Mise-en-scene

Assessing Skyline Movie’s film opening- Camera Work, Mise-en-scene, Sound and Editing

In class we were required to assess other groups film openings and we were assigned to look at different parts such as camera work, mise-en-scene, sound and editing.

This is their group blog:

https://skylinemovies.wordpress.com/

and this is the link to the rough cut of their film opening:

Camera Work

Good:

  • The extreme long shot of New York- helps the audience to establish the location of the scene as well as emphasising the text shown right at the very beginning stating how a boy has been kidnapped in New York. The effective use of the extreme long shot shows how big the city is and how it is virtually impossible to find the missing boy.

Picture1

  • Close up from a low angle portraying the girl walking in the train station. It portrays the reflection of the girl through the mirror. This can add a sense of mystery and foreshadow what may happen later on in the film.

Picture2

    • Panning camera movement from a high angle taken by standing on the escalators going down. I thought this was a very clever idea of a camera shot/movement and helps the audience to acknowledge that the location is in an airport and that the girl has to travel all the way to New York to find her brother.

Picture3

Improvements

  • Maybe more footage could be shown of the kidnapped boy so that the audience does not lose interest in the plot of of the film.

Mise-en-scene

Good:

  • The idea of incorporating the image of the city of New York, with the help of the camera work to portray it from an extreme long shot. As stated before, it helps create a sense of mystery and shows the audience how big the city is hence showing it will be a mission to find the kidnapped boy.

Screen Shot 2015-03-11 at 20.25.47

  • The shot of the airport. This sets the motive/plot of the story hinting that the women is going to find the missing boy in New York.

Screen Shot 2015-03-11 at 20.32.15

  • The idea of using strangers in the film wearing ordinary clothes passing by helps to create a normal every day atmosphere despite the gloomy music contradicting this.

Screen Shot 2015-03-11 at 20.34.31

Sound

Good:

  • I liked the idea of using the creepy/slow music throughout the entire film opening as it creates a gloomy atmosphere and instantly enables the audience to establish the genre of the film following along the lines of a physcological thriller.
  • The sound of announcements being made as the girl is walking down the train station. This also helps add to the gloomy atmosphere as it has been incorporated on top of the eery music thus making it sound more like muffled voices.
  • The lack of diegetic sound from the girl also helps to create a gloomy atmosphere. For example, she only says ‘I’m here’ and these words show how she is determined to find the boy.

Editing 

Good:

  • At 0:30, a time lapse has been edited of the preview of the city of New York. This could emphasise how time is running out in order to find the boy.
  • At 0:35, muffled sounds of the announcements being made at the train station helps to create a gloomy atmosphere.
  • At 0:39 there is a preview of Heathrow Airport edited in a black and white perspective which can probably foreshadow  a negative ending to the film.
  • The titles used at the beginning of the film opening to help set the mood of the film.
  • The titles used to illustrate the locations of the different scenes-also helps the audience to be able to track the missing boy’s family’s movements as the girl sets out to find him.

Sophie Cramer

Analysing other AS student’s Film Openings on their blogs

Here is a film opening by Sage Productions AS:

The Strengths

  • Use of titles- showing the names of the actors involved in the opening video-shots change when the name does to represent a different actor.
  • Variety of camera shots incorporated- e.g. close up, mid close up, long shot, panning and extreme close up. Low angle shot around the middle of the opening video showing a gang of youths-The use of the shot represents them as more powerful and shows the girl as the weak one.
  • Mise-en-scene:
    • Costume- Grey clothing contrasts with the bright and happy atmosphere-could foreshadow that something bad may happen later on?
    • Lighting and use of colours- Bright and colourful in order to add to the happy morning atmosphere.
    • Use of both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds shows variety- e.g. birds tweeting has been edited in to create a normal morning day atmosphere.
    • Muffled sounds edited in the song when the atmosphere begins to change- sense of danger instantly created.
    • Slow/happy music also contributes to the atmosphere already created.

The Weaknesses

The storyline of the film opening began to get a bit confusing towards the end of the video however this could of been planned so that not too much was revealed during the first two minutes of the movie and this then makes the audience want to watch more in order to see what happens next.

Sophie C

Lighting Problems/Solutions

During our draft filming process, we experienced problems with lighting as we were filming quite late at night and we weren’t properly equipped with the right cameras etc. We, instead, used the cameras on our phones, seeing as it was a test run/draft for our actual final draft. We only relied on the lighting from the torches on our phone and the streetlights making the best use of it bearing in mind that we shouldn’t expect to see the highest quality pictures from the videos. This problem actually helped our group to have a discussion on thinking of ways of making the quality better for the final draft and final cut. We were considering putting money together to buy some floodlights to enhance the lighting in the scenes however we thought of perhaps seeing whether the media department in our school will have some studio lights or any ideas of helping to make the quality better.

We first sent an email to our media studies coursework teacher to ask if he knows of ways to use more lighting or if another teacher may be able to help us. Here is the email sent and the reply.

Screen Shot 2015-01-16 at 18.38.27

Sophie and Niyi

Props we need and what we have used…

For the filming we did previously, we used a few props to build suspence and make the scene more understanding for viewers. As we are only showing the first 2 minutes of the film, the audience is likely to be confused therefore adding props helps to provide information and tie the lose ends of the audiences curiosity. Some of the props used in our practice filming are; a knife, fake blood, a bike. We also used props for filming that was not shown such as a ladder, flash light and which helped us in the filming process. The setting of our film is at party full of teenagers, so filming at night makes sense. Although filming in the dark can be difficult we solved this problem by using flashlights. For our film opening to reach full potential we used the ladder to create a birds eye view effect over the dead body generating a dramatic and tense effect.

Amber F

Self assesment of our group work and opening so far

So far in our group we have came up with ideas, analysed them, found music for our opening and have finished the filming for the first part of our opening. This includes the dead body on the floor with the knife in Niyi’s hand and the people at the party seeing it on the floor next to the dead body, with Niyi running away after. The second half which we need to film includes niyi with his friends in the alley, treding over the newspaper, and a scene at the party. I think we have done well filming and ediing so far as it is a rough copy and gives us a good idea of what we will be doing in the final piece (what we will add and get rid of). We have also had many ideas for the opening and was originally going to do two seperate films (as the group was split with ideas) to see which one we prefere at the end, but as time is tight, we will just have to follow the storyboard and stick with one idea. I also think that we have worked well in a group since we have sorted all the problems out and we are working well as a team to finish the opening in the time frame given.
Phoebe. M

Our story board so far showing camera work, ideas, mise-en scene and music

establishing shot:  black screen fading into the dead body.

we have gone with using the niki minaj remix which Sophie had received permission for.

music will start and build up slowly loader…

  1.  we will see a dead person on the floor he will be dressed in gangster clothing and lighting will still be flashing on him like no one has noticed. this will be played by Declan who we hired as an actor. he will have blood and bruises over him which will be done by Amber and it will be set on a kitchen floor where knives are most easiest to supply. the body will be seen in a long shot birds eye view angle so we can see the body and the outskirts of the kitchen
  2. the next shot will be an extreme close up of Niyi’s head which reveals his shocked face and shows his innocence through his eyes we get a small glimpse of a diamond earring on one of his ears as well.

music will become faster with more tension

  1. a close up is followed of the knife with the blood on and will then quickly transition into the murderers eyes which will be lurking in the shadows these will alternate a couple of times to emphasis that niyi was innocent the lights will be shining on it to emphasis the object.

music will then stop to allow scream to take place

  1. when the party people later hear a scream coming from the kitchen from one of the party girls who has walked in on the body, they all enter unaware until we see their hatred for niyi and their shocked faces. this is shown in a mid shot with five-7 people in it. they will be dressed in party clothes and holding drinks

music will strat again slowly

  1. we then realise that someone has called the police and so niyi runs out the back door with a group of his friends from the party as they chase after him. this will be a long shot to show the setting and surroundings of the back door and where it leads out to , a street or a garden.

long and slow notes in the music will be exaggerated here

  1. we then go back to the dead body to see how bad he looks and we get an extreme close up of Declan’s eyes still open with a tear rolling down his cheek.

music will then carry on as normal

  1.  we next have two ideas here one is a screen saying the next day which will then fade into the next shot or one not having one and making the next half of the clip all in the same day. we will try both to see which is better
  2. this long shot will show niyi running across the road and through an alley to meet his friends as he hears the police sirens and think they are trying to find him and we hear the atmospheric music of sirens which will be pre recorded and used a non-diegetic sound. as he meets his friends and they all start to run down the alley there will be five split screens to allow us to see the ethnicity and gender of his friends. by niyi and his friends all being black and boys it will help show the negative generic stereotype of crime. they will all be dressed in the same clothes from the party which is why I think it is better to not have the black screen saying 2 days later
  3. we then get a birds eye view and crane angle of niyi and his friends running all the way down the alley. the lighting will be minimal but street lights will flood the alley

music will become very quite and long notes exaggerated to allow the viewer to hear the sirens

  1. a paper then blows into a puddle upside down to allow the viewers to read a headline and to see Niyi’s face on the front of it with Declan. the head line will be an article about niyi killing Declan at the party. a street light will shining on the article and the picture of Niyi’s face

music then slows down a lot

  1. we then go back to niyi running out of the alley and hiding under a bush as he can see the police running down a road to try and find him. the lighting is still minimal but the police jackets are lit from the street lights and oncoming traffic.
  2. a close up is then made of the police mans foot running across the bottom of the bush in the street.
  3. are final shot is niyi coming out from under the bush and a zoom out of him under a street light frozen looking into the camera at an eye line angle

music will stop and exaggerate the long notes again

By Phoebe M

Our storyboard so far just showing camera work and ideas

establishing shot:  black screen fading into the dead body.

  1.  we will see a dead person on the floor. this will be played by Declan who we hired as an actor. he will have blood and bruises over him which will be done by Amber and it will be set on a kitchen floor where knives are most easiest to supply. the body will be seen in a long shot birds eye view angle so we can see the body and the outskirts of the kitchen
  2. the next shot will be an extreme close up of Niyi’s head which reveals his shocked face and shows his innocence through his eyes.
  3. a close up is followed of the knife with the blood on and will then quickly transition into the murderers eyes which will be lurking in the shadows these will alternate a couple of times to emphasis that niyi was innocent
  4. when the part people later hear a scream coming from the kitchen they all enter unaware until we see their hatred for niyi and their shocked faces. this is shown in a mid shot with five-7 people in it.
  5. we then realise that someone has called the police and so niyi runs out the back door with a group of his friends from the party as they chase after him. this will be a long shot to show the setting and surroundings of the back door and where it leads out to , a street or a garden.
  6. we then go back to the dead body to see how bad he looks and we get an extreme close up of Declan’s eyes still open with a tear rolling down his cheek.
  7.  we next have two ideas here one is a screen saying the next day which will then fade into the next shot or one not having one and making the next half of the clip all in the same day. we will try both to see which is better
  8. this long shot will show niyi running across the road and through an alley to meet his friends as he hears the police sirens and think they are trying to find him and we hear the atmospheric music of sirens which will be pre recorded and used a non-diegetic sound. as he meets his friends and they all start to run down the alley there will be five split screens to allow us to see the ethnicity and gender of his friends. by niyi and his friends all being black and boys it will help show the negative generic stereotype of crime.
  9. we then get a birds eye view and crane angle of niyi and his friends running all the way down the alley.
  10. a paper then blows into a puddle upside down to allow the viewers to read a headline. the head line will be an article about niyi killing Declan at the party.
  11. we then go back to niyi running out of the alley and hiding under a bush as he can see the police running down a road to try and find him.
  12. a close up is then made of the police mans foot running across the bottom of the bush in the street.
  13. are final shot is niyi coming out from under the bush and a zoom out of him under a street light frozen looking into the camera

By Phoebe M

Our establishing shot…

This is one of the most important shots as it sets the scene and gives the audience an idea of what the film is going to be like and the genre. For our establishing shot there will be a boy dead on the floor with cuts, bruises and blood over him.

Here are some examples….

1.floor2. floor01

3. floor24.  floor3

In theses pictures we can see the angles of which the person is lying on the floor. These angles also help to see the person face and would best suit our opening.

  1. The first shot lets us see the setting and as we will also be setting in the kitchen this would be a great idea for us as it allows the viewer to see their face, their odd body position and their surroundings.
  2. Number 2 allows us to see the wreckage around her which we will also be having in our film when everybody has left.
  3. This lets us see their blank face with no emotion or expression which emphasis death which would be a great opening shot.
  4. The last also lets us see her surroundings and her body language of death.

By Phoebe. M