History of genre
Chosen genre: mystery/ drama/ crime
The genres of mystery and crime tracked back to Ancient Greece where play writers such as Sophocles and Euripides showed the citizens their plays combining mystery and drama. The earliest mystery film was called The Three Apples and it involved a suspense thriller with multiple plot twists. In a mystery film there are elements of it of a detective case and solving a crime.
In the early days of mysteries, a popular form was when a short tale was published in magazines. Mysteries are usually staged as play, and a more modern way is movies and television shows. But another modern way, which is the most popular way is to have a mystery novel.
Friday, 4 February 2011
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
MAIN: Post 5a: Macro/ Micro analysis of an opening sequence from your genre
I looked at two different opening sequences from our groups chosen genre and I identified all of the different conventions and broke it down into each elements that make the opening sequence. I looked out for Macro which is narrative, representation and genre. I also looked at Micro which is camera (shots/ angles/ movement), sound, mise- en-scene (place), editing (cuts, order, pace, transitions), special effects. By looking at all of these conventions in an opening sequence it helps you find more out about what happens in an opening sequence and how these things are effective for our chosen genre.
-This is the first film that I looked at which is Se7en and these are the conventions I found:
-First image, extreme close up of a book, dark, someone turning the oages of the book.
-Black screen, writing comes on the screen, white, glowing, flashy, small handwritten font
-Image of hands on piece of paper, dark image, font on the screen over the image.
-Fast jumpy clips of hands and metal equiptment, fast cuts.
-Black screen with the name of actor, same font size and font, font moves, jumps, flashes
-Extreme close ups of hands holding a piece of metal, cutting skin off the finger, short jumpy clips, fast.
-Names on black screen with white font, glows, same effects.
-Extreme close ups of images, short fast cuts.
-Black screen, same size font of the title, then fast cut and the title gets bigger on the screen, bold font, covers the screen, shadowed.
-This is the first film that I looked at which is Se7en and these are the conventions I found:
-First image, extreme close up of a book, dark, someone turning the oages of the book.
-Black screen, writing comes on the screen, white, glowing, flashy, small handwritten font
-Image of hands on piece of paper, dark image, font on the screen over the image.
-Fast jumpy clips of hands and metal equiptment, fast cuts.
-Black screen with the name of actor, same font size and font, font moves, jumps, flashes
-Extreme close ups of hands holding a piece of metal, cutting skin off the finger, short jumpy clips, fast.
-Names on black screen with white font, glows, same effects.
-Extreme close ups of images, short fast cuts.
-Black screen, same size font of the title, then fast cut and the title gets bigger on the screen, bold font, covers the screen, shadowed.
MAIN: Post 5: Title Timeline
Individually in our groups we each watch an an opening sequence from a film and the film that i watched was Se7en and while watching this i created a timeline of the exact times that the titles appear. I noted down things such as the time of the first image came in the screen and when the first time any writing appeared on the screen and what font and what effect it had on this part of the opening sequence.
This is the timeline that I made:
This is the timeline that I made:
Monday, 24 January 2011
MAIN: Post 4: Group Meeting
We held a meeting within our group and we discussed what genre would be the best idea for our opening title sequence. We have all agreed in the fact that comedy would be a hard genre to do because it will be hard to find the balance of the humour and you will have to find out the sense of humour your target audience has and try to appeal to them. We have also said that horror is not a good idea because it will be really hard to make this genre work well. We all agreed that the best genres would be drama or a mystery. This is how our group discussion went:
Lauren: From looking at the research we conducted, Rom-Coms, Dramas and mysteries come out on top.
Charley: I think we should do a drama with a twist of mystery, as I think comedies will be too difficault for the timing we have, and are also hard to appeal to a large audience as humours vary.
Lauren: I agree, I think it would be a good ide...a to shot a mystery drama with a variety of clever shot sizes.
George: Yeah these are all good ideas, I think we should consider basing the plot around a kidnapping of some sort in order to match our genre.
Charley: Yes, that’s a good idea George. We should try and film something that will not only grip viewers through interest, but also to teach people the importance of staying safe while outside of home.
Lauren: We could have a kidnapping of school children? I think using a hand held camera would look really effective on a mystery drama like this one.
George: Yes, we could shoot pupils leaving at the end of the day, perhaps Charley and Lauren could act as the girls that are going to be abducted.
Charley: These are great ideas! By using the school as a focus point on location, the filming will be quite easy for us. We should use an interesting effect on the camera to generate the right tone and impression of the overall genre of our opening sequence.
Lauren: Another idea we could discuss is if we are using a hand held camera, we could have the kidnapper as the narrator in the way that what the viewers see is through his eyes, in order for the audience to feel included.
Charley: We could do a 'double take' from the crowds of school children, back to Lauren and me, as when the kidnapper realises we are the ones he is after.
Lauren: Yes, the variety of shot sizes and fast pace editing between shots will generate the excitement.
George: We should also use a creative typographt on our titles to link the genre of the opening sequence. We also need to consider the music we are going to use, it must have a sense of mystery and drama to it.
Charley: I think we should do a drama with a twist of mystery, as I think comedies will be too difficault for the timing we have, and are also hard to appeal to a large audience as humours vary.
Lauren: I agree, I think it would be a good ide...a to shot a mystery drama with a variety of clever shot sizes.
George: Yeah these are all good ideas, I think we should consider basing the plot around a kidnapping of some sort in order to match our genre.
Charley: Yes, that’s a good idea George. We should try and film something that will not only grip viewers through interest, but also to teach people the importance of staying safe while outside of home.
Lauren: We could have a kidnapping of school children? I think using a hand held camera would look really effective on a mystery drama like this one.
George: Yes, we could shoot pupils leaving at the end of the day, perhaps Charley and Lauren could act as the girls that are going to be abducted.
Charley: These are great ideas! By using the school as a focus point on location, the filming will be quite easy for us. We should use an interesting effect on the camera to generate the right tone and impression of the overall genre of our opening sequence.
Lauren: Another idea we could discuss is if we are using a hand held camera, we could have the kidnapper as the narrator in the way that what the viewers see is through his eyes, in order for the audience to feel included.
Charley: We could do a 'double take' from the crowds of school children, back to Lauren and me, as when the kidnapper realises we are the ones he is after.
Lauren: Yes, the variety of shot sizes and fast pace editing between shots will generate the excitement.
George: We should also use a creative typographt on our titles to link the genre of the opening sequence. We also need to consider the music we are going to use, it must have a sense of mystery and drama to it.
Monday, 17 January 2011
MAIN: Post 3a: Further look at opening sequences
The first opening sequence I watched was called Contact and I do not like the fact that they have mixed loads of different sounds and songs together and keep mixing because it does not draw my attention to it because i cannot hear it properly and is not clear so it does not straight away draw my attention to the clip straight away. It is also a really slow moving clip and does not have much goin gon in it. I did not like this particular opening scene because it did not have anything that interesteted me and did not draw my attention to it. It also was really quiet and struggled to hear what was being said, and it did not have any of the other conventions of what is usually in an opening sequence.
The next clip that I watched was The Shining. As soon as the clip begins it immidiatly draws my attention to the film because of the music, it is slow and deep which makes it suspicious and attracts my attention. The camera movement changes aswell and makes it look more interesting. The same piece of music plays throughout the clip. It has names of the producers and actors of the film scrolling up the screen. The music keeps you interested thoughout the clip.
The difference between the first and the second clip is that the first one did not have anthing that catches the audience's attention and keep them intrieged about what is going to happen and make you want to watch the rest of the film. Also the second one has more of the conventions that are usually found in an opening sequences such as, music, names etc.
The next clip that I watched was The Shining. As soon as the clip begins it immidiatly draws my attention to the film because of the music, it is slow and deep which makes it suspicious and attracts my attention. The camera movement changes aswell and makes it look more interesting. The same piece of music plays throughout the clip. It has names of the producers and actors of the film scrolling up the screen. The music keeps you interested thoughout the clip.
The difference between the first and the second clip is that the first one did not have anthing that catches the audience's attention and keep them intrieged about what is going to happen and make you want to watch the rest of the film. Also the second one has more of the conventions that are usually found in an opening sequences such as, music, names etc.
MAIN: Post 3: Research into Opening Sequence Designs
I watched the Kyle Cooper interviews part 1 and 2 and i have found out different things that they think about and what they think an opening title sequence needs to interest the audience. I noted down the main points that Kyle Cooper pointed out about opening title sequences:
- He said that the opening title in a cinema or theatre should draw the audience's attention to the film and make the audience want to watch the rest of the film and be intreiged in it.
-He also said that the font is important in the title sequence because it gives you an idea about the genre and storyline of the film. He said that in the sequence of se7en he used handwritten font because the main character is a murderer so it is carrying on the effect of the character for things such as threat notes.
-There are images that are used so it gives the idea of what the main character in the film is like, e.g jumpy images means that it is a mystery/ horror film.
-Shows specific images that are related to the film such as in the film se7en it shows images and clips of cells and skin which draws the attention of the audience.
-A good and very successful opening title sequence because it uses good photography which interests the audience, also it has good music and give a mysterious feel to it, all of these different things draw the attention of the audience and makes the film a sucess.
- He said that the opening title in a cinema or theatre should draw the audience's attention to the film and make the audience want to watch the rest of the film and be intreiged in it.
-He also said that the font is important in the title sequence because it gives you an idea about the genre and storyline of the film. He said that in the sequence of se7en he used handwritten font because the main character is a murderer so it is carrying on the effect of the character for things such as threat notes.
-There are images that are used so it gives the idea of what the main character in the film is like, e.g jumpy images means that it is a mystery/ horror film.
-Shows specific images that are related to the film such as in the film se7en it shows images and clips of cells and skin which draws the attention of the audience.
-A good and very successful opening title sequence because it uses good photography which interests the audience, also it has good music and give a mysterious feel to it, all of these different things draw the attention of the audience and makes the film a sucess.
Friday, 7 January 2011
MAIN: Post 2: Choosing your genre
Task 1:
Most Popular genre in film
There are four main popular types of genre:
Action adventure is one of the most successful genres of film. It has record breaking ticket sales but the films also have big budgets which mean that because of the quality of film it brings in a lot of money.
Drama, Romance and Comedies- Romance films do not particularly have big budgets but they can bring in loads of money. But not all drama, romantic and comedy films are successful and there were loads that were box office failures.
Documentaries do not have a big budget and most of the film is put together by the film makers filming that they have done throughout their life.
Horrors and Thrillers can be very successful and bring in loads of money and example of this is Paranormal Activity which was only made for $15,000 and when it went into box office it made $161,830,890.
Task 2:
By looking at the different types of genre i have found that by doing an action adventure film would be alot of hard work because it has a high budget and there are loads of special effects that are used to make this genre of film.
By looking at the different types of genre i have found that by doing an action adventure film would be alot of hard work because it has a high budget and there are loads of special effects that are used to make this genre of film.
Also by doing a comedy film would be hard because you would have to get the right level of humour and try and appeal to the audiences sense of humour and this will be hard because not everyone has the same sense of humer and it would be hard to find that balance.
I think that drama would be a good genre for our opening sequence because there is a variety of different topics and things that could happen whereas, a romantic film it would be a typical 'boy meets girl' storyline.
I do think that a documentry would be a particularly good idea for the film sequence because you need to have a topic that is serious and in documentries they use their own footage of the paricular topic. I think this would not work well as we would not be able to get footage that is believable enough to show a serious topic.
Horrors and thrillers would be an interesting but hard genre to do because i think that there would have to be a lot of effort put into mise-en-scene in terms of costumes, make-up and also like lighting and setting because it would be hard to find somewhere that would look good and be believeable.
We got into our groups and we put together a questionnaire that we could ask different age ranges such as teenagers up to middle age and we did this to find out different views on what genre of film people liked best. We asked for them to choose their favourite genre of film and comedy came out with the highest total but they also said that they liked a mystery/ drama. We aslo asked them how many times they went to the cinema and gave them different options of, once a week, once a month, and another option for them to specify their answer. We asked who they mostly went to the cinema with and by asking this would tell us the age range of people going to watch these genres of film. The last question we asked was what genre of film would you like to see more of, and the most popular answer was mystery and dramas.
We got into our groups and we put together a questionnaire that we could ask different age ranges such as teenagers up to middle age and we did this to find out different views on what genre of film people liked best. We asked for them to choose their favourite genre of film and comedy came out with the highest total but they also said that they liked a mystery/ drama. We aslo asked them how many times they went to the cinema and gave them different options of, once a week, once a month, and another option for them to specify their answer. We asked who they mostly went to the cinema with and by asking this would tell us the age range of people going to watch these genres of film. The last question we asked was what genre of film would you like to see more of, and the most popular answer was mystery and dramas.
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