Student made short film opening anaysis- A Level Media Studies Short Film- Lost (Horror/ mystery)

At the start of the film it is very difficult to establish the genre. It could possibly be adventure, however the genre doesn't become apparent throughout the opening and its hard to understand. It is not clear at all. There are three characters in it. They are very hard to hear and their voices aren't projected or loud. The acting is poor with a lack of enthusiasm. When listening you can hear the sound of the tripod, camera zoom. Also when there are cuts it lags quite a bit. There hasn't been much evidence of skill or ability within the work. Basic camera shots, lengths, narration, and cuts haven't been used. It is hard to classify the genre of this opening. Maybe slight Horror/mystery.

Practice of film indent

Me and Phil made a film indent. We came up with the name LaffertreeProductions. The name cropped up from a Norwich city footballer, Kyle lafferty. (we had previously used him in stop-motion) I used the positioning  and opacity when editing the movement of the text and the fading in effect. Also I found a high resolution picture to fit in well.

Lesson

Today we looked at some previous AS Media Studies student made film openings. There was a mixture of good and bad ones. This was just to give us students an idea of what to avoid and what to include in our own coursework to produce the best level (3-4) and grade. We could assess and analyse the openings using the mark scheme and previous own knowledge gained. This can also spark off  some ideas of  what we may want to do for our coursework.

Some of the best pieces we watched where of basic ability (not complex) simple footage, but done well at perfecting it using film language. For example a boy waking up and going through a morning routine.  This is a simple idea. Background music, filters, variety of camera angles, some dialogue and narration can be used to great effect to the audience. These student tended to get high grades and meet all the criteria for level 4.

We watched some poor low grade ones just to see what they had missed and why.  Some where over complicated and ambiguous. This lead to missing the concepts and mark scheme criteria. Eg. Shot timing, time issues or the actors are inexperienced etc. some fail to establish the genre and used no conventions to show it.

How genre is established in the first 2 minutes, using barthes codes

How genre is established in the first 2 minutes, using bathes codes

Genre	Props and costume	Setting	Sound/dialogue	Camera work	Editing (pace)
Western	Cowboy, horses, hats and natural colours	Forest and countryside	Gun shots, horses making noise, bussing bugs (typical) and western (American) accent	Slow from the start and then turns fast at the end (short shots+ panning)	Long slow build up, then fast/more pace with action
Comedy/ Children’s	Family house, in kitchen, bedroom. Very domestic situation, normal clothes	Family house, domestic environment.	Fast, chaotic music. To show rust non-diagetic simple noise.	Follows boy’s perspective. Weird angles (in side cupboard)	Quick, then stops when the parents come in.
Action/ sci-fi/ thriller	Guns, light, cars, phones, FBI, codes	City or urban area, NY	Lots of natural sound, dialogue is frequent.	Tense and fast with quick shots to express tension	Fast paced mainly.
Romantic drama/ rom-comedy	Basket-ball game, crowd, opponents (individual feelings)	Team element, American school (team drama) typical.	Hip-hop, banging tunes (black America association)	Well-paced shots to suit situation.	Some flash- backs, so may be slowly paced to express emotions mainly
horror	Dark costumes, scary props	Forest  (dark) trees, enclosed.	Very quiet to pick up suspense	Fast and slow, many angles to show setting and what’s happening.	To put emphasis on build up or pace shot length will be fast or slow accordingly
Thriller	Suits, FBI, flash clothes	Typically urban, city , densely populated	Natural noise, sound fx, diagetic sound constantly	Quick and instant movements	normally at a high pace especially in cases

Narrative

Narrative

The narrative is how the story is told essentially. This can be mixed up with the meaning of story which is the plot bassically. There are lots of narrative theorists.....

Todorov- He believed that a narrative should consist of a equilibrium. This means there is an equal balance of emotions and power as such(e.g. characters are happy in the scene) at the start of the film. Then there is a new equilibrium/ dis-equillibrium. This is where there is a disruption of the order of balance by an event. This happens in the middle. Then it is then restored at the end of the narrative.

Barthes- Barthes says that there are technical codes in a narrative to tell the story. For example sound, shot lengths, edit-lengths and camera angles. Also verbal codes, so what people say and symbolic codes too. For example a red rose may connote romance or love.

Propp- He says that there are certain character types and their roles within a narrative. This table (below) explains his theory. (a Picture in form of JPEG)

Beginning/middle/ end and Flashbacks/flashfowards

This is normally the main structure and easiest way to tell the story or express the plot in film. However there are extras that don't follow the beginning to end idea. flashbacks can show peoples feelings/experiences in the past but still be included in the film at different stages. 

Generic conventions

Generic Conventions

Genre	Setting	Characters	Themes
Sci-fi	Space ship or outer space	Captain aliens	Saving human race
Horror	Haunted house	Frankenstein	Fear of the unknown,
Action	Cities, built up urban areas. Busy with people.	Hero, girl that gets taken, trouble maker.	Fast-paced, guns, fighting
Fantasy	Castle, grand house, cottage quaint surroundings	Princess, king, boys and girls. Mythical creatures	Exploration of a different or made-up world
Rom-com	America or abroad.	Boy and girl in love, annoying friend, parents too	On a romantic journey, certain events that occour. Happy ending
Documentary	Where event has happened	Reporter, narrator and footage of people with interviews	Factual and informative to audience and interesting
Thriller	Big urban cities	Everyday people	Tense atmosphere, quick and instant action all the time.

Proffesional film opening analysis Se7en, Opening 2 mins (horror/mystery/thriller)

This is a drama/thriller/mystery film. There is a constant tone and beat to the music that plays throughout and doesn't change only in last 10-30 seconds when the opening comes to a close. There are no characters to give anything away, therefore no dialogue. It is just weird shots of visual things on a bage and dull background. There is good use of sound fx, text