Montage Editing.

Montage editing.

Montage editing became famous once Rocky came out. Rocky used this to show progress after along time only in a few minutes. In Rocky it showed the difference between him and his nemesis, it showed that he used quite poor techniques to train like living at a farm he didn't use a boxing bag, but instead a big piece of meat to punch, the opponenet had modern and 'better' training and the montage section of the film showed the difference between their training. Montages are in films to show progress, that's the whole reason that montages are placed in films are to show good progress they have made in a long time in only 5-10 minutes. 

Media Video.

Sound exercise. (VIDEO)

Sound exercise.

Lighting Exercise Evaluation.

Lighting Exercise Evaluation.

In this sound exercise, we used different lighting techniques to show what each shot can do to a scene in a movie. Diferrent shots can make different effects for the viewer. 

Key lighting.

Key lighting is lighting that comes from one side, for example in the video where only half the face has light on it, this effect is used a lot in photograpahy to show mystery. Key lighting is used to show predominantly dark tones and shadow but where the light is there are usually expresed colours or if no colours it is in black and white. 

Back lighting.

Back lighting is when you illuminate the person or subject from behind. This causes the edges of whatever is being lighten up from behind to glow, while all the other areas remain dark. This lightiung is usually made by a 4 point lighting setup, this set up is usally behind the subject or directily behind it so that the best effect is made. This would be effective in a horror movie when the director does not want the villian to be shown as of yet so this lighting would be best to use as it looks very mysterious aswell.

Filler light 3 point lighting.

This lighting is mostly used in television, stage, film or photographic lighting. A fill light may be used to reduce contrast of a scene and attempt to eradicate parts of the scene where there are shadows. A common lighting set up is made up of three lights around the object or person you want to do this scene with, 2 of the lights are at the front, one is called key light and the other is called fill light, the light at the back is called back light, the image below is a typical three-point lighting.

Under lighting.

Under lighting is a very effective way of using light to create a sense of fear in a scene. This lighting technique is mostly used in classic horror movies and sometimes seen in modern horros, but not as much as it used to be used. This lighting is made when the object or person has a light below themselves. This can be simply made even at home with just a torch on under your face and the same effect is made.

Top lighting.

Top lighting is mostly used in modeling photography where the persons face is shined on by the light to take away any inperfections they may have, for example wrinkles. This happens because the light goes into the skin and makes it look very smooth and round so that the person looks their best taking a photo. An example of this is below.

Low key lighting.

Low key lighting uses only one key light, optionally controlled with a fill light of a simple reflector. You can chose where you want to make shadows on the object when doing a low key lighting shot, you can make certain shadows depending on where you place the light. Low key lighting only uses one light source usually. Below is an example of low key lighting.

High key lighting.

High key lighting is a style of lighting for film, television or photography that ains to reduce the lighting ratio present in the scene. In the 1950s and 1960s, high key lighting was achieved through multipul light sources lighting up one scene. The Advantage of high key lighting is that it doesn't require adjustment for each scene whiche allows the production of a scene or multipul scenes to happen in hours instead of days.

Mise-en-Scene.

Mise-en-Scene.

Mise-en-Scene is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means 'visual theme' or 'telling a story'. When applied to the cinema, mise-en-scene refers to everything that appears infront of the camera and the way it is arranged, this inclued sets, props, actors, costumes, lighting and sound. The various elements of design help express a films vision by generating a sense of time and space, as well as setting a mood, and sometimes suggesting a characters state of mind. Mise-en-scene  also included the composition which consists of the positioning and movement of actors, as well as objects in the shot. Mise-en-scene can change the way you look at a certain scene once you look into it in depth, objects may have a big effect of a characters personality or what you can gather from a scene, like the effects of certain lighting and sound. An example of this is in 'We Need to Talk to Kevin' where you have to watch the whole film to understand why some of the mise-en-scene is in certain lighting, why the director decideds to use certain colours and props, all these things come to play when you want to talk about the mise-en-scene.

Alfred Hitchcock.

Alfred Hitchcock.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock was an English film director and producer. He used many techniques in the suspense and psychological thirller genres. After a successful in British cinema, not only silent films and some early sound films, he took the title of the best British director, then Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939 and became a US citizen in 1955. Over a career that has been going for half a century, Hitchcock fasioned ofr himself a distinctive directional style so when a film was played you could tell it's directed by Hitchcock.

Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings, and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, crime and murder. He used decoys or 'MacGuffins' that serve the films theme of being psychological examinations of the characters. Hitchcocks films also borrow many themes for psychoanalysis and feature some strong sexual overtones. Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career going on for six decades, often regarded as the all time greatest British filmmaker, he came first in a 2007 poll of film critics in Britian's Daily Telegraph. He was such a big infulenece to the thriller genre he was nicknames 'The Master of Suspense'. 

Psycho Analysis.

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

Psycho is a thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Thrillers usually have frequent action through out. An example of this from the film is the most famous scene, the 'Shower scene'. This scene is not only the most famous scene in the film but the one of the most known cinema scenes ever. The scene is so famous due to the way it was filmed, the music, the cuts and the shots. This is such a famous scene that even people that have not seen the film know that scene, it's such a rememberable scene that people started getting afraid of having a shower because they realized how venerable they are in there and had baths instead. The music consists of screeching violins which creates a lot of drama while she is getting murdered in the scene by the psycho. The scene starts with the character having a shower then you see the shadow of the murderer and then the screeching music comes in and it all fits in well with the cuts that are made in the camera work as well. The scream is also very nerve racking due to it being so loud and realistic, a myth was that Hitchcock did not tell the character in the shower what was going to happen and just told her to stand in the shower which made the scream more authentic.

In Psycho there is a not really a hero, because the psycho murders many women, but at the end Marion Crane is about to get murdered by the psycho Norman and her boyfriend comes through the door in the nick of time and saves her life by grabbing the psycho. That is the only example of there being a hero in the film. There are many examples of suspense and shock, the shower scene is so early in the film and tricks the viewer accepting the character murdered as a main character but then is murdered early in the film. In the shower scene it starts with her entering the shower and then as the scene goes on the viewer sees someone come into the bathroom, and thats when the viewers are at the edge of their seat not knowing what was going to happen next, then Norman Bates opens up the shower curtain and there are a lot of camera angle changes in just this one scene, there are 50 cuts of different shots in that scene only. Another thing that makes this shot so famous is when the blood comes down the bath and goes down the drain then there's an extreme close up of her eye and then it slowly zooms out to reveal her dead body which is quite a chilling shot.

Hitchcock has a famous quote saying "Thrillers allow the audience to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like." In this film this is true and is one of the best thrillers known to cinema even though it is so old, this is achieved due to the structure of the story and how the characters are presented to the audience, for example Norman has a hobby of stuffing birds of prey and in his office there are many pictures of naked women, this is strange but from all that we cannot say straight away that he is defiantly the murderer but these are some strange things to have in a room and that is also a strange hobby to have. Psycho is known as one of the greatest thrillers made by the ending where the whole story is basically explained in one scene where they explain why he did the murders and why he dressed as his mother. the structure of the film is very well done because through-out the film we think the mother is the murderer but instead we find out the murderer is indeed Norman because his insanity is all explained.

MacGuffin.

Definition of a MacGuffin.

A MacGuffin is a plot device that has no specific meaning or purpose other than to advance the story; any situation that motivates the action of a film either artificially or substantively. Orginally coined by Alfred Hitchcock where it was used in a story set on a Scottish train. A modern example of a Macguffin is the suitcase case in Pulp Fiction, we never know what the insides of the suit case actually is but only the reaction people give as they open it up, a light beam comes out of the suit case aswell maybe showing that it's something beautiful, thats why the people who look within the suit case give such a shocked and pleased reaction. 

Lighting Excercise. (VIDEO)

This is the lighting excersice that we did in class.

Definition of Suspence/Shock.

What is the definition of suspense/shock? Give examples from scenes in North by Northwest/The Birds.

Suspense is where the viewer is uncertain about the next thing that may occur, this is a very powerful technique to use in a film due to it drawing in the viewer because this makes the film look mysterious and makes the viewer anticipate what will happen next so they are more likely to carry on watching if this technique is used well. There are lots of use of shock and suspense in North by Northwest when Roger O. Thornhill is shot by Eve Kendall and we do not know what happens until the next scene where we find out it was a fake shooting and it was all setup. This is a good use of suspense because once the scene of the shooting happens you do not expect it to happen at first and then you are in suspense till the next scene reveals that he is fine. Another example of suspense is also in North by Northwest when Roger Thornhill is waiting at the bus stop to meet the person that he is being excused of being and there is suspense building up by the crop duster when another man arrives where he is and then mentions about how the crop duster is dusting parts where there are no crops building up the suspense on whether the crop duster is meant to be there, later into that scene the crop duster attacts Roger and keeps trying and trying. During this scene there is no other music or dialog but the sound of the crop duster getting closer and further away while the piolet attempts to hit the main character Roger Thornhill.

AS Media Studies Written Assignment.

AS Media Studies -Written Assignment.

This 'story' we did was about 2 friends meeting up with each-other then meeting a friend named "George". They meet up and then go to lesson, but they don't know where the lesson is and decide to just guess what classroom they are in. We tried to put in every camera shot possible with the equipment available for our use and the expertise in the camera working industry. We did all the camera shots that we were capable of doing, as we can't do a crane shot due to that needing either a crane or helicopter for a big long shot of an area.

Thinking behind each shot.

Each shot we did we tried to make every shot look as professional as the camera quality is not that high. We used partially shots for each moment because they fitted the scene well. For example the close up on Wesley asking "What lesson have we got next?" and thats the main line of the whole project due to it being the main reason they are meeting and walking together. As this is the main line this shows that they are so lost they do not even know what classroom they have to be in. A moving shot was the three friends walking to the room they think they need to be so we decided to do a tracking shot of them walking up to the class.

Our choices of shots were quite successful as we did not have a problem with recording, the only problem was that we had to take quite a few shots as we kept laughing at the close up and the communication at 'rolling' and 'action; because we spoke to quick after we said action so we had to be careful with that or you could hear action before they speak. I was the camera man for this project and I think I held the camera quite well when i was recording when the tripod was not set down as all I had to hold it with is the tripod on the camera, and the only time I wasn't holding onto the camera is when George was doing his POV shot when it was quite hard to hold steady as he could only hold it with one hand so there may be some noticeable movements.

When shooting each frame we did not come with a problem but the only thing that went wrong is the end of the short film is the extreme close up on the door handle being opened as we used 2 shots for that and in one shot we used the left arm to open the door and in the other shot it was the right arm that opened it, it isn't that noticeable but when looked in closely it was. When we did a high angle shot of all 3 of the friends speaking that made it look like there was a sense of them being lost because they were as they did not know where to go when they were looking for the classroom. We used this twice from the long shot of them walking towards the classroom and it made everything look big around them so they look like just a small spec on the camera to show even a more sense of them being lost. The reason we didn't do some of the shots needed was the time span we had to do this and the planning of it and even for the first lesson we didn't have one of the people that had to be in the short film so we had to make do with that for the first time shooting the scene.

Editing.

When it came to editing, we had only some problems in how we could do things as this was a new program to learn but we took it in quick and got used it quick, we learned how to use the fade effect, not only on a film but on audio as well, we also used audio buffing so some audio could be louder then others. If I could edit it again or do some editing then I would of made some of the dialog louder as the audio on the camera is not very strong and when outside it is hard to hear what they are saying to each-other. For when we do the proper coarse work we will make sure you can hear each shot well and the quality of editing is at a higher standard because this is only the beginning of getting used to a new program and camera work. Once we learn some more complicated editing skills in the program, I will try and make the editing look better.

Overall.

One of the most positive elements was the long shot of all 3 friends walking to lesson because it looks very natural and not put on when they were walking, another shot will be the tracking shot of them walking to door as the tracking shot is quite steady for what we could use equipment wise for it. In this short film I would of like to of made an improvement on the extreme close up of the door handle as we should of took note of what arm he used to open it in the other shot so it looked better, that was the only part that went wrong in the whole short film. Overall I think for a first time project it went pretty well and there is not a lot of moments of the film where it just looks terrible, but I would of liked to of had more time to film scenes so it looks better at the end product. 

Meeting George. (VIDEO)

Thriller Blog Project.

Meeting George.

This is the first project we did for Media Studies.

Introduction to Thrillers.

Introduction to Thrillers.

What is a Thriller?

Thrillers are a genre that revolves around anticipation and suspense. The main goal of a Thriller is to keep the audience unaware of what is about to occur and keep them at the edge of their seats. In most thrillers the protagonist in this genre are set against a problem, an escape, a mission or a mystery. The tension with the main problem at hand is built up through out the film and leads to a highly stressful climax. 

Examples of Thrillers.

The Great Escape
North By Northwest 
The Silence of the Lambs 

These Thrillers are classics and are known as being one of the best ever being produced.

What is a Cliffhanger?

A Cliffhanger is a plot device used in films, stories, novels, poems etc. It is normally found at the end of a story, or in a Television episode where it leaves the viewer or reader not knowing what is going to happen after which attracted the viewer into wanting to read more of the story, or watch the next episode of a series because it is used to make the story of either a book or film look very interesting that you will want to carry on reading or watching.

What is a Red-herring?

A red-herring is a device used in films and novels that at first appears to be giving you a clue but in fact you find out sooner that it does not. Using this in a film can give it a big twist to it and change what you thought of one character and change your opinion on the character to something else. For example this is used well in "North By Northwest" where we think a character is doing something horrible and deceiving, but in fact they are the complete opposite. 

Genre and Narrative.

Genre
Genre refers to a category of a media product that are classified as being similar in form or type.
Certain films are put into different sections of genre, for instance comedy, horror, action etc. You can use different descriptive words that goes into a genre. For example you can put together two types of genres and make it into one, such as Sci-fi horror which is sci-fi and horror put together to make a whole genre.