Codes and Conventions

Analysing a previous thriller clip

British Board of Classification (BBFC)

Year 13 Advice

Popular Thriller Titles from the 21st Century

 Panic Room (2002) 
 Insidious (2010)
 Black Swan (2010)  Donnie Darko (2001)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The opening titles of the 2011 film, 'The girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is very effective in capturing the audience within the first two and a half minutes. The use of the non-digetic theme music of a cover of 'Immigrant Song' really helps to keep the audience in suspense of what is going to happen within the film. The music doesnt hold back it starts incredibly suddenly and loud, this creates a lot of tension from the very beginning. By the end of the first two minutes the music is extremely loud and builds so much tension that it prevents the audience from wanting to look away incase they miss something vital within the storyline. The colours that are used in this opening titles are all dark and dull with no bright colours what so ever so this not only implies that something dark and creepy is going to happen in the film but it also creates a dark and gloomy atmosphere.

Throughout this clip there is blood being splattered and taking the main attention from the audience. The connotations of blood is death, fear and violence, this gives the audience a sense of imagination with what is going to happen in the film later on, it could be foreshadowing. There is also a shot of water and droplets and the connotations of these is drowning, mystery and fear of the unknown. This being linked with the connotations of the close-up of hands is getting hold of something may be even not letting it go, this could fear the audience of what is going to be held. The extreme close-up of the eye is that you are being watched may be without even knowing therefore this frightens the audience and sets a chilling atmosphere for the rest of the film. The extreme close-up of Lips is that there may be romance in the film so the lips are effective of telling a story within the first two minute.

There is a mid shot of a dragon surrounded by fire, this links in with the title of the film and what the audience assumed and thought what the film would be about so this would be no surprise to the audience.  The editing of the opening titles for The girl with The Dragon Tattoo uses a lot of dissolves and swipe and cuts to move in quickly and easily to let the opening flow to each vital point. It moves on quickly and fast paced so suddenly that the audience are in suspense because they dont have a clue of what is going to happen next.  There is a flower close-up and it gives the audience a sense of new life and may be a happy ending howver the flower then dies so the audience assume that now represents death and had that meaning all along. These opening titles are effective in making the audience tense of what is going to happen in the film.

Cape Fear - Textual Analysis of the opening

Shot reverse shot

Shot reverse shot

Shot reverse shot is a filming technique used to show conversation and relationship. One shot will show a person looking at something and then cuts to somebody else looking which suggests they are looking at each other and engaging in conversation. We used it in our prelim to show the conversation in the interveiw and the characters actions and reactions. Shot reverse shot is a classical Hollywood continuity shot to make the clip flow and seem like the shots were in order and one shot happened just after the other. It deemphasizes transitions between shots and is linked to the 'eyeline match'.

Match on action

Match on action

Match on action is an editing technique used to portray an action continuing from the previous shot. We used our in our prelim with the door. The action carrying through creates a ‘visual bridge’ which draws the viewer’s attention away from the slight cut. It also creates a sense of continuity to the clip making the shots make sense and flow more easily.

180 degree rule

180 degree rule

When filming, the 180 degree rule was created to not confuse the audience. There is an imaginary line called the axis which separates left from right. The camera should only be placed on one side of the axis so that if two characters are in the scene then one will always be on the left and the other person always on the right. If the camera was on the other side then it would show both characters facing the same direction which will cause confusion for the audience.

Post - Production

Post – Production

Once we had completed filming, a few problems arose with editing and uploading the Prelim. I used iMovie on the iPhone 5 to edit the prelim, and I found that the shape of the clip would change when I put it on iMovie. I decided to scrap the whole project, and start fresh, and then I found that the shape of the shots stayed the same. When I uploaded it to YouTube, the video was private, not public, and so when our group had to show the rest of the class our Prelim video, we couldn’t find it on YouTube, even though I knew I’d uploaded it.  Another problem was that I filmed some shots diagonally, so when we thought we had completed the prelim, we realised that it didn’t look very smooth, and then it would mean the audience would be able to see the editing.

When I watch the prelim task back, it does match my visualization with the cinematography, but the framing doesn’t. From filming the prelim, it’s made me more aware of what you need to watch out for, like how you hold the camera, because I realised that some shots were diagonal and the whole footage put together didn’t flow well, which meant we didn’t have continuity editing. This has made me more aware, so that when I film the thriller, I’ll be more aware of how I hold the camera.

I thought the prelim was a very useful exercise, because if I’d have gone out filming my thriller straight away without any practise, then I would have filmed in different angles, then realised that it doesn’t fit together in the editing process, so this prelim has definitely been beneficial because it’s helped me to improve my filmmaking skills. It was a good practise task, before we start thinking about our main task, because it helps us get used to filming, holding the camera steady, and making sure we have enough footage.

When I first edited it, the iMovie app automatically put transitions in between each piece of footage. This didn’t make the shot reverse shot look realistic, and so I took them out. Also, with the editing, I had to retake some shots because they were originally filmed diagonally, I didn’t think about holding the camera the same way throughout the whole prelim, I was only focusing on making sure I got everyone and the props in the shot, but after the editing process on iMovie, it made me realise that you must be aware of how you film, as well as what you film.

I learnt that editing is a tricky process when you haven’t taken enough footage. It really helps the editing process if you’ve taken more than enough footage because you can then chop and change the clips to make it run smoothly. We now know for our main task that we will plan more, (e.g. – We didn’t think about the lighting, and what effect it would have on the footage, and so when we arrived at the place we were filming, and the light filled up the shot, so we had to change the angle we were going to shoot at). I think a tripod could have been used, because the benefits would have shown up in the prelim, because it would have looked more professional and smooth.

Audience Feedback has been quite positive, and the transitions between shots were good. We got told that the lighting was very good in the prelim, so we thought it were happy we that we decided to change the way we filmed the prelim. We have also had some feedback, which will help us improve our filmmaking skills. In our prelim, the heads were cut off once I edited the footage. When we originally filmed it, the heads were in it, and once I put the footage on iMovie, it seemed to cut them out and I didn’t know how to fix it. We also could have established a better setting for the prelim, with a different use of cinematography. All of this feedback has now made us more aware of what we need to work on in our main task.

Prelim log - production

Prelim log- Production

We had a few problems which occurred whilst filming our prelim. Some of these problems were little mistakes but some were vital to the prelim task. The first error we had when trying to film was that the lesson we had decided it would be ideal to film in, was the lesson where there was no empty classrooms available for us to use. We did eventually find one room which we thought would work and be useful; however we soon realised that the room didn’t have a door so we were unable to film in this classroom as we wouldn’t have been able to complete the match on action shots which was a crucial to the prelim task. By the time we had worked that out it was nearly the end of the lesson so we had to decide to do it the next day in a different classroom. Once we had found a room the next day we started to film however we soon saw that the camera was a bit bright due to the windows not having blinds and the lighting in the rooms were also very bright so we changed the direction of the way the camera was facing, once we had watched the clips back before editing.

 If we did this task again then we would definitely make sure that we were more of aware of the lighting setbacks we had so the time filming wasn’t as much in a rush as it was.  When we were watching the clips that would soon become our prelim task, back we also realised that the camera man moved the camera from vertical to horizontal to make sure both characters could fit in the two shot however by doing this it affected the continuity editing as it jumped from shot to shot which looked really bad. The match in action shot was a nightmare to get right and we would for sure make sure that we had more time filming so the match on action was as good as it could be. The filming took a lot more time than we expected, we assumed that it wouldn’t take that long to film and that the editing would take more time than the filming therefore we had to rush filming which meant we overran the filming time by a little bit so if we could re-do our prelim task I would definitely make sure time management was much better so it didn’t have to be rushed.  Another something we learnt from the prelim task was to make sure that the camera is held the same way throughout the filming. We will bare this in mind for our main thriller task so it doesn’t have to be like our prelim task and have to be re-filmed several times. Therefore this would be our main focus for our main task to make sure time is not wasted of re-filming and that shooting is over and done with as soon as possible so the editing will be our main worry throughout. Time management has been our biggest lesson learnt whilst completing the prelim task.

Prelim log -Pre production

Pre-production

The first thing we had to do was pick our groups to work in when filming. We figure we need to have trust worthy people in our group to make sure we all do a fair amount of work and balance it out between us all. This is important because it will not cause any conflict and with good cooperation and teamwork we would work better. We did some research on the shots and editing we had to use into our prelim task. They were match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. These were important as it allows us to show our skills with filming and editing to portray a video clip. When we began to plan our prelim project we watched back examples of previous students’ prelim videos.  We learnt about the different editing and camera shots we could use in our own one to experiment as well as the compulsory shots we were set. All the videos were very different situations and it showed us what we could do with our own to make it interesting. The year 13 students came in to give us advice on filming and editing. They told us to watch out for reflections on windows and doors because that will affect the video by possibly showing the camera which will affect marks. We made sure that when picking a room it would not be by a window to avoid the situation with reflections. The year 13s also told us to allow enough time to edit because it will take longer than filming itself. We decided to think of an idea straight away so we could start filming as soon as possible to start the editing quickly. iMovie was suggested to us for an editing software so Sophie downloaded it on her phone so it was all ready for when we needed to use it for our prelim task. The year 13s also said it is better to film too much than not enough. This will become useful because if we went back and realised a shot was no good we would have to shoot the shot again and the weather could be different which will affect the continuity of the clip. We then worked on a storyboard of our prelim as shown in the next post. A story board is important when planning to film as it keeps you more organised and everything is planned before you shoot. This was useful as we were not thinking ideas as we went along which could cause conflict between the group and when we were all sat down and discussing it was a lot better to plan and organise our prelim.

Prelim Task - Jess and Amy

 

This is our prelim task to practise using a camera and also practise with editing techniques.