Comparing 2 Past AS Film Openings

The Cellar & Deception

I compared 'The Cellar' and 'Deception' film openings.





I thought that the mise-en-scene was the strongest feature in this opening. In 'Deception, there was a better range of camera angles, however the mise-en-scene was not as strong. Something that lowered the quality of Deception is that we can see the shadow of the camera/person filming in some of the shots.The Cellar uses narrative enigma to intrigue us, and also Deception uses this but not for all of the characters.

Final Cut Pro X - First Impressions

Before doing Media A Level I had never used Final Cut Pro, and after using it for the first time I found that it was not as complicated to use as I thought it would be. There are still a few features that i think will take some time to get used to but the basics are quite easy to use. The things I found most difficult to understand were importing and especially exporting files into the right format.

21 Jump Street Opening Scene Analysis



21 Jump Street Film Poster

21 Jump Street

Director: Phil Lord

Budget: $42m

Release Date: 16 March 2012

(UK) 12 March 2012 (US)

Total Gross (Worldwide): $201.3m

Opening Scene Length: 1 min 29 sec

Company Idents: Columbia Pictures
                              Metro Goldwyn Mayer
                              Original



The first few seconds show the company idents for Columbia Pictures, Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures, and Original Film.

Shot 1 (0:44)

Shot 1: We are given some information about the setting in this shot.



Shot 2 (0:48)

Shot 2: The next shot is a high angle shot of a typical yellow american school bus, with children coming out of the bus.

Shot 3 (0:53)

Shot 3: Next it flashes to animated writing which says 'Columbia Pictures and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures Present'

Shot 4 (0:59) 

Shot 4: In this shot the camera moves down from a high angle shot to a medium shot of one of the people who got off the bus. There is narrative enigma as we can only see the back of this characters body.           

Shot 5 (1:01)

Shot 5: The next shot again shows animated writing in the theme of the film, which says 'In association with Relativity Media'

Shot 6 (1:04)

Shot 6: The shot then cuts back to a medium close up of the character who got off the bus's head, and still narrative enigma is used as we don't yet know what the person looks like. The camera follows this person walking up some stairs in a high school setting. 

Shot 7 (1:07)

Shot 7: This shot is again animated writing which shows the production company ident 'An Original Film SJC Studios production' 

Shot 8 (1:12)

Shot 8: This shot simply shows the film title '21 Jump Street' in animated themed writing.

Shot 9 (1:15)

Shot 9: In this shot we get to see the characters face, and it shows a medium close up of the character walking through a door.

Shot 10 (1:21)

Shot 10: This next shot shows a medium close up of the character walking down a corridor. The corridor is very busy and the character is pushed around, which tells us what the character could be like

                                              

Shot 11 (1:24)

Shot 11: This shot shows a close up of a prom poster, which gives us a clue about the setting of the film.



Shot 12 (1:26)

Shot 12: This shot is a medium close up of the character walking down a corridor from behind, and he sees a girl walking up the corridor. He turns around, now facing the camera until the girl walks past him and then dialogue starts. This goes on to a shot-reverse-shot of the two characters having a conversation. 

Assessment Criteria

This Is England

 Director: Shane Meadows
 Budget: £1.5m

This Is England Film Poster

 Release Date: 27 April 2007 (UK) 

A story about a troubled boy growing up in England, set in 1983. He comes across a few skinheads on his way home from school, after a fight. They become his new best friends even like family. Based on experiences of director Shane Meadows. 

 Credits:

• 'A Shane Meadows Film' (director)
• Actors/Actresses
• Costume/make up/hair
• Script supervisor
• Music
• Director of photography
• Roland Rat
• Editor
• Co producer
• Line producer
• Executive producers
• Producer
• Writer/director

Shaun Of The Dead Swede

Sweding Explained

Sweding is remaking a film on a practically non-existent budget, with amateur equipment and actors. The idea comes from the film Be Kind Rewind (Michael Gondry, 2008). The point of a swede is to re-create a well known, popular film and make it funny.

The term “sweded” was coined in the 2008 Michel Gondry comedy film Be Kind Rewind, starring Jack Black and Mos Def. The film takes place in Passaic, New Jersey, where the declining VHS rental store “Be Kind Rewind” loses its entire video collection after being inadvertently magnetized. Mike (played by Mos Def) and Jerry (played by Jack Black) attempt to replace the store’s video collection by recreating films using a camcorder and claiming they are special editions from Sweden.

Be Kind Rewind premiered on February 22nd, 2008 and earned $4 million in the United States and Canada in its opening weekend. The domain for the site SwededFilms.com, which serves as a database for sweded movies, was registered the next day. On February 24th, the sweded film blog Sweded Cinema was launched and included rules for creating sweded videos:

1. Must be based on an already produced film
2. Range 2-8 minutes in length
3. Must not contain computer generated graphics
4. Based on films less than 35 years old
5. Special effects must be limited to camera tricks and arts ’n crafts
6. Sound effects created by human means
7. Hilarious.

My Favourite Film

Bridesmaids

Director: Paul Feig

Budget: $32.5m

Release date: 28 April 2011 (US) 24 June 2011 (UK)

Total Gross (Worldwide): $288.8m

Bridesmaids Film Poster

My favourite film is Bridesmaids, mainly because i can watch it over and over again without getting sick of it. I think that the cast is perfect for the film and the style of comedy works really well.

Assessing a Past Coursework Opening

'The Cellar'

The strongest feature of this opening
I think the strongest feature of this opening is the way that it cuts from the girl being tied up in a cellar, to how she got to that position.

The weakest feature of this opening
I think that the weakest feature of this opening is at the start after the idents there is a low angle shot of a cellar door, the and this lasts quite a long time before cutting to another shot.

The Brief

The Brief

Video:
    (i) Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting downin a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.
    (ii) Main task: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.