Soundtrack Research

Today myself and Chloe looked at sounds and soundtracks to give us ideas for our opening soundtrack. We explored some sound effects and we have lots of ideas for our soundtrack. We are going to start making it next lesson.

Editing

Today we edited our opening sequence shots. My self and Chloe are now currently looking at previous sountracks from other thriller movies to be inspierd for the soundtrack for our soundtrack. We have explored that the sountracks help to build suspence along with the action.

Opening Sequences - Jaws

This is the opening sequence from the first Jaws movie. The opening sequence introduces the notorious shark as it eats a drunken young female while shes taking a midnight dip. 


The opening starts with a Universal Studios logo, this shows us that the film is made by universal. We then see some credits and fade to being underwater, we see coral and sea life underwater and it feels as if we are swimming along. This is showing us that the film is set around the sea or under water, the credit text is white and in the centre of the screen with the underwater behind it. Then as we are swimming along under water a sound starts, it is a jumpy and loud sound that disturbs the wildlife in the sea. This is telling us that whatever it was it is scary and disturbing, relating to the shark. This starts to set the genre of the film. We then go to a group of people partying on a beach drinking and smoking etc. A happy mood is set as they are all having fun and having a laugh. We know its cold as the people are all dressed sensibly and some are wrapped up warm and warming up of the fire, couples are cuddling and kissing. Then we are introduced to a couple who are both very drunk, the camera focuses on them as they run towards the beach to go for a swim, they take their clothes of as they are running. As they are running they pass a pointed wooden fence, this symbolises the sharks teeth. The camera follows them to the beach and then the girl runs into the water and swims out. The boy is to drunk to swim so he lays on the beach. The camera shows the girl in the water from diffrent angles and we can hear her rippiling in the water. Then we see her from the sharks point of view from under the water, her legs and arms moving in the water, now the sound from the credits starts again.  The music starts to get lounder and faster as the shark gets closer to the girl, the effect of this music brings suspence and makes the audience believe something bad is about to happen. Then the shark attacks the girl, we can only see the girl from above the water. We see her splashing and we hear her screaming, she is being dragged around in the water by the shark and eventually is dragged under by the shark. When she has been killed and taken under by the shark the water is still again and the sound stops. We then see the drunken man on the beach oblivious to what had just happend.

The effect of this opening sequence is to tell the audidence that the film is about the shark. It sets the scence and the location of the film. We are introduced to the sound when the shark is near, this tells the audience that when that sound is played the shark is near and going to attack.
The opening sequence relates to ours as it is thrilling and it has the same aim, to set the story to the aiudience.

Soundtrack Task

Myself and Chloe are going to create a soundtrack for our opening sequence using Garage Band. We are aiming to build up suspense and tension with out soundtrack and we are aiming to make it suited to the film.

Opening Sequences - Wire In The Blood

This is an opening from ITV's hit criminal detective show wire in the blood. Wire in the blood is about murder crimes that are solved by Robson Green and his detective crew.
This opening sequence shows  the crime of the woman being pushed and shoved into a suitcase and then set on fire. The shots are disorientated with a fuzzy and dizzy effect with the woman screaming over the top, the effect of this makes it seem as if the audience feel like the criminal who is torturing the woman as they are seeing what he is from a point of view shot. Then we see the fire with the criminals hand clench up, this is telling us that he has set her on fire as the screaming stops we realize she is dead as then we can only hear the fire crackling. Then the credits roll and the actors names appear on screen with the 'Wire in the blood' theme tune. Then we go to a extreme long shot of the crime scene but in the following morning with detectives and forensics examining the crime and the dead body.
This is similar to out opening sequence because 'Wire In The Blood' is a detective thriller genre and so is our opening sequence. Also the order of the crime then credits then the crime scene is similar to the order in which we hope to have our film.     

Filming Day 2

On Saturday 19th January we filmed our second lot of shots. I feel as if this day was very productive and successful. We re filmed the previous shots from day 1 in the light so now we can use them as they are not too dark. This time round we filmed each action from a variety of angles and distances, we filmed close-ups and point of view shots, we now have a wider variety of shots to chose for when editing. We are confident that we have filmed everything we need to make our film as we have lots of different shots, how ever if we do not have enough or we are missing something we will film the missing shots. 

Lift And Stairs - Editing Practice

To practice editing and understand how to use final cut we were given a practice task. The task was to make a realistic film on final cut with a number of clips that we were given. i put the clips into the right order and cut then together to create a effective film. i cut the clips and rearranged them to create a film that worked. The film consisted of a girl rushing to get somewhere, she came through doors and into a lift. There was many shots of the same action from different angles and views but we had to select the right ones that made the film work.
From this task i have learned the basic tools of Final Cut and how to edit effectively, i have also learned how important it is to be precise on match on action shots.

Filming Day 1

My media group and i went and filmed part of our opening sequence on Monday 14th January. It went very well and smoothly as we were very organized and focused on what we were filming. I feel it was a success and that we had a productive day. Despite the cold weather and snow we managed to all stay focused and get our work done.  We filmed the stabbing part of the film a number of times as we wanted to get it spot on and make it seem as realistic as possible.
When we took a look at our shots on a computer and spoke about them. Some of the shots are good and we are going to keep them but some others may have to be filmed again as the lighting in the shot is to dark. 

Representation

In films and TV programmes male and females mostly have stereotypical representation. Males are usually represented as strong, masculine, hero, good looking, hunk, villain etc. Females are usually represented as being a victim, feminine, stupid, weak, venerable, heart broken, bitchy, emotional etc.
 These stereotypes appear in allot of films today for example the film Taken.

• Family at home young daughter saying goodbye 
• Girl on holiday gets kidnapped
• Father is a old detective so flies out to save her
• He fights the villains  that have his daughter 
• Saves daughter
• At home happy again.

Liam Nelson plays the father. He is represented as a stong, fearless, protective and masculine father. He is a protective and intellegent father and can fight and our run any villan that approches him. The film makes him seem indistructable as he dosent lose any fights. He flies out to france to recue his daughter and becomes a hero.

Maggie grace plays Kim. She is young and looks up to her father. She is vunrable and weak. She is very femine and emotional. She is weak when she is kidnapped and cries emotioanlly. She relies on her father to come and rescue her. She how ever is clever wich is not sterotypical.

These represented sterotypes relate to our film as the victim is shown to be weak and vunrable as hes stabbed and attacked by the killers. Also the killers are reresented to be big and fierce as they dominate the victim.