The Hangover... remake.

We have been set a project to remake the first scene of the Hangover. We have a few weeks to complete the task as close to the original as possible. I joined a new group after a few weeks of this project being set due to problems in the previous group.. The girls in the group i joined were all lovely and welcoming and i was very glad I switched groups. They told me that they had already shot the scene with Phil on the phone, but were doing their main shoot on the coming Sunday at Park farm, which Alice had fantastically arranged for us. On the first lesson i joined their group we got to work editing the clips of film they had of Alex (our actor for Phil) and making use of James, the guy that was their to show us how best to use the editing software. Me, Georgie, Alice and Catlin were shown how to blur out the background while keeping a certain person or object in focus. It was hard and tiring work, but hopefully it would pay off. It was definately a learning experience. (Thankyou James!)

I turned up to Park Farm with my dad (and the white van) and everyone was there, so we could go straight up to the lovely room, we were allowed to shoot in, and get started! We all pitched in to the directing, acting and filming. It was a long day, but good fun and we  all learnt so much. It seems the more I do of Media the more i love it!

We first shot the wedding dress scene in the Hotel room. We had a manican and a wedding dress brought by Megan and Lizzie, who also bought along with me the bridesmaid dresses although mine wasn't used in the film as it didn't match the colour of the others! My dad bought the van and was waiting outside, so me Georgie, Lizzie and Megan went outside to the front of park farm and positioned the van as close to the real film as possible. Megan played the woman taking the flowers out of the van while, me and georgie directed and played around with the positioning and Lizzie filmed. We got some good footage and one with two old women walking past!

We then went up to the room and got the whole room to match the film as much as possible, me, Georgie and Catlin played bridesmaids, while Catlin's mum and dad played the mum and dad from the film and Vicki Cook (Megan's friend) played the bride and Lily played the hairdresser. The rest filmed and directed and tried to keep the continuity and lighting correct.




Me, Lily and Alice negotiating :)

 

Catlin & her Dad acting..

We shot all the acting scenes then, and then went downstairs to film the window scene which went abit wrong and will have to be re-filmed. We had a day of much sucess and have now filmed all our footage except from the chair scene. We finally all went home at 5.






The group :)



Genre; Our own short clip.

We were asked to do our own short clip with the title of 'Genre... this much we know.' I was in a group with Nicole and Evie. While i directed, Evie acted and Nicole filmed. Evie started with an introductory speech and then we went on to interview a few students about how genre affects the films they watch. We put it all together in lessons and used the new editing software to put it all together. It was a good start to learn how to do editing and filming. Next time i deniately want to do more work with the camera in practice for the big projectn of my own at the end.

Genre; Thriller.

Information on thriller;
Thrillers are a genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. A common subgenre is psychological thrillers. After the assassination of President Kennedy, political thriller and paranoid thriller films became very popular. The brightest examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock.

Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods such as; a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, suspense, excitement, tension, terror. Literary devices such as red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively. The cover-up of important information from the viewer and fight/chase scenes are common methods in all of the thriller subgenres, although each subgenre has its own characteristics and methods.
Common methods in crime thrillers are mainly ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings. More common in mystery thrillers are investigations and the whodunit technique. Common elements in psychological thrillers are mind games, psychological themes, stalking, confinement/deathtraps, horror-of-personality, and obsession. Elements such as fringe theories, false accusations, paranoia, and sometimes action are common in paranoid thrillers.
A genuine, standalone thriller is a film that provide thrills and keeps the audience cliff-hanging at the "edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the character(s) is placed in a menacing situation, a mystery, or a trap from which escaping seems impossible. Life is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspectingly or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces - the threat is sometimes abstract or unseen. Thrillers with a crime-related plot mostly keep the attention away from the criminal or the detective, where they focus more on the suspense and danger that is generated.
"Homer's Odyssey is one of the oldest stories in the Western world and is regarded as an early prototype of the thriller." A thriller is villain-driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles that the hero must overcome.

Alfred Hitchcoch the acknowledged master of the thriller genre he virtually invented, Alfred Hitchcock was also a brilliant technician who deftly blended sex, suspense and humor. He began his filmmaking career in 1919 illustrating title cards for silent films at Paramount's Famous Players-Lasky studio in London. There he learned scripting, editing and art direction, and rose to assistant director in 1922. That year he directed an unfinished film, No. 13 or Mrs. Peabody . His first completed film as director was The Pleasure Garden (1925), an Anglo-German production filmed in Munich. This experience, plus a stint at Germany's UFA studios as an assistant director, help account for the Expressionistic character of his films, both in their visual schemes and thematic concerns. The Lodger (1926), his breakthrough film, was a prototypical example of the classic Hitchcock plot: an innocent protagonist is falsely accused of a crime and becomes involved in a web of intrigue.

An early example of Hitchcock's technical virtuosity was his creation of "subjective sound" for Blackmail (1929), his first

The Coen Brothers

The Coen Brothers;
Filmmaker

Born: 29 November 1954 (Joel) and 21 September 1957 (Ethan)

Birthplace: St. Louis Park, Minnesota

Best known as: The filmmaking pair who made Fargo and True Grit

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen -- widely known as The Coen Brothers -- are a filmmaking duo known first for quirky dark comedies including Raising Arizona (1987), Fargo (1996) and The Ladykillers (2004). Joel Coen (b. 29 November 1954) and Ethan Coen (b. 21 September 1957) grew up in Minnesota and went to college in Massachusetts. Joel Coen got involved in the movie business in the early 1980s, working with Sam Raimi on The Evil Dead (1981) and Crimewave (1985) among other film projects. The Coen Brothers' first film together, Blood Simple (1984), was a critical success and set them on a career path of independently made movies that get as much attention as big Hollywood productions. Early in their careers, Joel Coen was often credited as director and Ethan Coen as producer, though they shared filmmaking duties, including writing and editing; in later years they have also shared directing and producing credits. The brothers have had their ups and downs at the box office, but they have a loyal audience and a reputation as thoughtful movie makers. They won a screenwriting Oscar for Fargo (and Joel's wife, Frances McDormand, won an Oscar for best actress), and in later years have worked with big-named stars such as George Clooney (2000's O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Billy Bob Thornton (2001's The Man Who Wasn't There), Catherine Zeta-Jones (2003's Intolerable Cruelty) and Tom Hanks (2004's The Ladykillers). Their other films include Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), and The Big Lebowski (1998). Their 2007 adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel No Country for Old Men won them Oscars for writing, direction and best picture. They were nominated for all three categories again for True Grit (2010).

 

Top ten films;

1. The big Lebowski

2. Fargo

3. No country for old men

4. O' brother, where art thou?

5. Raising Arizona

6. Blood simple

7. Miller's crossing

8. Barton Fink

9. Burn after reading

10. Intolerable Cruetly

Rule of Thirds:

A face front on in the middle of the grid is boring, so we must check photos and films straight after shooting them.
1) Too much room above subjects head.
2) Not enough room above head.
3) Cutting off at limbs.
- Subject cut just above knees, but room above head for a medium shot.
- Subject cut just above hips, but room on either side still.
- Still a tad room above head, eyes & face centre on screen. Room on either side or one side for dramatic effect.
- Close up; eyes in top two thirds of screen, and chin always in screen. Medium close up.
- Close up; top of head cut off, chin close to bottom.

Mise en scene :
- Visual information in front of a camera.
- Communicates essential information to the audience.

5 elements of mise en scene
- settings & props; they set the character, you know about the character in the film almost immediately if the setting and props are set up right and in sink. Settings can also say a lot about the characters personality. Film is a visual medium.
- Costume, hair & makeup
- Facial expressions & body language
- Lighting & colour
- positioning of character/objects within the frame.

1) Costume, hair & makeup
- They act as an instant indicator to us of a character's personality status & job.
- It tells us immediately whether the film is set in th present and what society and culture it will centre around.
- Certain costumes can signify certain individuals.

2) Facial Expressions:
- Facial expressions & body language indicator of how someone is feeling.
- If someone is smiling broadly we assume they are happy.

Spider man deconstructing image:
  Very romantic, her position shows she's taking control, and because he is spider man and undefeated it makes her position stronger. He is hanging upside down with her hands on his face. It shows that she is spider mans only weakness.