General Codes and Conventions of Film Openings

At the start of any film, it nearly always starts of with the production company name and logo, but some companies for example Universal, are linked to many other subsidiaries. These films will involve more than one company, therefore may have many names and logo's before the film actually starts. For most hollywood blockbuster films, the actual film footage does not start until at least a couple of minutes into the start.

In Halloween (John Carpenter) it uses a blue filter and does not show the main protagonist until 6 minutes into the film, but unusually this is quite early for a horror film. The first time we get any indication 

In the Bride of Chucky (Ronnie Yu) they signify where this horror is set by showing the American flag, but as well as that it includes rain and also is set at night.

Marley and Me starts of with a voice over from the main protagonist, describing his life so far. Also a two shot is used with him and a woman, which could signify it is a Rom Com.

Napolean Dynamite is a comedy film, and this is shown by the main protagonist wearing unusual clothing, and standing on his own which could signify he has limited friends.

Anchorman is another comedy, and in some cases the production company can change their logo depending on the type of film they make, for example they could change the text to make it suit a horror purpose, or animate it for a comedy. Here is an example. As you can see from the same production company logo, it changes from film to film.

Ali G Indahouse is yet another comedy, but with a twist. When the audience sees the establishing shots of all the gun crime and the city, they immediately think that this film must be an action, but then once the main protagonist is introduced they can see straight away that it is a comedy, from his visual appearance and his behavior.

Avatar is a mix of genres, which involve adventure / sci-fi / action, and this is signified by a spaceship moving through space, and a voice over involving the main protagonist explaining the journey he reluctantly takes.

The lost boys is a gothic horror, and this is signified at the opening by small body language, which in this case was the picking of the teeth, which signifies a vampire.

Never Back Down is an action / adventure film and it opens with an introduction into his behavior, which in this case is punching someone in a football match. This relates back to the genre so straight away you know what the film is about.

Harry potter and the philosophers stone is a fantasy film, and this starts by him locked in a house under a wardrobe, so at the start you do not know what the genre is.

Narrative Theory

Our task was to create a unique or already existing microdrama involving Propp's seven character types. These are the -

1. Hero

2. Villain

3. Donor

4. Princess and the father

5. False Hero

6. The dispatcher

7. The magical helper

These character types exist in nearly all modern day productions, often with multiple versions of these character types, so you can distinguish between them.

Filmic Tastes

The last 5 films I have seen are -

The Social Network

Avatar

Never Back Down

Transformers 2

The Hangover

Ice Age 3

The last move i went to pay and see at the cinema was The social network

My two favourite film genre's are comedy and action / adventure

My all 5 top favorite films are as follows -

Avatar

The Hangover

Anchorman

The Social Network

Fight Club

The hangover has to be my favorite out of all of these, because even as a comedy it made me laugh throughout it. The plot is as the title suggests, some people in Las Vegas wake up with an extreme hangover due to the alcohol and drugs from the night before. To make this such a funny comedy, everything that happens is very extreme, but still maintains realism.

Evaluation Questions

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

4. Who would be the audience for your  media product?

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

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

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Physcological Horror

Psychological horror tends to be less gruesome compared to traditional horror and typically contains less physical harm, as it works mainly on the factors of mentally affecting the audience rather than the display of graphic imagery seen in the slasher sub-genres. 

The main protagonist's in these films are generally male, with female victims, stereotypically blonde, busty and sexually active.

It creates discomfort in the viewer by exposing common or universal psychological vulnerabilities and fears, most notably the shadowy parts of ourselves in which most people repress or deny.

A good example of this is The Shining.

(wiki)

Film Tastes

This is the greatest film ever made http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_social_network 

Avatar Swede Description and evaluation & The Coursework Task (reworked)

 What is a swede film?

A swede is a film which has been made on a low budget on purpose, which is usually based on an popular film. These can either be made for comedy, or to see how well the film could be made on a low budget and therefore any changes to the real product can be made.

Shortlist of possible films to swede

• Avatar
• I am legend
• Lord of the rings
• Fight Club
• Harry Potter

The swede we chose!

Our idea was to try and remake the film 'Avatar', using low budget special effects. In our swede we used a range of different camera shots, editing and special effects to try and make it look as realistic as possible, but with a comical aspect to it.

The reason we chose to do Avatar was that it is a very modern film, so there is more chance for people to have seen it previously and also this film had the highest budget of any film ever.

If this was my main production what would I do differently?

I would use a larger variety of shot types, as well as focusing on one aspect of the film, for example the opening, instead of trying to cover as many aspects of the film in less detail. We would also use a more precise location and costumes. The genre would be very different to this, due to the fact that with a film like this, the special effects are crucial to make it believable, which we could not achieve.

The Coursework Task

Our coursework task is to produce a 2 minute opening to a film of our chosen genre which must include a variety of shots, sound and suitable cast. Along with that, we have to make a blog for research + planning and our evaluation.

Fillm Poster

For our Gothic Horror film poster, I had the idea of using an image from our actual footage which will signify that the poster relates to this film. The image that we chose to use was a low angle of the main protagonist in the forest, showing the setting of the film opening but also the main protagonist. The lighting we decided to use was a shadow feature, which had a blue tint to it, to help signify the genre which is a gothic horror. The leaves in the foreground help signify that it is a point of view show which has been used to anchor in that somebody is watching this main protagonist.

The reason that we chose this rather than a poster with for example a coffin, was because in the opening minute to our film, you would not guess that it is a gothic horror, instead thinking that it is just a simple horror film. Only after the main protagonist is signified as killing the stalker, then do you realise that it is infact a gothic horror.

Our revised narrative

After getting audience feedback from classmates and peers, we have decided to open our film in an isolated place, for example a forrest or a countryside. From this, we are going to signify to the audience that our main protagonist, which will be female, is being watched and stalked by someone, yet we will not show the audience who this person is. We will do this by using many point of view shots of the stalker, but also diegetic sound to anchor in the feeling that the protagonist knows she is being watched.

We will make it appeal to our teenage audience by having a teenage protagonist, we will appeal to a female audience by suggesting romance with the villain by having a photograph before the chase that shows the protagonist possibly a female holding the hand of a male the identity of this person will be signified by a watch which wee will see the villain having to signify the villain is the person in the photograph. The outcome of the chase will have lots of polysemy to create narrative enigma. The chase will be signified as a dream by unusual lighting or echoed sound. The protagonists bedroom will depend on the gender of the protagonist it will need a mirror so that they can find the bite or scratch to signify the dream really happened. The bedroom may also signify the protagonist as a romantic perhaps the romance was lost when the villain became either a vampire or a werewolf.

Our age-group are used to high budget films with lots of special effects so to appeal to our audience we would need to signify as much gore without spending much. Also on a site such as Youtube the most viewed hits are ones of stunts, humor, animals, babies, pranks and music. We may film some animals in the forrest if we can find them it may be insects or birds or a pet cat within the house. The chase may include lots of jumping, hiding and tripping over. We may record a non diagetic rock band as this appeals to teenagers too. Our genre appeals to predominantly males so to appeal to females to we have included a female protagonist and romance. Our audience of our original anamatic did not connote the preferred reading of the film as seriously as we hoped therefore we have made ours not silly but not too dark.