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Our Album Digipak- Middle

Friday 27 September 2013

The Accident- Continuity Analysis



The continuity practice brief was to create a narrative showing an accident taking place in 6 shots. Our story is about a boy doing hurdles on a school field, and fall over the final one.

Things we did well

- Match on Action
There is match on action in the first 3 shots where the boy is warming up, mainly significant in shots 2 and 3.
There is also match on action displayed from the long shot of the boy jumping over hurdles filmed behind him, to the mid close of him from in front of him coming over hurdles.

Rules We Broke

 - The 180 Degree Rule
 In the penultimate shot where the boy is running up to the final hurdle and falls over, we did not stick by the 180 degree rule, making it look as if he is running back on him self.


Continuity- Fight Club

 

I have chosen to analyse the continuity techniques used in the opening scene of the film Fight Club.

The opening scene begins with a close up of a character looking straight at the camera sweating. Then we are shown this shot from two different angles; first from the side, now we can see that there is a gun pointing down his throat, then from above left. Each shot has a different purpose, the side profile shot to reveal the gun, and the third to create the illusion he is looking up at a person. These close ups appear continuous by keeping to the 30 degree angle rule. It also conforms to the 180 degree rule in the conversation between the two men.

In the shot from above you see the gun removed from his mouth, this action is continued in a mid shot, where Tyler with his back to us, and the narrator looking to the top right. Here the technique match on action is displayed when removing the gun from his mouth. Also throughout the whole sequence you see the narrator look to the top right when referring to Tyler, keeping the same throughout helps the audience follow the positioning of the characters.

In the sequence there is little tracking as there is little character movement. They use establishing shots a couple of times, this helps understand the setting that is confusing at times.


Monday 23 September 2013

Film Opening Analysis- Quadrophenia


 

  •  Genre- Coming of Age/ Drama/ Youth

  •  The film takes place in 1965, Britain.

  • The first shot is a lone figure standing on a cliff by the coast as the sun sets, he then walks towards us, his face a shadow silhouette. As he approaches us, the camera cuts to another scene in a completely different setting on a road. Here the same character is riding a scooter, this time we can see his face clearly. He is smiling and having a good time, then a group of rockers on motorbikes surround him and mock his scooter. The sequence ends with him pulling off the main road down a street into what looks like a car park.

  • The main two scenes in the sequence- the cliff scene and road scene, are distinctly unconnected events. However this is very purposeful to the story telling of the film as a whole. An opinion on the film could be the opening scene is connected to the ambiguous ending on the film, set also on the cliffs of Brighton. The effect of having such an inconclusive opening scene creates a sense of curiosity- the audience want to know why and how he ended up there. The second scene then dives straight into the telling of the story, telling it from the beginning if you like- providing the explanation.  

  •  The opening sequence is focused on the character Jimmy, we can tell he is the main character of the film as there is emphasise in the opening shot of him being alone. Also the lyrics to the music playing in the background- The Real Me, could suggest a film about self- discovery, hence emphasis on one character in particular.

  •  The opening scene leaves no answers to how the character got there, what he is doing, or why he is there, everything is deliberately withheld. However the second shot, where Jimmy is confronted by the rockers, is a key element of the story line and conflict to come. The stark contrast between these two scenes could in hindsight be seen as representative to the difference between the character before and after events that take place in the film.  

  • The start of films should establish either character, setting or genre, to give the audience a sense of grounding and expectations for the rest of the film.  

Monday 16 September 2013

Home work- Stills Analysis



Chosen Still. Genre: rom-com

Our task was to create film stills that reflected specific genres. To do this we were given a DSLR camera, a portable light and the school. With these limitations we found that using camera angles and the actors' posture and facial expressions were also very helpful ways to connote genre.

Representation of Genre

Characters
The genre is rom com so the focus is on the main two characters, a boy and a girl. Their facial expressions; smiling and eye contact suggest attraction towards each other, which is key feature of the genre. The girls positioning suggests that she is perhaps shy whereas the boys pose appears more confident and out going. These differentiating characters could create drama and struggle in the plot, where being together isn't possible, also a key aspect of rom com genre.

Mise en scene
The shot is set out doors on a field. In the foreground is a tree in which the characters are leaning on, nature is often symbolic of romance as it represents freedom and seclusion from the outer world. The background is bright and the green grass looks vibrant, this suggests a light hearted movie.

How did we achieve this

Initially our idea for the shot was to do a long shot, however when we did that there were too many distractions in the back ground, so we tried a mid-shot. This made it easier to control variables such as lighting, and instantly the shot became more intimate. Using the tree for the characters to lean on makes it seem more natural, adding to the realism on the image.

What is successful

I think the composition of the picture is successful; the tree, the lighting, the character pose, all help it to represent genre. We were very lucky with lighting- it was shady under the tree where we were shooting, but bright in the back ground in the rest of the field.

What could be improved

The costumes could be more representative of character traits, but we were limited with resources and time so we just shot it in what the group members were wearing already. For this we would have to think about the characters personalities and the narrative of the film in more detail, which we didn't as this was not one of the shots we planned in detail, it was a spur of the moment idea.