Here are our final designs for our title, it will start with the top title and fade in to the bottom one which will then slide off of the screen symbolising blood running.
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
women in black analysis (titles) & Stormbreaker analysis (titles)
Women in black analysis(titles)
The film opening begins directly with the titles. The media language immediately tells the audience they are watching a thriller. The titles are very simplec and have a black background and simple block font, in a an mucky white colour.
The letters appear to have little chunks missing out of them. Sometimes on some of the letters there is also a faint blsck shadow along the back of some of the letters. The imperfect font connotes imperfection; something wrong, as does the off-white colour. The black background together with the shadows connote fear.
This will be immediately recognisable to the audience as iconography associated with the thriller genre.
Stormbreaker Analysis(titles)
Tis film opening starts with some action of a man on a motorbike, coming out of an explosion with a group of men following him. immediatley when the film begins we know what sort of film we are going to be watching and as the men are all riding very flash bikes and are wearing sort of a uniform, this connoes that they re perhaps secret agents or of a group that are meant to be similar. the titles to this film aree very differetn to that of women in black. These titles flash up on scrren in a simple white colour, they appear on screen next to the character they are playing. the fact that the beginning of the story starrts with an explosion triggers to the audience the iconography of a family action movie and this iconography carries on throughout the film.
Our film(titles)
After watching several films in order to research how titles are used in opening sequences, we decided on a way to open our own film. we liked the idea of stormbreaker incorporating there titles into the story,because if we go staright into our story we will engage our target teenage audience immediatle. Our media class found the opening titles to women in black boring and we loast interest before the film had even started. In our film when the door slams in the theatre the screen will go black and the title "FEARtre" will appear in writing and slide off the scrren like blood dripping, this iconography of blood helps inform the audience of the genre of the film and creates a sinister atmosphere. once the story starts from here onwards we are going to have our titles flashing up on screen whilst we see a still shot of the theatre in dim light.
The film opening begins directly with the titles. The media language immediately tells the audience they are watching a thriller. The titles are very simplec and have a black background and simple block font, in a an mucky white colour.
The letters appear to have little chunks missing out of them. Sometimes on some of the letters there is also a faint blsck shadow along the back of some of the letters. The imperfect font connotes imperfection; something wrong, as does the off-white colour. The black background together with the shadows connote fear.
This will be immediately recognisable to the audience as iconography associated with the thriller genre.
Stormbreaker Analysis(titles)
Tis film opening starts with some action of a man on a motorbike, coming out of an explosion with a group of men following him. immediatley when the film begins we know what sort of film we are going to be watching and as the men are all riding very flash bikes and are wearing sort of a uniform, this connoes that they re perhaps secret agents or of a group that are meant to be similar. the titles to this film aree very differetn to that of women in black. These titles flash up on scrren in a simple white colour, they appear on screen next to the character they are playing. the fact that the beginning of the story starrts with an explosion triggers to the audience the iconography of a family action movie and this iconography carries on throughout the film.
Our film(titles)
After watching several films in order to research how titles are used in opening sequences, we decided on a way to open our own film. we liked the idea of stormbreaker incorporating there titles into the story,because if we go staright into our story we will engage our target teenage audience immediatle. Our media class found the opening titles to women in black boring and we loast interest before the film had even started. In our film when the door slams in the theatre the screen will go black and the title "FEARtre" will appear in writing and slide off the scrren like blood dripping, this iconography of blood helps inform the audience of the genre of the film and creates a sinister atmosphere. once the story starts from here onwards we are going to have our titles flashing up on screen whilst we see a still shot of the theatre in dim light.
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Treatment of our film for coursework
We have chosen to do a horror film. The plot to our story starts 50 years ago when a group of students are rehersing for a play in the theatre and a girl gets killed by a mysterious person that inherits the name of the theatre ghost. we then revert to today and the story continues when a new girls starts the school and the ghost comes back to get revnege.
Note:The film begins with the name of the production companies and distributors etc fading up onto a black screen.
The film starts with a slow fade in to show some students rehearsing a play.we also at this time see the words theatre and 1959 flash up over the action before a slow fade away. A teacher supervising asks to see the next scene. The girl remains on stage to do her solo piece. the girl whilst performing hears a creaking sound and looks up. The camera follows her vision up to show the roof where nothing appears to be wrong. The girls face turns to a look of horror as we hear a loud crack. We then have a quick cut to a black screen as she shuts her eyes and we hear a squish sound,alongside a scream.
The next scene begins with the camera zoomed in on the theatre lights. The camera then zooms out and pans out to reveal some girls dancing with their back to the camera. The words " 50 years later" flash up on screen. We then see a teacher enter the room. The camera then takes on a point of view of the teacher and we see the girls from the front as another one enters the stage, the three girls run through a routine together, happy with the progress the girls have made the teacher congratulates them and tells them to stop for the day and that they can go home. The two original girls on stage begin to talk about the third girl, who is new to the school and is taking part in her first school production. The two girls call her over and introduce themselves. They tell Jane (new girl) that the theatre is haunted as a girl died in it. Jane believes everything they say and immediately begins to think about whether to do the show or not. Alice begins to laugh and Amy goes along as they are just like twins and copy everything each other do. Alice tells her that it was all a joke and it was just a rumour that was going around. The 2 girls find it hilarious that Jane has believed them. Suddenly the lights go out into pure darkness, it stays like this for a couple of seconds and then there is the sound of a door slamming.
The screen remains black and the title fades up onto the screen before turning red and sliding off, portraying blood dropping. We hear a school bell and the new scene fades in. It shows a typical school day in the life of Jane at her new school. We then see Alice (the popular girl) and Amy (her dim-witted loyal follower) throughout the day, doing what they normally do. We also see little hints to the fact that Alice and Amy keep referring back to the ghost "RUMOUR" and start to pick on Jane for it.
After the school day is over the girls go back to the theatre to rehearse for the play again. Three boys then join them (James, Dan and Liam) are introduced to Jane; the boys are also in the play. As they go to leave James notices that the rope for the curtains is broke. He tells the other students to go ahead. James tries the curtains but they won’t shut. He tries to fix the rope but finds that there is too much of it so he raps some around his neck and body. We see the curtains move slightly before they are quickly pulled shut, hanging Shortcut who is left dangling in the middle of the theatre. The scene fades out to darkness.
The next day the cast of the school play join the rest of the school in an assembly. Here the head teacher informs all the students of the accidental death of James and informs them that there is nothing to worry about. Rumours begin to stir about the ghost wanting revenge, started again by Alice and Amy. The groups in the show (which is now 5) don’t feel in danger from what’s happened so organise a rehearsal after school. We see Dan doing an experiment in the science lab, there is a creak outside and he goes out to see if anyone is there. Once he is back inside the lab, he grabs a can of spray that he needs to use which the top comes off, covering him in it. Before he has chance to do anything he is set on fire.
Amy arrives at the rehearsal and tells the others that Dan should be along shortly, Liam suggests starting anyway as she has to be going soon. The group take their positions and as they begin to rehearse the camera fades out. It fades back into to show the group tired and Amy ready to go home.Amy leaves the remaining three to practice and picks some things up from her locker. Just like the others, she hears a noise around the corner from her locker. She leaves her locker undone and goes to check what’s around there. When she got back the noise came again, it sounds like wind rattling the locker doors, so she ignores it and continues. We then hear a loud bang; she moves her head out of the locker and looks at the camera.
Seeing nothing she places her head back inside to find the item she's after. Next we see the locker door slam, beheading Amy. As her body gradually sinks to the floor the blood creates a puddle on the floor. The other friends hear the bang as well and again go to investigate only to find their friend dead on the floor Alice, Amys best friend falls to the floor in shock. Jane takes a closer look and notices that there is a footprint in the blood. They all come to the conclusion that the killer has missed that and forgot to clean it up in his rush, they talk about what to do and think that they could be next so immediately go and find a teacher.
The next day; its dinner time and Alice is taking some time out from the entire trauma and has gone to the beauty salon to go on the sum bed and have her nails done. whilst on the sun bed she also hears a noise just like the rest but she has her music on so thinks nothing of it, when she finishes the lights flicker on and off but she thinks nothing of it and reassures herself that nothing bad can happen in her favourite place. She closes her eyes to hope that everything is ok. When she opens her eyes, she sees a hooded figure stood right in her face she screams and tries to run away but he grabs her hair and yanks a clump out of her head. She backs away but trips over another chair. The killer looks down at her and pauses for a moment. He then slices her throat.
Meanwhile Jane and Liam are on there way down to the beauty room to meet Alice, when they arrive they are greeted by the killer trying to clean up his mess. They both panic and start to run, they end up in the theatre and the killer has caught up with them. The killer stabs Liam with a knife and he falls to the floor, whilst this is happening Jane has trapped herself in the corner. The killer slowly walks up to Jane, the lights are flickering in and off and there is silence at this point. The hooded killer takes off his hood and reveals that it is the teacher that has been helping them all along(MR Gibb) Jane and the killer have a quick discussion as to why he did it. Teacher tries to kill Jane but Liam manages to find enough energy to use an extinguisher to hit Mr Gibb over the head and kill him.
The film ends with Liam and Jane walking down a dimly lit corridor we have a long shot of them walking down, when they reach near to the end they disappear and the screen goes black and the credits come up again in the same font idea as the beginning.
Note:The film begins with the name of the production companies and distributors etc fading up onto a black screen.
The film starts with a slow fade in to show some students rehearsing a play.we also at this time see the words theatre and 1959 flash up over the action before a slow fade away. A teacher supervising asks to see the next scene. The girl remains on stage to do her solo piece. the girl whilst performing hears a creaking sound and looks up. The camera follows her vision up to show the roof where nothing appears to be wrong. The girls face turns to a look of horror as we hear a loud crack. We then have a quick cut to a black screen as she shuts her eyes and we hear a squish sound,alongside a scream.
The next scene begins with the camera zoomed in on the theatre lights. The camera then zooms out and pans out to reveal some girls dancing with their back to the camera. The words " 50 years later" flash up on screen. We then see a teacher enter the room. The camera then takes on a point of view of the teacher and we see the girls from the front as another one enters the stage, the three girls run through a routine together, happy with the progress the girls have made the teacher congratulates them and tells them to stop for the day and that they can go home. The two original girls on stage begin to talk about the third girl, who is new to the school and is taking part in her first school production. The two girls call her over and introduce themselves. They tell Jane (new girl) that the theatre is haunted as a girl died in it. Jane believes everything they say and immediately begins to think about whether to do the show or not. Alice begins to laugh and Amy goes along as they are just like twins and copy everything each other do. Alice tells her that it was all a joke and it was just a rumour that was going around. The 2 girls find it hilarious that Jane has believed them. Suddenly the lights go out into pure darkness, it stays like this for a couple of seconds and then there is the sound of a door slamming.
The screen remains black and the title fades up onto the screen before turning red and sliding off, portraying blood dropping. We hear a school bell and the new scene fades in. It shows a typical school day in the life of Jane at her new school. We then see Alice (the popular girl) and Amy (her dim-witted loyal follower) throughout the day, doing what they normally do. We also see little hints to the fact that Alice and Amy keep referring back to the ghost "RUMOUR" and start to pick on Jane for it.
After the school day is over the girls go back to the theatre to rehearse for the play again. Three boys then join them (James, Dan and Liam) are introduced to Jane; the boys are also in the play. As they go to leave James notices that the rope for the curtains is broke. He tells the other students to go ahead. James tries the curtains but they won’t shut. He tries to fix the rope but finds that there is too much of it so he raps some around his neck and body. We see the curtains move slightly before they are quickly pulled shut, hanging Shortcut who is left dangling in the middle of the theatre. The scene fades out to darkness.
The next day the cast of the school play join the rest of the school in an assembly. Here the head teacher informs all the students of the accidental death of James and informs them that there is nothing to worry about. Rumours begin to stir about the ghost wanting revenge, started again by Alice and Amy. The groups in the show (which is now 5) don’t feel in danger from what’s happened so organise a rehearsal after school. We see Dan doing an experiment in the science lab, there is a creak outside and he goes out to see if anyone is there. Once he is back inside the lab, he grabs a can of spray that he needs to use which the top comes off, covering him in it. Before he has chance to do anything he is set on fire.
Amy arrives at the rehearsal and tells the others that Dan should be along shortly, Liam suggests starting anyway as she has to be going soon. The group take their positions and as they begin to rehearse the camera fades out. It fades back into to show the group tired and Amy ready to go home.Amy leaves the remaining three to practice and picks some things up from her locker. Just like the others, she hears a noise around the corner from her locker. She leaves her locker undone and goes to check what’s around there. When she got back the noise came again, it sounds like wind rattling the locker doors, so she ignores it and continues. We then hear a loud bang; she moves her head out of the locker and looks at the camera.
Seeing nothing she places her head back inside to find the item she's after. Next we see the locker door slam, beheading Amy. As her body gradually sinks to the floor the blood creates a puddle on the floor. The other friends hear the bang as well and again go to investigate only to find their friend dead on the floor Alice, Amys best friend falls to the floor in shock. Jane takes a closer look and notices that there is a footprint in the blood. They all come to the conclusion that the killer has missed that and forgot to clean it up in his rush, they talk about what to do and think that they could be next so immediately go and find a teacher.
The next day; its dinner time and Alice is taking some time out from the entire trauma and has gone to the beauty salon to go on the sum bed and have her nails done. whilst on the sun bed she also hears a noise just like the rest but she has her music on so thinks nothing of it, when she finishes the lights flicker on and off but she thinks nothing of it and reassures herself that nothing bad can happen in her favourite place. She closes her eyes to hope that everything is ok. When she opens her eyes, she sees a hooded figure stood right in her face she screams and tries to run away but he grabs her hair and yanks a clump out of her head. She backs away but trips over another chair. The killer looks down at her and pauses for a moment. He then slices her throat.
Meanwhile Jane and Liam are on there way down to the beauty room to meet Alice, when they arrive they are greeted by the killer trying to clean up his mess. They both panic and start to run, they end up in the theatre and the killer has caught up with them. The killer stabs Liam with a knife and he falls to the floor, whilst this is happening Jane has trapped herself in the corner. The killer slowly walks up to Jane, the lights are flickering in and off and there is silence at this point. The hooded killer takes off his hood and reveals that it is the teacher that has been helping them all along(MR Gibb) Jane and the killer have a quick discussion as to why he did it. Teacher tries to kill Jane but Liam manages to find enough energy to use an extinguisher to hit Mr Gibb over the head and kill him.
The film ends with Liam and Jane walking down a dimly lit corridor we have a long shot of them walking down, when they reach near to the end they disappear and the screen goes black and the credits come up again in the same font idea as the beginning.
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Analysing a film of chosen genre.
I chose to watch the film The Descent which is in the genre of horror which is what we have chosen to do in our coursework. It starts by us hearing a muffled humming sound which is non diegetic. we then see a moving spotlight effect appear reading the name of the production and distribution company as the woprds appear they sloly dissappear as the next set com up. this creates a very scary effect alongside the non diegetic music. we then cut into a high angle shot showing a clear blue sky with the surroundings of trees. at the same time we can hear the diegetic sound of laughing and shouting, we then have a midshot showing a group of women in a boat going through somw rapids. afterwards we have low angle pannig to show the rapids that are next, these look very firece which immediatley tmakes us think that something is going to happen here. whilst the women are moving down to the next set of rapids we cut to a mid shot agin showing a man and a little girl stood on a rock, the little girl then goes on to ionform us that she is the daughter to one of the women. we know this as she shouts down ',ummy.. mummy!' and waves to her.
After we have been introduced into all the characters we then see another low angle shot of the women in the boat getting closer and closer towrds the rough rapids, by using a high angle shot it makes the father and daughter look as though they are stood on a very high rock. throughout the whole of this first section we have the diegetic sound of the waves constantly running. following tjhis we have a very quick cut to a close up and panning of all the womens faces as they look very scared but also excited and are screaming as the go through the rapids. after this we have a midshot from the side of the boat showing them as they have reached the end of the rapids and the close up is ther for us to estinguish the fact that they are relieved its over. we then again have a mid shot as the girls paddle the boat back into where the father and daughter is, at this point we have the titles of all the main actors within the film come up again using theme format of a spotlight effect that dissappears. we then have another midshot but this time showing the girls getting back and also the father getting the girl down off of the rock. at this point we have the non diegetic music playing which is quite calm and relaxing, over the top of this we have the diegetic sound of the women laughing and chatting to eachother. after the women have got out of the boat and are on the rocks we see a close up of the little girl and her mum hugging whilst the dad is helping one of the other women take her helmet off. the mother of the girl looks over and sees him doing this and lloks very worried. this immediatley triggers enigma codes to the audience that something is happening between them and that their marraige is unstable.
We then cut to a mid shot from a fade showing a car travelling down a windy road, as the car moves the camera starys in the same spot to give the effect that the car is moving further away. we then have a cut to inside the car where the mother and daughter are tlaking about planning a birthday oarty, whilst this is ahppening there are sharp cuts to show the fathers face, we get the idea that he is anooyed or fed up just by looking at the expressions he uses. at the same time we still have all the titles appearing but now they are just plain white writing with a fade in and out. whilst the parents are talking we have a over the shoulder shot showing the sides of their faces but also the road in front and as they approach the top of a hill we see a van coming towards them. we theh have a midshot showing the 2 cars colliding and some metal poles coming from the van, these poles shoot towards the car and go straight through the windscreen and through the head of the husband and little girl. There is a lot of blood and screaming in this short sectionm which is typical iconography of the horror genre. we then have a close up of the 2 cars which leads into a slow fade out showing a birds eye ve=iew of the accident. at this point there is no sound apart from a buzzig noise.
we then have a slow cut to a black screen which leads to a muffled picture and a zoom in of a little girl blowing out candles on a cake, which triggers enigma as to who this girl is and what its all about. we then have a cut to the moter lying ion a hospital bed waking from a nightmare, which reveals that the girl was her daughter. we also hear the sound of the hospital machines beeping, as we see the women removing her canulars from her wrists. we then see a long shot of the women in her nighgown in a very little lit corridoor, it doesnt look a very nice place to be in the night and just by looking at it you know that something is going to happen. again there is the buzzing sound still being use and around the outside of the frame there is a thin black outline bloacking out some of the shot, this balck outline is fuzzy and flashes on and off very slightly throughout the next scene, this adds to the horror effect as it is very mysterious and disturbing. the next section happens very quickly which helps quicken the pace of the story and reflects the state that the women is in and alsmost shows what her heart will be doing at this point. we start to see lights going off at the bottom end of the corridoor and as the women starts to run away the lights start to go out quickler and catch up with her, as she is running we can hear the diegetic sound of her panting and also the non diegetic sound of screeches and buzzing which makes the atmosphere for the audience very uncomfortable. as the women is running we revert to a over the shoulder long shot to see her getting towards the end of the corridor where eventually it goes pitch black. we then her a very high pitched scream as she gets to the other end of the corridoor and looks like she is still running, but runs into the arms of one of her friends, we then have thre non diegetic music being played which is very sad and emotional as the women and her friend sink to the floor both crying. we then have a fade out into a black screen where the title of the film 'The Descent' appears in very odd writing and the spotlight effect is also used again
After we have been introduced into all the characters we then see another low angle shot of the women in the boat getting closer and closer towrds the rough rapids, by using a high angle shot it makes the father and daughter look as though they are stood on a very high rock. throughout the whole of this first section we have the diegetic sound of the waves constantly running. following tjhis we have a very quick cut to a close up and panning of all the womens faces as they look very scared but also excited and are screaming as the go through the rapids. after this we have a midshot from the side of the boat showing them as they have reached the end of the rapids and the close up is ther for us to estinguish the fact that they are relieved its over. we then again have a mid shot as the girls paddle the boat back into where the father and daughter is, at this point we have the titles of all the main actors within the film come up again using theme format of a spotlight effect that dissappears. we then have another midshot but this time showing the girls getting back and also the father getting the girl down off of the rock. at this point we have the non diegetic music playing which is quite calm and relaxing, over the top of this we have the diegetic sound of the women laughing and chatting to eachother. after the women have got out of the boat and are on the rocks we see a close up of the little girl and her mum hugging whilst the dad is helping one of the other women take her helmet off. the mother of the girl looks over and sees him doing this and lloks very worried. this immediatley triggers enigma codes to the audience that something is happening between them and that their marraige is unstable.
We then cut to a mid shot from a fade showing a car travelling down a windy road, as the car moves the camera starys in the same spot to give the effect that the car is moving further away. we then have a cut to inside the car where the mother and daughter are tlaking about planning a birthday oarty, whilst this is ahppening there are sharp cuts to show the fathers face, we get the idea that he is anooyed or fed up just by looking at the expressions he uses. at the same time we still have all the titles appearing but now they are just plain white writing with a fade in and out. whilst the parents are talking we have a over the shoulder shot showing the sides of their faces but also the road in front and as they approach the top of a hill we see a van coming towards them. we theh have a midshot showing the 2 cars colliding and some metal poles coming from the van, these poles shoot towards the car and go straight through the windscreen and through the head of the husband and little girl. There is a lot of blood and screaming in this short sectionm which is typical iconography of the horror genre. we then have a close up of the 2 cars which leads into a slow fade out showing a birds eye ve=iew of the accident. at this point there is no sound apart from a buzzig noise.
we then have a slow cut to a black screen which leads to a muffled picture and a zoom in of a little girl blowing out candles on a cake, which triggers enigma as to who this girl is and what its all about. we then have a cut to the moter lying ion a hospital bed waking from a nightmare, which reveals that the girl was her daughter. we also hear the sound of the hospital machines beeping, as we see the women removing her canulars from her wrists. we then see a long shot of the women in her nighgown in a very little lit corridoor, it doesnt look a very nice place to be in the night and just by looking at it you know that something is going to happen. again there is the buzzing sound still being use and around the outside of the frame there is a thin black outline bloacking out some of the shot, this balck outline is fuzzy and flashes on and off very slightly throughout the next scene, this adds to the horror effect as it is very mysterious and disturbing. the next section happens very quickly which helps quicken the pace of the story and reflects the state that the women is in and alsmost shows what her heart will be doing at this point. we start to see lights going off at the bottom end of the corridoor and as the women starts to run away the lights start to go out quickler and catch up with her, as she is running we can hear the diegetic sound of her panting and also the non diegetic sound of screeches and buzzing which makes the atmosphere for the audience very uncomfortable. as the women is running we revert to a over the shoulder long shot to see her getting towards the end of the corridor where eventually it goes pitch black. we then her a very high pitched scream as she gets to the other end of the corridoor and looks like she is still running, but runs into the arms of one of her friends, we then have thre non diegetic music being played which is very sad and emotional as the women and her friend sink to the floor both crying. we then have a fade out into a black screen where the title of the film 'The Descent' appears in very odd writing and the spotlight effect is also used again
Thursday, 15 January 2009
research 14th january
In todays media lesson we researched the genre of horror and typical things you find in a horror film as this is the genre we are creating our 2 minute film opening on for our coursework. I focused on the following areas:
Stock characters:
killer
innocent girl
couple
group of friends
scardy cat
Settings:
woods
campsite
abandoned forest,house,village,castle
Iconography
Knives
screaming
masks
guns
weapons
blood
colour black/red
scary music
Stock characters:
killer
innocent girl
couple
group of friends
scardy cat
Settings:
woods
campsite
abandoned forest,house,village,castle
Iconography
Knives
screaming
masks
guns
weapons
blood
colour black/red
scary music
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
storm breaker film opening research
Coursework Task:
research film openings: StormBreaker.
Conventions:
Enigma Codes
Explosions
Chase
Goodies and baddies
Action sequence- Attention grabbing
Flash cars
Secret identity
weapons
Cool,calm main character
setting: dangerous, big wide open space, cliff edges.
gadgets
stunts
Titles:
Traditional title sequence
sound bridge to link to fade in of classroom
Representations:
Alex different social class to his class mates
middle class-accent and housekeepr shows this
smarter appearence
other upils resent him maybe bit of jelousy
dress codes nonverbal codes and body langage
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