained and showed us how to use the programme; Some of the things i learned in this session were how to change size, font, colour, opacity, angle, effects such as shaddow and outline and text effects and movement. We then had the opertunity to have a go ourselves, playing with transitions and textures was useful as we could see all of the effects working and created a simple word into a credit. I found this session particularly h
elpful as it taught me how to use the programme that very soon i will be using on my thriller piece. Marisa then did a Sound demonstration teaching us how to make soundtracks which later in the year will be accompanying our thriller sequences. She showed us all the hundereds of different sounds we could put together in order to make a beat. When we used the programme in class, my peers and I were all eager to make instrumentals (none of which could possibly have been used in a thriller!). I decided to make an acoustic beat using the guitar and piano. I actually really liked my instrumental and wish I could have put it to usb to show my friends and family! I look forward to using both these programmes later in the year.
elpful as it taught me how to use the programme that very soon i will be using on my thriller piece. Marisa then did a Sound demonstration teaching us how to make soundtracks which later in the year will be accompanying our thriller sequences. She showed us all the hundereds of different sounds we could put together in order to make a beat. When we used the programme in class, my peers and I were all eager to make instrumentals (none of which could possibly have been used in a thriller!). I decided to make an acoustic beat using the guitar and piano. I actually really liked my instrumental and wish I could have put it to usb to show my friends and family! I look forward to using both these programmes later in the year.Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Dawn of the Dead (2004 Remake) title analysis.
Dawn of the Dead. (2004 Remake)
George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead is one of the most well known horror films ever made, it is pretty much the starter for the zombie survival genre, I chose to analyze the titles of the 2004 remake of the 1978 original.
The titles fit category two: 'A discrete title sequence', similar to Arlington Road, the titles feature alot of random clips and noises pieced together as well as some speech (What appears to be the President discussing the zombie situation with the media), the sequence as a whole is very tense and eerie as well as quite jumpy, there are alot of cuts to close ups of zombies faces which are very gory as well as other scenes of destruction and violence, the title text appears between cuts in blood text which dissolves into actual blood before changing to the next shot. The titles are very fast paced and give a strong sense of suspense and wanting to watch on.. The titles appeal to me for their unusualness and the eerie sense of 'end of the world' that they create.
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