media studies 2009-2011

Costumes:

Our Initial idea is for all of our characters to be in school uniform, although they will obviously vary depending on the character personality we are trying to convey.

Lucy Hart: Black High waisted skirt (with braces), white blouse, black long knee high socks, Black heels, school tie

Emma Roberts: Pinafore dress, white shirt, long socks, School tie

Jenny Chandler: Black Trousers, trainers, White shirt, School tie, Baggy Jumper.

We gained inspiration from the film St Trinians (2007). The costumes we want to create are very similar to these ones shown, as the characters mirror our own.

Our main character (Lucy) is going to portray a similar Character as Regina George In Mean Girls.

Location: Outside the school

Make up:

Summer- Glamourous, Smokey eyes, Red Lipstick (Similar to Gemma Arterton In St Trinians)

Mia: Pink tones, Girly, Pale Pink Lipstick

Ella: Similar to Summer.

Olivia: Very Natural, Little make up needed

Props: School Bags, Mobile Phones,

 SHOT OF LONG TOWN STREET OUTSIDE A SCHOOL – ESTABLISHING Four Teenage girls all in school uniform.

 One of the girls stood on there own (Jenny Chandler)

 Shot of three girls walking towards the camera, camera shot slowly moves upwards to reveal the characters. Camera pauses inbetween each actor, and shows opening titles.

 All fashionably dressed.

 Camera moves onto a shot of Jenny (High angle to show inferior to other girls). Fairly plain clothes.

 Then cotinues to show the three girls walking forward past Jenny, all look over to her. Fades to black and opening titles begin.

 Begining shot of Jenny walking by herself, voiceover of Jenny explaining how she has moved form a smaller town.

 OLIVIA: So things have changed so much over the past year. I used to be Happy. I used to be Popular. Then suddenly my mum decided she wanted to move here, (drops bag) and now everythings different. So it was Goodbye to Beachlife and Hello to the City.

 FADES TO DINING HALL SCENE

 SUMMER: “this is our place.. MOVE!”

 OLIVIA: “Oh sorry I didnt Know…”

 SUMMER: “You will be! Learn the hierarchy new girl!”

 (Olivia moves quickly)

 ELLA: Who is that?!

 SUMMER: some freak from the beach

 MIA: I heard that she doesn’t even know what a pedicure is.

 SUMMER:…Well whatever… Anyway Guess who came round last night Girls??…

 MIA AND ELLA: Who??!

 SUMMER: Ben!!!”

 FADES OUT TO NEXT SCENE.

 Olivia sat by herself reading, Ben walks towards her.

 BEN: “..Err Hey, Do you mind if I sit here for a minute, Im trying to avoid someone” Ben Laughs nervously.

 OLIVIA: Yeah thats fine. I’ll be glad of the company to be honest.”

 BEN: Your new, right?

 OLIVIA: Yeah is it really that obvious?!

 BEN: Well thats just say you don’t exactly fit in with the girls round here…

 OLIVIA: Meaning?

 BEN: Meaning your not fake, your not shallow and you don’t make a point of wearing as little clothes as possible!

 OLIVIA (laughs): Thanks. I suppose I should take that as a compliment…

 BEN: Yeah it was meant as one.

 They both smile at each other as summer approaches. Ben jumps up.

 SUMMER: Where have you been? And what are you talking to her for?!

 Summer points towards Olivia as she walks away.

 BEN: I just needed to get away! I’m sick of you being so rude to everyone. To be honest I think we should break up.

 Ben quickly walks away. Summer shouts after him.

 SUMMER: What?! No one breaks up with me!

 Scene Ends.

 Summer on the phone to Mia.

 SUMMER: Mia, I’m going to get him back if its the last thing I do. You should of seen him talking to that Olive!

 MIA: You mean Olivia.

 SUMMER: Yeah Whatever, she’s still a Bitch!….

 SLAMS DOWN PHONE.

 MIA: Hello?? Summer? Are you still there?

 NEXT SCENE.

 SHOT OF OLIVIA WALKING TO SCHOOL.

 Summer Mia and Ella are walking behind her.

 SUMMER: Hey Slag! Keep away from my boyfriend. (SHOUTS)

 OLIVIA: From what I’ve heard he’s not even your boyfriend any more! And don’t worry I wouldn’t go near him anyway, I don’t know what I might catch.

 SUMMER: What is that suppose to mean? I don’t know who you think you are but at this school I’m in charge.

 MIA AND ELLA: Yeah exactly!

 GIRLS WALK OUT OF THE SHOT.

NEXT SHOT. OLIVIA SAT BY HERSELF. MIA WALKS TOWARDS HER. 

MIA: Err Hi, are you okay? 

OLIVIA: Where’s the rest of the group? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you apart from them. MIA: To be honest I’m getting pretty sick of them. Mind if I sit down?

 OLIVIA: I suppose not.

 MIA: I really am sorry about Summer. She just can’t stand competition.

 OLIVIA: Competition?

 MIA: Yeah its obvious Ben really likes you.

 OLIVIA: I hadn’t noticed. (Smiles)

 MIA: I better go anyway. I’m supposed to be meeting Summer for a pedicure. It was nice talking to you anyway.

 OLIVIA: …What’s a pedicure?

 Scene Fades out.

 OLIVIA WALKING ON HER OWN. BEN FOLLOWS AFTER HER (RUNNING) 

BEN: Olivia! Wait up. OLIVIA TURNS AROUND.

 OLIVIA: Oh Hi Ben. (AWKWARDLY)

 BEN: I haven’t seen you in a while, have you been avoiding me or something?

 OLIVIA: To be honest I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be friends. Summer doesn’t seem too keen on the idea.

 BEN: I don’t care about Summer though. (Pause) I like you.

 OLIVIA (smiles to herself)

FADES TO NEXST SCENE.

AT SCHOOL. SUMMER, MIA AND ELLA CONFRONT OLIVIA.

SUMMER: I thought I warned you to stay away from my boyfriend!

OLIVIA: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

STARTS TO WALK AWAY GIRLS FOLLOW.

SUMMER: Ben told me that the reason he didn’t want to be with me anymore was because of you!

OLIVIA: Maybe he’s finally come to his senses.

SUMMER: Or maybe he’s got seriousd concussion, He’d have to, to find you attractive! Right Girls?

MIA: Don’t get us involved Summer.

MIA AND ELLA WALK AWAY

SUMMER: Every thing started going wrong since you turned up!

OLIVIA: You can’t blame me for your own mistakes Summer.

OLIVIA WALKS AWAY LEAVING SUMMER STOOD BY HERSELF.

 5 years on, Jenny voice over explaining what has happened to the girls

A MONTAGE OF IMAGES.

OLIVIA: In case you’re wondering the group split up, from what I’ve heard summer, is now having her 3rd child, all with different fathers. As for the other girls, Ella is now a top Journalist and ironically my favourite columnist. I still see Mia, in fact she’s one of my closest friends and she was the maid of honour at my Wedding. 

Ben proposed after two years of living together, and I’ve never been happier. So surprisingly the move to Shallow City was the best thing that ever happened to me! And the group split was for the best.

FADES TO BLACK AND END CREDITS.

The main theme we have chose to focus on for our film is a chick flick genre. With a mostly female orientated cast, the mise en scene will be extremely imporatnt to make our film work as the costumes and props will reflect our sterotypical audienc. We have not yet decided on a final plot line but it will mainly centre around two teenage girls who portray very different characters. The location will probably be somewhere familiar such as a school or main street, to show the two girls meeting. Films such as Mean girls and St Trinians will inspire our own film and we want to try and achieve a similar genre.

Prior to any Film production you will have to establish who your main Target audience is so you are able to work this to your advantage; with Horror films they have a large audience so stereotyping one particular group can be difficult. 

The above Photo was procured from Google, and it presents a stereotypical audience member to our film. I chose this particular person as a representative because they are around the age of 17-25 and normally Horror/Thriller Movies are given a rating of 18, I feel our Movie contains criteria of an Interest to an older audience and I would suggest the rating would be 15-18. Another reason I designated this particular image representative of our film is mainly due to his appearance as it portrays an average person who enjoys the horror Genre because they would probably be defined under the social group Emo or Goth on account of his hairstyle and clothes choice. The clothing Brands they would customarily wear would be Vans and Criminal Damage. Although the spectrum of people who fall under this category is substantial I think this person sums them up best. They would enjoy films such as The Saw sequel, the grudge, Halloween and many other popular Horror/Thriller Titles. Also the typical Television programmes they would watch would probably be Skins, CSI, Dead Set, Being Human and Supernatural, as these all feature tension building storylines which are expected and associated with Horror Films. Characteristically they would shop at places such as HMV and GAME because Horror films are popular among film fanatics and predominantly males. Also there Music tastes would conventionally be Metal or Rock music, this type of music occurs in horror films very often as it sets the thriller scene and appeals to the typical audience, Bands such as Metallica and Motorhead.

 The audience would not be focused at girly girls as normally these would not consider Horror as their chosen genre probably due to the amount of Gore, violence and suspense.  Furthermore people under the age of 17 would not be as much of an enthusiast of horror films as they are too young to fully understand some of the complex storylines and will be affected by the disturbing scenes to a greater extent than an older audience. Also audiences may be aficionados of famous Horror film directors for instance Sir Alfred Hitchcock who pioneered the beginning of the Horror Genre creating legendary Titles including Psycho, Birds and Vertigo. Fans of these films are likely to also enjoy more modern Titles that can be compared to these original renowned movies, and observe how the Horror Genre has altered over the years. However contemporary Horror films will probably not be enjoyed by people over the age of 40 as they may not understand or appreciate the modern take on the Horror genre and prefer more romanticised Movies, such as popular Bette Davis films including the celebrated ‘Whatever happened to Baby Jane?’.

This is a clip of our finished movie with commentary. I then added annotations over the top using youtube to show how we portrayed the genre of our assignment which was was Horror, in order to portray our chosen Genre there was many aspects we had to take into consideration such as the use of music, similarities with other movies and we had to include a unique selling point of our film. Music has a huge impact on the genre of a film, without it, it would be extremely difficult to set the right atmosphere and build tension for the audience. The music we chose to incorporate into our film manifests the tone of the short piece and addresses the Horror Genre to the audience.  We felt it had an unsettling quality, and enhanced the eerie ambience we were trying to create.  There are many films that inspired us when planning our own film opening, and we tried to integrate several techniques and ideas we received from the research we carried out, such as Halloween, Friday the 13^th and the Scream trilogy. They are all extremely popular films and their audiences never fail to be taken aback when they view these Films, I feel they really sum up the Horror Genre.

 This is a Link to the annotated version of our opening sequence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj7JfTqOj9c

When you open it in apture embed it does not show the annotations so adding the link address is the best alternative so you have to now copy and paste the link to access the annotated version. I also included the apture embed of the opening sequence of The Ring as I compared it to the opening of our movie, and the Titles especially show several similarities. It is also aimed at a similar Target audience.

To begin with in our media course we were asked to produce a short exercise to help us with understanding how to use the camera equipment and to practise accomplishing the editing process. The preliminary was a much shorter piece and there was minimal planning or research achieved before hand, contrasted with the effort that went into planning and researching for our final film. Also there was little thought gone into the shots and angles we used in the preliminary unlike our final film when an extensive amount of time and effort was put into deciding which shots we were going to use to achieve to our highest potential. Another problem that arose during the preliminary was the several continuity errors that occurred, such as in one shot you see the briefcase being passed along the table but then in the next shot it is again back in Jack’s hand. Continuity was extremely important in our final piece when we had to ensure no errors transpired, and we managed to achieve a much smoother film. 

 This Frame is taken from our preliminary exercise and is an example of one of the errors that occurred during the exercise, it shows a jump cut presenting a continuity error. Also we did not have time to add audio on over the top and at the time we were still adjusting ourselves to getting used to using the camera so we did not include any speech. However for our final piece the script was well thought out beforehand and any extra audio we wanted could easily be added over the top using Adobe Premiere which were not confident with doing during the preliminary.

  This shot shows how bad the quality was of our preliminary, you can see the image is very blurred and there is far too much head room above Jack, when there should be little or no space here.

Now I feel I am much more confident  then I was during the production of the Preliminary exercise, I have learnt to use a wider use of shots and vary which shots we choose instead of using the same or similar ones, particularly the use of over the shoulder shots to tell the story to make economical use of the frame. Also during the editing process to begin with I knew little about this process and lacked the skills needed; now I know much more about the proceeds and different techniques to improve our film such as the different transitions you can add in. The preliminary exercise shows a much more basic film then our most recent one which includes several uses of a range of shots and transitions. In our film we knew we had to take into considerations several issues such as the 180 degree rule. Unlike the preliminary exercise we also included the use of a shot reverse shot which i think really improved our final film. Another major improvement we encountered was with the editing process; we were much more competent at understanding the process and quickly picked up new techniques we were able to incorporate into our final film such as dissolves to make transitions smoother. Also our group were much more organised this time and we all put in a greater effort then during the preliminary exercise when our attitude was far more relaxed and our lack of organisation resulted in us not having enough footage to make a flowing film. For our final piece we certified that we had more then enough footage by repeating each shot several times untill we were happy. The work load was evenly shared between the three of us, I think it was an advantage that we had worked together on the preliminary though as it gave us the experience of working well as a group. We also put much more time and effort into deciding what location would be most suitable, whereas last time we merely chose a location with easy access. Overall we were all able to learn from the mistakes we made during the Preliminary exercise, and we put all our effort into acchieving a film that showed our new skills and it allowed us to be creative and become essentially more confident in this field of Media studies.

Directors Commentary Script.

Evaluation Activity 3 Directors Commentary

Our film company was Named JJF, after the three producers, Joanna Byrom, Jack Young and Flora Simpson. The Logo is a fairly simple but classic design. JJF are a fairly small company who mainly specialize in Horror Films.

They work in connection with the company ‘Young Films’, the distributor is the corporation that works with the film company and they distribute the film to Cinemas and then onto DVD, ‘Young Films’ mainly only works with in the UK but occasionally films will be distributed worldwide, depending on their initial success. They also have to assess the likely market and potential financial success of the film. Hollywood distributors adopt a hard-headed business approach and consider factors such as the film genre, the target audience, the historical success of similar films, the actors who might appear in the film, and potential directors.  Their main aim is to make a profit, and Horror films are widely popular with audiences everywhere. For example the Exorcist that accumulated a gross profit of $440,000,000 worldwide, making it one of the most profitable horror films. ‘Tracker’ was unlike many Movies today, filmed at one main location In the UK. This was Elstree Studios situated in the heart of London, which has produced some of the most famous films around such as, ‘The shining’ and ’Indiana Jones’. Apart from the cost of hiring the studio and the money spent on advertising the film was produced on a fairly low budget, due to the ‘new to film’ cast.  The Gross profit the film accumulated during the first week came to £300,000 at the Box offices, which is a fairly respectable amount although in comparison to The Ring which made $8.3 million during the first two weeks, it seems almost insignificant. Considering films such as Halloween and Friday the 13^th made extremely high profits we are hopeful ours as a classic Horror film storyline will have the same reception from people.

The Titles we included consisted of the Writers name, the names of the two actors’ and finally the film title itself.  Normally in films there are many more titles then this but we decided to keep ours to a minimal amount.  We worked with the Writer Peter Stones who was very competent and thorough when it came to producing the script the most common and important Titles you will see are:

• The Director who is primarily responsible for the storytelling, creative decisions and acting of the film.
• The assistant director (AD) manages the shooting schedule and logistics of the production, among other tasks.
• The casting director finds actors to fill the parts in the script. This normally requires that actors audition. Lead actors are carefully chosen, often based on the actor’s reputation or “star power.”
• The location manager finds and manages film locations. Most pictures are shot in the controllable environment of a studio sound stage but occasionally, outdoor sequences call for filming on location.
• The production manager manages the production budget and production schedule. They also report, on behalf of the production office, to the studio executives or financiers of the film.

• The composer creates new music for the film. (usually not until post-production)
• The production designer creates the visual conception of the film, working with the art director.
• The costume designer creates the clothing for the characters in the film working closely with the actors, as well as other departments.
• The make up and hair designer works closely with the costume designer in addition to create a certain look for a character.
• The storyboard artist creates visual images to help the director and production designer communicate their ideas to the production team.

Bibliography:

- Wikipedia

 This is the original script I wrote out but when It came to recording the Commentary I realised that I could have to cut out a considerable amount as It was far to long to match up with our Film. If I had of kept this script I would of ended up with a substantial amount of time at the end that was merely black screen with the commentary over the top. The process of editing the script was fairly easy though and I manage to shorten it to the essential parts I needed in the commentary.

The Equipment we used during our final film consisted of:

•  Adobe premiere editing Software
• Photoshop
• The camera and Tripod
• Microphones

We used ‘Adobe Premiere’ for the editing process, and also to add special effects to improve the quality of our film, such as various transitions and fade to blacks to show a elipsis of time.

This is me using the programme Adobe Premier pro. We used this to edit our film and add any special effects to acchieve a higher quality piece. It didn’t take long for us all to become accustomed to the process and we were soon all competent enough to successfully edit our film.

This Picture shows me setting up the camera ready to be used, we had to ensure that we had correctly set up the camera by monitoring; The white balance, the range of mobility of the Tripod and sound levels.

The Screen grab below was taken from our Adobe premiere computer screen, this allows you to see our perspective of Premiere. The top left corner shows the shots, effects or audio that can be dragged down into the timeline below, and can be edited in any way you choose. The Timeline is placed at the bottom part of the screen, here you can easily move around shots and cut shots down to your desirable size, also you are able to enlarge each shot to make it clearer to see what you are doing. The screen at the top on the right hand side shows the captured recording, and allows you to play your film to see any mistakes that still need to be edited. Then lastly the box at the bottom left of the screen displays the range of effects you can include for example slow motion.

 To achieve the Logo for our film and make it appear as proffesional as possible we used photoshop to design the company Emblem.

 Jennifer Chandler

 Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween)

Jamie Lee Curtis is the central teenage female role in Halloween, like our main character she is a young girl who’s friends have gone missing in unknown circumstances she is the lone heroine. The character she plays is similar to Jenny in our film as they are both left as the leading female role in a position where they have no one else to depend on. We decided to use Jenny for our leading role as she is a sterotypical young girl and presents an innocence that is normally associated with the leading females in horror films such as In ‘Friday the 13th’ where the main character is a young girl who portrays an innocent teeneager, unlike many of her friends in the movie. Also In John Carpenters ‘Halloween’ Jamie Lee Curtis finds herself being stalked by the infamous Michael Myers and throughout the film her and her friends have the feeling they are being watched, which is comparable with our own storyline where many of our shots were POV to present the perception of them being watched. Jennifer conveys her character well, as she portrays the young girl who is extremely scared and feels panicked when she finds herself alone. Visually her image portrays a certain innocence and a relaxed attitude, wearing a simple and practical outfit of leggings a plain top and coat. Similar to the image portrayed in 28 weeks later, the young girl Tammy played by Imogen Poots, wears simple outfits such as Jeans and tshirts and has to maintain a mature personality, much like Jenny. They both have a likeability factor as teenage girls will be able to relate to them. Although our film does not involve mass killings dissimilar to ‘Twenty eight weeks later’ it allows us to see another side to the horror genre, and the characters fighting to survive.

Another character that shows similaraties is from a more modern horror film, Sidney (Neve Campbell) from the Trilogy ‘Scream’. She is presented a the hero of the films and like our charcter is the leading surving female. Although she portrays a stronger more confident character then Normally seen. She is more sure of herself and manages to shows he is more then capable of looking after herself, remaining courageous even when she experiences her friends her family being murdered around her.

As well though she is able to still presents an average teenage girl who finds herself in the centre of several related murders, and is the main target for the killer. ‘Scream’ did influence us during our research and planning, and our opening was shaped by ideas we gained from ‘Scream’. Our film does not follow all of the typical horror film rules and does not include the usual cliches. Sidney is a more complex character and has a complicated background, the film revolves around her past. She shows intelligence as she survives untill the end of the trilogy and is not a superficial character. The audiences empathise with her character and the situation she is in, this is how we have tried to portray our main charcter so that the audience feel they are able to interact with her. Many people find ‘Scream’ to include a humourous side by using a basic concept with a tongue-in-cheek approach and it revitalised the horror film genre. Its shows how producers can have different impacts by changing the way horror films are normally perceived and therefore shocking viewers with there new ideas.

Frame one: The first shot was the Location shot we chose to have this of the Building we filmed in as it presents the idea of someone watching over the location as the camera pans across and introduces the location to the audience and sets the scene.

Frame Two: This Displays the main characters names, they are set on a black screen and the technique used on the font I feel is very effective and relects the Horror/Thriller atmosphere. This font style mimicks other famous titles, such as ‘The Ring’, this also shows the titles brightly lit up set on a dark background and flickering relating to the television which is a key motif throughout the film.

Frame Three:  The next shot shows the two girls being watched as they walk away, this builds suspense for the audience. Also it gives the first indication that the two girls are being watched by someone, and on the basis that this person is hidden you begin to speculate about the preceding events and the suspicous circumstances. 

Frame four: This Frame shows the shot presenting the writers Name, we added the effect of a flickering light bulb over the top to create the correct atmosphere reflected in our film and the matching audio adds to the impact it makes.

Frame five: This demonstrated the use of an over the shoulder shot, this shows the range of shots we used, the frame also introduces the main characters and the storyline for the film. You can see the girls costumes, they dresses ordinarily and portray two average teenagers. The mise en scene for our film was not very well though out as you can see form these shots there are few props, the phone probably being the main one.

Frame six: This shows the two girls reaction after having heard a loud noise behind them, this creates tension and presents the Suspicion that they are not alone but the suspect is unknown. Also there characters become more Naive and Innocent to the audience as they move towards the noise interpreting it as one of there friends.

Frame Seven: This shot manifests the climax of the opening sequence of our horror film, where one of the girls goes missing this presents the genre of the film. The special effcts we used mainly consisted of different transitions to make the film flow better and mostly fade to blacks to show a time elipsis. A very cliched idea used generally in Horror films is that one of the girls is always the first to go missing, such as in ‘Scream’ or ‘Friday the 13th’ which we also interpreted in our Film to portray the idea of a classic horror movie.

Frame eight: In this frame we again see a point of view shot from who ever has been watching the girls, which relates to the Title of the film ‘Tracker’ and again builds the suspense up for the rest of the film. Suspense is what the audience looks for when they watch a horror or thriller movie, they want to be scared and probably one of the first directors who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological  thriller genres was ‘Alfred Hitchcock’, for example in ‘Psycho’ where the audience only discovers who the actual killer is right at the end of the film.

Frame Nine: The Title of our Film (Tracker) Is displayed on our final Frame, and It is presented on a black screen. The font syle we chose to use is strange and eerie and looks as though it is glowing, this is in relation to the horror atmosphere. This stlye is fairly common in a typical horror film. For example In the popular film ‘Aliens’ the Titles also appear to be Lit up:

Risk Assesment of Filming Location

As the location for our Film could of been potentially highly dangerous, a risk assesment was extremely important. The ‘Utility’ is a derelict building and no longer occupied by anyone, we had to think about what areas we would be entering during the making of the film and the risk each of these places held. We identified each Hazard. how they could harm us and the actions we would need to take. We had to discuss the condition of the site and general precautions.

The main Hazards involved were:

• It was an unfamilar building to all of us
• Working in a building that had not been in use for several years
• There was a danger to us of falling or slipping over, so we had to be fully aware of these areas and ensure we stayed away from them.
• One of us could of fallen into one of the water holes
• In the case of Evacuation of the location in event of fire or another emergency. The Emergency services not knowing if personnel are not accounted for.

Title: Coraline

Director: Henry Selick

Starring: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders

Begins with the Production Titles, Focus features presents, A Laika production, In Association with Pandemonium

Then It continues with the Title of the Film ‘Coraline’, The writing style gives the illusion of stitched writing and a button is used to replace the ‘O’ this is coherent with the storyline of the film. This then fades to black and the main Titles begin introducing the actors who starred in ‘Coraline’:

• Dakota Fanning
• Teri Hatcher
• Jennifer Saunders
• Dawn French
• Ian Mcshane

This is followed by a shot of a hand stitched doll floating threw an open window, there is something very sinister about this shot. After this the Titles again continue:

• Lead animators – Travis Knight, Trey Thomas, Eric Leightona and Phil Dale
• Concept artist - Tadahiro Vesuqi
• Art Directors – Bo Henry, Tom Proost, Phil Brotherton
• Storyboard Supervisor - Chris Butler
• Editors – Christopher Murtie and Ronald Sanders
• Visual Effects Supervisor – Brian Van’t Hull
• Music By Bruno Coulais
• Supervising Animator – Anthony Scott
• Director of Photography – Pete Kozachik ASC
• Produced By Bill Mechanic, Claire Jennings, Henry Selick and Mary Sandell
• Based on the Novel By Neil Claiman
• Written for the screen and Directed by Henry Selick

Throughout the Opening sequence the sequence of the process of making the doll is consistent. This is followed through in the Storyline of the film and creates the macabre atmosphere for the audience.

Title: Friday 13th

Starring: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby

The film begins with the film production Logo, Warner Bros. Pictures, An AOL Time Warner company.

It then continues with the first shot, which is a black screen with Plain black capitals – A Sean S Cunningham Film. This then fades onto a shot of the moon and continues with the beggining shots of the film, with the words of the location and date on screen. After about three minutes the rest of the titles precede. The shot fades out from the shot of a girl screaming and then goes to black where the Title of the Film, ‘Friday the Thirteenth’ Appears this is zoomed in untill it is expanded to fit the screen and the effect of shattering glass is created, this then again fades out and the next title follows. These consist of:

- Director of Photography – Barry Abrahams

- Art Director – Virginia Fields

- Executive Producer – Alvin Geiler

- Casting By TNI casting, Julie Hughes and Barry Moss

- Special make up effects By Tom Savini

- Music By Henry Manfredini

- Editor – Bill Fredd

- Associate Producer – Stephen Miner

- Written By Victor Miller

Produced and Directed By Sean S Cunningham

Then the last Title zooms into a white Screen, There is continous Scary eerie music in the background, which is also used throughout the film to create Tension.

Title: Donnie Darko

Director: Richard Kelly

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Holmes Osborne and Maggie Gyllenhaal

The Titles Begin with the Logo of the film Production company, ‘New Market’, followed by The Logo of Pandora Productions. This is followed by the first Titles which are: New market presents, In association with Pandora, a flower films Production and Finally A Richard kelly Film. Throughout all of these titles there is a faint lightning sound over the top, The Titles are all centred on the screen and the font is original and slighlty eerie. This then fades into the first shots of the film, which begins with a shot of the location which the camera pans across.

The PlayStation 3 (officially abbreviated as PS3) is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment, and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles.

A major feature that distinguishes the PlayStation 3 from its predecessors is its unified online gaming service, the PlayStation Network,which contrasts with Sony’s former policy of relying on video game developers for online play.Other major features of the console include its robust multimedia capabilities,connectivity with the PlayStation Portable,and its use of a high-definition optical disc format, Blu-ray Disc, as its primary storage medium. The PS3 was also the first Blu-ray 2.0-compliant Blu-ray player on the market.

The PlayStation 3 was first released on November 11, 2006 in Japan, November 17, 2006 in North America and South America, and March 23, 2007 in Europe and Oceania. Two SKUs were available at launch: a basic model with a 20 GB Hard drive (HDD), and a premium model with a 60 GB hard drive and several additional features(the 20 GB model was not released in Europe or Oceania).Since then, several revisions have been made to the console’s available models, most notably with the release of a new slim model in September 2009 to coincide with rebranding of the console and its logo.

The new Apple Ipad has just been launched and it is said to have ”a whole new batch of customers, a bigger screen and faster processor, many software developers are thrilled at the prospect of the iPad.” The many features available make it a popular new product. Apple company claim:The large Multi-Touch screen on iPad lets you see web pages as they were meant to be seen — one page at a time. With vibrant color and sharp text. So whether you’re looking at a page in portrait or landscape, you can see everything at a size that’s actually readable. And with iPad, navigating the web has never been easier or more intuitive. Because you use the most natural pointing device there is: your finger. Scroll through a page just by flicking your finger up or down on the screen. Or pinch to zoom in or out on a photo. There’s also a thumbnail view that shows all your open pages in a grid, to let you quickly move from one page to the next. The iPad has also been held up as a potential saviour for mainstream media, combining Apple’s ability to get people to pay for online content with a covetable device whose colour screen is ideal for displaying magazines and newspapers as well as television programmes.

A whole host of apps is now being developed to offer new ways to enjoy old media. Some senior publishing executives, however, were disappointed by last week’s launchExperts said that the iPad could transform the way that people read newspapers, watch television and surf the web. It is slim and elegant, and although it has some weight in the hands, it feels a lot lighter than any laptop. There is only one button on the whole machine, the home button, with everything else handled through touch. The adapted iPhone operating system was as intuitive and pleasing as on the iPhoneThe interface is pixel perfect and the larger screen allows video and games to breathe and become much more immersive.

The Apple Ipad holds many advantages over other recent types of media technology it has a better quality for watching films and being able to read news papers and magazine with the large touch screen

Analysis of Opening Sequence- Horror/ comedy, Severance

Directed by Christopher Smith

Starring- Danny Dyer and Laura Harris

The shot begins with two girls and a man running through a woods they are screaming and look very panicky, then the next shot is black with the titles included. This is repeated several times. The music does not suit the tone and doesn’t match what is happening, this adds to the humour of the film. The spaces between the black scenes and the shots of the girl running become longer and you see the two girls fall down a trap. You then see a side shot of the man continuing to run, and then the camera carries on moving even though the man is no longer in the scene it back tracks to find him hanging upside down from a tree. He looks extremely worried and then you see someone walk into the shot but you only see him from behind and his hand holding a knife. This builds up the suspense to the audience as he slowly moves forward and when he reaches the man hanging down from the tree you see blood dripping down his face. Then Music begins which is happy and fun this does not match the tone of what is happening in the scene and this represents the comedy Genre of the movie.

Analysis of Opening Sequence- Thriller/ Horror, Psycho

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Starring- Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles

The opening scene starts with an establishing wide shot of the city, the camera pans around to give a panoramic view to show the whole location, then it slowly zooms in on a flat building and goes through an opening window into the room. During the shot of the city the Place name, date and time flashes up quickly onto the screen in bold printed font. This announces these details to the audience suggesting they are important to the film and that something is going to happen on this day. As the camera goes through the window into the room it suggests the feeling of invasion of privacy. The next shot shows a man and a woman in the room near the bed their tones of voice seem urgent and they are both talking in hushed tones. This suggests secrecy between the man and woman. There is then a shot of the man quickly opening the blinds and his voice becomes louder, this portrays that there is less privacy now. The music is eerie and slow it reflects the horror genre.

Feel- good, Romantic Comedy: P.S I love you

Starring: Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler

Director: Richard LaGravenese

The Scene begins with an Establishing shot of the town the camera angle pans down to the subway and focuses on a man (Gerard Butler) and women (Hilary Swank) quickly walking down the street. The next you see them walking away from the camera towards their flat. There is relevant music playing in the Background, a love song which grows quieter as they enter the flat. There is a front view shot of Holly entering the flat with Gerry following behind. Then there is a point of view shot and reverse shots when they start talking as they begin walking up the stairs, and an over the shoulder shot of their conversation. When they are in their room the camera shots between them is very quick movements as they are arguing. The music has stopped now. The quick camera shots between them show the relationship between Holly and Gerry. The tone of the music also represents the genre of the film.

The titles also began near the beginning of this film and they were in a soft and stylish font. Although the characters are arguing you can see from their body language that they are very close.

Directed by: Richard Curtis

Stars: Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Bill Nighy, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson and Martine Mccutcheon

Summary of film: The hilarious Love actually explores the ups and downs of relationships in the weeks building up to christmas. Boyfriends and girlfreiends, Husbands and wives, Fathers and sons and Rock stars and managers all combined to make love actually not just one story but ten different ones.

Summary of opening sequence:

The scene begins with a shot of a over crowded airport, focused in on a couple being reunited which represents love. The next shot shows a family meeting at the airport the camera zooms in on this scene, and the sound has been removed replaced with non-diegetic music which is sad and moving and portrays the feelings of the family being reunited and their body language towards each other. It then goes on to show several more scenes of families and friends emotional meetings at the airport. A voiceover of hugh grant, one of the main characters, then is included in the scene, this sets the atmosphere of the sequence and announces the film by saying ‘love actually is all around’. The removal of diegetic sound exaggerates the moving and poignant scene. Also the effect of the slow motion effect helps to portray the love between the family. It is an emotional beggining to the movie and really captures and sums up the themes throughout.

Analysis of a thriller film opening The Shining

It begins with an establishing shot of the location and the camera slowly zooms in on the location which looks completely isolated. The camera goes onto a canted angle which builds up the suspense and tension. The next shot is a birds eye view where we are looking down on a winding road, the camera angle then changes again as we see the car travelling along the road. The beggining seems very isolated which we later learn becomes a main theme in the film. The colours are mostly greys and dark colours which portays the atmosphere of the film.

The Title of the film is The Shining and it is directed by Stanley Kubrick, it is based on the book by Stephen King and the genre of the film would be seen as a Horror/Thriller, the film had five nominations and won 1 award.

Plot of the film: A man, his son and wife become the winter caretakers of an isolated hotel where Danny, the son, sees disturbing visions of the hotels past using a telepathic gift known as The Shining. The father, Jack Torrance, is underway in a writing project when he slowly slips into insanity as a result of cabin fever and former guests of the hotels ghost. After being convinced by a waiter’s ghost to correct the family, Jack goes completely insane. The only thing that can save Danny and his mother is The Shining.

Enigma codes: In the first 2 – 5 mins you don’t really know much because they are acting normal as a family but you do get the slight idea that something is going to happen. The isolation is the only clues you are really presented with. You are thinking who are the suspects and who the villain will be.

Camera work, effects, sound: The use of camera work was good as there was a lot of use of close ups when it came to the most dramatic moments. This showed how the character was feeling and made you feel more suspense. There was a lot of use of silence and loud building up music this helped to build a suspense to the audience.

Editing: In the film they used cuts in most of the opening scene. There were a few dissolves but most of the editing techniques were cuts and this was used well and I couldn’t notice any jump cuts.

Genre characteristics: It is set in a mansion that looks to be in the middle of nowhere. Which suggests that already to the audience that something stange is going to happen and gives the impression of being alone.

The chararacters at the beggining all appear to be normal and an average family, the dad however does seem to act quite suspicious. I think the opening gives us a blank idea of what is going to happen but it leaves us in suspense for the rest of the film.

Titles: The titles are presented at the start of the film this shows who acts, and the director and film crew. The names are brought in fast and catchy. Font, colour and positioning of titles:

• The font is bold and is clearly read.

• The positioning of titles is mostly in the centre of the screen.

• The colour is used very well to suit the film because it is quite a dark film, its not bright. The opening is very dull and it makes you feel like it’s a winters day.

It also provides us with Ideas for own opening sequence such as:

• We can use the dull lighting that is stressed in this film for ours because ours in intending to be thriller/horror and we want it at night so the use of lighting could have an affect.

• The use of suspense between each shots and the ideas given which has given me a clear idea how to go about making our thriller/horror opening.

In this Preliminary exersise it includes most of the elements needed to match the brief, we were fairly happy with the final result. There are several different shots used during this exercise these are: thye long shot used at the beginnng which establishes the location, next we used a mid shot to show him walking towards the door, The close up of the door shows him entering the room, after this there is a sequence of mid shots to show the handing over of the case and finally we used a close up on the case. To edit the short film we used the software Abode premiere. We could of improved ours by adding dialogue to the film and using a wider range of shots.

A video shot log is the written record you create to tell you what shots are on a tape or disk. You can make them during or after the shoot, it is usually easier to write them during as it will save time later. The format of the log should just be whatever works best for you. If you are part of a large group you should have a standard format so that everyone is able to use the same system. It should include the duration of each shot a short description of the shots, the audio and any additional comments.

BBC-Film network

Script writing- Write down what has inspired you to make the film and where you have got your ideas from. Write a brief description to begin with and then move on to developing your story into a structured screenplay. At this stage you should begin to get feedback of other people, rework the idea and concentrate on the components that will bring your story together, such as characters, plot and theme. When you have done this you can begin to write it down into script format. Reading your favourite film scripts is a good way of learning the industry standard format and help you to stick to this. You can then start to develop your project further, respond to critism and absorb new ideas into your script. It is very likely that you will go through a number of draft scripts, you should share tips and suggestions to help you. There are many useful websites that can help you when struggling to create a script.

7. Titles timeline- The shots that make up the title of your film
8. Animatic storyboard
9. Recce shots and photos on the shoot
10. Screengrabs throughout editing

tThis refers to the five major film studios, the so-called Big Five were integrated conglomerates, combining ownership of a production studio, distribution division, and substantial theater chain, and contracting with performers and filmmaking personnel: Loew’s/MGM, Paramount, Fox (which became 20th Century-Fox after a 1935 merger), Warner Bros., and RKO. The remaining majors were sometimes referred to as the Little Three or the “major-minors.” Two—Universal and Columbia (founded in 1919)—were organized similarly to the Big Five, except for the fact that they never owned more than small theater circuits (a consistently reliable source of profits). The third of the lesser majors, United Artists (founded in 1919), owned a few theaters and had access to production facilities owned by its principals, but it functioned primarily as a backer-distributor, loaning money to independent producers and releasing their films. In 1909,thomas edison , who had been fighting in the courts for years for control of fundamental motion picture patents, won a major decision. This led to the creation of the mtion pictures patent company, widely known as the Trust. Comprising the nine largest U.S. film companies, it was “designed to eliminate not only independent film producers but also the country’s 10,000 independent [distribution] exchanges and exhibitors.

Adope Premiere conists of five main sections, or “panels”:

1. The Project Panel – This is where the video clips, and files etc are placed.                           

2. The Monitor Panel – This is where you view the original footage, and the new edited footage next to it.

3. The Info Panel – This shows “info” about the item that is selected.

4. The Timeline Panel – This is where you construct the order of the footage.

5. The Tool Panel – This is where you select the tools used to manipulate the footage.

Some of those tools include;

Razor, to cut clips into pieces.

Slide, to move a clip back and forth on the timeline.

And Zoom, to obviously zoom in or out for a better view.

Premiere also features various other panels, such as the History panel, which shows previously performed actions, which can be helpful to undo certain wrongly performed actions.

The Audio Mixer Panel. This allows you to adjust audio levels.

Effects Panel and Effects Control Panel. The effects panel allows you to add video and audio effects, and the effect controls panel sets parameters for those effect.

this is a written record of the shots on a tape or disk. The shot log can be made either as the shoot progresses or after the shoot finishes. If possible, it really helps to do the shot log during the shoot — it will be easier and save you time later.

There are no hard and fast rules regarding the format of the shot log. Basically, whatever works for you is fine. If you are working in a larger team environment you will probably have a standardised format so everyone uses the same system and gets the required information.

Representation theory- this is a branch of mathematics that studies ‘abstract algebraic structures’ by representing there elements as linear transformations of vector spaces. Representation theory is a powerful tool because it reduces problems in abstract algebra to problems in linear algebra, which is well understood. Representation theory is also important in physics because, for example, it describes how the symmetry group of a physical system affects the solutions of equations describing that system.

^{Sources used: Wikipedia.com}

Part Two. Comment on the media producers have distorted the representation of significant identifiable groups with reference to:

^{Producers can reflect different views on controversial subjects in anyway they choose to portray that subject. Nazi propaganda was huge, and the media played a very significant part in portraying hitler and the nazi part in a specific way. They used newspapers such as} The Völkischer Beobachter (“People’s Observer”) It disseminated Nazi ideology in the form of brief hyperboles directed against the weakness of parlimentarism, the evils of Jewry and Bolshevism, the national humiliation of the treaty of versailles and other such topics. The Nazis produced many films to promote their views. Such as the movie the eternal jew,The movie is done in the style of a documentary, the central thesis being the immutable racial personality traits that characterize the jew as a wandering cultural parasite. Throughout the film, these traits are contrasted to the Nazi state ideal: while Aryan men find satisfaction in physical labour and the creation of value, Jews only find pleasure in money and a hedonist lifestyle.

Hollywood always tended to portray black people as inferior in films, and usually white peoples servants and staff. Films reflect the society at the time, so now peoples outlook on race as considerably changed than in the early days of racial awareness. to start with there was few black roles or black actors in films. In the first years of the Modern Age, black actors were often beaten and threatened if they assumed roles that suggested equality. In hollywood blonde women are usually sterotyped as stupid and more an attraction then a talent. The portrayl of women of advertisements has been extensively critisised, and many belive that this has not changed along with womens role in society. Women are used  much more often then men in advertisement aswell, they are usually depicted a sex objects.