The Shining

Cinematography is used well in this clip, as at the start the camera is tracking her walking up the stairs with a low angle, this suggests that she is in most power, which links in very well with the clip as she is the only one holding a weapon(a baseball bat). Also I noticed the back lighting behind the women, this indicates that she is going to do something dangerous as the back lighting darkens her face and body, at this part it made me feel very tense and eery, which made me interigued to watch on. After this, a high angle over the shoulder shot is used to show the man, this is used to make him look weak, powerless, and useless. Next a high angle is used to show him walking up the stairs, as well as a rule of thirds, as he is stood in the middle of the frame.

Tracking backwards shows him getting aggravated, this is used to show him getting more and more angrier at his wife as he starts to use his arms by shaking them, this made me feel very nervous and made me tense. Next a low angle over the shoulder shot is used to show the woman walking backwards with the baseball bat, this suggests that she is going to do something terrible as she is the one in the power as the man is looking up at her. Next there is a two shot, with a side angle, as he finally meets her at the top of the stairs which made me feel tense as all the tension built up to this one moment, which led to a low angle from the bottom of the stairs watching the man fall back while the camera was tracking him from the side downwards.





Throughout this clip, the red coat symbolises danger and blood, and this is a coincedance considering he is bleeding on his head, while watching this is camera is tracking him from a low side angle, after this there is a rule of thirds as she is stood in between the frame, and this shows her dragging him by his feet which puts her in control. Next there is a mid shot of her from a low angle, as she is struggling to open the cellar, this made me feel very on edge and nervous as he was starting to wake up. Then there was a close up of her face, which shown her facial expression which shown worry and concern, as she was very scared this made me feel scared. Next there was a close up of her hands with the handle of the cellar, it shown her finally opening the cellar, this made me feel at ease and content as she got in.

A high angle then shown him being dragged on the floor which suggests he still isn't in control and he is being controlled by his feet by his wife, and in a strange way this made me feel happy as she was still in control as he was dangerous. Next there is a long shot of him standing up but then stumbling over as his ankle was injured, however the next shot shown that she was in the kitchen with high key lighting so this indicated that she was safe as it was light and light colours are associated with being happy and content. Next she is shown getting a knife of the rail, knifes are known for cutting objects and harming things, so this gave me the impression she was going to do something tragic, however this also gave me the impression that she was being independent and confident as she was trying to protect herself.

After this a low angle shot is used from the floor to show his eagerness to open the door as it was locked, this indicated that he was now in power as he was awake and standing up. Next the women stands up and the camera is tracking her from the side forwards as she is in a worried way, this made me feel really nervous as I wasn't sure if he was going to get out of the cellar. After there is a long shot of her running in the snow outside of the house with low key lighting, this indicated tension which made me feel tense, as she was getting stuck in the snow. Next she is shown with a long shot side angle, in the garage, also it is low key lighting which automatically suggests that danger is going to come, and that is it isn't safe, next the camera zooms into her body and facial expression, which makes me feel tense, as the expression on her face shows me that she is worried which makes me feel scared and on edge.

The Quick and The Dead

The cinematography within the extract is limited. It reuses many shots like establishing and high angle shots. The beginning scene shows broken machinery in a desert with a low angled shot suggesting the persona is too upset/damaged to contemplate what’s happening. This can also relate to the shot of the man digging, almost resembling he’s digging his own grave. They use these to create distance between characters and to build a general overview of the world. It also sets the mood for the film and works with lighting (natural high key lighting) to judge safety and security. They also use close ups in a variety of angles to build strength to a character; the female cowboy is often shown at a low angle to show her empowerment. Other characters are either filmed in high angle or eye-level which again shows how inferior they are to the woman. The close ups also exaggerate the mise-en-scene and the fact the town is in the middle of nowhere; there is nothing else to see. This brings back the underlining tone of isolation and pre-judgement.

The entire sequence also continuously uses the rule of thirds. Like when they enter the town, she walks through the middle of a road that splits buildings into two rows. It could state the rivalry and danger between people. This also evidential from the shots of people inside building staring at the woman (captured using a tracking shot going left and right). They use an editing technique called parallel editing so we know they are looking her and nobody else; it creates an uneasy and suspenseful atmosphere. Outside of the town, laws of nature occur but inside the laws of society occur; the town creates the laws which builds to their stereotype of freedom within reason.

One particular shot of interest is used when introducing new characters. When she enters the bar, a framing shot is used with back lighting; it suggests a dark side to her and creates suspicion around her persona. However, in the ending shot she is shown with high key lighting with a dark background; it suggests she has an innocent aspect to her to personality. This also shows her paranoia because her face with key lighting represents her but the dark background shows her dark past (also signified by the way she handles herself when the enters the room again).  Her face isn’t shown for long either which builds mystery around her character.

Women in westerns are sexualised and are used as damsels in distress. Only in modern movies are women now being presented as powerful (however some dialogue and outfits are stills sexualised). The main protagonist in this extract is strong and feared, yet is still dressed as a stereotypical male cowboy. A series of shots that shows this is when enters the town as is being stared at. She is wearing layers and a trench coat whereas the ‘damsels’ were wearing corsets and slim fitting dresses.

A prisoner is also introduced later on. We recognise he is a prisoner from his uniform and his walk is also very masculine; it shows he’s not afraid of anyone else (due to his past in prison). This is also shown when he physically cuts his arm with a knife, this symbolises strength and suggests he has grown immune to pain. This is shown in one continuous shot which shows his violent nature and everyone’s eyes are on him (also should be noted it wasn’t shot in P.O.V). They used tracking left and right to signify although it’s a small area he has made a big impact. It also builds distance from when the man rides away on the horse. He enters the bar and we hear diegetic sound. We hear bottles smashing, yelling and punch sounds; it builds to his overbearing persona and how unprepared/on-edge other characters are.

High Key Lighting

In this clip (Titanic) it shows high key lighting coming from behind at 0:19 which is known as back lighting which illuminates the subject from behind which gives the man an angelic effect as he is known as kind man, so the back lighting reinforces his personality trait.

Mise-en-scene

The setting in this clip emphasises the scenario of love, the beach setting is often used for romance within couples. Dear John is a film revolved around the word love so, using mise-en-scene the director chose this setting to make the scene romantic.

Mise-en-scene used in this clip is the props and costumes, the prop used in this horror clip is the knife, the knife emphasises the whole idea of danger, a knife is often used in horrors to make the audience nervous as knifes are often revolved around murder and danger.

The Notebook is a prime example of performance, at the end of Notebook she realises who he is and
they both die together, this is a great performance as it very emotional and it captures the audience in
with the great performance by the actor and actress.

Deadpool

Deadpool

Deadpool was voted ‘37’ on IMBd however, was rated 8.1 out of 10, now that is above average which suggests it’s a popular film to watch on the other hand being ‘37’ on the charts and above 50 indicates how known the film is. There are 1,068 positive reviews and 585 negative reviews, this shows how liked and how successful the film is.

On the other hand, the movie could have been a success due to the actor ‘Ryan Reynolds’ as he is married to Blake Lively who is a very well-known actress, originally from a very efficacious show ‘gossip girl’. Viewers who were entertained by Blake would be a positive impact too Ryan Reynolds as the fan base followed Blake’s life which included Ryan. Being in the spot light with Blake indicates that the fan base expanded to Ryan which promotes the film well as a lot of people would hear of it.

Nevertheless, the costume which Ryan Reynolds wore did remind a lot of viewers of ‘Spiderman’ which caused debate, the film could have lost a large number of viewers by creating a similar character, however by saying that the film created a scenario which allowed viewers to become emotional as Ryan’s character had a severe cancer which caught the viewers in to connect with the film a lot deeper.

The box office sales since when the film released proved to be a staggering $363,070,709, this is known as a ‘lifetime gross’ (this measures how successful the film is) this instantly shows a wanting to watch or buy the film, which indicates how successful the film actually was, considering it was released in February when the block buster season starts in May and ends in September.

Referring to ‘www.cinemablend.com’ the movie seemed to pull fans in as a writer wrote ‘where fans can turn to hear well-crafted jokes about previous comic book films’ this suggested that the fans enjoyed the films humour which attracted more popularity which contributed to Deadpool’s success.

Ryan Reynolds played ‘Wade Wilson’ in Wolverine which was released in 2009 and was a very big success, this allowed Ryan to have a large fan base due to this film which followed him and supported him with the film ‘Deadpool’. By having that large fan base it made a lot of money and achievement for Deadpool. This also links with Morena Baccarin who played ‘Vanessa’ as she appeared as ‘Karen Walker’ in the very popular film of 2015 ‘Spy’, this allowed Morena to continue to have a fan base which also could have contributed to ‘Deadpool’ as Morena and Ryan are very known actors.

Overall a writer wrote on ‘www.cinemablend.com’ that ‘deadpool’s marketing campaign deserves much of the credit for getting people excited about the film’, this indicates that it wasn’t just the popularity of the film and the admiration of the actors it was also the hard work put in by the campaign team which promoted the film by ‘hilarious interviews’ and ‘irrelevant promo videos’ this indicates that the involvement of the campaign team had a massive impact on the ‘Deadpools’ success.

Case 39 - Horror Essay

Case 39

Case 39 started off with low key lighting which gave us the feeling that it was spooky which put me on edge from the starting point, however the film gradually went on into high key lighting which made me feel more secure watching the scene, the film used a high angle when the social worker got given work by her boss, this was used to show how important her boss was as he was standing above her.

The film Case 39 used diegetic sounds when it came to the sounds off the keyboards and the footsteps however used non diegetic sounds when it came to her looking at a classified case which emphasised the importance of the file and put us on edge as the music was creepy, on the other hand there was a lot of camera angles, as the woman got into the car park it showed us a birds eye view angle which was used to let us know the surroundings, also a side angle was used when she was driving in the car which also gave us a close up to her face to show how intrigued she was to go to the next child’s house.

When she arrived home the film used an extreme close up to her pressing onto the phone to listen to her voice mail, this is used to show the importance of a subject in a film, also there was back lighting used to illuminate her, this gives us the impression of an angelic effect which links into her character as she is a social worker and cares for children.

Also as the woman went into a troubled young girls house she was looking up to a window with the young girl’s mother looking down at her which made me feel uncomfortable watching and the mother looked very creepy and distressed, the angle used is called a low angle, this shows characterism as it is on the floor looking up, however from the high angle it gives us the impression that the woman is intimidated by the mother and is feeling nervous as the close up which was used on her face showed us her expression which looked disturbed, this angle was very focused which shows the duration of the shot.

An eye level angle was used when the parents were approached from the social worker which shows us that they are both equal, however the little girls close up looked distressed which presented emotion. During the film there was a 360-degree angle used in the area where the little girl grew up, these angles are used to show surroundings so in this instance its used to show where she was brought up which made me feel empathy for the little girl as it was a nice area and it was dirty with a lot of litter.

Near to the end of the film pan was used which is a camera movement, it was used to show both close ups from the disturbed little girl and from the social worker who adopted her, its used to go from left and from right. In this scene it made me feel anxious as it was so quick and the non-diegetic sound used was putting me on edge as I wasn’t too sure as what was happening.

Miracles from Heaven

Miracles from Heaven

Miracles from Heaven is a film dedicated to a young girl with a disorder with no cure but miraculously cured by falling down a tree, which is one of the main reasons I was interested by the film so much as it is a true story. The film has a lot of teary eyed moments which catches the audience which caught me, it allowed me to feel sympathy for Anna Beam (the young girl) but also for the parents who were struggling for money but were painfully trying support Anna.

At the start of film Anna becomes sick but doctors are pushing the matter away by saying ‘everything is fine’ and ‘there’s nothing to worry about’ but the perseverance of Anna’s parents, Kristy and Kevin Beam pushed one of the doctors to get down to the point of why she was so ill, this moment in the film caused me to feel empathy for her parents, I could see how frustrated they were which made me really get into the movie as I was intrigued what would happen at the end.

Kristy and Anna flew over to see a well-known doctor named ‘Dr Nurko’ however didn’t have an appointment but Kristy’s determination to get her daughter well and healthy again shown through to one special receptionist who found Dr Nurko and encouraged him to see Anna. Which was such a kind, nice, heart-warming thing to do for a someone you didn’t know, I adored this part of the movie because it shown us how nice people can be, just one simple act like that could change another’s life.

As Anna was feeling confident with her sister Abbie Beam one after noon, they decided to climb a tree which they used to do when they were younger, however Anna seemed a bit sceptical of the situation and was nervous however did it anyway. This is the incident where Anna falls through the tree and her sister runs in home frantically shouting for her mum, in this part of the film I felt so intrigued to what would happen on the other hand I felt shocked. The film has a biblical sense to it as the family were church lovers, they had hope for everything they did.

Throughout Anna’s journey she held onto hope which allowed Anna not to be scared of death, Anna had met this young girl in the film who had a deadly cancer (who at the end of the movie had passed away) and Anna had given her a cross necklace for belief, I was touched and loved this part of the movie because it permitted me too feel remorse for the little girl’s family.

This film proved how having hope and a belief could change a life forever, which is why the film touched me so much, I enjoyed watching the moments when Anna was painfully struggling but was still holding onto hope, it was such a heart-warming film to watch and such a strong message to the audience and me.

Katy Everitt