FM2 Research

Godzilla




Director: Gareth Edwards
Writers: Max Borenstein (Screenplay) and Dave Callaham (Story)
Released: 15th May 2014 In UK
Stars: Aaron Taylor- Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston
Cost: $160,000,000
Opening weekend money produced: $93,205,000 out of 3,952 screens
Gross total: $200,661,309
Based on: Toho produced, 1954 japanese film 'gojira' which is a japanese translation of Godzilla
Age: 12A
Genre: Action
            Sci-fi
            Thriller

My US Blockbuster Film is Godzilla released in 2014, this film was produced by Gareth Edwards, received $93,205,000 out of 3,952 screens in the opening weekend

One of the big stars, Aron Taylor-Johnson, also starred in Kick ass and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, famous for starring in these films, the british actor will additionally publicise the new film.
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	Technical Specifications Runtime: 123 minutes Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Colour: Colour (Not black and White)
	UK Production- Cuban Fury Director: James Griffiths Writers: Jon Brown, Nick Frost (original idea) cost: Production Company: Big Talk Productions Stars: Nick Frost, Rashida Jones, Chris O'Dowd Box Office: Opening Weekend:$57,105 (11th April 2014) Gross: $90,310 (18th April 2014) 14th February 2014 release: $1,618,222 Genre: ROM-COM Age: 15 Language: English, Persian Release Date 14th February 2014 (UK) US Independant-Aint Them Bodies Saints Director: David Lowery Writer: David Lowery Stars: Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Western Age Certificate:15 Country: USA Language: English Release Date: 6th September 2013 (UK) Filmed at: Shreveport, Louisiana, USA Box Office: Opening Weekend: $26,419 (USA) ( 16th August 2013) Gross:$387,606 (USA) (27th September 2013) Production Company: Sailor Bear, Parts and Labor, Primary Production World Cinema Language- two days one night Director: Jean-pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne Writers: Jean Pierre DarDenne, Luc Dardenne Stars: Marion Cotillard, Fabrizio Rongione, Pili Groyne Genre: Drama Age Certificate:15 Box Office:€7,000, 000 Country: Belgium, France, Italy Production Company: Les Films Du Fleuve, Archipel 35, BIM Distribuzione Runtime : 95 minutes Sound Mix: Dolby| Dolby Digital Colour: Colour Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Analysis of Underworld 

Centre Number: 31190 

Candidate Name: Rhys Griffiths 
Candidate Number:

Chosen sequence:35 minutes- 40 minutes 

Word count: 1421 words (excluding question and information above)  

How does the use of Cinematography and lighting create suspense and tension in this five minute sequence from the film 'Underworld'? 

Underworld is about the secret history of vampires and werewolves (an abbreviated form of lycanthrope) Underworld is primarily about Selene slaying lycans. The opening scene is a close up on a males face, this is a regular convention of the horror genre, and this draws the attention of the reader to the expression of the males face. During this scene, the whole room is surrounded in low key lighting which is a regular convention of the horror genre to show the darkness of the atmosphere. Followed by this is a jump scare to a montage of scenes with loud non diegetic music, this is a regular convention of the horror genre because it scares the audience which is a large purpose of the horror genre. Within this montage there is a close up on a statue with a religious symbolism, this also is a regular convention of the horror genre, the cross would symbolise purity and peace which is a complete contrast to the film with death and ghosts, ghouls and monsters. Also, within this montage, two knights open a door, this could symbolise opening the doors to hell which is also religious symbolism. The camera then cuts straight back into the scene where Selene and Michael are both on a chair and Selene is caring for Michael, during this time, within the conversation there is a shot reverse shot with shallow focus on the character speaking to draw the attention of the audience to the character speaking to acknowledge what they are saying to gain an understanding.

 

When Erika enters the room, the camera focuses on Selene on a shallow depth of view, the focus then dissolves onto Erika, and this draws the attention off Selene and onto Erika while she speaks, it then straight cuts to Michael on the furniture. This is to remind the audience of his position and his condition. The lighting at this point is low key, this would show struggle of his position as it is dark and difficult. This is followed by a straight cut to Selene looking down on Michael with Erika blurred in the background, this could be to show she is not important in this scene, it could also be to show that she is important but she is not as important as Selene to Michael. The focus is then drawn onto Erika, to show her importance, at this stage, half of here face is high key, half of her face is low key, this could symbolise her split personality, one side being at a level of normality, one maybe to represent a level of insanity. In this shot, the scene establishes the importance of Erika with a shallow depth of field. 

 

Soon after, a straight cut is used to enter the next scene of the film, this is introduced alongside a long-mid shot of Kraven, and this has been done to show his non-verbal communication, this is all talking with his body language. The fact his hands are curled up may show he is stressed, angry or negatively emotional, this puts the audience at unease, and this is because we do not know how Kraven will react or what his actions will be. During the conversation, a shot reverse shot is established, this is to allow the audience to focus on the character speaking, and this is backed with a shallow depth of field so that Selene and Kraven are both the centre of attention. 

 

Next, a tracking shot of Erika lurking towards Michael as he lays there hopelessly, this is coupled with the high angle shot on Michael to show he is, at this point, inferior to the power of Erika, this would make the audience uncomfortable because they might be thinking different ideas; Ericka is going to attack Michael, Michael is going to wake up to find Erika leaning over him and panic, Erika is going to drain the blood of Michael, a typical convention of the horror genre, the camera has deliberately been positioned this way to receive that attention. 

 

During the time Erika reveals Michaels wound on his neck, the camera focuses on the wound with a close up and a shallow depth of view. This is so the audience acknowledge the injury, Michael suddenly wakes up and the camera prioritizes Michael by placing a close up on Michaels face. When this occurs, Erika realizes that Michael has woken up and jumps off and dashes to the ceiling, this is shown via the use of a long shot to show she moved away at sudden speed, it could also be used to show her on the ceiling from Michaels point of view, also, it may have been shot this way to show the sudden isolation of her position, the fact she is different to Michael.  

 

Followed by that scene, is a shot reverse shot between Michael and Erika, this is so the audience can view the different reaction and the emotions running through each of their bodies. Then, there is a high angle of the floor showing a point of view shot for the height that Michael is willing to jump from, when he jumps out of the window, there is a low angle on Michael, this is filmed this way to show that Michael is in power of the situation, that he will escape from Erika, after, when Michael hits the floor, there is a neutral angle with a natural high key spotlight where he falls, with a natural low key area encircling the spotlight to show exactly where Michael will fall, this is done this way because low key lighting is a regular convention of the horror genre and it creates a feeling of suspense and tension within the scene, this is similar to the film Halloween (1978) when Jamie Lee Cutis was being attacked by Nick Castle, the environment was very dark and the scene very distressing

 

Immediately after that scene between Erika and Michael, there is a jump cut to another montage, this is done because within the montage there is a beast cuffed up like it is trying to break out, this could symbolize the beast within Erika or maybe even the beast within Michael and he is trying to break out. Also within the montage there is a lot of high key lighting, this could represent the idea that if he breaks out he will be in heaven, or it is a deliberate contrast to show the depth of hell that Michael will encounter, foreshadowing his future, the shot then cuts straight back to a low key mid shot of Michael, this has been done because the low key lighting matches the intensity and stress of the situation, the lighting is showing that Michael is in a dark place, where he is blinded by what he saw, how he doesn’t know where he is heading because it is dark. Suddenly, a pack of aggressive dogs attack Michael and he has to climb over the fence, during this period, the camera shows the low angle of the dogs to show superiority and then the long shot to show Michael scaling the gate and the dogs jumping, hoping to get a bite of Michael so he cannot escape. This was backed with a mid-shot of the dogs jumping to show how high they were jumping and Michael escaping.

 

Meanwhile, whilst the dogs are chasing Michael, Kraven enters the room that Michael has just escaped, glared at Erika and shouts at Selene, during this time, a mid-shot is established to focus on upper body non-verbal communication and the dialogue between Selene and Kraven. During dialogue, there is a shot reverse shot to focus on the characters dialogue, this is attached with the shallow focus and the close up, which is a regular convention of the horror genre as it is used in the film SAW II when Addison Corday is stuck in the ‘razor box’ a close up is used to show the disturbance on her face and to show the pain and stress on her face, of the two individuals, each shown individually so that the audience focus on the particular character speaking. 

 

After the aggressive scene of Selene and Karven arguing, there is a straight jump cut to Selene at a firing range shooting at a statue, this could symbolise that she hates Karven so she is shooting at the statue because she is imagining that Karven is the statue, although it could be just that she needed to release some steam, while she shoots the statue, the camera performs a shot reverse shot so that we know not only who is shooting but what are they specifically shooting at, shortly after, Khan enters the scene, there is a low angle at this point, this is to show that Khan is in control or that Selene is in control or maybe even that they both feel in control of what they are doing. During conversation, there is high key lighting which would show normality of a situation, however, due to the fact they are shooting at a statue, I believe that the camera has been positioned this way because it is a deliberate contrast between a normal environment and this environment. 

 

AS Film Studies 1000 Word assignment

Rhys Griffiths

Film studies 500 word per video assignment

In this assignment, I will be analysing the film “The Shining” and discussing the different techniques in two separate scenes, roughly 5 minutes each, I will be mentioning, lighting, editing, cinematography, mise-en-scene, etc.

Video 1- 0 seconds to 5 minutes

opening scene is an extreme long shot of the camera flying through the air crossing a lake, the camera then identifies the family, followed by a tracking long shot, zooming in and out, coming closer and moving past them like the flight of a bird. The birds of view scene shows the isolation of the family, this then shows the vulnerability of the family, this scene is a long take to add suspense and tension within the scene. The director has specifically shown the isolation in the family as it foreshadows what is going to happen to them later on in the film, the flight pattern of the camera represents a bird of prey, like the camera is stalking the family, this makes me feel tense as it foreshadows an event within the film added on with the daunting, eerie, dark non diegetic sound floating in the scene. The director deliberately shows this to make the audience feel uncomfortable as this shows the family’s aura. The camera then cuts to an extreme long shot of the hotel the family will stay at to represent the isolation of the location, this makes me feel weary of what might happen later in the film as they will not be able to retrieve help as nobody is around there to help. The extreme long shot also establishes that they are high up in a mountain so it would take a long time to escape or even if somebody managed to retrieve help, it would take a long time to get it. It then cuts straight to a false jump scare quoting “THE INTERVIEW” this happens throughout the film, this didn’t make me jump however, it did make me feel tense. After the false jump scare, the scene straight cuts to Jack walking into the hotel, when Jack walks in, there is a cross in the background, symbolises a religious element to the hotel, this is backed with the fact that the hotel is built on top of a Native American Indian graveyard. The director has deliberately done this because America is a patriotic country like many other countries and Native American Indians are part of American history. The camera then tracks Jack with a mid-shot while he walks to the counter and asks for directions and then walks to the office where his interview will be held. The interviewer, Stuart Ullman is wearing red, white and blue, anybody who knows the American flag knows that the colours of his clothing symbolise his country, showing patriotism, also, there is more of cultural element as America and the Native American Indian have had conflict in the past. The high key lighting shows the normality of the atmosphere, this is evident as it is seen as a normal interview with neutral colours, it represents that the atmosphere is normal and there is nothing extraordinary within the hotel.

 

 

 

Video 2- 24- 30 minutes

The opening shot begins with Jack and Wendy in the bedroom where Wendy has provided jack with breakfast, Jack is wearing a Stovington shirt with an eagle on the front, this is because Jack used to work for a school called Stovington Eagles, this links with the flight of the camera at the start of the film, the eagle that jack was wearing on his shirt is the same type of bird of prey that the cameras flight path represented. The camera then cuts to Jack throwing a ball against a wall with emphasis on the type writer, this could be to show he is lonely, isolated and wants company, the camera then suddenly cuts to Wendy and Danny walking through the maze, backward tracking then forward tracking, this is to add suspense as the non-diegetic sound plays a misty tune in the background, followed by another straight, sudden cut to jack while they track him until he reaches the model of the maze, there is then a long shot of Jack looking down on the model, representing the fact he is looking down on the family, this is then backed with the birds of view of the family walking through the maze, the director is trying to symbolise that jack is stalking and watching his family while they walk through the maze, foreshadowing the future events in the film, this makes me feel eerie as Jack does not seem unstable, yet he is constantly watching his family like an eagle, like the eagle on his shirt, the camera then zooms into the maze, this draws the audience’s attention, the camera then tracks back while Wendy and Danny are walking through the maze, this represents how they are trapped, they are trying to find a way out of this maze while Jack is watching them like an eagle, throughout the film from this point, jack is suddenly becoming less stable, the next cut is another false jump scare, establishing a time so the audience understand what is going on. Following the false jump scare, there is another extreme long shot of the hotel, again showing the isolation of the family within the building, there is a constant reminder that they are alone and have no help available. After, there is a straight cut to Danny on a tricycle, the camera then tracks Danny with a mid-shot as he cycles through the corridors of the hotel, there is also focus on Danny, Danny wears the colour red throughout the film a lot, red represents danger, blood, death, pain, the director has chosen these particular colours because it foreshadows future events within the film. When Danny reaches the room “237” Danny stops and the camera focuses on the room yet keeping Danny in the shot, This shows us that Danny has acknowledged he is outside room 237, the camera then focuses back onto Danny to show the audience his expression to show us how he feels, next the camera shows Danny entering the room which he was forbidden to enter.

AS Film Studies Blog

The opening scene of Black Swan reveals the female protagonist's unusual behaviour through the use of a tracking shot, which metaphorically acts as if it is following her to see where she is going. The uneasy use of diegetic sound from the other theatrical performances reveals the surroundings of where the scene is set. Looking at iconography, the use of the strong costume choices again reflects the genre of the film and where the scene is taking place. The close up shot used creates an assumption of her character, being mischievous and dismissive. Her body language shown through the use of mid shots shows her psychotic nature and posture as she enters a new room. A high angle panning shot reveals the blood on the floor allowing the audience to question what is occurring. Another close up shot of her face reflects her panic and anguish she is feeling which is highlighted by her loss of control over herself. The tilt used shows her reaching to grab a blanket, showing she is literally covering up something showing she has something to hide.  Using a transition being a cross dissolve in the sequence acts as if the scene has changed, and time has been manipulated making it a montage. Watching her applying her make up in the mirror creates a sense of duality and in a way reflects her mental state. Looking at miss en scene the mirror becomes hugely symbolic as it could metaphorically sugguest she is 'reflecting' upon what has previously occurred. Another high angle shot is used, which allows her panic and distress to seep through her make up and take over her.

The sudden diegetic sound of the door knock again reflects her panic, the close up shot that backs this up shows her intense reaction and worry. The opening of the door then goes into a two shot, which is followed by an eye line match as the camera shots show her looking at her and then shying away to the floor. The close up shot of the protagonist shows her guilt coming through in what has occurred, and her overall body language and loss of speech shows her fear. The over the shoulder shot shows her dominance in the scene, showing her importance. A mid shot used captures her posture, being very tense and worried about what has happened. The high key lighting reveals the surroundings through the use of the panning shot of the floor, revealing the broken glass. The broken glass from the mirror is hugely meaningful, as it could metaphorically mirror how her life is broken. The diegetic sound of the theatrical music played then turns into diegetic which still mirrors the overall location. The non diegetic sound vastly builds up the atmosphere and begins to foreshadow further events to occur. It also shows her mental state being hugely unstable and uneasy. The building non diegetic music reflects her emotional turmoil and shows her questioning her own mental state through the use of a close up. The panning shot showing us the blanket highlights its future use in the scene. A high angle shot shows that all of the blood previously shown has mysteriously disappeared, possibly suggesting her imagination and again mental distress. The non diegetic sons becomes overpowering, mirroring her current mind set. The motif music that is  commonly used in other films mirrors the whole overall genre.
Her eyes looking down at her stomach shows the realisation in her face, which then reveals a bloody wound. A mid shot of her stomach shows her heavy breathing through the use of the wound, which is emphases her pain. This particular shot reveals the internal pain she is feeling has now become external, as it begins to seep out of her. When pulling the glass out the hyperbolic music shows that this is the climax of this particular scene. The extreme close up then used shows her actual pain and the tears that have been brought with it.

The scene then switches back to the mirror which again allows her to reflect on whats happened. Showing her pulling herself together reflects her strength and determination, showing her passion for dance. Music mirrors that she can go on and succeed. A straight cut into her dance piece is again backed up by a long shot which shows her surroundings being the stage. The non diegetic sound again switches to diegetic as we know it exists inside the scene.The dancers in the background are still shown, but the main focus is still on this main protagonist. A tracking shot captures the speed in which she is dancing and the fluidity of her dance sequence. A close up shot of the wound is then shown through a zoom out which shows it increasingly growing as the dance then comes to and end. A close up shot then reveals her pain she us feeling. An eye line match with her mother in the audience creates a connection between the two as she portrays her pain across to her .A high angle shot used shows her importance in this dance piece, showing she is the centre of attention. A point of view shot as she hits the sheet at the end of the dance shows that everything has been taken out of her and the dance has defeated her. The close up shot shows her passion and love for dance which overall reflects her determination. The use of dialogue also backs this up. The end of the scene features the stage lights which she is looking up at. This symbolically represents her ' looking into the light' again reflecting her overall defeat.

Rhys Griffiths

AS Film Studies

Summer Induction Tasks

Task one:

“The Fault In Our Stars” was a successful film and became a box office success which means it made a profit by the film. It costed a total of 12 million dollars to make the film and the film made an amazing profit as it made 170 million dollars in return, part of this came from Thursday sneaks and the opening day of this extremely successful film. I believe the success not only came from the brilliant writers but also its audience, this is due to the fact that not only if nobody watched it it would make no profit but also due to the fact that the emotions of the audience led them to maybe watch it more than once, inspire a friend to watch it, or even inspire their families which can vary in size, what this essay is trying to say is that the marketing of this film is incredible, the audience was magnificent. Jake Schreier must have been overwhelmed when he finally realised the success of his film and I understand that John Green would be delighted with the profit and the brilliance of the film. The Guardian states that the film had 5 million mentions this made a difference in the success as it became more popular and more people would pay to view the film in a cinema creating a larger income. One of the reasons for its success would arguably be that people feel empathy and sorrow for the actors as they may be able to relate to them or even just sympathise for them. Marketingland suggest that SharedRank provides strategic analytics and advanced audience targeting through algorithm, this simply means that a computer is following instructions to calculate a particular order. Furthermore, the advertisement for the film makes a massive input into the success as they have to choose the correct actors to make the perfect scenario, they decided to choose Ansel Elgort as the main characters, this was evidently a good choice of actors as reflected by the success. Also the posters that they set out would make the film look intriguing and customers who recognise the actors in the film will consciously want to watch the film as they will understand they are a good actor and they would expect good scenes and they would expect to enjoy the film, the producers, co-producers of the film would take that into account and would make sure the film is spotless and in a state of perfection. Moreover, the screen writers would make sure they don't finish the film too early however they would not wish to drag the film on as it would lose interest and viewers would lose concentration, therefore losing ratings and losing money, decreasing the profit made off the film.

Task two:

My favourite film this summer would be Lucy, this is due to the fact how I can relate to the character, not because I have access to more than 10% of my brain but because I can relate to humanity and population and have hypothetical scenarios where I do have access to more than 10% of my brain. Also the advertisements influenced me to watch the film as it could be possible that in millions of years in the future if our earth survives that long that we may have more access as . If you look from an outer perspective of evolution, we are becoming smarter and smarter so I liked the film because it made me think of what life would be like if we could access more than 10%, obviously it would all be hypothetical, however it made me realise as a race what we could potentially be capable of. Moreover, the writer Luc Besson wrote the film brilliantly, the film began to make sense to me, as if I knew exactly what the scientists were talking about. The key aspects of the film I enjoyed was the science behind Lucy and why she could do things that nobody else couldn't, the action scenes, such as when the officers were defending Lucy and the scientists while holding off an angry organisation that wants Lucy dead. In addition to enjoy the action scenes I also enjoyed how she represented almost like a superhero, this made it interesting as there are not many female “superheroes” that are popular and common. This brought a new idea to the table of how people of a supernatural power can be represented in a film. I believe that the way they represented Lucy was clever because they shown Lucy as a civilian to show the rapid development of her intelligence, this reiterated the effect of the drug on the body of a human, which seemed to have no sudden effect, it seemed to see as how the drug acted as the adrenaline in the body and when the time came, the individual began to develop supernatural abilities, I believed that Lucy was well produced as it costed 40 million to make, however the film made a gross total income of just shy of 44 million, this meant that it was still a profit however compared to the profit of The fault in our stars, Lucy is seen as not that successful. However due to the fact that I have not seen 'The Fault In Our Stars' I am unable to make a comparison based on the film, however when researching I discovered that 'The Fault In Our Stars' was a more successful film.

Enrolment task:

Many films associated with the theme “horror” have similar structure or camera effects etc all designed to give similar effects on the reader, one of the different effects is low key lighting low key lighting makes me feel tense, more on edge, so when the jump scare occurs I am more likely to jump and be frightened. Also low key lighting can draw your attention to things that come more into focus while they appear to travel closer to you, by a camera movement method zoom, this can have different effects on the audience, if an audience member is not a fan off horror movies and is trying to brave up by watching films and become more vulnerable to jump scares and horrendous scenes within the film. “The Grudge” refers to this as a girl stands in a field and he camera moves closer to her. Also sound is a key aspect of a horror movie as without sound, the film would not be scary or horrifying, if for example, “The Cabin In The Woods” had no sound, then the film would not scare people, it would lose its purpose and lose lots of money making a film that lost its precise purpose,to scare. Another key aspect of horror movies is non diegetic sound, without non diegetic sound, a film would struggle to make the loud noises like the added in audio, non diegetic sound is what makes a jump scare, the music would be all tense and then it would suddenly increase the volume of the sound and somebody or something would jump out and scare the audience, hence the term 'jump scare'. Moreover, the camera movement, sometimes, the camera would track the victim if they are trying to run away, this is is so you can feel the pressure of the character while he/she is running. This is similar in the film, “Evil Dead” when the girl is running from the haunted house. Also in the film, “The Conjuring”, there are a few long shots to set the scene of where they are and this gives the audience a feel of where the people are located and how they are feeling at that present time. Also when the jump scares come along, they go close up of the bodies such as in the film “Chain letter” where he kills him from the glass roof, this is to give a disturbing image of the body, also in the film “chain letter” one of the scenes is a boy in a gymnasium on the treadmill, this scene was filmed mainly in a long shot to show the audience the atmosphere of how he was alone and nobody here to help.  

Hello, this is my bog, my name is Rhys