Luna - Blooper Reel

This is the blooper reel from when we created our AS final, Luna.
Featuring Zahra Mukadam's inappropriate hand gestures and comments about wind, Dom Freedman's loud, angry director commentry and Jonathan Foulston's lack of emotion.

Audience Questionnaires - Luna

Here is an answered questionnaire regarding our opening sequence Luna:

1. Is it clear what the genre is?
- Yes; romance? Romantic drama?
2. Is the sound appropriate/does it fit with the genre/content?
- The music is lighthearted and catchy and sounds 'young' like the couple.
3. Does the opening scene create enigma?
- I want to know how they got together completely, and I want to know why he looks so sad at the beginning & why is he on his own if the relationship is so good?
4. Can you understand what is happening?
- The rewind was going back to when they first met, the beginning of the relationship in the montage.
5. Do the titles fit with the genre/content? Are they well made/edited?
- Yes, he seems to be the writer telling the story through a typewriter. They are well made and edited. They are clear.
6. Is the editing well done and clear? How would you improve it?
- Up until the end the editing was very good but I wouldn't stop the music dead at the end.
7. Is the misé en scene good and appropriate?
- I liked the day sections and night sections and the different locations. Obviously a lot of thought was put into this. It shows that the couple travelled together, e.g. to London
8. Is the opening scene convincing?
- Yes, it seems like a real film. The acting was very good, for example at the beginning the male didn't even NEARLY smile!
9. Did it interest you? Would you watch the movie?
- Yes, I want to find out what happened to Luna! Why is he on his own? How long were they together?
10. Please state what you would give it out of 60?
- 52, due to the one overly grainy/fuzzy shot and the fact that the music cuts out at the end.

Luna - final cut

This is the final cut for our project 'Luna', starring Jonathan Foulston and Ellie Robson, filmed by Dominic Freedman and Zahra Mukadam and edited by all of the above. The film is from the point of view of Brody, who falls in love with a girl called Luna. The opening sequence shows a flashback of Brody and Luna's relationship - the flashback then rewinds to the first day they met. The rest of the film would show the progression of their relationship until the day things take a turn for the worst.

Questionnaires for viewers - Luna

1. Is it clear what the genre is?
2. Is the sound appropriate/does it fit with the genre/content?
3. Does the opening scene create enigma?
4. Can you understand what is happening?
5. Do the titles fit with the genre/content? Are they well-made and edited? Are they clear? Are they in a good order?
6. Is the editing well done and clear? How would you improve it?
7. Is the misé en scene good/appropriate?
8. Is the opening scene convincing?
9. Did it interest you? Would you watch the movie?
10. Please state what you would give the opening scene out of 60.

Re-edit planning - Luna

We plan to improve upon our rough cut for Luna in order to make it the best it can be. To do this we will:

• Make the titles stand out (a lot of work will go into this; each title will be 'typed' by a typewriter and will be in a different place depending on shots)
• Cut the shots of the montage crisply in time with the music
• We will add the final shots of how the couple met (in a coffee shop) at the end of the rewind and after the title in order to explain the rewind and also so that the title is not at the end, hopefully making it look less like a trailer
• By cutting the shots of the montage down, hopefully we'll be a little closer to 2 minutes and also we can cut the confusing black section out of the middle of the video
• We will audio gain the voice-over to make it louder than the music and easier to understand

Rough Cut Feedback - Luna

We have received lots of feedback on the rough cut version of our opening sequence – mainly positive:

 

Is it obvious an opening sequence? Is it clear who the target audience is?

Many people have said that the genre of ‘Luna’ is quite clear as well as the target audience. However, some people have mentioned that it looks like a music video or trailer which is not what we were hoping for.

 

Titles go with genre. Is the genre obvious? Are they clear? Are there enough and are they in the right order?

Feedback on the titles was overall positive saying that the titles were clear, relevant, in a good order and went with the genre. The only criticisms were that the titles were too simple and there were not a lot of and one person didn’t understand how the typewriter style font went with the romantic drama genre.

 

Think about the sound and images – are they appropriate? Do they go together?

Many people were impressed with the sound and said it was appropriate, the music is good and shows the genre. Some people said that the voiceover in the beginning was good, effective and created a mood to the sequence. However some said that they thought it was too quiet and the music drowned the voiceover out. A lot of the feedback said that they didn’t like the reverse sound in the sequence.

 

Camera – are the shots appropriate and relevant? Is there controlled use of camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance/angle? Close attention to use of mise en scene?

We were said to have good use and variety of camera shots and clever camera techniques and the audience liked that when both characters in the sequence were alone the setting was dark but when they were together it was light (which was not intentional) and that we have good mise en scene including costume. Someone suggested the use of a high angle shot.

 

Editing so that the meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects?

Lots of the feedback was positive regarding the editing, saying that it was good and relevant and our opening had smooth transitions. However, a lot of people mentioned that they did not get the idea of the rewind part of our sequence (as we hadn’t filmed our finishing shot yet) and said that because it blacked out before the rewind the scenes stopped flowing.

 

Total score and any other comments

Lowest score: 36

Highest score: 58

It has been said to be convincing that the couple in our opening sequence are truly in love due to their ‘brilliant acting’; ‘cute’; ‘voiceover is effective’; people were confused about the link to the title; ‘needs more enigma codes’; some were unsure about the rewind; it has been cited as one of the favourites out of all of the opening sequences.

 

Production Shots

This photo shows our group working out the responsibilities of the other members and figuring out which pitch we would choose to film for our opening sequence.

This photo shows Dom and Jonathan working on the computers. One is researching narrative voice-overs in popular movies whilst the other is searching for a useful soundtrack for the opening sequence.

 

In this shot we can see Jonathan looking for useful locations to film our opening sequence in.

 

This photo shows Jonathan and Zahra working out a shot list for our opening sequence and a script for our narration.

 

 

This shot shows Dom working on the safety assessment for the filming of the opening sequence and Ellie working on the various mood boards for our pitch and the titles research needed.

 

 

Jonathan is seen here editing the footage we have so far of our opening sequence.

 

 Ellie editing the Audience Interviews we recorded for our films evidence to place on our blogs.

 

Here, Zahra is recording Jonathan whilst he is acting in our ‘character profiles’ filming practice.

 

This shot shows Zahra and Dom working on the storyboard and the timeline for the film.

Storyboard - Luna

Audience Interview - Luna

We had to answer several audience questions in interview form to give an insight to who we are aiming our audience at and also to have experience in using/editing a green screen. The questions were:

1. How do media industries target audiences?
2. Who is the audience of a romantic comedy?
3. What do audiences consume?
4. Feedback from 'audience' on their favourite romantic comedy

Props

The props we will use in our opening sequence are as follows:

1. Books. There are several scenes which involve the characters reading books. These are staple icons in the movie as our characters are being portrayed as intellectual and avid readers. The books we will use are those such as The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, Lolita, 1984, Pride and Prejudice etc.
2. Gaming console. The most easily accessible games console is the Xbox 360 so this will be included in the montage during the scene where the two protagonists are playing video games.
3. Television. During the montage there is a scene where the two protagonists are watching a scary movie whilst huddled under a duvet. A TV has to be present in this scene.
4. Sofa. There are several scenes in the montage where the two protagonists are together on the sofa.
5. Bed. There is one scene in the montage where the characters are sitting facing each other on a bed.

Titles Research

The following is the typical order for opening credits in the beginning of a movie:

Name of the studio

Name of the studio that is distributing the film and may or may not have produced it (Walt Disney Pictures, Columbia, Lions Gate, Universal, Marvel Studios, Dimension, Miramax etc.). Ours will show Fox Searchlight.

• Name of production company

Name of the production company that actually made the film or name of the investment groups or companies that financed a substantial part of the film (usually credited as "in association with" or "A (studio name) production."). Ours will say An Iridescent Innovations production in association with Cool Cat Studios and Phoenix Rising Studios, with Forbidden Fruit Entertainment.

• Director's first credit

A film by (director's name). Ours will say A film by Dominic Freedman.

• Principal actors

Showing the principal actors in a list or with a single credit each, either in order of importance, order of appearance or alphabetical order. Our movie will say Jonathan Foulston and Ellie Robson, each with a single credit.

• Film's title

Name of the film. Ours will not go in the sequence this early on but rather at the end of the opening scene. Luna.

• Featuring

Featured/supporting actors. As we have no supporting actors there will not be a section for these in our opening sequence.

• Casting

Casting director. This will say Casting, Casting Director or Casting By. Casting by Zahra Mukadam.

• MUSIC or MUSIC COMPOSED BY or ORIGINAL SCORE BY

Composer of music. This will say Music; Music Composed By; Original Score By; Musical Director. Our opening credits will say Musical Director, Jonathan Foulston.

• Production Design

Production design or production designer. Whilst she never actually participated in the opening scene, this credit will say Production Design: Lauren Hunt as we are aiming to not repeat each of our names.

As a variation some of the below may be noted:

• SET DESIGN
• COSTUMES or COSTUMES BY or GOWNS (older movies)
• HAIRDRESSER
• MAKE-UP ARTIST
• SOUND RECORDING (older movies)
• VISUAL EFFECTS DIRECTOR or VISUAL EFFECTS BY

(but we aren't putting these in our opening sequence)

• Editor or edited by

The editor of the movie. Ours will say Edited by Jonathan Foulston, although we will all participate in the editing.

• Director of photography

Director of photography - Director of photography, Zahra Mukadam.

• Producer

Producers, co-producers, executive producers, 'also produced by'. Often, though, the name of the producer will be the next-to-last opening credit, just before the director's name is shown. Executive producer, Ellie Robson.

• Based on the book/play/graphic novel by...

If based on a book or other literary work. Ours isn't based on other literary work so we will skip this title.

• Based on the characters by/based on the characters created by...

If based on characters from a book or other media. We have been inspired by the characters from (500) Days of Summer and Perks of Being a Wallflower so our credit will say Based on the characters created by Scott Neustadter.

• Story

Person who wrote the story on which the script is based, gets "story by" credit, and the first screenplay credit, unless the script made substantial changes to the story. Ours will say Story by Ellie Robson.

• Writer(s)

The screenplay writers. Ours will say Written by Ellie Robson and Jonathan Foulston.

• Director or Directed By

The director is the final credit in the opening sequence. This will say Directed by Dominic Freedman.

Genre Codes and Conventions and Audience

Our planned opening is a compilation of many different romantic shots in the form of a montage. It will all be handheld footage to look considerably more personal than static shots.

These typical Rom-Com conventions will occur during the opening scene:
A typical ‘Boy meets Girl’ scenario.
Often starts with a voiceover explaining characters.
Two protagonists, normally male and female.
A chance encounter.

However, as opposed to the movie being centred around a female protagonist, the main character will be a male. The movie will be aimed at the female gender predominantly however it can be aimed at the male audience too due to the relation with the main character. The age of the preferred audience will be of 15 years of age and up.

Examples of Romantic Comedy conventions:
We were inspired by the movies '(500) Days of Summer', 'Submarine', 'About Time' and 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'. We were also inspired by my friends' student film 'Bottlebank' which includes a montage scene too.


Not officially from the movie but it shows what we are aiming to do with the aspect of cute/romantic scenes compiled together to create a montage.


The montage scene at 24:35 perfectly displays what we are intending to do with our opening sequence. A personal old-fashioned looking compilation of many romantic handheld pieces of footage.

Location and Recce Shots

 

Adventure Island theme park will be displayed in a selection of our final shots. The two main characters will be seen having fun on rides and running around the facility.



Electric Avenue and all of the other arcades down the beach of Southend will be shown in some of our shots. The two main characters will be seen playing arcade games and laughing together.

Either Starbucks Coffee or Costa will be used to create our final shot of the opening sequence. It will feature the meeting by chance of the two characters.

A few shots will take place on the Southend beach at sunset. This will increase the intensity of the romantic relationship for the audience.

Shot list

Here is a list of the shots on the storyboard for our opening scene:

1. Wide shot of the beach. Jonathan on left hand side facing away from camera towards ocean.
2. Wide shot of the beach. Shot fades evenly into Jonathan and Ellie on left hand side facing away from camera towards ocean.
3. Medium shot of Jonathan and Ellie sitting on the beach. 3 seconds.
4. Medium over-the-shoulder shot of Jonathan and Ellie sitting on the beach. 3 seconds.
5. Beginning of montage. Long shot of Jonathan and Ellie walking on the beach. 4-5 seconds.
6. Medium shot of Jonathan and Ellie sitting playing video games. 4-5 seconds.
7. Dutch shot of Jonathan and Ellie facing each other on bed. 7-8 seconds.
8. Middle shot of Jonathan and Ellie on sofa studying/reading together. 3-5 seconds.
9. Middle shot of Jonathan and Ellie watching a scary movie on the sofa. 5-6 seconds.
10. Over-the-shoulder middle long shot of Jonathan and Ellie skimming stones on beach at night. 10 seconds.
11. Rewind entire montage. 4 seconds.
12. Wide shot of coffee shop. Jonathan on one side of the room, Ellie at a table on another. Music stops. Silence before he walks towards her. 6 seconds.

Production Diary

Meeting 1: We discussed each of our film pitches and evaluated the pros and cons of each. The four genres we discussed were: romantic comedy, horror, horror comedy and teen drama. Each had positives and negatives but in the end there was a draw between the romantic comedy and the teen drama. Both had very similar plots and storylines so we merged the two and came out with a romantic comedy.

Meeting 2: Jonathan completed the task of evidence of how the opening fits with genre codes/conventions and audience; Dom and Zahra together worked on the storyboard for the opening; I completed several moodboards for similar films, typography and costume.

Meeting 3: Jonathan and I wrote the narrative for the voice-over that Dom will be reading over the opening scene whilst Dom and Zahra continued with the storyboard.

Meeting 4: Jonathan and I completed the narrative for the voice-over; Dom and Zahra completed the storyboard and worked on the timeline for the opening scene.

Meeting 5: We discussed the different things we needed to complete before shooting next week, issues that we may have with continuity (weather; it will be hard to travel to Southend several times etc.) and continued work on the task list. Jonathan found photos of the locations we will shoot in (Southend-on-Sea beach, Adventure Island theme park, Southend arcades and a coffee shop e.g. Costa or Starbucks). Dom and Zahra touched up the storyboard to make it absolutely accurate. I wrote out a list of all of the shots.

Meeting 6: I filmed the storyboards and Dom uploaded them onto Adobe Premiere. He then recorded a voice-over explaining each of the shots which fit with the storyboard video. Jonathan finished his location and recce shots and Zahra helped finish the storyboard.

Meeting 7: Dom recorded two versions of his narrator voice-over, one in a happy tone and one in a sadder tone. We then voted for which we thought was the best-suited for the opening sequence and decided that instead of a romantic comedy we are veering towards a romantic drama, choosing the sad voice-over in order to fully portray the feelings of the character Brody (Jonathan's character).

Meeting 8: We were given several questions to answer about box office and the audience of our movie and we set up the green screen to film. We each answered one question, with Dom posing as an audience member and answering a question about his favourite romantic comedies, and Miss Brookes filmed for us.

Meeting 9: As Miss Brookes had accidentally taken photos instead of filming our 'interview', we had to re-film with the green screen using Mr Amato as the cameraman.

Meeting 10: We edited the 'interview', cutting out over 20 minutes of extra blooper footage. We experimented with different backgrounds for the green screen and different effects that Premiere had to offer.

Meeting 11: We finished editing the audience interview, using a background which blended in with the parts of the classroom wall we hadn't covered with the green screen, overall creating a realistic effect.

Meeting 12: We wrote lists of things we needed e.g. props and costumes. Dom completed the risk assessment for each location we would film at.

Meeting 13: Dom completed a shooting schedule for the following days' filming. Jonathan checked out the camera and tripod so that we were able to film the day after.

Meeting 14: We all went to Dom's house after school in order to complete the first few shots of filming: a video gaming scene, watching a scary movie, studying together and relaxing at 'Brody''s house.

Meeting 15: We uploaded the footage from the night before and added them all onto Adobe Premiere.

Meeting 16: We edited the footage we had together and tried to find some music that would fit with the tone of the montage.

Meeting 17: On Saturday 30th November we met at the train station and took the train to Southend Victoria. We walked down the high street and discussed which of the four coffee shops we'd like to use for the end of the montage and also which shops we could visit to film in. We went to the arcades first as the tide was out and filmed in those. Then we went onto the beach and filmed until it was dark. The only shot that we did not get was the coffee shop shot.

Meeting 18: We uploaded all of our footage onto Adobe Premiere and deleted those which we didn't think were good enough for the montage. Altogether the footage came to over four minutes so we chopped them down.

Meeting 19: We continued to edit our footage, exploring Premiere for effects we could use, including creating a big border to give a sort of old-time indie film effect. We also dimmed the opacity on the beginning shots to made them look sadder, and added sad piano music to set the atmosphere.

Meeting 20: Editing continued. We chose the music for the montage, a happy-go-lucky indie acoustic song. We started attempting to cut the montage to the beats of the music, cutting the entire time of the opening scene down to just over 2 minutes.

Moodboard

This is the moodboard of films similar to what we are aiming for for our final piece - a short opening sequence of a film. The main films that we are aiming to be similar to are 'indie' romantic comedies such as (500) Days of Summer, Perks of Being a Wallflower, About Time, Bottlebank and Submarine. They will be similar in terms of storyline, effects and editing.

This is the moodboard of outfits that are inspiration for the costumes for our final. The female protagonist's outfits will reflect her quirky, upbeat personality - she will wear overalls, jumpers and skirts with Doc Martens. The male protagonist's outfits are inspired by old-style gentlemen's clothes - bow ties and shirts - as well as modern 'indie' fashion - patterned knitted jumpers and skinny jeans.


This is the moodboard of typography of similar films to the one we will create. The main three films that are the inspiration for typography are (500) Days of Summer, Perks of Being a Wallflower and About Time. Other films with interesting, inspirational typography are Juno and Little Miss Sunshine.

Film Pitch - Romantic Comedy

Titles

1: GREASE

2: THE WALKING DEAD Season 3

Art of the Title

A title sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound.

Three films featured in the A Brief History of the Art of the Title Sequence are Saturday Night Fever, Forrest Gump and A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Vertigo has a very effective title sequence. The typography of 'Vertigo' was in white and placed on top of an eye - the whole picture was tinted red. It was very bright and eye-catching, especially with the contrast of the white on top. The typography lifted to show an animation of a hypnotic spiral on the pupil of the eye, linking with the title 'vertigo' which means giddiness/dizziness.

The bright red of the picture suggests warning or danger - something bad will happen in the film. The hypnotic spiral also links with this danger. The character won't know that something bad has happened to them; they will be put under hypnosis and made to do things; or they will have a dizzy lack of knowledge of what is happening.

Fallen Angel's title sequence is black and white, showing that it is either an old film or has been put there for effect: this could suggest dark events happening. The fact that the titles have been placed on a long, empty road gives it a mysterious and alluring feel.

Fallen Angel shows a road with the titles coming up in the shape of a stop sign. Paired with the title 'Fallen Angel' it suggests that someone dies because of the road, e.g. a car crash. 

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Typography: a formal, old-style font. Suggests that it is set in the past. White, set against a dark background. Red, links with blood.

Visual imagery: dripping blood, shows that there will be a sinister mood behind the film. Linking with title: Sweeney Todd kills people? (Demon barber) The blood follows a system where someone gets thrown down a trapdoor and seemingly made into pies. Gives a big clue as to what the plot is about.

Sound elements: deep, moody music. Orchestra? Strings/woodwind are prominent. Typical of a horror. We hear the blood splattering: gross, even more sinister.

He said: Animating blood and its movement became the most crucial and challenging element of the sequence. We had to build special platforms within which we imitated blood movement and filmed it. And we had to give it this comical feel which worked really well. That was a dream project. We would love to work on something similar.

Brazil

Typography: only one word 'Brazil', like a neon sign. Fancy font.

Visual imagery: flying in the sky. Seemingly happy, gives a relaxed vibe, especially paired with music. Huge explosion cuts into the 'happy' feel.

Sound elements: first song 'Brazil'; very happy, calm. After explosion: typical horror music, strings.

The optical effects in Brazil have quite a timeless quality to them. I did not consciously set out to create something so lasting. It was more of a serendipitous happening.

Peer Evaluation of 'Celestial'

Another class evaluated mine and Jonathan's prelim, 'Celestial', telling us what went well and what we could do better.

 

What elements of this sequence did you feel were successful? Give at least 2 elements and explain why they were successful.

 

- The light flashing when the girl was walking down the hall

- The props that were used were good and effective

- The lighting was good and the angles were too

- Good costume

- Eerie opening, graveyard, black and white

- Corridor sequence - chilling non-diegetic sounds, edgy visual effects

 

Were there any aspects of the sequence which you felt were confusing/distracting/missing, etc?

 

- The tables - when they move it doesn't seem very realistic

- Lighting in the drama room could have been more controlled - Jonathan appears blurry, grainy

 

List 2 things which you feel would have improved this sequence?

 

None of

Peer Preliminary Task Evaluation

My three favourite preliminary tasks were:


1. Candyman
I thought this sequence was hilarious. They involved slapstick humour such as walking into a door (which had the effect of 'so bad it's good') and the whole idea of a drug deal was made comedic with the humorous puns such as 'a hefty bounty', before having a chocolate Bounty thrown across the table.


2. Fug Lyfe
The teacher's acting was very good, especially at the end when she put her headphones in and started dancing. Like candyman it involved a lot of slapstick comedy.


3. Time Out
A musical is a very hard thing to film so I thought this group did very well. There was an original use of songs and the storyline was very effective and much like a typical cheesy high school musical.

"Celestial" Prelim Evaluation

Preliminary Task - "Celestial"

This is the final cut of our preliminary task. Jonathan and I worked together to create 'Celestial', a short horror film about a small girl who was violently murdered and has come back to seek revenge on her killer.

Production shots

During the filming process we took some production shots, as seen below:

 

 

Pitch Presentation - Heidi

We were told to create a pitch to present to our class (film producers) in order to convince them to buy the rights to our film. We each got given a genre and an audience had had to come up with characters, actors, a storyline and marketing. I was given thriller/horror for 12A so I designed it with the genre conventions of The Woman In Black in mind, as that is a 12A thriller.

Preliminary task practice

Shooting schedule

 

 



This is the shooting schedule that Jonathan and I will try very hard to stick to in order to complete all of the shots as accurately as possible. We will attempt to stay on schedule and will hopefully have completed the task by Friday 18th October.

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task we have been set a series of actions that we must film, along with several things we should demonstrate. We have to film this for a certain genre.

It must include:

• Character 1 opening a door
• Character 1 crossing a room
• Character 1 sitting in a chair opposite Character 2
• Exchanging several lines of dialogue

... and should demonstrate:

• Match on action
• Shot/reverse shot
• 180 degree rule
• Establishing shot
• 2 close ups of characters
• Tracking shot
• High angle shot

Jonathan and I got the 'horror' genre. This means we must put in several horror genre conventions. These will include:

• Flickering lights
• Long, dark corridor
• Talking to an unknown spirit
• Creepy dead girl
• Murder

The props we will use are:

• Fake blood
• Rope
• Gag/cloth/duct tape (for mouth)
• Two chairs
• Table
• Teddy bear

These are the actions/script we will follow:

1. Character 1 (Ellie) as a creepy little girl (ghost?) walking down Link corridor. The camera will be at the other end of Link on a tripod - a long, static, level shot. It will be dark, as that is one of the conventions of the horror genre, yet the lights will flicker on and off. The camera will be cut to show Character 1 advancing towards the camera in time with the flickers.
2. Character 1 will then open the door to the drama studio (right) which will be dark with dim spotlights, including one on Character 2 (Jonathan) sitting bound and gagged in a chair behind a table. There will be another chair on the opposite side of the table, which Character 1 will sit down in.
3. Instead of both characters exchanging dialogue, we thought we'd do it a little bit differently. As Character 2 is gagged, the only sounds he could make would be muffled and indistinguishable. Instead Character 1 will talk - the audience won't know who she is talking to; herself? Someone that she can see but the audience (and Character 2) can not. Asking why she should be the one to do it. It will build into a scream before simply saying 'Fine'.
4. Blood (fake) will then begin to drip down Character 2's face. Several camera shot cuts will show different parts of Character 2's body (torso, legs etc), also covered in blood.

Opening Scene analysis

Saving Private Ryan

Genre: drama, action, war

Misé en scene:

Setting: D-Day - June 6, 1944. Daytime. Omaha Beach, Normandy, France

Costume: army uniforms. Automatically tells us that the film is a war film, and we realise that these men will either come out alive or die fighting.

Facial expressions and body language: some of the characters are being sick on the boat. This could be from sea sickness, nerves or fear. It is quite sickening to watch yet the men around remain relatively placid; they are used to such vile surroundings, or are so scared that they don't even realise that these men are vomiting right next to them. This gives the audience an insight to how these men have changed due to war.

Lighting: dull blue and grey tones. It is quite bright, indicating daytime, but as this is set during war it is quite miserable.

Camera:

• As the camera follows the boats it shakes violently; this shows us what it was like to be on the boat next to the boat in the shot, with turbulence due to the waves. From this shot we also see a man puke/spit into the sea, and this paired with the turbulence almost makes the audience feel a little seasick.
• An extreme close-up shot of Capt. Miller's shaking hand. This is effective because it shows just how scared these men would be, even though his face remains calm; he is the captain, he needs to be brave, yet he too is frightened of the outcome.
• As a bomb blows up in the near distance, the camera focuses on several men in turn. One of these shots shows a man clenching his facial muscles and trying to remain calm despite the impending doom. This is a striking shot because it becomes clear that most of these men are going to die and are aware of it, yet are doing all they can to stay calm and brave.
• Just after the aforementioned shot there is another which centres around a soldier kissing his crucifix necklace and visibly praying. He is turning to God and his religion to save him - or perhaps he isn't particularly religious but has lost hope and the only thing that could possibly save him now is God. This, again, shows how war changes people and makes them search for hope in anything.
• The camera sits in the back of the boat as all the men in front get shot. Blood splatters onto the camera and you are put directly into the scene, behind all of these dying men, and these men are dropping so quickly and ceaselessly. It is a horrible, true-to-life representation of what goes on during war and how men can be there one second and gone the next

Sound:

• The scene opens with loud, crashing waves. Like the camera shots, this puts us directly into the action, yet we realise that we aren't hearing it even half as loud as these men in the boats are.
• There is a brief moment of calm when the camera is in the boat before one of the soldiers pukes on the floor, and another soldier follows suit. It is horrible realistic and could perhaps make the audience feel a little nauseous.
• There is no dialogue until around 1 minute into the scene, when the driver has to shout at the men in order to be heard over the waves. His final words are 'God be with you', which is the only thing he could possibly say to give hope to these soldiers, regardless of whether they are religious.
• There are around five off-screen but diegetic sounds of bombs going off not far away from the boat. This brings the shocking realisation that these men are heading off to their impending deaths, and could be gone in a second.
• As soon as the land gates are open, there are loud sounds of advancing bullets, and then sounds of the bullets interacting with these men and killing them. These sounds are disturbing and continous. We hear the sounds of bullets hitting (and cutting through) metal helmets, designed to protect them, but to no avail. This gives a sense of helplessness.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Genre: romance, drama, romantic comedy, comedy of manners

Misé en scene:

Setting: Fifth Avenue, New York City. Early morning. 1960.

Costume, hair, make-up: Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) seems to be dressed from wherever she was the night before, in her elegant, jewel-embellished black evening gown, black gloves and sunglasses even though it is the early morning. Her hair is in a chic and immaculate updo, as if she hasn't spent the entire night out. Her entire appearance gives her an aura of elegance and grace, and sets the tone of her character.

Facial expressions and body language: Due to her sunglasses, we don't see many facial expressions from Holly. We watch as she looks into the window of Tiffany and Co. and eats a pastry and drinks coffee - this links to the title Breakfast at Tiffany's. She stares at the jewellery in the window for some time, at one point tilting her head and staring in what can only be described as longing, and continues looking at it even as she walks away. It is clearly an interest of the character, who may turn out to be materialistic and shallow. As the scene continues, she loses a little of her grace as she walks along hitching up her dress and swinging her arms, before running into the house to avoid a man in a car.

Lighting: the lighting begins dull and greyish, to show that it is very early in the morning with little or no sunlight, and also could be an indication that it is set some time in the past. In the second part of the scene, though, the sun has begun to shine which indicates a time difference from when Holly gets out of the taxi to when she arrives home.

Camera:

• First there is a static long shot as the taxi emerges in the distance, before the camera tracks it down the street when it comes close. As it is in the distance we assume that the taxi has no relevance, until it comes close and is a point of focus.
• There is a low-angled, over-the-shoulder shot of Holly looking up at the store building: over her shoulder we see the word 'TIFFANY' from the shop, immediately linking to the title.

Sound:

• There is no dialogue in the scene until the very end. There is just a calm, elegant, non-diegetic song which is parallel to the actions of Holly, walking slowly home, and also links to the elegance of the character.

Evaluation - Juno

What did I learn about filming and editing?
I learned that it is better to overshoot than to just shoot as much as I think I need; it's better to have too much footage which you can cut than to have misjudged timing and not have enough. Also if you have multiple shots you can choose which is the best. I learned that it is best to use something like a trolley to create smooth tracking shots rather than to just walk along.

Did I find/use any premiere effects? If so, which one and what was the effect?
We wanted to find an effect that was similar to the one used in the real Juno opening. We couldn't find one that was the same but the closest we found was called Posterize. This effect went on after the actor playing Juno passed the tree, just like the opening, and gave an almost animated effect.

What went well in the filming and editing?
We overshot a lot and did several tries on different shots so we could choose the best one. We also kept referring to the real video so we could see how different shots should be executed. During editing we all had a chance to edit and we found almost exact replicas of the video transitions used in the real Juno opening, for example Push.

What could have gone better in the filming and editing?
We could have used a smooth tracking device e.g. a trolley - we did attempt this but when on grass the shot was bumpy and uneven and often went off track, so we decided on just walking with a camera and hoping it would be smooth. In the first shot, 'Juno' (me) walks a lot faster than the original, so that could have been slowed down. We weren't skilled enough at editing to make a smooth transition from the normal camera to the animated effect so it looks a little bit jumpy.

"Juno" opening scene

Semiotics:

• Red hoodie - represents blossoming love
• Orange drink (Sunny D) - bright, sunny, good mood
• Washed out colours - calm atmosphere, peaceful neighbourhood

Representation:

• Love - atypical love because looks sad in places and she is walking alone
• Teenage girls' attitude - she is walking in the opposite direction to everyone, suggesting she is a loner. They are all running but she is walking; she isn't in a hurry to get anywhere, laid-back attitude
• Surburban area - looks a little bit rough but mostly calm and peaceful

Misé en scene:

• Costume - hoodie, sneakers and jeans suggest a laid-back attitude, tomboyish, atypical of an American teenage girl
• Make-up - no make-up, hair pulled back: simple, carefree
• Sound - non-diagetic sound. Edgy folk song, suggests that the genre is indie, the film will be happy

Camera shots and angles

Films in the media use many camera shots, angles and movement to interest the audience and create diversity throughout the movie. In Perks of Being a Wallflower, there are two scenes which particularly show a range of camera shots and angles, all used very effectively.

High angle

Close-up shot

Tilted angle

Over-the-shoulder shot

Extreme close-up

Long shot

Aerial angle

Wide shot

I think the most effective shots out of the above are the tilted angle and the over-the-shoulder shot. The titled angle because it gives a sense of the hysteria that the character (Charlie) is feeling; his mind is distorted, as is the camera. The over-the-shoulder shot is also effective because we can see exactly what is in Charlie's eyeline, and we get an idea of what he must be feeling. The fact that the shot focuses on a knife is disturbing and shocking.

Media institution logo

This is the logo that I designed for my media institution. It is called 'Iridescent Innovations'. The definition of iridescent is 'Showing luminous colours that seem to change when seen from different angles'. I thought this was appropriate for an institution title because the fact that it shows 'luminous colours' suggests that the films are bright and interesting to watch; also, every film is seen by every person in a different way. The fact that the colours 'seem to change when seen from different angles' highlights the different ways in which audience members view the film.

I chose to design the logo in this way because the films that I would make under this institution would be indie films (similar to Submarine (2010), (500) Days of Summer (2009), About Time (2013)) and I went for an almost vintage look with an old-fashioned film reel and simple colour scheme.

Representation

What is being represented? How?

• Love is being represented in this trailer. It is first presented as a fairytale (Barthes). The trailer begins with Summer (Zooey Deschanel) announcing that she has the same music taste as Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in an elevator. This is a very realistic representation of love - it can spark in any place at any time with any random person. The film is based around fate, which is very mythical and fairytale-like (true to Barthes).
• Heartbreak is also represented in the trailer. Straight after the love is presented, Summer says 'I think we should stop seeing each other'. There are pieces of dialogue interjected into the trailer during which Summer says things 

Media representation

 

 

How does media represent women?

'Nuts' magazine presents women as sex objects. The focus of the cover is a half-naked Gemma Atkinson, whose body is touched up and pushed up to the idea of 'perfection', designed to taint men's minds until they think that this is perfection and degrade women who do not look this way.

The biggest feature on the page is 'Britain's 50 Sexiest Single Babes', with the tagline 'Gents - these ladies need you!' suggesting that women have no choice in their single life and need a man to survive. It also degrades women that don't look like those in the magazine.
The heading above 'Nuts' states 'Rosie & Kaylee's Valentine's Strip!' - pictures of naked women which are designed for men on Valentine's day, suggesting that women are there simply to please men.
The magazine is £1.60 which is cheaper than most women's magazines, suggesting that to look at women is cheap - women are cheap.

Poster Analysis - (500) Days of Summer

The movie '(500) Days of Summer' has several official posters. Each have different connotations.

The first poster is this one. This gives a clear hint as to what the story is about: a romance. However the tagline is 'This is not a love story... this is a story about love.' This hints that it is a love story with a twist. Linking with that is the picture, the main focus: Joseph Gordon-Levitt is leaning into Zooey Deschanel, showing his affection towards her. However, she isn't facing him, her leg is turned away and she is even looking in the opposite direction, despite her smile. This could suggest that she doesn't feel the same way about him, highlighting the fact that this is not a love story, as a love story generally implies that both characters love each other. The smile could be fake and implies that she is stringing him along; he feels as though she appreciates him. The colours are very minimalist and plain which contradicts what we get from the picture and tagline: white and dull blue-grey are very simple and straightforward, whereas from the picture/tagline we get that the plot is twisted and complicated. This is not your standard romantic comedy.

The second poster shows Joseph Gordon-Levitt, alone, sketching. He is the focus of the picture, suggesting that he is the main character. The giant yellow sun highlighting the title - specifically the word 'Summer' - suggests that the film is a happy, sunny one. The title is a play on words as the main character (other than Gordon-Levitt) is called Summer (Zooey Deschanel). This play on words is emphasised by the sun. There are lots of colours, in contrast to the above poster, which could suggest that the film is a happy-go-lucky and bright one. There are lots of pictures of a girl in the background, showing that there is a link between her and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character. What we don't get from this poster is that the plot is twisted and complicated - it seems a straight-forward and happy rom-com in which Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel's characters are romantically involved.

The final poster I will be analysing is this one. This shows Joseph Gordon-Levitt looking down at his t-shirt. On his t-shirt are pictures of him and Zooey Deschanel. This immediately makes us think that it is a romantic comedy, as in one of the pictures they are kissing and on another they are watching a movie. There are several pictures of Deschanel on her own, showing that she is the object of his affections. However, there is one picture which matches the first poster I analysed: Gordon-Levitt is leaning into her and she is looking down, avoiding his gaze. In the biggest picture we see them looking at each other though neither looks particularly happy and they are standing relatively far away from each other, in contrast to the other pictures where they are in close proximity to each other.