Monday 15 December 2008

Credit Research

The Shining credits

The titles begin with an establishing shot of a valley and a river. Tracking down the river, it has swooping motions so looks like a helicopter/plane flying through the sky. The shot then dissolves into another establishing shot of a car driving down a road. There are several more similar shots. They show a passage of time, and set a relaxing and tranquil setting and mood, this is juxtaposed to the genre of the film, and what the audience is expecting. An example of this kind of juxtaposed opening is ghost ship. This is a horror film but the credits are in soft pink fancy writing.

The credits themselves scroll into the establishing shots. They are in a simple, bright blue font. This looks as though it is cheaply made and shows a poor quality to the film. This maybe because the film was made in 1980 and they had less software or as many effects available to them. Some of the credits are in a smaller font, this shows there are less significant to the film than the names in larger font.

The music is juxtaposed to the relaxed setting of the shots; it is eerie and high pitched. This builds tension and is more like the horror film genre. In the middle of the music, there is an effect which sounds like a police car siren, this insinuates the police will be part of the film or that someone is breaking the law. There are also effects which sound like screams, this links to the previous point.

The credits scroll in the following order:
“A Stanley Kubrick Film” (Director) “Jack Nicholson” (Johnny) “Shelley Duvall” (Johnny’s Wife)
“The Shining” (Title of the film)
“Featuring Danny Lloyd”
“Scatman Crothers”
“Barry Nelson”“Philip Stone”
“Joe Turkel”
“Anne Jackson”
“Tony Burton”
“Jan Harlan” (executive producer)
“Based upon the novel by Stephen king”Produced in association with the producer circle company, Robert Fryer, Martin Richards, Mary Lea Johnson”“Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Diance Johnson”
“Produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick”

The titles come up in this way because they go up in order of how important they are. The titles don’t show everyone that was in the production of the film, they only show people that were of highest importance, if they were to name everyone that was featured within the film, then the audience would get bored and lose the feeling of the mise-en-scene and the atmosphere that the music creates.

Of Mice and Men credits

At the very beginning of the film, there is a black screen with blue writing in the centre of the screen. The music is a repeated single note, during the first credits. Single high pitched notes are added, the first one simultaneously with the film title.

The people mentioned in the first credits are; the company who made the film, the directors and the 2 famous actors (in capitals and a larger font), in that order. These are shown in this order, and separately from everyone else who helped to create the film, as people may watch the film simply because they like the directors/actors or the companies behind the making of the film are well known and rated.

After these people are mentioned the title of the film appears. It is in capitals, like the actors, and has a different font for the first letter. This shows the significance of this piece of information. The names of the people involved then continue. It first mentions the link to the novel, the writer in capitals. Other names, without job titles, are then mentioned, it is assumed they are less well known actors in the film. This is because they follow the same layout as the previous actors, however, there is more than one name within the shot, and this shows they are less known.

Up to now the credits has been in a pale blue font on a black screen, they enter with a fade, and leave in the same way. However, when the less important/famous people in the production are mentioned the credits change; a light shines brightly through wooden slats. The credits appear as the audience is blinded by the light. They are white and remain on the screen when the light leaves the shot, leaving the name on its own in the bottom left corner of the shot. The people mentioned here are: casting, costume designer, music, editor, production designer, director of photography, executive producer, screenplay and producers, in that order. When the camera pans across the room to show the man sat against the wall, the name of the director fades in. this shows the director is significant. The camera than zooms slowly into the man’s face, to introduce the character. Finally there is a jump cut to a daylight shot of a woman in a field wearing a red dress with a rip in it. This shows the juxtaposition of the shots, and to show the end of the credits.

Monday 8 December 2008

Filming Diary

We have decided to plan out the time and dates of each individual shot, as this will help us to keep the continuity. We do not want to run out of day light let the time of day look different when it is supposed to be the same shot. It will also keep us on track and motivated during the filming process.

11/01/2009 1.00 – 2.00 Shots 10 – 14, all at the playground

17/01/2009 All day Emptying rearranging and putting up the pictures in the man’s room

18/01/2009 1.00 – 4.00 Shots 1 – 9, 15 – 19; all in the man’s room
6.00 – 6.30 Shot 22; in the car

31/01/2009 5.00 – 6.00 Shots 23, 25, 26; All of the car outside the girl’s house
6.30 – 7.30 Shots 24, 41, 42; all of the girl coming in/out of the house
7.45 – 8.15 Shots 27, 28, man and girl’s feet

8/02/2009 6.00 – 7.30 Shots 29 – 40; man entering the house and walking up stairs
7.45 – 9.00 Shots 43 – 54; girl walking into house up stairs, in her room.

Obviously there are several days worth of filming therefore we need to ensure all of the costume and mise-en-scene remains the same throughout each scene. We have tried to ensure we film the whole of each scene in one go, however, there is simply too much to film during darkness at the girl’s house for this to be possible for this scene.

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Questionnaire Results

After reviewing our preliminary questionnaire we re-wrote it and distributed it to our target audience; teenagers and adults, mainly men.

We found that 13 out of 15 people like watching thriller films, this means we have already chosen a popular genre. If the majority of people had tick the no box for question 2 we would have designed a new questionnaire asking people about their favourite genres and completed further research to support this. We would also have had to change all of our ideas we already have and created a film within the most popular genre. Our film needs to be within a popular genre because it needs to fit in with the real world, if it was in an unpopular genre few people would go to watch the film in the cinema or buy it on DVD, making the film unsuccessful and making no money.

In question 3; what would you find most interesting in an opening few minutes of a film? we found that creating an atmosphere was the most popular answer closely followed by getting strait into the action. We are going to use both of these themes in our opening sequence. One person answered other and wrote enigma, this gave us an idea that we had not previously thought of.

Question 4 was interesting in that most of the people answered gang/knife culture as what worries them the most in society. This may be too close to people’s hearts to create a film on; therefore the least popular answer was paedophiles. This would be inappropriate to create a film on, especially within school, we will use the idea of a stalker instead, we do not want to offend anyone with the film we make.

The most popular answer in question 5 was old man. This means we should create an old man as the villain in our film if we want to work with our target audience’s wants. We should work with their requirements if we want our film to be popular, successful and make a lot of money.

Ideas

· Genre: psychological thriller
· Locations: His bedroom – white/plain, park bench, car, her bedroom-colourful, bright light

Idea:
· 360 pan start and end at the door
· Man walks in – don’t see his face
· Drops bag on floor. Medium / close up
· Tracking shot of his legs and feet. Tilt up to show the girl on the door – POV slow zoom in
· Flash back when he took the pictures of her on a bench.
· OSS of man in car at the girl on the bench reading
· ECU of man’s lips licks them. Zoom out to show the
· Photos of one young girl covering wardrobe, walls, windows.
· Old man (Kristy’s dad?)
· Teenage girl.
· Photos on TV and PC wallpaper with her Bebo or Facebook page on screen.
· Old man’s room plain colours – dull life.
· Photos spread on the bed.
· Fantasying of the girl in his room. POV from him seeing her where the joiner is and she fades out and shows the joiner on the door.
· Flash back – man in car taking pictures of girl on bench.
· 360 degrees pan of dull room ends with man walking through door.
· Man stokes picture of girl.
· Man under the girls bed and her on top of bed, he has a sadistic smile. Man stroking one her teddies and the girl sleeping innocently.
· Split screen girl on her bed looking towards man doing the same, she fades out.


Full description and shots
Genre: psychological thriller

Locations: His bedroom – white/plain; park bench; car; her bedroom-colourful, bright lights, girly, innocent


1. Medium shots of picture around the room.
Silence
Motivated cut (To start the scene)
Cutting rate to every set of pictures.
Dissolve into the next shot.
Credits introduction


2. 360 degrees pan starting and finishing at the door.
All colours muted, dull greys and whites only, this will make the pictures stand out.
Silence
Cut


3. Medium shot of man walking into the room; we don’t see his face just his body.
All colours muted, dull greys and whites only, this will make the pictures stand out.

Silence
Cut


4. Extreme close up of his bag as he throw it down on the sofa.
All colours muted, dull greys and whites only, this will make the pictures stand out

Only diagetic movement sounds stand out.

5. Pan from the sofa too the shelf, the man puts his camera down really gently.

All colours muted, dull greys and whites only, this will make the pictures stand out.
Cut
Only diagetic movement sounds


6. Pan from door to the bed and tilts down when he sits on the bed.

All colours muted, dull greys and whites only, this will make the pictures stand out
Silence
Cut


7. Point of view shot of him looking at the door and sees the girls figure

All colours muted, dull greys and whites only, this will make the pictures stand out.
High pitched music box music


8. Point of view shot of him looking at the door and he see the photo joiner he has made of her.
All colours muted, dull greys and whites only, this will make the pictures stand out.
Figure dissolves
Music box continues

9. Extreme close up shot of him lying back on his bed and closes his eyes.
Heavy steady breathing in foreground, dull, muted noise in the background
Motivated cut into a flash back.

10. Point of view of the girl on a bench.
Heavy steady breathing in foreground, dull, muted noise in the background
Distorted colour or colour cast, bright
Cut


11. Extreme close up of his mouth,
Heavy steady breathing in foreground, dull, muted noise in the background
Duller colours, greys and white.

12. Reverse zoom into close up of his face with camera in front of it.
Heavy steady breathing in foreground, dull, muted noise in the background
Duller colours, greys and white.
Cut


13. Over the shoulder shot of her reading a book on the bench.
Heavy steady breathing in foreground, dull, muted noise in the background.
Cut
14. Lens effect, snap shots
Fast paced/ subjective time.
Sound quickens, fast forwarding sounds
Cut rhythm.

15. Dissolves back into the room with a point of view shot of the photo joiner. Slow zoom out.
Deep boom
Bright colours on photos
Cut


16. High angled medium shot of him getting up.
Silence
All colours muted, dull greys and whites only, this will make the pictures stand out.
Cut


17. Over shoulder shot of him picking a picture off his bed.
Silence
All colours muted, dull greys and whites only, this will make the pictures stand out.

18. Over the shoulder shot of him stroking the girls face on photo joiner.
Silence
Photo-joiner brighter than the room.
Cut


19. Medium shot of him walking to the window. Light blocked out
All colours muted, dull greys and whites only, this will make the pictures stand out.
Silence
Cut

20. Extreme close up of him pinning his last picture on the window.
Music1 begins suddenly - loud
Light disappears when the picture is pinned to the window.
Cut


21. Completely black screen
Music1 continues

22. Fades into an over the shoulder shot in his car, looking out his front window (night time).
Music1 continues - diagetic
Cut

23. Medium pan of the car parking down the street from the girl’s house.
Music1 continues quieter – diagetic
Leads into the next scene with a cutting rate.

24. Snapshot effect of the girl coming out of the house.
Music1 continues louder – diagetic
Cutting rate

25. Medium shot of girl at the bottom of her drive and the car starts to turn.
Music1 continues – diagetic
Cut

26. Long shot of car going round the corner.
Music1 continues – quiter diagetic
Cut

27. Tracking shot of girl’s feet walking down the street and hear a car being turned off and a door
shutting.
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Cut

28. Extreme close up tracking shot of man’s feet walking.
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Fades out

29. Medium shot of gate; hand over gate unlocks the bolt.
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Fades in.

30. Extreme close up of the handle lifting up and gate start to open.
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Cut/Continuity editing

31. Medium shot of man walking through the gate, not showing his face.
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Cut/Continuity editing

32. Pans to follow the man walking round the conservatory. Watches him walking from behind
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Cut/Continuity editing

33. Point of view shot of the man looking underneath a plant pot gets the back door key. Tilts up to
show the door
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Cut/Continuity editing

34. Low angled shot of him opening the door with the key.
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Cut/Continuity editing

35. Low level camera, close up of door open and his feet walking through the door into the house.
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Cut/Continuity editing

36. Medium shot, Pan of him walking through the kitchen.
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Cut/Continuity editing

37. Extreme close up of him touching one of her jackets on a kitchen chair.
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Cut/Continuity editing

38. Medium shot of kitchen door, can see him walking towards the door through the glass
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Cut/Continuity editing

39. He walks round and up the stairs.
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Cut/Continuity editing

40. Close up through the banister of his feet walking up the stairs.
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Cut/Continuity editing

41. Long shot from the house, of the girl walking up the street.
Music1 louder – non-diagetic
Cut/Continuity editing

42. The camera reverse zooms, and moves backwards through the front and porch doors as though actually moving through the solid door, shows girl coming in through the front door and taking off her shoes. Takes off coat. Walks past the camera, pans to show headphones and lead.
Music1 louder – non-diagetic fades into diagetic music from her headphones.
Cut/Continuity editing

43. High angled shot from top of the stairs, tracks her walking up the stairs. Pans her round the landing
Diagetic music2 from her headphones.
Cut/Continuity editing

44. Medium shot of her walking towards the camera from the spare room, takes headphones out. Turns off i-pod
Music2 gets louder as she takes out headphones then suddenly stops.
Cut/Continuity editing

45. Medium shot of her back walking towards the wardrobe and opening it.
Music3 fades into the shot,
Cut/Continuity editing

46. She is surprised and looks up towards the mirror, close up of her face in the reflection, and she looks panicked and turns towards her bedroom door.
Music3 becomes higher in the mix
Cut/Continuity editing

47. Pan from next to the door of her walking towards the door, the camera moves through the wall and tracks her walking through the door. She steps down the step.
Music3 increases in the mix as she gets closer to the door.
Cut/Continuity editing – making it look like the camera is following her throught the wall.

48. Pans round to extreme close up of her face, shocked. Pause. Extended too long.
Music3 quietens, high pitched strings, high in the mix.

Cut/Continuity editing

49. Point of view shot from her to the room, empty, pans room
Music3 pitched strings continues.
Cut/Continuity editing


50. She walks over to the stereo, extreme close up of her pressing the off button.
Strings slowly fade out; music3 becomes louder, and stops as she presses the button
Cut/Continuity editing

51. Pan from the stereo of her walking over to her bed.
Just diagetic sounds
Cut/Continuity editing

52. Cuts to close up of her head/shoulders as she sits down, blowing air in relief. She lies down on her bed.
Strings slowly fade in again
Cut/Continuity editing

53. Pedestal shot of her head on the pillow, down to him underneath the bed smiling, teddy bear in hand. Reverse zoom to show both of them in a sideways two shot.
Strings continue to get louder. One click of the camera and becomes a still frame.
Cut/Continuity editing

54. Fade out to black screen the title of the film.
Strings continue to get louder