24/09/2013 PLANNING: IDEAS, MUSIC AND OPENING

Production log 24/09/2013

Single lesson

We started the lesson by getting into our groups and getting the documents we had made in the double lesson before hand.  After we got these documents out we started to discuss more possible ideas and refine our ideas from the last lesson.  Once we had started doing this we started to think about the type of music we could have in the background off the opening and we came up with the possibility of using the Johnathon Creek theme tune because it sounds suspicious and mysterious.  We haven't made the final choice about whether to use that particular song yet but we should do that in the next lesson.  We also started to discuss whether or not to have the film opening in colour or in black and white.  That again is undecided and hopefully we will finalise that decision in the next lesson.

18/09/13 PLANNING: INITAL IDEAS

Production log 18/09/2013

Double lesson

When we started the lesson we got in to our groups and started to discuss some of the ideas we had.  We put down the ideas we had on a piece of paper in a spider diagram and then discussed them.  After we had down that we started to say which ideas we liked, which ideas we didn't like and which ideas we thought were good and would work as a film opening. 

After we had been discussing that we started to research ideas and then we decided on doing a film opening which was based around film noir/ thriller.  We then started to discuss ideas and thins that we could do for a thriller spy kind of film and we put them all down in a list on paper.  After we had finished with those ideas we started to draw out a basic storyboard idea on paper.

17/09/2013 RESEARCH: FILM OPENINGS

Production log 17/09/2013
 single lesson

I watched the first three minutes to the English patient (Anthony Minghella 1996)

• the film starts with a black screen with names appearing on it with the intro music starting to play
• a hand then appears with a paint brush painting a picture which looks like human figures
• it looks like the hand is painting on a cave
• it then changes shot to an ariel view of a desert and sand dunes which look oddly similar to the background that the painting was on
• a shadow of a plane then appears giving the audience a feeling of flying over the desert
• the top of the plane then comes into shot and the main character I am guessing appears
• the shot then changes again to blew the plane and you see three people who then start firing at the plane with a flak cannon showing that the film is set at the end of WW2

I then watched the opening to the film Made In Dagenham (Nigel Cole 2010)

• we watched this to see about camera angles and what establishing shots where used
• this was to help us decide how we would do the camera angles in our movie opening

We then got into our groups for the film opening and started to discuss ideas.  We started to discuss some of the ideas that we had for possible film openings

11/09/13 RESEARCH/PLANNING: THE BRIEF

I watched The Day After Tomorrow (Roland Emmerich 2004)

· This film opens with a long track shot over the Antarctic

· The shot is long to create the feeling of a remote location and to show that the location is quite dangerous

· It is done to make the audience feel as if they are on a plane travelling

· I wondered if this CGI or real footage, but the way it is done to make the audience believe that it is actual footage of the Antarctic

· The colours used in the opening are dark blue and white to build to the dramatic atmosphere

· All the credits had a reflection in the water to make it look that bit more real

· All the information is up front before it then starts with the live footage

· When it changed from the opening credits of the track shot to the live action it showed a flag and the location of where the place is.

Planning: The brief

I am working in a group of four. The other members of my group are Charlie, George and Kate. We have chosen brief 7 (video). The opening sequence from a new film, including titles, in any genre or mix of genres such as a comedy or thriller together with a storyboard. Maximum length: three minutes
I watched the opening to the television show Spooks
The genre of the show is spy and crime genre. From the first opening and the opening credits I could tell that it was based in the world of spies because of the phone call between two of the characters and the hidden object in his draw. The credits move quickly from one shot to another but not so quick that the audience can’t see what is in the image, they also do split screen images with the image of a person on one side and a building on the other presumably the building they work in

11/09/13 RESEARCH: THE ART OF THE TITLE

Production log 11/09/13
double lesson

The art of the title

I watched Pacific Rim (Guillermo Del Toro 2013)

·        Very dark colours, very technological, very masculine

·        The CGI in the opening credits show scenes of fighting which look like they are going to be in the film

·        The shots that appear in the opening sequence look very metallic to put more emphasis on the fact that there are robots

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/pacific-rim/



Pacific Rim

I then watched the opening for the film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Brad Silberling 2004)

• the opening was very foreshadowing it showed clips of things that were going to happen later on in the movie
• the people in the opening looked like they were puppets which could be saying that they don't have control over themselves that someone else is controlling them
• there is also an eye which keeps appearing in all the clips which could be to say that the children are being followed or watched where ever they go

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/lemony-snickets-a-series-of-unfortunate-events/
I then decided to watch the opening for Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino 1992)

• the opening introduces all the main characters that are going to be in the film and who they are played by
• the music is very catchy and makes me want to continue watching to see what happens
• the shots are establishing shots which go one after the other to introduce all the characters

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/reservoir-dogs/

Italin for beginners

The three main characters in the IT crowd are Roy, Mos and Jen.  Roy is lazy, where as Mos is technical but because of this also incredibly stupid.  That may sound weird but because of how technical he is there are sometimes when he does things that he thinks are technical which then later on will turn in to something would make people think that he was someone incredibly stupid.  Then Jen is someone who says things when she thinks no one is listening which then gets her in to situations that will just make her look bad.

Mos is comic because when he puts his phone in his top pocket he thinks he is being smart because it is quicker to get to his phone, but it is actually stupid because it falls into the toilet when he goes to flush it.  Jen is comic because she makes quick responses to what people say without even thinking about the consequences.  Roy is comic because when he hears about his girlfriends parents dieing in a fire at sea parks he gets really obsessed with it and his life starts to revolve around trying to work out how it happened.

The audience are positioned in relation to each character in a way where they know more about the characters then the other characters do or more then they know about themselves.

essay

A comparison of how women are represented in fragrance advertisements from the 1920’s, 1980’s and 2012

 

I have chosen to compare three advertisements that span nine decades: Babani of Paris Elizabeth Arden (print 1920s), The Senchal Woman (print 1980s) and Encounter Calvin Klein (moving image 2012).

The three advertisements provide very different representations of women: Babani presents the idea of a woman as an exotic, mysterious and distinctive creature, whilst The Senchal Woman is depicted as being powerful, independent and assertive above all.  By contrast, the woman in the Calvin Klein TV ad Encounter is the passive object of the man’s desire, the prize of a successful man.

 

Babani Elizabeth Arden (1920s, print)

 

The representation of the woman in this advert is exotic because of the clothing she is wearing.  She is holding what looks like an exotic bird.  The perfume bottle is in an arch that looks like it is from a foreign country such as India perhaps.  The name Babani of Paris is named after Babani which was a fashion house in the French capital Paris.  The woman is looking away from the viewer of the advert and is looking confident whilst looking at a bird.

 

The clothes she is wearing cover her legs and there are no sleeves on the top part.  The clothes she is wearing look exotic and from a country maybe India or a country from Asia.  The clothes in this advert are very different to the ones in the second one I choose because in this advert she is showing a lot of her body with the clothes she is wearing. 

 

The slogan “chooses for you the rare fragrances of Babani” is suggesting that the fragrance could be exotic, rare and from a different country perhaps one from somewhere in Asia.  Saying that it chooses for you could mean that it is trying to say that it is different for every person, trying to make it seem that it would be specific only to do with them.

 

I believe that this perfume advert is trying to say that if you wear this perfume you can look, act and be as confident as the exotic looking women in the advert.  This is something that women in those times would have wanted to be so that they felt better than other women.  I believe that the target audience for this one is women because it has a woman in the picture and because it is a fragrance advert not an advert for a man’s product such as cologne or deodorant.  Also because the fashion house Babani was a store that sold women’s clothing.

 

The senchal woman (1980)

 

In this picture the women is centralised and is standing in front of the Empire state building.  Which is where a lot of powerful people work and live.  So the advert could be trying to make the link that she is powerful.  Like the first advert she is looking away from the person looking at the advert.  The perfume bottle is to the right of the advert while as in the first one it is on the left.

 

The woman is looking confidently in to the distance.  Maybe at something or maybe at someone.  The slogan “she’s not going to marry the boy next door” gives the impression that this women is self reliant and doesn’t need a man to be successful.  The clothes she is wearing suggests that she might be wealthy to afford clothes like that.  The clothes are different from the first ones because in this one it covers her arms and her legs are being shown.  While as in the first one the clothes cover her legs and show her arms.  This one is also made out of animal fur while as the first one looks like it was made out of cloth.

 

The type of shot that they used for this advert in movie terms would be called a hero shot.  Where you see the main person by themselves and you can see all of them and that is what they have done here.  I think that it is trying to say that the woman in the advert doesn’t need a man to help her become someone that she can do it on her own.

 

This perfume advert I believe is trying to say if you wear this perfume you can be self reliant and not need to marry the first man you see to become somebody. Also it could be trying to say that if you where it you could be like a women who is rich and powerful.  I am guessing that the target audience for this advert is women because of the title The Senchal Woman and because in the picture it is a woman.

 

 

Calvin Kleain encounter (2012, moving image)

 

Encounter http://www.encountercalvinklein.com

masculine. intriguing. seductive.

Encounter Calvin Klein delivers a message of a modern, unapologetic masculinity. A distinctive sensual woody fragrance, Encounter combines an addictive blend of freshness, warm cognac and sensual woods.

 

Unlike the other two adverts this one features a man in it.  The woman in this advert is represented as a kind of prize for the man.  She could be called the prize for the man being able to get round the dangerous cliff road to the house sitting right of the edge of a cliff.  The whole advert is much like a Bond film in the way the man is driving then at the very end he gets the woman.  This advert, unlike other moving image adverts this one does not use celebrity endorsement and uses two people that people would only know from the Calvin Klein adverts.

 

The first main shot we see of the women is her looking out of a rain covered window as if looking and waiting for someone.  The first main shot we see of the man is at the beginning when we see him driving in his car towards the house on a cliff with the women in it.  The next one we see of the women is just after the man has arrived and gone in the house, we see the bottom of her dress, her legs and her high hells.  I think this might be used to try and attract men to the advert by using the male gaze of the camera to show parts of the women that aren’t covered by her dress.  The shot right before the end of the advert shows just how dangerous the area that the couple (now kissing) are in, with rocking cliffs and big waves right beneath the balcony they are standing on.

 

They used the name encounter for this advert and fragrance because the advert has two people who meet one another in an encounter.  The advert could be trying to say that if you use this fragrance then you can encounter someone that you like, or perhaps someone that is extravagant and exciting.  Someone who is worth a drive over a small cliff road to a small house.

 

The advert shows the man as being quite powerful and masculine.  Saying to the target audience, which could be men that if you wear this perfume you be can as powerful and masculine as the man in the advert.  The woman in the advert is being represented as a seductive force to get the man to come to her if this was a perfume which was directed at women it could be trying to say that it was trying to persuade them that if they bought the perfume they could be seductive and get every man they wanted.

 

This advert shows that woman as maybe wanting a man, while as in the second one it is saying that she doesn’t need or want a man to make her successful.  This advert is different from both of the other adverts because this one shows a love attraction between a man and a woman.  While as in the first one it just has a woman standing and the second one is saying the complete opposite of this one by saying you can be reliant by yourself.

 

The advert is quite dark and gloomy for the first few seconds of it but then it gets a little lighter as the man finds the women in the house.  With the music it uses the lighting of the advert, the rain and the setting makes the advert work really well and would make you stop and look at it say if you where fast forwarding through adverts on the TV.

 

The woman in this advert compared to the women in the other two seems to be more longing.  Unlike the other two adverts this women seems to want a man in her life where as the other two seem to be more stable without a man in their lives.  The clothes the woman wears in this advert are different to the ones in the first two adverts because in this advert she is more revealing of her figure while as in the first two the women have more of their body covered.

 

At the beginning of the advert the camera is moving quite fast and the different shots are changing quite statically.  From two second into the advert to seven seconds the shots change quite quickly showing how fast the man is going driving the car.  But then once the car has stopped and the woman has been brought into the advert the advert starts to stay on the same shot for more time.  I think this is trying to say that now that the man has gotten past all the dangers of the road he can slow down and get the girl.  Most of the camera shots in the advert are close ups of the people’s faces.