Feedback - Miss Spencer

You have made a decent start Kannika - using lots of media language and often discussing the meaning of the elements you have picked out. However you have described too much without then analysing (suggesting meaning) You also need to think beyond camera movement etc and also tackle editing, mise en scene and sound more. Because of this (and because you have only done one analysis) your work is in a level 2. In order to improve you should:

       

       

•   Think about the questions below, ensure you are addressing all of them.
•   Embed more JPEG images throughout and a video of the opening in order to illustrate your analysis.

  Study the opening sequences of any film from the Thriller, Horror, and Romantic comedy genre. E.g. Seven, The Dark Knight Rises, Halloween, Notting Hill, Love Actually etc. Analyse how the sequence has been constructed through its use of: Camera angles, shots, movement, Editing, Sound, Special effects and Mise-en-scene etc.

· In terms of editing how have the separate images been put together - Think in terms of frequency of cuts, fades in/out, jump cuts, dissolves etc.

• What visual images appear on screen throughout the sequence? And what do they mean?
• · Describe what narrative (story) is being displayed in the sequence from start to finish.
• · Describe what kind of music; diegetic/non-diegetic/incidental/ambient etc. is being played over the sequence.
• · How and what titles are being displayed during the sequence and in what order.
• · What kind of characterisation is evident? - Age, gender, relationships etc. 

Textual Analysis of a ROM COM: 17 Again

Thursday 18th September 2014

17 Again 

Sound 


The very beginning of the opening scenes, we can hear a non-diegetic sound. It is a sound, which is used as a theme/soundtrack and is not part of the story space, in other words the characters cannot hear it. At the same time, we can also hear ambient sound too. Ambient sound is a background, everyday sound, so for this scene, we can hear basketballs going through a hoop, after one another. 
 

Mise en scene 

The location of the opening scenes is in a high school basketball court in America. Which tell us that that the setting of opening scenes has something to do with students, basketball players and maybe a basketball tournament. 

The main character is wearing a white, basketball kit which tell us that he's a basketball player and about to play a basketball game.

The main character is using basketballs to warm up for a basketball tournament. This suggests that he's determine and serious about this tournament as he's spending as much time as he can before the tournament starts. The lightning of this scene when he's preparing himself for a tournament is bright and not dark, this suggests that the atmosphere in the court is calm and normal, nothing bad, dangerous or scary will happen. 



Editing 

Seamless editing- this is when the cuts between shots are fluid and barely noticeable. This type of editing is been used when the main character is warming up by shooting basketballs into the hoop because it shows that he can shoot into the hoops every time, this is to show that he's good at it. 

They've also used cut in the warm up scene. When he was shooting a basketball into the hoop, the camera took a shot of him while shooting a hoop but to let the audience know what he's doing, the angle of the camera moved and took a shot of a ball going in the hoop. 

Camera angles/ camera movements 

Establishing shot is taken at the very first scene of opening scenes. This is usually to show where the action will take place. This is usually at the very beginning of a film or at the end of a film. 

There is also a pan movement taken at the very first scene when they showed the outside of school, they did this by moving the camera horizontally, right to left, left to right.

Two shot is also used in this. Two shot is used to show the distance between two characters in close proximity to one another and to show that they're speaking to each other and to show their actions/emotions/attitudes toward each other. 



textual analysis: Mission Impossible II

Tuesday 9th September 2014

Textual analysis

Mission impossible II

 

The location of this opening scene looks like it is set on a real life location. It is based in the middle of a desert, with a high, big rocks and cliffs. As I did a further research to find out where the location of this scene is, I found out it is set in a place in USA called Dead Horse Point State Park.

 

At the very start of the opening scene, there is a man climbing a big rock, in the middle of a desert. In this scene, they used an aerial shot, this is to show a view from above, and it could be a place or a scene. It shows everything that is happening from a bird’s eye view. It shows the audience everything that is happening at once. A man climbing a big rock, in the middle of nowhere could also tell us that he’s challenging himself by ‘free climbing’ as he’s not using any props (e.g. ropes) or any help but only using his hands and feet and a bit of powder. This also means that he had lots of practised to be able to this kind of dangerous activity.




 

Later on in the opening scene, they’ve used ‘slow motion’ when he jumped from side of the rock to the other side of the rock. They’ve used slow motion because slow motion can be used to raise the dramatic tension in a scene, they keep the audience at the edge of their sears longer, and the audience crave to know what happens next. In this case, the audience want to know whether he would fall off the rock or not, as he’s jumping from one side of the rock to the other side of the rock, on a high height.

 

As he still climbing the rock and he is higher up, we can hear the sound of the wind. This is called ‘ambient sound’. Ambient sound is everyday sound or background sound. For this instant, the wind in the background sound in this scene. The audience can hear the sound of the wind strongly. This then tell us that he’s in the middle of nowhere and very high up on the rock.

 

As we get further into the opening scene, we will get to the point where he’s hanging off the rock, similar to Jesus on a cross. Jesus represents Christian religion. This suggest to us that the actor/character is in danger as he’s hanging off the rock and also, when Jesus was on the cross, it was when Jesus got tortured before people killed him. So with this scene, it gives me as an audience an idea that he’s about to face a serious danger. 

 

Next, we move on to the camera shot. Meanwhile the character is hanging off the rock; the camera is zoomed into his face, which is called the ‘close up’ shot. We use close up shot, in a certain feature or part of the subject takes up most of the frame. In this part, it’s a close up on the character’s face. This is to reveal who the main character is, to present to the audience who the character is. Close up to a person emphasizes their emotional state. A close up exaggerates facial expressions which covey emotion. The audience is drawn into the subject’s personal space and shares their feelings.

We can also notice a ‘high angle’ shot when the character was close to fall off the rock. The camera positioned high looking down at a subject, which is the man who’s climbing the rock placing the audience in a position of dominance, making the subject appear submissive or powerless.

One of the sounds they've used is 'theme tune'. theme tune is a piece of music that introduces a film or a TV programme and sets the mood of the genre that will follow. So in this case, the theme tune comes up, nearly at the end of the opening scenes when Ethan Hunt who is the main character got given a mission to be done.

Feedback - Miss Spencer

You have noticed what the learning you are taking away from this experience which will help you with your final film.
However the evaluation needs to be more detailed, answer all questions and explain things like the 180 degree rule, what it is and what happens when you break it etc.

Also check the basics of spelling and punctuation, it is important to be careful in your presentation.