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This blog has all my coursework that I am currently studying for AS Media. Please feel free to read and comment.

Friday, 19 November 2010

Update on research

Today I've finished uploading the 9 frame analysis of 3 movie openings. I also gathered information of the History of Psychological thrillers. I'm going to make a short movie using the information I've gathered. I came up with some questions about audiences expectations of psychological Thrillers. 


Hopefully the information I have is enough to make a good video about the History of Psychological Thrillers. I also hope to ask a few people this weekend about their expectations on Psychological Thrillers.

9 Frame analysis of Donnie Darko

This is the nine frame analysis of Donnie Darko. The film is about a a teenager, Donnie Darko who has visions about a rabbit called Frank. frank tells him on 2nd October in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds, the world will end. The same day a jet engine crashes through Donnie's bedroom window. Frank then causes Donnie to commit a series of crimes. Donnie's crush, Gretchen is killed during the film as are his sister and mother. A tornado ripples through his town turing back time to the day the jet engine crashes through Donnie's window. However this time, he chooses to stay in bed and ends up being crushed by the jet engine. Gretchen, however, has no memory of Donnie and thinks turn back to normal.


1st Frame
Opening titles appear on a black screen with white font, the sound of thunder can be heard. The camera starts with a Long shot of a forest, it slowly pans left to reveal a hill. At the bottom of the hill, there is a body on the ground. The camera then moves down the hill as Donnie sits up. As he does, music starts playing. The frame then ends with a Low Angle Profile shot of Donnie.


2nd Frame-Sharp cut
Establishing shot of the view from the hill. The camera pans right as Donnie stands up into the shot, the opening title; 'Donnie Darko' appears and Donnie exits the shot to the left. 


3rd Frame-Sharp Cut
Medium Close-Up of Donnie riding down the hill. The music then changes to Blues music.


4th Frame
Low Angle Profile shot of the bike that Donnie is riding. 


5th Frame
A Medium shot of a road and Donnie enters the shot as the camera moves back as it follows the bike downhill.


6th frame-Sharp cut
Point-Of-View shot of the road


7th Frame-Sharp cut
Close-Up shot of Halloween sign. this suggests the genre of the film and when it is being set. Donnie, still on the bike, appears from behind, passes the sign and the camera turns around as he crosses the road.


8th Frame
Medium Profile shot of power walkers whose gaze is fixed on the road. The camera pans right to reveal Donnie exiting the shot. The music fades a little. 


9th Frame
The camera cuts to Jake riding up the driveway of his house. The camera moves to in front of the house and stops at a man using a leaf hoover. The is unaudiable dialogue   them and the woman walks off, the camera follows her as the man exits the shot.







Questions for Audiences Expectations of Psychological Thrillers

These are the questions that I have come up with for asking people about Audience Expectations of Psychological Thrillers. 



  1. Have you seen a Psychological Thriller?
  2. Would you like to watch a Psychological Thriller?
  3. Do you know any Psychological Thrillers?
  4. How do you think that Psychological Thrillers have impacted the world?
  5. What do you expect to see when it comes to Psychological Thrillers?

9 Frame analysis of American Pyscho

This is the 9 frame analysis of American Psycho starring, Christian Bale, William Dafoe and Reese Witherspoon. The film is about a Wall Street banker, Patrick Bateman, whose fragile mental state and lust for blood results in him becoming a serial killer with no motive for murdering his victims. 


1st Frame
The film starts with a Long shot of a hallway. There is classical music as the camera moves forward into a living room and slowly starts to pan right.


2nd Frame-Sharp cut
Outside a bedroom door and then into a bathroom. 


3rd Frame-Sharp cut
Long shot as Patrick enters a bathroom. 


4th frame-Sharp cut
Another Long shot of a toilet as Patrick enters the shot from the right, a voice-over starts and music becomes a little quieter. 


5th Frame-Sharp cut
An Over-the-Shoulder shot from the left side of Patrick's shoulder into a mirror. The camera then zooms in on the reflection in the mirror. The voice-over still playing.


6th Frame-Sharp cut
A Medium Close-Up on the fridge as Patrick opens the fridge door. The contents of which are in focus. Patrick grabs a eye-mask ice pack.


7th Frame-Sharp cut
The next shot is a Profile shot of Patrick closing the fridge. He puts on an ice pack and walks out of the shot to the right.


8th Frame-Sharp cut
Medium Profile shot of Patrick on the floor doing stomach crunches.


9th Frame-Sharp cut
A Medium Close-Up of Patrick turning to face the camera still doing exercises.

Thursday, 18 November 2010

Update in task

Today's lesson. I searched Google and found a poster for the film of American Psycho. I wrote an analysis and made a movie using iMovie. Tomorrow I will add a voice-over to it with the written analysis. I think that today we have made a lot of progress with the research and planning. 

Nine frame analysis of Secret Window

This is the 9 frame analysis of the film Secret Window. It is a Psychological Thriller starring Johnny Depp and Maria Bello. The film is about a writer, Mort Rainey, who finds out his wife is having an affair and begins to halluncite about a man called Shooter who claims that the story Mort is currently writing is being plagarised. It then tursn out that Shooter is a figment of Mort's imagination caused by the distress of his wife's affair. He ends up becoming Shooter and kills his ex-wife and her lover.
1st frame
The film starts with Mort in a Medium Close-up of  Mort in a car. The car engine is running and it looks like the scene is set in the winter. A voice-over starts, during which Mort reverses the car and turns it around. Another voice-over starts and he reverses the car out of the shot, which reveals a Motel. During this frame you can ear the sound of the windscreen wipers of the car.


2nd Frame-Sharp Cut
This frame starts off with a Medium Shot of the motel. The car that Mort is in, enters the shot. He gets out and makes his way to the reception. The camera, still outside, shows Mort walking behind a desk and grabbing a motel key off of the wall. As Mort leaves the reception. The Motel owner appears.


3rd Frame-Sharp Cut
This fram starts with a titled shot of Mort getting back into his car and then driving back out of the shot.


4th Frame-Sharp Cut
Point-Of-View shot from the car window of the passenger seat. Mort gets out and enters the shot proceeding to the motel room door.


5th Frame
Point-Of-View shot motel room door opening. As Mort enters the shot, there are 2 characters in a bed. They are Mort's wife and her lover. There is unaudiable dialogue and Mort leaves the camera pans backwards and past Mort's car. He gets into his car and drives out of the shot.


6th Frame-Fade in
Camera moves forward over a lake. The opening title appears over the lake. The camera reveals a forest with a house. There is classical music during the camera movement.


7th Frame-Fade in
Long shot of house, The opening titles fade over the house. Still with the same music.


8th Frame-Fade in
Opening title 'Secret Window' appears. There is a Low Angle Medium Long Shot of the house. The camera then pans left as the opening titles appear. The camera then moves forward past the house and into a window upstairs. The camera makes an establishing shot of the house as it moves downstairs and finishes with mort sleeping on a sofa. There is knocking on a door and the music that had been playing stops.


9th Frame-Sharp Cut
Close-Up shot of a doorknob turning. 



Tuesday, 16 November 2010

Checklist

This what has been done in our group. As well as what else needs to be done. 


What has been done


  • Location Stills and annotation
  • 9 frame analysis 
  • Synopsis 
  • Script and Storyboard
  • Reasearch on the Psychological Thrillers
  • Audience expectations of Psychological Thriller
  • Animatic
  • Test Shoot
What else need to be done and who is doing what
  • Behind the scenes of filming-Chandni
  • Analysis technique used in Psychological Thriller-Latasha
  •  Website and photography 
  • History of Psychological Thrillers

Thursday, 4 November 2010

Resarching for the final task

In today's lesson, Mr Holloway told us that we had to research. Today, Chandi and me looked at different film openings. I looked at trailers of films that could relate to the film openings genre. I looked at The Wild Child, Pineapple Express, Dumb and Dumber, Stuck on You, Due Date and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. Each of these trailers all started with something funny. Today we also edited the script and read the sysnopsis that Loren posted on her blog.


I realised today that the planning section of the film opening, even though it doesn't have a lot of marks is quite vital to the process and I also realised that it is going to be quite difficult in making. I'm a little stuck on what to reasearch but I've realised that the best way to make a good show reasearch is to analyse didfferent movie openings that relate to comedies and take notes of what works and what doesn't work within the first 2 minutes of the film.
Three's a Crowd Script ">

This is the script that Chandi and me edited today. Loren wasn't in today's lesson. So it was quite difficult when it came to editing the script as we did not want to edit too much, incase we caused any problems within the group. We have also researched different films related to our genre, as well as making a video about what else we plan to do for the planning section.

Wednesday, 3 November 2010

Planning for the final task

Yesterday's lesson, we worked on planning of the final task. I've posted this so I don't foget what we came up with in the lesson. During the lesson; we looked at a previous website that was created by a group who were given a low level 4. We had to anaylase each section of the site and write down what we could do when it comes to putting togther our task.


The group I was in have come up with the following ideas:
  • To film any locations that we find before filming
  • To take as many pictures as we can
  • To  film a 'behind the scenes' during the actual filming
  • To use different types of media in our planning
  • To take pictures of costumes, props etc and say why we chose them
  • To research any films that relate to the genre of the opening
  • To find out what audiences expect when it comes to watching comedies