Once upon a time in the west

Once upon a time in the west

This opening is very long and slow paced but the director has scripted everything down to a fly. There are lots of annoying sounds in this opening including the fly, dripping water, knuckles cracking and a rickety old wind mill. The director layers up all of these sounds to create tension. It seems like a long time of nothing really exciting happening for the audience but this makes you appreciate the waiting of the characters in this scene.

After this long wait a train arrives and only one passenger gets of at the station the audience are intrigued by this character as he says nothing just plays on a harmonica there is a fire fight and the tension does not end here as we do not know whether or not this man was actually killed

This opening scene is a good demonstration of careful planning and how to build tension without music or dialogue, for this reason it is very effective and makes the audience excited about the rest of the film.

Children of Men

Children of Men

The opening scene for the 2006 sci-fi adventure film, children of men is established very quickly what genre it is. In the sequence we can already clearly see that the film is a adventure film.

 the sequence starts out with two newsreaders with no visual aid. All you can hear is a news report on their leading story: how the worlds youngest person has died, straight away you as the audience are immediately gripped by this statement as it raises many questions such how can you know the worlds youngest person? And what has happened to the human race?

As soon as the headline is read out the audience is shown the opening scene of a normal café where the customers are all staring at the screen to see the report except one character who is trying to still go about his business, it is obvious that he is going to be the main character.

After this character has purchased his coffee there is a long uninterrupted shot of him leaving the café and you are introduced to the world outside that is clearly set in the future the audience is assured of this as the date “16th November 2027” fades onto the screen

The lighting outside seems quite dull and grey and gives a depressing atmosphere in the film already alongside the news report the audience can tell that this is a sad concept for a film.

AS Preliminary Task Evaluation

How successful was your final sequence? Does it demonstrate the rules of continuity editing?
I feel that my final sequence was successful for a first attempt however there can always be improvements made, such as lighting is poor in some situations.

Which aspects of you production (if any) do you think need a rethink?
I am pleased with the idea of my final piece opening and the theme however some acting could be improved also the speech could also be improved.

How similar was your final sequence to your initial storyboard? (Explain the reasons for any changes) How could you improve the effectiveness of the planning stage?
There are some differences from the story board due to lack of access to props however if we had planned more this could have been avoided.

Overall what practical skills have you developed during your work on the preliminary task?
The main practical skills I have developed is final cut simply getting better at using inputs and outputs and creating an effective soundtrack.

What have the key lessons been that you need to carry forward into your main task?
Main lessons that I have learnt is that lighting is very important and can affect the mood of the scene massively.

Preliminary Task

This short video is the result of our preliminary task demonstrating the continuity in editing and production.

Camera ahots and angles

This powerpoint shows my research intothe most commonly used camera shots and angles in the media industry.

An Introduction to Media Studies

I have been doing media now for two and a half weeks, its been fun but challenging and I have learnt valuable skills already. Especially in the field of editing using a programme called "final cut". At the very start of the course we were put into groups of three and were put forward a project to create a promotional video for our collage. I have never previously had any experience in filming/editing but have learnt from my mistakes (such as leaving camera's to role leaving space to add transitions) which was the sole reason for the task proving beneficial.