Key Screenshot Analysis - Opening Sequence

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Director Research

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Use of cinematography in the opening sequence

The opening sequence I am going to be analysing the cinematography of is Suicide Squad. The films opens presented a slowly expanding-in shot of the producing companies’ logo ‘Warners Bros’ edited using high metallic colours and using a high-pitched beat which excites the audience. It then repeatedly follows with the same shots of the conglomerates integrations. The next shot is a fast moving wide shot flowing across a river and states the exact location of the shot in the bottom right hand corner. The non-diegetic sound has also changed into a slow tempo guitar piece which mellows the mood for the audience.  The bright colours have also been removed from the shot and the piece shows the gloomy and darkness of the scene.

The next shot then is a wide shot of a huge gate with a skull on the front, this contrasts with the happy and relax feel of the music that is being played in the background. It makes the reader think that maybe the location is deserted and the contrast between the non-diegetic sound and the shots is to represents flashbacks. A truck then quickly drives across the gate allowing the audience to view the detail on the gate for only a few seconds, this also demonstrates how the area is abandoned and use to be happy as the truck connotes that the area is uncared-for and just a memory. Once the truck has driven past it then reveals the gate again and zooms into the detail and text written on the rustic gate.

The audience is then shown a wide behind shot of a man sitting at a desk in dim low-key lighting watching all CCTV cameras, the music also then adds an opera voice to the sound which creates a more daunting and horror atmosphere to the scene. The shot is also shown from behind bars and zooms in as if it is going to creep up on the character on the screen. We are then suddenly introduced to a man who is beating a boxing bag, this uses many different angles as it starts off using a behind medium shot of the man but we are then introduced to a close up shot of the characters face. It suddenly switches and shows shots of cops marching through a deserted, imprisoned location which the audience then becomes aware of the fact that the man is in a cell. We are shown a variety of contrasting angles of both of boxer and the police officers. An effective shot is the action-on-action shot of the cop opening the cell hole and then following with a reverse-shot-reverse of the cop and the boxer. This shows the contrasting personalities and emotions of the two characters and we view two close up shots of both of them. The boxer shows a stressed, sweaty and frustrated emotion whereas the cop demonstrates careless and arrogance due to his authority over the prisoner. 

Old and New Hollywood

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Theories of Identity - Gauntlett

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Preliminary Task

Structuralism using Levi Strauss

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Reception theory using Hall

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Researching the BBFC

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Preliminary Task Planning

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Conglomerates in the film industry

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Ideologies presented in film

Ideologies is identified as the body of reflecting different social needs of individual groups. E.g. group, class and culture. Ideology assentuates the belief systems and the principles inside these even if they may seem unusual. We are aware that we are being controlled by the one sided opinion, but the idea of 'good' still takes over the system of the 'bad'. This is demonstrated in pretty much every film. There is a positive and negative and we are in noticely enticed into parting with the good side as we only shown their side of the story.

For example, in the film 'SAW' the people being viciously tortured are actually the bad guys in the first place in which they are being punished for. However, the punishment is so extreme it makes the torturers look like the bad guys.

Intertextuality in opening sequences

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Developing audience awareness

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Defining the film industry

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Representation of Gender - Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey is a feminist film theorist from Britain 

Gaze and Feminist Theory
Laura Mulvey created the term Male Gaze in 1975. She believes that in film audiences have to view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. The theory reflects how men look at women, how women look and women and how women look at themselves. 

The Male Gaze consists of 3 concepts: 

• that of the person behind the camera,
• that of the characters within the representation or film itself, and
• that of the spectator.

Many films nowadays steer away from the idea that women are not equally respected and not as power, for example film such as Frozen demonstrates strong women power which is a good example for the films target audience which is young children.

However, there are still films who betray this theory. For example, The Wolf of Wall street demonstrates how women are still relatively weak and how the man is more powerful and successful and the women just follows behind him. This film reveals women in an extremely sexual way and somewhat unnecessary

 manner. 

Audience Profile

Preferred genre of film: - Romance - Thriller

Areas of strength in Practical work: - Videoing on professional camera - Cutting and putting clips together

Areas of strength in Theory work: - Good terminology - Good analysis

Areas of improvement in practical: - More experience using a camera - Editing clips - Creating a good clip

Areas of improvement in theory: - Need more knowledge of media so I can include and increase the level of my work

Key skills at attributes I would bring to the group: - Creative mind – wide range of ideas - Drama queen – watched many films - Good with technology

Narrative Theories Research

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Narrative Theories Film Comparisons

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The Conjuring Film Opening Analysis

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Narrative Theories Research

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How film openings draw in their audience

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Pre 1980's film analysis

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Shutter Island Analysis

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Introduction

Hi, my name is Billie and I would like to welcome you to my AS media blog.

This is my first experience in Media studies as it did not participate in the subject at GCSE, however I do remorse that decision which is why I decided to take it at A Level. Media studies highly appeals to me as I absolutely devote to movies, acting, shooting and all sorts of performing arts related topics. This is likely related to my passion for acting and performing since a very young age. Last year, I helped my friend create her final media piece which really drew me into the subject after realizing how enjoyable it was.

On this blog I will be Researching skills, pre-production, textual analysis, editing and evaluation which will be based on my two minute film opening using the genre 'Thriller'. The reason I chose this genre is purely because I recognised that thriller film openings use many different media aspects to create an atmosphere and build the climax in the first two minutes of a movie, this allows me to expand my media knowledge and skills and apply them to my film opening. Also, the genre 'thriller' enables me to use a wider range of settings, sounds and mise-en-scene. The group I will be working with to create our two minute film opening is Jody, James and Todd. I am delighted to be working with these three as we are all friends which will hopefully conclude in a strong, high level piece which was fulfilled with enjoyment during the process.