Comparing 2 films for atmosphere part 2

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-naked-gun/

This film is again a action movie however this one is an action comedy. It follows the work of a clumsy detective who is investigating a case.


From the opening sequence you can tell its going to be a comedy as you follow the top of a police car when its running red lights pulling onto pavements nearly hitting people. You notice the films not going to be realistic when the car pulls through someones house and then into the shower room of a girls gym. its when you see girls covered only in towels you can tell that the main character will probably be a man who isn't very good around women.

In comparison this is very different to the captain america opening sequence. The captain america sequence is very serious and deigned to create mystery and action and draw the reader in. Whereas the naked gun sequence is designed to make the viewer laugh and make them want to watch more because they will laugh more.

Attack the Block QandA

Whilst we were at the BFI we met and interviewed the director and writer of 'Attack the Block'. He explained on all the stages of preperation before he started filming 'Attack the Block'. He gave us useful information on what to use to prepare for shots and how to manage your time wisely.

One method he said to use was to use playmobile or lego characters to map out shots and to see how far you need to pan or zoom to fit the characters in the shot.

However the best way he described was to storyboard every single shot to make sure exactly what you want the camera to see and what you don't want the camera to see. Using this technique it allows you to picture the sequence in your head before you have to go out using time and resources and allows for less waste.

This Q&A really helped me put into perspective what is important and what isn't for example choosing the name of you film should maybe be the last thing you do along with adding in the titles. Sound and Genre should be maybe 1&2 on your list of things to do.

Comparing the atmosphere of 2 action movie openings

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/captain-america-the-first-avenger/

The first film I am going to analyse is 'Captain America' this film is based on the marvel comic 'Captain America' its an action thriller film which depicts a normal man turned into a superhero by an experiment gone wrong who is then sent out to fight the Nazis.

The opening sequence of this film really gets you into the war atmosphere with the cartoon style drawing planes and guns firing and the famous picture of the women with her sleeves rolled up and her hand on her bicep. By using drawings the film also makes you relate back to the comic and the situations captain america would get himself into.

The music of the sequence relates a lot to the plot as there is a constant marching beat in the background where as the overlaid trumpets represents valiance almost like the american national anthem.

The final scene of the sequence is the Captain America logo printed on a rip effect almost badge like a soldier would sew onto his uniform which again relates to the plotline of the film.

BFI workshop

On Tuesday of this week me and the rest of my classmates traveled up to London to have a seminar/question time about our final piece for media. Our final piece must be a 2 minute opening for a film and must included titles. Pete (The man who took the seminar) spoke to us about many aspects on how to make our film better than previous candidates and make them stand out to the examiners as better films. First we watched the opening sequences of films that were put into the cinema and made with millions of pounds worth of investment. All of the group perfectly identified the genre of the film whether it was a horror/slasher film or a comedy. What the group found difficult was identifying the narrative and atmosphere of the film from the openings. However after Pete gave us a few things to focus on eg The music used, The colours used or the noises used. We all started identifying and even explaining why they were used. After this we had a Q&A with a specialist in CGI and animations. He told about the work he has done everything from 'Hornblower' an old ITV series to recently the 'Game of Thrones' series on sky. He told us about the camera shots and photos they have to use to build up details on buildings.


I think that this workshop really helped me figure out how I am going to go about planing and filming my final piece. I would strongly recommend anyone to go and do this even if you're not a media student and just interested in film. You can find Pete's blog here---->http://petesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/

Shot Count

Last lesson we observed some different action scenes. These were

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSAN7ZX02eA - the Bullit car chase involving 2 dodge chargers through the streets of san fransico.

This chase has a relatively small count of shots compared to other more modern action films. However it still managed to fit nearly 50 different shots into 3 minutes. At the time this was fairly fast considering you could only have so many camera filming at once and each shot would take a couple of hours to set up.

Another scene we looked at was this one.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ETruidd5lQ - This scene is from the "Bourne" series. It involves Jason Bourne and a female companion running from the police through the streets of Paris in a Mini hatchback. This scene has more than double the shot count compared to Bullit. This give the viewer a much more perspective of speed as it almost feels like the car is going faster. The reason the producers can do this is because of the advance in technology. For example you can now have many more cameras filming at once you can have cameras following from cars instead of being static and just panning them across.


Another reason is that the filming company can block off more streets now a days which will allow them to get many more shots per day which again can contribute to the shot rate. They can also do more high octane stunts to build action and drama and make the scene become faster and more intense.
For example stunts like this you couldn't have done 10 years ago

















Even smoking the tyres  was quite impressive

Lord of the rings sound editing

Last lesson we watched the sounding editing and foley artists of the lord of the rings twin towers 

Follow these links for;

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5cOgj4RsWg&feature=relmfu

Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMNwotOm27g

Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW7lC6CTmbY&feature=fvwrel

By watching these short episodes I learnt how foley artists use different bits of equipment for different characters throughout the film and each get their own specific sound depending on which movement they're doing.

I also learnt how accidental mistakes whilst recording sounds can lead to sounds you can use in a film. For example the recorders put some cardboard on the end of an arrow and fired it this cause a sound which they used during a battle scene where numerous arrows where fired at once.

Another technique the editors use is to get a cricket stadium to stomp and chant the orachi language. I always thought they would just use maybe 10-20 people in a studio and then duplicate the sound however after listening to an example of that and the cricket stadium it makes alot more of a believeable sound the other way.

CLAMPS and levels of realism

In todays lesson we learnt about CLAMPS or

Costume
Lighting
Actors
Movement
Props
Setting

We learnt that you need all of these aspects to make a TV drama or any form of video complete the third layer of realism.
The layers of realism consist of;

First Layer
Choosing the right actors location props the diajectic and non-diajectic sounds used.

Second Layer
This consists of how the piece is filmed for example the correct lighting camera shots and the editing of the piece afterwards.

Third Layer
This layer is the finished product that the viewer sees and if the believe it and their opinions of it.

Action Scenes

In this lesson I worked with Ben Pilston examining an action sequence from the film equilibrium. The scene was the final fight sequence heres a link to it on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeHrq_Fs1vk


In this scene we discovered how when the fight is taking place the scene rate increases dramatically to keep the pace of the film up and to keep the excitment. Alot of this scenes are over the shoulder reverse shots showing the 2 characters faces and shoulders.
 The other shots are extrme close ups of the characters hands and the guns they are holding. This allows the viewer to see the technical aspect of the fight sequence but still keeps them guessing as to what will happen next.
The final shot is a high angle shot showing the good guy leaving the scene of the fight and the bodies of the guards and bad guy strewn on the floor.    

Camera shots, angles and movements

This lesson we looked at all of the camera shots, angles and forms of movement we could use when doing our final project. some of the shots we learnt about are

• ECU-Extreme close up. This shot can be used to portray a characters emotions without the audience focusing on something in the background.
• MLS-Medium long shot. this allows for the audience to see multiple people with relative detail but still gives them a sense of the set and location
• DAS-Dutch angle shot. This shot is where the camera is tilted over at a slite angle to make the straight lines become more angled adn a bit more dramatic. 

We also learnt about how different camera angles can create or take away tension. For example  an extreme close up can show how the character is feeling and create tension due to the lack of their surroundings and the mystery this creates.

 here are some examples of different camera shots in films.

This is an example of an extreme close up showing just the characters eyes and nose. however this has a reflection of another character in the glasses of (in this case Harry Potter) this gives the audience some perspective of what is going on but still remains mysterious.



This is an example of a medium close shot where you can see the characters head and shoulsders which allowes us to partially see what is going on in the scene but still gives us an insight to characters emotions. 

This is an example of a dutch angles shot it was often used in the old batman to show a scene where soemthing is going wrong. For eample an enemy has taken someone hostage or there is about to be a fight scene. 

The Orphanage

Last lesson I studied the spanish film "The Orphanage". this film is about a family that move into an old orphanage which is where the wife and mother of the family lived as a child. It involves mainly the mother and small boy as he is playing with imaginary friends which turns out to be ghosts which are haunting the house.

From looking at the first few scenes I can clearly tell that this film is a physcological horror. This is due to many reasons but here are a few; the lighting in all of the scenes allows us to very clearly see some characters but manges to hide the more mysterious characters faces. This gives the audience the feeling that they are bad and you suspect them immediately from the beginning of the film. 

The scene I watched showed the orphanage in older times when the wife/mother was still at the orpahnage or so we presume. This scene is ended with and old woman who clearly runs/owns the orpanage( due to how she is looking down on the children as they are playing) ending a phones call and saying "your friends will miss you". This gives the audience a feeling that the little girl( on which this is being said uppon) has maybe done something which she is being sent away for or maybe she is being sent away to protect her from the other children or somethin else that is in the house.

An another scene I watched is where the family have brought in a paraphyscologist and a medium to see if the house is haunted.

The sound effects and dialogue in this scene are very important as they have to build tension not onyl through the diagetic (sounds the characters could actually hear) but also through the non diagetic( sounds the characters cant hear). the director does this by using mainly stringed instruments at a low slow note and then as the tension builds the speed and note creschendo to an almost overwhelming sound. however the diagetic sounds still maintain to be loud and very over exagerated. for example ther is a scen where the assistant of the paraphyscologists is drawing on a map of the house and as the tension builds you can even hear the pencil scrape across the paper. by doing this the scene creates more tension than what could be done with just using a camera alone or just using diagetic sounds on there own or non diagetic sounds on their own.  

IN THIS BLOG I WILL BE DOING MY A-LEVEL MEDIA STUDIES COURSE HERE ARE A FEW WEBSITES WHICH WILL HELP ME ALONG THE WAY

http://www.thebluemask.com/shop/ - FOR ROYALTY FREE OPENING MUSIC

http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/subjects/media_studies/index.aspx - FOR EXAM QUESTIONS AND PRACTICE PAPERS

http://www.artofthetitle.com/ - FOR OPENING TITLE SEQUENCES OF FILMS

These links will allow me to explore the use of certain forms of media in films such as music, different types of camera angles and effects put on after the original filming.