Trailer Analysis

Monday 22nd May 2017

• Film: It ( https://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/it/ )

• Genre: the genre of the film is horror and this shows through the character of the scary clown, the dark scary house and even the font of the title.

• Camerawork: close-up shots of the kids are used to show they are scared,  eye line match is also used when a character is looking at something and it cuts to what they're looking at, a montage is also used on the whiteboard when the kids are in the house to eventually show the clown in the pictures.

• Editing: cutting has been used for dramatic effect, some of the transitions are fade to black to show passing of time and/or for effect, and the length of each shot is quite short which is normally what horror movies have anyway.

• Sound: most of the sound is diegetic for scary elements like footsteps, this makes it easy for the character to act scared.

Sound

15/05/17

L/O: to understand how any why sound is used in film.

• All sound used is known as the soundtrack.

Diegetic and Non-Diegetic 

• Diegetic- sounds that the character would expect to hear. (e.g when walking, footsteps)
• Non-diegetic- sounds that the character wouldn't be expected to hear (e.g. narrations, music, voiceover)

Task 1

• Breathing, people outside, footsteps, the fire, the birds, the key turning, fairies talking to her, eating, scary man shouting, wind from birds wings, plate on table, gasp, screaming, dialogue.

Dialogue

• Can be recorded on location
• Or recorded after filming.
• Most dialogue is recorded separately and added on afterwards, this is called Audio Dialogue Replacement (ADR).

Foley

• Foley is the reproduction of everyday sounds for use in filmmaking.

Task 2

• Bench swinging, creaking roof, clicking button, crashing, touching levers, leaves, crying, sniffing, boy falling, chair, rock dropping.

Task 3

• Glass shattering, ground breaking, things falling, laser gun, disintegrating floor.

Music in Film

• Part of the Mise-en-Scene
• Used to create a certain atmosphere
• Can establish a time or place
• Used for tension, atmosphere, time or setting.
• Silence or lack of sound can also be used for effect.

18/05/17

Sherlock Holmes fight scene

• Silence from everyone when he wins
• Music back to normal at the very end to set the scene again

At the start...

• There is traditional fast paced folk music which is non-diegetic at the start of the scene so you can tell what time period the scene was set in. The crowd is cheering very loudly which shows this fight is a bit rowdy. At the end of this section, the opponent spits on the back of his head, this sound is increased in volume because it is important and makes it clearer as to what he did.

In his head...

• In this section, there is internal dialogue as he is thinking about what moves he is going to do. His talking is clear and fairly fast pace even though they have slowed the movement down. When he is thinking about his shots, moves, etc, the sounds of the punches, shots, blocks, crushing of bones, and kicks are exaggerated and made louder. When he hits the man on the ears, you can hear the ringing that the opponent is going through. Throughout this bit, the sound of the crowd is also reduced so it is focussed on him and his actions.

At the end...

• At the end of the scene, he pulls off the moves exactly as he thought he was going to and the sounds of all his punches, etc are exaggerated. Once he wins the fight, the crowd stop cheering as they didn't expect him to win. As he is walking around, the crowd stay silent and all you can hear is footsteps. At the very end,  the music goes back to the folk music to set the scene again.

Mise-en-Scene

Mise-en-Scene                                          04/05/17

A french term meaning what is put into a scene or frame. 

Visual information in front of the camera.

Communicates essential information to the audience.

It is made up of 5 elements:

1. Setting and props
2. Costumes, hair and makeup
3. Facial expressions and body language
4. Lighting and colour
5. Positioning of characters and/or objects within the frame

-Setting and props

Setting and Locations play an important part in making the film and are not just 'backgrounds'.

Sets are built either from scratch or a great deal of time is spent to find a setting that already exists.

Settings can manipulate an audience by building certain expectations and then taking a different turn.

• Sci-Fi - Spaceship, space/planet, laboratory, advanced weaponry, hi-tech technology, aliens, robots
• Romantic - Restaurant, bedroom, doorway, flowers, car, town/city, house
• Horror - TV, haunted house, forest, blood, darkness, children, isolated location, sharp objects, weapons.

-Costume, hair and makeup

Costume hair and makeup act as an instant indicator to us of a characters personality, status and job.

It can tell us whether the film is set in the present and what society or culture it will centre around.

Certain customers will signify characters roles.

• High status, clever, well off, serious.
• Lawyer, office worker, business man, detective, teacher.

-Facial expressions and body language

Facial expressions provide a clear indicator of how someone is feeling.

If someone is smiling broadly, we assume they're happy, but we might get a different idea if it is accompanied with scary music and a knife.

• Confident, cocky, idiotic, thinks he's no1, arrogant.

-Positioning of characters/objects within the frame

Positioning within a frame can draw attention to an important character/object/

A film maker can use positioning to indicate relationships between people.

-Lighting and colour

This can be used to highlight a character or object.

It can make characters look mysterious by  shading sections of their face or body.

To reflect a characters mental state or emotions.

Types of lighting:

• Low key lighting -  deep distinctive shadows
• High key lighting  - brightly lit sets or a sunny day

The location looks like a remote/abandoned beach or island that. The huge boat makes it look like it was quite historic. It looks like a pirate ship is about to leave so it could have been pirates that raided the island/area and are now leaving again.

The location of this film looks like its in a town or city at night because the lighting is dark. They also have props like a baseball bat. The scene looks like they've just blown something up or destroyed something because there is rubble and smoke around them. Their positioning is in a line but quite spaced out between some people.

The characters in this film look very intimidating because of the costumes they are wearing, most of it looks like uniform to fight in and there is lots of black leather. Their hair also makes the characters stand out, most pf the characters hair is black and some have hair falling over their face to make them look scarier. The makeup also plays a big role to make some look like they have wounds, scars or veins. Some people are looking very serious and some people are doing an evil smile suggesting they are up to no good.