James Bond Skyfall Opening analyses

As soon as the film begins there is a sense of tension it starts off very dark and suspicious with dark images to convey the suspense of the movie…

This as an opening image is very power as it is an eye of a lion which seems to portray that the movie is quite powerful and strong because the image of a lion represents strength.The image is a very powerful beginning to the movie as it makes a statement of what the movie is about.

The first glimpse of light across the persons face automatically tells us that he is a lead role in this movie. The light across the face is a brilliant effect as it catches the audience’s attention and conveys some kind of meaning for them.

 The image of the gun portrays straight to the audience that this is an action movie and contains violence showing from the beginning what to expect.

The dead body in the corner draws the audience in making them wonder why he is dead the scene is dark and sinister making the movie captivating from the very beginning.

This shadowed silhouette of Bond makes a dramatic statement as he heads towards the light we begin to fit the pieces of the story. The lighting also creates a whole different atmosphere of the movie.

 For the first time in the movie it is daylight creating a calmer and less tense image for the audience it is almost like relief from all the tension in the previous setting. It is also the first time we see the car and surroundings giving the audience a clearer picture of where the movie is based (captivating them).

The image of the car going after the car shows that there is going to be a car chase. This builds the climax for the audience keeping them interested and wanting to know more. Also since it is eye level view it gives the audience an insight to what the characters are seeing making it more captivating.

This then conveys to the audience the formality of the movie and that it is not a simple story line keeping them more captivated this is cross cutting from two different places at the same time showing the audience the full picture of what is going on helping the audience understand the film more.

The view as if sitting in the back seat of the same car gives the audience the feel like they are there with them and gives them a chance to actually feel like part of the story.

This is the first image we have of the place this is key to the audience so they can gain an understanding of where the film is actually set.

The music

At the beginning is very orchestral highlighting that it is a Bond film with the same theme tune all the other Bonds had. However, as the movie developed so did the music, as he went outside into the city we got cultural music highlighting to the audience again where the movie is set/ begins. The music at some points helped to build the climax and make the intensity of the moment stronger.

The language

It is very formal language conveying to the audience the characters background (the English accent makes it very clear about where the characters are from) this tells the audience a lot by the way the characters speak they can assume the characters personalities a bit and can see the characters origins.

In conclusion, from the opening of this movie I can tell that the audience for this movie are adults and some teens who enjoy action/crime/spy movies as it is quite clear that what is about, I believe that young children would not enjoy this film and is not appropriate for them because it is too violent so I believe the audience it is aimed for is teens and adults.

Obsession Screen Play - Final Screen Play

Revised screenplay.docx

Obsession Screen Play - Individual

I know its a little late but i was experiencing some technical difficulties but this is my original and individual screen play before we combined all of ours together as a group.



OBSESSION Screen Play

Opening sequence Music

Our group thought of the music in the background and after watching the thriller The Knowing we agreed that we liked the backing track of that film so we must now find a copyright free copy to input to our piece when we have the images in the opening sequence.





We also found this track from the film Insidious which could also be a possibility that we could use in our piece.

Locations

We went to some Locations that i found for the thriller opening. We decided to try out some camera shots so we can get a clearer picture of what we will do with our actors.

We want to use the POV ( point of view) from the dead body but we came across the problem of lighting because we want the faces to be seen easily seen. Scene 2 is a flashback and we want it to have a sense of mystery so we may be able to use our error to our advantage to add the tension to the scene.



We came up with the idea to use a long shot of the
two characters and use continuity editing and match
the audio with the image and video.
                                                                     






We will do a full body shot of the characters but not show their faces to add the tension to the piece we will
go from full body to side face.

We made a video of the long shot to test out whether we will use it or not.
     

We also used two video's one overhead track and one track to see which one would work better in the scene...

Idea's for Locations

We had some idea's for the Locations before we found the ones we want to use Reginald and I went out and found this bridge where we had the idea that scene would work very well in that setting as a crime scene and would add that sinister feel to our piece.

We thought that using this area would be good since it is very secluded and the image of the early morning sun would add a sense of tension to the

Scene two and it looks like a place where a crime would take place and it could be a potential place to film at some point.

Response to Screenplay feedback

After the feedback we added and improved some of the bits that needed to be.

Revised Screenplay (2) by shanaechiz

Feedback on Screenplay Obsession

We talked to our teachers after our second draft and they gave us some feedback such as :

• To be more concise when describing the scene
• Not to leave gaps in-between the name of the character and their dialogue
• Add description to the type of transition
• A change of phrase from 'Close-up of' to 'Montage of'. from this i know that I have to make my self familiar with the jargon involved with screenplay/script writing
• My description on the scene needs to be precise, for example, I was describing how our opening credits would be distorted and went on to mention two possible ways to distort the text, however what I should have done is picked one rather than write both, as if the decision hasn't been made.
• Common error such as punctuation, commas, capital letters ect. 
• Another error was that I wrote 'Scene 1' because I wanted to show that in the films e are going back to the setting and situation of the first scene, however I was told that you can't go backwards with scene numbers, even though it is a continuation of the first seven, the cast and crew know it as scene 3.
• Furthermore, I included camera shots and movement in my screen play, even though it shouldn't be included
• In addition, I was advised to split the scene into two considering in the script, we are moving into a completely different setting with a different objective.
• The last note was a reminder that we only have two mins, and considering that each page in a script corresponds to a minute in filming and my script was 6 pages long, I needed to condense it further

we were still told to include the revised script as it had camera shots and camera movements.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

Story Board Thriller

Story Board Thriller from Donna_Ella

Se7en Analyses

We watched the film Se7en in class and did an analyses this is what I wrote from the lesson

Conventions of Thrillers such as:

• ·     Chases
• ·         Suspense
• ·         Uncertainty
• ·         Murder
• ·        A pattern with a missing link

Sound

·           Distorted screeching (non-diegetic sounds)

·          Long music usually using strings (non-diegetic sounds)

·          Building deep music (non-diegetic music)

·          Police siren (diegetic sounds)

·          Clock ticking (diegetic sound)

·          Storm (diegetic sound)

·          City sounds (diegetic sound)

Lighting

·          Dark tint at the beginning highlighting it as a dark thriller

·          Grey tint when crime scene showing the depression of the crime scene

·          The lighting is mostly natural lighting throughout the film this connotes it is made to be highly realistic

·          It uses flashes of red lighting throughout the film to maybe connote danger and construct a certain image into the audiences head

Camera Work

·          POV point of view

·          Zoom in/out

·          Birds eye view

·          Tack and Pan

·          Mid-shot

·          Long-shot

·          Over the shoulder

·          Low angle

·          Handheld camera

·          Close ups

Mise en scene

·          Rain

·          80’s era clothing

·          Lamps and torches

·          Forensic equipment

·          Large detective jackets

·          Colour red used in film to show danger in a lot of aspects of clothing, doors, flashing lights ect…

Reviews of Se7en

Some of the key sentences and words i picked up from a few of Se7en's reviews ....


EMPIRE ESSAY: Se7en : Empireonline.com

•  substantial project 
•  self-deprecating screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker 
•  develop the visual and thematic 
•  cinematography 
•  jagged editing of 
•  music and the slightly cesspool stylised performances
•  retro-noir style 

 Se7en – Totalfilm.com

•  still exerts a dark, crushing stranglehold on the imagination.
•  jittery credits 
•  cliches 
•  scene-by-scene scrutiny 
•  colours leap out of the gloom.
• medium

Se7en (1995) – BBC

Reviewed by Almar Haflidason

Updated 3 April 2001      15

•  plundered to the point of audience exhaustion
• sub-genre with the brutally dull
•  visual and verbal, to nauseating effect.
• The pace is fast and the shocks build beautifully
•  convincing horror

Camera Shots

I changed groups so i used this as my camera shot piece and the next video as my preliminary task.

What is audience ?

What is audience?

All media is made with an audience in mind, ie a group of people who will receive it and make some sort of sense out of it. And generally, the producers make some money out of that audience. Therefore it is important to understand what happens when an audience "meets" a piece of media.

The audience is very important in media. If there is no audience then it is pointless to make the piece because no one will watch/read/play/buy the text.

Media producers basically want to know the

·         income bracket/status

·         age

·         gender

·         race

·         location

Intertextuality

The relationship between texts: the relationship that exists between different texts , especially literary texts or the reference in one text to others.

 example:


from the Simpsons with a smart combination on Spider man and Simpsons


This shows intertexuality very well since the show Simpsons take an idea of Spiderman and bring into their convention.

Family Guy and The Simpsons


This shows that the two shows Family Guy and the Simpsons are combined making their form of convention making way more entertaining.


Family Guy and Star Wars


This shows that Family Guy can take something old and interpret it in a strong way with modern media making the intertexuality powerful.

Evaluation of the Preliminary Task

Our main task was to include these shots in our piece: Match on action, the 180 degree rule, continuity editing and shot/reverse shot.

Match-on-action is an example of continuity editing, and this is clearly seen in our Preliminary Task,  when the camera films Natalia, walking towards the door, then her entering the room on the other side this is a perfect example of match on action.

We included the 180 degree rule which was to make sure that the two people should have the same left/right relationship no matter what. The shot/reverse shot rule is that everything must be the exact same as you shoot the conversation. In our task both of these where met as the people where always in the right position in the shot and there seemed to be no mistakes and any changes in between shots this is shown as when Natalia ( girl ) and Andre ( boyfriend ) have a little conversation the two shots are at different angles but do not break either of the rules.

Continuity editing was shown in the preliminary task  mainly when the others were singing Happy Birthday. Shanae edited the two shots we took of the students and put the audio together from two separate shots and there was no problem.

We came across a few problems one of which was down to the camera work I had by accident included the other camera in the shot so Shanae as our editor had to crop the video so that the camera wasn’t in it. I learned a valuable lesson that I will learn from, next time I will be more careful in the filming and pay attention to detail. I also learned about the editing and how to crop a video.

Also, I was talking to my group and if we had added a script we would avoid certain mistakes such as the students not knowing the name of the girl whose birthday it is. I believe it would have been a lot better if we had organised everything a lot earlier with the rest of the cast and had all the wording more scripted so there would be no mistakes like that. Also, I see we could of include something in props to highlight the birthday more perhaps a cake with candles or something to highlight that it is her birthday. The main thing that I have learned from this is pre preparing is very important to ensure you have a strong and concise filming which would make the editing easier and more enjoyable because there a less mistakes to edit out and more fun to be had with the effects and transitions.

Preliminary task

The Preliminary task.

The Knowing Analyses

Camera	Lighting
SHOTS:           Long shot           Over the shoulder          Shot/reverse shot          Establishing shot          Close ups EDITING          Short duration shots          Slow transitions at beginning	Starts in darkness            Always has natural light hardly any light            Dark effect added to show drained and horrible dark setting and emotions in the film.            The ball of light being the only bright thing being a pure symbol of hope.
Sound	Mise en scene
DIALOGUE           Short and fast dialogue which shows there is a rush for time BACKGROUND            There is suspense music to build a climax also ambient sounds to make it realistic	PROPS          Technology showing todays advancement           Normal clothes for all characters showing that they wanted audience to know it is based on today’s modern world.            The setting vary from cities to valleys and a poor house to an amazing new and modern house.

I conducted an Analyses on The Knowing since we had been doing other movies in class and tried to do it on my own to see what i could find i was surprised to see that i could find quite a bit. It highlighted  to me some conventions of a thriller that i will be looking to put into my thriller  film.

Welcome

Hi and welcome to my blog where i will be posting about everything i have been learning about in the next year about media studies. I am not really experienced and I am not sure about a lot in media but hopefully throughout the course of this blog I aim to get better and show you my journey. :)