Feedback - Miss Spencer

You have made a good start to your blog Katie, you have clearly worked hard to analyse a range of film openings from the three genres we are looking at. You have embedded the video and added screen shots to all of your analysis, which helps the reader to understand and illustrates your points well and in some of your analysis you have added detail as well as considering the connotations and the effect on the audience. Your Rom Com analysis works particularly well. However some of your analysis is lacking in detail, especially in the mission Impossible and the Inception pieces. I would like you to look at these again and consider:

• Why were certain camera angles/movement, Sound, Mise en scene, editing etc included (what effect was the director hoping for?
•  What connotations do each of the areas you are discussing have for the audience
• What meanings are being built up through the use of the areas you have commented on?

If you add this detail I would say your work so far is at a comfortable level 3

Task:2.1 Horror Film Analysis: Insidious

Horror Film Opening Title; Insidious

Conventions within the scene;

The title of the film appears at the end of the opening scene, the writing is bold with points like devil horns and red which is the blood like which marks that it’s a horror film. There is a dark black background with only a slight hint of brown which creates an eerie setting as well as the creepy music that is played throughout the scene.

The only light you see in the first 20 seconds is this lamp-like silhouette. This could reflect the fact that the film is dark and creepy and in the film they also use candle lanterns as a light source when looking round the house.  

 

They also use typical horror film iconography, for example; old grandfather clock, photo of the family (the protagonists) and also a child’s cot which indicates that there is a child in the film which is a popular horror film icon.

When the credits fade in they move across the screen very slowly. As well when they fade out, smoke is dispersed from the writing making it very ghostly. Also the writing is red which reflects blood and pain.

Shots & Editing;

The eerie feeling of the house makes the viewer uncomfortable as the movements are very slow. Throughout the scene there is several times when the shot looks like someone is walking through the house (a point of view shot) this makes it look like there is a ghost floating around the house. The shots are in black and white which makes it look old fashioned and creepy as it resembles a haunted house as you see several shadows behind objects this create a lot of tension as you don’t know whether something is going to jump out at you.

The music that is playing throughout the sequence is slow and creepy making which matches the feel of the scene which makes it effective. The music speeds up as well as increases volumes in certain parts; for example when the shot zooms into the scary women’s face. As the antagonist is revealed it gives you more of an idea of what the film is about.

Task:2.1 Thriller Film Analysis: Mission Impossible 2

Opening Analysis – Mission Impossible 2

He is in a ‘crucifixion’ position – This represent the fact that Jesus is a saviour so throughout the film he saves people and performs heroic acts. When the shot does a close up on his face the music becomes louder to empathise what he's doing.

Ambient Sounds

The sound of eagles represents the strength, power and courage shown in the film. This also associates itself with America.
The wind shows that he is high up when he is hanging off the cliff and the danger that he is facing.
The sound of his breath shows panic and distress which is obvious in the speed of his exhalation. This also creates tension for the audience.
We hear birds calling when there is a birds eye view.

Types of Shots

The establishing shot sets the scene and gives it an atmosphere and allows the audience an idea of where the scene is taking place.

The panorama shot also helps to set the scene as it shows some of the setting.

The close up shot helps cause tension as it focuses on the actors face.

Slow motion action shot when he's jumping from the cliff to show the dangers he put himself through.


The music played at the beginning of the scene is fairly quiet and not over powering and has a distinct rhythm throughout it. As the scene continues that music changes and becomes more of a 'triumph sound' which fades in and out.

The titles that appear are orange and match the setting as the cliffs are orangey browns. They are not bold and do not interfere with the rest of the shot as the focus is on the actor climbing the rock.

Feedback - Miss Spencer

A good evaluation Katy, you have thought about the mistakes you made and how you will learn from this in your main task.

I would like you to do a spell check as there are a few errors (therefore has an e on the end etc!)
Could you also add more detail about why we have the 180 degree rule, what happens when you break it?

Thanks Miss Spencer

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Preliminary Task Evaluation

The 180 degree rule is:

When there is a conversation between 2 characters the camera cannot exceed the 180 degree mark from 

the other camera. 

There is a imaginary line between the cameras where they can go anywhere in the semi-circle but not past 180 degrees of the line. 

A Match on Action Shot:

This is where you cut from a long shot to a short shot when trying to make a part of a scene more obvious.  

From the photo on the right you can see that they zoom into the door handle that she's holding to emphasise the action. 

We used this technique in our preliminary task when Ellie was on the phone and it cut from a long shot to a close up shot of her hand/phone then back to a long shot.

Eyeline Match:

An eyeline match is when 2 people are having a conversation you have to angle the camera so that both the characters look like they are talking to one another whether they're in the same room or not. You would use this when you did shot reverse shot.

We did not use this in our video as we didn't have a conversation between two people in ours as some of our footage got deleted. However if I was to do it again i would have dialogue from the other person on the other side of the phone. This would of enhanced the video as we could of used more shots and made the video more interesting. 

How did the filmmaking process go in terms of filming shot from the storyboard and filming around college?

The process went well however it was hard to film around the college as there was constantly people around who were walking in frame therefor we had to keep on stopping and waiting for them to get out of the shot. We found it hard to copy the shots from the storyboard so we changed the types of shots to fit our video however we discovered that it wasn't as good as if we were to of used the original from the storyboard. 

What did you learn about video editing on adobe premiere?

I learnt a lot when using premiere pro like what each tool was and what it does. Also i learnt how to flip the shot as we accidentally used the wrong hand when Ellie was on the phone therefor we had to film the shot so it synced with the rest of the footage. After we flipped it we realized that it the numbers were back to front. Also we learnt how to edit the footage together to make it more of a sequence rather than individual clips put together. I also used the website imcompetech to search for a backing track for the sequence.