FEEDBACK ON MEDIA MOCK EXAM

Question 1.

• How is suspense created? You need to explain it! 

• You should identify the Doctor (and Martha) as the heroic protagonist then explain their heroic qualities and action.
• !Or there would be no danger, surely! Are the weapons of mass destruction convincing?

Question 2.

• Editing: Two examples of VFX? What about shot reverse shot, slomotion, monochrome lighting/tone flashbacks. 

• Mis-en-Scene: You must support your point that the laboratory is 'very modern' by precise reference to what it has.

• Camerawork: Master-high angle shot, Martha -low angle shot- power difference between  camerawork and editing!

Question 3.

• The woman in the red dress?
• You must explicitly state that it is a Gender anti-stereotype.
• Shot 'masculine' quality attributes does Martha have?
• How does he look masculine? 

•  In what wat are they 'weak' looking/sounding

• Silent, cowed, bullied, anonymous
• Ethricity issue? 

 

SHOT REVERSE SHOT IS EDITING, NOT CAMERA WORK!

 

Audience Profile

I have started planning the viewer profile for our film the HIDDEN, as it is one of the most important aspects of the planning, since this will define the target audience of this movie.

The age of our target audience should be from 15-39, as this is the audience that prefers movies which contain high tension in them, so this will be the most appropriate age group. Also, the audience will be male and female because in the age group of modern young adults, sexism rarely occurs.

The movies that they might have watched before could be Divergent, Hunger Games and Lucy as both of them are also based on the theme of suspense and jeopardy.

In their leisure time the audience will play computer/console games and visit sports clubs such as rugby, football, netball and other such team sports. If they go out they may either do something special like paintballing or if there is nothing special about their day they may meet up with their friends in coffee shops such as Starbucks or have a sandwich in Pret a Manger if they feel especially hungry.

Companies create viewer profiles so that they could identify the target market their movie will need to suite. They use the GEARS tactic; gender, ethnicity, age, region and socio-economic group, in order to classify their audience into groups. 

Updated version of Production Log

George Zenin                                                B324                        CLAREMONT FAN COURT: 64680

GCSE J526 UNIT B324 PRODUCTION P0RTFOLIO IN MEDIA STUDIES

 Production Log:

17/09/2014 | PLANNING | THE BRIEF

09/09/2014 | RESEARCH | THE ART OF THE TITLE: The Detectives French TV series

10/09/2014 | RESEARCH | THE ART OF THE TITLE: Sherlock Holmes 2009 by Warner Brothers

15/10/2014| PLANNING   | PRODUCTION COMPANY NAME: Burnt Bridge Productions

09/09/2014 |  PLANNING | BRAINSTORMING

09/0/92014 |  RESEARCH | THRILLER FILMS

09/09/2014 |  PLANNING | TREATMENT

09/09/2014 |  RESEARCH | THE ART OF THE TITLE:

09/09/2014 |  PLANNING | DRAWING THE FIRST STORYBOARD

09/09/2014 |  RESEARCH | TV FILM OPENING ANALYSIS

   

THE BRIEF:

I am working in a group of three pupils: Milo Mulvaugh and Hamza Syed. We have decided to pick 7 (video), the opening to the new film including titles, in any genre or mix of genres such as comedy or thriller together with a storyboard. Maximum length: 3 minutes.

In today’s lesson we have thought about the genre of our intro and some of the characters that will be in it. After some time we have decided that our genre will be a steam punk based thriller with 6 actors playing the roles of the 4 victims, the detective and the murderer. We also decided that the key point in our text will be a lake in which the murderer disposes of his victims and which serves as a link to other worlds, since we decided to include the multiverse theory as another point in our film, for which we already planned a couple of locations such as Virginia Water. Because the whole movie is based on steam punk, we decided to use some sepia/ monochromatic filter for some of the sequences to give it a more Victorian feel. We also thought about the font that we are going to use. We believe it would’ve been best if we use a handwritten like font which is tilted and written on a yellowy piece of paper.   

RESEARCH:

1.     Today we watched the intro sequence of a crime drama television show on The Art of the Title. We knew that it would be based on a modern crime drama motif because we saw that the first couple of slides were very dark and gloomy, which they did using a dark blue filter. When we started watching the actual clip we noticed that the clip was very short, which is because the studio wanted to start the actual episode as quickly as possible so that they don’t keep people waiting. We also noticed that the music had a fast pace to it which promised action and excitement to the audience.

                                                                                                                          

In addition, I saw that some of the CGI looked as if it was we were looking through the eye of one of the detectives because we got a red pencil arrow going towards the doors and cars of every detective and we also have something that looks like a CSI computer interface that shows the names and roles of each character that we’ll meet during the series.

This is typical for series such as this, as we see it in other TV such as friends and how I met your mother.

2. Today we watched the intro sequence to the Sherlock Holmes movie which was created in 2009 by Warner Brothers. From the first couple of slides which we see before the actual text starts we could already see that this movie will have a lot of drama in it because we see a lot of conflict, e.g. Sherlock and Watson aiming their pistols somewhere, spectacle, an example of which we could see in the slide when a person is flying backwards from an explosion, and mystery which we can see from a close up of the faces of Dr Watson and Holmes.

We could also see that this is based in the Victorian time from the type of font that is used. It’s a cursive handwritten with a quill, which we could see from the slight slant of the writing which has different thickness at different points. We could also see some ineligible notes at the bottom of the slide which look like they have been part of a letter once which was the only way of communicating during that time. This is used to emphasize that this is during the reign of Queen Victoria.

Also we see the real moving image transfer into a still image and then into sepia sketch or photograph which is like watching the photographic cameras which were used during those times. However, it may as well be an ink wash drawing because we see ink blots and splatters. CGI was used so that they morph through different cycles of photography. They also look faded and mildewed which makes it seem like the story that is being told came from a long time ago. 

In addition, we know that this is going to be a crime detective, action and adventure movie because we have some conventions such as; drama, which we could see from the slide which has a winking woman who looks like she’s up to no good, and we have conflict, which we see when Holmes is fighting a man with mallet whilst he’s wielding a small hammer, and we see adventure when Holmes is flying through the air after an explosion.  

PLANNING:

09/09/2014|DISCUSSING INITIAL IDEAS

Today we joined into groups and discussed of what we may do for our projects. We started to develop roles within the group and the plot points that we may use. I also showed my skill as a 3D animator when I showed an animated film company logo.

16/09/2014| EQUIPMENT, PROPS, ACTORS

Today during the lesson we discussed actors, props and equipment that we may use. Because we figured out the plotline over Skype in the evening we decided that we needed four actors to be the victims, because anymore would be just silly, a detective, which will be me, a murderer, who we decided will be a girl so that it will be more unexpected. We decided that we are also going to bring some equipment such as: cameras, tripods, microphone, etc. We also decided that all of us are going to invest into costumes, as one of our key themes is going to be steam-punk, and into accessories such as a monocle and BB pistols.

23/09/2014|RESEARCHING GENRE

Today we decided to research our genre, which is going to be thriller. We knew that we had to collect material from other movies that were made in that genre. For that we decided to use a piece of internet software called Scoop.it which is basically a search engine that creates a database on what you need, for us being past thrillers. Thus we can gain some ideas of what we’ll need to do in order to compete with other film production companies. 

25/09/2014|COSTUMES

Today we discussed the final costumes the two main characters are going to wear and the soundtrack. Milo found a lot of items of clothing that really suited the theme of steam punk so we decided that we’ll order those things and split the costs. He also has an aunt who has a lot of things which are dated quite far back into the past that she wouldn’t mind us using.

Because Milo is the only one who is doing music we let him find the soundtrack that he thought would suite our clip the most. He presented us with Everybody wants to rule the world by Lorde and some anonymous music from the Victorian era. He wanted to use both pieces but I noted that our clip can only last for 3 minutes so in the end we decided that we will use only Lorde’s song.

14/10/2014|PLANNING THE ENRTY SEQUENCE CREDITS

We needed to research how our entry credits will look like, because this will set the pace and image of the film. For inspiration we decided to research what has been used in existing past films and for that we decided to go to a website called the Art of the Title as it has entry sequences from hundreds of film titles which can be useful to our cause. We looked at Agatha Christie’s Poirot movie entry sequence as we wanted our movie to also look quite old and which can be related to Victorian Britain/America. Poirot featured a nice big font at the end that could be used by us as it had a detective code in it as it was big and in capital letter. The only thing that would need changing here is the size as we don’t want it dominating the image sequence. 

15/10/2014|COMPANY NAME

We thought of a company name quite early on when we started the project, since I created the introduction animation and I needed something that would be quite punchy and easy to remember. I came up with two names; Blue Wolf entertainment and Burnt Bridge production. We discussed with the group which name would be best and decided on Burnt Bridge Production because it fit in with our companies ethos.

FILM TREATMENT:

·         The Detective: GEORGE HOLDING 23

A tall young man with narrow eyes and sharp nose indicate that this man doesn’t trust anyone and is sly and of high intellect.

·         The Murderer: JENNIFER ELIAS 25

Like the detective she’s tall but slightly older than him which shows because her face is slightly more rounded. She has almost raven wing hair which indicates to her dark personality.

16/10/2104| PLANNING SHOT TYPES

 During today’s lesson we discussed the order of shots that we are going to take because we had a bit of confusion within the group about the current plan of action but then we sorted it out and almost completed the shot plan.

CONSTRUCTION:

ANIMATION:

  

EVALUATION:

­­

 (to be completed after the filming)

Picking a distributor for the film

After looking at the UK distributor's web page, I found out that there were two companies that did thrillers before, such being Altitude and Icon. Altitude, although newer, has got a small portfolio of three thriller movies; SAS: Red Notice, Fishing without nets and Spooks. The biggest of them all is Spooks as it has won several awards such as the BAFTA award.

However, they are nowhere close to Icon as it has a massive thriller portfolio, including well known titles such as Paranormal Activity and Drive, which are very high on tension which is exactly what we need and it will also mean that they will have more experience in that market of movies which then means that we can trust them more than other companies like Altitude. In addition, Icon specializes specifically in independent movies which we currently are at this moment, which means that they will have more experience and knowledge of what we need to do rather than Altitude.

In conclusion, I think that we need to choose Icon as a distributor as they have a larger thriller portfolio and they specialize in independent movies  industry which means that we can trust them more to distribute our movie well.

Film Treatment

Film Treatments:

·         The Detective: GEORGE HOLDING 23

A tall young man with narrow eyes and sharp nose indicate that this man doesn’t trust anyone and is sly and of high intellect. His cold and calm face shows that he's a man on a mission and that he'll work around any obstacle that he may face. The calm look in his eyes also shows that he is very difficult to be surprised by any event and that his guard is always up. This is also an indicator that he isn't afraid to look into the eyes of danger and that he's used to laugh in its face. Strange thing though, he wears clothes that don't suite his age. They look like they've come from the Victorian era out of a wardrobe of a quite prestigious man.

·         The Murderer: JENNIFER ELIAS 25

Like the detective she’s tall but slightly older than him which shows because her face is slightly more rounded. She has almost raven wing hair which indicates to her dark personality. Her squinted eyes show that she's suspicious of everyone and everything that indicates that she's up to no good and has things to fear from the past. Her walk is very quiet and stealthy which indicates that she'd rather avoid the danger than to face it. She, like the detective, wears very outdated clothes that look like they should be in a museum rather than on a young lady.

Production Log:

George Zenin                                                B324                        CLAREMONT FAN COURT: 64680

GCSE J526 UNIT B324 PRODUCTION P0RTFOLIO IN MEDIA STUDIES

 Production Log:

17/09/2014 | PLANNING | THE BRIEF

09/09/2014 | RESEARCH | THE ART OF THE TITLE: The Detectives French TV series

10/09/2014 | RESEARCH | THE ART OF THE TITLE: Sherlock Holmes 2009 by Warner Brothers

09/09/2014 |  PLANNING | BRAINSTORMING

09/0/92014 |  RESEARCH | THRILLER FILMS

09/09/2014 |  PLANNING | TREATMENT

09/09/2014 |  RESEARCH | THE ART OF THE TITLE

09/09/2014 |  PLANNING | DRAWING THE FIRST STORYBOARD

09/09/2014 |  RESEARCH | TV FILM OPENING ANALYSIS

   

THE BRIEF:

I am working in a group of three pupils: Milo Mulvaugh and Hamza Syed. We have decided to pick/ we have chosen Brief 7 (video), the opening to the new film including titles, in any genre or mix of genres such as comedy or thriller together with a storyboard. Maximum length: 3 minutes.

In today’s lesson we have thought about the genre of our intro and some of the characters that will be in it. After some time we have decided that our genre will be a steam punk based thriller with 6 actors playing the roles of the 4 victims, the detective and the murderer. We also decided that the key point in our text will be a lake in which the murderer disposes of his victims and which serves as a link to other worlds, since we decided to include the multiverse theory as another point in our film, for which we already planned a couple of locations such as Virginia Water. Because the whole movie is based on steam punk, we decided to use some sepia/ monochromatic filter for some of the sequences to give it a more Victorian feel. We also thought about the font that we are going to use. We believe it would’ve been best if we use a handwritten like font which is tilted and written on a yellowy piece of paper.   

RESEARCH:

1.     Today we watched the intro sequence of a crime drama television show on The Art of the Title. We knew that it would be based on a modern crime drama motif because we saw that the first couple of slides were very dark and gloomy, which they did using a dark blue filter. When we started watching the actual clip we noticed that the clip was very short, which is because the studio wanted to start the actual episode as quickly as possible so that they don’t keep people waiting. We also noticed that the music had a fast pace to it which promised action and excitement to the audience.

                                                                                                                          

In addition, I saw that some of the CGI looked as if it was we were looking through the eye of one of the detectives because we got a red pencil arrow going towards the doors and cars of every detective and we also have something that looks like a CSI computer interface that shows the names and roles of each character that we’ll meet during the series. 

2. Today we watched the intro sequence to the Sherlock Holmes movie which was created in 2009 by Warner Brothers. From the first couple of slides which we see before the actual text starts we could already see that this movie will have a lot of drama in it because we see a lot of conflict, e.g. Sherlock and Watson aiming their pistols somewhere, spectacle, an example of which we could see in the slide when a person is flying backwards from an explosion, and mystery which we can see from a close up of the faces of Dr Watson and Holmes.

We could also see that this is based in the Victorian time from the type of font that is used. It’s a cursive handwritten with a quill, which we could see from the slight slant of the writing which has different thickness at different points. We could also see some ineligible notes at the bottom of the slide which look like they have been part of a letter once which was the only way of communicating during that time. This is used to emphasize that this is during the reign of Queen Victoria.

Also we see the real moving image transfer into a still image and then into sepia sketch or photograph which is like watching the photographic cameras which were used during those times. However, it may as well be an ink wash drawing because we see ink blots and splatters. CGI was used so that they morph through different cycles of photography. They also look faded and mildewed which makes it seem like the story that is being told came from a long time ago. 

In addition, we know that this is going to be a crime detective, action and adventure movie because we have some conventions such as; drama, which we could see from the slide which has a winking woman who looks like she’s up to no good, and we have conflict, which we see when Holmes is fighting a man with mallet whilst he’s wielding a small hammer, and we see adventure when Holmes is flying through the air after an explosion.   

Analysing Intro Sequence ZEN

Today in class we watched the intro sequence of a TV series called ZEN.

From the first moment it was clear that would be a crime drama  because we see men in suits and shades looking very strict and concerned. To emphasize this further we see a close-up of a pistol lying on what looks like a table and in the hands of what looks like a detective. In addition, we see a whole screen filled with different pistols which looks like they have been hung in the evidence locker of some police station. We also know that pistols are usually used by the police force and the criminals which yet again connotes that this series will be based on crime drama. 

Also we see a monument which says QUESTURA which is usually found above a police station in Italy. In addition, we have other codes of Italianicity found throughout the clip. An example of this could be identified in a still life image of a whole row of parked original Fiat 500 which are often related to the country in which they were invented. Also we see most of the images with a red, white, green filter which are the colors of the Italian flag.

 

Research for the second advert

We've been told that we could now can create an ad on almost anything we like. Because I didn't think that the perfume advert was working out for me I decided to do it on something which I knew a bit more about, cars.

After quickly looking through some of my Top Gear  magazines I realized that some ads were made with a very short shutter speed which gave the image a feeling of slow motion. Some of them also feature water as part of them, for example the BMW 6 series Joy flows through you advert where the water is flowing if in droplet form off the back of the car forming a beautiful shape behind it. This is used to emphasize the cars looks.

Then there are adverts that have the car in front of a nice view, such as a view of the sea, in the background. Alfa Romeo used that in their I am Giulietta advert but they also decided to make the background monochromatic whilst the car was the only thing to have color, which tells us the adverts message is that if you own this car your bleak life would be filled with color. This is again used to make the car look nicer to make people buy it. 

Other ads which feature budget cars, such as the Suzuki Swift, can't use their car's looks to promote them so they use other things such as mpg and to show that they are good for the city they do city sketches done in a simplistic style. Vauxhall use bright animated graffiti to promote their cars. This technique they used to promote their Corsa to show it as an urban car which is fun to drive.

Overall I think this would be the easiest advert to create, however most of the print adverts I saw featured only the car and no person but there are many poses a man can take to make the car look 'sexy', such as when he/she is getting out or looking out from the window with a dreamy stare.

Social Stereotypes

Media industry uses many stereotypes so that it is easier for the audience to get a grasp on the movies story line and so that they don't grow connections to the antagonists. One example of a stereotype is presenting the women as the weaker sex and if they are by chance the protagonist they are usually quite 'curvy' so that it allows the audience to grow attached to them more easily.

The antagonists are usually presented as devious and tricking so that the audience could easily tell them apart from the protagonist.

A Comparison of how women and children are represented in fragrance advertisement from the 1920s, 1970 and 2012

Vivavdou (1920 Print Paris)

Mavis

 Mavis decided to advertise their perfume as an exotic perfume which will enter you into the world of Middle Eastern dreams. We see that there is a woman mid jump with a man behind who assists her and it all seems like ballet. The woman is wearing harem pants to emphasize the atmosphere and the romance of the Middle East. Between her and the man there is some sort of fabric, which looks like a Persian carpet.

The writing at the bottom saying ‘Irresistible!’ tells us that you become something that not many men could resist, even the ones in your dreams as this whole text has a strong feeling of dreaminess because the woman is half floating in the air as it doesn’t seem that her cavalier needs much effort to lift her.

The whole image isn’t very clear or direct which is done in order to catch the audience’s attention because they get curious. The presentation of the woman is very athletic, beautiful and she looks as if she is doing this for herself because there isn’t any audience to admire her. The print uses art noveau to give the print a feel of a dream because art noveau tends to have smooth lines and lines that flow one into another and also the image uses many dark colours such as black and very dark so that there could be warm bright colours. 

In the top left corner there are two lamps hanging in the sky which might be leading to the fact that this whole set up is a dream. The lamps are also drawn in the art noveau style so that they go nicely with the other elements of the text. Also the flowing harem pants that the lady is wearing enhance the feeling of the dreaminess of the whole situation.

In the background you can see a typical Arabian market place which enhances the feel of mystique and that this print was copied out of the book of 1001 Nights. On a denotive level.

There are tiny speckles, which look like stars which came off the sky, near the left edge. I believe that they were placed there so that to enhance the feeling of dreaminess, because people think that romantic dreams always have starlight in them, and it suites the night because during the day we can’t see stars.

This also matches with ‘Mad Men’ era which was happening roughly at that time because what this advert is telling that all a woman can dream of is fairy-tale like situations where they find themselves a man who is quite rich and possibly good looking. The man will then support them, as the clown in the picture does, and help them manage their finances and do all the work whilst they stay at home and wait for him to come from work and taste the food they made.

Revlon (1970 Print?)

Moon Drop

The image is shot in monochromatic style, firstly because it was taken in the 1970’s and photo’s normally were black and white and secondly because the moon is normally white, radiant and comes out in the dark of night. So the woman in this image represents the moon that came out in the black night, which is represented by the black background. The woman’s face is very calm, cool and expressionless yet beautiful, like the moon.

The woman is wearing a silver necklace because silver is associated with the moon from folk lore legends and Aztec stories. The woman also looks very elegant and subtle in the text which means that she comes from a rich house hold which indicates that the target market should be quite well off but not overly rich because the woman is wearing silver and not gold jewellery.

The photographer purposefully allowed all of the bottom edge of the picture so that he could fit the black writing on top of it so that it will be visible. The font is in capitals only and looks very bevelled and as if it was cut out on rock. This tells us that the woman’s character is solid, strong and granite like. Also the image of the actual perfume bottle is placed in a separate window to the picture of the woman so that it would be clearly distinguished as it is also monochromic.

The lighting was also picked to the theme because in the moonlight the scene looks very bleak, grey and monochromic which is the style in which the text was shown in. Also in the background we see a flower which gives the whole image a more nature and outside look.

This was the so called ‘Mad Men’ era when women were thought to be inferior and advertising companies constantly released adverts showing them as some may say ‘dumb blondes’. For example the advert below which advertises cigarettes which are apparently ‘thin and rich’ and from the text above we could see the link as the woman is definitely rich if you judge her by her appearance and she is also ‘thin’. I believe that this could’ve been caused by the mad men era because both texts show women as an inanimate object which is owned by a man and all they are made to do is look beautiful and provide their husbands with money and that sometimes they become housewives if the situation gets too tough. I couldn’t help but notice the last line in the text saying ‘because rich is better’ which proves the fact that women are only good if they are rich.

Lacoste (2012 moving image Britain)

Joy of Pink

Lacoste’s target market is young people so they decided to create an advert with a couple of young and pretty girls in a car with some magical ribbons falling from the sky and into their car.

These girls are presented in such a way that they look cool. They are also brave in their gestures. This tells us that they are very self-confident and with a hint of rebellion because they are very open and they aren’t afraid of anything because they know that they aren’t doing anything wrong and they are convinced in their innocence.

The background is very simplistic without too much clattering objects such as trees, hanging washing or rubbish bins which we normally see on the streets at this time of day. This first of all gets all of the audience’s attention to the characters and secondly it creates a feel of clarity and dreaminess out the whole situation. The car in which the girls are in is also white/cream coloured which enhances the effect and the silky ribbons are all pink which allows us to guess the name of the product.

Spiderman Extract Analysis

Spider Man is a classic superhero protagonist who is just a boy who's uncle is killed by a car high jacker who had a gun and so the protagonist decides to catch the murderer using his superhuman abilities which as the name states are very similar to the ones of a spider. There are many action and adventure elements featured in this clip but the main one is speed and motion as Spider Man is about to chase a man getting away in a car across the rooftops. There are also other elements such as jeopardy. For example he climbed vertical skyscrapers and shoot web from his hands so that he could swing from one building to another. However he is just learning how to control and use his powers as all what he is doing is new to him which express incredible determination and bravery from his side. This is done so that a bond grows between him and the audience as the director wants to make it clear that he is the protagonist of this movie.

To make shots of Spider Man climbing the building a high angle far shot was used so with a bit of a tilt so that the audience is disorientated by the height and grow respect for Spider Man who climbs the walls without much effort. The camera crew also use a hand held shot whilst the protagonist is running across the roof tops so that the audience could then see how unstable he is and how quickly and vigorously he is chasing the killer of his uncle.

In this extract there is a lot of fast paced music as the protagonist is constantly running and the music also gets loud to make the tension higher as the audience gapes in awe as Spider Man does what no regular person should do. The music also enhances the spectacle by slowing down and lowering the pitch just before Spider Man makes a web swing from one tall building to another across a very wide avenue.

 

Analysis of my own Perfume Advert

This poster follows strongly the 'Z' shape reading theory as the reader will firstly see the name of the perfume and then switch to other things like the face of the biker and the actual product which is being advertised. This is used a lot in even professional posters as they look better than the ones which have the elements of it scattered without any order at all.

The background is very monotonous except for the extreme right side of the picture which has some trees and a small hill which doesn't spoil the picture at all but gives it a the charm of the road. By being monotonous it doesn't flood the picture too much with detail so that the audience can focus on the main things, the person in the picture, the perfumes name and the actual perfume bottle.

The name of the perfume is written in the same colour as the main colour of the motorbike, bright orange. By doing this I was hoping to the get the effect of the direct resemblance of the bike to the perfume. Also orange is a very bright colour and contrasts with a very dull background so that it can be seen very well and so that it gets the attention of the audience well.

Both windows are closed so that the audience has no idea where the biker has arrived which will lead to curiosity and suspense, which in turn will make them look for a bit longer at the image. This is important for the advert as I wanted the audience to actually see the product and remember it for a bit longer so the chance of them getting it would have increased.

Jet Li vs Donnie Yen Question 2 Analysis

The place where the action is placed in is a chess house courtyard which looks surprisingly like a Buddhist temple. Donnie Yen, aka Broken Sword, is armed with a spear whilst Jet Li has a straight broad sword which has a quite surprising shape because it's middle part is missing. Donnie Yen is wearing yellow robes with a tang of orange whilst Jet Li is wearing black breaches and shirt so that we could easily know which is which. The chess courtyard has also a small bench on which the old man musician sits and plays his strange to us and very native Chinese harp/guitar instrument.

The extract has a lot of video editing involved, such as: wires and the fact that the antagonist and the protagonist seem to be flying through the air when they jump. Also when they have the battle of the minds the scene turns monochromatic to indicate that the battle switches from real life to the battle of the minds. Here we see the characters float again through the air and do acrobatic fight moves such as fighting whilst one is hanging upside down from the roof.

In the background we could see the natural sound of water droplets falling into ceramic vases, oriental music which is played by the old man and there is also the sound of clashing steel. The music keeps changing pace and volume which changes the temp of the fight. For example when it gets faster or higher the fighters do some sort of acrobatic trick. When the music comes to loud snapping stop, the fighters begin the real fight because the music was the source of their trans. The silence is also indicated by the fact that we can  hear the coins hit the bottom of the old mans bowl to show the surreal silence.

In this extract there are a lot of close ups and extreme close ups. This is done for a number of reasons one of them going for the extreme close up on Donnie's face so that we could see all of its cold and expressionless. Most of the time we have a two shot, starting from the moment when the fighters begin the mind battle with the old man sitting in between them overlooking them. We also have a macro shot of Donnie's spear creating a water cloud so that he can distract his opponent, but then we see Jet's face going through the cloud without even blinking.

Sounds in Serenity Extract

At the start of the extract we can hear a powerful engine roaring as the space shuttle comes to settle on an alien land surface. Behind it we have the sounds of a guitar playing a quite cheerful tune which makes the atmosphere a bit more relaxed. Then  we switch to the ships interior where the commander is preparing to leave the safety of his ship and go on a 'job'. There is also then a clicking sound of the ships commander putting on his belt and him cocking and checking his pistol. Then other string instruments such as some viola's and a piano joining into the symphony with a couple high percussion beats.

The commander's voice is very calm with a tint of sarcasm which is contrasted with the girls quiet yet strong voice which is very serious. The commander greets the girl with the words 'Hello little one' which states that he's very sarcastic and patronizing. He says it in a voice that a parent might use to greet his/her child which doesn't make any sense because it seems that the commander and the girls brother don't go well together.

The music picks up pace when we see the 'mule', the yellow machine which the crew is riding, in the garage and ready to go. This is to create tension because what they're about to do is going to be quite dangerous and jeopardous. There is a loud clang as the commander drops his pistol into the box with many others which must make the audience jolt at the sound because the steady hum of the 'mule' was quite relaxed whilst this is a rigid and loud noise.

Mis-en-Scene of the Pod Race out of Star Wars

 The action takes place in an alien desert environment on planet that some may call third world planet. It looks a lot like the Grand Canyon with the same colour  scheme, reddish-yellow,  used and there are cliff edges and actual canyons in the film background. Within the canyons there are a lot of caves and obstacles such as massive pieces of cliff and general rubble.

The pods which Anakin and his opponents race across the terrain have a very rusty and dare I say steampunk look to them. But the rust and dust doesn't make them look any less cool since the two front engines are joined by what seems to be electrical lighting rope and the originality of the actual machines is incredible since it's like a Roman chariot with the only difference that it has some anti gravity thing instead of the wheels and the horses are substituted by two engines which look as if they came from a superjet. The pods also come in different shapes and sizes which makes them and their design even more unpredictable and interesting.

The cockpit of such a pod looks very complicated and they even bothered creating alien symbols to indicate that this isn't our universe at all. Then we have the tribunes. They look very dusty and not made for comfort since the people who came to see the pod race have to stand outside in the blazing sun with no shelter. Yet however they still seem to be filled to the brim with people who came to see the match. They all dress in the same quite dirty looking clothing which are either white or brown. The commentators cabin looks more like a bunker than what it was meant to be and we don't see much new sound transmitting tech in there. No we see a some basic screens and a very basic microphone.

We also see how dangerous this race is after the antagonists pod crashes and he was lucky to survive the crash. 

Prezi

Hello everyone.
My class discovered a new piece of online presentation software called Prezi. I've made already something on QI and what it is about. Check it out!


http://prezi.com/yrdzie49zknf/untitled-prezi/

Mis-en-Scene Hurt Locker

The action is placed in an American forces war camp which is situated somewhere in Afghanistan, which means that the terrain must be very sandy and it also requires some middle-east desert worn mud houses and low skyscrapers. The men seem to be very sweaty and there isn't a single cloud in the sky which makes it easier for the audience to believe that these men are all alone stranded in the middle of the hostile desert.

Also because it's an army camp there should be US forces uniform and weaponry present. To make it seem even more genuine the producer makes the soldiers use bottled water which they use to spit out the tooth paste which indicates that there is no water coming out of the town's bathroom taps. When we leave the cool of the inside and venture into the very warm outside environment we see bigger US armaments such as Hums armed with high caliber weapons. This is once again done to make the viewer believe that this is a real army camp. 

There are also other uniforms present there, such as the Arabian trooper to whom our protagonist spoke to. Then we see the bomb defuse suit after the viewer understands that there is a car with a possible bomb in it. After that the enemies sniper appears wearing typical terrorist uniform with a masked face and an AKA-12 in his hands. This is done so that the viewer could feel instinctive hate to the antagonist which will get the audience on the American side and to make them feel sorry, worried and tense for the protagonist in the bomb defuse suit. To add oil to the fire the antagonist sniper lights the petrol tank in the bomb car which adds even further feeling of jeopardy.

Then the hero see's the bombs in the boot of the car. This is done so that we see his reaction to this sort of danger so that the producer get's a chance to  prove that the person in the bomb suit is the narratives hero. The car is very dusty and after the fire it looks in an even more sorry state. This was then performed so that the audience could see that the protagonist was facing real danger from the fire which decimated the car which would've blown up any time it liked, which creates jeopardy.

In the last scene we could see an explosion which indicates that the hero would've been easily have been killed in action by this car.