Monday 30 November 2009

Film Clip Task


TWILIGHT
This is a film clip from the first Twilight when Edward saves Bella from being hit my a car little does she know about his hidden power and knowledge as a vampire at this point so she is shocked.
The scene opens with an establishing shot that indicates something significant could occur in this scene. There is then a medium shot of Bella putting her bag on the bonnet of her car and followed by a shot reverse shot between her and Edward, it also changes from a spectators gaze to Edward gazing back this is the gaze of a bystander. It is then follows by Bella showing a black confused look, this is a point of view shot on Edwards behalf.
next there is a medium shot of Bella where you see and hear a car loudly in the background this makes you automatically think something bad is going to happen there is then a close up of the boy driving the car, unable to control it followed by a close up of Bella's face when you see Edward appear and stop the car hitting her. There is a dent in the cars side like it has hit a building however it only came into contact with Edwards hand. This is then followed by another shot reverse shot between the characters where soft less dramatic, slightly romantic music is played this is a contrast to what had previously happened. Edward then jumps over the cars leaving Bella shocked and alone, this is when the camera zooms in on Edward fellow vampire family who show no expression and then cuts back to Bella surrounded by average people that are all confused to what has happened, the camera cuts back to the family again and then ends, this uses an enigma code to make you wonder what will happen in the next scene and to keep you engaged in the film.

Thursday 26 November 2009

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Sunday 15 November 2009

Prelim Magazine


Prelim Photos





We took two photos of Hannah Scoular using a white background so we could cut out the picture as we had previously learnt that its hard to cut photos that dont have a plain background. We wanted her to have a smile on her face to give the school magazine a welcoming front and so she looked happy to be there. The picture to the left although she is smiling and it would be easy to cut, the overall image wasnt what we wanted for the front of the magazine and we thought we could achive better. After about ten attempts we found that our favorite was a long shot taken from above looking down on her we thought this looked best as her face looks sweet and the shot has her whole body in which made it a better shot to the rest in our opinion.

Wednesday 11 November 2009

Practice Magazine

Promoting Films

Above the line: Above the line defines an advertising technique that is hard for the public to ignore, for example, television advertising, magazines, posters, newspapers, billboards and merchandise.
Below the line: Below the line is basically the opposite to above, in the way that you can ignore the advertising as it is a lot more discreet, and is there for the people who are likely to be interested enough to seek for it. Examples of below the line are; interviews, magazine reviews, websites, viral, blogs and social networking sites.

Advertising strategies of ‘2012,’ ‘Bunny and the Bull’ and ‘A Serious Man.’

2012 is an upcoming blockbuster film that’s theme is going to be the end of the world. As this film is set to create a huge reaction from its audience, they have not held back in their advertising.
Their main use of advertising is through billboards and posters this is an ‘above the line’ technique, and is very effective. They use phrases such as ‘We Were Warned,’ this helps to involve the audience as it is directly speaking to individuals and allow them to feel as part of a group, hence the use of the word ‘We.’
They also are using television advertising, which involves showing high action clips from the film, capturing its audience and making them feel obliged to go and see the film in full.
Word of mouth, (viral) also helps to advertise the film, because the film is splitting opinions as to wether or not 2012 could actually happen. This is one of the most effective uses of advertising as peers opinions are very influential.

Tuesday 10 November 2009

Male Gaze



Representation: The Male Gaze.

o The ways viewers(men) look at images of people in any visual medium.
o Jonathan Schroeder said "to gaze implies more than to look at"
o Psycological relationship of power in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze.

Different Types Of Gaze

o The spectators gaze- spectator viewing the text.
o The intra- dietic gaze- character gazes upon an object or another character in the text.
o The direct adress to the viewer- looks at the viewer (forth wall)
o The look of the camera- film directors gaze
o The gaze of the bystander- the gaze of another individual
o The gaze of an audience within a text- shots of an audience watching those performing

LAURA MULVEY

"Visual pleasure & narrative cinema"
Active male/passive female
Woman as image & man as bearer if the look

Voyeuristic- is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature.

Fetishistic- is the sexual arousal brought on by any object, situation or body part not conventionally viewed as being sexual in nature.

Critisisms

Failiure to account for female spectator
Only looks at the spectator as being a hetro sexual male
Since 1980's been more display & sexulisation of the male body

PAUL MESSARIS

Traditionally, men do not look directly into the camera although during the past two decades there had been a notable rise in male-oriented advertising featuring men whose poses contain some of the same elements likely to indicate an explicit concern about how men look in the eyes of the woman.

Saturday 7 November 2009

Shameless Character Profiles.

How are the various characters represented in episode one of Shameless.

Steve- Wealthy, nice dress-suit. Turns up at Fiona's house in a sports car, this intimidates frank. Well groomed. Setting- car dealership. Suspicious face expressions and actions.

Fiona- Mother figure in family, head of family. Looks after everyone, always cleaning and caring for everyone else but herself. Dress- leisure wear, hoop earring's, stereotypical chav. Poor, receives flowers off Steve but has no vase to put them in and has to go to the local pub to ring him as she doesn't have a phone of her own.

Ian- Homosexual- Looks at a naked man in his bed and smiles secretly, later it becomes apparent that hes having an affair with a married Muslim man with children. Seems shy and timid, likes to keep things to himself. Only 15.

Lip- Clever- physics, quite well spoken compared to the other characters, suggesting a good education. Stereotypical teenage boy, -girls. Has worry for his brother Ian because of his relationship with the married man.

Friday 6 November 2009

This Is England Notes

Who's the audience?
How do the production practices appeal to this audience?

This Is England
Budget: 1.5 million.
opening.
Reggie- raster, culture music.

Memorable videos famous scenes/scenarios in England. Maggie Thatcher, Politics. Princess Diana Etc. Patriotic, celebrating good times. Relevant to name of film.

Opens with date July 1983- Last day of term.

Shaun, Young boy. Stereotypical room for someone of his age at this period of time. stereotypical house, street- 80's

Shaun- Rude, no respect. Bad vocabulary. However he doesn't back down to people despite having a lack of friends. underneath it all however it is clear hes upset about his life.

Meets a group of lads on the way home, who appear to be nice to him and make him laugh and feel welcomed. lacks other friends though of a similar age.

Mother- oblivious to how upset Shaun is. Very Casual. Poor Simple life

Sad acoustic Music contrasts opening.

Audience- Lighthearted. wide bullesye.
nice sweet main character

Racism? Gang Culture? Masculinity?

Dead Mans Shoes Notes

Who's the audience?
How do the production practices appeal to this audience?

Dead Mans Shoes
Budget: £723,00
Opening.
Casual acoustic lighthearted music, whole song.
relates to audience and laus you into a false sense of security as further on it becomes apparent that this is a complete contradiction of what the genre of the film actually is.

It then flicks between videos of people as children leaving unanswered questions and enigma codes for the audience but helps them relate to the story at the same time.
Point of view shot- two (unknown) characters walking down a long road.
the first bit of spoken text opens, "God will forgive them" this also work's on the build up to a climax of the storyline.

Followed with more memories and flashbacks of two men walking round a house this is a denotation of something that will be connoted further on into the film.

The next scene is the first time it becomes apparent that the film is of a different genre than what is first thought. We meet Herby a drug dealer and the scene turns violent when the man at the start is shot arguing with him, even thought the genre takes an unexpected turn at this point it has already attracted your attention and encourages you to want to know more this device is not a mistake and has been done on purpose to make a wider bulls eye and get a larger audience.

Adult audience- violence and sexual references. Later, thriller. Certificate 18 Working class men

Next it becomes apparent with the use of flashbacks that one of the men (shown at the start) seems to be simple and not as intelligent as the other, it also shows when they knew Herby and could explain why one of the men might feel the need to be violent towards him.

The special effect and editing used throughout are simple, there's an unsteady camera used throughout making the film seem more real. The actors seem very chilled out and appear to improvise alot this is a flexible way of working that gives a more laid back style to the film.

Setting- typical England, natural room lighting, reduce costs.

Wednesday 4 November 2009

Shot Reverse Shot Prelim Film




EVALUATION
I worked with Erin Woodcock. We managed the task in an effective way as when i was finishing off the magazine cover Erin did a draft of the storyboard of what we wanted our film to include, what order we would do this and how it would look. I then copied up the draft into a need easy to work from storyboard. When filming the scene we both contributed to decisions on where we wanted the camera angles to be and what shots we wished to finally use and who would film each section.
we used the shot reverse shot element as a main focus for our scene, we wanted this to be the main stage in the film, the climax so to speak the beginning uses enigma codes to keep the audience interested in what Minty is looking for and then to lead it up to the climax. we planned it this way so it fits in with a typical film and uses the same style and sequence.
we used a video camera tripod and tape for the filming, its basic equipment but is effective for what we wanted to create by our short film. To edit we used imovie on apple mac, this made editing quick and easy and enabled us to title the beginning and ending of the film to make it seem alot more professional.
when planning the film the factors i had to take into account where that what we were planning was feasible with the equipment we had to work with. we had to take the 180 degree rule into account when filming, this didn't go to well, also we had to think about where we filmed the piece and what lighting and props we would use including the speech that would be said during the shot reverse shot. Finally we had to think about how we would edit the film to make it look the most profession as possible including speeding up parts and editing the shots so they fit well and showed good continuity.
Our film was successful in some respects as it used a range of shots we have learned and overall flowed well the lighting and scene was effective and complimented the story, on the other hand we broke the 180 degree rule once and the continuity of the film is out of sync a few times but overall work's well as a first piece of film. if i was to improve the film, i would do the walk from the door to the chair again and i would probably make the talking in the scene last abit longer.
I have learned from doing this task that filming takes alot more concentration, thought and requires alot more editing and imagination than i first thought. I have also seen how you can easily go wrong and make simple easy mistakes that you don't recognise when your filming but become more apparent when you edit the shots together. What i have learnt will help me alot if i decide to use film for my coursework.

Stereotypical View On Northerners