Thursday, 27 January 2011

Casino Royale – Up to 3 minutes 40 seconds

This film starts off in black and white, this is to create a dark and mysterious atmosphere but also it lets the audience concentrate on what is happening with no distractions like bright lights and it gives the audience a sense of thrill and excitement because it’s a quiet, dark cold night and gives the audience a real sense that there is something dirty going on and that this is a spy film. The camera starts of at a low angle view and gives the audience a medium long shot of a car rolling up to a big building late at night when no one else is around.
It then switches to a low angle close up shot of a man who gets out the car and we can see from his expressions that he is up to something and suspects something is going to happen, the audience can see this from his eye movement and that he is very cautious. The next thing we see him doing is going up an elevator, again a low angle shot is used here, this creates a sense that the man who they are following is quite important and that he should be right to be cautious because this shot almost creates a point of view from another person and that maybe people are following him, this creates tension.

While he is in the elevator we get another close up of this man and again the audience can track his eyes, the camera then switches to a point of view shot off this man and again the audience get this sense that he suspects something because he’s looking at which floor he is at. The audience can now see the man walking at a fast pace with a camera tracking his movement and following him in the same direction he is going.
He then walks into his room and turns on a light instantly noticing there is something wrong in the room, his safe has been opened and we get a close up of his eyes and the audience can see the panic in his face and this creates tension because there is something about to happen. The camera used here switches from a close up of the door and tracking his movement to an over the shoulder view of a figure in a corner. The audience then hears a voice and the man’s turns around in and quick turn, showing his tension and fear.

A new character is now introduced to us. The man suddenly relaxes as James Bond is introduced. There is then a conversation between both men, Bond knows he’s done wrong and some does the man, the man goes to sit down and pull open a draw with a gun inside. The conversation includes lots of close ups of both men and allows the audience to see the reactions and thoughts going through their minds, this is done by looking at their eye movement and how relaxed they are. The conversation goes on to lead to the man knows he’s in trouble but feels safe with Bond because he is in a high place and knows Bond isn’t a Double O yet. The conversation then leads to the man pulling out his gun on Bond and is ready to fire, this creates tension because Bond is just sitting down and doesn’t have time to react, but when the man comes to pull the trigger he soon finds out Bond has taken his ammo for the gun. The man now knows that Bond has found someone close to him and knows a lot about him and then goes to a flashback

Throughout this scene of the man walking from his car to his office while talking to Bond there is a mysterious sounding non-diagetic music going on which creates a sense of tension and danger because it gets louder and more creepy the closer he gets to his office and then when he sees Bond dies down. Then comes up again when he prepares to shoot Bond, all of this creates tension for the audience.

Bond is fighting the contact who worked with man. And a fight scene goes under way, it’s a brutal fight scene with a new type of non-diagetic music going, its trumpets and violins create a tense making scene with the trumpets creating that sense of action and fist fighting while the violins create that sense of danger and death. And so the fight goes under way and we see Bond drown and choke the man to death, or so the audience is lead to believe.
We go back to the office for the next scene where the man knows Bond has been sent to gain his Double O status, and starts to explain to him that “the second is..”, but can’t finish his sentence because Bond shoots him. We then go back to the flashback and see the contact get back up and the audience fear the worst for Bond because he’s not looking at him. But Bond turns around and shoots the contact before the contact can shoot him.

This creates a good opening full of the right amount of action and thrills with an excellent sound score.
Gladiator - Start 2 minutes 11 second up to 5 minutes 55 second - First 2 minutes 10 seconds are credits and info about the Roman Empire -

The scene stars out with the non-diagetic sound of trumpets and drums creating a very triumphant and powerful feeling. The scene stars of with a medium shot tracking cavalry but then zoom out to a long shot with a high angle view over a roman army. The camera then goes to track the movement of the character Maximus while he is walking through the Roman ground legions to consult with his other leaders. While he is walking the non-diagetic music is playing, he receives respect from the men and they salute and idolize him this is done with close up shots and medium shots of the men and their faces, they kneel, bow heads in respect and smile when they see him. There is a sense that they feel safer with him around. This combined with the triumphant music creates a sense of respect and greatness of Maximus in the audience’s eyes.

The music starts to die down and the audience as well as the characters here the cry of the enemy German tribe army and their battle cries, the audience then see a horse ride up towards the Roman placement on the battlefield with the messenger that Maximus and his fellow leaders were talking about.
The audience then now a battle is about to happen. The don-diagetic music starts to play up again but not like it was before, it starts off with just drums beating showing the presence of the Germans, they are introduced with just a single German standing on a small mound of dirt holding the riders head that the Romans sent out. The German then shouts something and the cameras goes from a medium shot on him to a long shot of behind him and we see a huge scale army come out from the woods and now know the epic scale of the battle, the trumpets start to play again and so a feeling on tension, fear and excitement for what is about to happen is created in the audiences mind, and so the two armies eye each other.
The diagetic sound of the German war cries are heard and still tension is building in the audiences mind.

The Roman army starts to mobilize and prepare and Maximus rides off. When he starts to ride off he says something to his other leader “On my signal, release hell”, a close up is used here on Maximus face and the audience can see how calm he is, creating a feeling of respect again because he is so calm he knows what he’s doing, creating respect for him in the audience eyes. Now the trumpets start to play and join in with the drums creating another attitude and feeling in the audiences mind, the non-diagetic music is very heroic and gives off the sense of a huge battle and lets the audience know that the battle is going to happen soon and it will be off a massive scale and it will be epic.

As Maximus is leaving, the men stand up and prepare for battle and the camera goes from tracking his movement with low angle point of view shots which help create that sense of respect that the men have for him because he rides tall and looks strong and heroic, and from long shots which again gives the audience the scale and presence of the Romans and Maximus’ army.
Maximus now rides off into the woods and the audience get another glimpse of the German army and get to make a comparison of both army and realise how dominant the Romans were at the time which their technology and military tactics, and so the audience get a true sense of action and excitement because they knows it’s going to be a good win for the Romans and great battle.

This is full of tension building scenes and music and is there to create the up and coming battle more spectacular.


I have decided to stop it here because the audience get a sense and taste of what’s to come without any action, and so I think this is a great action opening. Also I didn’t want to go on much longer than the time gap because for our piece it needs to be a minimum of 2 minutes and it will be hard to make that up to a good standard, so short clips are good to analyse because they can help our group realise what can be done in a short time to create a good opening.
The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring - Up to 2 minutes 3 seconds.

The opening to the film starts with a narrator giving us an explanation of what has happened, in a brief time we receive enough information of what has happened. So we know what is going on in the Lord of the Rings universe. During this narration and explanation we get a view of what is being explained, we get close up shots and medium shots of the characters being explained, the elves are shown as very peaceful and calm when they receive the rings and are a bit curious, a medium close up is used here to show their reaction to the rings because their faces show it. While the dwarves are curious at the make and craft of their rings and are great full for the rings, we see this with a medium shot and see their reaction as it is quite clear. Holding the rings into the air and celebrating. Finally we see the men and their reaction to the ring, a medium shot is used here and we can see in their eyes the greed and desire for more, they take one look at their rings and have no expression. They seek more.
Throughout all of this the narrator is also explaining their goals and attributes, the elves are told as the most wisest and fair of creatures, the audience can see this from their facial expressions, the dwarves are said to be great miners and craftsmen, the audience can see this from their reaction and expressions of their faces and the way they hold the rings. While the men are told to be the greediest and the race that desires power the most, this can clearly be seen in their reaction. These shots combined with the non-diagetic narration create a storyline and backbone of three of the main races that live on middle earth and create and interest in the viewers mind of how the rest of the story is going to play out.

But then a new character is introduced. We have a long shot of a volcano irrupting while the narrator is explaining what this character is doing, this create a very cataclysmic idea in our heads, that whatever this character is up too can’t be good. The narrator tells us that there is another ring, and that it’s in the hands of the Dark Lord Sauron and he plans to dominate all life on middle-earth.

Again the narrator directs us to a new scene where men and elf stood together in one final battle against Sauron. This scene starts off with a medium shot of a squad of men marching towards Saurons armies, the camera then zooms out of the medium shot to a long shot, and now the audience sees the massive scale war that is being waged. All the while the non-diagetic voice of the narrator is explaining to the audience what is happening and gives us an even greater sense of what is at stake if they lose. The camera then goes to a bird’s eye view which is tracking the battle and showing us how humongous it is, this creates a sense of excitement and fear of how the battle will turn out and what will happen to the people of Middle Earth.

The audience gets a sense of the battle when the camera drops down to ground level and gets lots of medium shots, medium close up shots and longs shots. The audience have a glimpse of full scale war being waged and the losses on both sides, good and evil. Throughout this tremendous battle scene there is a non-diagetic music track going on, which adds to the epic sense of war and how serious what the men and elves are fighting for is.

This creates a good action scene full of action and a background story with great supporting music

Monday, 24 January 2011

I have decided to ask the specific questions because I felt that it would help us shape our movie into something that people would enjoy when they watch it.

1. What is your favourite type of action film?
This helped us decide what type of action film which people would like. The realistic type is a bit calmer at points and things make sense and believable, while the unreal type is a lot more mindless and un-plausible. In our group we have decided we like both so this will help us decide what ratio of un-real and real we will have.

2. What’s your favourite type of sub-genre of action film?
This question helped us to decide what elements of other genres we will include within our action film, such as an action with a bit of comedy within it or action with sci-fi. This helped us decide that we were going to try and do an Action Adventure/Thriller. They were both popular and we liked the idea of doing that type of 2 minute film opening. We also liked the idea of sci-fi but felt that it was just a bit too out of reach because it would require some good costumes, effects and make-up etc.
3. How do you prefer your action films to start?
This question was a lot of help because it helped us decide how our 2 minutes or more was going to be and how it was going to play out. We felt that immediate action would be a good start for us because we only have 2 minutes or so of film, and so it means we would be able to jump right into it without too much thought of a story line making everything make sense. The action would be gripping and pull the audience in and get them excited and interested to such things of Why this is happening and What is going on.
4. Do you prefer a male or female lead role?
This just helps us decide simply who the main role would be played by and gave us a few clues on who we should cast as other characters. This is done by the ratio of who voted male to who voted female.
5. Do you like a twist/surprise in the story line or not?
This question didn’t really apply to us in a whole because we will not have enough screen time to make such a big change, but what it could help us do is decide what was going to happen in our 2 minutes of screen time, it could help us decide if our main character was going to beat everyone up then meet someone he couldn’t. This question will help us on scripting.
6. Do you prefer a pure action movie, a movie which requires thought, or a movie which has elements of both. This question is similar to Questions 1 and 3. But helped us decide in more detail, because now from the previous results people like a realistic film which has immediate action and has elements of both action and thought. Not just will it be realistic or not, or just how it will start. It lets us create a better blueprint of what we are going to do.













Thursday, 20 January 2011

Miss D

Lots of detailed questionnaires that has given you a range of results. I now suggest that you summarise these findings to indicate what they have told you- analysis is what you can determine from results, not just what the results are.

Wednesday, 19 January 2011

Specific Questionnaire Results: Age Range 16-29
I chose to do this age range because as a group we decided we wanted to do an action film because its the target audience we plan to entertain. In the general questionnaires we made, the results showed that action was the second highest favourite genre of film. But we did not want to do comedy (which was highest) because we felt that it would be hard to script a comedy film and make a good 2 minute trailer.

1. What is your favourite type of action film?

Unreal (e.g. Crank 2, Rambo) 11
Realistic (e.g. Bourne films, James Bond) 16

2. What’s your favourite type of sub-genre of action film?


Action Comedy 2
Action Adventure 7
Action Sci-fi 5
Action Thriller 6
Action Horror 3
Other 1

3. How do you prefer your action films to start?


Immediate action 11
Background Story 9
Slow start 7

4. Do you prefer a male or female lead role?


Male 17
Female 10

5. Do you like a twist/surprise in the story line or not?

Yes 18
No 9

6. Do you prefer?


A movie which is pure action and doesn’t require a lot of concentration 9
A movie which has elements of both action and thought 11
A movie which requires some thought and concentration 7

Tuesday, 18 January 2011

Questionnaire Results: Age Range 16-29

1. Do you enjoy watching films?

Yes 17
No

2. How old are you?

6-10
11-15
16-19 10
20-29 7
30-40
41-49
50+

3. Gender

Male 8
Female 9

4. What’s your favourite genre of film you enjoy watching? (Please specify one only and no sub genres, e.g. Comedy-Action)
Action 4
Comedy 5
Horror 3
Romcom 2
Thriller 2
Fantasy 2

5. What’s your favourite film of all time?

N/A

6. How do you watch films?

DVD/Blue ray 13
Cinema 16
TV 11
Legally downloaded 3
Illegally downloaded 2
Streaming 4



7. How do you find out of films?

T V 7
Internet 8
Radio 2
Magazine/Newspapers 6
Friends/Family 8
Other 3

8. Do you watch film trailers?

Yes 14
No 3

9. Do you have a favourite actor / actress (Specify Below)

N/A

10. Do you ever re-watch a film that you have already seen?

Yes 17
No 0

11. Have you watched a film in 3D before?

Yes 16
No 1

If so, did you find the 3D film more entertaining than a regular film?

Yes 10
No 7
Questionnaire Results: Age Range 6-15

1. Do you enjoy watching films?

Yes 13
No

2. How old are you?

6-10 11
11-15 2
16-19
20-29
30-40
41-49
50+

3. Gender

Male 6
Female 7

4. What’s your favourite genre of film you enjoy watching? (Please specify one only and no sub genres, e.g. Comedy-Action)

Action-2
Comedy-4
Horror-1
Romcom-1
Thriller-2
Fantasy-3

5. What’s your favourite film of all time?

N/A

6. How do you watch films?

DVD/Blue ray 11
Cinema 13
TV 9
Legally downloaded 1
Illegally downloaded 0
Streaming 2



7. How do you find out about films?

T V 10
Internet 7
Radio 2
Magazine/Newspapers 4
Friends/Family 8
Other 2

8. Do you watch film trailers?

Yes 14
No 0

9. Do you have a favourite actor / actress (Specify Below)

N/A

10. Do you ever re-watch a film that you have already seen?

Yes 14
No 0

11. Have you watched a film in 3D before?

Yes 13
No 1

If so, did you find the 3D film more entertaining than a regular film?

Yes 10
No 3


Questionnaire Results: Age Range 30-49

1. Do you enjoy watching films?

Yes 14
No

2. How old are you?

6-10
11-15

16-19
20-29
30-40 8
41-49 6
50+


3. Gender

Male 7
Female 7


4. What’s your favourite genre of film you enjoy watching? (Please specify one only and no sub genres, e.g. Comedy-Action)

Action 2

Comedy 3
Horror 1
Romcom 3
Thriller 2
Fantasy 2

5.
What’s your favourite film of all time?

N/A


6. How do you watch films?


DVD/Blue ray 11
Cinema 9
TV 10
Legally downloaded 0
Illegally downloaded 0
Streaming 0



7. How do you find out about films?

T V 12
Internet 3
Radio 2
Magazine/Newspapers 4
Friends/Family 11
Other 2

8. Do you watch film trailers?

Yes 11
No 3


9. Do you have a favourite actor / actress (Specify Below)

N/A


10. Do you ever re-watch a film that you have already seen?

Yes 14
No 0

11. Have you watched a film in 3D before?

Yes 12
No 2

If so, did you find the 3D film more entertaining than a regular film?

Yes 8
No 4