'Kickass'

Went to the cinema at the weekend to see 'Kickass' and really enjoyed it! It is a film about a teenage boy who wants to help the world by becoming a superhero but ends up getting put in hospital a couple of times and gets in much more trouble than he expected whilst meeting some other - slightly more ruthless/violent - "superheroes" along the way. It wasn't what I expected it to be, I thought it would be thrown on the same pile as 'Superbad', 'Pineapple Express' and the like, but it was quite different in my opinion. Although some of the humour was fairly similar to that kind of film that has grown increasingly popular recently, the content was strange and not what I was expecting at all! Lots of the people that I went to see the film with said that they were quite offended by the way the 11 year old girl was portrayed in the film as she is seen swearing constantly (I can see why people were offended because she did say a word that should never be said by anyone let alone a little girl, this is shown on the clip below...), having a ridiculously extensive knowledge of weapons and even shown as an object of "lust" by the main characters' best friend. To be honest I was more offended by the fact that Nicholas Cage was in the film...
Here's a trailer for the little girl's character called Hit Girl;


There has been lots of debate about the moral issues behind the film and there are loads of different websites that have discussions about it but here is a link to one that I found quite interesting as two guys with very different opinions on the subject discuss whether or not it is right that we - as an audience - find a little girl killing everyone funny. >> click here to read the discussion <<

This man's point particularly interested me; "I don't really think this is going to spur random acts of violence, but it does have me questioning our tolerence for violence in movies, and if we should have a limit. Watching Kick-Ass made me wonder if we've passed the event horizon of mainstream depictions of graphic material. What does it say about us that we enjoy watching a little girl gleefully killing people? And does it even matter that we don't have limits? I don't
know yet."

Here is the main trailer for the film...



I really enjoyed the film and thought it was hilarious (especially when Hit Girl is running down a corridor full of bad guys killing them all whilst a very fitting song plays...) and I thought that it was questioning society about it's increasing naivety towards the influence of violence on kids rather than promoting violence, but that's just my opinion. I would definately recommend this film, and it is so interesting to see how different people react differently towards it.

'Alice In Wonderland'

I went to see Tim Burton's latest film last night at the cinema and was really looking forward to seeing it because of how much I had heard about it and because it was a Tim Burton film and I generally love all his films but after the film I realised that it was very different from what I had expected. I enjoyed the film quite a lot but it was not what I thought it was going to be. I think that they could have made it more obscure and it didnt seem as odd as the average Tim Burton film. There were some very funny parts of it and I thought the effects that were used on the film were incredible but I still left feeling that it could have been slightly more interesting but that is just personal preference. Having said all that, I would still recommend the film and Johnny Depp gave an amazing performance as expected!

'The Bank Job'

Watched this film the other day and really liked some of the fast paced camera shots of the cars as they speed off and they reminded me of the shots that we have in our opening.

Film Classification...

Here is a document published by the British Board of Film Classification which explains the reasons why certain films are given particular certificates.



Classification Guidelines

Our film will be rated 15 because the content fits with the BBFC classification of what a 15 film should contain which can be found in the classification document above.

I searched for films that have similiar themes and content to our film opening on the BBFC website and here is one example of that which helped us to determine what rating our film was going to be;

DONNIE DARKO
Consumer Advice:
Contains strong language and psychological horror.

This work was passed with no cuts made.

The main spoken language in this work is English.

Directed by Richard Kelly

The cast for this work includes: Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Noah Wyle, Patrick Swayze, Katharine Ross, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne, Beth Grant, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Daveigh Chase, James Duval, Stuart Stone, Gary Lundy, Alex Greenwald.

When submitted to the BBFC the work had a running time of 113m 11s.
The running time of this film was calculated from the measured length of 10186+13 ( feet + frames ).

CLASSIFIED 13TH MAY 2002.

The document below will also help us to evaluate our film as it includes a lot of information about why film classification is important and how it started;

Student Guide to Bbfc

Here is what the BBFC classification document states about 15 rated films;

Discrimination: The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs: Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must notpromote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easilyaccessible and highly dangerous substances (for example,aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror: Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Dangerous behaviour: (for example, hanging, suicide andself-harming) should not dwell on detail which could becopied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

LanguageThere may be frequent use of strong language (for example,‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeateduse of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity: Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but withoutstrong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex: Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail.There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour,but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptableunless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme: No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence: Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the inflictionof pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely tobe acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violencebut any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet andhave a strong contextual justification.

15 – Suitable only for 15 years and over. No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

Sherlock Holmes

Saw the latest version of Sherlock Holmes at the cinema on wednesday and really enjoyed it. I especially liked the technique of slowing some of the action down whilst Holmes' voice over explains step by step what he is doing and then straight after the audience is shown the same action at normal speed. I liked the effect this had on the audience and their understanding of his character. We could possibly use some aspects of this technique whilst editing our film once we have the footage. Here is a clip of the film (the slow motion effect I mentioned starts at 0:31);

'Crash'

Watched the film 'Crash' in lesson yesterday and really enjoyed it. It was very sad and quite tragic to me but I loved everything about the way it had been produced, it seemed very simple and to the point which was very effective. Probably more effective than if they had used loads of complex editing techniques etc. It was a great film and I really enjoyed watching it (also, the voice over on the opening credits was very effective).

Pulp Fiction...

Watched 'Pulp Fiction' for the first time the other night and was once again blown away by Tarantino's style of directing/producing (even acting!).
Loved the way the opening went straight into action without giving the viewer any background information/establishing shot. The viewer is thrown into the plot with no clue about what is going on, who these two people are, their significance in the story, the setting, the exact time period, etc.
This fits in with what we want to do for our film opening, as it is very random and intrigues the audience as they want answers to the questions that this opening scene provokes. Here is a clip of the first few minutes of the film;
(I also like the opening credits, as they are simple but effective. Great track playing over the top of them as well - even if Black Eyed Peas did ruin the song later on...)

'New Moon'

Went to see the second film in the Twilight Saga on monday night called 'New Moon'. I really enjoyed it and thought it was such an improvement on the first one. I later found out that 'New Moon' had a different director than the one from the previous film. There seemed to be such a huge difference between the two films, not just because of the content but because of the editing techniques, etc.

This film was a lot more fast-paced in terms of editing than the first one which made the film more enjoyable (this could be put down to the fact that more action occurs in the second book than the first one, not because of the change in director) For example, when showing the character's flashbacks or if a character has just realised something, a few very short shots of things would flash up on the screen in quick succession in order to show the audience that character's thought path (fast-paced editing).

I also particular liked the shot of Jacob's character jumping over the camera as he turns into a wolf. The effects they used in order to create the visuals of these wolves are probably the same/similar to those used in the film '300 (see my last post). It can be seen in this advert at about 1:33;

I loved the film but I still prefer the books, even if they are badly written, I love the story line (apart from the very end which is awfully written) and I'm looking forward to seeing how the producers/directors manage to get the next book from paper to screen.

Special Effects...

On sunday I was watching the film '300' again, and I loved the way they had mixed real footage with incredibly impressive special effects. I'm not sure how they did it but I really like the effect it had on the entire feel of the film. Everything is made to look very dark and moody, and it makes you feel very disconnected from the film but in a good way, because it makes you want to understand more about what is going on in the film. It intrigued me and I would love to know more about how the producers created that effect.
An editing technique that I noticed throughout the film was the use of slow motion in order to build up tension when something momentous is going to happen. For example, in this clip the main character is seen going towards his opponents at normal speed and just as he goes to kill them, the clip is slowed right down so that the audience is eagerly anticipating the kill. This is exaggerated even more for his final killing of the clip and the sound (both diegetic and non-diegetic) builds on the tension even more.
The use of high/low angle shots also came into the film a lot in order to establish the status of the characters. For example, in this second clip, the shots of the character Xerxes are all taken from slightly below him (character of Leonidas is seen to be looking up at him) in order to suggest his superiority.

Watching 'Se7en'...

In yesterday's lesson we watched the film 'Se7en'. Directed by David Fincher, starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey this thriller definitely gave us the shock of our lives!!

I loved the storyline and thought it was incredibly effective, but only due to the effects the producers used with the camera shots, sound and general mise-en-scene of the film.

(I have already written one post about the opening credits of the film and how much of an impact they have on the audience)

For example, when the first murder is discovered and the two detectives (Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) go to investigate the death, the non-diegetic sound adds so much dramatic tension to the scene that without it, the audience would not have been very scared at all.

The lighting in this scene also builds on the dramatic tension as it is very dark in the room and the only light they have is the light from their torches. The way they keep flashing the torches around means that the audience only really gets to see tiny parts of the scene for a very short amounts of time which makes the audience want to see the whole thing, they are waiting in anticipation to see the full horrific image of what has really happened.

Right at the end of this scene one of the detectives lifts up the victim's head to reveal a close up of his face and his white eyes wide open with the torch light shining in his face.

The fact that the audience has not yet been shown the whole picture up until that moment means that it shocks them to be shown such a horrifying image at a moment when they least expect it.

Clever methods such as this are used throughout the film in order to scare the audience and another example of this is when the murderer kills his third victim; sloth. The audience is led to believe that the victim has been dead for a whole year and whilst the viewer is still reeling from the close up shot of a years worth of pictures of the victim on the bed, another close up shot appears of the supposedly dead man's face and he suddenly gasps for air and dust pours out of his mouth.

Our entire class jumped about 10 feet into the air and were still recovering ten minutes later! I couldn't believe how much it made me jump because in thriller/horror films, it is generally quite easy to tell when something out of the ordinary is going to happen because of the build up of scary music but in this scene I had absolutely no idea that was going to happen! This was probably because there was no music behind it, just the detectives talking over what seemed to be a corpse. This proved to be another clever way of catching the audience when they least expect it.

I think the film is very clever and the story line seems quite unique, but I wasn't completely persuaded by the ending. I thought it was very predictable that he would have killed Brad Pitt's wife and it seemed to be a bit of a tame way to end the film when you compare the ending to the graphic images shown nearer the beginning.

On the other hand, I can see how the ending could be more terrifying in some ways, because the audience doesn't get shown any horrific images, it's all implied so your imagination is left to run wild.

In those last few minutes of the film where the two detectives are driving John Doe to the location, I found myself getting really angry with the killers character for the obvious reasons but also because of what he says about why he kills these people. His character completely contradicts himself with his values/morals.

He thinks he's doing the world a favour by killing these people and that he has been called by God to carry out this awful killing spree but by doing so isn't he breaking one of the ten commandments himself?! The smug grin on his face really got to me as well and I felt myself empathize with Brad Pitt's character as he clearly wants to make him realise what a hypocrite he is.

Another interesting point about this car scene is the metal grid that seperates the killer from the detectives. When there is a shot of Brad Pitt or the killer, the grid covers their face. When there is a shot of Morgan Freeman there is no grid over his face. This is to represent the part the two characters play in the seven deadly sins murders and also to show Morgan Freeman's innocence in it all.

When the time came for Brad Pitt to find out his wife had been killed, as an audience member I responded to what was going on by hating the killer even more because he told Brad Pitt about his unborn baby and then went on to enjoy the fact that he had no idea that his wife had been pregnant.

The complete anguish on Brad Pitt's face leaves the audience feeling quite unsatisfied with the fact that he shot the killer, although they know that it had to be done. (Pitt's thoughts are confirmed by the extremely short flash of a picture of his wife just before he shoots).

I loved the effect that Morgan Freeman's voice over right at the end had on the audience too.

The techniques the producers/directors used were clearly very effective if they left me feeling so angry that the murderer only got killed, it didn't seem like justice to me and this is probably the desired effect on the audience that the producers were looking for.

Another significant part of the scene for our group in particular was when the detectives go into the murderer's flat and find his darkroom. We will be refering back to this scene for inspiration for our film opening.

Such a clever film with a great storyline, but I don't think I'll be rushing to watch it again any time soon...I'll wait till the nightmares subside hahaa!!

Jaws Shot Analysis

This is a slide show that will help me with my analytical skills. It goes through each shot and gives detailed analysis of everything in that shot.

Jaws Shot By Shot - Part 1

View more documents from The Cottesloe School.

Title Sequences

Next lesson we will be looking at title sequences and their significance, so here is some of my research into different title sequences;


The opening sequence for Panic Room didn't really build up any dramatic tension whilst I was watching it and it didn't really make me want to continue watching it. This might be because it didn't hint to anything about the story, other than where it was set. Although I thought the credits were done in a clever way.

>> WATCHMEN
<< I couldn't embed this video (click on the link) of the opening sequence from the film Watchmen, but I wanted to post it on my blog because I really like the effects they've used on the opening credits. Unlike Panic Room, the opening sequence gives the audience an idea of what the film is going to be about. It shows a timeline of the success'and failures of a certain group of characters. I enjoyed watching the credits and it was not boring as it established the characters' background stories and set the scene for the rest of the film. My favourite effect on it was the way it showed people having their picture taken and then in slow motion you saw the action that was occuring (at first the audience thinks it's just a snapshot). Perhaps some of the aspects of this type of opening sequence could be used in our groups film opening.

(Here is a link to a website that we are using to understand the importance of an effective title sequence)

'Zombieland'

Saw the film 'Zombieland' last night at the cinema. It was directed by Ruben Fleischer and it's a horror comedy. I went into it thinking it was just going to be a rip off of Shaun of the Dead - nothing beats Simon Pegg and Nick Frost - but by the end of the film, I was convinced that it was a completely different style of "ZomCom".
It was a very surreal film but I really liked the way it had been produced. As the story goes on, the main character narrates to the audience the rules of survival in 'Zombieland' and as he does so they appear on the screen and they move along with his movements or the action that is going on in the film.
For example, in one scene the four survivors go into a shop and begin to smash everything up and compeltely ruin it. As they are leaving, one of the lights is swinging from the ceiling and the words 'Rule #32: ENJOY THE LITTLE THINGS' come up in line with the light and they swing with the light.
I really liked this effect because it happened throughout the film and it helped me as an audience member to get inside the mind of the characters and the way they had to think in order to survive.
Another effective aspect of the production of the film was the music and lighting used together in order to build up dramatic tension and to inform the viewer that something bad is going to happen. For example, when they go into the shop checking for any zombies, the lighting is very dark, making it mysterious and extremely tense.
Also, the gory parts of the film were much more realistic than those in Shaun of the Dead which shows how much editing technology must have progressed since 2004.
Not as funny as Shaun of the Dead, but a great film all the same, watch it!

'The Prestige' Camera Shots

The first shot pans across a row of birds in cages, but it isn't a very smooth shot so perhaps it was done with a hand-held camera or a steadicam. (There is no establishing shot at the start, so the audience doesn't know where they are). Then there is a close up of Michael Cain reaching into one of the cages and just as he's about to pick up the bird, the shot changes to a cutaway shot that goes straight through one of the cages looking down through the whole row of cages, adding perspective.

Then there is a midshot of first Michael Cain, then the little girl. The camera then suddenly changes to a track/dolly shot of an audience in a theatre, followed by a longshot of the magician on stage. Both these shots are then brought together by showing a wide shot of the audience, stage and magician; this keeps the audience understanding the spatial relationships between characters.

There is then a shot of Christian Bale running down some stairs and the camera tilts down on a fixed axis to emphasize his urgency. The audience then sees a close up of the blind stagehand (flashing lights and shadows on this man's face create an eerie effect) and the next shot is a reaction shot (noddy shot) of Christian Bale after seeing the man's face.

The camera then goes back to Michael Cain and the little girl using an over the shoulder shot from behind the girl.

Lastly, the audience sees a point of view shot from Christian Bale's view as he watches Hugh Jackman's character get shut into the glass cage of water. There is a low angle shot looking up at the door of the cage banging shut. This low angle shot makes the cage seem bigger and more threatening.

Trip to the cinema...

Went and saw 'Inglourious Basterds' last night at the cinema. It was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and was possibly one of the best films about WW2 that I've ever seen. It's interesting how a certain amount of humour can be brought into a film about such a horrific event. I really enjoyed the film - although it felt like it was going on for ages! - because there were a few different stories running through it the whole time and then finally right at the end it all came together in an ending which leaves the audience feeling as though justice has been served and sufficient revenge has been received.

Although, Tarantino still manages to produce the film in a way that makes you leave the cinema feeling slightly uncomfortable. Even though the film is done in quite a comical way, you can't help but think about the reality behind it all. As all the individual stories within the film began to come together, it became clear that situations similar to those in the film would have actually happened in the war. Crazy!

Excellent film. I'd definately recommend it!!

My Chosen Film Opening.

I chose to use the opening of the film 'The Prestige' because it's one of my favourite films and when I first saw the opening of it, I was instantly captured by the story. The audience is shown a variety of characters straight away, with no explanation as to how they relate to one another. For example, Michael Cane's character and the little girl seem to have no relation to Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale's characters. This is just one technique used in order to draw the audience into the film.

Another element that builds dramatic tension is the contrast between the two different events occuring. The audience sees one successful trick, a very light-hearted, simple trick done by an older man to entertain a child. The audience are also shown a trick being done on a much larger scale, with much panic and confusion, as it cannot be sure whether the man claiming to be part of the trick is telling the truth or not. (Another minor detail which creates an impact on the audience is the short time of silence when the magician falls under the stage. This too builds the dramatic tension.)

The fact that the audience does not get shown whether or not the magician survives or if he completes his trick plays a huge part in the attraction of this film. The opening also causes the audience to ask many questions (such as why does the magician need blind stage-hands?). All of these aspects of the opening together, culminate in a very compelling opening to a great film, making the viewer desperate to know what's really going on with the strange mix of characters and situations.