Analysis of Romance films - Just Like Heaven

Plot: Dr. Elizabeth Masterson (Witherspoon) is on her way to have a blind date when she has a car accident, although she reappears three months later — but shows up only in front of David Abbott (Ruffalo), who moved into her old apartment. Over time it becomes clear that something’s not right, although Elizabeth’s loved ones sense her presence as well. Elizabeth is not dead, but in a coma, and her special relationship with David occurs because he was the blind date she was going to see. Will their love be enough to ease her condition?

This kind of film would be hard to film for our final project because it includes a lot of special effects as the Reese Witherspoon's character is portrayed as a ghostly figure for the majority of the film. However, it does include a lot of easily found settings, such as busy cities, hospitals, pubs and the main appartment.

The opening to this film has a dreamlike quality and plays a calm, relaxed song whilst we see a lady sitting on a chair, this relates back to the name of the film. It also shows a variety of shots of this lady, so would be good for our film opening as it would show the skills we have with a camera. It then goes on to this lady being woken up from her dream and we see her daily work routine and how dedicated and busy she is. This makes her a relatable character to the audience, but also makes them pity her. By having the opening scene revolving around her it shows the audience that this is the main character of the film. Howver, it makes the reader watch on as they want to find out who the main male character is going to be.

This is an effective opening for a romance film as it sets the main characters personality and her background, however it doesn't give away much of the storyline and leads the audience to continue watching to find out what will happen. It is quite a low budget opening, as most of it is filmed in a hospital, however it would be hard to re-create all the medical procedures we see her carry out.

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Well done Charlotte, you need to now include evidence of scripts, storyboards and actors as well as questionnaires about your target audience in order to further your research and planning.

Possible Romance location

There are many places we could set our romance film as there is never a particular setting in a romace film, big cities are frequently used, so London could be a possibility as it is nearby.

This would be an easy shot to recreate as it is very simple and there is no big background for it.

A classic London scene would be a good setting for a romance film as it is a classic scenery in many romance films.

Somerset house courtyard at Christmas.
Hampton court gardens, a romantic location in summer and winter.

If we had a higher budget we could go to Paris to film a romance film as Paris is well known for its romantic locations and frequently features in Romance films.

What we would do in a Horror film

After researching horror films and the conventions of them, we decided certain aspects we would include if we were to do a horror film for our final project:

• We would use the cliche of a lonely situation such as a farm as we already have the location.
• We would also work on did you just see that moments, as no particular special effects are used and it makes the audience aware and jumpy.
• Hopeless situations would also be good in our horror film because it makes the audience feel more involved with the characters in the film.
• We would also use anti climax moments as it is a good feature of horror films and keeps the audiene interested as it builds suspense.

Review of Paranormal Activity 3

Horror Music

Horror music is the main aspect of a horror film which makes it scary for the audience. The music builds the tension and suspense among the audience and without it the horror films wouldn't be particularly scary.

The soundtracks are often hard to listen too with discordial sounds of high pitched violins and crashing chords.

Studies have shown that horror music scare us because of the harsh, discordant and unexpected sounds used in horror soundtracks imitate the screams of frightened animals. These sounds instinctively make us scared.

 



This music from the film 'Psycho' is very high pitched and screechy making it very unsettling. It gets faster throughout which builds suspense among the audience.

This is the horror music from 'The Exorcist' it has lots of high pitched notes played on a piano and has a sinister tone to it.

Horror target audience

• Horror is one genre which is hard to find just one target audience for as it attracts such a variety of people.
• Teenagers and young adults are a common target audience as they get an adrenaline rush from watching them, however they are mainly watched at this age with friends as they find it funny to watch them together. Or they watch them with friends to try and prove something to each other.
• A male audience dominates the horror genre as they like the gore and violence these films include, they may also think that it makes them look tougher.
• Most horror films are aged at people of 15 years and above as you rarely get a decent horror film which is rated below a 15.

This film is rated an 18 and has lots of violence, so this film attract a male audience where they would be over 18.
The shining is rated a 15so attracts a younger audience, this may also be because one of the main characters is a child.

The thing has a certificate 18 and attracts any audience over the age of 18, although it has lots of graphic gore and strong language so the audience may be male orientated.

Horror Titles

Although most Horror titles look different, in reality there are similarities between them.

Font

• The font of a films opening titles reflects what kind of horror this film is going to be, for example Saw films have titles which are shaped to suggest gore and violence.
• However, the font used for The Descent is simple and does not give anything away.
• Font which is older may suggest the film is about previous events.

Size

• The size of a horror title depends on what mood the director is trying to portray, it may be big and bold and sudden to make audience jump or it may be smaller and thinner to create an eery mood.

Colour

• The common colours for titles in horror films are red, grey or black.
• These colours all have negative connotations and set the mood of the genre.

Most horror films have black screen titles with fonts and colours that stand out against the black, this is because it attracts the audience and makes the title stand out.

Analysis of horror films - Drag Me To Hell

This film has a very simple story line, it is based around the classic story of somebody being cursed and their life then being a series of unfortunate events. In this film the character goes to a physic who tells her she will be taken to burn in hell in a few days time, with the help of the physic she desperately tries to rid herself of the demon.

Although this film has a simple storyline it wouldn't be suitable for my final project because it is very high budget, the estimated budget being 30 million. It also works on many jumpy moments, but uses expensive special effects to scare the audience.


However, the opening of this film is very simple and just sets the story. This would be a good opening for our final project as it doesn't include any special effects, but it is a good idea as it sets the storyline and immediately makes the audience aware that something is going to happen, it intrigues them.




Analysis of opening 2 minutes


The film starts with an establishing shot of a city - setting the scene for the film. We then see an Ariel shot of a busy road and the camera gradually zooms into it. The shot then switches onto a close up of a radio, an example of match on action. Whilst, this is happening an English speaking tape is playing over the top. The shot of the radio reverse zooms and we see the back of a lady's head who is driving which then switches to a shot of her face. This makes the audience wonder who she is and why she is listening to this tape. We then see her drive into an underground car park with a long shot, this again makes the audience question where she is. Next we see a mid shot of her looking through a cake shop window, this makes her a relatable character to the audience. Next we see her walking into a bank, all of these locations are making the audience watch on and discover who this lady is. We then see a shot / reverse shot of her sitting at a desk and realise she works at the bank. Next we See a long shot of an empty desk and then a close up of an 'assistant manager' sign this shows the audience that she could want this job. We then see an over the shoulder shot of her talking to whom we can assume is her boss about the job.

This isn't a very effective horror opening as it is slow to get started and doesn't show the audience that this a horror film. It does show one horror cliche though as the pretty blonde girl is always first to die, and in this opening it is based around her so the audience can assume she is the protagonist. I wouldn't do an opening like this for my final project if I was to do a horror film because it isn't a very interesting opening and doesn't captivate the audience as it doesn't even give an indication of what the audience can expect later on in the film.

Analysis of horror films - Paranormal activity 2

In Paranormal activity 2 a family move into a house in California, there house is then broken into however nothing seems to be stolen. So cameras are set up around the house to try and find out whats going on. Although, the soon discover that the situation is more sinister than first thought as supernatural events begin to occur.

This film is a very low budget horror film and everything is edited together just to make it scarier. Also a lot of this film is in silence as it builds the tension among the audience as they never know when to expect anything, this is a low budget but clever convention. The setting of this film is in the same place throughout and is just in a regular house. This kind of horror film would be good for our final project as it is low budget, a lot of the camera work is simple and is of low quality, and the setting is somewhere easy to use. Also, throughout this film a lot of the scary moments are just doors slamming etc. This would be easy to achieve as there was no expensive special effects used.

Analysis of horror films - The Strangers

The Strangers is a film set in an isolated vacation home in America, a young couple receives a knock on the door in the middle of the night from a strange person. From then on three strangers physically and mentally torment them throughout the night. This film has quite a simple opening as most of it is a voice over telling the viewer this film was inspired by true events, this immediately frightens the audience more. It also has a scan of a neighbourhood leading up to this isolated house, this sets the scene straight away and shows the audience that this house is all by itself.


This kind of film would be quite good for our final project as we already have the perfect setting for it. Also there is no huge special effects or costumes making it relatively low budget - suiting us. Also as this film is based around a small amount of characters it makes it easier to find people to be in our final project as we wouldn't need as many people.


This film has a few cliches, one being the house in the middle of nowhere. Although, the main cliche throughout is the 'did you just see that?' moment as the entire film is based around them. These cliches make the film more popular as it is what horror fans expect of a film.


Analysis of opening 2 minutes


The film starts with black screen titles with orange writing, in these titles the story is set up. 'What you are about to see is inspired by true events.' This makes the film scarier to the audience and more on edge as it makes it more realistic. 'On the night of February 11, 2005, Kristen McKay and James Hoyt left a friend's wedding reception and returned to the Hoyt family's summer home. The brutal events that took place there are still not entirely known.' This straight away sets the storyline and puts the audience straight into the film and wanting to know whats going to happen next. Also has the voice over has a dark and low voice it adds a scary tone to the text.
There is then a slow motion tracking shot of an American neighbour, however the shot keeps fading to black and then back to the neighbourhood again. This gives an eery effect to the shots as it makes it seems sinister, as it is silent it makes the audience on edge but wonder what is going on. The screen then goes black and we hear a women's voice saying '911 what's your emergency?' This immediately makes the audience interested as to whats happened. The shot then changes and we see two young boys standing behind a car with a hole in the windscreen. We then see a long shot of the two boys walking up the stairs to the cottage, this builds suspense amongst the audience. We then see a close up of an old record player, with the record still spinning round, the shot then switches to another close up of a velvet ring box on the floor surrounded by rose petals. The audience then sees another close up of a knife on the floor with blood on it, blood splattered up the walls and a shotgun on the counter. All of these shots raise questions amongst the audience as to what is going on and what has happened, this makes them want to continue watching. In the background of these shots we hear the 911 call between the operator and the young boy who discovered the house called Jordan. He is crying hysterically and says about how much blood there is, how he's found people and how he doesn't know where he is. This whole phone call has a echoey, crackly tone to it, this makes the audience scared and feel sorry for the little boy and his friend who have discovered this place.

This is a good opening for a horror film as it sets a sinister tone to the film and as it starts with the ending at the beginning it makes the audience want to watch on to find out what happened. This film opening is based on getting the audience involved and making them intrigued by leaving lots of unanswered questions.

Breaking Dawn Part 1 Review

Possible Horror location

We were considering doing a horror film for our final project. We started to think about possible locations, and a possibility is my house as it is in the middle of the woods.

 This would be a good location for a horror film as it is very cliche as it is an old building, isolated from anything else.

  This would also be a good location because its is a dark winding path leading into blackness, making it seem scary and mysterious.
 The house would be a good location because old farmhouses frequently appear in horror films and many films are based around them.

 This shot was just a practice shot as in lots of horror films you see the house from a characters point of view from where they are hiding in the bushes.

This is just another path, highlighting how isolated this setting is making it ideal for a horror film.
 This is just a footpath that goes off the main track into the woods, it is very dark and undercover giving it an eery look.




 These two photos set the horror setting of a farm in the middle of nowhere, and it is a cliche in horror films for farm machinery to be around.

 This is the inside of a shed and gives a spooky feeling as everything is old.

Overall, this could be a good setting for our final project if we were to do a horror film because it has all the conventions of where a horror film is set.

In Time review

Preliminary task

We had to do a preliminary task which included match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. Throughout the filming we had to show continuity. Match on action is where the action in one shot continues and matches into the next, shot/ reverse shot is where one character is shown looking at one character and the other character is shown looking at the other character and the 180 degree rule is where everybody is filmed from one side as if there is an imaginary line between the two characters. We had to film and edit a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. At the beginning we had the back of somebody walking through some doors, we then changed shot to the other side of the doors and filmed them coming through it. We edited this together and it worked well as it flowed and was believable as we made sure that his hands were in the same place and everything in the background in each shot was the same. We then edited in another shot which showed him walking over to the chair, these were all good shots of match on action as there all fitted together and made sense. In one shot the door squeaked which cause a slight continuity error, next time we would re film to make the filming more continuous. In the conversation we used the 180 rule and shot/reverse shot. By doing this it keeps the audience aware of what is going on and there is no confusion. The shot/ reverse shot shows clearly who is talking and also makes the conversation more understandable. We used as tripod for the first time in filming which made the shots a lot steadier which also helps them to flow better. Overall, I think that this went well as we included everything we needed to and it all pieced together well and makes sense. I found the match on action hardest to film as you had to make sure that everything was in the same place in order for the shots to flow. The beginning of the clip was fast paced and made it more interesting. Next time, I think we would be more careful with sound errors and also being able to hear the dialogue properly. For our final project I think it would be better if it was more interesting and included more action.

Jeevan Ki Shatranj - Opening 2 minutes

 

The genre of the film is Bollywood, thriller. We know this because in the first 2 minutes someone is assassinated. It starts with dramatic music building the tension.

you see a man taking pictures of pigeons, you then see a close up of a man with a gun, the close ups show the audience that these are the main characters as the beginning is about them. This grabs the audience and makes them want to carry on watching to see what's going to happen next. It makes the audience curious as to the relationship between the man with the camera and the man with the gun.

After the man shoots the person you see pictures being taken by the man with the camera, this links the two together. You start to wonder whether he is now in danger.

You later see a car go into a house, and down in a lift, this suggests it is underground. This makes the audience question where he is.

You see women on the television; this could be a newsreader reporting the event. There is then a man with a cane and this shows power, and suggests to the audience that he is of high authority and that he could be a dangerous character.

It is a good opening because it sets the scene for the genre of the film. It grabs the audience and makes them curious and makes them ask questions.

The tension is built up in the beginning through the music; it also draws the audience in as it goes straight into the action.

You can tell it is a low budget film by the bad quality.

the film is similar to ‘Shawshank Redemption’ as it makes you ask lots of questions about what's going on and the characters. It is different to ‘Spider Man’ because at the beginning it did more of an introduction to the characters so you know who everyone was and so the audience could relate to the characters better, the characters in this film’s opening are not clear and it is more mysterious, this makes it a good opening scene for a thriller.

 

This is a good film opening for my task as it is a low budget opening which would suit my own budget. Also, has much of the filming is quite simple it would be more suitable for my task as it doesn't seem as if lots of expensive equipment is required.

180 Degree Rule

The 180 degree rule states that if there are two people standing opposite each other there is an imaginary line running through the middle of them which the camera must stay on one side of throughout the whole filming.

For example if one person is on the right he must stay on the right through the all of the filming, and vice versa, this is so the audience doesn't get confused.

This technique brings continuity to filming as the audience can get involved in whats actually happening on the screen rather than being confused when the actors keep changing sides.

Whilst we were filming this it was quite hard to remember where we'd decided the line between the two people would be and it makes you think more technically about your filming. 

Comedy cliches

Films with comedy cliches

Dodgeball

Dodgeball is a typical comedy film. There are stereotypes to do with the way you look and how much you way. In this film the fat, unattractive characters are amusing to the audience as they are so out of place in a gym environment. There is an idiot as the main character who is a slob, he lives in a dirty apartment and doesn't pay any of his bills. The audience already want to watch the rest of the film as they want to find out if he does sort himself out. There is an old man in the gym who wants to be younger than he is, which can be quite a cringey character for the audience. There is also minorities in this opening 2 minutes used to amuse the character by making fun of them. There is also a man with a mental illness, which the audience has to laugh at because of his erratic behaviour. Overall, the main people shown in the opening two minutes are all losers and the audience can always predict that this film is going to be a fight of winners v. losers. This film attracts the target audience of comedy as it has already set the story out and introduced funny moment sin the first two minutes, this shows the audience what age this film is directed at.

Crime cliches

The departed 

The Departed is a typical crime cliche film. In the opening two minutes we see the gang leader who everybody fears. We see the gang leader manipulate a boy from a young age. This boy then goes onto becoming a cop who becomes the corrupt cop who is indercover for him. This interests the audience as they are interested to know hwy the gang leader is so interested in this boy and what he is going to get him to do now he's on the bad side. There is also the neighbourhood aspect in this film, the gang leader has grown up in this neighbourhood and many people fear him. Also the undercover cop has links to the neighbour hood too as it is his childhood hometown. In the opening two minutes we also see violence as a shop is destroyed and a man is harmed with glass. When the corrupt cop is first interviewed there is the idea of good cop, bad cop during his interrigation. The good cop is the old wizened cop and the bad cop is just a strong minded cop who doesn't dare trust anybody. This is an effective crime opening because it starts off high paced and immediately interests the audience as they want to know what is going to happen.

Mean Girls 2 - opening 2 minutes

Mean girls 2 immediately introduces the name of the film with black screen titles which starts the film straight away for the audience. It has non - diegetic music playing as we pan over photos in frames of a girl. This draws the audience in and makes them curious as to who this girl is and why is she so important. We then have a mid shot of a teenage girl and a middle - aged man standing in an office, then the narrative voice over starts. 'There are times in your life when you find yourself in very awkward situations.' This attracts a teenage audience straight away as this character is immediately relatable. We then see the man hand this girl 'Jo' some money, this makes the audience question as to what is going on and what is she getting paid for? They want to continue watching as they know that something sneaky is going on. We then see a low angle shot of a man, so the audience is looking up at him, talking to somebody who we first assume to be a child, but then the shot changes to a high angle shot and we see he is just talking to his daughter Jo who is sitting on the floor. The way these shots are made suggests that Jo is a vulnerable character as the audience is looking down on her. We then see a flashback to her younger years and realise that Jo is not a typical teenage girl, she likes to build race car engines, this gives the film a predictable story line from here. We then see lots of establishing shots of different schools that Jo has attended and the audience start to sympathise with her a little. She then goes on to describe her rules of survival at school, 'don't stand out.' So although she doesn't seem like a typical teenage girl she still has the vulnerability of one which makes her a relatable character to many teenagers. We know from this opening that this film is a teen comedy drama as you can predict the story line, Jo won't fit in at school, which normally leads to many amusing moments, but lots of drama with the 'popular girls' throughout the film.

Transformers - opening scene

The Transformers starts with black screen titles and has dramatic non - diegetic music, this shows the audience that this is going to be an action film as the music indicates that it will be. There is then a narrative voice over of a man with a deep, dark and mysterious voice, this grabs the audiences attention as the voice stands out and makes you listen, and they also want to know who he is. There is then a variety of shots, pan, establishing, close - up, of where the audience can only assume is space. This gives the audience the thought that this film could be science - fiction as it talks of things being lost into space and searching 'every star, every world' for it. The voice over describes the history of earth, but very vague as he descirbes they found earth. This makes the reader curious as to what is actually going on and who are these people finding things in space. The film targets a younger audience as they are more interested in science - fiction and are drawn into fictional films easier than adults. Overall, this film has an effective opening in the way that nothing really has been introduced, no characters, but the audience is drawn into this mystery and want to continue watching to discover what is actually going on.