Group: Props and Costumes

Costumes

• Detective
• Dressed in a white shirt and suit trousers
• A suit jacket and tie is added later on in the clip to make him look more proffesional

• Wife
• Red jumper (the colour red holds strong connotations with red and pain)
• Black jeans and wellies
• Every day clothes to show she is normal

• Murderer
• Black T-shirt
• Scruffy hair to make him look manic

• Crime Officers
• Dressed in white forensic suits which are conventional of ferensic scientists

• Kidnapee
• Everyday clothes to make her look like a normal person who has been taken

Props

DSLR camera           







Crime tape












Balaclava/Long hat
















Photos/documents

















Telephone

AA:Textual Analysis

Munich (Steven Spielberg, 2005)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2SxJS6NpV4

Film Language

The use of diegetic and non diegetic sound is used to create the tesion of the scene. The dialogue in the first shot is very quite and almost seems to echo in the head over the man. When the men are getting ready they speak in a foreign language, this often promotes fear of the unknown in American movies and so creates the feel that these are the antagonists. At this point the non-diegetic sound steadily crescendos as the action gets more fast paced and the tension build. This is further anchored by the shouting that now occurs as the men are taken hostage. After this the news reports are layered over the top of many different shots. They carefully explain every detail of the goings on creating a large amount of tension and key phrases are often said louder to emphasis and make the audience identify with the characters.

Mise en scene thought-out connotes the personas of the character the antagonist are shown wearing dark clothing this is contrasted with the victims who are scene wearing very bright white shirts and shorts and are taken hostage. This is further highlighted by the low key lighting they are shown in at the start then once inside the lighting becomes bright strip lighting with white walls connoting how they are out of place. The gun conform to the violence of the genre and create further tension as the threat of human life is created. Both the guns and the clothes the antagonist were wear or using connote how they were prepare for this and it the premeditated nature and the urban locations that creates the verisimilitude for the audience to react to.

The camera techniques  are very conventional in the large amount of close up shots limiting the audience from viewing the situation, this is further highlighted by the use of character blocking and long shots which prevent you from seeing the whole picture in detail. The use of handy cam during the action scenes adds to the tension and the obvious confusion from the victims. low angle over the shoulder shots are used to show the position of authority that the antagonists have due to the possession of a gun this is very conventional as guns are often shown as the game changer in film plots.

Editing is used to anchor the pace of the narrative. Slow paced editing is used at the beginning to further highlight the slow increase in tension. As the tone of the interaction between characters becomes more violent the editing pace becomes faster until it becomes a montage edit of different news reports. This juxtaposing is very conventional to the genre as it creates the physiological aspect.

Media Audience

The film would appeal to a more niche audience of a high intellectual stance due to the political themes of the movie. The certificate of the movie identifies the target audience. This further reinforces the idea of a older age group.  It forms conventions to the genre of historical dramas. This means that people are more likely to watch the film if they know of the event or wish to. Audience who know of the event will know  the plot and so suspense may be difficult to create so they will need to create tension through the fascination and verisimilitude of  the film and yet if someone does not know of the event they could find it very interesting as the plot unfolds.

The dominant hegemonic reading for the audience is that they should feel the sorrow of the event and how it was a tragedy. This positioning of the audience helps to connect them to the characters and so making the audience care for the well-being of the characters. Although the plot is very basic the historical aspect allows the film to get away with the lack of interesting characters. Secondly although based on a true story artistic license will be used and so the ideologies of the production company will come across. True verisimilitude will be reached through the research of the event and getting the right will be crucial to attracting the target audience as any major flaws may cause the film to lose it legitimacy and not be taken seriously by the art house audience

Institutional Context

The guns and almost action like feel to the film would attract a pronominally male audience and so the way in which advertisement would take place would very much likely to use traditional promotional techniques. With Actor such as Daniel Craig who later became James Bond further identifies the audience as male.

Directed by Steven Spielberg a very famous director the film will have a very good reputation even before it release on January 27 2006. Also produced by Universal it is a mainstream institutional movie and so the marketing budget will be very high, usually 50% on top of the budget. With a wide release they were able to reach mass audiences this combined with the marketing budget is a likely cause of their box office takings of £47.4 million. It was a success and although would be suspected to mostly attract a art-house audience it was recognised by the mass audience and with key elements such as director it is clear that they got the film right.

AY: Textual Analysis

Memento (C Nolan, 2000)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF6zEMDKdBw

Film Language

The mise-en-scene throughout this sequence is conventional to that of its genre. A contributing factor to this is the desolate locations making the character within it seem isolated. The fading images at the beginning of the film create enigmas for the audience as they appear to be shots from other events in the film. The clips within the title sequence are done in black and white which links to a film noir style of editing connoting further to the genre. These clips are also blurred slightly so that they audience cannot see clearly what is going on creating suspense and tension for the audience. When the man is seen properly, he looks fairly normal as he is dressed in a suit. In contrast to this, his suit is a murky brown colour indicating that he is different as it is not a conventional suit colour. When the main character has been established, there are short cliché shots of close ups of blood, a bullet, glasses surrounded by blood spatter and a man face down who has evidently been killed. These indicate to the audience that this man is potentially dangerous as he has just murdered someone. This again creates an enigma as the audience wants to find out who the man is and why he has been shot. Finally, when the man holds out his hand and the gun flies into it, it makes it seem as if he has supernatural powers again separating him from the normality of other humans.

 

Most of the camera shots used were close ups to show the emotion on the man’s face or show key pieces that add to the story such as the bullet on the ground. The man taking a picture is shot from a low angle positioning the audience from the victim’s point of view. This makes the audience slightly scared of the man but also, sympathise with him as he obviously has some form of mental illness. The shot of blood flowing up the screen creates disorientation and confusion as blood would be expected to flow down away from a wound.

 

The use of diegetic sound in the titles helps to anchor the action within it. The sound of a camera snapping makes it clear to the audience that it is supposed to be the sound of a picture being taken. The flapping of the picture is very repetitive, rapid and overemphasized which helps to set the pace of the scene. The soundtrack is very dense and moody giving off a tense atmosphere and further creating suspense. In contrast to this, as the film progresses, the soundtrack becomes higher pitched and echoes. This creates tension and also adds to the supernatural effect of the film as it sounds more ghostly. The dialogue in the background is slightly muffled and sounds more like someone’s thoughts in their head which is another reference to mental illness or instability.

 

The editing at the very beginning is very slow as it creates tension. Matched shots are used to establish different characters within the film for example, a picture of a woman would appear on the Polaroid paper, and then next to it would be a scene from the film of her speaking. This helps to establish the woman’s personality as she is portrayed as being very aggressive due to what she is shouting. The juxtaposition of these shots is also very conventional to the genre of the film. The shots of the main character are all taken in one shot to create continuity within the film by using pans and tilts. As the film progresses, the pace of the scene quickens as the action becomes more violent. This makes the audience more excited about what is happening and gives them less time to take in what is occurring.

 

Media Audiences

 

Due to the nature of the storyline and genre, this film would appeal most to the core audience of 15-24 year old males. This is because it is an action film but it also involves a ‘puzzle’ within the storyline. Having said this, it would also appeal to a secondary female audience due to the chosen actor to play the main character. The man, Guy Pearce is considered good looking by women and would therefore attract them to see the film. Having said this, it would also appeal to a general audience of an older age as it is a film that doesn’t contain too much violence and is relatively easy to follow.

 

 The most likely reading of this clip would be the negotiated reading. This is due to the audience perhaps empathising with the main character as he is obviously mentally unstable. This encourages the audience to sympathise with him which would contrast with the dominant hegemonic reading that he is evil because of his illness and murder is bad. Personally I would agree with the negotiated reading because I sympathise with the main character. He is obviously in need of help and although murder is wrong, he is not in a stable state to look after himself.

 

Institutional Context

 

The main character Guy Pearce was not very well known before this film was made. This meant that the film may not have appealed to such a wide audience as they were not sure if he was any good at acting. Having said this, the fact that a Hollywood movie star such as Brad Pitt wasn’t used meant that more time would’ve been spent focusing on the quality of the storyline and editing rather than what the actor was doing. However the director, Christopher Nolan, is very well known within the film industry as creating very high production value films.

 

The studio that produced Memento was an independent subsidiary company of Newmarket Capital Group called Newmarket Films. They have been involved in the production and distribution of many different films that are marketed towards niche audiences.

 

The main strategy of the marketing of Memento was the release of a trailer which involved showing short clips of the film which gave a rough outline of the storyline and created enigmas. The trailer was sold to cheap TV channels and online forums such as Yahoo and MSN as the use of digital technology meant that more people of a younger age would be able to see the trailer. As well as this, Jonathan Nolan utilised technological convergence (predominantly Web 2.0) by designing an official film website for the film. It was similar to the one created for The Blair Witch Project as it gave hints and clues towards the storyline but did not give any concrete information. As well as this, they sent out Polaroid pictures to random people with a bloody image of a shirtless man. Not only was this relevant to the main themes of the film, but it also portrayed the conventions of the genre and the mise-en-scene appealed to both men and women through the use of ‘gore’ and the topless man.

 

I think that the film has been made to look like a higher budget was used than it was through the use of realistic special effects and the precise editing of the film. I think that this reflects the values of the institute as the pre-production took seven weeks. This indicates that the planning of the film was very well thought out and clear as they did not have the time or money to waste on making mistakes and re-filming in post-production.

DW: Textual Analysis

The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, 1999)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZi3BmrUVrc

Film Language

The use of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound in this clip is very effective in anchoring the visuals. The heavy breathing and whispering dialogue in combination with the sharp raising of voice of the person who broke in to the doctor's house adds to the audiences perception of his ill mental state. Furthermore, the suspenseful minor key of non-diegetic sound aids in building suspense as the clip progresses, turning somewhat emotional when the doctor realises who the person who has broken in is. However, when the non-diegetic sound stops and silence other than diegetic sound ensues, the audience is lead to believe that the suspense is over as it is no longer being created by the soundtrack, making the point at which the doctor gets shot especially effective - as the diegetic gun shot shocks the audience due to the fact that it is so unexpected.

In terms of mise-en-scene, the conventional bedroom/en-suite bathroom setting for this scene connotes that the doctor and his wife are an average couple with nothing to hide; the latter is supported by the couple's costumes, with the wife in a dress and the doctor in a shirt - perhaps suggesting they are a middle class couple. The person who broke in to the apartment is more or less the binary opposite; standing there half naked with his clothes piled up on the floor, it can be inferred that this person is mentally unstable or most certainly somewhat 'crazy' - a typical stock character in a thriller film. In addition, the dim lighting in the room but the brighter lighting in the bathroom positions the audience with the person who broke in, not necessarily in sympathy but so that the audience focuses on him and becomes distant from the doctor - making the shooting once again more shocking. 

The way in which camera is used throughout the opening adds to the conventional aspect of the film genre and portrays suspense and tension in cohesion with, in particular, sound. The frequent use of close ups on both the doctor and the person who broke in illustrate both characters' emotion, as well as focusing the audiences attention on that particular character. Most shots being shot at eye level, and the repeated use of shot-reverse-shot creates a conversation effect between the characters, picking out the dialogue which is the integral part of this opening; revealing an enigma to set up interest for the rest of the film. The strongest shot in the clip is one of the few movement shots; after the person who has broken in shoots the doctor, the camera tracks slowly to the left as he pulls the gun up to his own head, then once the camera has past the entrance to the bathroom, the diegetic sound of the gun shot and subsequent head 'splatter' follows. This shot is particularly effective as, whilst it hides more or less all the violence, it allows the audience to picture what the shooting may look like - thus playing on the psychological element of the thriller genre.

Throughout the clip, there is a noticeable absence of post-production editing techniques, other than the obvious continuity editing and the aforementioned shot-reverse-shot which, as stated, builds on the conversational element of the opening whilst shifting audience attention between the characters. The basic, yet accurate, continuity editing in the clip creates this raw and untouched effect for the sequence, anchoring the sheer simplicity of the setting which, in turn, juxtaposes the unusual and sudden events that happen in the clip. This is conventional of a thriller film as they lul the audience in to a false sense of security so that they can surprise and make them jump at key points - adding to the visceral pleasure obtained by watching the film. 

Media Audience

Generally, 'The Sixth Sense' would appeal to the core audience of all films, 12-29, due to its thriller/drama genre; but due to its 15 certificate, it could be suggested that the film is targeted at a slightly older age group, 15-34 for example. Mainly, it would be better received by a male audience due once again to the thriller genre, but there would be a large female proportion of the key audience interested in watching the film mainly due to the drama aspect of the film and perhaps the complexity of the narrative - rather than it just being a straight-up action film which would maybe deter more of the female audience. 

Furthermore, the way in which the audience may read the text, considering the earlier mentioned audience demographic, would most likely be the dominant hegemonic reading and the negotiated reading; this is because the clip is fairly straightforward narrative wise and has a distinctly proposed idea. The dominant hegemonic reading would be that the doctor treated the person who broke in to his apartment a few years ago and, despite his best efforts, did not sort out the patients problems and now the patient believes that justice can be found in shooting the doctor; the audience partially empathises with the patient as he is mentally unstable but mostly empathises with the doctor who, through no fault of his own, has now been shot. The negotiated reading would be that the doctor did not do his job as well as he could in helping this patient resulting in the worsening of his mental state; the audience feel less empathy for the patient and view him more as a criminal for breaking in and shooting the doctor, but also less empathy is felt for the doctor as he possibly could have done more to help the patient.

As a British teenager who has had the opportunity to watch and enjoy a vast range of films of thriller and other genres, I personally side with the dominant hegemonic reading mentioned in the above paragraph. I believe the complexity of this opening is minimal; purely because it is an opening and, whilst it does establish an enigma, the depth of the story should not be revealed so early on - having seen the rest of 'The Sixth Sense' I can safely say that the complexity of the opening is not much in comparison with the remainder of the film. If, however, I hadn't seen the rest of the film, I would still side with dominant hegemonic reading - the reason for this I feel is partially due to both my age and background, not necessarily my gender. I have been fortunate in receiving a good education and living what could be considered more of a middle class lifestyle, this in combination with being in the latter part of the teenage years means that I can establish when its applicable to accept something at face-value. This, I believe, is one of the occasions where the ideas and themes presented in the opening should be considered at face-value.

Institutional Context

The main star used in this film is Bruce Willis, famous for the Die Hard series amongst a large number of other films and generally a critically acclaimed, very successful actor. The use of Willis will have attracted a largely male audience due to his type-cast as a protagonist in a vast range of action films, although he is playing a different type of role here, his ability to easily portray emotion will still attract his key audience. It could also be argued that the macho, rugged persona Willis built up through films before 'The Sixth Sense' could have attracted a larger female audience than if it was another actor in the film. Other stars in the film include Donnie Wahlberg, Toni Collette and Olivia Williams.

'The Sixth Sense' is produced by Spyglass entertainment and The Kennedy/Marshall Company, and is distributed by Hollywood Pictures - an amalgamation of The Walt Disney Company subsidiaries. From this, it can be inferred that the film is an industrial release. 

Being a product of a number of subsidiary companies to The Walt Disney Company, 'The Sixth Sense' was thoroughly advertised on both television and on print - such as newspapers and flyers etc. In terms of other advertising strategies, apart from word and mouth and general media buzz, there was not many other outstanding methods of advertising; mainly due to the fact that online blogs and so on didn't exist as much back in the late 90s as much as they do today thus making the advertising campaign somewhat simplistic but evidently successful. 

The acting talent in the opening sequence and the fact it was produced on more of a major scale is evident in the clip, and is something that I believe makes it outstanding as a piece of film and something that fits the conventions of the thriller genre perfectly. Furthermore, its simplicity is commendable in that the power behind the film could have easily made it more of a conventional tentpole, yet it maintains its 'edgyness' through the basic setting in contrast with the highly successful actors and actresses present in the scene. 

Group: Progress Diary

Monday 18th March

Storyline Development:

• We now considered the story line to be too much like a short movie as there is not enough tension throughout the piece 
• We want to make an emotional connection between Alex Youngs character and Alex Atkinsons character
• We then needed to give Alex's character a motive for leaving the house and going into the woords.

Filming progress:

• We have more than enough footage however the footage does not convey an easy to follow story line with build ups of tension
• More footage is due to be filmed on the 19/3/12
• We need to plan what we want to film which will be done in the lesson and lunch time on the 19/3/12

Editing Progress:

• We removed clips and re-ordered the story to allow us to put in the new footage which will be filmed tomorrow
• Played around with the sound in current clips to create tension within them

Wednesday 20th March

Storyline Development:

• We have decided that Alex and Alex will now be a married couple within the story as this will create an emotional attachment between the characters and make the audience feel more sorry for both of them when Alex Young is killed
• An arguement will further promote the emotional attachment as well as give a dominant motive for Alex Young to go into the woods and then be kidnapped
• An office scene to make Alex A's character have more emotion but less outbursts of random over exaggerated rage which will also indicate his isolation as a detective

Filming progress:

• Filming was very sucsessful and efficient making good use of the track and capturing A grade shots that will help with the narrative
• All the footage needed has been gathered including close ups of Alex A on his own to show his emotion

Editing Skills:

• It has now been completely re-ordered with the new clips insereted
• We now need to work on sound adding in diegetic noises such a phone ringing and making the clip sound more eery in order to create tension

Group: Rough Cut and Rough Cut Feedback

Rough Cut:

Having conducted the initial research, created a pitch, gotten the green light, storyboarded and then filmed all the aspects on those storyboards, we were ready to edit a rough cut - this would then be exported and shown to our focus group which, consisted of our media class and our media teachers, more or less our target audience. After this we asked for feedback to see if our narrative made sense, if there was enough variety in shots, and for us to sit back and see how our opening looked from a distance.

Here is the rough cut that we presented to the class:

 

  Audience Feedback:

• Largely positive.
• The narrative was enjoyed and understood.
• Some aspects didn't look right, for example the photograph flash effect was not yet at its best - something we will work on.
• The final shot of the killer in the door-window wasn't seen by everybody, some did and some didnt. We need to make it more clear that we want the audience to be looking in that direction to see the killer.
• Far too many action shots with a limited number of emotion shots; we need to postition the audience with the characters before conveying their individual personalities.
• It's been said that the openining at present is too much like a short film, in that the audience know too much of the story in such a short space of time. Furthermore the characters were too developed for an opening. To resolve this we aim to re-shoot some of the film, to create a stronger narrative that the audience can be attatched to and establish more of an enigma. 

Group: Example of Call Sheet and Risk Assessment

Here is an example of a call sheet and risk assessment which we conducted for the crime-scene scene. The purpose of the call sheet is to provide all the information needed for the successful filming of the scene, in a way that anyone could come to the location and film the scene how we wanted it. The purpose of the risk assessment is to analyse the location so that we could confidently say that we were sure of safely filming what we wanted to, and so we were aware of the surroundings when we were concentrating on filming.

Group: Filming Summary

After finishing most of the days of filming at our 4 locations, we now have most of the footage that we need to complete the film. But we are using the left over weekends to go back and film shots that are missing and need to be redone.

Shots we need:

1. To add context we need to get a motive for Alex (the victim) to walk through the forest.
2. Mid shot of her leaving her house and walking into the woods.
3. Some close ups of the detective looking sad
4. Close up of a wedding ring on the victims finger
5. A couple of shots from the office that show the girl to be his wife

Group: Location Reccie - House

A short video giving an overview of the location:

Group: Location Reccie - Home Office

A short video giving an overview of the location:

Group: Filming Feedback - Day 3

Where, when and with whom did we film?

• We filmed with Alex Young, Alex Atkinson, and Dan Warren
• We filmed on one location, at Alex Atkinsons mum's office 
• The whole scene was shot in late afternoon but the blinds and windows were shut so only artificial strip lighting was used 

What did we film?

• We filmed the detective discovering the DVD in his papers and his reaction to the footage
• We focused on getting close ups of the detective and evidence to show key details as sound and dialogue was minimal

What difficulties did we have?

• Getting steady shots and keeping continuity with a fast cutting rate
• We only had a short access to the space that we wanted to use meaning we had to film quickly with minimal mistakes to ensure we collected all of our footage
• Continuity was important but we wanted to keep it fast paced
• Natural lighting was still bright so we had to close the blinds to create the illusion of night

What did we think about the footage?

• Framing was improved in comparison to other scenes
• We spent more time considering what shots to use and this gave a more refined look
• The location was apropriate for the scene at hand

How important was the storyboard?

• This was of key importance during certain shots
• We deviated slightly by adding extra shots for continuity

What will we be filming next and when?

• We have finised filming all of the scenes however we may have to redo a couple of shots