Breathe Music Video

This is The Prodigy's music video for 'Breathe'. I like the video alot as it is very different to most music videos. It also contains thriller/horror themes.
I really like the use of lighting and how it flashes back and forth from the background to the band members. I especially like the very first shot where the band member, Maxim, comes forward but because the light is not always on him so he appears intimidating. I like the use of make-up again in this video, similar to 'Interview with the Vampire', contacts lenses have been used to cause horror aswell as black lipstick.

There is a constant use of flashing lights to create horror and suspense as everything in shot cannot be seen by the viewer.

Interview with the Vampire

I recently watched 'Interview with a Vampire' which I really enjoyed as it was not similar to anything I had seen before. Particulary the way that Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise are made-up, the make-up was so effective on Tom Cruise I did not realise it was him until 20 minutes after he first appeared. I really like how the actors wore contact lenses to make their eyes very light blue (nearly white) to appear less human-like. Also they both had sharp teeth with fangs, pale skin, very long hair and nails and were well groomed which is the ideaology people have of vampires. I also liked how Kirsten Dunst was made a child vampire which is very creepy and disturbing especially the scene in which she kills people.

I like the opening scene alot as it opens San Francisco in modern age despite vampires stereotypically being thought of around in the middle ages. It opens with an aerial shot across San Francisco following into wide shots of a busy street full of people to show unawareness of a vampire looking down from them. The camera continues to a low angle shot, swooping up towards a tall building to represent the power of the vampire figure in the top window. When the camera angle changes to behind the vampire in the window it is still just his figure to create mystery and suspense aswell as horror.

Cabwise Advert

This advert has great use of camera angles aswell as horrific/thriller themes. The point of view shots throughout show the panic and fear of being kidnapped.

The camera movements start smooth when the character is relaxed but as soon as she begins to get scared the camera shakes more to show the fear even more. The wide shot of the car shows how normal the car looks which can scare the viewer as this horrible attack has taken place without anyone knowing.

The close-up of the door locking is particularly scary as it shows the woman cannot escape.

The sound of the rain is very effective as it creates isolation for the woman who is being attacked as the sound of the rain seems to cover up her screaming and almost muffles it out.

A Clockwork Orange

I recently watch Clockwork Orange which I have mixed opinions on. I think it is unnecessarily explicit but I like the story line and how Alex is 'cured' psychologically aswell as the memorable last line

Although I dislike the context of this next explicit scene, I like how the song 'Singing in the Rain' is used for bold contrast as it is usually a nice, happy song whereas Alex sings it whilst breaking and entering and assualting a couple. I also like how it returns further in on the film to haunt the old man when Alex returns to this house and is punished by the old man he assaulted years before.

Another Discussion On New Opening

On Friday we continued to discuss our film opening. We discussed locations, even though I think we should research more before even thinking about the location. However a little woodland path in Forty Hall was suggested aswell as large fields in Trent Park.
I think that we need to research more as the more we research the clearer our idea will be as one of the problems with our last attempt was poor research and not thinking absolutley every detail through.
We did brainstorm a few ideas and after watching a past media students coursework we discussed the idea of a woman waking up and not remembering the night before as she may have taken drugs on a night out.

Our Original Film Opening

This is our original incomplete film opening before we scrapped the idea;


0:00-0:36 - This scene is much too slow and did not give the creepy effect that we wanted. It was also much too dark and is based too much on the character and not the surroundings. I do like how the camera began in pitch black and focused and brightened when he switched on the red light, aswell as the creek of the door. The shot of the collage of girls was also not long enough for the audience to understand what it was. The pan from the collage to the stalker is not very smooth either which looks very uneffective. I think that there is not enough clear movement after he drops the glass on the floor to when he sticks up the photographs, it is also not clear what he is even doing.
This was not the original beginning as we would have filmed more footage if we had carried on with this idea.

0:36-0:48 - Again, the shot is very dull and long. I do like the wide shot though as it shows that the stalker appears to look like a normal man walking down the road up until he looks up at the girls house and waits at her alleyway. On this part of footage we practised with iMovies "Day to Night" effect which gives it the blue tint, personally I do not like this effect as it does not look realistic. The problem we had with light and brightness from the sun is also obvious from this shot. We did not use various angles as we wanted to keep the stalkers face hidden, however this did not work well as it makes the shot very boring.

0:48-0:55 - I like this shot from inside the house as it is a bit of a break from the outside shots. I like the editing of the sound also as it is silent except from the door slamming shut.

0:55-1:03 - I like this shot but the transition from the previous is not smooth enough. This shot almost creates a barrier between the two characters through their opposite sides of the wall and when the girl steps out the drive, leaving the 'barrier' she is leaving her 'safety zone'. I think the shot should end once the girl has stepped out the shot rather than watching the man continue walking because it needlessly longs out the shot making it dull again.

1:03-1:07 - I do not like this shot mainly because the transition was not perfect as we had not edited correctly so the shots jumped from one to another.

1:07-1:12 + 1:18-1:22 - I really like these shots as it is a point of view of the stalker. We kept the same effects as the other outside shots but added on a black fade to the corners which focused on the girl who was in very light colours. I also like when the girl turns around and the stalker looks away as this provides us with a medium shot of the girls face to show the confusion on her face.

1:12-1:18 + 1:22-1:24 - These shots were improvised on the day of filming and they did look good until we edited the point of view shots, so now they look very jumpy and odd as the shots skip from one effect to another. They also aren't muted like most of the other shots as we were midway through editing.

1:24-1:26 - I am undecided on this shot. I like the effects and that when the hand reaches out it goes white and this focuses the viewer well. I also like that it is slow motion to add tension. However I dislike the point of the shot, I do not like the reaching out at all. I think it would have been more effective if there was a close up from infront of the girl with either the man placing his hand on her shoulder and they had both stop walking to show the fear on her face or the man putting his hand over her mouth and her eyes widening to show panic.

1:26-1:52 - Alot is missing for the last scene returning to the darkroom. The photographs came out too dark so that you could not see what they were of. The mobile light would not stay on and continued to flash which could have looked creepy - but it seems not. Also our names were on the pictures of ourselves to be used as credits with a pan shot, however after reading the marking criteria we discovered we must have our credits on made on iMovie.

Discussion about Film Opening

While editing our film we have often had trouble with the amount and quality of footage so as a group we decided to discuss our options; whether to carry on or start again.
We decided to start again as we believe after researching film openings we have a broader knowledge on them meaning we can make a much better film opening.
One of our problems was our opening had a resolution rather than beginning a story, which is something we will not do this second time.
We will have the filming equipment over Christmas break so that we have two weeks to film in.

We began to look at film openings and types of horror/thriller genres. A particular film opening that caught my attention was Donnie Darko

We spoke about a psychological thriller similar to that of Donnie Darko or The Sixth Sense. We liked the idea of someone either waking up in a strange place like Donnie Darko, or having strange flashback-like dreams.

Continuing Editing

We were given a lesson to continue editing which is very hard when all 6 groups are trying to work at once however we began to try and sort out our lighting problems but we could not find a resolution even with changing all the effects.
Also we believed our scenes were too slow and dragged on rather than increasing tension and building up to something.
As a group we discussed our alternatives as we did not believe our film opening was effective enough. In my opinion, I believe we should re-film as we are now much more educated in film openings, in the horror/thriller genre and at filming and editing aswell as storylines.

Sound Definitions

Sound in media is made up of two types of sound; diegetic and non-diegetic.
Diegetic is sound which can be heard by the audience and characters in the shot such as dialogue or sounds from objects. Whereas non-diegetic is sound which may only be heard by the audience such as narrative commentary, sound effects added for drama or mood music.

The pitch of music can also really effect the entire drama of the scene such as the high pitched strings in this famous scene of Psycho;

Uploading and Editing

When we uploaded our footage from the two day's of filming we were slightly disappointed due to the lighting, especially in the dark room although we edited it on iMovie and it looks alot better meaning we will not need to refilm the scene. Also the weather during the house scene did cause a problem as we thought, we did attempt to edit this also and it created a nice effect, similar to that in Sin City however instead of bright red, all of the white colours were very bright.
We did this by changing the contrast, brightness, saturation and colour balance.

Filming Part 1 and 2

First Day of Filming - Sarah's Road
We began filming our film opening over half term when we were given our filming equipment.
We began by filming the establishing shot of the house and the alleyway's.
We shot many different angles of each movement several times for continuity and to make sure it was perfect.
We began by having an establishing shot of the house with Sarah's Dad entering the shot from different sides and walking up the alleyway next to my characters house. We then continued to film me leaving the house, we filmed it from the beginning establishing shot aswell as from inside the house to see the me leaving the house. We also filmed from the upstairs bedroom through the window which was slightly awkward however was managed, this helped us have a further variety of angles.
When all these shots were finished we began to film the walk down the alleyway where Sarah's Dad was to follow me. We began with Sarahs Dad holding the camera to film my back as he caught up with me. On our storyboard we said I would turn around to see him and he would put his hood down and look away, we filmed this quite easily; as I turned around he would quickly move the camera down and we would edit this also. Then when the camera went back up to focus back on me Sarahs Dad would be alot closer and would then reach out to my shoulder to imply my kidnap. We then decided on filming the alleyway from the opposite angle to help us when editing.

Our main concern however was the weather conditions as it frequently changed from sunny to cloudy as we were filming, hopefully we can edit this so it looks continuous.

Second Day of Filming - Dark Room

After seeing our schools old dark room we decided to definatley use it for its creepiness as it has not been used for many years unlike the new darkroom which we originally planned to use. During our free periods the previous weeks we had all taken photographs like our stalker supposedly has been, we stuck these down on ripped scraps of paper and wrote facts next to them similar to facts that a stalker would know. We then went to the old darkroom and stuck the paper and photos up to make a creepy collage of girls the stalker has recently been following. We also cleared the room of any unnecessary objects which would confuse the filming.
Once the room was set up we began to film, we filmed Sarah's Dad opening the door of the darkroom which created a high-pitched creak in pitch black. He then turned on the red lights which created a gloomy effect and made the camera focus in an effective way as it casted a silhouette of Sarahs Dad.

We filmed the same shot again from inside the darkroom this time for continuity. We also panned across the room to show all the pictures and facts of girls, we filmed this many times until it was perfect, we also had to use a phone light which is very creepy as it still keeps the gloomy effect.

We zoomed into all the pictures of the girls to focus the audience, however on the other side of the camera Sarah's Dad dropped a measuring tube on the floor to create a loud noise and we quickly panned to show what Sarah's Dad was doing. We then moved to an over the shoulder shot of Sarah's Dad developing a 'recent' picture of me 'gagged' similar to another two of Molly and Aimie which had just been shown before this. We then panned along to show a photo of Sarah being pinned up which the stalker had supposedly taken to imply that she would be the next victim.

We created credits by sticking our names on our photographs in 'scratchy' handwriting also so it looks as though the stalker had written our names on our photo's.

Our Final Film Idea and Storyboard

Our final idea is going to be based on our stalker (played by Sarah's Dad) who follows young girls and takes photos of them and develops them in his creepy old darkroom. Our actual film will begin with a few shots of myself walking somewhere and we will edit this long shot into stills with a camera shutter noise on top to make it appear as though the stalker is taking photographs of myself.
We will then fade to black and we will then change to a shot of the darkroom door in the dark with the stalker walking into the darkroom, however when he enters the darkroom he will turn on the redlights when he is in the doorway and as there is a redlight outside the darkroom, it will create the sudden effect from darkness to creepy redlights. Once he is in the darkroom we will pan around and show all the surroundings of the room which will include photographs of girls with notes about them next to them. Then the stalker will drop something, making a sharp loud noise and the camera will move quickly around from the photographs to the stalker developing his new photographs of me.
We will then have a new bright establishing shot of my characters house, after a second the stalker will walk past the house, looking up at it and then down an alley next to it and wait. We will then show my character leaving the house and walking down the drive and in the direction the stalker came from, however as I am leaving the drive, the stalker will begin to follow. Then there will be a shot of him following me from behind down another alleyway.

Practising using iMovie

After finishing our preliminary we realised there was alot of unused footage, we decided to make an 'out-takes' version as there were alot of accidental takes which were amusing and it would also give us practise using iMovie before we begin editing our film. We decided to not use any effects as it made the clip look unprofessional however we did test out a few and we now already have a few ideas on what effects we are going to edit into our film opening. Having the extra footage came in use as we used different takes in every shot of our preliminary video without having a problem with continuity, this helped us agree as a group that when we record our film opening we will record it 3 times even if we are happy with it. Here is our finished outtakes video uploaded onto our own user account of Youtube.

G321 Report OCR Media Conference 2009 And Marking Criteria

This the G321 coursework marking criteria

G321 Marking Criteria

View more presentations from jfoster10.

This is last years official OCR report for all G321- Coursework Production Unit

G321 Report (OCR Media Conference 2009)

View more documents from rikhudson.

Mise-En-Scene Presentation

In groups we were set a task to produce a powerpoint/presentation on how the mise-en-scene in a UK drama shows status, sexuality, gender or age. As a group we decided to base our presentation on how sexuality is shown in the clip of Skins. This is our presentation;

Skins Presentation

View more presentations from sarahisaacs1992.

'What Is Media?' Powerpoint

This powerpoint covers subjects aswell as key points and terminology that will be included in my examination on May, for revision we are going to have test to insure that we fully understand what is being stated.

Introducing AS Media

View more documents from The Cottesloe School.

Jaws Shot Analysis

This is an ideal shot-by-shot analysis of Jaws, it shows every shot in the film aswell as why they are used without constant repitition of the same points aswell as going into enough detail.

Jaws Shot By Shot - Part 1

View more documents from The Cottesloe School.

Opening Credits

In research for our groups film opening it seems most films include credits of some kind during the establishing scenes, these may be very creative or very dull. This website explains the importance of opening credits and gives good examples of films with variating sequences.

Silence Of The Lambs

I recently watched Silence of the Lambs which is a horror/thriller just like our film opening is. Unfortunatley the films opening quite dull as it is simply made up of a girl completing an assault course. This establishes the location as we understand where the girl is, however it doesn't grab the audience's attention as well as other films which jump straight into the action. It does leave the audience on as stereotypically women are not often in the armed forces so the audience watches to find out why the woman is completing this course. It may be believed however that she is running away from something as she often turns around to search around her and the scene is very foggy to add mystery.

Further in the film, we see an obsessed transvestite killer who kills large women so he can cut off their skin, which shows his obsession and the extremes he will go to to look like a woman. There is a shot of his arm reaching out to touch the policewoman, which is similar to a shot we have filmed of our killer reaching out. This shows that the obsessed killer is not violent but is not timid. The reaching out to touch the victim seems alot more effective as it creates creepiness that sends goosebumps up the spine. I think that we should use the shot we have filmed similarily to this, as it has been used in a film already and creates a very spooky look. Also this shot uses the nightvision effect which we are considering using when we use the dark room, I think we should use it as it creates a gloomy effect and establishes the dark, creepiness of the location.

Thriller/Horror Film Research

Prom Night
I recently watched Prom Night (2008) which is based on Richard Fenton, an obsessed ex-teacher of Donna Keppel who killed Donna's father and brother and when Donna hid after finding the dead bodies, killed her mother infront of her. 3 years later, he escapes from prison to return to finish the job. He checks into a hotel where Donnas prom is being held and silently kills a maid, he then kills 2 of Donna's friends, next he kills a hotel employee when he is looking for the missing maid. He then kills Donna's best friend and manages to escape in the uniform when the building is being evacuated by Chief Detective Winn. By now Donna has returned home with her boyfriend. Donna returns from the bathroom at home to see that her boyfriends throat has been slit. She hides in her wardrobe when she hears footsteps, however Fenton is already hiding in the wardrobe. Donna bites Fenton and tries to run however she falls, Fenton is then stood above Donna ready to kill, but in his psychotic, obsessive way looks at her for a while and admires her. In the nick of time Winn comes in and shoots Fenton to death before he kills Donna. Donna is still traumatised but is relieved it is "all over".

This film has shown how stalkers and killers are stereotypically represented in films, giving us ideas for our own film's plot. I think we are going to use the same sort of body movements that Fenton does, such as putting his hand out slowly in a possesive way with our stalker to his victim.

Preliminary Task Final Clip

Here is our final preliminary task;


By doing this task we learned how to direct, take directions, edit and how to create different camera angles and effects. We also learned how essential the 180 degree rule is. We made a few mistakes such as missing out filming me sitting down after walking into the room so we replaced it with a close up of Sarah's face looking scared.

Our Preliminary Task Script and Storyboard

Here is the script for our preliminary task;

Charlotte: (Walks past door of room outside and cannot be seen, reappears in the middle of the door from below looks at Sarah angrily through window of door)
Sarah: (Looks shocked/scared as of seeing Charlotte)
Charlotte: (Storms into room and sits down opposite Sarah) Wanna be startin' somethin'?
Sarah: You've got to be startin' somethin'!
Charlotte: Wanna be startin' somethin'?
Sarah: You've got to be startin' somethin'!
Charlotte: Your too high to get over..?
Sarah: Yeah, yeah..
Charlotte: Your too low to get under..?
Sarah: Yeah, yeah..
Charlotte: Your stuck in the middle..?
Sarah: And the pain is thunda'!

This is one frame of our storyboard which we used to plan out our shots with;

Other Groups Preliminary Tasks and Film Opening Ideas

Preliminary Tasks
Last Wednesday groups 2-5 completed their preliminary tasks very well although some groups had small problems with laughing at their friends being filmed and the context from time to time. This was okay for the Preliminary task however when it comes to real filming it will be much easier to have a sensible plot and sensible people starring who will be able to take our project seriously as this will save time filming and editing. Apart from that all groups made very effective films and now only group 6 is left!

Film Opening Ideas
This week we've been thinking out some rough ideas for our film opening which is going to be Thriller/Horror themed, we decided to do something chilling and supernatural rather than a gory slasher film. We've been finding ideas off the top of our heads very difficult, even as a group, so we have all decided to research the genre further and get back with ideas.

Preliminary Task & 180° Rule

Preliminary Task

This week we began to discuss each groups preliminary task, this is a 30 second video filmed by each group and must include a person walking in through a door and then sitting down opposite another person with a conversation taking place. This clip must include 3 different camera shots and show understanding of the 180° rule.

In Wednesdays lesson, as a class, we looked at previous years' finished preliminary tasks and we then discussed in groups what we would base ours on and who would be in the video and who would film and direct. We decided to do lyrics as we believe it would help the video run smoother rather than dialogue which would not necessarily be remembered well and perfectly enough to be said many times through. We had a few ideas for which songs which were all amusing however we did finally decide on Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" as each line could be spoken by one of the group and it would sound similar to a conversation. After deciding this we began to decide camera angles and started to draw out our storyboard.

In Fridays lesson, being in Group 1 my group filmed first. Sarah and Me were filmed while Molly and Aimie were filming and directing. We filmed me walking into the room angrily, sitting down and then beginning to recite the Michael Jackson song like normal conversation. We filmed around 4 different shots; over shoulder of myself and Sarah, a two shot over the table while we were sat down and one of me walking in. It took 17 takes but I believe the end result will be very effective and amusing aswell as showing clear understanding of the 180° rule.
After my group had finished filming Group 2 began filming with the time left in the lesson, however there were a few faults in which Sophie attempted to use her mobile phone to seem as though someone was calling her but her phone played music when she was not ready and would not play when she was, which shows us that using some technology in filming may not always work.




180° Rule
The 180° rule states that in film making if two characters are in a scene together, they must have the same left/right relationship together.
In a set-up scene, the film makers will imagine an invisible straight line, the camera may only change shots 180° around this line. The only time this may change is if the camera is moved over the line and is show to the audience. If this rule is broken the audience will be left confused and disorientated. The example above shows how the 180° rule should be set out in a scene. The green area shows how the camera may move and how it will look on screen. The red area shows where the camera cannot go and how the characters will look on screen and how this will confuse the audience as the characters change sides of the screen.

Shot Types

In my opening of chosen researched film 'Kill Bill' there are only two shots; one close of of The Bride after she has been attacked by 'The Deadly Viper Squad' and one pan shot of Bills feet walking across the chaple towards The Bride. This scene is key to the film as this is the last time The Bride is concious before she goes into a coma and the film often will refer to this opening scene aswell as continuing the story in scenes before and after this.
We do not see Bill even though we hear a full speech from him to the Bride, we do not understand what their relationship is about but we understand that there is history between them and that Bill is preparing to kill the Bride but will not enjoy doing so, referring to himself as masochistic but not sadistic towards the Bride. We know Bill is preparing to kill the Bride when we hear that the object he has been moving around is a pistol as we hear is cock and the Brides eyes widen.
Despite being the only character inshot, the Bride only speaks once. As the pistol is being loaded and cocked she says with all her power left "Bill it's your baby." in order to save her life and her childs life. From this one short scene we have now already learned that the Bride was getting married but her wedding was interrupted by an attack, the Bride is pregnant with Bill's baby despite getting married to someone else and Bill having tried to kill her, all of these make this scene key to the rest of the film and attatches the audience.
This main shot of the Bride is in black and white to draw attention away from all the blood, swelling and bruising on the beaten bride and to focus the views on the deadly conversation between Bill and the Bride, this is also a technique used by director Quentin Tarantino throughout this film aswell as other films of his.

Genre Research

Horror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their purpose is to frighten the viewer and invoke our deepest fears whilst making them seem realistic, often leaving the viewer frightened even days after watching. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness.
Early horror movies are largely based on classic literature of the gothic/horror genre, such as Dracula and Frankenstein. Sometimes horror films have been dismissed as violent, low budget exploitation films despite often having well respected directors. In recent years many old horror films have been remade and modernized making them much scarier and realistic than ever before.
Some horror films incorporate elements of other genres such as science fiction, fantasy, mockumentary, black comedy, slasher, teen terror, serial killers and thrillers.
Some popular horror films are; Scream, The Ring, Prom Night, Hostel, Saw, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Exorcist.

After researching the horror genre, I would like to do our film opening on it as I think it is the most interesting and creative genre out of the ones we discussed.

Film Openings

I chose the opening of Kill Bill as it is one of my favourite films and I think the opening is a key scene to the rest of the film as the film often changes between time periods of before and after this scene. It introduces you to the aim of the film: to "Kill Bill". It introduces the two main characters immediatley as well as their complex relationship. We do not see Bill's face which shows us that he is a very powerful man. We can only see one shot during the opening, that is of the 'bloodsplattered bride' who is gasping for breath, showing that she is under Bills power.

We can see that the bride has been attacked as she is covered in blood and gasping for breath. This is very strange and confuses the audience as this is so out of the ordinary. Once we begin to listen we understand that Bill was part of this assault on the bride,he states that he is "at his most masochistic" which tells the audience that he is wanting to kill. The audience assume that Bill is preparing to kill the bride.

The scene becomes most thrilling at the when the bride takes a breath to speak whilst you can hear a gun being loaded and shes "Bill, it's your baby." and instantly we hear a gun shot, we see the bride flinch and that is the end of the scene leaving the audience in suspense.