At the start of the year we began our media course by learning the key concepts, MIGRAIN(E); Media Language, Institution, Genre, Representation, Audience, Ideology, Narrative (and Each of these are important).
Media texts construct meanings about the world – a picture, a film, a television programme or a newspaper article represents the world to help the audience make sense of it.
We then began to look at film shots and the different types of camera angles by starting off with a clip from Kill Bill. Here, I noticed a variety of shots such as long shot, 3-shot, wide shot, high/low angle, aerial shot, over the shoulder shot and many more. The director used many camera angles, shots, and camera movements throughout this film. One thing that stood out during the short clip we watched was the use of high angle camera shots. In some instances the camera was directly over the top of the actors then it would pan down and around until it was at normal level with everyone else, also showing the surroundings and atmosphere.
After getting to grips with the basic media skills, we looked at TV Drama – the genre we’re studying, and looked into the sub genres; crime, medical, sci-fi, soaps, teen, period drama, mainstream and American. We then had to present a presentation on a TV Drama of our choice. I did 90210; an American teen drama focusing on family life, high school and typical teenage dilemmas.
We then got introduced to the action film Die Another Day. This was a good example for us to watch and focus on the pre-production, production and post-production of a film. The $142 million production directed by Lee Tamahori included a lot of Computer Generated Imagery as a lot of the filming was unable to be done realistically. The pre-production included editing of the script, precise story boards, location decision, casting and research and much more which all needs to be thoroughly prepared before the filming can begin.
The production of the movie involved travelling to different locations, perfecting the dialogue, preparing costumes and props and thinking on your feet – if the weather was not on their side they would have to work around it as waiting until another day would be more expensive. Finally the post-production which makes the film come together and construct a consistent, flowing movie. This involves editing and cutting, adding sound effects and backgrounds via the use of a green screen. The promotion of the film is also very important, so this must to be taken care of such as advertisement, interviews and also the DVD and director’s cut.
After gaining the confidence to analyse and understand the main concepts of a film we then went on to look at our main topic, thrillers. A few words I would link to a thriller would be mystery, tension, suspense, shock, hero, villain, isolation, murder, stalker and psychological. To begin to understand the concepts of a thriller movie we started by looking at Psycho, a 1963 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. We looked at the camera shots and angles and the music, which stopped and started to create tension for the audience.
The Birds (1963) by Alfred Hitchcock was another film we analysed. After watching both of Hitchcock’s work it is clear to see how much the film industry and quality of both acting and editing has improved in time due to the new technology we have access to today. The camera shots in The Birds varies – when nothing scary is about to happen long and wide shots are used with a tracking movement, but to create tension close ups and prolonged panning shots are used to focus on the birds and the emotion of the woman’s face as her anxiety builds. Hitchcock creates the idea of innocence by using a diegetic sound of the school children singing in the background before the birds attack.
We then moved on to some more modern thrillers such as The Panic Room, The Game and Collateral. These were much better made and much more realistic. These are the types of movies I am inspired by for making my own thriller. The Panic Room shows a great way of presenting credits – the bold letters stick to the New York buildings showing the audience the location. During the credits there is a distinctive ticking sound behind the opening music to represent panic and a limitation of time. Collateral is different in a way that there are no opening credits; they run with the introduction of the movie which is another good idea for me to use, along with the focus on the main characters as they perform in a busy area but everyone around them is blurred and unfocused.
