Production day

Production Day

On november 5th, we have dedicated the entire day to studying and experimenting with various techniques commonly used in Hitchcock films. 

Preparation research

conversation

Conversation 

Challenge

We were assigned the task of creating a short which uses 180 degrees rule to demonstrate power shifts and character relationships

What ideas were discussed and explored?

My group decided to do student-headmaster relationship where the student receives a talk from the headmaster for misbehavior. Then the headmaster threatens to call the student's parents if they are not willing to do anything about it. The short ends with the headmaster and the student on mutual terms where the student will participate in learning club. In a group we discussed the script and when power shifts will happen which will be important in this short.

Final product

[video]

1

analyse at least 3 key frames and explain why they are significant

2

what feedback was received from the other groups?

 How does the Breaking Bad clip create meaning through the use of camera, mise-en-scene, editing and sound?

The first shot of the classroom scene shows a group of generic highschool students — bored and half asleep. This is conveyed through their slouched backs. Walter is the furthest away from the camera and wears a grey outfit that blends in to the rest of the setting, making him fairly small, maybe even intimidated by the students staring at him even though he assumes the role of a teacher. His boring outfit also resembles his personality — lack of excitement  leading to a fairly uneventful life. 

Silence of the Lambs conversation analysis

 First meeting

Analysing conversations

Who is the most dominant?
Who thinks they have 'won' the conversation?
When does the power shift happen?
Who spends longer on screen?
Do these composition changes match with the power shift?
Who fills the frame?

Although not shown in the clip attached, as Starling enters the basement she encounters three prisoners, each more deranged than the other. They clamber on the bars and try to reach for Starling. However, as she approaches Hannibal Lecter the first thing the audience sees is the man standing still and composed, appearing "normal" yet even more terrifying because of his stiff posture and penetrating stare. This starking contrast with the rest of the inmates create a powerful first impression of Lecter for their first meeting, which is useful for later power dynamics. The audience is put in the POV of Starling as she walks up to the cell, making them empathise with how she feels at this very moment, which is intimidation and fear.

As Lecter asks to see Starling's credentials and sings "closer", the shot-reverse-shot detours from being over-the-shoulder and shifts into POV, making their exchange more dangerously intimate as the physical distance between them close. He is also shown walking up to the camera, meaning that he is asserting himself into the close up, showing power in the conversation. As Lecter is staring into Starling's eyes, he looks straight into the camera, once again putting the audience in Starling's POV. 

The medium shot also changes into shot-counter-shot close-ups, allowing the audience to digest Lecter's intense stare, increasing the tension in this scene. Hannibal Lecter is more dominant here as a lot of the shot type changes occur when Lecter appears on screen. This means that he has the latter in which direction the conversation goes and therefore more dominant in this relationship.

Lecter says "Sit, please". Although this line is well-mannered and worded like an invitation, it is actually a command from Lecter, as the camera follows Starling sitting down from a high angle. This makes her smaller, further emphasised by the large shape of Lecter's back engulfing a large portion of the composition.

Now, while Starling's side of the conversation is shot in medium-shot, Lecter remains in close-up, occupying more space than Starling. For obvious reasons, Starling was made uncomfortable by Lecter smelling her. In her reaction shot, she pushed to the right side of the composition, cornered by Lecter's remarks. He however, still remains in the middle of the composition with no headspace in close-up shots. During this part of the clip, the shots of Lecter sniffing is painfully long, further emphasising the awkwardness Starling is feeling. The camera also tracks Lecter to put more attention on what he is doing. This demonstrates the stark power difference between the two and how Lecter has more power.

Study of Silence of the Lambs

 Silence of the Lambs

Genre

Silence of the Lamb falls in many genres — serial killer, thriller, psychological, horror — but it is hard to put it into only one genre. The film has many themes such as binary opposites and transformation, most knowingly represented by the moth which changes form a larvae to a cocoon to finally a winged creature. 

Narrative

how the action unfolds, ‘who knows what, when’

the "who"s

• Amateur cop
• Highly intelligent killer
• Old and experienced cop

the "what"s

• uncovering the whereabouts and identity of a killer
• saving the vitim from a terrible fate
• amateur cop gaining recognition for their hard work, dedication, intelligence etc and learning new things along the way

Themes

Binary opposites

• Good vs Evil

• Hero vs Villain

• Intelligent vs Unintelligent 

• Calm vs Frantic 

   

The Moth

The moth that Buffalo Bill uses is called the Death’s Head Hawk-Moth, named after the skull-shaped spot on the moth’s back. After killing his victims, he stuffs its cocoon down their throat, mocking the screams of his victims as they die. The cocoon is also a symbol of transformation — the final goal of Buffalo Bill’s killing’s is to make a skin suit that he will wear to transform into a woman — this is his transformation. 

Film language

• Low key lighting

This film brings horror to reality: instead of the supernatural serial killers such as in Friday 13th, Psycho and Halloween 78, Silence of the Lambs made the serial killer a real person with human reasons. Hannibal Lecter in this film is portrayed as evil but with a rather entertaining personality, which manipulates people in both the story and before the screen like him just a little more. Going back to the “real” serial killers, the audience will subconsciously become more paranoid because of the realisation that these types of threats do in fact exist.

Mise-en-scene

• Mental institution
• Buffalo Bill’s house

Buffalo Bill’s basement

In the final act, we learn the sheer size of the killer’s basement through Clarice Starling. The anticipation of Buffalo Bill ambushing Clarice puts the audience on the edge of their seats. The basement could be most likely described as a Labyrinth, where someone could easily get lost. It also looks ancient and run-down which fits in the criteria for a typical scene in a horror/slasher film, inciting more anxiety into the audience. His Well is also marked with the bloodstains and the fingernails of his previous victims, which is a spine-chilling detail in the set.

Iconography

• Character growth and development
• Police working department
• Apprentice police and experienced agent
• Hideout of the serial killer
• Weapons e.g. guns, knifes, makeshift tools

Plot and Story

• Hannibal kills people and is put in prison
• Buffalo Bill kills about 5 victims
• The plot of the film takes place when Clarice is jogging in the woods

As for the Todorov narrative theory, the story is too complicated to fit into a set scheme of: Equilibrium, Disruption, Realisation, Action and New Equilibrium. There are two leading plot lines — the prolonged escaped of Hannibal Lecter and finding Buffalo Bill — but the narrative structure can be put into many characters in this film.

Jurassic Park jelly scene remake

Jelly Scene Remake

Overview

Our task was to recreate the jelly scene (Jurassic Park 1993) in which two sibling's meal was interrupted by a bloodthirsty velociraptor.

Props and Mise-en-scene

Dinosaurs

The velociraptor, which served as an antagonist of this minute-long clip, was replaced by a masked man because our time and skills in creating an actual velociraptor was limited.

We actually also experimented with the shadow of the velociraptor too. Because it is quite infamous and remarkable, we decided to keep the shadow instead of the velociraptor just walking in-screen. The shadow casted by the actor through the blinders was an interesting alternative. (Shown on the picture above)

Foodstuff

the start of the scene, the two kids were enjoying a lavishing banquet. Of course it was not possible for us to prepare a whole feast for this scene, so we just made decent-looking meals out of clay.

Settings

We tried to recreate everything shot by shot, but soon discorvered that this was very hard to do as there were obvious differences in settings and timing, so we focused more on conveying meaning effectively.

location of tables

table

This area had plenty of space and a window so we could pull off the trick with the shadow through the blinders.

“kitchen” area

kitchen window area

Final product

Camera: Dorothy
Actors (in order of appearance): Mia, Vedaant, Hugh
Editing: Dorothy

Evaluation

1

Find three shots you are most proud of and match the clip well. Explain why you think the shot is successful.

The first shot where the camera pans from the plates of food to the character eating is one of my most proud shots. The sound and images on screen also match that of the original clip and this shot took many tries to get the smoothness of the camera movement. The actors' movements are also very well timed which is what made this shot look very good.

I really am proud of this one of the light coming in screen and the antagonist revealing himself from the darkness. It matches so well with the music and the footsteps of the velociraptor from the original clip. The light shone through the door window contrasts the darkness of both the room and the actor's wardrobe, which makes this reveal fantastic.

In this shot, the slow push into the character's face is very effective as it conveys the realization and fear at the moment the antagonist is seen. Even though in the original clip the jelly was shaking, the sound still ended up working well with the peas falling out of the spoon. The pushing in was also very smooth and there was no jagged or any sudden camera movement which I am proud of.

2

Pick at least one shot you think could have been improved and explain why

I think this shot could be improved because the rack focus was slightly awkward, and this was only noticed when I was editing the videos so we could not reshoot it.

3

What part of the clip are you most proud of and why

I like the first part of the clip, it was really hard to shoot and we did a lot of shoot for a clip less than 5 seconds long, but in the end the result turned out well and it is very effective in recreating the original

4

What was the most difficult part to film and why? How did you overcome the difficulties?

I think the first shot was also the hardest to shoot because of the way the camera should smoothly slide to the right place. It also took a lot of effort for me to adjust the focusing to the precise place in a short span of time.

5

Did you learn anything new from the process?

Adjusting focus is very important and hard — encountered the same problem in many shots — first shot, rack focus shot and running shot