Ed Brown's Media Studies Blog: October 2010

Phone Box Scene:
(Abandonment plays in the background)

Alex - "hello... hellloooo.... Is anyone there?........ (in confused, inquiring manor)

Ed - ........ (silence - slight breathing) (hello - creepy voice)

In House:

Alex - "Hello"?...

Ed - "Silent slight breathing..."

Alex - "Is anyone there"?!

Ed- "hello" (creepy voice)
'
Alex appears shocked and the scene cuts to an abrupt ending followed by a static sound'

Camera Shot Plan

Opening with an establishing shot. A man walks past a telephone box. It rings and the shot switches to an over the shoulder shot facing the telephone box. Another shot of Alex walking towards the phone box. A closeup on Alex answering the phone.

He hears breathing down the phone. Switches to a shot of the mouth of the person of the other end of the phone. Keeping it anonymous. Back to previous shot and Alex slams the phone down. Alex opens the door and walks away, as the door closes you see Ed hang up his mobile phone.
Alex begins to walk home and in the background you can see Ben. An over the shoulder shot reveals a light on in his house. A side shot of Alex walking up to his house. A match on action as he pushes the already open door. The shots carries on to see him put down his bag, as he moves away from in front of the mirror, Tom becomes visible.

Alex continues to walk through the house with a handheld camera shot behind him. He pushes open the door, we see this from the other side. The television is static, we see this from the front at the televisions level and then from the side. The phone begins to ring and we have a close up on the phone. We see Alex pick up the phone and we have a shot from directly behind his head. As Alex speaks into the phone we see a side profile of Ed and Alex, which as Ed hangs up the phone switches to a shot in front of Alex with Tom, Ben and Ed visible behind Alex as he discovers he is not alone.

The shot then switches to a static picture with the credits scrolling down. And as the credits stop the screen fades to black and a phone disconnected sounds pays and fades out after a few seconds.

Character Choices and Bios

Characters

Ed (Leader) - (Hooded character 1) – This character is a dark and mysterious person who is set on turning Alex's (Victim) life upside down by phoning him randomly at a phone box & then follows him home in which he brings some of his tormenting friends (Ben & Tom). We only hear this character say one word, and this word will change Alex's life forever........ “hello” Ed is sizably bigger than Alex which shows us his dominance & power over him. This is one call Alex will never forget.

Alex (Victim) – This character is your “average joe” student minding his own business, he is a peaceful and a non-harmful 'happy chap', when suddenly the phone beside him starts to ring and of course out of human curiosity he has to answer it, in doing so Alex seals his fate in which his life will be turned upside down by 3 hooded psycho's.

Tom (Hooded character 2) – Tom is one of Ed's accomplices, we first see Tom in the reflection of a mirror & a second time side by side with his 'master' Ed at the end of the scene. Tom is also a mysterious psychopathic killer determined to prove himself to 'master'.

Ben (Hooded character 3) – Ben is the third and final accomplice of Ed he is seen when alex is walking home & in the final scene with Ed & Tom, but have no fear he is presently watching Alex even though he is not on screen, his presence is undoubtable.

Casting of characters
When it came to the casting it was easy, we decided to keep the casting within our group to reduce risk and chances of an outsider not turning up or dropping out. The main character we casted was Alex who is the victim in our film – we casted him because he is the smallest out of the 4 members and we thought this would show his vulnerability and innocence well. The second character we casted was Ed who is the Leader of the Hooded psycho's – we casted Ed as the leader because he is the biggest out of all 4 of us and this shows the dominance and power over alex. The third character we casted was Tom who is the second hooded character – we cast him because we needed extra hooded psycho's in our film and he makes up the dominance and numbers. The last person we casted was Ben who is the third hooded character – we casted Ben because we needed a third and final hooded psycho and he also shows dominance and power over alex.
Putting all three of these people together makes for one big scary call for alex.

Plot Planning

FINAL CALL

A Production

Plot:
A boy called Alex walks past a phone booth, it rings, and he answers it. He asks who's there but hears nothing except from a deep breathing, he angrily puts the phone down, and then a hooded figure becomes visible. He walks home, not knowing that he is being followed, to discover that a light is on in his house and that the door is wide open. He cautiously walks into his house, and puts down his keys and bag in front of a mirror. As he moves away from the mirror, another hooded figure becomes visible. He slowly walks upstairs, and opens the door to the lit room, where he discovers that the television is static. A phone rings as he is facing the television, Alex picks it up and and immediately asks who is there, but with no reply, the phone disconnects. Alex hears harsh breathing and feels it on his neck.

A hooded character from behind whispers “Hello...”

Inter-Textual Reference

Inter-textual references

1.Reasons for choice or ideas:
•Phone box – we have chosen this because it creates a feeling of isolation and claustrophobia. Also this is proven to have worked in the “Phone Booth”
•We used the idea of hooded and masked characters so that there would be a much more mysterious feel to it. This heightens the anxiety of Alex, and keeps the audience on edge throughout. This is a proven technique in the film “Hot Fuzz”
•We used the entire idea of phones because most people have one which means everyone is at risk. This is also a message to show technology could be taking over our lives.
•We felt that the soundtrack we chose was in fitting with our production because the whole idea of the story is mystery and suspense so we thought what was better than wind. To keep the suspense of the story as it has been successfully used in previous films, such as the graveyard scene in 'the omen'.
•The reason we used such casual and modern music during the scene which Alex is walking home because it confirms him as a normal member of society. Whilst Alex is listening to his music, he is unaware of the situation that he is currently in.

Sunday 17 October 2010

Week 1:Film Planning

In our first week we have progressed well when it comes to our video, we have completed almost all of our planning, so far we have our costums, location, camera shots, plot, script nd characters all planned and ready to go, all we have left to do now is our equipment list, and our actual filming which should be done over a mixture of half term and the next week coming.

Body Of Lies Introduction : Sound

Sound - The opening of 'Body Of Lies' involves mainly non-diegetic sound but as is normal has a small amount of diegetic sound. The first diegetic sound we hear is that spoken by (what we assume to be a) terrorist at the start. This man speaks in Arabic, but there are subtitles included in English for those of the audience who speak English. The Arabic language shows the characters background, so the audience already knows that this character is that of Asian descent and is of a terrorist origin. And have an idea as to whats going on in his part of the world (wars etc.) The first main diagetic sound we hear is the loud explosion which the terrorists cause, and this isn't assisted by any sort of sound effect as the explosion itself creates fear. This loud bang acts as the indication that the scene has ended.

The non-diegetic sound included also represents the characters background. When we see the character at the start we hear a sound that we usually associate with terrorists. This noise is a sort of a native violin sound being slowly played, and it captures the identity of the characters brilliantly. When we see the British soldiers move towards the terrorists we hear a quite thudding noise, similar to that of a heartbeat. This creates a lot of tension and nervousness, especially as this noise increases in noise as the soldiers get closer. We also hear a windy effect when the soldiers are outside the building, and it makes the audience feel on-edge and slightly haunted.

Case Study 1: Inside Man

Institutions:

A cop has to talk down a bank robber after the criminal's perfect heist spirals into a hostage

situation.

Director: Spike Lee

Writer: Russel Gewirtz

Cast: Denzel Washington - Detective Keith Frazier

Clive Owen - Dalton Russell

Jodie Foster - Madeleine White

Christopher Plummer - Arthur Case

Production Company: Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment

Release Date: 24 March 2006 (UK)

Country Where Made : U.S.A

Box Office Return -

Budget: $45,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $28,954,945 (USA) (26 March 2006) (2818 Screens)

Gross: $88,504,640 (USA) (2 July 2006)

Audience:

The target audience for this film is anyone who is a fan of the thriller/crime genre ,that conttains violence and action but still keeps the subtlety that is necessary in the crime genre.

Audience Reception:

No.1 - Remains consistently watchable as a mechanical exercise.

No.2 - Supremely annoying and nonsensical.

No.3 - It's okay, if you like investing two hours in a whodunit only to discover that a butler who was barely in the picture did it.

Rotten Tomatoes:

Tomatometer: 86%

Audience: 81%

Technology:

Progression in technology has allowed us much easier access to films and information about them. One of the ways that this has happened is because technology has increased the number of ways that we view technology, e.g. the web. The audience’s knowledge has been increased because they can now view the reviews and so on much more easily. Technology has increased access to the film because people can now discover better ways to view the film, such as blu-ray, or cinema listings of the film.

Representation:

In this film the detetives who try and defuse and solve the hostage situation and the robbery are shown as normal human geings with families and children etc. this is shown through bring a part of their relationship into the story especially near the end.

The bank robbers in this film are normal peopleexcept that they are shown as sort of geniuses in a way, or arather the main antagonist (Clive Owen) is shown as the "Clever One" and the others as purely muscle for hire.

Finally the two other antagonists who are however not involved in the robbery are depicted as upper class citizens who have been robbed of thier business, when in actual fact this is far from the truth.

Codes/forms and conventions of the thriller genre:

Location:

The film is set in Manhattan, most of the scenes are set inside and around the bank. The film uses the entirety of the bank for its shots ranging from the main lobby, store rooms, offices and the vault itself.

Character Types:

The detectives are shown as cool calm and collected, they dont seem to panick and have the situation very much under control.

The robbers are very tightly wound and look like that they might burst at any moment and kill anyone, which is different to Clive Owen's character who is similar tothe detectives in his calm manner, but this also comes off as arrogance sometimes.

Costume:

Costume is a vital part of this film as a main part of the robbery itself is based around it. The robbers and the hostages all have to wear the exact same outfit, this is so if the police were to storm the building they would all look the same. All of the upper-class people are dressed in smart tailored suits, this is so you can easily identify them as different from the robbers and detectives in what I can only assume to be off the racks suits.

Objects:

Most of the objects that are sent into the bank play a big part of the story and vice versa, as there are many bugs and traps throughout this film that are used to con each of the "sides". Also when it comes to the weapons in the film they also play a vital part towards the end of the film.

Sound: When it comes to sound most of it is diagetic with much talking, shooting, music inside of the story on speakers, etc. But there is a low amount of non-diagetic sound, as most of this movie if filmed in a handheld way and having no sound effectg music or orchestra sound makes it seem more realistic.

Thursday 7 October 2010

Movie Intro Notes

The Book Of Eli (2009)
Most of the information in this intro is through what you see, as there is no dialouge in the first three minutes, all you can hear is a booming sound at the very beginning and then the sound of a cat walking a and licking at a body. The main part of the sound comes from the heavy brething of a man in camoflauge and an arrow whooshing throug the air. The first thing you see is a forest with ash falling all around it, the shot then pans down to the ground and you see a gun, and as the shot carries on there is a dead body obviously it seems the two are linked, as we pan across we have a view of the forest and then as we zoom in a we see a man with camoflauge aiming an arrow at the cat. The high point of the into is when the arrow travels at high speed across the woods but then stops and goes into slow motion which enhances the effect of the shot.

Brick (2006)
The film starts offa lot more gently that the first. In that it starts off with a slow piano sound, and a close up on a mans face, with gentle piano music playing in the background which doesnt really match with the image of the dead woman laying in the flowing water the only bit that matches would be that the water is coming from a sewer. there is a scene in a phone box where the man is taking a call but the shot makes him look isolated and small which would show inferiority in this context.

Gothika (2003)
The first shot is of the Columbia Pictures Logo but the colour is changed to suit the tone of the film so it is much darker. The first thing you rhear are the whispers that are coming from the asylum, along with tying this helps set the tone as a dreary dark scary horror movie, most of the shots are panning around the cage which shows it as a small enclosed space and the way the cage is there shows that maybe you should not be there, or it is protecting you from the woman insde it. There are also many many emotions such as calm, relaxed upset and crying which contrasts from each other.

Wednesday 6 October 2010

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During this process myself and the group learnt quite a lot from making the video. I feel the video editing was where we learnt the most as none of us had used the editing software (iMovie) before, but after a few minutes we were becoming used to it and finding it easier to edit clips.

During filming we learnt it was important to watch out for giveaway such as continuity and reflections on other surfaces, which could show the camera equipment or other members of the group, but we also realised that we shouldn't have looked back at our footage as much as we did because this mixed up our footage into different parts of the tape meaning we had to import and export everything twice, slowing our progress. We also realised to take more care to make sure people ar in the same positions for different camera takes as these are easily spotted on the film.

Filming Day

Last week we filmed out preliminary videos and edited them into a sall two minute video clip. We used the Appke Mac iMovie editing software. We spent a good 2 hoursfilming and a further 2 editing our production called "Appleicious" The story ofa hungry teacher searching for food. In this case, an apple. Our biggest problm together was stitching together the conversation from shot to shot fluidy but we still managed it.