Hi again fellow bloggers and viewers! Today, I was watched the Children of men's opening.
I knew exactly who the protagonist is during the first scenes. Simply because he's the only one moving in the first scene when the crowd was watching the TV; he's doing something different. This caught my eye instantly. However, I wasn't sure that he was the protagonist yet. Then, I saw the camera follow the man, I was sure he was the protagonist. He looks as if he isn't happy about life and the situation in general.
The location of the opening is clearly set in an abandoned, under-cared state. There was rubbish everywhere and there was the diegetic sound, suggesting that there was a 1000-day war in Seattle. We know that the location the protagonist is in is London because of the text. What's strange about the location is that the only pieces of high-tech technology are the buses and the TVs. There are helicopters and blimps in the sky and everything has to be watched.
The questions I asked and the enigmas were:
- Why is the world aging very quickly
- Why does everyone care all of a sudden
- Who is the protagonist and why doesn't he care
During the entirety of the opening, there was very little editing; there were only 2 cuts. The 2 cuts helped us as viewers get the feel of the movie and it keeps us wanting to know more; an element of the unknown.
Hello again viewers! I am back with another analysis of for my blog and this time it is an analysis on the settings of the opening of Se7en.
For the first scenes, when we see Sommerset and Mills walking together, the urban area they are in seems polluted and "noisy". It looks very aggressive and suggests violence, as you can see that most of the civilians simply walk by a dead body and if they're used to this type of event. This gives the audience the picture of some places in the real world, as the world right now in some places is filled with violence and crime.
As for the second scene set in Sommerset's room, I felt that he had a very classy and high-classed house. There's alot of furniture around that seems to be of high value, and old/antique items as well as intellectual items, like a small library with a vast collection of books. Something else I noticed was that he lives alone, and because the house is located at that particular area, he had possession of a flip-knife, which seems reasonable as he may need it for protection.
In a thriller, there tends to be a secret that needs to be revealed, or a mystery that needs to be solved (e.g. a murder); an enigma of some sort. Another generic thriller convention would be how it builds up suspense, in which peaks (climaxes) towards the end of the movie, and is then solved/sorted by the end of the film, in most cases.
Technical Aspects:
The use of sounds in Thrillers can create different atmospheres throughout the movie and is usually used to create tension. The combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sound can create a strong sense of tension. For example music getting louder and footsteps getting louder. Jumpscares are also used to create Thrillers by creating physical response from the viewers and to make a sudden change in images.
Audience Response:
All of the above is then combined to give an effective audience response such as the audience feeling fear, anger, confusion, absence of knowledge, hesitation and uncertainty, typical responses towards a thriller.
Differences:
The difference between these and action films and supernatural and horror films are that, action films have very little story and there are excuses to use Action set pieces. Horror usually uses Gore,blood and jump-scares without exposing much information to the viewers, and supernaturals lack mystery and manipulation of information.
Conventions:
Jump Cuts
Protagonists and Antagonists share the same features (e.g. Mills/Doe/Somerset)
Mysterious secret Antagonist
Sound building up tension and releasing tension (Non-diegetic)
Task: Use Adobe Premiere and (try to) imitate the credits for the movie
"The Good, The Bad and The Ugly."
Process
1: First, we were showed the how to use certain features on Adobe Premier, such as creating titles, the use of colour matte, background removal, and how to utilise key frames.
Colour matte: Create a blank sequence, create a colour matte (with colour of our choice), and paste video (in this a background-less explosion) on top.
Key Frames: We placed key frames in order to set different values for our images, in this case of cowboys, to make them do (un)professional actions, like loop around the screen and disappear and reappear again. Everyone had their own unique sequence. The values we played with also made the cowboy do things like rotate, move up and down, as well as change in size and dimension. *wheeeeee*
2: In this step, we were taught how to added a title to our video, which involved the use of key frames once more in order to make them appear flashy interesting. *pretty colours ><*
3: Lastly, we were given some sound to play with. This involved, our new best friend, key frames once more. We added a "YEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH HAAWWWWWWWW" sound to our video, to make it seem like the cowboy was screaming as he did various manoeuvres across our screens. We were taught to utilise key frames in many ways, such as lowering and raising the volume to make it seem like the sound was really coming from the cowboy. Well, we tried to, anyway. Oh, and I'd lower my volume a little if I were you. Enjoy :)
"Dexter is an American television crime drama mystery series. Set in Miami, the series centres on Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a blood splatter pattern analysis for the fictional Miami Metro Police Department who also leads a secret life as a vigilante serial killer, hunting down murderers who have slipped through the cracks of the justice system." - Wikipedia
Task:Make a table and list some of denotations and connotations from Dexter's film opening/credit scene.
Denotation: The literal meaning of something, regardless of what the shot/situation suggests; first level analysis, what the viewers can see.
Connotation:An idea or emotion which the shot/situation suggests; second level of analysis, what the viewers get from the shot/situation. Below is the clip in which we used for our analysis :)
Hello again, fellow bloggers! Today I'm back with AS Media Studies project. Our task was to create a 1-minute trailer of an interrogation movie. I was put into a group with Gigi, who was a very good camera woman and George, who was our skillful Audio guru.
As for myself, I worked on the video editing.
Equipment:
Macbook Pro with Retina Display
Software used:
Adobe Premier Pro CS6
What went well:
I made significantly more progress than most of my classmates; I managed to finish the whole clip in 40 mins. Also, I matched sound effects with the clip fairly well; the final product was very realistic.
The audio I chose also went the video very well. It's League of Legend's Omega Squad Teemo login music.
What I could've done better:
The ending was very abrupt and too sudden; I could've perhaps messed with the music or cut the clip somewhere earlier. More small details could've been added or refined, such as when the baddy jumped over the little girl, I could've added a scream or perhaps when the hero cleared the swing-chains I could've added a very soft/quiet chain noise.
The following is the video in which I put together. I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog post as well as watching the video! :D
Hope you enjoyed my project, thank you for reading.
NOTE: Blog construction in progress, sorry for the inconvenience. Meanwhile, why not have a read of my other post? It's about my first AS Media Studies project :) Hello, again fellow bloggers! Today I'll be talking about another project in which I've been working on; H-Sports!
Task:
Our task was to create a short report on our designated school sports teams. Our team was given the HIS Girl's Varsity Football Team.
Equipment:
Lumix GH-4 TriPod Additional High-Quality Microphone Macbook Air Macbook Pro with Retina Display Software used: Adobe Premier Pro CS6 Adobe Premier Pro CC 2015 Adobe After Effects CC 2015 Adobe Photoshop CC 2015
H-Sports V1.0
What went well: - The video quality was very high and looked professional - Complete with credits What we could've done better: - Voice volume was too low - Music too loud at times - Music isn't "energetic" or "sporty". - Interviews were way too long. - Some items should not be in sports video (such as Thank you For Watching)
H-Sports V1.1
CHANGES:
- Faster paced, more energetic music.
- Slooooooo mooooooooo
- Adjusted interview volume
- Moved H-Sports logo as well as made it translucent
What went well:
- Maintained quality
- Made video more interesting by added some effects and small changes to video timeline.
What I could've done better:
- H-Sports position made it difficult to notice.
- Some clips way too long -> lost viewer's attention
- Small rendering issue; laggy bits especially during slo-mo shots
H-Sports V1.2
CHANGES:
- Fixed audio
- Adjusted Volume (again)
- Added music credits
- Transition adjustment
- Added new "Official H-Sports" transitions and logos.
- Re-arranged video timeline slightly to fit with new transitions
- Other general adjustments for a better viewing experience
What went well:
- Made small adjustments for better viewing experience
- Transitions (provided by H-Sports Team) made this look like a professional production.
- Transitions made video smoother in general
- Did some research on what range volume should be, adjusted project volume accordingly.
What I could've done better:
- H-Sports logo still in wrong location
- H-Sports logo difficult to see
- Sound still too quiet, and loud at times
- Name banners; missing and incorrect spelling
- Transitions were rough, and sometimes in inappropriate places
H-Sports V1.3
This is (thank god!) the final of the video!
FINAL CHANGES: - Fixed audio (again) - Adjusted Volume (again again) - Transition adjustment - Re-arranged new "Official H-Sports" transitions and logos. - Added a short clip during coach interview to keep the audience's attention/interest. - Re-arranged video timeline slightly to fit with new transitions - Other general adjustments for a better viewing experience - Corrected HSPORTS logo position - Name Banners (FINALLY)
What went well:
- Small little details touched up to give a smooth, and interesting viewing experience - Sound finally good - Transitions are now right
What I could've done better:
- I still don't like the music; not very sporty, sounds like something you might find in a dance game. - Perhaps I shouldn't have rendered with such high quality; took too long, and YouTube lowered the quality anyway.
Hope you enjoyed my project, thank you for reading.
Hello, fellow bloggers! Here on my first ever Blog post, I will talk about my first ever AS Media Studies project. Our task was to create a 1-minute trailer of an interrogation movie. I was put into a group with Gigi, who was a very good camera woman and George, who was our skillful Audio guru.
As for myself, I worked on the video editing.
Equipment:
2 GoPros for chase, handheld, and CCTV scenes.
1 Mirror-Less camera for high-quality footage, mostly for scenes with minimal displacement.
Macbook Pro
Macbook Pro with Retina Display
High-Quality Microphone
Software used:
Adobe Premier Pro CS6
Adobe Photoshop CS6
Preview (Standard Apple Software)
Audicity iMovie
Day 1: Today we were given a choice, either do a 1 minute remake/parody of a film, a heist, or an interrogation. We decided as a group to work on a heist film, as it we had great ideas and thought it best suited us. We started by coming up with a basic story line, the plot, a basic timeline, and what a rough plan of when and where we'll be filming and when we should start editing. The plot was that a man was mistaken to have stolen something, when in truth he was running away from an unmentioned/mysterious/dangerous *thing*. The name I.C.U. comes from the fact that the man is then later hurt and is put into intensive care. The name also suggests that he is being "watched" by the "thing". *Haaaa double meanings!*
Day 2: Today was our first day of filming. We focused manly on GoPro shots, one handheld by George whilst running, and the other held on an extension stick (similar to a selfie stick but a little shorter and designed specifically for the GoPro) with me holding it, running after George, for the low angle shots.
Day 3: Today was our second day of filming, with most of time spent on the "interrogation" scenes. We took this in a small, dark, storage room. Here, we installed a small lamp (in which we broke... oops) behind the actor creating a silhouette effect so that the actor's face was hidden/unseen. Here we also placed the GoPro at a high angle so that, so that it created a CCTV effect (more details later).
Day 4: During day 4, we filmed the last bits necessary; the phone/message. In one shot, a hand is seen holding a phone, and another shot of the same hand tapping the screen to receive and accept/activate something.
Day 5: Today, George worked on editing the audio and I worked on editing the video. George added sound effects as well as did voice over recordings. He also added a lot of other audio magic to enhance the viewer experience and generally make the audio sound professional and interesting (in which I have no idea how it was done). After George finished the audio, I made the video so that the transitions matched the audio, as well as worked on the CCTV scene. Here, I created a CCTV-like HUD, as well as added occasional "wave" effects to the shot, so that the shot was as realistic as possible.
What went well:
In my opinion, I think the overall quality of the video was good. We purposefully made the footage shaky to give the "panicky" effect. Video and Audio effects were used appropriately, such as the single drum hits when the video cut from one shot to another, or when I added the "wave" effect to the CCTV scene in order to make it seem a little more realistic. Lastly, the Audio was exquisite; the audio went with the video flawlessly and was of extremely high quality.
What we could've done better:
In terms of footage, we could've used more cameras for multi-angle shots. Furthermore, we could've made sure that all the cameras had matching FPS, footage size, as well as resolution simply increase consistence, and make the process of editing (AND RENDERING) faster. Thirdly, we could've added glimpses of the rest of the plot, and hinted on the "thing". Lastly, we could've utilised a tripod, as it would help us in scenes such as the first scene; it was done using a hand-held phone and was swaying left and right.
The following is the video in which we've put together. I hope you've enjoyed reading my first blog post as well as the video my friends and I have put together! :D
