Thursday, 18 February 2010

Intro to Cameras & Health and Safety Tutorial



Intro to Cameras & Health and Safety Tutorial has allowed us to understand how a camera works and improtant aspects of Health and Safety.



Firstly we were introduced to JVC cameras and we have learnt the followings;


  • How to insert the memory card into slot A & B
  • How to insert the battery
  • How to turn the camera On and Off
  • How to record & play back
  • Focus Assist function
  • User selection (1 & 2)
  • Manual audio control - Auto shooting mode
  • Zoom In & Out
  • Tripod - to attach camera for steady cam
  • Tripod base adapter
  • Lock and unlock the camera on the tripod

Art of the Title Sequence

Casino Royale


Casino Royale title sequence cut to the film's title song, You Know My Name, by Chris Cornell.A narrative opening with the titles running throughout the sequence includes graphic elements of motifs that reflect the style and the genre of the film.
Designer: Daniel Kleinman

News and current affairs events


PAIR ARRESTED OVER DEATH OF TWO-YEAR-OLD

Two people have been arrested following the death of a two-year-old girl in Birmingham. A 47-year-old man and a woman aged 23 were arrested on suspicion of neglect and have since been bailed pending further inquiries. Police said the incident occurred on Monday morning in Harborne when emergency services received reports of a child in cardiac arrest. The girl later died in hospital. A cause of death has not been determined.

This disastrous event could be story line for a crime thriller as they usually emphasize action over psychological aspects. The 47-year-old man could have pychological problems where he forces a women aged 23 to help him plan his cruel action to kill two-year-old girl to take revenge from her family.

Tuesday, 16 February 2010

News And Currents Affairs Events


Afghanistan blast kills UK bomb expert in Helmand

A British soldier has been killed by an explosion while trying to clear a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

The member of 36 Engineer Regiment died as a result of wounds he suffered north east of Sangin, Helmand province.

This explosion happened in Afghanistan. This could become a good thriller movie, the movie could be about the UK bomb expert was going to clear a roadside bomb but then another group had planted another bomb near by, he is trying to defuse this bomb, and any minute now the new bomb could go off.

News And Currents Affairs Events

















Kingsman Sean Dawson of 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, who was killed in southern Afghanistan.


Kingsman Sean Dawson, 19, from 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, died in the Musa Qala area of Helmand Province on Sunday evening.

Kingsman Dawson, from Stalybridge, Manchester, was deployed to Afghanistan on January 16 after passing a course to become a sniper. He was killed while taking part in an ambush of suspected militants near Patrol Base Minden in the north of Helmand. The incident was not connected to the ongoing Operation Moshtarak to drive the Taliban out of a stronghold around Marjah and Nad-e-Ali in Helmand.

This sad story could potentially be a good thriller, mainly beacuse there are many thrillers based on terrorism and war. This story could be about a young man who's only ambition is to serve his country, however his journey could be very sad, thrilling and traumatic.

The Art Of The Title Sequence


The title sequence i chose to Analyse is Dawn Of The Dead.













Dawn of the dead is a haunting thriller, it has many bloody and scary scenes.

Intro To Cameras & Health and Safety Tutorial

In our intro for camera & health and safety tutorial we learned how to use a camera and this tutorial really allowed us to understand all the functions of the camera.

We learned, how there are two slots where we could put two memory cards in (A&B).
How to turn the camera on and off.
How to set up a Tripod.
How to focus with the camera and zoom in and out.
How to detach and attach the lens.
How to record and play back footage.
How to insert the memory card, and how important it is to always remember to take the memory card out of the camera after we are done with it.
How to attach the camera to the tripod, and also how to lock and unlock the camera on the tripod.


Camera Tripod











Thursday, 11 February 2010

Art Of The Title Sequence

300
The title sequence of the movie 300.
The font used in this title sequence looks like a font which is used in comics.
The titles are placed onto the black parts which are shown as shadow's.
The title is 300 which explains how many warriors there is or how many is left.
They don't give any images of the real characters, the imagery looks like it has came out from a comic.
The shots used are mainly wide shots, to show to show the surroundings and also to see a bunch of characters, a mid shot to see a man holding a shield and a knife and a close up of a man spitting blood.
The reason i have chosen this title sequence is because it sounds out from other title sequences, its a comic title sequence and it doesn't introduce any of the characters.
The title sequence of the movie 300:
http://artofthetitle.com/media/film/2006/300_end_titles_720p.html

Hi Group 13

Hello there happy group. The blog is looking really nice overall - I especially like some of the analysis you have been doing on fonts. The blog could be a little more varied in the media you use - so start to embed some clips to add variety. Also - none of the practice filming you did for the bag swap/card game is up there so come to workshop to upload!!
well done so far.

Match Cut Preliminary

Friday, 5 February 2010

Live Type & Sound Track Pro Skills

Live Type
I have learnt how to create a title sequence by using the software Live Type. I have learnt how to make a effective background and how to add affect to the text, e.g. how the texts comes in/out during the sequence.
Sound Track Pro
We also used the software Sound Track Pro, this software is to create a soundtrack with lots of different layers of sounds to make one full soundtrack, it was easy to use as you only had drag the sounds onto the time player.

Thursday, 4 February 2010

Live Type & Soundtrack Skills

This is a title which I've made in LiveType. We will be using this program to create the original title for our original clip. LiveType is great to use because you can choose from different effects and different types of fonts for your title.

This is a program called SoundTrack. I will be using this to create the soundtrack and some types of sound effects for our little clip. This program is actually good to use because it has a variety of instruments to choose from.

Skills Audit - Livetype and Sound

Livetype


To create the specific type of font during producing our thriller film opening, we were introduced to Livetype a program on Apple Macs which has allowed us to view variety of different fonts in different styles. The program Livetype is really useful and quick way to produce the type of font you would like to have.

Soundtrack

On Apple Macs we were also introduced to Soundtrack. This program allows us to listen to variety of different sounds. It is also possible to edit the sound you have inserted on to the timeline. This program will be useful for our soundtrack for our opening sequence as we are need to produce our soundtrack without a copywright.

live type and soundtrack pro


To have a good thriller opening title sequence, we need to have a good quality opening title with a soundtrack that creates anxiety. The two programs that will allow us to do this is, Live Type and Sound.


Live Type allows us to create a title sequence which helps express the mood and genre of the film for example, every font, size of font and colour represents an emotion. Live type can be used in Final Cut Pro, which is very handy because, we originally need to create our thriller opening title sequence in Final Cut Pro.

Soundtrack allows us to create music that we could use in our thriller opening title sequence. Music can really create tension, and Soundtrack is a great program to use because it allows us to combine a variety of instruments with each other, which could possibly turn out to be music that really creates anxiety and suspicion.

Teacher comment

Great to see that this group have acquired the 'blogging habit'. Good work. Now look for ways to make your blogs more personal and reflective, almost like a diary, so the reader gets a good sense of your learning and your progress.

Wednesday, 3 February 2010

Suspense

Suspense is something that makes the audience jump out of their seat with fright, It gives people that little thrill. Every Thriller film will have suspense in it to keep their veiwers locked on to the movie. In-order to do this suspense and build up tension, films try getting their viewers in unexpected scenes.
United 93

United 93 is a 2006 American film wrriten, co-produced, and directed by Paul Greengrass.



The film opens early on the morning of September 11, 2001 with hijackers Ahmed al-Nami and al-Haznawi praying in their hotel room.
The first scene of the praying builds BIG tension for religious people especially because they're religious themselves and they try putting themselves in the actors shoes to see if its right to do what they are going to do, and the fact we don't see their faces, and just hear their voices which makes it even more suspenseful.

Eventually the four hijackers get through the security check and into the plane without any trouble, makes us think because one of the hijackers had a little knife on them, which didn't show up on the security check. This also reminds us that America had low security in 2001, however now its the opposite they are taking real serious actions, for it to not happen again.

Once they get seated into the plane, it takes sometime for it to take off. Meanwhile someone gives a phonecall to the U.S airline services to tell them that one of there planes going to get hijacked. Thats one of the scenes that keeps the audiences interested in the film itself, making us think what will happen next. Eventually it takes off and the airline people can't get through to the plane, so they get the army involved.
One of the hijackers play a great role, because we see him seated at the front, they are all nervous, however the hijacker seated at the front is more nervous, as if he didn't want to do this, Infact we know that there is someone he loves, as he calls her before he gets on the plane.

This makes us think that the hijackers had no choice at all, but to do this and aim at the White House as their target. Throughout the whole film we are kept suspensed from the things that take part. At the end all the plane passengers gather around and the BIG men get ahold of weapons and decide to attack the terrorists, which they believe is the only way to stay alive. At this point the audiences get a little smile on their face as they would of wanted for the passengers to do this. The ending turns out to be more action because there is weapons and fighting involved, which viewers like to see. However at the end the plane crashes and they all die. Comparing this to all other films, shows there is big differences, in most films there are main characters and famous actors, however in United 93 there isn't any main characters or any famous actors that live at the end. This is what makes this film different. Its a great thriller, I recommend people to watch this.

Monday, 1 February 2010

Thriller sub-genres

There is also another type of genre called sub-genres, this goes in more detail and gives us an idea of what type the genre is, such as what the production is about.



Psycho (1960) - Psychoanalytical Thriller
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Psycho has been called "the first psychoanalytical thriller." Psychoanalytical Thrillers are mainly thrillers about people with psychological problems, and it shows things which they can lead to do, e



Thirteen Ghosts (2001) - Horror Thriller
Thirteen Ghosts (also known as Thir13en Ghosts or 13 Ghosts) is a 2001 horror film directed by Steve Beck.
Horror thriller films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death.


Blade (1998) - Action Thriller
Blade is a 1998 vampire action thriller film. Action thrillers normally contrain weapons and dangerous props, such as guns and explosives, this shows the action part of the thriller film. Its exciting to watch.


Introduction

The stucture of the thriller openings.

There are three types of basic Thriller openings:

-A narrative opening with the titles running throughout.
-A discrete title sequence.
-Titles on a plain background, followed by the narrative opening.

I have studied four different Thriller openings:

The shining - A narrative opening with the titles.
Arlington Road - A discrete title sequence.
What Lies Beneath - Titles on a plain background..
Deja Vu - A narrative opening with the titles.