Wednesday, 13 October 2010

The Shining (1980)

The Shining (1980)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Starring Jack Nicholson.


Running Time: 119 minutes
Certificate: UK: 18
Country: United States


The Shining is a psychological thriller/horror. The film is based on a novel written by Stephen King. It is about a writer, his wife and their young son who takes on the job of off-season caretaker and an old, isolated hotel. Their son has psychic abilities and is able to see things in the future or past. He is able to see such things as ghosts in the hotel. The husband becomes influenced by the supernatural which is present in the hotel. In his madnes he attempts to murder his wife and child.

The Shining was aimed at adults over the age of 18 as in included secenes of nudity, violence, graphic scenes and lauguage some views may find offencive.



Thursday, 7 October 2010

Horror Film.

Horror Film Case Study:

Conventions of a horror movie:

  • Dark and gloomy
  • Diseases 
  • Abandoned houses
  • Distressed girl
  • Weapons
  • Gore and violence
  • Death
An American Werewolf in London. Directed by John Landis (1981)

Opening title sequence: Gloomy, deserted land. In the distance a truck haling sheep slowly drives towards the camera. The audience is introduced to the two main characters, two, young, American men. They get out of the truck and continue on foot. They keep walking till they come across a pub called 'The Slaughtered Lamb'. Before leaving the pub the two men are warned to stay on the road, but they soon realise they have wandered off into abandoned fields. They start to make their way back but they find themselves in danger.

The dialogue from the characters in the pub build up the suspense and adds to the mystery and horror of the film as we find ourselves fearing for the two characters.

Wednesday, 6 October 2010

My Prelimenary task



Task: We were given the task to film and edit a short film. Our filming had to include; character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.
Before we jumped straight into filming we prepared for this task by first drawing out a story board with short explanations of each shot type we were going to use, any dialogue each character may have and weather or not the shot was exterior or interior. For filming our preliminary task we assembled a tripod and camera.


Filming: My group, (Agnes and Jo) and I managed to maintain the 80-degree rule shot. For example, shot number 7 we filmed, the camera slowly panned across the room following character one's actions and not crossing over the 180 degree line to confuse our audience.


We used shot reverse shot near the end of our short film during the exchanges of dialogue between the two characters. They were both looking in the opposite directions to show to the audience they were looking at each other so our audience didn't get confused. For these shots, we used an over the shoulder frame.

In our preliminary task, we used match on action, shot reverse shot, many close ups, 2 shot, over the shoulder, long shots, extreme close ups while maintaining the 180-degree rule.

My role during the filming was not only to film but to also direct the shots and the positioning of other actors. And to also, edit the film.

Editing : I am happy with the final result apart from some minor details. Such as, if we had a little extra time, I think our movie would benefit with a few more transitions and sound effects. Like, fading from shot to shot or adding in a more dramatic ending, Also, we would look at adding in more titles between shots. The space we used during filming i found was limiting and loud. But the background noises we had added a more realistic sense to our film. In out finally scene, we really had a great space for surrounding and dialogue. However, when it came to using spectacular shot types our space was limited as we were on a balcony. But I think that we worked with what we had and in the end we got the shot we wanted.
I think in the end, next time we will need to share out responsibilities more and all take part in every aspect, filming and editing.

Using the camera was simple, however the tripod wasn't very straight and we had trouble with the noise it was making as it was coming up and being heard in the scene. But, we pushed past that and came up with a great end result.

Tuesday, 5 October 2010

Introducing... My Insane Team



Agnes is a jolly good fellow with a kind heart. She is passionate about Media and Drama. She has proven to be insane at edidting as well as staring in our Media preliminary task. Along with Media 'Riviting Media' also takes Drama, English Lit and French. Her favorite film is Titanic and she is in love with all charactors in Twilight, including, Edward Cullen, Jacob Black, Emmet Cullen and Charlie Swan. Her favorite book is The Host by Stephenie Meyer after I recommended it. :) 



















JO MOLLOY -

Jo is a very good team mate. She works well filming with the cameras. Other than Media, Jo studies History, English Language and Phliosophy and Ethics. When Jo isnt flirting my Joe Copginger, she is flirting with George Stephens (http://georgesmagicalproject.blogspot.com/) ... as shown to the right.






MOE CHIPOFIA -  
Although Moe didn't take part in our preliminary task he has since proven to be extremally good at drawing story boards. The ideas he puts forward are also incredibally thought out and great. As well as Media, Moe takes: Sociology, Psychology and Biology.

Monday, 4 October 2010

Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan is known for making high end thriller films. Two of his well known ones are Memento and Insomnia.

Both films include many similar conventions and this is proven right from the opening title. The opening title to Insomnia reflects its title as the words and names shown on screen are blurred which produces a feeling of tiredness and it seems like the viewer is getting more and more sleepy as the opening title goes on. The first part of filming we see is the sight of blood being socked into cotton sheets. Blood is a huge part of identifying that this film is a thriller. We then see two characters flying over a polar, exotic region.
Likewise, the opening title to Memento also reflects the title of the film. At the beginning of the film everything appears to happening in a backwards motion. The main character is holding a polaroid picture which, in reverse, fades instead of become more and more clearer as it should. As the film moves on we start to see that the rest of the opening titles are filmed in reverse and the viewers should make the assumption that the character is trying to remember what he has done by getting a memento. Also, Memento has blood shown in the opening titles just as Insomnia did.


 The opening to Insomnia -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m70eyk6xr3s

The opening to Memento -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z87iY8rPJF8

Christopher Nolan talking about the making of Mento -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIFxNq_oMGY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYbNFxtG8H4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYO-zUdUoTE&feature=related