The Credits and titling are the film exploration of information that gives praise to the people involved, the Credits show these people and what they have done to support the film. There usually come at the end of the film in a list, however many recent directors show the credits in a more interesting way, they use more artistic ways of showing praise eg, Some directors have drawings or cartoons which make sense with the film. This is mainly used in children films such as Ice Age have cave drawing of the characters, this markers more at children and makes the credits more creative. With big budget films Credits can get very creative, such as big movies such as Marvel films or Harry Potter take a lot of time planning the credits, showing them in a artistic style, Harry Potter as it has a lot of names to go though never fails to make the credits interesting and relevant, such as showing the names in a magical way.
Most films however do not have the budget for the creative and original style of credits in these types of films. Many just you the simple Black and White colour scheme and have small writing roll up after the films climax. These films use this as it's the most simple and cheap to provide, they all so know that many people don't stay for the full credits so don't want to take that risk. In my view I don't think fascinating credits are necessary but it does add that the film markers are more involved and more together with there project and care more about it. However this might not always be the case as a film could be very artistic but still not an enjoyable and vice vears.
Titling is more expressive than credits. The titles effect the style, the theme and the genre of a film. Most film if the title of is more then one word, use the most important part in the largest text, such as Harry Potter being the first thing the audience sees so that makes then relies what there going in for as it's a series of films.
Other films use there style of title to show the genre such as horror films show there movie title as scary and gives an incarceration to what the films going to be, such as making the title look like blood or spiders webs. It also interesting how older horror films used bolder titles with bold colours to make there films more important and that they stand out. Now as there is more horror films coming out every year than ever, Horror films are now using the approach to make there titles looks as violent or as creepy as possible.
This poster was made when famous monster movies were being produced a lot.
They wanted to show like the monsters the film was going to be big and bold.
In the future horror movies play more with the mind and psychological parts of human emotions, using violence and creepy sighs more often which makes the audience feel fearful. The text is used to alluded the creepiness of the film by using dark colour.
The set of a film is the place we're the action takes place. The Set lets the audience know where, what and time the film is. For example if the film is set in 19th century England, the set would be a house in that style,
Such as film like Pride and Prejudice, an iconic film which was set at a time of large fancy houses and traditional aesthetic.
The set designer uses their skills to show where the films taking place, using real in terms and objects which would be in the time or place of the movie, such as an old fashioned wall paper to show its in the past or show new technology to show it set in the future.
The Wolf of Wall Street which was set in the early 90s is shown though it's set as the set designer has used old wooden tables and researched the 90s office look using a lot of glass and old fashioned blinds.
While a futuristic film such as the new Star Trek shows that it is set in the future by the set designers use of modernism and blank white colour.
The set can also show what genre the film is as well. Such as a horror movie, the set will be more atmospheric and shot in a small space so the film is more claustrophobic causing the horror action to be closer by so the audience feel more afraid for the characters as they are closer to death.
Rather a funny film set is more open so there can be more freedom for background comedy and jokes.
In between filming my groups Comedy opening. I will use my free term to find classical and mondern films to watch to get an idea of what to make for my own opening. I will find films which have a interesting and enticing story ach, creative visuals and have a personal resonates with different groups of people. I will studied how these films are made so I can use these skills in my own film making.
Soundtracks is the group of music that go on behind the film. Some films use already made music by other artists, this means the film markers have to pay a sum of money for the rights to use the film. If a film uses the type of film music. It either uses it to be played within the story, so the music is made from that era when the film is set, an example is the 2012 film Perks of being a wallflower years songs from the decade ( The 90s) in it, some very notable ones. Others use ready made songs to fit with the tone of the film. Form example many high school America drama use this, having a rap song or a pop song in the opening tensions. Other films have a soundtrack with is instrumental, using brass, keyboard and guitars to create the tension and atmosphere needed. Some of these can become iconic, and everyone knows about them. Star Wars has themes that most film watchers can remember.
Film soundtracks can also be written for the film, and sang or the film. It can be sand with one of the actresses or someone paid by the film for that role. Films such as Sucker Punch use this as it gives information about the story and really pumps up the action in fight scenes.
Soundtracks can make a film more rememberal and enhance the film because good films will use catchy and good music can make the audience come back for more. Choose good music is important to make the film better, and more stylish.
The baked beans film theory is comparing films like the companies who made baked beans. This analogy of this is the companies used the main elements of how to make baked beans, but though time gave differences, this also works in films. For example romance films, some change the element to make the film more funny such as romantic comedy like 50 first dates and The Proposal. Others still use the theme of love and romance, by using the a more tragic style, for example The Fault in our stars and The Notebook. These type of films still have the same major theme of the two love interest, but such as the backed bean companies has added cheese, films also add different elements to keep the major idea but make it a different film. Other films however sometimes don't change anything apart from the actors, making it a carbon copy of another film.
A lot of low budget films do this. Other films try and imitate some of the greats, such as films trying to re make Romantic Comedy such as Love Actually.
An opening should express what the film is going to be like and reflex the genre of the whole film. It should interest the audience in a short amount of time.
Most of the time openings are simple, only showing the main characters, some movies show the minor characters but this is not often. To make an opening good you must have an original idea and different way of using it. The elements should be used to a full extent. Set, filming, characters and actors are an important put of the process to make the opening envelope the audience interest.
For my opening, at this current time I don't have a full formed idea, but I do know that I will have the gerne of tradey and drama as my focus point.
I haven't thought of my full film opening yet. I do know that I want to make it dark and thought provking. I have ruled out Comedy as I think it is too subjective and too difficult to do well.
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a classical cult film, which shows off the professional medium of old fashioned film.
The movie starts very famous actress, Audrey Hepburn, the film is famous for it's simple story and it's glamour and it's amazing acting.
The films light is also interesting, the film uses three point lighting, it full the black light giving the film a full colour and a bright feel. This type of lighting makes the character highlighted and the shadow is less than in different techniques.
An integrating part of Breakfast at Tiffany's is the dialogue. The film was made at a time period where actors had to have a special type of voice. Many famous actors sounded important and classy. The language style is also something of wonder. Breakfast, uses many metaphorical language uses. Holly, (Audrey Hepburn) character speaks in strange riddles, and flulet poetic language, using saying sweet metaphors and the use of words such as "Darling" which really shows her kindness and the time period she is from, as well as her strangeness towards Fred/George.
The film is captivating to watch. From the visual it is on an impressive for its time, the sets look gorgeous, soft and alluring. Colours of the set are easy on the eye. Pinks, blues and creams all fit with the films sense of time, place and story. As well as the sights of peaceful New York in those times,give a sense of peace and tranquility to the film.
The dietetic sound is minimal, giving the film enough space to use beautiful piano pieces. The famous Blue River music help sets the mood of most scenes. Being that of romance and beaut.
This movie shows how movies at that time period can be interesting and classy. Rather a romanticized idea of the time but is sweet and gives a sense of refined class.
Tuesday, 14 October 2014
How does the BBC version of Cinderella conform with and challenge the convention of a fairy tale?
In our class we were given the task of looking at a modern telling of a piece of fairy relating to the works of Narratives.
The first thing we can say about this version of Cinderella is that it is modernized version, so it will change the state of Todoros equilibrium, as the film is modern the equilibrium will be less cruel and more of a run of the mill average life for adult woman. During the short film, the disequilibrium is she can't get an interview, such as her in the original story couldn't go to the ball, the situation has change to suit the time period. Like the Cinderella story, the structure and basic plot still happen in the same way, but the context and the time period make changes to how the story plays out, the story is more about the modern struggle of being in a job role someone hates, rather than a family. The equilibrium comes at the end which is when Prince relishing that his chose the main hero (Cindy). Like the story it has a happy ending, but is not as simple as the original story.
The times have changed so she is not forced to life in a family, but has gained independence and confidence this is because she is a modern women and is older. In this there are more disequilibriums as it is a more complex story. Such as the conflict between the two characters (Cindy and Prince) as it is more intresting story.
As for characters. Propps theory is still relevant, there is a differentiate ideas of which character is which. Cinderella is still remains the Protagonist, however she is no longer all golden and sweet hearten like in old fairy tales, she now has move of a defined personality, she has more motivation. The re telling still keeps in with her character model of her being sweet and to shy to speak up. Other character are also made obverses, by they role. For example the profession Prince character is meant to be the Princely character, however during the short film, it is less romance between the Cinderella and the profession even at the very start the two share conflict together, this is done because it is more modern audience it's more realistic. The Antagonists are all keep same as well, but rather than ugly step sisters, the young female enemy have been changed to be students at a university students, which fits in to the general idea of the goal being a work post, and not a wife; this is because the time which marriage isn't a value anymore. The help character is similar to the old version, being a "God mother" but not in the litery sense, rather that a friend to help her. The characters also have different motives in this version, as this is made for modern audiences the goal is more relateable, which is the character wanting a carer path of there dreams and there fight for it.
The characters in there modern day aspects, there are easily shown as what type of character they are, but they are more relaxed and less old fashioned than they fairy tale counterparts. Cindy ( Cinderella) is center frame and looks more tomboyish, showing her heroic and more relatable; the other mains are shown around her, the step sisters are shown though there cruel manner and the prince is shown though his confident demeanor and the god mother though her kindness.
Barthes theory of codes also comes in to play, the technical code is not very large, it is filmed and edited in simple terms, the is no really big editing changes in this short film, but there are many dialogue codes which are important. Such as the modern use of swearing which would never be in the traditional version of Cinderella, and is used to fit it with modern contexts and make the characters more realistic and adult. One of the biggest code use is the symbolic code, this code uses the tropes and reconcilable parts of the fairy tale in to modern context. For example the "Pumpkin taxi" which mirrors the "Pumpkin carriage." and the focus on shoes which are the main focus of the fairy tale and what many people remember from it.
An important part of film is the technical aspect. This comperes the costume, the set and the props, the sound and the editing.
Editing is one of the important parts of this, editing is how the shots are put together. Simple editing is just different shots being put together in a simple line, this is called continuity editing.
Editing can be used artistically used in lots of interesting ways, such as dissolving parts of scenes as a transition and scenes falling in to each other such as a characters eyes being zoomed in, and the next scene appears.
Or a character falling in to the next scene.
Editing can also be fast to bring up the action and tenseness in action movies. Slow and diversities to create dark films or slow romances.
Bad editing can ruin a film. If the editing is too slow then it gets very boring for the person watching, if the editing to fast then it's hard to understand what the film markers trying to show or say.
The more editing practice someone has usually the better they get at it, as they are trying different and new techniques can really help a movie be different and more experimental.
An part of editing I enjoy is the editing style is Sherlock, the editing used here is stylized and creative ideas, also connecting it with the lighting, which is dimmed and colours which have a rich quality to them.
Another film which uses editing well in my opinion is Zak Snyder's Sucker Punch. This style of dark and edgy imagery combined with use of shadow techniques, editing helps Synder style stand out and be recognizable with audiences. Editing for this helps the film to create the three worlds. The editing is speed up for the fantasy scenes, for example these parts of the film have more disconnected quick shots all together. These are smaller for the action to take place in. There is also more risk taken as they is some more experimental techniques used, such as more pan shots and ECU's. While the Asylum use more still shots and long takes which show the boredom and miserable of the main characters life.
An example of Sucker Punch's fight fantasy scenes, which shows off the different ways Snyder uses the speed of different scenes to give an effect and uses the context, such this scene being violent, so the editing uses shorter shots.
For our opening we would show a cold, British street. We chose this to juxtapose the humour of having the character scared by Hoovers. The street will be empty to show that it is just one mans fears and that is strange.
My group went to a small country side street at the early hours to make the scene look as strange and realistic as possible. This will be our location for the majority of the first scene.
Here are some photos from that filming day:
These show a very normal environment which shows the oddity of the situation. It also shows an open space to show the smallness of the Hoover to emphasize the ridiculous comedy.
In our group, one of the people was asked draw a story board on a piece of paper; this is
what the came up with.
This is our story board which is drawn by the person in the group, showing what we wanted to happen in each shot of our openings, and what the audience wanted to see. It consists of 26 different parts we wanted to show, roughly draw so it doesn't show that much detail but does give a outline of what we what to do.
For another part of our project, we asked opinions of the people in our class about the film we wanted to make. We asked people for responses of the plot of our film and what changes we should make accoding to the responses.
Poppy explaining what she thinks of our comedy film opening.
From this we can learn that our comedy idea will be good and intresting for viewers. However some others we asked informed us that we should also use subtle humour such as dialouge and physical.
The film starts in a dark street at night. Johnny is frantically running and we see shots of his face, feet, and long shots of him running. He runs down a dead end and turns in fear, we then hear the sound of a hoover and see its shadow against a wall as it approaches him. He screams and wakes up. He looks relieved as he realises it was only a dream.
The scene then changes to Dr Smith filling up a glass. He walks into a room with Johnny sitting down and he sits next to him.
Dr Smith "how's that?"
Johnny nods his head, not wanting to speak.
Dr Smith "right, lets get started"
This is the script for the film opening. I decided not to include much dialogue to try and show how serious he is about his fear of hoovers. Hopefully, the audience will find his fear amusing but I did not want to try too much comedy in the opening as there are very few comedies that have humour in the first two minutes.
These are character, in our opening, there are only two of them.
Main character Name : Johnny Begood Age : 38 British Job: Security Grad Personality: Johnny is a shy, fragile young man. Who's fear invades his life. He wants to change this fear as it's ruining his life. Played by: Sam Woodrow We chose to use him as he looked the age of the character.
Psychiatrist Name: Mr. Smith Age : 40 British Job: Psychiatrist Personality: Mr.Smith is a calm, nice man. He wants to tack care of Johnny and fix his problems. Played by: Frank We chose him because he looked professional.
Opening
In our opening, our comedy shows a man lying on a sofa talking to a psychiatrist about a deep fear he has, what the fear is very unknown at the start of our opening.
He goes in to a depth discussion about his fears, still unknown by the audience. Johanny criticizes the therapist in a rude and juvenile manner in his mind, juxtaposing the seriousness of the therapist.
What would happen in the rest of the film.
In the rest of the film we wanted to show a type of strange romantic relationship. The way we will do this will be that a there is a female character who he forms a bonds, whom can help him from his fear of hovers. They form a romantic relationship because of his fear.
The opening gives examples of each characters simply, by showing one as the stereotypical nerd "Morton Schmidt" and a jock "Greg Jenko", it shows the two as very different guys. The comedy works in the awkward conversation between the two.
It shows the two as completely different characters so them being friends is quite stranger and funny and the audience remembers the awkward memories of high school. The comedy also comes from the strange and crude diolouge between the two mains and the over the top stereotypes of the two characters (The America Nerd and Jock).
Shaun of the dead
The opening to Shaun of the dead is the main character walking around his house, like a zombie, which goes with the theme of the zombie apocalypse, this is funny as it contrasts the real zombies later on in the film.It shows off how boring life can be.
Why this is relevant?
In Media we are using this to create our own comedic opening, for this looking at other already made comedies, we can get an understanding of how comedic dialogue and puns make the audience laugh.
With America comedies the bases are more positivist and more centered more about High School and the more about the comedy from characters personalities. While British comedy looks more on the dialogue and smaller details of the background.
In this lesson we looked at Narratives.
A Narrative is how the story is told.
We have three different theorists.
1. Todorou
His ideas was that all films have a Equilibrium, Disequilibrium, Equilibrium.
That the start is fine and happy, then something happens, then a situation happens, then the character get though the situation then the ending is them going back to the state of being happy. For example in the Lion King, at the situation at the start is the lion family is happy then Scar (the villain) attacks making the film in to conflict, which after a battle a resolution is made and life continues to be happy again.
2. Barthes
A french film theorist with believed that films had three main codes.
The technical code
which contains the technical aspects of a film, such as the shots, the set and the costumes. The Lion King is a cartoon so these codes would be bright and colourful also the environment of warmth so the colours would react well with this.
The Verbal code
the dialogue used in the film, such as what the characters had to say to each other or a character narrating. In the Lion King the film has a generally child friendly so the dialogue would be upbeat and funny.The symbolic code
The next code is more difficult to understand, it contains what certain aspects have to say about a message in the film, such as continuations and denotations for expel, the red rose signifying love, passion
In the Lion King, these things are hard to come by. However there are a few for expel, the scar on Cimbers uncles eye signifies that he is the villain and the bright sandy coloured location signifies the hot temperatures of Africa.
Propp
Propp was a more character based theorist, he looked at which character had which roles.
In the Lion King, the characters all fit these basic roles, without complexity.
Protagonist or Hero > Leads the story; who is trying to solve something, works for good. (Protagonist of Lion King Simba
Antagonist > Does bad things and trys to stop the hero (Lion King; Scar)
Heroin > Prize of the Hero (Lion King; Nala)
Father > Teacher, and offers a reward for the Hero if they have a quests (The Lion Kings story doesn't have one of these)
Helper > Helps the hero often is a comic relief that acts as side kick. (The Lion King has two, Timbon and Pumbaa)
Donor > Like the help, the Donor helps the hero by giving them something to help on the adventures (Timbon and Pumbaa are this again in the Lion King)
The Mentor > As the name suggests that they guide the hero though the film. ( Simbars father- Mufasa is his mentor)
Stop Motion is the animation style in which the directors physically manipulate the character to make them move on their own.
For this the directors take a photo frame by frame, where they move the characters slightly.
Then when the film is run the characters look like they're moving on their own.
Examples of Stop Motion:
Wallace and Gromit directed by Nick Park is a very good example of stop motion The whole film is made of clay and took a long while to make. About 15 months to make there film length film "Wallace and Gromit and the curse of the ware rabbit"
To makes there characters look as smooth as the do, the maker really plan every single movement in the film. They use a detailed story board and chose very precise movements. The characters and backgrounds have different designs to make the final finish, however with some parts of Wallace and Gromit such as smoke, explosion in the film had to be rendered on a computer after the film is made.
This is a trailer for the film
Wallace and Gromit and the curse of the ware rabbit.
This film is combined effect of Dreamworks and Aardman studios. Made in 2005, it's the second of Aardmans stop motion film after Chicken Run.
Aardman studios Aardman is a british film company in Bristol, which specializes in Stop Motion animation using Clay. The company has produced two major just Stop motion produces. The first was Chicken Run (2000) was the first of this studios films. Chicken Run reserved many awards for it's fast comedic style and it's detailed stop motion. The second film was Wallace and Gromit the curse of the ware rabbit, which had a high grossing rating and a high number of awards.
In 2006 Aardman released it's first computer Animated film "Flushed Away" and used this technique
in there other films.
Other films have also used an element of Stop motion.
The film Coraline (Henry Slick) and many others by Tim Burton uses the element of Stop Motion in there work. Coraline most famously is the combining effort of Stop Motion and CG1 techniques. The Stop Motion element makes the character move slowly and the clay effect makes the film combined with the dark elements of most of these films, give the idea of something strange or grotesque giving the idea of horror.
The main character in Corline who was made as a puppet
by many different designers.
Stop Motion in Media Studies lesson
In our lesson we looked the idea of Stop Motion. To do this, in a group we used Play Dough Models and a Canon Camera COMS.
With these objects we moved the models into different shapes with our hands. Then deciding a perfect position for the character we took photos, to show to give the idea that the character was moving.
Our characters
For our Stop Motion me and my group decided to make our stop motion about Death Harvesting a soul.
To do this we created our two simple characters
Our characters, made out of different coloured clay.
To do this Stop Motion style, me and my group took a lot of photographs to make frames. The finished film was only 40 seconds long, but it gave a good example of what Stop Motion Technique looked like.
The finished product looked very good and the character did look full of there own movement. It was a smoothly ran finish.
The process itself was very interesting, Stop Motion gain an impression of an "Uncanny Valley" which made it look creepy. The stories we could make were very accessible. As the play dough could let us make anything. However I would avoid using Stop Motion for my opening as the process took a long time to finish, even for a 40 second film, I think the process would be too restricted and take up to much time.
Pro/Cons of stop motion:
Pros:
Stop Motion is very interesting
Stop motion can make a film look very creepy
Can look very creative
Humor can be used within stop motion
Cons:
Takes a long time to
A lot of people to make that work
Can look faulty and weird is not done write
Simplistic openings
An opening should show of the character and give an idea of the story. For an opening to do this it must be easy to follow and watch.
So the opening is simple. Some openings use the main character walk towards a certain place. This gives an idea of where the character is in their life. Such as if they're walking to school or work. The character's mood. If there walking slowly signifies how the character is sorrowful and bored of life. If they are running if shows how the have energy and something big is going to happen to them.
One of the films that does this is the Social Network.
This opening is simple as it just shows the main character walking to his desaturation.
Even though it is simple I can tell that the film will show his journey and the music accompany gives the film a scene of his over whelming sadness. Most of the shots and from above, taken in the beautiful places of the city, however to the character he passes then quickly, the places are unimportant to him.
I take inspiration for this as it's gives the sense of wanting to see more of the characters life. In my own opening I want to try something like this.
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