Filming (match-cuts)

In Mary's lesson our group had to go off and film different shots and it had to be someone doing something, in the previous lesson our class learnt about match-cuts i wasn't able to attend this lesson so one of my group members had to briefly explain it to me. In our piece we had to include a lot of various shots and a dialogue, we started with the filming and had to re-do some of the shots a couple of times so when it came to the editing we had numerous shots to choose from. we had to be really careful with the timing the location and try and keep it the same or make it link up to one another instead of having a completely different shot that has nothing to do with the previous shot and tohelp us do that we had a little help from a teacher just to help us understand the whole concept of filming and how certain shots can create a certain affect needed in the clip.

After the filming we transferred the files of the filmings we done to the computer ready to edit, we had little time to edit our shots but with all our quick thinking and being more familiar with the editing we were able to complete our clip on time, which i personally think is great it has everything we needed to include, but we weren't able to add soundtracks to it due to the time limit so we focused on just completing the editing and making sure it had all the shots,the dialogue and making sure it was steady.

Final thriller ideas

In our lesson on Thursday with Rebecca and Laura we were given the task of coming up with some ideas about what our real and final thriller film opening is going to be about and what type of thriller it was going to be.
The first thing we as a group had to decide was what type of thriller it was going to be; after a long group discussion we all agreed to have a political/supernatural thriller.
After we had decided what type of thriller our film opening was to be, we had to make a plot to go along with this theme.
Summary of our plot:

• A ‘business man’ heading down the stairs/escalator.
  
• ‘Business man’ walking through the crowd, we use P.O.V shots at this point and Mid-shots.
  
• We then see him heading unto the DLR and once again, we use P.O.V and Mid-shots.
  After this, we cut to the next scene showing the city skyline and Canary Wharf in the distance (this shot is going to be filmed from Greenwich Park).
  
• Throughout all the scenes above, we get constant close up at the suitcase.
  
• The ‘business man’ then gets into a lift and we use match cutting again to show him as he gets off the lift.

• Finally, the suitcase is left on a set of steps.

Whilst doing all of this we also had to incorporate all of these ideas into our pitch that we are going to present next lesson to Mary. We had designated different tasks put to different group members as everybody in the group had to speak during the pitch. A pitch is when directors go and propose their ideas to publishers e.g. Fox Century or Warner Bros.

Second Film Practice (Match Cuts)

In our second practice film we had to incorporate some use of match cut technique; this is where somebody is filmed carrying out a task or doing a specific thing and it is shown from different camera angles and shots whilst they are doing exactly the same thing. Considering my group was not in the lesson before this second film practice, I think everything went very well as I told my group what the task was, what match cutting was and the plot of the storyline. After this brief introduction, we got straight down to filming and everyone in the groups’ enthusiasm really helped this second filming practice to go swiftly along with some advice and help from Mickey.

Between the first and second practice I have learnt what match cutting is, how to incorporate that into our filming, how to analyse filming and make sure everything is filmed exactly the same, how to get different shots together and edit them to make them flow smoothly, and finally the 180 rule.

I personally think that we have followed the forms and conventions of real films, as these forms and conventions are simple but at the same time affective. We created a tense atmosphere without the need to dim lights or have thundery weather etc… Editing was done appropriately and we included quick cuts between scenes to impose a sense of unease amongst the viewers; these are all things that real films have and so did ours.

18 December 2008 - Lesson before the Christmas holiday

This lesson we were analysing four movie clips from the films 28 Days Later, The Shining, Collateral and What Lies Beneath. First, we brainstormed all the different types of thrillers and examples of these thrillers. We came up with Murderous Passion, Psychological thriller, Political thriller, Super Natural thriller, Innocent on the run and action thrillers. All these different types thrill the audience in their own separate we but do the same job in thrilling the audience. This gave our group an idea of what kind of thriller we would like to make and how we need to prepare to do it like them but also made us decide we also want something unique about our particular thriller like how the other thrillers all had something special about them.

We were given a large worksheet given us space to comment on the sound, Use of Camera, Music, Editing and Setting and location. This gave us the idea of how a thriller is usually constructed and how the use various element to make the scene more effective in thrilling the audience such as in 28 Days Later they use tilted camera shots which is unusual and in Collateral they use the camera focus effectively to show the audience a significant message. Once we filled up all of our sheets, we were able to have a much clearer understanding of how we could construct our thriller. We learnt how effective the various camera shots and the carefully thought about selected sound all contribute to make the thriller more and more thrilling.

Match Cut

In our Thursday lesson we were given an introduction into what a match cut is; when a character carries out an activity and we are shown the same thing but from a different camera shot or angle. We were given a scenario where a character was to sit down, enter a password, download files, copy it to a disk, put it in an envelope, smoke his cigarette and then finally post the CD. Had to write down how we would film this shot in groups. Unfortunately for me all the rest of the members in my group had an exam so I was left on my own. Thus leading to me having to work with another group for the first half of the lesson. After this we had to watch the video of the scenario and point out where the match cuts were. After this activity I was on my own as it was a group activity; we had to fill out a sheet describing what we would be doing in our filming session: types of camera angles/shots, what would be happening in each scene, the dialogue, the overall plot, and where the match cuts would be. I had to make all the major decisions by myself as I was the only present member in my group. We would have done the filming during this lesson but it had to be postponed to the following lesson as members of the class were due to an exam.

4 previous AS Media Clips, Documentary and Box Office Statistics

In our first media lesson back from the Christmas break we watched a documentary about film openings and we were given a question sheet to which we had answer questions to. We learnt about the different techniques that different directors used e.g. Thomas Sutcliffe, Jean Jacques Beineix, Stanley Kauffmann, Kyle Cooper and Orson Welles. The main argument of this documentary was if an explosive start was better than a build up or vice-versa. Directors in favour of the slow build up starts argued that if you do this you have the audience knowing a little bit about the story but eager to know more therefore the ‘pleasure’ is at the end. Directors who argued that an explosive start was better said that you immediately have the audiences attention; the ‘pleasure’ is given straight away (when using a date as a metaphor). Directors say that they are under increasing pressure to add all the best bits to the film teasers and trailers thus leading to ‘no surprises’ for the audience as they would have seen these bits already. The documentary also talks about how directors may face problems by the publishers as the publishers may disagree with some of the directors decision and can easily overturn the directors decisions; for example Orson Welles wanted no credits at the beginning of his film ‘A Touch of Evil’ but the publishers at Universal Studios disagreed and changed this.
After we watched the film openings documentary we watch about 6-7 clips of previous AS Media Students from in and out of the college. The first clip that we watched was ‘Blasphemy’ which was in my personal opinion outstanding, I could have easily been fooled into thinking that it was done by professionals. The intertextuality was from a famous Brad Pitt movie and the plus point of this AS clip was the groups use of props, location, camera angles and shots, and most of all… editing. I would rate this group 4.5/5 and they would have got a 10 if it was not for a boy in the clip having his trousers hanging low.
The second clip we watched was ‘Essex Road’ which I thought was also truly acceptable. The plot was about a police officer (C.I.D) who was investigating a murder or kidnapping, he falls asleep and we see what may have happened to the girl. This groups main strong points was their use of mise en scene, their use of props really created a great affect and also helped us to distinguish different characters. They also used flashbacks appropriately showing where evidence dropped and flashing back to the evidence in the police station. I would rate this group 4/5 and the ways they could have improved are for example through using black and white to show us that the police officer was dreaming. After these two clips we watched five more which are as follows:
‘The Untold’: This was basically about a teacher on her way to school where one of the pupils had been abducted, this group got most of their grades through their diverse use of camera shots and angles.
‘Timecode’: This was about a boy waking up only to find that he was handcuffed to a brief case, they had really nice shots of the city sky line and the editing was also good (noises of a code being entered).
‘Days Are Numbered’: This was about a man rowing a boat on the canal when after a few minutes he sees a girl who is looking very devious. This group had some really good camera shots and rather fine editing; where they show the sunlight hitting the water and they use this as a fade into the next scene.
‘The Fragile’: We are shown an isolated barn, forest, fast zoom through a hole in the wall and sharp non-diagetic sounds. After this we get a really good shot of a bicycle wheel fro the side and from the top.
‘Not alone’: Very simple but affective plot. A boy washing a cup at the sink and we start seeing him from the outside the we go into the house, the lights switch off and somebody magically made him a cup of tea which we later see (the cup of tea) when the lights are turned back on.
After watching these clips we looked at cinema audiences in the year 2007and looking at the trends we found that females were more likely to watch light hearted, romantic-comedy and comedy movies such as: Hairspray, Enchanted and Atonement. Whereas men were more likely to watch action and war films such as: 300, Die Hard 4, and Spiderman 3. Looking at these statistics we also found that males always tended to be the most likely gender group to watch thrillers, examples include: Ocean’s 13, The Bourne Ultimatum, and 28 Weeks Later.
Looking at U.K Box Office statistics from the 14th-16th November 2008 showed us that the distributor taking the most weekend gross was Sony Pictures thanks to James Bond: Quantum of Solace with £5,164,182 but the movie with the highest total gross to date was Mamma Mia! With £67,879,439 which was mostly due to its high amount of DVD sales (highest selling DVD ever, beating Pirates of the Caribbean).

what lies beneath analysis

Our homework for the Christmas holiday was to choose one thriller clip and analyse how suspense is created within the clip. The clip I have chosen to analyse is ‘What lies beneath’ because it used different techniques to demonstrate how camera movement, sound, editing etc. to build up tension within the clip/scene. Firstly the camera is on the main character of this scene, there’s a long shot to show us her movement and where she is , her facial expression is uneasy which indicates something is happening out of the ordinary, as soon as she stops on the stairs because she noticed something, the camera moves across in the same direction she’s looking at (panning shot) and that’s where the tension levels go high, the audience do not know where the camera I going and what it’s going to show and we know its something negative. The lighting is dark showing its night time which definitely makes the house creepy and scary, its gives us a clue on what’s going to happen next. There are low angle shots over the shoulder shot , close-up, and also point of view which is the most effect, it makes the audience feel what the character is feeling, uneasiness, tension, fear, curiosity etc. and we see what she see’s which makes it more interesting with all the steam in the bathroom which makes the character seem weak because she can’t clearly see anything especially where we know something bad is going to happen and were unsure of the outcome. Throughout out the whole clip there’s slow scary music (non-diagetic) and it gets louder and louder as she gets nearer to the door, there’s a track in towards the bath and we know each step she takes is a step nearer to the danger we think she’s going to face. When she gets to the bath the audience expected something to happen and nothing did we carry on looking at the bath and there’s water filled up in the bath and it seems that’s she didn’t fill it up and makes it very unusual which gives us another hint of something bad happening with the water so we look carefully at the bath and the water looking at the characters reflection then we see another persons reflection appear and the music goes loud and quick which plays a part in the tension created, if there was no music we wouldn’t be as scared . Then obviously she screams and her husband comes running to her rescue, the music changes all dramatically then there’s a close up of the water going down the drain showing that it is not the end and more is going to happen so the suspense isn’t gone it’s just low and it can go high at any moment which is what we expect after seeing that.