Thursday 30 January 2014

Film Structure

Tzvetan Todorov studied the basic narrative of films and his theory was that they followed the structure: Equilibrium, disruption, recognition of disruption and the equilibrium again.
I will be analysing the structure of my trailer and also The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones.

My trailer begins with the recognition that there is a disturbance as there is a girl talking about how something is wrong with her boyfriend. It starts with the recognition as it goes back to show and explain what has led to that. It then shows the equilibrium as the girl goes out with her boyfriend in the car and everything seems normal. As she gets in the car with him, there is then a shot of them talking, this is the repair as she is meant to be asking what it wrong. The disruption is then showed as we see that the boy begins to act differently and violently towards others. It would normally end in another equilibrium, however, as this is a trailer it would give the end away so it ends in the disruption. This is a restricted narrative as it doesn't give anything away.

The Mortal Instruments uses the basic narrative structure as it begins with the equilibrium of everything being normal as Clary seems to be a normal teenager. The disruption then happens as she begins to draw and see a certain symbol, she then thinks she sees a murder and is being followed by the murderer. The recognition is that she realises that the so called murderer is a Shadow Hunter, this is someone who kills demons, she finds that her mother was also part of that world and that is why she can see them when no one else can. The repairing of the disruption is that she then needs to help them find a cup which other people are also looking for. Clary finds the cup and then the disruption occurs again as she finds out her father is the other person looking for it, however he wants it for the wrong reasons. He then lies to Clary and tells her that her love interest, Jace, is also his son. Although Clary and Jace end up with the cup, there is no real equilibrium to the film as there will be a sequel.

Monday 27 January 2014

Editing

Last Monday night I filmed quite a lot of what needed to be done, I have been editing it throughout the week. I have been showing me teacher and getting advice on what to improve and what I should keep. I have also had advice on things such as changing the lighting etc. I will be looking at adding music this lesson.

Monday 20 January 2014

Planning for filming

This lesson I will be uploading and editing what I have recently filmed and then I will be planning what I am going to film tonight.

Thursday 16 January 2014

Filming

On Tuesday I filmed Olivia walking through the woods, I used the woods as it is a typical place for a horror film to be. I positioned the camera behind the trees so it looked as if someone was watching her. I am filming more on Monday. I will be filming Liam doing the same as what Andy has done so I can switch between them in the trailer to suggest they are the same person, just different personalities.

Friday 10 January 2014

Experimenting with ordering

As I have iMovie at home, I have decided to create a new project, still using the same clips but just to experiment with different orders in which the clips could be. I am also filming more tomorrow, I will be focusing on getting a good close up shot of one of the main characters within the trailer.

Thursday 9 January 2014

Hitchcock

Last night I watched the film Hitchcock, in which Anthony Hopkins plays the role of Alfred Hitchcock and shows how Psycho came about. It shows how much Hitchcock had to fight and challenge everyone as no one believed in the film at the time. He had to finance it himself as the thought of murder, nudity, and even showing a toilet on American films was a scandal. This shows how desensitised we are now. Brian DePalma, the director of the original Carrie, but nudity at the beginning of the film to shock the audience and to make them think if the director would do that, what else is going to happen? This built the tension as they didn't know what other scandals were to come.

Tuesday 7 January 2014

The original Carrie!

Last night I watched the original Carrie.
I realised that there was a lot of high angles within the film, especially as Carrie was at the prom, it shows her mother at home from a very high angle as she is pacing around, this makes her seem very vulnerable as she cannot do anything to control what Carrie is doing. Certain shots were also extremely slowed down, when it is announced that Carrie was prom queen, this effects the mood dramatically as the audience know that something bad is going to happen to her, however she is overwhelmed as she is smiling and crying at the fact people are cheering for her, the slow motion makes has a greater impact than the normal speed would have because you can see her every emotion.
The music throughout Carrie also has a massive impact as in quite a large about of scenes there is only music and no other sound. All the music was simple violins and other classical instruments, this seems to be a typical thing within older horror films, it reminded me of the iconic music from Psycho.
I found that the modern Carrie film is a lot more graphic in a violent way, I expected this, however, I was surprised to find that the original was more sexually explicit.

Monday 6 January 2014

First Day Back

Today is my first day back at school after the Christmas holiday's. I will spend the morning editing and changing the order or some clips, I will also add the music I have chosen to play.

Thursday 2 January 2014

Editing

Today I will do some more editing and experiment with certain parts of my trailer such as the fades in and fades out, I will do this to see which has the best effect on the mood of the trailer. I will also look at the music I will be using.