Wednesday 27 November 2013

Horror Components






Above i have attached a print screen of the Word document i have created showing some of the key components that me and Curtis will have to consider when creating our Drama/Horror film. Although some of the information above may be vaguely portrayed,however there are some valid points made about what should be seen and why.

Having taken the time to gather this information, we now have a source to relate back to when we start filming. The document enables us to see whether or not we are meeting the stereotypical requirements of what should consist within a horror movie.

Although the Word document above is solely focusing on the different components of Horror, it still relates to our chosen genre, Thriller.


Horror Techniques




For the final project, I have chosen to work with Curtis Grant. After some discussion and thought, we developed an initial idea for our piece, we decided that the genre we were going to draw our focus on would be predominately Drama, however with the use of some Horror techniques.

Once we'd came up with this idea we started to think about how we could create our final piece. We thought it would be a good decision to start exploring the different components that would be found within a Drama or a Horror, which is what we will be doing over the course of upcoming lessons.

Firstly, we decided to focus our research into the genre of Horror. We discovered that within a horror film it is crucial to cause the audience members to go into a state of 'Fight or Flight', this is where the audience's mentality tells them whether to continue watching or whether or not the film is too scary. These moments within the films that lead up to that 'Fight or Flight' state cause the audiences adrenaline to rapidly increase, therefore successfully meeting the intentions of the movie. 

Above is a video that we have created to show two very simple but effective techniques that would be seen in a horror movie that we could potentially use.

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Film Market Survey

Link is attached here --> Click here to take survey

As part of my research into the film market, I have taken time to create a survey, available for my fellow classmates to complete. I have done this in order to get a good idea of what a wider audience think about the film industry and market, hopefully enabling me to gain more knowledge and inspiration for when I come to designing my opening sequence.

Thursday 14 November 2013

Shot Reverse Shot



As you can see above, i have filmed a small sequence of the film Shark Tale.

The reason I chose to film this specific part of the movie was due to one of the camera technique that is used. This camera techniuqe being the 'Shot Reverse Shot'. I have chosen to make a post about this specific shot as it is one that i am most likely to use within my final piece. It is a very effective, yet simplistic shot and when coming to make my film this specific technique wouldn't be a difficult shot to include within the film.

This particular shot is effective as it uses a 'flip' action to enable the audience to see the reactions from both angles. It creates a juxtaposition for the audience within rapid concession. It is effective when trying to portray comedic reactions, for example, in this specific moment that i filmed, the reactions of both the Rasta Jellyfish and Oscar the Sharkslayer are shown via the Shot Reverse Shot causing the audience to laugh, working in favour of the film as it keeps the audience entertained.

Friday 8 November 2013

The Taking of Pelham 123 Intro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4awJwmYVas

This introduction is by far one of my favourite out of the ones i have been looking at. It is attention grabbing and at first causes you as a viewer to have no certainty of what the film is going to be, before you then see a montage of different characters and scenery including; train station, subway sign. Given the audience an idea of what its going to be about.

The main reason as to why i have been inspired by the opening moments to this particular film is purely for the reason that it initially creates a mellow, sort of peaceful environment with the use of an instant panoramic shot of New York. This instant mood thats created by this specific shot misleads the audience into what the film could be about.

However, a great juxtaposition is created with the sudden use of the Urban/Hip Hop style music. By having the unexpected use of this contrasting music it instantly makes the audience question their initial thoughts about the film.This then has a positive effect on the film as it leaves the audiences adrenaline rushing urging them to continue watching.

Thursday 7 November 2013

School Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReVBjeq2Jdk

Above is a video that we created earlier on in the year with the school. I have gathered a good few ideas from the opening moments of this video, including; sound, camera , lighting effects and positioning ideas.

The first thing that I recognised as being effective from the video was the sound. With the use of, what comes across as, alien like sound effects, an atmosphere is created that holds a supernatural kind of feel to it, which relates to the videos purpose. This has not only given me the idea to maybe include sound effects rather than a soundtrack, but it has got me thinking about how important it is to use elements that are going to relate to the purpose of my work.

Another feature of the opening that I thought was quite powerful is how the writing is printed gradually onto the fencing. This was effective in this video as it reflected that idea of illusion that the video is trying to portray. I also payed attention to the font used, and i found that having a large size font for the first bit of text shown does have a good effect on he viewers eye, however i will need to do more research before i decide what i am going to use.

I also like the idea of having the first person that you see in shot facing the other way.  As it creates that idea of mystery and draws the audience into an element of question as to who the character is, leading them to continue watching. This technique is again simple, yet very effective. It would also be very simple to use this technique within my work as it only takes a simple moving back shot to successfully pull of this feature.

Purpose of My Blog

Why have I created this blog?

I have created and designed this blog so that I can upload posts whenever and wherever, based on or related to the given stimulus.

The stimulus for this blog is the task that has been set in which we have been instructed to create and produce a 2 minute long opening sequence to a film, using gathered inspiration, personal ideas and thoughts gathered from exploration into a wide variety of opening sequences.

The purpose of making the blog itself is to allow me to have one allocated storage space for all of my ideas for my project and a space where I am also enabled to upload different types of media which I have looked at, analysed and gathered inspiration from.

Having this blog is going to help me drastically, as I will gather as many different types of information that have or could inspire my opening sequence. Therefore, during the process of making the film I will be able to refer back to my blog which will include all of the inspiration I have collected over the year.

Examples of this could be:

- Video clips of current opening sequences.
- Clips of potential sounds that could be used.
- Handwritten work that I may of done in spare time.
- Images

Now You See Me Opening Sequence - Jesse Eisenberg

http://www.youtube.com/v/LOqUb-4qoUA?version=3&autohide=1&autohide=1&feature=share&showinfo=1&autoplay=1&attribution_tag=Ts9rbMuJ5RtobqOJyGYVEw

This post is very brief, purely for the reason that when watching this sequence, one key thing stood out to me. The thing that struck me was right at the start of the clip, Jesse Eisenburg, one of the main characters and also a very renowned actor within the industry, stares right into the camera and delivers his first lines straight down the lens.

In a matter of just seconds, this technique used causes the audience to feel like the character is directly addressing them. This is a very simple, yet effective element to include within the opening moments of a film as it automatically makes the viewers feel like the upcoming card trick is being aimed directly at them.

Using a technique like this within my opening sequence would most certainly draw my audiences attention, hopefully leading them to want to see what happens next within my final piece.