Young Film Makers Award

We got the opportunity to send our opening sequence to the Zoom young film makers awards. We were very pleased to find our film was of a good standard to enter into the competition. Unfortunately we were not able to send the final edit of the film as we were still in the process of improving The following.

Film Age Rating

We decided that looking through other examples of film ratings that the typical rating is an 18 but is occasionally a 15 depending on the type of thriller it is. We thought it would be a good idea to make our film a 15 as its not very violent or disturbing enough to be an 18. Have a film rated as a 15 would be better for us as it targets a wider range of teenagers which is our target audience. An example of this this is the number 23 featuring Jim Carey

Sound

This is a video analysis is of the Sound in The Following made by Sam and I.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmYLmKsOgfY

The Video could unfortunately could not be put on Blogger so is linked instead.

Still image Analysis

In this image there is not a wide range of colour. The Colours that are used are dark and dull this connotes a typical horror film as it makes the picture look terrifying. Also in this picture the child's silhouette and the backlight are the most important elements in this picture because if they were gone the picture would have no meaning. The atmosphere of this picture is very intense because of the dark colours and the silhouette. The child seem very vulnerable but also very sinister. The relationship in this image is that he is very lonely and isolated. The background is not noticeable and insignificant. The character is wearing very ragged and rough clothing to show he is a neglected, also he is wearing a mask to hide his identity making it more horrifying as you don't know who it is. The audience for this film would be directed at 18+ because of the psychological thriller side of the film and the fact of the child in the film.

Secret window analysis

The opening sequence is taken from the film the secret window directed by David Koepp and starring Johnny Depp. It is a psychological thriller. It starts with the sound of windscreen wipers, which we hear before we know what the sound is. This creates a repetitive and rather sinister atmosphere at the start. The opening shot is a close up of Depps face and the voice over of his thoughts saying “turn around, turn the car round and get the hell out of here” the sound of the voice over is diegetic. This opening scene creates quite a confusing but dark atmosphere. When the car reverses the camera stays in position, the car get further away from the camera to reveal a blood red motel sign behind it which keeps the atmosphere very sinister.

When Depp leaves his car the camera follows him and changes from going to the dark coloured outside to the warm, light and cosy atmosphere reception area the change of scenery here I think shows the light and the dark or the good and the bad effect. When Depp gets back into his car we get and over the shoulder shot of him hurtling towards a specific room in the motel, which starts to build a tense atmosphere and a scene that puts you on edge to what happens next. In the next shot we have Depp going into the motel room to find what we think is his wife cheating on him with another man. The sound in this part of the scene is muffled and sort of faded to make a very evil and sinister atmosphere and Depp lets out a horrendous scream to complete the atmosphere. The shot used in that specific part of the scene is a follow shot.

The camera then fades into the first helicopter ocean shot which pans up to a nature shot, which then fades into the second helicopter nature shot, which then fades into a low angleshot directed at the house. This takes the film back in time and begins to tell the story of how this moment came to happen. This is a very popular technique used in films as it sets the tone for the whole film. The colours we see in these shots are earth toned once the shot is lifted inside the house they change to more warmer and homely tones such as red, orange and brown. This connotes that we go from the wilderness and unknown of the outside into the warmth and safety of the indoors.

Saul Bass

Saul Bass was a graphic designer and filmmaker, perhaps best known for his design of film posters and picture title sequences. Bass worked for some of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and Billy Wilder. Among his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm, the credits racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of the C.I.T. Financial Building in Hitchcock's North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that races together and apart in Psycho.

Saul Bass-Psycho 

In this Opening sequence he uses such a simple method, but he also gets the message of the film across very easily. The motion of the lines going across the screen makes a kind of slashing gesture and the fuzzed type words show the sort of messed up psycho theme to the film.

This lesson we learnt how to use different camera shots.

Extreme close up

Big close up

Close up

Medium close up

Medium shot

Long shot

Extreme long shot

Two shot

Over the shoulder shot

This lesson (14th September) our aims were to:

• To learn how to make a film
• To identify key terms associated with film making
• To understand shot/reverse shot the 180 degree rule
• Match on action

How to make a film sequence

Narrative

• Usually unfolds through characters.
• Central character is the protagonist
• Narrative also unfolds through technique

Cinematography 

Mise en scene

Sound - digetic / Non digetic 

Editing - sound and picture

This lesson (13th September) we learnt the following:

•  Key film terms 
• To film a series of different shots
• To storyboard our continuity sequence

Continuity Sequence

The Brief: Film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.

The task should demonstrate:

• Match on action
• Shot/reverse shot
• 180 - degree rule

Your film should be about 12 - 15 shots.

The Breif - Continuity

This section of the course involves  two tasks, a continuity sequence  and an opening sequence for a thriller.

CONTINUITY TASK . The breif : Film and edit a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchange a couple lines of dialouge. 

The task should demonstrate :-

• match on action
• shot reverse shot
• 180 degree rule

Your film should be made up of 12-15 different shots and should only last around 30 seconds

The Brief - Thriller

Preliminary Task-
My preliminary Task is too do a Continuity exercise. This will help me because it will be the first thing I have made so it will give me experience on using the equipment and planning time.
Main Task-
My main task is to produce a opening sequance to a Thriller Film. I will have too plan my time. So i can be able to reasearch, film, edit etc.
The task is seperated in too three sections these are Pre-production, Productaion and Post-production.
Pre-prduction is when you reseach and plan your film. I will also develop any of my ideas. Also start doing scripts then storyboarding.
Production is when we start shooting, doing the lights. We will also find the actors and do the script.
Post-production it when we start editing. Also doing the special and sound effects on and also adding music.

First Lesson

In our first Media AS lesson we learnt  how to set up and collapse a camera tripod. We did this so we all know how to safely use them without breaking or damaging the equiptment. We also learnet about different angles and shots to use while filming such as, High angle, Low angle, Panning shot and a Tracker shot.