Edited the preliminary task

Our group edited the preliminary task today - it looks good; there is good continuity, and we solved the problem of making a smooth transition by using a dissolve (when in the scene where Max shapeshifts into me). We also created a successful magic trick through the use of good editing, to make a card trick seem realistic.

Overall, we are nearly finished and we have just a few things left to edit.

Just finished the preliminary task (Two Asians, one card ...and a Dale Stevenson)

After starting on what we'd initial plan of our preliminary task last week, we had decided to change the storyboard, as the story would've taken too long. We've changed the storyoard to this:

What we opted to do was get a double to walk into a room and appear to shapeshift into me, perform a magic trick, then leave after morphing back into himself. We have yet to edit it, but I think we successfully pulled off the necessary elements needed: eyeline match, match on action, and shot/reverse shot. We also stuck to the 180 degree rule. 

Just waiting to edit now...

Preliminary Task

In the preliminary task, we are required to make a film consisting of a person entering a room with another person in it. Then the two people will make conversation, and one of them will leave.

The short clip must contain the following elements: match on action, eyeline match, shot/reverse shot, and must also adhere to the 180 degree rue.

Match On Action

This is when we see an action continued from one shot to another, to give a sense of continuity, e.g. you could have someone opening a door in one shot, then edit it so the next shot displays the person entering the room.

Eyeline match

This is when the camera is looking at a person who is looking at something else, then the camera goes to what the person is looking at.

Shot/Reverse shot

This is employed when two or more people are having a conversation: the camera will focus on the person who is currently speaking at the time, and will alternate between the conversationalists. 

The 180 degree rule

A common mistake that is made when filming is to film movement from one side, then immediately film it from the other side. This mistake makes it seem to the audience that the moving thing or person has changed direction, when in actual fact they haven't.

The idea we have come up with consists of an audition for a wannabe magician. He performs a trick, messes it up, then in a fit of rage, accidentally performs it correctly without knowing, as he is storming off in anger.

Paranormal Activity (2009)

  After recently moving in together in a home in the suburbs, a couple is terrorised by a demon, whose presence becomes more and more prominent.

  The director and writer of the film is Oren Peli. It's stars are Katie Featherstone and Micah Sloat. The film had a budget of $15,000 but still managed to pull in $77,873 on it's opening weekend (despite the fact it was only on 12 screens in the USA at the time). It's total gross was $193,355,800.
  The main problem faced by the film came about due to it's supernatural theme. It needed to make the supernatural seem believable to the audience.
  This was done through several ways. First, the audience were given a skeptic to identify with (Micah). As the film goes on, and the skeptic loses doubt, we are inclined to lose our doubt as well. Another technique used was the bringing in of 'experts', in this case it was Dr Frederichs and Dr Abraham (although we never see the latter). Another alternative for an 'expert' is the internet, which was also used in trying to uncover more information.
  Suspense is achieved with things such as the use of a handheld camera: it is not shot professionally so in a way we feel more into the story. Because we also watch over them sleeping, we see them to be vulnerable. The bed which they are on is white, however the rest of the room is also surrounded by darkness, which signifies the demon's presence, which surrounds them. There is also a lack of non diegetic sound, however this helps makes simple noises become scarier. There is also an effective use of volume - the audience jump when there is a sudden increase in volume.

127 hours (2010)

  A thrill seeking mountain climber ends up trapped underneath a boulder whilst canyoneering on his own near Moab, Utah, and has to resort to extreme measures in order to survive the ordeal (based on a true story).
  The Director of the film was Danny Boyle.
  The film is not a conventional thriller - it's tension is built up in a different, but still effective way.

  The threat, or 'villain' was not from a human, but rather from nature - the hero is faced against natural dangers such as thirst and dehydration.
  However it retains the characteristics of a thriller with it's resourceful hero.
  The audience are encouraged to empathise with the hero through the establishment of normality at the beginning of the film.
  There was an effective use of both music (such as when his arm first becomes trapped) and silence (used throughout the film to signify the length of time he spends in the canyon).
  The camera would often be seen focusing on small details such as an ant crawling on the protagonist's face, his watch, and even sweat. There are also 'little dramas' which create tension in the viewer, such as when he drops the knife, or when he is forced to drink his own urine.
  The audience would be kept on edge through the mixture of optimism and pessimism, i.e. he succeeds in tasks such as obtaining the knife after he'd dropped it, creating a harness to help hold himself up while asleep (initially created to try and lever himself out). However when the knife proves useless at chiselling away the part of rock holding him down the audience is faced with despair. Mixed feelings also arrive when the audience is presented with past events in the protagonist's life, such as his childhood and his previous lover, and there are even premonitions to give hope of what could come if he survives the ordeal.

  There is also an effective use of close up - particularly when he comes to realise that he must sever his arm. 
  The trailer particularly misleads the audience - it is not explicitly advertised that majority of the film would be spent filming the protagonist trapped under a rock.

The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

  The Manchurian Candidate (2004) is a remake of the film of the same name in 1962, which was the film version of a novel of the same name made in 1959. The novel was a political thriller about the stepson of a political family, who has been unknowingly brainwashed, and thus is controlled into performing assassinations to benefit the Communist Party.
  The 2004 film was Directed by Jonathan Demme. It's stars were Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, Meryl Streep and Kimberly Elise. The film plot is similar to the plot of it's origin, but with some minor differences to account for more modern times - troops were brainwashed in the Gulf War (a more recent event). The threat presented was the power of big, global companies and the danger to the system of democracy we have (we, as an audience, would relate to this better than if the threat were from Communism).The film's plot also plays on the mind of the audience, as it can be asked, "How far can this concept of brainwashing be extended to reality?".
  The film's resourceful hero is Major Ben Marco, who is trying to find the truth and regain his sanity. The film presents him as hardy and masculine, and having the respect of many other men. He is used to danger and his history in the army presents him to be brave.

  There are a few scenes in the film which particularly stick out in the viewers' memories. The death of Senator Jordan was one. It differs from the older film in that more symbolism is used. In the old version of the film, the Senator is simply shot. In the newer version, he is drowned in a lake. There was a fog around at the time, which could be said to exaggerate the dream like state in which Raymond (the brainwashed 'assassin') was in at the time. The director had also said that he wanted this scene to symbolize the fact that the main characters were 'drowning' in a way.

  Another key scene was where Marco shoots Raymond and Eleanor. The film reaches it's climax when Raymond finally realises that his mind has been altered beyond recovery, and so decides to sacrifice himself rather than be used as a 'puppet'.
  There is also an undercurrent of the Greek myth of Oedipus - Eleanor was depicted to have an attraction towards Raymond. The film opted to display this with just a kiss to appeal to the censors (in the book, she uses her son's brainwashing to have sex with him).
  My personal preference would be the second, more modern film. It appealed to me more due to the fact it contained more recent things, and therefore things were easier to understand.
  

Psycho (1960)

    Psycho starts off with a woman wanting to marry a man who does not have the money to make the marriage happen - so she steals money and then runs away (the MacGuffin of the film), with . Unbeknownst, she is murdered by a deranged man in the hotel she spends the night in, and her lover and sister set out to uncover the truth behind her "mysterious" disappearance.
  The director of the film is Alfred Hitchcock. It's writers are Joseph Stefano (screnplay) and Robert Bloch (novel). It's stars are Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles.

  The film has several characteristics of a thriller. The threat is from what appears to be a normal man, but it turns out he has gone mad from his mother's death.
There is also fast pacing, frequent action: the shower scene and the staircase scene (Arbogast's death) are examples. There is also suspense, and red herrings; we were led to believe that the film would be centred around Marion, however her death in the middle of the film leaves the audience shocked and clueless. In fact, Hitchcock was determined to keep the audience thrilled throughout the film, and he wanted to make extra sure by doing things such as having no advance screenings, and no one was also let into the film if it had already started. At the end of the film was a trailer from Hitchcock telling the audience not to give the plot away to anyone else, to keep new audiences in for the ride. The music score was used effectively to build up tension (unlike in 'The Birds', where tension was built via the silence). However it could be argued that there was no antagonist in this film, as it is not Norman's fault that he has gone mad.
  A key scene in this film was the shower scene; it's a very famous sequence, with it's musical score often being used to insinuate tension by other films, shows, etc.

  The scene also has some key parts, such as the killer's identity not being seen, as well as the knife only ever seen to cut skin once. Much of the detail of Marion's murder was left to the imagination of the audience, which added to the tension.

The Birds (1963)

    The Birds (1963) is a horror/thriller, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It's writers are Daphne Du Maurier (wrote the story), and Evan Hunter (wrote the screenplay). It's stars are Rod Taylor, Tippi Hendren, and Suzanne Pleshette.
    The film stars off with a rich jobless woman who chases a man she has an attraction for into a small town in Northern California. This town seems to be the main target of wild birds that have unexplicably started attacking people - the external threat in this thriller is nature.
  The film has many of the characteristics that make it a thriller.
  It has key action scenes: mainly the attacks on people such as the attack during the children's party and the attack during the cafe scene. However there are other tense moments in the film such as the end scene where they have to carefully get away from the birds, who are all surrounding them.

     The film has resourceful heroes - this is demonstrated in the house scene, where the house is under attack - the door was being slowly worn down by the birds, so Mitch nailed a clock onto the door so that the birds would have more to peck through.
  There is plenty of suspense in the films - this is usually before the birds attack though, however the scene at the end of the film is full of suspense, but doesn't end in an attack as the heroes have to walk through the sea of birds in order to get to the car and get Melanie to the hospital.
  The scene where Tippi Hendren is fully attacked by birds took around a week to shoot as it was difficult to pull off. Birds were even attacked to her clothes with nylon strings to make sure they couldn't get away. At one point she was even injured by a bird in the film.
  Hitchcock's films usually end with "The end" - this film doesn't do that because Hitchcock wanted to give the audience a feeling of unending terror.
  On leaving the UK's premiere of the film at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London, the leaving audience were greeted with the screeching of birds that was played through loudspeakers.
  Another thing to note was the lack of a proper musical score - the film's tension was more built up through the silence, which left the audience consistently wondering when the next attack would arrive.
   The film's MacGuffin is the birds' inexplicable actions - it is not found out why they attacked, and why it was centred around that town specifically.

North by Northwest (1959)

  North by Northwest is a film about an innocent New York man's struggle to survive and find the truth, after he is mistaken to be a government agent. This results in his pursuit across the country for the foreign spies with the objective of killing him.
 
  The director of the film is Alfred Hitchcock, the writer is Ernest Lehman, the main characters are played by Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason.

  This film has several characteristics that make it defineable as an archetypal thriller. It has several key action scenes: the plane scene when he is lured into a rarely used highway, apart from the occasional bus or car, where a plan is sent to kill him.

  Another key action scene is when he is forcibly made to be drunk, so his death would be attributed to his own faults by the police, when in fact the ploy was an attempted murder.

  The film also has two resourceful heroes - Mr Thornhill and Miss Kendall. They use their wits and smarts to survive against villains that outclass them. This is demonstrated in the scene where Thornhill dresses up as one of the train staff to evade the police.

  The film is ridled with suspense - it has the audience hanging onto their seats when some of the key action scenes come up. It also has a red herring - Miss Kendall appears to be a helpful stranger at first, but then it is revealed she is working for the other side, and then towards the end it's revealed she's an undercover agent.

 

  The film's plot is driven by the villain - it is the villain's actions which dictate the heroes' reactions - for example, Thornhill's getting forciby drunk forces him to attempt to escape whilst intoxicated.

    The MacGuffin is what drives the plot along - it is not usually in the audience's interests at the end of the film, but it will be what the film is centred around. The film's MacGuffin was the villain's desire to fly microfilm out of the country - without the microfilm, there would be no need to track the villain, and Thornhill wouldn't've been mistaken for Kaplan.

 

Introductory blog (Just made my blog)

Introductory blog (Just made my blog)

So ...yeah ...just made my blog -.-

Welcome, pepz who mark my work ^^. I'll be using this blog to record my work and stuffs, cos I took Media A Level and all. Seems cool (so far xD).
...stay tuned, for stuffs!

P.s. Also, Colin, shut up! >:(