Analysis of other students films

Analysis of student films

Genre- the genre for this clip is easy to answer because it uses stereotypical iconography from other action films for example guns and men in suits chasing someone. In action films these are very normal things to have in and they are used to make it exciting and get the audience on the edge of their seats.

Editing- the editing throughout this clip also helps to identify the specific genre this student has done. He used fast paced editing when the chase started so that it created more action and excitement.

Sound- there was only non-diegetic sound used in this clip and that was a tune with high tempo. This was used again to go with the editing in order to show the audience that there was action going on. I think the sound used was good because it was relevant to the piece which is the most important part. I think the editing to this piece was good especially with the titles because he has done something different to what most films do and it is difficult to edit like that.

Camera- this clipped used a wide variety of shots and angles.  This is good because it gives the audience more to look at and isn’t as boring. It used establishing, point of view, long, close up, and mid shots.

Mise en scene- the lighting was quite low key and this helped the scene to look more mysterious and as an audience you didn’t really know what was going to happen because it was all quite dingy. The clothes of all the characters were quite stereotypical for an action film. You had the two men trying to chase the boy dressed in black suits like “Men in Black” so you could see that they were agents or something along the lines of that. The boy who was being chased was dressed in stereotypical youngster clothes. He was wearing a hoodie, chinos and roller blades. If it was an adult who was wearing the roller blades it maybe wouldn’t look as right and believable to the audience and they would wonder why he was wearing them. They also used good props for example the device that the boy was holding in the elevator because the audience wouldn’t know what it is or what it done so it would make themselves ask questions which is what you want from an opening sequence.

Titles- The titles from this clip were really good because they started from the start and they were edited in as if they were actually in the scene. The titles were also in the standard structure with the director’s name right at the end of the sequence.

Character- the characters were represented well because they looked and acted exactly like they would in a real action movie.

 

Genre- the genre for this piece again was very obvious, it was an action/thriller. This was shown all the way through by some of the iconography used. For example just like the other piece, they were wearing suits and had guns. This comes up a lot in action films and is a way to establish that they are some form of agent.

Editing- the editing for this piece was not bad. I think that it could have been faster paced when we were looking for the man but it wasn’t too bad. The titles were also added in well and it looked good.

Sound- the sound to this clip was good because it was what it needed to be. It was a medium to high temp which showed that there was going to be some action involved and it also gave the audience some ‘action code’ because it gave an idea of when something was about to happen because the music picked up in pace.

Camera- the camera for this sequence was okay as it used a good variety of shots including; panning, establishing, low angle and long shots. The problem I found with it though was that the camera was clearly hand-held and it was very shaky and I’m not sure that it was intentional so that was a bad point about this clip.

Mise en scene- like the other sequence I have analysed, this included a lot of the same props and clothing for example the suits and guns. This used low key lighting which is stereotypical for an action/thriller as it showed that it was mysterious and wasn’t going to be a positive movie aimed at young children.

Titles- the titles for this sequence were edited in well. It looked good and the font and colours went with the piece. The structure to the titles was different to normal though because it had the directors’ name before the film name. This is an odd thing to have because you would normally have it the other way round.

Characters- the characters were represented well for an action/thriller because they were wearing what you would expect them to wear. If in the clip they were just wearing some tracksuit bottoms running round with a plastic blue coloured gun it would look very unprofessional but they have made it look believable to the audience.

 

 

 

Analysis of film sequences done in class

Analysis of film sequences

Genre- looking at this sequence I think this genre would be a drama. This is because it looks like a realistic film about real life problems which regular people deal with.

Editing- the editing throughout this piece was good and it was slow paced. It’s good that it was slow paced because as it wasn’t an action it didn’t need to have quick cuts and it made it look more realistic.

Sound- the sound for this clip was probably the best part because it let the audience know of the genre and what type of film it is going to be. It had non-diegetic guitar playing slowly as well as a voce over on top who was narrating.  As she was talking, it was giving the audience an idea of what the film was going to be about because she was giving them information about her friendship.

Camera- the camera in this clip was good because it was held well and wasn’t shaky. They also used a good variety of shots and angles that include; establishing, panning, long, mid and close ups. It is good to have a number of different shots because it gives the audience mire to look at. They also had a good location for their establishing shots because it was very naturalistic.

Mise en scene- the characters were wearing causal clothes which you would expect to see in this sequence because they w ere just at the beach on a cold English day. The lighting that they used was good because it was naturalistic and this is what you would expect to see from a drama. No props were used in this clip because they didn’t need to use them.




Titles- the titles for this film sequence had a good structure and started from the beginning with the institutional logos and then went all the way through to the end of the sequence with the directors name last. That is a good structure for film titles and it is very important to have good structure.

Characters- the characters for this piece were good because they were relevant to what the movie was going to be about. What I mean by that is because the characters were aged about 16, sometimes it can look unprofessional if they are trying to play adult characters but because they had thought about what there movie would have been about, the characters could be around that age meaning that it looked good and was relevant.

Film Opening Analysis

Analysis of film openings  

Skyfall

Character- as the opening sequence begins you see Daniel Craig fall into some water and not moving as he has just been shot. Straight away we can see its Daniel Craig so we know he will be the main character in this film and he is playing James Bond. Throughout this first sequence we do not see any other character and we just see Bonds animation picture.

From this screenshot you can see what the film is going to be about and you know it will be a typical Bond film. It has the women and guns in showing that it will involve action.

 

 

 

Atmosphere- as Bond falls in the water at the start is quite a negative atmosphere and the non-diegetic is slow at this time but as the music picks up and goes into the chorus, Bond seems to come alive and starts to kill his enemy and it is shown in a more positive light because the protagonist in this film is still alive.

Setting- throughout this clip there is nothing to show which the possible location could be.

Sound- Adele’s song ‘Skyfall’ is played in the background throughout this clip. They have edited it so that the opening sequence is in time with the song to make it look as good as possible. To start off with the non-diegetic music is very slow and quiet and this shows the negativity when Bond fell in the water after being shot but when he came back to life the music started to get louder showing more positivity.

Titles- the titles came in from the start showing some of the big names first and it ended with the director of this film right at the end. This is a normal structure to films titles.

Narrative- you know what is going to happen in this film because it shows iconography in items such as guns, women and skulls. The skulls were representing death so you know some people are going to die in this film and this gives you an idea to what the genre is going to be (action).

Themes- the themes for this film were shown in the opening by him wearing a stereotypical agent suit with a handgun. This shows he must be important and that it is going to involve action in the rest of the movie.

Editing- the editing throughout was fast paced with a lot going on, on the screen. This showed again that the genre for this film was going to be action and shows the audience it is going to be exciting.

 

 

 

 

21 Jump Street

Characters- straight away Johanna Hill is introduced getting off a school bus and walking into school dressed like Eminem. He then walks into school to ask a girl to prom but gets taken the mick out of by Channing Tatum playing as the other character.  From this opening 20 seconds it has introduced the two main characters in the film and you know what kind of genre it is going to be from previous films these two actors have played before. As an audience member you can also understand it is going to be a good film because of the stars who are introduced quickly.

 

 

Atmosphere- as he gets off the bus it is quite negative as he is walking on his own, dressed as Eminem and you can see he doesn’t have much confidence about himself and when he sees the girl who he is asking to prom the non-diegetic music from Eminem stops playing as he asks her out.  Even though the atmosphere is slightly negative, it stills shows the audience humour.

Setting- you can see that it is a school in America somewhere because in the first few seconds he gets off a yellow school bus which are genuinely just in America.

Sound- It stars off with non-diegetic music by Eminem whilst one of the characters is trying to look like Eminem to seem cool. This also shows the audience who this character is trying to look like because if the music wasn’t playing, the audience might not have realised who he is trying to be.

Title- the titles throughout is minimal. It only shows the institutional logos and does not show any other names. One of the logos flashed red and blue which connotes it will be something to do with the police throughout the film.

Genre- right from the start the audience recognise it will be a comedy.

 

 

 

Dark Knight

Character- to start with the characters are not shown because they have masks on. About half way through the scene batman is introduced but without his suit on and is just a regular person at this moment in time. The Joker is towards the end of this clip. These characters have the most camera time showing that they will be important characters.

Atmosphere- it is negative throughout the opening scene because the group of antagonists are robbing a bank and no one can do anything about it at this moment in time.

Setting- you can see it is in New York because an establishing shot was used straight away which showed the city.

Sound- as the institutional logos come in at the start for the first minute or so it is silent. This may have been done to create tension as the audience wouldn’t know what was too come.

Titles- there was institutional logos at the start but there was no listings of directors or actors at all.

Narrative- you could see that there was going to be a bank robbery and that Batman was going to come back from retirement to sort things out.

Genre- Action, this was shown by the fast paced editing and the weapons the men had when robbing the bank.

 

 

 

Analysis of film openings

Analysis of film openings

In order for me to make a successful film opening it would be a good idea for me to take a look at other film openings from real films that have been created and analyse them. This will then show me what I need to have in mine and what I shouldn’t have in order for my film opening to be at a good, professional standard.

My Best Friend’s wedding

Character- In this opening clip it had all the big names at the start. This showed the audience who is going to be in the film so if they had big actors/actresses it would show that the movie is a high quality.

Atmosphere- the atmosphere is very happy and there is lots of pink to connote love.  This shows the audience that it might be a bit of a chick flick and a film that women are going to like more than men.

Genre- romantic comedy.

Narrative- it shows the audience that it is going to be about love and romance. In the name of the film it also shows that there is likely to be a wedding and someone will be getting married.

Themes- love. The light coloured pink with bridesmaids connotes there is going to be romance in it. The pink is the main colour throughout the clip and without it the audience might be confused as to what genre it is.  

Titles- the font of the titles was very elegant and like as if it was a wedding invitation. This again shows to the audience that this is likely to be a bit of a chick-flick and will show it is going to be a romance.

Sound- it used diegetic sound and she is singing with the music in the background as if it is her voice. This fits in of the genre again because it is a women singing about love giving away the genre.

 

Catch Me If You Can

Characters- in the opening, it is in animation so you cannot see what character is played by who so they has little arrows pointing to the character with the name come up so you could see who is in the film as well as who is playing who.

This is an example of one of the arrows pointing to a character with their name so the audience knew who was playing who in the film.

 

Atmosphere- the atmosphere throughout this clip is quite exciting and you can see what the film is going to be about. The animation sums up for the audience what is going to be happening and that there is going to be a chase throughout the film.

Genre- adventure thriller.

Setting- the setting of this gives you quite a retro feel to it and you know that it is set in the past because of what the detective is wearing and other things to connote that it was set in the past. The detective was wearing a really stereotypical outfit for in the days when this was set with that hat. You also see the location of where this is set by the taxi. It is a yellow taxi and they are only in New York so this tells the audience where it is set.

 

Sound- throughout this clip it is fast paced sound whilst working with the editing so it is in time perfectly.  This gives it a more adventure feel to the film and you know that it might have some action in.

Titles- the film titles come in early and it shows the crew member and some of their jobs and the cast. It is in a specific order with the director (Steven Spielberg) last.

Narrative- it uses iconography and you can see that there will be a big chase throughout the film.

 

Children of Men analysis

Analysis of films

Children of Men-

At the start of the clip, you see the Universal institution logo come up. It came up in silence and there was no sound at all. This was done to focus the audience on the news reporter when he started talking whilst the screen was still black. As the screen was still black when the reporter was talking meant that the audience had their full attention on him because there was still nothing to see and they would have to just listen to understand what was going on. By the institutional logos coming up in silence it also showed off that the genre was to be a drama because already it had a dramatic start.

This picture is showing the institutional logo for the film. As an audience member, if you see one of the 'big 6' names come up, you know that it is going to be a film of a higher budget meaning that it is going to be of a high standard film. this will help to hook the audience because they are going to know it is a big mainstream film therefore they are more likely to like it.

In terms of lighting for this clip it was very low key and also had a dark green tint to it. This showed the audience again that the genre could be a sci-fi because it wasn’t natural lighting and didn’t look realistic. This would have an effect on the audience by making them unsure of what is going to happen and make them ask themselves questions in their head.


This is a screenshot showing evidence of the low key lighting. You can see that it is not realistic lighting meaning that it might come off as a Sci-fi to the audience.

With camera work in this clip, it was all hand held. This meant that there was a higher verisimilitude as it would the audience feel like they were there with them and it is more realistic. This makes the audience feel more involved in a film and can draw them in. also to help the audience feel like they were there they used point of view shots. This would make them feel like they were looking at the same things the characters were and again making them feel more involved within the film. This point of view shot was used when the man was watching the TV news report and the camera showed from his angle the TV screen.

The editing for this clip was slow paced up until the explosion. This allowed the audience to look at the smaller details within the clip for example the vehicles in the background which you would normally find in somewhere such as India.  This also allowed them to see the location of where the film is being set which was London because it showed the red buses which if the editing was fast paced, the audience would not be as likely to see it or notice the buses.

The sound was very quiet throughout the clip up until the explosion which was made for more tension and made the audience ask questions. It also meant that people would focus in the news report which was talking about the disaster which happened and allowed the audience to know what the film was going to be about.

This clip showed a number of possible genres it could have been but I think it would be a sci-fi drama. This is because it didn’t seem very realistic in the way that it had a tint to it and the storyline was about something that is not normal to happen.

I also noticed that within this clip there were no titles at all apart from the film name. This is different to the way that films are normally presented because it will normally have some of the cast and crew at the start to show who is in it. This may have been done to surprise the audience or keep everything quite mysterious.

I think this film has targeted the audience of men of about 15-30 years old. This is because it seems like it might have some action in and includes death and women don’t stereotypically like violence or that kind of thing and I think it has to be above 15 year olds because anyone younger than that may not understand it or shouldn’t be able to see the content yet.

This opening scene was being represented in a negative way in which the world might have been coming to an end. This was shown by the green tint to the scene and also there was nothing at all happy shown within the scene.

The man who was shown throughout the clip looked as if he could have been the “hero” within the film because the main focus was on him showing that he would be the main character and he is likely to save the world somehow.  Even though he could have been the hero, he might have been classed as an “unsatisfactory hero” because he was drinking alcohol which looked to be like during the middle of the day which wouldn’t be a stereotypical hero thing to do.

Differences between film openings and film trailers

 

Differences between film openings and film trailers

Film opening and film trailers are completely different things but a lot of people still get confused between which is what. They have a lot of differences between them to make them completely separate from one another and when making an opening for a film, it is vital that I know exactly what an opening needs to have in it in order to not make the mistake of creating a film trailer.

Film trailers

·         Film trailers show information about the film, for example it might show when it is going to be released and quotes from critics to try and show off that the movie is a good film so the audience will want to watch it.

·         It will show a montage of the best clips in the film so that the audience will get a general idea of what it is about and if they will want to see that movie or not. It will use a lot of fade to blacks to aid the montage and show time moving on.

·         It will tend to show the title of the movie at the end so that people will know what it is called.

·         It will sometimes use a tag line for example ‘there is no plan B’.

Film openings

·         It will give details of cast and crew so the audience know who to expect in this film and know who made it etc.

·         It introduces the main characters that are in that particular film.

·         It will normally establish the place where the movie will be set.

·         It will show the historic period for example a movie which was set in the 1940’s will show possible soldiers from the war.

·         Gives information regarding the mood or tone.

·         It will show which genre this movie is.

·         It will make the audience ask questions about the film in their head.

·         Sets the film up.

 

Film openings establish:

·         Genre

·         Narrative

·         Characters

·         Atmosphere

·         Themes

·         Setting

·         Sound

·         Titles

 

Film openings are important within a film because this is the part of the film that has too hook the audience. This is because it is right at the start of the film so if the audience do not like where the film is going, they are not going to want to watch it.

I have attached two videos to this post. One of the videos is the Fast And Furious trailer. This backs up my points and shows evidence of what a trailer will include.

The other video is the opening scene of The Hangover showing what an opening scene will have in.

This is my Preliminary task/evaluation/storyboard

Storyboard

This is a picture of our storyboard. This helped us to film as it gave us an idea of the shots we had to use and the basic story. Although we found this quite useful but as we were going along we changed our storyline a bit because our original one was not up to scratch.  The storyboard was created by George and I.

Script

 

Josh started by making the initial script and we was all happy with it until we started filming. This is when we discovered that it wasn’t working well enough so we decided to change what we were doing slightly. We all then had an input of how we wanted the main story to go and each had our fair share of ideas.

The script:

Josh: (sits down) oi, I like your hat.

 

Alastair: You what? *aggressively*

 

Josh: You heard!

 

Alastair: (stares piercingly)

 

Description of idea for the task

 

First of all, we wanted to have a big build up scene that caused tension. We done this by making the character walk up with his hood up to show him as quite mysterious and this allowed us to use a good match on action as he was going through a door.  

We also wanted our characters to have an argument so that we could show a shot reverse shot. This made it nice and easy for us because it makes his shot very simple if they are not moving.

Whilst the characters were having the argument they were sitting down. We done this so it kept our 180 degree rule easy and we couldn’t really do it wrong.

The filming

An explanation of how you found the filming and the difficulties you faced. 

I really enjoyed doing the filming because I liked who I was working with. It made it so much easier with them because I wasn’t shy to put my ideas across and we are all working on the same wave length. We didn’t really have any major problems in the filming as we all got along and liked everyone’s ideas.  The only slight problem we had was that we had to make sure to bring the same clothes in to school when filming because otherwise it would not look right.

 

How did you find using the equipment – what was difficult/easy?

 

The equipment was fairly easy to work with. It was a simple camera so I knew how to use it because of previous experience with other cameras alike.

I did however find the editing difficult at the start because I had never used this editing programme we used before whereas my other friends in the group have had some previous experience even if it was small. I got over this issue by letting them take the majority of control whilst I watched how to do things etc. when I felt ready I could help with the editing and know how to use the programme, they let me have my go and I felt comfortable doing it with their support.


What problems/issues did you face when filming?

 
As I have said previously, the only problem we had was keeping all the right clothes for when we was doing the actual filming so it matched every time we filmed and he audience would no know we filmed on different days.

Did you change anything whilst you were filming? If so, what and why?

 
We decided to change our script because we felt it wasn’t working as well as it could have done. We got over this problem by having another sit down and come up with new ideas what we thought could work.

Did you have to re-film anything? If so, what and why?

We re-filmed the start because we changed our script and story meaning we had to start over again. This wasn’t too much of a problem because we had lots of time to do it again and we didn’t have to rush it.

Did you feel your group fully prepared yourself for filming? How did you do?

I think our group felt fully prepared to film because we were all happy with our new story. It was also good because we had two different people (George and I) looking over two different cameras so we can get different angles and both are happy with what was being filmed. This also gave us a better chance of spotting mistakes.

We got fully prepared by finishing our storyboard and script before we went out and started filming. If we wouldn’t have done this then we may have struggled when we were filming for ideas and our short film may not have been as good.

How did your group work together when filming?

Our group worked together well when filming because we all work on the same wave length and know what each other are talking about. Being able to work with the people really benefited me personally because I knew if I put an idea across, they would understand my idea and take it on board.

What did you enjoy most when filming?

I enjoyed doing the actual filming because I have never had much experience of trying to film a piece of work in a serious way. I enjoyed working with the people I did and it made it fun.

Our film

Our film is about one individual called Josh that goes into work one day and sees his colleague wearing a rather large funny hat, but it seems that the hat wasn’t as amusing as josh thought. This then lead to josh getting beaten up and thrown out the window by his fellow colleague.

 
Shot list-

Establishing shot

Long shot

Close up

Mid-shot

Extreme close up