Emma's Page

From the week before half term, until Monday the 8th of March, I have been off sick. This means that I haven't been able to be involved in the planning, and I am unable to get to the filming session that has already been planned. To make up for this, I will be doing most of the sound and editing.

 



 Research task - 5 Thriller Openings




One Hour Photo


In Class, we watched the opening of 'One Hour Photo', up until 3:43 and were asked to write notes and answer some questions.

A) The main character- What sort of person?

I think that the main character Sy, is a loner because he seems perfectly content being held in the interview room on his own. He's staring into space and smiling with his legs crossed, suggesting he's on his own a lot as he handles it so well. He seems a little doddery as he stumbled on the line and wasn't sure of his left and right.

B) How do you feel about the main character? - Why?


He gives me an edgy feeling, like I wouldn't want to be around him for too long or I wouldn't want to be near him on my own. Robin Williams achieves this by showing a lack of emotion, bar a polite smile here or there. This feeling was also emphasised by the fact that he was being questioned in what appeared to be a well equip police department.

C) Analyse opening credits - Why have they created them in this particular way?

i think that the credits are done in an effective way. even if the audience had never heard anything about the film other than it's name, they would link the title, being about photo's to the credits as the look like a film making prints and exposing paper. I also liked that there seemed to be an imprint left behind, hinting to the audience that there will always be consequences for your actions.

Seven

Enigma Codes

These are used effectively to make the audience ask questions about what's happening.

• How was the person murdered?
  
• Why did the Police Man want Somerset to leave?
  
• Why did Somerset want to leave?
  
• Why was he so organised and precise?

• Why the metronome?
  
  
• Where were they? Which city?

These questions were raised by Leaving things out. Shot's of the first dead man didn't actually show how he was murdered, only a pool of blood next to him.

The tone in which the Policeman said that they couldn't wait for Somerset to leave was cold and hostile, making the audience wonder why.

His precision with his clothes and the metronome are very telling character traits.

Although they spoke about a city, they never specifically mentioned which one, leaving the audience wondering.


Character Construction

The characters are very well, but very subtly introduced in this opening.

Somerset

• Neat
  
• Tidy
  
• Passes easily through the crowd
  
• Walks with an air of authority
  
• Masculine house
  
• Old 'Used' switch knife

Mills

• Scruffy
  
• Battered/Worn leather jacket
  
• Crumpled tie
  
• Battered by the crowd
  
• Late
  
• Chewing gum
  
• Unshaven

All of these qualities suggest charecter traits that will help the audience to relate more easily.

Joyride

Three Stages of Narrative


Set-Up - Arrival of main charecter at pylon                      
Complication - 'Injured' man lying in the road, kidnap     

Resoloution - Police pulling over the car                        

That's where the three stages of narrative should conclude, but with Joyride it's a different story

Complication - implied death of Police                          

Resoloution - Crash, escape from boot                         
I like the way sound bridging was used in this scene, creating the effrct of a crash without the cost of actually showing it.

Complication - Hostage situation                                   

Resoloution - Car alarm, knockes out kidnapper.          

The irony of this peice is that he comes up with all of these ways to save himself from the kidnappers, but seems to die anyway, due to his own lazyness. I think it was good to come full circle, concluding the film at the place of the initial set up.

Restricted narration

• Close ups of the protagonist in the boot, emphasising the sense of fear and clostraphobia.
• Off screen sound helps us to understand what's going on outside
• Blood splatters re-inforce what the sound suggests, the injury/death of the police.

Un-restricted narration

• Large depth of field, show's the audience that one antagonist is still concious and about to do some damage. This creates suspence.

Donnie Darko

• Stormy sound, changes to bird song as the veiw progresse

• Dawn/ dusk, shown by cool colouring

• As you begin to see a person in the middle of the road, eerie non-diagetic music begins to play.

• The audience begins to wonder at this point as to weather the charecter is dead or alive, important or not, and who they are and how they got there. The protaganist then begins to wake up and look around. The bike thrown on the side of the road gives the audince a clue as to his means of transport.

• When the audince discovers that the protagonist is fine, the non-diagetic sound changes from eerie to somewhat cheerful.

• There's a cut to a long shot of some mountains, panning across the landscape. This emulates a peaceful feeling to the audience.

• The Last shot is a straight pan across the landscape. when the camera movement stops however, Donnie springs up out of nowhere, adding an element of suprise. In this shot he seems out of place with the landscape, especially in his costume- pjama's.

Kill Bill

• Blackness- Off screen wimpering. What's going on?

• Cut's to a BCU of a woman's face, apparently covered in blood, all in black and white.

• Off screen slow, menacing footsteps make you fear for the woman as she's obviously in no fit state to defend herself against anyone.

• Cut's to a tracking shot of a close up of the antagonists cowboy boots, walking along slowly, purposefully.

• Off screen voice, "Do you find me sadistic?", the antagonists hand reaces down with a hankercheif inscribed with 'Bill'. He wipes her face in a seemingly loving way, which juxta poses with his words.

• The protaganist refer's to her as 'Kiddo' suggesting his age. It also contrasts greatly with the diagetic but off screen sound of a gun being loaded/cocked. this causes the audience to worry about the woman.

• just before the gun goes off (off screen causing shock and mystery) the protagonist just has time to say "Bill, it's your baby". This leaves the audience wondering, is it an ex? bad breakup? Why were they both there? and who was he?

• In this sequence there is no non-diagetic sound, adding to the elements of restricted narrative and keeping the film suspenceful.

PRELIMINARY TASK.


Peer Evaluation

After watching our film in a lesson twice, the rest of the class evaluated it for us. They said we had

• Good Framing
• Good Attention to Detail (The Ransom Note)
• Good Locations (The room the hostage was in)
• An Appropriate Use of Sound
• Good performance on our actors part
• Good Camera Movement
• Some Continuity Errors (The Paper missing and the Door Opening the Wrong Way)
• A Dodgy Cut (When Craig Was Entering The Room)

And that the pace could have been quicker.

I was happy to hear that they thought the sound worked well as I spent quite a bit of time on it, and that the framing worked well.

In regards to the continuity errors, we should have paid a lot more attention. They could have been eliminated in the planning stages if we’d spent enough time on it.

The dodgy cut was due to a technical malfunction, as the end of the first shot had fuzzed up. We would have used the full second shot, but it didn’t start in the same place, so we edited it together the best we could.

This evaluation has again helped me realise that we need to devote a lot more time to the planning stages and pay way more attention to detail.