AS Media Evaluation

1.

My film (Invoked) challenged a few conventions of a horror movie, although my aim when writing and designing the storyboard was to achieve the classic first kill in a slasher movie, much like Halloween (1978), rather than attempt to challenge any conventions that are already present within the industry. Saying that, I have attempted to fuse together two sub-genres of horror, I have added a supernatural element to the classic slasher storyline. I wanted a single person with undetermined fate to be in trouble, and for audiences not to attach with this character, as they would presume that he would not be around for long, and this was achieved by killing off this character before the bulk of the titles began, while also introducing the audience to the main antagonist of the movie, which is not conventional in a horror, usually the antagonist is obscured or only revealed late in the movie. What I have filmed acts as a pre-title sequence.

The music I use is more suited to a thriller than horror, yet the intense chase that I attempted to convey is suited more to the intense, suspenseful music rather than the usual slow, creepy music associated with horrors, which challenges the conventions. As well as this, the quick editing between shots causes the film to feel intense, it goes with the music and the general action of the movie, and this can be typical of either a horror or a thriller as both include intense action sequences. I used the special effects to create a sense of power about the antagonist, his hand glows a light blue colour, as do his eyes, I got this idea from the animated television series Avatar: The Last Air Bender, which depicts the protagonist’s (Aang’s) eyes glowing blue to emphasise his power when bending the elements. I challenge the convention of the colour blue being associated with good, for example in Star Wars where blue or green lightsabers are considered to belong to the good- jedi, while red belong to the evil- sith, and challenge that convention by giving the evil character a blue glow. When it comes to lighting, I changed the colours within my film to make it darker, although the film happens in the day, I challenge the convention that bad things only happen in the dark, like in Nightmare On Elm Street (1984), in my movie, I give you a reason to be scared of the light.

 

 

2.

My male protagonist, according to the new class system brought out by the BBC, is part of the Technical Middle Class group; these are people whose families are quite well off and enjoy a wide variety of cultural mediums, they tend to socially interact with those of a similar class, which explains his fear of the wild man that my antagonist is made to be, he has never seen anything like it before, this class group common, he is also a young adult which is typical of a horror movie, and it’s convention of killing off a group of teens/young adults that get caught up in something bad, such as Friday 13th (1980). My antagonist however is meant to be a modern take on an Aztec; he lives in the forest, like a hermit, and thus, is poor, but hunts his own food and is very territorial, this is his motivation for killing people that enter his domain. He is a man, which is conventional for a horror movie, the tall, strong murderer that the protagonist could not over power if he even attempted to do so, again, like Friday 13th Part 2 (1981), with the seemingly invincible Jason Voorhees. The killer is also white, which matches the conventions of a horror movie, such as Se7en (1995), where the killer is played by Kevin Spacey.

 

3.

The film studio that I would get to distribute my movie would be Hammer Films Productions; this is because Hammer Film Productions is known for its distribution of horror movies ever since it was started in 1934, it has released such classics as Dracula (1958) starring Christopher Lee, all the way up to the modern successes such as Woman in Black (2012) starring Daniel Radcliff. The company’s longevity and consistent success proves to me that it would be the perfect production company to distribute my movie.

 

 

 



4.

The audience for my movie would be adults, this is because it would contain a lot of gore; an example of this gore is in the pre title sequence that I have filmed, when my protagonist’s heart is ripped from his chest. Much like the Saw franchise (2004-2010), I will attempt to blend gore with a gripping story line, rather than the gore just be a gimmick, so that the adults watching my movie will want to know what happens to the characters, why an Aztec is in this time and place and other such questions rather than just waiting for the next gory scene.

The fact my movie has a lot of gore in will primarily draw in a male audience, although not to generalise, women may also be interested. I feel that, as I plan for the main cast to be young adults, then young adults will be drawn to the movie as they can relate to the characters more. Class wise, I think all classes would be interested in the movie, there will be no real focus on any type of class, but the group of young adults I plan for the movie will be primarily Typical Working Class. Again, with ethnicity, there will be no focus on a particular race in the movie, apart from the antagonist being Aztec, which is an extinct race so there is no real implication on the movie.

 

5.

I have attracted my audience through the promise of a gory film with a gripping storyline and realistic special effects, although I will include the typical storyline of a slasher movie in which a group of teens are picked off one by one but with elements of the paranormal, the main protagonist will not be obvious so people will be unaware of who is going to survive, and the longer the members of the group survive, the more they shall discover about the sinister past of the antagonist. If I were to have an advertising campaign, I would begin a viral marketing campaign (like when Cloverfield released fake news reports onto the internet) by making a deal with Google so that they hide Aztec symbols around the world on their maps, and then challenge people to find these symbols. Then, if people travel to the location at which the Aztec symbol appears on the map there will be an invitation to the premiere of the movie waiting for them, where they will get to meet all the actors, writers and the director and experience a paid night in a five star hotel in London, where the premiere shall be held. I got the inspiration for this campaign from The Dark Knight Rises who’s advertising campaign was to post the locations of hundreds of Batman logos graffitied in cities around the world on the Warner Bros web page that were to be found by the general public. For every piece of graffiti that fans found, Warner Bros would release a frame of the trailer, which is similar to my idea to have the fans race to locations in order to win an invitation. My movie would also have an official web page, a Facebook page and a Twitter page, which would allow fans of the film to be kept up to date with news, allow them to download desktop wallpapers and watch the trailers, this content will also be accesible via scanned QR images.

The premiere shall have a range of A-list and Z-list stars invited to it, including actors, directors and general famous faces, all the way to a famous Big Brother candidate, as well as the stars of the film course. I shall also place billboards on the side of roads for drivers to see and trailers on television. Hopefully If I put all these things in place then word of my movie will reach everyone, so that everyone gets excited about it and I will make a large profit at the box office. Profit will also be made in the longtail through DVD/Blu-ray and merchandise sales.

 

6.

During the planning, filming and editing process I have learnt a lot about the film making process. During planning I learnt how to design a story board effectively, how to lay it out, and the type of information needed to read it effectively during the filming process. While filming I learned how to use the Sony HD 1080i camcorder in order to capture the best shots, I learnt how to change focus and re-watch clips that had recently been taken to determine whether I needed to film them again or not. I also learned how to set up a tripod correctly, how to set it up and attach a camera, using the built in spirit level to ensure the camera was level. Before filming I needed to choose my filming locations, the inspiration for a forest based horror movie was the movie Shrooms, I thought about all the places within driving distance which would be suitable for my movie, I decided on Hopwas Woods over Kingsbury Water Park as Kingsbury Water Park was more likely to have pedestrians in the background which could potentially ruin the mood of my movie.

When the editing process began (on Adobe Premiere) I quickly developed my skills in uploading, cutting and piecing different clips together in order to create my movie, I used the software’s colour corrector to make my clips a little darker in order to create a moodier atmosphere. I also used the edge feather effect when in a point of view shot to show that it was indeed a point of view shot and that the beholder is feeling groggy. When finding a font for my titles, I used the webpage ‘dafont.com’, it was originally black text with a white background, but I used Adobe Fireworks to invert the colours.

When I wanted to add a backing track to my movie I looked on ‘incompetech.com’ to find incidental music that I felt had the most appropriate mood to go with my film, this music is copyright free, in the case of the parts I have filmed, the chase scene required action music, but with a modicum of suspense, to keep with the horror vibe, and I managed to find a track with a good balance. I also used ‘freesfx.co.uk’ in order to add foley sounds that would have been too difficult for me to create myself, such as the bone crunching and squelching sound heard when my protagonist has his heart ripped from his chest. From these processes I learned how to select appropriate sounds and music for the correct moments.

 

7.

Since my preliminary task I have learned a lot about the film making process; I have learned about synergy and the research needed to be carried out before even beginning to plan a movie, how to use a camera to it’s potential, and the rules and conventions that film makers abide by in order to create the sense of immesion that we desire from a movie. Rules such as the 180 degree rule which states that a camera should stay on one side of a two people having a conversation and only change sides if it is shown to do so, as to not confuse the audience, although I do not use this rule within my movie for conversation (as there is none), I did have to ensure that it always looked like my protagonist was running in a single direction, not in circles or back and forth, I did this by trying to only film on one side of an 180 degree line at my filming location, although some shots needed to break the rule to be as effective as I wanted. With these shots I ensured that during editting the direction my protagonist was running was clear. I do use a match on action however, which switches the camera around to give the illusion an action bing taken out in real time, an example of this in my movie is when my protagonist is on his knees just after waking up from being knocked out and sees the shadow of my antagonist, he quickly turns and the camera cuts to the new angle that my protagonist is looking at. I did not use eye-line match in my movie as it is primarily used in conversation, and my movie has none. Eye-line match is when two people are hving a conversation and you ensure that their eyes are level to one another so that one does not look ridiculously tall or short compared to the other. A shot-reverse-shot is when a shot is showing somebody looking at somebody else and the camera switches sides, usually to show the other person looking back at them, and the camera cuts back to the original shot, it is usually used in conversations to show characters looking at one another. As I have no conversations in my film, I have not used a shot-reverse-shot.

Invoked- Plan

Role Allocation and Casting

Schedule

Invoked- Concept Art for Protagonist

Age: 20
Gender: Male
Occupation: University Student
Characteristics: Intelligent, fashionable and cocky.
19/02/2013

Invoked- Concept Art for Antagonist

Age: 50
Gender: Male
Occupation: Aztec Shaman
Characteristic: Towering, broad and powerful. Manic.
19/02/2013

Invoked- Movie Storyboard

Invoked- Plot

The title of my movie will be 'Invoked'

The opening of my movie will start with a pre-title sequence, a sign showing the name of the forest as an establishing shot and then cut to a man running through a forest, he is covered in dirt and has ripped up clothes, you can tell he has been through a lot. Heavy breathing will be heard as the camera quickly cuts among the trees, the man will seem obviously panicked and trying to escape from a calm walking figure. All shots of the figure will obscure their face and not give you a full picture of what they look like. A shot of their glowing clenches hand will be shown as you hear the figure giggling to themselves; all the while tense, quick music will be playing. The man trips at some point, but quickly scurries back up. As he hides behind a tree and calms down, we see a shot of him looking round the tree, we have lost sight of the pursuer, and neither the protagonist or the audience know where the antagonist is. The man slouches against a tree, thinking he is safe, only for a hand to reach through the tree and his chest (implied by sound effects and camera angles). As the light fades from his eyes, the screen will fade to black, with the sound of an echoing chuckle from the antagonist in the background.

Then the title sequence will begin, spooky music will play as the names of the director, cameraman, writer, producer etc. appear on the screen in distorted writing. The background images will be those of creepy woodland and symbols carved into wood, giving clues as to what the movie will be about.

I plan for the rest of my movie to be about a group of teens that go to the same forest for a secluded camping holiday, so that they can party as loud as they want, at some point, an establishing shot will be the same shot as the establishing shot of the pre-title sequence, so that we know it is the same forest. They will be having a good camp until one of the group goes missing, and the others go to search for them only to find an abandoned building with strange symbols and concoctions around. The group then realise that they are slowly being picked off one by one, hunted, and that their car is nowhere to be found.

The symbols will be Aztec symbols for different animals, the antagonist will turn out to be an Aztec shaman, who can invoke the spirits of animals to grant him superhuman strength, and other abilities.

The History of Horror

Before we can discuss horror, we must first ask 'What exactly is horror?' The word is defined as an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust, but can classic horror films like 'Jaws' be categorised under that? In my opinion, no, to me horror is not related to us as the audience, but more to how the characters feel in the scene. Were we truly terrified when we saw a shark approaching the characters? Probably not, but I'm willing to bet the characters were pretty scared. We put ourselves in the character's shoes and get a thrill from it, yet still we continue to watch, that is the beauty of horror.

Horror is not the most popular of genres, only 5.6% of films that were released last year where horror, the top performing movie being Paranormal Activity 2 (according to http://statisticalyearbook11.ry.com/?id=82792), this may be as horror is generally aimed at an older audience, with most horrors being rated as 18s, which cuts out a large amount of people from being able to see and pay for the films, causing their profits to be reduced.

Horror has an array of monsters at its disposal to get the adrenaline flowing within an audience; whether it be a vampires, zombies or werewolves, making you frightened to go outside, or the common man, driven insane, making the dark corners of your house ever creepier. Horror works by running your imagination wild, by making the sound of a twig snapping a murderous killer, rather than something far more innocent. These monsters can achieve fear through jump scares (when the scene builds up to something jumping out at the characters, subsequently making the audience jump) or by staying in your mind even after the movie has finished, haunting your thoughts, making you unable to sleep.

The French author and film theoriest Christian Metz wrote the book 'Language and Cinema' (1974), it states that in any genre here are four phases, they are called the 'Model of Genre Development', they consist of;

The Experimental Stage: Horror was first inspired by the First World War, German Expressionalism was born and shadows were manipulated, examples of this are 'Noferatu' (named Noferatu due to Bram Stocker's family owning the copyright and stopping the name Dracula being used) and 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'. The experimental stage is when a genre is being explored and the themes are being experimented with.

 The Classic Stage: Movies then have their narrative conventions established, they are defined, this is usually the most successful period. Movies such as Dracula and Frankenstein belong in this stage.

When television began to make an appearence in the 1950's, the film industry took a hit, but Hammer Studios fought back with their reimagining of classic movies, such as when they used big horror movie stars Peter Cushion and Christopher Lee to make a new Hollywood version of Dracula.

The Parody Stage: When films are released that follow the same conventions as a genre, but put them forward in a comical way, the genre is in the parody stage. It helps when the genre is losing steam and they are given a fresh new approach, bringing in a hole new audience. 'Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein', 'Carry On Screaming' and the 'Scary Movie' series are examples of parody.

The Deconstruction Stage: The final stage in the model, this is when the genre begins to be deconstructed, and amalgamated with other genres to create sub-genres, examples being Se7en (Gory Horror), The Sixth Sense (Paranormal Horror), The Blair Witch Project (Documentary Horror) and Scream (Teen Horror). These films pay homage to the classic movies that came before them.

Task 4- Ideas for a Film

Thriller

A) After the death of the inventor of the Etch A Sketch, a crazed fan starts killing people, leaving nothing but a clue on an Etch A Sketch.

B) A religious nut kills people in the style of the 10 Atheist Commandments;

1. Resilience

2. Empathy

3. Patience

4. Sacrifice

5. Politeness

6. Humour

7. Self-Awareness

8. Forgiveness

9. Hope

10. Confidence

Rom-Com

A) The President is looking for love, but thinks people in his own country will only want him for his money and power. He goes to another country and meets an out of touch peace core worker who he falls in love with.

Horror

A) A group of teens on a camping holiday go into a secluded wood, unaware that the wood is home to wildlife that have been mutated by nuclear run-off. The now volatile animals begin to pick the teens off one by one.

B) A few friends are lost in a forest searching for help after crashing their car, put then discover the forest has a sinister secret as they are hunted by a masked man.

Report on Questionnaire

In order to find our target audience, I was tasked with formulating a questionnaire. This will help to see what exactly people want and like from my genre (horror) and how I could achieve the most positive response.

My first question was ‘What gender do you prefer the protagonist to be?’ I asked this question so that I could see which gender is would be preferred for the main character in my horror movie. The general response to the question was that the protagonist should be male, so I shall consider this more heavily while planning my film.

My second question was 'What gender do you prefer the antagonist to be?' I asked this question so that I could see which gender is would be preferred for the villain of the movie. Again, the general response for this question was towards the antagonist being male, so I shall consider this more heavily while planning my film.

My third question asked 'Do you prefer a single protagonist or a group?' I asked this so that I could see whether the audience preferred there to be a group of protagonists, which in a horror, would generally be killed off one by one, or just a single person, possibly looking for the killer themselves or someone that just got caught up in the story. The results came back being slightly more weighted towards there being a single protagonist, so I shall consider this more while planning.

My fourth question asked 'Which Sub-Genre do you prefer?' I asked this so that I could discover what type of horror my audience would enjoy most. Most people responded with Psychological, so that is the sub-genre I shall consider more during the planning stage.

My fifth question posed the question 'What personality do you prefer the protagonist to have?' I asked this question so that, when planning a script for my movie, I could see which personality would be preferred for my protagonist. The feedback came back with the options 'Cocky' and 'Dark and Brooding' being joint top, this gives me the choice. At this point I would personally prefer 'Cocky', but if 'Dark and Brooding' suits the character more, there is no reason they cannot be.

My sixth question was 'What personality do you prefer the antagonist to  have?" Like with the protagonist, I asked this to discover the favored personality type of characters so that I can adapt the planning accordingly, except this time, it's about the antagonist. Feedback tells that people generally prefer their antagonists to be maniacal, so I shall take this into consideration during the planning stage.

The seventh question in my questionnaire asked 'How do you prefer the movie to start?' I asked this to discover whether people prefer to dive straight into the action with the first kill, or whether they prefer an introduction to the protagonist first. It came back that people would prefer to see the first kill, leaving the introduction to the protagonist for after, possibly after the starting titles.

Question eight asked 'Is the quality of special effects important to you?' This was mainly to find out how much time should be dedicated to the special effects when I am in the process of creating my movie, this could include things such as props. General feedback to this question is that special effects are important, which means time should be spent to make the effects as realistic as possible.

My ninth question asked 'When do you prefer a films title sequence to be?' I asked this to discover whether people prefer a title sequence to come before the movie starts, after a pre-title sequence or not at all. I found out from this question that it is preferred when a title sequence is after a pre-title sequence, this means that I shall think more about this when planning my movie.

My tenth and final question asked 'What type of weapon do you prefer an antagonist to use?' I asked this so that I could decide which prop weapon my antagonist will use more easily. I allowed people to pick two, as I anticipated an inability to decide certainly between so many categories. Results came back showing that sharp weapons were preferred. The only 'Other' feedback I received asked for 'Gadgets', which I shall also take into consideration.

Questionnaire

Analysis of the Opening Sequence of 'Halloween' 1978

Director: John Carpenter

Starring: Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis

Opening Sequence

The movie starts with a black screen, we hear non-diegetic creepy, intense music, which implies fear. We then see a red title of Compass International Pictures followed by the titles and cast, all in red, yellow, and orange, the connotations of these colours being of fire and hell. A pumpkin is shown which emphasises the 'Halloween' and horror genre. We then see titles telling us the place of what we are about to see, so that the audience gets a sense of setting.

We then hear a sound bridge between the titles and the point of view shot we then see, the sound bridge is a song being sung by children, possibly to suggest the childish nature of the character whose point of view we are seeing through. The point of view shot tracks forward towards a house, with hand  held movement, which reinstates the fact that it is a person's point of view. We see a pumpkin on the porch, reminding us of the Halloween setting. The camera then tracks horizontally left  around the side of the house, we see a young boy and girl exchanging words and kisses, followed by the camera tracking back to the front of the house and tilting up. A light upstairs ceases to be and a non-diegetic screech is heard, the sound is uncomfortable, perhaps to show the uncomfortable mental state of the character whose point of view we are watching.

The character then goes into the house and picks up a knife from a draw, as they pass from the light of the kitchen into the darkness of the living room, there is a sense of them passing from innocence, into a psychotic state of mind. We hear a clock chime as the boy leaves, putting his shirt on, suggesting the couple have just engaged in passionate acts, the clock chiming suggests time running out for the girl.

The character we are following slowly creeps up the stairs and finds a clown mask, they put it on, this could be a metaphor for them wanting to hide something, possibly a side of them that they don't want people to see, a more demonic personality. We are shown the mask by only being allowed to see through eye holes on the camera, which obscures the scene to the audience, giving it a sense of mystery.

As our character approaches the girl, we see that she is nude (reinforcing the passionate acts between the boy and girl). She spins round and says "Michael!" showing that she knows him well enough to recognise him with a mask on, thus it must be a close relationship, a sister perhaps. Michael then proceeds to stab the girl, possibly angered that she allowed somebody other than him to love her. After she has died, Michael runs back outside to a car pulling up and a man and woman get out, saying his name, these are his and the girl's parents. They are wearing a suit a fur coat, showing that they are quite well off and are a modern family for the time.

As the father pulls the mask off of Michael's face, we cut to a close up of Michael's face which zooms out to a crane shot of the house, with non-diegetic, incidental music gradually building to a crescendo in the background.

Analysis of the Opening Sequence of 'Just Like Heaven' 2008

Director: Mark Waters

Starring: Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo

Opening Sequence

The movie starts with the Dreamworks logo and the incidental music over the top of it (not the expected sounds that would accompany the logo), the music is upbeat and happy. The camera then tilts down through the clouds and more titles begin to fade in and then fade back out, they are in bold bright colours (pink, blue, yellow, green and red) to match the happiness of the music. The camera continues to spiral down into a heavenly garden, a sort of 'garden of eden'. Reese Witherspoon is sitting in the center, she is wearing an outfit that makes her look angelic and peaceful, almost like the protagonist in a fairy tale. There are some dissolves to different camera angles, showing a passage of time, as if she could just be sitting there for hours.


We then see an out of context plastic chair and the lyrics to the song say "like a dream" as an arm reaches in and the music cuts as the protagonist is woken up from her dream state. Reese Witherspoon is a stereotypical protagonist for a romantic comedy; an innocent looking, blonde, white, blue eyed girl, with a homely feel. She aspires to get further in her job, we can tell this as she has been working for over 24 hours and says that she won't get intern if she doesn't carry on. Elizabeth is over worked, there is a sequence where she walks down a corridor and everybody is throwing work at her, this emphasises her busy life. Upbeat music begins again as a montage of doctor duties (some comical, some average) start quickly cutting between each other, again to emphasise her busy life and how she has nothing but the hospital in her life. We then see Reese Witherspoon on the phone to her sister who is her opposite in life, a housewife with kids. After this, we see our protagonist speak to a black man who is her senior, he tells her that he likes her attitude and that  she doesn't "kiss his ass" (for comedy effect), and she is promoted. As she is about to leave she is called back by a nurse to help.

Thunder, a storm is coming, pathetic fallacy suggests that sadness follows. As she drives home happy about her promotion, she sees a bright light come towards her as a lorry crashes into her car, the bright light bringing connotations of heaven, again. This sets the mood of 'fate' in the movie as she would not have been hit by the lorry if she had left when she was going to.

Analysis of the Opening Sequence of 'The Dark Knight Rises' 2012

Director- Christopher Nolan

Starring- Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Anne Hathaway.

Opening Sequence

The film begins with the titles; the Warner Bros, DC comics, and Regency logo. These logo have a dark colour scheme, showing the dark mood of the movie. They are also of a metallic texture, representing the industry that Gotham City is built from.
We then see a slow zoom as ice breaks into the shape of the Bat-Symbol, this shows how Batman is reemerging from his metaphorical 'cryo-sleep' in which Bruce Wayne gave up on being Batman.
We then hear Commissioner Gordon speaking, there is a sound bridge as the video appears to show the commissioner in front a picture of Harvey Dent (a character who met his demise at the end of the last film), the scene then fades to black, suggesting a passage of time.

We then see a CIA agent from a low angle shot (suggesting the agent's power). The agent is wearing casual clothes and combat trousers while the soldiers around him are fully uniformed, this shows he is ranked higher than them. We then see some prisoners in a car, these prisoners have bags on their heads, much like how captured terrorists are seen today. Incidental music builds in he background, as does the suspense. There is talk of a "masked man", who the agent calls Bane, with only a name, the audience is kept in the dark of the mystery character.

After this we see an aerial shot of the plane to establish a new scene's location, the CIA agent seems to want to find out about Bane rather urgently, as the prisoners are told to be his henchmen, he pretends to kill one of them, to scare the other prisoners, yet one of the prisoners speaks out and questions it, the voice has been heavily edited so you can tell that it is Bane. Bane realising that the other prisoner has not been killed shows that he is intelligent. The camera then tracks forward into Bane's back, ready to reveal him. The agent questions him and Bane refers to himself as "We", showing that he speaks for all of his people. The next shot shows a low angle show as Bane's face is revealed, mask and all, then a high angle shot showing the agent's reaction, this shows how Bane has taken the agent's dominance, and made him submissive. We then cut to an extreme long shot, reestablishing the place, as another plane approaches.

Dramatic music starts as the as the action begins, there is a lot of quick editing to emphasize the speed and urgency, we see Bane do a blood transfusion which, again, shows his brains as well as his brawn. As Bane tells one of his henchmen to stay behind and sacrifice themselves, we learn that he has a cult-like leadership over his people, they obey him utterly. The starting sequence then ends, with a cut to the Gotham skyline.

Analysis of the Opening Sequence of 'Se7en' 1995

Director: David Fincher

Starring: Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt

Opening Sequence

The movie begins with a medium long-shot of William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) from the back, the colour-scheme of the room is very dull, everything is very organised and neat, this is all stereotypical of a man who lives alone, with no womanly touch to brighten the place up, or kids to create clutter. This also shows that he is a very organised person. We can hear diegetic sounds in the background; busy traffic and people in other apartments through the walls. Somerset has laid out all of the things he is going to take with him in a neat line, we also see his jacket laid on his well made bed (the way his bed is made suggests a military background), which implies that he has OCD when it comes to how tidy things are.

We then cut to a murder that Somerset is investigating, he is wearing stereotypical detective clothes; a trench coat and a fedora hat. Somerset asks whether "the kids saw" the murder, and another police officer on the scene tells him that he is always asking these strange question that no one else asks, showing that he thinks outside the box and is rather intelligent. David Mills (Brad Pitt) then enters, he appears to be the opposite of Somerset; young, white, wearing a leather jacket to suggest rebellion and he generally looks rather scruffy. The scene cuts to outside, it is raining, this pathetic fallacy sets the grim and dark mood of the movie, we discover that Somerset is retiring in 7 days, luckily, just enough time for 1 big case.

There is then a short scene showing Somerset reading a book in bed, again showing his intelligence, and you wouldn't catch Mills reading a book at bedtime. Somerset then puts the book down and starts up a metronome, to center himself and drown out the rest of the world, we here the sound levels of the metronome increase and the traffic grow quieter to show this. The metronome could also be a metaphor for the passing of time, or the countdown to when the murders begin.

The title sequence begins, the incidental music is rather scratchy and unpleasant, the same goes with the text's font, signifying the unpleasantness that the detectives will experience throughout the movie. We see grotesque pictures of broken hands and images of sexual words like "intercourse" being crossed out, as well as the eyes of people in pictures being crossed out, this suggests that the murders in the film will be religious as it was once believed that if a person's eyes were in a picture it would take part of their soul.

The Preliminary Tasks

The Preliminary Task

Illustration of the 180° rule.

For the preliminary task we were asked to make a short video that needed to include the 180° rule, a match on action and an eye line match.
The 180° rule is a rule that states the camera should stay on one side of a conversation without crossing the line, this is to ensure that the viewer does not become confused. The line can be crossed as long as the camera is shown switching sides. We incorporated this into our video by ensuring that we abode be the rule throughout our video, a good example of it's use is when The Commodore and Agent X were having a conversation

A match on action is when the camera cuts to another angle while the character is performing an action, it creates the illusion of real time. We incorporated this into our video in two places; once when The Commodore turn to begin the walk back to the computer and also when Agent X passes The Commodore the memory stick.
An eye line match is when the camera and characters are in such a position that it looks as though the eye-lines of the characters involved match. It ensure that conversations do not look ridiculous as the people are at the same height, not one looking 7 foot and the other looking 4 foot. We did this in our video during the conversation between Agent X and The Commodore. Both character's eye lines matched throughout the conversation.
The film making process went very well, although not without trouble, for example, the noise level around the college meant that there was occasionally some ambient noise that we did not want in the background of some of the takes, this meant we had to re-shoot one of the shots.
As we only stuck to the one room around the college, we did not have much trouble with people wandering into the background of the take. In terms of the storyboard, we got most of the shots that we wanted. We were unable to get an area around the college that was as dark as we wanted and even editing could not make it dark enough without making it obvious that it had been edited.
Adobe Premiere was a good program to use, although difficult to master at times, once i discovered how something was done it was an enjoyable experience. I can now confidently edit video and sound with suitable transitions. Transition such as fade ins and fade outs, which I used during the opening credits rather effectively.