institutions

Institutions are a huge factor in everyday life, it is almost impossible to go a day without seeing something owned by an institution such as Disney or Sony. we now see institutions so often that we don't even realise and simply ignore the impact it is having on us - such as the biased view that it is implementing on us, as institutions own nearly every single medium from films to newspapers.

one of the biggest institutions is Sony Corporation who own blu-ray, dvd, playstation, sony ericsson, sony music entertainment, columbia pictures, sony pictures home entertainment and sony computer entertainment.

owning dvd means that they gain money and have a say in every dvd that is released, and playstation means that they can put the biased opinions into many games which is a key area in the life of many young people who are easily influenced.

film opening example

Lauren was wearing a long dress and Jen was wearing a colourful dress which showed that they were going out and I was wearing all black and a hoodie covering my face creating a hint of danger.

Animated Storyboard

Final Destination Opening Analysis

Final Destination starts with non-diegetic music. The music is orchestral but creates an eerie mood through the high screeching sounds that sound like screams. The film starts with a lightning strike immediately creating a sense of danger, as it often signifies horror; the camera then pans down the window showing the rain on the window and displays the title which is written in quite plain font except for the letter 'E' which stands out, the writing is then slashed and fades away - the slash also creates horror as you imagine the writing being sliced. the opening credits also appear in this plain white font throughout the opening. I think that the writing is so plain and small because the director does not want to distract you from the actions that are occurring in the background, as there are many hints that also suggest the genre of horror/thriller: the first is the strange figure which looks harmless, but thanks to the ark light does create tension - there is then a shot of the shadow of this figure which enhances the thought of this figure being a threat.

The next shot is a very important one as it uses a plain household appliance, a fan, and makes this fan seem terrifying by using a diegetic growling sound that the fan is making as it blows and flashes past the camera. The fan is used throughout the opening, with this growling sound and blowing pages over to show images and stories of death. The camera makes certain words stand out with extreme close up shots of words like "death" and "evil".

As the fan moves there is a face that appears quickly in a flash behind it. This creates terror as the face is unclear although it looks like a clown and there is a short sadistic laugh - although clowns are not very scary in real life, the dark room and the flashing motion that it appears in does create fear in the audience.

The final shot is a close up of a page in which the words "this is the end" are written, this shot ends with a fade into darkness but the words stay on screen for a couple of seconds longer and then they fade as well - this emphasizes the phrase and makes the reader think about them more; this is also a great way to set up the film and let the audience know what the genre is.

evaluation for preliminary task

For my preliminary task we had to create a short film using three shot types including shot-reverse-shot, match on action and follow the 180 degrees rule - this rule states that the camera can not leave a 180 degree barrier around the characters. Following the rule made the film look better although we did break the rule slightly once, but it is so slight that it is hard to notice.

The clip looks very cheesy and unprofessional because of poor acting and background noise from a leaf blower. Once we realised how cheesy it was, we decided to go along with the theme and added cheesy font for the title. I think that we could of made it look more professional if we had a better camera and maybe some microphones.

My role was to be the director of the film; this meant that I had to tell the actors where to walk and sit, I also helped the camerawoman by giving advice on panning and zooming. Editing the clip was tough and was mostly done by Jennifer (camerawoman) but I edited in the commentary once we had finished recording the film - I prefer the film without commentary.

To conclude I would say that our film was quite a success, because although it does look very unprofessional, we included some good shots, such as the match-on-action shot which looked really good after editing. I feel that we have learnt a lot and can defiantly take some knowledge out of this exercise and make our future pieces better.