Emotion research 2

This is another little research of the character`s emotion, I am the director, the cameraman and editor.Hope you enjoy it.

Emotion research 1

This is a little research of the character`s emotion, I am the director, the cameraman and editor.Hope you enjoy it.

How does my project relate to relevant current practices, debates and theory?

Western: The main theme of current western horror film is vampires and monsters. The delegate of them is Hollywood, in the recent 50years, the western horror film becomes clearer and more targeted.  "Universal Studios almost single-handedly is responsible for the continuing popularity of Frankenstein movies, vampire movies, mummy movies and werewolf movies. This was a period when many studios were just beginning to define themselves by the genres they specialized in. Just as Warner Brothers was claiming the gangster genre as their own, Universal laid almost exclusive claim to horror films with a series of iconic movies made in the first few years of the talkie era: "Frankenstein," "Dracula," "The Mummy" and "The Wolf Man." (http://www.ehow.com/about_5068412_history-horror-movies.html#ixzz2CcTBtbcr)

Eastern: Spirit and ghost is the main style of the Eastern horror film. The fear of spirits is often the precursor to people recognizing their fear of God  (http://www.thefish.com/movies/features/1293645/Spooky-Ideas%3A--The-Eastern-Horror-Invasion-in-Film/)

The two theories which show above are also appears in a Chinese website which talks the fully details about  the techniques of  expression of horror films from Eastern and Western areas.

(The different cultures and techniques of Eastern and Western horror films, http://bbs.gxsd.com.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=105330 )

Last week, the new season of the horror series Walking Dead hit TV screens in the US. Two Chinese friends had independently mentioned that they were looking forward to the release, which surprised me as I'd never heard of it and didn't think that Western horror films or television series traveled well outside of Europe and America.

 (GLOBAL TIMES,  http://www.globaltimes.cn/beijing/two-cents/opinion/2011-04/591347.html)

Depends of the difference of the culture from Eastern and Western areas, the personality of human beings between these two areas are absolutely different and this effect reflected by the horror films directly.

(Comparing with Western and Eastern horror film http://wenku.baidu.com/view/e3cc2e19b7360b4c2e3f6445.html)

Film Analyse conclusion 2

3. Scale

• ELS (extreme long shot)
• LS  (Long shot)
• MlS (medium long shot)
• MCU (Medium close up)
• CU  (close up)
• ECU (extreme close up)

4. Movement

• Crane shot
• handheld camera/stearycam
• Pan
• Tilt
• Tracking shot
• Whip Pan

EDITING

1. Devices


A.Transitions

• Cheat cut
• Crosscutting
• Cut in
• Dissolve
• Iris
• Jump cut
• Establishing
• Reverse shot
• Superimposition
• Wipe

B. Matches

• Eye line match
• graphic match
• Match on action

C. Duration

• Long take/ plan--Sequence
• Overlapping Editing
• Rhythm

2. Styles

• Contiauity editing
• Montage
• Elliptical

SOUND

1. Sound Editing

• Sound Bridge
• Sonic Flashback

2. Source

• Diegetic/non-diegetic sound
• Direct Sound
• Nonsimultaneous Sound
• Offscreen Sound
• Post synchronization dubbing
• Sound perspective
• Synchronous Sound
• Voice over

3. Quality


Ref

http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/

Film analyse conclusion 1

MISE- EN- SCENE


1. Decor

• Rear project

2. Lighting

• Three point light
• High-key light
• Low key light

 
3. Space

• Deep Space
• Frontality
• Matte shot
• Offscreen Space
• Shallow space

4. Costume


5. Acting

• Typage

CINEMATOGRAPHY


1. Quality

• Color
• Contrast
• Deep focus
• Shallow focus
• Depth of field
• Exposure
• Ranking focus
• Rate
• Telephoto Shot
• Zoom shot

2. Framing

• Angle of framing
• Aspect ratio
• Level of feaming
• Canted framing
• Following shot
• Re framing
• Point-of-view shot
• Wide angle lens

Filming--Horror element 4

The E-mail

Same like the phone, the e-mail horror appears from the end of 20th, when the character in the film received a dead people`s e-mail, the horror feeling will also follows to audience`s heart. But those style of horror element will always tells a hoax or a conspiracy.

The Wild

The wild will be more frightened because it will give a lonely atmosphere. Sometimes an unsubstantial sign from the character`s back, or a strange foot behind the tree, etc, will give audience a strong feeling, they will believe they don`t safety when being alone in the wild.

The old house and castle

The old house, especially the old castle will always show their mysterious because they all have the old history. There are a lot of strange things, such as murder, revenge, war, die for love, etc, appears to the castle. One of the most powerful horror style, zombies are always appears in castle

The fake horror

This is a kind of style using, and it appears mostly on Hollywood horror films. Sometimes the story will give an deep atmosphere first, with the camera`s follow(usually follows at the character`s back) to let audience feel nervous, but when the character find the strange, he feel that was just nothing happened or just a friend appears. This means the horror things did not appears, just want to give audience a feeling.

Filming--Horror element 3

Watching Europe horror film is a kind of release, when finish watching Europe horror film, the audience could feel comfortable because the most excite time for them is the most frightening time. And the Europe horror element will be more than the Asian horror element.

 The mirror

The mirror horror element will appeared often on horror films, sometimes a different stuff shows on the mirror could make the atmosphere become inhibit. People would like to see a horror element in the mirror because they can`t control their fear because the mirror is the most useful stuff in life.

The lift

Some people have the Confined space phobia, they will exerts the most frightened feeling when seeing the lift, box, little room and big cabinets. But these kinds of space will be used into many horror films

Bathroom

The most method of bathroom element using will appears on the water, sometimes the water will becomes blood or change the speed, in the film Final Destination, there is an interesting effect that shows the death controls the flow of the water on the floor, and finally let the character slip and finally dead.

                      

Ring

The ring at night give people most fear feeling when they finish watching The Ring , at that time, most people would like to turn off their phones at night. Sometimes, when the character in the film finish feeling a huge frightened and did not come to themselves, a screech ring sound could make the audience frightened again.

                             

Filming--Horror element 2

 Food

The character in Asian horror films are mostly have no interest on eating, they will always on their mind, just like they know they will die soon, in fact, this effect will increase the horror atmosphere, because a bad body will easier show the dying of the character.

 Victim

There is an interesting thing thing in Asian`s horror films, that is the victim often nothing happened with the ghost before and did not know the ghost any more. The ghost is also attacks everybody which it meets. The reason of this effect is to increase the audience`s fear because they could image what they could do when they meet the ghost themselves.

 The reason and method

In the most Asian`s horror films, the the reason of the ghost killing is because they think they die undeserved, they believe that they must revenge the society, so the killing method of them is mainly to curse and frighten, sometimes they will also control the victim`s spirit.

 The gender of the ghost

Mostly, the gender of the ghost in Asian`s horror film will be the woman, the man ghost will be less. Sometimes the Asian people believe that the woman`s body is weak, so they will become the curse easier, and they also believe that the spirit of the woman will be stronger that the man

Filming-- Horror element 1

The people`s number and quality in the film

Sometimes in Asian`s horror film, the number of the people in the screen will be less, there will be not many people in the story, because the Asian people believe that they will get power when being in a crowd. So when audience see a lonely people being on the screen, they will feel afraid.

On another part, a tough man in a film will let the audience  feel safety, so in Asian`s film, there are not many tough man in it instead of the beautiful delicate girl or woman.

 The environment and light

The environment in important in Asian`s horror film, especially Japanese horror film. Basically,  the ghost will appears in a room, or a hospital, but there are less directors put them into some wide ground such as football ground or grass ground.

The light is also an important part in Asian horror films. Actually, the ghost will not appears on the sunshine, though they appears at the daytime, they will appears in a deep cloudy weather. At night, the atmosphere will change into nervous, and that is the best time for the ghost and they will always appears in some faint light to let audience feel afraid.

 
Sound

The sound is a really important part into horror films, most of Asian horror films will become not horror without sound. Sometimes a shouting could increase audience`s heart beat and before the sound affect, it will often absolutely quiet. Sometimes the quiet atmosphere will give audience deep emotion, because they could understand the horror thing will coming, but they don`t know when.

Filming--Sound2

Nature sound is one of the important part in horror filming, in a way to show audience a horror atmosphere, sound shows its necessary.

Nature sound includes action, such as human or animals walking, fighting, animals` running, etc. This kind of sound shows human or animals` action.

Another kind of sound shows the nature sound without human`s action, such as the sound of wind, rain and animals tweet.

Machine sound is a kind of sound which effects of every machines` working, such as the train`s whistle, car`s motor, plane, ring, clock, etc.

Special sound, which is a subnormal sound that be made out in using special sound software or just transformation.

The using of those sound are all have special effects:

1. To increase the reality of the story on the screen

2. To produce the atmosphere of the image

3. To increase the space in the film and let audience know more about the     information.

4. To combine some different little fragment in the film and make the film intact.

5. To show the character`s feeling.

6. To model a better actor`s character.

7. To make an analogy for the film.


Finally, To use the sound in a film could make the film more fresh. Also, if we use the sound effect into horror films, the film will shows better atmosphere and let audience feel more afraid.


Ref.
http://wenku.baidu.com/view/8fb4d7d3c1c708a1284a44d3.html

Filming---Make up

Make up is an important part of a film, if a film maker want to receive the perfect effect on screen about some strange things such as zombies, the ancients or a great man, he must needs the helping of make up.

So how many ways for the make up to help making a film?

1. Make up could change the actor`s class dimension into a film.


2. Make up could show audience the stamp of the age, to show the history better.


3. Make up could make the traits of character become stick out.


4. It could change a character`s age.


5. To make up the actor`s defect on their face.


6. It could change the actor`s feature of nation or race.


7. Make up could make the atmosphere better and could rendering emotions.


8. Use it into some myth style films.



Ref.
http://wenku.baidu.com/view/433b56da5022aaea998f0f94.html

Filming--Sound

The sound is one of the basic elements, it will make the film into a combining of listening and watching instead of only sight feeling. This effects the film really and clearly.

There are mainly three format of sound in a film, which are human sound, nature sound and music. Actually, they could be exchanged each other, sometimes people`s shout in a street is human sound, but also could be nature sound, some kinds of music which shows people`s footstep or water flow could also be the nature sound. So in a good film, every sound could finally be a whole effect, just like a intact  movement.

Human sound

This is the sound including talking, walking, rhythm, tone and mood by people, this is a style from people to communicate with each other and with aucience.

Nature sound

Nature sound is all of the sound appears in environment without human sound, sometimes people`s noise could also be the nature sound.

Music sound

Music sound is different with absolute music, because it has a special film space when being into a film, sometimes a music in a film could make out a story or a time line.

Reference:

Film Art, An Introduction by David Birdwell & Kristin Thompson

Timetable details of my research

Week15 --- 25: Reading and research

This will be reading about journals, articles and books, also do film analysis

To finish study proposal and learning agreement and submit them.

To communicate with supervisor. Finish the presentation of the proposal.

To make out schedules about the details of the year

Start to write the script of the project.

Week 26 ----38: make two short scene

Make out the first short scene at week 30, get feedback at week 32

make out the second short scene at week 36, get feedback at week 37

Preparing the presentation.

Write diaries and notes to be the preparing work of the final project at week 38

week 39 ---45: make two more short scene

Finish the first short scene at week 41 and get feedback at the end of week 41

Finish the second short scene at week 44 and get feedback at the end of week 44

Keep communicate with supervisor.

Keep reading and researching in spare time.

Write articles about what I have learnt at week 45.

week 46 ---- 52: final 90 seconds draft.

To do the preparing of the final project, includes risk assessment, final script writing, find the crew and characters between week 46 to 48

To filming and finish it before the deadline

To show the project to audience and supervisor

To clear up all of the paper works

To do the presentation about the final draft

To submit the project before deadline.

Others

To do the tutorial every week

Take part in all of the workshops

Go to the Broadway cinema twice a week to talk with the filmmakers there

Attend the film festival in Broadway cinema

Renew blog every week

Talk to people who is doing horror films on the website every two weeks

Watch horror films every week

Objective of this academic year

1. Literature survey

    

To understand more knowledge about the language of the film to lay a foundation of my idea, to find out more useful resources about film techniques from websites, books and articles. To understand the background of horror films include culture, history and arguments

2. Film Analysis

   

To do a lot of film analysis to increase the experience of the using about film techniques, to know exactly about how to make a horror film from every scenes.

3. Script

    

To write out different types of horror film scripts, and show them to different areas of audiences to get feedback and get to know what would they like to watch. This will help me to get more persuasion of my research.

4. Practice

    

To produce some short shots and each shot will be just one scene and no more than 30 seconds, and finally to produce about a short film which is no more than 90 seconds. This will help me to understand that how to do a horror in using different culture and history background, also to get feedback from audiences which from different areas to combine the different film technique from Eastern and Western area clearer. To show my research results finally

5. Presentation

    

There will be mainly three presentations, includes the research experience, the result of my research and to explain the details of my project. These will easily help people to understand about what I have done and what I have gain.

To learn about how to write out a horror script.

To learn directing films, especially horror films.

To learn editing skills and use it into my own projects

To learn how to use light and sound equipment better when doing the horror

To research about make up skills and use it into my project

To understand the direction of development about horror films in the world.

A short practice---A trailer

This a short film which is made by my little group in broadway cinema. The making time is two hours and I am the director and a part of editor of the short film.
This may be some cooking program`s trailer in BBC Chanel.

The composition of a film

The composition of a film is a kind of organization of the stuff in a camera, including time sequence and space sequence, when filming. It is mainly to put the important target and none important target in to one scene and combine them perfectly.

The composition could normally be in three part, which is the main body, foil and background. The main body could be a person, or a stuff, it will always be taken place into the point place in a image. The foil is one or some none important person or things to be around with the main body. And the background is the place which will be taken. These three parts will make out a good scene.

There are mainly three kinds of film composition be used into filming.

Actuality style

This kind of composition is to show audience the real things into films, it is always ignore to make out the format beautiful things, but to make them into nature and the audience will feel real.

Expression

This kind of composition will emphasize  the feeling of the heart, they will always give people a special image and it always unusual, however, it will also give audience a special emotion.

Classic

The classic composition of a film is to compare the two style above, it wry to obtain the active part of them and to avoid their defect, it will mainly to put the real feeling and the expression together, to let audience feel beautiful and real

Cinematography--Lighting

The light is a important part in filming, sometimes a good light could make the scene better. There is a book which is written by David Prakel, he puts the light into three main parts, which is the nature light, the effective light and the subjective light.

The nature light talks about the light in different time of a day, in different season and different places. Sometimes could be the sun light, moon light, star light, daytime light without sun, etc. They are all different and could receive different effect.

The effective light is every light which could be used （W。Eugnene Smith）

The effective light is not only nature light, but any light we could use around. This will be used in mostly some dark places, and could make out a special effect.

The subjective light is to use some active equipment such as tungsten light, fluorescent light and flashlight, etc.

This is also a important light using in filming. Sometimes a different way of putting the light could be a different emotion atmosphere. 

The light is really important in a film making, so how to chose a good light will be necessary.

Reference:

Basics Photography:Lighting, written by David Prakel, published by AVA Publishing SA, Switzerland, 2007.

Methodology-- barbell method

This is a barbell chart to show and explain my methodology.

There are two parts of this chart, the first one is from the top to the middle, and I call it Paper work part, another part is practice part which is from the bottom to the middle.

In the first part, the basic thing I should do is to make out a simple writing plan, include reading booklists, notes from lectures and tutorials, wider reading materials and proposal and learning agreement writing.

Then I could get notes from internet, magazines and books and I will make conclusion of them. Also I will write out some paper work from the notes I have write and proposal forms.

Thirdly I will write out academic writing experience from the reading materials and filming knowledge from books and notes.

Finally I will combine all of the written stuffs I have done and make out all of the paper works.

Same with the first part, I will do some basic researching include reading books, watching films, analyse films and discuss with tutors.

Then I could make some conclusion when reading and watching, to make out some short shots when finish watching films and analysing films and to get experience from analysing films and discuss with tutors.

Through the conclusion I have made and the short shots I have done, I could solve some academic problems such as how to combine and compare with the difference of the culture and techniques, also, through making short shots and the experience from tutors and film analysis, I could solve some filming problems.

Finally, I could make out my final project.