Princess Chelsea - Monkey Eats Bananas

I watched this music video earlier, and I noticed some of the camera angles were quite interesting...

The editor appears to have layered various trimmed pieces of film over each other, with several independent images moving at once.
The video as a whole seems to have been poorly edited for fashionable effect, as the edges of the layered films are rough and pixelated.

Early on in the clip the shots change so fast it is almost as if you can see one image through another. Later when the monkey is playing the drums, the editor seems to have flipped the shot, so it plays once as it was filmed, and the second time it plays as if it had been mirrored.

Watching this has given me some strong ideas of what I would like to steer clear from when I come to make my film opening.

Best Coin Ever Spent

Before I left for school this morning I wanted to check my facebook page, but when I went to open up a browser a page was already open. On the page was this video, which I noticed has some good camera angles. So here it is becoming a blog post. The fact that the performers made up a full orchestra with a choir must have given the director/cameraman a lot to work with, and the way the camera looks at the instruments gives the clip variety.

The assortment of shots include:

• a Bird's eye view shot of the square the orchestra is in,
• Long shot of children watching the musicians
• Shots from bellow the instruments
• Extreme close up of string instruments
• Close up of instruments from behind
• Pan shots of the women in the orchestra
• Pan shots of other musicians walking into the square
• Shot from above of drums moving into the group
• Shot between musicians of conductor and many others that I cannot currently pin-point.

This video has emphasised that I will need to use a wide variety of shot types and distances in my film opening to keep my audience engaged.

I think this was worth note, and a fun video.

Lord of The Rings

On Friday evening I watched the first film in the 'Lord of the Rings' series.



I thought this clip had some interesting cinematic aspects to it.

At the start of the clip, Gandalf the Wizard bends over as if he is going to pick up the ring. The camera angle then changes to the ring's point of view with a close up of Gandalf's face. When he tries to touch the ring, Gandalf sees the iconic flaming red eye of Sauron. The shot is an extreme close up that appears to fill the flame with fire, and we can tell it was something Gandalf sees due to the close up and expression that follows.

Later on when Frodo enters the house, there is a shot-reverse-shot and a close up of the ring.

After Gandalf leaves, the scene cuts to a black and storming castle. We hear some sound effects, but primarily we hear Gollum screaming: "Shire, Baggins!" which is an example of Diegetic Sound (we do not see him).

Near the end of the clip, Gandalf is reading old documents to try and learn more about the ring. There is only music to be heard, until he comes across something useful, at which point he begins a voice over (non-diegetic sound) stating what he reads in his head.

These films often have an iconic magical object which has significance and/or a life of it's own - I would like to aim to use this concept in my own film opening.

Superbad opening

I also happened to watch the film 'Superbad' with Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse:



I particularly like the film's opening sequence. It only lasts for a minute and twenty-seven seconds but I think it is very effective and suits the genre of the film in general.
I think the use of the green screen and the way they have duplicated the images is clever, and the colour combinations are very complimentary - even when the silhouettes overlap with the opening credits.
It is quite simple, but it is amusing and features the three principle characters in a humorous way.
By swapping between solid colours and thin outlines it doesn't get boring to watch. If the editors had stuck with one block colour for each character that stayed the same throughout, I don't think it would have been as entertaining.

This has also given me some ideas for possible film openings of my own.

Hot Patootie, Bless my Soul

I was watching 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' this weekend, and I noticed some interesting camera angles in the scene with Eddie (Meatloaf), during his song 'Hot Patootie, Bless My Soul'.



At the start of the clip, I noticed some 'match on action' as Eddie came through the blocks of ice.
You see the door falling forward with the wall of ice behind it. The shot then cuts to Eddie on his motorcycle from behind. This then cuts to him coming through the doorway from the front, covered in tiles of ice. This is not dissimilar to what we did for our preliminary tasks: match on action - coming through a doorway from the front and behind.

1:18 seconds into the clip (when Eddie is playing the saxophone) I notice the angle changes to the camera being below the actor.
A few seconds later, Eddie begins kicking at the camera lens giving the impression that he's stamping on it, which I thought was interesting and it also went in time to the music which gave a nice flow to it.

One other camera angle I thought was effective was at 2:13 seconds into the clip. It shows a long shot of Rocky dancing to Eddie's song with Frank n Furter watching him in the background. A few seconds later the shot changes to a mid-shot of Frank n Furter still looking at Rocky.

Finally at the end of the song when Eddie dismounts his motorcycle, Frank n Furter attacks him with an ice pick from the freezer. Here there is a shaky 'shot reverse shot' of Frank and Eddie. The camera is clearly no longer on a track but follows Eddie as he falls to the ground and backs up into the freezer again.

The film in general has elements of the similar genre I would like to address in my own film opening, and I shall aim to use a few of the camera techniques seen here.

P.S. I hope none of the content in this clip is seen as inappropriate...

Children of Men Draft

Here is a first attempt at an essay on the subject of the 2006 film - 'Children of Men':

The Cinematic, Editorial, Mise en Scene and Sound techniques applyed in the making of the 2006 film 'Children of Men' show skill and give the film a whole new dimention the audience aren't even aware of.

The Cinematography within the first five minutes gives the film a different feel in comparison with other films of the same genre.
This is possibly due to the director's choice to use a hand-held camera during shots with a lot of action. By using a hand-held device it gives the impression that the camera is a person and the audience is seeing what they see, or that they are the camera. This gives it a slight 'Documentary' style. If the shots had been filmed using a track it would loose some of the tension as people watching wouldn't feel so connected and 'in the moment' with the situation. The shaky angles make it seem as if someone is walking down the street, following the protagonist without taking any special care to steady the shot. The way the camera pans around the character gives anyone watching a connection with him in a way some other films fail to do. The shots last a long time (compared to conventional lengths) adding to the tension.

The Mise en Scene at the start of the film sets the tone for all that follows.
The dull colours used makes the scenes feel wintery, cold and depressing. Everything is dark, blue and grey being the prefered colours. London seems to have lost some of it's formality: the extras are in 'comfortable clothing' even at work, and those wearing suits do not look smart or well dressed. This gives the impression of a city 'giving up' which is the desirable effect the film should have on the audience.
A few minutes into the film, the scene moves into an office where all employees are glued to their computer screens in floods of tears. On the desk of the woman opposite the protagonist is a large assortment of bric-a-brac in different colours, this time featuring bright greens and some pinks and yellows. This sets her workspace off from the rest of the room as so far these colours have not been seen. She is one of the only people with these sort of items and it makes her seem slightly odd, that she would keep all these things where she worked rather than at home. As well as this, the protagonist's supervisor's office is full of cricket memorabilia. This makes him come across in an odd light as well, and distanced from the rest of the staff.

Juliet's Soliloquy

I am taking my Silver Medal LAMDA exam in November, and in preparation I was doing some research into one of my pieces: Juliet's Soliloquy. I was looking at some youtube clips of actresses performing the same piece I have to learn and I noticed something.

I noticed near the end of the clip I was watching there was the sound of a choir singing, which is a good example of non-diegetic sound and I thought "I shall blog this".



I thought at first someone else was going to come into Juliet's room, but then I remembered the play, and the fact that nobody does... Then I concluded the singing must be something Juliet cannot hear, and it was possibly her hysterical state making her hear mournful choir singing suggesting her impending doom... eerie.

I feel I could employ this technique in my own work to add suspense and tension to the end of my film opening as it reaches it's climax, just as the choir begins at the climax of Juliet's hysteria.

Editing Lesson

Yesterday in our Media Lesson we covered editing for the first time. I didn't realise how much you had to think about editing a piece of film, and how long it must take. We watched a clip from 'Hot Fuzz', and in the scene the protagonist 'Angel' moved down the highstreet of the little village on the back of a white horse. As he rode past shops and people, the shots changed from one person to another, back to the first person, then to a new one at a roughly steady pace. As Angel dismounts, the shots become quicker and quicker as people stare in fear, in time to the music. Eventually both the shots and the music reach a climax and both stop in order for a line to be spoken. What follows is a 'Wild West Style' shoot out between Angel and the villagers, the shots changing almost by the second and the sounds of the guns and revolvers in time with the soundtrack. I now understand how long it must take for a director to shoot a scene in order to get all the surplus shots for the editing team to use, and I also now realise that no shot is precious. To edit a film you must be brutal, and this has given me insight into how I must go about editing for my own piece.

More Sound

For our Media homework this weekend, we had to watch a film and pick out some diegetic and non-diegetic sound.
I watched 'Pitch Perfect', and found both of these elements in one scene.

(I apologise for the fact the clip is in German, I couldn't find it in English but the language doesn't matter.)



At the start of the scene you hear the song 'Open Season' by the High Highs. This the main character Beca cannot hear, making it Non-diegetic sound.

Further on in the clip Beca is in her room watching 'The Breakfast Club'. She hears the characters talking through her headphones but we watching Pitch Perfect can hear them too, so in a way this is Diegetic sound that we shouldn't be able to hear (which makes it a bit of both).

As the film ends, you (and Beca) hear 'Don't you' by Simple Minds, and you think it's Diegetic as she watches Judd Nelson walking across the field, but when she takes her headphones off you realise the music has switched to become Non-Diegetic that Beca can no longer hear.

For an effective film opening, I see that I need to think carefully about how I combine diegetic and non-diegetic sound. I could do something like this.

Diegetic and Non-diegetic sound

In our Media lesson today, we were looking at sound in film.
We read about two specific types of sound: Diegetic sound and Non-diegetic sound.

Diegetic sound - This refers to sounds that happen within the film that the characters can hear. This could be dialogue and all the noises made by objects.

In this clip from 'Top Gun', the main character is sitting in a bar listening to a juke box. A background character changes the song on the juke box which carries on playing at the same volume which could be an example of diegetic sound as it is an object from within the film emitting a sound the characters can hear.

As the volume grows, the sound is no longer coming from the juke box alone, but turns into Non-Diegetic sound gradually during the rest of the clip until the credits where the song continues at the loudest it's been.




Non-diegetic sound - This refers to the sound the characters can't hear, such as voiceovers, sound effects and overlayed music.

There was an example of both of these in the clip we watched in the lesson. The clip was an extract from 'Hunger', a film about PIRA volunteer Bobby Sands who died from a hunger strike whilst in prison. An example of Diegetic sound could be the sound the trolly made as they wheeled him out of the building or the crying of birds as they flew overhead in a flashback he experienced. An example of Non-Diegetic sound could have been the faint music that had been overlayed to set the tone in his dying moment as he stares unblinkingly up at the camera.

Music and Disclaimers

Currently, I am having trouble finding a suitable piece of music for my film opening that does not have a copyright on it. Fortunately, I've discovered a disclaimer for 'fair use' that allows people to use copyrighted pieces of music for educational purposes:

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use."

Mise en Scene - Last King of Scotland

In yesterday's lesson we looked at a short clip from 'The Last King of Scotland'. The extract contained a lot of techniques that trick the eye and show contrast between two places. The clip starts at a mission where the principal character lives and ends at the President's house. As the film ran, the humble, rural setting of the peasant village made the shots dark with the browns and deep yellows of the trees and drying straw, but then as the characters travelled further out of the countryside and into the city, all of a sudden the screen is white with tall buildings and paved roads. The scene ends in a blue room which is supposed to shock the mind as blue isn't featured in the clip much at all before. By doing this the director was able to show how much of a different place the President's home is compared to that of the farming people who live near the mission. The director used a 'montage' of different locations to create the illusion that each of them are actually connected on the same route. By doing this they could also exclude expanses of blue more easily so the ending of the scene had more impact.