Casino Royale Opening Analysis.

Casino Royale Opening Analysis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNvzNWuzI9Y

Immediately we are introduced into a ‘Noire’ style, and begins with an establishing shot of what looks to be an industrial area or a block of office flats. We then see the titles appear fading in a almost a military fashion. In this scene we also have prolonged pitch noises and diegetic sounds of cars and lifts, which often sound like they are being heightened.

As the scene progresses, we see a few jump cuts between the male getting out the car, to an external view of a lift, to inside the lift, then reversing back out again to the male walking through his office.

When he enters his office, the camera is in a low angle shot, and tracks him, as if it were a first person view (POV) of someone stalking him yet trying to be unseen. It then  cuts into a close up of his face, where it is illuminated and he is shocked (white with fear perhaps?). Then cuts into a shot/reverse shot of Bond and the male talking.

It then cuts into a flashback scene, it still has the ‘Noire’ look, however in contrast with before, the lighting and brightness is far higher, and is set in day time. As the chase scene gets more intense, the shots become more and more erratic and faster, adding to the fast paced a brutal atmosphere. In the fight scene, numerous shouts are used erratically, such as Close ups, Mediums shots, overhead, tracking shot, and even a bird’s eye view style shot.

Points that appealed to me:

‘Noire’ Effect- I thought it was very effective throughout, especially in the dark room where they were having the conversation.

Rapid and Erratic camera movement – In the fight scene, jump cuts were used throughout to display the quickness of the fight, as well as adding to the atmosphere of the film.

Blurring when in conversation- I liked this idea where it blurs everything apart from their faces. (Probably have to get Amir to show me how to do it haha). 

Thriller Producers

Studio’s that produce Thriller Films

There are many Studio’s that produce Films in the Thriller Genre, including Noire Thrillers, Psychological thrillers, Modern, and Crime.

Hammer Film Productions – Mostly in Horror Thrillers, although they did produce a Few Thrillers such as ‘Taste of Fear’

Warner Bros. – Inception, Shutter Island, Dark Knight, LA Confidential, Pan’s Labyrinth.

Universal Studio’s – Hannibal, Bourne series.

It seems that Warner Bros. Dominates the Thriller genre and makes a large profit of them, proving that there is a market now as a lot of their Thrillers have been made recently.

Inception:

Budget	$160 million[3]
Box office	$825,532,764[

 Source: Wikipedia

Representations

Representations

Representations through most ‘Thriller’ films are quite distinct; the cast of films are usually male dominant. Usually having the Lead protagonist as Male, and Antagonist as male too., whilst having the women having supporting roles. Young White men are usually portrayed as, the ‘Good’ Protagonist, and usually having good morals and striving to do the right thing (Albeit this is not always the case, In Casino Royale, Daniel Craig is portrayed as a brutal agent who does the job regardless of the consequences. Older actors are usually portrayed as the evil antagonists, and are usually seen as powerful.

Female Characters are usually seen as physically weak and often need help from the Male cast (Casino Royale), although in some thrillers they can be seen as mentally strong, such as the young girl in Pan’s Labyrinth.  

Audience

Audience

Since my project is based on the ‘Thriller’, I am looking at the different types of audiences of this genre. Looking at the top rated Thriller films, and recently released Thriller films, there is a market for this kind of genre (http://www.imdb.com/chart/thriller), and it seems to be that the average age group for these types of films seems to be around Late teens to older adults (16-50), since these films are mostly age rated around 15 and 18. Plus these films have a more deep tone to them and usually have an intricate storyline full of twists.  Although, Thriller films usually appeal to more males than females, a stereotypical view of this could be that Thrillers are more violent and usually the cast is male dominant with few female characters.

As Media Project

After a delay, I have decided to work by myself for this current project, and have chosen Thrillers/Psychological Thrillers for this project.  For the project, I will be aiming for a more ‘Surreal style’.

My Analysis will include those of the Thriller and Psychological Thriller Genres, and their Title Screens and how they are portrayed within their films and how characters and social groups are represented.

My Researches will be posted later J

AS project Begun.

Our AS level project has begun and our group consists of me, Charlotte and Amir. For our Piece were are looking in the Crime/mafia genre and to see how they are portrayed etc, in particular we are attempting to do a British style mafia (Lock, Stock and two Smoking Barrels).

Our research will consist of analyses of different title screens of various Mafia films (British and non-British) and of what they’re representations are and who their target audiences would/still have been.

Analysis of Napoleon Dynamite

Analysis of Napoleon Dynamite opening clip:

Throughout the Clip we see what seems to a consistent Point of view shot, as if we are lookign through the eyes of the the protagonist, and through this we see many different objects throughout, plates and crayons etc, and he is looking a them as if there is more to them, as they hold different messages 9teh titles of people who created the film). there are numerous jumps shots that quickly speed up the pace as if eh is have at the beginning having each meal , and then moving onto another object. The style of the clip is very 'indie', objects are basic, the cartoons are simplistic yet effective, the objects are crudely drawn, which could suggest that it is in itself relating to how it is a budget film.

P.s, I found this quite hard to analyse compared to the many other clips on that blog. I've been trying since yesterday to copy and paste this onto the blog, and only just managed to get it working properly. 

Premonition

Here is our project, by me and Charlotte Patterson :) (Storyboards, evaluation etc coming soon)

As of this time, we are still working on the the 'Prisoner' video clip, and within this clip I've had an idea of how the interrogator's voice should be like, as well as the laughing section near the middle of the clip (0:48).

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

I believe the tone of the voice and the sheer insanity of the voice would add very weird (although tense and strange) vibe and feeling towards the film.I also believe it would make a good voice style because in quite a few interrogation scenes, the interrogator has a unusually deep and thunderous voice.
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMTeNjUwlwo&feature=related


The interrogator has a very deep, albeit edited voice, that doesn't let his voice be recognised, the kind of voice gives the representation of a dominant person, someone who is in control and have power over someone else.  

Note: I know a lot of my examples are coming from Games or short films, but I believe games are an underrated form of media, which in the right circumstances give a fantastic atmosphere just as good as any film.

Soundtrack, different ones I may use...

So, after consideration of which ones to use, I thought (and as a group) thought we should have a deep, bleak soundtrack in the background, that creates and a dark and confusing atmosphere. Another thing we are going to keep track of is consistency, since the whole film is in black and white, and has a dark tone, we need to keep the music exactly the same, so we can't have heavy bass guitars then 8 bit beats in the background. Anyway back to track selections.

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

Otep - Buried Alive.

I believe the intro of this song would be brilliant for the beginning of our clip, it matches the tone, and the emphasises the dire situation of the man being interrogated, it also gives a surreal and psychotic element due to the quiet whispers in the background. (Note it would be playing until 1:04 then loop back to 0:00 if i were to use it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzv7O9siFXY&feature=related

Chimaira - Resurrection

Although I wouldn't use the whole song, only the first 15 seconds, and i'd use this for the intro, because it gives a very weird and tense feel, heavy breathing with no other sound. The breathing sound likes it moving rapidly at points, which would fit nicely with out intro of the interrogator moving swiftly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpWPaxgdo0E&feature=related

 Metro 2033 OST - Fresh Air

Lastly before I add any more, this one I pretty much love, its twisted and surreal, and fantastic. (possibly abit biased here since im a massive fan of the Book and the game) But yes this soundtrack could well fit into our film.

Any suggestions of other types would be welcome :) Ciao!

1st Blog, Finally up and running,

Hello!, Finally been able to use my blog for unknown reasons. To catch up, Mine, Charlotte's and Amir's first project was a shot opening clip of our own fictional film 'Shoot me if you can'. Since I don't actually have the film on me, check Amir's blog further down the bottom. Our second project (which we are currently working on) is based on 'The Prisoner', in which we have to shoot an interrogation scene ( Amir as the 'victim' and i'm the interrogator, and Charlotte is doing the camera-work )

Although we haven't finished yet, we are having the whole film in black and white to give it a 'Noire' look, and give it more atmosphere with a more eeriie look towards it. We will have many different camera shots in place, such as close-ups, long shots, etc etc. One that we are attempting to use is a shot that mimics and security camera, and using editing and effects, creating a cctv-like image whilst playing.

Another one of my roles of this video is to choose a soundtrack for our new clip, hoping to go on with something eerie and bleak. (next blog will be about this)

Anyway, Ciao!