NARRATIVE STRUCTURE - Anbish

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE 

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Roland Barthes' Narrative Theory-Farzin Moosa

Vladimir Propps Theory-Evelina

Directors - Henali

Week 8-Farzin

Week 8: Analysis of film openings

I found analysing the film openings most fun of all the tasks which we had to do; mainly because I got to choose the film openings which I wanted to analyse. The film openings I had chosen were from 'The Fault In Our Stars, 'Juno' and '13 Going on 30'. The reason why I had chosen all three of these of movies was because all three were my favourite movies and also because they all had the same genre which was teen drama. In the analysis of my chosen film openings, I had to make sure that the following was included; mise-en-scene, camera, editing, sound, costume and the conventions used in the opening. At certain points of analysing the film openings, I did find it difficult to find which technique was used in each scene of the film opening, this meant that I had to pause the video many times. By analysing these films, I had made sure that I had added the correct terminology and that my all of my analysis of each film opening was detailed and well presented.

Week 8 - Anbish

Week 8 analysis of the film opening.

This week we had to analysis two real film opening sequences and two film opening sequences that other students had made.The film that I chose were ten things I hate about you and the perks of being a wallflower.While analysing opening sequences of these  movie i had to make sure I include; mise-en-scene, camera, editing, sound costume and the conventions. The challenging bit I found was analysis sound because I did not know the correct terminology therefore I had to go over the sound presentation. Analysing the real movie opening sequence helped understand about the convention of our chosen genre which is drama. From this I am learnt that mise-en-scene plays vital as it indicates what the genre of the movie is. By analysing student's work I have leant from the mistake they have made. For example, the opening sequence being too long.

Directors-Farzin Moosa

Directors of Teen Drama -evelina

By Evelina

Evelina week 8

Week 8: analysis of film log

This week we have been starting our research for the film opening task, and analysing original film openings and other student film openings that are on our genre. This will help my group and me to see what type of story we would like to do. So far we have decided that we want to do our film opening on teen drama film, which is to do with school and drugs; as our research showed that there are not much films based on that. My group and I would like to create a film opening as good as some other student we have seen as they looked professional, and really smooth for a AS level work. This has inspired us in producing a good film opening, as we have many ideas from real film openings and the really good student film openings. As a group we have looked at many teen drama films,by analysing film openings, it has helped us as a group gain more knowledge on what we have to do, and with more ideas that can be added to our film opening.

Week 8: Analysis of film Production Log By Henali

Gender Representation - By Henali

Gender has been a major issue in media, the reason for this is that males and females have been differentiated with the way they act and behave. This affects both the genders as this can stereotype each and every one of them. This is mostly done through media as the media portray these genders based on the way they see them. Gender can negatively affect the way an individual behaves as for example, if someone says all boys are strong, this will mean that they are indirectly trying to state that girl’s are weak. This can affect both genders negatively as if media portray men as strong, their ego may rise however they will also state that men should always go and work. Whereas, if a women is being called weak, media may represent all women’s being emotional. This can affect the way people see each individuals.

Mean Girls

From the opening of the film ‘Mean Girls’, we were able to witness the personality of the two genders as both male and female had different ways of showing their personality. For example, the way some girls are represented in the film ‘Mean girls’ gives the audience an insight that they don’t really have a say in anything which makes a girl emotional, this affects the way people see girls. The screenshot on the left hand side is an example of this. She is going to the bathroom; however the teacher doesn’t give her a pass to go. This shows that girl’s aren’t really treated nicely as they don’t allow permission for what they do. 

On the other hand, boys were seen through a negative view due to their behaviour towards girls. The media tries to portray and give the audience a hint that all genders do the same thing. The screen shot on the right shows the way the boy is being portrayed negatively.



Speak

 From the opening of ‘Speak’, the audience was able to see that the girl wasn’t really important as her mum told her that she doesn’t want to know anything. This is a major aspect of gender that is affecting the way an individual lives as both boys and girls get treated differently and unfairly. The screenshot on the left hand side shows how the girl is feeling when her mum just walks out without letting her give her explanation.

Adding to this, it is visible that boys always have a bigger role than girls. This is shown when the boy takes a picture of her and tells her the reason for why he is doing this. This once again suggests that girls don’t get many opportunities to have a say in anything as she doesn’t ask him why he’s taking her picture instead she just stands there looking at him. An example of this is in the screenshots below. 

All these elements link to a target audience, typical narrative as well as setting. The reason for this is that a typical setting of a teen drama film is a school as teens are still studying and most of their issues occur at school; this is shown in both the films ‘Mean Girls’ and ‘Speak’. Another aspect that relates to a teen drama film is a typical narrative. Narratives that are usually talked about in a teen drama film are issues that people have in school for e.g. bullying, relationship, and loneliness. These are the major narratives that are most likely to be on in a teen drama. From the film openings above, they both talk about the girls being all alone as they may be new to the school or people don’t get along with them. Lastly, the target audience is the most important in a teen drama film. The reason for this is that if they don’t have the right target audience, it can prevent people from watching the film. Due to this, film openings need to show who the target audience are so that people are aware of what films relate to them. This is shown clearly in both the film openings above as when both the film openings start, it starts the scene on the main character which are the teenagers. 

Representation- Ethnicity

Evelina

Class representation - Anbish

Director- Anbish

Story and Narrative; Levi Strauss - Henali

Story and Narrative-Farzin Moosa

Genre Representation:Age - Farzin Moosa

Week 7: Sound Production Log By Henali

Week 7-Farzin

Week 7: Sound

When it came to learning about sound, there were many different sound terminologies that we had to learn. It was difficult to remember some of these but definitely not impossible. Some of the sound terminology we had learnt during the lessons was backed up by extracts from films and TV series’ in order to help us have a full understanding of what each sound terminology is. Many of the sound terminology that we had learnt was already helpful when it came to making our preliminary task. During that process, we had already learnt some of the easiest sound terminology in order to support our preliminary task and make it easier.

Week 7- Anbish

Week 7 Sound

This week I learnt that sound is one of the important element  in any films. For example, sound helps to build atmosphere and mood to the audience. Also, the interesting thing I learnt was that the sounds that you hear are created by the foley artist. For example, The foot step you hear in the movie are created  by foley artist and other sounds such as door creaking are created by foley artist. Furthermore, I learned there are diegetic sounds and non diegetic sound. Diegetic sound that is coming from a source such as door creaking and foot step. Non diegetic sounds are sounds that can not be heard and one example is voice over.

Evelina week 7

Week 7: sound log

Sound is one of the most important things in films as they help the audience gain a better understanding of what is going on in the scene, as something we might think that the scene sound one way, but when you hear the right sound that has been put in, it a whole new thing and provided a different feeling to what we were expecting.  I've learnt there are 4 types of sounds in media that are used to create films; they are sound editing, diegetic, non-diegetic sounds, and music,  which both are used in one film. The sound editing is when  sound are usually built up in layers, with each layer representing a different type of sound; each sound is recorded individually in order to achieve the best quality. All the racks must then be combined and layered to produce the final sound mix, this process takes place during post production and is the referred to as sound editing. Diegetic sound refers to the sound whose source is visible on the screen or  source that is implied to be present by the action of the film:

• voices of characters
• sounds made by objects in the story
• music represented as coming from instruments in the story space

Non-diegetic sound can be either on screen or off screen depending on whatever its source is within the frame or outside the frame. Non diegetic sound. Non-diegetic sound, refers to sounds not explained in terms of any perceived source within the story world; like characters thoughts, and background music (which the characters can hear but the audience can). Non diegetic sounds are things like;

• narrator's commentary

• sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect
• mood music

Which are voice over, sound mofit, and stings; these give a bigger range of understanding  to the audience and gives a certain mood that the director wanted the audience to feel while watching it. Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the a source outside story space. A play with diegetic and non diegetic conventions can be used to create ambiguity (horror), or to surprise the audience (comedy), depending on the genre of the film. Learning about the different use of sound to set the mood and dicribe something, really helps me now as I know where my group and I have to use them in our film opening.

Iconography and Conventions - Evelina

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Teen Drama Film Opening Analysis - Henali

TYPECAST - Anbish

Opening Titles - Billing Order - Henali

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The opening titles below are credits of different movies that fall into the Teen Drama Genre category. As you can see from below, there are many different types of movies that have been listed and have come out during different periods of time. There are many similarities and differences between the movie credits as well as the timings of them.

Speak was a movie that falls into the teen drama genre which was released in 2004. This movie was produced by Fred Berner and directed by Jessica Sharzer. This movie had quite a lot of credit titles which exceeded to 3:30 minutes. By looking at this, it suggests that lots of detail was added to movie in the opening titles as it was the main thing people saw when the movie started. For example, back then, the audience waited for the producer, director and the main characters names to come up as this allowed them to get into the mood of the movie. Moreover, back then, there were huge pauses between different credits for example after 38 seconds of the production company, the cast appeared on the screen. This had positively impacted the producers and directors as this helped them to raise awareness and popularize the different stars that had casted in their movie. This way, it would encourage the audience to watch more of their movies as they will have high expectations for the movie due to the actors. 

Juno is another teen drama movie that was written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman, it was released in 2007. As you can see from the timeline above, the credits of the movie were very long as it exceeded to 4 minutes. This showed that the credit titles had been put on for longer to interest the audience until the movie starts. In addition to this, the timings of each credits have been extended between each other which is why they are there for long. For example, 11 seconds after the title; the casts started to appear on the screen. This showed a big pause between the title and casts as the producer may want the audience to think about the title of the movie.

The last movie I had researched about was The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It was directed and screen played by Stephen Chbosky. This movie was a recent movie that was released two years ago (2012). As you can see from the timeline above, there had been many changes made to the credit titles and the timings of the titles. For example, from the timeline we can see that the timing of the opening titles exceeds to less than 2 minutes. This has positively impacted the way individuals go to see movies now as they aren't really bothered about the credits anymore whereas, back in the days, those were the first things the audience would spot and take interest in. In addition to this, the timing difference between the different titles is short which helps to decrease the opening titles timing. As well as this, people now look at different posters and search up about the movie which allows them to be aware of the different actors and actresses that are present in the movie. 

Conclusion

After researching about the different opening titles in three different movies during different time periods, I have found changes that have gradually been taken into account. Firstly, the timing has been a major aspect that has been worked on real hard. I say this because if you look at the three different timelines, you are able to see that it is gradually decreasing which means that timing can make a huge difference to the audience's mood on the movie. For example, if the movie has too many credits, the audience may start to get bored of reading the different names however, it can positively impact the audience as well as the film company if there are short credits that last no longer than 2 minutes. Another element that has been taken into account is the pauses between the different credits. As you can see, during the Speak movie, there were long pauses between the titles which also longed out the opening titles. However, as you look at the last timeline of the movie, you are able to see that the differences between the timings of the credits are short. 

During this research, I was also able to see the pattern between the three opening titles of the movies and the conventional orders. As you can see from the timelines above, the conventional order of a teen drama film is the distribution company followed by the production company and then the title and casts. During the end of the opening titles, it finishes of with the executive producers, producer, screenplay and then the director. This is the conventional order that our group will follow so that our movie can become a success instead of a failure due to the opening titles.

Evelina's Sub-genre

AnalysingotherA-Levelwork

Genre

Genre

Genre and subgenre-Farzin Moosa

Genre and Subgenres

Film opening analysis- Anbish

Student's opening sequence analysis - Anbish

From viewing at one of other student work, I have noticed some of the positives aspects that were implemented in the opening sequence of their chosen genre. For example, after looking few seconds of the opening sequence, I could immediately tell the genre of the opening scene was drama aimed at 13 – 18 teenagers. The hint that it gave way the genre was though the use of costumes, the choice of the characters and the settings. As you can see from the costumes worn by the characters were school uniform which signifies that it is aimed at teenagers and also it was set in school which connotes that the target audience are who goes to the school. This hooks the teenagers to keep on watching it, as it may have content that relates to them, such as school problems. Secondly, the props used in the opening sequences were nerd glasses, a book, a guitar and a lipstick. They were effective as it used Walter Lippmann’s theory of stereotypes. For example, glasses were used to portray the character as being a nerd who likes to study books. The stereotype helps to differentiate the character from each other and have different image in our head towards them. As soon as I saw a character wearing glasses I assumed that she must be intelligent and get straight A’s. Also, close up shot of eyes and lips were used which goes with the theory of Laura Mulvey of male glaze .The male glaze shows close up of a women’s body part to attract male audience as they might find it attractive. Various camera shots and movement were used which I really liked. For example, the opening sequences starts with a panning on axes at high angle. The panning was a creativity way of starting the opening scene and the fact that it was taken from a high angle, it gave the power to the viewers and the characters looked small and weak. Also when revealing the characters by tilting the camera up from legs to face made me curious who the character was. It was well edited as it had transition such as cut and fade which complimented the scene as it gave it more inside about the character. However, the opening sequence looked more like music video rather than opening sequence due to the fact it lacked in having an Ident and distribution companies at the beginning of the opening sequence. Also, the credit did not look professional as it did not have specified member such as Director, make-up artist ,producer and etc. They could have improved by adding voice over when the characters were being introduced and adding ident and the distribution company at the beginning of the opening sequence.


  2) The following clip's genre is also teen drama genre but it has other sub genres such as thriller. Variety of camera angle and shot types were used. Editing was effective done as they used cross cutting to build tension to show two scene happing at the same time. Again the costume were appropriate for the teen genre because the character wore costume what teenagers would normally wear e.g. jeans and converse. This suggests that the target audience are teenagers and also the characters were teenagers this helps the opening scene to be aimed at teens.Also, the non- diegestic of keyboard playing helped to create a mood of sadness which compliments the genre of the opening scene. However, the lighting was poor specially the shot that was taken at night. It was extremely dark which made it hard to see and know what was going on. Maybe they should have used different light in the dark or filmed it during the day time.The camera was not steady in some of the shots and as being a viewer it gave me a headache.They could have improved it by using a tripod. Finally ,they could have added shot reverse shot when the characters were having conversation .

Conclusion
In conclusion, All the mistake I found in those opening sequence will help me prevent mistakes they have done.Also, it helped me understand more about our genre and some of the positive aspects will be carried to our video.These analysis has helped me to extent my knowledge on how the music is used to create mood and changes the feeling of the audience. For example, keyboard playing may create a mood of melancholy. Also, I found out that props and costume are highly important and that they can be used to represent a character in a certain way. For example, big glasses may imply intelligent. Also, I have learnt that ident , distribution companies name should be in the beginning of the opening scene as it will make it look like a real movie opening.

Student Film Openings Analysis By Henali

1. The following clip’s genre was Teen Drama. They had used many different types of shots and camera angles to show different meanings to different people. The different personalities of the people gave me a meaning of how their everyday life is in school. They gave us a really good understanding about the different kids. 
However, for improvement, they could have given a better and developed understanding about what the actual opening film was about as I got confused at the end when it said ‘Foster Hood’. As well as this, when they tried showing a specific scene again and again, it went a bit too fast and they had too many repeats of it which made me lose my attention to the scene.





2. The following clip’s genre is also Teen Drama. The students have used a variety of camera shots to show the importance of each little thing that happens. This allows the audience to think about what it signifies. As well as this, they have good natural light which allows us to see the characters carefully. However while watching this clip; there were many improvements the students could have made. The first improvement was the lack of concentration, the students were not really focusing on what they had to do and weren’t serious as they giggled through the recording. This ruined the mood of the opening scene they were making. As well as this, the shots weren’t edited properly as the cuts were visible in the video which prevented the audience’s attention. Adding to this, some scenes didn’t show a good understanding as they were mixed which confused me. In addition to this, the understanding of the opening scene wasn’t clear which made me lose interest halfway.

Conclusion

Looking at different student’s opening from the genre chosen by our group has allowed me to think about how we could make our opening perfect. All these improvements have helped me to think about the mistakes we will prevent from happening during our opening. As well as this, I have learnt how to create different mood and emotions with different camera angles and shots which will benefit our opening. While we are planning our opening, I will make sure I talk about the different features that were lacking in the student’s opening which will allow each one of us to think about what changes and improvements we could make. Adding to this, looking at other student’s work gives us a chance of not making the same mistake again and being able to find what they’ve done well and the improvements they need to make which will allow our opening to be at a higher level. 

Film Opening Analysis of Juno-Farzin Moosa

Film Opening Analysis of Juno

Film Opening Analysis of The Fault In Our Stars-Farzin Moosa

Film Opening Analysis of the Fault in Our Stars

Evelina's Film Opening Analysis 2

FilmOpeningAnalysis2

Week 6-Farzin

Week 6: Camera

Along with editing techniques, we also had to learn about camera terminology. The camera terminology which we had to learn were quiet easy to remember. This is because, before learning about the camera terminology, all of us were handed booklets which already had some camera shots and angles written in them. Therefore when it came to learning about some of these shots and angles, I personally found it rather easy because when it came to analysing clips and opening sequences during lessons, I was able to identify many different shots and angles without misunderstanding any of them or hesitating. By learning about the camera terminology, it is in fact very beneficial for all of us as we will be able to use the shots and angles when it comes to making our opening sequence. This way, we will also be able to see which shots and angles go well with each scene; therefore our opening sequence will hopefully look professional.

Week 6

Week 6 camera log

in week 6, I learnt about different camera elements that the camera man uses while shooting. The things I learnt during this week was various types of shot types, camera movement, composition, angle of the camera. Before, I did not know camera shot type , movement and other element were all chosen to create meaning towards audience.For example, high angle may signify that the person is weak or sad. Another shallow depth of field might be used to suggest someone is important. The camera shot type were easy to understand as I was familiar with different type of shot types. However, camera movement, composition and focus were the one I struggled on.However, I think I  need to go over the booklet few times to fully understand What they are and how can I use that on my opening sequences. Learning about the  camera will be beneficial for the future as I can use it to create meaning and make it interesting to look at at the same time.

Evelina week 6

Week 6: camera  log

Camera week, at the start I though camera is just press the record button and that is it. However, this week I found out that there are different camera shots and angles types,composition and focus, and camera movements. These are all the things that we have to do with a camera to create an effective shot/ scene to add to the film; all of these need to be done at the same time as they create the film. I think to me the hardest thing will be the compositions;e.g. framing, rule of thirds, depth of field-deep and shallow focus. The rule of thirds are background, mid ground, and foreground, they are the areas that the characters have to be, the background have to be; so the audience do not get confused about the film, as there will be things moving around and will not look like it continuous. Also, the focus and filming at the same time will be tricky as we have not done this before, and I have read that high quality film industry's only us focus as they have cameras that are operated my computers, which make it easier for them to create the deep and pull focus.

Week 6: Camera Production Log By Henali

Logo of Picker-Mix Productions

The logo for Picker Mix Productions is a lens of a camera, this represents us as we are a media/ film production company. The green gives the logo more character, which shows that our production company is environment friendly.

By Evelina

Week 5-Farzin

Week 5: Editing

After learning about mise-en-scene, we had to go on and learn about more techniques which are used in the film industry in order to make a good movie. This included editing. When it came to editing, we had to learn about the different editing techniques which are used during a filming process. Out of all terminology which we had to learn, I have to say that I did find editing the most difficult to remember. This is because we had to learn the names of each editing technique and we also had to identify how different the editing techniques are to one another. For example the difference between continuity editing and non-continuity editing is that continuity editing emphasises smooth transitions between shots while non-continuity editing emphasises the difference between the shots in order to grab the audience’s attention.

Week 5

Week 5 - Editing Techniques

In week 5, we learnt about different editing techniques and they are continuity and non continuity.The continuity editing involves shot reverse shot ,cross cutting and match on action. These shots are used to show continuity of the scene whereas non continuity edited such as montages are used to show time lapse. Moreover, we learnt about transitions such as fade, dissolve and wipe. Fade are used when a character is having a flashback.I got to practise these editing techniques while editing the opening sequence in Imovie. I found it little difficult after trying to edit in new version of Imovie but the more I use it the more I will get use to it.

Evelina week 5

Week 5: editing log

Editing is made up of many different things that help to create a film smoothly and effectively for the audience to enjoy. They are cutting, shot/reverse shot, eye-line match, graphic match action match, jump cuts, parallel editing, dissolve, fade in/ fade out, slow motion, and long and short takes. In class we learnt all this editing terms and understood what they mean and how to use them; we had a chance to practice using different editing techniques on Imovie, so then when we come to edit our film opening everyone in the group knows how to edit effectively and properly.  I found out that editing will take long to do when we are editing our film opening, to improve so then we can edit the film opening properly my group and I will do some editing at home; which should improve our skills on editing.

Week 5: Editing Production Log By Henali

Evelina's Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas

moodboard drugteen

moodboard jewlls

Initial Ideas By Henali

Initial ideas - Anbish

Pitch 1

Friends?

Two best friends, both extremely talented in sports, always compared .However, one was superior than other , this is when jealously turns into hate.

Pitch 2

Why did I drink?

A 16 year old girl gets drunk in her prom night and wakes up next to bunch of guys . She is scared that she lost her virginity.

Feedback:

The feedbacks that I got from my teacher were positive. During feedback, she suggested me to make it like a montage for the opening scene of the first pitch.

The peer feedback that I received was positive too and according to the peer feedback they preferred pitch number one. The reason being is that that pitch is about unpopular kid makes his dream come true. This is a typical teen drama convention and this is the reason majority people of the class voted for the pitch number one. 

Importance of Genre-Farzin Moosa

Initial Ideas and Moodboards-Farzin Moosa

Pitch 1:

Caleb and Veronica, two high school lovers separate for 15 years. What will happen on the day they reunite? Will they rekindle their forgotten love?

Setting: School, Home, Outdoors

Pitch 2:

Jenna has an amazing life, good friends, family and an amazing boyfriend. What will she do when an incident occurs which changes her life dramatically?

Setting: School, Home and Outdoors