Key Terms:

Cinematography:

• composition – where objects will be in the scene
• framing – where the camera will be
• lighting – where and how to position lighting
• focus – shallow depth of focus for example, how sharp the image is
• movement – camera movement e.g. how the camera moves and where it moves

Mise-en-scene:

• CLAMPS
• costume
• lighting
• actors
• make up
• props
• setting
• the arrangement of everything that appears in the frame

Performance:

• The effect the performance of an actor has on the audience and / or the film’s meaning
• vocal delivery
• physical
• Performance style method acting and improve acting
• The significance of casting actors

Sound:

• Diegetic sound – sound that comes from the scene e.g. voice or the weather
• Non-Diegetic – sound that doesn’t come from the world of the film
• Contrapuntal – sound you hear is in the contrast to what you expect to hear
• Parallel – sound that you hear is what you expect you expect

Editing:

• How to choice to layout clips
• Pace
• Transitions
• Cuts

 

My Scene

My scene analysis, I chose a scene from one of my favorite films Pulp Fiction a crime/drama I’m analyzing the ‘Say what again’ scene. I choice this scene because its pretty straight forward however it also has settle things in it that makes more interesting and thrilling.

Mise-en-Scene

For the costumes of this scene Samuel Jackson is wearing a black suit and tie with a gun as a prop, this makes his character look more professional as he has a smarter look then anyone else in the room apart from his partner. The gun prop makes him look more authoritative as it adds to the intimidation factor as he waves it around a lot as he talks. The lighting is really simple with a yellow light shinning onto Samuel Jackson to put the main focus on him. The setting of the scene is a small apartment which gives the scene a intense mood with the feeling of no escape as one of the characters is being interrogated building tension. As previously said Samuel Jackson is one of the actors in Pulp Fiction, he is commonly used in Christen Tarantino films as an explosive character he plays this role very well.

Technical Codes

There a quite a lot of different camera angles in this this scene as it adds a sense of havoc and the constant fast paced switching of shots builds the suspense as it makes the viewer feel like its building up to something. The camera switches to close-ups of the actors faces when one of them is speaking this draws in the viewer and makes them more interested in what is going on. Camera shots play a big part in this scene as it shows the different authoritative positions, when the cameras is on Samuel L. Jackson its a low angle shot to make him look bigger and more imposing. However its very contrasted when the camera is on Bret (the person being interrogated) its a very high angle making him look smaller and weaker clearly visualizing the hierarchy. At the end of the scene the camera follows Samuel L. Jackson as a closer up on his face as he says his one liner before he kills Bret this builds the suspension of the atmosphere of the scene and draws all the attention on him. They only  use diegetic sound because it draws in the viewer and keeps them interested.

 

 

 

Re-make a Scene: No Country for Old Men

We decided to re-make the ‘coin toss’ scene from No Country for Old Men as we agreed that it was the most realistic scene to re-make, as well as that we already had a rough idea of where we could shoot. In the scene there are two characters  Anton Chigurh the antagonist and the shop keeper have a coin toss to determine if the shopkeeper lives or dies. The scene is used to depict how evil Chigurh is and to build suspense giving the viewer a taste of whats to come later.

Pre-Production

For the pre-production documents Josh was charged with doing most of it and handing out other assignments due to him choosing the role of producer. As produce Josh took care of the pre-production risk assessment which involves any possible hazards that could hurt anyone in are group or damage the equipment were using. Are biggest problem is that people will be coming in and out of the shop which will interfere with are shots as the camera will be positioned next to the entrance. Another problem that the public could cause is that they could damage the equipment if they walk by the tripod and accidentally knocking over the camera, to solve this we have asked the shop keeper when the best possible times for filming are so we wont be interrupted. The next issue we face is the noise level, in No Country for Old Men the scene were trying to re-make there is little to no noise as the silence is used to build tension however in are location the shop is on the main road that runs through Exeter meaning there will be lots of cars and buses. To fix this the manger has agreed to let us close the shop door to shut out the noise.

The first task of pre-production that we did was finding a location, this wasn’t that hard as are scene from No Country for Old Men is set in a hardware store so we googled to see if there were any hardware stores near us. When we found one that looked suitable I went in with a recce and a sheet for him to sign saying we were allowed to film there. After speaking to Alan the owner he agreed to let us film in his shop however we were limited to filming early on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as they really busy and we would be interrupted quite frequently. Once the owner agreed to let us film in his shop I went in with the camera and took some test shots to see if the location was suitable for the shoot. One of the reasons I choose this particular location was due to the fact it had a very similar layout to are re-make a scene, so we should be able to create to similar look however we cant move the cameras around to get the perfect angle due to space limitations. Apart from the ones I’ve already covered that’s all the location problems we should encounter, there shouldn’t be that much of a issue as we have solutions to all of them.

 

Finlay took the role of producer so he was in charge of creating the story bored and setting out what the different scenes will look like, how they should be acted etc. The story bored is simple but well done with clear instructions of what needs to happen in the scene as well as the camera directions so it will be very helpful when filming.

Final Film

Legal Regulations

BBFC rating – A bbfc rating is the category that films are placed into, telling people what age group the movie is suitable for. As an example titles rated bbfc PG are for general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. Titles rated bbfc 12 are suitable for 12 years and over these films will have some violence and mild language etc. So for are re-make a scene No Country for Old Men is rated bbfc 15 due to there being scenes of strong violence and language, however are re-make a scene wouldn’t have to be rated 15 as it didn’t feature any violence or strong language.

Ofcom – Ofcom is the UK government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. This would apply for are re-make a scene due to the fact that it was filmed in the UK however this wouldn’t have applied for the coin toss scene we re-made as it wasn’t filmed int he UK.

Watershed – The watershed was created to protect children from certain subjects on TV and radio and is one of Ofcom’s most important duties. The watershed means the time when TV programmes which might be unsuitable for children can be broadcast. This time is at 9pm in the uk, this is when 15 – 18 bbfc films will be shown. This will not affect are re-make a scene as it isn’t rated 15 or above.