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During the first week of AS Media, we mainly studied camera angles. We learnt about various types of camera angles, how they are used and the effect they bring to the audience. Here are a list of the various types of camera angles we have studied in class,
Long Shot
Mid-Shot
Close Up
Exrtreme Close Up
Tracking Shot
Point Of View (POV) Shot
Reverse Shot
180 Degree Rule
Two Shot
High Angle Shots
Low Angle Shots
Panning
Here are some photographic examples to illustrate these various shots:
Long Shot:
Mid-Shot:
Close Up (CU):
Extreme Close Up (ECU):
Tracking Shot:
Point Of View (POV) Shot:
Reverse Shot:
180 Degree Rule:
Two Shot:
High Angled Shots:
Low Angle Shots:
Panning:
The illustration of the 180 degree rule is not very good. This is because there are some various elements required in the filming of this shot and cannot all be said in a single image. The following video explains in detail how the 180 degree rule works.
Also, the illustration of a tracking shot, cannot be properly illustrated as it seems very blury. This is because with a tracking shot, the camera "tracks" and "follows" the desired person/object etc. Below is a video from youtube that shows a long stacking shot being used in a film, Kill Bill (2003), directed by Quentin Tarantino.
We as a group made two videos illustrating various camera angles and the effect which they portray. The first video was done by Calum and Zoe and the second was done by all of us together. These videos are shown below...
Click here to follow this link...
Click here to follow this link...
Sound
We then moved on to looking at sound and how different types of sound are used in Film. There are two key types of sound known in media, known as diagetic sounds (natural sounds) and non-diagetic sounds (sounds and music made by mucic producers)
Lighting
We also looked at lighting and the different types of lighting, i.e. Hard lighting and Soft
lighting and the effects of each type of lighting used in film. Hard lighting is when the shadow is darker and bolder and softer is the opposite, when the shadow is softer and far less bold.
Mise-en-Scene
We have also studied Mise-en-Scene. This is related to the physical envionment of the shoot. This includes Setting and Props.
Below is a video that myself and a member of another group (George Nicholls) had made, showing a tutorial of how to make fake blood. This fake blood is what we had used in our Main Task on our female protagonist. This video is starring myself and George, was filmed by Lauren Berridge and was also edited by George...
Below is a slideshow, illustrating the process of which we used on our female protagonist regarding the meake up, making her look as if she had been attacked...
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A thriller is a genre. It has many sub genres and is often associated with the building suspense and creating tension. This genre is portrayed through movies, television programmes, books and magazines. Thrillers are usually fast paced, and full of action. They often contain heroes and villians, horror and also some supernatural element, and so on. Thrillers can also be incorporated with an entirely different genre. This could relate to horror and romance, and even comedy. The setting of a thriller is stereotypically set in abandoned, isolated places. This is to create tension and build suspense throughout a thriller.
Analysing Thrillers
Alfred Hitchcock:
The legendary Alfred Hitchock has provided us with many techniqes that he had used in his renowned thrillers. One of Hitchcock's thriller's that we had studied in class, and possibly the most famous thriller of all time is of course - Psycho.
Made in 1960, this iconic motion picture was filled with different camera angles, mise-en-scene, sound, lighting which pleased a large number of people. The most famous scene from the movie, is shot in the shower. when the protagonist (character) steps into the shower, we have a close up of the shower head, with water pouring out of it. This is to symbolise the building of tension. The Sound is diagetic and is of the shower running, the murderer then walks into the bathroom and the silhouette gets clearer and clearer, as the murderer approaches the protagonist. When the murderer suddenly pulls back the shower curtain and starts stabbing the woman, Hitchcock incorporates a sudden repetitive sound which to this day is recognised by millions.
The second Hitchcock motion picture we analysed was "The Birds", another of his timeless classics. It is about a small town, where birds start attacking people with increasing numbers and increasing viciousness. It was made in 1963.
The clip we analysed was when the protagonist is waiting outside of a school, sitting on a bench. At this scene Hitchcock had used a shot reverse shot. This is from the protagonist to the birds, sitting and gathering on the childrens play area. As it goes back and forth from the protagonist to the birds, the number of birds increases, building tension. While this is taking place, the music is of the school children singing, adding innocence, when clearly there isnt much innocence with regards to whats going on outside.
When the protagonist gets the children outside, the birds launch their assult upon the victims. At this point, the pace quickens and the music changes to match the quickened pace of the scene. Here Hitchcock has vey cleverly incorporated CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) into the film, as the flock of birds are comuter generated.
The last Hitchcock film we analysed was "Rear Window" - created in 1954. It is about a man in a wheelchair in his apartment. Out of his windows he suspects that one of his neibours has commited murder.
The story line for this film is very simple, yet effective as it is only shot from outside of someones window, yet so much tension, action and suspense can be created. We focused primarily on the opening of the thriller. When the film began, the camera focused on key objects which linked in to the rest of the story, this includes the camera and newspaper articles. There is a tracking shot going from outside of the mans room to give the audience an understanding of what his neibours are like.
David Fincher:
The David Fincher film that we analysed in class was "Panic Room". Released in 2002, this extrodinary thriller, is about a mother and her teenage daughter imprisoned within a panic room with criminals in their house.
At the start of the film there are many High-Angled shots, from tall skyscrapers with the credits shown at different angles. This is to asthetically attract the target audience for the film.
When the man shows the mother and teenage child into the panic room, the atmosphere dramatically changes. This is because compared with the brightness of the house from all the natural lighting, there is no natural lighting in the panic room. When the characters are in the panic room, the audience can tell that there is a sense of urgency to leave the room as it is very confined, and the mother believes it is unsafe.
When the man shows the mother and teenage child into the panic room, the atmosphere dramatically changes. This is because compared with the brightness of the house from all the natural lighting, there is no natural lighting in the panic room. When the characters are in the panic room, the audience can tell that there is a sense of urgency to leave the room as it is very confined, and the mother believes it is unsafe.
Michael Mann:
The Michael Mann film that we analysed in class was "Collateral" released in 2004. It is about a taxi driver named "Max" played by Michael J Fox finding himself held hostage at the hands of an asassin names Vincent, played by Tom Cruise.
The beginning of the thriller feature Max driving his taxi and doing his job. The music is very upbeat. These signs of signified meaning is to indicate that Max is very much innocent. The Dramatic part in the movie starts when two briefcases are switched at an airport, involving Vincent. The audience insinuate that Vincent is mysterious and may be a villian. The close up when the briefcases are changed indicates that they have a key part to play in the film.
The Michael Mann film that we analysed in class was "Collateral" released in 2004. It is about a taxi driver named "Max" played by Michael J Fox finding himself held hostage at the hands of an asassin names Vincent, played by Tom Cruise.
The beginning of the thriller feature Max driving his taxi and doing his job. The music is very upbeat. These signs of signified meaning is to indicate that Max is very much innocent. The Dramatic part in the movie starts when two briefcases are switched at an airport, involving Vincent. The audience insinuate that Vincent is mysterious and may be a villian. The close up when the briefcases are changed indicates that they have a key part to play in the film.
When Vincent is in the Max in the taxi, they start to few lines of dialouge and start a converstaion. At this point, the camera is outside of the taxi making the audience less involved in the conversation, again adding mystery to the film. Later in the film, when Vincent goes up the stairs to kill someone, there is innocent music being played, contrasting to whats actually going on. Later, when the body falls on the taxi, Max gets out and the following scene goes all the way around the taxi in a 360 degree motion which adds to the effect of confusion as to whats happening.
Preliminary Task
For our AS Media, we are to complete a priliminary task. Our priliminary task has to meet certain criteria, which are as follows:
A character opening a door and walking accross a room
Sitting down infront of another character and exchanging a few lines of dialouge
180 degree rule
Shot reverse shot
All the footage must be original! We are allowed to publish any music/audio effects as long as it comes from a copyright free source.
For our priliminary, our group have found an actor, an actress and found the location for our shoot, which is the Swan Pub, in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. The Swan approved of us filming there and we have already shot our priliminary.
For our priliminary, our group have found an actor, an actress and found the location for our shoot, which is the Swan Pub, in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. The Swan approved of us filming there and we have already shot our priliminary.
Our priliminary is about a man that walks along the river and into a retaurant to find a woman sitting down. They exchange a few lines of dialouge and then the woman gets up and leaves. Throughout the duration of this clip the audience will not see what the characters look like, but only the bottom halves of their faces.
Location:
The location of our shoot, was the "Swan Pub", in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. The pub featured a restaurant which was elegant, sophisticated and perfect for our shoot. The pub itself, is situated by the river Thames and there is a pathway that goes via the river side and leads directly to the pub. Illustrations of these location shots, are shown below.
After we had decided where we wanted to film for our task, two students from our media group (Calum and Zoe) sent an e-mail to the swan pub, requesting permission to film at the pub's restaurant. Unfortunately we had no e-mail reply from the pub, which we thought may alter our plans, dramatically. Fortunately, Calum, Zoe, Lauren and myself personally visited the pub, and after speaking with the manager, we were granted permission to film at the pub. Here are some screenshots of the e-mails being sent to and from zoe and the Swan Pub Manager, duscussing the dates and times that would be appropriate to use for filming:
Storyline:
The main storyline for our preliminary was about a man who walkes into a restaurant, who then recieves a parcel from a mysterious woman. It is not clear, exactly who the characters are meant to be and what the characters are meant to represent. This allows a great of mystery and suspense to be incorporated into the film, again with the parcel, the audience will be unsure whether the parcel is something good or if something more sinister is taking place, again building tension.
Characters:
For our preliminary excercise, we asked two drama students to participate in our film (Alex Hammond and Lucy Hawkes). As they both were under the age of 16, a member of our media group (Calum Bowen) Created a letter in order to give to the parents or guardians, seeking their permission to allow their children to participate in the preliminary task. A copy of the letter is shown below:
Mise-en-Scene:
Both of the characters in the preliminary excercise, were dressed very formally. The male protagonist, was wearing a dark suit. This is because we wanted to show a certain level of maturity within the character, and for the character to have a very proffesional look and attitude.
Likewise, for the female protagonist, is also in a very formal attire. She is wearing a formal black dress, again showing class, and elegance.
The wine glasses, filled with grape juice, were made to look like red wine, again bringing maturity and elegance to the scene.
The parcel is used to create a tense and dramatic atmosphere to the scene, in conjunction with the dialouge. The way it is descretely passed along a table from one character to another indicates that the parcel is very important and builds suspense. The fact that both of the characters are dressed in a dark attire may also indicate that something sinister is about to occur, with regards to that parcel, as dark clothing, often not only symbolises class and elegance, but danger and evil, relating to the thriller genre.
The hair and make up was done by Zoe, but not an awful lot was done with regards to hair and make up as only half of the characters faces were seen in the film.
Equiptment:
The camera we used to film with was borrowed from our college. We were not allowed to take the equiptment without written consent, so Zoe's mother signed a letter from the school saying that our media group is liable for any damage caused to the borrowed equiptment. Likewise, we borrowed a tripod in the same way we did, with the camera.
We had decided to use one of the college's Mac Book's to help us with the editing process at a later stage. This is because the software on the Mac (iMovie) is very useful for what we needed to achieve. It would allow us to merge our different clips together, add sound/sound FX, and change the lighting etc. The software is very simple to use and would give us great results using it.
Roles and Responsibilities:
In our media group, we were not deligated specific groups whilst, filming our preliminary excercise shoot. We all had a go at filming and editing, and all alternated roles, so we all had an equal part to play in the making of our film.
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A "Behind The Scenes" video of our preliminary excercise is shown below:
On the day of filming our preliminary excercise, once we had our actor and actress and location all together, we had realised the tripod that we had was broken. It was not possible for us to get hold of another one and we had to make do with what we did have, and conitinued our shoot. After watching the footage back and after much diliberation we, as a group had decided that the shots taken were too "shakey" and would be unsuitable to submit as our preliminary task.
Preliminary Task - Take Two!
Location:
After our first preliminary excercise not going as planned, we as a group, immediatelybegan planning, and researching in order to get our second attempt, accurate. We began with our location. As we had filmed at the Swan pub before we did not want to be rude and hastle them in order to film there again. Instead, we decided to look elsewhere. Calum, did most of the researching. After being declined by Coffee Republic, and Italian reataurant "Prezzo", our attention was drawn towards a small cafe on Weybridge High Street, called "Cafe One". After speaking to an employee at the cafe, we were told to leave a contact number which they would be able to reach us on if whether we were or were not allowed to film there, after he had consulted his manager. We soon heard a call back saying that we were indeed, allowed to film at the cafe. The manager seemed to be very polite and curtious and had a very flexible approach with regards to the days and times we could film there, as his exact words were, "You can come round anytime!". We asked the manager when the cafe is less busy and his answe was around 5 o' clock pm. Using this as a guideline, we turned up when it was not very busy and was very convienient for the staff and the other group members to attend.
Characters:
After asking them once again, our actor and actress that were our protagonists in our original preliminary excercise, were initially going to be used again for our second try. Alex, our male protagonist was able to act, once again, however our female protagonist (Lucy) was unable to be an actress for our preliminary the second time round. We had asked a few drama students but were unable to find someone that would fit the build of the character we were trying to convey upon the audience. We then asked another student from our college who does meet all of our criteria, called Michael Scorer. He was able to make the dates and times required and was perfect for our filiming sequence. This is because Michael looks alot older than he really is, he had a very square jaw, making him look very manly and mature; which was perfect for our film because all the audience would see is the bottom half of his face.
Script:
The script was thought of by myself and Zoe. The main plot of the sequence remained to be the same as of our first preliminary task, however we altered a lot of the dialouge. This is because we are using two males instead of the original male and female. Using two males made us think of how to make the sequence more dramacic and tense with regards to what the characters say.
Mise-en-Scene:
We as a group had agreed that both of the characters should be wearing suits. This would give them a mature and sophisticated look and links in well with the thriller genre. This time we did not decide to use the grape juice as "red wine", solely because of the location. It fitted in well with the restaurant but in a cafe, there is a completely different atmosphere where wine would look out of place if we had incorporated it in our sequence.
Roles and Responsibilities:
The roles and responsibilities of the group members remained as last time. Like before there were no designated roles for the individual, instead we alternated roles, so everyone had a go at filming, this made is good because all the group members were able to share the workload but also the group members that are less familiar at shooting the film, were able to have a go and familiarise themselves with moviemaking techniques.
Equiptment:
As before, our media group borrowed the equiptment used to film from the school. We made sure that the camera was fully charged and the tripod was working before we left the school in order to minimise any interfierence, that may have been caused by the equiptment.
Below is a video, of our final preliminary task...
There were several good points that we thoroughly pleased with, with our preliminary task, including:
- A wide range of camera angles were used to build tension and add suspense.
- The transitions were smooth, thus making the scene look , more professional.
- The mise-en-scene, of the actors wearing suits, made the scene look more professional and also much more realistic, the dark suits also added mystery thus adding to the thriller genre.
- The close up (CU) of the package as it was passed accross the table, from one character to the other, emphasised its importance, and also symbolised mystery, again adding to the conventions to the typical thriller genre.
Personally, I think that the sequence looked very professional, due to the editing this includes:
- The croping of the characters' faces, adds mystery to the scene, adding to the conventions of a typical thriller genre.
- The lighting was edited, to a "hard lighting" effect. This amplified the tension being built up in the scene, with a dark, eerie atmosphere.
- At the end of the scene, when the protagonist leaves with the package at hand, co-incidently a car is pulling out with the headlights directed towards the camera. This enabled us to add a "fade-to-white" effect in, at the end of the scene, making the transition blend in really well, and also ends the scene in a very smooth, prfoessional way.
- The dialouge, created by myself, and Zoe, was also very good. The dialouge used was a very professional tone, and even the dialouge added a large amount of tension to the scene and blended in well with the thrller genre.
There were however some points that we were not too happy with, including:
- The sound was not consistant and the voices of our two actors could not be heard properly, so instead we had to add subtitles to our sequence, taking away some of the tension and thriller attributes, from the sequence.
- When the subtitles were inserted into the scene, some of the subtitle font sizes, differed in some parts of the scene.
In order to fix our negative feedback, we changed the font sizes, so they were all consistant, throout the sequence. Unfortunately, there was no way for us to rectify the sound in the sequence, and there was not enough time to re-shoot our preliminary task, for a thrid time.
