X GENRE CONVENTIONS2 General Media Language

SOUND

As sound goes, zombie movies usually have eerie music with long, low pitched notes with high pitched, short notes over the top.  This messes with the audience's heartbeat making them feel the intensity of the genre more.  In romance movies, they often have light, relaxing melodies that appeals to a female target audience.  The comedy genre can vary as there are many different ways to go about it. When it comes to foley or ambient sound, it is exaggerated for the comedic effect.

1st SHOT AND MISE-EN-SCENE

The 1st shot has a lot of narrative enigma, whether that's with the character (like Warm Bodies) or with the fact that there are zombies and the character doesn't know about it (like Shaun of the Dead).  There is a lot of exposition through the mise-en-scene as well, like in Shaun of the Dead, we can see a lot of junk on the coffee table, eluding to the fact that his character is a slob.

The mise-en-scene provides a lot of exposition for where the movie is set and about the characters.  In Shaun of the Dead, we see the messy coffee table portraying the character as a slob.  In Warm Bodies, we see a run down airport providing exposition on where it is set.

CENTRAL PROTAGONIST AND NARRATIVE

Like most films, the central protagonist is shown through the rule of thirds, a voice over, close up shots and others.  In Warm Bodies, we get the voice over and close ups of parts of the zombies body, so the audience doesn't know he's a zombie.  In Shaun of the Dead, we don't get narrative enigma of his character as the first shot is of a close up of his face, however there are a lot of shots where other characters are speaking but the camera is still on his character.

TRANSITIONING TO MAIN FILM

...

...

X GENERAL CONVENTIONS2 General Media Language

SOUND
...

...

1st SHOT

A lot of exposition is shown through the first shot, yet there is still narrative enigma.  The mise-en-scene provides the exposition of the characters, typically the protagonist.  The protagonist usually isn't shown completely to leave that narrative enigma and suspense.  When a movie shows the character immediately, it takes away from the suspense.  A common example of the first shots are Hand of God.  This means that it goes from a ELS to a LS all the way to a CU.  This usually occurs as a town, to a road, to a house, to in a specific window.  It shows that the character is just like anyone else and that the specific story line could have happened to anyone.  I looked at Bridget Jones's Diary (Maguire, 2001), About a Boy (Chris and Paul Weitz, 2002) and Hot Fuzz (Wright, 2007).
...

...

CENTRAL PROTAGONIST AND NARRATIVE
MISE-EN-SCENE
TRANSITIONING TO MAIN FILM
...

...

X SHOOT1 Behind the Scenes of Shoot1

This is our behind the scenes video of our first shoot.  Overall I think it went very well and we were all very determined to achieve as much as possible through this shoot.  We each took on roles to make this as easy for us as possible whilst still chipping in our ideas and everyone taking them on board.  I think we've all learnt a lot through this process which will be helpful for our next shoot.  For example, we figured out that it's a lot easier to continue to film the exact same shot multiple times instead of stopping recording just to start again.  Another thing we learnt was how to efficiently use our time.  We could only film our first scene after 12:00 due to having to order the pizza, so instead of waiting, we filmed all the other shots before that one.  One thing we had a bit of trouble with, is not having all the props needed that day as Bright Films was unable to make it.  For our next shoot we will make sure that all of the props needed will be at the location before we shoot so that we are sure that we haven't missed anything.
...

...

X PRE-PRODUCTION18 Pre-Production Schedule Updated

We've discussed a few things about what we want to change for the film opening.

SCENE 1

• Hand of God
• Shows whole town, to street, to house, to living room

Location

• Near Emma's house

Props

• None needed

Characters

• Nobody - looks desolate

Costumes

• None needed

SCENE 2

• Wakes up on sofa with pizza slice on him
• Has a game controller in hand
• Game (specifically a zombie game) playing on TV
• Doesn't show protagonist immediately (narrative enigma)
• Shows a lot of the mise-en-scene - messy and dirty
• Takes a swig of vodka

...

via GIPHY

...

Location

• Emma's living room

Props

• Pizza
• Pizza boxes
• Cigarettes
• Chinese take out boxes
• Lighter
• Ash tray
• Work shoes
• Black leather jacket
• Pocket knife
• Video games
• Game controller
• Cans of beer
• Cans of CocaCola
• Cans of Fanta
• Cans of Red Bull

Characters

• Donnie Romero

Costumes

• White shirt, rolled up sleeves, pocket on left side, half tucked in
• Black work trousers/jeans
• White socks
• Black belt
• Thin gold frame glasses

SCENE3

• Donnie takes off clothes to get into shower
• Gets into shower
• Singing Ghost Town by The Specials - intertextuality with Shaun of the Dead
• Zombie comes in
• Donnie gets soap in eye
• Tries to get a towel and hits zombie in the process
• Bends down to grab towel
• Knocks zombie out when standing up
• Grabs toothbrush and brushes teeth

...

via GIPHY

...

Location

• Emma's bathroom

Props

• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste (empty)
• Glasses
• Plain white towel
• Empty shower gel

Characters

• Donnie Romero
• Zombie

Costumes

• Donnie
• Nothing in shower (can't see swim shorts)
• Towel around waist
• Zombie
• White top - bloody and cut up
• Grey zip up hoodie
• Dark blue straight leg jeans
• Black socks

SCENE4

• Goes into bedroom
• Smells all the clothes on the floor
• Is disgusted until he finds one that's okay
• Picks it up and puts on

...

via GIPHY

...

Location

• Emma's spare bedroom

Props

• Clothes spread out all over the floor

Characters

• Donnie Romero

Costumes

• White towel around waist
• Rick and Morty graphic tee

SCENE5

• Goes into kitchen
• Quick shots of
• Putting kettle on
• Putting in tea bag
• Pouring kettle
• Milk
• Sugar
• Tastes it 
• Puts in more sugar
• Putting bread in toaster
• Toaster pops
• Scraping off burnt bits
• Putting jam on toast (strawberry - like blood)
• Takes a bit
• Jam gets on face

...

via GIPHY

...

Location

• Emma's kitchen

Props

• Kettle
• Toaster
• Jam
• Bread/toast
• Mug
• Teabag
• Milk
• Sugar cubes
• Butter
• Knife

Characters

• Donnie Romero

Costumes

• Rick and Morty tee
• Shorts
• Odd socks

SCENE6

• Can't find keys in hallway
• Rings keys
• Finds them in pink slippers
• Grabs change from bowl
• Puts trainers on
• Leaves house

...

via GIPHY

...

Location

• Emma's hallway

Props

• Keys - with keychain that plays music
• Pink fluffy slipper
• Paper which says "Keys hear" with an arrow pointing down
• Wooden chest
• Shoe rack
• Asics trainers
• Coat rack
• Change
• Ceramic bowl

Characters

• Donnie Romero

Costumes

• Rick and Morty tee
• Shorts
• Asics trainers
• Odd socks

SCENE7

• Walking to shops
• Listening to music
• Mia trying to tell him there's a zombie behind him
• He can't hear and is amazed a girl is speaking to him
• False scare as Eddie pushes Donnie out of way from zombie
• Pull dead body from car
• Get in car
• Drive off
• Drone shot of car driving off
• Reveals title

...

via GIPHY

...

Location

• Near Emma's house (outside)

Props

• Old phone
• Earphones
• Spatula
• Rolling pin
• Knives
• Lots more kitchen utensils
• Car

Characters

• Donnie Romero
• Mia Jones
• 2nd zombie
• Eddie Pegg

Costumes

• Donnie Romero
• Rick and Morty tee
• Shorts
• Odd socks
• Asics trainers
• Mia Jones
• Dress
• Denim jacket / blazer
• High heels with chunky heel and buckles
• 2nd zombie
• Ruined top with blood
• Zip up hoodie
• Jeans
• Eddie Pegg
• Trench coat hiding all the kitchen utensils
• Black trousers
• Black socks
• Black shirt

X PRE-PRODUCTION8 Location Scouting 3

BATHROOM

(This post was originally created by Spikey Films)

LIVING ROOM

KITCHEN

X PRE-PRODUCTION7 Zombie Characters

Zombie Character

(This post was originally created by Spikey Films)

Our film opening is going to be a zom-rom-com, meaning we need to plan a look for our zombie characters. It is important we get this look correct to obtain verisimilitude. Our plan is for our zombie to have white eyes (to show they aren't alive), several wounds/cuts across the face, white face, ripped/dirty clothes and then covered in blood. This style is inspired by the zombies in Shaun of the Dead.            They are all wearing normal clothing, however its all hanging off them as if it was unnatural. Looking at the close up of Nick Frost, you can see his face has been covered in white powder/paint to show the character is lifeless. We have ordered white contact lenses from amazon to create the same effect as Shaun of the Dead. We have blood capsules as well, meaning we would be able to create a similar effect to what is going on around Nick Frost's mouth. 

Resources

Liquid latex - we ordered some to create any disfigured sections of the zombies face.

Equipment to create scars/cuts - we have been practicing creating realistic cuts. On the right is an image of some practice cuts I have done on my arm (using glue, makeup and pens).

White make-up - we have access to makeup that could be applied to the face to create the dead look.

Fake blood - could be applied to face or clothing
Contact lenses - we have ordered 2 pairs of white contact lenses. 

Clothing

We haven't made any specific plans for clothing yet, however preferably baggy clothing that can be covered in blood. The point is for it to look like the zombies have been turned immediately from their normal self to a zombie, which is why they would be dressed in clothing that they would usually wear.

Walk

Once again, inspired by Shaun of the Dead. We chose to go for a slow zombie because we felt it would be easily distinguishable between the zombies and the normal characters. For example if our characters, Donnie, Fred or Mia, are running away, the comedy would be in the style of the slow walk.

Sound

Similar to the sounds above, the generic zombie noise would work well for our scene, as it has been used in several zombie movies before.

X PRE-PRODUCTION6 Props

These are some of the props we will be using that I have accumulated.  We may make some changes as to which props we will actually use.
...

Props from EmmaScoble1

...

X VODCAST4: First Shot

VODCAST
The first shot is very important for a movie.  This needs to set the scene for the audience whilst still leaving some narrative enigma.  The exposition can be shown through the mise-en-scene.  The first shot often shows the protagonist in a variety of different ways, for example, the rule of thirds.  I looked at Bridget Jones's Diary (Maguire, 2001), About a Boy (Chris and Paul Weitz, 2002) and Hot Fuzz (Wright, 2007).
...

...

X FILM OPENING EG4 Hot Fuzz

...

...

• WT2 - pseudo indie - not indie but low budget
• Conventional first shot being outdoors but not in Hot Fuzz
• Extreme long shot 
• Giving some exposition
• Rule of thirds - not concrete however light part is centered
• Props in mise-en-scene creating verisimilitude - achieving sense of realism
• Sound of sirens giving exposition 
• Straight cut not fade in 
• Boom sound sharply when sliding doors open - comedic genre
• Diegetic sound of doors opening - often exaggerated sounds added in post production - in this case for comedic effect
• Man in first shot walking fast connoting seriousness
• Centred in rule of thirds - central protagonist
• Very long walk and ominous sound in background to connote tension
• Camera tracking in
• In association with StudioCanal - not main distributor
• In association with big talk productions - not main production company
• Opening shot - 31 seconds long
• Close up of serious and stern expression 
• Comical when badge comes out 
• Identical stern expression on badge
• Disguise cut onto next shot

X FILM OPENING EG2 The Brothers Grimsby

• Expect to see multiple film idents - film industry is risky so co-production spreads risks - see distributor ident as well as production company idents
• Low budget end - often see TV channel idents (BBC etc.) - also possibly see UK film council (now called BFI - British Film Institute)
• Working Title - subsidiary of vertically integrated Big 5 conglomerate NBC Universal - not as important (junior company) as conglomerate so last in series to appear and audio bridge to movie or not used at all
• Working Title - first look deal - therefore distributed by Columbia, Sony so no WT or NBC Universal ident is shown

FILM OPENING

• Narrative enigma - don't know where it is set however can see faces
• Very shallow field of focus
• Big close up
• Very thick and wide sideburns - working class - possibly connoting comedy genre
• Slightly long and unkempt hair 
• Gold chain
• Man more in frame than woman signifies him as protagonist (he's also on top)
• 2 shot
• Red filter connoting set in past or porn
• Further exposition through mise-en-scene
• England football team large tattoo on back - big fan - association with working class
• Football jersey in shot
• Can of lager - working class anchorage
• Comedic genre pushed at start
• Assumed bedroom - narrative enigma - actually in store
• Sales - cheap beds
• Rule of thirds
• Girl covered - anchors man as protagonist
• Single mums wearing shell-suits and smoking - stereotype of working class with father leaving
• Contrasting with This is England
• Graffiti and boarded up buildings
• Didn't get much box office - too distinctively English for an American audience - had to change name from Grimsby to The Brothers Grimsby
• Columbia Pictures Presents - distributors

...

...

X ML3 Thoughts on previous AS coursework films

CROSSWORD

...

...

This is my favourite film opening.  I think the sound, mise-en-scene, cinematography and editing works really well together in order to create this hybrid genre, teen rom-com.
I like how the first 40 seconds builds up that narrative enigma by only showing small aspects of the protagonist.  For example this extreme close up shot, and all other shots within the first 40 seconds don't show the audience who the character is.

 

Extreme close up shot

I also like how it's edited for the clothes to fall on the floor in time with the beats of the music.

Medium close up shot

There are 37 shots within the first 40 seconds which is great for a younger target audience.

The only aspect of this opening I don't like is the scene where the protagonist gets pushed into the lockers and it gets replayed.

I think that this scene could be done in such a way where it doesn't look so strange by having a different angle because it is quite hard to see what is going on here as the male character is in the way.  Also I don't understand what voiceover was used during that point as it sounds like they didn't finish what they were saying.