Film Coursework

My production is going to be a screenplay with an accompanying story board for (INSERT NAME HERE)- for the brief, establish an enigma. At the beginning of my screenplay i am going to use the opening scene to establish an enigma that intrigues the audience and makes them want to keep watching. My screen play will begin with a body in an alley and then it will cut to a girl getting ready and going to work, the enigma won't be referenced until right at the end where the final scene shows to girl walking up to the body and seeing her own body lay on the surgery slab. I'm aiming for this to be a slice of life style with the enigma making it like a mystery where the audience needs to make their own answers to the enigma and for them to unravel the story themselves.

When I watched the gunfighter, a comedic short film that used the voice over to provide narrative to an otherwise generic scene I decided that I was going to use this technique in my work. I wanted to provide my character with some sort of voice and inner monologues, by using a voice over I am able to give a sense of comedy relief to my otherwise very serious plot line.

After watching the curfew I was really inspired by the use of enigma and the camera work throughout the movie. In order to establish enigma the director uses close ups on different important factors in order for the audience to understand that it is significant but they never specifically address the things they establish and this is to create curiosity in the audience. A good example of this is when he is sat in a bath clearly surrounded by blood with a blade next to him, he clearly wants to kill himself however he also has a phone next to him as if he wants someone to stop him. All of these things create an enigma and in the audiences mind we wonder if he truly wants to due or whether he wants someone to stop him however this is never answered in its entirety and instead we just watch him get back out and leave the bath. I'm really inspired by the way that the enigma creates interest in the plot. I want to implement this in my own work. Specifically I want to use this at the beginning when a body is discovered but it won't get acknowledged till the very end of the short film. I want the audience to solve the enigmas themselves rather than providing them with the answers.

Another movie that provided me with inspiration was About A Girl, I really liked the way that the short film has a twist at the end in order to create a shock ending. By drawing the audience in and then creating a shock at the end the director makes the audience think. Throughout the movie the girl is carrying a plastic bag and goes about her normal day, it doesn't seem strange and the audience wouldn't really question why she is carrying it just like the people in the scene however just as the short film ends the girl throws a dead baby into the river creating a shock ending. The director drew the audience in to give them a shock and create questions. The realist element of this movie doesn't make you question the girl and when you see this it really is meant to shock the audience.

The aesthetic of INSERT Name really inspired my movie as the low-key lighting and dark tones really created an intimate and warm feeling despite the rather dark topic of the short film. At the beginning short, fast close ups were used in order to establish the scene and to give the audience a brief understanding of the scene but the plot could become confusing for a passive audience. I really like the way that the warm candle light creates a sense of intimacy between the couple highlighting the fact its meant to be cozy and happy but the long table depicts a different idea, expressing to the audience a great distance between the couple. By using mise-en-scene the director let's the audience read the couple rather than explicitly saying that they aren't close and I want to take inspiration from this in my short film where I will establish the mise-en-scene but I'll let the audience read into it.

Alfred Hitchcock Presentation Lesson

In this class i produced and presented a power point. When I was presenting a fellow classmate gave me some feedback on my presentation.

She said that my presentation needed to be more interactive which i agree with as i could have improved the way the my presentation looked and it needed more visuals because it was way too bland and uninteresting in presentation. Not only this but I needed to write down a little more and re-search from multiple different places. I also should have added my locations where i got my research from the end.

However even though i had some bad things my classmate still learnt something from me even if it wasn't interactive. She said that I actually told the information really well and the way that i spoke was very engaging and when i was speaking she listened and i told her the information really well she managed to learn.

Winters bone notes

Winters bone notes.

We should talk about how it is viewed personally and also in a group and how it will influence a group

The movie us described as poetic which talks about the look bed feel of it and it makes it feel like you are part of the community and you are left to experience it without being told what you should feel and tell

It's very fantastical because she has a quest and she has to find something and go on a mission, she experiences hardships

Jennifer Lawrence wasn't a big actress back then and no one knew her

She's very realistic and acts so well in the movie and she is very naturalistic and takes on the character so well.

Not for mainstream audience and it doesn't encourage passive audience you need to be active.

The girl isn't an actor and most of the people in it were locals

The community is very realistic and it's very much like the movie is realistic.

Documentary style. Neo realistic because it is American.

Hand held camera and the lighting is natural.

25 day shoot

Preproduction proccess of finding where it is and the location is realistic they are filmed in real places  hat they had to find in the pre production

Only 2 million budget which is low for a movie

Shot on specific camera Red DV camera 

They have to talk about the stunts and the actors come up with some ideas and they have some input

The characters have more free range to figure out about their characters

Organically meaning that they aren't managed spot by spot they are all as it goes

A lot more authentic 

Very small amount of crew there isn't loads of crew

Talks to the people who actually live in the area and looks at the way they act towards each other and the environment around them

Let's the actors so their thing and get the emotion through 

He had his own ideas and improvisation (old man with beard)

2010 release

Jennifer Lawrence = ree

Thorpe=old man with beard

Costume designer had so little money - 5'500

Had to buy clothes from the area so that they could add to mise en scene and vershmilitude 

They did a clothes swap with people in the area and a lot of the clothes had animals on

Puffy jackets, wool, motif fleece and hats

Screened at sundance

Debate wether it was to put on the poster and trailer

Won plenty of awards

Made 6.5 million in the us and it made profit

The Prisoner Film Sequence Analyisis

The Prisoners Film Sequence

The film clip begins with rain on a car in front of a diner. The use of the bad weather and pathetic fallacy begins to create a dark and sad atmosphere, it gives us an idea that this sequence will be sad and dreary. The whole shot is in focus and there is lights on in the diner, this is the only light that is in the scene to light up the car. The car in the foreground is not at all lit up and therefore it gives us the impression that it is an important part of the scene. There is then a cut to a man sat in a chair inside the diner and it is still raining however the sound of the rain is quietened. The diner is completely empty besides the man which shows that the weather is so bad that people aren't out and that it is really late at night further emphasizing the point of the weather creating a bad mood, this is the conventions of mystery as this creates an enigma code as we begin to question why he is out so late and who this man is.

We get a close up of the man enjoying his coffee however we are still unsure about this character as we haven't been given any information about him. As he drinks his coffee his phone goes off and this is where we get our first clue about what he is like, he receives a police report through his phone about a motor home that is found in a parking lot. The next shot jump cuts to him outside next to his car. The next important shot is of a car windscreen, looking out of it however as the focus shifts it focus' into the car and then finally it focuses on the man in the car wearing glasses. Enigma code is created here as we try to understand who this person and in fact this small cut leaves us with loads of questions such as, who is this person. We are lead to believe that this man is an important character as otherwise he would not have been focused on as heavily as he was.

A long shot is used to give idea of what is going on in the shot as we move to a new scene and can see the motor home and the approaching police cars to greet the person in the shot, of whom is moving towards the motor home. This is used to help the audience understand the setting of the shot but also it is used to create a size difference between the motor home and the man walking towards it. We then get a quick cut of a silhouette in a car once again, further highlighting that this man is important and the use of low-key lighting begins to help us understand that this man may possibly be a bad character and that he is the antagonist. The next shot is a point of view shot using a reflection to capture a shot of the man in the car watching the inspector go towards the motor-home of which the apparent character seems to be inside. This shows us that this character is acting in a way that is suspicious and that he has the police’s attention, further creating an enigma code and highlighting the questions we have.

Almost immediately after acting suspicious it cuts to a tracking shot of the investigator that was approaching the motor-home and he jumps backwards as the person in the van begins to act erratically, they use fast cuts and jumps to show that it is fast paced and high energy. The van then runs into a tree and we get a long-shot from in front of the van, this shows both how small the man is compared to the van but also it shows the damage that the trees did to the van. The focus is on the RV however you can see in non-focused zone the investigator approaching with extreme caution. 

We get a close up of the area in the RV where the driver would be however there is no-one there and instead the windscreen is completely smashed through, this makes us curious to see where this guy had gone that we had seen a few times. By creating mystery we want to watch more as we want to know what is going happen next. Once the inspector goes inside of the RV they find a person inside the RV, there is a close up of 2 hands coming out of the curtain however we do not see the person right away and so we have no idea if that is the person who may have been driving the motor home. 

When we finally see the person who we may think was driving the motor home he looks confused and scattered as if he didn't know where he was or what he was doing, when the investigator pulls him out and shouts to him about girls he doesn't understand, he looks scattered and confused. The audience is lead to think that the investigator has a personal problem with the person who may have done the crime that he is shouting about. This creates enigma code as we want to understand what he is talking about too due to our lack of understanding. Reaction shots are used to show the audience the man’s face and to display the true confusion and to highlight this emotion. 

All of the shots are over the shoulder shots to show us what each of the people can see in the different views. By doing this it emphasizes the fact that the person doesn't know what the police officer is bugging him for as the police men look very intimidating. By aiming the camera down at the man it shows that the police clearly think nothing of him and they think he is nothing and insignificant whereas by looking up at the police it shows that they are higher and mightier than the man that they are intimidating.

Crimson Peak Film Sequence Analysis

Crimson Peak Film Analysis

The sequence of Crimson Peak that we are analysing began with a close up of a girl wearing an all white nightgown being startled awake by a pain, the colour she is wearing is important as it usually has connotations of innocence and purity. This character is startled by her dog barking, close up shot is used to show her fear and distress at the situation, this shot helps us as the audience understand what the character feels and in this particular instance gives us an idea that she doesn't know what is happening and that maybe she is in fact naive to the situation that is happening around her. and the camera begins to pan out to a mid shot of her body with her face still in shot. The bark from the dog is a digetic sound and begins to create tension as it is the only noise apart from her breathing in the scene, this creates an enigma code as we become curious about what the dog is barking at and makes us as the audience want to watch more to find out. The dogs bark echoes through the empty house which is a convention of horror, particularly gothic horror as it begins to create an eerie atmosphere and makes the house seem big and empty.

The clip is set in an old-style gothic home is what we presume is a much earlier period than what we live in now. The decoration is very dated. This a convention of horror as it is a place that many may consider as creepy and unsettling. Pathetic fallacy is used to show just how creepy the place is, the scene is set in the middle of the night and it is rainy and windy outside, these are two conventions of gothic horror that are used to create the scene.

Due to the time of night the building is pitch black and she is using a candle holder to see as she walks through the corridors, the darkness is called low-key lighting and it is used to highlight the figure as well as to make the areas dark and creepy. The candle holder highlights the girl throughout the whole of the scene, this helps us as the audience see her reaction and decode how she is feeling and how we should feel. The girl is kept in mostly the centre which is the rule of thirds, this is used to catch our eye and keep our attention on her, and it makes the whole scene more aesthetically pleasing and makes us want to watch it more as it is pleasing to our eyes.

As the girl begins to look around in the corridors, tracking shots and mid-shots are used to follow her and to also show where she is going in the corridors. The whole house creeks as she walks around to create a feeling like someone else is there or even to make it seem like the house itself is alive. By doing this it creates atmosphere and makes the house seem creepy and mysterious, thus increasing the atmosphere around them.

When the dog started barking in the background it slowly pans out and shows the girl in the background while the dog is in the foreground, originally the girl thought the dog was in the cupboard however it is proved that it is not, once again creating an enigma code as we are increasing more curious about what is in the cupboard if it is not the dog. Straight after the camera jumps to the cupboard and the door is slammed, before it slams we see a face, this is dramatic irony as we know more than the character in the scene knows, this makes our heart beat faster and is meant to make us jump at the sudden slam. This is where the action begins to pick up, as shown by the increase in speed of the editing, there are more jumps and it faster paced.

A non-diegetic noise is edited in as she opens the cupboard, this is meant to increase tension and is meant to make everything seem creepier and scary however quickly cuts off when there is nothing in the cupboard. This creates tension and increases our curiosity about what is going on in the scene and where the creature we saw just a moment ago has gone. A long shot is used to show that the corridor is empty but it also shows that the dog is at attention with its ears up, this connotes that something bad is about to happen. When she closes the door a creepy voice starts up in the background and then a sudden jump as the girl spots what is causing the creepy noise, a hand slams onto the ground, after the almost silent scene the loud noise startles us and creates atmosphere as well as tension.

Close up camera shots of the non-human creature is used to show that the monster in the hallway is not human and to further develop the enigma code that began to be develop from the very beginning. It intrigues us as the audience as we want to know exactly what the creature is however it makes us anxious as things that are not human but have a human like body typically make us as humans feel uncomfortable and unsettles us. Tracking mid-shots are used, with the creature still in the background, to show the girl is running in fear as you can see her reaction and what is scaring her, this gives us more information and helps us understand the situation and how we should feel at this particular moment.

Non-diegetic music plays in the background and increases in noise to create tension and to increase the pace of the scene which is meant to be fast and terrifying. Towards the end there are a few close up shots of a case, this shows it is of importance and makes us more curious, this enigma code makes us even more curious about what is going to happen and intrigues us to keep watching, it keeps our attention and makes us excited to see the next part.