Halloween Opening Analysis

First ident "A compass international pictures release" followed by "Moustapha akkad presents" fades to a lit pumpkin with the camera moving very slowly towards it from a extreme longshot as more titles are shown. There is also a audio bridge across all of thios, a unsettling piano tune made to add suspense and is slowly getting louder. Each title shown also fades out to a red clour symbolising blood and that this is a horror film.
Inside the pumpkin there is a programmed light that is made to flash on and off to add effect and keep the viewers eyes fixed on the film.
This then fades out and fades into "Directed by John Carpernter".
the musicpitch and sound then changes as it goes to the title "Haddonfield, Illnois." this then tells us the location and that its quite serious as a serif font is used. Title then changes again to "Halloween night, 1963" Thia tells the audience when this is taking place and also relates to the title of the film. Children are also singing in the background as this is taking place changing the mood of whats happening.
Title fades out and music abruptly stops.
2:18 in, opening scene starts, extreme longshot of a house and a steady cam is being used so it can reinact the view of someone walking without jolty movements. This is moving towards a house, the house is terraced and looks like a urban setting. Over this there is also no music. This gives a a creepy atmosphere. First 2 characters are then seen at 2:31, as the cam is moving towards the house you briefly see a young couple kissing through the front door window. This tells us that these people are going to be victims as they are unpure and possibly sexually active. The steadycam then moves round the side of the house to a window, here you can see the couple from before kissing on the sofa and then go upstairs shortly after to possibly have sex. From this now you definatly know that one or both of them will die in this opening scene.
The steadycam goes back round the the front of the houseand looks up at a upstairs window, as the light then goes off in that room a sharp piano note is played ringing, and the steadycam/potential killer then moves quickly to the back of the house.This then moves through thr backdoor turning on the kitchen light and takng a knife out of a draw. By this we know that this is a POV shot and we also saw the killrs arm as he reached out for the knife. By showing a knife this also show's that this film is going to be a slasher.
The killer then walks through the house to the stairs just when the male is coming back down the stairs and leaving the house. The killer then walks up the stairs finding a mask on the floor and putting it on. This emphasises the POV shot as it shows that the camera is the killers eyes. as the mask makes a shadow template onto the camera.
The killer then walks into the girls room up behind her, when the girl turns around her reaction is of as she knew him "screaming michael" Killer then repeatedly stabs her not showing much graphic shots so it still gives a realistic look. Killer then walks down out of the front door where a car is just pulling in. 2 adults then come out of the car walking towards him, also knowing who he is they say "Michael?"
Camera then changes from the POV shot as the man takes off the killers mask zooming out showing a small child wearing a halloween costume holding the knife.

Cry Wolf Opening Analysis (GB)

Director: Jeff Wadlow
Year: 2005
Budget: £1m

IDENTS

• Rogue Pictures

The opening begins with diagetic sounds of a high pitched screaming denoting that the voice is of a female. 

The first shot is a dark side on medium shot of a girl running through an isolated woods at night time (this is denoted by the darkness). 

There is an extreme long shot of the girl running past and then a torch light on the right hand side following the girl, denoting that she is being chased. 

The next shot is a long shot head on view of the girl (in which we first see her facial features, she has blonde hair, denoting that she is a scream queen and connoting that she will die). The girl runs diagonally past the camera and the subject with the torchlight is following her. (The audience can still hear diagetic sounds of her out of breath and screaming) 

The girl falls into a heap full of leaves, the audiences hears diagetic sound of a twig breaking which could possibly denote that she has a broken bone, connoting that she is unable to move. 

A P.O.V shot is shown of the person with the torchlight searching for the girl, moving the torchlight across the leaves, connoting that she is his prey.

There is a close up shot of a phone, anchoring the time era, the subject scrolls down his contact list and stops at 'Becky', the then rings the phone. 

The scream queens phone starts ringing, using exposition to tell the audience the scream queens name, and also denoting that the predator and scream queen have a relationship, they know each other. 

There is non diagetic sound of a siren like sound, building tension, as the music gets faster, there is a dutch angle (denoting that something is wrong) of a medium close up of the scream queen crying. 

A diagetic sound of a gunshot is heard denoting that the girl has been killed. 

a Transition is used straight afterwards to denote the ending of the opening. 

THE OPENING LASTS 2.02 MINUTES 

(Which is similar to the time allowed for the AS student opening of a slasher film)

Peeping Tom Opening Analysis

Peeping Tom (1960)
Michael Powell (Director)
£135,000 (Budget)

The opening shot of the film is of a closed eye, blinking as if it's going to open and then it does open, suddenly rather than slowly as if the person's shocked and has been distracted by something and this connotes that there's something wrong. Once the eye's open int keeps opening wider and wider as if the person's seeing something that they can't quite believe. It's such a close up view of a blue eye that it's hard to imagine whether the eye belongs to a male or female, let alone what they look like.

The next shot is down a dark alley covered in litter with a woman looking into a shop, she looks vulnerable and then turns around dressed in a skirt and top looking like she works the streets as a mysterious man in a long coat walks down the road. It's sunset so it's either late night or early morning connoting she could be working the streets as it's too late for shopping and she's looking into a shop window. The next shot is of an old fashioned camera, it's hidden in a coat a similar colour to t he man's coat who walked past the possibly hooker connoting that he's a creep and that he's filming her.

Original poster.

The camera zooms into the lens of the camera until the screen's black and then the next shot is of the woman on the street being filmed and the viewer can see through the camera's point of view as he walks up to her and checks her out suggesting he could be a pervert before she says 'could be 2 quid' and then walking down another alley in which he follows, still through the camera's point of view. They then go into a house an upstairs denoting that she's a prostitute as she undresses. He then moves closer and closer to the woman as she's lying on the bed and she starts screaming 'NO NO' as if he's got a weapon such as a knife in his hand. It's still being shown through the camera's point of view as if the viewer is enjoying seeing through the killer's point of view as if it's them doing the killing.

The film then skips from the killing straight into a completely different scenario of a man sat in chair watching back the video made of the woman being killed. This connotes that he's the killer. His identity is kept secret in the opening of the film but from the back he looks young and also rich as he has a big screen to watch his film back on; it looks like he has his own cinema room.

'Scream' Opening

Opens with a close up of the telephone with diegetic sound of the phone ringing. The phone is answered by a hot blonde teenage girl who could possibly be the scream queen because she is blonde. After putting the phone down and being called again, the teenage girl puts the phone down for a second time after making a joke about there being a sex line number that he should call instead. The fact she talks about a sex line connotes that she's sexually active and this is another example as to why she could be the scream queen. A shot of the outside of the house is then shown with the rope swing moving on it's on. The shot shows that the house is worth a lot of money and looks to be quite private and desolate which makes it a good setting for a slasher movie and for killings to take place. Also, no one else can be seen which denotes the girl is on her own and is vulnerable. The girl says she'll call the police but he tells her that they'll never make it on time suggesting that authority figures are useless like most over slasher films.

The vulnerable, blonde, sexually active, alone teenage girl then gets another phone call from the secret man after putting on some popcorn. The girl continues to talk to the man even though he's weird, creepy and stalking her slightly; she tells him what she's doing and that she's about to watch a scary movie with some popcorn. The man on the phone takes interest in the fact she's going to watch a scary movie and asks her what her favourite movie is; she then plays with knifes, this is supposed to be a joke as she's playing around with a deadly weapon as if it's nothing.

The man on the phone gives away the fact he's looking at her which completely changes the feel and mood of the situation; it becomes tense as the girl becomes worried and panics. She gets angry with the man on the phone and as her fear rises, so does the popcorn. When she puts the phone down on him once again, the door bell rings and it sounds like a teasing little tune and when the girl is running around the house, the drum beat in the music gets louder and louder and faster and faster, making the audience feel more tense as their heartbeat speeds up. The girl makes a comment about her boyfriend, proving that she was lying earlier and she describes him as a jock, connoting that she's sexually active if not even denoting it. This is even more reason to believe she's a scream queen therefore she's going to die.

There is non diegetic sound of heavy drum beats, making the atmosphere intense and they're heard when the man on the phone tells the girl to turn on the patio lights. With her boyfriend tied up on the patio, the man on the phone tells her to play a game which is ironic as she's not enjoying it much. The question he asks her is to do with Halloween, her favourite slasher film and because it's a slasher film it's post modernism of Scream being a slasher film too. She gets the question wrong resulting in her boyfriend being killed and as he dies and she crawls away from the window, scary music made with string instruments is played over it. After the man breaks into the house, chases the girl around it and then outside again, the girl sees her parents but they don't notice her as they drive past in a car and this is another example of authority figures being of no use in slasher films. As the masked man catches up to the girl as she runs across her garden, he stabs her in the breasts with a long sharp knife, this is a phalic object.

Representations In Child's Play 2

Representations In A Horror Movie

Child’s Play 2

First scene with Chucky’s eye being gorged out after he’s been burnt - I think this represents violence and was done to reflect on all of the violence an pain that Chucky has caused. As his eye is being gorged out, his face looks angry and annoyed, representing his evil character and how he’s out to look for revenge. There is a camera angle owner of the Good Boy’s company that produces the dolls and the angle is of his car in front of New York sky scrapers. It’s a low angle shot and I think that this represents the power of the company but more importantly Chucky and how he’s going to come back and haunt Andy, after all there wouldn’t be a film if he didn’t.

The next shot is of the burnt material being scraped off the doll on the burnt corpse of Chucky. I think this was done to represent more violence and it may give the viewing audience pleasure to see Chucky being hurt without him being able to do anything. Also, the tool being used to do this is a scalpel which is obviously a very dangerous weapon and this could possibly represent one of the weapons that Chucky could use. As the doll is being repaired and the face is put on, the doll looks happy and this could be representing irony as in fact the person who’s soul is inside the doll is far from happy, he’s an angry serial killer that’s desperate to get out from the doll’s body.

There’s a shot of a Good Guys doll on a billboard outside of the factory that the dolls are being produced in and the billboard is moving; the dolls arm is waving could be used for humour and representing the fact that one of the dolls really is alive, even if on the billboard it’s only moving for advertising purposes. The man in the car from the first scene arrives at the factory and as soon as they pull in, another man runs to the long car with blacked out windows and opens the door for him, this connotes that the man is of some importance and makes the audience worry about him as it will be him that undoubtedly makes the decision that puts Andy Barclay in a troublesome situation with Chucky.

A man is talking to the man that seems of high importance and he says that a one of the workers is a bit of a joker and tampered with one of the dolls devices to make it say ‘I’m Chucky and i’m going to kill you.’ This represents Chucky being alive and it’s narrative enigma in order to tell the audience that Chucky is alive and will be coming back. Six minutes into the film, the doll that was supposedly tampered is having the eyes put into it using a manufacturing machine as they are testing it to see how it was made to speak differently to the other dolls and as the machine is about to place the eyes in...the machine stops representing the power of Chucky. Once the machine works again, it puts the eyes into the doll and then stops once again, electricity flows through the machine causing lightning bolts and killing the worker, representing the re-birth of Chucky.

Attack The Block - Semiotics (SD)

The first scene is the camera looking up at the stars, this gives us a feeling that space or stars may have a key meaning or important role in what is going to happen in the film. The camera then starts coming down showing fireworks, this could then mean that the film or opening scene is set on bonfire night or some sort off other celebration. In the next scene there's a woman on the phone in the underground, this tells us that its set in London. The camera then follows this woman throughout the first couple off scenes as she appears to be walking home, By this time it shows us that this woman is a important character in the film or she's linked with a key event in the film. During this it tells us that it is made by/associated with Studio Canal, Film 4, UK Film Council and is produced by Big Talk Picture.

The woman then gets confronted by a gang of masked youth's and gets mugged, followed by a meteor or star shooting down out of the sky and destroying a car next to the mugging that was taken place, this gave the woman time to run away, and this is where we see the "monster" this film, as the gang ring leader got attacked by it. They then start to hunt the creature down and this is where the plot of the film starts.

Attack The Block - Film Poster

Screen shot from Attack The Block

The Wind That Shakes The Barley - Opening Scene

The film starts with diegetic sound of young men shouting, laughing and talking in southern Irish accents and also sheep making noises in the background; this connotes that the film is set in Ireland and with the scenic background of hills and mountains, it's tranquil, peaceful and quite. The men look to be around their early 20s and they're playing Hurling which also connotes that they're in Ireland. The clothes that the men are wearing are old very old fashioned and wouldn't be worn now, denoting that the film is set in the past, roughly the 1920s or 30s. Also, with the condition that some of the men's clothes are in connotes that they could be poor. However, the men are laughing and cheering whilst playing sport which connotes that they're happy and having a good time. More connotation that the film is set in the past is the fact that their Hurleys aren't a modern shape with bands or grips on, they are old fashioned Hurleys.

A serif font is used. The style looks Gaelic which also adds to the idea that the film is set in Ireland. The first character to really stand out from the crowd is a big guy that argues with the referee, connoting that he's an aggressive man and that he may be one of the main characters in the film. Almost 2 minutes into the film, non diegetic music fades in. The music is slow and it sounds like a sad military song that would be played at a military funeral or remembrance connoting that these men are involved with the military. The men start talking about the British and slagging them off, quoting 'They all lick the King's arse'. This denotes that they don't like the British very much.

The first house that appears in the film is a tradition farm house and looks very old fashioned. It's been made fairly clear by this point that the film is set in the past. Once again, there is peaceful diegetic sound, this time of birds and I think that this was done to show how peaceful Ireland is. Another character enters, she is old and one of the young men starts to talk to her in a friendly way, connoting that they are nice men and are respectful rather than abusive. He talks to the old woman about how he's going to London to be a doctor, denoting that he's clever.

3 and a half minutes into the film, you hear shouting and a group of men dressed in Black and Tan military uniform running around the corner, confirming suspicion and denoting that the military is involved in this film.
They are agressive and ask for the men's names, not letting them speak in Irish, connoting that they don't like the Irish and seeing as though the Black and Tans were British and they are speaking with a British accent, it suggests that the film is about a battle between both the Irish and the British. The Black and Tans were violent, unfair and horrible and as this film is written from an Irish point of view, that point is certainly put across. The leader of the group calls all of the Irish men 'Bastards' and states that they're not allowed public meetings and to play games such as Hurling, although he calls it 'Your poxy games'.

Because one man won't say his name in English, the leader of the group says that he's speaking riddles and he's taken into a barn and killed. This denotes that the men are brutal and violent and as soon as he's killed, slow non diegetic music fades in. It's sad music which certainly suggests that the film is going to be sad, which indeed, it is.

http://www.toimg.net/managed/images/10028908/w200/image.jpg

Bradford Film Festival Trip

On Thursday the 6th October 2011 I visited the Bradford film festival with both the AS and A2 media class. I signed up for the lights, camera, action workshop and filming in 3D. The lights, camera, action workshop was really good, I worked in a group of 3 with 2 other people from my class and we were given a camcorder and tri-pod to film around the media museum to gather footage that we would later edit to create an advert for the museum.

Once we had collected footage of the different displays, rooms and features of the media museum we started to edit it to make an advert for the museum that was roughly 30 seconds long.  We edited our clips using the new iMovie and i loved it; I prefer it to the old iMovie we use at school because I found it easier to use and it saves your project for you as you're going a long which is useful because I lose my work a lot due to not saving it.


The advert we made was 35 seconds long and it showed us walking into the museum from various different angles and then it just displayed what the museum had to offer. I think our advert was really good and the man hosting the work shop has burnt the advert to a disk and is sending it to us. The second thing we did was watch a screening in a cinema/theater type place of videos that had been created by young children around 13. Considering the people that made the videos were only young, they were good and I enjoyed the cartoon ones more than the real life.

I would definitely go again next year but I would do different workshops.

Ignoring the gun, the character on the poster looks innocent. I think she looks innocent because she's small and timid and she's hot with long hair and her facial expression looks as if she doesn't want to be holding the gun and she looks stressed. 

However, when holding the gun, the character looks like an assassin and she's holding the gun as if she knows how to use it and the way she's resting her head on the gun gives me the impression that she's used this gun on several occasions and if anything she's feeling stressed from it. Although the character is holding a gun, the stressed and worried look on her face makes me think that she doesn't really want to be using it and it's more a fact of having to use it.

The fact that it's a small gun signifies that she's quite feminine rather than it being a huge manly, macho machine gun. Because it's small and looks feminine this could attract a male audience.

The houses in the background of the film poster look run down like slums on the right of the character but to her left the buildings look like New York sky scrapers which suggests that she's from a poor place in Columbia such as slums and has found herself New York and as far as we can tell from the poster she seems to be using weapons and killing. 

Halloween Franchise Research

Friday the 13th is an American horror franchise that comprises twelve slasher films, a television show, novels, comic books, and tie‑in merchandise. The franchise mainly focuses on the fictional character Jason Voorhees, who drowned as a boy at Camp Crystal Lake due to the negligence of the camp staff. Decades later, the lake is rumored to be "cursed" and is the setting for a series of mass murders. Jason is featured in all of the films, as either the killer or the motivation for the killings. The original film was written by Victor Miller and was produced and directed by Sean S. Cunningham.The films have grossed over $465 million at the box-office worldwide.

The first film was created to cash in on the success of Halloween (1978) and its own success led Paramount Pictures to purchase the full licensing rights to Friday the 13th. Frank Mancuso, Jr., who produced the films, also developed the television show Friday the 13th, The Series after Paramount released Jason Lives. The television series was not connected to the franchise by any character or setting, but was created based on the idea of "bad luck and curses", which the film series symbolized.

Friday 13th - Film Poster

Looking At Last Year's Work

The first shot in the video was just a simple long shot of the house. The whole house can be seen in the picture and also some of the sky and I think this was done to show that it's a dark night and it's raining which is typical in horror films.

The second shot is medium angle and a medium close up of the desk as you can't see the whole of the desk but you can see what's on top of it which is all that is needed to be shown. This shot shows a computer, a book and some empty coke cans and I think this symbolizes a teenagers desk as the coke cans are just laid about and it's untidy. This gives us an early impression of who's going to be in the film.

Another shot I thought was of some significance was the close up of the keyboard when the character is wacking the keyboard rather than just pressing it. This shows some distress and that things aren't normal.

There is a low angle shot of the character's foot hitting the floor as he gets out of bed. It happens quickly so I think it shows that he's panicking when getting out of bed because something's not right.

The next shot I thought was good was a high angle of the stairs and the character walking down it because it was a long shot and all of the stairs can be seen and you can see the character walking all the way from the top to the bottom and he walks down very slowly which shows that he's scared and it builds tension. Also, I think the fact that the stairs are filmed from a high angle, it makes the person look smaller which probably relates to how he's feeling.

There is also a shot which show the character reaching the bottom of the top set of stairs and walking around the corner. The angle is a long shot as you can see his whole body. I think this was done to show how he's moving which is slowly and uncertain; he is always holding his hand in front of his face as if there's something wrong and this gives off the horror feel again.

I also thought that the high angle close up of the back of the character's head was good because it gave the feeling that he was being followed.

I like the low angle view from the bottom of the stairs which shows the character looking down. The fact he's looking down gives the viewer the impression that there is something below and obviously he's worried about it. I also think this view was used to show the expression of fear on the person's face.

There is also an angle of the character walking down the stairs and it's level with the character but he walks down the stairs and out of the shot. Its a medium close up and I think it was used to give the feeling that there is someone down stairs looking up and waiting for him.

The last shot of the character waking up shows his eyes open in a medium close up so that you can also see the bed to acknowledge where he is but then it goes into a further out view which shows his arms and the movement they do to suggest he doesn't know what's happened.

I chose this poster because the shot used says a lot about the film. The shot used is a long shot and I think this shot was used because you can see the expression which is fear on the woman's face and also the detail on her clothes as there is a lot of blood. The fear on the woman's face gives us clear clues as to what the film involves which is terror and possibly torture for the woman and also the blood on her shirt shows that she is being harmed and there is a lot of aggression involved.

I think that the shot used is quite clever as it shows the woman in detail but also shows  a lot of the background and that is in good detail too. I can see the sky, a long road, some grass and trees. It sounds nice enough but the road is empty which I think symbolizes the fact she's alone and cannot get help which relates to the caption at the top of the poster which says 'How can you be found when no one knows you're missing.'

The photo was taken from a low angle and I think this was done so that a lot of the sky can be seen and this is because the sky looks very grey and dismal and doesn't look very happy at all...if anything it's the opposite. I think that this is meant to relate to the fear of the woman as if the sky was sunny and pleasant it wouldn't work to the same effect as the dull grey sky does.

Exploring A Past Student's Blog.

I explored Ben Hudson's blog.

1) The first thing I noticed was that his coursework video was the at the top of the page and the first video I came across. As this is the most important post on his blog it is useful to have it at the top of the page so that it is easy to find.

Torment: Dreamscape Roughcut 2 from 
Benji Hudson on Vimeo.


I also noticed that the coursework video has a hyperlink linked to it so that I can open the video in a different tab. This is useful because it means I can watch the video in a different tab, keeping the orignal window open without having to go off the page to get it. Once I have seen the video I can just close the tab and continue on the first window that I opened the tab from.


2) Ben has changed the background for his blog. This makes it more interesting to look at.


3) Ben used audacity to edit the sound track


4) There is an image from the outside of the house used in the video even though you only see the house from the inside on the video.


5) Ben used Facebook to gain feedback and advice on his work.


6) When filming for their video, they used an artificial light because the camera they were using wasn't very good at capturing in the dark and the light made the room look slightly lightly with the light in the room still turned off for the dark effect.


7) There is an image of the 15 age rating which shows who their intended target audience is.


8) Ben shows an image of the inside of the house where they are filming and says why he thinks it's good.


9) Ben used planning stages and drew a cartoon to show them.


10) There are photos of the camera set up in the room which shows how they filmed it.

Inglorious Basterds

Inglorious Basterds Film Trailer from Peter Allyn on Vimeo.

This is A poster of scream.

Slasher trailer

Slasher from Carleton Ranney on Vimeo.

A small Texas town is rocked after the brutal murder of the all American high school cheerleader Veronica Velcher. Through a series of vignettes her fellow students react to the tragedy. As tension builds surrounding the murder, the characters respond with cynicism, grief, and improvised acts of violence.

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog,

My Favourite Film

Inglorious Basterds - This is my favourite film because it's a combination of what I look for in a film. I like war films but this is a war film with a twist; it's funny and not supposed to be taken deadly serious. It was directed by Quentin Tarantino who is my favourite director and I like his other films such as Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction.

Pearl Harbour Opening Analysis

No ident's, starts with peaceful music played by string instruments, most likely the Violin. This is played over a Bi-Plane flying in the sunset with a lot of orange light and shadowing to exaggerate this, next scene is the title of the film "Pearl Harbour" shown n a serif font and large capital letters making it stand out from the bright orange sun in the background, this also makes the film feel more serious.
The title is then followed by the same plane flying as a low angle shot, this could show that the plane is owning the sky at that moment and is bigger than everything else, theoretically. The camera then follows the plane as it fly's, going into a mid angle shot facing the plane as it comes in. By the type of plane it is you can tell what year or decade the film / opening is set in. It's a old red Bi-Plane, not sure on make, but you could take a guess and by looking at the front of the DVD cover, that it's Pre-War or Wartime era.
This then moves to a few side shots of the plane followed by the camera following the plane behind it as it's in the air, behind a title saying "Teressee, 1923," again in a serif font but smaller and white, as if it was typed using a type writer. By this title you are now able to give a exact year of this opening screenplay and also the location this scene is set, Tenessee, so America. The typewriter text also add's to the seriousness of the first title. After this it moves to a moving camera on the ground, looking up at the plane as it flies over a barn, the camera is also moving through a corn field, just above the crops. This shot can show that this is the Tennessee countryside or farmland / rural area, Most likely on a farm, as there are fields with crops and also a wooden barn. The Camera carries on moving above the field even when the plane has gone past, the camera also gets higher as it moves towards the barn, as if it is also flying and free. In the next scene, it's showing 2 boys playing in the barn, this is the first time we see people on this film, which might make us, the audience think they are important roles or stars in the film, which they are as you watch the full film, but only in character, as they used different actors for when they are older. The transition into this is also well done as it shows them in the barn, after the camera was seen moving towards the barn or towards them playing