Preliminary Exercise - The Editing

Today we edited our preliminary exercise. Shaunica tooke change of this part of the exercise as she already knew how to edit using the IMac computers due to taking another lesson whereby she has to use them. So, me and Carla sat with her and gave her any help she needed. Me and Carla then went to get something form the other room and when we returned Shaunica had watched the whole edited film full screen and had pressed the "escape" button and this had cuased the whole program to shut itself down and it had lost our finished project. So we had to re-do our entire editing process again. Shaunica even set herself a challenge that she would do it in 30mins and she actually did it in 15mins we only have a few little pieces to cut out now and improve.

Preliminary Exercise (TAKE 2)

Today we worked on our preliminary exercise and was due to edit it, although when we look at the footage we thought that it maybe wasn't upto a good enough standard to edit it and get a good enough exercise. So, our group (Me, Carla and Shaunica) decided to go and re-film our exercise. This time Carla did the filming and me and Shaunica did the acting. We changed the story line so it suited me and Shaunica actings better and we actually had a right laugh filming and we think Carla made a good job of the filming.

Rear Window - Alfred Hitchcock

Welcome back.... During class today we watched the opening sequence to the Alfred Hitchcock film "Rear Window". Once again it follow Hitchcock classical way of film and tells the story visually and not through the use of dialogue. We get many clues about the main character all through things we see. We find out his name, from it being written on his leg cast. We find out it is hot due to the fact he is sweating a lot and the fact he see a thermometer which has a very high temperature being shown. We work out that the character is a photographer as he has a number of photographs around his apartment. He photographs dangerous events and craves danger. He also photographs beautiful women (models) for gossip magazines due to a stack of magazines on his side board. the film has a lot of POV (point of view) shots as that story is mainly about the main character looking at of his window and watching everyone. Therefore is features voyeurism (looking at other people). The main character is the voyeur as he is the person watching everyone else.

Sorry guys/girls this is a bit late...

Hey... This blog is in reference to Friday 6th February 2009, I apologise for the rather late entry.
Today we worked upon our Preliminary exercise. The exercise had to demonstrate understanding of continuity and math-on-action (all the shots flowed together and made sense). Shot/reverse shot an the 180-degree rule.
Shaunica wasn't in today and neither was any of the people in Shelly's group so we formed a mini group of Me, Carla and Shelly. So in our little group Shelly wanted to do the filming but because I already had knowledge on how to use the camera so I spent quite a long while explaining to her how to use the camera. Then we started filming our scene with Me and Carla acting out a scene whereby I came into a room and had a conversation with Carla. We found filming a lot of fun and managed to produce a good piece of work. We still have to edit our short film but i think it will come together really well.

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was possibly the leading director in the genre of Thriller and this blog is dedicated to the man himself!! Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born 13 August 1899, in Leytonstone, London. His film career started int the 1920's. Hitchcock made many film's here in the UK using the expressionist form of cinema he was shown in Germany. In 1939 Hollywood came calling and he went out there and made his first Hollywood movie "Rebecca" and this won the "Best Movie" Oscar in 1940. Hitchcock made his last film in 1976 , "Family Plot" and then died 29 April 1980. In most of Hitchcocks films he likes to present his characters in a visual way rather than through the use of dialogue. We then anaylised further the open sequence to "Shadow of a Doubt".

• The "Merry Widow" song that is in the credits continues when we get shown the first shot of the industrial area this is a 'Sound Bridge'.


• Most of the shots in the start of this film are edited using dissolves.


• Throughout the scenes of the industrial area and then a poor 'down town' street there is music and it get more dramatic as we see shots of a house, then a window in that house and then a man lying on a bed (which we find out later is the Protagonist - Uncle Charlie).


• The man is holding a cigar in his hand whilst laying on the bed and this porves he is sophisticated and has plenty of money. this is further conformed by pin-striped suit he is wearing.


• There is low key lighting in the room where this man is lying.


• The camera starts moving aroudn to show character detials such as lots of money, some of which is on the floor. This proves that he has money but does not care about it.


• As the blind is closed on him the music once again builds up and becomes much more sinister.


• Later in the clip we saw there is a high angled shot of the 2 men chasing the protagonist and this is also from the protagonists point of view which show the he has the upper hand.


• Then we can see some mirroring because we are then shown a total different place called Santa Rosa which is the opposite to the poor down town city we were just shown. It is the perfect suburban town with big white hoses, expensive cars, everyone look joyous and happy and the music that goes with this scene is very cheerful and light.


• We then see the same set of shot of the house, then a window then (this time) a girl laying on the bed the same way the man had done. This is mirroring the protagonist Uncle Charlie and his nice Charlie.

We then analysed the opening sequence of another Hitchcock film "Vertigo"....

• We see a woman's face and then a eye. This women must have some significant in the film later on.


• The opening credits are full of swirly patterns to reflect the feeling of vertigo.


• The same woman's face then reappears but then goes red which has connotations of passion and danger which also gives us some idea of what may happen later.


• The first shot we see is a close-up of a hand. This hand is then followed by a body of a main, then this man is followed by a police officer, then a detective. The action then starts with a chase and music the music builds up, pace wise.


• The detective is our protagonist and when he falls off the roof we see his fear of heights and this is shown using a "reverse zoom" whereby everything towards us and moves away at the same time.

We then anaylised another Hitchcock film "North by Northwest"...

• Opening credits are lines across the screen that then dissolve and become the side of a building.


• Unlike most of the other Hitchcock this film is heavy on dialogue at the very start of the film.


• We meet the protagonist who is a cocky, confident character. He has alot of women that he doesn't really care about. He has alot of money and a very good relationship with his mother, who is dominating character and this is present in most Hitchcock films.

Thriller conventions + "Se7en" opneing titles + "Shadow of a Doubt" - Alfred Hitchcock

Welcome back!!
Today I'm goping to tlak through the genre "Thriller" conventions. The thriller convention are:

• A crime at the core of the narrative (often murder but not always).
• A complex narrative structure, with false paths, clues and resolutions.
• A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas (problems) which the viewers expecs to be resolved.
• A protagonsit (the main character) who is systematically dis-empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by the antagonist (the person aposing the protagonist).
• Extraodinary events happening in ordinary situations.
• Themes of identity.
• Themes of mirroring.
• Themes of voyeurism (looking at other poeple).
• Protagonist with a 'flaw' which is exploited by the anatagonist.
• Titles often reflect an aspect of the pro/antagonist's psychological state.
• There is often a scene near the end of the film in which the protagonist is in peril.
• Mise en scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonists plight.

During class time we anaylised the opening credits of the thriller "Se7en", here are the notes I made:

• Edgy titles, they never stay still they are continuous moving or shaking on the screen.
• Very good use of music as it is full of high pitch squaks and sounds.
• There is repetative pictures and the camera is never still its seems to be shaking and jumping.
• Most of the shot dissolve into the next shot create this feeling of a bond between the pictures.
• Definatly shows the state of the anatagonists mind as it is not psychologically sound.

We then watched the first 10-15 minutes of Alfred Hitchcocks - "Shadow of a Doubt". This film follows the thriller conventions almos perfectly. We see the protaganists from the very start and he is almost always covered in some form of shadow. During one scene shadow falls over his face and he almost comes to life, this therefore gaves us the idea that we has darkness wihtin his character. The opening credits to this film are in stark contrast to the first scene we see. The opening credits are absed around a posh ball but upon asking my teacher about this he told me that the music come from an old opera and the music was called the "Merry Widow" which did have some releance in the film itself.