Our pitch

Last lesson our group had to pitch our movie opening idea to the rest of our class, my group consists of me (sound), Will Whales (editing), and James Flower (filming).
Our opening idea is to have a British gangster film, with it going against the conventions of a gangster film by  having them as young "chavs" instead. part of the reason to do this is because it is easier to film it like this as we have more accessible actors and props for this age group and plot. our opening is going to be shot in twilight, using car lights to provide extra light, and we are going to have a character thrown in the boot of a car, then see the car driving off, having shots of inside the car and having shots showing the car driving past.

Opening sequence analysis

For our final project our group are planning on creating an opening for a British gangster film, so for my deconstruction of an opening sequence i have decided to analyse the opening sequence of the film Snatch.

The very first scene of the film shows CCTV screens showing four disguised men breaking into a diamond business disguised as Jewish rabbis, this opening scene immediately sets the criminal aspect to the film as it is showing the thieves on CCTV screens, connoting that a crime is about to be committed. whilst this sequence is playing the casts names are appearing on the screens.

After this sequence the film cuts to becoming incredibly fast paced, with the characters pulling out guns and storming the office, the non diegetic sound in this part of the opening is a very fitting fast paced drum beat which greatens the tense feelings of the viewer, the editing of the scene is also fast paced and uses effects such as the image rotating and spinning to add tension, which could easily look unimpressive and over the top, however works very well.

 

The sequence continues to show the title "snatch" imposed on top of an outrageously large diamond, when the image of the diamond rotates into another person holding it, this bit of editing is incredibly clever and works very well, a different non diegetic soundtrack starts at this point and is considerably more funky and upbeat than the soundtrack before,creating a more fun element to the opening.

From here onward the opening goes through the characters, establishing who's who, what they do and how their stories intertwine, with each character having a freeze-frame with their name over the top, the fast paced, flowing editing style here makes the viewer incredibly captivated to find out what happens to each of the characters.

 

In my opinion this is an incredibly good and inventive way of making a title sequence. With the sequence finishing with the same shot of the diamond.

Evaluation of my preliminary task

Me and James' preliminary task, titled "The Kandy Killer" was overall a success, however there were a few major issues with the film. First of all, the audio was often very inconsistent, with certain scenes having very quiet audio, and the next scene being very loud in comparison, to combat this issue, in the next task I will use a proper microphone to pick up sound clearly, and will edit the sound so that all clips are at an appropriate level. The next problem we faced was creating smooth edits from one shot to the next, however we got this right eventually. However I think that our film looks very professional overall and the shots all look very crisp due to the use of a good camera. I think that we should have done more takes for scenes where our actors looked at the camera as this unintentionally breaks the fourth wall, leaving the film looking less believable.

My preliminary task

This is me and James Flowers preliminary task, "The Kandy Killer"

Mise en scene

Mise en scene is a French phrase, meaning "what's in a scene" and is a loose term applying to the props, background and what's in the scene. Mise en scene can be very important as it can create atmosphere, develop story-lines, give clues into the nature of characters and give viewers further information into what's happening in the scene.

A good example of mise en scene being used well is from this scene from inside Howl's bedroom in Howls moving castle. this scene shows all of Howls magical gadgets and gizmo's and gives the viewer an insight into his personal world and his life. By choosing to include every inch of detail in this (hand drawn) scene the animators were able to show the clutter and mess that signifies what is happening inside howls head.

It is useful to know how mise en scene can effect a piece as I can use this information in my final piece to help portray the right ideas. 

Film poster deconstruction

The poster for the film "Watchmen" is incredibly well composed and draws the viewer in to watching the film using a varied set of techniques. The vibrant yellow colour that contrasts against the dark blues and blacks in the background pops out making the viewer read the title and lines of text in the upper section of the poster. The figure with their back towards the viewer in the centre creates a sense of mystery as to who the character is and what they are doing (including why they are in the middle of the road). The blue colours are very dark and add to the sense of mystery, while also adding a sense of fear. The low angle shot of the buildings makes them seem very imposing and scary, almost making the whole city seem big and scary, and making the character in the centre seem very small and weak, although the light "aura" around the character in the centre has the opposite effect and makes them seem powerful and almost holy, hinting at the characters anti-hero role in the movie.

Rule of thirds photography

What is the rule of thirds?
The rule of thirds is a technique used in photography to add balance to photos, draw the eyes to the focal points of the photo and make the shot overall more pleasing to the eye. With the rule of thirds the picture is divided into 3 sections both vertically and horizontally, so that the picture is broken into a 9 square grid. Focal points should lie on or near intersections, where the vertical and horizontal lines meet, and strong lines in the picture should lie along, or close to the lines on the grid.

Examples
The rule of thirds can be seen in these pictures below:




The rule of thirds is often used in photography, however it can also be used in film to make a scene or shot especially striking. Like all rules however, the rule of thirds can be broken, and impressive and strong shots can also be achieved without using this technique.