Attack The Block

I studied the 4 minutes 20 seconds opening scene of Attack The Block.

The first thing that came up on my screen was the Idents of:

• Film 4
• UK Film Council
• National Lottery Funds
• Big Talk Pictures
• Studio Canal

The opening scene of Attack The Block, is an extreme long shot of a night sky, showing a full sky of stars, then moving onto a shooting star - first reactions of the audience may be that this film is a Sci - Fi; the camera then moves down showing fireworks over a city, which could show that their is a celebration and this film is set in an urban culture. 

The scene then moves to an underground station, hinting that this film is set in London or a familiar area. The station is busy, the first shot we see is a medium close up of a blonde haired woman rushing, showing that it is rush hour time. Another ident is then posted onto the screen. ''Studio Canal''

The screen then turns to a medium shot of a brown haired woman (early 20's) the mis en scene shows the woman wearing a hat, scarf and coat, so the audience know that it is around winter time. The audience has now been introduced to one of the main characters in the film. The media language in the film shows a woman has a 'posh' accent, and is also on the phone to her mother, suggesting innocence and a possible victim in the film.



• Tense music is introducted into the film, adding suspense and intending to put the audience on edge.
• Idents are shown for a second time. 

The scene then moves to a low, long shot of the same woman wearing converse trainers walking away from the station and along suburb roads, then moves to an extreme long shot high angle of the woman walking away from the camera, showing the audience that this lady is possibly planning on walking home back to a more privaliged part of London.

The shot moves onto the lady walking past graffiti, which is part of the mis en scene, possibly showing that she is entering a dangerous or more unprivaliged part of London, foreboding possible events of the woman being in conflict of danger. As the shot moves onto the graffiti, rap music starts to play, which also gives the audience a bigger understanding of the area that the film is shot in and what type of enviroment this woman is about to walk into, and whom she may bump into. The music then moves back to a tense tone.

A firework then goes off making a loud 'bang' which scares the woman, making the audience more on edge, leading up to conflict.

There is then an over the shoulder shot of the woman walking in the direction of youths on bikes wearing hoodies, the mis en scene portrays a sterio typical bunch of rough youths and thugs. The woman then says ''oh fuck'' which expresses how scared she is of these youths. The audience now have their intended victim and villian characters. 

One of the said youths then pulls a knife out, mis en scene is used to show how violent this character is and leads up to suspense, along with the music in the background, the audience is intended to feel vunerable.

 The character holding the knife is immedietly shown as the alphamale.

The intended alphamale then throws the girl to the ground, his entourage then laugh. The alphamale then says ''give the phone, give the phone'' the urgency in his voice and the repetition could show dispare, he is also illiterate as he misses out the word 'me'. There is then a low angle medium shot of the alphamale, putting the audience in the woman's position, and making the alphamale more superior.

When said woman stands up for herself against the youths, they do not hold back on threatening to hurt her. One of the youths says ''gonna get merked, init'' the media language intends to show slang and illiterate speech to further proceed in expressing urban culture and downgrading these youths into being thick and stupid.

There is an extreme long shot of an object falling from the sky and crashing into a car nearby the scene, the woman victim uses this oppertunity to run away, one of the youths interrupts the alphamale and says: ''oh fam shes ghosting'' to which the alphamale replies ''allow it'', showing that the alphamale has something more important to deal with, he has another plan.

When the alphamale sees that the car has been ruined and available to break into, he proceeds to enter the car, even when urged not to by his uncomfortable friends. There is a medium close up of the other youths confused by what has just happened.

A threatening figure then attacks the alphamale, showing the alphamales first sign of weakness, moving the victim character onto the alphamale and the villian character onto the attacker. It is unclear what this figure is until later on in the film, it looks like a large dog, almost a warewolf. The alphamale then uses his knife for self defence and attacks the figure, it then howls and escapes through a broken barbed wire fence (mis en scene showing how rough the estate is). The alphamale's friends start to humiliate him; ''Mullerz got shanked by a doggy!'' The audience then knows the alphamales name, the first name introduced into the film, showing that this character will be of importance in this film. 

A close up of 'Mullerz' face is shown, showing the seriousness in his face, as well as the fear in his eyes, but a bandana is used to cover up half of his face, still showing his position as a threatening youth. Mullerz then says ''Im chasing that down, im killing that, watch'' which introduces the audience into the whole plot of the film. 

The intended audience for this film may be teenagers in knowledge of unprivaliged areas, who are also interested in aliens and conflict.

Bradford Film Festival

Arriving at the Media Museum, i was pleasantly surprised with how modern the building was and how many facilities were available. Firstly, i went and tested out a selection of the games available in the gaming corner which was very colourful and amusing.



Gaming Room.

Gaming Space.

Secondly, i qued to meet the famous ginger twins from the Harry Potter movies, George and Fred Weasley, to my dissapointment, i soon discovered that everybody's favourite gingers, aren't ginger! 



Harry, George, Tom and I with Weasley Twins.



Weasley twins signatures.



Thirdly, I went to Experience TV and experimented with varied cinematography equipment and different backgrounds. I studied different generations of televisions and read off a script, pretending to be a news reporter.

Different generations of Television

Blue screen for different backgrounds.

I then went to the screening of a selected few of the films chosen to be shown at the film festival, i was humoured by many of them, for example the film containing different fruits, which i thought was a very good idea. My favourite film was Lifeguard, it was very funny and had a sarcastic sense to it. My favourite shot throughout the whole viewing was in the music video created by a student at Ilkley Grammar School, of an extreme close up of a young girl's eyes, in black and white. She looks frightenened, and her eyes could tell the story of the whole music video.

When looking around the venue, there were lots of information about various projects from brittish cinema and television, which i found very interesting. There was also a radio cast on one of the floors.

Lastly, i went to a special effects makeup workshop, which was very messy, but alot of fun. I made a gash on my hand using wax and fake blood, which turned out to be very sticky and hard to get off my hand.






                     





Hangover Film Poster

 The first signifier that i found in this poster, is the man on the right has a tooth missing, this may connote that there could have been conflict in the film, he also has a puzzled facial expression which show anchorage of his confusion (about his night in Las Vegas)   The second signifier i have seen is denotation, the text, 'some guys just can't handle vegas' The person who created this denotation has used intertextual references because Las Vegas is famously, or infamously known as a city of sin, energy and humour. The the text says 'cant handle' shows that something may have gone wrong in Las Vegas.
    The final signifier that i have found is how the man on the left is holding a baby, this has a polysemic meaning, the audience could either think that this man has had to bring his own child along on the trip to Vegas, so he may be the sensible one. Or in actual fact the three men found the baby and are trying to return the baby to his mother, on the way, the find many other reasons for clues they were left with on the morning of the night before, for example why the man on the right's tooth is missing, or why the man in the middle has a bloody lip.
    Feminists may argue that there are no women in this poster, that the               film is being biased towards a male audience.

My Youtube Channel

This is my Youtube Channel.

Nightmare On Elm Street Poster Analysis

The Horror movie poster that i chose was one of the ' Nightmare On Elm Street ' s posters.
The poster shows the main character from the film '' Freddy Krueger '' in the background of the photo, and a counter-type in the foreground of the photo.
     The way that the two characters are placed, shows that the Freddy Krueger character is superior to the countertype.

Nightmare On Elm Street Poster.

    Focusing on Freddy Krueger, you can hardly see his figure or facial expression, this is hidden by the hat that he is wearing, this makes Freddy a suspicious character who the audience are drawn to and want to get to know more. Also, the long shot of Freddy shows the way he is stood, the way he is standing is a rather patronising stand, which shows he is confident. The audience may instantly see that he is the main character in the film, and that he is dominant in the film.
   Freddy Krueger also has some sort of blade on his fingernails, which are not easy to see, when the audience see these, they realise that this Freddy Krueger character could be a violent character, and this story is not going to end well.
    The character in the foreground, is shown in a medium shot, which makes the audience instantly beleive that this character is not as important as the Freddy Krueger character.
    Unlike Freddy Kreuger, we can see the expression on the countertype's face, some of the audience may put two and two together and realise that this countertype character may be the victim of Freddy Kreuger.
   The background of the photo, around the long shot of Freddy Kreuger shows what seem to be narrow walls, like in a home, which shows the audience the main setting of the film, the audience can then lead to the assumptions that the main events of the film will happen in a homely area?
   The colour of the poster is a rusty orange/red which emphasises the dark shadows for Freddy Krueger and the countertype, and also attracts the audiences attention because it is so bright.
Because the colour of taudihe poster is so dark yet bright, it shows the ence that this film will not be a lovey dovey rom com, where as if the film was that type of genre, the colour of the poster may be light pinks for example.
To conclude my thoughts, this poster's illustration says an awful lot about the film before even reading what it's about, and the clever technique of colours and shadows begin to hint the audience that this film will be one of horror.

Camera Shots Of Past Student Film

This is Melodie and her group's film.

Final cut with everything- WAXED. from sophie dixon on Vimeo.

The first 10 shots we see in this film are:

1) Medium shot of the back of a characters body. This shot could have been chosen to emphasise an anonymous effect, the audience does not know who this person is. Personally, i think that this shot was a good decision because it makes the audience interested in who this individual is, and draws them into the film.

2) Long shot. This shot is showing the physique of the character, whether they are male or female, and also the background setting, in this film, it was a busy road, so the audience get more of an understanding on what type of enviroment that the film is set in, which is a good reason to use the shot. Again, i think this shot is well chosen because the audience are becoming more intregued about where this character is going.

3) Medium shot, showing the character entering a shop or salon, the audience now knows where the location of the story will be, which is why the film makers may have chosen the shot. In this shot, i personally would have filmed the character from the outside, heading into the shop/salon, in a long shot, so that the audience will have got the location of the place the character was heading, and also what the name of the place was called.

4) Close shot. The audience is shown a pair of arms and hands, cutting through what looks like a bag with a knife. This shot is useful as the knife symbolises violence, the audience will then start to make assumptions of what they think will happen in the film, which could be one of the reasons why this shot was chosen. I think that this shot is a good choice and inspires me for when i make my own film.

5) Medium shot of the main character walking up some stairs, the shot was chosen so the audience are following the character, they know his surroundings and the setting. I think this shot is sensible and a good idea.

6) Long shot, of the character walking into the main bit of the salon, the shot could have been used because the audience is yet again getting a better knowledge of the setting and background (which has salon type objects in) so they know what type of enviroment the character is in, it is obvious that the character is now in a salon. This shot is a good idea to keep the audience aware of the setting and enviroment.

7) Mid shot of the character and a NEW character being introduced, this shot shows the character being unsociable when approached which gives the audience knowledge of the type of personality the main character has, which could have been why the shot was chosen. I like this shot because it makes the audience lead to further assumptions on what will happen later on in the film.

8) Close up shot of the knife type item being slammed into a pot. This shot could have been chosen because it illustrates the emotion of a new character. I like this shot because the audience does not assume anything of an employee at the salon (who is the third character) yet when she slams the knife looking object down, they may start to think that this third character is quite a violent person.

9)Medium long shot of the third character (salon worker) moving to walk up the stairs that the main character had just walked up, this shows the audience that she is moving to the same location as the main character which is why the shot may have been chosen. I think that this shot is a good idea because it makes the audience think ''why is she going up there?'' and leaves the audience in suspense.

10)Close up shot of the third character (salon worker)'s back of head, staring at the two other characters (the audience know this because the third character is staring into a mirror that reflects on the other two characters. This shot may have been chose to show the secrecy and devience of the third character. I like this shot because it is very unique and original, we still have not yet seen the third characters face which leaves the audience wondering why, they become more involved with this character and try to figure out who this character is and what her personality is like.

Looking At A Past Student's Blog

I looked at Melodie Abraham's Blog.

Melodie used knowledge of the history of horror genre by researching a scream queen from a movie named physco, she was then inspired to find her own scream queen based on the features of the researched scream queen.

When it came to casting for the pre-film, Melodies group failed to make sure they had enough time to do castings for their ideal characters, so had to use people within the group. They knew for their actual film that they should use their time wisely and make sure they used suitable people to resemble their characters.

Melodie relied strongly on technology when creating her AS media coursework, she found it useful to use 'old media' from newspaper articles and other blogs. Melodie used 'blogger' most frequently to keep up to date with her work and show her groups work.

One way that Melodie and her group caught the audiences attention, was to spice up the characters, they used a strong willed, attractive female for both male and female audiences, they also twisted the usual plot of the story (where the scream queen gets killed) and used the female as the killer in the coursework.

My Favourite Film

The 2006 action filled, interesting political thriller named Blood Diamond was directed by Edward Zwick, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou.

Blood Diamond is a film based on real life events, where diamonds were, and still are being mined in African war zones and sold to finance conflicts, which profits diamond companies and warlords all over the world. In the film, the main company involved with this scheme is Van De Kaap.

The plot of Blood Diamond follows an African fisherman who is taken away from his family to become a miner, he finds a large diamond and burys it; the warlord catches him, but the army invade the mining camp before the warlord can do anything about it.
Danny Archer, a man working for Van de Kaap (A diamond company) in South Africa is sent to a jail in Africa for trying to cross the border of Liberia.

Blood Diamond Poster

The fisherman and Archer are in the same jail at the same time when the warlord catches the fisherman and outs the fact that the fisherman found a large diamond to everybody in the jail.
Archer pays for the fisherman's bail out of jail and befriends him.
Archer promises the fisherman that he will help him find his family (who are in a refugee camp), the fisherman is unaware that Archer is only interested in the large diamond.
When Archer is at a bar in Africa he meets a journalist who bugs him about the blood diamond situation, she distracts him with her good looks.
Archer and Maddy (the journalist) help find the fisherman (Solomon)'s family, but when they finally reach the destination of the refugee camp, Solomon cannot find his eldest son.
Meanwhile, Archer confesses to Maddy that he is using Solomon for the diamond.
The three discover that Solomon's son has been captured to work as a rebel, near the grounds of the old mining camp where the diamond is buried.
Maddy helps Archer get through the barrier to get back to the mining camp with Solomon, where they set off to find Solomons eldest son, and retreive the diamond.
Archer confesses to Maddy everything about the diamond company, illegal and legal stages of the trade between blood diamonds.
When Archer and Solomon are on their two day walk to the rebel camp and the mining camp, they are spotted by some rebels, Archer is shot in the chest, but is still able to walk.
Solomon free's his son from the rebels, to find that he has been brainwashed into having no feelings, and becoming a child rebel; Solomon soon brings his son back to reality.
Archer, Solomon and his son find the diamond and start to walk up a mountain to be collected by Archers friend, via plane.
Archers wound starts to cause unbearable agony, and decides to give the diamond to Solomon afterall, Solomon and his son continue to make their way up the mountain.
Archer calls Maddy and directs her to help Solomon get his family back, and make sure that his story is known and appreciated nationally, if not internationally, he then sets his eyes on the beautiful landscape, and is left to peacefully die.

Blood Diamond is my favourite film because it's cleverly written, and highlights real issues of the past and present.

Here is a Blood Diamond review by The Guardian.

Here is an official Blood Diamond trailer




Enjoy

My Hopes For Media Studies

I took Media Studies for A level because i am interested in journalism, articles, blogging and directing films. My hopes and expectations for media studies are that i will be able to direct films student films and know the key terms in media studies. I also would like to be able to know how to write articles or edit films, or magazines.
I have never blogged before, but from reading friends and celebrities blogs, it is something that i am very much interested in and would like to increase my knowledge further about blogging and hopefully become a regular blogger myself.
I love reading magazines, but i would also love to be able to create one of my own, or atleast a front cover/page/article, i hope that Media Studies will teach me how to do that.