Wednesday, 18 December 2013

Script Lesson

In this lesson we learned how a script is structured and all the formats, fonts and the structure it uses. All this is to help us plan our opening title sequence and to get an idea of how scripts look like. We practiced in class producing a script in groups of three from a child's book. We can take this knowledge we learnt and then apply it our own scripts when the time comes.

Friday, 6 December 2013

25 Word Pitch

Crime Fiction: 'Superbad' meets 'Catch Me If You Can'.
One man is on the run from the police, in an attempt to finish the job.

Opening Sequence Idea

Text Analysis

Each of these titles are unique in there own way. They portray connections, movement and there own particular style in there own way.

King Kong


 This particular movie was created in 1933 so of-course what it shows is going to be very different form the other 2. Seeing just the still image one would notice that the text is quite bold and thick. This really gives a big impact at the same time making the audience focus upon it. Not much can be said if it challenges the conventions due to the fact that this film is in a different year zone then the other two. Since the film is very old the way the text is created is not very complex but basic. All that happens on screen is the text enlarges from the centre and takes up almost the whole screen. Even being so old it yet has a unique look too it and really captures the attention of the audience. One can argue that the text (King Kong) connotes the strength and size of the actual beast in the film as well as the big bulky text its just a resemblance of what its too come. The audience would know that the character 'King Kong' will be big and the text used in the opening credits just emphasises that.

Psycho


With Psycho we can see a certain mystery going on with the text. In the still image we see the word is cut in half giving it a certain mystery element and making the audience wonder how it revolves around the film, which is simply known as an enigma code. The conventions are not fully challenged in this because that there is white text on a black background, but one could argue that since the text is cut in half it could be un-conventional. It is a bit intriguing the way that they have approached this. The cut in the middle of the text gives a certain sense of mystery and once again relating to the idea of an Enigma code. The actual text is not too enlarged or impacted, it is medium size and the font is a basic design. This gives simplicity and mystery, at the same time.


Tron Legacy



This title sequence is very different from what one tends to see. Not only is the font different but also the whole colour scheme is unique. The colour used is a black background with a very shiny cyan colour, quite different almost un-conventional. This does give the title a very futuristic and sci-fi feel, which if the audience are interested in these types of films then it would get them more interested. When someone looks at this straight away they would be able to connote that the film is going to be futuristic and it will be full of bright and vibrant colours.

Thursday, 5 December 2013

Soundtrack Analysis [Directors Commentary]

Soundscapes

Soundscapes can simply be defined as ambient sounds in a neutral environment. It can explain a lot and just by simply listening the audience can interpret and understand more. The soundscape can be useful in understanding the; Genre, Tone, Historic Period, Location & Characters of a films opening. When creating a film sound is not always recorded live, majority of it can be recorded after. This is known as dubbed audio.

 Even so some sound are later recreated by someone called a Foley Artist. there job is too recreate sounds that want to be heard within a scene. Such as brushing of a jacket or someone getting hit. Since most of these sounds are not created live the Foley Artist is job is very difficult. They are alone in a room with a microphone and objects and they have to recreate the specific audio with those resources. Such as, someone getting hit can be recreated by a wet  towel being slapped on a table.

 We have talked about sound techniques before and the various differences. Majority of sounds can be diegetic or non diegetic. It can be described as a soundtrack or a score. A score is known to be a track that has been created for that particular film. It is unique and only can be used for that specific purpose. Even so dialogue or voice overs could be used, to give a different emphasis.

Thursday, 21 November 2013

Credits Timeline

A credit timeline can be described as a breakdown of the opening credits. Within it there is an idea off how may tittle cards have been used, in out points of audio and when text appears on the screen. This is very useful and can help a student to understand the way opening credits could be written and approximately how long they should be on screen. There is no particular order when title cards appear on screen, many films have it in different orders but there tends to be quite common titles one sees. Such as; Director, Actors, Producers, Executive Produces, Film Title, Editor, Costume Designer & Institution.

 The pictures seen below are both Credit Timelines that i have created. The top one was created in class and it is based on the opening credits of 'Panic Room'. It is the first ever Credit timeline that i have created and it was not easy too understand at first but gradually it all came together. I understood the fact that the bottom lines resembles the in and out points of the background music and the top line represents the length of it. Around the lines we have title numbers which represent at what time the title cards come up on screen.

 For homework we were told to create our own title card and the one towards the bottom is the one i created using powerpoint. It is based on the opening credits of 'Fast & Furious 6'. There were more title cards in 'Panic Room' but that just means that there were less names on screen even the fact that 'Fast & Furious 6' is longer. Regardless of that i can now fully say i am confident in creating Credit Timeline and i am sure i can do one without any assistance and with full understanding.



Conventions Of A Title Sequence

9 Key Frame Analysis


Saul Bass Animation - Anatomy Of Murder. [Recreation]

During the lesson we were told to get into groups of three and try to recreate the 'Anatomy Of A Murder' opening title sequence. To achieve this we had to use stop animation and edit it ourselves while trying our best to get it too look as close as the original. We aimed to have it at 12 fps (Frames Per Second) making it more simple to create.
One of the hardest things in this task was in fact to keep the camera still and have the cut outs placed in the right place at the right time. Apart form that, this was a very simple piece to create especially in the edit. I was able to add text and the background music with no problem what so ever. In editing we were told to try an get the duration to around about 20 seconds and it was difficult to get it just about right. Apart from that the editing was not very time consuming it was only getting the right duration that took some time.


Tuesday, 19 November 2013

My Favourite Opening Title Sequence

In class we were told to create a presentation based around our favourite title seqeunce. Within it we had to contain; Conventions, Genre, Codes, Target Audience, Institution, Text & The Reason We Like It. Once the presentation was complete we where told to present it in front of the class. I based my favourite title sequence around Monsters Inc.



Wednesday, 13 November 2013

Themes & Styles

THEMES

A theme can be described as being the underlay of a specific idea. It tends to act as support for the general idea of a specific piece of work, art or medium. The theme would mostly be displayed during the title sequence of a film, TV programme or video game, to give an idea to the audience.

There is a common theme going on through out the opening title sequence of dexter. One can connote that the whole theme of the show is blood. Blood is presented from the very beginning when the fly lands on his arm and he kills. This then persists right till the end with the grapefruit where the remains of it looks like blots of blood, due to the red colour that is presented within the fruit.



 Not even that, we can judge themes based on Genre, Narrative and even Location. The location theme is presented in the EastEnders opening scene. as it begins the audience would  see a water style animation then as it zooms out one can establish it as being a river. Towards the end people would be able to then understand that it is the River Thames, as it is one of the landmarks of London.




STYLES

A style tends to relate to a method or the aesthetics of a film of television programme, one can ever say that a style is quite symbolic. Yet when someone thinks of a style the main question that would arise is how is something created? This can be done through editing, camera angles or even the colour.

The video example used is from the film Superbad and the style it portrays is the old 70's look. The Mis-En-Scene is what really proves the style of this opening sequence. The sound, lighting and editing give it that 70's look. The sound is an old music track from the 70's it is very upbeat and even the actors are dancing in that very old disco style. The lighting used is very limited and the colour choices used are from that specific era, thus again giving it that look. Finally the editing this helped it too give that old style effect. There is much of a flickering effect used giving it that old TV style look, such as the white lines and the the space between each phosphor dots, giving it a limited PPI.



Sunday, 10 November 2013

Evaluation: Preliminary Task


The main meaning of the preliminary task was to work in groups and create a short clip which demonstrated continuity, as well as; match on action, 180 degree rule and short,reverse shot. We were told for the clip to include someone walking through a door, walk across the room, sit down and exchange a few lines of dialogue. It was very difficult to create the clip as we were not allowed to break the 180 degree rule and considering the fact we just had learnt of it recently it seemed that we managed quite well. The continuity was not the best sadly. We looked at our footage and noticed that there was not a lot of time to cut in between clips during edit as the actor would of turned there head around or the camera would of stopped recording. Because of this clips were cut a bit to quickly or started to early thus no showing the best continuity results.



We can se through the two screen shots above that continuity is ruined. The first picture (on the right) is of one scene and the one to the left is directly after. It is noticeable that this is not continuos as one moment his hands are by his sides and the next he is fixing his blazer, this ruined the continuity effect.
From 0:42 when the shot reverse shot began there is still lack of continuity. It was really hard to edit the clips due to the fact that there was no gap between eh actors talking and the rolling of tape. Meaning as soon as the actors began talking it started recording, and when they stopped talking immediately the camera stopped recording; thus making it hard in the edit. There was some background noise at the start of the clip but that later was gone due to the rest of the clip taking place in a quiter room.

However overall i like what we as group have created. Since it was our fast task it seems to be done well and we have tried our best to apply are knowledge and stick to the 180 degree rule which through out the clip was not broken. 

Preliminary Task

This is the first main part of are coursework as AS Media Students. We were told to get into groups and come up with a short film idea, with about 5 lines of dialogue and contain specific shots (180 degree rule, shot reverse shot & match on action) which would make up are preliminary task. The following is video is what was created.


The main concept of this started of as simply a basic board room discussion then the idea grew. It simply is off a man (working for MI5) who goes in a room to present secret evidence were then by he is killed. There is enigma present in this clip towards the end because there is a black screen, making the audience to think what has happened as they do not know.

Saturday, 26 October 2013

Continuity Task

During this we edited pre recored footage from a previous student, the reason for this was to get us familiar with editing and to understand the DO's and DONT's. Personally i have experience with editing so i was able to proceed the task with no problems by my self.

The example footage it self was similar to what off we are to do in are preliminary task. So it included match on action, 180 degree rule but there was no shot,reverse shot. Within the footage it was simply a women walking in a corridor, opening a door, sitting down and opening a bad. The footage it self was very easy to edit and from this it was easy to take advantage and see all the different shots used and feather everything out to make it look perfect. Since this is a continuity task the objective was to make the flow and make it look clean. Since i have edited before i found this task very simple to do as myself i am constantly editing videos at home, so i was able to apply that knowledge in this task.

Here is what i was able to produce:



Thursday, 3 October 2013

180 Degree Rule

The 180 degree rule is a shot type used in media. The objective of the 180 degree rule is for the camera to stay behind an imaginary line where only one side of the characters would be recorded. The 180 degree rule is quite important to use as it gives a sense of idea where the characters are located in the room. This gives more of an understanding to the audience and really reels them into the film more and makes them feel a part of it. The picture below demonstrates of what the 180 degree rule looks like.


As well as demonstrating different shot types the main thing about this picture is that it shows the 180 degree rule. It is very noticeable that the camera has not crossed the "imaginary line" but is still behind it. This rule may suggest that you can not go over the "imaginary line" but it is very possibly. The way to do it is that the camera must be tracked behind the characters head. So the camera would start of at the original section (behind the imaginary line) and while recording it would go behind the characters head then remain in that section. The only way the camera could go back to the other side of the line is to track behind the characters head once again. 

This would impact my preliminary task very positively. Through doing this activity i have understood the 180 degree rule in more detail. During my preliminary task i will need to use the 180 degree rule and since i understand this rule now i will be able to apply it to my preliminary task. Even so during this activity i have planned a story board and also the different positions of the camera. I can use this in my preliminary task as it allows me to understand more as well as how the audience would perceive everything, so i need to focus on how the different shoots are set up to not make it confusing.

Wednesday, 2 October 2013

Jelly Baby Task [Todorov Theory]

As a class we were told to get in pairs and with the resources (jelly babies, pen, paper and imagination) to try and recreate the Todorov theory with 5 lines of dialogue. This task helped to increase the knowledge off Todorov Theory as the task had to include an Equilibrium, Disequilibrium & a new Equilibrium. We have managed to show this affect in the video below, where everything seems to be going well just before the Disequilibrium takes place causing everything to change.
 From this i have learnt and understood more of Todorov's theory and the reason behind why he created it. The effect of this theory is quite strong and it gives true effect and understanding of a story line. When we created this with the kelly babies we saw how this theory came into effect. They fact that everything starts of as a normal day, something disrupts the peace and then happiness is restored.


Narrative Theory

The definition of narrative in media terminology would be; the way events are put together to be presented to the audience. Meaning the way certain things are put together to make up the plot, which initially is the narrative. There are 4 different theories and that is what we are going to discuss.

Todorov

He came up with the idea of having a 3 part structure. Equilibrium (where everything seems to be normal), disequilibrium (where normal unbalanced) and New Equilibrium (where normality is restored). This 3 part structure can also be described as the beginning, middle and the end. Majority of films and stories go with this structure.

Syd Field

This man is said to be the "guru of screenwriters", his theory is based on all films follow 3 acts.

[ACT 1] Plot Point 1 - Approximately 20-30 minutes in, there would be a setup and the film tends to pick up from there

[ACT 2] Midpoint - Half way through the film. This is the first half of Act 2 and the dramatic content is emerging.

[ACT 2] Plot Point 2 - Approximately 80-90 minutes in. This is the second half of Act 2 and there is a lot of dramatic content.

[ACT 3] Climax - Towards the end of the film. This is where the new equilibrium would occur.



Vladimir Propp



Vladimir analysed basic components of the plot in folk tales. He then came to a conclusion and construed a list of 31 function as well as 8 character types that tend to appear in all films or stories. Those character types are:

Hero - Leads the narrative and tend to be looking for something.
Villain - Has a conflict with the hero and tries to stop them succeeding with there quest/mission.
Donor - Helps the hero by giving them something to complete "their quest"
Princess - A prize or reward the hero is after. Could be anything not necessarily a human.
Helper - Helps the hero, is known to be the sidekick.
Princesses Father - The authority figure who offers the reward for the completion of the quest
False Hero - One who takes credit for the heros actions
Dispatcher - Sends the hero to start the original quest.

A character can be more then 1 character type, there do not have to be 8 different characters to suit each specific type.

Claude Levi-Strauss

He came up with something called the binary opposition. He examines how stories unconsciously reflect values, beliefs and myths of cultures. This is known to be called the binary opposition (against two sides). Each individual movies has a contrast, an example such as the fight good vs evil. So his research was adapted by media theorists to see if there is a link between films and the binary opposition. 



Roland Barthes

Ronald was a french semiologist and he suggested that a narrative works with 5 different codes which active the reader to make sense of it. These 5 codes are;
Action - A narrative device by which a resolution is produce through action e.g a shoot out
Enigma - A narrative device that teases the audience by presenting a puzzle or riddle to be solved. Almost like a mystery.
Symbolic - Connotations associated with selected symbols
Semantic - Denotations that are associated with the narrative.
Cultural - A narrative device where the audience can recognise as being part of a culture e.g a "made man" in a gangster film where it is a part of the mafia culture.