Textual Analysis-Horror Image

Textual Analysis- Horror Image

In this picture there are very plain colours used, the mail colour is red, this cannotes blood on the child's hands, this shows us that the child is in danger and as you can tell by her face she is petrified. The most important elements of this picture are the little innocent child and the creepy sinister monster, without these two characters it would be a blood splattered room , this would then be an enigma. The Little girl looks very confused but also quite comfortable. The dim lights makes the environment very creepy, the blood splattered walls connotes this. The little girl looks confused as a sinister beast is holding her in his arms. The child looks innocent but at the same time quite comfortable. The characters are represented as a sinister monstrous beast (the male character) and a young innocent child (the female character). The male is clearly not human, he's sinister. The relationships between the people in the still image is classified as 'strangers'. The background consists of a blood splattered wall, this cannotes that a possible murder has taken place. The male sinister character is wearing a suit, this signifies he has power and is intimidating. The female character is dressed in old fashioned clothes, this signifies the film is set years ago. The target audience for this film are teenagers and adults who like jumpy thriller films and will be on the edge of their seats at all times. I would classify this film as a '15', basically because of all the gruesome scenes, and in the still picture the young girl is covered in thick blood. The main typical codes and conventions of horror that are showed in the still image are the dark colours, the monstrous face of the sinister character, the enigma of the male character as we don't know if he is a human being or a monster. The main one has to be the blood. The young girl is covered in thick, deep red blood, that is the main code and convention of a horror on my still image.

Textual Analysis

Textual Analysis

Today in class i learnt how to fully analyse a still image. First i went on google and found an image, i typed in 'Sinister' and instantly found a creepy picture, perfect for analysing! I then printed out my chosen picture and stuck it into my media book and then started to analyse.

I analysed this image by answering the following questions;

- What colours are being used? What emotions do they convey?

- Which are the most important elements of this image? How can you tell?

- How is light being used? What atmosphere does this create?

-Who is being shown in the still?

- How are they being represented?

- What relationship is created between people in the still?

- What background is behind the character? What does this tell us about the film?

- What are the actors wearing? What expectations of their character does this suggest to us?

- Who might watch this film?

- Are these typical elements of a film of this type? (codes and conventions?)

- What type (i.e. genre) would you say this film is? How can you tell?

I successfully answered all these questions underneath my 'Sinister' image and my analysis is complete.


I did the draft in my media book before typing it up on word.

Connotation and Denotation

Connotation and Denotation

The aim of yesterday’s lesson was to analyse a still picture to reinforce use of key terms.

Last lesson I learnt what connotation and denotation means…

Connotation- The audience’s interpretation of a sign, or an association or idea suggested by a sign. E.g. the colour red has connotations of love and danger.

Denotation- The everyday, commonsense, or obvious meaning of a sign

After we learnt the meanings of Connotation and Denotation we then analysed a still picture of Johnny Depp finding out the connotations and denotations of the image.

Continuity Sequence-Video

Continuity Sequence-Video

This is our finished Continuity Sequence. We used a wide variety of camera shots like medium shot, close up and long shot. Jasmine and Keira filmed the sequence while me and Shannon did the acting, we all took part in editing afterwards. The Continuity Sequence matches the storyboards we created perfectly, making out first Continuity a great success!

Shot List

Close Up

Medium Shot

Shot Reverse Shot

Continuity Sequence - Storyboard

Continuity Sequence-Storyboard

This is my storyboard, we had to create this before we could start filming our continuity sequence so we knew what were going to be doing/filming. We drew each shot out in individual boxes, showing what is going to happen. Also including any dialogue that may be in the shot. We ended up with 6 pages in the end and the continuity sequence matches the film perfectly.
Shots we included in our storyboard; Close Up, Medium Shot, Long Shot.

Research Into Thriller Films and Analysis of an Opening Title; The Secret Window

Research into thriller films

In our group we have researched existing thriller films, to give us some idea of what we would like our thriller film to be like. We looked at the plots, characters and motives of some thriller films. We think by doing this research it will give my group a more clear idea on what we need to do.

The Cabin in the Woods
I looked at the film 'The Cabin in the Woods'. This film is about five friends that go on a break to a remote cabin in the woods, everyone is happy and having a good time but that is short lived as strange things soon begin to happen, the teenagers must then stick together to escape the terror that lurks in the woods. The teenagers do not know that they are secretly getting filmed by the government and one by one they must all die a gruesome and terrifying death. This film has all the codes and conventions of a typical thriller and contains shocking twists and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats.

The Strangers
Another film i looked at was 'the strangers'. This film is about a couple who are staying in a vacation house, after attending a wedding. They receive a knock on the door late hours at night and think nothing of it. After that, 3 masked strangers make their way into the house. They then torture the couple until they are dead. The couple ask the 3 strangers why are they doing this and their reply was 'because you were home' this shows that there was no motive for them to kill the couple, they did it because they could. After looking into the strangers film and watching it, me and my group have decided to make something along the same lines for our thriller.

Analysis of an opening title: 'The Secret Window'

The opening sequence is taken from 'The Secret Window' which is directed by David Koepp and starring Johnny Depp. It is a psychological thriller.

It starts with the sound of a windscreen wiper, which we hear before we know what the sound is. This creates a repetitive and rather sinister atmosphere at the start.

The opening shot is a close up of Depp's face; he looks rather spooked and quite disturbed. He is located inside a car outside a Motel. The weather is bitterly cold and very snowy and the scene is set at night. There is very little colour in the shot apart from the dazzling red 'Motel' sign. There is a voice over played which is meant to sound like voices in Depp's head. ''Turn around'', ''don't go back'' etc.

In the next shot Depp enters the motel and takes a key, he is shaken up and the scene is very quick, he then rushes out of the motel and back into the car. Unfortunately the guy who works in the motel notices and chases Depp, Depp then drives frantically away.

Depp pulls the brake dramatically and gets out of the car,slamming the door. He then opens up the door of a motel room to find his wife in bed with another man. The sound is digetic for a second then everything goes silent while Depp screams at the couple, the screams are muted and he frantically rushes out.

In the next shot the scene changes dramatically thanks to a fade edit, it is now daylight and looks a lot milder than the previous shots and we are panning over a lake. There is a Birdseye view taken and the music is a lot more tense, this signifies drama and suspense tension.

We are now in the house; there are a wide variety of camera shots used in this scene. We are looking down over the house and we are panning, there is also a point of view shot used. The music creates suspense tension as it goes from fast to slow.















  

Saul Bass Posters

Saul Bass Posters

These are some of the posters by Saul Bass, I noticed that all the posters are very similar as the writing on each poster is simple and bold. The backgrounds are also quite similar, along with the images used in the posters.

 

 

Research Into Saul Bass

Saul Bass.

Saul Bass was one of the greatest graphic designers of the 20th century. He became known for designing brilliant animated sequences for motion pictures. In his 40+ year career he did work for the best Hollywood movie makers including Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese just to name a few.

He did work for numerous movies, including classics such as Psycho, Casino, and West Side Story. He is also well known in the publishing/advertising industry, for example, he designed the corporate identity of United Airlines as well as poster for the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984. He had a very successful career working on some of the best movies of the 20th century.

. Saul Bass was born on May 8^th1920 in Bronx, New York.

. He died on April 25^th, 1996 in Los Angeles due to non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

This is the opening titles for the film Psycho, which was designed by Saul Bass;  

This is the opening titles for the film Anatomy of a Murderer, which was designed by Saul Bass;

Using The Camera

Using The Camera

In this lesson we were able to use the cameras and tripods within our group, before we could start shooting we had to rewind the video that was already on the tape to delete anyone’s previous work. When we were doing this we had to make sure we had it plugged in as deleting film takes a lot of battery. Once we had removed the un-wanted film we were ready to shoot, the aim of the lesson was to film several different camera shots for at least 10 seconds each.
We took it in turns using the camera between me, Shannon and Jasmine. Keira was the subject we were recording, we were filming shots like 'extreme close up' and '2 shot'.
We were shown this image before going out to film, just so we was sure on the different shots that we had to do. Each group was also given a sheet with all the camera shot names on and we had to write down what each of them meant and why they may be used.

Time Plan

Time Plan

	Completion Date	Date Achieved
RESEARCH & ANALYSIS
Continuity exercise	26th October 2012
Thriller title sequence	26th October 2012
PLANNING
Continuity exercise	28th September 2012
Thriller title sequence	26th October 2012
CONSTRUCTION
Thriller opening
Filming
Editing
EVALUATION
Thriller opening

Assignment

Assignment

For our AS media studies coursework we were given the brief of completing a preliminary task and a main task.
For the preliminary task I have to film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with who she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. In this task i have to demonstrate match on action shot, reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

We are also given a brief concerning our main task which is to create the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to a maximum of three minutes.