Analysis of Attack the Block

Attack the Block is a movie that is based in a suburban area in London, it is based upon a group of boys who are lived upon a stereotype of thugs and chavs. These boys believe that they "Run the block" - they aim to keep a reputation and be the most intimidating group of youths in the block until it gets attacked by Aliens.

At the start we can see that it is set out at night and it begins with a shooting star flying across the sky, then a fire work explodes in the middle of the sky. We can easily identify that this is a gangster film as a female character walks out of the tube station, with black males dressed up intimidating at the entrance looking at the people who are leaving the station.

Whilst the character is walking to her house on the phone to her mum we can see that the area is very worn down and affected by grafitti, on the wall we can see a figure of two males and a firework exploding. The character then gets scared confusing the noise for a gun and the shadows for humans.

The character then notices a group of males - which we can notice are an important characters part of the movie, we can see that she is scared as her gestures are to hide her phone so that the youths dont take her phone.

We can also identify that the characters are teenagers who live in the estate due to the language which they use, the language which they use is known as street and it is usually associated with thugs. Shortly after the female gets robbed as the youths approachs her - the shooting star which we see at the start of the film can be seen again as it lands near the youths.

My personal Idea

My own idea for the film was to have a gangster themed where someone who is affiliated with gun crime and drugs gets approached by the people who he works for, this leads him into trouble and causes him to run away from the people.

The characters who are after the person who is running away from them, turns up at his house and murders his family, this causes a reaction from him when he hears the news and turns into getting revenge upon the characters.

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

Film questionnaire 

what is your age group?

-Under 12    [  ] 

- 12- 15        [  ]

- 16-18         [  ]

- 19-25         [  ]

- 26-40         [  ] 

- 41-49         [  ]

- 50+

which gender are you?

- Male          [  ]

- Female       [  ]

what is your two favorite types of genre?

- Action       [  ]

- Adventure [  ]

- Comedy    [  ]

- Drama       [  ]

- Horror       [  ] 

- Sci-Fi         [  ]

- Romance    [  ]

- War Films  [  ] 

what is your favorite way in watching a film?

- TV            [  ]

- DVD         [  ] 

- Cinema     [  ] 

- Online      [  ]

Self Evaluation of 22nd Janauary Group Meeting.

I was extremely pleased at the fact people turned up into our group meeting even though it had snowed, the matters which we discussed were very important as it decides what we will do and when we will do it. We also conducted a research and viewed a few soundtracks that may suit our opening sequence but we didn't find any that would be suitable, so as a group we decided to set ourselves homework to find a suitable soundtrack for our project.

Continuity Editing

What is 'Continuity Editing'?

Continuity Editing is a style of Film/Video editing in the post-production procress of filmmaking and television programmes. The main purpose of this style of editting is to smooth over the movie, and make each shot in line with the previous one.

Majority of the films have coherence by cutting to continuity, which shows smooth transition of time. On the other hand, some movies have a complexed technique in continuity editing, as the same shot can reflect different emotions through continiuty editing.

Another form of Continuity editing is Montage, this is a series of events that occur over a short period of time in the film. The events could be for 4 days in the films but only lasts for about 30 seconds of scenes are used.

Match on action technique can be used where there are unrepeated actions, as the character walks into a room the camera then changes into a different angle but the character remains the same action as the previous shot, this type of editing is used to express the action of the character from different views.

The flashback editing is where the scene changes into a previous event that occured in the past. This form of editing allows the audience to identify the previous events that occured prior to the present. Many flashbacks are used in horror or murder films as it allows the murderer to hide his motive on why he is comitting these crimes. An easy way to recognise flash is through the mise-en-scene as many of the characters will be wearing old clothes or even objects around the room/area.

The first shot of the movie is called an establishing shot, this shot allows the audience to understand and identify the location which the event is occuring at. However, this shot doesn't always have to be used once, when the scene changes into a different location the shot can be used again in order for the user to understand the new location.

Group Work - Self Opinion

Today as a group we decided to film our starting scene with the establishing shot and a preview of what we would have whilst the credits were running on screen.

The main idea was to have a flashback idea, but i put forward an idea for the scene to be a montage of the main character walking around the school.

I felt that our group worked well and played well as a team.

Trailer Analysis of Adulthood

This opening sequence is from the movie Adulthood, I chose to analyse this sequence as it
the same genre as our idea. This movie was created in 2008 and is fairly new, this enabled us to understand what kind of new techniques the directors used in order to achieve this sequence.

During the opening sequence we are able to see what kind of movie this will be, the language and the mise-en-scene the characters use and wear enable us to understand this is a gangster film. Furthermore, we are able to understand that the main character will be Noel Clarke as he is casted in majority of the scenes. 

At the start of this clip we see that the characters are half naked in bed, this allows the audience to see that this movie will contain some sex references. Then the screen then cuts into an establishing shot of the city, this tells the audience that the movie is based in London.

Towards the end of the clip we are able to see that this film will be mainly violent as the frames per second increases and the music gets tensed. Also, from the close ups from the shots we are able to understand the anger in the characters faces as their expressions are very clear upon the frowned faces.


 

Preliminary Sequence

In this post I will be analysing and evaluating my Preliminary Sequence, Feed the Fish. This task was set as a group, which consisted of Inoshan, Tina, Fahad and Iveta.

As a group we decided that we liked our establishing shot as it set the scene very well, the timing which we had was very good as we can see the character (Iveta) walking into the building as the camera pans. However, the camera seems to jump around a lot and isn't very steady for the first 6 seconds of the sequence. We felt that the first cut was perfectly timed as the character opens the door, and the screen then cuts into the character entering the room as the door opens. We felt that if we placed the camera low and at an angle it would show an importance to the character as the audience will have to look up at the character. The scene then cuts into the character walking up the stairs and the camera tracks the character as she climbs the stair case.

On the other hand our peer review wasn't as well as our group evaluation. We got many negative feedback as they commented on the background sound was 'Unusual' and the scenery was not good for a meeting, they requested that we used an enclosed room with less background noise and with less background lighting.

Title Analysis

A title sequence is scene that will be showing at a start of a film or a programme, this would be an introduction as its main aim would be to engage the viewer from the start. The title sequence would tend to show some credentials of the production company, the Directors, Producers and the important Cast in the Film/Programme.

	On the left is an image of the title screen from the movie Adulthood, we can see that the text stands out from the background as it is a bold colour and vibrant from the dark bright. With the characters on the cover, we can identify that they are all important characters in this film and person in the middle will be main character. Also, we can see the baseball bat at the bottom of the screen - I believe that this will be a main prop used in this movie and will have multiple purposes.
	As you can see on the left is the title screen from the Misfits, we can automically see that this is not a film as it is very basic and clear to viewers. This title scene is very plain and just gets the point directly without giving the audience any idea of how the programme would be; due to the layout of the text in this scene we can identify that it isn't organised and it is "Misfit", this is clearly itentional.
	This title screen on the left is of 20th Century Fox, this is a large production company and is very famous for the same title screen which they provide before every movie they produce. This title screen tends to inform the audience the nature of the production company which produced the film.

 

Task 3

Eastenders editing

In this task I have been asked to review the editting and how the Camera has been used in the extract from an episode of Eastenders. I have also been asked to find out the meanings of why the edits have been used and what meaning they have.

The extract starts with title sequence which then moves onto a scene where a couple are laying in bed as if they have woken up for a new day. However the camera is faced at an angle where we aren't able to see the baby or hear it crying until the male character leaves the bed. The camera then changes angle and shows the frustration of the womens face when the man doesn't attend to the crying baby, we are able to see the emotions of the womens face as the camera slowly zooms into a close up of her face.

The scene then changes into a women picks the petals of a bunch of pink flowers, due to the camera angle we are able to presume that she is tearing each petal off due to anger or frustration whilst she's on the phone. The camera angle then changes and breaks the suspense who the character might be, we can tell that she is angry as her facial expressions are straight and clear of her emotions.

The scene then cuts away to another character who also seems to be rather angry as we can see that he is playing with him mobile phone and breaks it due to anger or frustation. The camera then tracks the characters movements and moves into a close up and shows his emotions to the audience through his facial expressions.

The scene then changes where the camera is placed still in the corner where it is able to view the room at a mid shot position. We witness a character walking into the room to find a plant which he seems rather shocked about as he seems to feel it for the first time.

The scene then changes into a shot of a character who is picking up the bottle of milk - this emphasises the fact it is a new morning.

The scene then changes back into the man who was rather angry in the kitchen, however he is with a female in the room. The camera is placed in the corner where we can witness the activities in the whole room approximately 150 degress from the female.