The Manchurian Candidate

Source Code (2011)

Source Code

An action thriller centred on a soldier who wakes up in the body of an unknown man and discovers hes apart of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.

The director of this movie is Duncan Jones, The man who wrote this movie is Ben Ripley, The main stars are Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga.

Box Office
The budget for this movie was $32,000,000

On the opening weekend the film made $14,812,094 in the US on the 3rd of april 2011 in 2916 screens.

The film Grossed £54,696,902 in the US on 10th of july 2011

"The story line keeps you on the edge of your seat and adds in enough humour to make it a thoroughly enjoyable experience. There is an amazing, subtle chemistry Jake and Michelle which really is the star of the film, performances by all the actors are excellent."
This a review the action thriller source Code, I 100% agree with this review because i feel that the film kept you on the edge of your seat throughout with little hints of what to come and also the fact that you dont know if hes going to succeed or not." 

This is a cinematic trailer for the film Source Code.

This trailer is effective because it is the perfect balance and of showing enough infomation to not spoil the movies plot but is enough to get people to want to watch the film and be interested in the story. The trailer appeals to multiple audiences by showing all the fast paced action at the start to appeal to the hardcore action fans which are mainly male and then during the mid way point of the trailer it gives a hint of a love story which appeals to the females. These excerpts have been added to give the railer a build and plot in its self and makes the film seem really in-depth and meaningful. The trailer has been edited in a way which it is very quick shots lasting a second or less and then during the middle we get a significant information about the movie and then the trailers pace slows down mainly to keep us hooked and to not reveal much information. The target audience is targeted by all the explosions and action showed in the trailer to appeal to the male viewership and then the romantic connection between Jake and Michelle appeals to the female viewership.

This is a sequence containing the first 5 minutes of the film Source Code.

The frist 5 minutes of Source Code are the most important 5 minutes of the film because we see the chain of events that replay as the movie progresses and we need to remember these key iconic moments  e.g. the coffee spilling on the shoe and the man dropping his wallet. The first 5 minutes shows the connection almost immediately between Jake and Michelle. The first 5 minutes also show Jakes confusion with the hole situation and he already before knowing the assignment gets suspicions about the train.

The train scenes 









Different types of Lighting

Lighting

The different kinds of lighting are:

Low - key lighting

High - key lighting

key lighting

Back lighting

Filler lighting

Under Lighting

Top lighting

Low key lighting is a style of lighting in which is to create a chiaroscuro effect. to create this effect you will need a Key light a fill light and a black light for illumination.

An example of this style of lighting is portrayed in image that involves a cat looking off in the distance, this style gives the effect that the cat is petrofide and something has caught its attention.

High key lighting is a style of lighting is often used in sitcoms and comedies because it is very bright and eliminates all contrasts, this is used to give an upbeat feel and has no shadows.

An example of this style of lighting is porteayed in this image of a newborn child staring directly into the camera, this high key effect makes the picture bright and uplifted which is fitted with the subject of the photo because it is a newborn baby whoch is often connected with happy feelings.

key light is a style of lighting that can be either "hard" (focused) or "soft" (diffused), the most common setup is the three point lighting setup, here is a diagram to confirm.



This is a diagram showing the three point lighting technique which is commonly used.

Back lighting is a style of lihgting is used for a dramatic picture, this style of lighting is typical for covering skin blemishes, because the light is coming from behind the subject there is lens flare.

This is an example of back lighting from the movie "Nightmare on Elm street" the effect that this gives is very dark and sinister bgecause we know its Freddie that is standing there looking demonic but he is not fully revealed. we just get a silhouette.

Filler lighting is a style of lighting and is used to reduce the contrast of a scene.using less fill will make shadows seem lighter or darker than normal.

This is a diagram of the filler light and how it works and where it is during a shot or during filming.

North by Northwest

North By Northwest

A iconic picture from the successful thriller North By Northwest written by Alfred Hitchcock.

North by Northwest is an american spy thriller written by Alfred Hitchcock and was released in 1959 and is performed by Cary grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. The screenplay of North by Northwest was written by Ernest Lehman who wanted to write "the Hitchcock pictures to end all Hitchcock pictures".

This is a trailer of the Hitchcock movie North by northwest where Alfred Hitchcock himself talks about his feelings towards the movie.

The brief interpretation of North by northwest is Advertising executive Roger O. Thorn hill is mistaken for "George Kaplan" and kidnapped by Valerian and Licht. The two take him to the Long Island estate of Lester Townsend. There he is interrogated by a man he assumes to be Townsend, but who is actually spy Phillip Vandamm. Vandamm orders his right-hand man Leonard to get rid of Thorn hill.

Thrillers are characterized by there fast paced action. examples of this in North by north west is the crop duster scene where we see Thorn-Hill repeatedly chased by this crop duster plane attacking him and trying to kill him.

Collateral

Collateral

This a poster of the Hollywood movie collateral

starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx

This movie is about a cab driver (Jamie Foxx) who finds himself hostage from a contract killer (Tom Cruise) as he uses the cab driver to be his designated drive to drive him around L.A. from hit to hit.

Film was released in 2004

Director: Michael Mann

Writer: Stuart Beattie

Stars: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith.

This movie was the first major Hollywood feature film to have been filmed using digital filming equipment which was and still is a huge step for Hollywood and the film industry in general there are many benefits from this leap from film to digital, its lightweight, easier to edit, more space and time to film, and cheaper than film.

This extract is a scene from Collateral where a coyote is running across the road in front of their taxi, and there are a series of cuts of this coyote running, the reason this coyote was filmed because the camera crew had digital cameras and were using them for a hollywood film for the first time and they are very easy to use they filmed the coyote because why not.

The fever club scene was the only scene in the film to still be shot with classic celluloid camera, i cant see the difference in the quality but the advantages of the digital out weigh the advantages of celluloid.

The film was co-produced by DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures. Collateral sat on DreamWorks development for three years. the project didn't take off until actor Russell Crowe became interested in playing Vincent. Then Mann went to Tom cruise for the role as vincent and Adam Sandler for the Cabbie but the Cabbie was Jamie Foxx in the end.

This is an interview with Tom Cruise talking about his character "Vincent" and Jamie Foxx's character "Max", he also talks about Michael Mann and that his films emerse you and give you the feeling of being in his world. He talks about how Jamie Foxx gives a realism feel to the character of Max and that he is a great actor and also how vincent is the opposite, tramatised and indifferent.

Genre

Genre

A genre is the categories of a film e.g. horror, comedy, Thriller. Genre is the way we classify films but for a film to part of a specific genre or genre's there needs to be certain specific key features that that film possesses to be categorised as a genre. For example the Musical genre must have songs and musical properties in the movie or it is not a musical it is as simple as that. Genre is a macro Element along with Narrative.

• Horror - Jump scenes, foolish yougn characters, abandoned locations, curse or some kind of back story, supernatural presence, blood and death.
• Thriller - Murder, some kind of killer, a sinister disorder or motive behind the murderers killings, a signified weapon or trade mark after the killing, killer normally gets taken down at the end of the stroy.
• Sci-fi - Some kind of science behind the thought of the story and plot, advanced technology, super hero powers, robots, future.
• Action - A hero who is after the bad guys, Villian who has loads of goons (men to fight for him),  Has some kind of personal vandetta towards the bad guy.
• Comedy - a series of funny events that take place one after another, Regually has build up to the most funny moments so it give the audience a good laugh, makes everyday situations into a coedic scene.
• RomCom - A love story that has the same events and plot to a comedy film but has romantic scenes and ideas behind the story.
• Musical - contains a song for the main events of the film.



Lighting

No Country for old Men

No Country for old Men

This is a poster for the thriller movie No Cointry for old Men.

Synopsis

No Country for old Men is an american action & crime thriller movie. this movie was adapted from a novel written by Cormac McCarthy's novel. The story of the film is about a man who by chance happens to come across a massive fortune that does not belong to him, the rest of the movie is a cat and mouse chase between the man with the fortune and the hitman that is not stopping for anything to get him, also a sheriff and his patner get involved and are looking for both the man and the hitman but are always a few steps behind.

This is the official trailer for No country For Old Men.

This trailer is effective because it gives you a feel of the danger of the villain and also the exciting journey of the hero in the movie and doesn't give away too much information to keep people guessing as to why this man is killing people and is after the hero.

The target audience for this crime thriller is for the older generation e.g. old teenager and young adult, people who are young and are just or recently started adulthood and want to see an action thriller.

Setting: The setting of this thriller gives a very suspenseful and lonely feeling to the audience because of the atmosphere that it portrays of a lost land empty and lifeless.

Sound: The digetic sound in this thriller is very quite and has the audience waiting for a sound or a word immersing them into the world of the movie.

Costumes: The costumes in this movie are done very well because the villain is dressed all in black suggesting darkness and hidden mystery about him, where as the hero in the movie is wearing a white shirt symbolizing hope and victory or it gives the hero a passive vibe and that he isn't as strong and up for the task as he hopes. The lady in this film is dressed very innocently and helpless in a dress and her hair done up.

Characters: It is very crucial that we see the villain almost immediately in this film to show his lack of respect and remorse for other human beings and let the audience right of the bat that this man is not one you would want to get involved with in any shape or form.

Sound

SOUND

Sound plays a huge role in making any kind of film because the sound shows the audience how to feel in that given situation e.g. if the scene has been written as a sad scene then there would most of the time sad music will be playing over the scene because its the sound that gives us the emotion not the scene its self.

The way we categorise sound is Diegetic and Non diegetic.

Diegetic is the sounds that the characters in the movie can hear e.g. a window smashing. Non/Diegetic sound is the sounds in which the audience can hear but not the characters e.g. the music in the background of the scene that is providing us with the mood of the scene.

Also there is On/Off screen sound which is whether we the audience can see the source if the sound.

on screen sound is the sound where which us the audience can see the source of the sound and know where its coming from for example if you hear a horse galloping and on the screen you can see a horse and you know that horse is making the sound by the action that the horse is making.

Off screen sound is sound that us the audience cannot see for example if you hear a scream from a distance but we cannot see any one make the scream on the screen so we do not know where the source of the sound is coming from.

Sound Bridge: A sound bridge creates a smooth transition from the sound of one sequence to another for example if the is a dangerous scene of someone running away from a monster and the music is very suspenseful and then the character bumps into a friend the might be a heavy drum sound to make the audience jump and then the music will change to a mire comfortable relaxing music because the character feels safe.

     This is an example of a sound bridge from the movie The Matrix.

Mise - en - Scene

Mise - en - scene

Mise - en - scene = MES

MES is a french term for everything that is going on in the shot. 

• Setting & props
• Makeup & Costumes
• Performance & Facial expressions
• Colour

An example of MES is a scene in psycho where Norman meets Marion and takes her into his parlour behind his office after offering her something to eat, when you enter the room you notice a bunch of stuffed birds and they are mainly predatorial birds which suggests that Norman is a human predator and also on the walls are framed classical paintings of naked women, this suggests that Norman is a predator to venerable women. The way norman  performs in this scene is contrasted by the theme and setting we get from his room because when he speaks he is very nervous and un easy and says things he don't mean just to make conversation, the way he sits is very timid, he is sitting tightly together with his hands held together and in between is legs.

This mage is a scene from casino royal a James Bond movie starring Daniel Craig as James Bond, in this scene James Bond is fighting a man in a males restroom, the shots are edited very quickly because it is a fight and the actors are not actually hitting each other so the shots need to be fast to give the impression they are fighting fast and they are all over the place, the edit speed resembles whats happening on screen.

Sound exercise: The Final Deed AS Media Studies

Continuity Editing exercise: LCCMM

Camera angle exercise: Safe Place (Media Studies AS)

Preliminary Exercise Evaluation

Preliminary Exercise Evaluation