Final Film - 'Case 49'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEQEHyKv63U&feature=player_embedded

Influence of Film

What I look for in a script is something that challenges me, something that breaks new ground, something that allows me to flex my director muscle. You have got to think fast in this business, you've got to keep reinventing yourself to stay on top. - Michael Bay.

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

We decided to use the genre of Crime for our film. Doing so we discovered the pros and cons of this feature, and decided it was very distinct in style.
Firstly we decided it was very important to establish a plot. The first film we looked at was a film called 'One Hour Photo'. This was a great start as it consisted with the stalker theme, and was a great oppurtunity to start to look at anchorage, camera shots, and style.
The Film 'One Our Photo' starring Robin Williams is about a photographer who idolises a family called the 'Yorkin's'. 'Sy' lives a very lonely life, no family, friends, children. Whereas The Yorkin family seem to have everything, loving caring family. It is only when the main character Seymour 'Sy' starts to nose around thier life that he discovers the lies they live. He uses photography to capture moments.

Pre-lim Task

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LpfHCl54-g&feature=player_embedded
This is our groups pre-lim task, we decided to go with the basis of crime. We did this because it had destinctive styles and features which we all liked.

Crime: The Shawshank Redemption

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VOXv8HXL4k
Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.
Starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.

Romantic Comedy: Pretty Woman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r8N6I4ENL4
Vivian (Julia Roberts) is a Hollywood hooker, normally the last thing you thought would happen is for her to run into a upper-class businessman Edward Lewis (Richard Gere), an industrial tycoon/corporate raider.

Horror- Poltergeist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hQkBLrd1rE

Family-friendly director Steven Spielberg teamed up with cult horror director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) for this creepy 1982 haunted house flick.

Looking at Horror films like poltergeist was a great opportunity to take notes of what camera angles they used, and types of music.

Preliminary task

Pre-lim research:
Our initial feeling was to do a mind map to try to and think of ideas of our pre-lim.

Convergence

"The Medium is the message."

In a metaphoric sense, a river can be a good example to show platforms of media. For example, the smaller rivers attach to a main river like the Thames and could act as a platform. Examples of platforms of media would be; Video games, Radio stations (i.e Radio 1),Sky, T.V and newspapers.

Smaller platforms would be: powerpoints, T.V advertisements and Blogs/Vlogs/Podcast.

All of these smaller mediums are connected with the main one, (River Thames) and are fuelled by it; The Internet.

It is important to recognise that convergence describes two phenomena: Firstly Technologies coming together, for example, a laptop in which you can watch something you usually watch on T.V, like BBC iPlayer. Secondly, media companys such as Sony, Apple, and Mobile phone networks are diversifying so they can produce over several media, to gain more of a profit and this is more likely if they have a wider range of feild.

Establishing character and setting.

The character is a young adult living on her own. She suffers with bad dreams and insomnia, when she finally gets to sleep at night her dreams are worse. This is what she thinks causes her insomnia. When she dreams she has the same repetative dream -
She starts walking in a feild with trees in bare feet, a girl in a red dress is always running past the trees, she always does this.
The Main character starts to run to get away from this creepy girl.
This whole part of the beginning sets the stile of the film.
Although its not necessary to know the rest of the film, its about the character finding out who this girl is.



Establishing character
Main Character - where does he /she live?
She lives in average house in a village.
What music will we hear over which represents the character or tone or genre of the film?
The Music needs to be the right feel of the film, so for this set it needs to be intense, fast pace for the point of the character feeling like shes being chased, also the whole idea of a crime film so needs to have police electronic equipment sound. Like sirens and radios
A turning point – character comes to a point of no return. Where does this take place?
When she discovers she is being followed.

Preliminary Task

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrE9AIoaDtk

The Machinist Influence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0fuHY4U1UA

I love the opening/trailer of The Machinist - it automatically grips you with its Theme Music/style and camera shots. In particular I love the way it makes the audience feel like they are 'Peeping Toms' as they have camera angles such as looking through the window that make it look like someone is being nosey!

Homework For 29th September (a bit late) Differences to note about TV Drama and Cinema.

There are many differences between TV Drama and the Cinema.
what instantly comes to mind is the size of the screen in which you watch them, the cinema is known for its amazingly big screen and its ability to create atmosphere with this.

For example, with the big screen you are more able to get 'stuck in' as your surrounded by the images, the surround sounds and the amazing cinematography. Directors of film spend more time creating their amazing work as its so important that it sells, this makes the quality outstanding. Especailly from big time distributing labels such as Blockbuster, Summit Entertainment and Fox film etc. giving them a bigger budget.

TV Drama takes less time, but apart from this it still has a certain quality to maintain and to grip the audience to make them keep watching.

Tues week 2

The beginning of the lesson we began to look at different lighting effects and positions in which we could use for camera angles.
After this we watched a clip of 'Grafters' and anaylised the camera positions, and related the positions and transitions in which have potential to have an effect on the audience.
Each position gave a certain impression. For example in a section of 'Grafters' there was a part where there was a POV shot to display one of the characters washing up, this gave a sense of realism for the audience as it made us feel more involved with the programme.