Friday, 18 February 2011
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Textual analysis of :A Clockwork Orange
As we believe that A Clockwork Orange is one of our main influences we wanted to look at the effectiveness of it's opening.
Immediately, at the beginning of the intro it contains loud and tense music as the audience is introduced to a character, the fact that he is looking straight at the camera conveys to the audience his dominance and power over the audience.Conforming to the conventions of a thriller in that a dominant figure is usually present.
Which highlights to the audience he is a character of high importance and danger. Furthermore his clothes and apperance convey to the audience he is not a character of mainstream society at the current time and highlights that the film may be set either in the past or future. As the camera remains fixed on him his eyeline remains directly at the audience without blinking remaining in contact with the audience.
As it zooms from his face he appears in the middle of a larger group which shows the audience he is a main character of high meaning to the plot. As he drinks the glass of milk he does so slowly showing he is not being rushed and breaks a stereotypical view of what the audience would expect people to be drinking in a modern day bar. As their environment is revealed it appears most of the characters are male apart from the mannequins which shows they may be living in a society highly dominated by males and that their view of females may be highly dated. Furthermore the main group of character are situated at the back of the bar this is done to further portray a sense of fear surrounding them in that they are feared or hated by others.
Then a voice over of the main character can be heard as if they are narrating to the audience this has been done to build a relationship between this character and the audience and eliminates any confusion for the audience who may begin to be confused by the complexity of the storyline.At the end of the opening when the character say 'ultraviolence' the consistent soundtrack becomes louder and faster portraying to the audience a sence of forboding for the action of the next scene.
Immediately, at the beginning of the intro it contains loud and tense music as the audience is introduced to a character, the fact that he is looking straight at the camera conveys to the audience his dominance and power over the audience.Conforming to the conventions of a thriller in that a dominant figure is usually present.
Which highlights to the audience he is a character of high importance and danger. Furthermore his clothes and apperance convey to the audience he is not a character of mainstream society at the current time and highlights that the film may be set either in the past or future. As the camera remains fixed on him his eyeline remains directly at the audience without blinking remaining in contact with the audience.
As it zooms from his face he appears in the middle of a larger group which shows the audience he is a main character of high meaning to the plot. As he drinks the glass of milk he does so slowly showing he is not being rushed and breaks a stereotypical view of what the audience would expect people to be drinking in a modern day bar. As their environment is revealed it appears most of the characters are male apart from the mannequins which shows they may be living in a society highly dominated by males and that their view of females may be highly dated. Furthermore the main group of character are situated at the back of the bar this is done to further portray a sense of fear surrounding them in that they are feared or hated by others.
Then a voice over of the main character can be heard as if they are narrating to the audience this has been done to build a relationship between this character and the audience and eliminates any confusion for the audience who may begin to be confused by the complexity of the storyline.At the end of the opening when the character say 'ultraviolence' the consistent soundtrack becomes louder and faster portraying to the audience a sence of forboding for the action of the next scene.
Friday, 11 February 2011
Focus Group
We asked three of our peers that are in our target audience to tell us their views on a thriller. This video shows our findings from our focus group. During which we received some useful feedback that will help us develop an idea for our thriller opening. We found that our peers enjoyed thrillers especially Black Swan, Inception and Shutter Island. They also said they enjoy thrillers that do not necessarily have a straight forward story line and that confuse the audience. Furthermore they named elements of the thrillers they did not enjoy such as pictures on the wall and stalking in woods.
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Cape Fear - textual analysis
From watching the opening of Cape Fear I realised that the font was bold and italic, this helps the writing by making it stand out against the images that were in the background. The classical music that is played slowly builds up as the titles stop and the film starts.
The images in the background during the titles are distorted images that reflect Robert Deniro's views and how he sees the world. The image of an eagle suggests the main character is a dangerous predator and as it is a reflection in the water, this is how he sees himself. The red used in one of the pictures shows there may be blood dripping in the film. Also the black shadowed figure elements of green suggesting envy and jealousy may occur. There are two different images of eyes during the titles being shown, the first is flickering eyes which look paranoid and nervous, this could be seen as the victims eyes, the second eyes stare and are more controlling, which can be seen as the killers. A reflection of an open mouth which goes dark creates the feeling of trepidation and adds suspense. The water seems calm on the surface but not literally which reflects on the mans behavior.
The woman wears a white shirt which is buttoned up to the top indicating she is innocent and maybe a victim in the film. The man walking into shot automatically displays he is dominant over the audience. The starling photos the audience see whilst he is working out suggests he is a revolutionary figure. There is silence as the same man walks out of jail which suggests he is a feared person and they are scared to say anything. He mentions he has read all his books which shows he is inelegant and has also been in jail a long time as there is many books shown.
As the two characters are focused on for a long period of time we assume they are somehow linked together. As the clip I watched finished I noticed as the character got closer to the camera the clouds and music got faster and louder. The storm suggests a sense of foreboding and pathetic fallacy.
Saul Bass
He was an American graphic designer and film maker but is best known for his design on animated motion picture title sequences.During his 40year career he worked for some of Hollywood's greatest film makers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto preminger, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scoresse. He designed title sequences for 40 years, for films such as Sparticus 1960, The Victors 1963, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad world 1963, and Casino in 1995.
We looked at one of his best title sequences from 'Rear window' we think they are simple and effective and the writing is bold and standout against the background but the colours remain in keeping with the colour scheme of the background.And throughout the title sequence the blinds are slowly wound up to reveal an establishing shot of the scene in which the film is set. We found this a highly unique way of setting the scene of a film.
He was an American graphic designer and film maker but is best known for his design on animated motion picture title sequences.During his 40year career he worked for some of Hollywood's greatest film makers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto preminger, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scoresse. He designed title sequences for 40 years, for films such as Sparticus 1960, The Victors 1963, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad world 1963, and Casino in 1995.
We looked at one of his best title sequences from 'Rear window' we think they are simple and effective and the writing is bold and standout against the background but the colours remain in keeping with the colour scheme of the background.And throughout the title sequence the blinds are slowly wound up to reveal an establishing shot of the scene in which the film is set. We found this a highly unique way of setting the scene of a film.
Analysing opening
To start looking at title sequences we started to research on the website http://www.theartofthetitle.com/. This is a web resource of film and television title design from around the word.They honour the artists who design excellent title sequences.They discuss and display their work with a desire to acquire more of it, via stills and video links, interviews, creator notes, and user comments. On this website we found many videos that supplied us with ideas and inspiration for what we can use for the title sequence of our thriller.
There we watched a sequence entitled 'silence of the lambs' we thought the titles were highly effective. The font at the beginning it dramatic and bold the font is black with a white outline causing it to stand out against the wooded area background successfully.Leading the audience to be focused on both the action of the film and the titles.
The embedded code was unavailable due to copyright issues www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixv-BQtMZHY
We also watched the title for 'catch me if you can' we believe that this sequence is highly effective Because the chosen font goes with the overall theme of the music. In that it goes with the jazz style and class of the opening credits.Furthermore we found the animation effective as also the silhouette of the characters went well with the overall theme of the film, and the animation gives the audience an idea of what the film will be about including the imagery of business men and airports/planes. Furthermore the font is able carry on in certain letters such a 'n' or 'p'to merge together with these animations to create other elements of the animation such as staircases and ladders in the swimming pool. Creating an unconventional and unique title sequence.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3UuLPR5LiM
We were unable to get an embedded code due to copyright issues.
We also watched the opening titles for 'vertigo', we thought that this title sequence was highly effective because we liked it simplicity of reveling elements of a an unknown character which highlights a sense of enigma for the audience that leaves them wanting to know who this character is and why she is of importance to the storyline. And the close up of the eyes highlights a sense of panic and fear among this character also leaving the audience wanting to know this characters situation, this imagery of characters eyes also changes colour to red to highlight a sense of panic and blood conforming to traditional conventions of thriller this is also when the main title of the film 'vertigo' is shown in a white font causing it to stand out to the audience.Then a swirl appears in the iris of the eye and as it appears bigger the pace of the music portraying a sense of panic and suspense among the audience The font also has a white outlined background causing it to stand out to the dark imagery of the eye in the background.
We also also looked at the opening credits of 'the Terminator 3' we thought this sequence was effective because the background imagery highlighted the overall theme of the film in that it appeared very high tech and technological computer hardware and software conveying classic elements of a sci-fi thriller. Furthermore the font also supports this futuristic theme, unfortunately we felt as if the font could have been more effective if it was bolder of of a different colour so it could appear bolder and stand out more to the audience. This sequence of computer parts is broken by a clip of flowing lava which highlights to the audience a sense of enigma leaving the audience wanting to know what has caused this and how it is involved within the movies storyline.
Embedded code was unavailable due to copyright issues: www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Rj8JHSVSI
There we watched a sequence entitled 'silence of the lambs' we thought the titles were highly effective. The font at the beginning it dramatic and bold the font is black with a white outline causing it to stand out against the wooded area background successfully.Leading the audience to be focused on both the action of the film and the titles.
The embedded code was unavailable due to copyright issues www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixv-BQtMZHY
We also watched the title for 'catch me if you can' we believe that this sequence is highly effective Because the chosen font goes with the overall theme of the music. In that it goes with the jazz style and class of the opening credits.Furthermore we found the animation effective as also the silhouette of the characters went well with the overall theme of the film, and the animation gives the audience an idea of what the film will be about including the imagery of business men and airports/planes. Furthermore the font is able carry on in certain letters such a 'n' or 'p'to merge together with these animations to create other elements of the animation such as staircases and ladders in the swimming pool. Creating an unconventional and unique title sequence.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3UuLPR5LiM
We were unable to get an embedded code due to copyright issues.
We also watched the opening titles for 'vertigo', we thought that this title sequence was highly effective because we liked it simplicity of reveling elements of a an unknown character which highlights a sense of enigma for the audience that leaves them wanting to know who this character is and why she is of importance to the storyline. And the close up of the eyes highlights a sense of panic and fear among this character also leaving the audience wanting to know this characters situation, this imagery of characters eyes also changes colour to red to highlight a sense of panic and blood conforming to traditional conventions of thriller this is also when the main title of the film 'vertigo' is shown in a white font causing it to stand out to the audience.Then a swirl appears in the iris of the eye and as it appears bigger the pace of the music portraying a sense of panic and suspense among the audience The font also has a white outlined background causing it to stand out to the dark imagery of the eye in the background.
We also also looked at the opening credits of 'the Terminator 3' we thought this sequence was effective because the background imagery highlighted the overall theme of the film in that it appeared very high tech and technological computer hardware and software conveying classic elements of a sci-fi thriller. Furthermore the font also supports this futuristic theme, unfortunately we felt as if the font could have been more effective if it was bolder of of a different colour so it could appear bolder and stand out more to the audience. This sequence of computer parts is broken by a clip of flowing lava which highlights to the audience a sense of enigma leaving the audience wanting to know what has caused this and how it is involved within the movies storyline.
Embedded code was unavailable due to copyright issues: www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Rj8JHSVSI
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