RESEARCH: Rogue One - A Star Wars Story

• Who produced the film? 
Kathleen Kennedy and Allison Shearmur

• Who directed the film? 
Gareth Edwards 

• What other films have they directed? 

Star Wars: the last Jedi, End day , Monsters ,Godzilla  

• What was the budget? 

$265 million

• Who stars in it? 

Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed 

• What other films have they been in?

Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed 

• What technology has been used to make the film? (What cameras did they use? How was the film edited? What CGI was involved?) 

A CGI face mask was used in order to bring the character of Leia, as the actor Catherine Fisher had passed away. 

• How was the film marketed? Which different marketing tools were used?

A multitude of trailers were released of a verity of social media platforms, e.g. Youtube, Instagram and Facebook. 

 • What examples of synergy with other products/merchandise can you find? 

LEGO

• What examples of cross-media convergence can you find? 

As Disney owns the star wars franchise they are to mass-produce a plethora of toys for children, boosting the overall revenue of the film and created further discussion over the film. 

• What examples of technological convergence can you find? 

Disney partnered with snapchat to create a filter that allowed people to take selfies with members of the story in the background. 

• Where and when was this film released (nationwide, worldwide) and in what cinemas?

Premiered in Los Angleles, California on December 10^th 2016. Realised in the United States on the 10^th December 20116 and then in England on the 13^th December 2016.  

RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE - MINDHUNTER

Art of the title link

The opening begins with an unknown hand lifting open the lid to an old recording machine, this is very effective, as this tells the audience that the show will not take place in present times. It is clear that there is a cool colour wash being used, the use of cold colours allows for unnerving first impressions. The use of the hand is also very effective as it creates a sense of mystery around the opening, as the audience has not been introduced to any characters so they won't know who is using the recorder.
As the recorder is being assembled, flashes of a body appear. They are too quick for anyone to take much detail from, however, the audience is likely to spot the damage that has been done to the body (or bodies). One that greatly stood out, bruised hands tied together with a zip tie. This suggests that whoever did this is a violent individual. This would put the audience on edge for the rest of the, as they now know that there is violent murderer in the story.
The use of sound in an opening is very important, the wrong music and the mood you are trying to convey is ruined. The same with sound effects. The Mindhunter opening is a good example of how to effectively use sound. The opening begins with a gentle piano melody, this melody creates and a slow and eerie mood. This works well with the smooth movements of the hand operating the recorder, giving off the idea that something sinister is at play. There is also a great use of diegetic sound, as the nut is screwed off the recording tape, as it is pulled off the screw it causes the nut to ring. The strange sound would interest the audience causesing them to focus more on the opening and by extent, the series.

RESEARCH: TITLES

Pacific Rim uprising(2018)

·                     Production Company – Legendary Entertainment and Universal Pictures, 

·                     Director - Steven S. DeKnight

·                     Starring – John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny 

·                     Costume designer - Lizz Wolf 

·                     Special effects supervisor - Pete Bebb

·                     Sound designer - Tim Waltson 

·                     Music - Hans Zimmer 

·                     Film editor - Zach Staenberg, Josh Schaeffer, Dylan Highsmith

·                     Production designer - Stefan Dechant 

·                     Director of photography - Dan Mindel 

·                     Executive producer - Eric McLeod

·                     Screenplay - Steven S. DeKnight, Kira Snyder, T.S. Nowlin, Emily Carmicheal 

·                     Producer - John Boyega, Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Guillermo del toro

Spectre(2015)

·                     Production Company – Columbia Pictures, Danjaq, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, EON Productions

·                     Director - Sam Mendes

·                     Starring – Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux, Christoph Waltz

·                     Costume designer - Jany Temime 

·                     Special effects supervisor - Daniel Kleinman 

·                     Sound designer - Christopher Assells 

·                     Music - Sam Smith

·                     Film editor - Lee Smith 

·                     Production designer - Dennis Gassner

·                     Director of photography - Hoyte Van Hoytema

·                     Executive producer - Barbara Broccoli and Micheal G. Wilson 

·                     Based on novel - "Thunderball" 1961

·                     Screenplay - John Logan, Robert Wade, Jez Butterworth, Neal Purvis 

ON THE SET

In a lesson we were shown how to correctly use a Canon camera and Manfrotto tripod, this post depicts what useful skills we were taught.

Cameras and tripods:
We split off into groups in the class, the groups for the three cameras we had out that day. We each took it in turn to learn how to load the battery and put in the sim card. Once we had all done this, we all then were shown how to correctly operate and use the camera. We were then taught that when passing a camera to someone you say "yours", and they in turn replay with "mine". Then we took the time to understand how to use the tripods and learned what it meant to 'bubble' it, meaning that the tripod is level.

White Balancing:
We were then taught what white balancing was and how it can be used. White Balancing is where a camera changes its colour temperature to compensate for different temperatures of light.

180-degree rule:
Then we were taught to familiarise ourselves with the 180-degree rule. One of the most basic continuity rules is the 180-degree rule. The 180-degree rule states that two characters in a scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If you don't follow the 180-degree rule or break it intentionally, it disrupts the scene disorients the audience.

On set:
Then we were told the import phrases to be used when recording, "stand by", "rolling", "action", "cut" and "Strike the kit". Before filming the director will shout "stand by", this is a cue for everyone to get into positions. When everyone is where they need to be, they respond with "standing by". "Rolling" is then said to tell everyone to be quite as they are now recording. "Action" is said to tell the actors to begin. "Cut" is then said when the director wants to stop filming. "Strike the kit" means that everything is done for the day and it is time for them to pack-up. 

I am using Adobe Premier Pro and Sony Vagas to edit.  When moving the footage from the camera to our computer, folders are created in order to store the footage in a coherent way. The folders are referred to as bins. The unedited, raw footage, is referred to as rushes. 

RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE - SE7EN

Art of the title link
As the opening begins the blurry image of a book appears, via hard cut, above the book, the faintest shape of hands turning the smooth pages. Who is this person? What is so important about this book? The close-up shot and intense blur greatly convey the film's core premise of mystery. In the bottom right, "New line cinema presents" is what can be seen. The text seems to "shatter" as the same text is layered over but distorted. This can resemble someone's mind, shattered and distorted. Again, keeping with the themes of the film, a mad killer carrying out horrific crimes.

In the opening, the editors use close-ups in order to create an uncomfortable scene. There is a scene in the opening, where the audience is shown an unnervingly close shot of these dirty hands holding a razor, almost lovingly. This would probe the audience's imagination, like how the book would, keeping them engaged. Also, to reinforce the uncomfortable atmosphere, the producers use sound. While Morgan Freeman's name appears, the jarring noise of friction on tight strings.

There is a clear use of mise-en-scene in the opening, the audience is shown photographs and newspaper cut-outs. This creates the idea that this is someone overlooking evidence, playing with idea that this is a mystery film. The grisly images that the audience is shown, reflects the fact this will be a much darker take on detective stories.

PRACTICE FILM OPENING

Finest Day

After taking an extensive look at the opening of the French film "Delicatessen" and saw how the camera panned over a multitude of objects. The objects are put in specific positions, this is to convey a story to the audience. "Delicatessen" used the labels of the objects to display the names of the producers.

Once we had fully analysed "Delicatessen"  we were introduced to the song "Nostalgia" by Emily Barker. Slow and sombre song, which is now as the opening for the crime TV show named "Wallander". As a group, we noticed the impact of the line "a door that shouldn't be in front of me".

Using inspiration from "Delicatessen" we thought of ways in which we could use the top-down perspective to convey a story to the audience, without using any live-action. We were then told that we would have to incorporate the song by Emily Barker into the top-down(table-top) opening.  

Then we chose what props we thought would be appropriate to show the audience the story we wanted to tell. We wanted to tell the story of an assassination, that leads to unforeseen consequences. So to show this we chose: Money, a gun, briefcase, a newspaper based around a tragedy, a false snake, blood-covered rags and police hat. Once the props were in place, we began doing test runs. In these test runs, we would, without recording, practice a path for the camera to move along. This meant when it came to filming the camera would pan across smoothly. 

Once we were happy with the footage we had recorded, we set about filming the live-action part of the film opening. We wanted to keep the theme of mystery, so we wanted to make the audience ask questions. To do this we dressed Alex in an overcoat and hat the obscured his face from the camera. 

RESEARCH: DISTRIBUTION COLLAGE

My chosen film (Marvel Infinity war) is positioned as a spectacle in order to draw in the audience. Marvel uses their social media accounts in order to build hype by interacting with the audience, e.g asking how excited they are. This would generate more and more discussion around the film, maybe cause those who see the post to speak to their friends or family members. The fact that they are asking this adds more to the selling point that it is a spectacle, the idea that if you fail to watch it; you're missing out.

In the poster, a key strength of the film is exploited in an effective way. Infinity War features a cast of all the characters in the Marvel cinematic franchise. This is used in the poster where they display all the characters showing the audience just how many of the favourite established series are crossing over.

Kezia Williams explains that the movie market has become so congested that in order to sell a film successfully you need to make it stand out to the audience, otherwise you will release a film without anyone realizing that it has been released. Or the film won't interest them enough and they prefer to watch another film. 

Chris Resseling explains that before marketing a film you must be aware of the key selling point of the film and who the target audience is.