Lesson - Preliminary Task

Today, we had a go at premiere elements on the computer to edit film. first of all we had drawn up a storyboard and then went out to shoot a few scenes. After coming back and editing, we found a few weak links in our final product. we found out that the changing on shots did not flow, and so the film looked quite jerky/jumpy. This was quite dissapointing and so we may have to shoot a couple scenes again. However, this is all practice towards our film opening, atleast we can learn from this and make a better video for our final piece.

Analysis of Film Opening - 'Death Sentance'

'Death Sentence' 'James Wan' '2007'

The Film ‘Death Sentence’ is a thriller/horror. This is one of many horrors that include a murder, also being of slight psychological status. The opening sequence doesn't give away the expectations of a horror genre, but instead shows the audience a home video of a young family at Christmas with the titles. The video begins to show hobbies of the children with one child being more involved with his mother painting and the elder child being into sport playing with his father. It fades into more home video, but this time the children are teenagers, all laughing connoting the close relationship between their family. This opening is an enigma as it isn't under the horror genre but you want to find out how it ties in with the rest of the film. The video goes into an office party, then fades to the office at which Nick works. A leading line is involved with a fellow worker walk into his office. Nick Hume is sitting there with a suit on and glasses. This connotes intelligence and high authority, with people coming to see him in his office. “You’re the one with the perfect kids” is a line of dialogue which sets off the change of scene to home where his two kids are fighting. The iconography and mise-en-scene in the house shows the woman cooking whilst the man comes home from work. There are typical family photos on the wall and open spaced rooms, typical of the wealthier American home. Nick only seems to talk about sport to his eldest son and the camera shows the youngest son’s reaction to his father. This tells the audience that relationship between these two could be closer. This is also evident when the father goes to see his eldest son play hockey instead of his youngest play soccer. There is CU shots in the car on the way back from hockey using the rule of thirds, so each character is never in the centre of the screen. The light shines through the front of the windscreen highlighting their faces. The camera changes to see two American muscle cars accelerating, then a CU of the car hood shows decal, showing that they are gang cars. Going back to Nick’s car the camera peds down to see his lights flashing signalling to the gang cars as they have no lights on. The camera shows the father talking with the window behind him as the two American muscle cars come speeding past him to box him in. The camera begins to shake a little bit to connote urgency as he starts to brake. Then a POV shot is used to see the two cars turn off the main road. After another CU of the dashboard with the fuel level low sign flashing, a high angle shot is used to see the car turning into the gas station. The same shot used as before, probably meaning they attached a camera onto the side of the car looking in, shows an ‘out of order’ sign through his window on a gas pump. There is a long shot of the gas station to show a homeless woman in the foreground, with what seems to be shown as her trolley of belongings, picking rubbish out of a bin. This connotes that the area isn’t very wealthy. Nick begins to talk on the phone as the rule of thirds is used again to show his son in the background getting a drink through the shop window. Unfortunately, there is an ironic line of dialogue as Nick says “course, we may never see our son again” as he is talking to his wife about his eldest going to Canada for a Hockey scholarship.They break the 180 rule by shooting from behind Nick to see a dark alley in front of him, where more homeless people behind a fence, another POV shot is used to see Nick look at the homeless women across the street with her trolley. The American gang cars appear from behind Nick, where camera changes to a shot of gang members getting out of the cars with balaclavas on. A steadicam being purposely shaken with non-diegetic music is used to build the tension and urgency. A steadicam is also used in the shop spinning round quickly to see the whole action. A CU is used to see the son’s reaction on his face when a gun is pointed at him. The shots change quickly and once again the 180 rule is broken. The iconography in the garage shows little stock on the walls with very little space to move, so once again reinforcing the idea that this area isn’t wealthy. A POV shot from father is used to see murder through the window. Going back to Nick, the CU shows shock and horror on his face with slight tracking in. Also more non-diegetic music is used to show the process of thought. A handicam is used following the father as he stumbles, then quick shots of a fight makes it seem more intense. Another POV shot is used to see Nick look at the gang member’s face when he rips off his balaclava. Once again another POV shot is used when Nick stumbles into the shop and sees his son on the floor. Sound effects of blood gargling would have been added in at post production.

The ideological discourse of this film is challenging the typical American family, by getting the father involved with a gang from a different lower class neighbourhood. It also shows the father being the money earner, with the mother as a housewife.

The gang is represented as tough people who owe money to a hierarchy, doing petty jobs to make it. They are shown to be a lower class than the family who live their lives as law abiding citizens.

Discussion #1: collecting first ideas

Tom and I discussed our first ideas for our opening sequence and decided that our genre will be hybridised. It will probably be based on a thriller with elements of mystery and psychological horror.
We decided to find music as a non-diegetic soundtrack first to build up our images on it. Until now we have found some instrumental parts of songs that would help to create our preferred mood.
We think about showing two different locations, a wood in Sevenoaks for the first scene and a house at night in the second one which would both be suitable conventions for our genres. In the wood scene we want to show two male characters. First a chasing sequence just showing somebody's legs and later as a jump cut seeing him lying on the ground, a different character standing next to him who might be our main character. What we do now is find ways to introduce our characters properly and to connect different ideas to a coherent story that hooks the audience but doesn't reveal to much.
I thought about some interesting camera movements that are easy to shoot but look unusual and impressive, like moving the camera "through" a closed door or shooting a part of a conversation as a long take just using camera movements instead of cutting to change angles.
We now concentrate on discussing storyline, mise-en-scene, conventions and choosing actors.

Feedback #1

Well done - you have both significantly improved your textual analysis and this is a promising group blog. However I would like to now see posts that document your chosen genre and any discussions about ideas for your sequence - that way I can see how they tie in with your research so far.

Tom - make sure you post the rest of your analysis asap.

Analysis og film opening - I Am Legend

I AM LEGEND
directed by Francis Lawrence
2007

The genre of the film is not quite clear at the beginning as there are few typical conventions. The gun and the car are signifiers of action and the empty city has a touch of mystery. In the opening there’s no sign of the horror element yet.

Mise-en-scene is used to show us where we are and what happens. From the shape of the city and the famous places shown like Union Square and the UN building we know that we are in New York City. The silence and especially all the streets crowded with cars which are left alone leap to the eye and connote that the city is deserted. The weeds growing everywhere and the wet dirty tarmac add to this connotation as well as the few birds flying around. The director Francis Lawrence wants the audience to understand that every human life has gone. From the posters of Wicked and Mamma Mia and all the shops like H&M we are aware that the time everyone left was about 2007, the current time of the audience in the cinema. This is when we see an interview on a television screen like we were really watching it on our own one. A doctor has found a way to cure cancer. The current time in the film is given by the words “three years later” over the first image of the deserted New York to let us know that it’s been some time between the interview sequence and the new one. We make the connection between the interview and the new images so we are hooked and want to know how all of this had happened. Police and armour barriers and the cars lined to leave town help us to understand that an evacuation was going on, which signifies something dangerous was about to happen. Some houses are even packed in plastic cover, a sign of protection. Seeing one single man in this huge deserted city where everyone else is gone raises many questions. For example why isn’t he gone too, why is he alone and again what has happened to all others then? But like that we realise that he is the main character. He wears a black outfit which together with his equipment and gun makes him look like a professional. The dog sitting next to him must be his own, because we see it in all of the scenes with him. Also there are no names of actors throughout the beginning. This is unusual compared with other openings and adds to the feeling of emptiness. The title is shown at the end of the opening sequence, not disturbing the audience’s thoughts about the images seen. Thereby we have time to read the connotations properly, e.g. the professional sniper rifle of the only human character in the city combined with the scene of the running deer as a sign of his intention to hunt them. Lawrence uses natural light for his first images showing the city and sunny weather. This takes away a bit of the strangeness of the sequence whereas a thunderstorm would have connoted a current danger. But like that the lovely weather seems to be natural and gives the scene a more peaceful feeling. The warm light is used to highlight the time of the day which is the beginning of dawn.

Camera distance, angles and movement control speed of the action e.g. the tracking on one side of the car rushing past other things or static cam and slow pan up or down are used in ELS or MS to give the audience the opportunity to study the whole image and the effect of calmness. The ELS shots are used at the beginning showing the town from different places when there is no main action going on yet. This changes when the main character gets introduced. This happens with an overhead ELS tracking along a street between buildings when a car moves into the image from the bottom. The following shot is a CU so we are dragged into the action with two different camera distances. Also the windscreen of the car is used to frame the shot showing what is going on in front of the car. This gives the audience the effect of actually being in the car by themselves. The CUs of the main character’s face following draw us emotionally nearer to him, especially seeing his face deciding not to shoot the lion’s family and leave his prey he has been hunting so long behind. Lawrence lets us look over his shoulder and we see the gun aiming on what he focuses, panning left and right, like a POV shot. The character’s shape is blurred whereas what he’s focused on -in this case his prey and the lions- is sharply focused. Handicam is used when we follow the main character while hunting the deer. He runs, bends down and hides behind a car. The director uses a CU of him hiding with the car filling the background, and then panning left he reveals the deer, blurring our character once again to switch focus. We have a POV shot when hunting the deer with the car. The camera placed in front of the Ford Mustang gives us the effect that we are the car following the escaping deer.

There is almost no non-diegetic sound used except a mysterious tone when the car comes to a halt at one of the barriers and we see all the other cars just left there. There is no soundtrack during the opening and no dialogue, simply because there’s only one person. In the background you here natural sounds e.g. rustling of the trees, grasshopper humming, birds flattering and singing, seagulls screaming or the waves of the sea, but nothing human until we here the powerful motor of the Mustang. This lack of non-diegetic sound highlights the emptiness of the city and anchors the images of the deserted places. When our character hears his watch’s alarm the visual as well as the audible focus change from being concentrated on the lions to an ECU of the watch. At the same time the distance changes the volume of the alarm raises too.

The only human character in the opening is introduced only through non-verbal language because he has nobody else to speak to. The way he walks and looks around connotes he is a survivor and hunting the deer we see he does everything on his own, even getting his food. The gun and the red Ford Mustang he drives signify a tough character. But we see that he’s still touched by not shooting the lion family who took “his” prey to let them survive. The dog he’s accompanied by shows that he is not entirely alone and that he must have a very deep relationship with it being the only living creature being with him. We realise that he must be a man determined to take risks when we see his highly dangerous hunting by car. So we learn a lot about him without listening to a dialogue. It is very important for the director to let a big star like Will Smith play the main character, because he is the only actor playing.

There are leading lines and rule of third used throughout the opening. For example vertical lines of the skyscrapers and the streets disappear with distance and the lines of the pavement leading towards the main focus. When the survivor hides behind the car to shoot the deer, his prey is in the top left corner in the background whereas he is placed in the bottom right corner of the foreground. In post production Lawrence has edited the images using jump cuts, for example when the car races to the other side of the tunnel the deer is running through and a long take in the scene where the main character hides behind the car watching the deer to give the scene the effect of happening in real life time.

The narrative is structured in the order that everything happens. Right at the beginning we have a jump from the interview to the new New York City. Between those two points on the timeline there’s a gap of three years. The director uses the scene where our character spares the lions’ lives as a technique of identification so we like him. Tension is created by showing the deserted city and maintained by keeping this picture of a catastrophe in mind, for example seeing all the mysteriously left cars, the posters and all the sign of former human living.

As there’s only one human in the opening you can’t tell much about social groups, and you can’t tell much about this person’s background because there’s no society left, it’s the same with any social structure. The ideological discourse with reference to gender is that the only person who survived is a man, so we see him as the one strong hero. He is muscular, black and tall so physical strength connotes power and it challenges racism, choosing a black actor. Killing non-human live to survive is reinforced like the old model of hunter and prey, whereas unnecessary killing is challenged. Since there are no female characters or children at all you connote there aren't any left which makes men look more powerful than both women and children. This is a common ideology in many films, for example all superheros like Batman, Spiderman and Superman are as their names denote male.

The target audience are basically male teenagers and men favouring action, mystery and horror who are able to put the connotations together to a story that makes sense. The preferred reading is that human race has been vanished for some reason having to do with a cure for cancer discovered 3 years earlier. The audience can hardly miss that there is only one person left in New York City that has somehow survived. This character is tough and has managed to stay alive all the time. The reading can be influenced by different factors, for example the target audience has probably seen other films with Will Smith so they know what kind of film it must be and may suspect what could happen in different situations. The director wouldn’t have paid that much attention to the hunting scene where the survivor hides behind the car if he had just wanted to let his character shoot the deer. Showing this scene we get to know the character’s mind when we see how he acts.

Analysis of Film Opening - 'Disturbia'

'Disturbia' 'D.J Caruso' '2007'

The Film ‘Disturbia’ is a teen-targeted thriller/horror. This is one of many horrors that are psychological. The opening sequence doesn't give away the expectations of a horror genre, but instead shows the audience a traumatic experience for the main character, Kale.
This opening is an enigma as it isn't under the horror genre but you want to find out how it ties in with the rest of the film. As the film starts there is a voice over of a mysterious man talking about whether 'He can see us?' but 'He can feel us watching him'. This is ironic for a later part in the film, but yet no characters have been introduced, connoting the mystery. The conventions of a horror are the stock characters, with one main role, Kale, who has to compete with the stock plots with a kidnapping or murder. The stock locations may include an old haunted house or woods, but this film challenges that idea and sets it in a normal everyday life of the normal everyday American teenager. Kale still strongly remembers his father and this is evident in the film when his mother agrees to go out with the next door neighbour but Kale answers at the same time with “that’s never ‘gunna’ happen” , with the typical language from a teenager.

The iconography with mise-en-Scene conveys a happy relationship between two characters, father and son. They are shown from the camera panning up with non-diegetic music with a peaceful, derelict landscape with only a river and the characters with mountains surrounding them. An ELS is used to show this. Whilst the two characters talk, there are motivated cuts where the cuts coincide with changes of speaker and so cause the audience to accept the comparison of time. The rule of thirds is also used quite a lot in the opening and throughout the film to make the audience focus on particular things first. There is also leading room and head room for the characters so they don’t look squashed into the shot. The camera changes to a close up of a fish to show a POV shot from the character to see what he is seeing. The main character appears fist with his father apart from him, but then gets closer connoting the father son 'bonding' experience.
In the car the camera is focused onto the father’s face, which means that something important will happen to him, although you can here Kale talking on the phone, because of the camera trick, you automatically focus on what the father is doing. Kale is talking to his mother which triggers a motivated shot tracking their house, still talking on the phone. Their joking with each other shows that they are a close family who get along with each other really well.
There is a close up of the wing mirror as a POV shot to see a car, with, what seems to be sound effect of a car, to make it sound louder. This connotes dangerous driving, when you hear a loud car engine. With the crash, there are many CU shots with quick changing cutting rate, which are used for deliberate interruptions to shock, surprise or emphasize. So this is used to elaborate the crash. Non-diegetic music gets played with a panning shot through the windscreen to show what condition the characters are in, and then close ups in the car to feel like you are in the action, but not upside down. Another close up of Kale's face shows shock on his face as he says 'Dad'. This also shows that something is going to happen, then cuts to another car hurling towards them. A tracking shot of the car with a Steadicam shows the personal belongings in the car boot sprawled along the road with one character struggling to get out. But no identity is shown for a bit which leads to a bit of an enigma. As Kale struggles to get out there are many sound effects like ripping clothes and broken glass which would have been added onto it in Post Production. Kale looks at his father in shock with the camera tracking into his face to emphasize the emotion. As violin music starts playing, to set that it is a sad time, the screen turns blank and the title fades in. There then is a sound break with a school bell into a school corridor at a high angle with writing along the bottom saying one year later, telling the audience that one year has passed since the car crash. As the bell finishes, the camera enters a classroom panning across the students. There is a typical clothed teen rebel reciting a Spanish essay, being the class clown, which introduces a character which seems to be popular with everyone but one girl in his class, but no main lead to whether this character is involved with the story or not. Kale is asleep in class and not concentrating, showing that he has gone off the rails after witnessing his father’s death.

The narrative is linear but with a gap between the opening sequence to the rest. The audience are positioned to camera shots from behind him and POV shots, being ‘on his side’. Kale is shown as being a normal American teenager at school, but having lost his father in a car crash, he has not been concentrating in class and he has become further apart from his mother. The tension is maintained in this film with many double bluffs from the killer and little clues with irony too. There is also silence in some films which makes the audience nervous to what is happening.

The ideological discourse in this film is reinforced that the main 'hero' in a horror is male. Also the killer stock character seems to be male too, also with a typical ‘girl next door’ who plays a part. The representations of social groups whom may be discussed in this film may be the teenagers who may have lost a parent and showing how they deal with the stress of their loss. This is very evident in this film as they used to be a close family, and now the mother and Kale seem to be further apart in terms of their relationship. The target audience would seem to be the teen age as the main role is taken up by a rising star in Hollywood at that age. This actor is important for the film as many teenagers know who he is, so would maybe like to see this film.
Tom Johnson 12Y

My moodboard on Thriller/Horror/Mystery. You see
some stock locations such as a foggy wood, dark basement, colours which are dark and faded and iconography e.g. a knife or the crucefix (rather religious). This will
help us to create our opening sequence which is a psychological horror. The persons'faces shown are fearful because they are under huge psychic pressure. It's all about fright, murder and seeing people's desperate reactions when they face their biggest fears.

Horror Moodboard

This is my mood board on horror. I have shown most of the stock characters that are involved with the horror genre,with stock locations of woods, which we will be using for our film opening. There is also text that will help us with our film opening, which we may use for the opening credits. Most of the lighting is bright, may signify a spirit present, also some lighting being positioned behind a character towards the camera creating a silhouette, creating mystery. This would be a good effect for us to use also.