The intentions of directors of memento and Insomnia

            
Memento                                Insomnia


Christopher Nolan the director of memento had clear intentions to capture the audiences attention in the opening scene of memento. You can see this because there are clear conventions of the thriller genre shown in the opening scene like blood, a handgun and suspenseful music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cifPv4QWTH0&feature=fvst   This is a good opening scene also because its played in reverse giving the audience a idea that the film may not be going in chronological order. Its very different to other opening sequences of thriller films because the opening scene is rarely played backwards.

The audiences attention is straight away captured because many question arise from the opening sequence like why is it being played backwards? Why does the man shoot the other man in the head? When and where is it taking place? and to fufil those questions the audience are likely to continue watching the film and enjoy it.


Christopher Nolan also directed Insomnia which has a different opening sequence but still with similar thriller type conventions.  The audiences attention is again captured but in a different way because in the opening there are two different things being filmed. In one there is a fabric being stained with blood and the other a plane flying through the glacier covered mountains as seen in the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m70eyk6xr3s. The similar conventions found in insomnia that are also found in memento are blood, suspenseful music and bothered characters.

But unlike memento insomnia sets the scene with a spectacular landscape of the exotic arctic setting which makes the film more exciting for the audience. From the opening scene the audience gets the idea that something bad has happened causing someones death hence the blood and the distressed music and characters.

Evaluating the preliminary task

1. As part of a group we were asked to film a short film clip lasting around 1 minute that includes a number of shot types and techniques eg 180 degree rule. We prepared for the task by making sure we had the correct filming equipment eg camera, camera stool ect and making a detailed storyboard to follow by. I made sure the battery life on the camera was above half so we had enough time to shoot the sequences shown on the storyboard .

2. Filming

My role in the filming stage was acting along with Chay whilst Ciaran and Rebecca did the camera work. Firstly we did a shot where chay is walking down the corridor towards the room which establishes out setting.

A close-up shot of chay's hand struggling to open the door. This shot emphasis the strength and effort chay is putting into trying to open the door.

Chay breaking through the door on the outside then use a match on action shot to show chay breaking through on the inside .

We applied the 180 degree rule whilst there was a conversation between Chay and myself because the 180 degree rule is one of the best camera techniques of conversation between characters.

The positioning of me and chay on screen was mostly centred on the screen except for the shot showing me behind the door towards the right of the screen.

3. Editing

I was happy with the final result of the complete edit because we followed the storyboard well and most of the camera techniques used looked fairly professional. But there could of been improvements such as making sure the 180 degree rule was more consistent during the conversation because at one stage it looks like we film going past the 180 degree limit. Also the film goes on for longer than the recommended time set so we could cut the storyboard short and focus more on the camera techniques.

As a group I think we worked well together because me and Chay work well together as actors, Ciaran knows the most about camera work and brings forward ideas on the story board and Rebecca drew detailed drawings on the storyboard giving the group a better idea of what we will be filming.  I feel fine using the camera equipment supplied because I have past experience of working with those types of cameras. I feel fairly confident in using imovie because I know how to do the basics but there is more i need to learn from imovie like capturing screenshots.

Comparison between 28 days later and a american werewolf in London.

Comparison between 28 days later and a american werewolf in London.

 
28 days later                      An american werewolf in london


Location
Both films have similiar setting but at different times in the film. 28 days starts out in a urban environment (london) where as an american werewolf in london starts out in the rural countryside. An american werewolf in london finishes in london as 28 days later finishes in the countryside. They both make the locations look empty and desolate giving the impression that theres no one there to help you.

Character
The characters are very different in the two films. In an american werewolf there are two american men who we get to know fairly well at the start of the film as they have lots of humorous conversation. But in 28 days later the characters are very serious like the animal rights activists and the scientist and their characters dont develop as much. Because the characters in an american werewolf in London are kind and fairly laid back we get the impression that they are the perfect victims of a horror film.

Story
In the story the main threat is similar because its a infection like the rage virus they catch in 28 days later as well as the werewolf virus the one man catches in a american werewolf in London. Both of the viruses seen on both film come from some sort of creature. But the story is also different because 28 days later is primarily a apocalypse horror film where as an american werewolf in London is a thriller horror film. 

the inbetweeners movie

Saturday, 1 October 2011

The inbetweeners movie, institution

The key groups of people involved in the production of the film:

Director
Ben palmer who directed the film is important because he decided how the film looked in front of millions of people in theatres in the UK. He also chose the actors who played the films four main characters in the film and edited the script based on how the script could possibly be improved. He is the driving force of the films creation which ended up being a huge success in the UK with millions of watchers at cinemas.


Producer/executive producers
Christopher young and many other people who produce the film are important because they secure all the necesarry rights, select the screenwriter and story editing team and are in charge of the whole finance.  They controlled the budget of the film which was £3,500,000 which is fairly low considering theres no special effects in the film. This money would of gone towards camera equipment, vehicle usage, marketing ect.

Writers
Damon Beesley and Iain Morris are the brains of the production process as they creathe the whole story of the film. They are mainly involded in pre production so they have time to write the film script before filming begins. The humour and comedy aspect of the inbetweeners movie which made it so succesful is owed to these two writers showing how much of a important stage writing is.

Editing
All of the editing was done by William Webb and Charlie Fawcett who put days of effort into getting all the raw footage filmed in Greece into a final film. These two had to follow the storyboard so the final cut of the film makes sense and works well visually for audiences. The editing process involves making sure the timing of the shots syncs in perfectly with the sound as well as making sure Simon Bird's narration happens during a scene where nothing major to the story is happening.

Studio
The studio that gains the most profit from the success of the inbetweeners movie is film 4 because they posses all the film and sound recording equipment as well as of course the studio. The studio allows the director to film in a made up setting like a hotel room or club as seen in the film which is most likely filmed in the studio. Film 4 at the moment must be pleased with themselves because the amount of profit they are making from the inbetweeners movie with a fairly low budget is amazing.