Horror:
Monday, 21 November 2011
Christian Metz model of a genre development
Christian Metz in his book 'Language + Cinema' (1974) explored the development of genre film and suggested that genres pass through the four phases of existence.
1. The Experimenal - meaning the phase of early fims which explored and experimented with the horror theme. Films that fit in to this category would be 'Nosferatu' and 'The cabinet of Dr.Caligari'
1. The Experimenal - meaning the phase of early fims which explored and experimented with the horror theme. Films that fit in to this category would be 'Nosferatu' and 'The cabinet of Dr.Caligari'
2. The Classic - Established the narrative of the Horror genre in it's most successful and defining period. Universal Studios ceated many of the classic horror films, for example, Dracula and Frankenstein.
3. The Parody - mimicked a horror film in a comical way, an example of this would be 'Scary Movie'.
4. The Deconstruction - taken the generic elements of a horror film and blended them into various sub genres, i.e. Se7en and Scream
Monday, 14 November 2011
Comparing and contrasting Romantic Comedies
In the films Just Like Heaven and How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days the opening title sequences are very similar. In the fact that the music is very upbeat and always an actual song that has been released in the charts. The colours are very feminin so pink and other light colours are very prominent as its female friendly, which hits their target audience. When the film has actually started the titles still carry on whilst a scene is being acted out, untill the directors name is on the screen.
The protagonist in both films (Kate Hudson&Reese Wetherspoon) both have well paid jobs and jobs that women watching would aspire to. There life is dominated by their work and they both can't find the balance between work and leisure. Although their highflyers and everything seems fine, their life is incomplete as they both have not found a man, perfect storyline for a Rom-Com.
The protagonist in both films (Kate Hudson&Reese Wetherspoon) both have well paid jobs and jobs that women watching would aspire to. There life is dominated by their work and they both can't find the balance between work and leisure. Although their highflyers and everything seems fine, their life is incomplete as they both have not found a man, perfect storyline for a Rom-Com.The main characters in Rom-Coms tend to be good looking, setting off the stereotype that good looking women fall for good looking men and visa versa.
In the two films the men, MatthewMcConaughey and Mark Ruffalo are very different characters. In 'How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days' Matthew McConaughey is portrayed as being a bit of a cool rebel, a maverick in the journalism world who happens to be very good with the opposite sex. We know this as he enters in to the scene dressed in a black leather jacket, jeans and on a black motorbike, then instantly starts chatting up two co-workers. This indicates his coolness to the audience and his casual laid back manner as eveyone else in the shot is in suits whereas he is casually dressed. However in 'Just like Heaven' Mark Ruffallo is portrayed as a bit of a geek who is still heartbroken from the loss of his marriage. Unlike everyone else around him he seems to be a slacker who just sits on the couch and drinks beer a lot. Mark Ruffallo is the comic one in the film along with a few other co-stars. He's not this macho charmer that McConaughey is in his film.
Kate Hudson in 'How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days' represents the modern go getting, anything for a story female journalist who's living the high life. For example getting free tickets to the NBA final.
Rom-Coms mainly typify the stereotypical view people have on life, in the fact that everyone must be settled by being married, having kids and own a pet dog. Rom-coms are just based on the journey people have to get to that stage. In 'Just Like Heaven' the main character Elizabeth's older sister is the stereotypical house wife in which Elisabeth has always wanted to be, so her sister is forever trying to matchmake her with men she knows.
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
Red Dragon Notes - basic Analyse Pretitle sequence
Is a remake of manhunter Directed by Michael Mann (1986)
scene 1: Opera House
scene 2: Dinner
scene 3: Special agent Graham
scene 4: Actual title scrapbook
Film music comes in quite early on - instrumental- gives the sinister edge to it.
Title screen one word red - connotation of evil,blood,bad rest of words are white- connotation of pure and good - emphasis being evil is overriding good in this film- highlights the genre- horror.
establishing shot on the orchestra - audience pov of stage - location is real opera house which highlights class. zoom in crane shot on Hannibal Lecture to show he is a major character. close up on Hopkins (juxta positioned so we notice him+ we recognise him first as he's the only famous actor) to show facial expression of annoyance towards the flute player. The audience are upper class we know this as the suits and dresses there wearing. zoom in on tilt of head (connotation being one of a predator before they eat)
Scene 2: dinner party is upper class we know this from the candles and lights in an affluent street. The interior is very upper class i.e- wallpaper, sterling silver cutlery, fine china. all the traits of a brittish victorian upper class house. Pouring wed wine (conntatation of religion) circling his guests (Predator like) old guy refers to the group as prey (connotation of Hannibal being predator) central position from a low angle shot (to show dominance) 'if i tell you, you wouldn't even try it' (euphamism) over the shoulder shot of hannibal smiling when there eating the humans. Lecture wearing white shirt (purity so i agent graham in next scene)
Scene 3: over shoulder shot -special agent Graham (FBI) knows who he is but writer put it in script to introduce him in to the viewer. helping agent Graham with murder cases. vocab for Lecture is intelligent. 'How i'd like to get you on my couch (euphamism too kill him, very subtle) close u on agent graham to show he's thinking on to something, starting to expect Hannibal is guilty party. Lecture is like a father figure to Agent Graham. Books in background to show intelligence. Horizontal tracking when looking at shelf. When looking in book (Shot reverse shot/zoom, music climaxes) comes across sweetbread (zooms in on realisation), Agent Graham realises then Lecture is bad guy draws gun, turns around Lecture stabs him.
Title screen: Anthony Hopkins is first name on there as he is the most famous actor in film (writing fades in and out #editing) again writing red and white connatations of blood, evil then pure and good. Music is quite dark orchestral with symbols crashing #incidental) Tracking on all newspaper reports (newspaper reports/scrapbooks inform audience on what has happened since) picture of lecture facing audience almost as if he is staring back at audience. zooms in on grandmas teeth to suggest cannabalism runs in the family. Light goes over the book to try and indicate the time of day. Location is in a basement (connotation of a secret area know one knows about) extreme close ups of newspaper cuttings. Pans and Tilts. fan scrapbook to try and mirror Hannibal. Picture of man turning into Red Dragon Revelations 12:3 - hence the name of the book Red Dragon.
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Task 2: Research into existing products
Analysing an opening sequence of a horror film: Halloween 1978
Halloween is set in 1978 and is an American independent horror fil set in the fictional in surburbia town of Haddonfield, Illinois, USA on the night of halloween.
Halloween starts of with non-digetiec sound of a theme tune, the tune is iconic because the director John Carpenter acutually wrote the music and it is the only piece of music in the film, it just repeats all through the film at tense moments.
Whilst the music is playing the screen has a slow zoom in of a pumpkin tieing in with the halloween theme, the writing on the screen is yellow and then it turns red, this is a connotation of halloween and death and blood.
After the title screen goes off, there is more non-digetic sound of children singing halloween songs which leads up to a tense opening, also by children singing it shows the sound of innocence and happiness, something that the main character Michael Myers does not have.
The camera angle of the majority of the scene is a point of view shot from Michael. The camera is hand held hrough most of it, to give the effect were in michael's eyes and walking around the house.
When Michael gets the knife (prop) out of the drawer it is a high angle shot, which gives the illusion of him being an adult when infact he is a child, which is the twist at the end of the opning scene. This would shock the audience as a child would never or very rarely ever murder anyone, especially their own sister.
The set of Halloween is a real life location in a fairly affluent area of surburbia, with natural lighting.
When introduced to his parents, they are introduced as a middle class normal couple. The director gives this impression of a perfect family living in surburbia with a mum,dad,daughter and son. The significance of this is to not give a reason for why Michael is doing what he's doing in the essence of he's not from a dis-functional family or does'nt have any abusive past.
Halloween is set in 1978 and is an American independent horror fil set in the fictional in surburbia town of Haddonfield, Illinois, USA on the night of halloween.
Halloween starts of with non-digetiec sound of a theme tune, the tune is iconic because the director John Carpenter acutually wrote the music and it is the only piece of music in the film, it just repeats all through the film at tense moments.
Whilst the music is playing the screen has a slow zoom in of a pumpkin tieing in with the halloween theme, the writing on the screen is yellow and then it turns red, this is a connotation of halloween and death and blood.
After the title screen goes off, there is more non-digetic sound of children singing halloween songs which leads up to a tense opening, also by children singing it shows the sound of innocence and happiness, something that the main character Michael Myers does not have.
The camera angle of the majority of the scene is a point of view shot from Michael. The camera is hand held hrough most of it, to give the effect were in michael's eyes and walking around the house.
When Michael gets the knife (prop) out of the drawer it is a high angle shot, which gives the illusion of him being an adult when infact he is a child, which is the twist at the end of the opning scene. This would shock the audience as a child would never or very rarely ever murder anyone, especially their own sister.
The set of Halloween is a real life location in a fairly affluent area of surburbia, with natural lighting.
When introduced to his parents, they are introduced as a middle class normal couple. The director gives this impression of a perfect family living in surburbia with a mum,dad,daughter and son. The significance of this is to not give a reason for why Michael is doing what he's doing in the essence of he's not from a dis-functional family or does'nt have any abusive past.
Editing wise there is only two edits, this is because its all from Michael's point of view and then the other edit is at the end of the scene where we get to see Michael for the first time on a reverse crane shot. The reverse crane shot gives the effect of being shocked to see that Michael is just a child in a halloween costume, holding a carving knife with blood on it.
Monday, 31 October 2011
Task 1: Preliminary Task
In lesson we learnt how to execute the 180 degree rule, a match on action and a shot reverse shot. The camera we used was HD to film within the rules of professional film makers.
In our film the dialogue between me and Harry, if I am on the left and Harry is on the right, then I should be on the right at all times and Harry should always be facing left. Swapping to the other side of the characters on a cut, so that Harry is now on the left side and I am on the right, will disorient the viewer, and break the flow of the scene.
Match on action shot: A match on action is when some action occurring before the temporally questionable cut is picked up where the cut left it by the shot immediately following. For example, in our film we had a shot of handing over the wallet and receiving the wallet this can be edited to show two different views, while maintaining continuity.
Shot reverse shot: Shot reverse shot is where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other. In our film we used the shot when I was looking down the stairs and Harry was looking up the stairs.
180 Degree rule:
In our film the dialogue between me and Harry, if I am on the left and Harry is on the right, then I should be on the right at all times and Harry should always be facing left. Swapping to the other side of the characters on a cut, so that Harry is now on the left side and I am on the right, will disorient the viewer, and break the flow of the scene.
Match on action shot: A match on action is when some action occurring before the temporally questionable cut is picked up where the cut left it by the shot immediately following. For example, in our film we had a shot of handing over the wallet and receiving the wallet this can be edited to show two different views, while maintaining continuity.
Shot reverse shot: Shot reverse shot is where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other. In our film we used the shot when I was looking down the stairs and Harry was looking up the stairs.
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