Monday, 15 June 2015

Has something that has happened in Spielberg’s life affected the content of his films?

Item 1:
War horse

Item 2:
catch me if you can 

Item 3:

Saving private ryan 

Monday, 29 September 2014

Group Analysis

The scene begins with an extreme long shot to establish the vast environment. The camera zooms out as the character comes forward continuing to show how open the plains are. The character is very small here, which further highlights how large the area is. In the same long take, a cart, horse and then series of holes are shown. The long take joins them all together in the same landscape. The diegetic sound of the man's mumbling comes into shot before he does, telling us (along with the movement of the dirt) that there is somebody in the environment before we see him, bent over and digging. The scene then cuts to the horse and cart again, and the tiny spec of the rider comes into the shot on the left. The close up of the digger's face as he kneels up shows his panic as the rider gets closer. Non diegetic sound then hightens tension as he gets up and grabs his gun. There is a closer long shot of the rider as they get nearer. The digger stations himself behind the cart and aims. There is then an eyeline match as we get a POV of the gun, central to the shot, aiming at the oncoming rider. The horse veers off of the centre of the frame as the rider falls, signalling disorder. The screen is split in half in the next shot by the horizon, the rider in the foreground and the digger running up to them. The camera tilts and gets lower to the ground as the digger bends over, before the scene cuts to a high angle close up of the rider as they turn over and hit the digger. The action match as he falls in the direction of the hit makes it flow more.
The rider, now standing, then advances slowly on the digger. This is a low angle shot, exerting dominance in the shot as the digger looks up at her. They are also in a silhouette, which creates mystery and tension - we are unable to identify them. The sun behind her is important, as after the 'shot reverse shot' of the digger lying on the ground, it can be seen through the bullet hole in her hat, which is also visible in the shadow of the shot before. The rider then throws the hat down onto the camera in this POV shot, which covers the digger's face, creating darkness. The digger sits up, but is still on the ground, and we can see from his point of view the rider getting on their horse in a low angles shot. We are still unable to see their face. In a long shot as the digger gets up, we can see that he has been chained to the cart. As he is on a third, much of the background is visible, showing how alone he is. There is then a close up on the rider as she puts on his hat - a very casual reveal which introduces her attitude to gender roles - she doesn't care. The low angle shot of the horse rearing in the centre of the frame again shows dominance. She then rides off into the distance, as the camera stays (stuck) with the trapped man, which shows his isolation as the only other human anywhere close disappears into the landscape.
The shot then fades to black, and the new shot is introduced as the camera pans from  behind a gravestone. The rider is in a graveyard, and the long shot allows a lot of the scenery to be shown. Again, she is moving from left to right, showing some kind of journey. The music here is slow, with long notes, showing the calm in the area. Another gravestone covers the scene, and when we are able to see again, there is a hanged man. The gravestone transition is used again, this time to a fence which says 'Redemption' - presumably the name of the town, and in a typical cliché, probably what she is truly looking for on her journey. The name takes up the whole frame, highlighting its importance. The whole of this short section is typical iconography of the Western genre. After a close up of the rider's face, we see a long shot of the graveyard.  In the top right corner, a opening in the clouds shows a large mount of light, reminiscent of many biblical paintings. The path through the gravestones leads directly there, and again her being on the left signifies a journey towards this 'heavenly' destination - redemption?
A group of riders tears past the lone woman, yelling and kicking up dust. The cut to the trashed marshall's office indicates a lack of order, a lawless town, and the extreme close up to her eyes shows her figuring this out. The hanged man jumps to mind - was this the marshall? And was he lynched by a group of outlaws? The dust clears in a long shot, and she moves on. There is another long shot as she rides into the empty town, showing how desolate it is. A man is working on a coffin, adding more death imagery to the piece. As he lifts it up, it covers the rider as she carries on - possibly foreshadowing her own death.
As she rides through the street, we see a small girl looking out of the window. This image of innocence and purity is then contrasted with a balcony of sleaze, with a fat, richer looking man and a group of (probably) prostitutes. Both are staples of the Western genre - the innocent victim, and the corrupt businessman with his harem from the local saloon. The close ups of the rider that had interjected these shots become a mid shot, as she shows her gun to him as a warning.
A crane shot from above again shows the abandoned-looking town, another common feature of the genre.

Thursday, 25 September 2014

reflective analysis - 8 shot film sequence 

my intention was to create a short sequence, that was quite simple but at the same time effective too. when creating the sequence we didn't really make it to be placed within a certain genre, but if i had to place it in any form of genre, i would refer to it as being a 'artistic experimental' film. my intentions when making this sequence was to entertain the audience as simply as i could possible do.

my target audience for this short sequence was mainly for both male and female , aged 13-17. when creating this film i had in mind that i wanted it to be acceptable for younger to people to watch, therefore i would give the short sequence a certificate rating of U. i believe this sequence is suitable for slightly younger people as it has nothing inappropriate in or even any violence in it what so ever.

factors of the sequence that i like were things such as, when we did close up shots of the shoes. usually close up shots of shoes would be quite random and boring, but i think the way we edited it and how we focused the camera on t the subject made it look quite effective. however, there were a few things that i did not include that i would probably have liked to. Things such as including some sort of violence so that the sequence itself was a bit more tense and interesting, or maybe other factors that would have made it lightly more effective. i would also have lie to add a a bit of comedy into the sequence so that the sequence was a lot more entertaining.