30.9.10
Project: Recreate the opening of an existing film of your choice.
For this project, we are working on groups of 2 to 5, and I am in a pair with Sarah for this project. We looked through many film openings, and finally chose the introduction to "Billy Elliot". The reason we've chosen this opening is that it's simple and will be possible to recreate in good quality, and I also think that it's a very effective opening. We have drawn up a storyboard depicting all of the shots that we'll need to film, and decided on places to film it, music to use, and also people to use.
14.9.10
3 Point Lighting
The 3 point lighting system is used throughout the visual mediums of film, television and photography, and it forms the basis of most lighting.
The three types of lighting used are : Key light, fill light and back light, all of which have an impact on the look of a scene.
The three types of lighting used are : Key light, fill light and back light, all of which have an impact on the look of a scene.
- The key light is usually the brightest light, and therefore affects the look of the scene the most. It's put on one side of the focal object to allow one side to be fully lit, and also create a shadow on the other side, which often gives a more intersting image with more depth.
- The fill light would be put on other side the the key light, and fills shadows created by the key, hence the name"fill". It is normally softer and not as bright as the key, and may be placed a distance from the focal object, but sometimes more of a flood light effect is used with it to give a wider lit area.
- Finally, the back light is a light placed behind the focal object and gives light from the back, hence the name again. This light will provide a definition to the focal object, and make it stand out more by slightly highlighting the outlines of the object. This light helps create a 3-D look to a scene, and stops the scene being so flat against the background.
Obviously, all of these lights are important to get the visuals of a scene right, and make the scene look more natural than it would with just one spotlight. Without any lighting at all, the scene may not look contrasted enough, and so look lower budget and quality, which is obviously not what any film director wants. Overall, the lighting of a scene is one of the most important things to consider if a film is to look high class and well finished.
Lighting and Colour
- Lighting and colour can highlight important characters or objects within a frame
- Can make the characters look mysterious by shading sections of the face and body
- Can reflect a characters mental state or hidden emotions. For example, bright conveys happy feelings, dark gives off a disturbed mood and a strobe effect can imply confusion.
Colour
- Colour carries certain connotations which may add meaning to a scene, for example using red for danger or passion.
- Colour can also give a scene a particular look, feel or mood.
- It can also be used for dramatic effect.
Positioning of Characters within a frame
- Positioning within a frame can draw our attention to an important character/ object.
- A film-maker can use positioning to indicate relationships between people.
- What does the positioning in the following images reveal about the characters/ film:
1st image: The two characters are sitting at opposite ends of the sofa, which seems split in the middle, reflecting the characters. The woman is sitting with crossed knees and arms, suggesting she is very closed to discussion wit the man, who is more open, with his hands on his lap. We may assume that he has done something wrong from this, because she seems un-accepting, where the man is looking sideways at the woman. The woman is very focused straight forwards, again giving us the impression that she is angry. It may indicate that the film is a romance, or a similar genre of film. There is also a sense of humour in this image, due to the m an looking like a chastised schoolboy, and the way they are as far apart as possible
2nd Image: in this image, shallow focus is used, with Bruce willis in the foreground being focused on. He is looking very straight ahead, and is not being distracted by the woman behind him, who is brandishing a lasso as if attempting to seduce the main character.
Facial Expressions and Body Language
- Facial expressions can provide a clear indicator of how someone is feeling.
- If someone is smiling broadly, we may take this as them being happy, but we may get different feeling if this smile is accompanied by scary music.
- Body language may indicate how one character feels about another or may reflect the state of their relationship.
- Facial expressions and body language contribute to the whole feel and tone of the film.
13.9.10
Character Profile
This character is an 18 year old called Eden, who is a depressed teenager living in the modern world, and often has thoughts of suicide. Despite having a wide circle of friends, she just doesn't seem to be happy with life, perhaps due to an ongoing romantic catastrophe. She lives in a small town on the south coast of England, but she doesn't like living there, and longs to escape. She's average height, average weight, has an average intelligence and generally leads an average life.
My Character Profile: Tigger
This character has been created by Disney and live in the hundred acre forest with Winnie the Pooh and friends. He's very happy and bouncy (literally) and he is a good friend. Within the Winnie the Pooh films, he is based on a stuffed toy owned by Christopher Robin Milne who owns all of the stuffed toys of the Winnie the Pooh characters.. According to Tigger, "Bouncing is what Tiggers do best", and this is how he gets around the forest. He lives with Kanga and Roo, who describe him as "large", despite him not being too big. Perhaps this could be because of his larger than life attitude that makes him so lively and active.
9.9.10
Opening Two Minutes of a Feature Film
Character
Leister Burnham, the main character of "American Beauty".
Leister Burnham is 42 years old, has a wife called Carolyn and an only daughter called Jane. He also has a gay neighbour called Jim. His wife appears to be the one in control of their life, and she wasn't how she is now when he married her. He feels sedated in his current life, and he has less than a year to live, but he doesn't know that in the introduction. He's clearly unhappy with his life from what is shown in the introduction and would like to be able to change it, but we don't yet know the reason, as he has a decent sized house, a wife and a kid. While in the car with his wife and daughter he sits slouched in the back, suggesting that he doesn't have much participation in either of their lives, and doesn't paticularly care about work, where we presume he's going from his suit and briefcase. The introduction to "American Beauty" gives us an interest into his life, particularly that he will die in a year, and this creates an atmosphere that makes the viewer want to continue to watch.
Jerry Maguire, main character of "Jerry Maguire"
A sports agent, who appears at first to be totally contented with his life, appears to enjoy his job, and also from the figure "14 million x 5" very well-off. Right at the beginning, he insinuates that America is the main centre of the world, focusing only on it from the satellite image, and this gives us a message of arrogance and perhaps selfishness. However, towards the end of the introduction, he starts to appear marginally unhappy, and fed up that a sports star can only autograph a certain brand of cards, suggesting that he is likely to change how he lives soon. He is very determined, and hard-working judging from the fact that he get 217 calls on average per day from 72 clients, and that he "will not sleep" until his job to make a sportsman is done. The introduction gives us an overview of many different sportspeople, and we wonder what could be connecting these people when Jerry Maguire is introduced, giving us someone to focus on, and already an idea of what they are like and do.
Comparison
Overall, Jerry Maguire seems like a happier person, happier with his life, than Leister Burnham. He has enthusiasm for his job, which Leister didn't have so much, and an amount of liveliness that Burnham doesn't have. However, we don't know anything about Jerry's home life, and his enthusiasm while working may be a facade.
Ken, "Early Doors"
Ken is the landlord of "the Grapes" pub, and the first thing of him we see is him happily filling up a very expensive brandy bottle with low cost brandy. This suggests that he is used to scamming people, and doesn't mind it at all. He seems very cheery despite the down sides of being a landlord, such as cleaning the toilets; he actually is singing "They can never take away my dignity" while doing this job, telling us that he is a constantly happy and jovial man, as your stereotypical bartender would be. He's very friendly to a local who comes in the door at half past the hour, actually singing to him, suggesting that this is what he does every day to get to know the locals so well.
Comparison
As the only British introduction out of the three, it does have a different tone to the others, not trying to catch your attention with a character unhappy with his lot, and I personally don't think that this type of introduction works as well as one where it gives you more to find out.
Opening Sequences
London to Brighton
Hard-hitting and intriguing opening scenes to grab the attention of the audience and interest them into why these people have to catch the train so desperately. There's obviously been some sort of problem to do with the mother and daughter, judging by the mother's black eye, and perhaps this could be due to an abusive boyfriend, or a clash with a landlord. It's these sorts of questions that interest the audience, and make them want to find out what happens and why, so they continue watching the film. The contract of the abused bathroom and the normal shop or restaurant makes the introduction quite rich and varied, so the viewer doesn't get bored of the same scene over and over again.
The Graduate
This opening is very simple, and perhaps a little boring. There is a constant type movement from the man standing on the conveyor, to the bag moving along the conveyor. The colours are very plain, and so, we presume, is the man. This plain appearance suggests that he is not going to cause any trouble, and is generally fairly normal. In the voices in the background, there is a constant stream of instructions, and these are similar to the things he has heard throughout his life; instructions, perhaps a foreshadow of what's going to happen when he gets home, and maybe insinuating that this is going to change in the course of the film.
Napoleon Dynamite
In the opening of Napoleon Dynamite, we see the starting credits, but portrayed in an interesting way, where usually there would just be text at the bottom of a screen, which most of the audience would ignore. This introduction is very simple but very effective, getting the attention of the audience, and perhaps giving them an idea of what the main character will be like; what foods he will eat, what sorts of things he likes, and what he looks like and how old he is, judging just from the cards he pulls out of his wallet.
As a remake of an introduction, I would like to do an introduction perhaps based on Amelie.
Leister Burnham, the main character of "American Beauty".
Leister Burnham is 42 years old, has a wife called Carolyn and an only daughter called Jane. He also has a gay neighbour called Jim. His wife appears to be the one in control of their life, and she wasn't how she is now when he married her. He feels sedated in his current life, and he has less than a year to live, but he doesn't know that in the introduction. He's clearly unhappy with his life from what is shown in the introduction and would like to be able to change it, but we don't yet know the reason, as he has a decent sized house, a wife and a kid. While in the car with his wife and daughter he sits slouched in the back, suggesting that he doesn't have much participation in either of their lives, and doesn't paticularly care about work, where we presume he's going from his suit and briefcase. The introduction to "American Beauty" gives us an interest into his life, particularly that he will die in a year, and this creates an atmosphere that makes the viewer want to continue to watch.
Jerry Maguire, main character of "Jerry Maguire"
A sports agent, who appears at first to be totally contented with his life, appears to enjoy his job, and also from the figure "14 million x 5" very well-off. Right at the beginning, he insinuates that America is the main centre of the world, focusing only on it from the satellite image, and this gives us a message of arrogance and perhaps selfishness. However, towards the end of the introduction, he starts to appear marginally unhappy, and fed up that a sports star can only autograph a certain brand of cards, suggesting that he is likely to change how he lives soon. He is very determined, and hard-working judging from the fact that he get 217 calls on average per day from 72 clients, and that he "will not sleep" until his job to make a sportsman is done. The introduction gives us an overview of many different sportspeople, and we wonder what could be connecting these people when Jerry Maguire is introduced, giving us someone to focus on, and already an idea of what they are like and do.
Comparison
Overall, Jerry Maguire seems like a happier person, happier with his life, than Leister Burnham. He has enthusiasm for his job, which Leister didn't have so much, and an amount of liveliness that Burnham doesn't have. However, we don't know anything about Jerry's home life, and his enthusiasm while working may be a facade.
Ken, "Early Doors"
Ken is the landlord of "the Grapes" pub, and the first thing of him we see is him happily filling up a very expensive brandy bottle with low cost brandy. This suggests that he is used to scamming people, and doesn't mind it at all. He seems very cheery despite the down sides of being a landlord, such as cleaning the toilets; he actually is singing "They can never take away my dignity" while doing this job, telling us that he is a constantly happy and jovial man, as your stereotypical bartender would be. He's very friendly to a local who comes in the door at half past the hour, actually singing to him, suggesting that this is what he does every day to get to know the locals so well.
Comparison
As the only British introduction out of the three, it does have a different tone to the others, not trying to catch your attention with a character unhappy with his lot, and I personally don't think that this type of introduction works as well as one where it gives you more to find out.
Opening Sequences
London to Brighton
Hard-hitting and intriguing opening scenes to grab the attention of the audience and interest them into why these people have to catch the train so desperately. There's obviously been some sort of problem to do with the mother and daughter, judging by the mother's black eye, and perhaps this could be due to an abusive boyfriend, or a clash with a landlord. It's these sorts of questions that interest the audience, and make them want to find out what happens and why, so they continue watching the film. The contract of the abused bathroom and the normal shop or restaurant makes the introduction quite rich and varied, so the viewer doesn't get bored of the same scene over and over again.
The Graduate
This opening is very simple, and perhaps a little boring. There is a constant type movement from the man standing on the conveyor, to the bag moving along the conveyor. The colours are very plain, and so, we presume, is the man. This plain appearance suggests that he is not going to cause any trouble, and is generally fairly normal. In the voices in the background, there is a constant stream of instructions, and these are similar to the things he has heard throughout his life; instructions, perhaps a foreshadow of what's going to happen when he gets home, and maybe insinuating that this is going to change in the course of the film.
Napoleon Dynamite
In the opening of Napoleon Dynamite, we see the starting credits, but portrayed in an interesting way, where usually there would just be text at the bottom of a screen, which most of the audience would ignore. This introduction is very simple but very effective, getting the attention of the audience, and perhaps giving them an idea of what the main character will be like; what foods he will eat, what sorts of things he likes, and what he looks like and how old he is, judging just from the cards he pulls out of his wallet.
As a remake of an introduction, I would like to do an introduction perhaps based on Amelie.
7.9.10
Lesson Two
In our second lesson I found out about "Mise en scene", which translates as "Staging" and is defined as "articulation of cinematic space" , and it consists of:
- Settings and props
- Costume, hair and make-up
- Facial expression and body language
- Lighting and colour
- Positioning of character and objects within the frame.
Lesson One
In this lesson I discovered some more about what the Media course involves through looking at the blogs of other Media students, and I also learned how to set up and customise my own blog on blogspot.com.
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