Richard Morrison Interview

At first he talks about when meeting a director or a producer to keep your ideas short and not to over complicate it. He is able to remember Ridley Scott when he sold Alien to him as 'Jaws in space' which got him the money to be able to make the his film which tells you SIMPLE IS GOOD. 
He believes that once you go past the storyboard, it's a good idea to make a model so that you're able to visualize it because it's a visual object. If you use your senses with the physical object it feeds you subconscious information into you. He believes it doesn't matter how good the object is but that you are engaged in the process makes it believable. 
He says that you should never dive in and do high end visuals because by doing that you are stopping a creative process. "You are putting all the clothes/colours on before you have had time to test it out." He says that if you put ideas onto a storyboard you can always rub things out and collectively you can add a few things. 
I could apply these pieces of advice to my film titles to make sure that they are a good as I can make them. 

Preliminary Task

This is my Prelim task. We were given the genre of Superhero and this is what we created. 

Student Film Openings

Infertile
I think this is a good student film and I really like the opening shot where the camera is zoomed into her hands and it then follows what her hands do. This is a creative tracking shot as it follows her hands sorting out the tools. However i think the music doesn't fit along to the theme of the shot which makes it appear odd and confusing as to the genre or theme of the film. The shot where the main title 'Infertile' appears is a really good shot as the sun shines through the trees and the buildings which gives it a creative effect. The start of the tracking shot of the female actors feet walking along has a dip in the music which you can clearly hear which sounds unprofessional. However, it is an unclear genre and the music makes it feel as though someone is watching and waiting for them but that is not what the title would suggest. Also the music at the end doesn't match the genre or theme. 



The Taken
I really like the opening shot where there looks to be some sort of lights but there is a blurred effect which makes it look really intriguing and then the shot dissolves into the lights appearing clearly. The titles last for the correct amount of time but they seem too simple and small, they don't draw enough attention to them. The music fits really well the themes and helps to build tension, especially when the girl is walking in the dark. The voice over is a good use of dialogue as a conversation being added to this film doesn't seem appropriate. The tracking shot running through the woods is too wobbly and looks very unstable and doesn't fit in with the rest of the shots. However, I thought the ending was done very well and the costume was suitable and appropriate. 



The Forgotten One
I like the first shot where the sun shines through as it captures a beautiful sun rising and gives the shot a very creative effect. However the shot after as it tracks horizontally across the trees is very wobbly and could have been avoided if they used a tripod. The establishing shot of the leaves and the berries on the trees which come into focus work well with the pace of the film at the start. There didn't appear to be many titles that featured on screen and they didn't last long enough. To enhance their performance they could have added some dialogue to reinstate where the girl was and to vaguely explain why she was there as it was a little confusing. The genre wasn't clear.

Representation Example

In the opening scene Andy is initially introducing the toys to us as the audience. We get to meet Andy and more importantly we are introduced to the toys who are the main focus of the film. Firstly, we learn Woody has some importance as he is featured more often and being played with by Andy.The scene is shown as Sheriff Woody rescuing Bo-peep from One eyed Bart, so because of this it highlights the ranks amongst the toys, whereas Woody is the favourite and the others support him in all he does. The ideas and representations are made to seem true to the audience by taking the concept of children making up stories with their toys and then the toys actually coming to life and having their own independent adventures. Richard Dyers theory is appropriate in relation to the opening of Toy Story as he believes that stereotype comes down to power and that those who have power stereotype those who don't. This is represented in the film first and foremostly by Woody as he is higher up in the hierarchy than the other toys and therefore he looks to them as not being up to his standards. They defer all of their issues and decision to Woody and he has the final say. In the foreground Woody is the main feature and character to be shown as more important that all the other toys who are backgrounded. Andy is also represented in the background as he is important for the story to happen but even he is secondary to Woody. The representation of the opening scene is created by the producers as to what they think would interest the audience and appeal to their target age group.  

Genres

A genre is a style or category of art, music, or literature. A film that has more than one genre portrayed is called a hybrid-genre. 

Our first task was to take pictures around the school of different genres to explain different genres and how they could stereotypically be shown.

 This picture represents the genre of horror because it looks dark and there's loose wires hanging from the ceiling which make it look as though it's derelict and isolated. The hooded figure and the fact you are unable to see the silhouettes faces add suspicion and mystery to the photo making it more suitable to the horror genre.

 This picture represents the genre of romance because the connotations of flowers signify love and romance which suit the genre. The roses stand out especially, because roses are commonly bought as a loving gesture. Also, there are different coloured roses which are given to others based on the situation therefore I feel that this picture relates to the genre of romance.







This picture represents the genre of sci-fi because it shows a map of the world but its dark and has neon green lines around continents which gives it the look of outer space. The connotations from this picture range widely from space, the future and science to aliens and spaceships.


                                                       

Semiotics

Semiotics

• Semiotics is the study of signs
• We read images and pictures in an attempt to decode them and make sense of what they mean to us.

Denotation: What we see when we look at it (What it is)

Connotation: What we understand from this image.

Denotation: When you look at this film poster you see several different superheroes all in action.

Connotation: When you look at this film poster you understand that the superheroes are in action trying to prevent any villains causing trouble.The fire explosion extending from the building on the left of the image suggests there's an argument involving the villains and powers have been involved. The dark blue/grey sky suggests an eerie, derelict city due to the arrival of the superheroes. The tall buildings amongst the background suggest that the superheroes task is large and they have lots of people to protect due to the amount of people these office skyscrapers can support. It shows that they unite and work as a team although individually they contribute differently. 





Trailer Analysis Homework - Guardians Of The Galaxy

For this task we had to analyse several trailers to see whether they fit the DISTINCT acronym and to see what made them the genre that they are. We also had to look out for any hybrids. 

D - describe 
I - in detail
S - setting (time, location, interior, exterior, day, night)
T - themes (friendship, family, love, revenge)
I - icons (symbols, significant objects)
N - narrative (plot, characters)
C - characters (speech, presentation, style, image)
T - textual analysis (camera, editing, sound, mise en scene) 

In my opinion Guardians Of The Galaxy would be a hybrid as it portrays two specific genres; science-fiction and action with many comic elements. The trailer reveals its genre science-fiction to the audience with the location of the setting. It is set in outer space and the trailer features a number of alien like characters. The trailer sets up the film introducing the 5 principle characters Dracks, Gamora, Rocket, Groot and Quill who become known as the Guardians of the galaxy. Although they are portrayed as good guys the do step over the line of the law in parts as well. The settings shown within the trailer include both day and night with interior and exterior shots. Within the trailer of the film several themes are conveyed to the audience such as good vs. evil whereby the good guys have rough edges as well as the bad guys yet they pull through and conquer their imperfections. There also the individual stories within each character such as redemption, revenge and discovery. Quill tries to discover who he is, Gamora tries to redeem her past crimes and Dracks tries to get revenge on Ronan. The orb is the significant object which features in the film and everyone wants it. The plot in the trailer shows the audience partly how the characters come together and what they are trying to accomplish. The characters all have their own unique image and style of clothing. This makes them stand out from each other and makes them different. Their styles portray their characters personality as Quill features in colloquial clothing to match with his characters identity of being the normal one out of the group. There is a lot of low key lighting shots in the trailer to portray the mystery of events to come, it makes you question what's going to happen next. The editing of the trailer reveals a flavour of the storyline to entice people into watching the film; it doesn't give away too much. It combines shots together and cuts them down to show you a variety of shots from the whole film so that it leaves you wanting more. 

Production Logo

This is my production logo. In this lesson we were told to create a production logo for our distribution company. 

When creating this image I used Photoshop as I decided it would be the most effective program as it has the biggest variety of creative tools. However, because I had never used this program I had to get familiar with all the different tools, even how to insert an image onto the canvas. I used Photoshop's feature of changing the brightness, saturation and contrast to create different effects 

Film opening analysis