Opening title sequences

A opening title scene is suppose to set the scene of the movie and introduce us to the significant characters. Its also suppose to hint to the audience the genre of the film and tell us a little about what the plot is. It is also suppose to entertain the audience because if we don't like the opening sequence we are unlikely to watch the rest of the movie.



The Shining 

The thriller/horror movie's production company is Warner bros pictures.

The opening title sequence is set in a beautiful landscape but as an audience we don't know where, we can just tell its up in the mountains and that it is isolated which creates questions in our mind like what why and where, this makes us want to watch more . We can tell that it is in the middle of nowhere  because at the beginning there is a massive establishing shot which sets the scene.

There is creepy music which keeps the audience enticed, this contrasts with the beautiful surroundings of the landscape. The music helps the audience identify the genre of the film, this is like the music in Jaws.

As an audience we are focused on one car driving up the mountains, but we don't know who is in the car and where the car is going, this is what keeps us (the audience) interested in scene. We can tell that the car travels along way because at the beginning the car is low on the mountain on big roads and then later on its on narrow roads up high in the mountain.




Sexy Beast

The opening shot is a POV of what we can already presume is the protagonist, he is looking up into the blue sky. We then get the non diegetic sound of a voice over where we hear from the main character what he is feeling. We can tell that this guy is living the life, he is lounging around by the pool and is in the sun with beers and cigarettes, and we get the impression that he doesn't work, maybe because he doesn't need to or because he is laying low because he has done something wrong.

We are showed the setting of pretty much all of the movie, his house, after seeing his house we can tell that he is very rich. The setting of the house is very isolated.

We are shown a shot of a pool with love hearts in it which confuses the audience for a slight moment until there is a cross cut straight from the love heart pool to a women driving, this shows that this women has some significance to the man. The women is driving away from the audience when we are shown her which suggest that she is driving towards the man which then signifies that the two could be a couple.

The mans wealth is shown when the rock rolls into the swimming pool and we are shown a reaction shot of the man who doesn't seem to care about it because he has the money to cover it.

First Camera session

We were put into groups and were asked to set up the camera and tripod. We then bubbled the camera to lock the sony nx5 into place.

We then played around with the buttons to find out what they all did. After that we altered the zoom and focus of the camera and I found that pretty easy because I have done it before. We were then shown how to use the exposure on the camera which was located on the lens of the camera as a wheel, again I thought this was pretty basic.

We were then showed how to use white balance and we were told the purpose of white balance was to make the image as realistic as possible. I didn’t really understand how to use white balance though, but in my next camera session ill make sure I ask Paul how to use white balance.

After we were finished with learning about white balanced we then packed the camera and tripod away.

Presentation

Presentation on Dodge ball scene 

As a class we were set out a task to present a little presentation to each other on a short scene from a movie clip of our choice. I chose a scene from the film Dodgeball simplt because the scene makes me laugh and the film is one of my favorites.

These are my notes for the presentation to the class  



24 September 2014 17:44

always eye level with Ben Stiller to give the audience something to focus on. placing someone in the middle of a screen also shows to the audience that the character is significant in the scene

 the dodgeball team makes us feel intimidated - by using  

diegetic sound of blade gritting his teeth

diegetic sound of, Lazer cracking his knuckles 

non diegetic music to build tension when the girl is introduced

when we are introduced to the team they are placed at the top of the screen to exaggerate the size of them

when White Goodman introduces Michelle to Peter LaFleur (Vince Vaughn) there is a shot reverse shot to help the audience identify who is speaking to who

 there is a pan from right to left to help the audience identify the dodgeball team, this is unusual because usually panning is from left to right because of the way we read 

selective focus is used to keep the focus on the foreground and not the background.

A little introduction

Hello, my name is Bertie and this is my media studies blog. I was born in Singapore and lived there for 16 years but went to Cranleigh prep school. I then went to Tanglin School in Singapore where I was introduced to film studies. I chose media studies because film studies interested me. My hobbies include playing football , filming, and editing on IMovie, I also enjoy watching movies, my favourite movie genre is sports/comedy. In my own time I am normally either socialising, playing football or playing PlayStation. my favourite actors are Vince Vaughn, Leonardo Di Caprio, Will Ferrel, and Rob Schenider. My favourite movie is Dodgeball with Vince Vaughn.