Foley Artists

The name 'Foley' comes from Jack Donovan Foley, who started experimenting with his own sounds in 1927. A Foley artist is someone who creates the sounds in movies for a living. These are not just any sounds, but are the sounds that cannot be heard in the initial filming of the movie. Thus, they are creating non diegetic sounds to emphasie the diegetic sounds that were not very audible. Ways in which Foley artists recreate diegetic sounds are:

1. Dropping a phone book on the floor

2.Beating an apple with a stick

3.Footsteps on different textures

4.Banging cocoanuts

5.Using water

I found it challenging making my own Foley sounds because for some pieces it was difficult to find an object that will portray the sound I wanted. This was partly due to the limited resources I had around me at the time. However, I found it really interesting learning about Foley sounds as I did not realise that this is what people did for movies. One example we did was Andrew walking down the stairs, we recorded this and then counted the steps in which he took and then banged a shoe against the wall with the same beat to create the sound of him walking down the stairs.

I could implement Foley sounds into my thriller opening to emphasise the suspense in the movie opening, and to highlight all the little sounds to put the viewer on edge, e.g emphasising a creaking door, or footsteps in the background.

Investigating Generic Conventions

Blade Runner:

Genre: Sci-fi Thriller

Narrative: The blade runners are hunting down replicants that have escaped, although this is tough because they look just like normal human beings. Harrison Ford soon discovers that in fact, the replicants are looking for him too, and that it will be a race against time to see who finds who first. It then turns into a love story.

Iconography: In a Sci-Fi Thriller such as this, we would expect to see futuristic landscapes and abnormal objects flying around. There are also superhuman beings in the form of the replicants. Also, on the thriller side, we would expect to see fighting scenes and chases which will make the audience jumpy and create a tense atmosphere. 

Characters:  We can obviously see there are protagonist and antagonist characters which is a common convention of the thriller genre. The protagonist is played by Harrison Ford and the antagonist is the leader of the replicants. These types of characters are crucial to a thriller because they drive the storyline and are responsible for creating suspense throughout the film.

Camerawork: The first scene leads straight into a birds eye view shot over the city. The effect of this is that it shows their is some form of supernatural being that can fly in a ufo type object in the sky. This emphasises the Sci-Fi genre in the film. There is also a few close ups of the 'blade runners' at the beginning which highlight the emotion , in this case fear, in their faces about having to track down the replicants. The majority of the film includes dark scenes which creates the sense of danger and the unknown.

Settings: The location used for this film is in a large city with many high rise buildings. This shows that a large amount of people are in danger, as a big city implies a huge population. Also it isn't a quiet setting so people can blend in more, making it easier for them to escape.There is also the small office at the beginning which is a common scene for someone (the cop in this film) to be briefed on his task.

The Bourne Identity: 

Genre: Psychological/Man-on-the-run Thriller

Narrative: The governments top agent finds himself suffering from amnesia and can't remember who he is, or anything that happened to him prior to the two weeks that he can remember. He sets out to discover who he is, but is also on the run from the government who are chasing him because he is capable of dangerous skills, but is not aware of this. It soon becomes a race against time for him to discover who he is, before the government discover where he is and stop him.

Iconography: It is expected that we will see many high speed car chases, as well as guns and government meetings. Also the police will be prominent characters as they aim to find Matt Damon, before he finds himself. Also we will expect to see a lot of spy equipment such as hidden cameras and microphones as the government try to keep tabs on him.

Characters: The main character is Matt Damon, who is the victim of amnesia but also of the government as they are now in pursuit of him. Initially he was one of them, and very good at his job so would be a protagonist, catching criminals, but now it has flipped and he is the one being sought after. We sympathise with him as he does not know who he is, which links in with the psychological aspect of the film's genre.

Camerawork: In the first scene, Matt Damon is a silhouette which could imply one of two things, he is dark because he is dangerous or he is dark because he is empty, no one is there as he cannot remember who he is. Most of the scenes are at high speed which show the fast pace of the film, but also the race against time they all characters are facing.

Setting:  The setting of the film is clever by using big cities such as Paris. This introduces the theme of an international operation which makes the film more exciting. Also by using such iconic locations, the high speed chases look more effective,thus the operation also looks more official and realistic.

Breaking down film titles

Here is my timeline on film titles for 21 Jump Street. I got the initial title sequence from www.artofthetitle.com and then re watched the clip so I could stop and write down the times on the timeline.  The point of doing this task reinforced the idea that the titles appear in a certain sequence. By doing this task I learnt how long roughly each title should appear for and that this is usually the same in every film. I also noticed that the opening titles are not just titles, but also that they can have montages of images and shots whilst the titles are appearing, which I didn't take much notice of before.

My Thriller Mood Board

Here is my Thriller mood board to show my understanding of genre. I used images of scenes from an array of famous Thriller movies such as 'No country for old men', 'The silence of the lambs' and 'Training Day'.

Analysing thriller openings number 2

Silence of the Lambs

The opening of The Silence of the Lambs engages the audience as it is a woman in the role of a victim, who through use of tracking from behind, is made out to be running away from someone. This immediately reels in the audience as they are now intrigued as to whom she is being chased by and why. Without any other indication, other then the woman running through the woods, it is the audiences assumption that she is being chased. This is due to the fact that in thrillers, it is usually women who represent the victims. The viewers are tricked right from the beginning as it has become such a famous horror/thriller, that they would e looking for tense moments from the off.

The opening automatically introduces a tense mood as curiosity kicks in. Being in the woods, this would seem a typical place for a woman to be under attack as it is isolated and dark. This sets the scene for something intense about to happen, which is what the audience would be expecting to witness. This would then suggest a narrative of a woman who may have been attacked, and the journey she takes to identify her attacker. This would commonly be a man playing the role of an antagonist. The opening titles are displayed in a large black and white font in the centre of the screen, and they are all noticeably male names, which again is not unusual for a thriller; however, this thriller has already broken the norms as it appears that a female protagonist has the leading role.

 
By showing an assault course, this use of Mise-en-scene automatically tells us that in fact, our suspicions were wrong and the woman is not a victim. Without anything being said, just by seeing a deliberate prop, the narrative of the film becomes a bit clearer as it would now appear the woman is training for something. It is only later when she is approached by a man, we realise she is  not phased by strong men, and when he turns around we can see it says FBI on his cap. This clarifies what the woman is doing in the woods training, and it is again the deliberate use of Mise-en-scene that does this. She is evidently training for the FBI.

The orchestral music in the background causes suspense as the audience wonder why the woman is running through the woods. Even when the assault course is shown, the music remains the same, which makes it vague and doesn't give too much away to the audience about what is going to happen next, and the plot in general. The woman panting, as she is running, is a diegetic sound in the scene and causes us to believe she has been running for a while.

Finally, the scene where the woman is in the lift shows she is in a male dominated environment which is stereotypical for the job of an FBI agent, there were a couple of other women in the scene but obviously they were severely outnumbered. Also the chosen actress is small in comparison to all the tall and intimidating men. In addition  all the men are in red t-shirts and then she is wearing a grey jumper which is dull and makes her look insignificant. This emphasises the fact the in thrillers, males are the dominant, strong, and heroic characters and that the females play a passive role and are predominately the victims in need of help.

Lesson on Genre

Here is a short video of myself and Niki speaking about the films Seven and The Devil Wears Prada. We chose these out of a selection of film posters and we were discussing the signifiers, generic conventions, star association and protagonist and antagonist characters. We enjoyed using this app on the iPad because as well as speaking, you can show the pictures you are referring to and add annotations and arrows to indicate what you are talking about.

Genre lessons film posters video

SELF ASSESSMENT:
What went well: I think we used an array of technical language and picked up on key points and signifiers in the film posters. We understood what we were talking about and found it interesting looking so far into the poster of a film and realising all the hidden meanings it shows that had we not been Media students, we would not have picked up on.
What could be improved: Upon listening to it back, I heard myself say 'genetic conventions' instead of 'generic conventions' so i need to be careful that I am pronouncing the terminology correctly and amending it accordingly. I think the presentation could be presented in a different format, which is where doing a video would come in as we could show work done in class, such as the organising of the different film posters into certain genres.
What is missing: I personally feel what is missing is visual, so it being a video and us being seen when talking about the film posters are you get a better feel of it as you are more involved. Having said that I don't feel as confident when it is video recordings and much preferred the app we used where it was just our voices. However I am willing to work on this and use videos in the future as I know it will help my work.


I learnt that there are 4 micro elements which are:
-Soundtrack
-Camera work
- Editing
-Mise -en-scene (anything you can see on the screen)

I also learnt about cross cutting, which is when two scenes are put together to create tension.The shots jump from one to the other, this also creates a sense of dramatic irony where the audience know something the actors don't. As well as this, I learnt that Genre Films are mainstream films that appear to a massive audience e.g James Bond, and Auteur (author) Films are films that are not financed by big companies and have a niche audience.

In addition, I discovered the good and bad sides of genre films.

Negatives:
- They are repetitive
-They are formulaic
- They limit creativity to a certain extent
- The audiences might get bored
Solutions to this would be developing minor characters in franchises to keep the audience keen, go back in time possibly to a prequel, or develop new story lines that are unexpected and will shock the audience.

Definition of a cameo: Someone famous who plays themselves and is in the film for a short period of time usually with very little to say.

Genre Theory: A ''regulated variety'' (Neale, 1980)
Genre theory is to do with a circulation of expectations between industries, media texts and audiences. this leads to a ''regulated variety''.

Analysing thriller openings number 1

Enemy of the State, Tony Scott, 1998

1.'What is the point of this sequence? Describe briefly how tension is created through the editing.''

There are various close ups on the card which makes you wonder what it's purpose is and why he is using it. Also Will Smith is standing behind Gene Hackman who is seated and looking away whilst talking to him which could show tension between the two characters. The purpose behind this scene is to hook the audience in, introduce the main characters who are the biggest stars in the film, and to set the story. The opening credits are played against a really dramatic piece of music, the point of this is to create suspense which is essentially, the key to a good Thriller opening. Also the use of a black background and white text is significant as it doesn't give much away about the film (image 1). The computer sound that is heard when the writing comes on the screen at the start of the scene is diegetic because it was intended to be in the scene; however the sound itself would have had to be edited in once the filming was done which would also make it non diegetic (image 2).

2. ''Look at the use of CU or Medium CU. Why are they primarily used here?''

 I think a close up was used here in particular to show how and what the character was thinking and feeling through visual instead of dialogue. This is a clever way of portraying the characters feelings without it being overly obvious. This affects the audience as they will now be curious to see why the picture is so important and why a close up was needed of Will Smith noticing it, and then looking rather dubious afterwards.

3. ''Choose 15-20 seconds from anywhere in the sequence and describe each shot in detail, explaining its effect / function for the audience, as well as commenting on how the cuts (the editing) add to the meaning.''

 I selected scenes from 1.45 - 2.00 in the clip:

Shot 1: Close up shot of Gene Hackman, scene through the gate. This creates the effect that they are in some sort of secret lab where they are plotting. The close up on the face can add to the effect of tension between the characters and in the scene as a whole.
Shot 2: Side Tracking shot of the character creeping towards the railings, and then a shot of another man's feet catching up with him. This shot created the effect of two people following the main characters and creeping up behind them. The shots of the feet are a clever touch instead of a mid shot.
Shot 3: Another Close up of Gene Hackman through the gate, again creates a sense of plotting in a hide out, before it quickly changes to Will Smith.
Shot 4: A close up of Will Smith which is a really dark shot, his face is the centre of the shot with a dark shadowy background creating the effect of something possibly about to happen that the characters don't know about, this has an effect on the audience as they would have previously seen the other characters outside.
Shot 5: A computer screen that quickly flicks to show a file of some sort loaded. The speed of this shot shows that there 'mission' if you will, has been completed and that once again you get the feeling something unexpected is going to happen.

Enemy of the State (1998)

Hitchcock's The Birds

The clip we were looking at is the 'creepy scene in The Birds'.

There were 17 shots all together in this one scene, lasting only 1.28 seconds. For each shot the camera was positioned in a different place:

Shot 1: Tracking - the camera was following the woman as she walked up to the house.
Shot 2: Medium shot - it was a medium shot of the woman standing in front of the front door.
Shot 3: Match on action - The woman is seen entering the house on one side of the door, and is then shown on the other side once she had walked through the doorway.
Shot 4: A Medium Shot used to show the woman walking into the hall.
Shot 5: A Medium Shot where the camera is already in the room as she walks through the door.
Shot 6: A quick glimpse of the room and the damage that has been done to show that the house has been broken into, creates suspense.
Shot 7: A close up shot of the woman's face.
Shot 8: A Medium Shot similar to shot 6, once again showing the damage in the room the woman has just entered.
Shot 9: A Medium Shot of the woman's reaction to the state of the room.
Shot 10: A close up of a man's legs with blood all over them.
Shot 11: A Close up of the woman's face showing her reaction to the legs.
Shot 12: A High Angled shot of a dead man on the floor with no eyes.
Shot 13: A close up shot of the man showing more detail.
Shot 14: An Extreme Close up of the man's face showing his eye sockets as his eyes have been gauged out.
Shot 15: A Medium shot of the woman frantically making an exit.
Shot 16: A Long Shot/Tracking of the woman running out of the house.
Shot 17: Finally another long shot of the woman as she continues to run, and then a close up of a man who is waiting for her.

The clip itself involved an array of suspense, mystery and shock at the sight of the man at the end, it was a vile sight!

Our preliminary task

Evaluation: The obvious problem with this video is the length. When filming we did not take into consideration how long the video would be when edited together, and this is something we will have to pay closer attention to when doing a task like this again. When we realised the fault, we did consider filming a few more shots but due to technical difficulties with the Macs and programming, it would have been impossible to upload them and then edit them in to the rest of the footage. I was also introduced to new shots such as 180 degree rule which meant that the two characters (Myself and Niki) had the same left and right relationship to each other. Finally I would also make a simpler storyline because I have discovered with work such as this, simplicity is key.