Friday, 8 May 2015
Audience Research
Person 1 (16 years of age, male):
1. What would you expect to see in a crime/thriller film?
Guns, a dark character, car/motorbike scenes.
2. What is most important to see in a crime/thriller?
Guns.
3. What other films would you associate with this genre?
Seven.
4. Are you a fan of crime/thriller? Explain your reasons?
Yes, because they are exciting to watch.
5. What do films need at the beginning to keep you watching?
Some background on the characters which may be exciting to make me what to find out more.
6. What is your favourite movie opening and why?
The Dark Knight Rises because it is thrilling and interesting.
Person 2 (50 years of age, female):
1. What would you expect to see in a crime/thriller film?
Death, action, horror.
2. What is most important to see in a crime/thriller?
The death or crime.
3. What other films would you associate with this genre?
Pulp Fiction.
4. Are you a fan of crime/thriller? Explain your reasons?
Its exciting, gripping and interesting to watch.
5. What do films need at the beginning to keep you watching?
Exciting plot point that leaves you wanting more.
6. What is your favourite movie opening and why?
Seven
Person 3 (19 years of age, female):
1. What would you expect to see in a crime/thriller film?
Criminal activity, guns, death, suspense.
2. What is most important to see in a crime/thriller?
Crime.
3. What other films would you associate with this genre?
Reservoir Dogs.
4. Are you a fan of crime/thriller? Explain your reasons?
Narrative often falls into a category of a topic which interests me which is organised crime.
5. What do films need at the beginning to keep you watching?
Gripping character introduction, fairly fast paced so its not too slow into the action/storyline.
6. What is your favourite movie opening and why?
The Goodfellas introduction. Because it starts off mid way through the narrative which makes it more interesting and different, it also grips you straight away.
1. What would you expect to see in a crime/thriller film?
Guns, a dark character, car/motorbike scenes.
2. What is most important to see in a crime/thriller?
Guns.
3. What other films would you associate with this genre?
Seven.
4. Are you a fan of crime/thriller? Explain your reasons?
Yes, because they are exciting to watch.
5. What do films need at the beginning to keep you watching?
Some background on the characters which may be exciting to make me what to find out more.
6. What is your favourite movie opening and why?
The Dark Knight Rises because it is thrilling and interesting.
Person 2 (50 years of age, female):
1. What would you expect to see in a crime/thriller film?
Death, action, horror.
2. What is most important to see in a crime/thriller?
The death or crime.
3. What other films would you associate with this genre?
Pulp Fiction.
4. Are you a fan of crime/thriller? Explain your reasons?
Its exciting, gripping and interesting to watch.
5. What do films need at the beginning to keep you watching?
Exciting plot point that leaves you wanting more.
6. What is your favourite movie opening and why?
Seven
Person 3 (19 years of age, female):
1. What would you expect to see in a crime/thriller film?
Criminal activity, guns, death, suspense.
2. What is most important to see in a crime/thriller?
Crime.
3. What other films would you associate with this genre?
Reservoir Dogs.
4. Are you a fan of crime/thriller? Explain your reasons?
Narrative often falls into a category of a topic which interests me which is organised crime.
5. What do films need at the beginning to keep you watching?
Gripping character introduction, fairly fast paced so its not too slow into the action/storyline.
6. What is your favourite movie opening and why?
The Goodfellas introduction. Because it starts off mid way through the narrative which makes it more interesting and different, it also grips you straight away.
Location Planning
Our film was filmed in two different locations:
1. Waterloo/Southbank
2. A bedroom in a house.
1.
This location was used by us to film Nico on his motorbike leaving the previous location. We used this location because its in central London and it connotates that the assassin in amongst the high profile professionals and also criminals in the city. This was vital to our plot as we needed to ensure that the assassin seemed as high profile as possible. This location also gave us many filming opportunities due to the wide roads and tall buildings.
2.
Before the bike scene we need to show the assassins schedule and very particular way of doing things; we wanted the audience to know how maticuluous he was. The pictures pinned up on the wall along with the variety of pictures (guns, drugs, locations, blueprints, head shots) shows the assassins set out and the kind of world he lives in. The room in which we filmed was reasonably minimal in terms of ornaments and personal items, however this could have been executed better. Our aim for a simple room was to suggest the assassins personal life is non existent and the asssassin world is the focus of the plot.
1. Waterloo/Southbank
2. A bedroom in a house.
1.
This location was used by us to film Nico on his motorbike leaving the previous location. We used this location because its in central London and it connotates that the assassin in amongst the high profile professionals and also criminals in the city. This was vital to our plot as we needed to ensure that the assassin seemed as high profile as possible. This location also gave us many filming opportunities due to the wide roads and tall buildings.
2.
Before the bike scene we need to show the assassins schedule and very particular way of doing things; we wanted the audience to know how maticuluous he was. The pictures pinned up on the wall along with the variety of pictures (guns, drugs, locations, blueprints, head shots) shows the assassins set out and the kind of world he lives in. The room in which we filmed was reasonably minimal in terms of ornaments and personal items, however this could have been executed better. Our aim for a simple room was to suggest the assassins personal life is non existent and the asssassin world is the focus of the plot.
Preliminary Evaluation
Evaluation of Preliminary task:
For our Preliminary task we used an police interview clip:
Name: THE INTERVIEW
Characters: Hero Fiennes-Tiffin
Carter Hall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lUm_T5vlWo
QUALITY OF:
STEADINESS OF SHOTS
In terms of holding the shot steadily, we could have improved drastically on this. Many of the shots were unsteady and effected the quality of the clip. This is because we didn't use an appropriate tripod - the tripod we chose was broken and didn't hold the camera in place. Because of this the majority of our shots suffered shaky and unsteady quality. One of the shots was so bad that we had to use the stabiliser effect on Final Cut X Pro, which supplied a satisfactory upgrade to our original footage. When performing the actual opening 2 minutes we will ensure that we have a decent tripod, this will allow us to perform our shots to the highest possible quality. Here is the example of the shot that we edited on Final Cut X Pro.
Here is the example of how our extreme close didn't work. The original idea was that we would get an extreme close up of his mouth only. However this wasn't executed well and the characters head is cut off by the frame.
Here we can see how unnecessary information was included in the shot. The shot would've worked a lot better if we used an extreme close up featuring only the hand and the phone in frame.
Name: THE INTERVIEW
Characters: Hero Fiennes-Tiffin
Carter Hall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lUm_T5vlWo
QUALITY OF:
STEADINESS OF SHOTS
In terms of holding the shot steadily, we could have improved drastically on this. Many of the shots were unsteady and effected the quality of the clip. This is because we didn't use an appropriate tripod - the tripod we chose was broken and didn't hold the camera in place. Because of this the majority of our shots suffered shaky and unsteady quality. One of the shots was so bad that we had to use the stabiliser effect on Final Cut X Pro, which supplied a satisfactory upgrade to our original footage. When performing the actual opening 2 minutes we will ensure that we have a decent tripod, this will allow us to perform our shots to the highest possible quality. Here is the example of the shot that we edited on Final Cut X Pro.
QUALITY OF FRAMING SHOTS
The quality of framing shots could've been heavily improved, a lot of the shots features unnecessary
information. Also, although our story board was approved of and the shots worked well with each other, the execution of this wasn't satisfactory. Again, the use of a good tripod would've helped enormously especially with the close ups. Also we used a canted angle shot even thought it wasn't coinciding with the content of the clip - they are normally used to give a dazed/dreamy effect and this did not work with the shot. In our official opening 2 minutes we will carefully storyboard our sequence and ensure that our framing works with the shots. Also when filming this we will make sure our framing matches the framing shown in the storyboard.
This is the canted angle shot: although the shot was executed fairly well it did not work with the content of the shot. To improve this we will make sure we use appropriate shots to convey particular messages.
Here is the example of how our extreme close didn't work. The original idea was that we would get an extreme close up of his mouth only. However this wasn't executed well and the characters head is cut off by the frame.
Here we can see how unnecessary information was included in the shot. The shot would've worked a lot better if we used an extreme close up featuring only the hand and the phone in frame.
QUALITY OF EDITING
Our editing throughout the sequence was satisfactory, however the continuity of the clips wasn't as smooth as as we desired. Our match on match action wasn't successful and we have learned from this as the shots didn't work together. However we did manage to successfully edit most of our shots together successfully. We successfully managed to perform a reverse shot, we also stuck to the 180 degree rule. From this task we have learnt to successfully do match on action shots and we have learned from our filming mistakes.
Test Shooting
- Overall we spent 5 days filming our opening sequence, first of which was in Waterloo which was partly successful. We arrived at Waterloo station at dusk and met Nico who was on his motorbike, we then filmed the bike scenes shown in the final product.
This was successful as the natural lighting complimented the mood of the clip perfectly however the other filming we did wasn't so successful.
- Here we filmed by some steps on the southbank walk however this wasn't so successful - by this time it was dark and this made it near impossible to get any quality filming done. For these reasons we chose not to use these shots and take them out of the storyboard/plot.
- The next few days we filmed the bedroom scene several times, adding more camera angles and
This was successful as the natural lighting complimented the mood of the clip perfectly however the other filming we did wasn't so successful.
- Here we filmed by some steps on the southbank walk however this wasn't so successful - by this time it was dark and this made it near impossible to get any quality filming done. For these reasons we chose not to use these shots and take them out of the storyboard/plot.
- The next few days we filmed the bedroom scene several times, adding more camera angles and
Casting
Here is our main character who is the only actor shown in our opening two minutes. Our aim for our first two minutes was to establish an understanding between the audience and the main character, this is why
Sunday, 26 April 2015
Monday, 19 January 2015
Heathers Intro - Analysis textual analysis example
New World Pictures - Distribution Company
Cinemarque Entertainment (USA) LTD - Production Company
Winona Ryder - Main Actress
Christian Slater - Other Actor
Title sequence is in the centre of the screen drawing the audiences attention.
First Shot; Extreme Close Up w/ shallow focus shows a female (evident by long hair) putting on a red hairband - potentially conveying a story of love, passion, pain etc. Strawberry Blonde hair enforces this.
Next Shot; Title is shown which is evident by alternative font and stand-out white colouring. The font seems to be informal and in the style of a diary writing style. The colour being white and red has conventions of purity surrounded by love/pain. Possibly a chick flick
A dissolve is used to signify a change (in time/place or to establish something), next shot is an establishing shot which is also a tracking shot to show us something about the characters. It is clear that the characters are upper class by their dress (coordinated and classy) also that the shot is during mid day and possibly in America if not then in Britain. Titles are shown in the top right corner in order to not disrupt the establishing shot but used in the same font as the main title to enforce the same connotations.
A cut is used for a match-on-action affect as the women all step over the white bordered garden - suggesting they are leaving this appearance of the average white upper class women. Also trample on the flowers which shows the people in the shot have no regard for things and are probably quite arrogant.
A tracking long shot is then used to show the rest of the titles as the women walk across the grass in order. Slow motion (slightly) is used to create a subtle surreal feel.
Match on action shot used as feet are shown and different coloured balls which co-ordinate with the woman's dress, enforcing the surreal connotations.
First use of dialogue is used "no heather it's heather's turn" creating confusion for the audience.
From this example, I learnt what is needed when doing a textual analysis of an opening intro. Now I will proceed to do analysis of crime thriller films opening sequences to broaden my knowledge.
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