Online diary - 19/10/2012 preliminary task evaluating

19 October 2012

Evaluating my Premliminary task

Today I finished evaluating my preliminary task. We watched everyone's preliminary tasks in class, so that we could get some feed back to comment on. The feedback I recieved was really helpfull as not only have I evaluated my preliminary task, I now know where and how to improve next time I use the editing software. The editing was the only real problem I had, as there were bits that should have been cut out to make it flow better, such as bits where the camera shakes slightly.

I also need to imporve on my match-on-action skills, as the scene with the door doesn't quite work. This is because when Jasmine is on the ouside of the door she opens it slightly, then when we are inside the room she opens it again when it should already be opened a bit.

However, I used the 180 degree rule correctly and never broke it, the audience never got confused as to where characters were in the shot. I used a variety of shots in the clip, getting them from diiferent angles, such as close-ups and high angle shots. This made the clip more interesting for the viewers. I didn't use any effects as I thought that they were not necessary, and would take away from the video. 

Research film analysis: Halloween (horror)

This is the opening for John Carpenter's famous horror movie Halloween. For This analysis i'm going to cut out the opening credits and start from the beginning of the story (02.20). The film is set on Halloween Night 1963 in Haddonfiled, Illinois, USA.

The first shot you see is of a white house, apparently inhabbited as some of the lights are on.This point of view shot shows the audience someones perspective as it looks like the audience is walking with the person. The building seems to be isolated from others. This typical cliche is to make the people in the house seem vunerable; if something was to happen there is no one around to hear. The camera pans from the front door to the side window, through which we see a man and a woman making out. They seem to be alone in the house. This is once again, typical of horror movies as they usually begin with one or two people alone in the building as they make easy prey. The boyfriend and girlfriend then run upstairs, presumably to a bedroom.

From the opening two minutes, you can tell it is a horror film as when the upstairs light goes off, you hear some creepy music, which gives a sense of awareness to the audience as they realise that something is wrong. The light could symbolise the end of someone's life. Also, the camera moves around the house as if someone is walking around outside. This makes the audience feel uneasy as they realise that there is someone unknown oustide watching. When the camera enters the house you see an arm of a child get a knife out of the drawer, making the audience realise the potential killer is a child, which goes against all natural instincts as children are supposed to be innocent.

research film Analysis: Terminator 2: Judgement day (action/sci-fi)

This is the opening clip of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, a action/sci-fi film.

The first shot is of a battle field that looks like it used to be a children's playground. There is broken stuff everywhere and as the camera pans around the scene you also see lots of human skulls. This immediately set the scene, making it obvious that this is a film about a war. There i a voice in the background explaining the scene and the 'war against the machines'.

The next shot is of a mechanical foot stepping on, and crushing a human skull. This shows that currently the machines are winning. The camera then pans up and you get to see the 'machines' for the first time. In action movies there is always 2 sides, one good and one evil. In this shot, it is made clear that the machines are the evil ones, with humanity being the good side.

The next shot you see is of a group of humans with equipment and guns running and hiding from the machines, some of which are instantly killed by lasers and others surviving near misses. This gives the machines the upper hand and makes humanity seem vunerable. This is another typical cliche of action movies; the heros can sustain fatal injuries and still carry on as if nothing happened.

Preliminary Task

This is the evaluation of my preliminary task, where we were asked to show a character walking through a door, sitting down opposite someone and exchanging a few lines of dialogue.

I used the 180 degree rule effectively, never breaking it for any reason. This means that the clip flows better and the audience will not get confused while watching it. The editing was good, although there were a few moments where clips needed to be cut shorter to cut out unwanted camera movement or unwanted sound. My match on action had room for improvement, which is shown in the scene where the character opens the door. in this scene, you see the character open the door from the outside, then when we are inside the room the character re-opens the door when it should have already been slightly open. I used a variety of camera shots, some of which worked better than others. This gave variety to the clip, and showed that I can use a variety of different shot types.

research: film analysis of The Ring (horror)

This is the opening scene of The Ring, a remake of the 1998 movie Ring.

The first shot is of a large house. It is dark outside and raining havily, adding to the spooky atmosphere. There seems to be no houses nearby, which is a typical cliche of horror films, as there are no neighbours to help should something happen. This also helps us to get the setting.
The next shot we see are of two teenage girls in a bedroom, flicking through TV channels, before finally turning the TV off. This is another typical horror movie cliche, as teenagers alone are never a good sign and nearly always end up dying in some hideous way, or ending in some sort of mental institute.This gives teenagers the impression that everyone wants them to die and yet is what makes horrors so popular among teenagers.
They begin to talk about this tape that exists, one of them claiming that she's seen it, before faking being strangled. This makes us think that teenagers don't believe in anything supernatural or evil, or just think it isn't going to happen to them. Then the phone rings, which always happens in horror films and should never be answered. The girls have obviously scared themselves as they don't answer the phone. when the phone downstairs rings, they go and answer it. The one who answers it looks scared and hands the reciever to the other girl. As it turns out  it is a parent checking up on them, which shows that they're still not taking this tape thing seriously.