Opening sequences

Last week in class we analysed the opening sequences of various different types of film genre.
The areas we looked at were:

1. Genre
2. Setting
3. Narrative
4. Atmosphere
5. Character 

One sequence we watched was from the 2008 film "Hell boy 2 The Golden Army". The Genre of this film is an sci-Fi action film. You can tell this from the sudden threatening type of soundtrack played, This involved a lot of scraping and clashing of metal.  The fact that in the sequence there was aspects of lava helped enthasize that the film was going to be about hell, horror and even death. And also obviously the devil boy at the start shows hell.



We then analysed the same areas for two other film sequences  they were: The american thriller film "Cape Fear" and the Psychological mind twisting film "Seven", And then the all time classic family film "Forrest Gump".   

Story Board Task

Over the past week me and my team have been working on a story board remake of the short film Milita 114.  we watched the original film and then story boarded the first few camera shots. Once we had done this we had a go at mking a remake of the film using the shots from our story board.

This is a clip from Milita 114 of the shots we story boarded:

The clip shows various different camera angles and shots, especially the shots of the man running.


We then did a story board of camera shots from this clip which i will upload shortly.


This is then the clip that me and my group shot from the story board of Miltia 114:

British Film Institute

Today we went on a trip to the British Film Institute in London. Their we sat through various talks and lectures with speakers on how to create the best opening sequence for our coursework. The day also held question and answer sessions were us the pupils, could ask the guest speakers relevant questions.

One of my favorite parts of the day (apart from the bus journey ;) was the guest speaker Joe Cornish.
Joseph Murray "Joe" Cornish is an English comedian, television and radio presenter, director, writer and actor, who together with his long-time comedy partner, Adam Buxton, form the comedy duo Adam and Joe. 
Throughout the talk Joe went on to explain about the film and how he pit together many of the scenes, (especially the opening shot). 

This video below shows Joe Cornish talking about his film: Attack the Block. The genre of the movie is a cross between a sci-fi and a gang culture film.

Overall the trip was good and I learnt a whole range of new techniques and advice to use of my media coursework. 
  

First practical filming

Over the past couple of weeks we have been working in small groups to produce two separate clips showing and experimenting with the different types of camera angles used in filming.


The video below is my groups first attempt at practical filming on site. 

Opening sequence and first use of cameras

This week we focused on two things: the first was to examine an film clip of which i choose the 2007 comedy film "HOT FUZZ". We then had to present our findings of camera angles in a group presentation. 

Here is the video clip I focused on and presented in my group to the class: 

    The clip uses zooming in and out to exaggerate peoples feeling and emotions. It also uses a lot of tracking shot to emphasis the movement and the scale of the location. 
Another shot used a reverse angle shot which then turns into a tracking shot chasing sergeant angel through the crowd, this means the audience is fully focused on him. 












The other thing we did this week was use the video cameras for the first time. In this lesson my group practiced shooting many different types of camera angles and shots. Which were filmed from different areas and locations around the school.  




Come back next week!

Short film and camera angles

Today I watched the short film "soft". the film was commisioned as part of the bbc's extreme programme. The film was low budget and cost roughley £50,000. It was the first film "simon Ellis" shot with a 35mm. 

From the film i learnt about lots of differnt camera angles.
At the very start of the film it starts of with a high angle shot. The interesting thing about this the film is that it has been achieved using basic equipment, this shows us that you don't need a celebrity cheque book to make a award winning film. 

We also learnt about the differnt types of camera angles used in film and TV production. below are some examples of these. 

• Extreme close up (ECU) this is used to show dramatic emotion on an actors face 

• Establishing shot (ES) this would be used to set the scene of a place. evastating’.

The orpanhage

Last week I watched the opening sequence of the film the ophanage. (pitctured below) the fim used lots of media techniques to entertain and manipulate the audience.

  

Hello there, My name is Josh Bagnall and this is my Media studies Blog. Each week i will update my blog with new posts of which I will be doing throughout the course. 

I will try to include as many different media formats as possible such as Video, photos, music etc. I will also include references to other media sites which my help my own and other people's studies. 

thankyou, and look out for next weeks update.