Introduction To Camera

In order to begin our filming we had a lesson how to use a professional camera, we we're taught the key points such as:

• The battery and memory cards are inserted properly 
• Don't situate the camera on west surfaces or filming in the rain   
• Make sure lens is in focus before filming
• Only use the necessary buttons (record/zoom/focus etc) 

Along with the camera came the tripod and the key things we was told was:

• The Legs on the tripod are set out even
• To get a good angle or if in need to keep the tripod balanced use the compass                              
• Make sure the camera is locked on properly to the tripod to avoid it falling off or causing the camera to wobble
• To disassemble the camera off the tripod press a red button also make sure the lever is pulled away from the camera then slide it off the tripod

Definition of Film/sub genres
 Film genres are the most common and identifiable film sub-genre categories, with descriptions of each type or category. These are identifiable sub-classes of the larger category of main film genres, with their own distinctive subject matter, style, formulas, and iconography. Some are them are prominent sub-genres, such as: biopics, 'chick' flicks, detective/mystery films, disaster films, fantasy films, film noir, 'guy' films, melodramas (or 'weepers'), road films, romances, sports films, supernatural films, and thriller/suspense films. There are also minor film sub-genres.
http://www.filmsite.org/subgenres.html

 Seven is a good example of a psychological Thriller , which is a sub genre.
A Thriller sub genre is a film that is portrayed as a thriller n=but also manages to keep the audience in suspense at the same time. Thriller sub genres can also feature political aspects or they can be full of action  ,crime etc. All films created in this day and age would usually have a specific genre of some sort for example horror, thriller etc. The reason sub genres are becoming more and more popular now is because the audiences get more and more demanding as time passes . The film industry need to keep up with the public and what they enjoy in order for there films to do well and succeed in entertaining and keeping the audience interested and content.The genre we are studying is thriller, and a film that stood out to me and inspired me was Seven. It Includes the main and most important aspects needed for a thriller which are good use of techniques that made the opening keep us in suspense and it also has a good plot behind it.

Watching Documentary

What Thomas sutcliffe is trying to say is that their are two ways to seduce your audience by either going into a film or from the beginning of the film to seduce your audience with instant arousal. In my opinion i believe as part of an audience i would rather watch a film that instantly catching my attention from the beginning and seducing me into the film.

According to director Jean Jacques Beineix the risk of instant arousal is that you might start a film with a dramatic or action packed opening, you will pleasure the audience in doing so, however the audience will expect or from you after the opening and if the director doesn't have any ideas the film is over. Jean Jacques Beineix says that you should start an opening slow and then go into the dramatic instant arousal.

You have to to make a good judgment on how much information you give away in the opening of a movie, too much information might just give it away to the audience, however you have to make sure the audience doesn't know to little. So this judgment has to be crucial in order to pleasure your audience.

Stanley Kauffmann describes the classic opening as you get a view of new york city, then the shot of a tower block, a shot of the window, through the window pass the receptionist and then to the main office. What a classic opening does is that it establishes normality it just shows the audience how everyday life is but then later on in the film in unfolds to shows the audience it's not like everyday life, therefore it changes the view of the audience.

Kyle Cooper's title sequence to the film seven is effective due to, it foreshadows  whats going to happen next and it shows the obsessive psychotic nature of the films main character. With the effective of font and psychotic pictures.

The trick of the film Noir is that the film starts with the end of the movie. This leaves the audience in shock and instantly grabs the attention of the audience.

The film Shinning creates suspense through the camera angel it's shot at also the background music creates suspense. The camera is like a predator and the car is the prey, the cars is driving away into an isolated area it creates tension and this gives the audience a sense that something is going top go wrong.

THE STRUCTURE OF THRILLER OPENING

A NARRATIVE OPENING- starting introduces setting or charaters but there also will be titles running over it.    

THE SHINING>




A DISCRETE TITLE SEQUENCE- seperately edited seqence that stands apart from film.
SEVEN>

TITLES OVER BLANK SCREEN,FOLLOWING BY THE NARRATIVE OPENING- titles rolling over a blank screen with a sound track then introduces images.

DONNIE DARKO>

STYLIZED EDITED - makes the opening effective . 

TAKING OF PELHAM>

Response to 'Watching' documentary

The concerns of revelations of the content in trailers, In relation to opening sequences in films are labelling trailers as, 'narrative pornography'. As they tend to insert frequent amounts of 'exciting' material to the point, that the audience expect that same level of excitement to be employed in the film itself. This expresses a problem to directors, as the studio companies have presumptions of the measurements of content revealed to the audience, as opposed to the film directors. They claim it's for the essence of 'trailing the audience'.

Hitchcock begins to ellaborate about when the actual beginning of the film is, is it the image that we have of the film that we continue to watch upon in the cinema? Is it when the darkness of cinema falls? He explains that this element of urgency to not to miss the starting of the film, will result in watching a completely, 'different film'. Also, the beginning of the film 'instructs' the audience in how to watch the film.

Thomas Sutcliffe mentions, 'Films need to be seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction. the temptation to go for the instant arousal is almost irresistable.' This suggests that 'grabbing the audience' in the opening sequence of a film is essential for engagement to continue to watch the rest of the film or films of that type/genre/director in general. The 'thrill of speed', which depicts the content that satisfies what the audience desires is a technique that films tend to follow to anticipate this sense of engagement. In 'Citizen Kane', we are met with opening shot of a tresspass sign, this provides the sense of 'breaking the rules', to amplifly the pre-meditated effect of excitement, as the audience venture in to a setting that is forbidden. In addition, this rises the question surrounding the genre of the movie, is it a horror, mystery, crime etc.?


Regarding comments by Director, Jean Jacques Beineix, the risks of 'instant arousal', present a problem to directors, concerning the content that is meant to excite the audience, it provides the question about what to do next for the director. In my opinion, the problem that would come about, would be attempting to maintain the same technique of how to present excitement to the audience, without switching to another method, which shall confuse the audience, more importantly, disengage them from the film, as a whole.


In the documentary, it mentions, 'a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn't know too little'. Gary Ross expresses his opinion, about the opening sequence isn't about establishing, 'character', but essentially about establishing 'tone'. It provides the audience with the judgement, whether to be engaged. This brings about the element of suspense, that entices us to continue to watch the film to find out what occurs, this idea can be carried out in various ways, however, I believe there is a limit to how much you can keep the audience in the dark, over-complicate this suspense, and it shall confuse them and possibly disengage them from the film.

Critic Stanley Kauffmann described the 'Classic opening' as, an establishing shot of a landscape, typically a Skyscraper City, such as 'New York'. There would be shots of the buildings, overviews etc. then it would place a shot on the specific building that opening seq

Introduction to Cameras: skills

The class weir firstly introduced to a presentation on the principals and key elements on how to use a camera, attributes such as learning how to insert the battery, memory card, how to use the tripod, how and when to use auto focus (AF) which is a term that interpret ates the camera focus by itself and also manual focus (MF) which means you, yourself doing the focusing.

In adition, we also learnt carefully and in more depth, how to put the camera into the tripod ans secure it giving the footage a more stabled view. We weir then demonstrated how to bring and use all the camera terminology we have been working on into practise,  for example how to capture a medium shot, close up, extreme close up, long shot,  and other key shots such as pan (side to side camera movement) tilt (up and down camera movement) zoom (in and out camera movement - for example closer and more distant) and white balance ( adjusting the colours until the look natural and consistent) all helping develop and produce excellent footage and also provide a wide understanding of  how to use a camera and the different type of camera movements.

Introduction to Cameras: skills

The class weir firstly introduced to a presentation on the principals and key elements on how to use a camera, attributes such as learning how to insert the battery, memory card, how to use the tripod, how and when to use auto focus (AF) which is a term that interpret ates the camera focus by itself and also manual focus (MF) which means you, yourself doing the focusing.

In adition, we also learnt carefully and in more depth, how to put the camera into the tripod ans secure it giving the footage a more stabled view. We weir then demonstrated how to bring and use all the camera terminology we have been working on into practise,  for example how to capture a medium shot, close up, extreme close up, long shot,  and other key shots such as pan (side to side camera movement) tilt (up and down camera movement) zoom (in and out camera movement - for example closer and more distant) and white balance ( adjusting the colours until the look natural and consistent) all helping develop and produce excellent footage and also provide a wide understanding of  how to use a camera and the different type of camera movements.

Analysis Of Thriller clip

What Lies Beneath:
    The clip I watched is what lies beneath, unlike other clips this clip does not provide a lot of production companies and names of starring actors and actresses. However it does contain some information on the production companies.
    In the opening of this clip the first production company is shown, the production company is 20th Century Fox, this is a widely known production company so it shows that this is a good Film, also it is shown for 20 seconds which is a long time considering that it is a two minute clip so this shows that having the production company is important, After a couple of seconds a second production company is shown this time it is Image Movers which is shown for 14 seconds this may show that it is less important than the 20th century fox production company however it does not mean it is not important.

Phsyco

The scene where the lady is stabbed gave me the biggest shock; the fact that the audience was given the extra information about the murderer makes that scene impressive as it still gives the audience the great deal of shock.