Dan's Evaluation - Quetions 2 to 5

Film: Noose (Link here)

Question 2:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film does not have many characters, and only the protagonist is really relevant to this question. This character is almost entirely defined by his disability - Schizophrenia - however, his age and gender could also have some points to make, and even possibly class and status.


Since the entire story is based around this man having Schizophrenia, we can start there. We did not intend to belittle or insult anyone with this particular illness, however we could not just ignore it and pretend that it would not have an effect on the man's life and choices. This is a tricky balance, and we hope that we accomplished it.


Point of View shots were an excellent way of showing subjective shots. In these shots, we applied filters to exaggerate the whites, creating a bloom effect. We also blurred the shots, and defocused them. These are meant to be times of panic, where the "fight or flight" instinct kicks in. The brain pumps adrenaline through the body and shuts down any kind of function not related to the situation at hand, such as hunger, sleep, and creativity. However, the defocused filter may be slightly inaccurate, as during these episodes, the brain can become hyper alert, causing the human to notice small things extremely quickly.


We also tried to show the illness through make-up. We attempted to make his eyes red, with plenty of bags. This also coincides with the protagonist's drug use, which is never explicitly mentioned.


Did we intend the audience to sympathize with our character? This question is particularly difficult to answer, and we warmed up to the idea that he is an "anti-hero", where, while he is the main character, what he does it not necessarily for "good", whatever that may be. We tried to make the audience have conflicted emotions for him, as nobody wants to see a victim of an illness locked up, but they also don't want said victim to murder innocents. A good example of an anti-hero would be the protagonist from Flight, where the whole premise is the protagonist saves a lot of lives when a plane needs an emergency landing, but was on substances when flying said plane. He continues to abuse said substances even when trying not to.

* * *

Statistically, the most common victims of Schizophrenia are homosexual men. We did not consider sexuality, as it was not relevant to the film, but the gender we chose does line up with facts. This is not meant to be judgmental, nor is it meant for the audience to judge. The opening would have been exactly the same if we cast a woman as the character.


On a personal note, I find it strange how gender becomes such a big deal in films and TV shows where it is not relevant to the story whatsoever. Films such as Hanna and Kill Bill have a reason to cast women, but films like the new Ghostbusters seem to be having women for the sake of diversity, and while it may be a noble goal, it seems odd that the way to promote diversity in films is to take an already existing franchise, replace the characters with the female versions of the originals, and claim that they have created a new character. I'm all for more diverse films, but having a character where the gender becomes the reason why the character exists, be they protagonist or not, seems to push us further away from gender equality.


Our costume for the protagonist implies lack of abundance of wealth, and this could be because acquiring and maintaining a job with such a life-crippling illness would be extremely difficult, especially for a person with a criminal conviction. He should appear to be lower class.


Age was also not a defining factor, but it should speak volumes that this young adult in the prime of his life has already committed a murder and been sent to a mental hospital.


Question 3:

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The media institution that I predict would distribute our film would be an online streaming site, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime or even YouTube. Having to pay up front for a film made by an unknown company is always a risk, and the possible virality would be excellent marketing.

The best option would be to reduce the amount of costs to us and our consumers, and make a name for ourselves before risking things on larger projects with larger budgets.

Question 4:

Who would be the target audience for your media product?

Using this website, I have determined that our film would be best targeted for "Focus: 15-24". This means it is not targeted at a specific gender, but it is targeted at people in their late teens and early twenties.

Our film is meant to deal with a character's struggle dealing with his mental illness and life choices, not to deal with growing up as an impoverished man in a suburban area without too much wealth, but both can be applied to the film. As such, I believe that any bias towards any gender watching the film is null and void.

When it comes to age, it tends to be that 15-24 year olds watch thriller films, and as such I have allocated it as so.

Question 5:

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our main "selling" point in our film was our main character, and the enigma surrounding him. It is not often that a protagonist has to deal with his mental illness, and murders with guilt. His emotions have to tell the audience what direct narration and dialogue have not, This synergizes well with the theme and issue, as those two are based around the protagonist and his illness - schizophrenia.

Why? Our target audience is around the teenage years, and during these years people tend to be more emotional, due to the increased hormones coming alongside puberty. Having a character that doesn't necessarily connect to the audience by doing the same things (most teenagers do not murder and attempt suicide) but empathize and sympathize well with, is a good way of having a character that people relate to and as such enjoy.

Did it work? During our audience feedback, we got multiple compliments towards our character, and even the actor claiming it was a much better character than the one that he had made with his group for his project.

As for other films similar to ours, Shutter Island was our main inspiration and that film would not have been as well received as it was without an interesting character with a very nice twist during the story. The Jason Bourne series of films also is centered around a character dealing with his mental issues, although in this case in a slightly different circumstance. These films (especially the Bourne ones) are also targeted at the same audience as ours.

Dan's Evaluation - Questions 1, 6 and 7

Film: Noose (Link here)

Question 1:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?



The Usual Suspects - keeping his face a mystery

On the left is the unknown character

A significant part of thriller films is enigma, or having the audience ask questions (usually in their head). This is particularly prevalent in The Usual Suspects, especially during the opening scenes. In our film, we very much made sure that a lot of what we were showing was unexplained, as it is only meant to be the first two minutes of a feature-length film. We did not explain who had set up the noose, or whether it had been used, we only implied that the protagonist killed the man in the woods, and we definitely did not explicitly mention the mental illness (Schizophrenia) that our protagonist had. We tried to make our protagonist an "anti-hero", where he is the main character, but he is not necessarily doing what he does for the good of everyone, or even himself.



"I just missed your heart."

"What have you done?"

As such, our narration is very restricted. We have two lines of dialogue (which, funnily enough, is the same amount as we had in the preliminary task), both of which are not really in a conversation, just thrown at the protagonist in passing. This is fairly similar to Hanna, where the only line of speech is said by Hanna just before the title. The protagonist also knows more than the audience does, such as the aforementioned Schizophrenia, who had used the noose and who had murdered the man in the woods. The audience has to piece together the bits of the protagonist's past.

When it came to aspects of mise-en-scene, our film does not deviate too far from the norm of thrillers, except perhaps in colour. During the hospital scenes, the colours are fairly dark and drab as we shot during the night, but during the woods scene in the morning, everything is rather saturated and vivid. This was done for two reasons:

It seems visible enough

1. We needed to differentiate the noose from the background. Our rope was fairly small and thin, and it did not help that the colour was a bright yellow. The OTS shot during our film was actually helpful in showing the noose, as it was placed with a tree directly behind it, causing a clash of colours.
2. Our protagonist is a drug user, and one of the common symptoms of various drugs is seeing the world differently, or hallucinations. We tried to make the woods seem a little psychedelic, without changing the scenery or distorting anything too much (aside from the OTS shot with the noose).

Otherwise, the film stuck to traditional thriller properties, such as urban costumes, blood, pale make-up, mental hospital setting, etc.

Todorov's narrative rules only sometimes apply during our film. Our equilibrium is never really set, as almost the first thing we see is our protagonist escaping a mental hospital. It could be said that our equilibrium was set during the very first shot where an unknown character walks out of the hospital, but that is not particularly relevant to the story, rather a way of using an establishing shot, and leading towards the protagonist's escape.

The disruption occurs in two places. Part one is where the protagonist escapes, and part two is where he spots the noose and the body in the woods. The realisation comes after the second part, where he realises what he has done (purely implied) and runs off into the woods.

Restoration attempt?

Typically, this would lead onto attempting to restore order, and it could be said that the final shot, where two unknown characters walk up to the fainted protagonist is the beginning of the restoration. However, from that point on, the film would continue, and it would be past the first two minutes. The equilibrium would appear again at the end of the film, possibly with the protagonist back inside of the mental hospital.

Question 6:

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The products we used were:

• Digital Camera
• Spotlight
• Tripod
• Mac (GarageBand, Final Cut Pro)
• Lapel Microphone

In each of our settings, we had a different camera, and this had a small effect on our editing. One camera shot everything in a much higher resolution than the other one, which - while not particularly noticeable - is still an issue that we had to address by making them at least the same aspect ratio. Otherwise, we learned that the batteries run out extremely quickly, and so we needed to work fairly fast. White balance was also an issue, as we forgot to specifically bring white objects, but we worked with ones that we had around us, such as a white wall and Ross' jumper.

The spotlight was fairly simple, and as such there wasn't much to learn. Moving the wheel up made it more powerful, and moving it down made it less so. The tripod was also difficult to put back into its more portable position, but we quickly learned how to do it efficiently.

The Mac was definitely the hardest piece of tech to work with. While I cannot speak for the other members of the group, I can say personally that it was a very unpleasant experience. As a predominant Windows user (and occasionally Linux), getting accustomed to Apple's file system and how each of the applications worked was extremely frustrating. That being said, we did manage. We found out how to apply filters, from colour correction to distortions, we found out how to get the files from two different projects into one main project, and how to transition with more than just a normal cut, such as wipe and dissolve.

Using the Mac and getting a little more used to it has not converted me from Windows or Linux yet.

Question 7:

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

Our group was only like it is now after we started the main task, and as such we were split into two groups. I was with Ross, and our film was about an interrogation between two men.

We were pretty pleased with how it turned out, but there were a few things which we had to improve for our main task. Lighting was one of these areas. Our prelim was set in a dark room, and this was for a reason. We had a standing spotlight which we used in shot to show the victim from the darkness, and we implied that it had been turned on by the interrogator or his colleagues. This still did not really prove to be enough light, especially as this was entirely focused on one of the two people, and as they sat down one was far brighter than the other. This did look odd, and perhaps shifted focus onto someone who was not talking at the time, or was not doing anything relevant.



We have varying amounts of lighting intensity

In our main task, we had two settings, one set at night and one set in the morning. The morning light proved useful, creating nice lighting effects and stylish lens flares, but we also used the spotlight to emphasise particular props like the noose. During the night, we had the spotlight on every shot, highlighting the whole area, or just a particular point (like the hospital sign).

The prelim had some editing issues. In one of our shots, we had broken the 180 degree rule ever so slightly with an OTS shot. We had to remove the shot entirely from the final cut. During our main task this didn't prove to be a problem, has we did not have any dialogue between two people, but even so we spent the majority of the time on the actor's right side.

When it came to sound, we were much better at choosing and placing them in the main task. Our prelim had no ambient sound, just music or dialogue. It felt very much like a film set, and unnaturally quiet. We made sure to change this in our main task, and included ambient sounds for every shot, as well as music and other non-diegetic sounds.

Evidence of Editing

We did not have as much time as we expected for editing, as our filming was a little over the deadline. However, we still managed to get some significant progress during the first few days. We had a couple of issues with two shots in particular, where the cameraman's shadow was shown, and where someone's coat was very slightly in the shot temporarily. These were fixed promptly.

Using Final Cut Pro was a challenge, as nobody had really used the software outside of media lessons. However we quickly got used to it and managed to work with it effectively. The sound was done in GarageBand, which Ross especially was experienced with, and as such volunteered.


A lot of time was spent finding filters. Our protagonist, as mentioned before, is affected by schizophrenia and drug use, and so we needed to find suitable effects to show this. Adding bloom and blurs worked pretty well, and increasing the saturation complemented it nicely.


Transitions were not too difficult. One transition was a wipe that coincided with another character walking past the camera, and the others were either fades, dissolves, or normal cuts.

Analysis of Filming at Butcher's Wood

We had a couple of problems with filming at the wood, one being the condition of the dog which we had planned to appear with a walker.

The day before filming, the dog was injured and had a cast/bandage around her leg, meaning she couldn't walk, and as such we had to improvise with another actor, Amy.

Another issue was the noose itself. the tree needed to be fairly high up to allow for the illusion that it could be used to kill oneself, but we couldn't tie it properly round the branch. The colour of the rope also did not particularly contrast with the sun, and we had a few takes where it was not very visible.

Otherwise, the conditions were fairly good. The sun provided some rather nice natural light, causing "God rays" to appear between the trees and branches. The trees themselves provided a nice location to place a noose and still have pathways for people to walk on in and out of the film.

Another risk that we did not anticipate for was mud. While not particularly dangerous, it could lead to damage of clothing and, perhaps less significantly, contingency issues within the film. Luckily, the path we were on was in acceptable condition.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed Title Sequence (or lack thereof) Analysis

It appears I have chosen three particularly strange films to analyse the the title sequences for. This film has no text.

I looked through all of it, including a few minutes after the video on moodle ends, which I found on YouTube. There is no text.

Why is this?

This is because the film creates an astonishing level of tension during the first few minutes, and does not want to ruin it by shoving some unrelated text on the screen during the meticulous and methodical level of planning that the characters on screen appear to be doing. Any kind of interruption, visual or not, would ruin the immersion, tension and enigma that the film and music presents. The diegetic sounds are all sharp and concise, without any dialogue. The non-diegetic music is dark and mysterious, and it all falls together seamlessly together with the visuals.

Precision

Something this precise and delicate would be completely ruined by anything to break the immersion, and the director knew this.

Having any kind of text will also reveal something about the film, as shown in the last two analyses. This reveals nothing other than what you see happening in front of you and what you hear. No text will come up possibly implying anonymity, rather it lets the viewer fully absorb the intro in front of them.

Silence of the Lambs Title Sequence Analysis

Silence of the Lambs as a title is perhaps more ominous than North by North West. Again, there are questions to be asked, such as whether lambs are a metaphor or not, and if they are, what do they stand for? Does the silence mean death? These questions are not answered at all during the title sequence, as it has a very basic, sort of anonymous styling.

It is a very long sequence, starting with text to show the location, "Woods near Quantico, VA [Virginia]". The reason for this, as we find out later, it appears to be trying to stay out of sight, like a secret military training ground, and nobody has properly documented its location. It appears instantly in basic white text, not too dissimilar from North by North West's font and styling. This quickly changes to the film's default style however, to bold, black and capitalized text, displayed firmly in the middle of the screen.

The only institutional info

We see the first bit of institutional info, which is the only one in the sequence. Just like North by North West, this goes to great effort not to reveal anything about the film, aside from the capitalization allowing for some kind of feeling of being threatened. The white outline on the text allows for it to be read on every colour, and I do not think it provides any significance on the content of the film.

The sequence itself goes for about 3 minutes, with breaks in between as to not get in the way of important details such as the (assumed) protagonist's face and the task she is performing.

The main 3 actors' names come up and disappear fairly quickly, in the same black font. Each lasts about 3 seconds, and disappears again. Strangely, the title does the same thing, almost putting no emphasis on the title whatsoever. This makes sure not to answer any questions about content, and tries to stay neutral on genre styling. It could even imply that the title is not important.

After going through a lot of the cast in the exact same style, we get to more producers and casters... in the exact same style. 

The diegetic sounds during the sequence are limited to running, wildlife, and a quick exchange of words between the protagonist and an FBI agent, Taken alone, this does not imply any particular genre, but the non-diegetic music with it creates a sense of mystery and enigma. Like North by North West, it is orchestral, but slower paced and a little more like something is looming on the horizon.

North by North West Title Sequence Analysis

North by North West is not a traditional thriller name. It is not particularly punchy, nor dramatic. However, what it does do is get the viewer asking questions. What is north by north west? What significance does it hold to the characters involved? This successfully creates enigma.

The First Scene

At the very beginning, the title sequence begins with a disclaimer, along with a few production companies at the bottom. The text itself is not meant to help the viewer understand the situation, aside from informing them that this is not based on a true story. The institutional info is very difficult to read, but we can definitely see that it is certified, for whatever reason.

Behind the text, we see a very busy building and street, probably in an American city such as New York or Washington DC. The actors and actresses are shown walking quickly, but orderly, as if they have done this trip a thousand times before. The text helps add to the chaos a bit, creating a sense of very little space to move and/or breathe. 

The Second Scene

The next scene shows just the associate producer, which has a similar beige/brown background filled with people, likely in their morning or evening commute. Again, the text does not take up too much room, but it is fairly bunched together, like the commuters. The font is capitalized like before, and does connote a small sense of urgency and importance.

The final scene before I get onto the overall theme is the director, Alfred Hitchcock, getting his credit. This is slightly unlike the others, as while it does keep the capitalized letters and basic white text, it is far larger, which puts significant emphasis on Hitchcock, an already acclaimed director. This is most likely to advertise the film, rather than it having too much significance on the content or story itself. That being said, Hitchcock is famous for his thrillers, and since his other films are well known, viewers could have a general idea of what they are about to see from their experiences with his other films.

The Third and Final Scene

Strangely, the title sequence ends here. This is particularly unusual, as it does not give too many details on any institutions, and just two of the main people involved with the film. This is possibly due to time constraints, as the dialogue and story begins shortly after.

There are no diegetic sounds during the sequence, only non-diegetic music, which has a high tempo, and sounds orchestral, which right at the start is unusual for such a common practice event such as the commute. This does create urgency very early on on the film, which could well be an omen for things to come.

Actors (Dan)

Our actors not only look the part, but we can guarantee reliability, which should ensure us plenty of filming time. These will be updated with pictures once we start filming.

Protagonist - Tom Soulsby
Our actor for the protagonist would be someone who can pull of the look of insanity and drug use, hopefully without too much additional make-up. While Tom is not insane and has never done drugs, his face naturally has some typical features that are synonymous with these properties. The skin around his eyes is unusually dark compared to the rest of his body, and can give the illusion of bags, which is a common symptom of drug use. Tom can also pull off a convincing insane character, with eyes appearing to pop out slightly, and hair being scruffy and greasy (we may need external products to help with the latter).

Since Tom has been a friend of mine since the first years of school, I know I can rely on him without question, and he knows he can do the same with me.

Dog Walker - Alan Gomez
Our dog walker needs to be able to pull off convincing anger, and also pull off convincing concern for strangers. Alan fits the bill here. Being a male teen, anger can be shown easily, along with looking threatening. Conversely, he appears to be a fairly happy guy, who genuinely cares for his fellow man.

An interesting juxtaposition is created during the hallucination where the dog walker tells the protagonist that he's a terrible person. Alan needs to look hateful and angry, with a springer spaniel by his side. The dog-actor that we plan on using is one of the least threatening animals I've ever seen, causing a disconnect between reality and what the protagonist sees. Perhaps the dog is the only thing the protagonist sees as pure?

Due to Alan being in a group with Neve and Sophie previously, we know how well he works and can definitely depend on him to arrive for filming.

Victim/Body - Dom
The victim doesn't really need to move, act, or even show face. Therefore, our only priority was how dependable the person was. Dom is currently in a relationship with Sophie, and as such can surely be depended on.

Framing the Shots (Dan)

The shot composition is always a vital part of any film, and when done incorrectly, can lead to disastrous looking scenes.

This opening is no exception. We need an establishing shot when we first show the protagonist escaping the mental hospital, and another when he has arrived in the wood.

If we can get even half the appearance of the man on the right, we're set

Showing the protagonist's mental state through body language and make-up is easy, but we do have to make sure that these are shown through camera angles and shots. Close-ups will be needed to show red eyes with bags underneath, greasy hair and rough skin. The protagonist hasn't been too fussed about his appearance since his schizophrenia development, and the implication of drugs through his eyes will allow us to communicate easily that this man is very distressed.

It probably won't be this happy

A particularly difficult shot (that will look pretty good if pulled off) would be the talking tree. We will have to have 2 shots of the same thing, but one with a person in front of it, and one without. If we merge the two shot layers and have one at maybe 50% opacity, we can get across that the protagonist is hallucinating the trees talking to him, and criticizing him.


Another possible shot that would be very effective would be in the scene where we see the noose. Any shots viewed from the Protagonist's PoV would be shot in black and white, and when he sees the noose, the only time he sees colour is through that circle. This would emphasise his desire to escape life, and leave his horrible thoughts behind. The only way he can achieve true happiness is to assure that he can't be hurt any more.

These are only a few of the important shots, and we will still have to make sure we can keep the standard consistent throughout the opening.

Setting - Butcher's Wood (Dan)

We've chosen Butcher's Wood for a location for multiple reasons.

Reason A being the fact that it's public. There are no permissions required to walk in and film, thus making it easier on us.

Butcher's Wood in the spring/summer

Reason B would be how easy it is to access. Literally down the road from my house, and 2 minute's walk from the station. This reduces the amount of distance to carry equipment, and also allows for an easy to access storage area, thus reducing risks of damaging or equipment.

Reason C is the wood itself. It's called "Butcher's Wood" for a reason, and it would work well with a thriller for the connotations to murder. It can also get some very nice lighting through the trees, as well as some nice soundscapes from the breaking of twigs to the trains passing nearby.

In full bloom

The risks would be getting lost (which shouldn't happen, it's not too large), dropping equipment in water/mud, and slipping on wet wood or ground. We will need to be mindful and make sure to keep everything safe and in sight.

Our storyline centers around our mentally ill protagonist finding a noose that he may or may not have used to attempt suicide, and being triggered to the point where he sees hallucinations and experiences dysphoria. This wood has plenty of sturdy trees that would be able hypothetically to hold up a man's weight without snapping, which would mean someone committing suicide through hanging is not an entirely unrealistic scenario. Woods also give us a few hallucination ideas, such as judgmental dog walkers and talking trees, both of which are in our storyboard.

Garageband Sound Project (Ross and Dan)

Here is our sound project. If the video itself goes over a minute, I don't know why. We did do the sound for the first minute, however.

Some of the sounds that we were looking for did not exist, so we had to make do with what we had. Examples include truck engines, tyre screeching and Harley motorbike engines

Nevertheless, we still think it's pretty good.

Dan's Textual Analysis of No Country for Old Men (Directed by Ethan and Joel Coen)

You could be forgiven for thinking that No Country for Old Men was another Quentin Tarantino film, but it's not.

This is similar to the majority of the first two minutes

 The first minute and a half of this film is very simple. It is a few establishing shots, where it starts at dawn and ends slightly later. It appears to be set in a barren land, vast and empty. The colour scheme is a very golden brown, and the lighting goes from rather dark to quite light. Very few aspects of mise-en-scene are considered in these shots, as we only deal with lighting, colour, setting, composition and - if you count grass and fences - props.

Sunrise turns into day

 These shots appear to be about eye level. They're also static, with no significant angle to speak of. It is a very simplistic intro, with very slow shots and few cuts. It is calm, for now.

Even sound tries to keep it as simplistic as it gets. The only sound is the narration from a sheriff. He remains calm and collected, and talks about his past with a small amount of jargon, to get the viewers asking a few questions.

One of these shots turns out to be a tracking shot, which leads to the introduction of our first prop and two characters.

We assume the man on the left is the narrator

A man is being arrested by a sheriff (we can tell this from his costume), likely the narrator. Both men are relaxed, despite the circumstances. they do not talk between themselves, but the narration continues relatively off-topic. The camera is clearly about hip level, restricting the amount the viewer can see about the facial features of either person, which is also helped by viewing them from behind. Sound stays the same.

This shot alone makes me want to watch the full film

After a shot of the sheriff getting the suspect into the car, we finally begin to see something very suspicious. The sheriff places what appears to be an oxygen tank into the passenger seat of the cruiser. The shot is a close up, implying real significance. The narration still continues without mention of this. It begs the questions "What is it for?" and "Why would a sheriff need it?". We do not find out the answers to these questions during the first two minutes.

Finally, we see the sheriff drive away. The shot pans upwards, creating a high angle. We see again the land is about as empty as it ever was. The narration stops around here too, but a small piece of music starts, to ensure not complete silence. This leads us to the end of the two minutes.

A very slow paced thriller, to begin with

Dan's Textual Analysis of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Directed by Thomas Alfredson)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is significantly different from Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction, in that it tends to follow traditional thriller archetypes.

The first two minutes are filmed at three locations. The images are below.

Location 1: Man's house

Location 3: Street in Budapest

Location 2: Somewhere in Budapest

 In location 1, the shots are fairly slow, with most shots being at medium to long range. It is another conversation between two characters, and this is what you would expect. The area around them heavily implies a research fanatic, very likely a spy. The lighting is dark but warm, the body language is not too relaxed, and the speech is formal. There's very little in sound aside from their dialogue and some diegetic music coming from a record off-screen (which quickly stops). All of these aspects create a sense of unease and discomfort.

In location two, the first thing we hear is some non-diegetic music. It is fairly dainty, a little sad, and quite mysterious. We see a tracking shot that moves from a view of Budapest, to some children on a bridge, with the first half of the shot in the background. The city itself is bright, if a bit grey, and the bridge is rather dark, with an almost monochrome colour scheme. We still do not really know what is going on. The narrator, the old man in the first shot (on the right), is talking, but we still do not know exactly what he needs the younger man to do. This is all in one long shot.

Finally, in location 3, the cuts become slightly faster, and the music picks up a little bit. We can see from the cars and costumes that this is unlikely to be set in the present day. The cars look as old as 1950, and the costumes vary from looking slightly younger to slightly older. The lighting is also the brightest out of all the shots, and the most colourful too. It still looks dreary and a bit wet, which could connote the mood. We still hear the commentary and the music.

So far, from these three locations with their aspects of editing, mise-en-scene, camera work and sound, we can get an idea of the location (Budapest, from the old man's commentary), the time period (mid 1900s) and the job involved (some form of espionage, again from the commentary). 

Dan's Textual Analysis of Pulp Fiction (Directed by Quentin Tarantino)

The start of Pulp Fiction is even less stereotypically thriller than Kill Bill's. The entire two minutes is a conversation between a man and a woman (with a waitress dropping in for a line).

While there are cuts, they transition to one of about 4 different camera shots

Since the setting never changes from this booth, it is extremely easy to identify the aspects of mise-en-scene, so that is where we shall begin.

The setting appears to be a diner, possibly retro 50's styled, with the man and woman both having ordered either coffee. It's bright, likely around midday, and as such the colours are fairly rich. The costumes and hair are fairly casual, indicating just a conversation between two friends/partners.This is very atypical for a thriller, there is no tension or suspense being created from the mise-en-scene alone.

"He walks into a bank with a portable phone..."

That being said, the sound is where the tension comes from. There is no non-diegetic sound, just off and on screen diegetic. The off-screen is just typical diner sounds, conversations at other tables and cutlery scraping on plates, as one would expect. The conversation that the two main subjects are having in front of us is where suspicion and a small bit of tension creep in.

While it is a friendly chat between two friends, the subject is on robbery. They both heavily imply that they are going to rob a place tonight, with that being their last heist. As a viewer, we can't be sure if they are planning on robbing the establishment that they are in, or somewhere else. We know that they have not robbed banks before, as the man in particular explains how, in rather in depth detail, it is easier to rob a bank than a convenience store. As usual from Tarantino, if you do not pay attention to the conversation, you are going to get lost and/or be taken by surprise.

In terms of editing, the pace is fairly average for a conversation between two people. Since the mood at the moment is relaxed, there aren't too many cuts per second, but very few shots last longer than 10 seconds.

The camera work is not too noteworthy. Since there are only about 4 different camera positions, there are few properties for the total 2 minutes.

OTS/POV are quite common for this type of scene

The main shot, in the first picture, is a medium shot, taken at about eye level, just slightly lower. The POV/OTS shots in image 2 and 3 are obviously at eye level, and the only other shot in the scene, where we get a shot of the waitress, is a close up at a fairly low angle.

The "one off" shot

Dan's Textual Analysis of Kill Bill (Directed by Quentin Tarantino)

Kill Bill's introduction is not a very traditional one, which is to be expected from Quentin Tarantino.

The first 2 minutes have a total of 3 cuts. This is unusual for a thriller, but does not take away from the tension. The first shot has the same camera properties (angle, size, location, etc) as the third, the only different shot we see (aside from the opening credits) is the second one, with a character walking towards the injured woman.

The second shot

The majority of the opening (shots 1 and 3)

As shown, it is shot in black and white, which is possibly indicative of the dangerous condition that the woman is in, or giving a noire theme and feel to the film.




Thanks to the lack of colour, it is also difficult to see that the woman is wearing a veil, heavily implying a wedding having been interrupted. If you count it as a prop, then it is one of two. The second is a very significant one.

"Bill"

This handkerchief clearly belongs to a man called "Bill". We can safely assume that Bill is the man cleaning this woman's face. Thanks to the title of the film, "Kill Bill", we can also safely assume that he's the villain and very possibly the one who caused the damage. From very few props, restricted camera work and no colour, we can still pick up a fair few elements of story.

The first couple of shots only involve heavy breathing and footsteps as sounds, but during the third, the only sounds are dialogue. Not going into too much detail, we find out that Bill feels very little remorse for the pain caused to the woman, and his actions are "nothing sadistic".

We are not sure where the bullet hits the head

The split second before the third shot cuts to the opening credits, we hear an off-screen gunshot and a quick splatter of blood. This could imply that the narrative is not in chronological order. She could be dead and this be the end of the story, however she could only be comatose. We cannot confirm either at this point in the film.

Throughout the entirety of the two minutes, there are no non-diegetic sounds, two props, three cuts

Daniel's Review of The Usual Suspects (Apologies for being late)

This post will be discussing the opening 2 minutes of The Usual Suspects.

The very first thing that a viewer will see (that is not text) is a few matches being lit. This is very foreboding, as one soon finds out. The shot is an extreme close up, heavily suggesting the significance of this igniting. The camera work is very smooth and slow, as we find out from the shots that a fight has just occurred and is now over. As the new shady character appears, we get a low angle shot, transferring power to that character. The camera actually never goes above the assumed protagonist's face, all of which sends messages of power and significance to the man who is not lying on the floor.

Sound wise, it is fairly quiet. For the first minute or so, the majority is either liquid or fire. There is no non-diegetic or off-screen sound. This allows the viewer to focus entirely on the scene in front of them, trying to piece together the mystery of the fight that had just unfolded. After the two men have their conversation, it flips. Music appears (non-diegetic), and a gunshot is heard (off-screen). This makes the viewer tense and question the relationship between the two men (respectively).

The cuts are infrequent. It is not a quick paced action scene such as the fight that preceded it. We also know this from the slow camera work. It is a time to ask questions and try to solve a mystery that is deliberately constructed so that the viewer does not have enough information to answer it, despite it being the end of the narrative.

Finally, mise-en-scene. The setting is dark, wet and grey. The only real change of colour would be fire, which again, puts emphasis on it. We know a fight just happened because of the assumed protagonist who appears to be injured, the liquid drenching the floor, and the multiple corpses on the ground. The assumed protagonist himself also looks rather scruffy and beaten up, heavily implying a struggle. It very much gets across to the viewer that this is not a life of luxury, it is dangerous, a "fight for your survival" kind of life. After this first scene, we get to find out if that implication is true.

Daniel Poncelet

Risk Assesment

Upon the filming of our sequence, we needed to assess any dangers of which could potentially cause any harm to anyone involved.

One risk was loose wires, all wires must be either put away, or if loose wires will inevitably be running, ensure the wires are neatly fed through and possibly even taped down so no-one will trip over them.

Secondly, the equipment. Due to having larger objects such as tripods in a dark room for filming, the issues could come from the stands from the equipment, in the shots with little or no lighting we must keep the space around any possible danger areas. Another way to prevent risk could be leaving the lights on as much as possible especially when maneuvering the camera and lighting.

Evaluation

The proccess.

Firstly we set up all the necessary accounts. We completed what paperwork came with this, and got down to business. We drafted out some ideas, mapped and planned out what was to follow and begun soon after with the story board.

The story board was a very important, we took to post-it notes for this so we could manoeuvre the shots should we change our minds, We finished the illustration and then marked on how long each shot would take in order to understand how long our filming should be as well.

Moreover, we did some research which helped us to understand what shots are most effective, and also the different filming techniques. This led us to some great examples and we also went over the rules such as the 180 degree rule, in order to check we would have no future issues.

Filming- this is the main part of evaluation for the preliminary task, we had a smooth process for filming, no real issues, we had co-operative actors, and it was overall a successful task.  

Any problems?

Whilst filming we had few problems, however, one of the most important rules of the preliminary task is the 180 degree rule. It is hugely important we stick to this rules throughout.

We had our clips sorted, however decided it would be good to have some extra variation, a point of view shot came to mind (POV). After recording this shot we analysed it, in was unclear as to whether we had obliged to the 180 degree rule. Our next step was to re-record this shot, We can to be sure, we done this and we moved on.

Later, we got down to editing, it was here we once again came across the shot, we played it through multiple times before concluding, the rule was very close, too close to being broken. We played around with the software, flipped the shot, tried a few things. There was no way forward from here, we had to remove the shot,