Case Study: 'Rear Window'

'Rear Window' (1954) was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and is about a wheelchair bound photographer who spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and is convinced one of them has commited murder.

Who is it aimed at?: The age range for this film is mainly people of the older generation as it is quite an old film so may not appeal to the younger members of society. This film may also be mainly aimed at males rather than females as it is full of suspense, however women may also like this kind of film and there are famous female cast members who may attract women to watch this film.

How did it attract your attention?: This film attracted my attention as the storyline is very gripping and could occur in everyday life. Although I am not normally attracted to older films, I found this one very cleverly filmed and directed.

What sort of reviews did it receive?:

'Hitchcock combines technical and artistic skills in a manner that makes this an unusually good piece of murder mystery entertainment'

'Rear Window lovingly invests in suspense all through the film, banking it in our memory, so that when the final payoff arrives, the whole film has been the thriller equivalent of foreplay'

Horror Films

Conventions of horror films:

• Dark, spooky houses - isolated settings
• Scary, tense music
• Weapons
• Death, murder
• Masks
• Female passive victims
• Monsters, zombies (which could be interpreted as metaphors for serious diseases, death or destiny)

Here is a link to a website that names the top 100 horror films of all time:

www.darkwebonline.com/top100horror1.asp

Case Study: 'An American Werewolf in London' by John Landis

The opening titles show the moores in which it is presumed that the werewolf lives. The wind and the accent of the man driving the van gives the viewer the idea that it is set in England, this is again highlighted when the two characters reach an English pub named 'The Slaughtered Lamb'. The picture on the sign also gives a clue that it is a horror film because the image is very scary. There is a close up of the moon, giving the hint that werewolves are about to attack as it is a full moon and traditionally werewolves come out on a full moon. After the attack of the werewolf, there is no sound and the silence adds to the suspense, which eventually is ended with a fade to black. This is very effective as the viewer immediately wants to know what happens next.

Case study: '28 Days Later'

The opening sequence shows violent images on tv screens. People break into an animal testing lab in Cambridge in order to save the monkeys, but when a monkey is let out he attacks a woman and kills her. It then cuts to a traumatized monkey and tense music is playing. The characters use of swear words makes the film seem more violent and with the use of guns, violence is cleverly expressed. The use of blood as the monkey attacks evokes death, and this makes us believe that the animal rights activists believed that they were helping the monkeys, however they have actually unleashed evil. A female is the first victim, which is a common horror film convention.

Comparison:

Blood is a common theme in the opening credits of both of these films, giving the feeling that they are horror films. Both films are set in England, but in different parts and at different times, '28 Days Later' is more modern due to the mise-en-scene.

One of the main differences in these two films is that, although they both have a victim within the first 5 minutes, in 'An American Werewolf in London', the first victim is a man, whereas, in '28 Days Later' it is a woman.

My Group

Agnes: Agnes starred in our preliminary task and is a fabulous actress. She is very good at knowing how to position characters and her directing skills will be very useful in future tasks. Along with Media she is studying Drama, French and English Literature.

Fact File:
Born: St Germain en Laye, Paris
Birthday: 9th August 1994
Idol: Scarlett Johansson
Favourite film: Titanic
Favourite musical: Chicago
Favourite book: The Kite Runner
Favourite TV show: One Tree Hill


http://www.rivetingmedia.blogspot.com/


Izzy: Along with Media, Izzy is taking English Language and Sociology.

Fact file:
Born: Surrey
Birthday: 26th November 1993
Future Boyfriend: Stefan Salvatore
Favourite film: Clueless
Favourite musical: Billy Elliot
Favourite book: The Host
Favourite TV show: Vampire Diaries


http://izzyboosey.blogspot.com/


Moe: Moe is studying Sociology, Psychology, Biology and Media.

Fact File:

Born: Malawi, Africa
Birthday: 20th December 1993
Favourite Film: Dont Be A Menace To South Central Park While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood

Evaluating my Preliminary Task

Task: Film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.

Preparing for the task: We, as a group, drew a storyboard including information on all the different shot types, angles and dialogue. We found this extremely helpful when filming.

Filming:

With the help of our storyboard we knew exactly what we wanted in the shots, what type of shot we wanted and what angle the shot should be at. We managed to maintain the 180 degree rule as we did not want to confuse the viewers of the positioning of the characters.

We used a selection of camera shots, from a close up, to a long shot. These different shots were cleverly used, for example we had a close up of the door handle and character 2's mouth to depict a dramatic ending. The long shots were used when character 1 was coming up the stairs as we felt it was right to incorporate her whole body.

Our shot reverse shot was used towards the end of the film, when the dialogue is used. This shows the audience who is talking to who clearly and easily.

Our actors were positioned on the screen very well as you can see most of their bodies, and we used an over the shoulder shot when they were exchanging dialogue to make it clear that they were talking to each other.

My role during the filming was to film the different shots and direct the positions of the characters.

I enjoyed the filming a lot as it was a very fun and enjoyable learning experience and I have developed my camera working skills further.

Editing:

I am very happy with the final result of our preliminary task except for a few minor details, for example several of our shots could do with being longer as the first few scenes are quite quick. To improve our sequence we could have used a more open plan space as the balcony we used had a very limiting area for movement. In the majority of the scenes the characters were positioned well, however, in one scene we could have done with the camera being slightly lower as all we can see are the top of the characters heads.

I feel that we worked very well as a group as we each listened to our different ideas and all shared the work equally.

I feel very confident when it comes to using the camera as i now know where all the buttons are and know how to assemble a tripod. Using iMovie has proved to be a difficult task, however, the more I use it, the more confident I become and I am sure that in time, I will know how to use it properly.

Here are some stills from our preliminary task