Romantic comedies
Romantic comedies, whether English Rom-Com's or American Rom-Com's, all follow the same conventions.
They are always bright and happy to begin with and introduce the main characters.
. Boy meet's girl
. Boy loses girl
. Boy get's girl back
This can be seen in almost any Rom Com.
For example in the movie "Notting Hill";
(Hugh Grant is a Book store owner and Julia Roberts is a movie star)
Boy (Hugh Grant) meet's Girl (Julia Roberts).
They bond and start to like each other but then Boy does something to upset Girl (Alerts the press of her where abouts), and Boy loses Girl.
They don't see each other until a year later and Girl ask's for Boy to take her back.
Boy refuses, then realised he made a mistake and searched all over the city to find her.
Boy and Girl end up getting married.
The end.
Thriller Movies
The conventions of a Thriller movie are quite diverse because there are so many different kinds of Thriller moveis.
. Psycological Thriller's
. Romantic Thriller's
. Action Thriller
. Spy Thriller
. Religious Thriller
. Medical Thriller
. Conspiracy Thriller
. Crime Thriller
Are just to name a few, but all follow atleast some of the basic Thriller conventions
. Hero Find's criminal activity
. Hero Tries to find Criminal and becomes in danger
. Hero usually put's own life at risk and unravels mysetry.
For example in the movie "Silence of the Lambs";
The hero (Jodie Foster) is a police detective and trying to solve a mystery.
The hero goes to see a convict (Anthony Hopkins) to give her information that she needs about a killer.
He only gives her little information but it leads her eventually to where she needs to go.
She find out shocking evidence but is then pursued by the killer and in danger of being shot.
The Killer gives his position away and she Shoot's him to death.
Horror Movies
Horror movies usally follow the same conventions.
They are dark and grey almost all through the movie, unless showing "flash backs" of happier times for a character.
. There is usually a mystery surrounding a Killer
. A group of people go to where this killer is rumoured to be.
. They get split up and killed 1 by 1.
. There is usually 1 survivor that is traumatised.
(In some Horror movies only a few of these conventions are present because there are sdo many different types of
Horror Movies and so many different story lines)
For example in the movie "Friday 13th part 3"
There is a rumour about this killer"Jason" and 1 person dresses up like him whith a hockey mask on.
Jason then comes to where the group of people are staying and brutally murders them 1 by 1.
At the end of the movie, there is 1 girl that survived but she is traumatised by what she saw and is taken away in a police car.
Tuesday 24 November 2009
Monday 2 November 2009
Research into existing products
There are lots of different media products that we can use to analyse movies and pieces of filmed media.
These are
. Sound
. Camera shots & angles
. Lighting
. Editing
. Mis en Scene
You can also catergorise movies by different genres by seeing which "codes and conventions" that they follow.
Every genre has its only unique codes and conventions, although there are some cross overs (e.g action- thrillers)
There is some eary and quite creepy non diegetic music present before any imagery.
It is very intense music which quickens its pace as the opening progresses
The first thing that you see is a quote from Jack the Ripper;
“One day men will look back and say I gave birth to the Twentieth Century”
– Jack The Ripper 1888
This Quote is in white lettering on a black background.
Jack the Ripper was an unidentified killer in 1888 that killed 5 or 6 prostitutes and mutilated their dead bodies. He was thought to have been a doctor or butcher because he had knowledge of the human anatomy. He was never found or convicted.
The screen then goes black for a few seconds and you can hear the sound of a match being struck. You can then see the close up shot of somebody's fingers and the lit match going towards a candle, then lighting it. A glass covering is then put over the candle showing that the lit candle is important. The only lighting in the scene is coming from a candle, this shows that the time period is before there was electricity. This makes you think that the time period that the movie is set in is 1888 because the quote by “Jack the Ripper” stated “1888” and the fact that the only available lighting is candle suggests this could be a movie set at the time of the quote.
The camera then fades out and re-focuses on an extreme close up of the candle’s flame. Something which looks like some form of drug is being placed over the flame and is then lit.
This is also significant in helping the audience to figure out what time period the movie is set in. If it was set in a recent time period, we wouldn’t need a candle for lighting and to light drugs, because we have lamps and lighters to do such things.
You cannot see who is burning the drugs so the audience is left in suspense.
The Production companies name then appears in red, this is a common colour which usually symbolises a “Thriller”.
There is then a close up shot of the actor’s hand rolling up the drugs into a ball.
The editing in the scene gives the feel of fazing in and out. There are short shots of the actor preparing drugs, then between each of these shots the screen goes black for a few seconds. It almost gives the feel that the audience is involved in the drug taking and keep on going unconscious then conscious again.
The next shot is an extreme close up of the actors hands on a wooden pipe and you can hear the sound of breathing. There is then a sideways pan to right which follows the long wooden pipe all the way to the actors mouth, where you can see him exhaling some smoke. This is the first time in the scene where you get to see the actors face.
The non diegetic music that has been playing through out the scene seems to now sound quite “holy” and “church like”.
There is now another cut to black scene and the words “FROM HELL” in italic, red lettering appear on the screen. The letters start off bunched together in the middle of the screen and the float apart from each other across the screen.
The scene then cuts to an extreme close up of the actor’s mouth exhaling again and then to an extreme close up of the actor’s eyes, It’s almost like they want this character to be a mystery because they won’t show his whole face. The Extreme close up of the face then fades into the next shot which is a medium shot of London in a red tint and the words ”London 1888” written in white letters.
This is the beginning of the next scene.
After watching the rest of the movie I could tell that this movie is a Thriller movie because it follows the typical codes and conventions of a Thriller;
. Hero find's Criminal activity
. Hero tries to find Criminal and becomes in danger
. Hero usually put's on life at risk and then unravels the mystery.
Number 23
The whole opening scene is pieces of paper with writing scribbled all over them, so it’s hard
to tell what camera shot it is.
You first see the production companies name and then the main actor’s name.
The text distorts in time to jumpy parts to the diegetic music playing.
The music is quite bassey and has lots of differnt sounds infused with it,
It sets the seen to be quite adventerous, which is the right mood setting while you are figuring out the puzzles.
Every time some text is shown to show an actors name or company, it
quickly switches to show an arrangement of number 23’s. This happens between each set of text shown.
The number 23’s are put into unusual patterns and appear more and more frequently as the opening progresses.
The camera pans down the 1 alignment of 23’s to show the words “The number 23” in red letters,
which is intermingled with the other numbers This signifies that this is the title of the movie and being in red
letters shows it is probably going to be a thriller movie.
As the opening scene progresses random words, quotations and bloodstains start to appear on the pages
The blood on the pages signifies that the movie will be a Thriller.
You see quotes saying “killed” and the blood stains get bigger and thicker.
As the Blood starts getting thicker and running across, the page the non diegetic music starts to get more up beat
and louder. It starts to build suspense.
There are many close up’s of sums adding up to 23
It is as if somebody is writing on all the paper and spilling the blood while they are doing it.
There are lots of random facts being noted among the 23's, for example "There are 23 letters in the latin alphabet", almost like
somebodie is taking notes as their obesession grows and that they need to know everything about the number 23.
The number 23 has always had theories around it,
. There are 23 pairs of chromosones in human genes,
. The knights temple had 23 grand masters,
. King charles was beheaded on the january 30th 1649 (3+0+1+6+4+9=23)
. The witches sabbath is June 23rd
. Shakspeare was born and died on April 23rd and was first published in 1623
. The titanic sank on april 15th 1912 (15+12 =23)
. December 11th the uS declared war on germany (11/12 ... 11+12=23)
All of these points really make you think and make you interested right from the opening of the movie.
The blood starts to cover the whole page and more and more sums are appearing.
The scene then finishes with the page covered in the blood and the number 23 fading into the blood.
This signifies that the number 23 becomes an obsession which even makes lives insignificant because blood gets spilt.
After watching the rest of the movie I could tell that this movie is a Thriller movie because it follows the typical codes and conventions of a Thriller;
. Hero find's Criminal activity
. Hero tries to find Criminal and becomes in danger
. Hero usually put's on life at risk and then unravels the mystery.
.
"Seven" is a movie that revolves around the 7 deadly sins, which are;
. Lust
. Gluttony
. Greed
. Sloth
. Wrath
. Envy
. Pride
There is a mystery killer that kills people who are guilty of commiting these sins.
The opening sequence begins with a medium close up of a book and some screechy non diegetic music playing.
The music gives the feel of scratching fingernails down a Blackboard.
You can faintly hear the noise of what seems to be a heartbeat in the background of the music track.
This builds suspense as if to say that what’s happening in the scene would get your heart racing.
There is somebody turning the pages, but you can’t see who. The production company appears in white
distorted writing over pictures of 2 hands.
You can almost hear the sound of a type writer in the background of the music.
And also a radio trying to get reception.
It is hard to say what a lot of the random noises are.
There is then a close up of somebody cutting skin of their finger and the credits for the actors start to appear.
The credits are the same distorted text used for the production company. They are white and on a black background
so they really stand out.
Somebody cutting skin off their fingertips is usually to hide the identity that their fingerprints give,
so this shows that the film will be a Thriller/Mystery film?
You don't know who is doing the things, so that adds to the fact it will be a Thriller mystery because you will usually have to
add pieces of information together through out the film to guess who the "killer" is.
You then see the mystery person picking up a book and starting to write in it. The hand writing in the book becomes blurry
and as if you are seeing double. This is good editing as it adds to the surreal feeling.
You then see a picture that could may be a "victim" and then the mystery person cutting up some film and sticking them into the book.
You can then peice this information together to come to the conclusion that the mystery person is making a scrap book of victims he has killed/going to kill.
The editing gets you very involved with the mystery person. You see him crossing out words and people and making lists. You feel like you are watching the person in action but you have no diea who the are.
Its a strange feeling.
So even before the opening has ended you have a good idea what this film in going to involve, which is amazing as the film has been playing for less than a minute.
After watching the rest of the movie I could tell that this movie is a Thriller movie because it follows the typical codes and conventions of a Thriller;
. Hero find's Criminal activity
. Hero tries to find Criminal and becomes in danger
. Hero usually put's on life at risk and then unravels the mystery.
Love Actually
There is first a fuzzy medium close-up of a crowd of people and the production companies
name appears in white writing.
There is some quite calming non diegetic music playing which shows that the scene isn't going to be frightening or jumpy in any way and that you can just relax and watch.
The camera then focuses on a medium long shot of 2 people hugging and kissing while the rest of the credits are rolling.
There is then a medium shot of what looks like a mother embracing her children as they run towards her. as they meet the camera zooms on their faces to show a close up of their reactions of joy.
The scene then changes to a medium close up of a pair of elderly people hugging and greeting each other.
There is a medium close up of a woman picking up her baby and pulling a really happy face when the narration starts. Hugh Grant starts talking about the human race and how we are of full of hatred like everybody thinks but if just look at this scene taking from the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport, you can see that the human race is actually full of love for each other.
The scene of the woman and baby is broken by a close up of another woman running and jumping with joy and her arms stretched out. She reaches a woman and flings her arms around her.
As the narration says "Love is everywhere" there are a few more, shorter shots of people greeting and hugging and you can see that they are all happy.
The narration and images go amazingly well together to portray the meaning that "love is everywhere".
Hugh Grant then goes on to say "Love isn't news worthy but it is all around, mother's, daughter's, father's, son's, Husband's, Wives, Boyfriend's, Girlfriend’s and their are shots that are relative to the coupling of words that he says. For example when he say's "Father's, Son's" there is a medium close up of a man picking up his baby son.
And when he say's "Mother's, Daughter's" there is another medium shot of a mother hugging her daughter. It's almost like Hugh Grant is watching all of these happening from afar and commenting on them in such away to make them more significant than people just meeting at an airport.
As the narration says "Love actually is all around" It is edited in such a way to highlight the important words. It is white writing. but the word "is" turns red and then slowly disappears.
The words "all" and "around" disappear a lot quicker while there is still a red smudge where the word "is" used to be.
There are then only the word's "love" and "actually" left and the word "love" is then highlighted in red. You then know that the movie is going to be a romantic comedy and that the title is called "Love Actually".
And the editing is quite clever to have made a sentence of the narration appear and turn into the title of the movie.
After watching the rest of the movie I could tell that this movie is a Romantic Comedy because it follows the typical codes and conventions of a Romantic Comedy;
. Boy meets Girl
. Boy lose's Girl
. Boy get's Girl Back
These are
. Sound
. Camera shots & angles
. Lighting
. Editing
. Mis en Scene
You can also catergorise movies by different genres by seeing which "codes and conventions" that they follow.
Every genre has its only unique codes and conventions, although there are some cross overs (e.g action- thrillers)
There is some eary and quite creepy non diegetic music present before any imagery.
It is very intense music which quickens its pace as the opening progresses
The first thing that you see is a quote from Jack the Ripper;
“One day men will look back and say I gave birth to the Twentieth Century”
– Jack The Ripper 1888
This Quote is in white lettering on a black background.
Jack the Ripper was an unidentified killer in 1888 that killed 5 or 6 prostitutes and mutilated their dead bodies. He was thought to have been a doctor or butcher because he had knowledge of the human anatomy. He was never found or convicted.
The screen then goes black for a few seconds and you can hear the sound of a match being struck. You can then see the close up shot of somebody's fingers and the lit match going towards a candle, then lighting it. A glass covering is then put over the candle showing that the lit candle is important. The only lighting in the scene is coming from a candle, this shows that the time period is before there was electricity. This makes you think that the time period that the movie is set in is 1888 because the quote by “Jack the Ripper” stated “1888” and the fact that the only available lighting is candle suggests this could be a movie set at the time of the quote.
The camera then fades out and re-focuses on an extreme close up of the candle’s flame. Something which looks like some form of drug is being placed over the flame and is then lit.
This is also significant in helping the audience to figure out what time period the movie is set in. If it was set in a recent time period, we wouldn’t need a candle for lighting and to light drugs, because we have lamps and lighters to do such things.
You cannot see who is burning the drugs so the audience is left in suspense.
The Production companies name then appears in red, this is a common colour which usually symbolises a “Thriller”.
There is then a close up shot of the actor’s hand rolling up the drugs into a ball.
The editing in the scene gives the feel of fazing in and out. There are short shots of the actor preparing drugs, then between each of these shots the screen goes black for a few seconds. It almost gives the feel that the audience is involved in the drug taking and keep on going unconscious then conscious again.
The next shot is an extreme close up of the actors hands on a wooden pipe and you can hear the sound of breathing. There is then a sideways pan to right which follows the long wooden pipe all the way to the actors mouth, where you can see him exhaling some smoke. This is the first time in the scene where you get to see the actors face.
The non diegetic music that has been playing through out the scene seems to now sound quite “holy” and “church like”.
There is now another cut to black scene and the words “FROM HELL” in italic, red lettering appear on the screen. The letters start off bunched together in the middle of the screen and the float apart from each other across the screen.
The scene then cuts to an extreme close up of the actor’s mouth exhaling again and then to an extreme close up of the actor’s eyes, It’s almost like they want this character to be a mystery because they won’t show his whole face. The Extreme close up of the face then fades into the next shot which is a medium shot of London in a red tint and the words ”London 1888” written in white letters.
This is the beginning of the next scene.
After watching the rest of the movie I could tell that this movie is a Thriller movie because it follows the typical codes and conventions of a Thriller;
. Hero find's Criminal activity
. Hero tries to find Criminal and becomes in danger
. Hero usually put's on life at risk and then unravels the mystery.
Number 23
The whole opening scene is pieces of paper with writing scribbled all over them, so it’s hard
to tell what camera shot it is.
You first see the production companies name and then the main actor’s name.
The text distorts in time to jumpy parts to the diegetic music playing.
The music is quite bassey and has lots of differnt sounds infused with it,
It sets the seen to be quite adventerous, which is the right mood setting while you are figuring out the puzzles.
Every time some text is shown to show an actors name or company, it
quickly switches to show an arrangement of number 23’s. This happens between each set of text shown.
The number 23’s are put into unusual patterns and appear more and more frequently as the opening progresses.
The camera pans down the 1 alignment of 23’s to show the words “The number 23” in red letters,
which is intermingled with the other numbers This signifies that this is the title of the movie and being in red
letters shows it is probably going to be a thriller movie.
As the opening scene progresses random words, quotations and bloodstains start to appear on the pages
The blood on the pages signifies that the movie will be a Thriller.
You see quotes saying “killed” and the blood stains get bigger and thicker.
As the Blood starts getting thicker and running across, the page the non diegetic music starts to get more up beat
and louder. It starts to build suspense.
There are many close up’s of sums adding up to 23
It is as if somebody is writing on all the paper and spilling the blood while they are doing it.
There are lots of random facts being noted among the 23's, for example "There are 23 letters in the latin alphabet", almost like
somebodie is taking notes as their obesession grows and that they need to know everything about the number 23.
The number 23 has always had theories around it,
. There are 23 pairs of chromosones in human genes,
. The knights temple had 23 grand masters,
. King charles was beheaded on the january 30th 1649 (3+0+1+6+4+9=23)
. The witches sabbath is June 23rd
. Shakspeare was born and died on April 23rd and was first published in 1623
. The titanic sank on april 15th 1912 (15+12 =23)
. December 11th the uS declared war on germany (11/12 ... 11+12=23)
All of these points really make you think and make you interested right from the opening of the movie.
The blood starts to cover the whole page and more and more sums are appearing.
The scene then finishes with the page covered in the blood and the number 23 fading into the blood.
This signifies that the number 23 becomes an obsession which even makes lives insignificant because blood gets spilt.
After watching the rest of the movie I could tell that this movie is a Thriller movie because it follows the typical codes and conventions of a Thriller;
. Hero find's Criminal activity
. Hero tries to find Criminal and becomes in danger
. Hero usually put's on life at risk and then unravels the mystery.
.
Se7en
"Seven" is a movie that revolves around the 7 deadly sins, which are;
. Lust
. Gluttony
. Greed
. Sloth
. Wrath
. Envy
. Pride
There is a mystery killer that kills people who are guilty of commiting these sins.
The opening sequence begins with a medium close up of a book and some screechy non diegetic music playing.
The music gives the feel of scratching fingernails down a Blackboard.
You can faintly hear the noise of what seems to be a heartbeat in the background of the music track.
This builds suspense as if to say that what’s happening in the scene would get your heart racing.
There is somebody turning the pages, but you can’t see who. The production company appears in white
distorted writing over pictures of 2 hands.
You can almost hear the sound of a type writer in the background of the music.
And also a radio trying to get reception.
It is hard to say what a lot of the random noises are.
There is then a close up of somebody cutting skin of their finger and the credits for the actors start to appear.
The credits are the same distorted text used for the production company. They are white and on a black background
so they really stand out.
Somebody cutting skin off their fingertips is usually to hide the identity that their fingerprints give,
so this shows that the film will be a Thriller/Mystery film?
You don't know who is doing the things, so that adds to the fact it will be a Thriller mystery because you will usually have to
add pieces of information together through out the film to guess who the "killer" is.
You then see the mystery person picking up a book and starting to write in it. The hand writing in the book becomes blurry
and as if you are seeing double. This is good editing as it adds to the surreal feeling.
You then see a picture that could may be a "victim" and then the mystery person cutting up some film and sticking them into the book.
You can then peice this information together to come to the conclusion that the mystery person is making a scrap book of victims he has killed/going to kill.
The editing gets you very involved with the mystery person. You see him crossing out words and people and making lists. You feel like you are watching the person in action but you have no diea who the are.
Its a strange feeling.
So even before the opening has ended you have a good idea what this film in going to involve, which is amazing as the film has been playing for less than a minute.
After watching the rest of the movie I could tell that this movie is a Thriller movie because it follows the typical codes and conventions of a Thriller;
. Hero find's Criminal activity
. Hero tries to find Criminal and becomes in danger
. Hero usually put's on life at risk and then unravels the mystery.
Love Actually
There is first a fuzzy medium close-up of a crowd of people and the production companies
name appears in white writing.
There is some quite calming non diegetic music playing which shows that the scene isn't going to be frightening or jumpy in any way and that you can just relax and watch.
The camera then focuses on a medium long shot of 2 people hugging and kissing while the rest of the credits are rolling.
There is then a medium shot of what looks like a mother embracing her children as they run towards her. as they meet the camera zooms on their faces to show a close up of their reactions of joy.
The scene then changes to a medium close up of a pair of elderly people hugging and greeting each other.
There is a medium close up of a woman picking up her baby and pulling a really happy face when the narration starts. Hugh Grant starts talking about the human race and how we are of full of hatred like everybody thinks but if just look at this scene taking from the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport, you can see that the human race is actually full of love for each other.
The scene of the woman and baby is broken by a close up of another woman running and jumping with joy and her arms stretched out. She reaches a woman and flings her arms around her.
As the narration says "Love is everywhere" there are a few more, shorter shots of people greeting and hugging and you can see that they are all happy.
The narration and images go amazingly well together to portray the meaning that "love is everywhere".
Hugh Grant then goes on to say "Love isn't news worthy but it is all around, mother's, daughter's, father's, son's, Husband's, Wives, Boyfriend's, Girlfriend’s and their are shots that are relative to the coupling of words that he says. For example when he say's "Father's, Son's" there is a medium close up of a man picking up his baby son.
And when he say's "Mother's, Daughter's" there is another medium shot of a mother hugging her daughter. It's almost like Hugh Grant is watching all of these happening from afar and commenting on them in such away to make them more significant than people just meeting at an airport.
As the narration says "Love actually is all around" It is edited in such a way to highlight the important words. It is white writing. but the word "is" turns red and then slowly disappears.
The words "all" and "around" disappear a lot quicker while there is still a red smudge where the word "is" used to be.
There are then only the word's "love" and "actually" left and the word "love" is then highlighted in red. You then know that the movie is going to be a romantic comedy and that the title is called "Love Actually".
And the editing is quite clever to have made a sentence of the narration appear and turn into the title of the movie.
After watching the rest of the movie I could tell that this movie is a Romantic Comedy because it follows the typical codes and conventions of a Romantic Comedy;
. Boy meets Girl
. Boy lose's Girl
. Boy get's Girl Back
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