What are you doing here? - Analysis

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFoWKDbPLW8

shonamshahig321.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/learning-adobe-premiere-elements-10.html

This video was the first time we created anything in Adobe Premiere Elements 10. We has to create a short video, showcasing us saying 'What are you doing here?'. The first time editing in Premiere Elements 10 was a struggle as we didn't know much about the software but over a short period of time we managed to learn the basics and produce this video.

What was good?
We were able to create a decent video considering it was our first time using the that editing software program. We were able to edit our clips together and were able to fade text in and out, add transition effects, change the time duration (speeding up or slowing down a clip) and panning and cropping clips.

What was bad?
As this was our first time editing in Premiere Elements 10, we weren't able to do as much as we were hoping to do.

What could we improve next time?
When creating something like this next time, we could learn better and newer techniques that make the videos look more professional. Instead of using Adobe Premiere Elements 10, we could use a different video editing software that has more and better features than Premiere Elements.

Continuity in Filming

Continuity in filming is very important because it allows us to immerse ourselves in the full glory of the film. If any of these are broken then the audience gets confused and a feeling of uneasiness. It breaks the illusion and they suddenly realize everything is a fake. Rules and shot types must be followed to keep the audience entertained, and to keep the movie realistic – such as the 180° rule, the rule of thirds, shot reverse shot and eye line matching.

180° Rule

The 180° rule in film making dictates that the camera is not allowed to go beyond the 180° line - otherwise the audience is left confused. In the image above, you can see the dashed line is the 180° line, and the camera / cameras are only allowed to film from one side of the line - in this case it is the green side. The red side is the no filming zone, so no cameras should be filming from that side. When filming you cannot switch between sides otherwise the objects in the shots switch around and this confuses the audience.

Rule of Thirds

The 'rule of thirds' in film making means that the subjects or object likes to be placed in a third of the shot. In the image above, you can see that it is separated into thirds horizontally and vertically (represented by the light blue lines). These likes are like guide lined and the subject should be placed along one of these lines or where these lines meet up. This makes the shot seem more interesting and appealing as the subjects are central all of the time. As you can see from the image above, the two characters are placed is each third.

Shot Reverse Shot

Shot reverse shot is a filming technique where by one character is shown looking off screen at another character, and then in the other shot, the other character is shown looking back at the character. This is generally used during conversations within a film.

Eyeline Match

Eyeline match in an editing technique used in film making - and is based on the audience wanting to see what the character is seeing see off screen as well. When the footage is edited, shots of what the character is seeing is shown after. From the example above, you can see four shots. The first shot is the lady looking at something off screen. We as the audience want to know what she is looking at so the next shot is the shot of the object she was looking at. Shots 3 and 4 show the same story however they are more close up shots indicating that she is focused on the painting.

Guardians of the Galaxy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNlnQwHWSYw

A canted angle shot is first used in Guardians of the Galaxy to give the impression that you are floating in the weightlessness of space. Within this shot we see several planets in the background. These are genre indicators as they suggest the film will adventure. As the camera rotates clockwise, we see the text ’26 Years Later’ - telling the audience that this movie is set in the future and will most likely contain futuristic/science fiction things. In this shot we can hear loud thunder and it also shows lightening within the clouds of the planet.

The next two shots denote a small spaceship like vehicle landing on a rocky planet and someone or something walking on the foggy and rocky planet. The landing of the spaceship uses an extreme long shot to show the landing and setting of the opening scene. Next is a long, high angled shot of someone walking in the fog. This makes him or her look mysterious as we don’t know what they’d be doing by themselves on a rocky and windy planet. The lighting in the opening scene also makes them look mysterious as the lighting is a dark, low key lighting. There are several sounds playing during these opening scenes. The diegetic sounds that both the audience and the character can hear are the thunder, rain and wind. The non-diegetic sound is the music soundtrack playing in the background and this is used to build suspense.

Several seconds later, we are shown a close up shot of the person by themselves. We can see that they are wearing a mask and the eyes are glowing bright red. The makes the audience curious to find out who it are. The bright red eyes connote danger and evil suggesting that this character is evil however we are still unsure who this person is. We then see them pulling out a futuristic device. As he tries to turn it on, it makes several electronic sound effects.

When it is turned on, at first it looks like a torch but then we find out that it is like a hologram torch, supporting the futuristic and sci-fi genre. We then get a bird’s eye view shot of the person walking with the holographic torch, and in the hologram, we can see people walking across - as if they actually there but cannot be seen without the hologram. We also hear the faint sound of people talking. This could have been the people in the hologram who are now gone.

In this we can see a long shot of a small girl playing with a dog in the hologram as the person walks up to it. This could suggest that the place the person is in was once run by people but has been abandoned, maybe due to catastrophic events. This can also hint towards the movie containing action.

The person then walks for a while then we get a medium up shot of them. They then press a small button on the side of their head and the helmet slowly faded away. Now we finally see the main characters face for the first time.

X - Men : Days of Future Past

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jTspWmzAgA

The first shot in X - Men : Days of Future Past we see a few red lights turn on in an dark room. The red connotes danger, violence and action and the dark room connotes mystery, death and danger. When the lights turn on weird sci-fi sound effect is played. This diegetic sound effect hints to the audience that the movie will contain unnatural things and will contain science fiction. We then see a hatch open and three pods are dropped. This indicates to the audience that this shot is taking place in a flying vehicle and something bad is going to happen. The next shot is an extreme long shot of two flying vehicle dropping the three pods. The lighting in this scene is very dark and blue and as the pods hit the ground they make a loud thud sound effect. This sound effect was possibly made in a Foley studio.

The next few shots have been seamlessly edited so that the camera moves around past the characters and through the ground to the floors below. This gives the illusion that the scene takes place underground where there are multiple floors but in reality it was filmed in one location. After the three pods hit the ground, we get a close up shot of a man saying “they’re here!”. This suggests that the pods are the antagonist and the other are the protagonists. In these shots we a girl make a purple portal and they both teleport to the floor below. This indicates that the movie will contain many characters lots of weird powers. The non-diegetic music playing at this point has a fast beat to it suggesting that something is about to take place and it also builds suspense as the audience doesn’t know what is going to happen next.

In this shot we see a man holding an alien weapon/gun and a close up shot of the weapon/gun. Guns connote action and death implying that we are going to see lots of those throughout the film. A bit later we see a high angle shot four people - each looking terrified. As soon as the high angle shot began, the music suddenly went quiet and we were only left with the diegetic sound of something rumbling. The high angle shot of the group makes them look small, weak and venerable.

We see the camera truck right as it stays pointed at the group and we see one male character turn him self into a metallic figure and another put himself on fire. This suggest that something big is about to take place and they are preparing for it.

Two big figures then fall from the ceiling suggesting that these were in the pod at the start of the film. A low angled shot is used to show the antagonist and makes them look huge are more fearsome. As this huge fight scene is taking place, two characters are running away from huge creatures. This indicates that these two characters are important, and we can tell that are not fleeing because of they are cowards as everyone is helping them to escape.

Soon after another low angle shot of the creature grasping onto one of the protagonist fist is shown. This makes the protagonist look insignificant compared to the creature. This shot also denotes the creature turning into the same material at the metallic person. This could imply that the creatures have the ability to gain special powers off of their victims. As the creature turns into a silver metallic material, a sound effect is played which sounds like lots of pieces of metals colliding together. 

With the next two scenes we can see that the creatures have gained their victims powers but swapped the powers between them. After doing this the protagonists are grabbed buy the alien creatures and are killed. All the lighting in the opening scene is dark and gloomy showing that the movie will contain danger, death and mystery.  Many of the sound effects in these scenes are unusual and futuristic. This could hint that that movie will be a sci-fi film as well as an action film.

Mission : Impossible II

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0KzvD-0rx0

This first shot in Mission Impossible 2 is an establishing shot of Dead Horse, Utah. This shows the audience where the scene is taking place and also indicated that this movie will contain a lot of adventure in exotic places. The establishing shot shows that the location is like an endless location full of canyons and this makes Ethan Hunt looks like he’s lost and alone.  The lighting used in these shots uses a high key lighting to make the scene look like a hot and exotic location. This makes the audience feel as if they are there. The scene also has an orange tint to it which as to the effect of the scene being hot and sunny because the colour orange connotes warmth and the sun.

This shot was most likely taken by a helicopter as it goes from an extreme long shot to a long shot through the sir. These shots determine the theme/genre of the film as it is evident that this movie will contain action and adventure, followed by near death experiences; it denotes a man rock climbing on a steep cliff face without any safety gear.

At this part of the scene Ethan Hunt leaps from one side of a rock to another. At this point we get a high angle shot of him and then it is shown in slow motion, this is to add an effect to create suspense. He lands but slips, as he is falling down in these four seconds we see a lot of different shot types. One of these shot types is a close up on his hand trying to regain grip, which is then followed by him hanging there in which we get a low angle shot of him. During the scene when Ethan Hunt leaps from one cliff face to another, music starts playing as we get to see more of the characters face and who he is. This point also signifies also signifies that he is an important character in the film.

This close up shot shows the audience the main character, ‘Ethan Hunt’ – who is played my Tom Cruise. This shot goes from a medium shot to a close up shot onto his face, signifying that he is an important character in the film. You can also see that Ethan’s face is not positioned in the centre, but in the left third. This makes it scene more visually appealing to the audience.

You can tell this is an action adventure film as Ethan Hurt is shown climbing up rocks and cliffs in an extreme location which is then followed by him performing high risk moves that could possibly result in death which suggest to the audience that he is a risk taker. Further into movie, a helicopter flies in with a man in a suit holding a weapon. The man in the suit indicates that he is part of a spy organisation and he is also wearing sunglasses to conceal his identity.  The weapon indicated that the movie will contain action and fighting because the connotations of the weapon are danger, violence, action and death. In this shot we can also see Ethan Hunts clothing. He is wearing very basic clothing, which is a dark green vest and white shorts which are quite dirty.

Genre Analysis - Action

Target Audience

Action films are aimed towards men young teens to older adults - ages from 13 to over 30. Men are more stereo-typically associated with action as they are generally more physical. Men like to think of themselves as the main protagonist - who are generally strong, muscular and get all the ladies.

Action Movie Analysis

Misison: Impossible II

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Guardians of the Galaxy

Learning Adobe Premiere Elements 10

We created this video in Adobe Premiere Elements 10 as part of out Media Assignment. 

We did this to firstly get used to the new software and learn how to edit.

Titanic

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtVyu-A3vkY

Titanic starts off with a slow transition fade from a black screen to a shot of hundreds of people standing on the dock as the RMS Titanic is about to leave. The camera slowly pans left and tilts up as it goes from the shot of crowd of people to the titanic. This can also be an establishing shot as establishing shots are generally the first shot. In this case, the movie indicates that it will be set on the RMS Titanic.

In the next shot we can see a medium shot of a man filming the Titanic as it departs. From his clothing we can assume he is a formal man as he is wearing a smart suit with a beret. From the camera he’s filming with, we can also tell that the movie is set in the late 1900’s because his camera is an old camera style where you have to manually turn the reel. Within this shot is also text in the top left which tells the audience the two film production companies that are associated with this film – ‘Paramount Pictures’ and ‘Twentieth Century Fox’.

The next two shots are a long and medium shot of people on the Titanic waving goodbye to their friends, families and loved ones. This could hint towards the movie containing some relationships and therefore romance. All of the shots above contain a strong yellow/orange hue to it. This makes the opening shots look warm and calm because orange and yellow connote warmth and being relaxed. All the sound from the shots above has been non-diegetic and there has been no diegetic sound from the shots. There has been a non-diegetic sound track playing in the background and the music is uplifting as it contains the piano and a female’s voice singing. This is suggesting that the movie will contain drama as well as romance.

The next shot is the title shot denoting ‘TITANIC’ and in the background is the ocean. This lighting in this shot, and the shots later on, are very dark indicating that something bad is going to happen during the film. This is what we’d expect in a romance and drama film – for something tragic to happen like a death of a close friend for family member.