AS Media Analysis: Defy FINAL Cut

Overall I found this opening really was action packed and I like how that adrenaline and action builds up with the used of music and the fast paced shots, so it fitted the action genre perfectly. I really like the news videos embedded into the world map, it really makes the opening professional and sophicated, yet it added tension as all the clip built up. Also the definition of Defy again made it look professional but it also suggest what if the film is about (if it is a full length film). The low angle shot which looks up to the main protagonist, so this could suggest he has importance and/power and mostly in his fingers as he types away on the key board so he could be a threat to someone or a group of people by his power and control.  Also this low angle shot is tracking along the screen going towards the left as it unravels technology equipment and computers so it connotes that we are set in the modern day and give an indication of what the main protagonist does. Then we get an over the shoulder shot which views the laptop and pieces of paper so this highlights that the protagonist is some sort of hacker or computer genius. Then we get a medium shot of the male as he speedily gets up and runs away. Then run away shots are shot a mixture of wide and long shot that are hand held to make the clips more edgy and realistic by how he runs past but it also shows his journey and where he is going to. Then the last couple of shots of are medium and long shot however the protagonist is hided by the shadows as he becomes a dark silhouette figure, this shows he can be dangerous as we (the audience) gotten an masked personality which highlights some narrative enigma at the end of the opening.

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Film Opening Analysis: Star Wars

Star Wars: A New Hope is about a teenager Luke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi master, a cocky pilot, a wookiee and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire's word destroying battle-station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the evil Darth Vader.

Title: Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope
Director: George Lucas
Production: Lucasstar
Distributor: FOX
Budget: $11,000,00
Box Office: $460,935,665
Genre: Sci-fi, Action
Stars: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford
Year Released: 1977

Film Opening Analysis (audio analysis)

Film Opening Analysis: Fifty Shades of Grey

Literature student, Anastasia Steele's (Dakota Johnson) life changes forever when she meets  handsome, yet tormented, billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) 

Title: Fifty Shades of Grey 

Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson 

Production: Focus Features, Trigger Street Productions, Michael De Luca Productions 

Distributor: Universal 

Budget: $40,000,000

Box Office: $166,147,885

Stars: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan

Genre: Drama, Romance 

Year Released: 2015 

Here is a video of me analysing through the opening of the film. 

Here is the opening of the film.

Film Opening Analysis: Friends with Benefits

While trying to avoid the cliches of Hollywood romantic comedies, Dylan Harper (Justin Timberlake) and Jamie Rellis (Mila Kunis) soon discover however that adding the act of sex to their friendship does lead to complication.

Title: Friends with Benefits
Director: Will Gluck
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Production: Castle Rock Entertainment, Zucker Productions
Distributor: Sony/Screen Gems
Budget: $35,000,000
Box Office: $55,802,754
Stars: Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis
Release: July 22 2011

Film Opening Analysis: Mamma Mia

The story of a bride-to-be (Amanda Seyfried) trying to find her real father told using hit songs by the popular 70s group ABBA.

Title: Mamma Mia
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Production: Relativity Media, Littlestar
Distributor:Universal
Genre: Comedy, Musical
Budget: $52,000,000
Box Office: $144,130,063
Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan
Released:

opening-scene from Mamma Mia! (2008) - Video Dailymotion

The ident from Universal

 Then we get text saying universal pictures and Littlestar/Playtone productions. This text is quite 70s text so it links to the ABBA music in the movie., since ABBA was a 70s band.

  We first get the sound of waves before any image, then we get a gradual image of dark waves crashing against a boat.  

 Then shot pans up/zooms out as we get a silhouette of a girl on a boat as calming music fades in.

 then we get a shot of the boat coming into the shot from the right, then it zooms out so we get a establishing shot of this island at night.

Then we cut to a wide shot of a path leading to a yellow post box. The yellow stands out as theres lots of dark blues and tones around the shot. This cold connote the importance of the post office if the letters she's posting are important to her.

 Then we cut a long of the girl as she walks towards the postbox but she's still unknown as the shadows cover her face. Cut to another shot of the postbox as this is much closer, connotes that this letterbox is quite important. Then to cut back to the girl with a medium shot as she continues to walk, masked by the shadows. We cut to the last shot of the yellow postbox which is fully centre of the screen, then finally we see the girl; Sophie unmasked as she holds 3 letters.

We get this close up shot of the letters as she says the name of the men on the letters and posting them into the box.

Then the music quickly changes to a upbeat 70s track as we get a montage of shots of the three men. This emphasises the busyness which all three men are surrounded in and adds adrenaline to the montage.

Our first shot of the montage is a close up shot of a tattoo on one of the guy's knee. This tattoo could connote to a rebellious, spontaneous or inde side to this guy. In addition we see a part of a motorbike, again showing a rebellious characteristic.

Then we get a wide shot of Bill on his bike. Within the Mis-en-sence we see Bill's style more clearly as he's wearing shorts, sunglasses, a hat and a t-shirt. This connotes that the weather wherever he is its quite warm and sunny or it could show that he's into travelling a lot as he's on a motorbike.

Estblashing shot of large market, suggest that Bill is currently travelling.

Then we get a panning down shot looking down onto another male character, Sam. The shot pans from a tall building. This implies that he works in this building and this is answered as we see a small female assistant instructing or telling him something which causes him to walk over these Asian business men. This shot is at a low angle (just below eye level) this suggests that Sam is more important than the Asian men, she could be a boss of a company or of a section within the company.

The low angle shot and long shot of Harry walking out of his house and getting into his car connotes towards his home and social class therefore allowing the audience get a insight in Harry's lifestyle.

The wide shots of The Mall in London and the harbour in Morocco to establish the location/home of Harry and Bill

Prelim Task

Overall I think that my prelim task was pretty good as it was shot well and editing wasn't hard. The video followed nicely as it told the story without any harsh cutting, that ruin the storyline of the film/video. Over the shoulder shots to make the clip more realistic and the close up shots helped highlight emotion and response.  I do think I learn more from shooting and editing, and this is only the beginning.

Shots:
Reverse shot, over the shoulder shot, close up and long shot.

ISO: 100, less noise to the video. Anything above would of made the shots very grainy

White Balance: Cool White, as the lights in the classroom made the shots seems very yellow/orange.

Manual Focus: We used manual focus instead of automatic focus, as it's easy to control and able to have a consistent point of focus

We it came to editing i did have experience have final cut pro as I have used it before for personal use, so I know my way around around the editing software. Firstly I imported the clips into my new project then dragged them to the 'storyboard' so i could edit them. I felt that the tool that would be useful was the blade tool as its very precise when cutting clips. So I played the clips back and when I felt that it was the correct time and place to cut, thats when I would pause and use the blade tools to cut the clips where I paused it. Any left over clips/waste clips I deleted them. Then I repositioned the clips so it would tell the story yet flow nicely. Then after watching it all together, I exported the file to a master file, then uploaded it to Youtube.


                                   

Assessment Criteria

MARKSCHEME

All three aspects are assessed as one of:

Mark out of:    60        20

MINIMAL      0-23     0-7

BASIC                        24-35   8-11

PROFICIENT 36-47   12-15

EXCELLENT 48-60   16-20

To hit ‘excellent’(16-20 marks) for RESEARCH AND PLANNING requires the following:

•Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed;

•There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience;

•There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props;

•There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding;

•There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning;

•Time management is excellent.

To hit ‘excellent’(48-60 marks) for PRODUCTION requires meeting the following:

There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

•material appropriate for the target audience and task;

•using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;

•using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;

•shooting material appropriate to the task set;, including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scène;

•using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

To hit ‘excellent’(16-20 marks) for EVALUATION requires meeting the following:

•Excellent skill in the use of appropriate digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.

•Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms and conventions in relation to production.

•Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes.

•Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task.

•Excellent ability to communicate.