Genres

Genres

Where did genres come from?

Genres come from the early 1920’s-1950’s in America when the cinemas first started out, the big companies just rolled out the same film (genre) over and over again as they know what the audience likes. Also by doing this, the audience knew what they were going to get when visiting the cinema.

How did the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ re-inforce genres?

The Golden Age of Hollywood re-inforced genres by getting to know what genres the audience like and then just keep on producing similar films to keep on making revenue. They still do this kind of thing now days with movies such as the superhero base; they just change the Superhero whether it be Batman, Spiderman, Antman etc. and the storyline bases around them and their special powers.

Which genres became popular in Hollywood?

The genres that became popular in Hollywood were the Gangster, Film Noir and musical kind of films as this was the type of things people were interested in when films first came out as people thought they were actually true stories.

Why do audiences like genre films?

Audiences like the idea of genres as they already have a little understanding of what the film is going to be based on. They also like genre films as when they’re going to watch a film they can see the genre of it and know what to expect. If there wasn’t genres then audiences would be going into the cinemas with a blank mind and not knowing what they’re watching and whether they’ll like it or not.

Se7en Opening Video

Se7en Analysis

Se7en Analysis

In this analysis I will be going over a film noir/thriller that’s called ‘Se7en’ and going into more depth on the opening scene. Film noirs all follow similar codes of conventions to make the audience guaranteed of what they’re going to be seeing. An example of some of the codes of conventions are that there is normally a hero and a villain which in this case there is two detectives who are trying to find the serial killer who’s committing crimes and leaving various clues for them.

Camera Angles, Movement and Position

First of all I am going to be going over the camera angles, movement and positioning in the opening scene. One of the first camera angles that I noticed was the POV Shot (Point of View) in this shot the camera went down the table and it showed how the detective’s daily possessions were laid out on the table. This was done in a manner which suggested that he had a past career in some special force whether it was in the army or another service. We know this as everything was immaculate, similar to how you’re expected to be in the Army. Another camera angle that we see in the opening scene is a Low Angle Reverse Tracking Shot which is following the two detectives down the road showing them walking together and you can also see how much their personalities clash, they’re almost the complete opposite. Another time which shows this too is when they’ve finally stopped walking down the road, they stop and the distance in which they’re standing apart may show abit about their relationship together. They don’t really know much about each other at the start as the rookie detective gets put onto his first case with the senior detective.

Some of the shots in the credits shows some sort of creepy serial killer who may be the one that the detectives are trying to find. Some shots show him using a razor blade to carve his off his finger prints, this suggests that he is a criminal and he don’t want to be traced for anything he has committed. Also it shows some kind of scrap book which he has created with creepy and sick pictures of dead people and also people in the nude. It also shows him erasing words out of a book for example ‘sex’ ‘intercourse’ this shows that he may not think these are appropriate or he may be a religious man.

Sound

There is lots of sound in the opening scene which has a deeper message behind it and can be deconstructed to find out the message. First of all the dialogue sets out the scene and what’s happened this is important as the audience needs to know so that they can have an understanding of the film and what to expect. Some of the first sound that we hear is police and ambulance sirens which suggests that the city is full of crime with sirens becoming an occurring noise in the city. Also we get a little understanding of where it’s set as big cities in America have a fairly high crime rate.

When the detective is sitting in bed and the metronome is ticking it shows that he has that on every night to try and block out the outside noise of all the sirens, shouting and traffic etc. And there is dogs barking which just adds to the ongoing noise which he has to block out in order to get to sleep. There is a build-up of the metronome noise and it gets louder until there is some kind of thunder/lightning noise. This suggests that it’s the calm before the storm and that things are just about to get worse.

Now moving onto the sound in the credits which consists of loads of screaming and screeching sounds which may be similar sounds to the people who he is torturing/murdering. The music in the credits also makes it very awkward to listen to making the credits awkward. The music in the credits may represent the serial killers state of mind as he don’t seem to be normal with all the scrap books he has made full of weird cuttings out and peoples bodies.

Editing

The font which displays the credits suggests that a child or younger person has written it as it’s very messy and not very presentable. This just adds to the weirdness of the credits and makes it fit in with the rest of the ab normal behaviour from the supposed serial killer.

MiseenScene

With all the noise and surroundings of the opening scene it suggests that its set in some busy city in America, maybe somewhere like New York, Chicago, San Francisco or somewhere alike. At the start there is 4 main settings of the scenes:

1.     House/Kitchen

2.     Murder Scene

3.     The Street

4.     Bedroom

This basically shows the daily routine of the detective and gives a little in sight of his life as a private detective.

One thing that suggests the detective is quite intellectual and intelligent is that there is a chess board positioned in his apartment. Chess boards are normally associated with smart people as it’s a strategic game which you have to think about which decision you’re going to make before it’s your turn. This is similar to the strategic procedures that the detective has to go through on a daily basis when he’s carrying out an investigation. Also there’s another way that he shows strategic procedures as when he wakes up the items such as Hanker Chief, Police Badge, Flip Knife, Pen and a pair of Glasses. This is done in a manner in which he may have been following for a number of years.   Another stand out thing in his apartment is that there is not many decorations around and the colour scheme is basically monochrome, this suggests that he lives on his own and may be a bit lonely at times. I think this as a family man would normally have more of a welcoming home with warm colours in and maybe some things showing that there’s a woman there and kids but it’s all monochrome. His immaculate bed shows his background and maybe a former army sergeant or officer. Another thing which adds to his OCD is that his bed is made perfectly with no creases in what so ever as this is another thing which is required when serving in the army. He also picks a single hair fibre off his bed and flicks it away showing that he wants to be as perfect as he can.

When Brad Pitt is introduced his appearance is the complete opposite of the other detective as he comes across as rather scruffy. With his neck on the shirt hanging quite low and not dressed as he should be for a detective, he is not clean shaved as he has a beard and wears a leather jacket which is not appropriate for a police officer/detective. The old fashioned detective look which Morgan Freeman appears to be like is a long trench coat, a fedora hat or one similar to it and a suit on underneath. This is the appropriate and smart way that a detective should look as he’s solving crimes and would steer towards the smarter way as he seems like he’s been in the force for a long time and is more of an experienced detective.



 

Preliminary Task Evaluation

The 180° rule is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another. When the camera passes over the invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes what is called a reverse angle. Match on action is an editing technique for continuity editing in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot and this creates the impression of a sense of continuity. A shot reverse shot is a continuity editing technique used in conversations or simply characters looking at each other or objects and this means that when a shot is showing supposedly what they are looking at it is then followed by a reverse angle shot of the character themselves looking at it or another character looking back at them. An eye line match is based on the premise that the audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing. The eye line match begins with a character looking at something off-screen, followed by a cut to the object or person at which he is looking. For example, a shot showing a man looking off-screen to the left is followed by a shot of the television that he is watching.


 We incorporated the 180° rule into our final film when we was filming in the canteen because we made sure that the camera didn’t cross over the line because if the camera swaps over to the other side for one of the shots, the pictures won’t work together and by doing this it made the characters looking directly at each other. This scene links in with the eye line match because we had to make sure that the one shot has to line up with the person or thing they’re looking at in the next shot and this was in the canteen when the two characters was talking to each other. We used the match on action during the locker scene. We edited this scene to make it look like that the camera cuts from outside of the locker and just as he is going to open up the locker the camera cuts to the inside making the movement of the camera one fluid shot. Lastly we used a shot reverse shot in the canteen. We did this by cutting the shots in the scene and by doing this we could focus on the one person during the shot and this assumes that the characters are looking at each other.


  The filming process went well as we had a clear plan of how we wanted to film the shots and also where we wanted to film around the school. When filming around the school we had to take a few shots until we got it correct. Also on the plan that we made we made it clear what shots we was filming and when we was filming it. The storyboard was clear as we could understand what we had to do during the film making process. On our story board we found some issues because we had to change how many camera shots we were going to use whilst filming it and this meant that as s group we had to decide on the shots that we were going to use instead of using the same camera shots over and over again. As a group we found it quite easy to film around the sixth form because none of our shots was near a classroom so we didn’t get distracted but a disadvantage was background noise such as the hand dryer in the toilets, and this was because people was using it when we were filming scenes such as the locker shot. We also got to use the tripod and this contributed towards our final film because it meant that we could get still shots and it was easier to pan for shots, such as when we was walking into the canteen.


We all had to input in the task so no one would be left out and we could all share ideas and if I was to do it again I would edit the storyboard so we could put more ideas on it which meant we will be able to plan in detail. On adobe premiere I learnt how to edit the clips and how to make them shorter. At first the software seemed to be confusing but when we started to get a hand of it we knew how to work it easier. By importing the music from then internet it meant that we could choose the music based on the genre, such as thriller. We also learnt how to put in a title screen which meant we could use many fonts and this also helped as then we could choose the correct fonts in the film and this meant we could edit how long the title was on the screen for. We did this task to the best possible standard and we used all of the tools that was available to us and we even asked the teacher to help us with the final scene so it linked in with our film, and that scene was just improvised so this also recognised our strengths.

Preliminary Task

Blue Velvet Opening Scene

Blue Velvet Analysis

Media – Blue Velvet Opening Scene Analysis

The opening scene in Blue Velvet sets it out to be a happy, peaceful and safe community, with the stereotypical 1950’s America neighbourhood. There’s a number of things at the start that indicates that this is a safe neighbourhood as happy children are crossing the roads helped by a lollipop lady, a fireman is driving by with his dog on the truck with not much urgency at all.

Sound

At the start of the extract the music is very jolly, happy and upbeat which makes you want to sing along with it as it’s also catchy. This sets the opening out to be along those lines of a happy start. However when the hose pipe gets caught in the buses and starts to get tangled the happy music dims down a little bit making it seem like something dramatic is about to happen. When the man yanks the hose he has some sort of stroke or heart attack and once he drops to the floor we hear some kind of beetle noise which may be indicating that everything is not all happy and jolly as it seems to be and that there’s more to it in the underground or if you watch further in to the film you see the bigger picture.

Editing

As far as the editing goes in this extract they do a good job of creating suspense and tension leading up to when the man drops down to the floor, they do this by the repetition of zooming into the hose and back out to the man. The creator of the film may have done this to entice you in and draw your attention to the film in the early stages. Also the use of the dissolve transitions between each scene gives a feel of the days going by and shows that the community is a nice and safe place to be in each day. 

Use of Camera

There’s quite a range of camera shots used in the extract, there’s a few pan shots which enables the camera to get the whole of the scene into the shot this works well with the flowers as they also have the white picket fences in the background which is a key symbol of 1950’s America. Also the camera is used well when the woman is watching TV as the camera shows her watching the programme and then straight after it goes into a POV (Point of View) shot which enables the audience to see what the character sees. The creator may have decided to include this scene into the opener as it may be some sort of hint to what’s going on further down the line into the film.

Misenscene

At the start of the extract it displays the name which is ‘Blue Velvet’ and the director does something clever by having Blue Velvet curtains behind the writing of the title and when the films about to start the curtains unveil and it goes into a similar colour blue of the sky which sets the opening scene. Also when we see the roses with the white picket fences and the blue sky the audience automatically think of a happy community/environment which also links in with the American flag colours (red, white and blue). Another shot were the director puts the message across of a good community is where the little kids are able to cross the road after school on their own just with the lollipop woman.