How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The protagonist for our film was a male between the years of 18 and 22, dressed in a smart and casual style. As we wanted to keep things simple we decided stick with the dominant ideology by using a white male as seen in most mainstream films. We chose the dress style of casual to make it clear to the viewer that this was just the average male.

However, in a way we do challenge the representation of the male in our film. We do this by placing the male character in danger whereas usually in many mainstream films it would be the female character that would play the damsel in distress, however in our film it is the male.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience? on Prezi

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout constructing both the opening credits product and the preliminary project I believe I have both developed and learnt a lot of skills about technologies through this process, most specifically through the filming and post production processes. Although, I did do media at school I focused more on the pre-production side so this allowed me to learn more.


The first main piece of technology I learned about was the generic filming equipment (camera, tripod) and used them in both an indoor and outdoor environment. I also learned about several different terminologies to do with camera shots (over the shoulder (OTS), tracking, panning, long shot, close up, low angle and high angle).


I believe I learned a lot more in the preliminary task as I was the only person in the group who was not in front of the camera so I was given the position of director, so I learned a lot about positioning the actors and how a certain shot should look which definitely would help for any future filming projects. However, I did find it much easier and more interesting behind the camera than in front of it which I was in the opening scene.

However, I felt I learnt a lot more about the post-production technologies especially with the editing system. It was also very interesting to see how it all comes together through cutting, adding sound, adding special effects and making sound bridges.

Who would be the audience of our film?

When discussing our film it immediately became apparent that we would try to make a film that would be appropriate to all ages so we wanted to make a film that would target an entire family. To do this instead of researching a film I decided to research the BBC TV show “Doctor Who” as it is one of the BBC’s most popular TV shows and is a hit among all ages. Looking at the show it uses a fantasy and fairytale type adventure theme to keep children “wowed”, it uses detailed and slightly complicated story arcs to keep the interest for adults and also has scary aliens and dark tones to scare both the children and adults to keep all ages thrilled.

“Doctor Who” roughly 6 million viewers an episode making it one of the most popular shows on television so it became apparent to me we would have to use similar techniques in order target the same type of audience. We then decided to make a light horror fantasy that would include mystery elements and action sequences much like “Doctor Who” which already targets a certain audience which is also the one we were aiming for.

I also looked at “Pirates of the Caribbean” again as it also extremely successful being one of 7 films to gain a billion dollars the same with “The Dark Knight”. In fact looking more in to this we discovered that 6 of the 7 highest grossing films of all time that gained more than a billion dollars worldwide were all fantasy films, making it clear that our film would be likely to be very successful.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I feel that the two companies that would be likely to distribute our film would be either Warner Brothers or Disney Studios. This is mainly because after some research these two film studios are the two with the most history of the fantasy genre, Warner Brothers have had massive success with the Harry Potter franchise being the most successful franchise of all time taking in over $6.3 billion, they have also had success with Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise currently taking in over a Billion dollars across two films. Disney Studios have also had huge success with the “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Chronicles of Narnia“franchise by making them also 2 of the most successful franchises of all time.

I feel that our film would have a very simple marketing system of simply one official site and two trailer consisting of a teaser and theatrical trailer. A few clips would also be released via YouTube and the official site to gain more interest in the film. I think the film would also get an official Facebook page as well as that would definitely get more interest in the film due to the several million members.

However, seeing as our film is likely to have a very small budget it is incredibly likely we would have to co-produce it with another British company such as Film4, this has also been done with hit films “Shaun of the Dead” who co-produced with companies Universal and Film4 and “127 Hours“who worked with Fox Searchlight Pictures and Pathe to make their film.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For our opening credits media product we decided to choose the genre of a light horror fantasy that was based in a realistic world. This was for several reasons but mainly because it meant we could keep things simple for example having the majority of the film in a normal world meant we didn’t have to worry about the design of a location as we could use normal rooms rather than have to dress up the rooms. We also just decided to tweak the ending to give it a fantasy type feel however due to some lost footage we couldn’t quite make the film to the standard we aimed for.

To help look capture a feel for this type of genre I looked at films such as “The Dark Knight” and “Stranger Than Fiction” which were both fantasies set in a realistic environment and I analysed there opening credits/scenes, this was very helpful in allowing me to see how they were filmed and the tone they had. It also helped me to see how a fantasy element was produced in a film based in a real world.

We decided early on that we wanted our film to be kept very simple to not create any problems later on; we also decided we should keep our locations to a minimum of 2. By keeping our film simple we decided to confirm the codes and conventions (“rules”) of the genre rather than decide to challenge them as we thought it would be very time consuming and complicated to think of ways to challenge the genre and its forms.

Todays Lesson 24th March 2011

Today Ben wasn't here however as our group is pretty far behind so me and Brendan will be out filming. We will be shooting in our location of the forest. Hopefully we will get a large amount done, upload it and continue Monday.

Art of the Title - Website

A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

The website "Art of the Title" has been incredibly helpful during this project, the site has a wide selection of previous opening credits from actual films. The video above is directly from the site and features several parts of opening credits from throughout the years going from the golden age of cinema all the way to recent films such as "Zombieland!, "Juno" and "Scott Pilgrim vs the World". This site has been helpful as it allowed our group to understand how a title sequence should look and be put together, however some of the title sequences are not helpful due to them being computer-made whereas our film has to be filmed so it rules quite a lot out, however, films such as "Zombieland" are the films we can look as although it is not the type of film we are making it is filmed outdoors ausing cameras.

Todays lesson 22nd March 2011

Today I will be booking a camera for Thursday's lesson, our group can not film today due to Ben not being here, no matter what we will now have to film on Thursday as if we don't we will be very far behind all the other groups. Because of this drawback today will be another day of blogging.

Drawbacks for our Opening Credits

For our group the Opening Credits project has been a lot harder than the preliminary project our group have suffered a lot of issues when it has come to filming. These problems have included not booking the equipment, not being fully prepared, one of our group not being in, bad weather conditions or just running out of time. Several times we have had to postpone filming due to one of these problems causing our group to fall behind of the others. However, a good thing about these drawbacks is that we are now fully prepared so when we do finally go out filming we will no exactly what to shoot so hopefully we will get it done very quickly. Also, these faults will help if we are to work together next year as we will be more prepared for each project as we will we be used to the equipment.

Todays Lesson 21st March 2011

For today's lesson we will continue blogging to allow us to catch up with other groups and to be at the level we should be at, at the end of the lesson I will go and book some filming equipment for the following 2 lessons after this we can film allowing us to use the 3 lessons next we to edit and complete our film.

Zombieland Opening Credits

Ahead to our filming I decided to look at the opening credits to "Zombieland". Although, the film is a different genre (horror comedy) to what we are doing (fantasy) the film has been incredibly helpful as it gives us an idea on how to shoot outside, something our group has not done yet. The entire opening of "Zombieland" uses slow motion whilst credits slowly break away from the screen. Something which our group can possibly think about doing.

Change in Acting

Again due to time constrictions we now no longer have time to find a suitable actor for our film, plus some of the people we wanted to get had some things they had to do with there group. As a result I have been selected to be in the film as the protaganist. This should help with planning and be easier for as I have been involved in the planning process.

Changes to the Film

Due to time constrictions and the absense of a member of our group me and Brendan have decided to change some of the filming locations, any interior scenes will now be cut to cut out any time that may be used to finding a location. Our film will now begin in a car park or possibly the entrance to a shop but will then cut to the location to where we took photos of.

Our Film Script

Below is our script, it is however an extremely rough outline and just the generic idea of what we will be doing. The fact that we have no dialogue however, is an intentional decision by Me, Ben and Brendan, we done this everything we film can be visual and spelled out by the character through dialogue. Also, our film seems to be extremely short through the size of our script, which it is however, through more disussion and the eventual input of credits the film should be significantly increased in time.

Film Script - Rough outline

Film Script

MAN begins walking on his way to work. He is roughly 18 and is wearing smart casual clothes.

On his way he comes across a diversion on his path causing him to divert to a different route. On his way he encounters a forest to which he enters.

As he is walking down a path he suddenly drops. The MAN then suddenly awakes in to a visibly different location to which he is completely isolated and stunned.

Todays Lesson 15th March 2011

Today we were set to be filming for both todays lesson and at some point tomorrow due to having Thursday off, however, Ben is not here today so filming has had to yet again be postponed to a later date. We however, can not organise this date as he is not here so filming can not begin till at least next Mondays lesson. Today me and Ben will be blogging whilst I will be beginning to work on the script that Brendan failed to complete yesterday.

Another change in filming.

We had planned to film on Thursday however, due to it being a progress review day we have had to change our schedule yet again to filming possibly tomorrow and Wednesday.

Costume Design for our Fantasy

Our protaganist in our fantasy film is an office worker so he will be dressed in office buisness clothes, possibly a suit.

Todays Lesson 14th March 2011

For today's lesson I will continue to blog after falling behind in my group, we have been discussing new ideas for our film after deciding that we will be cutting the first couple of minutes of our film that were going to be set in a house. This is because it will be irrelevant to the rest of our film plus as our group is falling behind there are tim constrictions. Me and Ben will be blogging whilst Brendan will be writing a script for our film.

Internet Resources we have used

Throughout both the preliminary project andn our Opening credits project we have used many websites to help us with our research, these have included -

• http://www.imdb.com/ - Mainly for any information to find about an individual film or actor. Very helpful when searching for films of TV shows like our own.
• http://www.youtube.com/ - Helpful when searching for a video for our textural analysis, these have helped on several occasions and our also very easy to upload to a blog.
• http://www.wikipedia.org/  - A very reliable source when looking for pretty much anything to do with a film, actor or TV series. All articles are very in-depth.

Production Logo

We have been discussing several idea for the name of our production company that will feature on each film that we make. Some of the ideas that came up were -

• Giraffe on a Segway
• Giselle on a Forklift
• Meerkat on a Tram
• Koala on Zeppelinn

However, we ended up choosing this logo which Ben made for our group -

Rough outline for our Opening credits sequence

After some discussion about which one of our four ideas we were going to do (Romantic Comedy, Action, Horror or Fantasy), we decided on doing the fantasy project. As we were falling behind we had to quickly think of a rough idea for what the events would be of our film. We also decided we want our fantasy film to be grounded in reality.

We decided that our film would follow this rough plotline -

• Protaganist awakes in his house in normal universe
• Begins to get ready to work
• Leaves his house and begins walking
• Walks his usual route into a forest
• Falls down a hole and awakes in to a different part of the world

Titles will be shown throughout. We planned for to be as normal as possible before this event to make it seem like this is a random occurence in this universe and not an everyday thing like in most fantasys. By doing this it will ground the film in to a reality.

After writing and drawing an entire storyboard for our popening credits film we drew out a small picture only one onto post-it notes. Ben took them on his camera and uploaded them. They are only a very rough outline of what our film will end up look.

Filimng equipment for our opening credits

These will be relatively similar to the equipment we used for our preliminary project, however, as we will be filming outside we will have to more to make up for the sounds the microphone can pick up outside.

However, we will still be using the Panasonic handheld video for all of our filming, a standard tripod and Ben's a200 DSLR to possibly take photographs. To handle the outside enviroment we may need to taken extra microphone and microphone cover to handle outside noise taking over the actor. Also, to get over this pontential problem dubbing may have to be used.

Filming postponed

Due to the bad weather conditions and our actor not being available for today, we are going to have to postpone our filming and hopefully be ready to start straight away next week. Meanwhile, we will have to constantlly be blogging.

Why we chose to make a fantasy film

For our opening credits film we decided to create a fantasy film that was grounded in reality. For example the majority of our opening we be centered around an average working man having a typical day, it is only towards the end that something strange happens in his world. The idea of a realistic fantasy appeals to our group due to not really having a limit to what we can do but could still be easy to film as the film will be quite realistic, using real people and real locations. We are looking forward to seeing how this film is going to turn out.

Location Shots

We had to go out again to get Location Shots for our opening credits but this time we had to include a person in the shots. Me, Ben and Brendan went out to our  location for our film and began to take photos and began to plan where we would make our actors and where we would shoot from. We decided we will be shooting in a forest no more than 5 minutes away from the college. We took about 7 photos all representing where the camera will be when we film. We came back and uploaded them on to our blog.

Location Shots for our Opening credits Project

The Dark Knight Opening Scene Analysis

The Dark Knight is a fantasy movie that again, is grounded in reality. It's a story about and evil set around the comic book hero Batman. The Dark Knight begins with a bank heist, The Joker takes centre stage in this scene along with 5 other men who wear clown masks and slowly get killed off one by one throughout the clip.

It opens with title screens for Warner Brothers, Legendary Pictures and DC Comics, then we see a huge blue coloured fireball which then produces the Bat signal, along the Warner credit is a loud booming tune which acts as a motif. The sound is of Batman's theme from the first film so by using this it allows the audience to know what film they will be watching as they can associate it with this films predecessor. After this we see the Legendary pictures logo and following this is silence which, when following the loud booming motif on the logo before, gives the film a sense of eeriness. We then start to hear sound in the form of a ticking noise during the DC comics logo which seems to give the impression of a bomb timer which gives the film its theme of danger. All of the logos and Bat symbol are presented in a black or dark blue light, this combined with the bomb ticking, silence, loud booming and the Bat symbol rising from the fireball gives the audience the feeling that the film they will be watching will be very dark in tone. 

It cuts to a long shot, which as acts an establishing shot, of a large building and the camera begins to quickly track in towards the windows of the building. As it cuts to this shot we again hear the sound of a boom noise followed by a tone that continues over the sound of the ticking. These combined give the impression that whatever will happen in this scene could be associated with danger as the slowly rising tone creates tension among the spectator. As we get closer to the windows suddenly one explodes creating a slight "jump" moment that confirms our thoughts about this scene beings associated with danger. It cuts to shot to the interior of this building and judging by the desk it is an office building. We then get to see our first character of the film however, he is wearing a clown mask and holding some sort of gun. Clowns are one of the biggest fears in the world so this combined with the fact he is holding a gun tells us that he is both an antagonist and that he has been placed in the film specifically the create fear upon the audience. As the window smashes the ticking noise continues however, it is a modified version of it. One of the clowns shoot a grapple hook over to an opposite rooftop. As we know that the clowns are likely to be the bad guys we think that they are planning to pull off some kind of dangerous act like a bank robbery.

The scene cuts to reveal a man standing with his back to the audience whilst the camera slowly tracks in to his back. He is holding a blue bag and a clown mask to tell the audience that this character is also one of the bad guys. Because we never see his face we automatically assume this person is a bad guy as we have nothing to identify him by, also as it cuts to this character the tense tune begins to start again possibly telling us that this person may be the leader. As it continues tracking in a car suddenly pulls up and allows him to get in. The tense tone stops completely and it cuts back to the people in the office building, allowing us to figure out that they are travelling in 2 groups.

The group in the office building attach a bag to their zip line and then go down themselves. As they go down the camera fallows them out the window and then quickly tilts down to show the way down to the street to create a feeling of uneasy upon the spectator, as it does the soundtrack suddenly makes a large boom noise and as it cuts again it carries on as we see long shot showing the clowns zip lining with the street beneath them. It cuts again to show them landing safely on the other side.

We see the other group of clowns in the car and hear our first line of dialogue. There are a total of 3 people wearing clown masks in the car. At no point during this part do we see any ones face. Although, the light outside is very bright the inside of the car is very dark to again tell the audience that the people in this car are the bad guys of the film. It cuts to a close up of one of the clowns although we do see the other two in the background. They are talking about the heist that they are doing and talk about a specific character known only as "The Joker". The two clowns that were originally inside the car are the only characters talking in this clip, however the character that entered the car is at the back although still slightly in shot so tyhe audience remembers that he is there as it is made obvious this particular chracter is important to this part of the film.

Then there is a parrallell action as the other group of robbers on the roof continue there conversation about "The Joker" and helps us know a little bit more about this character. After this it cuts back to the group in the car, they leave the car and approach a bank. The camera follows the third mysterious member of the group who is the only character we have seen who is yet to talk. There is a match on action as the robbers enter the bank and begins the shoot the air to worry the people inside the bank. The soundtrack still plays although is much quieter than before. It shows the bank manager as well to signal that he is going to be important to this character during this scene. The camera tracks around the bank and rarely stays still to keep up the speed of what is happening.

The music begins to pick back up as it again cross-cuts back to the group on the roof. Who are checking the alarm system. We then go back to the clowns who are now in control of the bank and see that the mysterious charcter is going around securing grenades to the hostages hands, he has still not spoken. We go back to the roof and it after one clown deals with the alarm the other clown shoots him. This is to tell us that these clowns are not to be trusted and are slowly killing each other to get a bigger share of the money. As he kills him the and runs downstairs the music plays what will later be known as The Joker's motif as it plays whenever he is on screen. He runs in to a room and the camera pans round to reveal a large vault, he hear the sound quiets down and begins to tick again suggesting this vault door is important to this scene. It cuts back to the  main hall to show the audience that these robbers are now in charge with the unknown clown securing grenades to the hostages.

It cuts back to the vault to reveal one of the robbers breaking in to the vault with a large mechanical device. As it cuts back to the main hall we have a shot of on one of the more psycho clowns beating a hostage, we then get a close up of the bank manager with a rising tone in the background. The shots and music combined tell us that these 2 clips will be somehow connected, the rising tone creates tension among this scene. The bank manager shoots  the clown and the music then kicks in to a kind of action tone as he walks out with the shotgun and the other clown's run in panic. The focus again is put on the mysterious clown as the back manager shoots at him the music slowly begins to tone back down as he shoots more bullets. We get a shot of the 2 clowns who are hiding behind a desk. The leader asks "He's out right?" to which the mysterious clown nods. The leader rises then gets shot by the bank manager. Through all the murders of the various clowns it tells the audience that a theme of the film will be betrayal. The mysterious clown rises up and shoots the bank manager. The camera then slowly tracks in to the mysterious clown to then possibly suggest that he is in fact the leader of the group. The music becomes gradually silent and then kicks in with the tone used previously to suggest that there is no more danger for the robbers.

The clown that was shot rises up to reveal that he was only wounded by the manager, he runs down to meet with the clown in the vault. One of the clowns opens the vault and after he is done gets shot by the other to again show the theme of betrayal. We then cut back to the main hall to reveal the mysterious clown who looks like he is now in charge of the whole operation as it seems he is now in control of the bank and hostages as it cuts the tense tone begins to rise up again. It cuts back to the other clown in the vault who begins taking money, then there is an ellipses that cuts from the clown taking the money to the main hall where the money is now collected. The clown who went to the vault then threatens the mysterious clown with a gun, again suggesting another theme of betrayal. The music here begins to repeat the same 2 notes over and over to build tension. In this part we hear the first line from the mysterious clown "No, no, no. I kill the bus driver" which confuses the audience as this is not what we would expect him to say due to what we have been shown so far. The scene concludes with a huge bus loudly crashing through the wall and killing the the other main clown, leaving the mysterious clown which has now confirmed suspicions that he is leader with him being the only one left and that he has planned this.

After the bus crashes through the wall we cut to reveal the back of the bus with yet another clown in the back who is now loading up the money. The music now resumes normal tone that it had before of The Joker's theme. After they load up the money the currently unknown clown gets shot by this clown we have been following. As he is about to leave we cut to the bank manager who is still alive and begins talking to the clown who then starts walking towards the bank manager. Here the tense shrieking tone again begins to pick up the close the clown gets to the manager. The clown remains silent on his approach and removes some sort of grenade from his pocket. We have a POV shot from the clowns persepctive looking at the bank manager. After the manager shouts "What do you believe in?" the clown shoves the grenade in to the bank managers mouth. The clown begins talking and the music begins to get louder and grows to a higher pitch as he replies "I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you, stranger." When he says "stranger" we get a POV shot from the bank managers perspective to show the clown remove his mask and reveal a male covered in clown make-up. He has dark eyes and white face make-ep with a large red smile on top of some deep cuts on his cheeks, he also has long greasy green hair". To the audience this is easily recognised as The Joker who has all along been this clown and been in charge of this whole operation including slowly making his team kill each other. As he reveals his face the rising tone quickly drops to a much lower and darker town suggesting that this character is dangerous. It is a close up of his face and it is slightly disorientating to the viewer as it is quite unexpected he smiles at the bank manager and turns and leaves which is assisted by a weird sound that is also associated as being a dark sound. As The Joker leaves the tense rising sound slowly picks up as he leaves with the bank managers shotgun, there is a thread attatched to his waist which is connected to the grenade in the mouth of the bank manger. We start at his legs and slowly tilt up as he gets closer to the back of the bus. He climbs on to it slams the door shut and releases the thread from his waist. He climbs towards the front of the bus and we cut to the bank manager as the sound becomes diegetic and we hear the sound of the engine starting, the pin from the grenade detatches and he quiclky zoom in reveal green smoke to show the audience that the grenades used in the hiest were in fact duds and to reveal yet another theme of things not being what they seem.

This scene is relevant to our film as again it is a fantasy film that is grounded in to reality. The characters of Batman and The Joker do not exist in real life but the setting and the way it is film makes us believe that the events of this film could happen even though it is a fantasy, this is what we aim to do with our film.

Casting for our Opening credits project

We decided it would be best to get someone else to star in our project to allow our group to focus more on the technical side of the film. We have a few ideas about who we could choose but have yet to approach these possible candidates. Some of the people are from the performing arts class that some from our group knows, yet some we are considering our from our media class who will probably be easier to get. We want someone who has acted before so they have experience and doesn't make it seem like a forced performance which is different from our preliminary project where we didn't mid who was in it.

Analysing a fantasy films opening credits

Stranger Than Fiction



In this section I shall be analysing the opening credits of a fantasy film (video below), roughly the same as our own. Stranger Than Fiction revolves around the story of Harold Crick who is the main character of a novel created by Karen Eiffel. However, Harold exists and Karen is leading up to the end of her book, in which Harold dies. This film is similar to our own as it is a fantasy but is in a way set in a realistic world which has slightly been tweaked to fit in to the fantasy genre.

The scene uses naturalistic lighting to give the film a realistic touch and to give the impression that this film, even though a fantasy film, will somehow be grounded in reality. The opening credits give the feeling that everything that happens in this short section is happening there and then.

The mise-en-scene throughout this opening sequence is used to tell the audience various information about the protagonist. Several animations pop up throughout to coincide with what the narrator is telling us. This is both tell us about his past and that this daily routine of his is foreshadowing later events of the film.

The sound is portrayed through both diegetic and non diegetic sound. The diegetic sound is heard when Harold brushes his teeth and several shots on the street. The non-diegetic sound is heard through the soundtrack and most importantly through the narrator.

The editing in this clip is the standard continuity style of editing, to help the flow of the scene making it easy for the audience to follow. The editing follows the voice of the narrator who describes the protagonist. For example when she talks about his wrist watch we get a close up of it.

The cinematography is done in a way that allows the main character to always be included in the shot. All shots in this opening sequence either includes Harold himself or some sort of object relating to him. This is done to make the audience understand that this is the character we will be following throughout the film.

This opening sequence is like our own for the reason that this fantasy film is grounded in reality, this film is not an OTT fantasy set on another world this film takes place in the present day with only the odd fantasy element, kind of like our own idea.

Searching for a Location

Me and Brendan went out searching for a location on Thursday. Looking at our storyboards and story ideas we knew we had to figure out a place that could be used as a forest and a place that could be used as someones bedroom.

We went out searching for these locations and thought that the toilets could be used as a replacement for a bathroom. However, we thought that there were no rooms that could be used as a bedroom so we decided that one of us would take a camera home to film these scenes.

We went out searching and found that there was a forest about 5 minutes outside of the college that was perfect for our film. We walked around looking where certain parts of our film could be shot and took a few photos of the area.

We got back and uploaded these photos onto our blogs.

Location Shots - Photos

This is the path our character will walk down, on his way to the forest.

This is the forest that we will shoot in on the day we will film, our character will walk down this forest.

This is the place where our character will fall down a hole, we are unsure at the moment how we are going to film this scene.

This is the path our character will walk down and is the point he will enter the forest.



This will be one of the pathways our character will walk down on his way to the hole.



Different Film Genres

In film theory, genre refers to the method of film categorization based on similarities in the narrative elements from which films are constructed. Most theories of film genre are borrowed from literary genre criticism.

Action/Adventure - Action films are usually high-octane, mindless fun. These films don't usually focus on a complex narrative more just entertaining the audience with car chases, gun fights and explosions. These film are normally resolved in one film and do not usually leave room for a sequel. Adventure usually contain the same although they usually focus more on narritive.

Comedy - Comedy films, like action, are not too focused on narrative and are used as to make the viewer laugh and feel good. They usually end happily and could occasionally include moments of drama.

Crime & Gangster - These films are usually more character driven than the other genres in this post. These films usually follow either a small group or one person life living through crime as gangster. The characters in these films usually have drastic transformation from there first scene till their last (Michael Corleone in The Godfather).

Drama - Drama are more narrative driven, these films usually use realistic characters trying to overcome some sort of tragedy in their life. They use realistic characters and realistic storylines to help tell their story and connect with the viewer.

Horror - Horrors are used to entertain the viewer by using fear. These films can usually be predictable and over the top with its violence. However, they can  play on the viewers mind when doing a psychological horror.

Science Fiction - Science Fiction films can be anything they are rarely held down by the genre bounderies like Drama and a Slasher Horror are. They usually focus on a bizarre narrative and have outstanding special effects. Sci-Fi can almost do anything it wants to as it is what we expect with the genre.

Script for continuity

The script for the continuity project

INTERVIEWEE opens the door, and walks to the chair across from the employer; the camera will follow the Interviewee to the seat, and then cut to a reverse shot of the employer.

EMPLOYER

Welcome, take a seat. Can I see your CV Please?

INTERVIEWEE

Hello, sure, here it is.

EMPLOYER

So you’re currently at university, here for a summer temp job. You also have previous retail experience.

INTERVIEWEE

Yeah, I worked in Primark for a year, before university.

EMPLOYER

Great, thanks for your time, expect a call within the next 2 weeks.

INTERVIEWEE

Thanks, I’ll look forward to it.  (Leaves)

Media – “Se7en” Opening Sequence Analysis

The opening credits of David Fincher’s horror film “Se7en”, is designed in a way to make the spectator feel uneasy. It creates the feeling of uneasiness with the combination of Sound, Editing and lighting as well as Mise-En-Scene.

The sound throughout the opening credits is an edited version of the song “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails. The song has been edited in a way that will cause an unsettling feeling upon the spectator; it has a constantly changing beat which never allows the audience to settle. Sound effects such as razors, drills, and rattles have been included to give the credits unpleasant sounds therefore, helping the spectator familiarize themselves with the genre. Throughout this sequence the sound is presented in a way to bring tension to scene as you don’t know who this person he is or what these bizarre scenes making the spectator become intrigued by this character.

The majority of the editing during this scene is the discontinuity style of editing, rather than the more traditional continuity style of editing, by editing this sequence with the discontinuity style of editing, it makes the audience become aware of the editing and make then readjust themselves with the screen after the jump cuts. The purpose of this entire sequence is to disorientate the viewer; it does with a variety of techniques. For example the sequence over lays some of the shots to have to make the spectator try and concentrate on two things at once, however, the shots during this sequence are very quick therefore whenever the spectator does familiarize themselves with the screen something new has appeared. Some of the sequences throughout the clip have been filmed backwards to also create confusion among the spectator, it does this by over laying some normal clips on top of some of the backwards clips, these moments are also very short so by the time the spectator has figured it out something new has again appeared.

The lighting during this clip is constantly dark, although there are some occasional moments of the color red. Red is used to help keep in context with the genre of the film. Combined with what is happening in the scene the red is used as a symbol of both danger and blood to represent the horror genre.

The mise-en-scene in this clip has been done in a way that reflects the characters personality, the mise-en-scene helps the spectator to understand the character, who is never seen, by showing the characters actions. At one point the character is shown removing skin from his finger tips, therefore removing his identity, which makes the spectator distance themselves from the character. At another point of the clip you see the character again cross out somebody’s identity by crossing out eyes in a photo of an unknown man. It removes the identity as eyes are what we use show feeling and it is what people first look at when meeting someone. This clip is hard for the spectator to understand what is going on as they have nothing to relate or no idea why this unknown character is doing what he is doing.

The editing, lighting, sound and mise-en-scene are all used to make the spectator understand what the film they will be watching will be like, this title sequence is designed to make the spectator understand they will be watching a horror.

Opening titles project

For our opening titles project our group (Me, Brendan, Ben) had to come up with 4 separate ideas for opening titles. We had to write ideas for 4 separate genres; a Fantasy film for children, Romantic Comedy for couples, Action film for adults and a Horror film for teenagers.  Our ideas were –

Action Film – Our action film will revolve around the recent situation of the creator of “wikileaks”. The film shows him trying to overcome the government and get the truth out to the people of the world.

Fantasy Film – A man, on his way to work, is walking down a forest and falls through a hidden hole in the ground and ends up on another side of the world. The entire sequence after the whole will be filmed upside down.

Horror Film – We only had a rough idea for our horror film idea. It is based around a man who would hill somebody in their sleep but consequently not know he did it he then learns to deal with this and will eventually over come it.

Romantic Comedy – Our romantic comedy revolves around a teenage guy who begins to fall for a girl during college/university. Upon closer inspection the guy finds out that the girl is a mute. During this film they learn to overcome her disability and find true love.

We are edging towards the fantasy film idea.