Opening Film Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vshC4xgayM0

As our chosen genre is "action comedy," we have decided to analyse the opening of Rush Hour 3. We have chosen this film as it has similar ideas to what we want to include in our opening film. The conventions that make this an "action comedy" film are conventions we will use in our main task. These include similar setting which is in town, humour through the use of speech, dramatic action included in the storyline etc. In the opening scene, there are firstly several establishing shots of both the city and then buildings. There are also opening credits which are white and bold making them stand out. There is then an aerial shot of the character who is shown to be both dancing and singing in the middle of the road. This creates the humour in the film which is then contrasted with action, when suddenly a car crashes. It is filmed on a sunny day and so had natural lighting. The mis en scene is typical of everyday in town centres consisting of busy roads, traffic, cars, people etc. These all establish this opening scene to represent this film as being of a "action comedy" genre.

Shot list 2

This is one of the ideas we came across while brainstorming for the final film opening. We decided to save this and use it as a plan B just in case our main plan came to an unreasonable end.

That is the list of different camera techniques used in this idea:

1. Mid shot
2. High angle
3. Low angle
4. Cut in
5. Two shot
6. POV
7. Zoom in
8. Over the shoulder
9. Low and deep depth of field
10. Close up
11. Extreme close up
12. Long shot
13. Wide shot
14. Slow motion
15. Shot reverse shot
16. Bird eye
17. Rule of third
18. 180 degree rule

Weather shot

– gloomy day, credits

Long shot

– guy A sitting on a bench (film from his side)

Cut in

- guy B's hand holding iPod

Mid shot

– film from guy A front

Extreme close up

– guy A’s eyes (emotion, not happy)

Cut in

- guy B's feet walking fast

Over the shoulder

– guy B step out of guy A’s head

Long shot

– guy A getting up, walking towards guy B

Two shot

– guy A entering shot (while guy B already in shot)

Cut in

– guy A’s hand with a pack of Skittels

Over the shoulder

– guy A: “Skittels?”

- guy B: “Nahh”

Shot reverse shot + over the shoulder

- guy A: “is that how it’s gona be?”

- guy A eating skittels

- guy B: “YEAH”

- guy A: “Alright” (spits skittles like machine gun at guy B’s face)

Shot of protestrian (zooming in + out blurr + clear)

- looking at them thinking what is going on

Two shot

– guy A: “is this where it ends”

- guy B reach out to push guy A

Over the shoulder

– guy B’s hands reaches guy A

Two shot

– guy A tries to punch guy B but got block

POV

– big swing to the face from guy B (slow motion)

- guy A falls back (deep breathing)

- low angle POV (guy A looking up to guy B who is posing, making guy A powerless)

Bird eye + zoom in – guy A’s head

POV

- sky (head drops back) + (eyes close)

All black

– “a week ago” (text)

- traffic noise (sound bridge)

Medium close up (rule of third)

– guy B steeping into shot (shallow depth of field)

- guy A walking behind towards guy B

- guy B turns around

- hands reach out

Cut in (long take)

– hand shake

- guy A: “itee”

- guy B: “sup”

- guy B: “where’s the others”

- guy A: “over there”

Wide shot

– guy C and guy D walking toward them with a football

POV

- guy C passing the ball doing skills

Tracking shot

- following guy D's feet while dribbling

Wide shot

- a pass to guy A/B (film from their direction)

Two shot

– guy A/B gets the ball

- guy A: “so! is that how it’s gona be?”

- guy B: “Yeahh”

- both walk toward into the camera

- end with title

Main Task Outline

In our main task, we will produce a 2 minute opening of a film. This has to include at least 30 different camera shots. We will have to decide on a genre and then an idea of how this type of generic film is made. We will also analyse a film opening of the same genre, which will involve looking at how and what conventions are used to create this to be a specific genre. We have 7 weeks to complete our main task, which will also include the editing completion too.

Shot List # 1

My Wings

1. high angle shot - tall building
2. wide shot - city centre
3. long shot - 'curry mile' (location)
4. close up - a chip shop name
5. medium shot - Ephrem and Edwin walking to a chip shop
6. high angle shot - someone cooking in chip shop
7. close up - Kailin's face
8. medium shot - Kailin looking for money on the floor
9. over the shoulder shot - Ephrem and Edwin ordering the chicken
10. close up - Kailin asking Zain for money
11. wide shot - camera looking through window of chip shop at Ephrem and Edwin
12. point of view shot - Kailin looking at Ephrem and Edwin
13. low angle shot - Kailin hiding behind the cornerof the chip shop
14. close up - Ephrem and Edwin opening their boxes with chicken inside them
15. medium shot - Ephrem and Edwin walking out of the chip shop
16. close up - Kailin's hand on Ephrem's chicken box
17. medium shot - Kailin taking the box
18. wide shot - Kailin running away with the box, Ephrem and Edwin chasing him
19. low angle - looking at Ephrem's face who is tired
20. close up - Edwin asking Ephrem if he's alright
21. two shot - Edwin giving Ephrem his box of chicken so he can run after Kailin
22. low angle - Kailin jumping over railings
23. close up - Kailin eating the chicken whilst running
24. over the shoulder shot - Edwin still chasing Kailin
25. high angle shot - Kailin running up stairs in a building he entered
26. low angle shot - Edwin running up the same set of stairs
27. 360 degree shot - Edwin and Kailin looking at each other
28. long shot - Kailin doing karate moves
29. close up shot - Edwin looking at Kailin, puzzled
30. point of view shot - Edwin's fist hitting Kailin's face (fist hitting camera lens)

Preliminary Task

Analysis of preliminary task

What did you learn about the cameras and editing software during the preliminary task?

In the preliminary task we have learned how to put the tape into and taking out of the camera without breaking it, also learned to use the tripod correctly, making sure the video was recorded straight. The camera can zoom in and out during recording, which it helped us to record facial expressions. There are two modes play and record mode. Play mode allowed us to watch the clip we have recorded and to put it on the computer. The video was stored onto the tape which takes long time to access the wanted clip, unlike digital recorders.

The editing software we used was “final cut pro”, it was easy to use. We learned to put shots together and to put text on the video. Also deleting the original sound and put music on it. The editing software also allowed us to cut clips we did not want and add it to the video.

In the filming and editing of your project, what worked well and what could have been improved?

During the filming, most things went well even though it was our first time using the cameras. With the help of the tri-pod, it was more comfortable to pan, the camera was steadier and it was easier to create certain angles. On the other hand, we did have slight problems when filming. The major problem consisted of us not finishing filming some scenes, were we used different shots for the same sequence. For example, when we had a conversation between the two people present in the scene, instead of shooting the same scene multiple times with different shots, we basically stopped filming when we had the part we needed. This affected the finished product as some of the shots didn’t perfectly fit in with each other and were noticeable in the film.

Using the iMacs to edit was a great experience as it made our production look very professional. The fact that we could manoeuvre the clips we had filmed and put them anywhere on the timeline made it very easy to finish the project in the given time. The only thing that we could have improved is the music we put into the task. After putting the clips together, we had some time left over, so we decided to add sound, but the process of putting the music into the project was time consuming, so we ended up rushing the process and it didn’t sound like we wanted it to sound.