A mood board is the collection of images, text and samples of materials which is designed into a collage. I have created three mood boards for three different types of film genres; romance, thriller and horror. There are many things that are associated with these genre films and they are described below.
On the right is a romantic mood board I created.Romantic Comedy's tend to be related to:
To the left is a mood board of all the things that are associated with a thriller film. A thriller films tends to consist of: -A Detective -The Police -Ammunition -Train Station -Crime Scene -Alley Way -Bio-hazard symbol -15+ age rating symbol -Countryside -House -City
The third genre mood board is horror. Things that are associated with a horror film are: -Cellars -Blood -Nightfall area such as a forest -Victim -Bad person; usually murderer or fiction character -Graveyards -House
Today's task was to contrast and compare two romatic comedy openings; How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days and Just Like Heaven. We had to analyse the sound, editing, camera angles and mise en scene in both film extracts and see what they perhaps may imply or show.
How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days was produced in 2002 and directed by Donald Petrie. It stars two very famous actors; Kate Hudson and Matthew Mcconaughey.
The film starts with the Paramount studio logo where the theme tune is overlapped with a pop song. This technique is rarley done but as a viewer we automatically know the film is a joyful romantic comedy because the song is quite upbeat. The font titles are all in lower case font and are in a variety of colours such as orange, blue, pink and yellow; showing both masculine and feminine sides. The titles fly in and out on to the screen quite rapidly empahsising the film is quite positive. As well as the titles a montage of images and clips appear on to the screen, the clips are the protagonist doing things in her day to day life and it must have inspired her to write about it in her article column, this clearly shows the film may be about her life and her profession; magazine article writer.
As the antagonist and protagonist names appear on the screen there is a split in gender showing the name on the left is written in blue and the name on the right is in pink, these are the sterotypical girl and boy colours. Although the girl is the protagonist in the titles her name is on the right hand side and the antagonist is on the left showing the antagonist is more important. However her name is higher up than the antagonist this could be showing the profession role.
Kate is known as Andie Anderson in the film and she is the protagonist whom has a glamorous inspirational job for many of the female viewers. She is the stereotypical attractive female; blonde hair and blue eyes who cares for her physique, this is shown when she is working out in the gym. As an attractive woman she can use her sexuality traits to get away with many problems, this shows her personality and again it is a stereotype. The costumes of the character is quite sophisticated yet fashionable this makes viewers envy the girl in this film because she is attractive and has wealth to purchase nice clothes.
The antagonist in the film is the male he comes on to the scene on a motorbike, dressed in black leather and incidental rock music is being played quite loudly to surround the rebel enterance. The male is a stereotype rich man because he is cool, attractive, slim fit and has money; this is shown as he has a big motorbike and they are very expensive to purchase. When the antagonist starts to speak he comes across as very flirtatious with the women who work in an office. It implies that he wants the women or has done something with the women. Another role switch we see in the opening is the female workers in smart, tailored wear whereas the antagonist is dressed casually. This automatically shows the contrast of the two genders and the irregular power change as it tends to be the male in the work area and the woman dressed casually, relaxing.
Just Like Heaven was produced in 2008 by Mark Waters, it is a more recent film than the other romantic comedy, starring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo. The film starts with the Dreamwork studio Logo it also overlaps the theme tune with a pop song similar to How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. Both of these films do this to set the genre of the film so the audience have a little insight if the film is positive or negative ie not a horror.
The film starts with the camera in an aerial shot smoothly going from the studio logo into the film through the clouds, this is also an establishing shot as it is setting the scene. Whilst the camera is still in the clouds the titles fade in and out on to the screen slowly in female related colours such as red and purple. The clouds at the start represent a heavenly atmosphere; peaceful and pure and then the camera becomes more clear allowing the viewer to see the believed protagonist. Reese Witherspoon is seen to be the protagonist, a blonde haired, blue eyed stereotypical attractive young woman who attracts the female audience. The opening scene is very feminine because of the flowers and the romantic incidental music implying the character may be in love. An anchorage is used at this point to link the name and image together, this anchoring is the Protagonist Reese Witherspoon. Dissolve cuts are used in this scene to show the passage of time as the character sits in this fantasy. A cutaway is then used to show the fantasy world was a dream and she is woken into her reality life where she is a doctor. We the audience automatically know she is a doctor due to the blue stereotypical outfit and the medical apparatus around her neck. Elizabeth the protagonist, job is also very inspirational to the female demographic. Before the 1950's women were seen as not very important except for the household duties however because of the changing of norms women's power has got a lot stronger. Therefore for the female audience to see Elizabeth as a doctor is inspirational attracting many viewers.
Slow and quiet incidental music is being played whilst Elizabeth is unable to cope with the pressure due to being exhausted however the tempo quickly changes as she automatically gains her control back and is coping with the pressure. Up beat incidental music is then played to show and emphasise this re-boost. Dissolves are used once again to show the passage of endless shifts for Elizabeth and how she is trying to work hard to get through the hours.
Elizabeth is patronised by her fellow colleagues because she only has "work to worry about" this leaves her upset due to her being lonely and doesn't have people to worry about. As well as being patronised by her fellow workers she has sister syndrome. Her older sister worries about her sister being lonely and she is trying to help match make so that Elizabeth can have a perfect nuclear family home scenario just like her. Her sister also mentions that she does not know the word busy because she doesn't have children.
As the protagonist gets excited over a promotion she unfortunately has a car accident. The sharp artificial white light that takes over the screen symbolise she is going into death, and implies her innocence and kindness. The clouds appearing over the San Francisco Golden Bridge suggest the protagonist is within the clouds showing a passage of time.
Both films have many similarities such as the opening studio logo; the two films overlap the original theme tune with an up beat pop song. This technique is done rarely for many films but many genres that are romantic comedies tend to use this sound technique as it relates to the female viewers. Another comparison within the two films are the female protagonist having great jobs. Andie and Elizabeth have jobs which the audience aspire to have, although Andie's may be more glamorous, viewers want to watch a film with somebody who has high qualifications and have good jobs, not the opposite. The two films were based on Best Selling American Novels which were turned from book to film. This is an advantage as the film already had an audience from the people whom enjoyed the book. Many films genres don't do this however it is common for romantic comedies. Andie and Elizabeth; the two protagonist of the film are stereotypically attractive young women, both with blonde hair and blue eyes. The main females in this genre have this appearance due to the audience having a perfect fantasy of a woman and a relationship. Finally the last similarity is the opening titles both end with the directors name, this is not just in the romantic genre it happens in every film.
Christian Metz was born in 1931 on the 12th December and died in 1993, 7th September. He was known for his book called Language and Cinema (1974) and the creation of genre films. Metz's theory was that genres are passed through four phases of existence; they are the experimental, the classic, the parody and the deconstruction.
The Experimental- This is the phase of early films that horror was experimented with, films include 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' (1919) and 'Noferatu' (1922).
The Classic- Is when the narrative conventions are established through the horror genre. The classics are are the most successful and defining period of time. 'Dracula' (1931) and 'Frankenstein' (1931) are examples of classic films as the character is very well known.
The Parody- This is when horror films have been mimicked in a comical way. Films that are examples of parody are 'Scary Movie' (1999), 'Carry on Screaming' (1969) and 'Abbot and Costello meet Frankestein' (1948).
The Deconstruction- Films that have taken the generic elements of the horror genre and amalgamted them into varying sub genres. Many recent films are deconstruction such as 'Blair Witch Project' (1998) and 'The Sixth Sense' (1999). As a starter task in the lessson we were given a list of films and we had to identify which had traits of horror or that were horror films. We then had to group them into the four phases.
Hammer Films was the most well known British film studio in their time, their films inspired many men to become film directors.The Film studio was created in 1934 and it was famously known for the Hammer House of Horror due to the success in thriller and horror films. Two iconic British actors that were very key to Hammer Studio were Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
Peter Cushing was born on 26th May, 1913 and died on 11th August, 1994. He most well known roles were in Dracula and Frankenstein appearing opposite Christopher Lee. Christopher Lee was born on the 27th May 1922 and is still living, aged 89. Lee was is most known for being Count Dracula and Saruman in Lord of the Rings. Lee and Cushing were very good friends and were in twenty films together, playing the antagonist and protagonist.
The second filmed that was to be analysed for task 2: Research into Exisiting Products was Red Dragon. Red Dragon is a tense thriller film created by Brett Ratner in 2002, a remake of Man Hunter (1954) . The film is a Pre Title Sequence which is when the scene is played then all the opening titles are shown, it then goes back to the scene but continues into the film. Although the titles are shown after the first scene there is one or two titles at the start, this is done to tell the audience what the film is.
The thriller was set in Baltimore, Maryland 1980; a real life place. The storyline of Red Dragon is that a retired FBI agent has been assigned the job to help track down 'The Tooth Fairy' a mysterious serial killer who is a huge fan of Dr Hannibal Lecter work (his mass murders). In order for FBI Agent; Special Agent Graham to succeed he needs the help of Dr Lecter who is in currently in a psychotic jail due to the many murders he committed.
Titles
Red Dragon starts with the opening titles of the directors name. The font colour of the two words has been separated; the forename in red and the surname in white, this is shown on a black background identical to the film title. All the text in this section uses the white vs red font text. The red font shows connotations of blood and danger, the solid black background shows fear and and darkness and the white text portrays purity and innocence. The film title shows good vs evil however as the red text is before the white it suggests that evil is dominate and the good is weak. The use of these colours instantly tell the audience the film is a thriller/ horror because the colours red, orange and black symbolise death.
Scene One
SScene 1: OpeCEBJcCVFhe scene starts with an establishing shot showing a clear view of a very grand, old fashioned styled opera house. This shot instantly tells the audience that the people watching the opera are very wealthy and upper class. We know this because at that present time you must had a high status and a good finance base to be able to watch shows in the opera house. The place of action is then shown at the bottom of the screen, it fades in to compliment the soft yet high tempo orchestral music. The text of the place is with time of the action; this means that because this scene is set in 1980 the text needs to compliment the date not to look irregular. The camera then changes to several close ups cuts of the orchester groups playing their instruments, it then changes to a medium close up of the whole orchester. The shot then changes to an extreme close up of the hand of the cello player, this is done to show the talent the musicians have. A low angle shot is used for the musicians to be looking up to the conductor; this emphasises the power the conductor has over the music and the musicians movements. A range of shots are then used showing the musicians playing their instruments, but the camera then goes into a crane shot over the conductor to the audience. Zoom in is used to show the antagonist eye match line with one of the musicians, shot reverse shot portrays what then major character is looking at. The audience are left puzzled why the major character is staring at the flute musician; concentrating very hard through the eyes. One of the main body movements the major character does to show he is the antagonist is that he tilts his head showing the cannibalistic feature he has staring at his target, implying he is a predator.
Scene Two
Another establishing shot is used to set the next scene where the action will take place. The setting illustrates the characters are in a upper class American city area, I know this because the town houses are very tall, wide, white and the pillars emphasise the wealth because in the Greek era pillars were mainly used for palaces and important buildings. The old style American cars also show the antagonist wealth even more. A sound bridge is used to guide the viewer to the room where the guests are located this is done before a cut shot showing the guests are in the dining room. The dining room futhers the wealth of the anatagonist and from the detail in the home we know the setting could be real life. The way the guests speak and the subject they talk about implies the characters are from a high status and what era the film is set in as they use words such as "cripping" and they talk about politics. The props used such as the red wine show connotations of blood and the same connotations as the opening credit titles. Dr Lecter circles the table whilst pouring the wine for his guests this is shown through a low angle shot and it is seen as he is herding the sheep, the sheep being the guests; this is emphasing the dominance and power Dr Lecture has. One of the guests uses the phrase "speaking for the rest of the herd" this indicates he is saying he is one of Lecter's followers and will obey to anything Lecter would say. A subject brought up on the dinner table is about a fellow Oprah musician whom is missing, they laugh about the disappearance as if it is not important and it is a laughing matter. This clearly shows the haughty and arrogance the guests portray and therefore they illustrate a negative image to the audience of the upper class. One of the women hastily changes the subject to food, asking Dr Hannibal Lecture what the 'divine' food is, he replies saying if the knew what the food is they would not eat it. This gives the impression that the food could be the missing Oprah musician; the flute player that Lecter glares at in the Oprah House. The Guests over emphasise their laugh and start to eat. The antagonist uses the words 'Bon Appetite' and smirks at his guests eating the body. This is shown in an over the shoulder shot of on of the female guests.
As Hannibal Lecture clears up the dishes from the dinner party he is greeted by the sound of the door bell, Special Agent Graham appears on to the screen by an over the shoulder shot from Dr Lecture. Due to the relaxed body language and that both characters know each others names it gives the audience the impression that they already know each other but it makes the audience question this because why do a Doctor and an Agent know one another? A series of shot reverse shots and over the shoulder shots are used in the build up of researching into the murder case and finding out whom the cannibal murderer is. A subjective point of view from Special Agent Graham is used to look at Hannibal's bookcase showing his hands touching the many ornaments and the book with Hannibal's secret inside. Whilst the sub POV is happening soft incidental music is being played, it is showing the tension build up. When the protagonist gets closer to the book and opens it the incidental music tempo gets louder and the camera zooms in to see what the protagonist eyes are focused at. The camera angle then changes to a medium shot showing Hannibal stabbing Graham. Graham's painful reaction is emphasised to give the audience an idea how excruciating the stabbing is and in the cutaway shot it shows Hannibal's evil streak. Many angles such as a medium close up, shot reverse shots and close ups are used when Lecture is describing what will happen to Graham after stabbing him, Dr Lecture says this in a sinister, quiet voice grinning at the same time. A high angle shot is used when Graham stabs Lecture in hope that he will be injured or will die. This angle is used to show the helplessness of Lecture and how he has become weak and not the dominate person anymore. As he stumbles backwards, the non-diegetic tempo and frequency gets louder and faste
r showing the horrifying action and vertical tracking is used to show the stabbing wound. Dr Lecture's body lays on the table after being shot by graham and the last shot has been faded out so that it links with the upcoming titles.
Scrapbook
The one last shot is faded out on to a black screen with the same font titles previously shown but this time it shows all the opening titles including the actors names and the film title. A scrapbook is faded on to the screen with the names fading on and off the screen. The scrapbook is based on Hannibal Lecture it includes all the cases, injuries, articles and many images of him and a variety of framing shots are used to show these in detail. The flipping of pages and the montage of images implies the passage of time and how the articles of Dr Lecture go from a victim to a criminal emphasising the wrongs. Many of the words in the articles are blocked out this demonstrates that the creator of the scrapbook must be in favour of Hannibal Lecture and is seen as his idol. Although many of the articles are about the antagonist the images are religiously symbolic and some are quite disturbing. The religious images could illustrate the beliefs of the scrapbook owner and he could feel that Hannibal should still live. Other images include exposed children and adults; the introduction to child exploitation and some are of actual photographs of people perhaps in the 19th century with their eyes blocked out. This suggests that the images could relate to the scrapbook owner. The music throughout the scrapbook viewing is very sinister and mysterious, the tempo increasing as the pages turn. As the scrapbook fades out the audience are left to watch more to see whom this fan of Hannibal Lecture.
'Research into existing products' is the second task which is needed for the AS Media Studies Coursework. The task set out was to analyse the opening of a thriller, horror or romantic comedy film, this would include talking about the camera angles, shots, movements, editing, sound, special features and mise-en-scene. Halloween is the film we decided to analyse as we felt it had a good starting sequence with many techniques which would allow the class to analyse in depth.
John Carpenter produced the film Halloween in 1978, the film was an independent American horror film which was based on a low budget of only $320,000. An independent film means that only a couple of people produced it without all the support and technology, they do it out of their own will with their own funds.
The horror was set in Haddonfield, Illinois, USA however it was based in a fictional suburban town on halloween, 1963. The story line of the film is a psychotic six year old boy Micheal Myres murders his older sister using a kitchen knife. Fifteen years onwards he escapes the psychiatric hospital where he had been most of his childhood and returns home on a mindless rampage. His Doctor, Dr Loomis gets suspicious of Micheal’s intentions and follows his home to prevent his killings.(wiki)
Halloween was the first well made slasher film however it contains little graphic violence or gore. The film was inspired by Alfred Hitchcooke; who produced Psycho in 1960. John Carpenter not only produced the film, he was involved with the music, directing and writing, he is known as an Auteur in this film as he had took on a role in more than one section.
The entire film is all in one shot and it is mainly point of view, however there are other techniques used. Throughout the extract the lighting is very dull to show horror to do this artificial lighting must have been used to get the effect. As well because the film is set in the 1960's, USA many Americans take holidays very seriously; their houses are always decorated for the certain theme; so many props are used such as the pumpkin. The pumpkin is sitting on the porch of the house we see this near the start and this prop is done on purpose to link it back to the opening title.
The opening of the scene starts with a black screen and just the litern pumpkin align to the left, the pumpkin light flickers continuously and the incidental music is at a high frequency and a fast tempo, this is done to set the scene and give the audience a peculiar feeling. As the opening credits start to roll a zoom in shot is used on the pumpkin's face, it is at a slow pace and then it goes into an extreme close up of the pumpkin's eye. This was done to give the audience a sense of purpose about what the film is about so the pumpkin is used to show the film is about Halloween yet the producers did not want to give too much away. As the credits come on the screen the colour of the text starts to change, it uses a mix of red, yellow and orange. These colours were used to imply and emphasise death and it gives the audience a hint that the film will be horrific.
A sound bridge is used when the title of the date and place appear on the solid black screen, the sound of children singing joyfully ends with 'trick or treat'. This implies that something mysterious is going to happen.
Forward tracking is then used showing the person whose point of view it is walking towards the house and horizontal tracking is also used to show the Sub POV is looking inside the house and following the girl and boy. In the way the setting and music is quite eerie it makes us believe it is the antagonist, this makes the audience intrigued in who it could be.
Vertical tracking is also used to show the upstairs window light turns off, a suspicious high pitched sound rings. The Sub POV then quickly goes into the house through the back; this makes the audience wonder why the character is so desperate to follow the girl and boy. The 'antagonist' wonders around the house and goes to the kitchen draw to grab a knife, as we see a hand we then realise it is human, so it is not fictional character such as a monster. Diegetic sounds are used such as the opening of the draw and the shuffling of kitchen utensils. This is just showing that there is noise which is a part of the story space, so the other characters can hear it.
The character whose point of view the audience are in then hurries up the stairs as if they have to be somewhere. As the character lurks around her room and the others the continuous breathing and humming sound is played, this portrays the eeriness in the home and makes the situation seem more real life like and gets the audience feel that something is going to happen. The antagonist approaches the bedroom of the girl, the boy has left and the character seems disgusted with the girl whereas the girl is very joyful and is humming along. The Sub POV looks down at the bed which seems as it had been used for sexual reasons and then the character approaches the girl who is not fully clothed. The girl turns around embarrassed of being naked and shouts "Micheal" as if she knows him; the audience then thinks he could be her brother. This is because the girl and boy only went upstairs because they felt somebody was watching them, she says "it's probably my brother". This then implies Micheal is her brother.
We are still in Micheal's point of view when he approaches his sister then the audience see him viciously stab his sister several of times as if he has no control over it. We hear the dialogue of her screaming/ moaning that the stabbing hurts but then she dies and collapses on the floor dead and the brother goes down the stairs at slow pace as if he had no care and goes outside.
The music throughout the killing and up to the death remains the same but the tempo gets faster after the death. This emphasises the adrenaline the brother has gotten from the murder. As the antagonist walks out the detached stereotypical American home to his parents who arrive home, shocked. His father lifts the mask of his face, the Sub POV then turns into a medium long shot of the murderer, the audience are dramatically shocked to find out the murderer was a little boy probably of six years old holding the large knife in his hand. The deep red blood on the knife shows the connotations of the boy killing his sister and his facial expressions show that he is confused and guilty. The point of view shot is the dismissed going into a crane shot, zooming away from the subject.
This is the scene we had to analyse: Halloween, 1978
The first assignment towards the Media Studies Coursework was the Preliminary task. The task was to learn how to execute the 180 degree rule, a match on action, a shot reverse shot and an eye line match and then these techniques were needed to be to incorporate into a short video. One of the techniques we as a group had to perform was the 180 degree rule, it is when two characters in any type of filming have to always have the same left/ right relationship to each other. If this is not done and the camera crosses the imaginary axis then it is known as crossing the line and therefore the shot becomes a reverse angle.
This diagram portrays visually how the 180 degree rule works. The two characters; one in blue and the other is yellow are stood opposite one another, the camera can be positioned on both sides so in this case green and red. If the camera is positioned on the red side it can only reach up to the imaginary line which reaches the green area visa versa. If the camera crosses the line the angle position of the two characters changes, breaking the 180 degree rule and it is confusing to watch for the viewers.
Match on action was also integrated into the short film by the key. This technique is when something happens in the scene but when there is a cut shot, the movement/ action continues, so the action never stops. This is also associated with continuity editing. Another filming technique that had to be included in the film was a shot reverse shot. This is when two people look at one another, for example character one looks at character two, character two then looks back at character one. Eye line match is when the audience want to know what the character in the scene is seeing, if the character is looking at another character their eyes have to line up otherwise the shot will look odd and it will not make sense.
Me and my fellow group members incorporated these techniques into our short film using a HD hand held camera and a tripod to ensure shots were not shaky. Me and Lauren Mcmanus volunteered to act although we had no experience and Abbie Price did all the camera work. Once we finished filming we all edited the shots on iMovie and created a film, we included sound, a main page and credits.
In my opinion the strengths of the short production was the sound and the techniques we had to include. The sound worked well with the piece as at the start; the main page there was a mysterious vibe and it complimented the story line title. There was sound throughout the piece fading in and out at different parts, this was done to give the production a tense atmosphere, a mysterious vibe and make the audience worry about what is going to happen next. I also believe we did the filming techniques correctly such as the 180 degree rule, a match on action, a shot reverse shot and an eye line match, we did not break the rules and it fitted into the production quite well.
Although there were positive areas in our production there were also some weak areas such as the place where we filmed. We decided to film outdoors and at the back of the academy as we felt the piece would seem more dodgy and we liked that the wind added to the natural ambient sounds. However the wind was very strong and this affected our piece as it was hard to hear the characters speaking so we had to increase the frequency of our voices. Due to filming outdoors the lighting affected one of the shots making it unable to view the shot however we did some editing on iMovie and made it able to view.
