In todays lesson we watched the beginning of 'Touch of Evil', produced by Albert Zugsmith and music by Henry Mansiny. The digetic music is played throughout the whole beginning part, and begins to be overlapped. The very first scene shows us the bomb, which then later blows up after the car has travelled through the town. A crane shot shows a tilted birds eye view of all the cars and objects are constantly entering the frame. It shows us the character of Vargis, who is successful, just married and well known, and as he begins to kiss his wife the bomb explodes and there is a close up of the item.
The second film we watched was 1975 Jaws, produced by Steven Speilsberg. The music is very important, as there is not an actual shark so the producer and director have to ensure the music has an impact. Without this, the tension wouldn't be built. The camera actually becommes the shark through subjective camera work. The camera acting as the shark, wants the audience to see the attack of the girl and therefore focuses on her facial expressions and body language. After the attack, the music stops and the surroundings are calm again. As if the shark had successfully completed attacking his first victim.
Thursday, 20 September 2012
This is my first blog as an AS media student and so far during the course we have been concentrating on film openings and cinematography and other terminology within the industry.
As a start to our first lessons with Mr Drummond, the practical side of the media course, we began to watch a film from 1941, Citizen Kane. It was losely based on Randolf Hurst, and the film itself is 25 years old. As a group, we concentrated on the ways in which it was being filmed. In the introduction, the camera was panning up and each scene dissolved into a different type of shot. We also focussed on the lighting of the scenes, and we discovered that the lighting always seems to stay in the same place. As the camera moves towards the window, the lights go and the music stops, this manages to build tension.
During this lesson we also learnt the definitions for digetic sounds, which are sounds that belong in the scene and also non-digetic sounds, which are the opposite and are then added to the scene. An example of these, would be a voice over or sound effects added in whilst editing.
The second film we watched was Back To The Future, written in 1985 by Robert Zemeckis and Bob game. It was produced by Steven Spielberg, other films directed by him are War Horse, Jaws and Indiana Jones. Within this film, we noticed that there was a lot of non-digetic sounds that had been edited in after filming. For example, the sounds of Doc's inventions and various other sound don't actually belong in the film but manage to fit in the scene due to the edit. Also, in this film it became visable to the audience the ages of the charecters before we actually say the actor. The camera focused mainly on his 'Nike' trainers, holding a skateboard which allows us to realise he is fairly young. The dress code and props really helped us understand the type of character that the Doc was trying to portray. We paused the movie whilst in Doc's bedroom. The mis-en-scene showed that his bed was unmade, there was dirty clothes scattered around the floor, he had made inventions (many of them unsuccessful) one of them being the toaster, showing burnt toast. During this pause, the camera angle had been tilted and it was panning.
After this, we began to look at Genres. For example: action, adventure, horror, drama and western. By looking at these different genres, it has helped us decide which type of film we want to base our movie introduction on.
We then watched the introduction to Ferris Bueller, 1986, directed by John Mughs. This is a comedy and lighthearted film. We could tell by the introduction, by the irony and the jokes made within the first scene that it was definitely a comedy. Also the non-diegetic background music played, Sigue Sigue- Sputnik Love missile f1/11, was an upbeat, pop song allowing the type of genre to show through.
Edgar Write, an English film and TV director and writer, made Hot Fuzz from 2007 which was the most recent film we watched. Other films written by Write are 'Shaun Of the Dead' and 'Paul'. During the introduction of this movie, the camera is constantly moving and every scene is a part of the story. Before the film even begins, we hear non-digetic sounds of sirens. Beginning with old fashioned sounding ones leading up to the modern 21st century ones.
As a start to our first lessons with Mr Drummond, the practical side of the media course, we began to watch a film from 1941, Citizen Kane. It was losely based on Randolf Hurst, and the film itself is 25 years old. As a group, we concentrated on the ways in which it was being filmed. In the introduction, the camera was panning up and each scene dissolved into a different type of shot. We also focussed on the lighting of the scenes, and we discovered that the lighting always seems to stay in the same place. As the camera moves towards the window, the lights go and the music stops, this manages to build tension.
During this lesson we also learnt the definitions for digetic sounds, which are sounds that belong in the scene and also non-digetic sounds, which are the opposite and are then added to the scene. An example of these, would be a voice over or sound effects added in whilst editing.
The second film we watched was Back To The Future, written in 1985 by Robert Zemeckis and Bob game. It was produced by Steven Spielberg, other films directed by him are War Horse, Jaws and Indiana Jones. Within this film, we noticed that there was a lot of non-digetic sounds that had been edited in after filming. For example, the sounds of Doc's inventions and various other sound don't actually belong in the film but manage to fit in the scene due to the edit. Also, in this film it became visable to the audience the ages of the charecters before we actually say the actor. The camera focused mainly on his 'Nike' trainers, holding a skateboard which allows us to realise he is fairly young. The dress code and props really helped us understand the type of character that the Doc was trying to portray. We paused the movie whilst in Doc's bedroom. The mis-en-scene showed that his bed was unmade, there was dirty clothes scattered around the floor, he had made inventions (many of them unsuccessful) one of them being the toaster, showing burnt toast. During this pause, the camera angle had been tilted and it was panning.
After this, we began to look at Genres. For example: action, adventure, horror, drama and western. By looking at these different genres, it has helped us decide which type of film we want to base our movie introduction on.
We then watched the introduction to Ferris Bueller, 1986, directed by John Mughs. This is a comedy and lighthearted film. We could tell by the introduction, by the irony and the jokes made within the first scene that it was definitely a comedy. Also the non-diegetic background music played, Sigue Sigue- Sputnik Love missile f1/11, was an upbeat, pop song allowing the type of genre to show through.
Edgar Write, an English film and TV director and writer, made Hot Fuzz from 2007 which was the most recent film we watched. Other films written by Write are 'Shaun Of the Dead' and 'Paul'. During the introduction of this movie, the camera is constantly moving and every scene is a part of the story. Before the film even begins, we hear non-digetic sounds of sirens. Beginning with old fashioned sounding ones leading up to the modern 21st century ones.
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