Media Studies Blog 2009-11

Our logo was devised from our last names, Auld, Miles and Strickland. We started off with our own hand drawn logo, with a circle and then the first letters of our last name in a slanted font to fit into the circle. We have now created our official logo on the computer, however, it does not look as similar to our original. It is a much more simple design, however, much more effective.

This is our animatic storyboard that we used to get a general idea of our film and its running order. I think this helped us, however, when editting we haven’t kept exactly to the order of the animatic. Our animatic maybe could have had many more frames in it, however, we wanted to to put more time into our filming and editting of thye final piece.

These shots were taken in one of the fields just behind my house, we decided to film here as we felt it had very open space, just like many horrror/thriller films. This location was the perfect place to set a horror/thriller film as well due to the trees, the general dull weather of the day and the general atmosphere much like in many of the horror/thriller films we had watched had somebody running usuall being chased, we wanted our openening to reflect that style of film.

THE MASK OF ZORRO

TRISTAR – A SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY

TRISTAR PICTURES PRESENTS

AN AMPLIN ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTION

Z

THE MASK OF ZORRO

Infromation shots – (shots of writing to start storyline off)

In this sequence, it mainly consists of the titles and informational shots. The only shot in this, is the character of Zorro walking into a Medium Shot, he then cuts a ‘Z’ into the screen. Everytime a title is revealed on the screen, an accent of the music is played.

‘THE GRUDGE’

COLUMBIA – woman with torch (logo)

GHOST HOUSE PICTURES – (logo)

SAM RAIMI & COLUMBIA PICTURES PRESENTS

A GHOST HOUSE PICTURE PRODUCTION

a film by TAKASHI SHIMIZU

SARAH MICHELLE GELLER – (starring)

CHINESE LETTERING (which then reveals as ‘The Grudge’)

THE GRUDGE

names of other cast members – (red background, with black hair revealing the names)

In this film, there are two opening sequences, this is purely because of the way the storyline of the film is laid out. The first sequence has no opening titles, however, after the sequence there are the opening titles with a red background and black hair revealing the names and titles.

The first sequence is a Wide Point of View shot, showing a male looking out into the city. It then cuts to a Medium shot of his face and a girl laid in a bed behind him. We then see a close up of the side of his head, to show the confusion in the character and then goes to an MS of the female in the bed, the dialogue has begun. Then a Wide shot is used to show the man jumping off the blacony, this then cuts to a POV shot of him falling to the ground, the speed of this shot is very quick. The shot from which he has just fallen is then shown again, however, the girl walks into the shot, shock and confused, this is then reverted to a POV shot of his mangled body on the road below. A crane shot is then used to show the distance he fell, the music now starts ans this then fades to a blackout.

‘MEAN GIRLS’

PARAMOUNT – a viacom company (logo)

PARAMOUNT PICTURES presents

A LORNE MICHAELS PRODUCTION

LINSEY LOHAN (starring)

MEAN GIRLS

This film starts off with a Point of View shot from the main character (Kady). This shot shows both parents, it then reverst to a Close up and POV shot of the mother and then back to the starting shot. This shot then tilts slightly – to simulate the character of Kady standing up. There is then an Over the SHoulder shot of Kady. There is then a mid shot of the mother and Kady, to another mid shot of the father taking a photo graph and then back to the original mid shot of Kady and her mother – which pauses as though taking the photograph, narration/ self monologue of the charcter Kady. It then reverst to a wide shot of all three characters and the surrounding house and background. Again, there is a MS of Kady and her mother and another non diagetic sound as a camera take a picture, whilst the shot freezes.

This starts with the title “Dreamworks” which is of a little boy fishing on the moon. Like all films it starts with an esablishing shot which is of an old spooky house in the night so it is quite dark from this start we know it is going to be a horror as the setting is spooky! The rain also set the horror scene, the sound of it makes the tension rise. There was then a wide shot of two girls sat talking but sat in the dark watching TV this also gives us a clue that it may be scary as they are talking about what happened to a gril when she watched a video (she died). It zooms in this creates tension. They have a conversation about the plot of the film this gives us an idea of what it is going to be about. It sets the scene/plot. It zooms on speech to the girls. All through the scene we hear rain this makes it more scary as if it was sunny and daylight you wouldn’t be too scared. It creates an atmosphere of horror. The phone then rings. There is silence- this makes the audience on edge they don’t know whats going to happen next they think of things that may happen if they answer the phone. There is a close up on the girls scared face. The TV suddenly comes on with no warning- silence again- the tension rises much more. There is a zoom in of the TV. Then the secen jumps to the next scene.

The fog starts with a quote by Edgar Allan Poe. “Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?. Then it moves to Avco Embassy & E.D.I presents, John Carpenters The Fog. This is a Debra Hill production. It starts with a close up on the stopwatch which shows the time of 5 to midnight. In the background of this shot you can see the childrens faces which show intensity, and scared expressions. the boy which you see in the background is staring right at you which maks you very uneasy so this tells us that its going to be an uneasy film. when Mr Machen shuts the watch it breaks the uneasiness in the air. when looking at Mr Machens face it is like there is no facial expression what so ever he just has a blank expression. “Almost midnight enough time for one more story.”  “One more story before twelve”- Mr Machen. This tells us that something is going to happen at midnight so it builds the tension back up. When Mr Machen is telling the story there is a close up of one of the boys faces and this shows how scared the boy is. There is then the sound of the church bells ringing which tells us that it is midnight and it is then the begginning of the witching hour.

This then moves to an establishing shot of Antonio Bay so you can see the clear sky which is then a contrast to later where all you can see is the luminous fog. The church bells are still ringing whilst this is all going on and there is also spooky usic playing in the background. There is a loud crashing noise in the church and part of the wall comes in then the radio is dropped and this then changes the music to the radio which is very upbeat which is a contrast as the music on the radio is very happy and innocent but whats actually going on is not happy or innocent. The phone starts to ring which is quite an empty sound as there is noone there on the phone and they all just start ringing at the same time. then there is the sound of money falling fom the phones when there is a close up of the boy in the shop. When in the shop things start to shake and the sign has half fallen of the roof so there is an eary squeeking sound so your waiting for something to happen exspecially with the close up of the sign then to the boys face in the shop. Then there is an extreme close up of the clock on the watch which shows what time it is (4 minutes past 12).  when the horns all go off together yet again there is another close up of a clock which shows the time as 5 past 12.

There is a montage in the opening section showing the the village, it has shots of the houses, the church, shops and the garage. This lets us see where we are actually based and the shots which are used in the montage actually appear in the film later. There is a shot reverse shot when the women is in her house there is a shot of the tv then her then back to the tv which shows that her tv has turned on by itself then shows her facial expression of confusion and also fear. In these scenes you can hear the ticking of the clock over the top of the speaking then it fades in to the background then completely fades out. There is a wide shot of the sea which shows where the fog will come in later then there is a point of view shot from stevie (the radio dj) out on to the sea.

The opening of the film finishs with 6 knocks at Nicks door then it goes to a close up of the clock which shows that its 1oclock then the clock smashes and the radio dj says “1oclock staight up, end of the witching hour” then there is a close up of the mans face looking outside seeing that the fog has completely gone. This film has a very good opening as it makes you want to carry on watching as it is very intreguing. it is quite a long opening to a film round about 25 minutes but you dont realise how long it is as it is very interesting and jumpy.

The titles that start this film is “Warner Bros Pictures” Then the title comes up “Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix”. The theme music then starts which is on all the Harry potter films. The establishing shot is up in the sky and looks down and zooms down into the park where the setting is set. We see grass swaying in the wind this gives an eary effect. We then see a shadow this makes the audience feel abit uncomfortable and on edge the tension builds. Then we see the main character Harry Potter. We then have a wide shot of the round about moving on its own this is creepy as we think something scary is going to happen. We then see a wide shot of 5 boys been horrid and there is a zoom in on Harrys emotions. The sky then goes black we deffinatly know something bad is going to happen now as the atmosphere suddenly changes. Harry threatens the boy. Scary music is played. This creates dramatic tension. There is the a shot looking down on the two boys then a weather shot. This is the end of the starting scene.