Micro Analysis

Macro-

• genre
• narrative
• Representation

Micro-

• Cinematography (camera shots, movement)(indicates emotion, clues)
• sound 
• editing
• mise en scene
• special effect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_hhiyhoRw8

cinematography and sound

Hush final fight scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_hhiyhoRw8

The whole of this scene is in low lighting which enhances the shadows. Low lighting does make everything seem very uneasy and adds tension and suspense. It also helps guide the audiences eye to where you want them to be this is used thought the scene and film.

I have chosen the final fight scene for the film Hush. The scene is full of tension for the main character discovering where about the murder is in her house, the fight and struggle to get away and then his death. The director has done this by using sound to create tension and suspense. I have chosen to analyse cinematography and sound. 

The scene starts with a low angle close up of the main character who is a woman. She appears to be sitting in the dark with a scared and concerned expression on her face. The low angle could suggest her dominance but as it is zoomed in to purposely show her expression it would suggest otherwise. The non-diagetic sound of thunder rumbling could reflect the characters emotion of the feeling of impending doom.It then sound gets faster and more high pitch making the viewer think something bad is about to happen but instead the sound stops and it straight cuts to a view of her back. The eerie sound starts again and several straight cuts of angles of closes ups and medium cuts show the woman it sitting in a bathroom in front of a bath. The man who is trying to kill her who is also present though out the whole film appears in the bath with a knife drawn pointing at her back. The main tension builder throughout the whole of the film and the scene is that the woman is deaf so she cant know where the murderer is. Because the viewer is aware of what is happening and is omnipresent throughout most of the film this gives a heightened sense of tension  as we fear for the woman's safety. The murderer whispers 'if I hit the right spot I can make you scream'. This is ironic as the film is called hush and again makes the audience feel what the woman should be feeling if she could hear.

A extreme close up of the woman's eyes show her realisation that the man is behind her. Various shots such as low angle wide shots and shots from above shot the action happening. As he tries to put the knife into the back of her neck he turns and stabs a knife into his leg, This moment is in slow motion which is really frightening for the viewer. The non-diagetic sounds quickens and gets louder but it doesn't feel as if it is at its most dramatic level since as the viewer we know there is more to come. We see the murderer screaming but we don't hear it, the makers of the film may have done this to show he still the dominant one and the pain will not effect him.

After the woman escapes the bathroom she limps into the kitchen which shows she has already been injured. The medium shots track her as she walks though the kitchen. As she stumbles the camera also shakes occasionally. This makes the viewer feel the pain of the woman but it also does make you feel as if the murderer it still following since it flicks between the front view of the woman showing her emotional pain and the behind to show she is still being followed. She drops to the floor to hide behind the kitchen counter and the scary sounds quieten down to make the viewer have a false sense of security.

The murderer then limps into the kitchen as the camera tracks his movements. His breathing is very heavy and fast and has been purposely made louder which quickens the pace and adds suspense. As he reaches the woman slumped over on the floor, from his point of view it is showing her at a high angle. This makes the murderer seem dominant and gives the impression that she is being swallowed up which may be exactly how she is feeling. It straight cuts to the woman's point of view and this time looking up at the murderer from a low angle shot. This makes her seem vulnerable and powerless giving all the power to the murderer.  He then swears at her and step forward about to strike. The music gets louder as she pull out a can of pepper spray and sprays it into the the murderers eyes and he lets out a scream.

The non-diagetic sound gets louder and deeper in pitch, this enhances the emotional impact on the viewer and tells us something is about to happen. A change is happening, it shows her from the low angle shot rising up from it, she is gaining power and dominance over the situation. The camera is very shaky as she struggles to switch on a very loud flashing alarm which deafens the murderer making him have just the same disability as her.

The main fight scene begins a medium shot shows the murderer slam her head into the kitchen counter and she is on the floor again showing low and shots from her point of view and high angle shots of his this builds tension since just as we think she has got away the situation worsens again. Her makes a lot of struggling sounds as he repeatedly kicks her. He puts bother of his knees on her shoulders and as a viewer we prepare for her to be strangled, instead she bites into his hand. The sound is very over emphasise and sounds quite gory but shows the audience how far she it willing to go to save her life.

The sounds is getting a lot faster as he begins to strangle the woman. The sounds of struggling also get louder making everything very tense. You see a close up shot of her hand struggling to get a cork screw lying next to her, which makes the audience on edge hoping she can reach it. The sounds beings to get quieter as the murderer beings to hit her head against the floor. From the woman's point of view we see the man from a low angle. The sound cuts out and it goes silent with just the sound of a fast heart beat. We see a medium close up of the man strangling her with her hands reaching up trying to get away. As the heart beat is getting slower explicitly telling us that she is dying it straight cuts back to the woman with hands around her neck from a high angle close up shot and she beings to struggle less and less as the heart beat slows down. With every heart beat it flicks to a photograph of her as she was a child getting older implying the end of her life. A close up of her reaching for the cork screw and grabbing it is show. Quickly is cuts to her plunging the cork screw into the mans neck. As soon as this happens you can hear the alarm sound once more which shows she has gained power consciousness and the tension is lifted. Blood spews out of his neck and the diagetic sound of it splattering is heard and also shown as it goes all over the woman. The man struggles then flops over beside her. A high angle shows them to now lying apart and you now as the audience everything is going to be okay.

Coarsework

• research
• 1/4 posters
• storyboard
• pitch
• Micro analysis

Storyboard information

Shot no. = a number (in order) of every shot.

Type of shot = Extreme long shot (E.L.S)

                         Long shot (L.S)

                         Medium long shot (M.L.S)

                         Medium shot (M.S)

                         Medium close up (M.C.U)

                         Close up (C.U)

                         Extreme close up (E.C.U)

High angle  -looks down on the subject

Low angle -looks up on the subject

Crane -camera mounted on a crane

Helicopter -camera mounted to flying machine

Steadicam -camera mounted on human in a ‘floating rig’

Dialogue: Not every word spoken. It is the start point and end point in the scripted scene.

Sound: Diegetic sound -the noises that the actors can hear in the film

             Non-diegetic -the noises added by the filmmaker (music/sound effects)

             Example 1: Actor listens music on car radio = Diegetic sound

             Example 2: The car explodes = Diegetic sound

             Example 3: The smoke settles -an ‘oboe’ plays a sad tune with a piano= non- diegetic 

             Example 4: Suddenly Tom Cruise comes back to life using his regenerating ring. A ‘wub-wub-wub-wub-wub’ =non-diegetic. 

Music: Type of music played

             Romantic

             Tension

             Creepy

             Funny/comedy etc.

None/continues: music and sound can stop or continue or not happen at all.

Timings: Exact length of shot in seconds. (2 secs, 3s) They might have to add up…(20 seconds)

Edit: How the shot changes into the next shot.

          Jump cut: straight into the next shot (dissolve or fade to black)

            

Editing (notes)

Continuity editing- a long or extreme long shot with loose framing. It is used to emphasise a smooth transition of time. It may not be filmed in the correct order but will be edited together afterwards. The continuity editing suggests a progression of events.

Montarge- a series or long event and lots of information that is cut down into a shot space of time to create a short scene. The different clips are edited together to emphasise their meaning. 

Straight cut- the most common basic type of transition. A short cut is when one cut instantly replaces another. Feature films usually depend on straight cuts.

Jump cut- two sequential shots of the same thing are filmed from different camera positions that vary only slightly. The shot gives the viewer the effect the time in jumping forward in time.

Shot reverse shot- when one character is show looking at another character that may be off screen, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character (shooting in one direction and then in the other direction.)

Eyeline match- similar to the reverse shot. It is used when you want the audience to view what the character on screen is looking at. The camera starts off looking at the characters expression then cuts to what the character is looking at.

Parallel editing- cutting two or more different scenes that happen in a row but in different locations. It adds excitement to what would have been a boring sequence. Often used to create suspense.

Cross cutting- similar to parallel editing. After you have shot lots of sequences you re-order them that would create a lot of drama that goes forwards and backwards in time.

Transitions- a transition is when one shot ends and goes into another shot. There is the straight cut that I explained earlier (when one cut instantly replaces another). Fade in/out, the second most common type of shot. It normally fades into a solid most of the time black. Although it is the second most common it will only be used a few times since it will symbolizes the end of a major story segment. The dissolve, also know as overlapping, dissolves happen when one shot gradually replaces the next. The wipe is a dynamic transition when one shot pushes off the other frame.

Camerawork

Close up- much more dramatic than medium or long shots. They are you'd when you want to emphasize someone’s emotion or expression

Extreme close up- This an extremely detailed shot. These types of shot are generally used to show just one feature on someone’s face that would be missed in a wide angled shot.

Mid shot- The medium shots may be cut from medium shots straight to close up shots to make a more dramatic affect. Medium shots are the most common shots in films showing most of the person’s body. The medium shot is in-between the long shot and close up shot. The medium shot also includes the two-shot, when two actors are facing the same direction and the over the shoulder shot, when two actors stand facing each other e.g. sitting across a table from each another.

Establishing shot- A wider shot that would focus more on the environment than the characters. The establishing shot introduces a new location e.g. a school, someone’s house, and a street. The establishing shot would nearly always be filmed with the same lens and in the same position. The shot would also last a couple of seconds before it cuts to a medium shot and close-ups.

Low angle- low angles are normally placed below the actor’s eyes looking up. This makes the characters look more aggressive or dominant, it could also be used to show something lurking.

High angle- The camera above the actor or subject, looking down. It would be used make the charters look weak, small or frightened often used to show the small size of a child in comparison to the subject looking down on it.

Aerial shot- A shot taken from a drone, helicopter or a person on top of a building. Sometimes introducing the film or new location.

Point of view shot- the camera looking out of the actor’s eyes. The camera may be shaky to show the person walking. The shot after normally follows by a close up.

Camera Movement

Tracking- A moving shot. The camera is mounted on a camera dolly track, a wheeled platform that is push on rails. Used in the days before Stedicams got popular. The phrase dolly-in means step towards the subject with the camera and dolly-out is the opposite whilst keeping the zoom the same.

Panning- Fixed on to a tripod, turning left or right. Often used to capture moving images like cars or people walking or to show a vast landscape. The best pan is revealing a piece of         information.

Tilting- the up or down movement of the camera. Tilts are often used to reveal an object or tall vertical building.

Hand held movement- If the action is moving to quickly or too unpredictable for the camera to be on a tripod, so the camera needs to be more mobile and able to move more freely and follow the action of the scene. Normally held by a cameraman.

Hitchcock zoom- also know as the ‘dolly zoom’. It’s a rare but stylistic shot. The camera has to move on the dolly closer or further away from the subject while zooming in or out.     

Film Pitch

The Normal

Target audience- My target audience will be men and women who are like to watch films with jump scares and the uncanny feeling. The film will be a 15+ age rating so mild gore scenes will be featured. The target audience will be from 15-18 with acceptations. Men and women will both be as interested but men more than women since they seem to enjoy horror more. They will be in some sort of education either school, college or university so will be going with friends at weekends maybe late night and won’t have huge amounts of money to spend. The motivation will be them wanting to go and watch the film from seeing a advert, trailer or being recommended by a friend. This way I can select what makes them want to the film and concentrate advertising in that particular area.

Logline- A mysterious stay at home mum is raising her child. In a emergency she has to get the next-door neighbour looks after the five year old daughter but she suspects something strange may be happening inside house 46. The way the girl stares into space talks gibberish and has strange outbursts of laughter. The uncanny mum returns does her best to keep her daughter away from the rest of the neighbourhood and try’s to keep her not so innocent daughters secret hidden.

Tagline- 'What you don't know won't hurt you.'

Genre- The gene is subtle horror/ supernatural. The film contains jump scares, possession and the whole film is based around the uncanny. How you see something ordinary but once you get to know it it’s very different.

Actors- A woman actress who will play the mum, a brilliant example of this person would be Elizabeth Olsen. She's starred in many horror films and is know specifically for horror films. A child actor that’s good at acting in a possessed/creepy way; she would have to be the age of. 5-13. A brilliant example of a actress would be Isabella Acres, she has starred in a few horror films she played a small vampire girl in 30 days of night and a small girl in The Mentalist. Any famous woman preferably in her 50's+ would play the neighbour who is very intrusive. She has to be outgoing and could play the role of the neighbour.

Similar films- The Possession, The Exorcist and The Exorcism of Emily Rose and films similar to mine but at the same time they are not. Mine is only subtle horror with few jump scares and not full on horror and gore.

Synopsis- Created with both male and females 15+ years in mind. It is a mixture of supernatural and horror. Starring Elizabeth Olsen and Isabella Acres.. A worried mother trying to keep her daughters possession hidden from her neighbour who is threatening to tell. (Appealing to both men and women who will like the horror/possession side and how she will over come the situation.) Living in a safe homely town, Sophie the 8 year old goes to stay at the next-door neighbour Sarah's house whilst her mum has to flee since there is an emergency. At the house across the road Sophie get's scared and wants her mum. She gets very angry and does some mysterious things. Showing the difference between what think you know and what you don't, and how the characters will act and work together in the film. The mother returns home and the neighbour tells the mum what she has seen. She locks her and her daughter in her house and tries her best to keep the secret hidden. Sarah get's drawn in by Sophie and won't leave them alone she get's a big shock when one day she breaks down the door...

Where would it be shown? - The film would be shown independent British cinemas since it is a British film. The film would hopefully become popular and be shown in big chains of cinemas and hopefully in America if I found an American distributor. (Films like the Exorcists that have been an international success and the setting should make sure it could be shown globally.)

Film Exploration

Explore the production distribution and exhibition of your chosen film.

The maze runner

Production details

The director of the maze runner is Wes Ball. He is an American film director, visual effects and graphic artist. He is best known for The Maze Runner, which is a book, based on a book series. The maze runner has 4 writers, 3-screen play and 1 who wrote the novel. Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, T.S Nowlin and James Dashner.  Wes Ball had a meeting with Fox to pith a three-film adaptation of a shot film Ruin. After the meeting they gave him the The Maze Runner novel, he came up with his take on it and by the end they said, “Great, you’re out director”.

The maze runner has three filming locations but Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA is the main location. Most of the film was shot on 8 of the acres of the Thompson farm in Louisiana. They built a 20-foot tall; 40-foot wide doors for the glade that is where most of the film is based each of the door weighed 5,000 pounds.

The main characters Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and Teresa (Kaya Scodelario). Wes ball saw Kaya on the set for skins and wanted her right from the beginning. Dylan O’Brien almost didn’t get the role since his hair looked ‘too MTV’. He saw Dylan starring in teen wolf and finally brought him back in.

Marty Bowen, Eddie Gamarra, Wyck Godfrey, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Joe Hartwick Jr. Lee Stollman and Lindsay Williams produced the film. Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfery.

Temple hill, TSG Entertainment and Gotham Group are the production companies for the film. Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen established the company. TSG is a film financing company who mainly finance action films. 20^th century Fox own TSG entertainment and financed the film.

The film was released September 19^th, 2014. Principle photography began on May 13 2013 and ended on July 12^th 2013.

The film earned over $348 million worldwide; the budget was $34 million. 

TSG Entertainment who is owned by 20th century who is the main company for the whole film financed the film.  

Distribution details

20^th Century Fox distributed the film along with Big picture 2 films, Imperial/Cinepix, Intercom, Oden, Warner Bros, KVH media group and Film1.

            The film is out on DVD and Blue ray, on Sky movies and the film was streamed on Netflix.

            The film was released in cinemas September 19^th 2014, and later released on December 16^th 2014. They chose to release the date to be around Christmas so the film can be bought as a present.

            In July 2013 eleven-character cards were released, this let every one get the first glimpse of the cast and to give the audience their first judgement. From the start of January 2014, director Wes Ball released one image a week, leading up to the film’s first trailer release on March 17^th 2014. 

The film was released worldwide.

            The cast in interviews promoted the film, posters were released and put on billboards and online. Trailers are also a method of promotion but teaser trailers were also released before the full trailer. This was encouraging people to watch it and getting the target audience aware of the film.

            The gross profit of the whole film worldwide profit is $334,367,824. The film has made a huge profit and will continue from DVD purchase. The company won’t make even near the amount of money they did then since the film has been out a long time and people are looking forward to the sequel films.

Exhibition details

The film was released in many different countries worldwide in many many different languages.

The film was played for 1h 53m in cinemas.

BBFC classification says the film is 15 since the film contains strong threat and attacks from large creatures. There is also strong threat from infected characters that become violent. The film contains violence between young people with heavy punches and blows. In one scene s character in shot, a spear hits another. There is some sight of dead bodies, but they only have limited detail of injury. There is sight of a pile of burnt dead bodies, surgery on an exposed brain, and an infected man screaming. The film contains mild bad language.

The film was released in 2D across the world. It was shown in small single screen cinemas to IMAX theatre. The Maze Runner was released on DVD and Blu-ray.

The film has been said to cater for boys, but its popularity is among girls. As the film is rated PG-13 to 15 the film isn’t at aimed young children.

The film appeals to the audience by catering to the fantasies of daydreaming boys, which made is popular among girls, selling their futuristic heroines to female audiences.

 The film has had 6 nominations and 3 awards have been won.