Continuity task: analysis of images.

During my project i will undertake a continuity task. To help me with this, i am going to analyse five images where somebody is interacting with either a window or a door.

Girl Looking through car Window
This photo shows a young girl with a confusing look on her face. If you look further into the photo you can see that thereis a reflection of a house, this could be her own house of which she is being taken away from. This is a good image to show a child emotion.




Girl looking through hut window
Even though this african girl looks satisfied, this picture looks as though it is showing pverty and how this is how some people live. To some viewers this looks like a shamble of a home, but it is actually the home of this young girl, and she doesn't know of anything better in her life due to poverty in the 3rd world countries. The picture shows contrast between light and dark, and this young girl is alot lighter than the rest of the picture which i think is trying to prove her greatfulness.

Boy looking through Window

Girl stepping through Door frame

Veiwing Girl through a doorframe

all photo's from google images.

Example Films under classifications

U - A Bugs Life
Every year, a bunch of grasshoppers come to the anthill and eat what the ants have gathered for them. The "offering", as the ants call the ritual, is a part of their fate. One day in spring, when the offering's preparation has just been finished, Flik, unliked inventor ant, accidentally drops the whole offered seeds into the river. The grasshoppers come and give the ants a second chance to collect food until fall. Flik sets off to find bugs that are willing to fight the grasshoppers (nobody expects him to succeed anyway) and, due to a double misinterpretation, returns with a circus crew, giving everybody new hope. When the misunderstanding finally gets cleared out, there is only little time left for a new plan, which has to work, or else


PG - Shrek
Determined to save their home-not to mention his own-Shrek cuts a deal with Farquaad and sets out to rescue the beautiful Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) to be Farquaad's bride. Accompanying him on his mission is a wisecracking Donkey (Eddie Murphy) who will do anything for Shrek- except shut up. Rescuing the Princess from a fire-breathing dragon may prove the least of their problems when the deep, dark secret she has been keeping is revealed.

12 - King Kong
Carl Denham needs to finish his movie and has the perfect location; Skull Island. But he still needs to find a leading lady. This 'soon-to-be-unfortunate' soul is Ann Darrow. No one knows what they will encounter on this island and why it is so mysterious, but once they reach it, they will soon find out. Living on this hidden island is a giant gorilla and this beast now has Ann is its grasps. Carl and Ann's new love, Jack Driscoll must travel through the jungle looking for Kong and Ann, whilst avoiding all sorts of creatures and beasts. But Carl has another plan in mind.


15 - District 9
When a group of aliens come to earth, they are secured in an area of South Africa known as ‘District 9’. Soon a private company, Multi-National United (MNU), is assigned to look after the aliens. However, they are more interested in understanding the extra terrestrials’ weapons than safeguarding their welfare. As tensions between the aliens and humans increases, an MNU worker - Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) - contracts a mysterious virus, causing his DNA to mutate. Now Wikus holds the key to the alien technology, and becomes the most wanted man on the planet


18 - Halloween 2


Michael Myers is still at large and no less dangerous than ever. After a failed reunion to reach his baby sister at their old home, Laurie Strode is immediately taken to a hospital to be treated by the wounds that had been afflicted by her brother a few hours ago. However, Michael isn't too far off and will continue his murdering 'Halloween' rampage until he gets his sister all to himself.


For the regulations of this blog i am not going to give an example of an 18R as it is restricted on this site. You can kind of guess for yourself how far an 18R film goes when mentioning fetish and sex.

Notion of Protection - BBFC

Censorship/classification is to protect the public and their moral issues towards life and living.

(Information obtained form OCR textbook)
Film censorship does not, simply, mean the banning of violent or films with sexual content. There are many reasons why films have produced outrage in the past and have been either banned or cut/edited.

Even the record-breaking Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, though not censored, raised concerns. It was teachers who warned that a dangerous interest in the occult could be s possible outcome of the film's huge influence over children. As is often the case, it was only the film release that raised any concern (the same was true of A Clockwork Orange and Crash, both acceptable in novel form).

The BBFC have to take a number of issues into consideration when classifying films:

1. Sexual violence
2. Emphasis on the process of violence and sadism
3. Glamorisation of weapons that are both particularly dangerous and not already well-know in Britain
4. Ill-treatment of animals or child actors
5. Details of imitable, dangerous or criminal techniques
6. Blasphemous images or dialogue

Film Classifications

I went on the BBFC website to research the catagories of film clasisfications and this is what i found..
"U Universal –
Suitable for all
It is impossible to predict what might upset any particular child. But a ‘U’ film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. ‘U’ films should be set within a positive moral framework and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror.

PG Parental Guidance –
General viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children unaccompanied children of any age may watch. A ‘PG’ film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more
sensitive children

12A/12 –
Suitable for 12 years and overExactly the same criteria are used to classify works at ‘12A’and ‘12’. These categories are awarded where the material is suitable, in general, only for those aged 12 and over. Worksclassified at these categories may upset children under 12 or contain material which many parents will find unsuitable for them.

The ‘12A’ category exists only for cinema films. No one youngerthan 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult, and films classified ‘12A’ are not recommended for a child below 12. An adult may take a younger child if, in their judgement, the film is suitable for that particular child. In such
circumstances, responsibility for allowing a child under 12 to viewlies with the accompanying adult. The ‘12’ category exists only for video works. No one younger than 12 may rent or buy a ‘12’ rated video work.

15
Suitable only for 15 years and over, No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

18
Suitable only for adults
No-one younger than 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 18 may rent or buy an ‘18’ rated video

R18
To be shown only in specially licensed cinemas, or supplied only in licensed sex shops, and to adults of not less than 18 years. The ‘R18’ category is a special and legally restricted classification primarily for explicit works of consenting sex or strong fetish material
involving adults. Films may only be shown to adults in specially licensed cinemas, and video works may be supplied to adults only in licensed sex shops. ‘R18’ video works may not be supplied by mail order.

Looking at these restrictions, i think i would liek to do my opening sequence of a film under the classification of a 12 or 15 as i think i would get a bigger audience.

(information from www.bbfc.co.uk)

Casino Royale Essay

How the opening sequence Casino Royale fit’s the conventions of Film Noir

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSpr6spIGpM

http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html

Typically, James Bond’s opening sequence to ‘Casino Royale’ fits into the conventions of film noir easily. Made in the 1940’s, film noir was characterised by high-contrast of black and white photography; this gave the appearance of gloom and bleakness, which created the mood of this genre. The characters presented in a film noir are usually combined between a protagonist and an antagonist, along side a damsel in distress. Casino Royale’s opening sequence is a typical clip of a film noir.
The story-line in this opening sequence is quite twisted. Usually in film noir’s, the story-lines are complex and quite detective type stories to get the audience using their brains. This is proven in this sequence by James bond being quite bleak and set back, creating mystery, whilst the other agent is trying to act brave, yet slowly questions him. Supposidly, James Bond isn’t aloud to kill the agent as he (Bond) only has one ‘0’ and to kill the agent she needs two ‘0’s before the 7. However Bond sees it as if he kills this agent, he will have two ‘0’s. The shooting of the agent is quite slow, as it build up with flashbacks on Bond’s first killing. This also links to the final cliff-hanging line of the opening sequences and the agent begins to say ‘the second killing is..’ once shot, Bond finishes the line and says ‘easier’. leading into the title sequence. Along side the setting, lighting and camera angles, all this grabs the audience and makes them want to carry on watching.
Straight away the clip is set in a bleak urban industrial estate at night, which is a common convention of a film noir. Slowly introducing the characters, it keeps away from showing the whole body of a character but shows all the surroundings, this keeps the suspension within the audience, still keeping a ‘gloomy’ sense too. The camera shots have a lot of close up’s and tracking shots, which creates a more intimate relationship with the audience, to make them feel as thought they are part of the film, therefore makes them feel quite tense.
The first two minutes of the opening sequence are kept very dark, creating silhouettes of the characters which is very often used in film noir to keep the audience guessing. This usually leads to a sudden movement or introduction to another object or character, in this clip, James bond enters, almost ghost type in a very low contrasted set. A single source lighting is used throughout the whole meeting of James bond and the other agent to create a dark, claustrophobic appearance. The interior of the building in the set is very maze-like and the tracking camera work emphasises this.
Flash backs are also used in this clip which have a very high contrasted set, the whiteness in the set is very pure white, this is to show that it is the past; a common factor of film noir. The whole clip is told with an under laying foreboding background music, which gradually grows louder.
Film noir have common elements of visually expressionistic lighting, deep-focus camera work and venetian-blinded windows. This opening sequence shows and example of each of these elements. The lighting, as mentioned before is very low-light, and the venetian-blinded windows are shown as letting in only a small source of light.
I think Casino Royale begins with film noir, as Film Noir is the original detective-like film. This suggests that James Bond is also original, however it’s now been modernised. By using film noir as the opening sequence, the audience are intrigued, as everything appears to be untold and mysterious.

SoundBite's.

After a lesson in class, we got told that we needed to write up our work in the form of 'Soundbite' essays - what are they?

Through research and discussion, I found out that Soundbite essays are liek mini Essays; chunks of a larger extract, reaching the most inportant things. An example of a soundbite essay could be, a blurb on the back of a book, a synopsis of a film or even a headline on a news paper. All of these narrow down a larger extract, getting the most inprtant information needed. This is supposidly how my blog will work.

Distributrion, Marketing & Exchange.

Distribution involves methods of how a product can be consumed. Whatever the product is, it iwll have a differnet way of being consumed. As for film, it can be consumed by digital viewings or streaming at the cinema, it can be bought or rented from a shop and watched at home, it can be seen on the internet on sites such as YouTube, or maybe posted in a leaflet or newspaper.

Marketing is the way the product is presented to it's consumer, such as advertising. This can be done by: teaser trailers of a film at the cinema or home, it can be advertised in newspapers, magazines, leaflets, billboards, packaging, internet posts/ads ect..

Not only can the film be distributed it can eb exchanged. Once the user has consumed the product, they can thene xchange it with another consumer and this becomes a continuous cycle. The Product can be consumed different ways and in different styles. Not only can you rent or buy the film from a rental shop, it can be consumed through either HD, 3D, DVD and Blue Ray, being screened on TV, internet or on the computer.

Target Audience - Grouping.

The ACORN system isn't the only way that a target audience can be based on. A target audience can also be based on the audiences personal preference and style. In this case, I am basing my research on film and genre. This system also has 6 different catagories: Passive, Active, Headonist, Preferred, Traditional, and Post-modern.

Passive - these consumers are people that dont necessarily go to watch a film by their own choice, they go because either their partner, friends of children wants to.

Active - these consumers are people that act upon the adverts of a film and go to watch it through purely their own choice.

Headonist - these consumers take risks. purely committed to their own enjoyment they will choose films which look good, they don't just base themselves on the same genre.

Preferred - these consumers don't specifically committ themselves to a genre, however they will choose to go and watch a film fo the preferred choice, this is the target audience that the product has been aimed at.

Traditional - these consumers are maybe seen as a 'dad' type figure following a traditional structure eg. watching the series of James Bond over and over again. This type of person would choose to continuously watch the same genre of film because they know they like it and they are not willing to take risks.

Post-modernist - These consumers are very much up-to-date. They too take risks, however they base themselves on re-made films. They like to refer back to the past by comparing an old film against it's modernised version.

My main consideration for my own film noir is making sure I have a target audience.

Target Audience (ACORN system)

A target audience is a primary group of people that a certain product is aimed at. A target audience can be people of a certain age, gender, race, class, education and earnings. Discovering the appropriate market for a product is one of the most important stages in market research. Without knowing the target market, producing and marketing the product could become difficult. Because of this, when i come to making my short film noir extract, me and my group will need to knwo the target audience before we begin. To do this, we needed to find out some different groups that we could use. An example of this stereotypical quantitive system could could be the ACORN system.

The ACORN system groups people within 6 grades: A, B, C1, C2, D & E. Grade A being the highest would include people such as surgeons, lawyers and people at the very top of the business ladder. Grade C1 and C2 are very close groups. These would be the boundries of the most 'average' working people, including teachers, nurses ect.. down to E being the unemployed social group living from the minimum benefits either from not being able to work or not wanting to work - typically this group of people are the group that film producers like to base their films on as a type of 'hated' social group.

Film Noir

FILM NOIR - what? that's exactly what I thought when I first heard it. So there I sit, in my first lesson and I get told I have to do a project on film noir, confused? - much! So I researched film noir and now I feel I have a good understanding of it, at least now I can identify what film noir is. So then I had to write 500 words on the Opening Sequence of Casino Royale.

This is the clip I analysed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSpr6spIGpM

This was the useful website I used:
http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html

MY FIRST POST!

Okay, so this is my first post and this is what i call my 'starting point', so be nice! In this course i am going to explore the different levels of media, whilst making my own opening scene to a film noir, experience the ways of television drama, and finally do a case study. I am confident that i can achieve the very best to my ability through-out this course. So i'm looking forward to doing it! (: