Codes and Conventions (group)

Media students identify three categories of codes that may be used to
convey meanings in media messages: technical codes, which include
camera techniques, framing, depth of field, lighting and exposure and
juxtaposition; symbolic codes, which refer to objects, setting, body
language, clothing and colour; and written codes in the form of
headlines, captions, speech bubbles and language style.

By the term 'code' we mean a communication system which contains
elements which have an agreed meaning and which can be combined
according to agreed rules. This could be the English language, Morse Code, a
traffic policeman's hand signals, film etc.

A code must consist of:
• a set of signs which carry meaning
• a set of agreed rules for combining those signs together

The main conventions of a thriller/horror opening sequence is enigma to keep the viewer interested, set the scene (where and when the events in the film are happening), Identify the main characters and a brief view of there personality the final main convention of a horror/thriller opening sequence is the narrative.

The codes of a thriller/horror are extensive there are a huge amount to choose from. The main ones i believe to have an impact on the opening sequence are the lighting (low key and mysterious), the music (tense and unsettling) and quick cut transitions between shots to portray subconsiously the intensity of the film to come.

Dialogue

At the beginning of our opening sequence we are trying to create a sympathetic feel for the father so no dialogue will be used and non diagetic background music will set the tone and induce sympathy from our audience. The unsettling non-digetic backgroung music will be also used instead of digetic sound until the young girl begins to sing, we are doing this to make the viewer begin to be tense, unsettled and be drawn into the film.

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Draft Shot list

Shot No.	Shot type	Description and analysis
1	Establishing shot (ELS)-	Father figure from the back sitting on a bench looking out over the lake with the sky at the top of the shot. We are using this shot to show the viewer the surrounding and to set the scene of where the character is sitting in contrast to the open surroundings present. The characters facial features will be hidden from view and out of focus to create some enigma and uncertainty for the viewer.
2	Extreme long shot-	This shot is still of the man but more of the sky in sight. This shot will be filmed for approximately 2 hours sitting stationary around the time in which the sky changes from vibrant blue into orangey sunset. People will be walking past the man which will be sped up to show that time is passing him by quickly. We are using this shot to portray to the viewer that the characters lifetime is nearly up and everything seems to being going quickly for him. It also symbolises him missing the girl in the scene later on in the opening sequence by showing him not doing anything to help as he can't (he feels helpless)
3	Close up-	We are using a close up of the man to show who he is to the viewer the close up will show his face in focus and detail. You can also see the characters emotions. We have included this scene to show the lost and unknowing upset feeling he has.
4	Extreme Close Up	This shot is put in place to show the characters deep emotion in his eyes and a tear rolling out of his eye and dripping down his face. This shot will show the severe feelings and emotion he is feeling without letting him seem weak. Enigma is created in this shot to make you want to understand the reasons for him crying.
5	Close up	This Close up shot is a picture of the characters daughter. A drop of water (a tear) then drops onto the picture creating continuity and helping the shots to flow better. This shot then gives reason the characters strong emotion. the viewer will then have some theory of the reason he is crying over his daughter.
6	Extreme close up	Back to shot (4 )
7	Long shot	Girl figure shrouded by darkness. Shot will be zooming in onto her face which will become more clear as half her face will by lit up with the low key lighting coming from either left or right (Not decided). We have used low key lighting to make the viewer feel uncomfortable and tense this is one of the main codes of horror. Not being able to see the girls facial features fully will create strong enigma (key convention) this will keep the viewer on edge and interested. The female character will be matched by the viewer to the previous scene of the pictures of the mans daughter.

Hiring a Camera

We have been thinking of hiring out a camera instead of using the schools basic ones that they supply free of charge. We wanted a second opinion so we asked Scott who studies media studies at university. He opted for a reasonably priced camera with advanced zoom which we have looked furthur into and after desginating dates and times we will hire the camera out.

Here is the chosen camera specified by Scott;

Actors

We have been told by Scott that hiring actors from an agency would significantly boost our overall mark. Due to insufficient ammount of time, we tried getting one of our fellow younger students from drama to hopefully participate in our production in hope it will aid their portfolio.

Continuing from this we went to see Mrs Micilock who is head of drama at this specific time. She said she will look furthur into this matter and get back to us.

Costumes and Props

In the first scene, the father figure is sitting on a bench which lasts for a couple of hours as the sky changes from blue to a hazy sunset. His clothes will be scruffy as he has let himself go due to the loss of his daughter. Stubble and droopy eyes shows lack of sleep as well. We will use a picture as a prop also.

The girl in the corner will be wearing dark ragged cloths as the colour black has connotations of evil and darkness. Also symbolically shows danger to the audience.

The main majority of the scene will be at cuckoos hollow on a chosen bench looking out of the lake. We will not be needing any props as the bench is already there for the publics leisure.

Risk assesment

If the weather changes and prevents us from shooting to protect the continuity we will have to wait until the weather conditions match to show good continuity withing our opening sequence.

If the child we use is under the age of 16 we will ask permission from the parent or guardian. We will also keep them informed of progress. If we cannot obtain a young actor and permission we will be forced to use a family member instead.

Injury to us or actors	Contact relevant people, obtain emergency contact numbers from everybody involved. In serious cases call an ambulance
Severe weather	Delay filming until the weather has subsided
Weather changes	If the weather changes we will also have to delay filming to keep good continuity of the shots and the opening sequence
Illness	Try and shoot anyway unless the person  who is ill is playing a major part in the production
Camera is late arriving	If the camera is late arriving we will have to contact the people involved and update them as progress continues
The camera brakes	We will take out insurance on the camera

Research into Titles

We have researched our titles thouroghly. We have decided to use a red theme in our titles to portray to the customers, that the film is going to be dangerous and may contain blood. the titles will be large and centered to show the importance of Titles. The titles will also cut out quickly rather than having a slow transition to show the high tempo of the film and make the viewer subconsiously anxious.

Working Outline

Today i have also made the working outline for the production. We are now proggressing into making our opening sequence here is the working outine below:

Title/working title	Relinquish
Plot/outline summary	Small girl has been kidnapped by an unknown person. The girl is in some kind of mysterious unlawful imprisonment, the location is unknown.
Opening sequence outline/summary	The scene opens with an establishing shot (ELS) showing the surroundings of a character sitting on a bench. The Character has a tear running down his face as he looks at a picture representing something close to him.
Characters (consider genre, role, image etc)	Middle aged man that looks worried and disorientated to show him missing someone and giving up hope. Small girl that looks distressed to portray fear and subconsciously takes sides with the helpless young girl. Damaged clothing to show mistreatment.
Mise en scene Setting: Locations: Costumes: Props: Lighting (what mood are you trying to create? etc)	Sun set on a cold, winter night. At the start of the first scene the surroundings are light (high key lighting) however by the end of the scene the lighting has changed considerably until the lighting has all gone and the character is not visible   1st shot: Sun Set by a lake in winter (Present day) 2nd shot: Small girl in a dark small room (Present day) 1st shot: Small English town 2nd shot: unknown location Male Character: Up to date clothing, warm clothing to emphasise winter season Small Girl Character: Damaged clothing to show mistreatment and abuse. Kitchen Knife, Picture, Wrench, We have used low key lighting to create a mysterious mood and high key lighting for a contrast to show one is in imprisonment.

Making our Storyboard

Today we are making our storyboard for our final production, it is in its early stages as we are continuously changing the shots and scenes we are planning to use. We have decided to plan our opening sequence as detailed as posible, this should make the shooting of the film allot more efficient and less time consuming.

Planning the main task

Today in our media lesson we have began to plan our main media project we have sheet that contains main aspects of our film. By completing the sheet our film production should be more time efficient. We are still in the postition to change any of our ideas and planning at this stage.

Analysing an opening scene

At the beginning of this opening scene of blade you can clearly see that the titles are red and stand out profoundly. They have used the red titles to signify blood or romance further on in the film but as we know it is to signify blood.

the main characters are immidiatley addressed and shown to the audience. This has clearly been thought about by the durecter, the main characters and people around make it clear what there relation to each other is by the pronounced body language.

The film has immidiatley shows the audience the surroundings of where the people in the shot are. The titles that are displayed to the audience show themain people behind the making of the film including producers, actors and the director.

Sound in Films

We have now learnt the importance of sound within a film. Sound can create an atmosphere within a visual image that without sound would not be possible. Sound can create many different moods for the viewer including suspense, shock, happiness and sadness.

We learnt about the two types of sound within all films.

Diagetic Sounds

Daigetic sounds are sounds within the film, they are directly relevant and important to the scene showing. For example when a gun shoots the viewer hears a bang and someone talking.

Non-Diagetic Sounds

Non-Diagetic sounds are sounds that are not directly relevant to the scene being shown. For example someone narating (sound over) and music in the background which is not being played by any of the characters or in the film.

Film Intro Practise

We are currently in the proccess of filming and editing a film intro to 'resevoir dogs'. Creating this short opening to a well known film has shown me some of the difficulties in film making. I have learnt that it is extremely difficult to work with other people in the film, it requires manyakes to get the right shot and keep continuity.

Our short film opening is not to a very high standard as we were short of time for planning and filming, we hope our final production will be far superior than this practice film.

Horror film opening credits

Here is an opening sequence to a horror film.

The opening credits in the film show disturbing and revieling images to give the viewer an insight to the contents of the film. This could immediatley draw the viewers attention and begin to attatch them to the film.

the names of the actors, producers and director of the film have there names in bold big text to show importance. Some of the names are in red symbolising death and blood.

Audience Research

Horror

We have researched into the genre 'horror' as we have a keen interest for our project to be this genre.
Our research has told us to leave it to the viewers imagination so that they can get deeply into the film and imagine the most scary thing to them.
We also found that you need to really interest the viewer to the point where they are tense. if the viewer can relate to the film more it will bring out more emotion from them.

Comedy

In our research we have found that there are many small markets that appreciate different types of comedy. The most funny kind of comedy to one audience might be the least favourite of another.
The most funny comodies are films where you can relate to them i.e. people in your age group (peers) and people going through the same proccesses.

Willing suspense of disbelief

The ability to bring a viewer into the film completely so that they are heavily involved and attatched emotionally to the film. Things that then happen in the film will affect them more and draw out more attention and emotion, making the viewer enjoy the film to a higher extent.

Lighting

The image shows low key lighting, you can also see the key light is coming from left to right of the images; you can see this as the woman has her right side of her body illuminated and the other in dark shadow. this also means that the key light is harsh. the key light is shining up slightly therefore could mean that the lighting could be called under lighting.




This image is high key as there is loads of light all over the image and its background. the sun illuminates the entire object and scenery. there is not much shadow in the image at all and everything is clear to see for the viewer.

Audience Response

The audience response to our ideas was positive yet constructive in the few criticisms we had.

Our ideas for our Main Project

Our first idea is focused around the genre Horror. It begins with a small girl sitting in a corner of a room alone singing to herself (A ring a ring a roses). She is emotional and has running mascara down her young face. Then the door creaks open and a male figure enters with a wrench in his right hand. The camera shot then turns to his face and a smirk consequently follows. When he walks closer and closer to the girl her singing get’s steadily faster to symbolise adrenaline and pure fear. The music fastens at this point with her singing, when the singing gets to the fastest point a bang will follow with complete darkness. This is when we will start the credits. This whole previous scene will be in black and white to symbolise the past.

Present day; (In Colour)

A young girl is socialising with her friends at the end of school, she starts walking home by herself maybe on her phone talking to a friend. The shot will be following her from the side with a horizontal panning shot to track her movement. She walks past a tree with the same man leaning on it with a newspaper masking his face. As soon as she passes he looks at her walking off, folds up the newspaper and starts to slowly follow her.

Our second idea is very contrasting to the first as the genre is Romantic. The movie will scenes from the two main characters past. Childhood sweethearts through the majority of their childhood spending days upon days together. Perfection, only to be ruined by a family move to the city of New York. As the children are only Teenagers they don’t have any legal power to prevent the move and only have to concede that their love was not meant to be.

Present Day; The male female main character has also moved to New York in her mid 20’s with more than 10 years difference from her childhood sweetheart to pursue her dream of becoming a journalist. Numerous shots will be shot of both characters, Journalist and lawyer just narrowly missing each other in different situations. E.G. One walks into a business establishment while one walks out an opposite door. 

Finally, they meet due to a freak accident. (Accident not decided yet) Their eyes meet and the rest is fate.

Storyboard

Today i have made a story board for the fast and the furious opening. i have wrote about the different editing cuts, camera shots, camera angles and camera motions (movements) i will take pictures and put my storyboard on my blog along with the clip of film i have reviewed.

5 minute review of a Drama (Eastenders)

Zooming out to show a large establishing shot of central london
Medium shot of a builder beckoning another builder ina crane to lift somethink up
Long Shot showing the object being lifted along with the background of the scene
Close up of 2 characters talking
long shot showing a characters wife from his point of view
Medium shot of characters wife
Medium shot of a character walking into the shot from a staircase
Panning down vertically to follow the charater walking down the last bit of stairs revieling another character in the background watching him as he does so
2 characters in the shot 1 in a medium shot and the other in a long shot
vertical Panning shot to show another character coming down the stairs then shows them walking away from the camera into a long shot
Vertical Panning shot showing a  medium close up of some food then changing to a  medium close up of a persons face

Movements and Angles

Tracker Shot
A Tracker Shot is a shot that follows a person or object this is done on a track or dolly so that the camera does not get joulted around when you move over bumps etc.

Crane Shot

A Crane movement is where the crane takes the camera up to show the shot from a higher or lower angle to show the shot from different perspectives to show different things going on in the scene. It is also used to show an establishing shot.

Tilt Shot

Camera angle that looks up or down at the object being filmed, instead of being on the same level. A tilt shot is used to show power in a character by looking up to him/her. It can be also used in the opposite way to show someone with no authority and power by looking down at them.

Pan Shot

Panning is the horizontal or vertical movement of the camera to show. Panning is used to follow the action in the scene or can also be uswed to show the surroundings (establishing shot).

Roll Shot

A roll shot is

Camera Shots

(ELS) Extreme Long Shot

An extreme long shot is a an establishing shot to show the character and his surrounding ( the place the film is set)

Common uses of a long shot is a horizontal shot, a landscape shot, a scale shot (to show the size of something)

(LS)Long Shot

A long shot is most frequently used to show a whole person or object but closer than the (ELS) it is also used to show a person in relation to someone or something else a long shot can also be used as an establishing shot.

(MLS) Medium Long Shot

Show more detail of the person or object than the previous 2 shots however it still contains the background setting clearly in the mis-en-scene, this shot also shows the whole body of the person

(MS) Medium Shot

An (MS) shot is a shot from around the knees of a person to just above there head. It is also known as a 'mid-shot' or a 'three-quater shot'.

(MCU) Medium Close Up

This shot is from the persons chest to the top of there head it shows more detail than any of the previous shots it can show two people talking.

(CU) Close Up

This shot shows the head and sholders of a person it is very detailed it can also be used to show emotion

(ECU) Extreme Close Up

Shows a small amount of a persons face or object. Very detailed (can see emotion of a person clearly)

Theory

Today we have started our theory work in lesson.
We have looked at some past papers so we have a good idea of what the exam is going to involve.

We have also made notes about the different things the exam board are looking for including representation of different things in film i.e.

Gender
Age
Ethnicity
Sexuality
Class and Status
Physical abilities/disabilities
Regional identity

Preliminary film finished

This is our preliminary film made within our media studies group of Me, Joe and Isaac

Filming and Editing the Preliminary Excercise

Yesterday we shot the Preliminary film, i was mainly involved with the camera work and learning different aspects of filming with help from Isaac and Joe.

Today we have uploaded the video clips we created yesterday and have began to start editing our film.

Continuity

Continuity is the consistency of the characteristics of people, the plot, places, objects and events seen by the viewer. If continuity is not monitored and carried out during filming then people watching could spot the mistake and it may distract them from the story and what's going on. If someone is not there to spot the mistakes made during filming then the scene may have to be re-filmed, and this creates the problem of making sure that every single factor (appearance, time of day etc.) is the same as it will otherwise not flow correctly and look out of place.

Here is a film which highlights the mistakes than can be made through continuity

The 180 degree rule is essential in keeping the viewer focused and avoiding confusion. Once a scene has been established, the camera must stay on one side of the action.

If two people are facing each other, a line must be drawn. This line usually runs straight down the middle between the two people, like so:

(....)

Once this line is in place, the camera can move anywhere providing it stays on the same side of the line once filming has begun. If the camera is switching between two faces during a conversation for example and then suddenly cuts to the other side of the line, then it will appear that both people are facing the same direction instead of looking at each other.

Shot/Reverse shot

A 'shot/reverse shot' is a film technique which is simple, convienient for actors and gives out an effective illusion to the viewer. In a shot/reverse shot, the camera focuses on one character looking out of shot, and then cuts to a shot of another character looking back in the direction that the other character should theoretically be. Because the shot does not include both characters, it means that only one actor is required for filming at a time.

Here is an example of a scene which uses the 'shot/reverse shot' technique:

Match On Action Shot

A match on action shot is a simple yet essential technique, where the persepective of the camera changes during a scene and the sequence continues to flow flawlessly. If match on action is not implemented in a scene then the sequence will appear choppy and unprofessional.

Here is an example of a scene which uses the 'match on action' technique:

Preliminary Exercise

• Produce a continuity exercise which involves a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom they exchange a couple of lines of dialogue. The task should demonstrate;
• Match on action
• Shot/reverse shot
• 180 degree rule

Joining a group

I have now joined a group within my Media class with a couple of close friends (Isaac Warburton and Joe Wright) we shot the preliminary film yesterday and mainly participated in filming and understanding different aspects of camera work.

Today we are beginning to edit the recording we made yesterday using the school editing software provided.

Introduction

I'm Luke Pitchford i'm 16 and go to Ken Stimpson Community School i have just started AS Media Studies along with other AS level Courses including Economics Maths and Finanace.