Film Mindmap: Horror

Film Mindmap: Comedy

Film Mindmap: Action

Film Mindmap: Teen

Film Mindmap: Drama

The Holiday review

The Holiday is a romantic comedy about two women trying to find what's missing in their lives by simply swapping lives, they swap houses, jobs and even continents as one moves from America to England and the other from England to America. This film is definitely like your typical rom-com as both women are young and so are likeable, the cartoonish pratfalls make everyone chuckle while watching a tanned up blonde come to England wearing stilettos in about 2 foot of snow (funny as)  both women 'unexpectedly' fall in love, such a shock right? not. This is just so typical of a romantic comedy, two people that are meant for each other bump into each other somehow and then all of a sudden fall deeply in love and live happily ever after blah blah blah. In this film however both women try and deny their feelings for the 'loves of their lives' as one of them has two children so she automatically assumes there is a mother, but there isn't. This film is one of my favourites because its funny, got great actors/actresses and is sweet. The music in this film comes across as a christmassy themed film, but could be watched whenever. In this film they have also included the 'meet cute' which is when scriptwriters often create a humorous sense of awkwardness between the two potential partners by depicting an initial clash of personalities or beliefs, an embarrassing situation, or by introducing a comical misunderstanding or mistaken identity situation, but the protagonists always end up together. The trailer is just a little snippet of a great romantic comedy which is a must see.

The Dark Knight Rises Review

In the trailer for The Dark Knight Rises you can already tell its going to be an action packed, twisted adventure with plenty of fights and flashbacks along the way. The Dark Knight Rises is still like your typical action movie with the villains, heroes, fights, deceiving plans and not forgetting the best cars and bikes ever. I saw this film in the cinema and although I've never really been a whole fan of the 'woah batman yeh cool' thing i found it incredible and loved every second of it.The Dark Knight Rises is one of those action films where it has a back story so those who haven't seen any of the other films will understand what's going on still. In the film there are car chases between Batman and the police, Anne Hathaway who is amazing at martial arts with the typical slicked hair, brief case by her side and is handy with a gun. Bane who is portrayed as the villain in this film (i say portrayed because there is an unexpected twist omg) he's everything a villain would look like, big built, tattoos, a mask covering his face and has no mercy towards anyone or anything and batman's obviously the hero, handsome, black suit, has his cool batman gadgets, cars and bikes, has his enemies (obviously, he's batman) Nearly all the fight scenes happen outside in the city of Gotham, where crowded streets get a surprise when Bane and his henchman throw them out of their way to get inside of a bank. The action in this film is just out of this world, gun fights and explosions seem so realistic which for this film was crucial. Overall this film has all the typical clichés for action films and the trailer is just a lil piece of icing compared to the massive cake which is the whole film. 

Paranormal Activity 2 Review

Paranormal Activity 2 Analysis: From this table you can see that the majority of viewers were aged between 15 and 24, for our task we are doing a film similar to Paranormal Activity 2 so this table is a great help to see what age audience we should aim at.

In this trailer for Paranormal Activity 2, it builds up tension as to what could happen during the entire film, like all horror films there is a ghost/demon/poltergeist haunting them, but there's more to this 'ghost' than expected as he was triggered when the girls were younger, i have seen all 3 films and frankly i have no idea what the storyline is as the films aren't in order. (annoying right) i'm now waiting  for the 4th film of Paranormal activity so i can see if i can make sense of the whole happenings. There are so many clichés in the film that it makes it funny in a way, such as the big house, the poltergeists/demons/ghosts, the stupid people trying to actually find the entity (it finds them, always), people being dragged, hit and just overall being tormented by the ghost. In this film what builds more tension for viewers is that there is a baby involved and also a dog (well known for sixth senses) so if the dog is in the baby's room and all of a sudden starts growling at a doorway the audience are expecting something to happen, so when it doesn't suspension is so high that even the slightest movement scares people. The best thing i like about all the Paranormal Activity films is that they look like documentaries and made to look like it actually happened which terrifies the viewers, i also like the fact that every night is a build up to the main events, so nothing terrifying happens until maybe half an hour-hour into the actual film, another funny but scary part of the films is that they are incredibly jumpy so you get a scare then laugh nervously to yourself afterwards. The music in this film creates all of the suspension completely makes the entire film, as scary as it is, without the low bass whenever something scary happens the atmosphere wouldn't be tense at all and no one would be scared by pots and pans falling down, but with the bass it implies something eerie is about to happen and so when it does, we are freaked out. Weapons aren't actually used in Paranormal Activity 2 as its an entity, not a person or a monster, the only thing they use is a video camera and still don't use it in any way to protect themselves against things thrown at them.There is a typical helpless stupid teenage girl in the film as she gets locked outside by the ghost (so stupid) and leaves her little brother Hunter on his own in the demon filled house (cue the panic-stricken stupid girl) Overall the trailer is nothing compared to the full movie, the trailer is a mere taster for those hungry to be frightened. 

Meet the Fockers review

Meet the Fockers Review

Meet the Fockers is an American comedy film and is the sequel to Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers also has a follow up sequel Little Fockers. In Meet the Fockers Gaylord Focker (Greg) and his fiancée Pam Byrnes decide to introduce their parents to each other, upon arrival of the Focker household you can see that the Fockers are more eccentric than anticipated, with Greg's father Bernie doing martial arts in the front yard and his mother Roz teaching elder couples interesting 'yoga' positions. This is just typical of a 'family get together' in a comedy as obviously the families are going to be complete opposites and clash like the byrnes' for example, Pam's father Jack was a CIA operative whereas Greg's father was a stay at home dad, which to Jack isn't a 'manly' job to do. Their mother's however do get along as Pam's mother is more understanding and willing to except the marriage. This flying visit to meet turns into stay from hell, but to us a classic funny film. within the first half an hour Greg has delivered a baby as he is a nurse (again Jack disapproves) and he gets head-butted by Pam's nephew Little Jack (Hilarious) throughout the film more and more coincidental happenings occur, Jinxy the Byrnes' cat flushes Moses the Fockers' dog down the RV toilet (typical representative of how the families are opposite  cats and dogs, which are well known not to mix well) Bernie then later on 'accidentally' injures Jack's back by getting too competitive (trying to prove to Jack that he's a man) In this film so many cliches are men getting dressed up as women-Jack and his fake boob, someone goes to prison for the night-Jack, Greg and Bernie ALL end up in a cell for not listening to an irritating southern officer, an annoying dog will get mistreated-  Moses gets flushed down the toilet by Jinxy the cat, someone drunk will disrupt a ceremony of some sort-drunken and drugged up Greg (no thanks to Jack) ruins his own engagement party and embarrasses himself in front of his family and Pam's, much to the amusement of Jack. Meet the Fockers has very typical comedy traits such as Crude jokes, babies swearing, parental interference, weddings, comical fights and people falling over. Overall Meet the Fockers is a massive cliché of all comedies put together but gives a great effect.

Preliminary task evaluation

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Our Preliminary task was shown to the class and then they had to evaluate on the contents like:
-Camera Angles
-Mise En Scene
-Shot Reverse Shot
-Match On Action
-Editing
-180 Degree Rule
The feedback we got back from the class was very mixed, some good things and some bad things but its a learning curve so we took it with a pinch of salt and took on board all their comments.
Camera Angles
The comments we got back from the camera angles were all good comments as they said that we kept a steady camera throughout filming and that the shot of my project partner Shanie in the beginning was very good as it was through a window on a door but we could still see half the door and Shanie's face clearly. The other shots we did was a low shot on the first scene when Shanie's walking towards the camera.

Shanie through the door

The very first scene- Low angle

We also did two more extreme close ups other than just the shoes at the beginning, to try and emphasize how much going into this room was going to affect her and which emotion she was to show which was fear, by having Shanie breath deeply through the window as if getting ready to do something which she needed every ounce of courage to do, also the way she slowly opened the door as if in no rush and if she didn't particularly want to go into the room. We also decided that Shanie nervously rubbing her hands together will make  the audience feel that she was anxious about something.

Extreme close up of Shanie's
hand and the  door handle

Extreme close up of Shanie's hands

Mise En Scene
The Mise En Scene wasn't mentioned during the comments but we felt that it was ok, not the best setting but it worked as Shanie was confessing to murder and so walked into a police station, sat down and just confessed to an officer about the murder who looked smug as he walked away from the scene which could've meant that he was waiting for this confession for some time.

Shot Reverse Shot
Our shot reverse shot got ruined by the transition but we did do a shot reverse shot part in our video, which at first was a bit difficult as we were in a small room, and for me to hold the camera steady while crouching down behind their chairs was quite difficult, but we managed to pull it off,  I do agree with the class' comments that this scene would've been much more better without the transition but it is a learning curve and now we know not to include transitions unless necessary and only if they would improve the shot and not potentially ruin the whole shot.

Shot Reverse Shot from
behind James at Shanie.

Shot Reverse Shot from
behind Shanie at James.

Match on Action
The feedback we got back for our match on action shots were very good, that they were effective and that they worked, the only problem which the class had picked up was that there was a slight pause from when we left off on the door which we had never noticed before but we accepted the mistake. If we did see the pause before we would've cut the clip by a millisecond to make sure it flowed but we have learnt to go through our work with a  fine comb to enable us to clear up any little mistakes.

Just before Shanie enters the room.

As Shanie is entering the room.

Editing
We edited most of the clips as they were either too long, too dark or we just thought we wanted to add an effect to try and enhance the emotion behind the scene. The clip with James getting up and leaving the room we had to lighten as we couldn't see his face, we also had to cut that scene as it was too long and so missed the actual feeling that we were trying to shown and so clipping it assisted us in creating a better ethos. The comments we go back for the transitions we added were negative comments at the class felt as if they weren't effective and they ruined the flow of the scenes, by adding in the transitions we also cut off a shot reverse shot clip which is annoying but we will look out for these things in the future. The scene which people found the best with the effect we added was in fact the last scene, after James walks out of the room and Shanie puts her head in her hands, we added a 'Ghosting' effect which really did work and was personally my favourite scene.

180 Degree Rule
We didn't get much feedback on this particular topic, the limited feedback we did get back though was that we didn't break the 180 Degree Rule and it worked perfectly as we kept within the guidelines.

My Evaluation on our Preliminary Task.
From hearing all these comments from our class I thoroughly agree with all their points as they are accurate and they include things that we can improve on which is just what we needed to give us a boost to do better for our final. I agree that the transitions did tend to ruin certain scenes but not all of them as we thought it flowed 'softer' with some of them included, also the lapse between Shanie opening the door and then walking into it was only a small lapse but we could've picked up during editing, which we didn't so we just accept the fact that we didn't spend long enough editing the video-well as long as we probably should've done. We are still happy with our final video though as we did have difficulty filming and was the last group to finally finish filming, if we could do this all over again we would and  we would make the appropriate changes.

Preliminary Task Write up.

Preliminary Task Write Up

 

Introduction

This was my Preliminary task that shanie and i did, this task took 2 hours but we then realised problems were occurring and so we redid it again which only took us an hour and editing took 2 hours because we kept making mistakes but our final piece is now complete and both me and shanie are happy with the end results, this task has helped us figure out different camera and editing techniques, being in a group of 2 wasn't easy but we managed to rope in a friend, James, to help us with our final scenes as the officer. Editing was a hard process as somethings worked better than others but then we had to cut some clips and we realised there was an order we had to follow to get the best results.

Filming

Filming was probably one of the trickiest things we had to do, as we had to make sure the foreground, middle-ground and background were all relevant to the scene and ethos we were trying to accomplish. We had to do a lot of takes to get the angles perfected and to keep within the 180 degree rule, we tried various techniques to shooting the angles we needed like walking closely behind shanies feet to try and get a good effect, which didn't work out so we tried me filming shanie's feet while walking next to her which also didnt work as the camera was too shaky, we found that if i were to lay on the floor and point the camera directly at shanie's feet and just keep still while she's walking towards me then it would be a great effect. The lighting in different rooms also was difficult as for our scene shanie confessed to a murder so to create effect we needed a dark room but light enough to see her face which we managed to achieve, thankfully. We found filming fun and stressful as pressure was on to finish, even though wre were were rushed we are thoroughly pleased with the final product.

Editing

The editing we found quite tricky to work out at first and had to restart quite a few times before we got to grips with it but once we felt comfortable with the software we decided to add transitions to help make our video more professional. We also had to brighten up one of our scenes as we couldn't see James' face. All in all the editing has made the video way more better than expected and cannot wait for others to view it.

Preliminary Task

 

The Ring opening 2 minutes review

The film The Ring is a mainstream horror film. This film has many clichés included like, watching a video or DVD that could potentially kill you, answering the phone afterwards when they are only going to tell you that they are coming for you or that you are going to die, there are also two teen girls alone in a big dark house, massive cliché! within the opening two minutes we find out that these are the stereotypical annoying american girls that are in nearly all horror movies and they most probably deserve to die as the audience depict that these people are just plain stupid and will most probably die within the first 15-20 minutes of the film. The tension does however capture the audience's attention that something might jump out or happen, what we are all expecting to happen is that a mangled girl with long hair is going to jump out and kill them both when instead the TV turns on which still freaks us out just a little. Within the first 2 minutes of this film one of the actresses tells her friend about a video, and if you watch the video you get a phone call telling you that you are going to die in 7 days, then yes sure enough they die. We aren't sat under the blankets just yet as it is just banter between friends until the story takes a slight twist when it turns out the girl's friend had indeed watched it the previous weekend, we are now expecting her to die pretty much any time soon. Every little thing that now happens after that statement is building suspense, like when the phone rings the music builds up making us believe that its going to be 'the phone call' but it was her mum, things do start to get eerie however when the TV starts turning itself on with the video on, when she turns it off, it turns itself back on again and then freaky things start happening to her, all the while her best friend is nowhere to be seen. I haven't seen this film yet but the opening does indeed intrigue me and makes me want to watch the whole film, you could say the opening 2 minutes is a 'teaser' for the whole film.