Click the two storyboard images to get a bigger image.
In what ways does your media product, use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our film Death3 utilizes dramatic effects found in films such as 2012 yet further challenges and develops the convention by having the story revolved around nuclear warfare and the aftermath opposed to the 'natural disaster' theme that seems to be permanently cropping up within cinemas. Furthermore as a production company we believe the whole 'major effects over any real plot' is wearing thin on its target audience. Building upon this research we've took the special effects (which can be seen during our news scene, and nuclear explosions) yet interwoven a somewhat emotional and in-depth story so that our target audience and media institutions, can clearly see our movie stands out and above other films available.
Another convention that Death3 has that differs from conventional methods is starting our movie after the disaster rather than before like many post-apocalyptic films do. However you may be wondering how our target market won't be confused by the story so far? Introducing the storyline is a balance of news reports and a presidential announcement, allowing us to focus on action rather than a 'slow start, everything's happy' style that seems to be a semi-permanent convention we decided to break. Yet is an image the only thing that's important in a film? According to most post-apocalyptic productions this seems to be the case. Yet for Death3 we believe that music is paramount, being able to have a silent eerie build up gradually transitioning into a fast paced track that still at the same time has connotations of the unknown - a convention that I did actually find in many post-apocalyptic productions and we decided to use in our own movie. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our film focus's itself around an 'average person' social group, purely to allow the majority to relate their selves to our media product. We achieved this by wearing no formal attire, 'major' branded clothing, or even via internal music. You could reference the 'rock' style of music that's found towards the end of the opening minutes to be linked to a more 'Gothic' social group although that would be slightly ambiguous - mainly due to us as a production company on the whole being influenced via this style of music. Looking more in-depth we could be seen as merging both the 'average' social group with the 'Gothic' to show that both can work in harmony when a apocalyptic disaster occurs (as we know from the mainstream media both groups often suffer controversy due to their 'distaste' to each other). You could see our film as a twisted fairy tale in the way that two social groups have been brought together yet at the cost of a major nuclear disaster. What kind of media institution would distribute your product and why?
A company that we would possibly choose is that of Columbia Pictures as they're known for releasing the megabucks film 2012 and as a result our film would be managed by some of the biggest professionals within the media business. The logo for Columbia Pictures containing the image of the lady Jenny Joseph is extremely distinctive and would be recognized with ease by our target audience; again relating us to the whole 'professional' look.As an alternative we can also consider distributing our film with Summit Entertainment. They are the creators of the 2009 production – Knowing a film that’s centred on destruction and the ‘unknown’ extremely similar to the way our film is laid out. A definite advantage of using Summit instead of Columbia is that we are more likely unique final product and release at the cinema, as Columbia may be very likely to copy similar sorts of methods to which they used in 2012 – even if unintentional.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for our media product would be that of teenagers to young adults (13-21?) and could further extend depending on a person’s exact taste in film and hobbies. Due to our target audience being quite 'young' this perfectly links in with the whole 'gaming generation'; our film takes great influence from the game Fallout 3 -where survivors are cast into a desolate wasteland with very few buildings still remaining, therefore fans of both games and movies can form a solid link between us which will be presented in advertising posters - similar colours and mise-en-scene.
A feature I believe will be effective towards targeting an audience for our film - like mentioned before - is having the effects of 2012, yet a much more in-depth storyline, so we're able to target both sides of the film spectrum. Being slightly stereotypical you could say our movie is more aimed at males then females, the reason being that big 'action explosions' are normally stereotyped as being things the male sex find interesting; so we will be taking this onboard when promoting our movie.
How did you attract/address your audience?
From the beginning of our movie quest getting the correct niche was crucial to our success of attracting the right audience. Originally our plot was based around showing the developments of the nuclear war and its escalating state from a classroom atmosphere. After some initial research we then realised that this would be hard to achieve when considering how much the building is in use, and it would also be following all the same conventions of a typical post-apocalyptic movie rather than breaking them and being innovative. Thus as a result of further research we decided that our audience would be much more interested in seeing the aftermath of the nuclear war rather than a mass build up to it.
As you can see from watching our film intro we followed through with our plan and its proven to be extremely effective in being unique, and it also has action right from the opening minutes; something that was vital for our 'young' audience to entertain them and sustain their interest for as long as possible. Last but not least the actors used within our film are around the same age as our target audience so that they can relate their selves more to the situation; as a result our movie has a more alluring attractiveness to its audience.
What have you learn about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
From the process of constructing the product I've learnt just how effective programmes like Adobe After Effects can be for both budget and 'big time' producers. Nuclear bomb stock footage can easily be imported to the programme and included to an environment. The most impressive part in my eyes is how we had the ability to create our very own news broadcast similar to that of GMTV. I've also taken away the skill of operating a camera to create a range of different camera shots and also to create a video montage (people running away in distress in numerous locations).
Whilst Photoshop is often looked upon as just a 'photo editing suite' it's been vital to our group’s movie. Whenever graphics have been used on screen - especially for the credits, these have been created within Photoshop and then overlapped with the movie during the After Effects programme. The outcome is unbelievably professional, and people on any budget would easily be able to accomplish it. As a group the technologies didn't prove a problem as we are all technology competent and found the project to be interesting and to contain a plethora of skills that shall stay with us for life.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
A definite thing we learnt as a group and individually from the preliminary task was time management. I originally thought that a film was only going to need a few camera shots and it was from the point of hearing about the preliminary that I learnt that in fact a new camera shot was needed near enough every couple of seconds. Whilst we still managed to meet the deadline of the preliminary it still took us a lot longer than we originally thought it would, and I believe this spurred us on to effectively plan out the main task with camera maps, storyboards etc and made sure we could carry it out to the best of our ability.
Upon looking back at the preliminary it also helped us to look at the various different camera shots we could use, and for me personally it allowed me to visualize what sort of final product I would like. Within our film at various points you will notice that the music goes along to the action and I think it was the 'match on action' shot that got us into this mainframe - something that probably wouldn't have happened if we didn't have the opportunity to carry out the preliminary
Knowing - FilmThe title sequence for the Knowing is extremely clever. The 'I' has been changed to a '1' to reflect the film being built around numbers, and dates; for example the girl predicting when each event in history is going to happen. Furthermore the moon image being used in place of an 'O' could be connoting the film title of 'knowing' as everyone knows what a moon looks like so it's trying to show we could easily be in the same situation as them? Yet also on the other end of the spectrum the red colour is only covering a small portion of the screen, perhaps this is representing only the girl 'knowing' of the events at that period of time, yet the moon backs up that we shall all know soon?
Short summary in case of confusion: The moon's being used as us knowing the situation, whilst being inside the 'unknown' black background. Basically saying we're all going to face the wrath of the girls predictions soon.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse - Film
Extremely dramatic the Resident Evil: Apocalypse titles are short, sharp and shot with precision - literally. Each time a title needs to change a bullet is fired through the title making shards fly off to various segments of the screen; an effective image showing mass destruction ( the vocal point of the plot.) Yet the final title in the sequence (shown above) is effectively over-encumbered by a blue flame. The image is sinister as blue is considered a somewhat relaxing colour yet it's being juxtaposed with the brutality of the flame effect.
2012 - MoviePictures often paint a thousand words, but in this case it's 2012. Yes whilst the image is simple the message is huge and complex. Big bold writing is obviously being used to represent the situation as a whole and with the colours being blue meaning halcyon, and white meaning purity perhaps it's showing this relaxed and simple life we're leading at the moment? Yet with the use of a black background meaning the 'unknown' it shows that although we know something is going to happen (in 2012) we don't quite know the full 'story' - the reason why the directer wants us to watch this movie.
Overall as you can see from my analysis, many of the films within our genre seem to have their titles centred around the 'unknown' meaning we have to watch their movie to find out more.
The film opens with a long shot of the three main characters; Sam Appleby; Jacob Lexis; and Terry Colby. We see them slowly pacing away from the camera. The long shot is representing that the three characters are now 'out of reach' with modern society as we know it.
The character Sam then proceeds to stop at a Rock which he rests on. Through the use of the characters attire and general accessories such as their bags the audience can come to the conclusion that the characters know they're going to be out in the 'wilderness' for a long time to come.A shot of the landscape is shown, an array of ruined Skyscrapers being symbolic reference to the break down of society. Immediately our audience becomes aware that this isn't any form of holiday, yet a disaster beyond comprehension.
In comes the dialogue, with the characters Jacob and Terry voicing their frustration at Sam for taking a rest, as well as dialogue itself we also show this through a series of sighs, and overall body posture; folded arms to show their 'fury'.Following on from this is a long shot of Jacob beginning to sit down next to Sam. By doing this we are showing that Jacob's anger has turned to sympathy and he's now on Sam side. This is further backed up when we jump to a mid-shot of Jacob saying "Yeah well five minutes isn't gonna do much harm Terry".
At this point the plot begins to take a much more sinister twist when Terry retaliates with "Oh shut it J. If we don’t get there before dark tonight, then we won’t see light again."
Multiple questions are going to be jumping to the audiences mind. Where is the place the trio have to get to? Why won't they see light again? And more importantly why are they in this situation? By us making the audience think all these questions, we're keeping their attention and making them want to watch the movie for more. We're also making them get emotionally attached to the characters as they're going to want them to survive.
Going to a close up Sam says his dialogue in a very vicious tone due to his tiredness and frustration. We then proceed to get the first most significant lines of the movie from Terry
"Sam. Just over a month ago I was worrying about trying to get my English A-Level essays in on time. Now I’m trying to survive a nuclear apocalypse - am I really being all that dramatic?" A harrowing yet true line, that is sure to send shivers down the spine of the audience. We've taken such a normal situation such as 'trying to get English A-Level essays in on time' and put a sinister twist on it so we can try to relate the audience to how normal of a situation they have come from, and what a unthinkable situation they are in now.
Sam proceeds to drink a bottle of water he retrieved from his bag, the camera stays on him as Jacob begins to speak his next portion of dialogue. The effect of keeping the camera on Sam perhaps hints that he's a bit of a selfish character? He wants all the limelight, and we can see this from the first minute of the movie when he's the one who protests about walking and stops for a rest, without asking the others first.
In comes the mid-shot when Jacob asks the other characters if they've seen the 'skyscraper over there'...after exchanging further lines of dialogue, it ends with Jacob saying his dad used to work there, to which Terry replies with "Well he won't be now." This makes the other two characters extremely uncomfortable; and this is portrayed via them looking down to the ground.
So far in the story the audience will feel an unprecedented amount of sympathy for both Sam and Jacob. Yet the audience will be reeling by the sarcasm; and spiteful edge that Terry has whenever he speaks. Of course the audience might also understand that they've been put under a stressful situation, and feel not quite as much resentment for Terry.
Continuing with a mid-shot, Jacob returns to the rocks and sits with the other two characters. He looks much more upset, and glum then the other characters. This is done to show the idea of 'alienation' and he feels like he can't relate to the other two as much anymore after the catastrophe. To end the shot off the three characters all look up towards the skyscraper in the distance. Making them look extremely inferior, and powerless. The screen then fades through white.
The camera begins to zoom up to the building, but it's easy to see the time period has now changed. The skyscraper has dramatically changed and has far less greenery. We then fade through white and return back to the present day.
We then move to a close-up of Jacob, a close-up allows us to show the emotional strain that Jacob is currently under, and we can also see he's looking beyond the camera and thinking of something as if it's appearing right before him. This is only further extending the sympathy that the audience feel for him. Looking extremely upset, a tear begins to roll down his cheek, and as this happens the camera begins to blur, by doing this match on action we're allowing the audience to get far more involved with the movie as they can see the reality of how Jacob is currently feeling.
News Broadcast being edited in Adobe Premiere Elements. Allowed us to turn our Greenscreen footage into a news backdrop.
Quickly the situation changes, we have a fade through white that takes us to a news broadcast. The newsreaders explain the situation as it's happening, this gives our audience the back story of our movie, and already within the first two minutes of the movie. They know a lot about the three main characters, and how they've got too where they are now.
Cutting to a hand held camera we a shot of people running over the American flag in a frantic state of panic. In normal circumstances the American Flag is seen as a huge iconic figure, yet in desperate times people are forced to lose all sense of decency and run over it. Throughout this portion we still have the newsreader talking over the top of the clip.
Jumping to a shot of the president speaking over a background of the Presidential Seal he begins to tell people to remain calm and in their homes as there is nothing to gain by leaving their homes. At points throughout this broadcast we jump to different shots of mushroom clouds over various landscapes. This is so that it contrasts with what the president is saying, and the audience can see the harsh reality of what is really happening, and what people in the movie are being told.
Just as the president is about to close off his speech with "God Bless America" he gets cut off just after saying 'Bless' with a picture making it look like the transition is ending, which swiftly jumps to an 'EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM' logo. We decided to use this as it's something that everyone recognises, and people know how desperate a situation has to become before that logo is shown.
Fade through white again and to a close up it brings us back to the present day. There is a muffled voice in the background, that gets louder and clearer each time eventually we can tell it's Terry frantically shouting Jacob to move over to him. Jacob sharply twists his head in Terry's direction. A mid shot occurs where we see Terry kneeling over Sam's limp body. Terry tells Jacob that Sam's passed out. Now as an audience their opinion of Terry has changed, originally they saw him as a somewhat 'nasty' character, but now they can see his caring side so now they'll also like Terry as a character. Furthermore by Terry's body language they will be able to see that deep down he's just as weak as the other two are in this situation.
Jacob runs down opposite Terry and kneels beside Jacob. He checks for a pulse, and looks extremely shocked when he sees Sam's hand. Terry picks up on this and proceeds to ask Jacob what it is. Jacob drops the palm of Sam's hand for Terry to look. Then Jacob closes his eyes to confirm what Terry already knew "He’s... He’s infected?"
A jump cut takes place, a black screen appears with the Death3 logo on for about a second, it then turns to static. By doing this the audience are hungry for more. And we're also placing the cinema audience under the same situation the movie characters were in, as they also saw a static screen as the catastrophe took place.
The character Sam then proceeds to stop at a Rock which he rests on. Through the use of the characters attire and general accessories such as their bags the audience can come to the conclusion that the characters know they're going to be out in the 'wilderness' for a long time to come.A shot of the landscape is shown, an array of ruined Skyscrapers being symbolic reference to the break down of society. Immediately our audience becomes aware that this isn't any form of holiday, yet a disaster beyond comprehension.
In comes the dialogue, with the characters Jacob and Terry voicing their frustration at Sam for taking a rest, as well as dialogue itself we also show this through a series of sighs, and overall body posture; folded arms to show their 'fury'.Following on from this is a long shot of Jacob beginning to sit down next to Sam. By doing this we are showing that Jacob's anger has turned to sympathy and he's now on Sam side. This is further backed up when we jump to a mid-shot of Jacob saying "Yeah well five minutes isn't gonna do much harm Terry".At this point the plot begins to take a much more sinister twist when Terry retaliates with "Oh shut it J. If we don’t get there before dark tonight, then we won’t see light again."
Multiple questions are going to be jumping to the audiences mind. Where is the place the trio have to get to? Why won't they see light again? And more importantly why are they in this situation? By us making the audience think all these questions, we're keeping their attention and making them want to watch the movie for more. We're also making them get emotionally attached to the characters as they're going to want them to survive.
Going to a close up Sam says his dialogue in a very vicious tone due to his tiredness and frustration. We then proceed to get the first most significant lines of the movie from Terry
"Sam. Just over a month ago I was worrying about trying to get my English A-Level essays in on time. Now I’m trying to survive a nuclear apocalypse - am I really being all that dramatic?" A harrowing yet true line, that is sure to send shivers down the spine of the audience. We've taken such a normal situation such as 'trying to get English A-Level essays in on time' and put a sinister twist on it so we can try to relate the audience to how normal of a situation they have come from, and what a unthinkable situation they are in now.
Sam proceeds to drink a bottle of water he retrieved from his bag, the camera stays on him as Jacob begins to speak his next portion of dialogue. The effect of keeping the camera on Sam perhaps hints that he's a bit of a selfish character? He wants all the limelight, and we can see this from the first minute of the movie when he's the one who protests about walking and stops for a rest, without asking the others first.
In comes the mid-shot when Jacob asks the other characters if they've seen the 'skyscraper over there'...after exchanging further lines of dialogue, it ends with Jacob saying his dad used to work there, to which Terry replies with "Well he won't be now." This makes the other two characters extremely uncomfortable; and this is portrayed via them looking down to the ground.
So far in the story the audience will feel an unprecedented amount of sympathy for both Sam and Jacob. Yet the audience will be reeling by the sarcasm; and spiteful edge that Terry has whenever he speaks. Of course the audience might also understand that they've been put under a stressful situation, and feel not quite as much resentment for Terry.
Continuing with a mid-shot, Jacob returns to the rocks and sits with the other two characters. He looks much more upset, and glum then the other characters. This is done to show the idea of 'alienation' and he feels like he can't relate to the other two as much anymore after the catastrophe. To end the shot off the three characters all look up towards the skyscraper in the distance. Making them look extremely inferior, and powerless. The screen then fades through white.
The camera begins to zoom up to the building, but it's easy to see the time period has now changed. The skyscraper has dramatically changed and has far less greenery. We then fade through white and return back to the present day.
We then move to a close-up of Jacob, a close-up allows us to show the emotional strain that Jacob is currently under, and we can also see he's looking beyond the camera and thinking of something as if it's appearing right before him. This is only further extending the sympathy that the audience feel for him. Looking extremely upset, a tear begins to roll down his cheek, and as this happens the camera begins to blur, by doing this match on action we're allowing the audience to get far more involved with the movie as they can see the reality of how Jacob is currently feeling.
News Broadcast being edited in Adobe Premiere Elements. Allowed us to turn our Greenscreen footage into a news backdrop.Quickly the situation changes, we have a fade through white that takes us to a news broadcast. The newsreaders explain the situation as it's happening, this gives our audience the back story of our movie, and already within the first two minutes of the movie. They know a lot about the three main characters, and how they've got too where they are now.
Cutting to a hand held camera we a shot of people running over the American flag in a frantic state of panic. In normal circumstances the American Flag is seen as a huge iconic figure, yet in desperate times people are forced to lose all sense of decency and run over it. Throughout this portion we still have the newsreader talking over the top of the clip.
Jumping to a shot of the president speaking over a background of the Presidential Seal he begins to tell people to remain calm and in their homes as there is nothing to gain by leaving their homes. At points throughout this broadcast we jump to different shots of mushroom clouds over various landscapes. This is so that it contrasts with what the president is saying, and the audience can see the harsh reality of what is really happening, and what people in the movie are being told.Just as the president is about to close off his speech with "God Bless America" he gets cut off just after saying 'Bless' with a picture making it look like the transition is ending, which swiftly jumps to an 'EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM' logo. We decided to use this as it's something that everyone recognises, and people know how desperate a situation has to become before that logo is shown.
Fade through white again and to a close up it brings us back to the present day. There is a muffled voice in the background, that gets louder and clearer each time eventually we can tell it's Terry frantically shouting Jacob to move over to him. Jacob sharply twists his head in Terry's direction. A mid shot occurs where we see Terry kneeling over Sam's limp body. Terry tells Jacob that Sam's passed out. Now as an audience their opinion of Terry has changed, originally they saw him as a somewhat 'nasty' character, but now they can see his caring side so now they'll also like Terry as a character. Furthermore by Terry's body language they will be able to see that deep down he's just as weak as the other two are in this situation.
Jacob runs down opposite Terry and kneels beside Jacob. He checks for a pulse, and looks extremely shocked when he sees Sam's hand. Terry picks up on this and proceeds to ask Jacob what it is. Jacob drops the palm of Sam's hand for Terry to look. Then Jacob closes his eyes to confirm what Terry already knew "He’s... He’s infected?"
A jump cut takes place, a black screen appears with the Death3 logo on for about a second, it then turns to static. By doing this the audience are hungry for more. And we're also placing the cinema audience under the same situation the movie characters were in, as they also saw a static screen as the catastrophe took place.
For this portion of my blog, I shall be analysing a series of film/TV series openings related to our post-apocalyptic genre; from this I will be able to gather the list of techniques that they use and see if we can link them in with our own movie opening.
Survivors TV Series: Episode 1.
Devised by Terry Nation and produced by Terrance Dudley.
Target Auidence: Fans of post-apocalyptic media and TV dramas.
This series is all about an accident at a bio lab releasing a deadly virus that kills 99% of the population. After the disaster the survivors form a group to try and rebuild the world as we know it.
From watching the first episode I was able to gather the show uses a number of fast closeups; namely of the many various cities worldwide. This is used to the effect of showing how big the catastrophe actually has affected the world, and the fastness representing how quickly the virus has spread.The first shot shows an idyllic summers day (the calm before the storm) with a woman playing tennis, building up suspense in the audience making them want to watch further to see how the situation is going to change.
We then zoom out and see she's actually playing tennis with a machine, this is showing the idea of
isolation; being alone, something that the survivers of a post apocalyptic disaster would be feeling.
The only other significant thing I could pick up from the first few minutes, is when we have a match on action when a woman hands over a glass of orange juice.
I believe that I wouldn't use too many features from this series, it's far too slow getting started and I believe if I took this route with our movie, then it would be extremely boring for the audience.
The Day After Tomorrow
Directed and produced by Roland Emmerich.
Target Audience: Fans of disaster movies e.g. 2012 and also movie enthusiasts.
From the offset the music is extremely subtle, and something we would often stereotype the 'upper-class' to listen to. It comes across as very royal and this links in with the whole scientific theme of the movie. From this I can infer that The Day After Tomorrow is extremely quick at setting the story for the rest of the movie; something I would want to link into my own movie opening.
The first few minutes are title credits, that stand out effectively on the snow and ice. We are shown a constantly moving aerial view of the ocean, we can see that the majority of the ice has melted, as said above this is great in linking in with the scientific, and global warming theme that is portrayed throughout the duration of the movie.
Characters only come into play around the 2:45 mark of the movie, although this is a very long time for a movie to go without characters, in the case of The Day After Tomorrow it works perfectly in being able to set the scene well.
Resident Evil Apocalypse.
Directed by Alexander Witt and produced by Paul Anderson.
Target Audience: Video game fans and fans of the franchise.
Beginning with the title sequence on the background of a stary night, this links in with the movies storyline of a future being predicted; mainly including the event of a alien invasion, the reason for having a night background.
Swiftly the movie jumps to a long shot of a school with the location and date being shown at the bottom of the screen, this is defiantly needed in helping to show people the change in both time from modern day to now, and exactly what country the film is set in. Straight away a setting is being established.
The camera then begins to be took up by the vivid brightness of the sun, this is a match on action as when the camera zooms closer into the sun, then our view as an audience gets harder to focus. An obvious effect of the sun. We're using a similar sort of thing in our own movie, where someone has a tear rolling down their cheek and the camera blurs to match this.
As the sun takes up the full proportion of the screen we instantly cut from the courtyard to the classroom.
The remainder of the first few minutes just continues with a typical classroom atmosphere. Although one thing I could pick up is one girl feels 'isolated' from the rest of the class. Isolation is a big theme in this genre; so it's great they managed to link it in.
Overall from my analysis I've been able to note costumes; editing; sound; camera shots; and general techniques to build up a list of potential things we could use during the first portion of our movie.
Survivors TV Series: Episode 1.
Devised by Terry Nation and produced by Terrance Dudley.
Target Auidence: Fans of post-apocalyptic media and TV dramas.
This series is all about an accident at a bio lab releasing a deadly virus that kills 99% of the population. After the disaster the survivors form a group to try and rebuild the world as we know it.
From watching the first episode I was able to gather the show uses a number of fast closeups; namely of the many various cities worldwide. This is used to the effect of showing how big the catastrophe actually has affected the world, and the fastness representing how quickly the virus has spread.The first shot shows an idyllic summers day (the calm before the storm) with a woman playing tennis, building up suspense in the audience making them want to watch further to see how the situation is going to change.
We then zoom out and see she's actually playing tennis with a machine, this is showing the idea of
isolation; being alone, something that the survivers of a post apocalyptic disaster would be feeling.
The only other significant thing I could pick up from the first few minutes, is when we have a match on action when a woman hands over a glass of orange juice.
I believe that I wouldn't use too many features from this series, it's far too slow getting started and I believe if I took this route with our movie, then it would be extremely boring for the audience.
The Day After Tomorrow
Directed and produced by Roland Emmerich.
Target Audience: Fans of disaster movies e.g. 2012 and also movie enthusiasts.
From the offset the music is extremely subtle, and something we would often stereotype the 'upper-class' to listen to. It comes across as very royal and this links in with the whole scientific theme of the movie. From this I can infer that The Day After Tomorrow is extremely quick at setting the story for the rest of the movie; something I would want to link into my own movie opening.
The first few minutes are title credits, that stand out effectively on the snow and ice. We are shown a constantly moving aerial view of the ocean, we can see that the majority of the ice has melted, as said above this is great in linking in with the scientific, and global warming theme that is portrayed throughout the duration of the movie.
Characters only come into play around the 2:45 mark of the movie, although this is a very long time for a movie to go without characters, in the case of The Day After Tomorrow it works perfectly in being able to set the scene well.
Resident Evil Apocalypse.
Directed by Alexander Witt and produced by Paul Anderson.
Target Audience: Video game fans and fans of the franchise.
This movie starts off totally different to the others in this genre. Various high tech screens are shown, with the main character detailing the outline of the plot; without making it obvious. I think this is a brilliantly clever technique to use within a film, especially with this one that takes quite a lot of concentration to understand the storyline.
The most notable part during this section of the film, would be how we realise through the characters dialogue that she's in fact speaking after the events have happened; perhaps ruining the plot that she's likely going to survive?
A blackout transition then takes us to the title sequence, fading out again to take us to the start of the film, similar to the other ones we then proceed to be shown a plain idyllic scene clearly showing how unsuspecting the characters in the movie are to the catastrophes to come.
Costumes in this film are practically the same as others in this genre; plain clothing is used to show us how normal peoples lives are before the events of a catastrophe. Although sometimes we do have out of the ordinary attire for certain characters to distinguish them differently from the rest; as the main character in this film does.
Knowing
Directed by Alex Proyas and produced by Todd Black
Beginning with the title sequence on the background of a stary night, this links in with the movies storyline of a future being predicted; mainly including the event of a alien invasion, the reason for having a night background.
Swiftly the movie jumps to a long shot of a school with the location and date being shown at the bottom of the screen, this is defiantly needed in helping to show people the change in both time from modern day to now, and exactly what country the film is set in. Straight away a setting is being established.
The camera then begins to be took up by the vivid brightness of the sun, this is a match on action as when the camera zooms closer into the sun, then our view as an audience gets harder to focus. An obvious effect of the sun. We're using a similar sort of thing in our own movie, where someone has a tear rolling down their cheek and the camera blurs to match this.
As the sun takes up the full proportion of the screen we instantly cut from the courtyard to the classroom.
The remainder of the first few minutes just continues with a typical classroom atmosphere. Although one thing I could pick up is one girl feels 'isolated' from the rest of the class. Isolation is a big theme in this genre; so it's great they managed to link it in.
Overall from my analysis I've been able to note costumes; editing; sound; camera shots; and general techniques to build up a list of potential things we could use during the first portion of our movie.
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