Sunday, 24 February 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJpMtam_TrM

Gender
Camera
The camera is an amazing tool at getting a directors interpretations across to the audience. This can be seen at the start where the shot used is a mid shot with what could be seen as a high angle as the camera appears to bt tilted up at her face. This camera level and her eye angle makes the whites of her eyes realy stand out making the stereotype of women holding there emotions in hand more realistic.  ( not to do with camera but this is really screaming out at me the man is is torn clothes and the maid are in uniform signifying the ladies are submissive.) The master a male charcter is always shown above her looking down possibly suggesting power, even though we dont see him and her in the same shot we are shown high angle shot upto him. In these long shots we also see a lady, dressed in a red dress no shots are devoted to this lady in a personal aspect this just as important as a shot, it suggests that there is no place for this very very sterotype of lady, the dress signifying femininity and the red signifying danger or love. The shots used on the lady are always to the extremes eg a long shot or a extreme close up, this is showing the edginess of her character yelling to the audience that something isnt quite right with her in comparison the master, always seems to be shown with ether a long shot or a mid shot there isnt alot of fluctuation making him seem a bit boring. Once the table has turned the camera is manipulated to show her power over him. The camera is now made to track her face no mater what as she lifts her head the camera rises to follow. In the scene where we see her sitting on the stairs the camera is at eye level , showing that she is with the people she isnt above them in anyway. This re-enforces the audiences siding. Once the doctor is back the camera angle changes to one that better shows how the master has lost his power a low angle shot is used.

Sunday, 10 February 2013

Clip


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw68eolT39A
ethnicity
editing 
This clip uses a lot of eye line match and reverse eye line match, these are where the camera shots are manipulated to show a character looking away into the distance then showing what that character is looking at. I like how this editing technique works especially well with women, in hotel bableon you can see from the managers facial expressions that something is wrong, next I see something that is very clever, it is a mix of a action match and a graphic match, at first glimpse the person running down the corridor is the same person however its not it is Benjamin and Charlie the director has combined the movement of Benjamin with that of Charlie, this may not be substantial but all these little edits build up and shows the audience things that they consciously might not understand. When Jackie realises that one of the illegal immigrants is missing a cutaway is used to show the man, this combines with the music is used to build tension as the it may only be a short shot the time the audience spends watching her build tension about what is going to happen with the immigrant. The director of this episode wants it to feel life like, this can be seen through the use of invisible cut, there is no real empresses on change of shot eg no fade to black is used.

Wednesday, 6 February 2013


Films have several key stages from script to screen; these are pre-production, production, distribution and exhibition.
Preproduction is the first stage of making a film, this is where the producer decides on a story, if its unwritten he or she might hire a script writer, however is it is already an existing idea than  the producer will have to acquire the rights. Once the screenplay is written the producer must start looking at the cost, above the line this includes things like big name cast, there support usually important characters just not a well-known name, day performers people that play a small role and stunt performers , below the line would include things like wardrobe , food, accommodation. Once a financial plan is written up the producer must find a financer. For this the producer must portray his idea to a board, in the financing stage of Avatar James Cameron was nearly turned down by Fox, it was only when he took his idea to Disney that Fox exercised its right to first refusal but even then they were weary and requested two other financers to help. Next is the task of hiring the main cast, the filming crew, location scouts, casting director, costume designers, and the director et cetera. In the case of James Cameron’s Avatar there was no need to hire a scriptwriter, director or buy any rights to content as he wrote the script himself, he also asked a man called Jon landau to co-produce, he knew this man was a good producer after they both worked on Titanic and made $2.2 billion at the box-office. In avatar james Cameron was very personal with his his designers sometimes inviting them back to his California home to help create the Na’Vi. The digital designers in avatar took inspiration for the “Halleluiah Mountains” from some mountains that a location scout found in china.  
Now that the finance, crew, cast and locations have been scouted it’s time to film. In the production phase the raw footage is gathered, the most time efficient way of filming is to have the set builders, wardrobe and makeup a step in front of the camera, that way the cast can show up get there outfits and makeup then start filming. Throughout the production process there will be still photographers. Their photograph will be used later on in the distribution and exhibition phase. In my case study avatar there was more time spent on post-production than there was in production, this is due to most of the film being CGI however James Cameron did use people to act out the movements of the Na’Vi. Due to the nature of Avatar the film was relatively cheap when it comes to locations this is because most of the film being filmed in studios then the backgrounds being computer generated and added in. Post-production however wasn’t so cheap, due to the nature of this film most of the finance was spent on CGI, a digital effects studio called Weta digital took on the task of making Pandora. Once rendered the film was 17GB per minute.
With the final film rendered it’s now time to look at marketing and distribution of the film. Distribution companies usually like to buy the rights to a film, that way they have total control and access to all of the profits. The distribution company will view the film and decide the target audience. Once a target audience profile is made the film will be sent to editors for a trailer to be made. There is usually around 3 types of trailers made. One will be shown on Tv this is will be very limited in length due to time slots, an online trailer this doesn’t really have a time limit due to hosting being free eg youtube. Trailers can also be shown in the cinema before films these are also limited to around one minute. The still photographs that were taken in the production phase may now be used to produce other marketing material, depending on the audience profile and audience size it could involve strategically placing posters in bus shelter or posters on busses that may pass or travel in a area associated with a specific audience.  Avatar was distributed by Fox, due to it being such a large and prolific distributor worldwide it used all its assets, I believe this is one of the reasons avatar was so successful due to the market campaign being of biblical proportion. The website is presented in around 17 different languages, there was a huge amount of merchandise that could be bought McDonalds did a worldwide toy making campaign helping spread the word. Most film shown ~2months before its release had the trailer played before it. But one of the most important things is that it also targeted social media, when you think of a sci-fi film you think of teenagers and kids. Targeting social media sites like facebook was very important due to the target audience.
So the film has now been advertised and the interest is out there, all that needs to be done is a release date to be decided. This is extremely important, Fox wanted to be extra careful with this release as they were already wary at the start. The date has to be selected by following a few principles, time that is relevant to the target audience eg school holidays for teenagers, holidays or time of the year depending on the genre of the film eg Halloween or valentine’s day, the state of the economic climate as there is no point in releasing a film when the economy doesn’t let people afford to go to the cinema and finally one of the most important. Competitor films there is no point in releasing a film that is the same genre or has a similar plot if one is going to be released and shown around the date you have planned the release. Once a date is decided the cinemas will buy right to show it from then on it is up to the cinema company as to which cinemas will show it. Avatar was released between the 16th and 18th of December 2009 it was shown internally on 14,604 screen with 3671 utilising the 3D technology that James Cameron was so head locked on using.  In the UK the first week it was shown in 503 cinemas and the second week it was shown in 485, this is surprising that it was sustained another week in so many cinema, a true sign that the film was a huge success. 

Sunday, 3 February 2013

Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VgzEgamtVo
social class
sound

Sound can be used to inject a directors or writers portray of a character  gender,social class or sexuality, here the sound is focused on class.This can be heard when the young boy is in his house there is no non diegetic sound, due to the absence of this we the audience get a more sinister impression. Music is generally used to show emotion, no music being played suggests that there is no emotion between the family meaning the boys is purely used to work and make money.
When the boy is walking in the dark many sound motifs are present in the form  of owls, these re-enforce the visual set making sure the audience know it really is the country side, there is also more non diegetic sound in the form of music, its very slow with low instruments, this music gives sinister connotations, possibly suggesting the boy is going to steal something or that he knows what he is doing is wrong. However once the boy looks through the window some new non diegetic music is played, this has a lot better connotations, hinting towards a more inquisitive feeling than one of theft. When the camera is taken to the work seen a more upbeat happier sounding piece of non diegetic music is played, even though people are working hard, this suggests that the people or the upper classes are so pompous that they don't register people of lower class as having emotions mostly boredom and tiredness. This music then changes slightly to music that is even more stereotypical very slow and has fluctuation in the volume.