Schedule for filming

We have made a plan to film next Tuesday (22nd) and we're going to meet in town at 10.30. This gives us time to buy the couple of props and to get to the location. Due to it being this time of year we have to be a where that it gets dark and thats why we want to give ourselves the best of the day in December.

We are going to use a girl in our group (Elise) to act our star girl as we feel it's more conviniant then taking the time finding someone to act and also because we feel as a group that she suits the part perfectly! This will allow the rest of the group to focus on the filming and shots that we carry out on the day.

Next week we only plan to film the outside bit of the film and perfect that as the location of our next bit is someones house on the complete other side of Oxford ans we don't want to rush getting there. The second bit will be only very short anyway and the actress will be in a completely different costume and so we won't have to be precise her looking the same.

Like I said earlier we plan to have it filmed by Christmas and then get it edited in the new year :)

New idea for our main task/ plot for the rest of the film

In are opening, the audience are going to see a happy and beautiful girl in a open field, showing a big grin on her face like nothing in the world matters. The shots will show a range of close ups and long shots and she will be in her own special place where nothing matters. We are going to have her holding a fairly vintage looking teddy bear who will link to future advents.

After showing the girl in this environment, and moving her to a forest with bright green and flowery colours the teddy that was in her hands just moments ago will suddenly have disappeared and the smile on her face suddenly vanishes as we're given a 'point of view shot' and see the teddy on the floor with its head hanging half off. The colours and the happiness will quickly disappear at this moment.

Then, suddenly we change scenes, to this same girl darting up from her bed and she'll make eye contact with the camera for about a second. She will be shown in a tiny, dark room presented with no make-up on and very dull and boring clothes. There will then be banging on her bedroom door to where the audience quickly understand that this first thing they saw in the shot, was just a dream and that actually the rest of her life is terrible compared to this.

The film would then go on to show this poor teenagers life who just wants to be treated like the other and how she can only get away from this when she's sleeping. It will show her beginning to talk to someone, who we're not introduced to straight away but as the film develops it turns out she's in counciling for her weird life.

As the film then comes towards the end, her dreams begin  to turn into what is actually going on in her life, the good things of course and so therefore it ends with her realising that it is possible for her to enjoy what's going on when she's fully conscious in her life.

Its going to be a emotional film and we hope for it to relate to teenage life's in lots of different aspects as a whole. It will be written by a young group of writers to help this relation and will be very modern when concerning things like language and the events that happen.

Rethink for our main task

After finding the location for our film, once the day had come about to film we decided that we didn't feel organised enough and so too under prepared to film on that day from the short notice we had and so we therefore decided not to go with this idea and think again. We also think that what we were trying to do in the hotel would have been a tad to complicated and hard to do on the equipment that we're provided with.

Rupert Murdoch is the most device figure in the most device figure in the recent history of the newspaper history of the uk newspaper industry. Discuss..

Rupert Murdoch is a massively known man in the media and also know by the phase 'the dirty digger' this nickname came about from the era when he brought 'The Sun' newspaper, changing the content to include lots of gossip, trivia and sometimes larger then life stories. However to oppose this, he is also the owner of 'The Times' newspaper which is full of real life going on's and very factual of the the world. These papers bring completely different views of the world with the sun running stories on characters in Britain's favourite soaps and the times informing the public on natural disasters thousands of miles away from home.

From just knowing this about Murdoch is apparent that he's a big figure in the media, newspapers in particular and he's on the internet too, myspace infact. He draws the attention of a massive range of market due to the sun being sold for just 20p where as the times being a couple of pounds.

I think he's had a really good inpact on the media as he brings us a range of stories that interest different people in many ways for what their interested in and what they want to read about.

Location for final piece sorted!

After sending a few emails around to local hotels last evening, this morning I received an email back from one saying they would be happy to use there fasilities to do our filming. All we have to do now is email back with a time/date and then hopefully it should all be sorted!

I'm really happy with us being able to use this as our filming location as we can focus highly on the mise en scene and it will fit in alot more with what we want to produce rather then using a house.

The only negative about this is that because we will only have one day to film it in as i don't think we'ld have a chance to go back if we wanted to re-film/ something wasn't quite right. Therefore we will have to be super organised but i think this shouldn't be too much of a problem because of our mistakes we made last time and because I think we'll all take this location as a really good thing and work our hardest on the day of filming!

New idea- where we got our inspiration from

It was time to think of a new idea for our main task and after spending a long time looking at other peoples AS work on youtube we would see how they came about it. And therefore after a long chat in our group about what we individually wanted to see in it and how we should film it, the shower scene in the  very well know film 'Casino Royale' came up in to convosation. We plan to do a very similar thing to the first 50 seconds in the clip above, with the man walking through the room and seeing the glass which leads him to slight confusion of what is happening. We really like this bit and think that the focus from the man to the glass works really well and plan to do a very similar thing. Another key shot that we thought was really well directed is the clip at 30 seconds in the above shot with the over shoulder of the man, and the women sat in the shower upset. Its such a powerful shot as she's sat in a very vulnerable way, on the floor in a tiny ball still dressed in her clothes.

As well as having this, we then want to have some quick and snappy flashbacks for the audience to see how the women ended up in such a state and we will show her being attached and pushed around so she's in shock so puts herself in the shower. Although we haven't figured out the whole of the plot yet, we  know that the main focus of the film is going to be the women, therefore instead of it being the man the first thing we see we thought it would be really cool to have the women sat in the shower, maybe crying to the camera however it will be a close up so it will anchor around the idea of if shes in the rain or other similar connotations.

We are still slightly unsure about where we want to film as our perfect location would be a hotel room as it would have all these thought provoking things like it's a bit of a mystery to where they are in the world as a hotel could be any city in any country. Because of this, we have been contacting some local hotels to see if they can help us out and if not, then we will just have to do it at someones house which won't be the end of the world at all as along as we focus strongly on the mise-en-scene then it should have just as good effect.

Problem with our main task..

Once we had done all our planning which you will see evidence of below we went to film. However once at our film location, we came across a lot of problems that we didn't consider when planning. For example we took a lot longer to get the actors ready then we thought it would take and we realised some problems with the continuity of shots and how it would work all together. We feel that we wanted to put so much in it that it would be just too much so therefore, after about 6 hours of organising/getting actors ready/filming we ended up with about 10 seconds of footage and once it came to seeing it on the screen, none of us felt as infused about it and all felt it wasn't working.

Overall, I don't feel that it was a complete waste of time as we learnt alot from it and know the mistakes that we made which when it comes to our main task we will be able to simply avoid. We have now come up with a completely new idea which we have simpled down a lot, however we feel it will be perfect and exactly what we need to get the best marks that we can get in media.

Notes on a TV drama

Animatics for our film opening

After deciding on the location for our film (Elise's house) it was time to do the animatics. So we all met up there and talked about the area that we had and how we could use different camera shots and how they'll work. So after experimenting with different angles and camera movements below is what we've come up with. Please take into account that no-ones in costumes as it we were focusing on getting these shots right.

Inspiration for our film

After deciding on the spooky, out of this world theme for our film it was time to get some ideas of what we wanted to do with ours that would look really good with the small budget that we have. In our group we discussed some similar films that we had seen which show the same sort of affect that we want for ours and 'now and then' came up. We really wanted to do a thing where similar to 'now and then' where you can see from about 1:40 of this clip the circle where the girls are trying to get in contact with the dead. We really like the shot above their heads looking down on the circle like someones watching down on them and therefore we wanted to do a similar thing. 

Another thing that also works with this scene is the mise-en-scene in the typical graveyard setting and although this film isn't an 'on the edge of your seat movie' as it's showing the story of their summer at a young age. I think you would have to have pretty thick skin to not be a bit freaked out with them as they run out of the graveyard not knowing what's going to happen with them.

After talking about ways we could do this, we ending up deciding that it would be a bit too much to put into 2minutes of footage that would make the story easy to follow and that we would be cramming too much in. However I don't feel it a waste of time and that it was defiantly worth doing as it really got our minds rolling at the beginning and we came up with many other, but similar ideas from it.

Although I can't find a clip on the internet of it, we also talked about the opening of one of the Harry Potter films where we as the audience are wizzed around the buildings and roads that Harry lives. We find out later that we were seeing in the eyes behind one of the characters however  it works really well as a establishing shot and expectations of the film as you know that your going to have an magical couple of hours ahead.

We really liked this idea and therefore have decided to use it for ours however we won't be able to have the camera fly across the sky so we're going to start it from the front gate and go into the house, up the stairs then in to the room where the action is set. throughout this the mise-en-scene will be your basic family house, maybe a bit messy to set the scene that for the girls, it's not particular day.

How do the opening scenes of three police dramas establish or challenge the stereotypes of the police?

In the TV 'New tricks' the first scene that we can see is a bunch of adults in what from the mise-en-scene we can only assume to be a detective department due to the amount of administrable sat around them with books and a white board in which they all appear to be facing. They're dressed in fairly formal clothing however there is a clear divide between the two younger character's in their leather jackets and skinny jeans too the older generation who appear to be in these old fashioned suits and haircuts. The programme 'Heartbeat' has a fairly similar environment to this with its small group of people however this preticlar episode shows the establishing shot as in what we can assume is a village pub where everyone knows each other. The scenes used throughout the first 5 minutes do show three different locations that really show the slightly quicker paste that this one has. 'Ashes to Ashes' stands out in the way that although set in the 80s, seems a lot more of modern setting with lots of quick editing and transitions. Because this was set to be 20 years ago, the director would have put a lot of attention towards the mise-en-scene to really fit with this. Things like the cars they own, hair cuts they have and eighties style clothing gets in straight into our heads that its not meant to be in current times. Its set for probably the middle aged so alot of them watching will be able to relate to the mise-en-scene as they would have been in there prime in the year its set.

The music used in new tricks is all very jolly and exciting, it straight away puts an audience expectation on what age its aimed at and that sort of hints that the whole show, even if it is a show about the police, it won't be an all action one and that really in a small town it's set in the police don't have a lot of crime to deal with. Similar to new tricks, heartbeat uses a lot of iconic music and interestingly with this one the rest of the sound is diagetic and more dialogue driven therefore the words are seen to be as important as putting sound behind it when the characters are talking. With ashes to ashes, as its set in the 80s the director choose to go with the obvious choice and use 80s music that fits in with the all action that's going on. A variety of music has been used in just the first 10 minutes to go with what's going on in the scene.

With new tricks, the shots are very quick and often show more then one person in the screen. When they are having the disagreement about buying the car it shows three people on one side of the room and three on the other and the movements go from either side to sort of show the rivalry that's going on in the room. With heartbeat the editing is all fairly show with lots of close ups and over the shoulder scenes; especially in the dinner and car scene. The whole clip seemed to focus on the eyes, as from watching on the screen i felt mine were drawn to these and what there doing help us to understand the story well. Ashes to ashes uses very quick editing and tends to use more long shots to enthisise the action that is going on.

Plot for the main task

It took us a while to come up with what we wanted to put in the first 2 minutes of the film however after lots of discussions of how things would work and look on screen we finally got our story board on paper.

At the beginning of the film (the bit that we will film) you see these two girls getting ready for a 'Halloween party' which is obvious from the beginning due to having an invitation in the mise-en-scene. and the costumes there wearing. However, this isn't a normal Halloween party as we plan to show someone else in the room, at this point an unknown person who only the audience are aware of. This is pretty much what you will see from us in later postings, however i will show our story board below get you excited for what you'll see.

Now for the rest of the film, whiles the girls are at this party, all is fairly normal but of course being a horror film, there will be those bits to make the audience jump in their seats a bit. Then, the climax of the film during the middle has 'the devil' coming to get the girls and take them away. This would be shown by using very quick transitions between shots of the girls trying to get away however then they are both taken into 'hell'.

To finish the film, one of the girls is slightly weaker then the other meaning that she won't return to normality, however the other wakes up in her bed on November 1st unsure exactly of what had happened the night before.............

The art of film title design throughout cinema history

After skim-reading this webpage there were some things that really stood out to me that i will make some note on here, as it holds a lot of information i'm also going to leave the link which is http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/04/the-art-of-the-film-title-throughout-cinema-history/ to look back at whenever i need to.

When watching a film, that first opening scene will set the expectations for the movie, therefore this is probably one of the most important things that a director/writer should take into consideration when constructing the script. Its the time in the film when we get to see the bond of the graphic designer and the film-maker, which if its good then it will stick in our heads forever.

The colour of the font, the shape of the letters and the moment they hit our screens really can make a huge impact of to what else is going to follow and how much we might enjoy it. Its sort of the moment when we have the real connection with the director and that there giving us the message for the genre before the actors even said the first line.


''Throughout the history of cinema, film titles has evolved with the film industry, as well as with social trends and fashion movements. But the measure of a title design’s quality is the same now as it was in the silent era. Whatever function they perform, titles remain an essential part of film.

Granted, in recent years the business of film titling has been terribly strained by the control of producers over commissions and their persistence in demanding speculative work as the price of admission. Creatively speaking, though, as filmmaking consolidates into the most powerful international cultural phenomenon of the 21st century, ingenuity in titling is a certainty. As designers have always known, the opening moments can make a deeply satisfying contribution to any film.''

Preliminary task analysis

After filming everything we needed for the opening scene, it was then time to edit. We had to choose our favourite clips that worked along well with what we wanted as we had some unneeded ones. At first we found it quite hard to get to terms with the macs, however after a few trial and error moves, we managed to get the hang of cropping clips, adding sound and titles.

The music seemed to be a slight problem as we found the sound that we wanted on one of our ipods, so went to the youtube converter to get it onto our project- however after doing this we realised that there's a mans voice on the track which we didn't really want to be there so we tried to edit it out however we couldn't to this particular track so had to leave it in, although we now don't think that it's too bad and does in fact go with the storyline.

Another thing we found hard was when the camera pauses on the two characters that we see as we had to freeze the frame by print screening that exact second and pasting it several times so that its stays as a still frame whiles the audiences eyes are drawn to the name. However, like the music we managed to work this out and now know for future editing how to save time by doing this quickly.

Overall I think we have had a very good experience with the editing with this project as we are all very more aware of how to solve the problem before getting to it. I think its been a really good insight as to what we're going to have to be aware of for our main one and this practice will make our overall opening to the best that it can be.

Our preliminary task- What are you doing here?

Links to look at

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/04/the-art-of-the-film-title-throughout-cinema-history/

http://petesmediablog.blogspot.com/

The making of the preliminary task

When set our preliminary task from our teacher we were told a little bit on how to do it with a bit of advice to help us. We were also given a few things that it needed to do, for example, you have to show someone walking through a door.

Next, we got into small groups to film with. We discussed our ideas that we had and then came up with a story bored in the order we wanted to film in and the shot types we were going to use for each bit. We used this story bored throughout filming to make sure that we don't miss out bits and include all the necessary shots.

When we started filming we came across a few problems. For example, there was not battery life on the video camera that we were given, therefore we had to borrow a extension chord from the drama department at school.  This meant that we couldn't do the first shot that we had originally came up with as it was in a outside location and so therefore we had to improvise and change the opening shot slightly, however overall this wasn't a problem as we used a pan shot, something that we wouldn't have been able to do in the other plan.

Once we had uploaded our footage on to the mac computer we had a problem with the dialogue, in which the cuts we're to quick and so that it was impossible to edit without being abrupt so after some time, we decide it best to re-film and because we knew exactly what we were doing, and had been over it before this didn't take much time at all and came out alot better then the first try as we knew now what not to do.

Notes on institution and audiences

(Page 122-126 of textbook)

Convergence- This describes two phenomena: First, technologies coming together, for example, a mobile phone you can use as a still and moving image camera, download and watch  moving images on, use as a MP3 player and recorder and access the internet with. Second, media industries are diversifying so they produce and distribute across several media- for example, a newspaper with an online version and audio podcasts or the coming together of videogames with films.

Institutions- When we use the term institutions in Media Studies, we usually mean the people who have a role in the production of media texts. That covers a huge amount of ground, as you can imagine. A brief list might include:
Companies/organisations
Producers
Distributors
Marketing.
So we're talking editors, directors, producers, scriptwriters, screenwriters and so on and so on.

Audiences- This is a huge area of Media Studies with many variant and competing approaches and so its important to be precise witth the focus on this section which is the relationship between audience and institution.

Notes on video production

(pages 31-37 of textbook)

Continuity- This is the thing that the audience can assume what happens between each shot or sequence. For example if the character was to get on the train is shot 1. Be seen reading the newspaper in shot 2. Be asleep with the newspaper folded on his lap in shot 3. Getting off the train in shot 4. Then the audience won't assume that the train journey was just really short, but that nothing significant to the plot happens in these shots, just that he's going to the next scene. However, the continuity will be broken if the character appears to move seats inbetween shots which would disrupt the flow of the sequence.

Story boarding- This is a set of cartoon charter's drawn to show each shot that will happen in the scene. It has to be in the order that it will be seen to by the audience when finally put together and have notes around it include things like the camera angles, the background and the props use. Its a visual thing that should help with continuity and although most people depart from using it once started, its very important to make one to see how it will all work together.

The shooting script- This accompanies the story bored and is basically the schedule for filming. It will most likely end up in unchronological order compared to the story bored as its more sensible to film everything you need from one location. This is very important in tightly budgeted films to take this into account and plan this very well so they don't have to revisit a location because they forgot about a later scene that needs to be there.

Notes for the preliminary task:

The preliminary task requires you to produce a piece of film in which a charter opens a door, walks across a room and sits down in a chair opposite another character and exchanges two sentences of conversation. There are three continuity principles to observe in this exercise:
- Match an action- Match on action occurs when an action that begins in one shot is continued or completed in the next
- Shot reverse shot- Shot reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.
- 180degree rule- (see image below)

'It has to establish character and/or setting and to create enigma- to help the audience understand easily where we are, who is invloved but, fundamentally why we should be interested.'

Analysing a TV opening

TV drama: Nearly Famous

(http://www.channel4.com/programmes/nearly-famous/4od#2918453)

After looking in to a film opening, i now have looked at a TV one. Like before, I have taken print screens of what I can get out of the camera movements, but also will be adding notes about the sound, mise-en-scene and any anchorage I notice.

 This is the first and the establishing shot that we see on the screen is this. As you can see the room is shadowy with little natural light and on the far left we can see a character looking round suggesting that the room he's sitting down in is as new to him as it is to us. The music also starts right at the beginging which stays the same during the entire opening. A relaxing acoustic sound is used with some lyrics.

 The camera movement, still in the same take, then moves around so we can see a better image of this character. The light shining down on him could be suggesting he's going to be important compared to the darkness of the rest of the room.

A pan shot is then done, showing us people arriving into the scene. These are wearing a lot more brighter colours and pattern filled outfit witch connotes that their happy because of the bright colours contrasting with the black and that their all stylish and young.

 The pan shot then goes back to the charter we see at the opening shot, he has now put his hood up suggesting that he doesn't want to be noticed and we can see that he's being anti-social by not talking to anyone unlink that two girls either side to him who have their back to him and in conversation with others.

 The music is then turned down slightly, however we can still here it faintly and we start to hear this man talk. The way they gave us a straight up close up could represent his importance and sturdyness towards the others that automatically puts him on the top of the hierarchy. The light that we see in the background could also help represent this, but also a way of thinking he's something from god. That this man we see is the only hope to get though the year.

 A montage is used to flick over to see a girl running through what we assume from the mise-en-scene of garden benches and big buildings is a school environment. The man is still talking as we see the girl on screen

 From here, a close up of dropped books. We know she's in a hurry and again this helps with the setting of a school for us to take in.

 We flick back to the man where we see a full body shot and its a point of view shot from one of the pupils due to the circle he has around himself. The spot light is still directed on him and his hand gesture states his authority.

 Back to the montage, as the girl is running though the building i noticed the difference to the room that the others are sat in. The colours outside are far more natural and bright with the people doing far more active things. Like this shot above, the dancers have the freedom to move around the room and express themself compared to the others sat in the dark being given a lecture.

The final shot to the opening; when the two montages meet. As the girl breaks open the door the light comes glaring though as if she's coming from another word where everything's different. We can see the close up of the man as he finishes his speech, and the girl in the background looking a bit lost and confused.

Analysing a film opening

Film- Angus, thongs and perfect snogging.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyWpNjUGDiI)

I watched the opening to this film and noticed many things that the director has done to make us learn about the main character just from the first 4 minutes of the film. I found the shot types interesting- so i have print screened the best ones and will analyse this below.

 This is the first shot that we see on the screen that last for just under 30seconds. We can here the girls voice talking to her dad driving the car (we know this because she refers to him as 'dad'.) The music that is playing is quite cheerful and yet simple as to not take attention away from the dialogue.

 This is the next shot we see and the first of our main character. In the mise-en-scene, we can see that the car being driven is a pretty standard one with the houses being quite tightly packed shows there quite an average family. At this point we are also wondering why the girl is dressed in a massive olive green suit.

 This shot is when she walks in to the party and it's a 'point of view'. Every one is staring at the girl (presumably because of her costume.) And the cheerful music stops for a second whiles the party is in shock staring at her.

 The laughing begins now, as we can see from the groups point of view and how juxtapose she looks compared to the others in their stylish costumes.

The first close up we see- shows us the embarrassment that she must be feeling, and at the same time some anger that her friends didn't warm her. 

Our 3 next main characters in the film are shown here. All in the same shot could show that their all important and have the same role in the film. The music is made lower which may symbolise how our main character is feeling by the let down of her friends.

A pan shot is used as we watch the desperate run away. The music is also changed to a resent song (scouting for girls) as she runs though town.

Shows us the location of the film set, with the see looking lovely, and the day beautiful which is contrasting with how the main chacter is feeling as she runs home.

A side close up, showing the emotion (upset) of the character and her urgency to run away.

A birds-eye-view shot here. The green and red costume may have been used to symbolise the anger and jealousy she may be feeling toward's her friends.

The last shot we see in the introduction to the film, a moody teenager lying on her bed because of her dramatic events in her life. It foreshadows more of being let down by her friends, not getting a boyfriend due to her social ways and arguing with her parents. 

How does ‘The Pursuit of Happiness' use of juxtaposition affect representation in the film?

Throughout the pursuit of happiness each character that we see in the mise-en-scene are represented in different ways to make us dislike, feel happy or sympathies for. Chris Gardner (Will Smith) represents a hard working, goal seeking person from the black society trying to make money for him and his family to get by.

The first scene we see in the film is Chris and his son Christopher (Jaden Smith) on there way to playschool. We see the two holding hands and in Chris’ other hand he is carrying a box which at this point, we are not introduced to. I think that this represents the two most important things in Chris’ life being held on either side of him. His son, showing his ability to be a father and the responsibility that comes with it. And this box, the thing that he’s sure is going to get him by and maybe even one day that he’ll live the American dream. It shows ambition, dedication and at this point in the film a steady income. 

Linda (Thandie Newton) is then introduced on the screen looking unattractive and exhausted. The mise-en-scene that is used throughout the time we see Linda on screen during the film shows her in a grungy nurse’s uniform, wearing little makeup and never happy with the situation she’s in. I think the saying ‘the glass is half empty’ could be used to represent Linda’s view on life compared to Chris’ optimism in his choice of career. We know this because of the use of flashback when the machines were first being brought into the house; this shows the excitement and how much younger they look, being represented with bright lights and a sense of something good about to happen in their voices. The way Linda reacts when she first sees her husband in the film is forecasting the breakdown in her marriage and her leaving her son and husband behind.

The transitions of shots and tone of the music are changed when Chris is walking down a road with what we can assume from the mise-en-scene is in the middle of town, filled with well off, middle class business people. The shot shows all of them smiling which connotes that their happy with how their life’s going which is strongly juxtaposes with Chris’ life and how he has to walk though this part of the city to be turned down by what he thought would be a potential buyer of the bone density scanner which represents how much people with money matter to the character and how it could really help him.

The scene with the interview is probably the most juxtapose scene in the whole film because of the huge contrast between Chris and the rest of the interviewees in their designer suits and shaven faces compared to Chris’ covered in paint look, wearing jeans and a t-shirt. During the interview to the film there are a lot of point-of-view shots to put us in Chris’ position of being interviewed by these four intimidating men. I also noticed in this scene, the first proper bit of laughter in the film when Chris makes a jokes which results in us leading to positive thoughts and opportunities that might well come his way.

When this six month apprenticeship comes Chris’ way we see the best thing in his life happening in the worst time of his life. This career opportunity is probably the one chance he’ll get and yet his marriage is in pieces and his child’s educational needs aren’t being reached. Christopher represents the innocents and naivety to the harsh adult word and notices quite obvious things. For example when Chris manages to get a bone density scanner off the gypsy who stole it and their sitting on the bus with two he says ‘Your not meant to have any of them, you have two now’. These words would have been influenced by his mother and shows that there really is a halt of them not being sold. 

Things are at the lowest point for Chris when he and his son are forced to sleep at the shelter due to being unable to pay the rent. I think that the film uses a stroke of irony when we see the cue for the shelter. In this, we see a lot of homeless, scruffy clothed and unshaven people. Then we see Chris, in his suit and looking tired from a hard day in the office however as it’s unpaid work he’s resulted to taking himself and his young son to this play filled with connotations of drug abusers and lazy workers. This scene puts Chris in the opposite position to where he was in his interview so shows that work has got better however the personal life is going down hill.

The last scene is very symbolic because Chris has just be given the opportunity of a life time, everything would be fine and he can bring his son up in a word where they wouldn’t have to scrape for every penny. We see the two walking in to the sunset, holding hands however this time Chris isn’t holding a big box in the other hand, but Christopher’s lunch box which symbolizes Chris being able to finally provide and take care of his child and finally be a proper father to his son.

How spooks is established

In the first shot of spooks we are shown a funeral taking place which automatically sets a sad mood for us the audience watching. The background music in the clip is sad and slow which helps to connote the feeling of death. The tone changes slightly as the dialogue starts to where it seems to bring regret in the characters voices.

There are a couple of establishing shots to set the scene of the church and the feel of the weather in the clip. I also noticed close up shots of the characters that help highlight the emotion and feelings of the people we're seeing on screen during the funeral. The director has chosen to use choppy transition's and lots of quick editing in this opening to help the story flow and get going.

Film poster annotation

National Treasure uses Vladimir Propp's narrative theory

National treasure is a typical American adventure film with a race to find the gold first. It's based around the main character who is of course the hero of the film who from a little boy has been amazed by his families history and determined to believe what he's been told from his grandfather. During the film we meet his enemy, his sidekick and of course being a hollywood movie his love interest. I chose Vladimir Propp's theory as I felt it fits perfectly to this sort of film and below i have filled in each slot with a character from the film, to which they're all included.

The villen: Ian Howe
The hero: Benjamin Frankin Gates
The donor: Patrick Gates
The helper: Riley Poole
The princess: Abigale Chase
Her father: Sadusky
The dispatcher: Patrick Gates
The false hero: Ian Howe

Skins | Episode 8

Teenagers don’t matter. Teenagers only care for themselves. Teenagers are all addicted to drugs, alcohol and sex. Well… that’s what the media have decided for us. Skins is a TV drama that probably every young person up and down the country have seen and all said the very words ‘my life is nothing like that’. Skins worries the older generation but keeps the younger generation engaged with its laughs to its tears.