15/12/13, Planning: Wardrobe

Today we planned what each character in the final film was going to wear.

Girl (Kidnapping victim):

We decided that she should either be wear jeans or leggings with a coloured shirt/polo to make it seem as if she was any normal girl. This would then make her look more innocent and helpless.

Kidnapper:

- Me and Nicole decided that we would make the kidnapper wear a black hoodie to make him look much creepier.

12/12/13, Planning: Short List

OUR SHORT LIST:

-         -  Reprisal

-         -  Vengeance

-          - Revenge

-          - Retribution

In the end, we decide on Retribution because it has so many connotations that work with our plot in particular the reference to  revenge and the desire for justice, as our story suggests a man who is so infatuated with his anger or his daughter’s death that he takes it out on the daughter of the man who killed his.

19/11/13, Planning: Bruise Experimentation

Today in my group, we decided to research how to make fake bruises as we are going to have to try and put them on the girl who gets kidnapped. We thought looking at YouTube videos of tutorials would help us make the bruises as realistic as possible.

We decided that between us we would split the money and buy a yellow, green and black face paint that we can use on the face. We found out that the yellower the bruise the older it looked so we wanted to make them as brown/black as possible but still have a bit of yellow in them.

15/11/13, Research: Thriller Movie Trailers

Today my group decided to watch a handful of trailers from the genre of our film (thriller). We thought this would be helpful because although we aren't making a trailer, the editing and filming techniques could help us in our final film.

The films we watched trailers for included these films:

- Taken

- Taken 2

- Colombiana

- Batman

- The silence of the lambs

- The Departed

- Devil

- Shutter Island

- Unknown

- Non-Stop

- Hanna

- Wrecked

- Safe House

- Gone

11/11/13, Construction: Devising our film title

-       -    Today we worked on the exact wording for our film title. We wanted the title to establish our film’s genre. (Modern thriller)

-        -   Convey the key ideas (Revenge)

-         -  Intriguing the audience through enigma (because we cross cut between two narrative strands involving a surgeon and a vengeful patient)

-         -  Tap into the intertextuality through shared knowledge of cultural codes (through the terms or images that the audience is familiar with)

7/11/13, Planning: Final Film.

My group for my final film opening consists of Me, Emma Walker and Nicole Shakhnazarova. We did an 8 step diagram of the first ideas that we would want our film opening to have. We decided that we wanted it to have a 'thriller/suspense' genre/theme.

Our Ideas:
- There is a girl in a bath and she has just been kidnapped but she escaped and she ran back home and she is still emotionally damaged
- She doesn't want anyone to know what happened to her
- She keeps getting flashbacks of when she was taken and what the man that kidnapped her was going to do to her.
- The fact that she doesnt want anyone to know that she was taken creates enigma becasue the audience are confused as normally, someone would go to the police if this happened.
- She goes to her house and gets in the bath to wash away all the blood.
- She then looks down at her wrist and sees a rope burn of where the man tied her up very tightly and she keeps getting flashbacks.
- When she gets out of the shower, she covers the bruises with foundation, as she doesn't want anybody to know.
- Straight after, she throws away the clothes that she was wearing before as they are covered in blood.
- Straight after she throws the clothes away it cuts to the title sequence and the name of the film (undecided yet) comes up.

29/10/13, Research: Film Opening Analysis

Today we decided to look at the opening of a television thriller Zen (BBC 1). We noticed the ways in which genre was presented:
- Shots of guns to signal the world of crime
- Images of keys to refer to prisons
- The protagonist in a dark, format suit with sunglasses, looking formal and authoritative.
- Building relating to Italian police headquarters 'The Quesura' clearly inscribed in stone.

This detective series featuring Aurelio zen is set Rome and is based on the novels of Michael Dibdin. I noticed. how the opening had many visual clues that signaled the italianicity of the drama, such as:
- The red, white and green vertical bands with connotations of the Italian flag
- Silhouetted images of St Peter's Dome as well as bird's eye shots of St Peter's Square which are ironic emblems of Rome, renowned the world over
- Repeated images of Fiat cinquecento cars

15/10/13, Research: Thriller Codes and Conventions (Scoop It)

Today we looked at how to sign up to scoop it so that we could scoop important news reports, web pages or just anything relating to thriller codes and conventions. Since our plan or our final film is a thriller/suspense genre opening, this will come in handy!

I also scooped some stories about kidnappings as our plan involves one and we wanted to find out more about it. I think this is going to be very useful so we can made the flashback (the kidnapping scene) as realistic as possible.

The reason scoop it is so useful is because you can see all webpages on one screen, and only the important sections. Scoop it also gives you suggestions on what they recommend you scoop for your research pages.

The link to my scoop it: http://www.scoop.it/share/theme/linkedin/2342113

8/10/13, Research: Made in Dagenham, The English Patient.

Today we looked at two different film openings (two different genres) as an inspiration for our final film;

The English Patient: it opened with a close up shot of a hand painting on a canvas or a cave wall. They seem to be painting some sort of mountains or hills, and then after this shot they have a cross dissolve to an aerial shot of the sand dunes of Egypt, relating to what the person was painting.

Brainstorming: I think we could use the CU shots that they use in The English Patient in our final film as we have a lot of shots of the bath running and her mascara running down her face. We could also do close-up shots of the rope burn that the girl has which in turn triggers the flashbacks with the man who kidnaps her.

Made in Dagenham:  opens with an establishing shot of a factory, creates a sense of space and how big the setting is, then immediately the music changes and there is a close-up shot of women working hard sowing and making fabrics. 

Brainstorming: As there is an establishing shot, we talked about how we could use shots like this in films with a lot of nature/environment in the beginning in the film. As our film doesn't consist of any of these shots, we don't think these would be helpful or necessary.

After watching these two openings, we had a class discussion about establishing shots and wide-angle shots. These shots might help up for our final film, even though my final film isn't going to contain many establishing shots as there will be more close up and extreme close up shots.

24/9/13 Planning: Final Film.

Today we planned more of our final film. We added the idea that the girl has a dad who is a surgeon and recently he failed on the surgery of one of his female patients. This patient that died was the daughter of the person who kidnapped the main girl hence this is the reason for the kidnapping.

I like the idea that in her flashback the man is saying her name (Laura) and in real life her dad is the one saying her name, so that is how she wakes up from her flashback.

Our inspiration is still from the Stay music video by Rihanna.

19/9/13, Research: The Art of the Title.

Pacific Rim (Guillermo del Torro, 2013):

Bold writing (very masculine) choice of font reflects the genre of the film. There are some close-ups which create enigma. There are a lot of close-ups on the CGI, and the colours are very dramatic and intense (red, gold and black). We are dealing with metallic surfaces. They use very high contrast in lighting to exaggerate each close-up. There is a lot of emphasis on hard surfaces, which creates again, a masculine feel. We just get glimpses of parts of a robot/machine so audience trying to figure out the enigma. There are many shots of eyes and profiles of masks making it very intimidating. Everything about this opening sequence places us in this ‘world of robots’. It is very crowded, and the music fits the slow, long shots.

The Day after Tomorrow (Roland Emerick, 2004):

There is a very long tracking/aerial shot over the frozen wastes Antarctic which suggests a sense of adventure and majesty. The shot is long because the director wants to make it look like the audience are on a plane and are traveling to this very hostile and magnificent environment.  The titles all come up at the beginning within the first 3 minutes, and they all appear to be reflected onto the water which creates vertigo and makes you feel like if you fell, you would fall very far down into the water. It’s a very dangerous place to be, the CGI is very realistic which makes us think that we are taking place in this adventure. All the colours used are dark blues and whites which are very dramatic.  All of these things are creating the feel of the ore and magnificence; the building up creates the glory. The shift between the opening tracking shot and the live action is marked by the text ‘Larsen B Ice Shelf, Antarctica’.

Spooks:

In this secret spy film, the live action comes before the title sequence, so we had the build-up of what the episode was going to be; we see a conversation between the head of MI5 and his boss on the phone and how he hasn’t kept ‘the secret’ (sugar horse) which the audience doesn’t know in turn causing enigma. We have cross cutting between the two people which makes the conversation seem like it’s going faster because Harry knows he hasn’t kept the secret and that he is doomed. The titles all move very fast which creates a sense of urgency, and there is a lot of split cuts. There are a lot of double screen like things are happening simultaneously. The graphics look very computer-like, and most of the names coming up on the title sequence look like code names, which fits perfectly with the genre of the film.

13/09/13, Research: Art of the title (Sherlock)

Sherlock:

I analysed this opening sequence which is visually stunning and combines film footage with VFX to create an authentic Victorian period quality. For example, the titles appear to be hand written on old paper in sepia ink and watery blotches and ink splatters. Pen and ink line wash is used in combinations with longitudinal lino type. Many still photographic close-ups of the heroic protagonists merge with live action, again bringing this Victorian period drama up to date. The colours are all muted to suggest the gas-lit streets and murky corners of the Victorian underworld, a place of danger and fear and crime lurks in the shadows.

10/9/13, Planning: The Brief

I am working in a group of three. The other members of my group are Nicole Shakhnazarova and Emma Walker. We have chosen brief 7 (video). The opening sequence from a new film; including titles, in any genre or mix of genres such as a comedy or a thriller, together with a storyboard. Maximum length: 3 minutes.

action adventure exam question

Taken 2 clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p06Obl68Ocs

The genre of this extract from the film Taken 2 is a very typical Action Adventure film. I can tell that it is because the events that take place contain combat, conflict, speed and motion. These are very usual things to see in an action adventure film. 

The events show many of these qualities, for example the fast moving of the cars and the gun shots create a sense of jeopardy. The combat and conflict comes from when Liam Neesons shoots his gun at the car behind him. This scene where it is a 'battle between good and evil' is featured in many action and adventure. In addition, the speed and motion comes from the speed from the cars that are chasing the hero, in this case Liam Neeson.

The events that are taking place are things that happen in a typical action adventure for example, there is a chase scene with cars through a town/city that is crowded. The hero in this scene, Liam Neeson, is also very typical because he tries to revert the bad guys from following his car, by shooting them. 
The action in the extract impacts the audience because the speed of the cars creates enigma.  It makes them want to keep watching by introducing suspense. The audience would almost be 'getting out of there seat' with excitement as there is a lot of action in the scene as well: the cars are so close to each other to make it seem like the film extract is moving faster.

One of the main reasons this is an action adventure however is because we have a hero, or in this case two. Liam Neeson and his daughter are driving away from the 'bad guys', and the audience guesses automatically because he usually plays these sort of characters and roles in his other movies and he is very recognizable. In my opinion LN is not just your average hero, he is more of an anti-villain (like Jack from pirates of the carribbean, or James Bond from Mission Impossible). This is because he is using a gun which makes him seem quite aggresive and destructive (not a typical trait of a hero), and he is shooting another car. Eventhough in this film he is seen as a hero, in general, he is more of an anti-villain. So overall, the characters in the extract and the events portray a typical Action Adventure film.

Amazing Race intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtp9GzvWh9U

ROBIN HOOD

Robin hood is an action and adventure film because it begins with a fight scene. Weapons are used in a sufficient way and you can tell it is a medieval film because the weapons that they use, aren't used nowadays.

There is a typical hero in this film (robin hood) and in the first few minutes of the film we are shown him, he is played by Russell Crowe. You can tell he is the hero as he is fighting for good and fighting for his country and he also rescues one of his friends seen hanging from a gate. 

As for camerwork, there are quite a lot of hero shots of the main character which tells the viewer that robin hood is the hero. I think the genre of this film, is a hybrid between fantasy and action-adventure.

In my opinion, this film is very entertaining and i like it very much. It is a traditional tale, so seeinga movie like this makes me this of the real story. I also think russel crowe is a great actor in this movie..

austin powers

In media, we watched the spoof called Austin Powers. In the lesson, we only watched the first few minutes of the film, which showed austin (tom cruise) flying into the scene and jumping into his car. He then kills the 'bad guys' and ends up winning the girl.

GENRE CODES:
The genre codes are mostly the stereotypes for action and adventure genre films. First, there is a lot of weapon use in only the first few minutes of the film which suggests that there will be fighting and maybe war (although not in this case). There is also a lot of movement as he comes into the scene through a parachute and jumps into his moving car. This is where the action comes in as jumping into a moving car is a action.

CHARACTER TYPES:
The character types in this film are also very stereotypical. You have the hero (austin powers), who saves the day and who gets the girl. He also kills the enemy or the villain. The hero is also the one usually usuing the weapons for good. Then you have the heroin (gwyneth paltrow) who, eventhough women in action adventure films are usually portrayed as a helpless damsel in distress who need saving,  plays a very confident and leading role. Eventhough she is a single mother she still seems assured and confident.

mission impspoible

This lesson we watched mission impossible and were asked to write notes on the characters and the music/sounds. these are my notes:

Sounds:
- At the start of the film there was a lot of percussion music and instruments that suggests tom cruise is a bold and strong character
- The theme song is a very catchy song so it sets a trademark to the movie, and whenever people hear that they know that its from ta mission impossible film.
- The theme also is a intense beat which suggests that it is a spy genre film.

Characters:
-The first time you see Ethan Hunt which is played by tom cruise, is a close up/ hero shot. This may suggest that, to someone who has never seen the film, that he is the man that it not only the main character, but that he is the hero.
-

gldiator:


the opening scene is represented in a lot of ways. first, there is things of the costumes. he  wears a cape which looks like its been made out of fur, like from an animal, and unlike the other soldiers, the peice on his chest was metal and differnt to everyone else's. 

there is also how he spoke. he speaks like he is the general of them which suggests he leads them. also the way that they bow when he walks past suggests this.

in the opening of the film, there are no binary opposites that you can see, which means that maybe there will be one soon. 

costume is also important. they are dressed i clothes that ancient romans might wear, or anythign in the ancient period. all costumes are a very important part of mise en sen

the sound in this film is amazing because we dont hear that nowadays. the sword fighting and the horses galloping really made the feeling that the audience was a part of the fights, thrills and spills.

i think that there were some special effects added to the film as it wouldve been hard to film. the speeches in the film were oalso amazing. the way the characters stood told us actually quite a lot about them, even though they didnt even talk. russel crowe's posture also emphasizes his status.

10 action+adventure films:

- Pirates of the Caribbean

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7z74BvLWUg

- Skyfall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kw1UVovByw

- The dark knight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ5U8suTUw0

- Indiana Jones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BgyhHBoz50

- Terminator

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Jo8QoOTQ4

- Lord of the Rings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7YllAOqpF4

- Inception

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hP9D6kZseM

- Real Steel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S8a180uYBM

- Star trek

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diP-o_JxysA

- Quantum of Solace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6acw690AqQ