Croatskva:

This is my first fully edited short film showing highlights of my trip to Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro over the half term week.
While was in the former Yugoslavia I was exposed to a variety of enviroments both natural and man-made but unfortunately the confines of my camera meant that my video footage is made up of short clips at a max length of 10 seconds.
I think this suited me because my video was intended to be no longer than two and a half minutes and that was a short amount of time to show case an entire holiday; in the end there were no intsresting features of the audio so I opted to remove the audio and replace it with a soundtrack of my choice.

If I could have increased the length of this video I would have used a larger amount of my initial footage and would have also used more adventurous film editing techniques rather than the standard shortening or lengthening clips such as the cable car clip in this video.
Because this was my first time using imovie editing software I had a habit of spending large periods of time simply finding out how to use the software; I gained experience in learning the complexity of specific tools and I came to the conclusion that sound was the easiest aspect of the video to change.

Though this video task was more centered on film editing, I do want to incorporate light and sound more equally in future edited pieces.

conventioal thriller poster

The conventions of modern day thrillers has not advanced in style in recent times.

These same conventions can be seen in multile film posters including 'Gothika', 'the number 23', 'the resident' and many more; the main similarity between these posters is the huge emphasis they present on the face.

Because thrillers focus on human situations typically concerning crime it is not suprising that emphasis on the face is used order for the audience to make an intial judgement on the character.

The Bell Tower Scene - Vertigo Movie (1958) - HD

As we are planning for our film opening to constitute a thriller, I have been analysing some of the most memorable films of the genre to date.
'Vertigo' is a prime example of a thriller as it primarily questions physical and mental conceptions; also as this film can almost be blamed for defining the modern-day genre itself it holds to a large number of the basic conventions attributed to the style.

I have taken these conventions from a resource in the cherwell shared area, Some of these conventions are as follows:

A crime at the core of the narrative (often murder, but not necessarily).
A complex narrative structure, with false paths, clues and resolutions.
A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which the viewer expects to be resolved.
A protagonist who is systematically dis-empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by the antagonist.
Extraordinary events happening in ordinary situations.
Themes of identity.
Themes of mirroring.
Themes of voyeurism.
Protagonist with a ‘flaw’ which is exploited by the antagonist.
Titles often reflect an aspect of the pro/antagonist’s psychological state.
There is often a scene near the end of the film in which the protagonist is in peril.
Mise en scene which echoes/ mirrors the protagonist’s plight.

The Shadowtainted - Part 1 (full storyboard)

Before Greengrass and Bourne’s hand-held fury, there was this. Joe Carnahan and Jason Patric, and one of the most visceral, violent and blue foot chases you’ll ever see. The rest of the film is tame compared to this; you'll not see many film openings that establish themselves as well as this, it is as gritty as it is haunting.

For our film opening we are planning to do some sort of thriller/noir, we chose this genre as it relied more heavily on directing and editing, rather than acting.
My role was to produce a storyboard and to pitch an ideal script for our film opening.
I am planning to upload further film openings in the genre and style we our planning to emulate.

Spooks extract - sound

Though sound is used subtly in this extract it can have a significent impact on the viewing audience in the same way that it displays the atmosphere in room without focusing on the light or camera angles.
For example the constant undertone murmor of non-diegetic instantly gives an impression of the dark atmosphere without referring to the spoken dialogue.

The constant echo gives a clue that they are in an enclosed room this is a choice by the director to ensure that the viwer understands the danger of the situation; other uses of non-diegetic sound include what sounds to be a lightning strike when the camera zooms in on the photo of the victim.
For someone who is only listening to the clip, this noise will seem disorientating and alien.

Cherwell Media Prelim Task - 2011/12

the lion king (1994) - opening

the openining to the lion king is one of the most famous and remorable film openings in history as it drowns the viewing audience in a festival of visual effects and sound culminating in the extravagance one might expect from the end of a film rather than the begining.

as this sequence, like the whole film is animated it is difficult to talk about the camera and lighting; however it is still well directed in order to create such an atmosphere.
the sequence biulds up slowly in action and light this is effective as the scene opens with a sun rise and as more light is added more life emerges and harmonises.

because animated films have more possibility, in many ways it was more difficult to watch this scene and discuss camera and light choices by the director.

Reservoir Dogs (1992) - Opening Scene

Reservoir Dogs is an American crime film that focuses on a group of men prior to and after a botched diamond heist, the cast are made up of household names including the acting, writing and directing debut of Quentin Tarantino.
Like in most of Tarantino's movies, there is violence embedded in the script and he tries his upmost to emphasise the importance of every character.
this is apparent in the opening sequence while they are sitting around a table and the
camera pans around the table to show all the characters but shoots in an 'over the shoulder'
format in order to retain the mystery surrounding each character.

i think this is an interesting scene to anylyse as it emphasises subtle eotions very well in all male enviroment where emotions are not deamed to relevant.

The Matrix Opening

opening to the matrix (1999)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn0i0Co67sM

in this opening sequence editing and visual effects are used to great effect in emphasising the sci-fi aspect of the film.
this opening sequence has been recognised as one of the greatest openings to an action film in history; though this is a bold statement in some ways i would agree as it uses all the elements necessary for the building of tension and the effects of combat, i am referring to the well co-ordinated camera movement and slow motion impacts that were pioneered by the film.

media studies preliminary task 2011/12

in the youtube video panel on the right hand side of the blog is a link to my preliminary task video.
the video is a short compilation of the editing and filmaking skills that i have learnt in the past four weeks and it shows multiple camera angles being used.

watch and enjoy!