Treatment two

9/10/16 PLANNING: Treatment

I have researched into film openings and watched a video by Frank Ash, he describes how every successful TV opening needs a top line and a big question. 

Top line: Young girl escapes from a pharmaceutical laboratory thanks to one scientist releasing her.

The big question: Will she escape? Why is she in there? Why is this happening?

Treatment: a young girl is kept in unclean quarantine due to her having a deadly disease. She decides to manipulate a young boy to let her out of her cell, when he does she escapes into the forest. We see the head of the lab talking to him and showing him pictures of the girl and at the same time it flashes to the girl running through a forest and tripping and gasping for air. As these cross cuts are happening the head of the lab explains the danger this girl has. a flash light shines on her face and it’s revealed that a nice local couple who are on a walk have found her, not the cop.

9/10/16 PLANNING: Treatment

9/10/16 PLANNING: Treatment

I have researched into film openings and watched a video by Frank Ash, he describes how every successful TV opening needs a top line and a big question.

Top line: Young girl escapes from a pharmaceutical laboratory thanks to one scientist releasing her.

The big question: Will she escape? What did they do to her? What does this girl know that makes her so important?

Treatment: a young girl is being held captive at an interrogation lab because she has been given a new illegal drug developed by her parents who are undercover pharmacists. She is acting very strange and they are carrying out tests on her. We see flashbacks to her parents injecting her and she gets released on purpose by a young man working there who thinks it’s wrong and that she is unsafe. We see the head of the lab talking to him and showing him pictures of the girl and at the same time it flashes to the girl running through a forest and tripping and gasping for air we also see a nasty looking cop with a gun running after her and we worry for her life, a flash light shines on her face and it’s revealed that a nice local couple who are on a walk have found her, not the cop.

The Matrix

The Matrix

Soundtrack

·         Diegetic sounds of a high pitched ringing when the numbers are all changing at the beginning. This high pitched sound gives the effect of uneasiness on the audience as it slowly gets louder, as the camera pans closer to the numbers. This lets the audience know that numbers and code are paying an important factor in the movie. The effect of the noise warping as you go through the numbers, show they are the most important feature of the opening and the sound revolves around them.

·         Diegetic sounds of guns loading before this woman. This gives the effect of real danger for this woman. As there are multiple guns loaded and aimed at her. This sound draws attention and danger to the guns, making the audience feel the presence of them not just in the movie. This helps bring fear into not only into the film, but into the audience as well.

Camera work

·         The slow upward pan towards the female characters face, this shows her to be the main protagonist as she is the only face we have spent more than one second with. The use of making us spend time with her, brings us closer to the character. This also makes us root for this character from then on, helping the audience feel the fear she has, as she is in real danger.

·         The high angle shot of all the police cars outside the hotel, this shot really solidifies how serious this situation is. There were around seven police cars there, making the audience realise this is a serious crime. This draws the audience to watch on as they will want to know what this girl doing that is caused this much of a commotion.

Mise en scene

·         The opening set as a dark gloomy hallway, this hallway has low hanging wires that are very dangerous looking, making the audience fear why these police are risking a dangerous situation, what is so important? The hallway has not lights, maybe showing the lack of good in that space. The walls are grey and dripping with water and mould. This is very off putting to the audience and lets them know through foreshadowing this is not a light movie.

·         The two men that enter outside the hotel are in all black suits, this is very different to the other officials there. The police are all in uniform and seem quite taken aback by these men. The black suits and black sunglasses hide the face of these characters, meaning we do not attach or root for them when we first see them. They have a wire ear piece, meaning they are on official business, this is making the situation at this hotel more important. This wire also means the men could be being told what to do, so we do not trust them at first.

Editing

·         At the beginning there is a stream of EFX, in the form of green numbers quickly all changing across the screen. This gives the effect of coding through the screen. This sets the theme of the film as linked with computers, and coding. The code is always changing throughout, making the audience uneasy as the code looks as if it’s being changed.

·         In the opening scene of police wandering through the hotel, there are lots of fast cuts. The use of quick cuts and changing gives the effect of intensity in the police. And action are they are quickly moving around and knocking down doors. This makes us feel as if we are wandering in the dark with these men. However we do not trust them as they are not spending much time on screen. And not one of their faces is shown for longer than half a second.

                                                                                                                                                                        

Scoopit! collates all my crime drama links on the internet. it forms the basis of my research. Scoopit! is interactive, this makes suggestions about what other TV crime drama program's. Using Scoopit! I collect data on number of TV crime drama programs.

One of the most useful for the research more traditional crime drama is the BFI Screenonline site. i decided to look at how more traditional crime dramas function.

Research: Openings

I chose to research Moonrise Kingdom as one of my openings to study. The reason I chose Moonrise Kingdom is mostly for the editing work, cinematography, directing and lack of dialogue yet maximum effectiveness. The whole four minute opening tells the audience a lot about the main characters backstory, interests and life. It does this in a series of two shots, while having many characters and room changes. The opening focusses not on the main character of the twelve year old Suzy, but on her three brothers. In the very beginning the camera focusses on a painting of the local lighthouse. This first scene is foreshadowing for one of the final scenes in the movie. The camera then pans along the house to reveal the rest of the family.

The fact that none of the family are seen together accept the brothers is explaining the disconnect between the parents with each other and with their daughter. The mother is scene smoking and washing alone. Whereas in all the rooms the father is seen reading the newspaper. This showing the repetitive life their family is stuck in. Suzy is seen carrying around her binoculars, these are a key part of the opening and continue to be important as a symbol for Suzy’s identity throughout the film. They are described as her “super power”. Showing her love for the unrealistic and fantasy rather than reality, this is also shown by her book. He whole opening is shot in an uncomfortably warm overtone and colouring, this is to highlight the lack of warmth in Suzy’s life. And the way everyone around her is building up a fake warm home.

Throughout the opening there is no dialogue between any characters in the film. This is to show the lack of communication in her family but also to highlight the camera work and acting instead. There is instead a voice over of a boy explaining how a symphony’s structure can be pulled apart into sections. These sections represent how the lives of this family are separate and not sounding put together.

The mummy returns

Mise-en sene

The use of mise-en scene is shown through the old fashioned Egyptian landscapes. They are shown as vast, exotic and ancient therefore showing the great power of the Egyptian rulers. The architecture looks regal and majestic as if a great king lived there.  Another use of mise-en sene is the house of the family, it is huge, detailed and intercut. This shows the wealth of the family, in the house it is filled with literature and paintings showing their culture and appreciation for arts. For example the detailed expensive portrait of napoleon.

Editing

During the opening scene fight battle the editing speeds up, cross-cutting is used continually to help emphasise the emersion of the audience into the fight and the fast editing builds up tension. The other use of editing is when Anubis the sun god is edited into the scene killing and rampaging the castle. This editing it used to bring fear into the audience as this muscly, tall, terrifying god is sene. This is used to help the audience later understand the fear of the characters.

Camera work

When the god Anubis is first seen fighting the army of the people all we see is a low angle shot of him. This emphasises his vastness and makes him seem bigger and therefor more menacing. Another use of camera work is when the hero protagonist is fighting the people at the British museum there are many point of view shots, this forces you to spend time with the character and see the film from their view. Causing you to build up a relationship with the hero.

Soundtrack

There is music is used during the fighting scene of the warriors to intensify the tension and suspense. This makes the audience feel more amused into the action and worried at what the music may be building to! Another use of soundtrack is when there is a voice over near the beginning of the piece to give a background story, so the audience then feel they know more than the antagonists, therefore they are hooked to the screen as they want to see them understand what you do.  

Media Revision

Film Posters

Aims

·       To analyse the conventions and design of film posters

·       Focus on the action and adventure culture

·       Use media terminology

Design and conventions

·       Film title is always prominent and usually near the bottom

·       Text is stylised to suit the genre of film

·       Actors names top of the poster

·       Main image can show the basis of film

·       Tag line, teases the audience, raises questions clues of sub-genre e.g. action thriller

·       Release date

·       List of cast and crew if you like the director

·       Expert witnesses mostly newspapers saying positive

·       Age classifications

Media terminology for posters

·       Genre, type of film

·       Audience and demographic, who the film is aimed at

·       Connotation, what images and colours can mean

·       Protagonist, hero

·       Antagonist, villain

·       Narrative, story (tag line can show)

·       Representation, the way anything is presented

·       Stereotype, for comedic effect

·       Unique selling point, standing out or the different  

Unconventional posters

·       Differences, the Truman show has lots of images creating one thing

·       No main image, clues of genre

·       Very little information 

   Why we watch TV?

·       

          Amusing interesting. Escapism

·        Relationships. Repeat people like there qualities. Celebs

·        Surveillance, questions. Like to know the answers

·        Values. People watch what supports their ideology   

   Discredited

·        Hyperaemic syringe model, watching violent games makes violence. Passive will take and use

   We use media to gratify our needs 

Action and adventure 

Think carefully about how the protagonists are constructed: are they conventional heroic figures?

They are conventional A&A protagonists in the fact they have the convention of being typically good looking, they are also intelligent as they can plan a heist. this shows their skills 

they also show courage and bravery in escaping after a heist. however they are committing a crime but due to these conventions they are almost forgiven. 

Identify the two main nationalities represented and make judgements about how the audience's responses towards them are shaped. There are no superheroes in this extract  but there are definite gender representations, such as a 'father' figure. Also, how is the ‘big city’ represented in this extract?

two main nationality represented are the Italians, who are not doing their jobs as security guards, watching football and smoking instead. this shows laziness. the other nationality is the Americans who are represented. they are shown as handsome, heroic and more intelligent than the Italians. they are therefor the protagonist. we are more likely therefore to side with the Americans.  the father figure in this extract is represented as the older of the men. he praises the men when they do well ans refer to the with "kid". the city is represented very delicate and beautiful. this makes the heist seem bigger and more intense. 

First Ideas

What went well?

• Good background for the setting, a Cyprian beach to show exotics. 
• The colours matched well and fitted with the vibrant theme 
• The girl was placed in a good position leaving space for bottle 

What did not go  well? 

• There was not a lot of substance in the photo
• There was nothing artsy or interesting about it
• It was very simple with not much theme 
• 

Johnny English

Johnny English 

 

Johnny is an anti-hero, we can see this from his serious attitude and go getting ways yet instead of succeeding brilliantly in a normal spy movie for example James bond he fails and often hurts himself. This creates a relationship with the audience as we can relate to the normal human like tendency. The audience also gets to watch and laugh at him which is entertaining and funny. 

He is commanding to the female character and seemingly brave, we can see this by the large building he is attempting to get into. He is courageous as he is willing to in in though a sewage pipe. He seems to be attempting an amazing stunt of going into a tall building. 

The female character stays behind as the so called more powerful man checks for safety, she tells him to "be careful out there". He replies in a smooth brave tone assuring her he will. But after he hits his head very hard on the pipe. This is funny as it is showing his clumsy attitude and failure to be smooth.