Batman: Analysis

·         Mise en scene

·         Camerawork  FAM frame, angle, movement

·         Editing TOP transitions, order of narrative, pace

·         Soundtrack

(USE EXAMPLES FROM EXTRACT)

Notes on Batman clip

Night time

Fire

Explosion

Dramatic music

Speaker phone from police car

Cars crashing

Close ups of faces

Dim lights

Suspension – transition from face close up to fast moving car

Helicopter

Quick changes – seeing different teams – batman and police

Car flying

Flashing lights – police siren

High/long angle to fit in setting – create the scene

View from car – displaying danger and speed

Talk about the editing and camerawork of this short clip

The movement and the transitions of this short clip are extremely fast – this means a lot can happen in such a big scene. It also allows everything that happens to be seen. This builds up excitement and suspense for the audience. The different camera views allow the viewer to either see everything such as the start of the clip where there is a bird eye view so the audience are able to see the setting and vaguely guess what’s going on and also to allow the audience unaware of what’s happening – where the cameras view is from the car window. This also displays danger and speed from the car, also adding suspense. The pace is very fast adding to the build up of excitement created for the audience purpose, this is helped by lots of movement. Fast cars driving build up tension and anxiety for the characters from the audience and allow the order of the narrative to flow whilst still being quick and choppy for the thrill factor.

Textual Anlaysis

Looking At Genres

-          Acton/Adventure

-          Noise effects

-          More than 1 thing going in 1 one screen / fast cuts

-          Props

-          Dramatic / fast music

-          Suspense / Thrilling / Romance

-          Establishing shot (seeing what’s in the scene)

-          Tracking shots to follow action

-          Super hero / Villon

-          James Bond / King Kong

-          Violence

Camera: MAF

-          Movement (Tilt/Pan/Tracking/Handheld/Crane/Ariel)

-          Angle (High/Low angle/Eye-level)

-          Frame (ES/LS/MS/CU/ECU)

Task: Find action images, for each of the above – say what effect has, linking to the action, adventure genre.

1) 

 

  This shot is a long shot because even though you cannot see the animals in full, they’re clearly a lot bigger than the woman and are slightly back, out of the edge of the shot. The angle is a tall eye level because it is in level with the animal’s faces but not the woman’s however it is not completely above her.

2)

This shot is a long shot because the buildings are far away whereas the monkey and the aeroplanes are in focus and closer to the camera, this is because obviously they are moving and, here flying towards the camera. It is at a high angle to get the whole capture and clearly show what’s going on in the screen shot. The movement of the shot is tilt to get the full inspiration of the monkey jumping upwards and how high it actually is.

Love Actually Scree Shot Analysis

Studying Opening Scene Elements

The purpose of an opening title sequence to a film is to establish the visual style of the film and to introduce to the viewer the following:

-         Characters

-         Location

-         Narrative/Plot

-         Genre

-         Themes

Typically, an opening sequence will contain:

-         Details of the cast and crew

-         The film’s title

-         An introduction to character/type

-         Indication of the place

-         Indication of the historical period

-         Information regarding mood and tone

-         Introduction to signature theme tune

-         Information about the genre

-         Questions that the viewer finds intriguing

-         Patterns and types of editing that will be echoed in the remainder of the film

-         Mise en scene and cinematography that will be echoed or elaborated upon later in the film

(Cinematography is the creation of motion picture images. It can involve the use of film or digital imagery, usually with a movie camera. It is closely related to the art of still photography. Many additional technical difficulties and creative possibilities arise when the camera and elements of the scene may be in motion.)

This lesson we looked at other Media AS student’s work who had developed their ideas into short movie opening sequences. We watched three including Affliction, Deadly Shadow and Glitch. They was all very high-quality and professional. I was very impressed and they gave me inspiration and some proficient ideas for my ideas. Within the lesson we watched them 3 or four times and analysed them, saying what we thought went really well and things they could of improved on.  This will help me with planning and developing my opening sequence because I can get a good idea on what things really work well and the sort of things that don’t.

Affliction

What went well…

Ü  Brilliant sound effects

Ü  Good music choice

Ü  Straight forward shots

Ü  Created the right mood – enigma

Ü  No Dialogue

Even Better If…

Ü  Some pauses went on for too long

Ü  Too loud when boy trod on the glass

Ü  Mug didn’t fit in with the mood – didn’t look write

Ü  Didn’t understand the purpose of the phone call, confusing for audience

Ü  Actor didn’t respond well to being tortured also costume – didn’t look tortured or as if he was put through a lot to get to where he was

Ü  Also actor’s reaction wasn’t dramatic enough when he found out about his daughter being kidnapped

Deadly Shadow

What went well…

Ü  Slow motion shots

Ü  Really go quality make up

Ü  Good atmosphere created

Ü  Good timing with the shots

Ü  Good use of angles

Even Better If…

Ü  Wrong actor for the main character, too immature and young looking, looked unprofessional and killed the mood slightly.

Ü  Music didn’t match

Ü  Font of the writing of credits didn’t match genre

Ü  Setting was too casual

Ü  Lighting too bright for genre, should have been darker to make a sinister look

Ü  Title and font lead audience to believe ‘religious’ and completely isn’t

Ü  Actions were too sharp, the acting looked to rehearsed