Partnership Update

Louise and I were going to work together on this project but we eventually realised we both wanted to do different things. I really hope we can still help each other on our seperate projects though. Louise is now doing a music magazine which is what I expected from her in the first place as music really is her thing - especially old music that most people our age haven't even heard of!

Anyway yeah. Just a little update on that.

About A Boy

I LOVE About A Boy. It's so sweet and has such a lovely story but is also laugh-out-loud funny at times. The humour isn't as obvious as in something like Hot Fuzz where the humour is straight-out jokes a lot of the time. This film, like Juno is more about the comedy of the characters themselves and their reactions to things that perhaps aren't necessarily funny to begin with. Hugh Grant's character Will often makes light of rather serious situations and tries to make a joke out of them eg. after Marcus's mother's attempted suicide. However it is never so grossly inappropriate that it is not funny. A lot of the characters do not react to his jokes - rather like Jennifer Garner's character in Juno who doesn't seem to understand Juno's sense of humour. The two films are very similar in this way and this seems to make the audience feel closer to Will and Juno as they are the only ones who understand their jokes.

In the opening scene of About A Boy, Chris Tarrant's voice on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire can be heard before any image is shown (you can see this by watching one of the videos below). This creates quite a tense atmosphere as the audience (of the film) will be wondering why this is relevant (whether someone relevant is actually on the game show etc.) also the actual music of the programme is designed to create tension, as is the situation (will they get the right answer and win the money? etc.). I like this effect of creating tension. It would be particularly effective in a thriller. I remember the technique being used at the beginning of The Machinist and The Bourne Identity (which I wrote about in a previous post) as well.

I really like the use of voice overs in this film, especially the ones in the opening scenes (below) of Will and Marcus. It is just as effective as the voice over in Hot Fuzz even though not as much is explained, just suggested. It's more like the two characters' philosophies on life than any actual explanation. Speaking of which I really like the way the two peoples' lives are contrasted in this way. The lighting is very important here as Will's bit is lit very brightly to show that he's happy with his life and Marcus's bit is very dark and gloomy to show his sadness at his mother's depression and being bullied at school. I will need to think about lighting in my film as it creates a certain mood (like in The Bourne Identity where Bourne is talking to himself in the mirror - good effect, looks mysterious) which is quite an important thing to portray to the audience - to let them know how light-hearted/ scary/ comedic etc. the film is going to be.

In the same way the lighting defines the two characters, the music (by Badly Drawn Boy) also helps tell the stories of Will and Marcus. When Will is on screen, the music is light-hearted and happy but when Marcus is on screen it is the same music, the same tune but it slows down and is more quiet and sad. This music theme goes on throughout most of the film: Will = happy, Marcus = sad.

The clip below is in Swedish or something but you can still get the general idea of how the voice over thing works and the lighting, music etc.


This video (below) has the Will voice over bit in English but doesn't have the Marcus bit which is annoying because as I said before I like the contrast of the two lives.


There is a shot near the end when Will runs across the school playground to stop Marcus from singing in front of the school. The shot is of Will running diagonally across the screen and I think it is really effective. It reminds me a bit of in The Machinist where Trevor Reznik walks across a car park (just before he meets Ivan for the first time). It is a wide shot (if that's what you call it) and he walks all the way across the screen. It takes quite a long time but for some reason it is just really effective. In About A Boy Will is running and doesn't take very long to cross the screen but you can see the resemblance.

A scene I also like in About A Boy is when Marcus follows Will going to the shops etc. I particularly like the way it was shot. It just look good. To see what I'm talking about click on the link below (for some reason my lame computer won't let me copy the embed code so you gotsta watch it via the link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_sVsmZfQKE

As I may have mentioned before, I LOVE this film. I definately want to recreate the kind of feel of the whole movie: like the cuteness and stuff.

Ok this is starting (hah yeah only starting now, what a joke) to sound really unprofessional now so I'm going to stop writing and go away to think about some ideas for my film.

Juno

I watched Juno for the first time yesterday and I absolutely loved it. It was so clever, so original and so adorable! I like the sharp, witty dialogue and quirky language and slang. It's not one of those stereotypical American High School comedies. It's much more clever, much more real than most of the films like that that I've seen. Although the characters are American and their culture is a little different to ours, I felt I could really relate each of them and empathise with the situations they found themselves in.
The bit at the start with the credits was great and I've put a link below to have a look. It's kind of cartooney and reminds me a bit of A Scanner Darkly but not so eerie and weird. The graphics are really innocent and sweet like a child's wallpaper. I think maybe it represents Juno leaving her childhood behind as she embarks on her journey into adulthood/ the corner shop. Even without the cartoonishness (yeah, I'm pretty sure that's a word) it would still be a pretty good opening and I was thinking the other day that maybe the beginning of MY film could start with a walking sequence so this is great inspiration.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/media/film/2007/juno.html?keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=526&width=864

As for the direction in the rest of the film, it's all good but nothing in particular really stands out for me. The actors are exceptional and the sets, props and wardrobe are perfect. But I felt I just had to write a little bit about this film as it is now definitley one of my favourites.

More Film Terminology

Wipe
An editing technique in which images from one shot are fully replaced by the images of another, delimited by a definite border that moves across or around the frame

Another Wright technique which I actually guessed right in my Hot Fuzz post (although didn't explain QUITE as well as IMDB).

Racking Focus
A shift in focus between planes at different distances from the camera within the same shot.

I know what these shots are and I would recognise them but I would really like to learn how exactly to do them because I find it hard enough to focus with a normal camera to take a simple photograph.

Reverse Shot
AKA: Reverse Angle, Hollywood Reverse
A shot taken at a 120-180 degree angle from the preceding shot. When used in dialogue scenes, reverse-shot editing usually alternates between over-the-shoulder shots that show each character speaking. See also shot/reverse shot.

I have seen these kind of shots in practically every film I've watched. In the first conversation scene in Hot Fuzz this technique is used but between lots of other techniques to make it more interesting and have a bit of variety.

Whip Pan

I just found out from http://www.imdb.com/Glossary that Edgar Wright's fast out-of-shot-then-back-in-the-same-direction-scene-change-thing is called a "whip pan". Exciting. The exact definition on the Internet Movie Database is...

Whip Pan
AKA: Whip-pan
An extremely fast pan, incorporating much motion blur. The term refers to the "whipping" action that the camera operator uses to move the camera.

and then I had to look up "pan" because I wasn't 100% sure what THAT was so here's that definition too...

Pan
The action of rotating a camera about its vertical axis. See also tilt.

OK, glad that's cleared up. I'll continue to browse the IMDB for more terms I can use/ post to prove my inimatable intellectual abilities.

The Bourne Identity

I watched The Bourne Identity yesterday and I loved everything about it especially the story which was exciting and had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. The direction was great as well: I really liked the opening sequence with the sound of thunder over the film studios' logos and the flashes of lightning with a shadowy silhouette floating on the water in the first shot. I also really like the way the words of the title of the film come up in flickery blue text and appear in a series of lightning flashes.
I like the bit where the old man on the boat cuts up Bourne's wetsuit because it is really close up so you're not quite sure what is going on. I also like the long silence while the man does this then the sudden "What are you doing to me?!" from Bourne. This sudden shock is not as effective as in a lot of films I have seen that use this technique but I still like the way they used it in this. (Strangely the best example I can think of from another film off the top of my head is Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban where Harry is walking up to Prof. Trelawney's room in silence to replace a crystal ball then she suddenly comes in and suddenly starts talking to him. Chilling.)
When Bourne is talking to himself in the mirror you can see the reflection of a big round light which illuminates just a tiny sliver of his face and jacket, the rest of him in darkness. I love the high contrast and bright light which makes the shot look a lot more interesting than if it were just lit as though in daylight. Another shot similar to this is when Bourne is on the train and you can see his reflection in the window.

Like in Hot Fuzz, there are a few scenes where the beginning or end of a scene starts/ finishes with a fast, loud motion or sound. In The Bourne Identity, someone bangs a plate down on the table at the very start of a scene on the boat and later on when one of the bosses comes out the lift, the scene starts with the "ding" of the lift. There is also a scene that closes with the slamming of a car door. An example from Hot Fuzz is where Angel clicks his pen and the scene ends. I like this as it is a nice way to start/ end a scene and it adds variety so the film doesn't get monotonous.
In this film there is this one shot where Bourne has just got off the boat that rescued him at the beginning and is walking down the road in the middle of the screen. The camera is still and he walks towards it, getting closer then when his head and shoulders are taking up most of the screen, the camera pans right as he turns and walks down another street and the camera stays still as he walks away. I really like that because it's different and looks good and you get to see different angles in one long shot. It's a bit weird though because at the end of the shot where he is facing away from the camera and walking down the road, a car passes behind him and when it has left the screen Bourne has vanished with it.

I am not very good at talking about music in films (or, arguably anything else, judging by my blog so far) but to breifly comment on the music in one particular scene, Bourne is at the bank in Zürich. The score is quite quiet and soft but as he starts looking at his papers, passports, money, gun etc, the music becomes louder, more urgent, with violins and drums where there once was just a quiet piano. He is beginning to discover who - and what - he is.

To conclude, a lot of the comments and analysis I have written here I will refer to when making my film introduction. I will hopefully use a lot of the ideas, camera angles etc. but I don't think we will actually be making a thriller, hopefully just a film shot like one.

Hot Fuzz

Hot Fuzz is one of my favourite films and I have always admired both the fast-paced direction and the funny but very clever script. Louise and I watched it a few days ago and wrote notes on all the things we liked about the opening sequence and the next few scenes that followed...
The thing that stood out straight away was the rather slow start of Sergeant Nicholas Angel walking briskly accross the floor in silence, his footsteps echoing loudly around the large room. This slow start is quite long and monotonous but creates tension and makes the viewer curious as to who this person is, what they are doing etc. This scene also shows a great contrast to the next scene which is fast with lots of short, speedy shots.
At the very beginning as the film studios' logos are being shown, you can hear the sound of the loud police sirens which tell you immediately that this is a film involving police. Sgt Angel is also introduced almost immediately and his whole career as a police-man-officer is shown all in the first couple of minutes. Martin Freeman's voice over plays a huge part in the illustration of the story here as it tells you what is going on as the images of Sgt Angel doing various duties as a P.C. are very fast-paced and would have been hard to understand without this narrative.
Louise and I would really like to make a film where the main character(s) and/or the plot/setting etc. is introduced in a similar way.
I really like Edgar Wright's "screen wipe" technique where a shot is "wiped" off the screen to reveal the next one. Sometimes it is supposed to look like a figure walking in front of the screen to then show the next shot and others it is just a sort of swipe across to move closer on an object via another, closer shot. It is hard to explain but hopefully Louise and I can try out this technique in a few days' time as a practice because if we can manage to do it properly we would love to use it in our final film.
Another of Wright's shooting techniques (also hard to explain - hopefully I can describe more fully when I have learnt the correct terms) is where a shot is about to end then the camera is moved swiftly either left, right, up or down then the next shot (sometimes a different location/scene) continues with this motion in the same direction. If you have seen the film you will hopefully know what I mean!
To continue talking about the introduction with the Martin Freeman narrative, I like the quick shots of Angel walking. There are lots of shots all together to show he is walking purposefully, proffesionally and fast...ly.
All the focus is on Angel and most of the time - mainly close up shots - the extras and minor characters are blurred/ out of focus. This shows that Angel is the hero and also perhaps that he is better than them at all the activities.
In the scene where they are running through the blue punch bag things there are cross dissolved shots and also when Angel is handcuffing someone this same cross-dissolving technique is used (this technique - along with many others - is coincidentally shown in this trailer below).




I like the way shots/scenes are changed by eg. the clicking of a pen, projector remote, camera flash etc.
I like the characters' quirky facial expressions which add to the comedy of the script. The unrealistic and sometimes verging on surreal elements of the film eg. the time scale where Steve Coogan's character enters the room just as the phone is being dialed.
Sound is a massive factor in the success of this film. All the sounds are exaggerated. There is even a swooping kind of sound in the "screen wipe" scene changes and Wright's shooting technique #2 to add more movement and set the pace.


I could go on all day about this and if I think of anything more that could be relevant I will post another blog but for now I'd better save the poor souls who have to read this and stop my rambling.

One of the many quick, short shots in the scene where Angel travels to Sandford. Each shot has a different sound (trains, cars, phone etc.)

Minor characters out of focus, all focus on Mr Skinner, the villain.

Start of Media Course

In our first few lessons we watched other students' work from past years and the openings of thrillers and horror films. When Louise and I discussed the clips we had seen after, we both agreed that we would prefer to look more at the action-comedy genre as this is the type of film we like to watch ourselves.
We enjoy the thriller-style direction and comedy elements of Edgar Wright's films. The fast paced opening sequence is particularly effective.
We also watched "Shaun of The Dead", "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" and "About a Boy". We really liked the comic timing of "About a Boy" and the special effects and comedy in the other two films.