Enemy of the state (1998)

The aim of this sequence was to make viewers feel tension allowing them to feel more engaged. Many techniques where used to build tension within the sequence.

The first scene shows two grown male characters having a one on one conversation. Cross cutting was used in this sequence to switch through shots sharply. this is done in the conversation to show the reaction on the two male's faces as they have a deep conversation. There's no none-diegetic audio; this may have been done to show viewers that the current diegetic dialog is very important information. This allows them to be aware that they must concentrate more within this part of the sequence; allowing tension to be built as the viewers are attacked with the fast pace editing and diegetic audio (dialogue); keeping the audience on their toes as they observe the fast pace cuts from one male character to another.

I noticed at "0:47" a long shot (tracking) takes place which then cuts into a over the shoulder shot, showing a conversation taking place with both characters. A shot reverse shot takes place to show the facial expressions of the characters while having this deep, tension building conversation. This is done to engage the audience with the current conversation taking place. We had to do this camera technique within our very own preliminary exercise. It was good to see & compare the standard of the professional over the shoulder shots to my very own.


In this close-up shot it shows the white male behind some sort of gate. This gate can represent a cage; with this representation it gives viewers the idea that this male is trapped within a very small area as the close-up shot doesn't leave much space within the frame. By doing this it may give the impression that the white male is helpless and has no choice but to create this new world order that they've spoken about.

Non-diegetic soundtrack kicks in to the scene as the frame cuts from the two characters sharing knowledge about the known upcoming new world order; to a medium shot of a man in the rain. The rain tells the audience that something bad is going to happen to our prejudiced character due to the darkness within the shots. The two males costume gives the impression that he has a form of authority due to him and his partners face being exposed. They're wearing black gloves and dark clothing & also have possession of a gun. The editing is at a fast pace and cuts in a good flow with the music, this is done to build tension / suspense as the audiences emotions are being controlled by the soundtrack and visuals; creating us to feel a form of fear & worry.

Professional edits are used in this scene to form precise cross-cutting; from the scenes located outdoors to scenes indoors. These shots are straight cuts from showing out antagonist (men outside) to our protagonist (Will Smith) this instantly shows the audience that the two shots shown are related; this also tells the audience to be ready for antagonism between our heros and villains.

In this close-up shot it shows Will Smith behind the same gate/cage with his hands over his face. This instantly will give viewers the idea that he has given up or has been defeated by this upcoming new world order as he's trapped and concealed in this dark lighted cage. Tension is built in this frame by the behavior of this character that Will Smith plays. The audience will instantly feel tense once seeing our prejudice look as if hes losing all hope, it also makes the audience feel that the upcoming event of the new world order is very powerful and maybe unstoppable due to the behavior (both hands on face) of our prejudice.

Within this opening sequence tension is built through the fast paced editing and shots involved. They build tension by giving clear shots of the characters facial expressions. It engages the audience allowing them feel apart of the sequence as the fast paced edits keeps the audience hearts racing due to the tension being built.

Juno remake

In class my teacher showed us a film opening of the movie 'Juno' we watched the opening as a group.




We took into account all the shots that we saw within 1minute 40seconds of viewing the opening. I managed to notice:

1. Long shot (tracking)
2. Medium to long shot from behind the female actor
3. Close-up to female actors shoes
4. Medium shot of the female actor walking (legs)
5. Long shot (Female actor walking towards camera)
6. Medium shot of female actor
7. Medium shot of female actor walking (legs)
8. Medium shot of female actors upper body
9. Medium shot high angle of female actor walking away from camera
10. Long shot female actor walking towards the camera (Match on action with shot 9)
11. Long shot from female actors left leaving the frame
12. Long shot of the female actor walking towards the camera
13. Close-up female actor opening 'Sunny-D' bottle
14. Close-up female actor drinking 'Sunny-D'
15. Birds eye view looking down at female actor walking
16. Long shot of the female actor walking towards the left of the frame
17. Medium shot of the female actor walking away from the camera
18. Point of view shot of the female actor looking down at her shoes.

We took these shots and put some of them into a story board. This was done to help us remember what shots need to be taken while filming; it can be looked at as a reminder/plan.

• First thing we did was to make sure our main character within this reconstructed Juno opening is a female; we did this to try make our reconstruction as close to the original that we can make it. We also inputted the original non diegetic sound track (All i want is you by Barry Louis Polisar) into our video.

• We kept looking back to our story bored to help us keep in track what shots need to be taken in which specific order. It was key to do it in order to help it easier to edit as clips wont get mixed up with others.

• We took some shots similar to the ones listen above of the original Juno opening to try reconstruct it as much as we can. 

• We also used props such as a coke bottle just to show that we tried make it as close as we can; it's better to have a prop even if it isn't the same drink then have nothing at all !

We did well on this task though i feel we should have made it slightly longer and try add effects to give it that cartoon feel like the original; next time we're going to use effects to make our videos look more like the original.

One Minute Timeline

This is a clip from the movie 'Batman: The Dark Night', I analyzed one minute of this clip and spoke in slight detail about Mise-en-scene; sound & editing. I inputted all the information into a table using Microsoft word

Media 1 Minute Timeline Research)

I included everything that i could within the one minute of the clip above. I spoke in a decent ammount of detail; this task has helped me notice things that i wouldn't of noticed before, such as the instruments being played in a score.

- Dialogue*

Preliminary Exercise

This is my preliminary exercise. Me and my group where assigned to record our very own thriller scene and we managed to to do so. We put a lot of effort into this exercise to try achieve new accomplishments by experimenting with some new camera techniques and new editing skills.

• In these two screen grabs below it shows me editing two seperate video clips and putting them together to create match on action.

• Firstly we recorded from behind my actor walking away from the camera towards a near by door. Our second take was from the other side of the door where my actor walks in. The camera was placed on my actors right.

• We then did a straight cut between these two clips at a perfect time to give full effect on the match on action as it creates great continuity making it very hard to even recognize the straight cut within the editing as it seems very natural. 

• At first when our teacher explained to us how match on action works I thought this would be very difficult to do, as we tried it i felt a lot more confident in my skills as it wasn't as difficult as i thought it would be.

• In these two screen grabs it shows my example of a shot reverse shot.

• We had to take two different video clips and put them together, our first over the shoulder shot was over my actors left shoulder in the purple jumper & my second over the shoulder shot was over my actors right shoulder in the red shirt. We edited them together with straight cuts giving us a feel of a conversation.

• I found this slightly more difficult to do as i had to make sure we didn't brake the 30 degree rule while recording taking these two over the shoulder shots.We also where aware of the audio while taking these shots as we realized the script had to stay the same; if it differed within the shots the conversation would be unclear and may have lost its meaning. We managed to pull it off in the end though i feel it should have had some more shot reverse shots within my thriller scene.

• In this screen grab it shows me editing the audio within my thriller opening.

• Using the razor tool i had to split the audio into sections. Once i did this i used the pen tool to add spots on my audio allowing me to create a manual fade. I used this fade to make the none diegetic audio volume drop while the conversation took place. This made the diegetic audio more clear to listen to as it was louder then the sound track

• At first i didn't know how to do this manual fade but with some experimenting i managed to do it in the end. I feel this was the hardest thing within the thriller scene as it took me a long time to figure out how to do it.

As we did this project we had to keep in mind many things such as mise-en-scene

• We made sure that everyone is wearing the appropriate clothing (smart school wear) to match the situation of our shots taking place in the school.

• Props & objects where used such as pens, couches, tables & paper just to make the most of our facilities to give a school atmosphere within our shots.

We made sure used a wide variety of shots/angles within our opening

1. Long shot
2. Medium shot (low angle)
3. Long shot (high angle)
4. Low angle (medium shot)
5. Long shot (walking away from camera)
6. Medium shot (match on action with shot 5)
7. Medium shot walking down stairs towards camera
8. Long shot (low angle match on action with shot 7)
9. Extreme close-up (hand on handle)
10. Medium shot (walking into classroom)
11. High angle medium shot of two actors
12. Over shoulder shot (actor in purple conversation)
13. Over shoulder shot (actor in red conversation)
14. High angle medium shot of both actors
15. Medium shot of both actors talking
16. Long shot (low angle)
17. Medium shot (walking off exiting the classroom)
18. Medium shot walking into the 'Six form office'

Editing was also well we where able to expand on our skills and try new things

• Straight cuts are used to create match on action & a conversation
• We edited audio to adjust volume levels allowing us to sync clips with audio better as shown in the screen grab above.

- We definitely should of tried more editing techniques such as colour/contrast etc. this will be done in our next exercise.

Sound was done well as we covered all types of sound (Diegetic & Non-diegetic)

• Diegetic sounds (sounds from a source in the story) was used a lot within our shots. Dialog was used a lot and so was sounds from objects; such as tables being hit and doors being slammed closed. These are all examples of when diegetic sounds where used

• Non-diegetic sounds (sounds coming from a source which isn't in the story) where used through a sound track. The soundtrack was used to build tension within the audience as it was a dramatic and tense sound track.

Over all i feel we did very well on this exercise as we managed to include many new camera angles/shots and develop our editing skills; though i feel that there's a lot of room for improvement. Especially with my editing skills e.g. putting clips to create smoother continuity & by trying new ways of editing (transition fades etc). Despite this on a all we did well in this exercise.

"Analyzing a thriller opening"

As research I went over some thriller openings & looked at the strengths and weaknesses on them. I'm going to talk about the strentgh and weakness of a thriller opening called "The Safehouse"

Mise-en-scene is used very well in this whole thriller opening; many conventions where used in order to match the atmosphere.

• The lighting used on the female talking about her rape experience was really well lit, it's not too bright though it isn't too dark either, it seemed right in between with a little bit of a gloomy feel to it. This was a good way in which the audience can interact and feel the pain of the female actor; as rape is a very serious situation and the lighting really helped catch the seriousness of the scene.

• The costumes where also very well done from the beginning to end. from when she is talking to the viewer directly in a  hoodie giving the expression she is trapped and stuck indoors to the outdoor outfit of going to her house; as if she just came from night out. The heels worn gave away that she was out partying as females normally wear them when going for a good night out.

• The location of the entire thriller opening also matches the scenes very well as it links to the story. At first she's directly talking to the audience through a camera about her rape experience. Her location seems to be her home most probably her bedroom. This goes well as it gives the impression that she's stuck inside doors ever since her terrifying experience.

1. She also has a location outside of her home; while she tells the viewer her story. She talks about her day "A taxi dropped me home, about 2AM, outside my house." the location matches the story she's telling the viewer as the location's outside her home showing her walking to her house. It then changes to her going into a block and walking up stairs to go inside of her home.

Another strength is the sound used in the thriller opening; both diegtetic and none diegetic sounds are used.

• Diegetic sound is sound that comes from the world of the story; such as the dialog is used. It was used very well as they're all synced in perfectly with the mouths and are allow the viewer to understand what's happening in the thriller opening. Diegetic sounds of doors closing are also in this opening and are good in volume & very clear to listen to. Lastly diegetic sound of a keyboard is used for the opening credits. This makes it look like the letters are being typed onto display  and not just appearing randomly; this was done very well as all key sounds are matching in time with the letters appearing.

• Non diegetic sounds are sound that doesn't come from the world of the story; an example of this being used within the thriller opening is the sound track being played in the background. It's played by a piano which creates a soft melody which really fits in well with the situation occurring within the scenes. The volume is put low while dialog is being played, this is to make the dialog clear and easy to listen to.

Many camera angles / shots where also used in this thriller opening. they managed to include a wide range of different camera shots & angles

1. Eye level medium shot (Female actor talking directly to the audience)
2. Establishing long shot (Female actor walking home)
3. Low angle medium shot (Female actor walking towards door)
4. Extreme close-up (Female actor's feet letting out cigarette)
5. Medium shot from behind (Female actor walks into the block of flats)
6. Then turns into a panning shot towards a shaded character
7. Extreme close-up of heels (Female actor walks up the stairs)
8. High angle medium shot (From top of stair case looking down at female actor walking up stairs)
9. Long shot (shaded male character walking into the block of flats)
10. Medium shot (Female actor on top of the stair case)
11. Extreme close-up (Males shoes walking up the stairs)
12. Medium shot (Female actor opening her home's door)
13. Extreme close-up (Female actor drops keys and picks the keys up)
14. Medium shot (Male actor runs into the home and attacks the female actor)

• A good example of match on action was used when the female was opening her home's door to go inside. They took a shot from behind her opening the door and a shot in-front of her walking in. It's very smooth and created great continuity.

Editing was used very well, they managed to use editing to create meaning within this thriller opening.

• Straight cuts are used throughout the entire opening. Each cut was done very well as the entire opening was very smooth allowing the cuts to be unrecognizable. I feel they should have experimented with some transitions such as fades just to have a change as the shots changed.

• I really liked some of the effects they used, e.g. when the female actor is walking home '0:34 - 0:37' they added a form of motion blur. They used this as the female actor tripped over; this showed the viewers that she's drunk as the motion blur gave a feel of how she's currently feeling (dizzy)

• Another nice effect they used was when the opening credits appeared '0:38 - 0:39'. They used a key bored effect to make it seem that the letters are being typed into the screen as they appeared one by one; this is very effective as it shows their creativity and i'm personally going to learn from this and try introduce something similar to my thriller opening.

On an all i feel they did very well. The thriller opening was very simple but very effective as everything linked well together; allowing a lot of meaning to be created. On the other hand i feel they should have tried experimented with more complexed effects just to show off their skills more then they do.
They also managed to make it seem as a opening sequence and not a scene of a film. They did this by showing a outline of the story and making it clear what the thriller will be about.