Monday, 9 November 2015

Alex, Please add the following elements asap:

2.    NO PRELIMINARY TASK EVALUATION EVIDENT
3.    NO BLUE VELVET TEXTUAL ANALYSIS (COULD USE BOND: SPECTRE INSTEAD)
4.    NO BLUE VELVET SCREEN GRABS IN PLACE
5.    NO BLUE VELVET VIDEO EMBEDDING IN PLACE

Friday, 6 November 2015

Blue Velvet Opening Scene





Blue Velvet Analysis

At the beginning of the clip we can see an image of a blue sky, red flower and white fence which can symbolise the American flag. This gives the audience the idea of an ideal America or, in contrast with the later scene, the myth of America.
 This continues throughout the clip with the red, white and blue fire truck which again gives us a false sense of security due to a fire engine usually symbolising danger. As we can see that the sirens aren't on and the fireman is giving what looks to be a fixed smile, we can understand that there's something odd about this situation. Another way in which Mise en scene is used in the opening of Blue Velvet is the shot of the TV at the end of the consistent ideal situations. For example we have the clear blue skies, open clean streets and innocent children walking home from school, however in a jump cut we can see something that largely contrasts. The next scene is a TV show featuring a man with a gun, this in a way confirms our preconceived ideas of the situation in hand being dangerous. This scene also acts as a trigger for the following scenes to all be negative, such as the pipe bursting and the man being attacked. This allows the audience to understand that all the events after this will be negative and therefore understanding that the innocent name 'Blue Velvet' doesn't reflect on the movies genre but is infant totally opposite.


The editing in the opening scene is also used in order to create effect in Blue Velvet, for example through the use of transitions which change throughout the clip. For example before the the plot twist of the mans attack, the scenes dissolve into one another creating a peaceful fluency as it allows each calming situation to sink in to the audience meaning they have opportunity to keep up. This matches with the idea of consistent ideal situations. However this changes once we see the man watering the garden; from here the transitions become jump cuts from one to another making it harder for the audience to keep up especially once the man has been attacked. This helps Blue Velvet create mystery and therefore make the audience curious as to what has happened to the man and watch further.

Sound is used in the Blue Velvet opening scene, for example, through the music used. The piece of music 'Blue Velvet' is used over all the scenes adding to the mood and helping it seem harmless and a completely different genre to what is it. Unlike the transitions, the music doesn't change when the mood of the scene changes which creates contrast. For example once the man gets attacked, even though the whole mood of the scene changes, the music still continues.





Camera angles are also used in Blue Velvet for effect on the audience. For example at the start of the clip, the director uses multiple establishing shots of different parts of the town. We can see a fire truck driving past in one shot, children walking home from school in another up to the man watering the garden. This is done to give the audience the idea of the friendly town and again introduce the idea of the myth of America. However the main establishing shot is the house of the characters which allows the audience to realise something is about to happen here. Camera angles are also used in the clip to allow the audience to have understanding of what is happening. For example the use of close ups when the scenes turn negative, like the hose pipe tangles around the branch. This helps the audience to follow along rather than having to guess or assume what is happening. 




Thursday, 5 November 2015

Prelim Task Evaluation

180 degree rule-

This is when the camera must only film within 180 degrees from where it is. This enable the orientation of the scene to be understandable for the audience. This is demonstrated in my film through the way the camera only stays within 180 degrees of the two characters and we are therefore able to stay in orientation. 

Match on action-
This is an editing technique that allows all clips to flow continuously. It shows different shots from the same point of a scene allowing the audience to be distracted from the slight cutting of shots and therefore makes the film stay realistic. This is shown in my film, for example, when the folders first hit the floor. A shot is taken of the characters bumping into each other, on the floor with the folders and then standing up with them- this all in one continuous shot.

Eye line match-
This is when the camera is positioned at the same level as the characters eye. This creates the illusion that you are seeing this character as the other person is. We are able to see this in my film when the dialogue first begins, first from the female characters point of view and then swapping to the male.

Shot Reverse Shot-
This is when we see one character looking at the other (eye line match) and straight after we can see the other character looking back from another viewpoint. This is demonstrated through the first few eye line matches. 



Story Board too Filming it 

We created a story board describing the different characters, what they did, the shots and dialogue with detailed pictures to show what the final shot should look like. This was an easy process apart from creating the dialogue as it was difficult to make it so the film didn't feel unrealistic. However an advantage of the story board was that it could be used as a guide to refer to when actually filming. 

This was completely different to how the filming actually played out as we didn't consider the factors we couldn't control, for example people wanting to walk past as we were filming in a haul accessible to all pupils. As a result we had to keep stopping the camera to either let someone go past or because a scene was interrupted which also took up more of our time as we had to re-film scenes. 

Editing

I loved the editing process as its my favourite part of media. I learnt, firstly, how to use Adobe Premiere as it was a programme I had never used before. I first learnt how to cut clips through double clicking the selected clip and then clicking the 'open' and 'closed' brackets at the point of the clip I wanted it to begin and end. I also created title such as the 'So Cliche' that appeared down the bannister. I was able to do this through taking the timeline to the point i wanted the title to appear, adding a title and then drawing a text box and rotating it to fit the bannister. Transitions were also simple to do once I learnt you had to choose which one i wanted and then drag it over to the gap i wanted it to go in.