Diegesis:
Digetic material is a natural sound e.g. thunder. Digetic material is used so that the characters are aware of it. Non-Digetic material is added for the audience e.g. sound track music. Some types of sound are both digetic and non-digetic material e.g. a characters thoughts in a voice-over are digetic in that the character is aware of them, but non-digetic in the sense that other characters are not.
Micro and Macro origination:
To shoot appropriate material for a film you need to use the micro – macro strategy. If the fiction film follows the conventions of a particular genre, they should use the micro elements – types of camera work, music, style of titles, dialogue, setting and place – will ad up to a macro theme and set of representations. You need to spend time storyboarding and development of ideas before beginning the main task.
Camera work and framing
You should mostly use a tripod for a steady shot unless a hand held effect is required for a certain scene. Most shots are filmed with the camera not moving, unless movement of the camera is an effective exception to the norm. You should rarely use the zoom in and out on a camera and mostly use mid to long shots using close – ups shots sparingly. “Rule of thirds” principle is a useful effect for framing a particular shot. Combining various shots and different distances is essential to the “language of the film”, e.g. long shots to mid shots then finally to close – up shots. This enables the audience to establish the action etc. You need to consider using high and low angled shots depending on the characters power and authority, a high angle shot reducing the characters power and authority and a low angle shot increases it.
Mise En Scene
Mise en scene is all about the atmosphere and continuity of a film. Mise en scene is the most difficult element in the production of a film, but if this element is just right there is a far greater reward. It is essentially about the detail and you need to be careful choosing costumes, lighting, locations and props etc. this also needs to be maintained in each shot unless a change of location etc.
Lighting
Five tips to overcome the problem of not having the standard professional lighting equipment.
1. Use natural light – sunlight, use shadows, in mist, through rain – depends on the effect that is required
2. Use cheap and cheerful artificial light – make use of candles, firelight, torches, car lights, neon signs and street lighting. Keeping in mind health and safety.
3. Create colour filters – can easily shine light through coloured liquids and vases etc.
4. Position the light source for effect – lighting a scene from above, below or in an obscured way will create various types of atmospheres.
5. Ultimately lighting a scene is a scientific process.
Combining sound, image and title
Careful decisions need to be made on titles that will be added to the film. The title needs to have an appropriate font, colour and size. Using trial and error you should end up with pleasing timing if titles for the audience. The title should be in a correct and appropriate place on the screen; it could be on black between shots or over action and then decide how long the title stays on the screen. A question that should be asked, “does the title contribute to the film?” whether it helps the audience’s understanding of the narrative. Music could be added to add ambience to the start of a film.
The grammar of non-linear editing
You need to choose the correct transitions between each shot. Avoid exciting transitions stick to simple and straight forward. Your job is to make the editing invisible to the audience’s eye and so that the viewer believes in the reality of the fiction that is unfolding. Editing is all about the manipulation of time and space. You will manipulate space by editing between two simultaneous pieces of action and manipulate time by editing between two shots to move the narrative forward.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Somers Town After Viewing
Genre
4) I would say Somers town has a genre of a comedy and also drama. Comedy because at times the film is funny and also there is some drama in it to like when Tomo fist arrives in London and has to run away from a group of boys who will beat him up. This film in particular doesn’t seem to remind me of any other films I have watched before.
5) The film’s appeal to the audience is the comedy and drama of the film shot in black and white making it different to other films.
6) When the film is subtitled during the conversations in Polish between Marek and his father; and there are also some sections in French, these factors affect the audience by them having to read the subtitles which means they will miss the expressions the characters are acting out. The audience can understand what the characters are talking about keeping the audience in the loop.
7) Similarities between Somers Town and This is England
- Both have Thomas Turgoose as a character in the film
- Both have a genre of drama
- Two characters in both films meet somehow and become best friends
Representation
8) The audience would be uncomfortable when both Tomo and Marek are vulnerable and intoxicated because this means trouble for the two characters which is when the audience may become uncomfortable.
9) Marek travels around his home environment taking photographs and Tomo follows him.
10) A message the audience could take away from the film about childhood and adolescence is you will always need your family around you because Tomo left his family for London and even though he met Marek he got into trouble which didn’t do him any favours.
11) Throughout the film my reactions towards the two boys did change at different points in the film.
a) When Tomo gets beat up for no particular reason by a group of boys
b) When the boys fight over who likes Maria the most.
4) I would say Somers town has a genre of a comedy and also drama. Comedy because at times the film is funny and also there is some drama in it to like when Tomo fist arrives in London and has to run away from a group of boys who will beat him up. This film in particular doesn’t seem to remind me of any other films I have watched before.
5) The film’s appeal to the audience is the comedy and drama of the film shot in black and white making it different to other films.
6) When the film is subtitled during the conversations in Polish between Marek and his father; and there are also some sections in French, these factors affect the audience by them having to read the subtitles which means they will miss the expressions the characters are acting out. The audience can understand what the characters are talking about keeping the audience in the loop.
7) Similarities between Somers Town and This is England
- Both have Thomas Turgoose as a character in the film
- Both have a genre of drama
- Two characters in both films meet somehow and become best friends
Representation
8) The audience would be uncomfortable when both Tomo and Marek are vulnerable and intoxicated because this means trouble for the two characters which is when the audience may become uncomfortable.
9) Marek travels around his home environment taking photographs and Tomo follows him.
10) A message the audience could take away from the film about childhood and adolescence is you will always need your family around you because Tomo left his family for London and even though he met Marek he got into trouble which didn’t do him any favours.
11) Throughout the film my reactions towards the two boys did change at different points in the film.
a) When Tomo gets beat up for no particular reason by a group of boys
b) When the boys fight over who likes Maria the most.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Lecture given on Somers Town
The notes below are from the lecture given about Somers Town
Somers Town is similar to films from 1960’s films with similar genres. It was the first film to be filmed in London whilst the Euro star train tunnel was being built. It is about outsiders, social realism and showing the identity and class of the characters in the film. Shane Meadows the director is a working class director, showing his identity through the film. Somers Town is about two boys, one from the Midlands who had travelled to London because there is no one there for him back in the Midlands, this character is known as Tomo, The second boy (Marek) has travelled from Poland with his dad because his dad his helping in the construction of the Euro star tunnel. Tomo has lost his identity, and Marek is a photographer, because whilst his dad is at work he travels around his local area in London taking many photos. The genre of this film is comedy, the theme is of the Euro star signified by Maria the sophisticated French women who works in the café but then moves back to France.
Somers Town is similar to films from 1960’s films with similar genres. It was the first film to be filmed in London whilst the Euro star train tunnel was being built. It is about outsiders, social realism and showing the identity and class of the characters in the film. Shane Meadows the director is a working class director, showing his identity through the film. Somers Town is about two boys, one from the Midlands who had travelled to London because there is no one there for him back in the Midlands, this character is known as Tomo, The second boy (Marek) has travelled from Poland with his dad because his dad his helping in the construction of the Euro star tunnel. Tomo has lost his identity, and Marek is a photographer, because whilst his dad is at work he travels around his local area in London taking many photos. The genre of this film is comedy, the theme is of the Euro star signified by Maria the sophisticated French women who works in the café but then moves back to France.
Before viewing Somers town
1) A modern director may choose to produce a film in black and white rather than colour because he may want to take to audience back many years ago to show them what in might have been like back then.
2)
Clerks
Director:
Kevin Smith
Release Date:
5 May 1995
Genre: Comedy
Plot:
A day in the lives of two convenience clerks named Dante and Randal as they annoy customers, discuss movies, and play hockey on the store roof.
The man who wasn’t there
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Release date 2001
Genre:
Crime Drama
Plot:
A laconic, chain-smoking barber blackmails his wife's boss and lover for money to invest in dry cleaning, but his plan goes terribly wrong.
Raging Bull
Director:
Martin Scorsese
Genre:
Biography, Drama, Sport
Plot:
An emotionally self-destructive boxer's journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring, destroys his life outside it.
3)
a) Traffic because London is a busy place, also a lot of people shouting in the streets.
b) The character may be old fashioned.
2)
Clerks
Director:
Kevin Smith
Release Date:
5 May 1995
Genre: Comedy
Plot:
A day in the lives of two convenience clerks named Dante and Randal as they annoy customers, discuss movies, and play hockey on the store roof.
The man who wasn’t there
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Release date 2001
Genre:
Crime Drama
Plot:
A laconic, chain-smoking barber blackmails his wife's boss and lover for money to invest in dry cleaning, but his plan goes terribly wrong.
Raging Bull
Director:
Martin Scorsese
Genre:
Biography, Drama, Sport
Plot:
An emotionally self-destructive boxer's journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring, destroys his life outside it.
3)
a) Traffic because London is a busy place, also a lot of people shouting in the streets.
b) The character may be old fashioned.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Once upon a time in the west
Digetic sound is sound that is natural to a film e.g. a door slamming
Non-Digetic sound is sound that has been added to a film e.g. music
The film “Once upon a time in the west” fits into the thriller sub genre which is Western. A thriller sub-genre means, a thriller genre can include many sub-genres like western.
The opening to this film “Once upon a time in the west” begins with an old wooden door slowing being opened whilst creaking, then the station master an old man writes on a chalk board in doing so creating a horrible chalk sound while scratching it down the board. A cowboy then walks through the creaking door. The background noise is a bird. The camera starts filming from the cowboys feet to his head, this kind of shot implies he is powerful and is prepared and ready to fight. The old station is then surrounded by a few more cowboys, which stand still and very quietly whilst the only noise is the bird chirping in the background. The first person to talk in this opening is the ticket master at the station, we see he is scared off the cowboys because he was going to charge them for a ticket but then backs down and gives them one.
Throughout this opening the cowboys do not talk but the audience can guess what their personality is and the role in the film by their actions and the way they are dressed. The three cowboys take over the station and lock the ticket master away in a cupboard clearly to keep him quiet and out of the way. There are a few wide shots to show the desolate landscape, to show they are in the middle of now where, it’s just them and no one else and no help available if needed. Throughout the opening there is a constant background noise; whether it is a bird or a fly etc. The cowboys wait for the train patiently, one clicking the bones in their hand, the other amused with a fly, and the last cowboy fills his hat with water that he drinks in the end tat has fallen from a leak in the ceiling above. Finally towards the end of the opening we hear the train on its way to the station, the cowboys get ready and line up spaced out hands on the guns as if they are ready for a fight which may begin, but the only thing that happens is a wooden box is thrown out of one of the carriages onto the floor., this is now the end of the scene.
Iconography in the film
The guns that are shown show that the cowboys are powerful, string and can are dangerous. The bullets around their waists showed that they are well prepared for a fight if one breaks out; the long coats also imply they are strong and are in control. Their hats hide the characters/cowboys face. The ticket masters clothes and hat, show he is only the worker who is small and weak, who abides by the rules or what he is told to do.
Non-Digetic sound is sound that has been added to a film e.g. music
The film “Once upon a time in the west” fits into the thriller sub genre which is Western. A thriller sub-genre means, a thriller genre can include many sub-genres like western.
The opening to this film “Once upon a time in the west” begins with an old wooden door slowing being opened whilst creaking, then the station master an old man writes on a chalk board in doing so creating a horrible chalk sound while scratching it down the board. A cowboy then walks through the creaking door. The background noise is a bird. The camera starts filming from the cowboys feet to his head, this kind of shot implies he is powerful and is prepared and ready to fight. The old station is then surrounded by a few more cowboys, which stand still and very quietly whilst the only noise is the bird chirping in the background. The first person to talk in this opening is the ticket master at the station, we see he is scared off the cowboys because he was going to charge them for a ticket but then backs down and gives them one.
Throughout this opening the cowboys do not talk but the audience can guess what their personality is and the role in the film by their actions and the way they are dressed. The three cowboys take over the station and lock the ticket master away in a cupboard clearly to keep him quiet and out of the way. There are a few wide shots to show the desolate landscape, to show they are in the middle of now where, it’s just them and no one else and no help available if needed. Throughout the opening there is a constant background noise; whether it is a bird or a fly etc. The cowboys wait for the train patiently, one clicking the bones in their hand, the other amused with a fly, and the last cowboy fills his hat with water that he drinks in the end tat has fallen from a leak in the ceiling above. Finally towards the end of the opening we hear the train on its way to the station, the cowboys get ready and line up spaced out hands on the guns as if they are ready for a fight which may begin, but the only thing that happens is a wooden box is thrown out of one of the carriages onto the floor., this is now the end of the scene.
Iconography in the film
The guns that are shown show that the cowboys are powerful, string and can are dangerous. The bullets around their waists showed that they are well prepared for a fight if one breaks out; the long coats also imply they are strong and are in control. Their hats hide the characters/cowboys face. The ticket masters clothes and hat, show he is only the worker who is small and weak, who abides by the rules or what he is told to do.
Monday, October 12, 2009
No country for old men
In what ways does the opening to “No country for Old men” conform to the conventions of a thriller film?
We discover that by seeing the opening to “No country for old men” that this film is a creepy thriller film. It shows the location where the film is set by using a wide angle shot to show the desolate landscape, and how dry and baron it really is, this means the characters are isolated from a society/community.
The opening of this film begins with silence to build up suspense leaving the audience wondering what will happen next. The first two characters we see are the police men and what seems to be a normal guy driving a car who has been stopped by a police officer. The police officer takes the guy in with a tank of oxygen the guy had with him, the oxygen tank might have been show because it may be used later on in the film. Whilst the officer is on the phone the guy who has been cuffed sneaks up behind him and using the hand cuffs he strangles him, they both drop to the floor and finally the officer dies after his neck had been cut by the cuffs, this scene is about how the officer was caught unawares a convention with a thriller film. The psycho then releases himself and taking his oxygen tank with him he takes the officers car and becomes a cop pulling a member of public in. The psycho then gets out with the oxygen tank and walks to the car he has just pulled in which is highly deceptive because the member of the public believes he is an officer of the law, but then the psycho kills him by putting a tube to his head which is connected to the tank which blasts pressurized air through his head, making him drop to the ground.
This person, like the officer was caught unawares and then has been killed a few moments later. The next scene is a hunter, hunting antelope, there is a wide angled shot again showing the desolate location again. Between this scene and the one before they both have a theme of hunting, using weapons to kill, and catching people and animals unaware, they don’t know what will happen next. In this scene the hunter shoots one of the antelope but it doesn’t kill it straight away, he follows it. There is a wide shot of the hunter walking towards the camera with a background with hills and the sky is grey which means that something he may come upon is going to be possibly shocking, through the weather this builds to the scene which reveals what exactly the hunter has found. Using the weather to build suspense is another convention of what a thriller film could include.
We discover that by seeing the opening to “No country for old men” that this film is a creepy thriller film. It shows the location where the film is set by using a wide angle shot to show the desolate landscape, and how dry and baron it really is, this means the characters are isolated from a society/community.
The opening of this film begins with silence to build up suspense leaving the audience wondering what will happen next. The first two characters we see are the police men and what seems to be a normal guy driving a car who has been stopped by a police officer. The police officer takes the guy in with a tank of oxygen the guy had with him, the oxygen tank might have been show because it may be used later on in the film. Whilst the officer is on the phone the guy who has been cuffed sneaks up behind him and using the hand cuffs he strangles him, they both drop to the floor and finally the officer dies after his neck had been cut by the cuffs, this scene is about how the officer was caught unawares a convention with a thriller film. The psycho then releases himself and taking his oxygen tank with him he takes the officers car and becomes a cop pulling a member of public in. The psycho then gets out with the oxygen tank and walks to the car he has just pulled in which is highly deceptive because the member of the public believes he is an officer of the law, but then the psycho kills him by putting a tube to his head which is connected to the tank which blasts pressurized air through his head, making him drop to the ground.
This person, like the officer was caught unawares and then has been killed a few moments later. The next scene is a hunter, hunting antelope, there is a wide angled shot again showing the desolate location again. Between this scene and the one before they both have a theme of hunting, using weapons to kill, and catching people and animals unaware, they don’t know what will happen next. In this scene the hunter shoots one of the antelope but it doesn’t kill it straight away, he follows it. There is a wide shot of the hunter walking towards the camera with a background with hills and the sky is grey which means that something he may come upon is going to be possibly shocking, through the weather this builds to the scene which reveals what exactly the hunter has found. Using the weather to build suspense is another convention of what a thriller film could include.
Thriller research
A thriller film can contain many things; it is a genre of literature, film and television. They contain fast pacing, with frequent action and hero’s and powerful people. A thriller always builds suspense using various elements in doing so. Five films I have watched are Casino Royale, Fast and Furious, 2 Fast, 2 Furious, District 13 and Bad Boys all of which are thriller films, each containing fast pacing and frequent action whether it is fighting or chasing. My favourite film out of the five is Bad boys because the opening to the film really builds suspense and leaves the audience thinking what will happen to a certain character whether they will survive and where they go from that point onwards. It is an exhilarating film with non stop action overall an entertainer.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Final Cut Express
Final cut express is video editing application software that allows the user to edit and manipulate any video of their choice. It features a timeline; all the user has to do is just drop the video on it and then edit and manipulate the video with the many effects and filters final cut has to offer, to make the video professional looking.
Final cut can easily capture DV and HDV. There is an option for the user to choose what parts of the video they want to edit and then put all of these clips together to create a final video. To do this you press “I” to start importing and the “O” for out to stop importing. You can watch frame by frame of the video using the option buttons at the bottom of the screen. You can watch videos simultaneously, as it offers two screens for the video to be watched and edited.
Final Cut is easy to use and is easy to work around. It is user friendly and the layout is set out well so that everything is clear.
On the 09/10/09 we learnt how to capture video from our camera. Pressing the "Capture Now" button, a screen was brought up which was the video from our camera and when we wanted to capture a scene we pressed escape to end and capture that scene and on the left hand side of the screen, that clip would appear and then we put it in a folder we had created, so we know where we had saved it.
We also looked at a range of different effects we could apply to our clips to either enhance the quality or add an effect e.g. rays of light, to add a new perspective to it.
Final cut can easily capture DV and HDV. There is an option for the user to choose what parts of the video they want to edit and then put all of these clips together to create a final video. To do this you press “I” to start importing and the “O” for out to stop importing. You can watch frame by frame of the video using the option buttons at the bottom of the screen. You can watch videos simultaneously, as it offers two screens for the video to be watched and edited.
Final Cut is easy to use and is easy to work around. It is user friendly and the layout is set out well so that everything is clear.
On the 09/10/09 we learnt how to capture video from our camera. Pressing the "Capture Now" button, a screen was brought up which was the video from our camera and when we wanted to capture a scene we pressed escape to end and capture that scene and on the left hand side of the screen, that clip would appear and then we put it in a folder we had created, so we know where we had saved it.
We also looked at a range of different effects we could apply to our clips to either enhance the quality or add an effect e.g. rays of light, to add a new perspective to it.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
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