Narrative Theory
The first theory I looked at is that of Tvzetan Todorov. He believed that the fictional enviroment begins with a state of equillibrium (All as it should be, in a state of equal balance between powers of any kind). This is then disrupted in some way (disequillibrium). There is then an attempt to repair the damage of the disruption before a new equillibrium is reached.Vladimir Propp's theory indicates that there are a number of set characters with specific narrative functions that appear in all stories. These were:
The villain (struggles against the hero)
The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
The magical helper (helps the hero in the quest)
The princess ( person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
Her father
The dispatcher
The hero or victim
Levi Strauss' narrative thory claims that all narrative stuctures can be shown as a series of binary opposites. e.g good v evil, hero vs villain.

Group blog

we have decided to make a group blog -

http://jabdproductions.blogspot.com/

Target Audience

I have been doing some audience research and feel that the thriller itself should be targeted at 15. A 15 is mostly what thriller films are aimed at. However the opening sequence that we are creating will be certified as a 12a as we want it to be available to a wider audience

Name ideas

We had a brainstorm about what we were going to call our film this is just a few of the names we come up with

Blood Red

Kiss from a Rose

Killer Red
Seeing Red
The Red Rose
The Last Kiss
Broken Blossom
Deadly Red

My favourite was Touched by a Rose becuase this anme had two meanings. A rose is Beautiful to look a but when you touch it, it will hurt you becuase if it thorns..
in the end tho we came up with the name MIS-RED the is the name of our character but it is also like the personality of our character mis-read!!

Character idea's

There will be two characters in our opening sequence. Our main character "The Lady in Red" is our glamorous, yet dangerous serial killer. We want to portray her in the following ways:
Glamorous, Mysterious, Elegant, Sexy, Pretty, Rich and Posh.
As we have almost no dialogue in our opening sequence - the only way we can portray this characters persona is by her appearance.This is why her costume will consist of a silky black dress, a red coat and red heels, making her seem well-dressed and wealthy. We also wish to give our character either a large black hat, or a veiled hat so we can cover her facial features, to add a mysterious element to her identity. We will also give her long, curled hair and blood red lipstick.Our Second Character will be the murder victim himself. He is a young male and we wish to portray him as being:Vulnerable, Misled, Naive Innocent.His costume will consist of a shirt or jumper with jeans and shoes

(this was writen my becky but is a group idea)

Our Idea

We put together an idea about what our opening sequence could be about, it took us about two lessons but in the end we came up with this idea-
There is a women in red who is very mysterious and we don't know much about her. but all we get to find out about her is that she is a killer and she allways kisses her victim on their cheek leaving behind a big red kiss mark.
this is just a ruf idea on what we are going to do.

JABD Productions

We decided want groups we were going in to make our opening sequence. In my group there is
-Becky Backer
-Danny Evans
-Abbie Jones
we decided to five our team a name so we come up with JABD Productions.

Opening sequence

in media we have to analyse an opening sequence to a thriller film i have chosen to write about silence of the lambs.

Opening sequence

The main title sequence of a thriller typically serve to build tension and atmosphere and giving the viewer clues to the audience of what will happen in the film. the title sequence i am going to analuse is Silence of the Lambs directed by Jonathan Demme. The film is about a young FBI cadet who must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help in catching another serial killer who skins his victims.
The establishing shot of the main sequence is of a big lifeless tree this makes the viewer unsure of what is happening in the film and it also makes the viewer think that the tree is important to the film. There isn't much colour in the opening titles. We then find out that the title sequence is set in woods which are very misty.
The camera then pans from the tree down to the path in the woods. The wrighting in the opening sequence is big and bold with a white outline and black colour this makes the title sequence stand out and is complete contrast to the natural back ground of the film. When the establishing shot starts the orchestral music starts off slow,this builds up tension in the scene and makes the viewer think that something is about to happen aswell as the non-diegetic sound of the music there is digetic sounds of the wild life in the woods and a bird squawking.
the next thing we see is a tracking shot of a women running,this makes us wounder why is she running and what is shw running from.This alos builds up tension and atmosphere in the title sequence.The orchestral music gets lounder and faster as the women is getting closer to the camera this is also building up more and more tension this is a good way the viewers tension and intrest to see what is going to happen to the women running. the womens breathing amplified this again is building up tension and building up adreanline for the viewer. the camera then follows the women as she is running as if someone or something is following her. this makes the viewer think that the women is being chased and she is desperately trying to get away.the camera then zooms onto the womens legs, running the music starts to get faster and faster and more aggressive. this again give the impression that she is desperately trying to get away from something chasing her. the camera the zooms onto the womens face she has a determined expression on her face, this give the impression that she really wants to get away. the camera again goes behind the women as if she is being chased. we then she an obstacle which makes the viewrs adreline slow down, we then no that she isnt runnig from anything she is just on some sort of obstacle course, the music then slows and isnt as violent as it was before.
A men then stops a women from running and tells her that her boss would like to see her. the man then turns around and the camera then zooms onto the mans face, this agian slows the viewers heart beat because this reinsures the viewer that the women isnt being chased by anything becuase the man has a FBI hat on. the camera then pans down a tree which says 'hurt''agony''pain''love it' this might show what is happening in the film.
the still unidentified women then runs into a set of buildings. this let the viewer have a sigh of relief that she is fine. when the women is inside the building she seems singled out becuase everyone else is in uniform and she isnt.



Here is a clip if the opening sequence

Media 4 schools

we had a media day in the vale hotel. we learnt how to use the camera, we learnt that we should leave a few scounds of filming after each scene so it means that it will be easier to edit.We ment so famous poeple including neil jenkins,nicky piper and ieuan evans. we had to interview them and ask them some questions. we then had to film them tteing off.

StoryBoard

Today in media we learnt about STORYBOARDING. a storyboard visually tells the story of an animation panel by panel, kind of like a comic book.

Your storyboard should convey some of the following-
-Who's in the frame/scene
-What people are saying to one another
-how much time has passed between each film
-where is the camera?

Psycho shower scene

Today in media we had to look at the famous shower scene.We had to look at creation of suspense,use of music,camera work and editing.
There was around about 42 uses of editing, the edits start off slow then start to get faster as the music starts.
At the begining there is deigetic and non-deigetic sounds there is deigetic sound at the begining of the scene when she walks into the bathroom the non-deigetic sounds comes when the killer opens the shower curtain.
There isnt many uses if camera there is mostly editing, the camera zooms in on the killer when he walks into the room. The next big use of camera was when the camera does an extreme zoom into the plug hole then zooms out of the dead womens eye.

Saul Bass

In media we have been asked to analysis two of Saul Bass opening sequences. The two sequences we are going to analysis are psyhco and virtigo,Both of these films are directed by Alfred Hitchcock
We watched both of the opening sequences in our media lesson,we had to write notes on the image, use of camera, colour, Graphics and the music.

Saul Bass is best known for his design on motion pictures like the psycho and vertigo opening sequences.
The first opening sequence we had to analysis was for psycho...

The opening sequnces of psycho has no use of image and no use of camera because Saul Bass has just used Graphic design, he has used vertical and horizontal lines which split the screen,
the music is very dramatic and discordent which fits well with the graphics which are dull and fast. The music is orchestral and consists of string instruments including the violin. The credits are quite plain and the font is very clear and stands out on the black backround

The next opening sequence we had to analysis was Vertigo...

The opening sequnce of vertigo uses an image of a womens face the goes to a close up to her mouth. Then camera then slowy moves up her face to do an extreme close up of her eyes, her eyes are open wide and looking around like she is scared of something and looking for something. The camera then looks like it falls deep into her eyes.It is all black and white until it turns into red this gives the image of danger.While the camera is losing it self into the womens eyes Saul Bass uses a kaleidoscope affect which gives the inpression of spiraling into darkness, fear of the unknown.

My favourite opening sequnce is vertigo because i think it gives more of a dramtic feel and more of a insight into the film it also shows the both use of camera and graphics.

So far in media

So far in our media lessons we have studied films made by other students in our school and also other schools and college's to see what camera shots they have used. we have also learnt three important principles when filming. 

These are - 

Match on action

Shot-reverse shot 

108 degree rule 

Match on action is to use this technique in editing, cut from one to shot to another. This creates  an impression of continuity despite the fact that you might have shot the shots week's apart.

Shot-reverse shot, this effect is so common it is used in everyday t.v and in big hollywood films. shot-reverse shot  is when to characters are in conversation, one character faces left and the other faces right, so you can edit between a character talking  and a character listening.

108 degree rule. when filming a sequence of a room you need to imagine a line is drawn across the room cutting it in half

Hello

Hello my name is Jamie Hyett. This is my first blog , and i am making it for media studies in Pencoed. I think this will be a easy way to keep up to date with everything i learn in my media lessons

i hope you enjoy my blog.. jamie (: