RESEARCH: THE GIRL WITHT HE DRAGON TATTOO

In this film opening there are many dark and disturbing images.

In this picture you see a human figure's face and it appears to be submerging itself under a black liquid. This connotes the image of drowning and the lack of colour other then black gives the sense of trapped which highlights the drowning feeling even more.

In this picture there seems to be a creature of some sort with sharp teeth (still in only the clour of black). The fact that everything is black makes this film opening seem like a nightmare that is hard to escape from.

This image appears to show computer cables and wires that appear to look snake like and very distrubing. They are also tangled which highlights the feeling of being trapped.

The writing for the credits is very basic and simple which creates the audience to have their main focus on the disturbing images. There is a flower in the background that makes myself feel uneasy as normally flowers are colourful and bright yet this one is black and hasn't blossomed.

In this image it shows the figure looks like they are struggling to get out of water. This shows connotations of pain and unease.

The fire makes me feel that someone is being burnt alive. A human figure is then shown being burnt alive. This is shown when a skull appears on screen with fire all around it.

In this image we see two pairs of hands joining together. This suggests that there is romance in the plot of the film despite the plot also evidently being twisted.

the computer wires suggest that this has a large part take in the plot. Also the disturbing image of computer wires coming out of a human figures face makes the audience feel unsettled.

This image shows a male figure being blind folded and tied up, this suggests that there is a lot of violence in the plot of the film. There is also an image shown o a female figure being gagged, this suggests that there is some sense of rape or forceful violence in the plot also which creates the feeling of being disturbed on a whole new level.

In my opinion this film opening could be one of the protagonists' nightmares and that each image relates to their worst thoughts or experiences in their life. The figure that is a girl appears very boyish which suggests she doesn't want to appear weak or be seen as vulnerable, perhaps even denying her sexuality. There is also an image of a male and female about to kiss which is ruined by an explosions which tears both figures into multiple pieces, this connotes that there is somewhat something that ruins a sexual relationship in the film between the man and the woman.

PLANNING: POSSIBLE MUSIC FROM YOOKAMUSIC

 This is the list of songs that we feel go well with the planning of our camera work. all of these songs can be found here YOOKAMUSIC. Each of these songs we feel are suited better for our film opening due to the suspense that is built up with in these songs.

Alone in the park
One night hell
Crawling in fog

PLANNING: SOUNDTRACK

We have looked at possible music choices for our film opening. We needed a website which would categorize the genre crime drama into music and we found an ideal website which has page after page of 'suspense and thriller' music. We have analysed the music to see whether the soundtrack would link well with our filming ideas. This meant that for certain camera movements that we have planned we can look for music that will add suspense to the camera movement. Click here for the link.

PLANNING: CAMERA WORK

We are thinking of starting with a close-up on a large butchers knife with nothing else in shot apart from the hand holding it. The camera would then have a straight cut to a mid shot of the boy using the knife violently. The camera would then tilt from up to down then to a close up of the fish that he had just chopped the head off. The camera then is a point of view shot over the boys shoulders looking at his watch. There is then a full body shot of him taking off his apron. There is then a low angled shot of the skateboard that he is about to get onto. 

We plan our camerawork - camera angles, camera movement and shot types -in advance of filming. It is an integral part of our storyboard.
We watch again the rich texture of camerawork in Les Bleus de Ramville on The Art of the Title 
We also watch other student film openings that successfully create the key thriller codes of enigma, suspense and jeopardy such as The Mask.

Low angle shot - focusing on the wheels of the skateboard - to express freedom.
Close up shot of Bryn wearing headphones to express the type of music Bryn is listening too and also shows the contrast of music and the atmosphere, when he witnesses a murder.
Over the shoulder shot - so that we can see the bully and then Bryn skating along.
Worm shot - Bryn looking up at bully to show his helplessness.
High angle shot - Bully looking down on Bryn to show his authority. 


Close up shot - murderer holding knife

• I plan to use close-ups of hands as I have seen how effective tight framing is in directing the audiences attention to specificc actions as well as creating enigma by with holding elements of visual information;
• for example, in the opening squence to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a hand is opening a parcel, and the audience is prevented from seeing any more that the tight framing of the hand and parcel, which turns out to be a gift of a framed picture of a plant.
• When the camera pulls back, it is revealed that there have been a seies of such gifts, now all displayed on the study wall. The audience is intrigued to discover the mystery behind the gifts. Such enigma motivates audieces to keep watching.

over the shoulder high angle shot - looking over shoulder of murderer down at the victimFull length

• I plan to use this shot type because it shows the point pf view of the murderer and the relative positions of both
• It also puts the victim in the inferior position that shows his vulnerability.
• This sort of shot is repeatedly used in crime drama.

Mid shot - murderer stabbing victim
shot - murderer walking towards victim then stabbing victim

Left to right pan - pan from murderer to witness.

• I intend to mix panning shots from left to right, right to left and tilt pans up and down in order to give my film work textual richness and interest. When I analysed Les Bleus de Ramville in detail, the opening sequence showed great variety in its camerawork, moving seemlessly from panning shots to tracking shots, then table-top shots to animation. I intend to aim for an equal level of richness if possible to keep the audience interested.

RESEARCH: INSTITUTIONS AND AUDIENCES

The big 6 are the common companies that make and distribute the big Hollywood block buster films. As they are known as the big 6 they can afford to spend a lot of money on a film and not make much profit whilst other companies can not afford to do this so it is very rare you find a film with incredible cgi that isn't one of the big 6.

The big 6 function a lot differently in comparison to the British film industry. For example the big 6 are well known for over the top dramatic action and adventure films that involve heroes and death in violent ways. The British film institute is very patriotic and cultural, so almost all the filming would of been shot in the UK. Therefore it is only fair to say that the British film institute is a lot more realistic than the big 6.

In modern days it is fair to say that tablets are becoming more and more common and laptops less. Due to the handiness and easy portability with the exact same tools as a laptop it is almost pointless to have a laptop. Cross media convergence is very important, for example it is possible to access your netflix account on your games console, therefore this is two media companies joining together, this is synergy. Also another cross media convergence is two very big companies, Disney joined with Pixar, so now Disney owns Pixar.

British audiences are targeted mainly through the internet and social media. Other ways are posters, trailers on television and fleet. Fleet is the advertisement on a moving bus. But the most effective way of targeting an audience is the word of the mouth. The more people talk about a film, the more people hear about the film, the more people want to watch the film. People trust other people's opinions within their friendship group therefore if a friend says that a film is worth watching almost everyone within that peer group will want to watch that film.

The biggest trend at the moment is definitely the internet and watching films on the internet on tablets or even on their phones. Peter Jackson the director of the Hobbit is trying to start his own trend. This trend is for young people to start going to the cinema again. He is trying to start this through making his trailer so beautiful and captivating that it would seem idiotic to watch it on a miniature screen. Also the fact that Jackson is producing the film in 48 frames per second in 3d. This is a lot less strenuous on the eyes and is a lot smoother.

RESEARCH: FILM DISTRIBUTION ASSCOCIATION

Today in class we looked into how our films would be distributed. We viewed a video on the FDA website which showed us how to distribute our film link here. during the explanation of how to distribute films the people talking mention how it is very important to try and broaden the target audience when you are advertising your film, otherwise there is much less chance of the film being spread round by the word of the mouth. The word of the mouth is the most successful way to advertise a film, therefore the larger the target audience the more people will talk about it.

During the video many big names spoke about distribution, David Willings (CEO, Miracle Media Group) explains how hard it is to advertise a film with a good impact nowadays as there are so many different advertisements and people see 200-300 advertisements before they even get to work. therefore he says it is important to make sure that the advertisement is memorable.

Ian George (Managing director of 20th century fox) says that things as small as the sound track can determine whether the film distribution will be successful or not, so essentially he is saying that every last detail of film distribution is as important as the other. However David Willings says that it is the trailer that is the most important part of distribution which i would agree with this as posters and other advertisement doesn't have the same effect as a trailer.

Stuart Williams (Deputy Managing and marketing director, Sony pictures releasing) talks about the image of films and how small symbols, letters or words can be associated with the film due to its success. He uses spider man as an example as this is a very well known film and the mask or the symbol of spider man would instantly be recognized and associated with the film.

It is also important for films to have websites that have some sort of interaction with their audience, for example games, quizzes, prizes and competitions e.g. the effect of the interaction through the internet is extremely important as the internet is used globally and therefore social media would be a way of advertisement for a film web page and it would only be a click away.

RESEARCH: TARGET AUDIENCE PROFILE. The life of Tyler-Mckenzie Dwan

Age group: 18-29

Clothes: Nike, Adidas, Umbro, Reebok, Dunlop and Slazenger

Restaurants: Nandos, McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, Kfc and Pizza Hut

Gender: 80% male 20% female.

Related Tv shows and films: Top Boy, Shifty, Ill Mannors, Harry Brown, Attack The Block, Anuva Hood, Kidult hood and Adulthood 

Media: Bbm and Nokia bricks

Magazines: Fhm, Loaded, Nuts and Zoo

RESEARCH / PLANNING: ENIGMA, SUSPENSE & JEOPARDY

I have identified a few shot types, sound, movement, visual and sound codes that i find very inspiring. Each caption of each shot explains why I am attracted to it and why I have chosen it.

Breaking Bad: I was drawn to this shot as it shows the protagonist standing over his wife with a low angled camera shot which shows his dominance but also that he is dangerous.

Bones: This shot drew my attention as it is a crane shot of two detectives investigating in the bones of a dead human trying to figure out how he died.

Crime Scene Investigation: this camera shot is a right to left pan from the opening credits to the start of the tv show. this is effective as it shows the low angled shot of a policeman with a detective and they are looking over what appears to be the crime scene.

RESEARCH: SCOOPIT!

This is my ScoopIt! where i am collecting different information on crime drama on tv so i can research further into this genre to make the best of my knowledge for my film opening. ScoopIt! also offers me things that i might be interested to 'scoop' onto my page that is related to crime drama on tv.

RESEARCH: GENRE CONVENTIONS

In order to research genre conventions for the type of film opening that I am working on i looked at similar clips. I identified the visual and sound techniques that i would like to use in my film opening.

Last lesson i planned the outline treatment for a crime drama which included a realistic plot of a young male who works at a local fish monger and as he was roller-blading home he witnesses a murder.

In order to make a film opening i needed to familiarize myself with this genre, luckily i am already a fan of crime drama but i decided to research into other types of crime drama as my taste was very particular and the genre crime drama is a huge genre ranging from genteel investigators like Midsomer Muders and big intense shows like Spooks.

click here for the website

Here is a list of some of the productions of British, American and European film and tv crime drama that i am going to research further. I will create a Scoopit! to show my evidence of research.

• Breaking Bad
• Almost Human
• Arrow
• Sons of Anarchy
• Dexter
• The Blacklist
• Boardwalk Empire
• The Mentalist
• Orange is The New Black
• Castle
• Bones
• Sherlock
• Criminal Minds
• The Wire

RESEARCH: DELICATESSEN

Today in class we started to research into opening title sequences...
We looked at the opening title of Delicatessen (1991) Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro
http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/delicatessen/
In my analysis i am going to write about what particularly caught my eye and interested me, also what i thought had a great effect and how it did.

• The genre of this film is black comedy so therefore it the title design is smart by the fact that it is a skull which shows that this film includes gore. The genre is also shown through each title, for example the costume designer's name is shown on an item of clothing of one of the people who is about to be eaten.
• the artifacts are all quite old therefore the history of this period is shown through this and it is quite clear also.
• The colour of the opening is very yellowy and the tone is sepia which enhances the darkness by the contradiction of colours.

RESEARCH: THE ART OF THE TITLE

Today I looked at different film openings to see which ones i thought had better effects than others on me. the main website that i used was Art of the title which can be found here  http://www.artofthetitle.com/
We looked at the video 'A brief history of tile design'

• One of the opening videos that i watched was the 1993 King Kong which i felt was interesting as for a film that is so old still has a good effect on the audience taking into account that it is 80 years old. 
• the genre of this film is Action and Adventure.

• This is in black and white as colour wasn't available in these days.
• Obviously the standard of filming is not as developed as modern days.
• The credits are infront of very bland backgrounds with zig-zag shapes which is quite repetitive yet having said that these shapes work well as some sort of opening curtain effect.

• Another film opening i watched was 21 jump street. This was a good opening as it gives the audience the contrast between the two characters, one being cool and sporty and the other being uncool but smart.
• When the shots are focused onto exam papers and other academic/uncool things it is related to one of the characters. When the shot is focused on sport, gym or a group of friends it is related to the other character. This is the contradiction between the two characters through the shooting.
• The genre of this film is most certainly comedy, this can be recognised by the well known faces in it, for example Jonah Hill.
• The opening is very colorful with lots of straight cuts, this could suggest that it is very modern.

• I also looked at the film 'se7en' this appealed to me because of the title.
• the genre of this is an American thriller.
• I thought that the way the title came up with white on top of black was effective as it made the title very predominant.
• Most of the shots are close ups which has some sort of dramatic effect as we wouldn't be able to see the rest of the shot which leaves a sense of mystery.

• I looked at a different type of genre for this film opening, this film is called Evil Dead.
• The genre of this film is Horror.
• This film is particuarly effective for this genre as there are only two colours used being black and red. the red is used as blood which is shaped into the opening credits whilst the black is like a background.
• The viewer instantly becomes aware that this film is a horror as there is plenty of blood but also there are many weapons that have supposedly caused this blood which then goes into shape names of people in the opening credits.

• The last film that i looked at was Iron man 3.
• The genre of this film is action and science fiction.
• This film opening is good as it is the third film out of the trilogy and the prequels were extremely successful therefore iron man is very well known now. The use of the colour red and gold is effective as it ties in with the colour of iron man's suit.
• The opening also has a cartoon like feel through the font of the text which is clever as iron man originates from a comic book as it is created by Marvel.

PRELIMINARY EXERCISE

  We are doing the thriller brief:we plan, film, capture and edit our preliminary task.

Continuity task: filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room, sitting down in a chair opposite another character with whom she/he exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180% rule.

MY MEDIA WORLD

• I use the iPhone 3gs, t.v, Xbox and a laptop



Me and my iPhone

• My iPhone is used for many different things but mainly to contact my friends via text or phone calls. 

• I also use social websites to contact my friends and update pictures: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Vine.
• I choose not to have game apps on my phone as it is distracting and sometimes antisocial.
• I also prefer Instagram as people can only view my profile with my permission therefore i only have people i know who are my followers.
• I don't use Facebook as much as i used to due to it being filled with viral videos and it has lost its purpose.
• I use twitter often to interact with friends and see what they are tweeting about.
• I like vine as i find it a fun way to put up inventive videos.
• I watch some t.v, mainly my favourite shows on weekly.
• I used to use my xbox on a regular basis but then i stopped for a long time. 
• I then started using my xbox again when Grand Theft Auto V came out and i use my xbox all the time now.
• I use my laptop everyday.
• I mainly use my laptop for social media sites where i can chat to friends. 
• Also i use my laptop to watch legally downloaded films.
• I go on to youtube to watch my favourite music videos.
• I have recently started using blogger also to update my profile.