Film Language

Film Language

Camera

Frame- Extreme close up, Close up, Mid shot, Medium long shot, Long shot and extreme long shots.

Angle- there are two different angles you can have in media. You can have a worms eye view which is from the floor looking up or you can have a birds eye view which is from the sky looking down.

Movement- is the way in which the camera is moving. You can have a tracking shot, steady cam or handheld. The moment of tilting the camera up and down is called "Tilting" up and down. The movement of moving the camera left and right is called "Panning" left and right.

Editing

Transition- is a technique used to connect different scenes together smoothly.

Order Of Narrative- The order of narrative is the the timeline of the film e.g. The film may start with a flash back to when he was young and then it may got to him a year later and the film will show you his child hood or the important parts that will be part of the story later on in the film.

Pace- The speed in which he video is being played e.g. in slow motion or sped up.

SFX- special effects are used a lot in horror films and action films. Special effects can be used to create an explosions, gun shoots, injuries and special powers. Special effects can be made through green screens, editing and make up.

Mise En Scene

Costume- what are the characters wearing? does this give us a clue on what time period it is and what wealth bracket they are in.

Lighting- high key, low key and natural.

Actors- class, age, body language, gender, ethnicity and sexuality.

Makeup- could also show us class.

Props- This could give us an insight into possible disabilities such as a walking stick or we could find out that a character is a wizard if he is carrying a wand. Props give us big clues about the characters.

Sound

Dialog- Is any one talking during the scene or adding to the suspense by speaking?

Diegetic sound/ non-Diegetic sound- Diegetic sound is background noise. Non- Diegetic sound is a narrator.

Music- Is music used to add to the excitement of the film or the intensity of the film.

"Boys In The Hood" Analysis

Camera
The film starts with a black screen that says "One out of twenty-one black America males will be murdered in their lifetime". The it transitions to another quote which says "Most will die at the hands of another black male". The film then shows a frame close up on a "Stop" sign. This is a sign showing that the producers think that all these killings should stop! It then shows a long shot of some kids walking to school. The camera then pans left as the kids walk left. The camera then shows a mid shot as the kids stop to talk. This heightens the intensity because one of the kids says "Do you want to see something. The camera then uses a blending transition from the red blood on the floor to a painting with red in it.

Sound
At the start we can hear some adults swearing and saying in slang something about a car and a gun. In  the start the adults seem to be angered by something. The adults then say is that them and his friend says yes. You can then hear repeated gun, screaming and tires screeching (Someone trying to get away). The opening scene sounds like a drive by. A drive by is when someone shoots someone as they are driving past in their car. The start has diegetic sounds because its all background noise of the shooting.

Mise en scene
The kids at the start are dressed a little bit gangster like. The girls are dressed rather "slutty" even though they are young. The boys are also wearing full tracksuits with gold necklaces. The is the stereotypical American gangster look. The reason the film uses such a strong stereotype is because they want people to understand from the start that they come from gang orientated families. The lighting in the opening scene is natural. The characters look low classed, around the age of 12. The body language of the boys shows us that they are trying to look tough because they walk with their arms swinging and shoulders back. This is a very masculine/tough guy look. The gender of the characters were mixed (boys and girls). All the character were also black and are all heterosexually. The characters would also be strongly be against homosexuality because homosexuals would get beaten up in their neighbour hood. The setting is a run down neighbour hood in south LA. South LA is well known for gang wars.

The point of this film is to try and stop the violence between the gangs in LA because the theory is that the government put all the poorest people in one neighbour hood, so they would slowly kill each other. Its an easy way to get rid of the poop people. This theory is backed up though because sometimes it would take emergency service 2 hours to get to a crime scene e.g. Murder. This shows that the police aren't really interested in what happens to them.

Representation

Representation
Representation is the way in which people, events and ideas are presented to the audience. To break it down, the media takes something that is already there and re-presents it to us in the way that they choose. These representations are mad by producers of media text.

Gatekeeper
A Gatekeeper is the person who makes the decision on what people hear, see and read in the media. They have the final say on what goes on the website or in the newspaper.

Media Moguls
Mogul is someone with a lot of power and influence in the world of journalism, politics, entertainment or news and display that influence through mass media scubas television, radio, newspaper and the internet.

Media Consumers 
Media consumers are me and you, the audience of the media text, are mostly unaware of these gatekeeping decisions and it is the gatekeepers job to make sure his decision and actions are transparent and invisible to the audience.

Male Gaze
The cinema apparatus of hollywood cinema puts the audience in a masculine subject position with the woman on the screen seen as an object of desire.

Stereotypes
Media uses stereotypes because people understand instantly. Its a "visual short cut". But because we have been drip fed pictures of stereotypes so often we now now think of them as normal or true.

Archetypes
This is the ultimate stereotypes. For example, the white stiletto wearing, big busted, brainless blonde bimbo.

CounterType
A representation that changes tradition of stereotypes.

Stereotypes are made off the acronym "CAGES". This stands for Class, Age, Gender, Ethnicity and Sexuality.

Who,What,Why and Where

Who or what is being represented?

What are they doing?

Why are they present?

Where are they?

Who is being represented? in "Attack The Block" it represents a group of teens that live in council houses in the south of London. But they have to help protect their block from an alien attack.

How is it being represented? The teens represented in the clip live in a council estate in London and are your stereotypical Chavy teens. They walk about with their hoods up, They like drugs, they carry weapons, vandalise and mug people and also use Chavy slang. They are also in trouble with police throughout the film and their good friend is a big time drug dealer. This is archetypical of London council estate teens.

How is the representation made to look true and natural? Through out the whole film the characters seem to be relaxed when talking about drugs and violence. This gives us an impression that drugs and violence is of second nature to them. Plus, they always make jokes about drugs e.g. when one of the main characters states that he has seen an alien, one of the characters says "you must be high bled". Then the rest of the characters laugh in the room. This shows that drugs is just a bit of fun for them. They all see it as a socially acceptable thing. This is showing a strong/ultimate stereotype for London council housed teens.

Semiotics- The Scene shows London teens riding Motorbikes illegally on walking paths and causing trouble. All the teens also have their hoods up. Also at the end the teens are also seen carrying weapons that could do some real damage e.g. A sword. The setting is also late at night which is also part of the stereotypes because Chavs are suppose to be out late at night causing trouble. By first showing the aliens hiding in the shadows it shows that the aliens are the villains in this movie. The aliens also add a horror aspect to the film. I would say that the films genre is Horror/Comedy.

Editing Practise

In todays lesson we were practising editing on "Adobe Premier". We had to make a dancing animals edit and a James bond edit. This task was rather fun, but time consuming. But I now feel more confident on the programme.

James Bond Practise Edit




to create my James Bond edit I used "Adobe Premier". This programme was really easy to use and helpful once you get the hang of it. It was very easy to import video and audio files and to insert video and audio effects. Through out the video I have used a mixture of audio and video effects. By having the character ask James Bond "What do you see?" I made it seem like James was having a flash back. Thats why on the first clip I gave it a weak black and white shading to make it feel like it was a memory. I let the first clip run for much longer than the other clips because I felt that this opening clip would heighten the suspense and draw the audience into the video. Also I didn't use any music on the first clip because the sounds really made the scene come to life and put you right in the middle of the action. I also like how the clip starts off quiet as you come across the river, but when you get to the close up of James Bond the Gun sounds break out and so does the noise of the car.

The next clip I used was from "Skyfall". The reason I used this with the Bond theme song in the background is because he is in a traditional bond car (old fashioned) and bond cars are known for having extraordinary gadgets on them. And nothing is more Bond like than having a car that shoots bullets.  I also started the Music on the main part of the theme song that will all know and recognise to be the main part of the theme song. This gives the audience the true James bond, exciting effect.

The next clip I used was the shanghai tower fight scene from "Skyfall". The reason I used this clip is because by know we are at the most up tempo part of the song. So I thought I would match the upbeat music with an exciting, upbeat scene. This scene is fast paced and full of actions. In this scene there are lots of very bright colours on dark backgrounds. I took advantage of this by using a "sharpening" video effect. It also makes the edges of the images more defined by darkening the darker pixels and lightening the lighter pixels. This really brings out the contrast of the light and dark colours and also makes the bright colours pop more.

The next clip I used was a fight scene on top of a train in "Skyfall". The reason I used this was again because of the upbeat tempo the scene has and it went well with the music because the music was upbeat. I also used this scene because it's the same villain that bond is fighting in shanghai and at the end of the train scene the villain gets away and then later on in the film he finds this villain again in Shanghai. So by putting this mini clip in the middle of the shanghai fight scene it makes it look like Bond has more of a motive to get him this time.

The end clip is from "Casino Royale". The reason I used this was because it was already in black and white which made it look like his first kill. On this clip I used an effect called "Ghost". This effect fades in a scene behind hind the original scene. This gives us two scenes faded together. This effect gives us the feeling that his memory is fading and is being replaced with other memories. Because in Psychology we learnt that some memories can slowly fade away and as they fade away other memories fade into that memory and then replace it. I also like the ending to this scene because it gives me a nice natural outro. At the end of the video I faded out the video and the song instead of ending them abruptly. This gave my work a more professional look.

Narratives

In todays lesson we did narrative. It isn't the story it's self, it's the telling of the story.
Roland Barthes theory
Hermeneutic/ Enigma Code
This code refers to mystery within a text. Clues are dropped, but not clear answers are given. Enigmas within the narrative make the audience want to know more.

Proairetic/Action code
This code contains sequential elements of action in text.

Semantic code
additional meanings. This code refers to parts within the text that suggests or refers to additional meanings. Elements of the semantic code is called Semes.

Symbolic Code
This code is about symbolism within the text. It exercises opposites to show contrast and create greater meaning , creating tension and drama.

Referential Code
This code refers to anything in the text which refers to an external body of knowledge such as scientific, historical and cultural knowledge.

Todorov Theory
Its starts with the equilibrium-state of normality

Disruption of equilibrium- a character or an action caused an affect which disturbs the state of equilibrium.

The main protagonist recognises that the equilibrium has been disrupted.

Restoration of equilibrium- the protagonist attempts to restore equilibrium.

New equilibrium- Equilibrium is restored, but transforms and changes (good, bad or neutral) have occurred from the original equilibrium.

Vladimir Propp Theory
His theory was that every movie has these character
1. The hero
2.The villain
3.The donor
4.The dispatcher
5.False hero
6.Helper
7.The princess (damsel in distress)
8.Her father


Prisoners opening scene Narrative work
Hermeneutic/Enigma code:
Why is the man having dinner by himself?
Why is the man sitting and waiting in his RV?
Why does the man try to dive away?
Why does he ram his RV into the trees?
why does the man hide in the RV?
Why can't the man follow the police officers instructions? does he have learning difficulty?
Why doesn't he answer the police officers? has he got a guilty conscience?

Action code:
Diving the RV into the tree's to scare the police officers.
Shouting at the villain instead of remaining calm(shows signings of anger).
The police aggressively detained the villain which shows intimidation.
The Police also pointed the torches in the villains eyes to intimidate him.

Semiotic/Symbolic code
By the man eating on thanks giving by himself (big American holiday) it shows that he is married to his job and his job is more important than family.
By him talking over the radio and using special codes, it gives us the impression that he is a police officer.
The main character is giving other police officers orders, this shows that he is of higher ranking than them.
The weather is dark, rainy and gloomy. This gives up the impression of mystery.
The rain also heightens the intensity of the scene.
The man in the RV is seen in the shadows of the RV. This shows that he is hiding something and there is an element of mystery behind him.
By the man trying to drive away it shows that he has something to hide.

Embedding Video's

Embedding a video
In our lesson today we had to show that we could embed a video into our blog. So we had to go on youtube and find a video that we wanted to upload onto our blog. I found the tribute to Paul Walker which is at the end of "Furious 7". We then had to go onto "share" which is located below the video. You then click on embed and copy the code it gives you. You then have to go onto your blog and click on "HTML" which is top left of the screen. You then want to copy the code that youtube gave you into the coding. When you click onto compose your video should be embedded.

Paul Walker's Tribute at the end of "Furious 7"


"I live my life a quarter mile at a time, I think that why we were brothers...... Because you did to. No matter where you are, whether its a quarter mile away or half way across the world. You will always be with me...... And you will always be my brother"
-Vin Diesel

"If one day the speed kills me, do not cry because I was smiling"
-Paul Walker
#ForPaul

Semiotics

Semiotics
In todays lesson we learnt about semiotics. Semiotics is the study of signs. Also of anything which stands for something else. Denotation is what we see when we look at an image. Connotation is what we understand from a image. Polysemy is different ways of reading text. Preferred reading is how the creator wants the audience to view the media text. Oppositional reading is when the intended meaning of the text is totally opposed by the reader.

 

Never Back Down Semiotics

On the poster we have the three main characters involved within the story. The way in which the girl is placed between the two men shows that through out the movie they maybe fighting over her. She is also wearing the colour red. Red is seen as danger and evil. Will the girl be the cause of all the fights because she is twisting stories or doing things she shouldn't be doing? The fighter on the right seems to be frowning. This gives us a small hint that he could be the bad guy in this movie. The guy on the right hand side looks more innocent. He isn't starring at the audience unlike the other character. By putting the quote "Win or lose... Everyone has their fight" in red, it shows that brutal fighting may be involved because our first thought of red as a colour is blood. Having the lights in the background pointing at the characters, it gives us the feeling that they are in the spot light and a lot of people are watching their fights. The small picture in the bottom right tells us the film is to do with MMA because we can see the gloves he is wearing. MMA has special gloves that allow you to punch with, but also have fingers holes so you can grab people. The Title is also bright and bold so that it will catch peoples eyes and convince them to have a look at the cover of the DVD.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Analysing

Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol "Action"
In our lesson today we were leaning to use DISTINCT. Distinct is a Acronym for Describe, In detail, Setting, Theme, Icons, Narrative, Characters, Text analysis. The opening scene is set in Moscow Russia in a grotty prison. The prison looks like it isn't very well maintained because there is dust every where and the prison cells are quite crowed. But you can tell that they want to keep the prisoners in because they have state of the art locks on all the doors. This tells me that the prison is high security and they house the worst of the worst because the government don't care for their health or how clean their living space is. It then shows a clip of a man throwing a rock around a room. This gives us the hint that he is a main character. We then see a man unlocking all the cells and talking quite regimentally to a lady on a microphone. This gives us the hint that they are special forces or the army. This film also includes a little bit of sarcasm. This shows that the film could have some comedy moments. The opening scene is set in Moscow Russia in a grotty prison. The prison looks like it isn't very well maintained because there is dust every where and the prison cells are quite crowed. But you can tell that they want to keep the prisoners in because they have state of the art locks on all the doors. This tells me that the prison is high security. The theme/ genre of the film comes across as actions with come comedy. The first look at the main characters shows that he is quite physically fit. When then learn that he also is part of the army/special forces because he knows all the hands signals. It also shows us that he knows how to fight. we also learn that its not a prison break because he shuts the door behind him. This shows that he doesn't want any of the prisoners to get out and is theoretically doing the right thing.


Casino Royale "Thriller"

The setting is based in Madagascar, which is based just off the coast of south Africa. The first part of the scene is in a construction sight and the characters are running and jumping about on the structure of a building which is under construction. One of the characters is then chased to a embassy, which looks run down. But the inside offices look well done up. This tells the audience that the embassy is guarding an important man, maybe even a leader. We can tell that the man being chased is the bad guy because there is no scary music while he is being chased. This shows that the film is not a horror film. We can also tell because the music is exciting and upbeat, this makes the audience want the chaser to catch the man. We can tell that the main character is well trained because he takes the most simple and safe ways to chase the man instead of the dangerous ways taken by the man being chased. We can also tell he is well trained because he is good at hand to hand combat and he knows how to use and fire a gun. This gives us the hint that he is in the army or special forces. The man being chased also seems to be well trained. But we get the feeling that he was not in the army and has been trained for bad reasons. The way in which the main character goes guns blazing into the embassy shows that he really wants to catch this man and he is willing to put his life on the line to do so. They have used fast cut scenes during actions scenes, to give it the illusion of fast paced fighting. The exciting music also adds to the excitement of the chase.

22 Jump Street "Comedy"
The start of the movie is a video of what happened in the past film for people haven't seen it. In the past video they show it in a mild black and white tint. This makes the video seem like it was in the past. In the title they also use the colours of blue and red. The reason they use these colours is because its the colours of police sirens. When the films cuts to the start of the film the setting is down town L.A. It then shows them having fun with their guns and "Ghosting riding" their car. Ghost ridding is where you are both out of your car dancing next to it as it moves forward. This gives you the hint that the film is a comedy. The song used is called "turn down for what". The reason they used this song is because they knew it would appeal to their target audience which is teenagers. The music does also add a little to the excitement. "Schmidt" is seen as a little bit of a nerd because he used to dress like slim shady, he has braces and he is quite clever. having braces and being smart is the typical nerd traits. "Jenko" on the other hand was Mr Popular at school. He is athletic, tall and gets all the girls. In the end they both want to be police officers and they help each other to pass police training. They both end up passing and become partners.

Genre Task

Genre Task
For our task we were spilt into groups and given genres/themes. we then had to take photos according to the genre we had been given. the genres we were given were; Adventure, Rom Com, Super hero and Bio Pic.

This photo was intended to be the genre "Adventure".
The reason I chose this photo to present adventure was because we wanted to make it look like we were in the wilderness exploring the environment. We were trying to get to high ground so we could have the height advantage for searching for food and water. We also used the trees to evade the predators that lingered below.


This photo was intended to be the genre "Super Hero".
The reason I chose this photo is because I wanted it to show that supper girl was better than the villain MDV. By showing super girl higher up than the villain, it shows she is more superior than the villain. Also we got JK to linger in the background with his hood up and frowning. This would let the audience know he is a bad guy. Also by JK wearing the colour black, it gives the audience the feeling that JK is sinister and evil.

This photo intended to be the genre "romantic Comedy"
The reason I chose this picture was because I wanted the picture to show the boy and the girl together. So by doing this I took a picture of the boy and the girl bonding and looking like they are having fun. Then I wanted the audience to be able to see that Luke is left out and wishing he had a relationship like the boy and the girl shown in the picture do. I managed to per tray this to the audience by making Luke stand couple of feet away from me and Lollie. This made it seem like he is lonely. We then made Luke look sad at me and Lollie to make him look jealous.

This photo was intended to be "Biopic".
A "Biopic" is a picture used for the front of someone's biography or documentary. The reason we chose this photo was because Luke was striking the original Arnold Schwarzenegger pose. We thought this would be a good picture to describe  a Biopic. This did take a little bit of editing on Adobe Fireworks, but didn't take too long.