Our thriller :)

In our most recent media lesson me and my group went round school with the digital photo camera's to take the photo's that will be on the dartboard. These turned out to be a great success and looked very proffessional. We wanted them to look as if the five girls were being followed/stalked. Once we had taken the five photo's we went back to the apple mac room, where me,cerys and tasha edited the photo's. We decided to put them all in black and white to add to the thriller genre of the film. These are the five photo's we took....hope you enjoy :)

samantha xx

Coursework - Analysis of a thriller.

Recently in media we were set a piece of coursework to analyse a thriller of our choice. The film i chose was the secret window starring Johnny Depp. The five main sections we had to discuss were the music, the titles and text, the individual camera shots, the characters and locations & the effects. This is my essay :-

The purpose of an opening sequence is mainly to build up tension and atmosphere and to give clues to the audience of what will happen. In the open sequence for 'The Secret Window' there are lots of important key feautures used to create a frightening atmosphere. These main features are the music, titles & text, characters & location, individual camera shots and effects.

The music used in the opening sequence is very effective because it adds to the eerie feel of the film and makes the thriller seem more frightening. The sound you hear in the opening sequence is very simple but very effective. There is the use of a piana and the music is very slow and repetative. The music doesn't change in the opening seqeunce, it has the same speed and the same level of sound throughout. Therefore it is very simple. The use of the piano makes the music sound very mysterious and creepy and almost as if something unexpected in about to happen.

The titles and text is another very important key factor throughout the sequence. This is because all of the titles are shown in a simple white font, including the title of the film. However, the title of the film then changes from white into red, this is very important because it adds to the horror of the film. The use of the red font connotes blood and danger which makes the film seem more thrilling. I also think it is important how all of the other titles remain in a white font; therefore the title of the film is the only part that is red making it stand out and create more tension.

Another very important key factor is the individual camera shots. the opening sequence starts of with the image of the car with the one door open. This helps create an eerie atmosphere becdause it makes the audiencewhat has happened and makes them want to carry on watching the film to find out. This image then changes into the picture of a river and then you see a long shot of the house. The camera then slowly begins to zoom up into the house, and then slowly goes through the window. Then there is a long shot of the room and the camera spins around the room and zooms into the laptop where there is writing on the screen. The camera then leads downstairs and into the other room where you see the character lying on the sofa.

The characters and locations are also important in the opening seqeuence because they help add to the horror of the film and create the thriller genre. The main location of the house is set in a wide open space; you can only see the one house which is surronded by the forrest. This helps create a frightening atmosphere because there is nothing else around, therefore it is scarier because it helps to create tension. In the opening sequence for 'The Secret Window' the audience don't get a chance to get to know any of the characters. The only character the audience get to see is the man lying on the sofa, but we don't see enough of him in the opening sequence to understand about his character.

There are also a lot of effects used to add to the thriller genre of the film, for example the use of the fading effect when the image of the car slowly fades into the image of the lake and the fading from a long shot of the house to a close up. These effects helpto create the idea of someone getting closer to the house.

All of these key factors help to create a frightening atmosphere and add to the tension; therefore they are important in making the film more of a successful thriller and can help to keep the audience entertained and want to carry on watching. Therefore I think that the opening sequence for 'The Secret Window' is very effective and thrilling.

Samantha :) xx

Recent Media lessons...

We looked in more detail at codes and conventions and we discussed them as a class. The codes and conventions we looked at were technical codes, verbal codes and symbolic codes. We learnt that the technical codes involved camera angles, lighting, frames and typography. We learn that the verbal codes involve everything to do with language, this includes everything in the scene that is written or said. The symbolic codes are everything that is linked with our cultural reference or experience.
We also learnt more about equilibrium, disequilibrium and equilibrium restored. Equilibrium is the atmosphere or mood at the beggining of the film. Disequilibrium is when the atmosphere or mood gets disturbed, when something goes wrong and there is a twist in the story. Equilibrium restored means when the problem has been solved and happiness/equilibrium has been restored.
Recently, We have also learnt about Todorov's theory and Propp's theory. Todorov's theory is the basic structure for all narrative sequences. He states how most films usually involve equilibrium, disequilibrium and equilibium being restored. This is often reffered to as 'The Hollywood Sequence.' Propp's theory was formed in the 20th century. His main studies consist of russian fairytales. He discovered that in these studies there are usually 8 types of characters. Once the character has been identified, it is easy to guess what they will do in the narrative.
The final thing we learnt was Levi - Strauss' Binary Oposition. This is when narrative tension is based on opposition or conflict, this usually occurs in a movie ideological level, e.g westerns.

Thats all for now,
Samantha xx

Film Idea...

In a recent media lesson we were put into our film production groups and the aim of the lesson was to decide upon a few ideas for our narrative. We came up with three ideas but after a lot of discussing we all agreed on one idea that we thought was the best. This idea was that there would be the image of a dartboard with lots of different womens faces on it and there would be darts through all of their faces excpet for one, then we would film the woman being followed and then the woman screaming. The film would then go back to the darboard with a dart through the final womans face. We also set everyone in the group with pre-production, production and post production tasks. I am in charge of the list of camera shots, Directing and special effects. I am really excited to start filming :)


Samantha xx

Media workshop

On the 9th of october we had our re-scheduled(because of fire alarms) media workshop. The day was an incredible experience and a lot of fun! By the end of the day me and my group had completed our continuity excercise. The sequence of our film was a person walking up to a room, opening a door, walking through a door and sitting down opposite someone.
The two people then had a quick conservation and then maybe exchange something. Before we started the excercise we had to make sure that our planning was completed. The planning included thinking about what shots we would use, the dialogue and then creating a storyboard. On the storyboard we included things like camera shot, sound and the shot duration. We included a variety of different shots because we thought it would make the sequence more interesting. After we filmed all of our shots we went onto the apple macs and started to edit our work using a program called imovie, we then put all the different shots in order so the sequence made sense and then we had to cut and edit the shots. Finally we added some effects, credits and music to complete our sequence. Then we had the completed sequence, this day was a lot of fun as well as being educational. I really enjoyed it!!

samantha xx

Media for schools filming day!!

A few weeks ago me and three other people from my media class attented a media filming day at the vale. It was a charity event organised by sony and we were accomponied by media for schools. We took part in fliming the golfers taking there first shot!! another thing we did was two of us were filming the other two of our group interviewing some famous people. We had the chance to interview neil jenkins, ieuan evans and nicky piper!!! Throughout the day we learned how to use and set up the video camera and also how to set up the tri-pod. We also learned more about different camera shots and angles and we all had the chance to ride the golf buggy's. I really enjoyed the day and think that the film will end up looking very proffesional. I would love to have the opportunity to do something similar to this in the future as it has really improved my knowledge and understanding of filming.

Samantha xx

storyboards...

Today in media we worked in small groups and began to create a storyboard for our continuity excercise. I learnt that a storyboard is a graphical representation of camera shots for a film sequence. After the script for the film has been written the next step is to draw up the storyboard, the storyboard tells the story of the film panel by panel. A storyboard is created to give the director something to follow when filming begins. We also learnt that a storyboard should have information about which characters are in the frame, whether or not there is any dialogue, how long each shot should be, camera shots and whether or not there is any music or sound. As a class we also looked at an example of a storyboard called "P is for Psycho" so that we could have something to help us with the process of creating our storyboards.

Saul Bass opening sequence

In the opening sequence for catch me if you can the music connotes a chase or an adventure, it is quite mysterious and there is the use of trumpets to try and create the theme of an adventure. The music is quite repetative but there are some slight variations in it for example when the stairs appear the music gets higher and then an the taxi's appear it gets slower, it sometimes gets lower in parts aswell, to give the idea that the chase is still going on. The colours used are all very bright, mainly made up of blues and yellows to show that the film is not a horror or thriller genre it is more of an adventure theme. The images are of animated characters mainly a man being followed and trying to hide. The mans appearance keeps changing so that he can sneak off and disappear from the person that it trying to catch up with him. The graphics used for the films title "catch me if you can" are all in black apart from the word me which resembles a white cloud which then begins to float of, this connotes that the man in the film is always 'floating away' and dissapearing. The graphics make up many different scenes e.g the swimming pool, the taxi's and the plane to show the different ways in which the character keeps excaping in the title sequence. The title sequence is very good at showing the audience what the film is going to be like and what it is about e.g the chase. The audience are also able to tell from the title sequence what type of genre it is due to the images and music, in effect the title sequence is short preview of what is to come in the film.

Media lesson

During one of our recent media lessons we watched the opening sequences of two Saul Bass title sequences and analysed them, these films were Vertigo and Psycho. The things we were asked to comment on were Image, use of camera, colour, graphics and music.


In the opening sequence for Psycho the music is very dramatic and discordent. The type of instruments used are the strings and orchestrals. This fits is very well with the graphics which are quite plain but fast. The font is also quite plain but stands out very well against the backround.

In the opening sequence for vertigo the music is very slow and mysterious but it is also very dramatic. The graphics used are graphics that resemble an eye. The camera does a close up of the womans face and then goes into a big close up of her eyes. This image fits in very well with the mysterious atmosphere given off from the music.

Psycho shower scene

During our most recent media lesson, as a class we watched the very famous shower scene from psycho. Whilst watching this we were also asked to make notes on things such as the creation of suspense, use of music, camera work and editing.
There were about 40 - 45 cut edits in the scene, the edits start off quite slow with the woman getting into the shower and then become faster and faster as the music begins when the curtain is pulled open.
The music used in this scene is very dramatic and high pitched with the use of violins to create a frightening and tense atmosphere. There is also a use of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds.
The most important uses of camera are when the woman is in the shower and the camera does a long shot of the woman so that you can see the killer coming closer towards the shower, another important use of camera is when the camera zooms into the plughole and then zooms out of the womans eye.

In media so far...

During our media lessons so far we have been studying some film productions by students from different comprehensive schools and some of the students work from local colleges.
We have been looking at the different camera movements and positions and discussing how each shot would have been created.
We have also learnt about a lot of different principles used when filming including :-
1) Match on action - This is used to create the impression of continuity throughout the filming. It is basically cutting and editing the shots and putting them back together.
2) Shot reverse shot - This is when two characters are having a conversation. One character would be facing left and the other would face right. This means that you are able to edit between a character talking and a character listening.
3) 180 degree rule - When using this rule you are taught to imagine that there is a line drawn across the room cutting the room in half.

The work of Saul Bass!

Saul Bass was an incredible graphical designer born in 1920. He was very famous because of the work he did with Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese. He created a lot of famous sequences, the first of which was the title sequence for "The Man With The Golden Arm" in 1955. His other well known title sequences include Psycho, Goodfellas, Vertigo, Casino Royal and The Age Of Innocence. He is also well known for designing logo's and film posters in America.

My first post!

Hi im samantha and this is my first ever blog.
Im really excited to be starting my A Level media course.
It is a whole new experience doing my work through a blog and so far i am really enjoying it....I am really looking forward to completing this blog :)