Moonrise Kingdom

Directed by Wes Anderson 
Produced by Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson
Music by Alexandre Desplat
Distributed by Focus Features


Moonrise Kingdom is a 2012 American coming-of-age art, described as an "eccentric, pubescent love story".

Titles and sound

The titles are shown in a mustard colour, and decorative font. This is similar to a story book font; supporting the theme of childhood adventure, and the protagonists love of books.

After the indents are shown in silence, the first sound we hear is of thunder/ a storm to accompany a close-up shot of a childlike painting. As the camera begins to pan, a bell like instrument can be heard, also childlike but slightly sinister, this compliments the mood created by the storm well. As foreshadowed by the set and sound, next, light footsteps can be heard before the appearance of a child. 

 

Mise-en-scene and Cinematography 

The time period the film is set in is illustrated by the props set and costume in this scene. Home decoration and items like the record player would suggest the film is set around 1965. The lighting and quality of film gives the image a quaint, whimsical feel.

Anderson uses natural sources of light throughout the opening. By using non artificial lighting, Anderson detracts from any sense of realism, contributing to the fairy tale/ storybook theme.

 





After a character has entered the previous shot (at a medium- shot range), the camera pans round to show another child.

Feedback

Submarine

Directed by Richard Ayoade
Produced by Mary Burke, Mark Herbert and Andy Stebbing
Music by Andrew Hewitt and Alex Turner
Distributed by Optimum Releasing and The Weinstein Company


Submarine is a 2010 coming-of-age comedy-drama film adapted from the 2008 by Joe Dunthorne. It is produced by Warp Films Film4 Productions and UK Film Council

Titles

The tiles are in a clean modern font. The spacing between letters is irregular, words are disjointed and spaced apart as if incomplete, this is similar to the protagonist, who stands out as odd.

Sound

The first sound we here is the calls of sea gulls, this noise coincides with a seagull model suspended from the ceiling of Oliver's room. This sound establishes the setting as a costal area. In time with the establishing the soundtrack begins. This slow acoustic piece evokes a melancholy atmosphere.

Mise-en-scene and Cinematography 

Throughout the opening cold colours are used to provoke a melancholy, bitter tone. The film starts with a pan of the protagonists bedroom (Oliver Tate). Props suggest this character is creative, and an outsider; a skeleton, picture covered walls, a typewriter. 

The camera pans until the protagonist can be seen, a narrate then begins to speak over the film, which the audience can infer is Oliver's voice. We see Tate from a high angle shot showing the character is not powerful, and has a low status. 

Then the director decides to break a rule of film - the actor looks directly at the camera. In doing this the director comments on the character and the genre, the film is quirky, as is the character. 

An establishing shot sets the film in Wales, in this shot a picturesque long shot of a seaside village is shown in low light.  The village is secluded, surrounded by hills, this isolation mirrors the protagonists situation.

The Breif

Directed and produced by Robbie Watson and Alex Hay
Starring Will Lang and Tom Cross

Titles

The titles are in a clean, modern font, and placed over a medium shot of a road, each title is then chased by a car out of shot. This foreshadows a man being chased later in the film. 

Sound 

The soundtrack is fast paced and energetic, mirroring the actions of the protagonist. 

Mise-en-scene and Cinematography 

The film starts with film of the protagonist walking through a gym,  where a typewriter font is used to establish time and location; in film this is often associated with secret service/ the military, so the font helps identify the action type genre. 

Most shots of the protagonist entering the sports hall and training were filmed from a low-angle shot. This implies the character has power and status.

In the next scene the character runs to jump over a obstacle, this is filmed with a handheld moving shot, The shakiness of this invokes unpredictability and helps the audience connect with the character (people are subconsciously rooting for him then in the chase scene as they have ran with him before).

Back to the future

Directed by Robert Zebeckis
Produced by Rob Gale and Niel Canton 
Music by Alan Silvestri 
Distributed by Universal pictures 

Back to the Future is a 1985 American science fiction adventure comedy film, released on July 3, 1985, grossing over $381 million worldwide making it the highest-grossing film of 1985.

Titles

The main title of the film enters with a sweeping transition as a if a speeding vehicle. The iconic logo is shaped like a rocket/car, foreshadowing the focus of the film. Bright, bold colours evoke a futuristic feel, the reds also could be associated with fire, predicting the 'take off' of the car into the past. 

Sound

Through the idents the sound of one clock can be heard. When the film begins and more clocks are shown, the quantity and therefor the volume of clicking is increased. The unorganised array of a normally organised sound, opens to the possibility of something going wrong, although not garish or bold the noise could be perceived as quiet chaos which would echo the secondary protagonist. Tension increases up until the sound of a news headline breaks through.

Mise-en-scene and Cinematography 

To open the film a handheld camera, films a tracking shot, at a medium close-up range. The shot shows a variety of quirkey clocks, foreshadowing involvement with time later on. 

The first shot of Marty Mcfly is a close-up shot of his jeans, nike shoes and skateboard, these items are used to signify age (teens). 

With the unexplained clocks, the shoes, and various other props - Zebeckis has set up several narrative enigmas before a single word has being spoken.

Preliminary task

Filming -

Having never ventured beyond the smart phone camera, using the DSLR was completely new to me - here is what I've learnt. 

Focus

There are two types of focus: automatic and manual. Although easier, automatic focus is not suitable for filming, as moving characters can come in and out of focus during a take.

White balance 

White balance is important in maintaining a natural colour during filming, this must be adjusted before filming as it is hard to alter afterwards. As we were filming in an indoor environment the picture was yellowish at first, this is because artificial sources of light (the light bulb) dont emit purely white colour and have a particular colour temperature. 

Lighting

As we did not have access to artificial lighting and were filming indoors, we filmed with our backs to the window to get the maximum amount of natural light possible. 

When filming in any lighting the ISO film speed must be taken into consideration. ISO speeds are an important part of filming as different film speeds must be used to adjust to lighting conditions; if there is poor lighting ISO must be increased, however the greater the ISO the more noise in a video (grainy image). ISO 100 or 200 film speeds are best for bright lighting conditions/ outdoor photography, ISO 400 film speed can be used for most situations (we used this),finally fast speed film is used for filming high speed objects in low light, however will result in the grainiest photographs. 

Evaluation -

What went well;

In reflection the colour turned out well, so our use of white balance was effective. 

On reflection the manual focus worked well, and we successfully focused on key characters at the right time - despite this been difficult to do as characters moved.


Close up shots proved effective when wanting to capture emotion, as the viewers attention can only be on the character and they will not be distracted by the background.

Criticisms; 

The acting could be improved with practice, as this was both characters first attempt at performing in front of a camera. Furthermore, the subject matter is unimaginative and therefor dull, so it is hard to capture the viewers attention. 


Continuity from characterA walking into the room to sitting down is poor, as footage of the character sitting down is out of shot. A close up shot of characterA sitting on the chair would resolve this. 

As we were only using a camera microphone the sound quality was poor, especially when the character furthest from the camera was speaking. As we do not have access to microphones this could be improved by both characters speaking louder during takes. 

Brief

Preliminary exercise:

Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task:

The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.

BASIC MARKS BREAKDOWN:

RESEARCH & PLANNING            20%

PRODUCTION                               60%

EVALUATION                                 20%

MARKSCHEME

All three aspects are assessed as one of:

Mark out of:    60        20

MINIMAL        0-23     0-7

BASIC            24-35   8-11

PROFICIENT 36-47   12-15

EXCELLENT  48-60   16-20

To hit ‘excellent’(16-20 marks) for RESEARCH AND PLANNING requires the following:

•Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed;

•There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience;

•There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props;

•There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding;

•There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning;

•Time management is excellent.

To hit ‘excellent’(48-60 marks) for PRODUCTION requires meeting the following:

There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

•material appropriate for the target audience and task;

•using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;

•using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;

•shooting material appropriate to the task set;, including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scène;

•using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

To hit ‘excellent’(16-20 marks) for EVALUATION requires meeting the following:

•Excellent skill in the use of appropriate digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.

•Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms and conventions in relation to production.

•Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes.

•Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task.

•Excellent ability to communicate.