Film Language - Capturing Emotion

In class the other day we watched a famous scene from "Jaws". We analysed how the director used different techniques to capture emotion. I have put a link below so you can watch the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW23RsUTb2Y

In this first shot I can see that the composition of this shot is done to make the viewer feel uneasy. When the character to the left is kept in the shot after he has stopped talking to the main guy on the right and when he is talking to him he is clearly not concentrating on what he is saying as his eyes are focused on the girl in the sea, making me think something bad is going to happen, because my attention is being drawn from what the actors are saying. 




As the scene goes on the atmosphere relaxes as the camera moves further away showing the main character Brody is now less concerned about what is going on around him. 




There are a succession of quick cut shots of a large group of kids playing in the sea, this creates a frantic atmosphere once again but this time a POV shot from the shark shows the view form underwater and reinforces the danger that is unfolding. 





As soon as it cuts to this shot; a point of view (POV) of the shark, the audience is immediately frightened and fearful for the children in the sea. This is a really effective shot and way to play on emotions as usually its not what you can see, but what you cant see that makes you more scared and this pov shot shows us the shark is there, without revealing the predator, playing on the audiences worst fears. This effect is increased by the non diegetic, famous Jaws theme music, which creates a very eery, intense, atmospheric suspense for whats going to happen next.

The final technique I thought adds the most to the tension building of this scene is the dolly zoom.

This is where the camera moves forward on a dolly but is zooming out at the same time to disorientate the viewer and to capture the emotion of the character. 

Composition and Framing

In class we looked at the car park scene from Get Carter to look at how the director has used composition and framing. Below is a link to the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5eB5Gshe38

 In the first shot we can tell who the dominant character is due to his grey suit, distance from the other characters and the fact he is off centred in the rule of thirds. Another way the director has shown this character to be dominant is the use of lines within the shot. The composition here is clever as the window frames create lines of perspective, almost presenting the character.

Another shot where framing and lines have been used effectively is this one above. As you can see, the line created by the raised walkway shows a divide between the two characters, so the audience instantly knows that these characters don't get along. This divide is increased by the fact that the character on top is in broad daylight and the character, Carter, underneath is in a dark suit, lurking in the shadows portraying him as a cool, quiet, slick character.

 A final shot where the composition is used to portray a deeper meaning is this shot after the character has been frown off the building by Carter. The use of lots of angular, hard edges and sharp angles created by the framing and composition of the shot reflect Carters harsh personality.

"The Bridge"

In class we watched another documentary called 'The Bridge'; filmed in 2004 by Eric Steel. It shows one years filming along the Golden Gate Bridge and the 23 jumps and several suicide attempts that happened over the course of the filming. It also has additional footage of interviews with the families of those who jumped and a survivor; Ken Baldwin.

There are many controversial issues that are surround this documentary, the main being the sensitive and strong content. We thought of some questions in the lesson based more around the treatment of the documentary rather than the content of it. Again like "The Boy Who's Skin Fell Off" We were asked by Mr. Buckmaster to write a response to these sensitive issues.

Do we have the right to see this?

I believe the way this documentary differs from the other is I think it was based more around the fascination of suicides linked to the Golden Gate Bridge rather than spreading the awareness of the issue and promoting a way of helping such as a charity. Having said this I think the treatments made viewers aware that 'everyday people' are suicidal and helped to spread awareness that it can happen to anyone, I also think it helped to express the importance of not ignoring symptoms and therefore I believe it did promote some parts in a good way. Finally, I think it gave a strong message to people who are feeling suicidal. We hear Ken Baldwins story in the documentary and his attempt of suicide that he immediately regretted. I think this gives a positive message and a feeling of hope.

Why has the documentary got an 18 rating?

This documentary has a high rating, this is due to its taste and decency. I found the documentary quite hard to watch due to it actually showing people committing suicide. Along with verbal accounts and photo graphs from people who have seen people jumping off the bridge or climbing over the railing. This can clearly be disturbing for many viewers and therefore a high rating was needed so that an audience that was too young didn't view it as it's likely that they'd have found it harder to deal with.

"The Boy Who's Skin Fell Off"

In class we watched a documentary called, "The Boy Who's Skin Fell Off". It is hard hitting emotional story about the last four months of Johnny Kennedy's life and showed his suffering and long battle with his rare condition called Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). If you would like to watch this documentary I have put a link below.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-boy-whose-skin-fell-off/4od

The documentary contains main sensitive issues in it and we were asked to think about the following questions and write a response to them. These are the comments that I made about the doc.

Do we have the right to see this?

First, I think this documentary was made to raise awareness of this condition and to give the viewer a taste of what its like to have a condition like this. It was very informative and gives strong emotion viewpoints of the people involved with Johnny's life. However Johnny worked closely with channel 4 to create this documentary so because of this I believe he wanted people to see the struggles he faced. I believe however that some aspects of his life shown were not necessary, for example him being in excruciating pain and his mother being asked whether she considered keeping johnny when she was pregnant with him. These are very sensitive things to watch and hear. Finally, As I know the documentary is for educational purposes, at the time of his death to have film crews around this situation must have been hard for his family to be able to grieve in private.

Should they be filming this?

The first time we hear johnny speak is through a voice over, The voice over has been scripted as if he is speaking after death, this means that the producers would have got Johnny to read this before he died making him feel even worse about his life threatening condition, I think this is insensitive to him and the viewers.  Although my immediate thought was that some of the filming wasn't very tactful Johnny has clearly 'asked us along for the ride' and after seeing a little more I get the impression that perhaps Johnny worked with producers to create this feel as it helps to reflect the way he approached this awful condition. Obviously there are some aspects of the filming that are more upsetting than others (such as: when Johnny gets upset, when he's telling us of the worst parts of his journey and when we see his dead body) however, I think without some of these parts we would not understand fully the terrible ordeal Johnny had gone through.

Was it a valid documentary?


I believe the documentary was very valid. Not only does it help with the awareness of rare condition EB it also helps to promote his charity. Unfortunately, it is very rare that people donate to worthy causes unless they feel some sympathy for the cause; this was shown when £500,000 was raised through the help of the 5 million viewers. This documentary allows the audience to connect with Johnny and I feel that many people will both take something from it and give something back. I personally have learnt a lot about a rare condition that I previously knew nothing about and have acknowledged a worthy charity (DEBRA) through this documentary.

Did they take advantage of the situation?

I definitely think they took advantage of the situation because it is such a rare condition that it would be hard to find someone willing to help to make a documentary and that has put so much time and effort into helping others who have the condition. However, I don't think that taking advantage of it was all bad; through the documentary Johnny not only got to educate and inspire millions with his story but he managed to raise thousands of pounds and promote his charity

Brief Research - Short Film

The main brief I am interested in is - 

• A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options

          - A poster for the film
          - A radio trailer for the film
          - A film magazine review page featuring the film

To get an idea of different short films I looked at some popular ones and some from the A2 Media Studies course done previously by students. I did this so I could gain ideas from the industry standards how professional film making equipment and funding can give them the edge on others, and look at small student short films to see what can be done with basic equipment and no funding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK_cdkpazjI

The First short film I looked at is called "Sight" its a futuristic short film based on the idea that people have the ability to upgrade their vision to a computerized eyesight system that you can control with your mind. The film uses some incredible techniques to make this idea believable. Motion graphics are used to create the on screen look of this mind controlled program as you can see in the first scene the main character is playing a skydiving game by simply just lying on the floor, but he is seeing everything. It uses the purpose of a short film very well which is creating an idea/scenario and telling a story in a short amount of time. I have picked up a few ideas form this film but the techniques used in the film is simply out of my reach and I do not have the equipment or skills to be able to do something of this scale. However it has made me want to aim high and not try something out just because it seems too hard to achieve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PS1ET43kF0

The second short film I looked at was called "The Waters Edge". After seeing this film it has really inspired me to go and make m own short film and subsequently I have decided that this is the brief that I want to use. The film uses some excellent filming techniques, however I think what really sets this apart from other short films is that the story line is really well thought out and kept me glued to the screen. One of the filming techniques they used that I really liked is the real time/time lapse technique. This is done by filming two shots, in both, the camera stays in the exact same place. The first shot is filmed for a long amount of time for example a busy motorway, sometimes a few hours or a whole day, then the second shot will be for the actual amount of time you want the shot to be for example characters having a conversation in the foreground  The the first shot is sped up to the length that the second shot is then they are cut to fit together on the screen, giving this illusion of time passing very fast but the characters staying the same. I would like to include this technique in my short film.