Camera Movements

Camera Movements



Camera Movements are an essential way in telling the story. Different camera movements help show a wider range of text .


Pan Shot
The first camera movement I will be looking at is the pan shot. This shows whats left or right of the screen and it helps reveal the setting which also give the audience an indication of what class the characters may be.

                            


Tilt Shot
Below is the tilt shot and it shows whats up and down of the screen and is most effective whe climbing somthing, facing a task or possibly even a flashback.

                            

Track/ Dolly shot
My next shot is trach/Dolly shot. This is when the camera moves around the subject. This helps in movies when showing two sides of the subject or a sudden change in personality.  We can use this shot movement to show how the main character (Aran) wantsa change in lifestyle.

     

Cast so Far

Cast so Far



1) Nadib (me)- We've decided my name will be Alex and that I will play the victim. I won't have much prevalence to suggest the other characters the main character but I will use dialogue like " do you know who I am?" This will help the audience agknowlege that this victim posseses some power.

2) Mohamad (bossman) - We are going to follow the stereotype the leader never does the dirty work and ware not going to expose him to add to the mysteriousness. He ultimately has the most power but is not the main character which is shown by lack of camera time.

Analysis of movie similar to my genre- Hot Fuzz.

Analysis of movie similar to my Genre- Hot Fuzz

Hot Fuzz
I chose Hot Fuzz as a movie that is similar to mine as it's set in an urban setting and has some action clips within it.

 The movie starts with the "Universal" film production inter title followed by a black screen with non diegetic sound of police sirens suggesting that this movie will have a Sub Genre of crime which is re-enforced by seeing the police officers badge.

    We start with an long shot and a character walking towards you which really catches your eye. As he is the only one moving, people will focus on him and thus identify the he is the main character. The opening two minutes consists of many fast cuts which show the transition between scenes and his different attributes and successes.
     The way the camera cuts from scenes are particularly interesting. One of them being when he clicks the pen and the camera zooms in on it at which point the camera cuts to him winning an award. Throughout the 2 minutes, the camera is always fixated on Simon Pegg.

                                                             


         

The reason this movie is similar to mine is because it's an action movie and is located in a small town with English actors which my movie will also have. What I can take from this movie is the effective transitions between different scenes and where specialist transitions such as zooming is most effective.

props

Having Props is an important way to identify a character and stereotypes associated with said character. For example, if there is a character wearing a blazer in a big house, you will associate success with him whereas if he is in a alleyway, people may think he is a dangerous gang leader.

Props in Movies:
Props also help separate the main characters from the background characters. A perfect example of this is Batman "The Dark Knight Rises."
    Batman wears a mask and cape which shows that he is the main character which is easy to idetify. Throughout the movie, we see hundreds of villains/ criminals escaping but the one that gains most attention is Bane as he wears an intimidating mask.

Props in my movie:

Props

Props really help tell the story. Some genres share similar props. Our genre is Urban/Action and so we will look at other movies and see what props are frequent. The movies I'm looking at are Taken, Green Street and Rush hour.

                                 

My first prop will be a BB gun as we won't be able to use a  REAL GUN. Moreover, 2 of the 3 movies contain guns and so I understand that it is a vital part in an action movie. It doesn't always have

Looking at green street and kidulthood which are both urban movies, do have the use of guns but the use of baseball bats are emphasised. This will also be a realistic weapon.

Other props that we use are small props such as, fake blood, make-up for bruised effects and jewellery for distinguising between the status of the characters.

                                                                        

Shot types to Include

Shot Types


Shot types are a vital way to tell the story and help the audience understand who has prevalence and significant characters stand out from the majority. There are a number of shots, these are:#

1. The first camera shot I will be looking at is the Extreme Close Up Shot. This shot is focused on a specific detail of a person such as the eyes but it doesn't show the whole face. We are going to use this shot in our opening two minutes when the "Boss" is speaking. This gives a sense of mysteriousness and people would like to know who this person really is.

This shot is in Kill Bill and is used to identify a stand off and increase suspense.

2. My next shot is the Close Up Shot. This shot is less zoomed in than the extreme close up as you can show the face as opposed to a specific detail. The close up shot is used to show emotion. We will use this shot to show the commotion on the face of the victim.

This character above is known as the Joker and he is the villain in Batman "the Dark Knight." The close up shot is used onn him to show his lack of expression and emphasise his trademark "Why so serious?"

3. The third shot type is the Medium shot  This shot is used to help the audience always be aware of the setting possibly because something may happen. In our movie, we will have the victim in a medium shot with a garage visible. This is important because he will later get thrown into that garage door.

Here we've got a medium shot to remind us that there has been a murder in this room and a medium shot helps the audience remember this without taking any prevalence away from him.

4. My fourth shot is a long shot. This is used to establish the setting and characters thus the long shot is also known as the Establishing shot. A long shot shows the person from top to bottom thus exposing more of the setting. We will try to use this shot to establish the alleyway and introduce the villains.

We see a long shot which helps establish the four characters and help the audience identify that thy will play some part in the movie and we also see the setting which tells me that they live together.

7. An extreme long shot focuses on where the movie will be set and is best used at the start of the movie or if the scene is changing. A good example of this is all three of the rush hour movies where they move from one country to another and that is where we see an extreme long shot.

This will be a extreme long shot for a movie set in Hollywood or even Los Angles.

                                       
6. I will now look at the low angled shot and its main purpose is to offer more prevalence to a character. We will use by making the villain look bigger than the victim thus meaning that he is the more important character in the movie.

This shot is a low angle shot and offers more prevalence to the bigger character and makes him seem more powerful.

6. Now we will  look at a high angle shot which is used to make a character look powerless and vulnerable. 

Here is a high angle shot of an individual looking up in a scared way to support the idea that he is weak and vulnerable.

                           

                     

                                                   

Film production company research- Universal

Universal pictures was founded in 1912 and is one of the oldest movie studios in the United states. Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, and Jules Brulatour, and its headquarters is in universal city in Orlando.

Universal has made its fair share of famous movies, some of these being:

• Bridesmaides
• Fast and Furious 5
• Tower Heist
• Paul 
• Bruno

As you can see, Universal pictures does movies that relate to mine. For example, the cast of Paul consists of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Both are English actors and we'll be having an English based theme. Fast 5 has some incredible action scenes and tower heist also has some action scenes as well. 

This was the universal 100th anniversary for universal which was this year (2012)

                                         

     

Existing Film production research- Warner Brothers

I have already analyzed the 20th century fox and concluded that it won't be a good film production company to have in my movie because 20th century fox isn't really associated with such genres (urban-action)and so I am looking at Warner Brothers.

    Warner Brothers was found in 1918 known as Warner brothers studios which later changed in 1923 to Warner Brother pictures. The founders were Albert, Harry, Sam and Jack; who were the Warner Brothers. 1966 was the year that the Warner Brothers sold their company but the name of the film production company has still remained.

     Warner Bros have made a gargantuan amount of well established and recognized films; some of them being:

• Lord of the Rings
• Rush Hour
• Austin Powers
• A nightmare on Elm Street
• Harold and Kumar.

As you can see, Warner Bros has produced films of different genres and they have also established themselves through television producing such hits like Pokemon and loony Tunes which both later on became successful movies.

    As I'm looking at what film production company I would like to include in my movie, I would have thought that a film production company as big as Warner Brothers won't be appropriate for a small, British Urban-Action film such as mine until I found that Green Street was produced by DeeGee entertainment which is funded and owned by Warner Brothers, thus showing that Warner bros will be an appropriate film production company to use at the front of my movie.

 

                                           

                                     

    

synopsis of my movie.

At the beginning of our movie, we will have a fight to signal the intent of a fast paced action movie. There will be two villains as well as a victim where the villains don't quite understand his actual power. This fight scene will be set in an alleyway and the scene will actually start in the middle of the fight .

The victim doesn't seem scared to show that the villains won't get away with it and so one of his bits of dialogue will be " Do you even know who I am," Eventually the victim gets killed and the villains return back to base. This base is where their report to for their boss. 

We aren't going to show a full shot of the boss but extreme close ups because it will add up to the mysteriousness of the boss. Not only does this take the prevalence of him a bit, but it gives more prevalence to one of the villains who the audience will identify that he is trying to get away from this life.

towards the end of the two minutes, the boss gives the villain a new target and then the villain receives a call from someone who wants revenge for the murder of the character at the beginning of the movie.

Analysis and evaluation of questionnaire

 What decisions had the questionnaire helped me make

 It has been two months since I had evaluated my questionnaire and now I will look at how this had helped me when making my decisions.

   One thing I had identified for this questionnaire is that the sub genre preferred by my sample was crime so we tried to put this in discreetly but as it was only the opening two minutes, we did'nt really want to put a detective in straight away but I believe that the death of one of the characters would help people see this.
   A problem with this was that I was finding it difficult to show our Sub-Genre but I hope that the death would be able to show this.
    Another thing I have found is that almost all my sample like going to the cinema and thus I ensured that we should make it like a movie fit for a cinema with that feeling of escapism.

Picture of a questionnaire filled in

 

Above is a picture of one of my questionnaires filled in by a participant.

Existing Film Company Production Research

In the modern day, there are a lot of common film production companies but there are specific oligopolies that dominate the market thus meaning that they tend to have the majority of the market power. Most of the famous film companies are are historic and so are well established. The film company I will be focusing on today is 20th century fox.

     It was officially founded in May of 1935 when two film companies merged and made one huge company. The two companies that merged were Fox Films and 20th century pictures. The founders of this massive company were Joseph Schenck, Darryl F Zanuck, Raymond Griffith and William Goetz.

    20th Century Fox has produced an enourmous amount famous films. Some of these are:

• Home Alone
• Ice Age
• Star Wars
• Simpsons
• Family Guy

   As you can see, 20th Century Fox not only produces movies but also vell known T.V. programmes. Moreover, they have thier own channel in America which is well recognisable and dominates the channel listings. As they are 77 years old, you would assume they have done a huge amount for the film industry as they are still one of the main players in the film market.

    Despite this, I would'nt like to put 20th Century Fox on my movie as I believe that a film production company such as this one doesn't really specialize in my chosen genre which is urban- action and thus isn't reall recognised with this genre.

The Logo For 20th Century Fox.

                                        

Shot/ Reverse/ Shot

As the filming for my movie is coming ever closer, I have started looking at what type of shots I should use. Moreover I will be thinking about when the type of shot would be most effective. In this blog, I will be looking at the shot/revrse/shot and understand where it is used. The shot/revers/shot is best used when filming a conversation.
Here is an example of a shot reverse shot:
  
As you can see above, we are witnessing a conversation and it seems as if the charactyr is speakin to you. I believe a shot reverse shot is more effective then watching the conversation at a medium degree.

quesstionnaire of my movie planning.

I will be looking at what sort of questions I should ask my target audience and why. It is pivotal that I ask the right questions in order to gain an indication of whether the Urban-Action film idea will be popular  I intend on asking a number of questions; some will be qualitative and others quantitative. The reason for this is because it will not only help me analyze data but also take peoples individual thoughts into account. A problem I have already identified is how am i going to record all the qualitative data but I understand that I must go through them individually.

Action Questionnaire (Questions & Results)

Questionnaire

(Please Circle Your Answers)

1) What is your Gender?

Male

 

Female

2) Age

Under 12 13-15 16-18 19-21 22-24 25+

3) Do you like going to the cinema often?

Yes No

4) Do you like going to the cinema?

Yes No

5) What is your favourite genre?

.............................................................

6) What do you expect from a Urban/Action? (Multiple Choice)

Crime          Comedy         Death        Fast Pace 

Car Chases          Fights          Other

7) Do you watch Action films? (If yes please state the latest Action film that you have watched)

Yes No

...........................................................

8) What Action sub-genre do you prefer to watch?

Political   Conspiracy   Physiological     Disaster

Action       Crime      Sub-Natural      Spy      Other

more Action conventions/ codes

             
My firs video shows the codes/ conventions of an action movie. This helps me identify what sort of codes i should include in my opening two minutes. The movie shows codes and conventions for  horror films but I'm not intrested in that thus the part im intrested in is from the 1st minute onwards.

            

Here is another example of the codes/ conventions of an action movie that i can also take ideas from.

Film certificate -18

                                   

This age certificate is the secnod highest among the cetificates and it states that no-one under the age of 18 can watch this film. The 18 cerificate is very important as you are deemed as an adult when you turn 18 thus an 18 certificate will be able to inculde extreme adult language, sex scenes and horror.It will also be able to include such topics such as hard drugs, alcohol, weapons and blood. The reason these topics are seen in 18 rated movies, is because people aged 18 and over will be mature enough to watch movies such as this and not take it too seriously.

Location of my movie Extended

The Location of my Movie


6th October 2012



The Location of my Movie will be set in Therfield school. This is because it is a easily accessible location to film at and moreover it will compliment the genre of my movie. More specifically, it will be set in the English corridor of the school and the field as well. This again will shun out the genre of the movie as an empty, deserted place.




6th December 2012
After two months and a better idea of what my movie is going to be about, we have decided not to use the school as a location but we require an alleyway and below are a few of them.

We have been sampling a few locations, at the appropriate times, by appropriate times, I mean evening times because it suits our setting for the film assignment. The darkness in the sky immediately gives extra mystery and anticipastion as to what is going to happen. Another key element is the openness, this will help the audience see everything and the lighting adds to the 'fear' factor of the clip.

     This is an update on our previous post. We firstly decided that we would set it primarily in the school but then decided that it will be more effective in an alleyway. We will still film in the school for the bosses office but the school won't play as big of a part as we first imagined.

19/12/12
We have found a further location that will be perfect for our movie.

                             

                             

                             

                             

                            

                            

                             

As you can see from this, the lighting is more detailed and more specified thus all lighting will be natural. This alleyway looks better than the first one and the graffiti emphasizes that it is quite a rough and urban area. This pathway is called Waterfields and another reason why it's really good is because on one side there is a dark wall and on the other side is a white wall. The white wall will be good because there will be blood in our movie and it can really be seen clearly on this wall.

20/12/2012

After further research into location, we have found more research for our second alley way location. This alleyway is located in Kingscroft Road.

 

We will get lighting through the lamposts which will hopefully light up the whole alleyway.

Here is the entrance to the alleyway.

 More lampost to ensure that we get enough lighting.

A deralict house at the top of the alley way which we may use.

The alley way from the corner leading to the deraclict house at the end on the left

The garden of the deralict house

Graffiti on the walls of the alley way linking in with the theme of gang related Crime

The alley way from the corner looking back down towards Kingscroft Road

The front garden/driveway area of the deralict house which also can be used.

The reason this is a good location is because it offers an additional location after the alleyway and thus we will have more room for filming but I'm still a bit worried about the lighting and so we have the secondary location. We may even use both alleyways.

Decision

After a lot of thought, my group and I have decided that location 2 will be the best for us. The reacon being is because the natural lighting in that alleyway at night is much better than the other two locations. Moreover, I believe that the fact that it has two different coloured walls tells me that this location has a lot of potential and if we are to use blood, it will be most dramatical in this location as opposed to the other two.

Font Research

One specific similarity I have identified is the font and how films from the same genre have similar font. In this post, I will be looking at similar genre films to mine and comparing fonts. Below are three movies that are similar to my urban-action movie.



The three movie I have identified are Green Street, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz which are most similar to mine. The first thing I identify in all of the movies is the use of the colour red which suggests that red is the colour that is best associated with urban/action/horror type genres. Moreover all three movies show quite explicit scenes of blood which is something else that the colour red denotes.
    All of the movies have a similar bold font. Furthermore, when looking at green street and shaun of the dead, both title look quite battered which may show that this movie contains action.

I believe that the font of my title must be red to denote violence and should be bold because all the fonts for these movies are bold.