Post 20 - Media Language - Mise-en-scene

Mise-en scene, the constructs of a scene, is one of the most vital aspects of a film to get right. This feature of film-making is all of what the audience sees, the locations, the props, the costumes, all of these are vital to the audience's understanding of what is going on in a film.

The short film above is based off of the video games 'Portal 2' and 'Half-Life'. Because of this, the mise-en-scene of the film was designed to be accurate to the design and image of both of the games, the example of the costumes is one of the most obvious, below are comparisons with the two characters and the live action film versions.

The detail in the film places the audience in a state of understanding, if they are a fan of the two games, they'll instantly know the character [although the title shows this too] but people who aren't aware of the games, will be able to tell that the male character is a scientist or engineer of some sort due to his non-military style armour and the female character has been in a science based area as her shirt says 'Aperture Laboratories' and the fact she has blood on her shirt and trousers signifies she's gone through a tough experience.

Lighting is also significant as the left image shows the character is either during sunrise or sun-set, due to the colour of the light, a slight orange; whilst the image on the right shows the character in bright daylight, the light to the side of him, this creates shadows which make him look powerful and threatening.

Post 19 - Media Language - Sound

Within sound I have looked at three main features: Diegetic sound, non-diegetic sound and dialogue.

Diegetic sound is important in terms of keeping the film within reality, if there were to be a lot of sound effects or music then the core of the film would be lost, dialogue would be lost. So as a group we must be sure that out recordings of our film have clear cut dialogue and when editing, than any emotion within the dialogue is not lost. Also when we do any scene, we will have to make sure any noises of movement, doors opening and closing, running of a character, much be clearly recorded, diegetic sound constructs the atmosphere of a film, and we must make sure we keep an atmosphere.

In regards to non-diegetic sound, I have taken an opportunity to look into music within films and have found pieces of music we could use in our own film. I went onto the website 'AudioNetwork', which provides copyright free music and sound effects, and collected a few pieces of music. seen below.

City Lights is one of the pieces I've like to use during the town scene of our film, when our main character is running around, the beat of the film provides tension and dramatises the quite simplistic scene.
Cardiac Arrest is one which I would like to use as a sound effect, the thumping sound of a beating heart is present at the start and could be used to signify fear in our character.


In regards to dialogue, I've looked at the below film to study into how not a lot of dialogue is as effective as lots of dialogue.

In 'blind', the opening contains vital and clear dialogue which tells us where the film is set, the language of Japanese is apparent and the TV warning of radiation hint at a different world to our own. Along with the male character is acting protective of his pregnant wife. However as the film continues and we hear more muffled dialogue because of the gas masks the characters are seen to be wearing, this muffled dialogue places the audience into an uncomfortable position, and brings the atmosphere of a different world even more into play.

The film focuses more on diegetic sound, little hints of humanity, along with non-diegetic music, rather than using a lot of dialogue. This, to me, portrays the male protagonist's fear and emotions to his daughter in the scene where they are along in a white room.

Post 18 - Media Language - Editing

Editing in a film is crucial, both the cuts of the shots and any special effects be it visual or sound. It brings a film to life and emmerses the audience into it.

Again I looked at the film 'True Skin' to analyse the CGI and camera effects.



The concept of the film is based around cyborgs and robotics and thus relies on a lot of CGI to make it work, the graphics of the film are high-tech, consisting of lots of bright lights and neon lights, flashing images and hologram projections. I like how the editing of this also relies of focus, from the picture below, you can see that the hologram symbol is out of focus and the focus is instead on the character, the symbol still holds prevalence at the from of the shot, creating the universe where everything is like this.

Through the CGI the ending also connects to the audience, through the finger print and 'click here', whilst it doesn't get audiences to do it, the concept of placing it as a POV of the main character builds the connection to the audience.

The editing of the camera shots is also something I noticed, the speeding up of multiple shots added to the effect of a non-human world and a non-human character, the blurring in this part also was noticable, and is something I feel we could use in our own film.

Post 17 - Media Language - Camera

Camera shot, sizes and angles convey the way in which a film is shown to the audience, a close up of a face emphasis' emotion and thus creates an emotional response from the audience, whilst wide angles long shots convey isolation of a character or location, possibly showing the audience physically how a character is feeling.

For this post I have looked as the short German drama film 'Awakening (Ontwaking)'.

One of the opening shots to the film introduces the audience to the main character, the medium close up of the girl's face, in the left center of the frame, instantly connects to the audience. The shot also contains the character laying horizontally across it, as the character begins to move about, this results in part of her face being out of frame, this to me break the flow of the shot, breaking the connection to the audience. 
In relation to our film, I want to make sure that this doesn't happen with close up shots.

There is a wide shot repeatedly used during the film, this shot is a key camera feature of the film. It explains to the audience partly why the mother and father are concerned when the protagonist mentions the grandmother. The separation between the mother and grandmother appears further apart than in other shots in the film, conveying to the audience early on that there is a greater separation between the two. Something I feel we could use for our character and other people when he's walking in the town scene.

I also looked at the film 'True Skin', to look at how using canted angles would be a feature we could use in our film. The film contains a lot of shots which are just off center or off balance, this adds to the quick pace and jittery editing of the film, I think we could use this idea in our film as our character starts to break down.

Post 16 - Representations of Women

As with the previous post, I have used the website Linoit to create a collage/collection, this time of features of female representation in the drama genre.

Post 15 - Representations of Men

For this post I have used the website Linoit to create a collage/collection of features of male representation in the drama genre.

Post 14b - Audience Research

Audience Research Methods

Audience research is key into planning out a film to target the audience a film-maker wants. For media institutes to understand how their audience will react or take their products, they will use companies such as BARB and Box Office ratings in order to determine what film or tv program will work best with how the audience is reacting to certain film genres at the time. This data will include Facebook likes, Twitter mentions, Gross profit etc.

Research types

Quantitative - Research that involves data (numbers of some sort), often done through Box Office ratings BARB viewing figures. This form of research is taken from other sources. 

Qualitative - Primary research such as research done through interaction, focus groups, interviews etc. 

Post 14 - Audience Positioning

Camera places the audience into the film. So it is important when choosing shot sizes and angles, which ones to use to immerse the audience and connect to the audience best.

POV

POV shots are a feature which places the audience straight into the character's eyes, the image to the right is from the short film 'True Skin' and is a POV shot of the main character as he talks his way through a process of storing memories, there are adds which float around this shot and the finger print and 'click me' move around, the audience follows this.

A POV shot can also signify a danger to a character, this kind of shot, audio matched, for example, with heavy breathing, would place the audience straight into the position of fear and tension, this is something seen in horror films or thriller films especially during quiet scenes where a character has just run.

Camera Placement

In a film, if a camera is placed in an unusual placement, other than on a crane or freehand, or as part of a shot-reverse shot, it encompases the realisim of the film, the image to the right from one of the 'Die Hard' films, places the audience within the air vent the character is, placing them close to the character and thus the situation.

In the film 'Trance', there is a shot in which the camera is placed in the main character's pocket in order to show a plot point. This use of a different camera placement disorientates the audience but also places them in the same situation as the main character.

Post 13 - Film Rating/BBFC

BBFC Ratings

U - For all ages viewership.

PG - General viewing, although some scenes may not be suitable for young children.

12A - No-one under 12 can see the film, may upset those under 12.

15 - Suitable for people 15 and above.

18 - No-one younger than 18 can see the film.

R18 -  Can only be licensed for special cinemas, only available in licensed sex shops. 

Examples of the rating system

Footloose 1984 - Cinema release PG - DVD release 15 rating - Re-release 12A

BBFC examiners noted scenes of violence, sex references and drug use, this deemed it a 15 as it followed these points from the BBFC website:

• strong violence
• frequent strong language (eg 'f***').
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

However after cuts, it met the PG rating the distributors wanted and was released in cinemas with a PG rating. It wasn't until 2002 when the full uncut DVD release hit the 15 rating it originally had, and then the 2007 cinema re-release resulted in a 12A rating.

Post 11 - Script Feedback

In order to improve our script, our group took the opportunity to speak to a professional scriptwriter - Dudi Appleton - about our film script, giving us feedback on how to have it make more sense and on how to have a definite story. He also provided a basis that we needed to have a 'key' in order to explain what's going on with our main character and why he's taking people's memories.

We did the interview via Skype chat, I recorded it, thus my voice may be much louder than others and some of the voices may cut-out because of connection/microphone.
The recording below will need to be started at 1:57, as that is where we began the interview.



Things taken from the interview:

• That we really needed to have a clearer script, parts, mainly scene 3 till scene 7, seemed too confusing and needed to have features cut to make it simpler, there was too much in too little time.
• As a group we needed to think of a 'key' that would explain what is happening, the scriptwriter suggested with the woman forgetting her marriage, having her holding/having collected an aspect of the wedding, such as a photo album or a t-shirt, that would tell us, it is her memory we are seeing and then use a technique to show that Thomas has taken it. This is because as it stands it could be seen that he has instead placed the memory inside her head rather than vise verse.
• In relation to the key, he also suggested a, termed 'cop-out', of having our character telling someone about the events and then that person forgetting our character.