Friday 26 November 2010

JT - Love Actually Deconstruction

Universal
Studio Canal
Working Title


Establishing shot - Lots of people hugging and smiling (happy)
                           - Voice over of Hugh Grant
                           -Happy music
                           -Titles come up in red and white signifying love and happiness
                           -Shot types - Close up, mid shots, zoom ins, slow motion, blur in and out

Opening= 3.58minutes
Shows a singer singing a christmas song (his own version) but doing it wrong two times and swearing. When he gets it right the first time everyone joins in and is happy and smiling.
-Shots types= mid shot, wide shot, two shots (to show peoples expressions), dutch angle, high angle
-Sound= Singing of the man, dialogue, and background music of the song when dialogue is spoken
-Setting= in a recording studio
-The main focus is on Bill Nighy who is the main singer

Editing

Sans serif font
Fade ins and outs (to show time has changed and to show emotion)


Mise-en-scene

Christmas time (christmas trees, christmas song)
Recording studio is shown through headphones, background singers, mixing tables, microphones, piano etc

Tuesday 23 November 2010

JT - Deconstruction of "The Shortcut"

Sound:
-Diegetic all the way through, main sound is the dialogue and scream (also footsteps)
- only 17 words were aloud and we did under 17 (dialogue)  this helps the audience engage in whats going to happen
-The footsteps crunching on the leaves create mise-en-scene and helped create the illusion of someone following the girl

Mise-en-scene:
- Costumes signify that the girls have been out partying and the blonde girl is stereotypically going to die. The clothes are very revealing
-Blonde girl goes on her own through the "shortcut" which just so happens to be a dark wood late at night- the others go off and typically leave her on her own, the audience can tell that something will happen to her
-There are POV shots to connote that the girl is being followed
-The mise-en-scene helps signify that the girl is scared because of the close up shots on her face (the end of her eye looking around)
-When the phone rings it shows an "unknown caller" which again signifys shes being followed

Opening Credits:
- Has character's names and the directors name appear on the screen, they fade in and out on black screen - the font is red sans-serif
-The film name appears in bold, sans-serif font and is in red again


What we have learnt:
-We have learnt that using low angles on the footsteps creates more tension because you cant see the rest of their body, and the leaves helped to signify someones being followed
-Use a call sheet so we know which shots are in the same location
-If doing a dark scene do it when the sun is going down so its not fully pitch black
-Plan better

Challenges we faced:
-Misjudged the weather so we had to use alternate lighting (torches, phone light)
-To get the right shots that we wanted we had to get to different places, and go from one to the other
-Planning could of been more stable so it was all planne and organised when we got there



Thursday 4 November 2010

JT - Deconstuction of "The Magical Apple"

Aspects Of Narrative

·      Propps - study of archetypes are featured, 2 Villains, Hero, Princess (which usually gets rescued) and a magical object (the apple). They have followed propps outline because the hero defeats the villain and wins the heart of the princess.
  • Todorov's- Narrative Formula
                        -   Equilibrium= Was attacked and hit with the apple
-   Dis-equilibrium= Ate apple and turned into the hero
-   New equilibrium= Princess rescued and falling in love
  • Levi-Strauss- Binary Opposition= there is the different archetypes so the binary opposite is hero and villain, there is also male and female (role being played)
  • Barthes’- Narrative enigma= shown at the end, where the victim returns alive and questions the audience as to why he comes back

Mise-en-scene

The main prop is the magical object which is the apple, they also include a book for the effect of harmless victim at the beginning. The location is outside at the beginning to open the film, but then goes into a typical creepy dark ally way where the princess is tied up. There is no costume present but the villain does use a black hooded top which signifies a dark character. There is bright colours at the beginning from the trees and grass but then as the film goes on it soon becomes darker. There is no verisimilitude present. The shot types do connate the vulnerability of some of the characters

Audience

I think the target audience is for a young audience- Teenager 15-18 ye olds
Most likely male gender
Not very mature audiences would watch it
There might be a second audience because the use music which might appeal to guitarists

Sound

There is some diegetic sounds but there is quite alot of animated sounds such as the noise made by the villain (computerized)
the music at the end is upbeat and has a use of guitar

Representations

Its a male cast with one actor who plays the princess
A geek is represented on the bench because of the stereotypical book

Expostition

There wasnt much language or dialouge that was obvious, but the mise-en-scene was




Wednesday 3 November 2010

JT - Lessons from microdrama

1. Different camera Angles and shot types for different scenes
2. How to work the camera quickly and more efficient
3. How to use imovie better and more quickly
4. To be aware of surrounding noises so they don't interrupt the dialogue
5. Use the time more wisely to make sure you even it out for extra editing time
6. Planning well because without planning it won't run as smoothly as it could and it also tells you what to do
7. Use more skillful actors/actresses because it looks better and sounds better on camera
8. Use a call sheet because it helps you save time in going to different places to film, it shows you where the same scenes are