Media Studies: Lighting

Lighting

In expensively produced films, lighting is no problem due to the funds and equipment that they have access to. However, there is still a technique to it whether you have sufficient funds or not. There are many different ways of lighting. There is the key light, using only the back light to produce a contrast between light and dark areas on the screen, filler light 3-point-lighting to soften harsh shadows, under light which is where the main source comes from below the subject, top light where the main source of lighting comes from above, low key light which uses the light to create shadows, and high key light which removes all shadows. As you can see, these various lighting techniques work effectively in different ways. 

Sound Exercise: The Dealer- Conor and George

Media Studies: The Birds

The Birds Review

"The Birds" is a thriller, released in 1963, that is directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is a film that is based in a place called Bodega Bay. In the film, the town is over-run with birds that are trying to kill the locals. A woman named Melanie Daniels comes to Bodega Bay to leave two love birds at the home of a man, presumably her lover. As she rides across the bay she is struck in the face by a flying seagull, drawing blood from her forehead. This is the first clue as to how violent birds are somewhere in the plot of the film. This is the catalyst for the rest of the film. We see throughout the film the different viscous attacks that are launched on the people of Bodega Bay. For instance, when the woman goes searching for her friend in his house and finds his corpse sitting with his back to the wall and his eyes have been pecked out. This is a gory scene and an important one too. It is here that we are given a warning about how violent and dangerous the birds are and that they shouldn't be trusted. We see the actual violence of the birds countless times throughout the film. We see the birds attack the town when there are a few people talking to Melanie Daniels in the cafe. A ferocious bombardment of birds begins and everyone is suddenly found outside in danger. There are a few injuries sustained and undoubtedly a few deaths that occur. A petrol station across the road blows up when a man lights his cigarette after the birds had spilt a lot of petrol a few minutes earlier. This then causes plenty more commotion as the birds all fly over head and plummet down onto the petrified people of Bodega Bay. The mayhem that is brought upon the town is too much for everyone and one lady points the finger at Melanie Daniels as who should be blamed for the birds bringing chaos upon the town. The last scene that we see is where Melanie, her "lover" Mitch, his daughter Cathy, and his mother Lydia all leave the town. Melanie is escorted to the car by Mitch and Lydia while she is heavily shell-shocked from her earlier attack by the birds in the attic. 

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Psycho

Psycho

In Media Studies, we have been watching Alfred Hitchcocks' famous "Psycho". It is a film made in 1960 about a woman named Marion Crane who finds herself in a difficult situation when her lover Sam Loomis has no money left from the divorce. However, she still wants to have a relationship with but wants to live comfortably. When she is at work later that day, a customer comes in flashing $40,000 that he has saved up for a new house. However, Marion takes the opportunity of giving it into the bank to make a run for it with the money and start afresh with Sam. On the journey when she flees, she encounters a policeman after having fallen to sleep at the side of the road. The police officer follows her to a car firm where she buys a refurbished car with cash. Later that night she stops off at the Bates Motel. She meets Norman Bates who shows her to her room, number 1. She asks why it's so empty and he tells her that the road used to lead down the old motorway but now people only ever go because they got lost, this too is her reason for being there. When Norman Bates brings Marion to her room he then invites her to his office for something to eat. After a while talking to Norman and eating, Marion goes back to her room and gets into the shower. However, while she's enjoying her shower someone enters the room and viciously kills her with a knife. This is the beginning of a series of violent murders that occur throughout the film. When there is no word from Marion, her lover Sam and her sister Lila are visited by a detective who says that Marion has stolen $40,000. This leads to a frantic search for her that results in the detective also dying. Towards the end of the film, both Sam and Lila go to the Bates Motel and enquire about Norman Bates last few guests. While Sam holds Norman up Lila searches for any clues about Marion and finds a chair, she turns it round and there is the skeleton of Normans mother. Then Norman enters the room in his mothers' clothes and holding a knife, however as he approaches Lila, he is wrestled to the ground by Sam who had recovered from a bash round the head by Norman. At the end of the film, Norman is in the police station and we see him talking in his mothers voice. The doctor then says that he has been overtaken by his mothers spirit. 

North By NorthWest analysis

 North By NorthWest is a key film in terms of the thrillers that Alfred Hitchcock is responsible for. He made some phenomenal thrillers that were incredibly well received and are still considered the best of the 20th century, and this is one of them. The film, released in 1959, stars one of the stars of the 50's and 60's, Cary Grant. He was the star of this film and very much makes this film what it is.
 The film is set in America in the late 1950's where the focus is on an advertising executive named Roger Thornhill who is tragically mistaken for a government agent and is constantly being tracked down by foreign agents who believe he is a Mr George Caplin who is evidently wanted by many foreign agents and spies. The hunt for him generally begins when he is at a hotel looking for Mr Caplin and someone is stabbed right in front of him, so he takes the knife out of the man and holds him. A few people turn around and believe that he has murdered the man. This begins a search for him and is the catalyst for the rest of the film. There are a number of foreign agents trying to kill him because of this and throughout the film, they get incredibly close to killing him or at least getting their hands on him. Eventually, at an auction where many important people are, he causes commotion so that the police are called because he sees the foreign agents. After the police are called, he is dragged into a police car and brought in to help the police catch some of the criminals behind the murder.
 In the crop duster scene, Roger Thornhill is walking down an abandoned road that runs down the middle of acres of farmland. He is waiting for a way to get back to more familiar surroundings and sees a man waiting for a bus. He asks the man if he is Mr Caplin. Once the man has gotten on the bus, he sees a plane flying right at him, he then has a series of near misses where he tries his best to avoid being killed. The scene is known as the "crop duster" because Roger Thornhill is running away from the plane over the crops and this involves him jumping on the floor to avoid the plane and the planes wings' cut the crops into dust as they slice the top off of them.

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

 Sir Alfred Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone in London on August 13th 1899. He was the youngest of his siblings, being the second son and the third child of William Hitchcock and Emma Jane Hitchcock who brought him into the world. Little did they know that he would one day become one of the greatest directors of film ever to have graced Hollywood.

 At the age of 5 he supposedly turned up at the local police station with a note from his father asking for Hitchcock to be locked away for 5 minutes due to being badly behaved. This filled him with fear of the police for the rest of his days. This wrongful accusation, among others, would later have an impact on him as shown in his films when many characters faced punishments due to false accusations.
 When Hitchcock was just 15 years of age, his father passed away as a result of a kidney disease. For this reason, Hitchcock's mother was a huge influence in his films, which is why there is a dominant female figure in many of his films and a father figure is never included in his films. He made many top films that gained him a lot admirers such as "Psycho", "The Birds", and "North By Northwest". These were three of his biggest and most successful films ever and also three very action-packed films.

Thriller Recipe and Conventions

Thriller Recipes and Conventions

 In terms of film genres, there are plenty to choose from. There is action, horror, thrillers, comedy, romantic comedy, and many more. However, I'm going to be focusing on thrillers. The traditional thriller would have the following aspects in it:

During the films there is always an enemy who would lead the plot along, they are usually a lot better than what the hero would turn out to be. There is always an intelligent way for the hero or heroine to outwit the enemy using their clever mind. Within the film there are fast editing scenes with speedy music which matches the speed of the editing, for example, in 'North by NorthWest'. In the clip where Thornhill is framed for murder, there is a lot of shock, confusion and suspense where everyone goes after him. There are Red-herrings and macguffins used throughout the film to make sure the audience never lose interest and to mislead the audience. Red herrings are parts of the plot in the film that are irrelevant to the story but seem to the characters to be the main thing driving them throughout the film. A Macguffin is the story that is given to stop revealing the real story too early in the film. Thrillers often are broken down into different sub genres. These are, legal, action, politcial and spy thrillers. Traditionally, at the end of a thriller they always include a shocking cliffhanger whether it be in a literal sense or metaphorical. Shock and suspense are very common elements within a thriller as they are essentially what separate a thriller from any other kind of film. 

Micro Feature: Sound

Sound

 In films, sound is very important. It is used to create an atmosphere, to create emotion, and many other things. There are two types of sound within a film: diegetic and non-diegetic. Diegetic is the sound that can be heard by both the audience and the characters within the film. This means things such as dialogue, sound effects, and music within a source of the text, like a radio, are all diegetic sounds.
 On the other hand, non-diegetic sounds are sounds that can be heard by the audience, but not necesssarily the characters. This means that things such as music played over the top of the film, shouting from afar, and voices in someones head are all non-diegetic sounds.

 These sounds are always used in films and it is a rarity to see a film that doesn't have non-diegetic sounds. This is because of the effect that the sounds have on viewers. If you decide not to include the non-diegetic sounds, then you run the risk of failing to create emotion. However, as long as it is used in the right way, it can be extremely effective.
 Other sounds are on-screen and off-screen sounds. The on-screen sounds are sounds that can be identified by the audience due to the source being visible. Off-screen sounds are sounds that can be heard and maybe identified but are out of sight of the audience.
 There are sounds called parallel sounds and contrapuntal sounds. Parallel sounds are those that match the action and contrapuntal sounds are sounds that do not match the action.

Camera Exercise + Analysis

Media Studies



 In media studies, we made our own film. The purpose of this was to test our knowledge and ability of using camera shots effectively. We managed to use the majority of shots, however, we did not shoot every single shot type. In the beginning, we struggled to think of a storyline. This left us with a shorter amount of time to successefully film our short movie. In the end, we decided that I would be directing, Parveer would be the boss,  Hassan would play his handyman, Jordan would be the worker, and George would be the camera man. However, due to some of our shots being major mishaps, we decided to re-take the first scene. Parveer was not in school at this point and so for that reason, I took over his role as the boss. 4

 The first scene started with Jordan walking up the stairs and approaching the room in which his boss was in ( long shot ) and then had Hassan anticipating his arrival at the top of the stairs. Hassan then buzzed himself and Jordan into the room and showed him to his seat, opposite his boss. We filmed this with an over the shoulder shot so we did not reveal the identity of the boss. We then made the most of the sound effects made available to us. We used the sound of the clock to drown out our voices. We then had the boss give his handyman the instruction to take the worker outside. Then we have the tracking shot that happens after the fight scene involving Hassan and Jordan. This shot then leads into a crane shot overlooking the small confrontation that Hassan and Jordan have on the stairs. Then we have a low shot when we see Jordan and Hassan running from the foot of the stairs with them coming towards us.

 Next is the Point of view shot ( POV ) where we see events unfold through Hassan's eyes. He walks towards a room where there is a crate in the door. Jordan then hits Hassan with the crate and we have a  rolling shot as Hassan falls to the floor. Then we have another low shot as we see Jordan look down at Hassan and mutter a few words before he walks off.

Cinematography Project Analysis

Cinematography Project analysis

 The story we were trying to tell was how a psychopath killer goes about his day. He is following a girl who is blissfully unaware that she’s currently being tracked by a psychopathic murderer who does not shy away from situations where he could gain his vile pleasure.

 We didn’t manage to achieve filming every single shot type with every camera movement. We did however manage to successfully capture the majority of the shots and movements. The reason we weren’t able to film all of them is because we ran out of time to film.  

  We weren’t able to shoot all of the shots as I said but the shots we did film were specifically filmed in that manner because of the effect that it had on the audience. The first shot, where Kendall is waltzing through the corridor was effective in my eyes because it was a low shot looking up at her, therefore making her appear to be a powerful and dominant figure. It is then contrasted when Connor appears to be following her. We then continue the low shot when the camera follows the two of them up the stairs. We then see Kendall’s point of view (POV) when we see the camera turn around and look at Connor promptly behind her. Our POV shot then went slightly out of control and a bit shaky. However, this is how Kendall would be feeling at this point and we wanted audience to feel just as frantic and panicked.

 The next scene we see is the one where Kendall is running across the playground and we have a long shot of her sprinting so we could get her desperate rush in the shot. We then see Connor sneaking towards the other side of the container that Kendall is crouching behind. We held the camera just above him (crane shot) to give the impression that he is just as helpless as her in this situation and that the tables could turn at any moment if he isn’t quiet and she sees him. We then see the view over his shoulder (over the shoulder shot) as a tension builder so that the audience can sense the rising level of suspense. Then we get the over the shoulder shot from behind Kendall, where Connor says the first and only bit of dialogue from the film: “Hi!” then a treacherous scream from Kendall and an extreme close up of her mouth. We then left the film on a cliff hanger so that the audience can make their own assumptions as to what happens.