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

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X GENERAL CONVENTIONS2 General Media Language

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

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via GIPHY

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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

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via GIPHY

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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

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via GIPHY

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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

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via GIPHY

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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

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via GIPHY

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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

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via GIPHY

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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 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).
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X FILM OPENING EG3 About a Boy

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• Fade up
• Audio bridge to first scene
• Diegetic sound from tv 
• Bird's eye view
• Tracking shot
• Protagonist - proppian archetypes
• Rule of thirds
• Narrative enigma - not showing protagonist's face
• Intertextuality with tv show
• Camera movement and zooming connoting tension
• Anchored with tense music from tv show
• Show foreshadowing events - most likely to be Jon Bon Jovi character connotes comedic genre 
• Voice over - inner monologue
• Non-diegetic sound - guitar strings
• Red Bull signifies youth, not sophisticated
• Tea cup with saucer - sophistication
• Cigarettes - negative connotations - complex preferred reading
• Campbell's hero's journey/monomyth - all narratives center on journey and progression of protagonist
• Big book - intelligence, sophistication
• Lower case bubble font block white - connoting comedic genre
• Navy blue slacks, gry blue crew neck jumper, blue shirt, grey blue monochromatic mise-en-scene - conservative guy
• Large collection of books and LPs, electric guitar, speakers - rebellious

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

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X IDEAS4 Improved Film Opening Pitch

SETH OF THE BRAIN DEAD
Working Title at the moment.  Intertextuality with Sean of the Dead


Scene1

• Playing movie in protagonists messy living room
• Not showing protagonist immediately (narrative enigma)
• Playing Scream / Halloween / Dawn of the Dead / Shaun of the Dead
• Opening Baked Beans can with pocket knife and eating them cold

Scene2

• Protagonist in shower
• Pans from feet to head (cuts in between)
• Oblivious to zombies in bathroom
• Dropping shampoo bottle knocking out zombie
• Slipping and kicking zombie killing it
• Possible shower singing scene for comedic effect

Scene3

• Getting ready scene 
• Quick shots like in Shaun of the Dead
• Brushing teeth
• Going to toilet
• Putting on glasses
• Getting dressed 
• Putting on glasses
• Putting on badge for blockbuster store

Scene4

• Walking out of house with headphones on looking out phone
• Not looking around
• Sees girl ahead (love interest) trying to tell him theres a zombie behind him
• False scare - hand on shoulder 
• Turns out to be the best friend character who pushes him out the way
• Shouts 'get in car'
• Pulls dead body out revealing title on floor

LOCATION

PROTAGONIST

• Male
• 18 years old
• Attractive - female gaze
• Named Seth

FILMS/TV

• Star Wars
• Star Trek
• Indiana Jones
• Sherlock
• Breaking Bad
• Shaun of the Dead

GADGETS

• Watch (casio digital)
• Phone
• Glasses
• Spare glasses
• Pocket knife
• Can opener
• Pens

ITEMS OF CLOTHING

• Graphic tee
• Straight cut blue jeans - thrifted - slightly worn/faded
• Glasses - taking them off and wiping them as nervous tic - helps with not seeing
• Possible button up over tee
• White high tops 
• Possible long black trench coat

PLACES HE'S BEEN TO

• Library
• Diner
• Game Store
• Home

FOODS/DRINKS THEY LIKE

• Slushies
• Milkshakes
• Monsters 
• Hot dogs
• Pizza

RANDOM FURTHER DETAILS

• Only child
• Love interest
• Works at blockbusters
• Really good at darts

EXTRA NOTES

• Impact on comedy to bring BBFC rating down to a 15 from an 18 
• Wears a World's End tee - direct intertextuality
• Plays video games
• Has junk food and empty cartons etc.
• To connote working at Blockbusters - name tag / card
• Blockbuster movies
• CD - possibly use as coaster or plate
• Empty cans
• Cigarettes
• Opening baked beans with pocket knife
• Box TV with playstation 2
• Set in this day and age but has all old gadgets
• DVD player - Dawn of the Dead / George A. Romero DVDs
• Link DVD - in Halloween playing movie at start - Scream played Halloween movie
• Triple hybrid rom-com-zom

SECONDARY CHARACTER

• Female
• Around 18 years old
• Attractive - male gaze
• Named Chloe
• Binary opposition to Seth
• Badass, very dominant and confident
• Doesn't let her guard down in opening
• Wears athletic, tight clothing (like Lara Croft)
• White vest top, slightly cropped, rip by neck
• Black skinny high waisted jeans
• Black leather jacket

X FILM OPENING EG1 Pretty in Pink

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IDENTS

• Only one company ident (Paramount Pictures)
• Now usually a few company idents

TITLES

• Wording, font use, order - all very important
• In older movies, usually all put at the end

TITLES IN ORDER 

(If in bold - bigger font size)

• PARAMOUNT PICTURES PRESENTS (all upper case and sans-serif - less likely to connote sophistication) - Black and white connoting seriousness / drama genre.  Polysemic title - sans-serif font with white on black.
• A JOHN HUGHES PRODUCTION (all upper case, sans-serif).  Expected auteur theory however usually "Film" and not "Production".  

SHOTS

• Exposition shot - narrative enigma.  Some degree of context - a working class area (grass growing over pavement, rusty car, broken roads)
• Panning shot showing both sides of the track - Born/from the wrong side of the tracks - One side is a nice area than the other.

X IDEAS2 Zombies

SHAUN OF THE DEAD
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Things we liked (ignoring the bar scene):

• Everyone looking like zombies however they're just doing their boring jobs
• When a car would go past and it would cut into next shot
• The continuous panning from left to right 
• The use of titles such as the Shaun of the Dead on the floor
• The narrative enigma of Shaun panning from feet to head and looks like a zombie
• The quick shots of parts of his morning routine

ZOMBIELAND

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Things we liked:

• The video recorder effect
• Point of view shot with the first zombie
• The visuals of Earth (don't know if we could do that)
• The use of titles for the rules
• The funny list of rules
• The slo mo title sequence (however we thought it was too long)
• The moving titles in the title sequence

WARM BODIES

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Things we liked:

• The narrative enigma of the main character then revealing he is a zombie
• The set design
• The internal monologue
• Flashbacks
• Scenes going on behind character 
• The transition back to how it was before and then back to now

X SEMIOTICS3 Semiotics rap

OUR TASK 

We had to make a semiotics rap.  This is in order to help us remember these terms so we can use them regularly.  It's a fun and easier way to remember these different terms.

LOUIS'S VERSES












Semiotics rap this is the way to go
Lots of different terms a bit like juxtapose
I’m guessing you want to know what that means
Well it’s something you see often on your tv screens

The places of two images on either side
Of an edit, creating a divide
This means there is an effect caused
That’s a pretty smart term, how bout you give me an applause

I think it’s about time we look at our next term
Connotation, that’s one to learn
The symbolic meaning of every factual detail
Knowing this, a levels are not something you will fail

Let’s look at the main man Roland Barthes
When it comes to effort, he worked the hardest
Born 1915 and died in Paris, France
Now give us a few seconds this is the semiotics dance
















Now that that’s done we can move on
We can research binary opposition
a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite
That’s pretty cool, isn’t it

MY VERSES

We look at a picture and we denote
But then you have to write some notes
These note are signifiers and connotes
Idk what to say so eat some oats

Many signifiers leads to an anchor
We needed that or it sank her
Signifiers have many possible meanings
Polysemy can be good on screening

There is preferred reading
Negotiated reading
Oppositional reading
Don’t know what it means, do some reading

Spooky scary narrative enigma
Gives the character a bad stigma
With intertextuality, everything links
Like episodes of the Simpsons, don't you think?

Narrative enigma gives some mystery
Making people wonder who is he?
The point is that we don't know
Because on screen we don't let it show

OUR VERSES TOGETHER

We keep it hidden till the very end
And then the connotations are what we send
The symbolic meaning of every factual detail
Connotations even found in Donald Trump's email

Proppian archetypes are a base
I'm about to spill my metaphorical briefcase
Each media text has its archetypes
For example the hero bringing the hype

Equilibrium is where it all starts
Keeping it chill until it all falls apart
Todorov is the owner of this theory
Now we don’t have to query

X SEMIOTICS1 applied to Warp films

TYRANNOSAUR

Tyrannosaur poster

• Rule of thirds, centrally framed connoting this man as the protagonist
• However, prop (wooden baseball bat), lighting, mise-en-scene etc connote he could be the antagonist
• Own binary opposition - creating narrative enigma
• Serif font signifying a drama genre
• Wrinkles - older man - older audience
• Skin head, vest top - working class
• Terraced houses on edge of poster - working class
• Dark weather - drama
• High key lighting on only one side - reflects his two different personalities - drama
• Small 'a film by Paddy Considine' denotes auteur theory
• 2 awards won & reviews to lead promotion
• High angle - surprising for protagonist
• Bare tree - drama 
• Violence - in this shot - violence to himself - self-loathing
• Contemplating - not stupid like the stereotypical working class
• Narrative enigma - what is he regretting?
• Names but not big or bold
• All upper case

LE DONK & SCOR-ZAY-ZEE

Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee poster

• Bright colours with title, stars, graffiti (not serious)
• Fat character signifies comedy in this case
• Wearing scruffy clothes, therefore not glamourising the working-class
• Underwear hanging connotes a comedy genre
• Setting = covered in graffiti (connotation of rough area) + (typical warp)
• Intertextual reference of 'Spinal Tap' 
• Stereotypes = short hair, relatively masculine colours
• rule of thirds - centred on the cover (protagonist)
• more inviting as character is directly referencing the character with hand gesture
• Text = scruffy serif font
• Narrative enigma as we don't know who the character is + his eyes are covered by sunglasses
• Long-shot/extreme long-shot
• Mid angle
• Shane Meadows made clear on cover = denotes the auteur theory
• Small text showing the actors (not famous actors, therefore no need to have their names clear on the cover)
• Not a star vacuole + film ratings on cover
• Showing off film festival ratings
• intertextuality with name (Martin Scorsese)
• Two shot

X ML3 Thoughts on previous AS coursework films

CROSSWORD

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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.

X ML2 Analysing cinematography of past coursework

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• 3 idents used - 21 seconds
• 7 seconds each
• Audio bridge into opening shot
• Roughly 107 shots

GOOD EXAMPLE OF ANGLE USE

• Worm's Eye Angle
• Shot from the ground
• Creates narrative enigma

• Dutch Angle
• Signifies something is wrong 

• Low Angle
• Connotes the person above being in control and being the dominant character

POSSIBLE INSPIRATIONS

• Using a large variety of different shots
• Think about different filters to use
• Possible audio bridge
• Using many shots
• Quicker shots
• Tense music