As part of our task for the begining 2 minutes of a film we will be using a new Canon 550D which is a DSLR camera. It came with 3 prime lenses; 35mm for wide shots, 50mm for mid shots and 70mm for close ups. This will make filming easier and make the quality of the film better. We went out and tested the camera just to see what the lenses look like through the view finder and we tested the focus so that we had sharp and soft shots.
Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory
Laura Mulvey came up with the idea that film and television are constructed in a way that film audiences have to view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. This means that the camera may linger on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man's reaction to these events. Some examples of Laura Mulvey's theory are the herbal essenses adverts. The camera very much concentrates on the womans body and the way she brushes her hands through her hair in the shower. This is very much what a man wants to see but it is also what a woman wants to see. When they see this advert, women think to themselves that if they used that herbal essenses then they will look that good for the men. So, the 'Male Gaze' theory definatly applies and it works for both men and women.
Edgar Wright's film style
Edgar Wright directed the films Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. These are both parody's of films or film genres, for example Hott Fuzz is a mick take for any typical action/crime film and Shaun of the dead is a mick take for the film Dawn of the Dead. He has made the films very comedic and has done this in a very clever way. His films seem to mostly be about drama and gore but in a non gruesome way and he achieves this with the comedy that is incorporated into it. I really like the style of his films because they are less serious and enjoyable to watch.
Tim Burton's film style
Tim Burton directed many films such as Frankenweenie, Edward Scissorhands and Sweeney Todd. He creates a sense of spookiness in most of his films and you can pretty much always tell when the film has been directed by him. We were given a task to go out and film the first 2 shots of any film that we made up. Our first 2 shots was of a person riding a horse across a field. We shot this film and we thought about ways in which we could change it into a Tim Burton style film. We thought of many different things such as setting it in a dark forrest or graveyard, changing it so that the horse was a toy that came to life, exaggerated features such as large eyes and eerie sounds that make it spooky. If we incorporated all of these things into our film then it would be in the style of Tim Burton.
Analysis of the first 2 minutes of Inglorious Basterds
The first two minutes of Inglorious Basterds are very much there to create the sense of enigma. The first one minute and forty seconds are the opening titles on a black background. The fonts change from block writing to more fancy writing. this is all for the actors and the director and producer. Then when the name of the film is revealed, 'Inglorious Basterds' is written in yellow fancy writing. On the one minute forty seconds mark the screen goes completely black for 10 seconds to create the sense of enigma which makes you want to watch even more of it. The next part of the film is a man axing a tree stump and then it pans to show an establishing shot of the house. This is all creating enigma which is very important for the opening sequence of a film. I think it's a really effective opening to a film and the music adds a lot more to it because it makes it feel like an old thriller movie.
Analysis of the first 2 minutes of Forrest Gump
We watched the first two minutes of Forrest Gump to prepare ourselves for our main task. We watched the two minutes but stopping it every 10 seconds to write down what happened in those 10 seconds. We wrote this down on a story board so that it was easier to keep track of what happened in each section. The first 50 seconds are of a feather floating around high up in the air among the trees and the tops of buildings. While this is happening the credits are showing in the middle of the screen. This is the establishing shot. After this the camera pans down still following the feather to the street. This shows cars and people walking along the street. The first person we see is Forrest (main character) sitting on the bench but this isn't obvious as the camera is still panning around. The feather almost lands on someone crossing the street which makes you think he is the main character. Then the feather gets lifted up again and lands on Forrest's dirty shoes. He then picks it up carefully and puts in away in his very neatly packed brief case. Throughout all this time There is calm music playing and the shot is just one whole panning shot with no cuts what so ever. This makes it seem very simple and calm which may represent who Forrest is and what his personality is like.
Creating a genre
Our genre for our task was psychological thriller. We created this genre in many different ways. The narrative was quite a good one for this genre because we could make it a mystery quite easily. For the flashback, the camera wasn't still at all and so you have to catch up to what is happening and really concentrate which gets you tense. This gives the effect of a psychological thriller.We had to pick the right music to create the atmosphere for the short film, so we chose something that was quite fast pace and used a Muse song to set the tension. For the mise en scene we had to think about costume. For the flashbacks we had to get the right clothes for different era's. We also used the parcel as a prop which had a sense of mystery to it which gave the psychological thriller feel to it. Finally, the editing is the most important in making the film a psychological thriller because it's where we put all the flashbacks together and put in the sound to create the tension.
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