Thursday, 23 October 2014

Genre

Genre:
Genre is a style or category of film. We have genres to keep the audience interested, and to appeal to multiple groups of people. There are many genres of film. Some of these include horror, thriller, science-fiction, western, romance, comedy, animation, etc. There are fixed elements of genre, and with each genre, the target audience expect a certain thing from the film. For example, if you were to watch a romantic film, you would expect the narrative to involve a male and a female falling in love. For a horror, the audience would expect a group of young people to be killed one by one in a mysterious way, with a couple of survivors who manage to either last a bit longer than the others or end up saving the world.

Sub-Genres:
Sub-genres are developed to keep the audience interested, such as if someone was to watch the same romantic type of film over and over again, they would not keep interested and therefore the film industry would use money. However, if the directors mix it up a bit and make the film a romantic comedy so the audience can laugh as well, it will keep the audience interested and also attracts to more people. Sub-genres are for more specific target audiences, for example in horror there could be psychological horrors which usually involve ghosts, or there could be thriller horrors which are a lot more gory.

Target Audience:
In every film, the target audience watch it, and seek familiarity with other films they have watched before. For example, if a middle-aged man enjoyed psychological horrors and then turned up to a film thinking it appealed to him and it was actually a romantic comedy, it would not appeal to him. This is why when the film is being advertised or something like that, it should show what genre the film is quite clearly, otherwise the film will just appeal to those risking paying money going to see a film that they don't know they will enjoy. This is a way in which genre is useful for audience, so by watching adverts they can decide if they want to go and watch that film.

Audience Pleasures:
An audience pleasure is when they seek familiarity with a film within a specific genre and they will go and watch a film to see the same storyline, but with a different film. The audience seek familiarity with the genre they enjoy to watch, so if the film has a similar storyline, without realising it, they enjoy to watch films with very similar story-lines.

Genre and Institutions:
Genres developed in cinemas because filmmakers discovered everyone enjoys different genres of film. By making many different genres, it appealed to more people and therefore got the film institution more money.

Analysing the opening for 'The Lion King'


Analysis:
The Lion King was made in 1994 and rated a PG. The production studio was Walt Disney Pictures and Walt Disney Feature Animation. The distribution studio was Buena Vista pictures. The director of this film was Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff. The box office taking in the opening weekends were $40million. The awards won for this film were two Oscars for best music, and a golden globe for the best motion picture. It was nominated for multiple oscars and golden globe awards.

Target Audience:
The target audience for this film would be children from the age of 3-16. Animated disney films are generally associated with children, so the primary target audience would be children. The film is very innocent and happy through most of it, and it all ends up happy at the end, which matches with a typical Disney film. The genre of animated films is typically associated with children of that age, and disney is normally seen to be to do with children. It would be for both genders because these kind of films are aimed at both genders. The target audience would go to watch this film and expect a happy Disney move because most movies made by disney are very happy, so this will be a case of the familiar and satisfy the viewer's pleasures of going to watch that film.

Title and Credit Analysis:
There is no credits in the start of the lion king, but then when you get to the end of the opening scene there is a black background put over the whole scene and it says 'The Lion King' in very large and bold letters. This typography represents the narrative, because by making it big and bold and out there it shows that the main character, who is going to be the lion king later on in the film, is very important. The letters are large and intimidating, and this foreshadows the fact that the main character is also large and intimidating, and a big deal where he is.

Narrative:
The narrative is set up in lots of ways during the opening of this film. One of the ways is when the baby king is shown to the world for the first time, a very dramatic non-diagetic soundtrack plays and it shows his importance. This displays the narrative because later on in the film he goes on to become a very important part of Africa because he becomes the lion king. Presenting him to the world in such a dramatic way shows the audience the importance of his presence in the rest of the narrative. Also, when the father of the lion goes into the shadows and the baby lion king comes out of the shadows into the sunlight, it shows how the circle of life goes around, and the large lion will step down and the small lion will become king some day.

Music:
The non-diagetic soundtrack of the opening plays a huge part in foreshadowing the narrative. The song 'The circle of life' shows what is inevitably going to happen- the parent dies and the child lives. It shows this by the lyrics of the soundtrack. By all of the animals showing up to see the baby lion presented to the world and all of the dramatic music being played in the background, the non-diagetic soundtrack foreshadows the narrative. The non-diagetic soundtrack through the whole of the opening is a very dramatic sound and brings the audience in.

Atmosphere:
The atmosphere created by this opening is quite unique. It makes the audience feel like this is going to be quite a significant film, because of all the dramatic non-diagetic music and the presentation of the baby lion at the end of the opening. Everything builds up to that one moment of the lion king being presented to the world, so it creates an atmosphere of importance and makes the audience want to watch it more. The atmosphere is a very happy one, so this will attract children because children tend to enjoy watching very happy films in general. The camera starts out as a extra long shot then continues to zoom in until the main characters are in focus. This is another way to show the importance of the main characters in this film.

Characters:
The main characters are all shown in the opening. The main character, Simba, is shown near the end of the opening and many other characters are shown in the opening. Many of the characters in this opening don't hold  significance in the narrative of this film, but still play a big part in making the opening of this film what it is. The main character is represented as a baby in the start of this film and it is with its parents. The other important characters introduced in the opening of the film include a monkey, and a bird. They are all quite important to this film and this is shown in the opening of the film.

Mise En Scene/location:
The location is in Africa, in the middle of a field with o human habitation. This sets a good scene for the film because it shows the film is based on animals and humans do not get involved.  The mise en scene is mainly an animated large rock, which is the home of the main characters. The lighting is always at sunset in the opening and when it gets to the end of the opening it shows the light going down to present the main character, which makes them seem very important and shows their importance compared to the rest of the audience.

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Analysing the opening for 'Forrest Gump'


Analysis:
The film 'Forrest Gump' was made in 1994. The director was Robert Zemeckis. The production company was Paramount Pictures and this was also the distribution company. The film as rated a PG-13. The box office takings in the initial weekend was $24million. The lead actor in this film was Tom Hanks, accompanied by Robin Wright and Gary Sinise.

Target Audience:
The target audience for this film would have been males and females from the ages 18-29. There is various things in this film that would appeal to both genders, for example the war aspect of the film would widely appeal to males as the target audience. However, the romantic aspect of this film would be aimed mainly at females. This film would mainly be targeted at young people because it is based around young people. This film's target audience would also be people who enjoy watching action or romantic film, because the film isa slight differentiation of genres. This links to the audiences expectations of a romantic film, which then meets their viewing pleasures because it is a very romantic film, which holds suspense to do with romance.

Credits:
The titles were unanimated, and in plain white on the screen whilst a feather is followed by the camera in the background. The titles start with the production company, then go on to include the director, the lead actor, then the film title. After this, it includes the less important aspects, such as the other starring characters, the casters, co-producers, music producers, visual effects supervisors, costume designers, music, editors, production designers, and more. The typography is quite a plain, gentle white font. This reflects the narrative, because the story is mainly based on a very gentle guy. The titles last for most of the opening of the film, and most of the time there is no more than a few words on the screen. This helps to not overwhelm the audience with lots of writing and actually helps them to focus on the words that appear in front of their eyes.

Music:
The music used is very gentle, quite recognisable piano music. This makes the audience feel quite relaxed and comfortable with the film. During the opening, the camera follows a feather over the city of Alabama, and then lands at the main characters' foot. During this lots of text is shown and soft piano music is played. This opening portrays the narrative by showing the town the film is based in, and the soft piano music and credits calm the audience. The opening also features an introduction of the main character to the film. By making the feather land at his feet, it makes the audience realise he is a big part of the film because he is the first character introduced. The non-diagetic soundtrack also fades out as the feather lands at Gump's foot, and this ends the opening of the film.

Narrative:
The narrative is set up in the opening in a number of ways. Firstly, when you follow the feather, it almost represents the fact that you are following Gump float through his life. Through the whole narrative, you watch Gump float through different parts of his life, so this feather almost foreshadows the narrative. Also, at parts, the feather ends up going under cars and getting shaken around a bit. I think this is foreshadowing the narrative at the parts in the film when things aren't going too well for Gump, or when he is going through tough times, such as when his mother dies or when his wife dies. There are also parts where the feather floats high above the city, which may represent when Gump is going through the best parts of his life, such as when he gets married to his wife or when he becomes a world famous table tennis player. This feather almost shows the audience that they are going to follow an motional films with many ups and downs, and in this way the opening foreshadows the narrative a lot.

Editing:
The feather used in the opening is edited on, so the camera must have filmed going through Alabama then the feather was edited on afterward. This use of editing does a lot for the opening scene, because without the feather it would be quite boring and the audience would be switched off straight away. By editing the feather and the credits onto the opening scene, it keeps the audience interested and they ant to keep watching and find out what happens in the narrative. The opening foreshadows the narrative, but the only part in the opening where any part of the narrative is given away or is very obvious is when the main character is introduced right at the end of the opening. The atmosphere created in this opening is a very relaxed one, the non-diagetic soundtrack and the feather edited onto it makes the atmosphere what it is at the start of this film.The location shows the whole city that the movie is set in, o in a way that also foreshadows the narrative.

Saturday, 11 October 2014

Analysing the opening for the film 'Contact'.




Analysis:
The film 'Contact' was released in cinemas in 1997. It is rated a PG. The production studio for this film was Warner Bros, and Warner Bros was also the distribution company. The director of this film was Robert Zemeckis. The box office takings were $100 million in the opening weekend. It was nominated for five Oscars and a golden globe award, and it won many awards from the Academy of science fiction.

Target Audience:
The target audience for this film would be mainly fans of science fiction, and this would mainly be people aged around 15-35, and the main gender primary audience would be males, because they tend to stereo typically be attracted to science fiction more than females. The secondary audience would then be females interested in science fiction and aged around the same kind of age as the primary male target audience. In this film, the narrative is mainly based around a science fiction genre, so the target audience would reflect this a lot.

Title and Credit analysis:
The Film title is shown before anything else. It is unanimated, and is in quite a futuristic font. This reflects the narrative about the film, because it is based around science-fiction and shows that the film will be about the future and space, like the writing. The credits are not shown in the opening of the film. The typography of the title is quite plain, but it is in a slightly different font that is blue, and blue is a colour that is used a lot to represent space, so it may also foreshadow the narrative.

Narrative:
In this film opening, the narrative is set up quite well for the rest of the film. The film opening basically includes a photo of planet earth, then the camera zooms out continually for a couple of minutes until it shows the universe we are in. Whilst showing this, the music played goes back in time the further away from Earth you get. The film, which is widely based around the main characters who have a fascination with space, has a good opening because it reflects the narrative quite well. The audience are shown quite how small and insignificant we are compared to the rest of the universe, and what possibility there is that there is life on other planets. This reflects the narrative because the whole story-line is based around the possibility of life on other planets, so by showing you in the opening how small we really are compared to the rest of the universe it shows the audience the bigger possibility of life on other planets. At the end of the part where it shows you the universe we are in, it then goes on to zoom out into a child's eye. The child then turns out to be one of the main characters later on in the film, so this is a good way to introduce a character in the opening of the film,

Atmosphere:
The non-diagetic soundtrack creates an atmosphere in the opening. It is a range of songs, but whilst the camera continues to zoom out, the music continues to get older. It plays a range of songs from over the last century or so. This creates an atmosphere of wander for the audience, because the soundtrack must be something everyone recognizes, so it reaches out to a large audience. There is also a voice over played, which is non-diagetic. It also plays with the aspect of things over time, so also as the camera zooms out the voice over is sound recordings from the past. All of this foreshadows the narrative and creates an atmosphere of wander and makes the audience think a lot. This can relate to the genre of the science fiction film, because it makes the audience think a lot, rather than a film where the audience can watch the whole film without properly focusing.

Location/sets:
The mise en scene, which starts off as planet earth, relates to the genre. The location of the opening of this film represents the narrative, because it shows that it is in space. The set is really what makes the opening of this film, because the reason why it stood out so much to me was because it is in space, and really makes you realize a lot of things. This setting makes the audience realize that they are very small compared to the rest of the universe, and they also may have feelings of nostalgia towards some of the non-diagetic soundtrack that is being played in the background of the clip. The iconography signifies the importance of us in the big universe because we, as far as we know, are the only living planet discovered by humans so far.

Thursday, 9 October 2014

Analysing the opening for 'Legally Blonde'.


Analysing:
The film 'Legally Blonde' was released in cinemas in 2001. It is rated a PG-13 and the production companies for this film were 'Marc Platt Productions' and 'Metro-Goldwyn-Mayor pictures'. The distribution studio was also 'Metro-Goldwyn-Manor pictures'. The director was Robert Luketic. The box office achievements, for the first weekend, was $20million. It was nominated for a Golden Globe award and won a BMI award and also a british comedy award. It was nominated for more awards as well.

Target Audience:
The primary target audience for this film would be teenagers, and female. Just by seeing the opening to this film, everything is very pink and girly. The colour pink is stereotypically associated with females, and I think that if a middle-aged adult male happened to walk in on this movie being shown he would almost defiantly change the channel. The genre of this film is a romantic comedy, which is also a genre stereotypically associated with females, so there is more and more evidence pointing towards the fact that this film is aimed at females. The age bracket would probably be ten to late twenties. The film features girls at university, so it would probably be aimed at girls around the same kind of age, or a maybe someone a bit older because they have been there and done that, or maybe younger people because they see people of that kind of age as role models. The target audience would probably be fans of romantic comedy and typically girly films.

Title and Credit analysis:
The Titles and credits were all in pink writing, that looked like a woman's neat handwriting. It was white with pink borders and almost sparkled whilst it was on the screen. The Credits were un-animated, and they stay on the screen for half a second or so during the opening of the film. The very stereotypically girly writing shows the narrative, and shows the audience what the rest of the film and storyline is going to be about. The credits reflect the genre, which is a girly romantic comedy. In the credits, you are shown the film title, production company, cast (in order of importance), the people who have sorted out the costumes and makeup the director, producer and the music used. Those are the main things that you are shown in the credits.

Preferred Readings:
The opening scene features a close-up shot of the main character's hair being waved about whilst being hair sprayed. This draws attention to the fact that the hair is blonde and the audience are shown the start of a typically blonde film, which shows the narrative. When the teenager is riding her bike in the opening scene, the camera follows her and it frames her. It is a long shot, because you an see both her and everything going on in the background. The non-diagetic soundtrack is a very upbeat, pop-style song and stereotypically goes with the genre of the film. The song is called 'its a perfect day' and goes with the theme of the blonde american popular girls being very happy and having a very active social life. The atmosphere is a happy one and everyone in the opening scenes seem very relaxed and happy. The characters shown in the opening are represented as very typically blonde american teenagers and they are displayed as normally being quite shallow, and only really socialising and going out with their jock boyfriends.

Mise-en-scene:
The scenery in this film is also quite stereotypical, like most other aspects of this film opening. You follow a character entering a university dorm, where many blonde people are getting ready, doing their hair, and signing a card for the main character, who is also blonde. The room in which this part has been filmed is very pink and all of the mise en scene has hints of pink or is stereotypically girly in some way or another. It fits all of our established thoughts in our head of how it would probably be. The lighting is always quite bright, both when the characters are shown inside and outside. Everyones faces are well lit and it lets you see their facial expressions a lot better. This doesn't have an effect on the text, however, because the text is so bright and makes the scenes almost look a little bit darker than they actually are.

Ideology:
The ideology of american teenaged girls is that they are blonde, like to wear pink. spend a lot of time out with their friends and very sporty boys. This film does met this description, because even in the opening you can see where the girls live (which is a mainly pink area) and you can see who they hang out with, which is each other. Stereotypically, teenaged american girls in college or university meet this description and, because we have been brought up watching these films, you believe that is what things are actually like. The characters being represented like this make the audience think, after having watched the opening to this film, that all the characters will be like that. However, later on in the film the audience will be surprised that the main character proves the stereotypes that blondes are dumb wrong by going to a law school to try and win back an ex-boyfriend.



Analysing the opening for 'Up'.



Analysis for the film opening to the Disney Pixar movie 'up'.
The film is called 'up'. it was made in 2009, and it is rated a PG. The production studio was Disney Pixar and the distribution studio was also Disney Pixar. The director was Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, and the box office takings were $68million in the first weekend it was out in cinemas. There is an estimation that it has taken $175million in total so far, but it could be more since the website has not been updated in a year or so. It won two oscars for best achievement in written music for motion pictures and the best animated feature film of the year. It also won a golden globe award, a BAFTA award and an AFI award. It has also won more awards and was nominated for more oscars than it actually won.


Target Audience:
The target audience for this film was children from 5-15, it is a very colourful and happy film and appeals to children and a lot of adults as well. It is targeted at both boys and girl and anyone slightly elder as well. The primary audience would be children of any age, and then the secondary target audience would probably be teenagers or parents. The film is very happy at most of times and is very innocent, so that would be why it would appeal to children. It would probably be aimed at fans of disney or animated films. However, at one point in the opening in the film, there is almost a loss of innocence and so that makes a secondary target audience for slightly older people. However, the primary target viewing audience would probably be children to teenagers, because that is what most of disney pixar films are aimed at, and because it is an animation, people almost always go by the stereotype that most animated films are for the viewing of younger people, which means that some of the secondary target audience, which is adults, probably won't go to see it unless they have someone young with them, for example a younger sibling or child.

Title/credits and atmosphere:
The title and credits are right at the start of the film and is quite plain. In the main opening scene there isn't opening credits or anything like that, but by the way the film starts you can immediately tell it is disney. The trademark lamp jumping on the pixar letters automatically make the viewers aware that it is a pixar film. The narrative is displayed quite clearly in this opening scene, because you are shown a man grow up with the woman he loves, then the scene is shown where she peacefully passes away. This sets the narrative for the story, and makes the audience prepare for the rest of the film. The narrative is very clear in the opening scene, and sets the audience to realise what is going to happen in the rest of the film, as it is based around the old man's life. The atmosphere in the film is like the atmosphere in the opening- most of the time it is happy, but from time to time there are very sad moments. The opening scene almost foreshadows what the atmosphere will be like for the rest of the film, as it show the audience that the film is lighthearted and funny most of the time, but sometimes it can get quite deep and make the audience sad.

Camera angles:
In the opening, the camera angles are a lot of the time shot at eye level, and most of the time they are long shots. Every now and then, it will pan and follow one of the main characters, which almost foreshadows the fact that you are following their lives, and will be doing for the rest of the film and not just the short opening. The scenes when the characters get emotional are long shots, and a lot of the time the camera is panning the characters. The camera goes into an establishing shot, which shows how they will get from one place to another. After that, there is a close-up, low angle shot to focus on the characters sharing dialect, then it pans them again. Also, in the happy part of the video, it zooms in on the main characters together.


Atmosphere:
The atmosphere changes a lot in the opening. To begin with, the non-diagetic soundtrack is very upbeat and happy and sets the atmosphere for a very happy and enlightening film. You watch a young couple fall in love with each other and grow old together during the first few minutes of the opening and everything seems very happy and the atmosphere is like every other disney film- very care-free and everyone seems very happy. However, the non-diagetic soundtrack changes tone a lot when the man and woman starts to grow old, then as the music starts to turn to a slightly more depressing tune, and makes the audience prepare for the narrative to completely change. When the old woman dies in her husbands arms, it kind of takes the innocence away from the narrative for a while, and makes the audience sad. The characters introduced are seemingly innocent and happy people. The characters introduced are a man and a woman, and they are a young couple in love. They are represented to the audience as a very happy couple, because they are always smiling and ver seem to be sad. The director wants you to realise how happy they are together and how innocent they seem as a couple. The location/set is again of a very happy nature, because it is always very sunny and in a field, and they seem very happy. 

Mise En Scene:
The mise en scene includes a jar that they have been putting money in in order to afford to fly to paradise falls, a place they have both wanted to visit since they were children. In a way, this sets the narrative for the audience because they realise it is something the couple is aiming for. This is a way Disney make an object something that the audience focus on and believe it will be something involved on later in the film because it is focused on so much through the opening scene. The mise en scene and background and characters all set up the audience for the narrative.

Evaluation:
Overall, this is a very effective film opening because it keeps the audience very focused on it, and it keeps them engaged and carrying on wanting to watch more. The sad scenes, both when they realise they can't have a baby then when the old woman dies, it changes the tone and the atmosphere of the film opening. A lot is shown in this film opening in the first four minutes, you are shown what happens to the man in his life, so by being set this, you are able to know what he has been through in the past and why this old man is the way he is. This film opening has a very good start for a narrative because you are given a lot of background of the mans life, and the soundtrack and the scenery keeps the audience engaged because there is always something to watch.

Tuesday, 7 October 2014

Evaluation of Preliminary Film

Evaluation of preliminary film.
The preliminary film I made with Hannah Reynolds and Leah Tait was a video of someone opening a door, walking into a room, then sitting down and having a conversation with someone already sat in the room. We chose to make ours seem like a prison and the person sitting down was a prisoner and the person walking in was the prisoner's husband. We called the introduction the film 'Behind Bars'. It was the first time any of us had filmed and edited something, we used final cut to edit and used a song from YouTube to go over the top of the video.
The cons of this video are that because it is the first time any of us have filmed, the quality of the sound and image weren't very high and the cuts are quite rough because we didn't quite know where to place the camera when following people and other things, Also, the music over the top had a copyright so if we were to upload more videos we would need to look into that a bit more. We started the video planning process with a storyboard which worked quite well and we followed that when filming. The filming took about two hours in total to get all the shots we needed, and I do think we could have got that in a shorter amount of time so that is another thing that we could have improved upon.
However, considering this is the first time we have ever made a video and edited it, I don't think we did a very bad job. Both the diagetic and non-diagetic sound was quite good and the soundtrack was quite a good quality. The script was good and we used good actors as well. The good parts of working in a group was that there was always someone there to help you if you needed advice or help on what to do, and you got the work done a lot quicker because there is more people to do work. However, there are some downsides to working in a group. For example, if one person wasn't in a lesson for a specific reason, all of our work was saved on one desktop so we couldn't get any work done when she was not there. However, all in all, I think working as a group has more advantages than disadvantages, such as there is always there to hold something or help you filming, and if there is someone not there at the time you can always compromise later on.

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

Preliminary film



This is our preliminary film task, we created the opening to a short film called 'Concert talk'.