Saturday 22 January 2011

Editing skills

after we made our pracice films we had to edit them .The skillls in which i picked up are that you ccan cut and make scenes shorter and or slow them down to addd more effect. also you can use a clip more than once .However i found that when puting scenes together and can be a bit jumpy and so you have to be carefull how you end scenes so that when you put them togther you can have a film that runs more smoothly .Another thing that i learnt when editing you must be carefull with the lighting of each shot and so when there is not enough light you must make i lighter using the manual button on the camera so that the shot is not to dark and so there is not a dramatic difference between lighting in each shot .and so therefore once again your film will run more smoothly .

Friday 21 January 2011

Introduction to cameras: skills

In a lesson last week i learnt how to do many things with the camera .he first of those things were putting in and taking out the battery this was a very easy thing to do . The second thing i learnt how to was setup the camera and tripod once again this was a easy task . moreover another thing i learnt how to do was how to make a shot focused you do this by zooming in on one thing and then zooming back out and that makes your shot focused .


A title sequence which inspires me

The title sequence which inspires me is the taking of Pelham 123



This title sequence inspires me because its very effective because everything starts slow then it gradually gets faster this is to symbolize what trains do . This is done in a very clever way because you would not notice that the pace of the title sequence changes to tie in with the theme of the film which is to do with trains .I enjoy this title sequence because it keeps its audience interested and gets them a little bit excited because of the use of music and the fast pace .
The stepfather title sequence is a very slow paced title sequence the fact that the movie stats while the title sequence appears on the screen is very effective because it engages the audience whilst giving them information as to who is in the film and who helped create it .Another reason this effective is because it helps the audience establish who the main character is and gather thoughts as to what the film maybe about and what may happen within in the film and what may have lead up to the event . The slow pace of the title sequence engages the audience and keeps them on the edge of their seats make them want to know more .


Thriller Sub-genres

  • Political thriller - Spies ,government corruption,corporate compution
  • Innocent on the run 
  • Acquirect identity - stealing or dead . Persons identity or cloning or similar 
  • Technology out of control 
  • The beast as threat 
  • Alien as threat
  • psychological thriller "Help you are playing with my mind "
  • Supernatural thriller 
  • Good vs Evil 
  • Murderous passions - love triangles ,affairs , blackmail
  • Action thriller 
The thriller I would prefer to do would be innocent on the run because you can incorporate  many different things such as supernatural things and also good vs evil .



Intertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can include an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another.

As you can see from the to clips below that things have been borrowed  .







The deffinition of suspense

Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead up to a big event or dramatic moment, with tension being a primary emotion felt as part of the situation. In the kind of suspense described by film director Alfred Hitchcock, an audience experiences suspense when they expect something bad to happen and have (or believe they have) a superior perspective on events in the drama's hierarchy of knowledge, yet they are powerless to intervene to prevent it from happening. In broader definitions of suspense, this emotion arises when someone is aware of his lack of knowledge about the development of a meaningful event; thus, suspense is a combination of anticipation and uncertainty dealing with the obscurity of the future. In terms of narrative expectations, it may be contrasted with mysteror curiosity and surprise. Suspense could however be some small event in a person's life, such as a child anticipating an answer to a request they've made, e.g., "May I get the kitty?". Therefore, suspense comes in many different sizes, big and small.

Friday 7 January 2011

THE SHINING

"The Shining" is a movie directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1980. The story is about a family that heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father (Jack Nicholson) into violence, while his psychic son (Danny Lloyd) sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.


1 sheet


The Shining Opening Sequence/Credits


The opening sequence in The Shining starts off by us flying through a massive lake, we are then sent up in the air to get a bird’s eye view of a small car travelling through a snake like road. This is to show us how grand and vast America is.
The opening credits then scroll up, the colour of the font is blue which is usually seen to be a more gentle colour but Kubrick makes this font seem more eerie by the sound he uses of tribal music and screaming women.
After two and a half minutes of the opening scene and credits we are introduced to the overlook hotel for the first time, we know nothing about it but what it looks like and how big it is. We assume this is where the story is going to take place straight away.




There are 5 basic camera angles:


  • Eye-level
    Example 1: When Jack is in the Gold Room, we see Lloyd the bartender in an eye-level angle.
    Audience Reaction: We can see everything around Lloyd’s background and adds to the ghost-like effect.

  • High AngleExample 1: When Jack is following Wendy up the stairs as she is swinging the bat at him, there is a high camera angle located on Wendy’s shoulder looking down at Jack.
    Audience Reaction: We feel as if Wendy is more superior to Jack and it looks like Jack is walking up towards us. Suspense is felt by the audience.

Low AngleExample 1:After Danny has written “” on the door we see a low camera angle of what he just wrote.
Audience Reaction:This makes the word look more frightening.

  • Birds EyeExample 1: At the start of the movie we see a birds eye view of the car driving through the wavy road.
    Audience Reaction: This makes the car look as if it is not a threat and shows us how long it has to drive.


There are 3 basic camera movements:


  • Panning
    Example 1: When Jack is walking across the Gold Room to the bar during the 1920’s ball.
    Audience Reaction: We follow Jack as he walks and see that he is changing again.

  • Zooming
    Example 1: At the end of the movie there is an extremely long and slow zoom in towards the photo frame of the ball containing Jack.
    Audience Reaction: We are very curious and want to know what is in the photo.

  • Tilting
    Example 1: When Jack is walking up the stairs after Wendy the camera tilts down to view Jack and up to view Wendy.
    Audience Reaction: This makes Wendy look more superior than Jack



There are 7 basic camera shots:


Close-up 
Example 1: When Danny is contacting Hallorann by telepathy there is a close-up of his shocked reaction.
Audience Reaction: We are also shocked and know something bad is going to happen.

  • Extreme Close-up
    Example 1: There is sort of an extreme close-up when Jack is hacking at the door, the extreme-close up is of the axe coming through the door.
    Audience Reaction: We are terrified along with Wendy.

Medium Shot
Example 1: When Jack is in the Gold Room, we see Lloyd the bartender in a medium shot.
Audience Reaction: We can see everything around Lloyd’s background and adds to the ghost-like effect.

  • Long Shot
    Example 1: When Danny gets out of the cupboard after Hallorann is killed. We see this happen in a long shot of the hall.
    Audience Reaction: We assume Danny is far enough away to run away from Jack.

  • Extreme Long Shot
    Example 1: At the start of the movie there is an extreme long shot of the overlook hotel.
    Audience Reaction: This allows us to see all of its surroundings and how isolated it is.

Point of View or Subjective
Example 1: When Jack is looking down at the model of the maze we see it from his point of view.
Audience Reaction: Because we can see Danny and Wendy in the model we then realise Jack also has “the shining”.

  • Reaction Shot
    Example 1: When Danny is contacting Hallorann by telepathy there is a close-up of his shocked reaction.
    Audience Reaction: We are also shocked and know something bad is going to happen.
Additionally the film format will affect the mood and look of a film. Some format options available are black and white, colour film, digital video and animation.