Preliminary Task

We have created a storyboard for our preliminary task. Creating the preliminary task will give us practice and experience with editing and camera work. This will come useful towards producing our opening sequence.

Ghost Ship Analysis

The film is introduced with the title “Ghost ship”, and oddly enough, it is written in a posh feminine font in the color pink despite the fact that its suppose to be a horror film. The director may of done this to mislead the audience, as they might think this movie is based on love and romance.

In the establishing shot, we are put into the perpective of a helicopter soaring over the sea and following a large ship, showing the audience where our story will begin. The camera then crossfades into a shot of a women singing. The gentleness of the crossfade creates a pleasant and warm atmosphere for the audience to be emerged in. This is further emphasised with the mise en scene, as there are women wearing colorful dresses and men wearing smart, sharp and sophisticated clothing. There are bright lights and wine glasses which set the mood for a romantic dancehall, backed up with classical old fashioned music. This further misleads the audience into thinking that this film is based on love and romance.

A steadicam is then used, and as it gently moves backwards from the main singing stage, we see couples dancing across the screen. This really puts the audience into the delightful atmosphere the director has created. The camera then cuts to a close up of the main singer, which shows her passion for the music. The camera then juxtaposes to a close up of a bored girl. This is used to show the audience the contrast between the singer enjoying herself and the bored girl sitting down. Wide shots are also constantly used to show a group of people having a great time. When the camera cuts to an over the shoulder shot of one of the violinist, we can see the large amount of people they are performing to. A low angle shot of the singer is then shown, which suggests her control not only over her singing, but somehow the crowd aswell. The camera then cuts to a close up of the toy the girl is holding, which reads “I am bored”. This is done by the director to tell the audience that all except the girl is being slightly manipulated by the music and singing. The camera then cuts to a high angle of the dancehall, making the people all look vulnerable, and also worrying the audience . But they are soon comforted as the director uses a slight slow motion effect to ease the audience and assure them everything will be alright. A promise shortly kept.

A circling birds eye view of the boat pulls the audience away from the dancehall, and away from the cheerful atmosphere. A shot of a hand pulling a lever is shown, and a machine which has a thick steel tether wire wrapped up begins to uncoil. An eerie music begins to play, but the soundbridge still continues the singing of the woman, creating a mix of mystery and happiness, which leads the audience to having no clue whether to feel happy or anxious. Everytime a shot of the dancers are shown in this moment, it has a slow motion effect, this contrasts to when a parallel shot brings us back to the wire, which has a fast motion effect. The director has done this to show that tragedy strikes faster than how long happiness can last, making the audience even more anxious. A close up of the girl smiling is shown as she is dancing. This arguably gives the rhetorical question of whether she should be happy, the audience obviously know that answer to that. A wide shot is then used to show the group of people dancing. Shallow focus is then used to show a very sharp steel wire very close to where they are dancing. They are completely oblivous to the danger, which makes the audience want to do something about it (which they can't). Parallel cuts begin to take us back and forth between the steel wire un-coiling fast and the main singer raising her arms. This is done by the director to suggest that the singer can somehow control the machine with her arms. As soon as she brings them down, the camera juxtaposes to the shot of the wheel stopping and releasing the wire. Continuity editing is used to create immidiacy and make the next series of shots look seamless.

The wire begins to cut through many objects very easily. It cuts through the lights then cuts through some flowers which immidiately slice in half, emphasising how sharp this wire really is, shocking the audience and putting them on the edge of their seats. Match on action shows the reaction of the dancing man's face, which still has a smile on it. They had no idea what was coming. The music suddenly cuts off, and a whip pan follows the steel wire cutting through the dancers like butter. The wire comes to a stop and a very close up shows that its smeared in blood, which is quite gruesome. The camera starts to track through the dead frozen dancers, who have no facial expressions whatsoever. This is used to make the audience seem like they are in the middle of that dancehall witnessing the horror. Parallel shots is used back and forth from the frozen dancers to the blood drenched wire. A close up of a man's feet is shown with what appears to be blood leaking down his trousers. The camera then goes back to a medium shot of the frightened girl unaware of what had just happened. The director probably wanted to show the audience how they must feel at that moment. A shot of a wine glass is shown which falls apart in half. This prepares the audience for a very gruesome image. A wide shot of the girl hanging on to her grandfather is shown with the camera focusing on the her, all the blurred out images on the sides seem to be just falling apart. The camera then cuts to a very gruesome and shocking shot of a half chopped man crawling through a pile of dismembered bodies. The camera is in level with him on the floor to make the audience also feel like a dicapitated person. As the grandfather's head begins to fall apart, a high angle of the girl is used to emphasis her insignificance and lack of power, making the audience feel sorry for her. She begins to build up a scream, and a close up shot really shows her fear. She then screams and the camera cuts to the entire ship, then very quickly dives into the blackness of the ocean, thus ending the horrific intro.

It's very interesting how the director misleads us into thinking that the film is based on romance and love, when it couldn't be anymore different. I think what he was trying to do is catch the audience offguard, that way it can shock us even more.

What i've learnt from this intro is the art of suprise, which when executed well, can really catch the audience when they are outside their comfort zone, which is something all directors want when it comes to thrillers.

The art of suprise is definetly something we can include in our supernatural thriller to put the audience on the edge of their seats.

Constantine

“Hell wants him. Heaven won't take him. Earth needs him.” Constantine (Francis Lawrence 2005), a supernatural thriller is a story of a supernatural detective named John Constantine (Keanu Reeves). John Constantine has been to hell and back. He then teams up with a policewoman named Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) in order to solve a mysterious suicidal death of her twin sister. The mystery takes them through the world of demons and angels that exist in the modern-day city of Los Angeles.

At the beginning of the sequence, a quotation is shown in white with a black background. “He who possesses the Spear of Destiny holds the fate of the world in his hands.” This is then followed by a phrase. “The Spear of Destiny has been missing since the end of World War II.”. The director had chosen to present this in the opening sequence so the audience will gain a brief idea of what the plot of Constantine is. The quotation connotes a sense of history. The phrase that also follows tells us of a mystery that is come into concern. Having presenting this in the opening sequence will ready the audience for a thrill that is yet to come.

An establishing shot is shown of a building that looks like it has been destroyed that is surrounded by rubble in a desert.  The audience could distinguish that the building is a church as there is a cross on top of the building. The audience could also distinguish that the church could have been destroyed by a fire as we see smoke flowing into the frame of the shot from the sides. Also, the building consists of many dark smudges over its structure that looks like it’s been burnt. This set design emits a sense of evil as it shows a church that has been burnt. It backs up the concept of demons in the film allowing the audience to acknowledge that there is evil in the plot that takes it to an extent to burning churches. There are a couple of long shots that follow the establishing to further more present the destruction of the church. A dog is shown sniffing through the rubble that then cuts to two Mexican looking men also searching through the rubble. A car passes by with Mexican music playing from the stereo to re-enforce the location of the shot.

One of the Mexican men then crashes his foot through some wood flooring as he searches through the rubble. This again suggests the extent of havoc that has been caused to the building. The scene then cuts into a point of view shot below the hole that has been put as the Mexican man takes his foot out. This shows some significance of what lies beneath the flooring as it causes the audience to wonder. A sense of thrill starts to also build up when a ‘spooky’ ambient sound is heard. The thrill then furthermore builds up as there is an oblique shot of the hole that has been made creating a sense of mystery. The Mexican man reaches his arm in and takes out a Nazi flag that looks like it has been wrapped around an object. The Mexican man un-wraps the flag and grasps tightly a blade tip of a spear that he finds in the flag. This is shown with a low angle. The director had chosen to do this so the audience will refer back to the quotation in the beginning of the sequence and will wonder of what the power of the spear’s blade tip is to hold. The scene then cuts into a high angle of the man crouching whilst the ambience halts. This suggests that there is something with a greater power looking over the man.

The Mexican man that holds the spear’s tip then walks away from the rubble as the other Mexican man calls for him alarmingly. The man holding the spear’s tip continues to walk ignoring the other as the camera follows him with a pan. Suddenly, a car crashes into the man holding the spear’s tip. The other Mexican man quickly runs towards the camera with a long shot suggesting that he is going for the man holding the spear’s tip. Another ‘spooky’ ambience comes in as the camera zooms out of the Mexican man that has just been hit with a car. This suggests that there is a paranormal event that is about to take place. We then see a close up of the man holding the spear’s tip’s wrist. It has been edited with CGI so a cross appears on his wrist whilst the ‘spooky’ ambience’s sound is heard louder. This en-forces the paranormal activity that is about to happen with the spear’s tip. The man that had just been hit with a car gets up unharmed and runs away from the car towards the camera with a low angle long shot that expresses the spear’s power which then cuts to black displaying the film’s title ‘Constantine’.

A few conventions that can be named from the events that have occurred with the opening sequence are:  Mexico, Church, Mystery, Paranormal Activity and World War II.

From this analysis I have produced I have learnt that I should introduce some of the main conventions of our film in the opening sequence. This will help the audience get a grasp of our plot as they acknowledge the conventions  portrayed. The use of pace will also be essential. I have also learnt this from my analysis. Pace can be created to create immediacy and highlight significant moments.

Ghost Rider - Hyder Salem

Ghost Rider’s introduction starts a brief and short voice over “This is the legend of the Ghost Rider” with a black screen to capture the audiences’ attention. The next shot presents a long shot with a man dressed as a cowboy on a horse with a dark sky which then cross fades to an animation of a dark horse with a paper looking background. The director had these shots cut to their consecutive order to make the ‘cowboy’ appear to be a legend as it had followed the voice over. The animation created with CGI had also been used to make the legend appear ancient and supernatural. Within these two shots in the intro, the audience will immediately sense that Ghost Rider is a supernatural movie. Another long shot follows of the ‘legend’ riding his horse through dark woods with trees with no leaves and a misty floor. The mise en scene with this shot is used to re-enforces the supernatural and mystic theme of the introduction. The audience will also have a sense of fear from the ‘legend’ as he is riding across casually.

The ‘legend’ is then seen with a wide shot riding his horse into a church. We see this from the mise en scene as there are holy crosses placed around the walls and lit candles used to make it appear as it is used for lighting. This is utilized to make the ‘legend’ appear as a holy character. The audience will sense that this ‘legend’ is good and will want to be on his side. A close up also follows of lit candles to re-enforce the time setting making it appear that this has happened in the past. The shot then cross fades into a close up of a scroll being rolled out then into a close up of an old looking man with flames in the background. A voice over is heard while these shots take place saying that the devil is after the scroll. The old man is shown as soon as the devil is mentioned to make it look like as the old man is the devil himself. It is re-enforced to make it look like he is as the background is edited to appear as flames. This is used to introduce the devil to appear as the nemesis of the ‘legend’. We have already seen that the ‘legend’ is holy and the devil to differ with having flames edited in the background.

A long shot of both the devil and the legend is then seen facing each other in the dark whilst the legend is holding the scroll. This is used to show the tension and conflict between the two. It is then cut to a close up of the devil extending his. This is used to show that the scroll is wanted by the devil. A reaction shot is then followed of the legend tilting his head up. He then rides his horse away from the devil with an extreme long shot leaving tracks that are lit with fire to show the speed of the horse. As this happens, the camera cranes upwards whilst tilting to a high angle over the devil making him appear powerless. The shot then fades to black and is followed by another voice over “The thing about legends is sometimes they’re true.” This is used to tell the audience that this introduction had actually taken place in the film and prepares the audience for a thrill of the new ‘Ghost Rider’.

What I have learnt from this opening sequence is that voice over’s can be extremely effective into setting the foundations of a story for an introduction. Also, introductions don’t have to be necessarily long. They could be short and effective displaying key characters in the beginning. The use of CGI can also be very effective to create supernatural themes.

The Ring Two

The camera cuts back to the girl on the couch, and a fast Steadicam is used to circle from behind her. As the boyfriend storms into the room trying to figure out what had happened, a whip pan is used to keep up with his pace. The director used this to put the audience into the seats of the characters, feeling confused and scared. The camera then cuts to the boyfriend staring at the screen, with a high angle of the girl covering her face with her hands in the background, which shows her fear and lack of power. The camera juxtaposes into a wide shot of the boy staring at the screen, and the girl on the coach. A digital jittering effect is then used to immerse the boy (and the audience) into the world of the video tape, making the boy hover towards the well. The director used this movement to show his lack of power, and how this supernatural cause is bringing him closer whether he likes it or not. Straight after, the hands of Samara lash out on the edge of the well, and the sounds of violins begins to combine with the music. This is used effectively to take the audience by surprise and really scare them. The camera then continuously cuts back and forth between the girl screaming, the video tape, and the boyfriend's shocked face, which suddenly stops when the screen goes blank, bringing an end to the intro of the horror that is yet to come.

Some of the conventions from the opening sequence of this supernatural thriller is eerie music, a mysterious atmosphere, a poltergeist and some fast paste sequences which, when used effectively, can really immerse the audience and put them on the edge of their seat. Something really useful to consider when we make our own supernatural thriller as well.

The Ring Opening Sequence

In the beginning of the opening sequence we see a wide shot of a young woman in what appears to be a kitchen. We acknowledge this by the presence of the props in the kitchen: Fruit basket, jug of juice, salt and pepper, toaster and a table with many more kitchen appliances. The woman is wearing a white shirt, which could suggest she has recently returned from work or college. The director has portrayed this young woman as a normal teenager in society. This reflects on the target audience as it is creating verisimilitude, which shows what a young person would be doing when they come home.

As she picks up her drink she walks and then suddenly halts when she hears the sound of the television with no signal. The audience can also see this by the light of the television being shown from the other side of the window. This creates a very tense and mysterious atmosphere. The camera cuts to a close up of the young woman's turning her head with a cautious look on her face.

The director then uses a wide shot from the point of view of the girl moving cautiously closer towards the television screen. This shows the audience what the character is afraid of and what she can see, this put us in her shoes and enhances the intensity of the situation. A reaction shot then shows the young woman looking confused. She then walks towards the screen, picks up the remote, switches it off and walks towards the kitchen again. But suddenly, the television automatically switches back on, showing the reflection of the screen on the window for the audience to see. Much to her horror, she realises something strange is going on. The camera slowly zooms into her, heightening the tension and increasing the sense of mysteriousness. She runs towards the screen and stares at it from point blank breathing heavily; she pulls the plug and leans on the television screen. Suddenly, the non-diagetic sound of swift movement is heard, and the reflection of the curtains blowing upwards is seen on the screen. She then has a fast reaction and turns towards the living room window's. The director may have chosen this shot to show the audience that there is an unusual presence in the house. This re-enforces the theme of 'Supernatural Thriller'.

Next we see a reaction shot of the young woman's face filled with fear. The director has chosen to do this to tell us that she is feared of the unusual presence in the house.

As she walks into the Kitchen, the fridge door suddenly opens by it self. The woman then rushes towards the door to shut it and breathes heavily emphasising her fear. Meanwhile, because the camera is on shallow focus, the background corridor is blurred out from the audience's sight. The director could have used this because it creates a sense of suspicion and mystery. The girl quickly then turns her head and the focus pull shows that there was nothing really there, easing her as much as the audience.

Next we see a high angle shot at the top of the staircase looking down at the girl nervously approaching the stairs. The director could have used this shot to make the girl look powerless and vulnerable. The camera then cuts to a low level shot of the girl approaching the bedroom which seems to have water leaking at the bottom. I personally think that this shot was used by the director to make it seem awkward and different from the rest of the scene. It makes the audience feel like something is about to suddenly happen.

The shot then changes to a close up shot of her face showing her facial expression which is representing confusion. The director has chosen this shot as it make the audience feel scared for her and eager to find out what is about to happen next.

We then see a extreme close up shot of the door handle and the girls hand attempting to open the door. The door handle is also dripping with water which makes the audience feel as if there could be someone in the bedroom. The girls movement towards the door handle is very slow and gives us the feeling that the girl is extremely scared. This shot is affective as we the audience are also eager to know what is about to happen next.

Next we see a wide shot of the door being pushed open and see the television screen screaming towards her. This shot and sound effect is very effective as even we the audience feel the need to jump out of our seats.

The last shot is a quick zoom into her face and her face changing into this scary monster. This director has used this shot to make the change of the girl happen extremely fast. I think that this is affective because it makes the audience feel uncomfortable and out of place.

[Temporary Message]

Nawz & Kamran. If you don't wanna analyse the dvds you got theres a great link that shows alot of supernatural thriller movies you could do. click here.

-Hyder

Four key areas of Analysing:

• Mise en scene
• Camera shots, angles and composition
• Sound (Diagetic / Non-diagetic)
  
• Editing

The Magical Four Part Answer:

1. What do you see?
2. What does it connote?
3. Why does the director use this?
4. What effect does this have on the audience?

Talk about Conventions as well!

Logo

Our Logo represents our chosen genre. The black and green scheme used collaborates with our banner, theme and style of our Blog. The colours portray something dark and supernatural, just like the genre we chose for our opening sequence. We came to a decision whether we wanted our logo round or square, we chose the round one because it gives off a smooth effect whilst a square shaped logo looks jaggy. A smooth effect fits better since it matches with the wavy green smoke which is floating in the air, emphasising a mysterious and strong aura which affects our theme. (Supernatural Theme)

Our logo use to have an outline around the edges, but we liked it best without it, because it blends more easily and smoothly onto backgrounds and themes. This also reflects our group Euphoria Pictures, which is all about creating professional and nice work smoothly.

The chosen name Euphoria Pictures suggests how we as a team like to create media which is pleasing to the eye of the audience, they enjoy watching it, and that's what we work hard for to achieve.