Feedback - Miss Spencer

You have made a good start Harvey - using lots of media language and often discussing the meaning of the elements you have picked out. You have also thought about conventions of the genre and linked them to the elements you have picked out.
I would like ot see a little more detail however (make sure you cover Sound/mise en scene/ editing and camera movement/framing etc)
Your work is currently on a level 3 but in order to improve you should:

•  Think about the questions below, ensure you are addressing all of them.
•  Embed JPEG images throughout you analysis (stills from the film) and a video of the opening sequence in order to illustrate your analysis (make then relevent to what you are talking about throughout)
• Ensure your work it titled appropriately - put the genres together in separate posts (one post for each genre - two films for each genre!)

  Study the opening sequences of any film from the Thriller, Horror, and Romantic comedy genre. E.g. Seven, The Dark Knight Rises, Halloween, Notting Hill, Love Actually etc. Analyse how the sequence has been constructed through its use of: Camera angles, shots, movement, Editing, Sound, Special effects and Mise-en-scene etc.

· In terms of editing how have the separate images been put together - Think in terms of frequency of cuts, fades in/out, jump cuts, dissolves etc.

• What visual images appear on screen throughout the sequence? And what do they mean?
• · Describe what narrative (story) is being displayed in the sequence from start to finish.
• · Describe what kind of music; diegetic/non-diegetic/incidental/ambient etc. is being played over the sequence.
• · How and what titles are being displayed during the sequence and in what order.
• · What kind of characterisation is evident? - Age, gender, relationships etc. 

That Awkward Moment and Under The Skin - Opening Titles Analysis

That Awkward Moment - Romantic Comedy
The opening to That Awkward Moment starts with the generic sound of the city, with cars honking and people getting around the city. Having just those sounds in the background of a black screen is very effective because it gives the audience something they're familiar with, normal everyday life. This gives the audience the sense that the story and characters in the movie could be just normal, everyday people which makes the comedy and characters relatable to themselves. A voice over slowly starts to set up the movie for this one character and his situation. In a romantic comedy genre, a voice over could be used to show a sort of confession or insight to the characters life, which is a great way to introduce the character. The camera cuts to a wide angle of this character sitting alone in a park. The dark park, along with the feeling of winter and cold,
brings about a sense of loneliness around such a time as Christmas. The street lights are very typical convention of romantic movies, showing perhaps warmth or feeling of being welcome. These two ideas of loneliness and welcoming are just so opposite that could show that surrounding this character there are things that shouldn't really work together but they do. A sound bridge linking this scene to the next links his dilemma to the next scene showing off the first bit of romantic comedy in the movie. The scene mostly involves reverse shots of this new female character and the first character talking about the next step in their relationship. The reverse shots are really able to capture the delivery of a punch line and then cut to the other character to be able to capture the character opposite and their reaction. After the confrontation, an establishing shot over New York is show, this gives the audience the feeling of something familiar and of a normal setting in life and in most movies. This is done to set a tone of realism to the movie, which for the audience, draws them in because it's interesting to see how normal people are in relationships in relation to themselves and that gives the movie and audience something to relate and connect to.

Under the Skin - Horror

Sinister music slowly getting louder breaks the suspense of looking at a black screen. It gives off a slightly unnerving,  mysterious tone for the start of the movie. Accompanied by images of space and eclipses, the opening brings the audience this almost hypnotic, suppressed chaos of music which tries to make the audience feel uneasy and uncomfortable but with fascinating images of space. Among the music and the imagery, a woman's voice can be heard but it isn't very clear at first, but after a while parts of it become more clear. The intrigue of wanting to know what this woman is saying will bring the audience in until they're almost being hypnotised by her. Even though the audience is thinking they're making sense of what she is saying, it gets more an more inaudible so the audience is stuck in this endless loop of being in a trance over and over and over again. This theme of hypnosis seems very strong and reoccurring and links in closely with the element of space.Both themes being very unknown of and unclear of what it's really all about.

 After an extreme close up of an eyeball looking straight into the camera, showing the deep details of the eye that can't be seen with the naked eye, various medium shots of a waterfall at different angles until we arrive at a road with a lone light navigating down it. A close up of the bikers visor puts us uncomfortably close to this person we know nothing about and the jet black leather clothing, helmet and bike delivers a very tense feeling of doom lingering over the scene as the audience and the biker are together travelling down the road but the audience can't see the way. The biker then pulls over to the side of the road, pulling onto the wrong side of traffic, as does the camera which brings a subtle sense of confusion as if this person doesn't quite understand just basic driving rules, potentially this character isn't from around here? He dismounts off and takes off his helmet with a posture and body language which shows a sense of duty about him, as though he knows what he needs to do and it just has to be done. The camera cuts to a high angle, medium shot showing a wide, dark open field where the biker walks down and is consumed by darkness. He returns seconds later with the body of a girl.

Media Studies – Mission Impossible II

The opening to Mission Impossible II, opens with an establishing shot of a very dangerous and isolated mountain side before coming to a stop and focusing on a man, climbing the cliff side. Several aerial shots of the man hanging, calmly on the cliff are shown, and close ups of his hand as it reaches for the next outreach of the cliff and his feet as he climbs with ease. The camera slowly pans out as we get a good comparison of the man to the mountain that he’s climbing.  As he’s climbing, the call of an eagle is heard, the connotations of this are that an eagle is the top of the food chain and an elite predator, which represents him as a character. It could also represent him as a true, patriotic American. As well as the wind being very loud in this opening scene, a hip hop dance song is playing also, making it very contrapuntal to the situation. A slow zoom on the cliff far away from the man hints the audience that he’s going to jump for it, the slow zoom gives time for the audience to feel tense about the situation.  Slo-motion added to the jump to the other cliff, creates more tension and suspense so the audience have to wait longer to see if he made it. The quick cuts between him falling, create quick, added elements of action as he’s falling.

As the man recovers from the fall into a religious image, like Jesus. This religious representation of the savior shows that this character is literally the savior, and sacrifice and the protection of others are his main goals. As he finally gets to the top of the mountain, the character feels a sense of pride and accomplishment. The faint sound of a helicopter can be heard, which gives a sense of attack and a threat against this character, before it’s revealed that the helicopter is secret service and working with the hero in some way. The close up on the rocket is very action, spy movie typical to zoom in on the gadget before it’s used, to show it off. A rocket containing glasses lands on the mountain top, which the hero smiles at and shakes his head a little. His facial expression sort of suggests a “This is again huh?” feeling but not in the way that it’s boring and repetitive, but more “they need me because I’m good” sort of look. Before putting them on, a zoom on the glasses gives them more screen time than if they were just normal glasses, hinting at them being more than what they seem. As he puts them on, they not only add to his spy, action hero look but the fact that he wears them, adds a sense of style to his action work.  As the hero, Ethan Hunt is briefed for his mission the camera slowly pans around him, switching between close ups of his glasses on him and medium shots of him listening to the brief. As the camera fixes onto one point and slowly pans out, Ethan delivers an action hero line and throws his glasses towards the camera, starting of the title sequence. The opening sequence transitions metallic text, which shows strength and resilience, following a fuse which has sparked which shows that the protagonist is against the clock and running out of time. Quick images of a dragon and knights suggests ideas of myth and legends among Ethan, and also chivalry, bravery and power. 

Feedback - Miss Spencer

Preliminary Movie Task & Evaluation

In a scene, usually one involving a conversation, a line keeps the camera on one side of the characters at all times. This is usually done for the benefit of the audience as it's good for continuity that the characters are on their right sides throughout the entire scene. We followed this rile ans used them heavily in conversation scenes. A match on action is an editing technique used to show the focus within the scene but cuts to and back to the overall scene in order not to break continuity. We included a match on action the show the transfer of documents and to show the intense countdown of the bomb. Both effects create a certain amount of atmosphere depending on the genre of the movie which adds to the overall performance and effect of the movie. The Translation from storyboard to filming worked very well, having put a lot of effort into the storyboard n terms of; location, feelings of the characters and how they would be feeling, emotions on the faces of them especially in close ups and so on. This planning ahead also worked well when it came to the editing. Discussing as we were planning the storyboard and while we were filming helped to build up ideas of what we wanted to put into the movie after shooting it. I learned that editing is a tough and lengthy process, to bring together the right transitions and sounds to create the right atmosphere for the movie that the genre is in. In the opening scene, We intentionally tried to make the character seem nervous and uncomfortable with something the audience is unaware of yet.